Dark Warning

  here at all. Meeting Obi-Wan again had catapulted him onto a path he hadn't

  expected. He had left his adopted homeworld, left his partner Roan, all to

  go on a quest to save any Jedi he could find. And he wasn't even a Jedi any

  longer!

  He wasn't sure what he was anymore. He was a strange creature, half-

  Jedi, half-man. A space carnival creature for children to point at and

  laugh, waiting for him to turn into one or the other.

  Focus, Ferus, he told himself sternly.

  Ferus shot his liquid cable and it pulled him up the remaining hundred

  meters to the next crag. Thick undulating curtains of ice coated the

  mountain. Obi-Wan had explained that it would be difficult to pinpoint the

  location of the gorgodon nest. He would have to use the Force.

  Ferus closed his eyes for a moment. It was sometimes an effort for him

  to clear his mind, to reach out to the Force. Yet using the Force had to be

  effortless; he could not try. He could only exist in this moment, not hope

  for what was to come. He felt in the air the vibrations of the ice, the

  rock, the molecules of the sky, his own body. They all existed together ill

  one seamless hum of energy, and from them rose what linked him to

  everything in the galaxy: the Force.

  He felt it gather, and he opened his eyes. Immediately he saw that

  what he thought was a thick impenetrable curtain was actually a constructed

  wall. The gorgodons had moved the sheer planes of ice as if it were

  transparisteel, mimicking the steep slope of the crag for camouflage.

  Once he saw this, the rest was easy. Ferus saw the difference in blue

  shadow and curve of ice. There was an opening in the wall, impossible to

  see even if one were looking carefully. He walked toward it.

  The Force gave him no warnings, but he knew the creatures were near.

  He could sense them. He walked through the opening and stopped short,

  confused by what was around him. It took him a moment to make sense of the

  shapes. The gorgodons had made the nest using ice and boulders to construct

  shelters that looked like the humped backs of the creatures themselves.

  They were fifty or so meters tall and hunched together like ascending

  hills. They used their sticky brown saliva as a kind of mortar to hold the

  structures together. It had an elastic quality and hung down over the

  openings, looking like a ruffle on a dainty curt am and swaying slightly in

  the breeze.

  He knew gorgodons had an excellent sense of smell. None of them

  stirred as he counted the ones he could see. Two on the side, sleeping out

  in the open. One smaller gorgodon, half in, half out of its shelter. He did

  not know how many others lay inside the shelters.

  There was nothing to do but walk right into the middle of the nest. He

  saw the opening to the cave ahead, just a slit in the wall, not big enough

  for a gorgodon to get through. If he could make it through the opening, he

  would be safe from them.

  He started across the nest. A gorgodon stretched and flopped close,

  and he had to leap out of the way. Which unfortunately entangled him in the

  foul-smelling, sticky saliva hangings over its shelter. Silently, Ferus

  fought to extricate himself. It was like being trapped in the thick sap

  from a tree.

  The gorgodon opened one lazy eye. The eye was yellow, and Ferus saw

  himself reflected in the enormous dark pupil.

  He looked very small. And, he imagined, tasty.

  The gorgodon opened its mouth and roared, its triple row of yellow

  teeth still tinged with pink from its last kill. Ferus's blood was already

  cold, and now it turned to ice. The other gorgodons stirred, and suddenly

  the air was filled with their cries.

  There was a time to fight, and a time to run. He ran.

  The tail came out of nowhere, smacking him in the back like a too-

  friendly hello. This particular greeting made pain ratchet through his body

  and sent him airborne, flying toward another gorgodon, jaws open to catch

  and no doubt break him in half.

  If ever he needed the Force, it was now. Ferus reached out, but he met

  nothing, no current that could help him. He knew he was too focused on the

  jaws that awaited him. The present moment wasn't too awful - he was merely

  flying through the air. It was the next moment that was the problem. The

  one where the rows of teeth razored him into slivers.

  Instead of reaching for the Force, he reached out for the stringy,

  elastic saliva looped over the shelter as he flew by. He grabbed at it with

  desperate fingertips, and it yielded to him.

  All he needed was a break in his momentum, and he got it. He pulled on

  the thick gummy substance, and it boomeranged him backward. He slammed into

  the side of a boulder, but at least that was better than landing in a

  gorgodon's jaws.

  The gorgodon let out a howl of anger at the diversion of his lunch. He

  bounded after Ferus. But Ferus was already moving, keeping an eye out for

  those lethal tails. The gorgodon's hide was so thick that blaster bolts

  couldn't kill them, only annoy them, so he kept his blaster holstered. He

  needed to get to the vulnerable spot behind their necks to kill them, and

  he'd just as soon not get that close. Besides, he was the intruder. He had

  entered their nest, and he supposed that they had every right to be annoyed

  with him.

