Secrets Of The Jedi (звёздные войны)

by Джуд Уотсон

  "Shut up." Gorm spoke for the first time. "Let's go."

  It took them a moment, no doubt because they didn't want to appear to follow anyone's orders, but the bounty hunters began to make preparations for departure. Pilot headed for the controls. Lunasa worked on the nav computer. The one Qui-Gon suspected of being Raptor shrugged and took off down the corridor, presumably to his own cabin. Qui-Gon and Adi ducked into a storage room.

  "Twenty leaders? It's much bigger than we thought," Adi said. "We have to find out who they're targeting."

  "And why," Qui-Gon added. "If we find the why, we can discover who hired them." He thought quickly. "We should stay aboard."

  "But Taly — "

  "Obi-Wan and Siri can protect him. They are well hidden. We can return for them. There's no way off the planet for five days. Magus knows that as well — that's why he's leaving. No doubt he plans to return, but we can be back by then."

  Adi frowned. "I don't like leaving the three of them."

  "Uncovering the plot will help Taly more than our presence," Qui-Gon said. "I don't like leaving them, either. But I feel Obi-Wan and Siri can handle this."

  Adi nodded slowly. "Agreed."

  "Once we're out of the Quadrant Seven atmosphere, we can send them a message," Qui-Gon said. "Incoming messages aren't recorded. It's a risk to leave, but…"

  "… we have to take it," Adi said.

  They felt the thrust of the engines. The ship lifted into the air.

  "Hey!" they heard Lunasa call. "Magus is staying!"

  "He never tells us what he's doing," Pilot said.

  "I guess he's going for the kid after all," Lunasa said. Adi and Qui-Gon glanced at each other. The ship was already climbing to the upper atmosphere. It was too late to get off.

  Chapter 8

  "They should have been back by now."

  Siri kept her voice low, but Taly seemed off in another world. He sat at the entrance to the cave, his arms around his knees. Occasionally he would dip his head down and stare at the ground.

  "I know." Obi-Wan wanted to argue with her, but he didn't have a good feeling about the length of time Qui-Gon and Adi had been gone.

  "I should go look for them."

  "They told us to stay here."

  Siri shook her head impatiently. "Obi-Wan, in all my years of knowing you, I can't tell you how many times you've told me what I should be doing."

  "Well, somebody has to," Obi-Wan said with a grin.

  But Siri didn't crack a smile. "They could be in trouble."

  "Or they could be negotiating for a starship. Or they could be contacting the Temple. Or they could be on their way back. They could be doing a thousand things. None of which are our concern. Our concern is Taly. They told us both to protect him. So here we stay."

  Siri's jaw set stubbornly. She stared stonily out into the landscape.

  Taly suddenly rose and came back to stand with them. "I have a proposition for you," he said.

  Obi-Wan wanted to smile. There was something so touching about Taly. Here was this slender, small boy who seemed ready to take on the world. Sometimes the lost look in his eyes made him look like a child. Yet sometimes he talked like an adult. Obi-Wan had no idea how much of Taly's confidence was bravery and how much was bravado. All he knew was that he admired him.

  "Let's hear it," Siri said.

  "I want you to let me go," Taly said.

  "Let you go?" Obi-Wan repeated, incredulous.

  Taly nodded. "I've been thinking about it. My uncle is a subplanetary engineer on the planet Qexis. It's a high-security planet with only one spaceport. It's in the Outer Rim. Nobody really knows about it except tech-heads. It's a total research planet. He'd hide me for as long as it takes. And you could tell my parents where I'm heading and they could meet me there. I could make my way there."

  "You could make your way there?" Obi-Wan tried unsuccessfully to keep his voice from rising.

  Taly looked at Siri. "Does he always repeat what people say?"

  Siri nodded. "Yeah."

  "Taly, there's no way we're going to let you go," Obi-Wan said. "That's preposterous. What makes you think you could get to the Outer Rim by yourself? You're just a kid!"

  "Nobody notices a kid," Taly said. "I can do it, I know I can. It's just a question of getting from Point A to Point B. The bounty hunters think I'm dead."

  "You don't know that for sure. We tricked one of them. We don't know if it worked. That's why we're still in hiding."

  "That's what gives me a head start," Taly said. "Look, you know as well as I do that if I testify to those Senators, I'm dead."

  "That's not true," Obi-Wan said, shocked. "They'll protect you."

  "You trust the Senate?" Taly gave a bark of a laugh. "And you call me a kid?"

  Obi-Wan shook his head. He wasn't going to argue with Taly. He shot Siri an exasperated look, but to his surprise, Siri was looking at Taly thoughtfully.

  "You know it's true," Taly said, turning to Siri. "They won't care about me once I testify. Sure, they'll give me new ID docs. But they won't protect me or my parents, not really. But if I don't testify, maybe the bounty hunters will leave me alone."

  "Taly, they won't leave you alone," Obi-Wan said gently. "I'm sorry to say it. But you'll always be a risk to them."

