Star Wars - The Clone Wars 01

  She looked at her datapad. It now contained everything that had been 4A-7-programming, data, and working memory up to the point when his backup power supply had finally failed. In the terms of flesh and blood, she had his soul in her hand.

  My resolve has never weakened. But you've strengthened it, Jedi. Again, you earn your enemies.

  If she'd never learned to convert pain, loss, and anger into action, she would have died a long time ago. She turned to go back to the battle, reinvigorated.

  The comlink bleeped again. She responded, and the empty air in front of her was filled with a hologram of Dooku.

  "I hear Kenobi's forces have arrived, Asajj."

  "We're dealing with it."

  "Have you recovered the Hutt yet?"

  You know I haven't. I'd have told you the second I did. "Skywalker still has him, but we'll take his ship before he leaves the Teth system."

  "You know the stakes." Dooku never sounded angry. He was always quietly understated, but she knew he was furious in his own way. "It's not enough to create enmity between Jabba and the Republic now. He needs a reason to be seen to reward us with sole access to the Outer Rim. We have to be the ones who rescue the child."

  "I understand, Master. My challenge, though, is stopping Skywalker without harming the Hutt. The Jedi have been carrying the child at all times, so I'm dealing with a living shield. Normally, that would mean nothing and I would regard the innocent as collateral damage, but in this case, I can't."

  "Then you need to think more laterally. And faster. Dooku out."

  Ventress stared at the empty air where the hologram had been and swallowed her resentment.

  Remember-this is the man who won't train me as a Sith. This is the man who's happy to use my skills for Sith ends, but won't let me join the club.

  They had a common objective, but he wasn't on her side. She was the hired help. She reminded herself of the ramifications of that.

  But there was no point obeying blindly. She was the commander on the ground; only she knew the situation. If Skywalker managed to hand that Hutt over to a Republic warship-and that was now his best option-she stood little chance of preventing the Huttlet from being returned to his father. She paused to transmit new orders to the vulture droids.

  If unable to prevent Skywalker from docking with enemy warship, override order to preserve the hostage and destroy the Twilight.

  She had no other option. That was the last resort.

  In that brief quiet moment, she felt someone coming closer in the Force, a brash fanfare of a presence. She took a lightsaber in each hand and hefted the hilts to focus herself before activating the blades.

  "Master Kenobi," she said, not looking up for a few moments. "You're late. Never keep a lady waiting."

  Kenobi ambled down the passage toward her. "I was looking for Anakin. He stood you up, then?"

  "Consider me on the rebound when it comes to killing Jedi." She held one glowing red blade vertically in front of her face.

  "You'll do."

  She turned and sprinted into a side passage that led to an older part of the site, a different style of construction where the ceilings were flat and supported by columns, rather than the spacious vaulted rooms of more recent architecture. The chamber she found herself in was a stone forest, filled with precise ranks of granite columns that glittered in the low light; less room to maneuver, but plenty of cover from saber strikes and opportunity for feints.

  For him, too. Remember that.

  Ventress slid behind a column and waited, lightsabers shut down. For a while, she thought he might have resisted the lure, or that he really was on other business, somehow unaware of Skywalker's whereabouts and searching for him. But she heard his footsteps coming closer. If he missed the entrance to the chamber, she'd have to guide him.

  But he didn't. She could hear the rustle of his robes coming closer.

  "Ventress, there's no point hiding from me . . ."

  She stayed silent and turned her head slowly to pinpoint the sound. Footsteps, and the occasional vzzzzm of his lightsaber. He was either swinging the blade or spinning around to check behind him.

  Kenobi was easy to sense in the Force anyway.

  "Ventress, we have Jabba's son. It's over."

  His voice was closer. He could sense her in the Force, too, of course. Come and get me, braggart. . .

  "Ventress ..."

  He talked too much. Maybe he liked the drama, or used it to work himself up for a fight.

  "Ventress ..." The tone was soothing, like calling a pet to come for feeding. "Ventress ..."

