by Джуд Уотсон
That reminded Obi-Wan why he was here. He hunched over the swoop handlebars, determined to foil whatever terrible scheme Xanatos had for Telos.
The land began to climb, the hills growing higher and steeper. Rock formations towered above them as they followed a road cut into the stone mountains. Snow began to appear on the crags. Although Obi-Wan had felt too warm earlier, now he was glad he had followed Andra's advice and worn his thermal gear.
"Almost there," Andra called back.
Obi-Wan followed Andra as she left the road, entering a forest glade so thick with tall trees that it blocked out the sky. Andra wove expertly through the trunks. Obi-Wan had to concentrate to keep up. At last she pulled over and waited for him to stop next to her.
"I think we should leave the swoops here," she said. "This glade adjoins the park. I know a way into the Mirror Caverns. Once we're through them, we'll be in the Park of Sacred Pools."
They covered the swoops with branches. Their footsteps made soft sounds on the carpet of leaves as they hurried through the glade. They came to a craggy wall of stone, and Andra followed it down a small hill to a fast-moving creek. She hopped from rock to rock in the creek, Obi-Wan following. The creek suddenly stopped at a sheer wall of gray stone.
"I think you can make it," Andra said, glancing back at him. "But you might have to wriggle a bit."
Obi-Wan saw that there was a slight fissure in the rock wall, almost invisible to the naked eye. It ran from the creek up the wall, as tall as he was. First, Andra pushed her survival pack through, then slipped inside. Andra was slender and was easily able to pass through, but Obi-Wan had a bit more trouble. He made himself as thin as possible and popped out, almost falling. He threw out a hand to steady himself and felt a smooth, polished surface.
Andra activated a glow rod. Obi-Wan saw that he was in a cavern with walls that arched over his head. The stone was deep black and so highly polished that he could see his reflection. Here the creek was just a trickle of silver snaking through the black floor. The beam of the glow rod bounced from wall to wall, multiplying its light. Obi-Wan felt dizzy, as though he were standing underneath a thousand stars.
"It's incredible," he said.
"Yes," Andra said quietly. "It's beautiful, isn't it? The stone is called malab. It's highly prized in the galaxy since it's so rare. Come on, the exit is this way. Watch your step, it's slippery."
She led him through twists and turns until they joined the main cave. At the entrance, the cavern widened and some light from outside illuminated the walls. Andra let out a small cry. She lifted the glow rod to examine the wall. Stone had been chipped away, leaving deep gouges in the smooth surface. The samples were piled on the floor next to scan grids. Splinters of the stone surrounded a jagged hole in the polished floor.
"They're going to mine it," she whispered to Obi-Wan, her eyes burning. "This is a sacred place for all Telosians. Look what they've done!"
With trembling hands, she removed the holographic recorder from her pack. She trained the lens on the piles of stone, panning back and forth to the scan grids and the jagged holes. Obi-Wan took a recording rod from his pack and shot the same images. Now they would have a backup, just in case. He could conceal the recording rod in his clothing.
"Come on," Obi-Wan urged.
Carefully, they edged out of the cavern. The morning sun was strong, warming the cool rocks and lighting up golden sand that surrounded deep pools of steaming black water. A black hill rose in front of them. It glittered in the rays of the sun.
"That hill is made of malab," Andra said in disbelief. "They must be harvesting it from the caverns."
Obi-Wan looked at the heavy equipment and gravsleds surrounding the pools. He had spent time on the mining planet of Bandomeer and was familiar with mining machinery.
"Those are mole miners," he said, pointing. "They can dig hundreds of kilometers deep. If there are mole miners, there has to be a base where they unload. Those vehicles are TNTs."
"TNTs?" Andra asked.
"Treaded neutron torches," Obi-Wan explained. "They have fireball-shooting cannons that blast through rock. That's how mine shafts are created. I'd say we've got a full-scale operation going here."
He felt Andra stiffen beside him. "The pools…" she said. "The water used to be crystal clear."
Obi-Wan walked closer to examine a pool. As he leaned over, the cord on his survival pack dropped into the water. Steam rose in a hiss, and he pulled up the pack quickly. The cord had dissolved.
He looked up at Andra. "What happened?"
"I don't know," she said. "The pool must be contaminated. Let's look at the others."
They gathered a few long sticks and walked to the rest of the pools. When they submerged a stick in the black water, it was stripped of bark immediately. If they held it under longer, the stick itself dissolved.
"The underground spring that fed the pools must be contaminated with chemicals," Andra said. Her voice was thick. "My father used to take me here as a girl. We hiked every inch of the park and bathed in the steam pools. After he died, this was the only place where I could find comfort."
When she looked up, Andra's honey-colored eyes glittered with unshed tears. Obi-Wan didn't know how to comfort her. What would Qui-Gon do?
He remembered an incident back at the Temple. Jedi Knight Tahl had only recently lost her sight. She was feeling helpless and angry. He remembered how Qui-Gon had quietly acknowledged her pain, then given her something to focus on.
