The Followers Read online

body. The pilot's two-toed feet were pointing at awkward angles.

  "It looks that way," Qui-Gon replied. "As well as being struck on the

  head." He stood up with a sigh. "It may be several hours before we are even

  able to talk to him."

  Obi-Wan held back his exasperation. Another roadblock. They were on

  an important mission, yet had no idea where they were going or what they

  were supposed to do. And to top it off, they were stranded on a planet with

  someone who wanted to stop them, possibly for good.

  Trying not to let frustration overtake him completely, Obi-Wan turned

  his back on the pilot and sat down to wait.

  Two hours later, the pilot groaned and sat up groggily. Looking

  around, he appeared to take in the two Jedi and the empty space where his

  ship had been a few hours ago. There was a moment of heavy silence before

  he began to shout in anger. He tried to leap to his feet, but quickly sat

  back down. Gingerly feeling the back of his neck, he found the lump and

  shouted some more.

  "Try to remain calm," Qui-Gon said in a soothing tone. The pilot

  cursed but didn't attempt to stand up again.

  "Your ship was stolen, then?" Qui-Gon asked. He got up and crossed

  the hangar in a few quick strides.

  "Well, I don't think I misplaced it," the pilot replied hotly. The

  sound of his voice was strange, since it came out of his two mouths at

  once. He eyed Qui-Gon with distrust. "Who are you?"

  "I am Qui-Gon Jinn and this is my apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi," he

  replied. "We believe the being we are following may have stolen your ship.

  Can you tell us what happened?"

  The captain gently rubbed the lump on the back of his neck. "I was

  working on my ship - making minor adjustments to the hyperdrive. Someone

  came up behind me and whacked me on the back of my neck." The pilot winced

  as he continued rubbing his wound.

  "Did you see your attacker?" Obi-Wan asked.

  The pilot shook his head. "I didn't see anyone. Or hear anything,

  actually. It could have been any thief or scoundrel. There are plenty

  around here."

  "Do you think it was the being who hired passage on your ship a few

  hours ago? The Quermian?"

  "How do you know about the Quermian?" the captain asked. But before

  the Jedi could reply he waved his hand through the air dismissively. "It

  doesn't matter. But I don't know why he'd attack the pilot who was about to

  take him to a place he asked to go."

  "Perhaps he was interested in piloting the ship himself," Qui-Gon

  mused.

  "Or saving the fare," Obi-Wan added.

  The pilot sighed. "There are many thieves on Nolar. This kind of

  thing happens all the time." He looked around the empty hangar and a spark

  of fury came into his eyes. "Just not to me."

  Obi-Wan knew how the pilot felt. He'd been frustrated with this

  mission pretty much since it started.

  But at the moment he and Qui-Gon needed information more than

  anything else. He had to stay calm and focused.

  "Can you tell us where you were going to take the Quermian?" he

  asked.

  "Of course," the pilot said. Obi-Wan noticed that he seemed more

  willing to help the Jedi. Perhaps he thought it might get his ship back. "I

  had just finished keying the information into my navcomputer. I remember

  because it's not a planet I'm asked to fly to very often. In fact, I can't

  say I've ever been there."

  "And the name of the planet?" Qui-Gon asked.

  "Kodai," the pilot said. "We were going to Kodai."

  CHAPTER 8

  Qui-Gon thanked the pilot and got to his feet. He had no way of

  knowing if the ship was really going to Kodai or not; Dr. Lundi was

  certainly smart enough to throw them off the trail or even deftly set a

  trap. But they had nothing else to go on. The sooner they could get to

  Kodai to investigate, the better.

  "Do you need help getting somewhere?" Qui-Gon asked the pilot.

  The pilot got to his feet. Though it had been only minutes since he'd

  woken up, he was already quite steady. "No, I'll be fine," he replied. "But

  if you find my ship, you know where I am."

  "Of course," Qui-Gon said. "We'll do what we can."

  Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon quickly left the small hangar and made their way

  down the street and into a larger one. It was full of ships of all sizes,

  and pilots from all over the galaxy talking shop or tinkering with their

  vessels. It seemed like it would be easy enough to hire one of them.

  Qui-Gon strode up to a pilot and asked if he would take them to

  Kodai. "Kodai?" the pilot repeated. "You've got the wrong guy."

  "I'll take you there, but I won't land - at least not until next

  week," said another.

  Qui-Gon asked half a dozen pilots before he finally found one who was

  willing to make the journey, a humanoid who wouldn't give them a last name.

