by Джуд Уотсон
"And how do you think you can do that?" Obi-Wan asked.
Yoda blinked at Obi-Wan. It was just a blink. But it told him that his tone was not appreciated.
"Ruler of Junction 5, Lorian Nod is," he said.
Again, Obi-Wan was surprised. "How did you manage that? The last time I saw you, you were about to go to prison for a very long time."
"I did go to prison for a very long time," Lorian answered. "Then I got out."
"And you seized power," Obi-Wan said, disgusted.
"Obi-Wan." Yoda's voice had a quality Obi-Wan recognized, something he thought of as durasteel sheathed in ice.
Chastised like a youngling, Obi-Wan indicated that Lorian should go on.
"I was elected," Lorian said. "When I got out of prison, things had not changed much on Junction 5. Because Delaluna had allowed them to believe that they possessed the Annihilator, the great distrust between them had not diminished. The population still lived in a climate of fear. I suggested that I be an envoy to Delaluna and open talks between us. As the one who caused the worst of the trouble, I could be the one to stop it."
Obi-Wan crossed his arms, waiting.
"I would have failed," Lorian said, "if it wasn't for Samish Kash. He had recently been elected as ruler of Delaluna. He, too, believed that the mistrust between two such close planets was harmful to them both.
He believed that open trade and travel between Junction 5 and Delaluna would benefit everyone. So we sat down at a table and began to talk.
We reached an agreement, and trade began. Borders were opened. We formed a partnership with the Bezim and Vicondor systems to build the Station 88 Spaceport. Both our worlds thrived and prospered. Because of the success of our plan, I was elected leader of Junction 5 three years later. I have ruled during a peaceful time. Our two little worlds were overlooked by the powers in the galaxy. In the Senate, we were one tiny voice among many. And now everything has changed."
"The systems of Junction 5 and Delaluna, found they are. Crucial to the success of the Separatists, they have become," Yoda said.
"The Station 88 Spaceport," Lorian Nod explained. "We are a gateway to the Mid-Rim systems."
Yoda lifted a hand, and a holographic map appeared. Junction 5 and Delaluna were illuminated. "If Junction 5 and Delaluna fall under Separatist control, fall Bezim and Vicondor will," he said. "Control they will a vast portion of the Mid-Rim systems."
"Count Dooku knows this very well," Lorian said. "He has contacted me.
So far he has tried flattery and bribes to sway me to the Separatists, and I have lied and said I was leaning that way. Officially Samish Kash and I have not allied ourselves with either the Separatists or the Republic. I am not sure which way Kash is leaning, but I know that I have kept my own allegiances hidden. If Dooku knew I was loyal to the Republic, he could use force against my world — something I desperately wish to avoid. And I want to keep the Station 88 Spaceport as a strategic base for the Republic."
Obi-Wan nodded. He was interested now. He could see how important the tiny worlds of Junction 5 and Delaluna had become.
"Why not just declare your allegiance in the Senate?" Anakin asked.
"They would send troops to protect you."
"Spread thin, the clone troops have become," Yoda said. "Our last option, that would be. A better way, Lorian has suggested."
"You may not be aware of this, Obi-Wan, but Dooku and I were friends during Temple training," Lorian said. "We had a falling out, but that was many years ago. I'm not sure if Dooku trusts me, but he needs me.
It also makes sense to him that I would want to join the Separatists.
"It makes sense to me, too," Obi-Wan said. "Why don't you?"
"Because I have seen how making beings afraid or angry is the best way to make a power grab," Lorian said. "The Separatists have a point — the Senate has become a corrupt place where the needs of smaller systems go unheard. They have taken this resentment and used it as a screen for their own ends. Who are Dooku's main backers? That is where I look. The Commerce Guilds. The Trade Federation. The Corporate Alliance. The InterGalactic Bank Clan. What do they all have in common but wealth, and the desire for more power? This movement is a cover for greed." Lorian shook his head. "I am no longer able to access the Force as I did before. But I don't need the Force to show me that this road is a road to darkness."
Yoda bowed his head in agreement. Obi-Wan agreed as well. He just didn't like hearing this from Lorian Nod.
"Master Yoda, you had my first loyalty, and you have it still," Lorian said. "I have done things in my life that I know were wrong, but I am here to do right. I am here to serve the Jedi."
"What do you propose?" Obi-Wan asked. He wasn't interested in Lorian's avowals. He was only interested in what he would do.
"Dooku has called a meeting," Lorian said. "I have indicated to him that Samish Kash is leaning toward the Republic. He thinks he needs me to persuade or strong-arm Samish into the Separatist camp. Also at the meeting will be the rulers of Bezim and Vicondor. Dooku has proposed this as a friendly meeting at his villa on the world of Null."
"I've heard of this world," Obi-Wan said. "Dooku has its leader in his pocket. It was one of the first to join the Separatists."