  "Not after they do the assassination," Taly argued.

  "Then they won't care. Or even if they care, they're not going to chase me for long. I'm not worth it. I can disappear." He turned back to Siri. "Okay, I'll make a deal with you. You can escort me to Qexis. Then leave me there. Pretend I escaped. You can save my life. You can save my parents. You can."

  "Taly, I'm sorry," Obi-Wan said.

  "Siri?" Taly looked at her beseechingly.

  Siri spoke through dry lips. "I'm sorry, too."

  Taly stomped off to the front of the cave, a kid again. Obi-Wan looked at Siri.

  "I could have used a little support," he said.

  "What if he's right?" Siri asked.

  "What if he's right?"

  Siri rolled her eyes. "There you go again."

  "There I Siri, you can't be serious. You can't think that we could possibly let Taly go."

  "No, of course not. But we could take him to Qexis. It would be a good place to hide. And the Senate won't protect him. Not the way they should. They just want what they want. Once he testifies, they won't care about him. He's not wrong, Obi-Wan."

  "Sometimes I just don't understand you."

  "I know."

  "We can't defy the Senate. We can't defy the Jedi Council."

  "We can. We just don't choose to. There are more options in life, Obi-Wan, than you seem able to imagine."

  Siri's words stung. It was almost as though she felt sorry for him.

  "Do I need to tell Qui-Gon and Adi about this?" Obi-Wan hated the way he sounded. Priggish. Pompous.

  Siri turned her cool gaze on him, the color of an impossibly blue sea with hidden depths for the unwary. "If you like. Don't worry. I'll deliver Taly into the hands of the Senate. I'll do my duty. I always do."

  Then she retreated from him, even though she stayed still and unmoving at his side.

  The comlink message was full of static.

  "… trail of bounty hunters… Stay where you are until we return. " Qui-Gon's voice was steady, but the transmission crackled. "A bounty hunter is on Quadrant Seven. Magus. Stay hidden. If we don't return. "

  "Qui-Gon?"

  "Freighter… landing platform… in five days time, midday. No other transport available — " The transmission cut out.

  "Did you get all that?" Siri asked.

  "Stay hidden for five days. If they don't return, take the freighter off planet. And a bounty hunter is still looking for Taly."

  "Magus." Siri looked over at where Taly was sleeping. "So he knows Taly is alive."

  "Or suspects."

  She did not say what he knew she wanted to say. Without their Masters, it would be easy to go to Qexis. They could take Taly away f
rom this.

  But those were not their orders. And they would do their duty.

  Chapter 9

  Siri didn't speak much. There was a tension between them now that Obi-Wan didn't understand. They had argued many times during their friendship. Why did this one make him feel so strained?

  He hadn't realized before how much her steady friendship meant to him. She might mock him and annoy him, but he'd always known she respected him.

  Now he wasn't sure.

  The days passed slowly. The cave seemed smaller with each segment of passing time. Obi-Wan felt himself grow more silent with every passing hour. He felt himself tense whenever Siri brushed past. He felt like a fool, like a rule-following, dull, stupid apprentice who didn't dare to risk. He never felt like that when Siri wasn't around.

  The tension between them grew, and he didn't understand it. Obi-Wan couldn't wait to get out of the cave.

  They did what Jedi do when forced to remain in one place. They kept themselves limber with exercises. They meditated. They did not think of the future, only the present moment.

  One would stand guard while the other went down to the spring for water. They saw no one and heard nothing. Every hour, they expected Qui-Gon and Adi to contact them. They both felt a responsibility to keep the atmosphere light. They didn't want to worry Taly.

  For his part, Taly crunched on protein pellets and slept fitfully. He stopped eating much. Obi-Wan began to worry about him. He and Siri slept in shifts so that one of them would always be awake. He didn't think it impossible that Taly would try to slip away. He saw how Siri's eyes grew dark with worry when she looked at him.

  "We just have to hang on," he said to her.

  She was scratching patterns in the dirt floor of the cave with a stick. She didn't look up. "One of us should do some reconnaissance," she said. "We don't know what the road is like to Settlement Five, or how many kilometers it is."

  "We have the coordinates and a map on our datapad."

  "A map is not the territory. You've told me that yourself."

  Yes, he had. It was a saying of Qui-Gon's. Study the map, but do not trust it. A map is not the territory. Until your boots are on it, do not trust the ground.

  "Yes, that's true. But the settlement isn't far, and the road is well marked. I think we risk more by scouting it out. If our Masters thought we needed to do it, they would have told us. They've traveled the road."

  Siri looked up. "Orders for the Jedi are not meant to be literal. Padawans should use their own judgment. That is a Jedi rule, too."

  "If situations change," Obi-Wan said. "Ours is the same." He hated this. He hated spouting Jedi rules to Siri as though he was a Master and she was a Padawan. He knew how much she hated it, too. But she pushed him to a place where he had to.

  That night at the evening meal, Obi-Wan watched as Taly pushed his protein pellets away. "I want real food."

