by Jude Watson
"We'll keep an eye on the fueling depot," Obi-Wan said. "Anakin will be sure to protect you while you work." Obi-Wan spoke to Anakin. "As soon as Swanny and Rorq are done, join us at the fuel depot."
Anakin nodded. He was glad to have a task, even if it was only guarding Swanny and Rorq.
They split up. Anakin followed Swanny and Rorq through the tunnels toward the designated spot. Swanny stopped at a utility shed that had a serious locking device wrapped around the door.
"We need tools," Swanny said. "We'll have to break into this. It could take a while. If I had a fusioncutter I could break in, but the fusioncutter is in the shed."
"Not a problem," Anakin said. He activated his lightsaber and cut through the metal door in less than a second.
"I've got to stop underestimating you guys," Swanny said.
He and Rorq reached in and grabbed what they needed. Then they hurried on. They reached the designated spot and Swanny and Rorq began to work.
Rorq opened a small door set into the tunnel wall. Behind it was a crawl space that was crisscrossed with pipes.
"You sure you know which is which?" Anakin asked.
"Do I ask you if you know your job?" Swanny asked.
"All the time."
"Oh. True. Well, trust me." With a grunt, Swanny closed the valve on a pipe, then began to cut through the metal with a macrofuser.
The minutes ticked by. Anakin shifted from one foot to another. His comlink signaled, and he answered it.
"Decca's crew has arrived. They're going to start fueling," Obi-Wan said. "How close are they to finishing?"
Anakin asked Swanny, who held up three fingers.
"Three minutes."
"Make it two," Obi-Wan said.
"Almost," Swanny said, fitting a short length of pipe between the two pipes they had been working on. "We just need to fuse" — he bent over with the macro-fuser — "and seal.."
"Hurry," Obi-Wan said. "They've released the hoses."
"… one more second…"
"They're starting…"
"Done!" Swanny exclaimed. He slumped against the pipe.
Rorq patted it. "Let's hope this baby holds," he said. Anakin felt a drop of sweat trickle from his neck and down his back.
He heard the gush of liquid through the pipes. Swanny and Rorq kept their hands on the pipe, listening.
"That'll be the wastewater," Swanny whispered, as if Decca and her gang could hear. He patted the pipe. "The seal is holding."
"Looks like it's a go," Anakin said into his comlink. "I'm on my way."
Leaving Swanny and Rorq with the pipes, Anakin raced along the tunnels. He found Obi-Wan and Yoda hidden behind a speeder directly inside the entrance to the depot.
"They've almost finished fueling," Obi-Wan said.
Anakin saw Decca lumber into the depot and speak to her pilots. The technicians ran back and forth, replacing the heavy hoses and making last- minute checks.
The pilots left Decca and hurried to their transports.
The first pilot started up the engine. It coughed and died. The next fired his up. Another cough, a sputter, and the engine wound down. One after the other, the transport engines whined and sputtered out.
"What is happening?" Decca roared in Huttese.
"We've been sabotaged!" one of the pilots said. "Engine checklight says the fuel tanks have a foreign substance in them."
"Granta has double-crossed me!" Decca bellowed. "Ah," Yoda murmured.
"Suspicion among thieves, one can count on always."
Decca turned to the Kamarian by her side. "Send the seeker droid.
We'll find that slimy monkey-lizard and take every weapon he has. We'll crush him!"
"Time I think to take the speeder," Yoda said.
Obi-Wan slipped into the pilot seat while Yoda hopped in behind and Anakin jumped in the passenger side. They kept their heads low. Obi-Wan started the engine and quietly zoomed out of the depot. He idled outside, and the seeker droid appeared a moment later. It darted down the tunnel like a fast-moving bird.
Obi-Wan gunned the motor, and they took off. It was easy to keep the seeker droid in their sights. Decca could not move very fast, but no doubt she was gathering her troops to follow the trail of the seeker wherever it ended up.
The seeker suddenly slowed, so Obi-Wan did the same. It hung in the air, which meant it was keeping its target in sight without alerting him to its presence. Obi-Wan glided to a stop, and they jumped out of the speeder.
They hurried along the few remaining meters. The tunnel curved ahead.
Omega must be somewhere beyond the curve.
Walking slowly and cautiously now, they rounded the corner. They had come to a large landing area. The doors were slid back into the walls, revealing the large open space. Omega stood talking to a man dressed in heavy armor.
Anakin saw rows upon rows of bins marked with their contents.
Flcchette launchers. Flamethrowers. Missile tubes. There were enough weapons here to mount an invasion.
Which, of course, was the point.
"A troop of battle droids and some guards," Obi-Wan murmured. "Nothing we can't handle."
"Prepared for this, he was not," Yoda said.
The seeker buzzed closer. Suddenly, a shadow moved, and blaster fire erupted. The seeker exploded into shards of metal.
"Got it," Feeana said. "Looks like we have company. Just as I told you."
From behind Feeana, the battle droids appeared, rolling into attack formation. First one line, then another, and another. A grenade launcher rolled into place.
