Legacy of the Jedi Page 6

  "Beings choose their own fate," Dooku said. "They could have fought for their planet, but their indifference and their greed made them passive. There was no war here, my young apprentice. Merely beings who did not choose to fight the power that ruled them."

  "Perhaps they tried and failed," Qui-Gon said quietly. "Then they are also weak, which is worse," Dooku said dismissively. "Come."

  This time, Dooku thought it better not to announce their approach. He simply walked through the factory gates. There was no security.

  They entered a clamorous production facility. Grease stained the floor and accumulated in puddles. The ceiling was low and the air was dense and hot. Row after row of various workstations unfolded down the long space. Battered droids wielded servodrivers and airpumps. The workers looked half-starved and unhealthy, and Dooku saw that most of them were quite young.

  "They are using children," Qui-Gon said, shocked. "Under these conditions! This violates galactic laws."

  "There are many such places, unfortunately," Dooku said.

  "We must do something!" Qui-Gon said, his gaze anguished as it roamed the factory. "They look as though they are ill and starving."

  "Keep your focus on the mission, my young apprentice," Dooku said sharply. "We cannot save everyone in the galaxy."

  "But Master —"

  "Qui-Gon." Dooku only had to say his Padawan's name as a warning. Qui-Gon's mouth snapped shut.

  A plump human male, his sparse hair matted with sweat and grease, came running toward them. "Excuse me, who are you? Never mind, you're trespassing, so leave."

  Dooku did not move.

  "Excuse me, you're not moving," the man said with a frown. "Do you want me to call security?"

  "Please do," Dooku said. "Perhaps we can discuss the number of galactic laws you are breaking."

  The man stepped back. "You're not Senate inspectors, are you?"

  "We need information," Dooku said.

  "Well, you've come to the wrong place," the man replied.

  Dooku looked around the factory pleasantly. "You are busy, I see."

  The man nodded warily.

  "It most likely would not please your superiors if the factory was shut down under your watch."

  "You have the authority to do that?"

  Dooku shrugged. "Child labor. Dangerous conditions. I see grease pools on the floor, toxic compounds left open to the air. . . . There are a dozen violations I can see without even turning my head."

  "What do you want? Money? We pay our bribes, but I have an emergency stash."

  "As I said, merely information. Who owns the factory?" Dooku asked.

  "I just send in reports. I don't know anything —"

  "Who do you send reports to?" Dooku was getting impatient. He fixed his gaze on the manager.

  "A company . . . I send them to a company. . . . The name of it is Caravan."

  Caravan. The name of the holographic cruiser Lorian had designed. He had gone to sleep dreaming of the places he would travel in it.

  That was all Dooku needed to know. He reflected on how smart and simple the scheme was. Behind the screen of a company, Lorian cut corners on security, then exploited his knowledge of a ship's vulnerability in order to attack it.

  He heard a rustle behind him and turned to see Eero threading his way through the machinery toward them.

  "Great. Another inspector," the manager muttered.

  "I had to come," Eero said. "I followed you here — onto the transport and now to this facility. I can't bear to hear that the firm I hired to protect Senator Annon ended up being the reason he was kidnapped. I've got to help you catch the pirate and free the Senator. It's the only way."

  Eero was sweaty and pale. "You look as though you need to lie down," Dooku said. Clearly, his old friend had gone to great lengths to follow them. Dooku admired his tenacity — and was suspicious of it as well.

  Eero shook his head. "I've found a factory worker here who is willing to talk," he said. "He says the pirate makes regular visits here. He might know where his hideout is."

  The manager had faded back, anxious to disappear. "Let's talk to the worker," Dooku said.

  He and Qui-Gon followed Eero through the aisles. No one looked at them as they walked. No doubt the workers had been punished for lagging behind, because they worked doggedly, without raising their heads.

  Eero stopped suddenly and looked around. "Where did he go? He was right here." Craning his neck, he took a few steps and disappeared around a large bank of machines.

  Dooku felt the rush of the Force as it warned him. He reached for his lightsaber. Qui-Gon was only a fraction of a second behind him.

  Colicoid Eradicator droids wheeled around a corner and headed for them, blasters at the ready. Dooku held his lightsaber aloft.

