Jedi Quest 4: The Master of Disguise (звёздные войны) Page 8

Chapter Fourteen

  For a moment, no one moved. Anakin felt as though he had used up his last reserve of strength. He was sprawled on the floor, looking up at his Master. Mellora lay frozen, her eyes moving from the lightsaber on the floor to the activated one in Obi-Wan's hand.

  Granta Omega laughed at the same moment that the blasters fired.

  Obi-Wan stepped forward, his lightsaber constantly moving, deflecting the fire. Blaster bolts pinged off the walls. Obi-Wan came and stood over Anakin, who began to try to rise.

  Granta Omega's fingers closed over the fallen lightsaber's hilt. With the other hand, he reached down and activated a switch on a device hanging on his belt. A door in a console opened and released five seekers into the air. They honed in on Obi-Wan and peppered him with blaster fire. Obi-Wan swung his lightsaber, deflecting the fire, and leaped in the air to slash the seekers one by one. He had his hands full. Anakin watched as Granta Omega, Mellora, and the rest of the group escaped through a window. Omega held Darra's light-saber.

  Anakin saw it happening and felt responsible again. If his Master hadn't needed to protect him, he would have captured them all. A last surge of strength helped him down one seeker with an awkward swing from the floor. Obi-Wan took out the last two.

  He reached down and helped Anakin to his feet. "What happened?"

  "They drugged me. The mug…"

  Obi-Wan picked up the mug and shoved it in his tunic. "We'll analyze it at the Temple."

  "They had a Sith artifact. A Holocron pyramid. Tic is Granta Omega — "

  "I know." Obi-Wan searched the room. "They must have taken it with them." He crouched in front of the console. He reached in and rummaged through a travel kit. He threw aside several basic items, then held up a portable scanner. He studied it for a moment. "Now this is interesting."

  Anakin nodded. He felt as though it took him several long minutes to complete the nod. Obi-Wan noted this and jumped to his feet.

  "We'd better get you back to the Temple."

  Obi-Wan stood in front of the assembled Jedi Council. In one hand he held the portable scanner. He stood respectfully as the Jedi Council sat, absorbing what he had told them.

  "Certain you are of this," Yoda said.

  "Completely."

  "Ambitious, this Granta Omega is."

  "That is the danger. He infiltrated the Senate expedition because he knew it was going to examine the mineral rights of Haariden. It was the Senate's secret plan to defuse the civil war. I read the expedition's report. It was incomplete, but it shows one thing clearly — there is an active volcano on Haariden. The mountain Kaachtari will soon have a massive eruption, an eruption so powerful it will change the coastline nearby. The titanite that has been hidden in the planet's core will spew out with the lava. A giant tidal wave will form and cover the landmass. Sano Sauro has buried the report, but it is in the Senate archives." Obi-Wan held up the portable scanner. "This is an underwater scanner. He is planning to mine the titanite from the sea. He will be able to do so if we don't stop him. I believe he wants to control the bacta market for the entire galaxy."

  "What do you wish to do, Master Kenobi?" Ki-Adi Mundi asked. "He has not committed a crime."

  "Not for the bacta, no, not yet," Obi-Wan said. "Although he did use an alias to get on a Senate expedition, and that would lead to censure, at least. He has committed serious crimes against the Jedi, however. He has paid bounty hunters and soldiers to attack us on two occasions. He drugged my Padawan."

  "This is something you know, but you must also prove," Ki-Adi-Mundi said. His second heart pulsed in his high skull. "That is the difficulty."

  "I can bring him back to Coruscant for questioning by the Senate,"

  Obi-Wan said. "At least we can prevent what he plans. He wants to gain even greater power and wealth in order to attract the hidden Sith Lord. He admitted this to Anakin."

  "Perhaps he would attract him," Mace Windu said. "If we let him, if we stood back and watched, we would be able to track the Sith Lord ourselves.

  He would be flushed out of hiding before he is ready."

  "Are you saying we should not stop Omega?" Obi-Wan asked in disbelief.

  Mace Windu looked at him sharply. "We are not drawing conclusions. We are speculating."

  "All sides of the issue we must examine," Yoda said.

  Mace Windu swiveled in his chair to look out over the twinkling lights of Coruscant. "Darkness lies ahead. We can all feel it. Is this a place where we can turn? Where we can flush out our enemy and expose him?"

  "But if we don't go after Omega, he will control the market on bacta,"

  Obi-Wan said. "He could do anything. Raise the price too high. Create shortages. I have no doubt he would do these things. Millions would suffer.

  " "More millions suffer in our visions of the future," Mace said. He was still looking out at the lights. He seemed to be speaking to himself. "We see much pain."

  "Visions can only show us what may be," Obi-Wan said. "Granta Omega can do great harm now."

  A buzz of conversation began among the Council Members. Mace Windu consulted with Yoda. Adi Gallia leaned over to speak with Even Piell. It was highly unusual for the Council to break into private consultations. The gravity of the issue caused it. There were too many important questions connected with it.

  "Go, Obi-Wan must." Yaddle's soft voice stopped the Council Members.

