"Ronar Hanare!"
He stopped and turned. It might have been a trick; he wasn't sure.
Sometimes beings could get through a checkpoint with false ID docs, then
forget their fake name in the relief of having made it through. The officer
would call out the name to see how quickly they would react... or not.
"You have to file a flight plan before you leave," the officer said.
His gaze was wary. Did he suspect something?
"Check," Obi-Wan said.
He let out a slow breath as he walked to his cruiser, a pleasure craft
that had been converted to deep space capability. He surveyed his
surroundings without seeming to look, a Jedi technique. Nothing seemed
amiss. He felt no surge of the Force, warning him. Another solitary man,
large and prosperous looking, was conferring with his pilot. No doubt he
was another businessman, anxious to escape the turbulent planet. A shorter
figure in a dark flight suit, his back to Obi-Wan, was running through an
engine check on a gray cruiser. Obi-Wan recognized it as a Firespray-class
ship, a rare model that appeared to have been customized.
Obi-Wan climbed into his transport. He quickly keyed in a flight plan
to Raed-7 and sent it to the control system. When approval for takeoff
flashed back, he wasted no time, but shot up into the planet's atmosphere.
He followed the flight plan up into space. He would make one orbit of
the planet and then return to the atmosphere to get to the coordinates of
Arno.
He looked down at the tracking screen. A ship had taken off behind
him. It was heading his way, but staying back, lurking. Odd. It had a
cloaked identity. He turned, trying to make visual contact through the
windscreen of the cockpit.
It was the Firespray attack ship. Someone was following him - someone,
he suddenly realized, with a connection to his past.
CHAPTER TWELVE
According to his flight plan, Obi-Wan was scheduled to jump to
hyperspace. He decided to deviate slightly from that plan, and see what
happened.
He stayed in realspace, plotting a lazy orbit around Bellassa. When
the time came for his jump to hyperspace, he maintained cruising speed.
The Firespray ship increased speed. Obi-Wan followed suit.
The pilot must have customized the engine as well as the body of the
craft.
Obi-Wan increased his speed to maximum. He was screaming across the
sky now, and the ship just kept on coming. Soon, it would be within firing
range. But surely he wouldn't be fired on...
An explosion rocked the ship. The controls were wrenched from his
hands, and he nearly fell out of his chair. The Firespray had obviously
customized weapons systems, too. Deadly ones. A proton torpedo had just
detonated close to the ship.
Obi-Wan put his ship through evasive maneuvers as laser cannons sent
streaks of deadly fire toward the ship. It had been so long since he'd done
this, yet he had not forgotten anything - the feel of the controls, the
knowledge of how far he could push the ship, the feeling in his stomach if
a dive was too steep.
The Firespray continued to blast him. These weren't warning shots.
Whoever the pilot was, he wanted to bring Obi-Wan down.
Obi-Wan pushed the ship through more corkscrew turns and dives, but he
knew it was only a matter of time before the Firespray scored a hit.
If Anakin were here, he'd be piloting. This was the kind of challenge
he enjoyed.
The thought had risen unbidden. He could not seem to stop such
thoughts. He was still in the habit of thinking of his apprentice, his
friend. Anakin. Not who he became.
He didn't want to remember. It brought too much pain.
With a quick glance at the nav computer, he saw that he was near the
remote mountain range of Arno. He didn't want to lead the pursuer there,
but if he was successful they wouldn't know he had landed. Now he pushed
the engines that extra bit he knew they could handle, until he was
momentarily out of range of his pursuer. Then, he dived toward the surface.
If his pursuer had him on his tracking computer, he would merely think Obi-
Wan was trying to lose him in the mountains, where the sensors would have
trouble getting a fix on him.
He had only a few seconds before the Firespray would track him down
visually. Obi-Wan hugged the mountainside, zooming up and over and down
into the valley, skimming so close that he could almost count the snow
crystals on the peaks. The steep inclines and deep valleys created wind
currents that buffeted the ship.
Ice had sought out the deep crevices in the rocks and glinted blue
below him. Giant bridges made of ice appeared, and he zoomed through them.
He held onto his speed, but it was making the craft hard to handle. He kept
his eyes on the surface of the snow below.
At last he spotted what he was looking for - what was most likely a
meadow in the summer was now a vast snowfield. How deep, he wasn't sure -
he was getting a variety of readings, meaning that drifts had formed. In
some places the snow was fifty meters deep. He looked carefully at the
surface. He could see no skin of ice, which meant he would not leave
evidence of his landing. Yet the snow had to be packed hard enough for the
ship to settle without sinking too far. He hoped.
