The Way of the Apprentice Read online

  “It looks like this one already did,” Darra said, swallowing hard.

  A solid wall of rock had been splintered into fragments. Droids littered the ground.

  “Our Masters must have battled there,” Ferus said in a hushed tone.

  Anakin hovered near the sight, careful to keep out of sight of the MTT’s bridge. They saw no evidence of their Masters.

  “I hear blaster fire,” Darra said suddenly. “We’re close.”

  Then Anakin could hear it, too. He placed his hands back on the controls, ready to zoom ahead.

  “Wait!” Ferus commanded.

  Annoyed, Anakin turned to him. “What now? More planning?”

  “Yes,” Ferus said steadily. “If we rush in there without a plan, we won’t be much help to them.”

  “What kind of a plan do we need?” Anakin asked. “They’re being attacked by droids! We go in and help them!”

  Darra groaned. “I thought the worst thing about being on this mission was protein cubes for breakfast. Now I know it’s you two. Ferus, what are you thinking?”

  “How many droids did the MTT on Naboo hold?” Ferus asked Anakin.

  “I don’t remember,” Anakin said. “Over a hundred, I think.”

  “One hundred and twelve,” Tru said softly.

  “And this is only a little smaller,” Ferus said. “So let’s say it holds about fifty to seventy droids, at least. What are the chances we can battle that many with our lightsabers?”

  Darra swallowed. “I can’t tell you how much I hate to hear the odds before a battle.”

  “So what are you saying?” Anakin asked. “We call for more Jedi?”

  “Or more lightsabers,” Darra said.

  Ferus shook his head. “Of course not. We just need to think, that’s all. We have a couple of advantages. One is surprise. The other is the fact that you and Tru seem to know a lot about that transport.”

  Anakin nodded. He had explored one on Naboo after the battle.

  “The question is, how do we get aboard?” Ferus asked.

  “Can you deactivate the droids from the MTT?” Darra asked.

  Anakin shook his head. “No, they’re controlled from either the landing ship or from orbit.”

  “No stress with that,” Ferus said. “If you get aboard, can you pilot the ship?”

  “I can pilot anything,” Anakin said flatly.

  “Didn’t you say that the ship is also a weapon?” Ferus asked.

  The four Padawans looked at one another.

  “Of course,” Anakin said. “If we control the ship, we control the battle.”

  “There’s the deployment hatch,” Tru said. “But the release valve is on the bridge.”

  “I think the only way is—” Anakin began.

  “You’re right,” Tru said. “But we’d have to do it—”

  “Exactly. But the venting system—”

  “So we don’t have to worry about being seen.” Tru nodded rapidly. “Okay, that’s it, then.”

  “That’s what?” Darra cried. “Are you two speaking some weird language from the Outer Rim?”

  Anakin turned to her. “The MTT is designed by the Baktoid workshop. The Trade Federation buys most of their ships, but they rotate out the old ones and sell them off to various planets. I’m betting that’s what this transport is. Which means that its exhaust and cooling system is vented straight down toward the ground. There’s some unusually large vents on the bottom. That’s why you see all that dust around it. It’s kicked up by the wind coming out of the ship.”

  “So the dust will give us cover,” Tru said. “And the vents are big enough. We can just climb up them to get aboard.”

  “Won’t the wind blow you back?” Ferus asked.

  “If the ship was moving, it would,” Anakin said. “But the engines are idling. The ship is in passive mode. We shouldn’t have too much trouble.”

  “We’ve got another problem,” Darra said. “If you get control of the ship, our Masters won’t know it. They’ll most likely attack the ship when it comes toward them.”

  “That’s why we have to split up,” Ferus said. “Darra, you and I have to make contact with the Masters while Anakin and Tru steal the ship. We have to get the droids to follow us to an ambush.” He looked at Anakin and Tru. “Does that sound okay to you?”

  It was the first time Ferus had asked his opinion. Anakin nodded. “Sounds like a good plan.”

  “We have an agreement,” Darra muttered. “Remind me to declare this an annual holiday once we get back to the Temple.”