  Everyone turned to her with great courtesy. Yaddle rarely spoke, but when she did, she always seemed to sum up the conclusions they would have reached eventually.

  She blinked her light gray-blue eyes, which were so like Yoda's.

  "Suffering we cannot allow in order to prevent what we fear. Stop it we must when we can."

  Yoda leaned forward on his gimer stick. "Correct, Yaddle is. Has your Padawan recovered, Obi-Wan?"

  Obi-Wan nodded. "I have arranged transport. I can be on Haariden by sunrise."

  "Dangerous it is," Yoda said. "Soon, the eruption will occur. Take chances you must not."

  "May the Force be with you," Mace Windu said, concluding the meeting.

  He still looked troubled.

  Obi-Wan bowed. He left the Council chamber and hurried directly to the med clinic. Every moment counted.

  Anakin was sitting up on the med couch, swinging his legs. He was pale, but he looked up at Obi-Wan expectantly.

  "I hear you are cleared for duty," Obi-Wan said. "Are you sure you are fully recovered?"

  Anakin nodded. "Yes. Where are we going?"

  "Back to Haariden," Obi-Wan said. "We're going to watch a volcano erupt."

  Chapter Fifteen

  As the Galan starfighter shot through hyperspace, Anakin had some time to rest and think.

  The rest he needed. He did not want to tell Obi-Wan that even though the drug had worn off, his senses still felt blurred, as if there were a veil between him and everything else. But he knew the veil would lift. He could feel clarity returning with every passing minute.

  What he did not know was how to sort out his feelings about Granta Omega. He was not na?ve enough to think that evil announced itself by knocking on one's door with an iron fist. But he had not expected evil to come cloaked in quite so much charm.

  He had enjoyed the earlier time he'd spent with Granta Omega. When he'd known him as Tic Verdun, he had laughed at the things he said and felt warmed by his friendship. They had not known each other long, but Anakin had to admit it: He'd felt kinship with Tic. On Haariden, he had offered him friendship. He had made him feel a little less alone.

  How could he reconcile his feelings with the knowledge that Omega's one desire was to worship at the heart of evil? An evil that had murdered the one being who had saved Anakin from a life of slavery: Qui-Gon Jinn.

  Obi-Wan had been in the small ship's library, checking the geological reports on Haariden. He came to sit by Anakin. "Not too much longer. Is there something you want to discuss with me, Padawan?"

  He wasn't ready to talk about it. "No," Anakin said.
Obi-Wan hesitated. "Before I arrived, did you talk much to the others?"

  Anakin nodded. "They fed me false information about Granta Omega. They were making things up to tease me even as he sat right in front of me. I see that now. I feel foolish."

  "It is not something to feel foolish about. Those who set out to deceive are the true fools." Obi-Wan paused. "And Omega himself? What did you think of him?"

  The gentleness in his Master's tone undid Anakin's reserve. "I liked him," he burst out. "How could I like such a being?"

  "I would guess that is because he is likable," Obi-Wan said dryly.

  His Master's calmness made Anakin feel better. "Shouldn't the Force have alerted me to the dark side in him?"

  "Not necessarily," Obi-Wan said. "The Force is not a truth-detector.

  We can rely on it, but we can't expect it to save us. We must save ourselves. We must use our own intuition, our own intelligence. Your feelings about Granta Omega don't have anything to do with the Force. They have everything to do with experience."

  "Meaning I don't have enough?"

  "Maybe," Obi-Wan said. "Perhaps I wouldn't have picked up on Omega's true character, either. But I have seen enough to know that evil can wear a charming face, my young Padawan. Charisma is not a virtue. It's a trait. It is not good or bad. Evil people can possess it. They often do and it is what makes them dangerous."

  "He says he is a seeker, just as the Jedi are," Anakin said. "He says the Jedi fear the Sith, but they know nothing of them."

  "He is wrong," Obi-Wan said. "The Jedi have deep knowledge of the Sith. Have you forgotten that one of them killed Qui-Gon?"

  "That knowledge is with me every day," Anakin said quietly. "But it is also part of the problem. When I think of evil, I see that Sith Lord's face. I do not see Granta Omega's."

  "Evil has many faces," Obi-Wan responded. "It can masquerade as vision. One must look beneath the words, beneath the mask."

  An indicator light flashed. Obi-Wan sprang to his feet. "We've arrived."

  Obi-Wan slid into the pilot's seat. Anakin sat next to him. The starfighter shuddered slightly as they came out of hyperspace. The planet of Haariden lay ahead.

  Obi-Wan entered the coordinates for landing. He shot Anakin a quick questioning look. "Are you ready to face him again?"

  He was not sure, but he knew he had to be. "I am ready, Master."

  He felt the dark side of the Force gather as they entered the planet's atmosphere. As they drew closer they could see the large areas of land that had been laid to waste by war.

  "I am not happy to see this place again," Obi-Wan murmured.

  The craft skimmed over the foothills. Obi-Wan landed in a valley near an outcropping of trees.

