The Followers Read online

  top of the cliff disappeared from view.

  The crevasse wall was slippery and wet. Obi‑Wan took a deep breath as

  he continued to descend. Part of him wanted to know what he would find

  below, and part of him didn't.

  Suddenly he felt a flicker of movement in his cable. A second later

  his anchor flew over the edge, and Obi-Wan found himself careening into the

  darkness below.

  CHAPTER 12

  Qui-Gon saw a figure standing above them at the top of the chasm. It

  leaned over the edge for a split second, then was gone. A moment later Obi-

  Wan's launcher cord went slack and his Padawan fell past him with alarming

  speed.

  Qui-Gon immediately anchored himself to the cliff and reached out to

  the Force to try and stop the fall. But the dark energy in the giant

  crevasse worked against him. He felt oddly exhausted and had little ability

  to concentrate.

  Quickly, Qui-Gon pushed past his weakness and focused harder. He

  willed his apprentice to do the same.

  The sound of Obi-Wan's launcher anchor scraping against the side of

  the crevasse was music to Qui-Gon's ears. After a few seemingly endless

  seconds it caught, jerking Obi-Wan to an abrupt halt. He dangled in the air

  somewhere below Qui-Gon.

  "Are you all right, Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon called down. His voice echoed

  off the chasm walls.

  "I'm fine," Obi-Wan replied. "And I can see the bottom of the

  crevasse."

  Qui-Gon tested his line. It was still secure. Then he rappelled the

  rest of the way as quickly as he could. By the time he got to the crevasse

  floor, Obi-Wan had stowed his cable launcher and was searching the area by

  the light of a glow rod. The crevasse floor was rocky and covered by

  slippery vegetation. They would have to tread carefully.

  "I don't see anything," Obi-Wan said. His voice sounded strangely

  hollow, and Qui-Gon wasn't sure if it was because of the chasm, his fall,

  or because they were so close to the Holocron. The concentration of dark

  knowledge could tap one's strength. He certainly weakened himself. But the

  strange hollow feeling also let Qui-Gon know they were on the right track.

  He felt at once repelled and drawn closer.

  Qui-Gon ignited a second glow rod and the Jedi searched the area

  until they came across a series of footprints. With the wet vegetation

  covering the chasm floor, it was impossible to tell if there was more than

  one set of marks.

  As they moved farther away from their decension point, Qui-Gon heard

  a low rumble. It sounded as though a storm was picking up. Or was the sea

  rising? It was now well past the time of the lowest tide and the water

  should be coming back up.

  A flash of lightning split the sky above. In the blast of light, Qui-

  Gon thought he saw a figure struggling toward them. But before he could be

  certain, a plume of water began to gush up through a large gap in the rocky

  shelf they were standing on. Shooting meters above his head, it completely

  blocked Qui-Gon's view and nearly knocked both Jedi off their feet. As it

  rained down on them and seeped into his boots, Qui-Gon was surprised to

  find that the water was hot.

  With a sudden sense of dread Qui-Gon realized that they were at the

  bottom of one crevasse, but that there were probably several just like it

  below. The seafloor was a honeycomb. They were by no means on solid ground.

  Water continued to push out of the hole with remarkable force. There

  was no question that the tide was turning. When the gush finally subsided,

  they were up to their ankles in hot seawater. Several meters ahead of him,

  on the other side of the gap, Qui-Gon could see a crumpled form lying on

  the crevasse floor.

  Qui-Gon ran blindly toward the figure. Was it Murk Lundi?

  It was. The Quermian lay limply on the crevasse floor with his face

  partially in the water. The apparatus that normally covered one of his eyes

  was gone, revealing an empty socket.

  Qui-Gon was almost upon the professor when he lashed out. "You can't

  stop me!" he cried, lifting his head. One of his gangly arms fumbled for

  something under his robe, and he shakily pulled out a blaster. The weapon

  wobbled in his hand, and he fired recklessly.

  Qui-Gon quickly dodged, escaping the blast in spite of the close

  range. Behind him, Obi-Wan ignited his lightsaber. The blue blade cut

  through the air, deflecting the bolt and knocking Lundi's blaster out of

  his hand. The weapon skittered across the crevasse floor and fell into the

  geyser gap.

  "No!" Lundi cried. He struggled to get to his feet, then collapsed in

  the water.

  "Where is the Holocron?" Obi-Wan demanded, pulling the Quermian to

  his feet.

  "In my hand! In my hand! I held it in my hand!" Lundi screeched,

  jabbing at Obi-Wan with his pointed fingers.

  "Where is it now?" Obi-Wan asked through gritted teeth, binding as

  many of the professor's skinny wrists together as he could catch.