  She leaned over and accessed a map to the canyons. Quickly she flipped through different sites. Then she stabbed at the viewscreen with a finger. “There. If you can maneuver the ship there, we can bring the droids through that smaller canyon and out into the clearing. Then we’ve got them.”

  The four Padawans looked at one another, exhilarated. They were going to save their Masters.

  “No stress with that,” Ferus said confidently.

  “Completely,” Anakin echoed.

  There was a pause. After the initial confidence, the weight of the task ahead settled on them.

  “May the Force be with us,” Tru said quietly.

  Ferus and Darra exited the airspeeder. Hugging the rocks, they started off through the canyon toward the sound of blaster fire.

  Anakin and Tru headed in the opposite direction. They paused in the shelter of a rock to watch the MTT and its inhabitants. They could just make out the heads of the droid pilots. They rotated in constant surveillance.

  “Anakin—”

  “I know,” Anakin said. “It’s a question of timing.”

  “I was going to say, we just have to run really, really fast,” Tru said, flashing him a quick grin.

  “Aim for the dust cloud.”

  “Right.”

  Anakin fitted a filter mask over his nose and pulled his hood up. Tru did the same. They slipped goggles out from their utility belts and pulled them on.

  As soon as the droids’ heads turned the opposite way and they were no longer in their sight line, they ran.

  Anakin felt the Force rise around him from the rocks and dust. It seemed to push him faster, allowing him to dive into the sand cloud kicked up by the ship’s exhaust.

  Anakin hated sand. He had seen and tasted too much of it while a slave on Tatooine. Now it filtered through the dust mask and settled in his mouth. He could barely see. He could sense rather than see Tru beside him.

  He held up a hand, feeling along the underside of the ship. The sand and dust were so disorienting it was hard to visualize where he was. Then he felt a raised piece of metal. Could it be the repulsor cooling fins? He ran a hand along one ridge, then another. That meant the vents were just ahead.

  The wind blasts were stronger than he’d anticipated. The thought of his Master pinned down by a platoon of droids pushed him on. He could feel Tru battling the wind beside him.

  Anakin reached the vents. He hoisted himself up and inside, spreading his hands out to support himself against the rounded walls and bracing himself with his feet. He would be able to move sideways up the shaft. The blast of wind was warm, but not hot. It pushed against him, but he was able to move slowly up the shaft, meter by meter, first using one hand and foot, then the other. Tru was directly beneath him.

  Halfway up the vent, Anakin felt as though his legs were made of ferrocrete and his arm muscles had begun to shake. One foot slid and he almost lost his position and fell. He felt Tru touch his back. Anakin turned, and Tru motioned to him. He would lead the way.

  Anakin curled himself into a ball so that Tru could crawl past him. As soon as Anakin was behind Tru, he felt the wind lessen. Tru’s flexible arms and legs were much more suited to scrambling up the vent. His body now acted as a shield. It gave Anakin a chance to restore his own strength. This is what Obi-Wan means, he thought suddenly. I do not always have to prove I can lead. Sometimes someone else can do the job better.

  At last the vent
opened out into the engine room, next to the humming repulsorlift generators. Anakin and Tru collapsed on the floor, trying to catch their breath.

  “Whew. Some stress with that,” Tru said, gasping.

  They got to their feet and looked around the engine room.

  “I’d say—” Tru started.

  “That way,” Anakin agreed.

  Once they left the engine room, they had to turn sideways to navigate the corridor. Every centimeter of space was used on the vessel to pack in droids. They squeezed past the empty troop deployment racks and climbed a narrow metal staircase to the bridge. Outside the bridge door they activated their lightsabers. Taking a breath for concentration, they accessed the door and burst inside.

  The droids swiveled, instantly taking in the danger. Their arms moved forward in blast mode.

  Anakin and Tru were faster. They somersaulted in the air and came down with their lightsabers, each neatly slicing a droid in half.

  Anakin kicked aside the droid and immediately moved to the controls. He studied them.

  “Can’t help you out here,” Tru said. “I never got this far in the manual. Got too bored.”