  "Call me Elda," she said before agreeing to drop them off and leave

  immediately. She could not be convinced to wait around for the return trip.

  The Jedi could not afford to be choosy. They boarded right away.

  While the pilot readied the ship, they settled in for the journey.

  "Not many people want to go to Kodai right now," Elda said as she

  keyed the destination points into her navcomputer.

  Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow. "I gathered as much," he said. "Why is

  that?"

  The pilot turned to look over her shoulder at Qui-Gon, giving him an

  "If you don't know I'm not going to tell you," look.

  Qui-Gon didn't prod. It's just as well, he thought. I can get the

  information from the Temple.

  Stepping out of the cockpit and into the hold, Qui-Gon switched on

  his comlink. He had heard of Kodai, and thought it was located somewhere in

  the Outer Rim Territories. If he was not mistaken, its surface was mostly

  covered by a vast sea.

  His comlink crackled to life and a moment later Temple Archivist

  Jocasta Nu's voice echoed quietly in the hold of the ship.

  "It is good to hear from you, Qui-Gon," she said. "How is the mission

  going?"

  "It's hard to tell at the moment," Qui-Gon responded honestly. "I was

  hoping you could provide me with information on the planet Kodai."

  "Kodai, in the Outer Rim," she said. There was a brief silence as

  Jocasta plugged the data for the request into her Temple computer. "I seem

  to remember something about a massive, swelling sea."

  Qui-Gon could hear Jocasta pressing buttons and keys on a computer.

  Then she spoke.

  "Kodai is, in fact, covered by a giant sea - a sea that hundreds of

  years ago swelled so much that it drowned most of the planet's land-

  dwelling inhabitants," she reported. "Today there is only one pocket of

  land - a single city. It is sparsely populated by a few thousand Kodaians

  who spend most of their time trying to preserve their way of life on land,

  in spite of the fact that most believe that the sea will rage again and

  kill them all." Jocasta was silent for a moment. Qui-Gon guessed that she

  was reading ahead.

  "Interesting," she murmured. "It seems that the sea has shown no

  signs of raging in the last hundred years. In fac
t, the opposite seems to

  occur. Every ten years, when the planet's two moons sync up, the sea

  experiences a spectacularly low tide."

  "I see," said Qui-Gon, filing away this information.

  "That's not all," Jocasta said. "What's particularly fascinating is

  that the planet's moons will be syncing up the day after tomorrow."

  "Interesting timing," Qui-Gon agreed. It seemed obvious enough that

  Lundi's trip to Kodai at this particular moment and his search for mining

  equipment were not coincidences. But he was still not clear about why it

  had been so difficult to find a pilot to take them to Kodai.

  Jocasta was quiet for several long moments while Qui-Gon digested

  this information. When she did not end the transmission, Qui-Gon guessed

  that she had more to tell him.

  "Is there something else?" he finally asked.

  "Yes," Jocasta replied slowly. "Another collection of Sith materials

  was found - this time on the planet Tynna in the Expansion Region. And a

  strange explosion has occurred on the peaceful planet Nubia. Nobody has

  come forward to take credit for the blast, but a drawing of a crude Sith

  Holocron had been scraped onto a duracrete wall outside the ruined

  building."

  Qui-Gon closed his eyes for a moment. The discovery of the additional

  stash was not surprising. But an explosion was something new - something

  deadly. The situation was heating up, and he felt a great deal of pressure

  to defuse it.

  "Thank you for the information," Qui-Gon told Jocasta. "We will be in

  touch if we need anything further."

  "Of course, Qui-Gon. I will be here if you need me."

  As Jocasta switched off her comlink, Qui-Gon felt a pang of sorrow.

  He wished that those parting words had been spoken by the woman at the

  Temple who had helped him with research in the past - Tahl. Qui-Gon had

  been deeply in love with Tahl, and though she had been killed several

  months ago, her absence still felt like a blade in his chest.

  Qui-Gon put away his comlink and sat down on the floor to meditate

  until the path was clear. He was just beginning to feel his body relax when

  Obi-Wan rushed into the hold.

  "Master!" he shouted, alarmed. "There's a bomb on board!"

  CHAPTER 9

  Qui-Gon was on his feet in an instant. He followed his apprentice to

  the bridge, where the bomb had been planted underneath a low shelf. Bending

  down carefully, Qui-Gon examined the device. It was black and square with a

  simple timer on top - and a crude drawing of a Sith Holocron etched into

  the side.

  "I suppose I should have expected something like this," Elda griped

  from her seat at the controls. "I just hope your famous Jedi powers can

  defuse that thing before it blows up my ship - and us along with it."

