The Followers Read online

voice. He was mumbling something in the other room. His words were not

  clear, but the tone was desperate. A look of concern crossed Dedra's face

  and she moved toward the living room.

  "I'll go check on him," Anakin offered. He left Obi-Wan and Dedra in

  the small kitchen and headed back into the living room. Omal was still

  sitting on the floor, but his head was now sharply tilted to the side.

  Tears were running down the side of his face, and his nose was watery.

  Anakin stared at Omal for a long moment. He felt sorry for him, and

  wished there was something he could do to help him. If what his Master said

  was true, Omal had been horribly and permanently changed.

  "You're okay," Anakin said gently, snapping out of his thoughts. "We

  just need to get your face cleaned up." He found a small scrap of

  relatively clean cloth and used it to wipe Omal's face. Omal looked up at

  him gratefully for a brief moment. Then his eyes darted away again and he

  resumed rocking back and forth.

  Anakin watched Omal for what seemed like an eternity. When he finally

  looked away, he felt a strong desire to move ahead with the mission. He had

  to know what had caused Omal's downfall - what had the Jedi Council so up

  in arms.

  He wanted to do it now - to get out of the apartment, get going.

  Dedra had told them everything she knew, and Omal was clearly not going to

  tell them anything at all. What was Obi-Wan still doing in the kitchen? Was

  there a reason it was taking him so long?

  Feeling antsy, Anakin began to look around the living room. Piles of

  dirty clothes, scraps of food, and all kinds of other items were littered

  across the floor. None of them looked particularly interesting or

  important.

  Then, out of the corner of his eye, Anakin spotted something shiny

  sticking out from under a tunic. Picking it up, he saw that it was a small

  holoprojector. Anakin tried to switch it on, but knew almost immediately

  that it was broken.

  From his spot on the floor, Omal began to moan softly. "No, Norval.

  No," he repeated.

  Anakin barely heard him. He loved mechanical things, and couldn't

  resist tinkering a tiny bit with the projector. He pulled a tool from his

  utility belt and started to fiddle. But the projector was jammed.

  "Blast!" Anakin exclaimed. He was surprised by his own frustration.

  He usually loved this kind of challenge.

  Anakin was about to toss the faulty projector aside when he pressed

  the right sequence and it suddenly came to life. At first the image was

  fuzzy, and Anakin had a hard time making it out. Then, as he began to

  realize what he was looking at, his mouth gaped open.

  It was an image of a Jedi Knight being brutally murdered.

  Anakin stood frozen, staring at the image. Behind him, Omal's moaning

  was getting louder. Finally the sound got through to Anakin, and he tried

  to switch the projector off. Only now it was jammed on and didn't shut

  down.

  The murder played again, and again. The lthorian Jedi raised his

  lightsaber - but was hit from behind by a bolt from a blaster. The Jedi

  crumpled to the ground, dead.

  Anakin's heart began to race. He tried not to look at the image, but

  something seemed to be holding his eyes to it. And something about what he

  was looking at felt familiar. It was as if he had seen it before and knew

  it, somehow. Anakin began to feel ill.

  Anakin forced his repair tool into the bottom of the projector and

  the image disappeared. He tossed the machine back onto the floor and turned

  away. His hands shook slightly and his knees felt wobbly. Omal's moans gave

  voice to what Anakin was feeling.

  Anakin took a deep breath and tried to clear his head. He knew

  messages of this sort were being sent around the galaxy, of course. He'd

  been at the briefing with the Jedi Council and had been told all about

  them. But he hadn't actually expected to see one. He wasn't prepared.

  And now that awful image had been implanted in his mind. Anakin

  looked over at Omal. He stopped moaning, but his eyes darted back and forth

  between Anakin and the broken holoprojector on the floor.

  Anakin was about to approach him when Obi-Wan came rushing into the

  living room with Dedra behind him. "I just got a call from the ship," he

  said. "It seems Dr. Lundi has decided to talk again. And the pilot thinks

  there are vandals lurking around the hangar. He's threatening to leave

  Lundi and take off."

  Anakin felt relief wash through him and realized just how unsettled

  he was by Omal's apartment and the projector's message. He wanted to get

  out of there, and right that second was none too soon.

  "Did you tell him to hold tight?" Anakin asked, gratefully following

  Obi-Wan to the door.

  Obi-Wan nodded. "But I'm not sure how long he'll wait for us. He's

  been a little jittery since we left Coruscant."

  "You can say that again," Anakin said. "The guy has no backbone."

