The Dangerous Rescue

  on a bench, watching over a group of children. Instead of her usual jeweled

  head-wrapping, she wore one of fine white linen. A small girl with dark

  curls sat in her lap.

  Uta S'orn was speaking to the girl with a smile on her face, but it

  faded when she saw the Jedi.

  "This is a surprise," she said to Qui-Gon. She gave a disdainful

  glance to Astri, Cholly, Weez, and Tup. "Is this your new entourage?"

  The little girl shrank shyly back against Uta S'orn's lap. Qui-Gon

  crouched down and smiled gently at her.

  "And who are you?"

  "Joli K'atel," she said, and added confidingly, "I'm sick."

  "I am very sorry to hear that. But I'm sure you will be well again."

  She nodded. "My father says it is so."

  "Then it is so," Qui-Gon said gravely.

  Uta S'orn gently eased the girl off her lap and gave her a gentle

  pat. "Go sit with the others, Joli. I need to speak to these people.

  Unfortunately."

  The little girl wandered off, the sash of her robe trailing in the

  grass. Uta S'orn's face was creased with worry as she watched her.

  "I have volunteered as a med aide," she said quietly. "I thought I

  could help. I did not know it would break my heart."

  "Is that the Leader's daughter?" Adi asked.

  "Yes. But she is no more important than all of these children," Uta

  S'orn said, waving her hand to take in the Ward Domes. "They are our

  future. We must save them." She turned to them. "What is it that you want?

  As you can see, I am busy. Why are you here? It seems I cannot get away

  from the Jedi."

  "We have reason to believe that Jenna Zan Arbor - " Qui-Gon began.

  She stood up angrily. "Not this again. You have told me what you

  believe about my former friend. I have not heard from her, nor do I wish

  to. She has nothing to do with me."

  "But we think that she does," Adi said. "We think that she is here,

  on Belasco. We're not sure why. There could be some link that we are

  overlooking, some reason she needs to contact you again."

  "But she hasn't," Uta S'orn said impatiently. "And I will not see her

  if she tries. All right?"

  "She might insist," Qui-Gon said. "And she can. Ona Nobis is here as

  well. She has kidnapped and killed for Jenna Zan Arbor before."

  "If you're trying to frighten me, it isn't working," Uta S'orn said

  dismissively. "I have no time to worry about phantom threats. My world is

  dying. I see now there was a reason I returned here."

  "We are merely trying to protect you - "

  "No need. I am safe here. Although we have no king, the royal droid

  guards still protect the Leader and everyone on the grounds. Thank you for

  your concern, but Ona Nobis cannot get to me here. Now if you'll excuse me,

  there are sick children to tend."

  Uta S'orn walked away.

  "I guess she has a point," Siri said, glancing around at the busy

  grounds as medics walked by and guard droids, their shells polished to a

  golden gleam, patrolled. "It would be hard for Ona Nobis to get to her

  here."

  Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan exchanged a glance. "I'm afraid, Siri, that in

  our experience," Qui-Gon said, "Ona Nobis can get anywhere."

  CHAPTER 13

  "Why didn't you tell Uta S'orn that we suspect Jenna Zan Arbor has

  engineered the bacteria explosion?" Obi-Wan asked Qui-Gon as they left the

  royal grounds.

  "Because we have no proof, only our suspicions," Qui-Gon said. "She

  would not believe us. She doesn't even believe that Zan Arbor is here."

  "Nevertheless, she will take care, just in case," Adi said. "Despite

  what she said, she is afraid of Ona Nobis."

  "We have to get proof," Qui-Gon said.

  "I'm confused," Siri admitted. "I don't understand why Zan Arbor

  would come to Belasco at all."

  "We know that Zan Arbor killed Uta S'orn's son. Uta S'orn knows it,

  too. But Zan Arbor doesn't know that she knows - as far as she's concerned,

  Uta S'orn is still an old friend," Adi explained. "Perhaps Zan Arbor came

  here because S'orn is a powerful ally, and she needs her help."

  "That could be," Qui-Gon said, nodding. "And Zan Arbor feels she

  still needs the protection of Ona Nobis as well. She knows we will be

  pursuing her. Yes, I think Zan Arbor will contact Uta S'orn. But we must

  convince S'orn that Zan Arbor is here. Let's go back to the landing

  platform. If we can prove that Zan Arbor landed on Belasco, Uta S'orn might

  listen. In the meantime, even if Zan Arbor used an alias, we should be able

  to track her."

  "How can I help?" Astri asked.

  "The royal grounds are open to all," Qui-Gon said. "And those guard

  droids seem to have a mostly ceremonial function. Someone needs to stay

  there and watch Uta S'orn. Ona Nobis could show up at anytime."

  "We can do that," Astri said, with a glance at Cholly, Weez, and Tup.