Holding his breath, Obi-Wan aimed the ship straight down at top speed
and then cut the power. The ship sailed with what seemed like great
gentleness toward the bed of snow.
Then it hit. Obi-Wan's head jerked back with the impact. Sound seemed
to be sucked into the snow itself. He heard the snow above fall with a
whoosh down on the top of the cockpit. The whiteness surrounded him.
The ship settled down, the snow cascading, falling all around him. It
was like being buried alive. The ship settled a few more meters, then
stopped.
It was dark, but there was a curious quality to the light, slightly
luminous despite the gloom. He saw his breath cloud the air. He waited. He
would have to use his senses, not his instruments.
He called on the Force. His awareness moved up through the molecules
of snow, through the spaces between the molecules, up into the thin air
above. He could hear it or sense it - he wasn't sure, but he knew the
Firespray was there, searching for him, flying back and forth over the
mountains, dipping into the snow meadows and up again, buzzing like a
frustrated insect.
After a time he felt the vacuum of its leaving. The Force smoothed
out. He was alone.
Obi-Wan gazed outside the cockpit. He would not be able to take off
from here. Even this ship, powerful as it was, would not be able to blast
out against the snow. He would have to crawl out. He activated the canopy
control. It struggled against the snow but did not rise. He took a deep
breath and let it out. He would not allow himself to consider the
possibility that he was trapped.
He put on his thermal cape and strapped on his survival pack. Then he
took out his lightsaber and cut a hole in the canopy. Snow tumbled in, but
&nbs
p; he was able to crawl out. His landing had created a small bubble here,
enough to breathe. He shoved a hand in the snow and tried to grab it. It
would not hold him.
He tried to remember what was above. He reached for the grapnel line
on his utility belt. It had a recoiling action, so he could shoot a
filament above, but the claw end had to bite into something. He cleared a
space above with his lightsaber, then shot the cable up at an angle, trying
to pinpoint where he remembered seeing a small cluster of rocks.
The cable failed and recoiled back into the grapnel gun. He tried
again. The recoiling action pulled the line back.
Again and again Obi-Wan shot the cable up into the air. The snow was
starting to melt due to his body warmth and the fading warmth of the ship.
Chunks of it collapsed on top of him. If he kept this up, he would start an
avalanche above himself - small, but enough to bury him for good.
He shot it up again. This time, it held. He tested it. It had to work.
He activated the mechanism, and the cable retracted, pulling him up through
the snow. It got in his hair and his eyes and his mouth, but he did not
stop moving.
He broke through to the surface and said hello to a gray sky. Obi-Wan
lay flat on the snow. He pressed the mechanism and the filament recoiled.
He tucked the grapnel line back into his belt. Then he rose slowly, gazing
in awe at the vast mountains below and above him.
He dusted the snow off his tunic and started to walk.
Night was falling on the second day as he scaled the last cliff toward
the coordinates Roan had given him. He had taken the most direct route,
which meant much of the time he was making his way vertically, up cliff-
sides and scaling huge boulders. He was exhausted and cold. His thermal
cape was stiff with ice. Ice crystals had formed on his growing beard and
eyelashes. But he was determined to finish his journey tonight.
At last he saw it - a small white stone cabin blending in with the
snow. Relieved, he walked toward it.
A voice came from behind him. It was female, crisp.
"You've got a blaster rifle pointed at your back. Don't move."
"I'm a friend."
"I don't have friends."
"Roan sent me."
"Never heard of him."
He heard the unmistakable sound of a rifle being lifted to a shoulder.
His hand went to his lightsaber. The door to the cabin opened.
"Dona, don't shoot," Ferus said after a long pause. "I'm afraid my
friend will take it very personally if you do."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Obi-Wan walked forward. The sight of Ferus struck him as slightly
unreal.
"I thought you were dead," Ferus said.
"Perhaps I was," Obi-Wan responded.
To Obi-Wan's surprise, Ferus moved forward and embraced him. Ferus,
who had always been so proper. It had been so long since Obi-Wan had felt
an emotion like this that he feared he would be overwhelmed. He swallowed
and hugged Ferus back. The rush of feeling felt like spring water down a
parched throat. Ferus was alive, and that meant that the past had not died.
Not completely.
Ferus stepped back and grinned. "And I thought I was immune to
surprises." He turned to Dona. "So, what do you say? Do you think we should
invite him in? You're the boss."
The woman didn't smile, but Obi-Wan could see that she enjoyed Ferus's
teasing. "Looks like he could use a thawing out," she said. "Just don't get
puddles on my floor."