"Although he proposed this as a neutral place to meet, obviously we are on his territory," Lorian agreed. "I have agreed to come, as have Samish Kash and the rulers of Vi-condor and Bezim. We have a strong alliance among us. We have always acted as one. Dooku is hoping that I will help him convince the others to join the Separatists."
"And what do you propose?" Obi-Wan asked.
"I am not proposing anything except that I will attend this meeting as a spy, and hope to bring back useful information," Lorian said. "If the Jedi give me a specific task, I will perform it."
"Request we do that while we confer you wait here," Yoda said.
He accessed the door to an interior chamber. Obi-Wan and Anakin followed.
"I don't trust him," Obi-Wan said as soon as the doors closed behind them.
"Ask for your trust I do not," Yoda said. "Asking for your help I am.
No matter his past, help us Lorian Nod can."
"He could have been sent here by Dooku," Obi-Wan said. "This could be a trick."
"Unlikely it is," Yoda said.
"Qui-Gon told me that Dooku and Lorian Nod were bitter enemies,"
Obi-Wan said. "Why would Dooku trust him now?"
"He said that Dooku didn't trust him," Anakin said. "But he needs him.
Alliances are seldom based on trust, only need."
Yoda nodded. "Wise, your Padawan is. Think I do that best for this assignment, you are. If refuse you must, understand I will."
"What is it you wish us to do?"
"Travel to Null. This thread you must follow. Discover if Lorian is truthful. On this, the downfall of Dooku could depend."
Chapter 21
Null was a world of forests and mountains. It had no large cities, only small mountain villages, each so fiercely individualistic that attempts at alliances had always failed. There was a planet-wide government and a system of laws, but crimes tended to be solved among villagers according to an ancient tradition of fierce, swift retaliation that left no witnesses.
It was a perfect world for Dooku's hidden retreat. The villagers had a fierce sense of privacy and kept his comings and goings secret.
As Obi-Wan guided the small cruiser to the landing platform, he deliberately looped around the coordinates of Dooku's villa. Dooku had taken over the cliffside dwelling of a monarch who had reigned hundreds of standard years before. It had originally been built of stone, but Dooku had faced it in durasteel that was the exact gray of the mountain cliffs. The durasteel had been treated so that it did not gleam. It seemed to suck in light rather than reflect it. If Obi-Wan had not been looking for the villa, he would have missed it.
Obi-Wan guided the cruiser to the landing platform. They stood, feeling a bit odd in their clothes. They we
re dressed as hunters, with thick short cloaks made of animal skins. Hunting was the only tourist trade that Null supported. The mountains were full of wild beasts prized for their skins, especially the wily laroon. They disembarked, feeling the cold wind against their faces like a slap.
"We're scheduled to rendezvous with Nod in the Spade Forest," Obi-Wan told Anakin as he paid a fee to an attendant droid to keep the cruiser at the platform. "We should avoid being seen with him, even though we're in disguise. We have time to check into the inn at the village."
Anakin nodded as he slung his pack over his shoulder. "Just don't make me shoot anything," he said.
Obi-Wan grinned. The small joke brought back the days when everything was easy between them.
They were below the tree line, so the path ran through a heavy forest.
The mountains rose around them, stabbing the thin air with their snowy, jagged peaks. The landing platform had been built into the largest mountain, which rose into the clouds. It was under this mountain that the village crouched.
The thick trees cleared as they walked down the mountain and the roofs of the village appeared. The buildings were made of stone and wood and were only a few stories tall.
Narrow streets wound through the cluster of buildings. The villagers seemed to rely on a sturdy native animal, the bellock, for transportation. Obi-Wan saw only a few speeders parked in yards.
Then they turned a corner and saw a cluster of gleaming speeders in front of a tall stone building, and they knew they had found the inn.
Obi-Wan and Anakin entered, keeping their hoods on. The interior lobby was scattered with seating areas made of plush materials. A fireplace twenty meters tall held a huge blazing fire that chased away the damp chill. Various beings sat around the fire, some consulting datapads, others drinking tea. By the look of their clothes, Obi-Wan guessed they were outsiders, most likely aides to the rulers of the four planets. In a dark corner a hunter sat, covered in skins, an awesome array of weapons at his feet. His bored gaze seemed to regard the sleek, sophisticated beings with contempt.
"He's got enough weapons to bring down a capital ship, let alone a laroon," Anakin remarked in a low voice.
Obi-Wan's gaze traveled up the fireplace. The wall was fashioned of jagged stones from the mountain, fitted together in intricate patterns. He could see no evidence of mortar or joinery, but each stone nestled against each other in what must have been perfect balance.
The innkeeper smiled as he greeted Obi-Wan and Anakin. He was obviously a native Null. They were tall humanoids, easily a meter taller than Obi-Wan and Anakin. The men wore heavy beards, which they braided, and both men and women dressed in animal skins and thigh-length boots. "I see you are admiring the stonework of the inn,"
he said. "It is a native art. One pull of the keystone and the whole wall comes tumbling down."
