The pilot blinked, then answered, “No. I don’t have to worry about you. You’re Jedi.”
“Give the man his weapon, Padawan,” commanded Obi-Wan.
“Yes, Master,” Anakin replied as he turned to follow Obi-Wan and the others, leaving the pilot gaping in the corridor.
“Wait!” the pilot called after Anakin. “I…I thought you were going to return my blaster.” Anakin answered without breaking his stride, “Check your holster.”
The pilot checked. The blaster was there, snapped tight against his hip.
The three Jedi walked behind the Margravine and her guards, following them around the corner to find Senator Rodd standing before an open hatch. Rodd asked, “Did something happen back there?”
“A member of your crew just tried to shoot me,” Quenelle stated. “I would be dead now if the young Jedi had not intervened.”
“Hear that?” Anakin whispered to Obi-Wan. “She’s talking about me.”
“You’re a show-off and a braggart,” Obi-Wan whispered back.
Senator Rodd was aghast. “No one was injured?”
“No,” Bultar Swan interjected. “But let us not waste time with discussion. The starfighters?”
“This way,” Rodd said, and ducked through the open hatch. He led the group into the salvage ship’s pressurized docking bay. There, a starship engineer was trying to restore power to the bay’s tractor-beam generator, while two Fondor Space Patrol pilots looked on. The generator was positioned between two starfighters. Even if the starfighters had not already been identified by Senator Rodd, Anakin would have immediately recognized them as a Kuat Systems Engineering CloakShape Fighter and Incom/Subpro Z-95 Headhunter.
Anakin’s fingers began to itch. He could not help it. Although he’d spent the past eight years training to be a Jedi, he’d never managed to grow out of his boyish enthusiasm for high-speed vehicles. His initial interest had been with Podracers, but after his first flight in a chromium-finished Naboo N-1 with twin radial Nubian 221 sublight engines, he could not look at a starfighter without wanting to climb in and fly off.
“Are the starfighters prepared for launch?” Rodd asked one of the space patrol pilots.
“Yes, sir,” the pilot answered.
Rodd offered a satisfied smile and said, “Then here are your orders—”
“Your pilots are not prepared for this mission,” Obi-Wan interrupted. “We’ll take over from here.”
“But I thought…” Rodd began, but something about Obi-Wan’s gaze made him decide it was best to stop talking.
Near the starfighters, there was a rack of four pressurized g-suits and matching helmets. Eyeing the g-suits, Obi-Wan observed, “It appears this limited selection has determined who will fly.” He turned to Bultar Swan and said, “None of these g-suits is your size.”
“Then I’ll just have to stay here and make sure the diplomats don’t assassinate each other,” Bultar said.
While Bultar inspected the fighters, Obi-Wan and Anakin quickly removed their robes and slipped into the g-suits. Obi-Wan was about to put on a helmet when he said, “Because of the sensor-disrupting anomaly, we won’t be able to communicate with our ships’ transceivers when we reach the derelict. So it’s important that you hear this now.”
“Yes, Master?”
“No stunts and stay on my wing.”
“Yes, Master,” Anakin replied as he placed a helmet over his head.
“You’re familiar with the CloakShape’s controls?”
Anakin nodded. “You know I am, Master,” he answered, his voice muffled by the helmet.
“Then I’ll take the Headhunter,” Obi-Wan said. “One more thing.”
“Yes, Master?”
“May the Force be with you.”
They scrambled into the starfighters and belted in. After activating their engines, Anakin followed Obi-Wan’s Headhunter out of the salvage ship’s docking bay and into space. From there, he looked back to see the bizarre configuration of the interlocked salvage ship, Republic cruiser, and rescue runner. He hoped the respective crews would work together to restore power to their disabled ships.
The Fondor system was easily located without sensors, as its sun was one of the brightest bodies in the starscape. Squinting at the sun, Anakin sighted the tiny speck of light moving in the direction of Nallastia. He knew the speck was the derelict.