  But did they have to be so mean about it?

  He used the next gummy trail as a swing to lift him over a gorgodon's

  back. A paw as big as a gravsled tried to swat him, but suddenly the Force

  was with him, and he sailed above it. He felt the Force now, and he used it

  to extend his jump over the final gorgodon shelter.

  He was almost to the cave opening when he felt himself lift into the

  air. His first thought was surprise. I am in the air again, but I didn't

  jump, he thought, dazed.

  Then the pain hit. The left side of his body was on fire. He realized

  that he'd been hit with a gorgodon paw. Not only that, but the blow had

  been perfectly aimed. He was on a straight trajectory to the other paw,

  which was lifted in wait. He saw quite clearly that the creature meant to

  whack him from one paw to another, batter him senseless, pop him in his

  mouth, and crunch.

  Not his idea of a pleasant afternoon. Or a decent demise.

  Ferus somersaulted in midair, the pain forgotten as the urge to

  survive surged. He was conscious of the clarity of the cold air, the

  crystal beauty of the ice, the smell of the gorgodons, rich and fetid in

  his nostrils.

  His boots thudded into the gorgodon's massive palm. His knees bent,

  and he vaulted off, using the creature's power to send him flying. But

  instead of allowing the gorgodon to dictate his direction, Ferus used the

  Force to catapult himself up to the gorgodon's head. He landed in the fur,

  so slick with ice it was like the slope of a hill. Ferus slid down the

  creature's neck, slipping his vibroblade out of his tunic and, with a quick

  swivel of his body, used all his body strength to bury it in the soft place

  behind the creature's skull.

  The bellow of the wounded animal rang through the air a
nd he shook

  Ferus off like a dry leaf. Again Ferus flipped into the air, but he landed

  safely on the ground. He took off for the cave as the creature rolled on

  the ground, trying to dislodge the vibroblade.

  He slipped inside the cave opening and was plunged into darkness. He'd

  made it. The gorgodons were behind him, but he knew the worst still lay

  ahead.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Trever wrapped himself in a thermal blanket and sat with his back

  against an ice-slicked boulder. His breath frosted in the air, so he puffed

  out a few clouds and watched the vapor dissipate. He did it again. Then he

  closed one eye and tried to figure out where the ice stopped and the frozen

  lake began.

  Never a dull moment.

  Ferus had left him behind again. Just when there was a promise of some

  action, he was parked like a training scooter. He hadn't expected this.

  When he'd stowed aboard the cruiser, he hadn't known what to expect, but it

  certainly wasn't this. He just wanted to escape his homeworld and the

  Empire - and instead, he was tangled up with Jedi. Okay, he'd been able to

  see a bit of the galaxy, but hanging around with a resistance hero and a

  Jedi sure didn't pay well. To Trever's mind, adventure should mean some

  sort of score along the way. What else was danger for?

  Who knew Ferus would turn out to be so... noble?

  He still liked Ferus, but he didn't sign on to be the moon to his

  planet.

  Trever munched on a protein pellet. Maybe he should split off from

  these guys and find a nice planet somewhere, someplace out in the Outer Rim

  where the Empire's reach wasn't quite so... grasping. Some decent place

  that was crying out for a little black market action, where he could buy

  and sell in peace. Someplace a harmless thief like himself could make an

  honest living without an Imperial boot in his face.

  Was that ice cracking, or a footstep? Trever stopped crunching on his

  pellet. It certainly couldn't have been the wind ruffling any nonexistent

  leaves on this frozen wasteland of a planet. No, it was definitely what he

  thought it was... a footstep.

  Rolling himself more securely into the concealing thermal blanket, he

  slid behind a boulder. Directly below him a narrow path curved around the

  slope. In another second he saw two stormtroopers in some sort of snow gear

  walking toward him.

  He saw at once that they weren't looking for anything. They were just

  two soldiers, walking a perimeter, doing a boring job.

  But they were nowhere near their base. And that meant they'd left a

  vehicle somewhere near. Which could be a very interesting situation.

  Quietly, Trever slipped out of the thermal blanket. He waited until

  the stormtroopers had disappeared from sight and then slid down the slope.

  He trudged through the snow, heading back the way the stormtroopers had

  come.

  It didn't take him long to find their transport. Trever let out a low

  whistle. Sweet. It was a small space cruiser. No doubt it was outfitted

  nicely. He could use some decent food, maybe a few tools or an easily

  lifted auxiliary booster... just a few things they wouldn't notice were

  gone.

  The ramp was still down. Talk about a gracious invitation. Trever

  walked up and slipped inside the ship.