  She sprang from behind the column, thumbing both lightsabers to life, and swung one into him. The blades clashed, red on blue. For a split second she saw the look of surprise illuminated on his face. He parried. But she brought the other saber swinging in an arc, and then they were locked in combat. Ventress used both sabers simultaneously in a scissor action to drive him back and force him against a wall or a column, but each time, Kenobi managed to ram his weapon between her blades.

  He spun away behind a column. She heard him panting. They both needed a few seconds to draw breath.

  "You'll have to do better than that," he said.

  "And you'll have to learn to keep your mouth shut." She leaped around the column from the other side. Her blade missed his head by a fraction as he ducked, and sent a cloud of dust sparkling from the stone. Kenobi raced away. She pursued.

  He's not invincible. He couldn't take Fett. But he's not trying this time.

  Ventress wouldn't trust Kenobi as far as she could spit.

  She stalked him, and this time it was his turn to leap out at her and strike. He drove her back against a wall, but she used it as a springboard to Force-push him back before hacking at him with all the raw strength she could muster. It wasn't hard to summon up. She simply saw Narec, and wanted to destroy the whole world in vengeance.

  Kenobi's lightsaber spun in the air. For a second she thought it was a trick; but she'd knocked it from his hand. Her blade was at his throat in a heartbeat.

  Kenobi looked up at her, chest rising and falling as he caught his breath. "Okay, Ventress, are you going to gloat and give me a speech on the futility of my mission?"

  "No," she said. "I'm just going to kill you."

  Then he threw her backward with a Force push. She hit a column hard enough to hear something crack, and staggered to her feet. Kenobi summoned his lightsaber back to his hand with a grin.

  She was going to have to wipe that smirk off his smug Jedi face the hard way.

  * * *

  THE FREIGHTER TWILIGHT, TETH SPACE

  Anakin knew he should never have expected things to get easier.

  The trajectory he'd set took the Twilight close to the action. It was inevitable. He needed to locate Yularen's flagship, Spirit of the Republic. Once he handed over Rotta, he could get back to the fighting, or start replacing the men of Torrent Company if the ground engagement was over, or-anything but this.

  He'd opted for the most direct course. The airspace above the jungle combat zone and up through the atmosphere into space was crawling with V-19 fighters, vulture droids, and warships. Even at maximum thrust, the Twilight climbed slowly for a pilot used to starfighters.

  We might as well have a big target roundel painted on us.

  The freighter shuddered as it climbed. Ahsoka sat in silence with Rotta clutched on her lap. In a confined cockpit, the smell was almost too much for Anakin to bear. He tweaked the fuel injectors a little higher.

  Come on . . . come on . . .

  Bursts of white light flared against the sky in the thinning layers of the planet's atmosphere. Anakin kept a wary eye on both the ship's sensors and what he could see with his own eyes through the viewport. He could see Spirit's transponder on the screen, but the cruiser was in the thick of it, surrounded by smaller pinpoints of light that indicated Republic and Sep fighters.

  "They're too busy to worry about us," Ahsoka said at last.

 
"I'll try to worry less obviously in future."

  "Yularen knows you're inbound."

  "Yeah, but so does Ventress, I'll bet. She had her droids ready for us, and she knows this crate's gone. She also knows we won't be crazy enough to head for Tatooine in it. So she knows we've got to do a transfer, and that we don't have many ships to choose from."

  "She might not."

  "She's smart. If I can think of this solution to our problem, so can she." Anakin adjusted course, looking to divert around a knot of V-19s chasing down a flight of vultures. Rotta whimpered.

  "What would you do?"

  "Er . . . booby-trap the freighter to explode?"

  Anakin's gut flipped over. He hadn't thought of that one. "No. No, she needs Rotta. That's got to be her plan."

  "Admit it, we found this tub realty conveniently."

  It would take a matter of minutes to reach Yularen. "She wasn't expecting us. She couldn't have planned the hunting fly. She'll have vulture droids looking out for us."

  "It all hinges on who's the best pilot, then, you or a heap of smart scrap."

  R2-D2 chirped and flashed. He said he thought that was a little organicist, speaking as a heap of smart scrap himself.

