The Master of Disguise

  She lifted her head and tried to smile. "Nothing I haven't seen

  before."

  Soara and Darra were quickly taking readings. They hurried to crouch

  next to Obi-Wan and Anakin.

  "They're close," Soara said. "Maybe half a kilometer away. Heading

  toward us. They must have a long-range bioscanner."

  "I'm picking up coded communications," Darra said, pointing to her

  comm sensor. "Lots of them. It's got to be a large force."

  "Who are shooting first and asking questions later," Obi-Wan said,

  ducking as another blast shook the ground.

  "Can you jam communications?" Obi-Wan asked her. "That's a start."

  "I can try." Darra bent over her scanner and began pressing keys. In

  addition to being a superb fighter, she was an expert at communications.

  "Half a kilometer," Obi-Wan repeated, thinking. "And closing," Soara

  said.

  "With this moon, they'll be using nightscopes and goggles."

  "I agree," Soara said tersely.

  Another explosion flashed. They felt the shock wave but it had landed

  clear of the area. The scientists exchanged concerned glances, but no one

  spoke again. They watched the Jedi, knowing that the only way out was to

  follow their lead.

  "A Padawan-Master team, or should we do it?" Obi-Wan asked Soara.

  She thought for a moment. Anakin didn't know what the two Masters were

  planning, but he knew one thing - he wanted to be in on the action.

  "Got it," Darra said suddenly. "They're jammed for now, anyway." She

  glanced up at them, her expression taut. "They'll override the jam pretty

  soon."

  Soara nodded, then turned to Obi-Wan. "We'll need all of us," she

  said. "It's too large an area."

  "Yes." Obi-Wan turned to the scientists. "You must stay undercover. If

  we don't return in fifteen minutes, go back the way we came. Hide where you

  were before."

  "You're leaving us?" Fort Turan asked.

  "Not for long." Obi-Wan grabbed one of the extra survival packs they

  had brought on this mission. He motioned for Anakin to take one.

  "What will happen to us if you don't come back?" Reug Yucon asked.

  "We'll come back," Obi-Wan said.

  "If you'll come back, why did you tell us what to do if you don't?"

  Joveh D'a Alin pointed out.

  "Scientists. You're so logical," Obi-Wan said. "I said that for your

  own reassurance. We will be back. Come, Anakin."

  The four Jedi slipped off into the velvet night that was so suddenly

  and spectacularly lit by flashes of deadly light. Anakin could feel the

  Force gather around them. He did not often have the experience of feeling

  the combined Force of two powerful Jedi Knights as well as their Padawans.

  It made his vision sharper, his senses clearer. He knew where the

  explosions would come. He heard the faintest of sss-s000p noises when the

  grenade launcher fired. He could tell the direction without even thinking

  about it.

  The Jedi headed straight into the advancing troops. Soara and Obi-Wan

  explained the plan. In the survival packs were luma grenades, projectiles

  that released particles of intense light. They would fan out along the

  advancing line and toss the grenades straight at the troops. Since the

  troops would be wearing night-vision goggles, the effect of the grenade

  would be doubled. A majority would be blinded for at least an hour. Plenty

  of time for the Jedi to lead the scientists to safety.

  The difficulty would be to launch enough grenades amid what would no

  doubt be heavy firepower. The Jedi would have to work fast and keep

  continually on the move. They would also have to coordinate their efforts

  so that a wide area was covered.

  Obi-Wan and Soara gave their directions in low voices. The Jedi fanned

  out. Anakin counted off the seconds, then lobbed his first grenade.

  The night lit up like a flash from a nova. Anakin kept his eyes away

  from the light. He hadn't expected so much illumination. Even with his Jedi

  training, it was hard to see. His eyes adjusted, but he stumbled as he ran.

  He threw another grenade. Then, taking another leap, he threw a third.

  He could see the troops clearly now. The front lines were kneeling,

  their hands over their eyes. The others were shooting blindly.

  He dodged the fire and threw another grenade. He dashed to the

  rendezvous point, where Obi-Wan and Soara were waiting. Obi-Wan and Soara

  scanned the field as Darra ran up.

  "The right flank," Soara said.

  The right flank was the area Anakin had been assigned.

  "The lumas hit behind a wall. We need more cover there."

  "I have grenades left," Darra said.

  "Go."

  Darra didn't pause. She ran off, already pulling the timer release on

  her luma grenades. The sky lit up in a series of flashes.

  Anakin watched as Darra twisted, leaped, and rolled as she lobbed

  several grenades in a precise pattern designed to box in the troops. He saw

  where his grenades had missed. He had never seen the wall. He had become

  disoriented.

  "Darra has the benefit of seeing the wall from this angle," Obi-Wan

  said. "It would have been impossible to spot it from your position."