  "Master." Qui-Gon's voice was urgent. "We can't fight them. Look around."

  Dooku surveyed the area around them. Child workers were everywhere here, no doubt because their smaller fingers were useful for work on sensors. If the Jedi engaged the Eradicators in battle, the blaster fire would spray the workers. They would have nowhere to hide.

  Still, Dooku did not drop his lightsaber. He had no doubt that Lorian had arranged this. He knew that Jedi would not fight if it meant endangering innocent lives —especially children's lives. He would force Dooku to surrender. But he would never surrender to Lorian!

  "Master." There was steel in Qui-Gon's voice. His lightsaber was already deactivated and at his side.

  Dooku deactivated his lightsaber. He felt helpless rage take him over as the droids took them into custody. In his heart, he vowed revenge.

  CHAPTER No. 12

  Gray swirled before his eyes. Shadows that moved, that hurt as they moved, exploding inside his brain like pulses from a hot laser. Dooku tried to reach out and could not. He flexed and felt pressure at his wrists and ankles.

  His vision cleared, and the shadows resolved themselves into objects. A table. A chair. He saw that his wrists and ankles were encircled by stun cuffs.

  He breathed slowly, accepting the pain in his head and telling his body that it was time to heal. He called on the Force to help him, and he felt the pain ease its grip.

  They had been taken by the droids, and a paralyzing agent had been introduced through a small syringe. With a painful glance down at his utility belt, he saw that his lightsaber was gone.

  Qui-Gon was beside him. They were lying on a cold stone floor, the laser cuffs binding them to durasteel hoops embedded in the stone. Qui-Gon groaned and opened his eyes. His breath came out in a hiss.

  "Breathe," Dooku said. "The pain will ease in a moment."

  He watched as his Padawan closed his eyes again and took slow, heavy breaths. Color returned to his face. He opened his eyes. "Do you know where we are?"

  "No idea." They could have been unconscious for hours and transported off Von-Alai. It didn't matter. Because Dooku had not contacted the Temple, no one had known they were on Von-Alai. There was no way to track them.

  Lorian would not beat him. He vowed that it would not happen. Things didn't look good — he was bound and imprisoned at the moment — but Dooku would find his opportunity and he would use it.

  "Perhaps Eero will find us," Qui-Gon said. "Or tell the Temple where we are."

  "Eero is part of this," Dooku said. "He set us up."

  "But he is your friend," Qui-Gon said. "And he was hurt in the invasion."

  "So it seemed. Injuries can be faked. Eero was a good actor, nothing more. I was foolish not to think of it before. This should be a lesson to you, Padawan. Have as many friends as you want, but do not trust them. Believe me, I know what I am speaking of. The person who has imprisoned us was once in training with me."

  "He is a Jedi?" Qui-Gon asked, shocked.

  "No. He went through training but was dismissed. Never mind why. We were friends once. I am beginning to suspect that he might hold some kind of grudge against me. So there is more going on here than you know."

&n
bsp; "You mean you knew he was the space pirate?" Qui-Gon said no more but the words hung in the air. And you did not tell me?

  "I recognized him as he left Senator Annon's ship." "And you think Eero is in league with him?"

  "I suspect so. Betrayal is part of life, Qui-Gon, and we can't always see it coming."

  Qui-Gon strained against the energy cuffs.

  "That won't do anything but exhaust you," Dooku told him. "You must accept that sometimes you are in situations over which you have no control. Accept the situation and wait for your opportunity. Besides, we are farther along than we were before."

  "In what way?"

  "We were looking for the space pirate, and now we have found him. We'll get taken to him eventually. He won't be able to resist gloating — he never could. When we find him, we will wait for our opening, and we will not make mistakes."

  Dooku closed his eyes. He did not like to feel anger and humiliation roiling inside him. He needed inner calm. He never acted out of anger.

  Long minutes passed. He felt his heartbeat slow. Then he heard the swish of the doors opening.

  "Old friend," Lorian said.

  At the sound of his voice, rage spurted up in him again. He did not open his eyes until he had controlled it.

  "I realized some time ago, Lorian, that we were never friends," Dooku said evenly.