  "Let me go. Let me get it. It's not for you!" Lundi spat in Obi-Wan's

  face and flailed wildly but he did not have the strength to break free. "I

  should be the one!"

  Qui-Gon's mind reeled. He could feel that they were close to the

  Holocron. Very close. He tried to focus, to find its location, but the dark

  side was playing tricks with his mind. It was so near and still beyond his

  mental vision. There was so much he didn't understand. If Lundi had held

  the Holocron, where was it now? Did someone else have it? Had he been

  unable to handle the power?

  Questions were still forming in his mind when the rock beneath Qui-

  Gon's feet shuddered. For a split second the Jedi Master considered diving

  into the swirling waters to find his answers. With a glance at his

  apprentice his sanity returned. If the Jedi could not recover the Holocron

  it was unlikely that anyone else could, either.

  "I'll carry him," Qui-Gon told his Padawan abruptly. He did not want

  to waste his strength explaining himself.

  Before Qui-Gon could lift Lundi from the chasm floor, a second rush

  of water hurtled out of the gap. Obi-Wan saw it coming and steadied his

  Master, helping him get the Quermian onto a shoulder. But now the water was

  halfway up their calves.

  Obi-Wan led the way, holding his glow rod out in front of them. They

  had to walk carefully along the rocky shelf, back to the crevasse wall.

  The water around Qui-Gon's legs made it difficult to know where to

  step, and Lundi was continuously flailing several arms and raving in his

  ear.

  "The Holocron!" he screamed, struggling against Qui-Gon's firm grip.

  "I must get the Holocron! It's mine. Mine!"

  Qui-Gon tried to ignore the professor, which wasn't easy. Finally he

  could see the place where they'd descended. But how were they going to get

  back up to the top with a maddened Quermian and only one anchored cable

  launcher?

  "I can climb up and toss the cable back down to you," Obi-Wan

  suggested.

  Qui-Gon wasn't sure they had time for that - or that he could make it

  while holding onto Lundi.
But he didn't see a better option, and he

  couldn't think with Lundi screaming in his ear.

  Obi-Wan had just hoisted himself off the rocky shelf when a small

  ship appeared overhead. Dropping back to the floor, he and his encumbered

  Master pressed themselves against the crevasse wall for cover. There was no

  way of knowing who was inside, or what they were after.

  The ship descended as close to the crevasse as it could, and a long

  ladder dropped down in front of the Jedi. The vessel looked vaguely

  familiar, but in the darkness it was hard to identify it. Obi-Wan looked at

  his Master with uncertainty. Qui-Gon was not clear about the ship, either.

  But he was not one to refuse help that they truly needed.

  The Jedi grabbed hold and climbed. Even with the evenly spaced rungs,

  getting the struggling professor safely to the ship was no easy feat. About

  halfway up, Lundi passed out. When Qui-Gon finally pulled himself into the

  ship, he was exhausted. Holding Lundi with one arm Qui-Gon gripped each

  step with his teeth in order to move his free hand to the next step. Twice

  his boots slipped on the wet rungs, nearly sending him and his heavy load

  into the waters below. At last he reached the ship's hatch and dragged

  himself and his burden aboard.

  "Nice to see you again," came a gritty female voice from the cockpit.

  Qui-Gon was surprised to see Elda. She grinned at his reaction.

  "Didn't expect to see me, did you?" she asked.

  Qui-Gon shook his head. "But it's a pleasure," he told her sincerely.

  "Thank you for coming."

  The pilot turned back to her controls and lifted the ship into the

  air. "You don't have to thank me," she replied. "Something about you or

  this place got under my skin, and I came back shortly after leaving. I just

  couldn't leave you here. After all, you saved my ship from being blown up.

  I wanted to return the favor."

  "We're grateful," Obi-Wan remarked as he slumped into a chair.

  Qui-Gon set Lundi down in another seat and secured him to it with a

  length of cable. He didn't think the old Quermian would have much strength

  when he woke, but he didn't want to take any chances.

  Suddenly the professor's head snapped up.

  Qui-Gon stepped back, but Lundi craned his long neck forward, forcing

  the Jedi against the ship wall.

  The Quermian's good eye rolled around in its socket as he closely

  examined the Jedi. "Peacemakers!" he spat. "You have begun a war." Lundi

  whipped his small head back and forth on the end of his slender neck. "War!

  War!" he repeated over and over, each time his voice growing louder and

  more shrill.

  Qui-Gon opened his mouth to speak but saw that it would be of little

  use. He could only watch as the once brilliant historian whipped himself

  into a frenzy. The power of the dark side had corrupted him. It was clear

  to the Jedi Master that Lundi was insane. He would be escorted back to the

  Temple and evaluated. Qui‑ Gon felt quite certain that he would need

  psychiatric help. And there were also questions for the Galactic Republic

  regarding what he'd intended to do with the Holocron.