Omega smiled, and Anakin realized that he had known they were coming.
Feeana had betrayed them.
Chapter Fifteen
Obi-Wan saw at once they were hopelessly outnumbered. Behind the attack droids row after row of gang soldiers appeared, all of them armed with repeating blasters. They wouldn't lack for additional weaponry. It was piled up around them.
Behind his troops, Omega stood on a gravsled with Feeana. Omega's arms were crossed, as if in expectation of a staged battle for his pleasure, and a slight smile was on his face.
"Do we have a plan?" Anakin asked hopefully.
Yoda drew his lightsaber. "Time for strategy, it is not. Time for battle, it is."
Obi-Wan felt the Force move, a giant wave that propelled him forward into the room. He caught the flow and felt it charge his first move, a devastating sweep at five attack droids at once. He cut a swath through them all and they clattered to the floor, smoking.
Omega's smile slipped, just a fraction.
Yoda had moved forward with Obi-Wan and Anakin, but his style was less dramatic than Obi-Wan's sweeps and Anakin's whirling lightsaber. His arm barely seemed to move; his attacks seemed more flicks than stabs. Yet ten attack droids were on the floor in a heap of twisted metal.
Obi-Wan saw the heavy durasteel containers suddenly move, floating up in the air, propelled by Yoda's use of the Force. As they hung above, the hinged lids opened, and flamethrowers spilled out in a fiery arc. Spewing fire, they rained down on the rest of the weapons. The blast of discharged explosives filled the air, smoke rose, and the remaining cache of weapons fused from the intense heat.
The line of gang soldiers stumbled back from the fiery spectacle, coughing from the acrid smoke. They wavered.
"Forward!" Omega screamed.
"Gladly," Obi-Wan said, and he charged forward, Anakin and Yoda at his side. Their lightsabers were hums of glowing energy. The Force moved, and droids went flying. The others were reduced to scrap. They mowed through the second line of droids, and then the next.
The soldiers stumbled backward. Some began to flee.
"Hold the line!" Omega shouted. Then he turned his back and leaped off the gravsled.
Obi-Wan saw Yoda lift his hand and send a trio of attack droids smashing against the wall. Even Anakin now was using a Force push to clear his path to attack the next line of droids. Obi-Wan had time to admire his Padawan's form, ba
lance, and concentration. Clearly, Yoda's summoning of the Force had brought something out in Anakin. He was fighting more brilliantly than Obi-Wan had ever seen.
So Obi-Wan felt confident in leaving him with Yoda to finish off the droids. Omega was about to escape.
He gathered the Force and leaped, clearing the attack lines of droids and sailing over the retreating gang soldiers, who did not bother to try to stop him.
A hundred meters ahead, Feeana was facing what appeared to be a smooth tunnel wall made of a plastoid material. She pressed something at the side, and 'a recessed door slid open. Omega and Feeana disappeared inside. The door slid shut behind them.
Obi-Wan raced toward it. He did not bother to search for the release, but plunged his lightsaber into the plastoid wall. He cut a hole in seconds and pushed his way through.
He found himself in what was obviously meant one day to be a transit tunnel. It had been blasted out of rock, but the job had not been completed. Razor-sharp shards of rock jutted out from the sides of the tunnel.
A small, sleek silver cruiser was parked in a flat area ahead. Obi-Wan did not recognize the make, but it was clear to him that Omega would be able to fly aboveground and then blast out of Mawan airspace into the galaxy. He would escape again. He was seconds away from doing it. Even now, he was accessing the cockpit shell to climb in, Feeana at his heels.
Not this time.
"Always have a second exit plan," Omega said as he stood inside the craft, the cockpit dome still raised. "My father taught me that."
Something about the expression on Omega's face stopped Obi-Wan from moving forward. Omega would sacrifice Feeana in order to escape. Obi-Wan knew it, Omega knew it. The only one who didn't know it was Feeana. She was still on the hull of the ship, impatiently waiting for Omega to move so she could slide into the passenger seat.
Obi-Wan was also puzzled. In his investigation of Omega's background, he had learned that Omega never knew his father.
"Surprised?" Omega said. He was almost drawling now, as if he had all the time in the world. "I had reasons to keep my father's identity a secret. But I think it's time I had the pleasure of telling you. I am the son of Xanatos of Telos."
Xanatos! Obi-Wan felt as though he had been struck. The former Padawan of Qui-Gon's who had turned to the dark side. Qui-Gon's greatest enemy.
Obi-Wan had seen the evil that Xanatos had done. Xanatos had even invaded the Temple and tried to kill Yoda.
"You killed my father," Omega said. "He was greater than his Master, and Qui-Gon couldn't bear it, so he killed him — with your help."
"He killed himself," Obi-Wan said. "He jumped into a toxic pool on Telos rather than be captured by Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon tried to save him."
"My father would never have killed himself!" Omega shouted.
"You have spent your life constructing your own brand of truth," Obi- Wan said. "But it is not the real truth."