  Lorian had grown into a handsome man. He was all lean muscle. His thick gold hair was cropped short, throwing into relief the bold lines of his face and his green eyes. "You haven't changed," he said, then smiled. "Yet it's good to see you, even though it's unfortunate for me. If a Jedi had to be tracking me, I would've hoped for anyone but you. You knew me too well. Once."

  "Yes," Dooku said. "I knew how you would lie and cheat to get your way."

  "What is so bad about what I've done?" Lorian asked. "It was hard being in the galaxy all alone, trying to make my way. All I knew was the Temple. Did that ever occur to you, Dooku? We were raised in a bubble, and then everything I knew was taken away from me. I was forced out into the galaxy, a young boy with no Master to guide me."

  "The Jedi hardly set you adrift," Dooku said. "They arranged a position for you in the Agricultural Corps."

  Lorian snorted. "Tending hybrid plants on a Mid-Rim planet? Would you be satisfied with that life, after all the training we went through?"

  "I had no reason to have to accept it," Dooku said. "I did not violate the Jedi Order. You did. You seem to forget that."

  "I was young and made a mistake." Lorian's face hardened. "I paid dearly for it. Was I supposed to turn into a farmer? I was trained as a Jedi! So instead I went into business for myself."

  "As a space pirate."

  "Just temporarily. I started out kidnapping criminals, but that got risky. You'd be surprised how reluctant gangs can be to come up with the ransom. So I looked to Senators next. The only problem was, they had the best security. But what if their security wasn't as good as they thought it was? When I heard Kontag was sliding into bankruptcy, it gave me the idea. So I bought this factory and offered Kontag a deal."

  "A factory that employs children." Qui-Gon's voice was flat. His gaze told Lorian that he held him in contempt.

  Lorian strolled toward Qui-Gon, his face alight with curiosity. "So this is your apprentice, Dooku? Qui-Gon Jinn? Yes, I can see you in him. He is as sure of his own rightness as you are. What would you have me do, young Padawan? Fire the child workers? Many of them support families. Parents who are injured or too sick to work, or parents who have abandoned them so they are supporting their brothers and sisters. Would you have them starve?"

  "I would find a better way," Qui-Gon said.

  "Ah, he is unshakable. Well, I'll tell you this, young Jedi. I am planning to phase out the child labor. Improve conditions. But do you know what that takes? Money. The Jedi don't deal with credits. They don't speak of them. But the rest of us have to eat, you know."

  "You are full of justifications," Qui-Gon said.

  "They make the planets turn," Lorian said with a shrug. Qui-Gon's words did not sting. "Have you been to the Senate lately? It runs on justifications. I am not evil, Qui-Gon Jinn. I know this for certain. I've seen the face of true evil," Lorian said, his voice dropping. "And I have known the terror of it. So don't be too quick to judge me."

  "True evil?" Dooku asked. Could Lorian mean the Sith?

  Lorian turned back to him. "Yes, Dooku, I did access the Sith Holocron. I was curious. And what I saw chilled my blood and haunted my days for a long time. It haunts me still. And yet it is comforting somehow. Once you've seen true evil, you can be sure that you will never be able to fall that low."

  "Don't be so sure," Dooku said. "You're a kidnapper. A criminal. How can you justify that?"

  Lorian shrugged, smiling. "I need the money?" Dooku snorted.

  "Look, so what if I kidnap a few corrupt Senators for a couple of weeks? Some of them even enjoy the attention. Nobody gets hurt."

  "What about us?" Dooku asked.

  "I'm not going to kill you, if that's what you're wondering," Lorian said. "I'm just going to hold you until the last job is done. I'm ready to retire anyway. I'd like to return to my homeworld and start a legitimate business. I still owe some credits to Eero for setting up the whole security thing, but I have enough for myself."

  "So Eero was in on your scheme from the beginning."

  "Pretty much. We ran into each other on Coruscant. He was upset about his lack of a career. He was positive he'd be a Senator by now, but he didn't have enough money to really run an election. So he agreed to use his contacts in the Senate to recommend Kontag. Then once the kidnappings began, more and more Senators lined up for extra security. It was a truly brilliant plan." Lorian sighed. "Too bad it all has to end."

  The doors suddenly slid open, and Eero ran toward Lorian. "Now you've done it!" he cried. Dooku could now see that outside the room was some kind of office. Laying on a console were two lightsabers.