  The Jedi said good-bye to Omal and Dedra and hurried back to the

  ship. Anakin knew that he should tell his Master about the projector and

  the message, but for some reason didn't want to. It was strange, but he

  felt guilty about it. It was as if he were somehow responsible for the

  message, for what happened in it.

  But that makes no sense at all, Anakin thought. I don't even know who

  those people are. Or were.

  Hurrying after his Master, Anakin decided not to say anything. Obi-

  Wan seemed distracted, and it wasn't as if the existence of the message was

  new information. He would tell him later, when the time was right.

  CHAPTER 17

  "I'll check out the exterior of the ship to make sure there hasn't

  been any sabotage," Anakin said once they were inside the hangar.

  Obi-Wan smiled. He knew his Padawan would rather investigate

  something mechanical than do just about anything else.

  "Okay," he said. "I'll head inside and talk to the captain - and

  Lundi."

  Obi-Wan hurried up the ship's ramp and into the cockpit.

  "It's about time," the pilot said, though Obi-Wan thought he seemed

  relieved to see him. "He's been rambling for the last half hour." He

  pointed nervously to the hold, where Lundi sat in his cage. "Something

  about an ancient device that's calling to him. And the tides."

  "Thanks," Obi-Wan said, turning toward the hold. He took a deep

  breath. He wanted this conversation - if that was what it would be - to go

  well. He needed it to go well.

  "I've just been to see Dedra and Omal," Obi-Wan said calmly. He

  watched Lundi closely for some sort of reaction to the names, but didn't

  see one. Lundi simply glared at him through the dark slit that was his

  visible eye.

  Disappointed, Obi-Wan pushed on. "They had some interesting things to

  say about Norval."

  This time Obi-Wan got a reaction. Only it wasn't one he was

  expecting. The professor smiled evilly, his decaying, yellow teeth showing

  themselves. The expression appeared frozen on his face. No matter how he

  tried, Obi-Wan couldn't figure out what the smile meant.

  Obi-Wan felt frustration again
. Lundi was like a blank wall. Though

  he was weaker than when Obi-Wan had first seen him ten years ago on

  Coruscant, his mind was a puzzle. Obi-Wan could not access his thoughts,

  even with the Force. How could he determine who was seeking the Holocron if

  the Quermian wouldn't cooperate?

  "Norval was on Kodai with you," Obi-Wan said in a loud voice. The

  echo it made in the hold surprised both him and Lundi, who looked up. Obi-

  Wan suddenly thought he might have found a way through the professor's

  wall.

  "As was Omal. You were all after the Holocron together."

  Lundi leaned forward, as if about to speak. His face was pressed

  against the bars of his cage. But a moment later he sat back again, smiling

  smugly.

  "You had the knowledge, but you needed these children to do your

  dirty work. To actually get it for you. You didn't think you could dive

  that deep alone..."

  Obi-Wan desperately waited for Lundi to jump in, to begin talking, to

  object to what he was saying. But the professor seemed to know that was

  exactly what Obi-Wan wanted. He sat there like a stone, all of his long

  arms folded across his chest. His face was contorted into a defiant sneer.

  Obi-Wan suddenly felt the urge to break through the cage's bars and

  rip the sneer right off Lundi's face. Even insane and locked in a cage, the

  Quermian had power. And at that moment, Obi-Wan hated that power with every

  fiber of his being.

  "We need to know if the Holocron is still in the crater!" he shouted.

  "We need to get to it before - "

  Obi-Wan stopped himself. In his anger, he'd almost blurted out

  dangerous information. Having been locked up for the last ten years,

  Lundi wouldn't know that the Sith had actually returned. He wouldn't

  know that others in the galaxy possessed the knowledge he'd sought....

  Lundi's tiny head tilted to one side. "You are afraid, boy. But not

  of my students," he said, leaning forward again. "No... there's something

  more. Something much bigger, much more horrifying." He spoke slowly, as if

  he wanted to make sure Obi-Wan caught every word. "The Sith," he said,

  sitting back again. His eye widened and Obi-Wan could see his large, black

  pupil. "You are afraid of the Sith, of their return."

  Lundi sat back and cackled loudly. "You should be," he said.

  Obi-Wan gazed steadily at Lundi. He knew the professor wanted him to

  say something, to acknowledge his fear. He wouldn't give him that

  satisfaction.

  The hold was completely silent for several long minutes as the two

  stared at each other. Finally, Lundi spoke.