  "I'll do my best," Qui-Gon said wryly. "Do you have a set of tools we

  could use?"

  The pilot pointed to a small box in the corner. "You should find

  everything you need in there," she said.

  Obi-Wan brought the tools over to his Master and crouched down beside

  him. "This symbol is becoming familiar," he noted. "But the device itself

  does not look too sophisticated."

  "It should not be a problem to defuse," Qui-Gon said, casting a

  glance toward the captain. "But I'm not so sure about our pilot's temper."

  Obi-Wan cracked a smile. Leave it to Qui-Gon to find humor in a

  moment like this.

  Qui-Gon opened the tool kit and pulled out a long, slender pick.

  After carefully inserting it into the side of the bomb casing, he slid it

  back and forth until he heard an audible beep. The box opened and several

  strands of colorful wire popped out. A timer behind the wires indicated

  that the bomb would go off in less than a minute.

  "Not much time," Obi-Wan murmured quietly.

  Qui-Gon knew his Padawan was right, and he had not expected to see so

  many different colored wires inside the bomb. It was a more complicated

  design than he'd originally thought.

  Focusing his energy on the bomb, he snipped all of the red wires. But

  the timer did not switch off. It now read forty seconds, and was counting

  down.

  "Perhaps it is this black wire," Obi-Wan suggested quietly.

  Qui-Gon did not think this was likely. It was the only black wire,

  and too obvious a solution. But as he studied the wire, he sensed that

  there was indeed something significant about it. Still, he wasn't sure that

  cutting it was the right thing to do.

  "Twenty seconds," Obi-Wan said.

  Qui-Gon looked at the bomb more closely. One end of the black wire

  ran directly into the metal inside the casing. At the other end the black

  plasticoating ended a few millimeters before the wire touched the metal.

  Underneath the missing black coating was a series of bright yellow wires.

  They fanned out to form a row and slid neatly into a metal jack.

  "Ten seconds."

  Qui-Gon reached down and placed his thumb and forefinger on either

  side of the yellow wires. Closing his eyes, he twisted them away from the

  jack. There was a small popping sound as the wires pulled free.

  The timer on the bomb continued to count down. But when it reached

  one second, it suddenly stopped.

  "You did it, Master," Obi-Wan said, sounding relieved.

  Qui-Gon opened his eyes and saw the number frozen on the timer. "With

  time to spare," he said wryly.

  "I guess you Jedi are good for something," Elda grumped. But there

  was humor in her voice, and she was smiling broadly. "Thank you," she added

  quietly.

  Qui-Gon put the tools back into the case and got to his feet. "You're

  welcome," he said.

  Back in the hold, Qui-Gon closed his eyes and started to meditate for

  the second time that day. The planted bomb was something else to consider.

  Was it meant to kill them, or simply throw them off guard? And who had

  planted it? It must have been someone who was following them closely,

  someone who was highly prepared. Not much time had elapsed between the Jedi

  arranging their travel and their subsequent takeoff.

  Qui-Gon began to breathe deeply, letting his mind clear and then

  focus. But something was interfering with his concentration. His Padawan

  was pacing.

  Qui-Gon opened an eye. "Why don't you try some meditation?" he asked.

  Obi-Wan nodded and sat down. Even after he had stopped pacing the

  room, Qui-Gon could tell he was still agitated. With both eyes open now, he

  studied his Padawan. Obi-Wan sat cross-legged in a chair with his eyes

  closed. But his shoulders were tensed, and beneath his eyelids Qui-Gon

  could see movement.

  "Are you all right, Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon asked softly.

  Obi-Wan opened his eyes and met his Master's gaze. "Yes," he said

  slowly. And then, "Well, I don't know."

  "You are afraid," Qui-Gon stated plainly.

  A look of shame came over Obi-Wan's face, but he did not deny it. "My

  heart is full of dread," he admitted. "I wish we were on another mission -

  any other mission. I am not sure I have the courage to face the Holocron...

  "

  Qui-Gon leaned toward his apprentice. "You have every right
to be

  afraid," he said quietly. "Allow yourself to feel the fear - really feel it

  - and then let the emotion go. If it comes back, feel it again and let it

  go again. There should be no shame in one's emotions."

  "I am not at fault if it comes back?" Obi-Wan asked, looking up.

  "No, Padawan," Qui-Gon replied. "We cannot control how we feel. Only

  how we choose to handle our feelings."

  A look of true relief crossed Obi-Wan's face, and he smiled slightly.