  "Calm down, Eero," Lorian said irritably. "There's no need to shout at me."

  "Yes, there is!" Eero said. "The Senator is dead!"

  "Dead?" Lorian looked confused. "How? He's being held in comfortable surroundings. I even sent in pastries, for galaxy's sake."

  "He had a heart attack. He died instantly."

  "Ah. This isn't good," Lorian said.

  "No, I'd say so," Dooku said. "It's murder."

  "Exactly!" Eero said. "How did you talk me into this! We'll be tried for murder!"

  "Only if they catch us," Lorian said.

  "I just got into this for the credits," Eero said fretfully. "I'm a politician, not a murderer!"

  "Yes, this certainly changes things," Dooku said smoothly. Eero was just as afraid of getting caught as an adult as he'd been as a young man. ''You've killed a Senator. The full might of the Senate security force will come down on you. Not to mention the Jedi. They are already looking for us. This will certainly give them a reason to hurry."

  "We have to get out of here!" Eero said shrilly to Lorian.

  "Calm down!" Lorian barked. "Can't you see what he's doing? Shut up and let me think!"

  "Don't give me orders!" Eero suddenly drew out a vibroblade. "I'm sick of it. You've bungled everything!" "You fool!" Lorian hissed. "Put that away!"

  But it was too late. Dooku summoned the Force. The vibroblade flew from Eero's unsteady hand and landed on the energy cuffs binding Dooku's wrists. The blade cut through the cuffs easily. With split-second timing, Dooku slipped out his hand before the vibroblade could injure him. He felt only a slight burn of heat.

  Within seconds, he had released the other cuff and the ones binding his ankles.

  Eero took one look at him and bolted out the door. Dooku reached out a hand and his lightsaber flew from the room next door into his palm.

  When he turned, lightsaber activated, Lorian had Eero's vibroblade and a blaster in his hand. Dooku smiled. This time it was not a game.

  Lorian backed up toward the door. Dooku
saw that he meant to escape. He would try to avoid the battle if he could. Dooku leaped, blocking his exit. Lorian would not leave this room alive.

  He had never forgotten Lorian, and he had never forgiven him. It was not in Dooku's nature to forgive or to forget.

  "You betrayed me once, and now you've tried to make a fool of me," Dooku said.

  "So glad to see you haven't changed," Lorian said, giving his vibroblade a twirl. "Can I point out again that the galaxy doesn't revolve around you, Dooku? The kidnapping wasn't personal. I didn't know you were on that ship." He grinned. "But I have to admit, I enjoyed winning."

  The light mockery that danced in Lorian's eyes inflamed Dooku. The old resentment balled up in his chest, the choking rage he had felt as a boy. Now it joined the fury of a man. Dooku felt it surge, and he didn't fight it.

  He was older now, and wiser. Anger no longer had the power to make him sloppy. It made him more precise.

  "Talk all you want. You will never leave this room," he said with such icy control that the smile faded from Lorian's eyes.

  "Let's not be so dramatic," Lorian said uneasily.

  "Master give me my lightsaber!" Qui-Gon called.

  The words only buzzed faintly, as if they came from a long distance away. Dooku did not need his Padawan. Qui-Gon would only get in his way. He needed to finish this alone.

  Lorian had seen his intent in his eyes. Between them now was the knowledge that Dooku would not allow him to surrender. He fired the blaster. Dooku deflected the fire easily. There was no way that Lorian could win this battle. Dooku could see the desperation in his eyes, the sweat forming on his brow. He enjoyed seeing it.

  Lorian kept up a steady barrage of fire while he swung the vibroblade, using the same Jedi training he had absorbed so long ago. Dooku kept advancing. He knew perfectly well where Lorian was headed — to Qui-Gon's lightsaber. Dooku decided to speed up the process. He lunged forward and with an almost casual swipe severed the vibroblade in two. Then he whirled and kicked the blaster out of Lorian's hand.

  Lorian sprang and fumbled for Qui-Gon's lightsaber. Dooku allowed him to pick it up. He had no reason to fear.

  Qui-Gon cried out, but Dooku didn't hear what he said. All his focus was on Lorian now.