  "We need to keep clear of the eruption site," he said. "We'll track Omega on swoop bikes. According to Jocasta Nu, we have about an hour before the volcano begins to erupt."

  "Not much time," Anakin said as they hurried toward the stowed swoops.

  "It will have to be enough."

  Anakin swung his leg over the swoop. He was feeling better, but heaviness still seemed to hang on him, clouding his mind. The med staff had assured him that the drug was completely out of his system. He was not sure why he wasn't feeling himself yet. He suspected it had something to do with the dark feeling of doom he received from this planet.

  They took off on their swoops, gliding over the hills and heading for the rugged mountains ahead. One mountain pushed high above the rest, seeming to thrust itself out of the planet's core. It was topped with snow, its peak hidden in the clouds.

  "That's it," Obi-Wan said. "That's Kaachtari."

  They pushed the swoops to maximum speed. The air turned colder as they rose to higher elevations. Suddenly, Anakin saw a column of steam spurt from the ground below. He swerved the swoop just in time to avoid being scalded.

  "We're in the danger zone now," Obi-Wan said. "Be careful."

  As they rode on, Anakin saw that deep fissures had cracked the earth and split gigantic boulders in two. The steam rose hundreds of meters high in some places. He heard a muffled sound, like a faraway star-fighter engine roaring.

  "Groundquakes," Obi-Wan said. "Small ones, so far."

  Anakin looked ahead. He saw a line of soldiers hiking down the mountain. He pointed them out to Obi-Wan.

  His Master frowned. "This area was supposed to have been evacuated.

  Let's get a little closer."

  They descended. Hearing the noise, the soldiers looked up. Some of them raised blasters.

  "Master?"

  "Don't worry." Obi-Wan suddenly zoomed down, landing directly in front of them. Anakin followed his Master to the head of the line to stand before a gaunt soldier with a grimy face and a beard gray with ash.

  "I see we meet again, Captain Welflet," Obi-Wan said.

  The captain nodded a greeting. "I thought you evacuated." A groundquake shook the area, and the captain staggered. "You should have."

  "We did. We came back. We're looking for Granta Omega," Obi-Wan said.

  "Have you seen him?"

  "No," the captain said. "I have enough worries."

  He stared at Obi-Wan when he said this, but Anakin knew he was lying.

  "This area was evacuated," Obi-Wan said. "The volcano is about to erupt."

  "I know," Captain Welflet said. "But we had word of enemy patrols in the area. They are using the eruption to gain land."

  "But you will all die," Obi-Wan said. "The eruption will cover all this." He swung an arm out. "The scientists know this. The sensors indicate it."

  Captain Welflet snorted. "Scientists and sensors. This is our land. We are not going to lose it."

  "I see you have some new weaponry since I saw you last," Obi-Wan remarked.

  The captain shifted his gaze. "Is the Jedi so interested in our weaponry?"

  The mountain rumbled. A steam column suddenly split the rocky ground and spewed into the air.

  "We don't have much time," Obi-Wan said. "Let me tell you what I think, and what you don't know. I think you accepted payment in weapons for land that will be useless to you. But you were tricked."

  "That is an interesting supposition," the captain said cautiously.

  "Granta Omega paid you for the rights to the new sea," Obi-Wan said.

  "What you don't know is that he wants it for a reason. The volcano will deposit titanite on the land before the wave brings the water. He will mine it and make a fortune. And you will lose out."

  "He said he wanted it for a fish farm," the captain muttered. "And we believed him! He had us meet him here to do the deal." He looked down at the plains below. "It belongs to him now."

  "Tell me where he is, and I might be able to help you," Obi-Wan said.

  "He does not deserve our loyalty," the captain said. "He is above, on the ridge, conducting experiments. Here are the coordinates." The captain gave them to Obi-Wan.

  "You must get down the mountain as quickly as you can," Obi-Wan said.

  "We have air transport below. But we are on the lookout for the enemy.

  " "Forget the enemy," Obi-Wan said. "If you don't, you will die."

  "Then we will die," Captain Welflet said. "But we will die on our land."

  Obi-Wan swung his leg back over the swoop and motioned to Anakin. He plugged the coordinates into the onboard computer.

  "We must hurry, Padawan," he said. "I don't like the look of this scanner. The groundquakes are intensifying."

  "But the captain and his men," Anakin said. "How can we leave them?"

  Obi-Wan shook his head sadly. "I cannot change his mind, Padawan. They must do what they will do, and we must do the same."

  They took off to the spot where the captain had left Granta Omega.

  Flying was difficult now, as the steam hissed suddenly into the air, sometimes followed by showers of large rocks. Anakin felt dread rising within him. He did not want to see Granta Omega again. Yet he had to.

  They saw him high on a snowy ridge. He w
as with Mellora. They were both dressed in white thermal gear to protect them from the cold. They were packing up their equipment and heading for their swoops. They clearly did not trust anyone else to pinpoint the titanite before the eruption.

  Obi-Wan leaned over his swoop, urging the machine to go faster. Granta Omega looked up and saw them. Even from that distance, Anakin could tell he was dismayed. He spoke a quick word to Mellora and they took off.