  Ahsoka was still learning. "I didn't understand all that."

  "I'll give you some sensitivity lessons later ..."

  The Twilight began her approach to Spirit. Any minute now, a Sep sensor officer or a vulture would notice the freighter on their screen, and then it was all down to nerve, speed, and skill. Anakin knew he was weak on one of those. He realigned his instruments on Spirit and lined up with the cruiser's hangar bay.

  There was an awful lot of traffic in between.

  "Hang on to our slippery friend, Snips. Here we go."

  "Yes, Master."

  Anakin opened the comm. "General Skywalker to Jedi cruiser, we need hangar bay access. I say again, we need hangar bay access urgently."

  A blip appeared instantly on the screen. A vulture had dropped out of nowhere and was skimming just above the cockpit, matching their speed. Anakin couldn't fire the Twilight's laser cannon. It was like a nasty itch in a place you couldn't reach without tearing yourself up. Another vulture peeled off from formation and headed straight for them. It was on an intercept course.

  Something hit the Twilight hard. Rivets flew from the internal bulkheads as they flexed under the impact. The freighter had taken a hit. Anakin held it on course.

  "Maybe she doesn't want Stinky alive after all ... ," Ahsoka said.

  Maybe. "Nearly there. Hang on."

  He could see the cruiser and the hangar now. The outline of the opening was picked out in hazard lighting. But he also saw a ball of energy heading directly at the freighter, coming straight from the cruiser's aft cannon position.

  "Brace!" he yelled. "Ahsoka, brace!"

  The cannon round hit the cockpit and Anakin felt the shock wave travel up through the steering yoke to his hands and smack into his elbow and shoulder joints. The freighter shook violently.

  "Are they targeting the vultures?" Ahsoka asked.

  "No, they're firing at us!" The cruiser still had its deflector shields up. Anakin opened the comm again. "Jedi cruiser, this is General Skywalker, this is a Republic friendly, repeat, freighter Twilight is a Republic friendly, hold fire, hold fire."

  The comm popped in response. "Freighter Twilight, you're showing a CIS military transponder code . . . your call."

  Stang. Of course: the spy droid and his detachment would have made sure their own forces didn't fire on them. 4A-7 had had the last laugh, then.

  "Jedi cruiser, this is Skywalker. We're crawling with vultures and we need to drop off a very sick Huttlet. Open the hangar. Please."

  After a second's pause, Admiral Yularen's voice came over the comm. "Skywalker, we're going to drop the deflectors, but we need to lose those vultures. Divert to the aft hangar, I repeat, aft hangar. And check your transponder next time you commandeer an enemy vessel. We've had a few suicide runs before, and we shoot first."

  "Yes, Admiral." Wow, consider me put in my place. An admiral was lord of all he surveyed in his own fleet, and Anakin was just another pilot who should have known better. "Stand by for a possible crash landing."

  Anakin jerked the Twilight violently to port, leaving the pursuing vultures wrong-footed for a vital moment, and looped under the cruiser. Ahsoka gasped, Rotta shrieked, and the freighter came about facing the cruiser's stern. The hangar doors were open; the aperture rushed up on Anakin like a gaping mouth about to consume him.

  The vultures were still pursuing, hammering the hull with laser cannon. How the crate was holding together Anakin would never know, but it was, and that was all that mattered.

  Ten seconds.

  The vultures were still with them. He couldn't do a deck landing with them clinging to him. The cruiser knew that, and opened up with precision lasers. One vulture shattered and cartwheeled away, showering red-hot debris on the cockpit viewport.

  The next shot hit a vulture with unerring accuracy, too. But was suddenly a ball of flame tumbling ahead of the freighter's nose. It streaked into the hangar, and all Anakin could see was a ball of fire and smoke where sanctuary should have been.

  "Pull up! Pull up!"

  "Abort, abort, abort!"

  Anakin did it without thinking. He jerked back on the yoke and sent the freighter climbing vertically. He didn't have time to worry about the cruiser or the hangar crew, but the ship had its hands full with damage and casualties now, so they couldn't worry about him, either. There was no going around for another approach.