  Anakin's face burned. It was kind of his Master to point that out.

  Still, he felt badly that another Padawan had to return to do his job.

  "We're done here. Let's go." Soara spoke and motioned to Darra at the

  same time. Darra leaped the final few meters and caught up to them as they

  ran back toward the scientists. The night was dark again, and there were

  only a few random explosions, hitting the ground far from them.

  The scientists were standing, waiting for them. Without a word they

  joined the group and they hurried through the rest of the blackened forest.

  They jogged the first kilometer, then slowed to a fast walk. They had

  left the site of the battle behind, and the trees rose around them again.

  "There's a village ahead," Soara said. "We should skirt it."

  Obi-Wan nodded. "We need the cover of the forest for as long as.." He

  stopped.

  The two Jedi Masters exchanged a glance. Anakin felt the disturbance

  in the Force. It seemed to be coming from all around them.

  "Down," Obi-Wan said crisply to the scientists.

  The Jedi all activated their lightsabers at the same time. They made a

  circle around the scientists and were ready as the patrol burst out of the

  trees.

  The rebel Haaridens were armed with repeating blaster rifles. Some had

  wrist rockets. Anakin could see at a glance that the Jedi were outnumbered.

  And with the scientists to protect, it could get tricky.

  The blaster fire was fast and it seemed to be everywhere at once.

  Anakin did not give another second of thought to the numbers against them.

  He focused so completely on the battle that everything else fell away but

  the movement of his lightsaber and his attention to where the blaster fire

  would strike next.

  Smoke rose around them. The leaves began to scorch. Obi-Wan leaped to

  destroy a rocket headed straight for them. The midair explosion sent air

  thudding against Anakin's eardrums.

  The squad suddenly concentrated a third of their t
roops to the left

  and made a surprise strike close to Darra. Anakin saw it coming before she

  did. She was only a split second behind him, already turning to deflect the

  blast of fire. She had to pivot on her left leg, leaving her right side

  slightly exposed.

  "I've got it!" Anakin shouted to her. He leaped forward, his

  lightsaber moving in a constant arc.

  But Darra had already compensated for her move. She had shifted and

  turned, and the two Padawans collided. Darra was thrown to the side.

  Blaster fire ripped into her leg. She gave a cry and fell, and her

  lightsaber went flying, lost in the confusion of bodies.

  "Anakin, cover me!" Obi-Wan roared.

  He leaped and scooped up Darra with one arm, keeping his lightsaber

  moving, deflecting the fire. Anakin jumped in front of them, desperate to

  help his Master. Soara herded the scientists closer together and, with a

  heroic effort, charged straight at the troops. Anakin leaped over the

  scientists to join her.

  The fury of their attack caught the troops off guard as blaster fire

  ricocheted back into their ranks. Their line began to waver. Anakin and

  Soara pressed the advantage while Obi-Wan and Darra retreated with the

  scientists.

  "They're going to regroup," Soara told Anakin. "Let's go."

  They turned and ran after Obi-Wan and the scientists, who were dashing

  through the trees.

  "The village," Obi-Wan said to Soara. "We need cover now."

  Darra said nothing. She slumped against Obi-Wan, and he lifted her

  into his arms. Her eyes closed and her lips parted. Anakin felt a deep

  shudder go through him. She looked as though her life energy was draining

  away. And it was his fault.

  CHAPTER THREE,

  Get in and get out. That was the goal of a rescue mission.

  It never, in Obi-Wan's experience, worked out that way.

  They had angered the Haariden patrol. Obviously the troops knew they

  were Jedi, but the Haaridens did not care. They were after revenge now.

  Obi-Wan carried Darra along the twisting trail. They were close to the

  village and temporary safety. Every once in a while the patrol pursuing

  them would set off a rocket. It always fell short of their small band. But

  it was not a comfortable distance.

  Obi-Wan remembered another world, another day. Qui-Gon carrying a

  desperately weakened Jedi Knight - his close friend Tahl. He remembered how

  Tahl's hand kept slipping off from around Qui-Gon's neck. It is too late

  for me, my friend, she had told him.

  He had seen the refusal to accept the fact in Qui-Gon's eyes. At the

  time, as a Padawan, Obi-Wan had thought it impossible that a Jedi Knight

  could die.

  Perhaps the first moment of his adulthood was the moment he had seen

  Qui-Gon's face when he realized that Tahl was dead.

  Why am I thinking about death? Obi-Wan wondered.

  It was this planet. Ever since he had landed on it he'd felt uneasy.

  The darkness here was more than a result of cloud cover. It hung in the

  air. The Force dimmed with it. He knew it had affected his Padawan. Anakin

  was sensitive to the dark side of the Force. He felt it sooner and deeper

  than Obi-Wan had at his age.