"Granta, let me in," Feeana said, an edge of pleading to her voice.
"We have to get out of here!"
"My father protected me," Omega said. "He told me tales of the Jedi and the Temple and how they misunderstood the Force." A bitterness crept into his tone. "He had hoped that I would inherit his gift. But he knew when I was an infant that I would never be Force-sensitive."
Obi-Wan saw the opening. He saw the pain in Omega. "And he was disappointed," he said.
"He left me his company!" Omega burst out, as if he were bragging. As if his father had left him something better than love, better than approval. "He left me his fortune in Offworld."
Offworld was the corporation that Xanatos had formed, a mining operation that had used slaves and bribes and violence to build its wealth.
Omega didn't create his wealth out of nothing. He had started with it.
Obi-Wan wanted to kick himself down the tunnel. He should have guessed! He should have known that beneath the jibes and insults there was something personal, something bitter, in the way Omega felt about him and the Jedi. He should have known!
He had the clues — why else would Sano Sauro pluck the promising boy away and send him to school? Sauro was hardly a benefactor to the poor.
Sauro had known Xanatos well, had operated himself on Telos. And then there was the mystery of the boy's origins — why else were the mother and son on Nierport Seven, a moon that was basically a refueling stop? They were hiding, of course. Xanatos had sent them there. And after he died, they didn't have the resources to leave.
Omega blamed Obi-Wan for his father's death. He was bitter that he did not inherit his father's gift. So he would chase the Force all over the galaxy. He would grow even wealthier than his father had been. He would prove to a man no longer living that he was worthy.
Now Obi-Wan even saw Xanatos in his son. The eyes with the metallic glint of blue durasteel. The thick black hair.
He had every clue, and he had missed it.
"You are just like your Master," Omega sneered. "My father told me about Qui-Gon, how he held him back. You do the same with Anakin. Control is what you seek, and you hide it behind Jedi lessons." He spat the word "Jedi" like a curse. "Why don't you let him be himself? Why don't you show him what power he can have?"
Obi-Wan didn't have to turn. The Force hummed in the tunnel, and he knew Anakin was behind him. Anakin had heard everything.
"It ends here, Omega," Obi-Wan said.
"It will never end until you are dead," Omega said. He reached out and grabbed Feeana's ankles. With a quick, powerful thrust, he threw her off the hull of the ship. Screaming, Feeana flew in midair, straight for the jagged, knife-edged rocks.
Anakin leaped. The Force added distance and precision. He caught Feeana in his arms just millimeters from the pointed shards, twisting in midair in order to land safely.
Obi-Wan, too, had leaped, trying to land on the cruiser hull. But he had to swerve to avoid Anakin, and Omega had already gunned the engine. He took off, the cockpit dome still unengaged. Obi-Wan landed badly and fell to one knee.
The cockpit dome slid down. The cruiser gained speed.
Omega had escaped again.
Chapter Sixteen
Anakin watched as his Master rose. A heaviness seemed to lie on Obi- Wan, a weariness Anakin had never seen before.
He kept a firm grip on Feeana, who was staring down the tunnel in shock, amazed that she had been left behind.
Anakin knew that all his questions were in his eyes. He had heard of Xanatos. Every Jedi student had heard the story of the Temple invasion.
Obi-Wan had told him a little of it. Now Anakin realized how much more there was to know.
"We will discuss this later, Anakin," Obi-Wan said. "We have a mission to complete."
When they emerged back into the substation, the battle was over. Decca was just arriving with her troops.
They were staring in disbelief at the litter of broken droids, fused weapons, captured forces, and only three Jedi.
Obi-Wan stepped over a pile of droids to speak to Yoda. "Omega has escaped. What should we do now with Decca?"
"A little reason now we shall use," Yoda said. "A dead end, she has come to. Listen now, she will." He moved forward to talk to Decca.
"I thought you would lose," Feeana said numbly to Anakin. "I was afraid for my troops. I had had some dealings with Granta. He always said I could join him. He said he would protect me and my gang. I was such a fool.
" There was nothing to say, Anakin saw. He led Feeana to sit with the other prisoners and then returned to Obi-Wan.
"So your vision was true," Obi-Wan said. "Yaddle met her death here.
We just did not know how to interpret it."
Anakin nodded. A lump rose in his throat. Why did having the vision make him feel so responsible?
"And yet it was not true, as well," Obi-Wan said. "The vision was not about Shmi. It was about you. It was about the temptations in your life."
He hesitated. "What did Omega tell you?"
Anakin hesitated and then said
, "That the Jedi were holding me back.
That I could free the slaves on Tatooine, free my mother. He said he would help me do it."
"That must have tempted you," Obi-Wan said.
Anakin said nothing. He could not admit it, but he could not lie.
"It is all right, Anakin. It is understandable that you would want to ease your mother's life. But being a Jedi means that your ties are to all beings. You are the only Jedi with such a strong, deep tie, and it makes it harder for you. But remember, a life of service is not only about giving up. It is about giving."
