by Jude Watson
Obi-Wan walked out of the inner office. The door hissed shut behind him. The assistants did not even glance at him. They sat hunched over their data-screens or talking on comlinks.
The assistant closest to Sauro's inner office was distractedly speaking on a comlink while entering data into a datapad. "No, we're not releasing copies," he said. "The expedition was cut short and the report was inconclusive. Senator Sauro has been thoroughly briefed. No, I won't put you through. Check with the Senate archivist, the Senator doesn't have time." The assistant cut the connection. "Journalists," he muttered.
"Was Senator Sauro on the committee that oversaw the mapping expedition that ended on Haariden?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Senator Sauro headed the committee," the assistant said haughtily.
Obi-Wan hurried from the room. He headed straight to the Senate archives, where committee records were kept. He filled out a request and waited impatiently until the information flashed onto his screen.
Obi-Wan's least favorite thing to do was wade through the minutes of Senatorial committee meetings. But he leaned forward, quickly scanning the report with interest. The decision to fund the mapping expedition took endless debate. Then names of scientists were submitted and debated. At last the team was decided on. Obi-Wan read the names and qualifications.
Dr. Fort Turan. Joveh D'a Alin. Reug Yucon. Talie Heathe. And finally, Tic Verdun. He had been added at the last minute on the suggestion of the committee head, Senator Sauro…
Obi-Wan remembered something Talie Heathe had said on Haariden. Tic had been the scout. That meant he had been able to get away from the group for hours at a time.
Obi-Wan scanned Verdun's qualifications. He had graduated from the same scientific institute in the same year as Granta Omega.
He activated his comlink and contacted Jocasta Nu at the Temple.
"Please run a text doc identification search on Tic Verdun," he said.
He switched off the screen and hurried out of the archive room. He knew Jocasta Nu would not take long to answer him. He started back toward the Temple. By the time he reached the front doors, Jocasta Nu had signaled him.
"Interesting," Jocasta Nu said. "I just did a preliminary search, you understand. But the only information I can find is that he recently served on a Senatorial expedition to Haariden — "
"I know that. I met him there, remember?"
"And his credentials don't check out at all. If I had to guess, I'd say this was an alias. Strange that the Senate committee didn't pick it up.
" "Not if the head of the Senate committee was his sponsor."
"Ah. Yes. There's a strange coincidence, though. He is listed as having a degree from the same school that — "
" — Granta Omega attended," Obi-Wan interrupted. Jocasta had told him everything he needed to know, which was nothing.
And now he knew that Tic Verdun was Granta Omega. He had met Omega on Ragoon-6. He had met a man whose face was disfigured with synth-flesh. His eyes had been gray. Obi-Wan could not connect that memory with Tic Verdun, with his shock of dark hair and his youthful face. Yet he was positive the two men were the same.
He stepped onto the lift tube and went straight to Anakin's quarters, but Anakin wasn't there. Obi-Wan tracked down Soara Antana, who was visiting Darra in the med center.
"Do you know where Anakin is?" he asked her.
"We had our practice session this morning," she said. "Then he headed off for an appointment. Do you remember Tic Verdun? Anakin went to meet him."
Chapter Thirteen
Anakin was starting to feel better. He had tried to tell himself that Soara had not been fair to him, but in truth, her words had shaken him. He had looked into her eyes and seen great disappointment there. He could tell himself that he would prove her wrong, but the loss of her respect was a blow. And what would she tell his Master?
He had worried about these things all the way to the meeting with Tic Verdun, but now they had shrunk to vague feelings at the back of his mind.
He was too caught up in meeting Tic's friends and hearing what they had to say about Granta Omega. Already he had collected a number of facts about the elusive businessman. If he could manage to put the pieces together, he and Obi-Wan would have a place to start.
Tic's friends were all funny and smart. They had welcomed Anakin and seemed impressed at meeting "our first Jedi!" They poured him tea and sat around trying to prod their memories for facts about Granta Omega. They interrupted one another and corrected one another. But nobody interrupted Tic, Anakin noted. They all deferred to him, but in a way that Anakin could see was out of great respect.
Anakin was especially impressed with a young scientist named Mellora Falon. She had just graduated from an elite scientific institution even though she was only a few years older than Anakin. She had met Granta Omega on an expedition to the planet Uriek, and gave the most detailed account of him.
"He had a weakness for pastry," she said, smiling. "The really sweet, sticky kind. He ate an entire plate of sweesonberry rolls."
Tic Verdun shook his head. "Glad to see you noted the important things."
But everything was important. Anakin knew that. He could take that information back to Jocasta Nu and in about thirty seconds she could tell him every planet where the sweesonberries grew, and could give him a list of the best pastry makers in the Core Worlds.