  "We only have two more days to wait," Obi-Wan told him. "There will be food on the freighter. Until then you must take nourishment. You must be strong, Taly. You have a long way to go, and it would be illogical to weaken yourself now."

  He watched as Taly took another protein pellet and nodded as he swallowed it.

  "That's better."

  The moon rose, and they rolled themselves into their thermal blankets. Obi-Wan heard Taly's breathing slow and deepen.

  In a few minutes he heard a noise. Siri crawled over to his side. She held out a palm full of protein pellets. "I found these behind a rock."

  Obi-Wan frowned. "They must be Taly's. I don't understand. Why won't he eat?"

  Siri tossed the pellets toward the rear of the cave. "Because these taste like rocks with a frosting of sand, that's why. We're used to them. He's not. He's just a kid, Obi-Wan."

  "He's a very smart kid who knows how much trouble he's in," Obi-Wan said. "We're leaving in two days. Why would he starve himself?"

  "Because he's scared and he misses his parents and everything's out of his control," Siri said impatiently. "Because beings don't always behave logically. This is the Living Force. It's unpredictable."

  "I hate unpredictability," Obi-Wan said.

  Siri smiled. "I know."

  "So what should we do?"

  "Are you asking me? That's a first," Siri teased.

  "Yes, I'm asking you."

  "I don't know. Let me think about it. I'll take the first watch."

  Siri crawled to the entrance to the cave and positioned herself against the curve of the wall. He watched her curl into the wall as if it were the most comfortable of cushions. The moon was so big that night that he could see her profile illuminated, the crystal clarity of her eyes, the gleam of her hair. She managed to look both alert and perfectly comfortable.

  For the first time in days, Obi-Wan slept deeply. When he awoke, Siri was gone.

  Chapter 10

  Dawn was still at least an hour away. It was cold in the cave. Obi-Wan wrapped his thermal blanket around his shoulders and sat at the cave opening. Even if he had wanted to search for Siri, he wouldn't leave Taly.

  The light was shifting to purple when Siri reappeared, running soundlessly toward the cave, never making a wrong step even on the stony ground. When she caught sight of Obi-Wan she slowed. He saw her shoulders rise slightly, as if bracing herself for his attack.

  She crouched down in front of him and removed a small sack from her tunic. "I got food for Taly," she said. "A muja muffin, some bread, some fruit."

  "But I'm carrying all the credits," Obi-Wan said.

  "I traded for them," Siri said. "My warming crystal. I sold it to a vendor who was opening up his shop early."

  She looked embarrassed. She had sacrificed her most prized possession for a boy she hardly knew. It was a gesture full of sentiment. In the past, Obi-Wan would have thought it unlike her. Now, he knew better.

  "Go ahead," she said. "Yell at me."

  He didn't say anything. He'd always admired Siri for her fierceness. He had never known how strong her connection to the Living Force was. She always seemed to hold herself above other beings. Now he saw that her brusqueness was a kind of distance she kept, but even so, she was watching. Feeling.

  "He'll like these," Obi-Wan said. "It was a good idea. You can go to sleep now. I'll keep watch."

  "I can't sleep," Siri said gruffly. "Mind if I sit for awhile?"

  Obi-Wan moved over to make room. Siri sat next to him.

  "It's cold," she said. "But it's going to be a nice day."

  He threw the blanket over her shoulders so that it was covering them both. He felt her leg against his, her breath against his ear. Warmth spread through him. He saw the sun begin to touch the rocks outside.

  "One more day," she said. "I hope Qui-Gon and Adi make it back in time."

  "If they don't, we'll be okay," Obi-Wan said. "We can handle anything if we're together."

  "I know." He felt the whisper against his skin. They sat together and watched the light come up.

  Qui-Gon and Adi did not return, and they did not send another message. Obi-Wan and Siri began to pack up their survival kits. They would have to do this on their own.

  "If the bounty hunter is still on Quadrant Seven, he'll be watching to see if we board," Siri said. "We'll have to sneak on somehow."

  "Qui-Gon always says that when you're trying to sneak in someplace, go where the food is," Obi-Wan said. "They load it separately through cargo, and security is sometimes pretty loose. Let's try there first."

  "Sounds like a plan," Siri said. "Ready, Taly?"

  Taly shouldered his pack. Once again, Obi-Wan was struck by how resolute he could look. He had accepted Siri's gift of food gratefully and had tried to share. Obi-Wan and Siri had both taken a small piece of fruit but insisted he eat most of the fresh food. He had been more cheerful after that. It wasn't so much the food, Obi-Wan thought, as the caring that had improved his mood and given him hope. Siri had been so right. He had things to learn from her that went beyond a new fighting stance. He had
things to learn about the heart. About giving.

  "I'm ready," Taly said.

  Siri put her hands on his shoulders and squatted so that she was eye-level with him. "Here's the most important thing, Taly. You have to do what we say. Your safety depends on it."