  And he was still trailing an unwelcome escort of vultures.

  Just as Captain Rex had been, he and Ahsoka were now on their own. The irony wasn't lost on him.

  * * *

  TETH MONASTERY

  Kenobi ran.

  Ventress chased him through the passages and up flights of ancient stone stairs, slowed by whatever she'd injured-vertebrae, ribs?-even if the adrenaline and endorphins flooding her bloodstream had completely numbed any pain for the time being. She didn't have time to stop and check her comm for an update on Skywalker and his escape attempt.

  He'd either beaten the fighter picket and docked, or he was charcoal by now-along with his ship and the Hutt. Dooku would rage in his quiet patrician way, but sometimes the only choice was between a bad result and a worse one.

  She could still find a way to pin a dead Huttlet on the Jedi.

  At the top of the stairs was a window that ran the full height of the wall, and Kenobi was standing there as if he was waiting for her to catch up. The ornately patterned colored transparisteel of the window itself had been blown out by shelling. He was silhouetted against the afternoon sun.

  It was a gesture of contempt. It said that he could take her any time he liked. And it made her angrier than ever.

  Just a game for you, isn't it? No family, no lover, no country, nothing to weep for. A sport.

  "What are you waiting for?" he said, and jumped.

  SEVENTEEN

  In a battle between those fighting for a political principle, and those fighting for the survival of their home and family, the latter usually win in the long run. They've got nothing more to lose, and it makes them terrible enemies. Like us.

  Jabiimi commander, on the nature of fighting the Republic on Jabiim

  * * *

  TETH AIRSPACE

  All Anakin needed was a small window of opportunity to climb free of the atmosphere and jump to hyperspace.

  Any doubts that the battered freighter would survive the massive forces of acceleration to light speed and beyond were now a luxury to sweat over later. That was the great thing about problems; there was always a bigger, nastier one to put the rest in a convenient shadow. Anakin's was his escort of vultures, which were now trying to force him to land.

  "I can't outrun them," he said.

  Ahsoka had been commendably silent, no helpful suggestions that he didn't need or cheery exhortati
ons to keep his spirits up. A Padawan needed to learn when to shut up. She had. She clutched Rotta to her chest as if he were squirming to get away, but the Hutt hung limp in her arms, eyes half closed, breathing noisily.

  If they ever got away, they might be delivering a dead Huttlet to Jabba after all. It didn't bear thinking about.

  "Let's jettison something," Ahsoka said at last.

  Laser cannonfire streaked past the Twilight's nose, and another vulture droid buzzed the ship, so close to the cockpit viewport that Anakin jerked hard to starboard in pure reflex. Vultures were not dumb tinnies. They seemed to be able to learn from their quarry, and right now they were playing a very good game of nervous nuna-harrying the freighter and making runs at it to test who would blink first.

  "What? Can't dump fuel." Anakin checked the gauges. "It's not like it weighs enough to make a difference, and we've got to get to Tatooine."

  "Water," she said. "Ballast."

  "I didn't check the cargo bay."

  "I'll do it," she said, and before he could stop her, she'd strapped Rotta in the copilot's seat and was making her way aft. "I jettison whatever I find, right?"

  "Yeah. When you open the cargo hatch, I'll get a red warning light up here, and I'll just bring up the nose and let everything slide out. Don't waste time dragging any crates up to the tail ramp."

  She vanished through the cockpit hatch. Anakin concentrated on evading the vultures. Would they really bring him down in flames now, and risk killing the Hutt? He didn't know, and he couldn't take any chances playing brinkmanship with them. As he banked, he could see V-19s beneath him locked in a fight with more vultures. He didn't dare loop over the monastery to see what was happening. He couldn't even allow himself to be distracted by listening in to the GAR comm circuit to see how Kenobi and Rex were doing. He headed out over the jungle and away from the lighting to make sure he didn't add to their woes by dropping heavy objects on them. Even a small crate falling from that height would cause some serious damage.