Obi-Wan saw it, too. He angled the Headhunter’s nose after the distant speck. Anakin tailed the Headhunter’s starboard wing, and both Jedi punched their sublight engines at the same time.
Despite the derelict’s lead, it was no match for the acceleration power of the sublight engines that drove the two starfighters across space. Ninety-three seconds after blasting away from the salvage ship’s docking bay, the two Jedi caught up with the derelict.
Matching the derelict’s speed, Obi-Wan steered closer to investigate. Anakin followed his Master, and surveyed the derelict’s surface for any sign of a concealed hangar. Much to his surprise, he saw a small black spot appear on the hull, in an area that had a moment earlier been pale gray. A split second later he realized the black spot was not a spot at all.
It was a missile silo. A missile launched, headed straight for Anakin.
Anakin broke formation, veering away from the Headhunter and sending the CloakShape into a tight roll to avoid the oncoming projectile. Anakin glanced out his cockpit canopy just in time to see the missile streak past the Headhunter.
Obi-Wan saw the missile go by, then pulled the Headhunter into a loop, steering it up after the missile’s tail. The missile swerved hard to port, angling back after Anakin’s rolling starfighter. Obi-Wan had not known until then that the missile was equipped with a guiding sensor, but he knew better than to let a missile out of his sight before it exploded. As the missile soared after the CloakShape, Obi-Wan threw his controls hard to the side until the projectile was dead in the sights of his targeting scope.
Obi-Wan fired his laser cannons. The missile exploded into a glittering spray of light, and he steered through the debris.
Obi-Wan’s gaze swept over the speeding derelict and surrounding space, searching for Anakin’s starfighter. Unable to spot it, he attempted to get a wider view by putting some distance between himself and the derelict.
He never made it.
After seeing the missile narrowly miss Obi-Wan’s starfighter, Anakin had assumed his Master would follow his rolling evasive maneuver. When he straightened out and couldn’t see the Headhunter outside his cockpit canopy, Anakin was sure that Obi-Wan must have dropped down right behind the CloakShape, covering his tail. But as he wrapped around the derelict’s circumference, waiting for the Headhunter to pass him and take the lead, Anakin realized he had lost Obi-Wan on the other side.
Anakin looped back, flying so close to the derelict that he could easily make out the CloakShape’s shadow slipping over the its hull. When he wrapped around to the area where he had last seen Obi-Wan, his eyes caught sight of something that looked like a small cloud drifting across the stars. Flying closer, he saw that the cloud was made up of glittering bits of plasteel and durasteel.
“Master?” Anakin said out loud. His throat had gone dry. He could not see any large piece of wreckage that would indicate whether he was looking at the remains of a Z-95 Headhunter. Anakin felt a sudden rage swell within him, and the salty sting of tears in his eyes. He blinked back the tears, then took a deep breath. He tried to concentrate, wondering what his Master would do in this situation.
In that instant, Anakin knew. Obi-Wan would stay calm. That was how Obi-Wan stayed alive.
Obi-Wan was not dead.
Anakin propelled the CloakShape through the debris and angled back at the derelict. Punching the accelerator, he zoomed back past the area where he had seen the missile silo. Just as he spotted the black spot that was the open silo, something moved within the silo: A second missile was about to launch.
The CloakShape fighter was armed with dual laser cannons, four
concussion missiles, and a single proton torpedo. Anakin was tempted to unload his entire arsenal down the silo’s mouth, but he knew that would be imprudent.
He lined up the silo with his targeting scope, then fired two concussion missiles in quick succession, so that the second missile launched a fraction of a second after the first.
The first concussion missile slammed into the head of the projectile within the silo, and the second vanished into the explosion caused by its predecessor. Smoke and debris were still billowing out of the ruined silo as Anakin matched the derelict’s speed and flew in low. Through his cockpit canopy, he surveyed the twisted debris that filled the silo’s cylindrical interior. Despite the wreckage, the silo appeared to be Anakin’s best route to infiltrate the derelict.