"I'm sorry, Andra," he told her. "If we expose them, we will stop them. It's not too late."
She nodded, biting on her lip to stop the tears from falling. "Let's do it."
Her mouth set in determination, Andra turned the holographic recorder toward the pools. Obi-Wan used his recording rod to sweep the area and record the equipment. He tried to find a logo or name on various items to indicate they were owned by Offworld, but he found nothing.
Obi-Wan frowned worriedly. "We can bring this back and show it to the citizens of Thani, but we need to connect it to Xanatos. The government can claim they knew nothing about it. They can blame UniFy, and UniFy will just close its doors. Those who are truly responsible will escape."
"We can't let that happen," Andra said.
Just then they heard a noise. Someone was heading toward them. Obi-Wan gestured to Andra, and they quickly pressed themselves behind a gravsled.
Two surveillance droids rolled into view. Blasters were built into their hands. Their heads rotated constantly, infrared sensors glowing.
"All clear," one of them reported into a comlink. "Commence. Repeat, commence."
A loud noise suddenly pierced the air. The ground shook.
"What is it?" Andra asked, her hands against her ears.
"Let's take a look," Obi-Wan said. The droids had disappeared around the side of the malab slag hill.
Staying in the shadow of the hill, Obi-Wan and Andra followed. The droids were no longer in surveillance mode, so their heads no longer swiveled. As they followed, the noise grew louder.
When they rounded the pile of malab, another devastated landscape met their eyes. A mound of sand rose in front of them. A huge pit had been dug in the ground. The source of the noise was the golden sand being sucked into giant machines. Workers dressed in unisuits tended the operation. The droids headed toward a ring of tech domes in the distance.
"There are trace minerals in the sand," Andra yelled over the noise of the machine. "They must be mining it."
The workers were intent on operating the machinery and did not turn. Andra turned on her holograph recorder and Obi-Wan his recording rod.
Another team of surveillance droids exited the first tech dome and began to make their way across the yard.
"Hurry," Obi-Wan urged. "They might switch to surveillance mode again." He lowered the recording rod and slipped it back into his tunic.
"I want to make sure the image is clear," Andra muttered.
Obi-Wan saw the infrared sensor
s click on. "Stop recording!" he whispered. "They might pick it up on a sensor."
"Just one more second…" Andra switched off the holographic recorder just as the droids' sensors began to blink.
"Don't move," Obi-Wan muttered between his teeth.
The droids' heads slowly revolved as the sensors took in every quadrant.
"This doesn't look good," Obi-Wan murmured. "Something has alerted them. We'd better get out of here."
"But we don't have enough yet!" Andra protested.
"What we have will have to do," Obi-Wan said urgently. "It will be worse if we get caught. I promised Qui-Gon we wouldn't take chances." He yanked a protesting Andra back. The droids slowly turned and headed across the yard toward them. Obi-Wan and Andra picked up their pace.
"Hurry," he urged.
Within a moment, they had ducked around the hill and were out of sight of the droids. They began to run for the cavern.
"Intruders! Intruders!"
Blaster fire suddenly ripped into the ground next to them. Obi-Wan drew his lightsaber and whirled to deflect the next blast. They were almost at the cavern entrance.
Pingpingping! The blaster fire hit the cavern wall. Chips of stone flew out, cutting Andra on the cheek.
"Get inside!" Obi-Wan shouted.
Andra ducked inside the cavern. Deflecting one last round of fire, Obi-Wan hurried after her.
They could not move as fast inside the cavern. The floor was too slippery. When they reached the velvety darkness deep inside, Obi-Wan paused.
"I don't hear anything," he said.
"Maybe they've gone for reinforcements," Andra suggested. "Come on, the exit is close by."
Obi-Wan could hear the faint murmur of the creek as he carefully followed Andra. She made her way through the maze of turns, then stopped before the sheer wall. Obi-Wan saw her flatten herself against the wall, then slip between the fissure.
They stepped out into the creek and hopped from stone to stone. They had to hurry. No doubt a full-scale alert would send other surveillance teams after them.
Obi-Wan hurried behind Andra as she snaked through the tall trees of the glade. She hugged the rock wall, then emerged where they had left their swoops.
They tossed aside the branches they had used for camouflage. The swoops were gone.
They looked at each other, stunned. There was a crack of a twig behind them, and Obi-Wan spun around.
Surveillance droids surrounded them in a semicircle, blasters drawn.
Chapter 13
Obi-Wan knew he was in danger even as he was turning. His turn was deliberately off center, his hand already reaching for his lightsaber in a motion so fast it was undetectable. With the other hand, he reached out and pushed Andra aside.
The blaster fire ripped between them and left a pockmarked wall.
Andra had quick reflexes. She hit the ground and kept rolling until she had reached safety behind an enormous fallen tree trunk.
Obi-Wan was seriously outnumbered. Qui-Gon's lessons snapped through his mind in precision order.