  Darra would be all right. A blaster wound to the leg was serious, but

  not life-threatening. Yet her limp body and her slip into unconsciousness

  worried him. There was a disturbance in her Living Force. He could feel it.

  "The village is ahead," Soara said. He could see in her face that she,

  too, was worried about Darra. "They are not giving up."

  "We must stop. Darra - "

  "Yes. I must treat her."

  The village had been large and prosperous. That was easy to see, even

  in the close darkness. Clouds covered the pale moon as they filed swiftly

  through the streets, looking for the best shelter they could find.

  Soara and Obi-Wan chose a building packed in the middle of a crowded

  street. Thanks to a half-destroyed wall, they would have lookouts on all

  four sides. Yet there was enough shelter for Darra to stay warm.

  They wrapped her in a thermal cape. Soara administered bacta to her

  wound.

  "It doesn't look bad," Obi-Wan said.

  A line appeared between Soara's eyebrows. "That is what worries me,"

  she said in a low tone. "She should not be unconscious."

  "Will you allow me?" Joveh D'a Alin spoke up gently. "I trained to be

  a medic before my scientific degree."

  She came closer and bent to examine Darra. She touched her with

  gentle, expert hands.

  "Without instruments it is hard to tell," she said. "It appears that

  she is in shock. Is it possible that the blaster bolts carried a chemical

  charge?"

  "It is possible," Soara said. "It is what I feared."

  Obi-Wan saw his Padawan swallow. Anakin's eyes looked dark in his pale

  face. Obi-Wan knew that his Padawan felt responsible. Anakin had leaped

  impulsively, not trusting Darra to evade the fire. As usual, his Padawan

  had thought that he was faster, stronger, than anyone else.

  The problem was that it was often true. But not always

  "She needs care that we cannot give," Joveh D'a Alin said. Her gray

  eyes were compassionate. "But her vitals are still good. The bacta should

  help."

  "We need to get her to the Temple," Soara said. She reached out and,

  with one finger, touched the dusty fabric in Darra's braid.

  "Master, I will go," Anakin said.

  Obi-Wan turned, distracted. "Go where?"

  "To the Haaridens. I will negotiate a truce so that we can continue to

  the transport."

  "What makes you think you will get within a hundred meters of a

  Haariden without being attacked?" Obi-Wan asked.

  Anakin kept his gaze steady. "I am prepared to risk it." Obi-Wan shook

  his head. "No. That is not the solution."

  Soara joined them, closing her comlink. "I've contacted the Temple.

  They will pressure the Haaridens for a cease-fire. But it will take time.

  No one is sure who is in charge on either side. They are sending a medic to

  us, but it will take two days." She glanced at Darra. "What if it's too

  late? Can we risk moving her? Can we carry her to the transport? It's still

  kilometers away."

  Obi-Wan had never seen Soara look so uncertain. If his Padawan had

  been lying so still and pale, he would have felt the same way.

  Tic Verdun spoke up. "We can all take turns. We aren't as strong as

  the Jedi, but we won't let you down." "Thank you," Soara said quietly.

  "We have other options," Obi-Wan said. "I'll be back." Anakin took a

  step toward him. "Do you need me, Master?"

  "No." Obi-Wan hurried away. He regretted the brusqueness of his answer

  immediately, but he would work quicker alone. He needed his own

  perceptions. And, although he didn't like to admit it, he needed time alone

  to think of a way out of this. When he'd told Soara they had options, he'd

  meant it. He was sure they existed - he just didn't know what they were. He

  did not think that carrying Darra over kilometers of rough terrain while

  being pursued by an attacking force was the best idea.

  Obi-Wan shifted from shadow to shadow. H
e explored the village

  thoroughly. When he'd finished, he knew that the village had once had three

  bakeries. He knew who the mayor had been and that she'd had three children.

  He knew that the schoolteacher had driven a yellow speeder.

  He just didn't know what to do next.

  He saw a faint light through the forest. He climbed to a higher

  vantage point and trained his electrobinoculars toward it.

  The patrol was camping outside the village. No doubt they did not

  relish a night battle. They would attack at daybreak, he was sure. They

  knew that the small band was trapped.

  Obi-Wan shook his head. He could hardly believe his eyes. It seemed

  such a short time ago that a world such as Haariden would respect the Jedi,

  or at least fear the Senate enough not to attack a rescue mission. Had the

  Senate's power eroded this far? Had the galaxy ceased to respect the Jedi

  as well?

  You don't need speculations. Just answers.

  He walked slowly back to the hiding place, hoping an answer would come

  to him on the way. He had hoped to find a small, forgotten cache of