He landed on the hull of the Sun Runner, anchoring the starfighter a short distance from the smoldering silo. Anakin checked the seal between his helmet and g-suit, then popped his canopy. Climbing out of the CloakShape’s cockpit, he lowered himself onto the derelict’s hull. Anakin trusted that his boots’ positive-grip soles would prevent him from drifting off into space. He stepped carefully toward the silo. He was about two meters shy of its scorched mouth when he felt something shift under his right boot.
It was a magnetic mine.
Anakin did not hesitate. He leaped for the silo, diving headfirst. The mine detonated behind him, sending a fine spray of dust and metal shards in all directions. Shielded by the silo’s upper rim, Anakin caught hold of a metal pipe that was secured to the silo’s concave wall. He righted himself, wrapped his legs around the pipe, and slid down, crashing through loose debris until he landed on the floor.
He was surrounded by darkness. He took a deep breath, then removed his lightsaber from his belt and activated it. The silo’s interior was instantly illuminated by the blue glow of his weapon. He found a sealed metal hatch set within the concave wall and noticed that its pressure seal was cracked, possibly the result of the missile’s destruction within the silo. If depressurization had been a concern for anything on the other side of the hatch, it no longer mattered.
Anakin drove his lightsaber through the crack in the hatch, made a broad circular cut, then deactivated his blade. He launched a powerful kick at the center of the hatch, breaking it away from the seal and creating a hole that was large enough for him to pass through. Still holding his deactivated lightsaber, he ducked through the hole.
He found himself in a high-ceilinged chamber that adjoined the silo. It was lit by yellow lumas, industrial glow rods commonly used in construction and mining operations, that lined the chamber’s metal wails. An automated rack was positioned beside the silo’s outer wall, and the rack was lined with eighteen missiles. Anakin was relieved that he had managed to destroy the silo before the remaining missiles could be deployed. He could see that the silo’s reinforced wall had been the only thing that prevented eighteen missiles from exploding as well. Then he noticed a long, fresh crack that ran up the length of the wall beside the missile rack. He suspected that the crack was the result of the missile that had exploded within the silo, and he doubted that the wall could withstand a second explosion.
Anakin had no idea who had assembled this hidden arsenal, but the missiles offered a clue to their origin. Although they were unmarked, Anakin recognized them as sensor-guided projectile weapons produced by Arakyd Industries. The derelict may have come from the Unknown Regions of space, but the missiles most certainly did not.
Beyond the rack of missiles, the rough hewn wall framed a sealed metal door. The door was about two meters high and a half meter wide, and it was without any visible mechanisms for opening. Hoping to examine it more closely, Anakin stepped toward it.
Suddenly, the metal door slid sideways into the wall, and two droids leaped out. Both droids were humanoid, with durasteel heads that contained high-speed optic visors. Anakin recognized the droids as expensive Duelist Elites, which were used for fencing instruction. They were manufactured by Trang Robotics in the remote Almanian system, which was on the other side of the charted galaxy, about as far as one could get from the Fondor system without venturing into the Corporate sector. To Anakin, the droids were further evidence that the derelict had not come straight from the Unknown Regions.
Each droid was armed with a flexisteel dueling saber. The door slid shut behind them.
“Hello,” Anakin said, his voice slightly muffled by his helmet.
The Duelist Elites raised their sabers and jumped at Anakin. They were still in the air as Anakin’s lightsaber blazed on and he swung at them, neatly cleaving their heads from their necks in a single motion. The decapitated droids clattered to the floor.
Anakin’s defense had been pure reflex, but as he looked at the fallen droids, he realized that he had disposed of them too hastily. Both droids had vocabulators, which meant they might have been able to tell him how they had come to be in the derelict.
Anakin hoped he had not damaged the droids beyond repair. He picked up one of the severed heads and found two blue wires sticking out of the neck socket. After twisting the wires together, he pressed back a metal plate and switched on the droid’s speech generator.
“Iltci avmaa ewidthu,” rasped the droid’s head.
Anakin made an adjustment to the Duelist Elite’s communication module, then asked, “What did you say?”
“I am incapacitated,” the droid answered in Basic.