  "Do not approach her," Qui-Gon warned. "And remember - your best

  revenge is to bring Ona Nobis to justice. We can do this for you. Then you

  can collect your reward."

  "That sounds like an excellent plan!" Tup beamed.

  "I don't care about the reward," Astri said. "Only about her capture.

  "

  "Don't be so hasty," Cholly said.

  Astri, Cholly, Weez, and Tup turned away from the group to start back

  toward the royal grounds.

  "You're placing quite a bit of faith in them," Adi observed.

  "Not really," Qui-Gon said. "I'm counting on Cholly, Weez, and Tup to

  be obvious. Ona Nobis might steer clear of Uta S'orn for a time if she

  knows they are watching. That will give us time to gather evidence that Zan

  Arbor is behind the poisoning of the water supply."

  Obi-Wan's senses suddenly went on alert. Even while he was walking,

  he had been watching every shadow. After his last encounter with Ona Nobis,

  he was taking no chances. He had sensed a sudden movement nearby and

  realized that someone was following Astri.

  He signaled Qui-Gon with a quick glance and melted away from the

  others. He ducked back into an alley and scanned the street behind. Whoever

  was following the group was moving quickly from one shadow to another.

  Using his cable launcher, Obi-Wan swung himself up to the flat roof

  overhead. He ran lightly across the roof. When he reached the corner he

  stopped and waited for his target below to catch up. Then he leaped down,

  aiming to land directly in front.

  To his surprise, he found himself face-to-face with Fligh. He was the

  thief back on Coruscant who had stolen Zan Arbor's datapad and given it to

  Astri, inadvertently plunging Astri and Didi into danger. Fligh was wearing

  an eye patch and a stunned expression.

  Obi-Wan was just as stunned as Fligh. Qui-Gon, Adi, and Siri ran up

  to them quickly.

  "Fligh?" Obi-Wan said. "I thought you were dead. I saw your body on

  Coruscant."

  "No, you didn't, Padawan," Qui-Gon said. "But you did," Obi-Wan said,

  confused. "No," Qui-Gon said. "I saw a body that resembled Fligh. I had my

  doubts."

  "Ah," Fligh said. His face was naturally mournful, with a downturned

  mouth and sad eyes. "I've never been clever enough to
fool a Jedi. Never

  will."

  "What are you doing here now?" Qui-Gon asked.

  "Following Astri, of course," Fligh answered. "I thought I owed Didi.

  Even though I keep losing her, I am doing my best, which isn't much. But

  there you go."

  Siri sidled closer to Obi-Wan. "What's going on?" she whispered. "Who

  is this character?"

  "Fligh is a friend of Didi's back on Coruscant," Obi-Wan explained

  quickly. "He's the one who stole the datapads of Jenna Zan Arbor and Uta

  S'orn in the Senate building. Then he was murdered. Or so I thought."

  "He looks pretty healthy to me," Siri observed.

  "Hey, I lost my eye!" Fligh protested.

  "I can see that. I'm sorry," Siri said.

  "I mean my false eye," Fligh explained. "It was a beauty, wasn't it?"

  he asked Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. "But I decided I had to leave it at the scene

  of my murder. It's those kinds of touches that convince people you're

  really dead."

  "How did you do it?" Obi-Wan asked curiously.

  "I have a friend who works at the morgue on Coruscant," Fligh

  explained. "And I think my job is tough."

  "You don't have a job," Obi-Wan pointed out.

  "Being a thief is a job," Fligh answered huffily. "I get up every

  morning and go to work, just like everybody else. But this particular

  morning, I realized that someone was trying to kill me. When you get a whip

  wrapped around your neck, it wakes you up to the possibility. Luckily my

  landlord is handy with an electrojabber. But I thought I should disappear

  for a while. So I spoke to my friend at the morgue, and he found someone

  with my general characteristics. Who was dead, I mean."

  "We assumed that," Qui-Gon said.

  "My friend did the rest. We drove the body to the alley and left it

  there. Along with my eye, alas. I knew the security police would not bother

  to run ID scans on the body - there are some advantages to being someone

  nobody cares about. Just another piece of riffraff meeting a sad end.

  They'd accept the text doc identification and just cart the body to the

  morgue. Nobody would shed a tear."

  "Didi did," Qui-Gon said sternly.

  Fligh brightened. "He did? He is such a good friend!"

  "But why would Ona Nobis be after you?" Obi-Wan wondered aloud. "You

  didn't have Zan Arbor's datapad any longer. You gave it to Astri."

  Fligh shrugged. "I was just a loose end, I guess."

  "Oh, I think you were more than that," Qui-Gon said, crossing his

  arms. "You're leaving something out, Fligh. The body was found drained of

  blood. Why did you do that?"

  "Because that was how Ona Nobis left her victims," Fligh responded.