Keep moving.
Use reversals? surprise them.
Change hands when you can.
Come at them from above and below.
Use your ground.
The ground was uneven. The droids would have more trouble maneuvering. Obi-Wan used the fallen logs and soft moss beds to give him height and spring. He flipped backward and dispatched one droid with a blow to the head. Using the momentum of the swing, he dived at the next one's legs.
Two down.
Andra rose, vibroblade in hand, as Obi-Wan slashed at the third droid. Andra deftly evaded blaster fire and smashed the droid from behind.
Three down.
The fourth droid swiveled to attack Andra. Obi-Wan deflected its blaster fire with his lightsaber, then kicked out at the droid who was coming at him from the right. Andra leaped and cleaved off the droid's arm. Off-balance, the droid wobbled, and Obi-Wan was able to cleanly slice it in half. It toppled.
A vine hung down from a tree overhead, and Obi-Wan, grabbing it with one hand, used it to swing himself forward to knock over the droid who was aiming at Andra. The blaster fire erupted a split second before he swiped horizontally, cutting the droid in half.
Andra gave a cry and lay still.
Obi-Wan whirled even faster now, beheading one droid and turning to knock another off its feet. He buried his lightsaber in the droid's control panel.
Obi-Wan rushed to Andra's side. He bent over her, feeling for her pulse.
Her hand came up, weakly swatting him away. "Don't worry, I'm not dead. I just had the wind knocked out of me."
Obi-Wan rocked back on his heels, relieved. "Are you sure?"
"The blaster fire hit my pack, I think." Gingerly, Andra slipped the pack off her shoulder. Blaster holes had shredded the material. She reached inside and took out the recorder. The case was pockmarked with blaster fire, and part of it looked melted.
"Oh, no!" she breathed. She accessed the playback mode, but the recorder merely buzzed and then went still.
"Don't worry," Obi-Wan said, patting his tunic. "That's why we brought a backup." His mind was already moving to the next step, as Qui-Gon had taught him. Do not reflect on mishaps unless they have lessons to give.
"Now we have another problem," he said. "Do you know any place nearby where we could get a fast transport?"
Andra paled. "No. We'd have to hike for hours. We don't have time. Katharsis is to start in an hour. We'll never make it!"
"Let's contact Qui-Gon and see if Den was able to rig the lottery," Obi-Wan suggested. He activated the comlink. Qui-Gon answered it immediately.
"I'm glad to hear from you, Obi-Wan," he said, relief in his voice. "Did you get the evidence?"
"Not as much as we'd hoped," Obi-Wan said. "The park is definitely being developed for mining, but we have no proof that Offworld is responsible."
Qui-Gon's sigh came through the comlink. "It will have to do. I don't want to put you and Andra in any more danger." "Was Den able to rig the lottery?"
"Yes," Qui-Gon answered. "He'll be one of the three citizens allowed to bet on the final game. He's tapped into the system and knows who the winner will be. Xanatos is delivering the grand prize."
There was a short pause. Obi-Wan felt disappointment thud through him. If only they could connect what they'd found to Offworld! They could expose Xanatos in front of the citizens he had hoodwinked.
Qui-Gon picked up on his thoughts. "Obi-Wan, you did your best. It's time to come back.
At least the global parks of Telos will be saved. Head back now."
Obi-Wan hesitated. If he told Qui-Gon that they had no transport, there was nothing Qui-Gon could do. He wouldn't have time to head out to get them and return in time for Katharsis. Telling him what had happened would only add needless worry.
"Soon," he answered instead. "We have one last thing to take care of."
"All right," Qui-Gon answered. "I'll see you at the dome. And be careful, both of you."
Andra winced. Obi-Wan signed off.
"What are you thinking?" she asked. "How can we get back to Thani?"
"We have one option," Obi-Wan said grimly. "We probably have a few minutes until they miss the droids. We have to sneak back inside and steal a transport."
Andra looked nervous, but she nodded. "It's our only chance. Let's go."
They followed the route back through the cavern. They hovered inside in the shadows of the opening, carefully waiting until a surveillance team walked through. As soon as they were gone, they slipped outside and dodged the steaming pools. They crouched behind a mole miner near the malab pile.
"What now?" Andra asked.
"I have an idea," Obi-Wan told her. "When | was plowing through those memos back at UniFy, many of them dealt with Tech Dome D. They were building a landing pad there. But I don't see one, do you? It has to be concealed inside, so it wouldn't be visible to anyone in the air. Considering the size of this operati
on, I'd say they were planning to bring in maintenance haulers."
Andra nodded. "Good guess." "That means Offworld," Obi-Wan said. "They have a fleet of haulers. And they need other air transport for smaller jobs. If we can get into Tech Dome D, we can find evidence of Offworld and escape at the same time."
"So all we have to do is find Tech Dome D, then figure out how to get inside, record evidence, steal transport, and make it back to Than! before Katharsis is over," Andra said. "As Den would say, kill me now."