  “It’s okay. These controls are basic. You’d better strap into the copilot’s seat. It might be rough going.”

  Experimentally, Anakin eased the controls forward. The ship gave a great lurch. Tru hadn’t had a chance to sit, and he went flying. He landed on the floor.

  “Might be rough?” Tru picked himself up, kicked the droid out of the way, and sat in the copilot’s seat.

  The next time Anakin eased the controls, the ship moved more smoothly. He took it slow for several meters, getting used to the way the ship handled. This was no nimble starfighter. This was a lumbering beast.

  He would have to navigate around this canyon, through a narrower passage, and then get the beast down a smaller passage into the large clearing. Everything depended on him and Tru getting there. No one had said it, but everyone was aware that if Anakin could not maneuver the ship there, the Jedi would be trapped in the canyon with a platoon of droids—and no way out.

  Anakin turned the ship into the narrower passage. He accelerated, searching for the passage Darra had marked.

  After a few minutes Tru spoke. “We should have passed the turning by now.”

  “I know. Let’s just…” Anakin’s words died. Ahead, he saw only solid rock. They had come to the end of the passage. There was no way into the clearing.

  “This can’t be,” Anakin said. He pounded the controls with his fists. “It can’t be!” There was no passage. Darra had read the map wrong. They had failed, and his Master was trapped. He shouldn’t have listened to Ferus. He should have—

  “Can you back this thing up?” Tru asked.

  Anakin tried to quiet the ranting voices in his head. “What?”

  “The passage to the clearing must be blocked. It was probably a rockslide. Remember we passed that area of the wall that had all that sheared rock in the road?”

  With a swift motion, Anakin reversed the engines and zoomed backward. He stopped the MTT where Tru had indicated. A passage had been here once, but it was hard to tell. Huge boulders now blocked it.

  “Is there any other way to the clearing?” Tru asked.

  Anakin shook his head. “They could be in there by now. We’ve got to get through that rock.”

  “Can the MTT handle it?”

  Anakin gripped the controls. They could get stuck halfway through. The rocks could collapse and bury them alive. “I don’t know. But if we don’t try, our Masters are doomed.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Jedi crouched behind a screen of boulders and splintered rock. They had been pinned down for two hours. They had fought off three assaults from the droids. The droids held a position across the canyon where they could fire at any flicker of movement from the Jedi. Ry-Gaul had a blaster wound to the shoulder. Soara’s ankle had swelled, but she’d fashioned a makeshift crutch from a felled droid’s leg. A splintering rock had cut Siri over the eye. And they were all exhausted.

  Over the course of the day they had kept moving from one small canyon to the next, but the smaller canyons were a maze that always led back to the large clearing and the MTT. That was what the Avoni had known. They had known they would be able to run the Jedi down until they were exhausted.

  The droids were relentless, and there were so many of them. They estimated seventy to eighty. They had taken out at least twenty, maybe more. But there were at least fifty still out there, and no doubt fresh reserves would arrive. While the Jedi were pinned down, the Avoni would conduct their invasion. The Jedi Masters had not spoken of it, but they knew they were each thinking of their Padawans.

  “Our only chance is to get back to the MTT,” Obi-Wan said to the others. “We have to capture the ship. It’s the only way out.”

  “Capture an MTT?” Soara asked. “It’s an armored tank.”

  “There’s got to be a way.” If Anakin were here, he would know how, Obi-Wan thought. Anakin knew his way around every ship that was ever built. He made it his business to know.

  “Hold it,” Siri said. “Look!”

  Obi-Wan followed her pointing finger. To his surprise, he saw Ferus and Darra heading for them, moving from rock to rock for cover. The droids turned to fire at them, keeping up a steady barrage.

  A pang shot through Obi-Wan. Where was Anakin?

  If something had happened to him, I would know it. I would feel it.

  Ferus and Darra ran the last hundred meters, dodging blaster fire and blocking it with their lightsabers. They dived behind the rocks with the Jedi.

  “So glad you could join us,” Soara said.

  “Thought you might have missed us,” Darra said with a grin. Then she noted Soara’s injury. “Master, you’re hurt!”