"I'll tell you one thing," Ferus said in an undertone to Obi-Wan. "I
know there'll be soup."
Ferus drew him into the warmth of the house. Now that they were in the
light, Obi-Wan could see the changes in him. He was leaner, more muscled.
His face had matured; its angles were sharper. He was still only in his
early twenties, but the wide gold streak in his dark hair had turned to
silver. He gave the impression of a man who had been through things he
would not want to talk about.
But there was a looseness to him, too, which was new. Even his walk
was different. Once, Ferus had moved with the rigid assurance that came
with a disciplined mind. Now he hooked a chair with his foot and dragged it
in front of the fire and waved Obi-Wan toward it. The old Ferus would never
have done something so casual, and so... graceful. And Obi-Wan had never
heard Ferus joke before. He had changed in ways Obi-Wan had yet to
discover.
"You're staring," Ferus said.
"I'm sorry, it's that you seem so different."
"You, too. You've gone completely gray. You look older. In fact, you
don't look all that well."
"Thanks."
As soon as Obi-Wan's wet things were whisked away by Dona, and he was
sitting in front of the warm fire, Ferus allowed his anxiety to show.
"You said that Roan sent you," Ferus said.
"He is fine," Obi-Wan said. "He was smuggled out of the med clinic and
taken to the Eleven. He was... given some neurotoxins while in prison."
Ferus nodded grimly.
"But we were able to discover what they were, and he's awake now.
Getting stronger by the minute. He asked me to tell you not to return to
Ussa. There were mass arrests the day I left. It isn't safe there."
Ferus sighed and sank into a chair opposite Obi-Wan. "I hate the
Empire. And I hate this exile."
"You can't stay here," Obi-Wan said. "The Imperials are checking your
list of clients. Roan thinks you are safe, but I'm not sure...."
"Dona isn't on the list on our computer files."
"I was followed from Ussa. I don't know why or by whom. I don't know
if it has anything to do with you, but we can't take any chances."
Ferus nodded, frowning. "Where is your transport?"
"Buried under a snowbank."
"Dona has tools, we can get it out. You're right - I should leave.
Events have changed things. I'll have to get back in contact with the
Eleven. We'll have to wait a bit longer for our chance, but we should be
making plans."
Obi-Wan held out a hand for the bowl Dona brought to him. His cold
fingers curled around the heat. He had forgotten this, too - how warmth and
safety felt after an impossible journey. "Just what do you expect to
accomplish?"
"I expect to overthrow the Empire, one planet at a time," Ferus
answered. "Nothing less than that."
As Ferus eased himself back into the chair, Obi-Wan could see that he
was still in pain.
"It's nothing," Ferus said, seeing Obi-Wan glance at his leg. "I was
wounded in the escape. Caught a bit of blasterfire. Dona's been treating
it, and it's almost healed."
"I'm sensing something that surprises me," Obi-Wan said slowly. "I
would not expect that life outside the Jedi Order would suit you."
"I would have said the same," Ferus said with a laugh. "But I
adjusted. Siri used to always tell me that I must accept change. Welcome
it, she said - change is what keeps the galaxy spinning. It's what makes it
beautiful." Ferus looked into the fire. "I heard about her death, before
all the others. I'm sorry, Obi-Wan."
"T
here were so many deaths," Obi-Wan said. Ferus didn't know, but Obi-
Wan missed Siri constantly and intensely, even still.
"I'm sorry, I have to ask, Obi-Wan - Anakin. He didn't survive either?
"
Obi-Wan couldn't tell him. He would tell a version of the truth. "He
didn't survive." The Anakin they both knew was dead. "He was hunted down by
the Empire."
Ferus nodded, pain in his gaze, even though he and Anakin had been
rivals more than friends. "I had thought that leaving the Jedi would be the
most terrible occurrence of my life," he said. "It turns out to have saved
my life. I was not among those caught at the Temple, or on another planet.
I wasn't hunted down. But hearing about all that... it was hard to bear.
Betrayal. And seeing the galaxy in the grip of the Emperor - that is
something that eats at me. What could we have done, what could we have
seen?"
"We do not look back. We take each moment."
Ferus stretched out his legs. "Ah yes, so the Jedi say. So where have
you been for the past year or so?"
"Here and there," Obi-Wan said. He trusted Ferus, but he would not
tell him about Luke and Leia. The more a secret was told, the less a secret
it became.
"Ah, I won't ask," Ferus said. "I'm just glad to see you. Do you know