  "I can tell you where the Holocron is," he said, sounding remarkably

  lucid. "I can even tell you how to get it. The question is, what can you do

  for me in return?"

  CHAPTER 18

  Anakin circled the ship for the third time. He hadn't seen anything

  unusual and was beginning to think that the captain was just being

  paranoid. Given his personality, it certainly seemed possible. And, Anakin

  had to admit, hanging around with Dr. Lundi could be unsettling for anyone.

  Satisfied that nothing was amiss, he headed into the vessel. Obi-Wan

  was on the bridge programming the Kodai coordinates into the navsystem.

  "We're heading to Kodai immediately," he said. Anakin was relieved to

  be leaving the planet and moving ahead. His Master, too, seemed pleased.

  "The professor finally confirmed that the Holocron is still in its

  undersea vault."

  Anakin wrinkled his nose. "He could be lying," he pointed out.

  Obi-Wan sighed. "I know," he admitted. "He might be trying to put us

  in danger. Or he could be toying with us. But it is the only information we

  have to go on, and my instinct is telling me that we should trust it.

  Besides, we only have the short time during the low tide to check."

  Anakin nodded. He was feeling better about the hologram message now

  that they were about to leave the planet. Perhaps it was a good time to

  tell Obi-Wan about it.

  "Master," he began. "I found some - "

  "I'm telling you, somebody was out there," the pilot said,

  interrupting him. "Someone was messing with my ship."

  Anakin rolled his eyes before turning to the captain. The guy was

  beginning to get on his nerves.

  "I checked everything out," Anakin said reassuringly. "Everything

  looked just fine."

  The captain looked doubtful but didn't reply as the ship took off.

  Soon they could only see the blackness of space through the cockpit view-

  screen. The captain prepared for hyperspace.

  Anakin suddenly felt tired and was grateful for a bit of downtime.

  The trip to Kodai would take more than a day, so he'd have a little while

  to rest and collect his thoughts.

  Suddenly there was a loud explosion on the engine side, and the ship

  rocked hard to the left.

  "I told you!" the captain screamed. "Someone has sabotaged my ship.

  We have to land immediately!"

  "We can't," Obi-Wan said rationally. "That is exactly what the

  saboteurs would want us to do."

  The captain's eyes went wide. "But we can't fly like this," he said,

  his voice rising while smoke poured into the cockpit from the rear of the

  ship. "My controls are useless. We'll all die."

  Anakin felt annoyance rise in him again. But this time it was mixed

  with a sense of guilt. Someone had obviously tampered with the ship, in

  spite of the fact that he initially didn't believe the captain's concerns.

  "Nobody is going to die," Anakin said calmly. "Just show me where you

  keep your tools."

  The captain pointed to a small cupboard right outside the cockpit.

  Anakin retrieved the kit and moved to the back of the ship, waving his

  hands to clear the smoke. The flames had been extinguished by automatic

  fire controls and the damaged engine was accessible through a large hatch

  in a rear corridor. Though Anakin could fix it, it would not be easy while

  the ship was in motion.

  Anakin opened the hatch and saw immediately that the circuitry bay

  had been fused. That meant that several circuits needed to be re-placed -

  and fast. The question was, which ones? Some were trivial, and others would

  repair the ship enough for it to fly to Kodai.

  Anakin was not particularly familiar with the kind of ship they were

  on. He'd never flown one before, and certainly never repaired one. He'd

  have to follow his instincts.

  Pulling out a light energy tool, he got to work on the circuitry

  wires. It was difficult to hold the tool steady, since the ship was banking

  in all directions. Working carefully, he reconnected the damaged wires one

  by one. Soon the ship stabilized, and the pilot once again had control.

  Anakin repaired a few more wires and closed the hatch. On his way

  back to the cockpit he passed Lundi's cage.

  "Nice work, young one," the professor said. "I could have used you on

  Kodai."

  Anakin tried to ignore the comment as he replaced the tools in the

  cupboard. The Quermian was loony, and said crazy things all the time.

  "Good job, Padawan," Obi-Wan said proudly as Anakin entered the

&n
bsp; cockpit.

  "We can make it to Kodai now," the captain said. "Though it may take

  a bit longer than originally scheduled."

  The relief in the cockpit was palpable. They were all safe - for the

  moment.

  CHAPTER 19

  Obi-Wan studied his Padawan as he put away the tool kit. He was

  relieved that he'd fixed the engine, of course. But as he watched his

  apprentice, Obi-Wan also experienced another feeling - worry.

  When Obi-Wan had started this mission with Qui-Gon ten years earlier,