"And which is the keystone?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Ah, that is the maker's secret," the innkeeper said. He noted their traveling clothes and sacks. "Always glad to welcome our hunters to the inn," he said. "As you can see, we have important guests, very important guests. But we do not neglect our regular trade." He pushed the data register toward Obi-Wan.
"What's going on here?" Obi-Wan asked, bending forward to sign the register. "I didn't realize Null was now on the tourist track."
The innkeeper leaned closer. "A very high-level meeting, I believe.
Don't know what it's about. But I expect more of these meetings in the future. So book early or you'll be out of luck!"
"We'll be sure to." Obi-Wan pushed the register back along with the credits to pay for a room.
A young woman sat in a small chair tucked against the wall. He had not noticed her before, and would not have noticed her if a flicker of recognition didn't jolt him. He could not place her, but he felt he knew her. She was slender, dressed in a dark green tunic the color of the leaves outside. A matching headwrap covered her hair. He had met thousands of beings all over the galaxy, and though his memory was excellent, it was hard to remember everyone. Or maybe she just reminded him of someone…
He turned. "Anakin, do you recognize that woman in green, sitting against the wall?"
"What woman?" Anakin asked.
There was a flicker of green, and the door of the inn closed. Obi-Wan filed the woman away in his mind to investigate later. He didn't like it when something nagged at him.
The hunter warmed his hands at the fire, picked up his weapons, and rumbled to the door. The native Null workers rolled their eyes after he had passed, clearly considering him an overly armed amateur.
"Come on," Obi-Wan said. "Let's find our room. It's almost time to meet Lorian."
First they stowed their gear in their room, a small one tucked under the eaves of the roof. Obviously they were not among those "important guests" the innkeeper had mentioned.
They walked out into the village street and toward the path that led into the forest. Obi-Wan called up the prearranged coordinates on his datapad. They would meet not far from the village in a forest clearing that Lorian had already determined was secluded but not difficult to reach.
As they reached the edge of the village, they saw a villager running down the mountain path. The thud of his panicked footsteps came to them clearly.
"Sound the alarm!" he shouted. "There's been a murder! Samish Kash has been assassinated!"
Chapter 22
Three blasts of a horn sounded as Obi-Wan and Anakin raced up the trail. They found Samish Kash lying a few meters off the main path.
Villagers crowded around him, and a speeder arrived. Samish Kash was loaded onto it. Obi-Wan saw the blaster wound near his heart. He was a young man with curly dark hair, dressed in a plain tunic. As far as Obi-Wan could tell, he was unarmed.
Lorian Nod stood by, his face full of sorrow. He acknowledged the Jedi with a glance, then leaped aboard the speeder that held the body of Kash.
Obi-Wan saw the young woman in green turn away. Her shoulders were shaking. The hunter with the impressive arsenal put a hand underneath her elbow.
"An aide to Samish Kash," one of the villagers whispered. "She found his body."
Then we will most definitely need to talk to her, Obi-Wan thought. He watched the young woman and the hunter. Now his mind was clicking.
They were arguing in a way that told him they were not strangers.
Obi-Wan began to drift closer, hoping to overhear. But they kept moving away from the circle of villagers, the woman trying to get away from the hunter while still talking to him.
As she made an abrupt move to turn away, her hood fell back, and he saw that she had blond hair, braided tightly and coiled around her head. Then he caught a flash of wide blue eyes. The hunter spoke urgently in her ear.
"It's Floria and Dane," Obi-Wan said.
Anakin looked where Obi-Wan had indicated. "The brother and sister bounty hunters we met on Ragoon-6? How can you be sure? It was so long ago."
"Look carefully."
Anakin studied them. "You're right. What are bounty hunters doing here?"
"Exactly what I'd like to find out."
The two Jedi moved quickly through the crowd. Floria and Dane had now moved well away from the commotion.
"If you had done what you were supposed to — " Dane was saying.
"So you're saying it's my fault?" Floria's voice was choked with anger and tears. "You always — "
"You never — " Dane stopped talking as Obi-Wan and Anakin walked up.
"I must confess I never expected to see you again," Obi-Wan said.
Floria and Dane stared at them for a long moment.
"Black holes and novas, it's the Jedi," Dane said. Now Obi-Wan could see his blue eyes, so much like Floria's. "What are you two doing here?"
"Which is exactly what I want to know about you two," Obi-Wan said, steering them farther away from the others, and underneath the trees.
"Who are you hunting? Are you involved in the death of Samish Kash?"
"No!" Dane exclaimed. "We're his bodyguards!" "Obviously, you are doing an excellent job," Anakin said. Floria burst into tears.
"Bounty hunting was getting too dangerous," Dane said, handing his sister a cloth to wipe her tears. "There were so many of us out there that all honor was lost. Some were using truly cutthroat techniques."
"I've seen a few," Obi-Wan concurred.
"So we decided to become bodyguards. It's simpler. Samish Kash hired us a couple of months ago for protection. He didn't want the usual big goons or guard droids. He didn't want anyone to know. So Floria posed as an aide, and I just used disguises. Then this meeting was called.