"I just remembered something," Mellora said. "That morning, he said his favorite house was surrounded by sweesonberry bushes. He goes there for vacations. It's near the sea, too."
More information for Jocasta Nu. Anakin took another sip of the excellent tea Mellora had brewed. He felt warm and comfortable. Night had fallen, and the stars twinkled like hard points outside in the cold night.
He thought about reaching for another piece of fruit, but he felt too lazy.
Just at the very moment he settled into his contentment, he felt a warning. There was a disturbance in the Force here. He realized that it had been there for some time. Anakin felt slow surprise trickle through him.
Here? But he was among friends. Perhaps he was confused. Perhaps he was wrong. Soara had showed him that his connection to the Force was not as clear as he'd once supposed.
He tried to focus on his feelings, but they seemed to run off his body like water. He blinked several times and realized he was sleepy. He had to struggle to stay awake. Mellora was speaking again, and he had to focus in order to hear her. Had his fight with Ferus tired him out so?
".. more tea? No, I don't think you should." She laughed, her red lips parting. Her dark hair was as sleek as the pelt of a water animal.
"Anakin?" Tic's face seemed to loom in front of him. He patted Anakin's arm gently. "Are you all right? I have to tell you something. Are you listening?"
Anakin focused on Tic. "Yes?"
"Everything we told you about Granta Omega is a lie," Tic said, still smiling.
Anakin struggled to understand his meaning. "I… don't… understand.
" "Oh, don't worry. You will."
"But we do have something to show you," Mellora said. "Something he owns." From beneath the folds of her white tunic she brought out a small pyramid. "Omega gave me this."
It was a Sith artifact. Now Anakin knew the origin of the disturbance he had detected. It grew stronger, and he felt nausea rise in his throat.
He tried to sit up, but the chair now seemed to hold him down.
Mellora turned the cube in her hands. "At first I found the images disturbing. But Granta talked to me about them. Power can be disturbing.
That's where its beauty lies. Do you understand?"
Anakin's tongue felt thick. "No." He had been so foolish. So incredibly foolish and na?ve. He saw the mug on the table in front of him.
He had drained every drop. He wasn't tired. He was drugged.
"Don't worry, we didn't poison you," Tic said. "It's because we have respect for the Jedi that we did this. We know it's the only way to slow you down."
Tic's voice had not changed. He still sounded friendly and warm.
"We've immobilized you in order to talk to you. We don't wish to harm you."
"We only wish to discuss the Force," Mellora said.
The other faces turned to him. Now their bright interest, he saw, was not interest at all. It was not so simple. It was greed. They were ravenous for information about him. He had thought he was learning from them, but all the time, they were studying him.
"Mellora and I are the only scientists here," Tic said. "I'm afraid I lied to you about my friends. We are simply a group of ordinary beings who are interested in the extraordinary. We have a common interest in the Force."
"We wanted to find a Force-sensitive being to talk to about it,"
Mellora said.
In other words, Anakin thought, they were a Sith cult. No matter how friendly they seemed. No matter how much they wanted him to think they were harmless. He had tangled with a Sith cult before. Although they weren't Force-sensitive, they were drawn to the dark side and they could be dangerous.
But why Tic Verdun? He was a respected scientist.
And how do you know that? You don't know anything about him except that you liked him.
Anakin thought back to the mission on Haariden. He had liked Tic because Tic had seemed to understand him. He had been the bravest of the scientists, too. He had been the one to go off and scout for patrols. He had risked his life, they said..
He had been gone for hours, they said..
"Do you understand?" Tic asked him softly. "Do you, Anakin Skywalker?"
"You are Granta Omega," he said.
"Very good." Tic turned to the others, pleased. "You see how his mind continues to work? On an ordinary being, that drug would immobilize his thoughts as well as his legs."
Anakin thought about trying to rise. He thought he would have enough strength to reach the door. He had not begun to tap into the Force yet.
Wait. That's what Obi-Wan would say. He had enough strength for one try. He knew that. And if he had enough strength for only that, he had better plan it.
"Back on Haariden, you said the Force frustrates you," Tic said.
No. l spoke hastily. It was because of what happened with Darra. But Anakin said nothing. He did not want to have a conversation with Tic.
Omega. He found it unnerving to see the same friendly look in his bright eyes, the good humor on his face.
"That interested me," Omega said. "I thought, this Jedi is different.
He recognizes not only what power is, but what it isn't. What it can be.
Power is… protection. It is what stands between you and losing what you have. I'm not talking about material things, either. I'm talking about…
everything."
Anakin didn't understand. But then, he didn't want to.
Tic leaned forward. His warm eyes met Anakin's.
Not Tic. Granta Omega. He is not your friend.