  “Just a minor inconvenience,” Soara answered.

  “Anakin and Tru are capturing the MTT,” Ferus told them. “We hope. Our plan is to lure the droids to a clearing and then use the MTT to destroy them.”

  “How are they getting aboard the MTT?” Obi-Wan asked.

  “Apparently it has large venting tunnels on its underside,” Ferus said. “They said they could navigate them.”

  Obi-Wan nodded. It sounded dangerous, but he trusted Anakin’s abilities. “How far is the rendezvous?”

  “Not far. We studied the map. If we can return the way we came and get the droids to follow us down a passage, it will empty into the clearing.”

  “We’ll have no problem with the droids following us,” Obi-Wan said grimly.

  “No time like the present,” Ry-Gaul said.

  “I was getting tired of this spot anyway,” Siri said, wiping the blood off her forehead with her sleeve.

  The Jedi gathered themselves for the next phase of the battle. They were exhausted, but they had reserves of strength they had not tapped. Ferus and Darra had given them a way out, and they were ready.

  They rushed out together, lightsabers drawn. The Prototype Droids moved toward them, the front line blasting heavy firepower at them. The Jedi kept on the move. The two Masters were careful to ensure that Soara and Ry-Gaul were protected at all times. With his shoulder injury, Ry-Gaul could only swing the lightsaber to one side, and that was painful. Soara’s limping progress was remarkably fast with the help of her makeshift crutch.

  They reached the shelter of the passageway. They had just a moment to catch their breath. The droids wheeled in formation and followed.

  They ran, letting the droids keep them in sight, but staying out of blaster range. Ferus and Darra led the way. They snaked through the passageway and came out into the clearing.

  The droid platoon was behind them. Sheer rock was ahead of them.

  “How is the MTT going to get in here?” Obi-Wan asked.

  Ferus turned pale. “There was a route…”

  Darra looked around wildly. “Where is the passage? It should be there!” She pointed to an area that appeared to be a wall of bo
ulders.

  “Rock slide,” Ry-Gaul said. “See the markings there?”

  “We’re trapped,” Soara said, glancing around quickly. “We’ll have to fight them in the open.” She gripped her crutch with one hand and her lightsaber with the other.

  “Anakin will reach us.” Obi-Wan’s voice was steady.

  “Through sheer rock?” Soara asked.

  The droids poured into the clearing. The Jedi stood, ready to face them. Ready to face death. Whatever came, they were ready. Darra’s hand trembled slightly as she held her lightsaber, but she moved resolutely to cover Soara’s injured side.

  A tremendous noise shook the canyon. The huge boulders on the side of the canyon began to tremble. Suddenly the battered MTT burst through the wall, scattering boulders like pebbles as it mowed through the canyon and headed straight for the droids. The front of the MTT was almost completely bashed in. The engines belched smoke. But the lumbering craft still moved with lurching power as it mowed down most of the entire droid platoon. What it didn’t cut down immediately was reduced to scrap by blasting proton cannons. Obi-Wan had no doubt who was at the controls.

  A loud banging rang through the canyon. The battered and bent hatch on top of the bridge popped open, and Anakin emerged. He waved.

  “Yes,” Obi-Wan said. “He will get through sheer rock. If he has to.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The Avoni had planned a bloodless invasion. Once the Jedi returned to Aubendo in the captured MTT and confronted Dol Heep, their plans were foiled. They did not have enough firepower to defeat a roused population.

  “A complete misunderstanding,” Dol Heep boomed. “Invasion? Hardly. We came to help Radnor. The Battle Droids were merely here for crowd control. So sorry about the malfunction.” He eyed Soara’s injured leg and Ry-Gaul’s blaster wound. “However, I can see why you are so testy. Since there is no danger from the toxin, the Avoni will be happy to leave.”

  “We will be happy to escort you,” Obi-Wan said firmly.

  “But first, restore all communications to the planet,” Siri added.

  “We had nothing to do with the communication breakdown,” Dol Heep said in the same hearty tone. “But out of the charity in my heart for the Radnoran people, I will speak to our tech experts and see if we can help.”