  This was not the way Qui-Gon had hoped to return from this mission.

  He did not have the Holocron. His apprentice seemed rattled. There was also

  still the question of who, besides the Jedi and Professor Lundi, knew it

  was down there. Who had unfastened Obi-Wan's cable launcher? Had anyone

  else been able to get down into the chasm? The best they could hope for was

  that the Holocron was still at the bottom of Kodaian sea - at least until

  the tide dropped again in ten years.

  "You can't handle it! You don't know what to do with it! You don't

  deserve it!" The professor raved on. Qui-Gon wasn't sure if Lundi was even

  talking to him any longer.

  Taking a deep breath, Qui-Gon tuned out Lundi's mad rants. He tried

  to quiet his mind, consoling himself with the fact that the Holocron was

  not in Lundi's possession. Still, he knew this mission was far from over.

  TEN YEARS LATER

  CHAPTER 13

  "Pathetic weaklings," Lundi spat. His uncovered eye rolled in its

  socket and a line of drool dribbled down his chin. "The power was mine -

  within my grasp. But you... you snatched it. You stole it away."

  Obi-Wan watched the insane Quermian struggle in his bindings. The

  anger seething inside him was tangible, and the Jedi felt certain that

  Lundi would kill him if he could. But aside from the lucid declaration of

  the power he'd nearly had and then lost, much of what the professor said

  was incomprehensible.

  Professor Lundi had almost lost his life on Kodai when he'd attempted

  to go after the Sith Holocron buried under the planet's vast sea. He'd

  survived, but his sanity was gone - eaten away by the ancient device

  lurking under the pounding waves.

  Lundi writhed in his seat, trying to get free.

  Since that fateful night on Kodai he'd been tried for the crime of

  attempting to bring a great evil into active existence in the galaxy. Not

  only was he trying to obtain the Holocron, there was significant evidence

  that he'd intended to use it for evil purposes.

  This was not a crime the Republic took lightly.

  Lundi himself had confessed to the crime. In fact, during the trial

  he'd boasted about momentarily having the Holocron in his hands. It wasn't

  easy to get his statement. His rants sometimes lasted days, ending only

  when the mad Quermian collapsed. Even then, after he'd been bound and put

  in a cell so that he couldn't hurt himself - or anyone else - he continued

  to twitch and mutter angrily in his sleep.

  "Weak child," Lundi growled, glaring at Obi-Wan through the bars of

  his cell. "You are nothing. Nothing."

  Obi-Wan stared back at the professor. His feelings for Murk Lundi had

  not changed in ten years. The professor's evil and insanity thoroughly

  repulsed him, and Obi-Wan would have liked to remain as far from Lundi as

  possible. But he could not defy the Council's decision. An assignment was

  an assignment.

  Obi-Wan had been surprised when he and his Padawan, Anakin Skywalker,

  were summoned to the Temple earlier that day. Out of the blue, the mission

  they were on was taken over by another Jedi team. This had never happened

  to Obi-Wan before. Whenever he and his deceased Master Qui-Gon Jinn or he

  and Anakin were assigned to a mission, they always saw it through to

  completion. At least until now.

  As they'd made their way through the Temple corridors, Obi-Wan had

  noted that Anakin was annoyed by the abrupt shift in plans. The thirteen-

  year-old apprentice had clearly been enjoying himself on the originally

  assigned mission - it allowed him to tinker with the weapons systems on a

  sleek ship.

  "This better be good," he'd grumped.

  Obi-Wan had counseled the boy, telling him that even if it wasn't

  "good," it would certainly be important. Anakin had merely rolled his eyes

  as they'd entered the Jedi Council Chambers.

  Obi-Wan had momentarily marveled at this. As a Padawan learner,

  entering the Council Chambers always made his palms sweat, his heart rac
e.

  An incredibly important place to be, it never failed to make him slightly

  nervous. Anakin never showed signs of nervousness upon entering the Council

  Chambers. He simply walked right in, as if it were the home of an old

  friend.

  As soon as he and Anakin had entered the Chambers, Obi-Wan knew that

  whatever had brought them there was serious. All of the Jedi Masters were

  present, and the expression on Yoda's face was unusually grave.

  "Rumblings once again about the Sith Holocron on Kodai there are,"

  Yoda said, not wasting any time. "Planning to recover it someone is."

  Obi-Wan had felt a wave of fear go through him. He'd been having

  troubling dreams and visions for several nights. At first he hadn't been