The words Tic and Omega blurred in his mind. He remembered a man sitting on a snowy mountainside, his skin knitted together with synth- flesh. He could not reconcile the two images, the two men. It all seemed unreal.
"I've asked about you," Omega said. "I know you. I know you because I grew up like you. I wasn't a slave, but I might well have been. My mother worked at things she should not have, harder than she should have, longer than she should have — just for me."
My mother did the same.
"My mother worked herself to death for me," Omega said.
I can only hope that Shmi is well and safe.
"What is the Force for, if not to protect what you have? Why should you give that up because you are a Jedi? The Force can bring you all the power you need. Yet the Jedi tell you that you must have nothing. Why is that?"
"Ours is a path of service," Anakin said.
"And who do you serve? The Senate?" Omega laughed softly. "A group of fools who can be bought?" "We serve justice."
"Whose?"
"Justice does not have a master."
"Shouldn't it?" Omega leaned back again, resting against the pillows.
"I am just a seeker, as you are. You have been told that the Sith belong to the dark side. Yet the Jedi know little of the Sith. What you don't know could fill galaxies. Well, you do know one thing — that there is one Sith still alive. I know this, too. I wanted to be rich enough to find that Sith. Then one day I realized that was wrong. The only way I would find a Sith is if I was rich enough, powerful enough, so that he wanted to find me. I am not rich enough yet. But I will be."
Omega paused. "I'm not Force-sensitive. I can never be a Sith. I have found something at last that I cannot buy. But I can be close to that power. I can sit at his side, as I am sitting by your side."
"That's why you attack the Jedi," Anakin said. "You want to impress him."
"Yes, you see? It's nothing personal." Omega leaned closer to him.
"Don't you think I could have killed you if I wanted?"
"No," Anakin said. "I know you think you could have."
"I like you," Omega said. "I liked what I saw on Haariden. Your Master you can keep. Typical Jedi." He waved a hand. "But you… you I like."
"I'm honored," Anakin said.
"Sarcasm from a Jedi? I knew I liked you." Omega leaned back against the cushions and crossed an ankle over his leg comfortably. "You're different because you didn't grow up in that Temple. You know how power works because you were ground down beneath it. You know how the powerless have only their dignity to comfort them, and how, some days, that is not enough. Not nearly enough."
Shmi. He had left her with nothing but her dignity. Mellora stood restlessly. "Let me show him." No.
"Yes." Mellora reached into her pocket and withdrew Darra's lightsaber. "I've been learning how to use it. One day I will fight a Jedi.
" The Force he had kept at bay shot through him, revitalizing his muscles. The sight of Darra's lightsaber in Mellora's hand had done it. He felt strength move through him. He knew he could rise now.
Even Omega looked amazed when he shot to his feet. He activated his lightsaber in a motion so fast they could not follow it with their eyes.
"How about today?" he taunted, taking a step toward her. "Are you ready to fight a Jedi today?" His voice was thick and it was an effort to get the words out. He could feel his leg muscles trembling but he knew they couldn't see it.
"Well, well," Omega breathed. "Impressive."
But the others were not so calm. They drew blasters.
"Shoot him!" Mellora shrilled. She activated the lightsaber clumsily.
Anakin took a step. He felt unsteady but in control. Mellora began to wave the lightsaber. She tried to execute an offensive thrust, but the lightsaber swung crazily. She was not able to balance it.
"Mellora, don't be foolish," Omega warned.
But Mellora did not drop the lightsaber, and Anakin was more afraid that she would injure herself than he was of the blasters. He knew his usual control would be off, so he would have to compensate. He could not risk a complicated move. Simple was best.
Keeping the lightsaber in one hand, he struck out with a strong kick in order to dislodge Darra's lightsaber from her hand. But Mellora surprised him by twirling away. She was still hampered by the lightsaber, but the combination of Anakin's slowed reaction time and her own skill caused him to miss. Anakin stumbled, and to his surprise he could not recover easily.
He went down on one hand. Mellora smiled. She raised the lightsaber.
Even she could probably manage a downward stroke.
He called on the Force. It surged through him. He balanced on one hand and swept his feet in an arc that hit Mellora on the ankles and took her down. Darra's lightsaber went flying.
The others scattered, afraid of the lightsaber, and wildly fired their blasters. Granta Omega looked up, his mouth open, his hands outstretched for the lightsaber.
Desperately, Anakin threw himself at Granta Omega. He hit him broadside, and they both fell. The lightsaber
clattered to the floor, deactivated.
The group saw Anakin on the floor with their leader and pointed their blasters at him. He raised his own lightsaber to deflect the fire, but he could see that he would not be able to hold out for long.
Then suddenly a blue blur appeared through the door. Metal peeled back and Obi-Wan leaped through the opening.