  "Six of my fellow riffraff were found that way."

  "But we didn't know that yet. No one had yet traced Zan Arbor to Ren

  S'orn, or any other victim. We didn't even know Zan Arbor had anything to

  do with the attack on Didi."

  "Ah, Jedi logic, so impressive," Fligh said nervously. "Are you sure?

  "

  Qui-Gon nodded. "Very sure. Which means that you knew Zan Arbor was

  behind the attack. And you knew she was conducting experiments that

  involved extracting blood from her victims."

  "Hmm, interesting point," Fligh said. "I find I must agree. Maybe I

  did know that. Maybe I traced a few of the murdered riffraff to Zan Arbor's

  lab. Maybe that's why I stole her data-pad in the first place. But I didn't

  see why it would help Didi to know that. At the time. I felt badly after he

  was hurt, of course. Maybe I should have warned him after all. Maybe I

  should be a better person in general. But at least I am watching over Astri

  while Didi is in your excellent Jedi hands. I'll protect her if anything

  happens. Of course," Fligh added quickly, edging away with an uneasy smile,

  "I am hopeless at protection and therefore delighted to see that the Jedi

  are by her side. Obviously, I am not needed, so I guess I'll just head off.

  ..."

  "Not so fast," Qui-Gon said, catching Fligh by the elbow. "I have

  more questions. What about Senator S'orn's datapad?"

  "What about it?" Fligh asked.

  "What happened to it?"

  Obi-Wan looked at Fligh curiously. He hadn't thought of the question,

  but he was interested in the answer. Once they had identified Jenna Zan

  Arbor as the one who had hired Ona Nobis, they had stopped investigating

  what was on Senator S'orn's datapad, or what had happened to it. It seemed

  a minor detail. But Uta S'orn kept connecting to the mission, whether she

  wanted to or not. Maybe there was a detail they had overlooked.

  "I still have it," Fligh said. "I haven't had a chance to sell it

  yet." He slipped a small data-pad out of his tunic. "See?"

  Qui-Gon took it from him.

  "There you go," Fligh said, waving a hand. "I won't even ask for

  credits. See how generous I can be with stolen property? You will have to

  erase all those files on it. Just Senate holo transcripts of speeches. Or

  leave them, and you can use them as a sleeping potion." Fligh made a loud

  snoring noise. "Take it from me. Very dull. Now, if you don't need me, I'll

  be going. This world is too depressing, even for me. I think I'll head back

  to the fun-filled world of Coruscant."

  Waving, Fligh took off. Qui-Gon turned his attention to the datapad.

  He quickly accessed the files and searched through them. Obi-Wan watched

  over his shoulder. Hovercams recorded all Senate proceedings. Each Senator

  could download transcripts into their own datapads for official records.

  Senator S'orn had recordings of several speeches she had made.

  Qui-Gon shut down the datapad. He glanced at Adi.

  "What are you thinking?" he asked her quietly.

  "I do not like how Uta S'orn keeps coming into this mission," Adi

  said. "Let's get to the landing platform."

  CHAPTER 14

  On the way to the platform, Qui-Gon contacted Tahl and asked her to

  investigate the odd bacteria formation on Belasco.

  He was about to sign off when he had a thought. "Tahl, can you

  forward the official Senate hovercam transcripts from... hold on." Qui-Gon

  accessed the file listing and read out the dates and times.

  "Sure," Tahl said dryly. "I just love dealing with the Senate

  bureaucracy. Nothing I like better."

  "That's what I thought." Smiling, Qui-Gon cut the communication.

  "Why did you ask Tahl to do that?" Siri asked.

  "Just a hunch. I want to make sure the transcript on Senator S'orn's

  datapad matches the official filed version," Qui-Gon explained. "I've heard

  of senators bribing the operators to alter official transcripts for one

  reason or another. There must be a reason Senator S'orn has kept those

  transcripts on her datapad. Maybe we'll find out why."

  At the docking platform, the Jedi headed for the official in charge

  of off-planet vessel registration. Transports to Belasco had slowed to a

  trickle as word had reached the galaxy of the water shortage. It was easy

  for the dockmaster to check the records over the past two days.

  "That V-wing cruiser is unusual," the official said. "You don't see

  many of them in private use. I think I can find it... here it is.

  R
egistered to a Belascan native who was arriving home. Cir L'ani and one

  passenger."

  "Do you have a record of the passenger?" Adi asked. "Can you give us

  a description?"

  "Do you think I remember every ship that docks here?" the official

  asked, shaking his head. "Just the pilot of the vessel registered. That's

  all we require. Sorry."

  They thanked the official and walked out onto the busy platform.

  "It could be them," Adi said. "But we need proof."

  "Let's ask a worker," Qui-Gon suggested. He gazed around the