  First he raided the galley and wolfed some food down while he

  searched. He slipped a brand-new fusioncutter into his pocket - you never

  knew when one could come in handy - as well as a small pair of

  electrobinoculars. He took a couple of handfuls of drills for the

  fusioncutter, just in case he needed them.

  He hesitated over a tracomp sensor, but decided they might miss it. He

  didn't want, to leave any evidence of his presence. But he pocketed a

  handful of alpha-plus chargers he found in a toolbox. They were powerful

  explosives, usually used in mining. No doubt the troopers needed them to

  blast through any rocks that got in their way.

  Trever thought there'd at least be a couple of spare credits lying

  around, or some sort of portable currency. There wasn't even a credit chip

  to pocket. But his pockets were bulging anyway, and it was time to go.

  Suddenly he heard the crackle of a transmitter. The stormtroopers were

  returning. Trever looked out. They weren't in sight yet.

  He was just about to race down the ramp when he noticed out of the

  corner of his eye that a transport was landing. They'd see him if he exited

  now. Cursing his bad luck, Trever faded back and hovered by the top of the

  ramp.

  The stormtroopers approached the new craft just as it landed. The dome

  roof of the cockpit opened and Trever clearly heard the officer inside ask,

  "Anything unusual?"

  "Nothing to report," one of the stormtroopers said.

  "Return to base. Attack scenario seven implemented."

  "Another drill?"

  "Negative. A ship was spotted. Sweep indicated a life-form near the

  vicinity of the cave. You're sure you didn't spot anything unusual?"

  "Yes, we're sure."

  Just then, one of the drill bits stuffed into Trever's tunic pocket

  fell out. It bounced with a metallic ping, then rolled down the runway.

  He just knew it didn't pay to be so greedy.

  There was a split-second pause. Then the storm-troopers wheeled,

  searching the area. The sensors in their helmets flashed red as they got a

  fix on him.

  They charged, their blasters pointed straight at Trever.

  Quickly he closed the ramp and jumped into the cockpit. He'd once won

  a hotwiring competition among the youngest thieves of Bellassa. Now he

  halved his record time.

  It was time to go for a ride.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Sancor was a small humanoid whose dark robe seemed to dwarf him. His

  fingers were long and triple-jointed, and they moved easily over the

  keyboard as information flooded the screen.

  "This is Osh Seal, our medical supply officer," Tuun said, indicating

  Obi-Wan, who had changed into the appropriate clothes for a medical supply

  officer, including a face-covering surgical mask.

  "At last." Sancor waved Obi-Wan forward without turning to look at

  him. "I've been waiting for fifteen minutes."

  "I was on my break," Obi-Wan said, keeping his tone friendly. "How can

  I help you'?"

  Sancor snapped his long, flexible fingers and then held out his hand.

  "Your supply records covering the dates I indicated. Remain here while I go

  through them. I'll have questions."

  "I'll try to answer them." Obi-Wan handed Sancor the disk that Tuun

  had given him.

  Sancor slipped it into the readout slot. Information sprang to the

  screen, numbers and letters and codes.

  Obi-Wan leaned forward as Sancor scrolled through the material.

  "If you tell me what you're looking for, I might be better able to

  assist you," Obi-Wan said.

  "I haven't asked you a question," Sancor snapped. His small black eyes

  flitted over the material. "Dr. Naturian, I don't remember asking you to

  stay. I'm sure you have duties elsewhere. A patient to save, perhaps."

  "Yes. I'll go, then." With a final loo
k at Obi-Wan, Tuun backed out of

  the room.

  "Here." Sancor's long finger rested a fraction of space away from the

  screen. "A vitals scan kit. You ordered several replacement kits here."

  "Yes, it's an item we use frequently..."

  "But these are used specifically for newborns to scan for potential

  problems."

  "No, not exclusively."

  "There were no newborns in this facility at that time."

  "I don't know, I haven't cross-referenced with patient records - "

  "But I have." Sancor kept scrolling through. Suddenly, he stopped.

  "What is..." he closed his mouth. Obi-Wan watched his face. He had

  discovered the items that Tuun had entered. Sancor licked his lips as he

  studied the screen. Obi-Wan could see that he was trying not to show his

  excitement. "You had only a few patients in the med center during this

  period. Only one was seriously injured. Yet these supplies show a major

  catastrophic illness was treated. Your records don't reflect that."

  Obi-Wan shrugged. "Records can get sloppy."

  Sancor gave him an icy look. "Odd that you disparage your own

  abilities. These records are meticulous. And the med droids are programmed

  to enter all of their procedures. They should match."

  "I'm not a doctor," Obi-Wan said. "I'm just a technician. Maybe you'll