“I’m searching for a Jedi Knight named Obi-Wan Kenobi and the crews of two missing freighters. Do you know where they are?”
The droid was silent.
“Is this transport the Sun Runner?”
“I know nothing,” the droid stated.
“Well, what do you know? Who programmed you? Why are you here?” When the droid did not immediately respond, Anakin warned, “If you don’t give me answers, I’ll pry them out of your memory banks.”
“Prying will not help,” the droid replied. “We all had memory wipes. We do not know who programmed us to defend the transport.”
Anakin tweaked another wire to dislodge any stored data, then asked, “Are there more droids on board?”
“Yes. An R1 astromech and three 501-Z security droids are in the control room.”
“Is the R1 controlling the ship?”
“Yes,” said the Duelist Elite.
“What’s your destination?”
“Only the R1 knows.”
“Have you ever heard of Nallastia or the Fondor system?”
“If I did,” the droid stated, “it was before my memory wipe.”
Anakin asked, “How do I get to the control room?”
“There’s an access tunnel on the other side of the door I came through. It leads to the control room.”
The droid’s illuminated optic visor flickered. Anakin knew the droid’s battery was draining fast. “Are there any captives on board?”
“In a hangar that adjoins the control room,” the droid answered. “We used a tractor beam to capture their ships. They are—” Before the Duelist Elite could complete his statement, his visor dimmed and went black.
Anakin tossed the metal head aside and headed for the door to the access passage.
It took Anakin less than a minute to use his lightsaber to carve an opening through the metal door. After he deactivated his weapon, he stepped through the opening and into the access passage, a long tunnel that vanished into darkness.
Darkness. Without even the light of distant stars to illuminate the passage, he was reminded of a recent dream in which he had been lost in a sea of black space, unable to find his way out. Anakin closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to rid himself of the bad memory and focus on his mission.
When Anakin opened his eyes, his vision had adjusted to the passage interior. To his left, an industrial gravsled hovered a few centimeters above the floor. The Duelist Elite had not told him about the gravsled, but Anakin decided to use it.
He climbed and felt for the controls. He found the lights and
ignition, then started the repulsorlift engine. The gravsled blasted forward through the passage, and Anakin kept his head low, careful not to let his helmet smack against the passage’s ceiling.
Seconds later, the end of the passage came into view. Anakin killed the ignition and let the gravsled slide to a silent stop. Stepping off the vehicle, he braced his body against the passage wall and clung to the shadows. Edging forward, he peered into the ship’s control room. It had an even higher ceiling than the previous chamber, and Anakin could clearly see the cross beams and struts that supported the ship’s superstructure, including the inner hull plating. The interior was dominated by a large orb-shaped hypermatter reactor, the ship’s energy source. The control room was also filled with exotic navigational equipment, including what appeared to be a sensor jammer. The hypermatter reactor and all of the navigational equipment were contemporary, and the exposed inner hull had been assembled from new materials. Anakin now knew that the ship, despite its exterior’s appearance, was not the ancient Sun Runner. It was a replica of some sort.
A magnet crane, used to move heavy equipment within the chamber, was suspended from a ceiling-mounted track. There were no viewports, but a wide monitor displayed a view of a distant crescent that was surrounded by smaller lights. Anakin recognized the crescent as Fondor, and the smaller lights as the orbital starship yards.
The so-called “derelict” was heading straight for Fondor.
To Anakin’s left, near the wide monitor, a tall, dome-headed, black R1 astromech droid stood with one of its manipulator arms jacked into a tech station. Also visible were a pair of heavily armed 501-Z police droids, who stood at attention near an open hatch. Remembering the information he gained from the Duelist Elite, Anakin believed the open hatch led to the vessel’s concealed hangar.
Neither the R1 nor the two 501-Zs were looking in Anakin’s direction. Moving cautiously, Anakin stepped out of the tunnel and into the control room, only to hear a digitized voice order, “Halt!”
Star Wars Adventures 001 - Hunt the Sun Runner Page 3
