Master Apprentice
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(continued from part 24)
Qui-Gon led the way across the surface of Malum IV, a harsh landscape of rock, uneven and treacherous but for the light gravity that made their progress much easier. Luckily they didn't have to wear pressure suits -- the rock had enough mass to hold a very light atmosphere. Not enough to walk around without breathers, but enough that a few moments of exposure wouldn't result in their eyeballs bursting.
That was good luck, as far as it went. They could only hope that the prisoners would be in good enough physical condition to withstand the return trip. Tahl had checked the life signs, and there seemed to be quite a lot of beings in the settlement ship. Which were the Force-sensitive prisoners and which were the enemy – they would have to wait and see.
The schematics had shown just what they had expected -- a reactor core planted at a distance from the settlement hub, with a tunnel connecting the two for maintenance access. In this model of settlement ship, the reactor deployed on a telescoping arm and buried itself at a distance from the ship, to protect passengers from accidental radiation leakage. Automated systems dug everything twenty meters into the surface, leaving part of the reactor visible, and beside it a hatch for emergency access to the maintenance tunnel from the surface.
If they were lucky, no one would be watching the tunnel, and they could slip in that way without being detected. They would have to improvise from that point, once they saw what they were facing. Whatever this station was, it was not listed as a civilian settlement. This far out on the Rim, it had to be something someone wanted to hide.
Qui-Gon reached the hatch and found that it opened with the factory preset code for this model of settlement ship -- no one had even bothered to change it. Either someone didn't know about the hatch, or didn't care. The worst possible scenario was that they were expected, and the uncommon ease of entry signified a trap.
Qui-Gon spared Tahl a worried glance as the hatch opened -- their breathers prevented them from speaking to each other, but she understood. He entered first, climbing down the ladder with his senses on high alert. The Force was quiet, no hint of danger nearby, but something felt odd about the place. He stepped out of the way and Tahl joined him after closing the hatch behind her.
They opened the internal hatch and Tahl tested the air and removed her breather. "I'll lead from here. I can feel Rensi -- I know I can find him. You stay alert for trouble, though. When I focus on my bond with him, I lose some sensitivity to my surroundings."
Qui-Gon nodded as he stowed his breather. Tahl's words made him think of Obi-Wan. The two of them had not yet formed such a bond, even though Qui-Gon had felt certain of their connection. Obi-Wan could read him clearly when they were together, and their joint meditations had been easy. But when he left, there had been nothing to guide Qui-Gon to his side. Obi-Wan had been holding back, even when Qui-Gon held no part of himself in reserve. The realization pained him, but he shoved it ruthlessly aside.
Another thought flitted to the surface, troubling him further. Qui-Gon had been taken from Coruscant and sold to slavers dealing in Force-sensitives, so he had to admit the possibility that a similar fate might have befallen Obi-Wan. Perhaps that had been at the center of his willingness to assist Tahl – perhaps his attachment had made him that selfish.
This was no time to brood on such things. Tahl was depending on him, and he needed to support her in this, right an old wrong.
"Keep up," Tahl whispered. “There were no security measures along the tunnel in the schematics, but sometimes customers do their own mods. Stay sharp."
Rushing along beside her, Qui-Gon made a conscious effort to put Kenobi out of his thoughts and concentrate on the task at hand. By the time they reached the inner hatch, he was fully focused on the moment, mind on the mission.
He used the Force to feel for beings beyond the door, and he could see that Tahl was doing the same. Their way appeared to be clear, and the door did not seem to have ever been opened. Metal ground on metal as they pushed against it. When they had it open enough to pass through, they waited to see if the sound brought anyone to investigate. It didn't.
That should have been comforting, but it wasn’t.
"Not much security here," Tahl remarked. Her brow lined with concern.
"How could it be this lax?" Qui-Gon looked around the settlement hallway. "These settlement ships don't come cheaply. Why are their defenses so poor -- especially when they have taken people from such formidable families as yours?"
Tahl smoothed her hair, now pulled back into a tail and lying across one shoulder. Qui-Gon recognized the nervous gesture form their initiate days, and it intensified his foreboding.
"Only one way to find out," she said as she headed down the passage. As she reached a junction, she glanced at Qui-Gon. “Do you feel that?”
A vague humming through the Force, like the Force signature of a single powerful being, but strangely faceted. Tahl took a deep breath and turned left. Qui-Gon followed, and what he saw there made his head throb like he'd taken a blow. On either side of the new passage were large cages, each containing a single mature female Keranom.
He stopped in his tracks, and turned a slow circle on his heel, mind racing.
Tahl paused when she realized he had stopped. "This means something to you." It wasn't a question.
Qui-Gon nodded."But that doesn't change what we're here to do."
They continued on, Qui-Gon focusing his Force awareness on the passages ahead, trying to feel the approach of any unfriendly sentients. Nothing so far, but seven hells his head hurt. It did not occur to him that his pain might be related to the Kleranoms until he noticed that Tahl was wincing as well.
"These creatures," he began in a whisper, “have venom that can be altered and used to paralyze midichlorians, preventing them from accessing the Light side of the Force. Xanatos was infected with it. The Temple Healers are still trying to figure out how to reverse the effects."
Tahl glanced around. "There are at least thirty of them along this passage. Possibly more in other parts of the ship."
"If this facility is where the toxins were produced -- and it would be an incredible coincidence if it isn’t – there may be data here that could help the Healers identify an antidote."
"I'll find the captives." Tahl nodded. "You do what you have to do, but be quick about it. Meet me back at the hatch."
Qui-Gon nodded and Tahl hurried off. He considered the schematics he'd seen, wondering where might be a likely location for a lab. He made his way through the maze of caged Kleranoms. Hearing the hum of hydraulics, he turned, lightsaber ready.
A door was opening at the back of one of the Kleranom cages. He stepped to the side to conceal himself.
Peeking around the corner, he saw that the open door separated the cage from another chamber. Reaching out with the Force, he felt nothing except the strange alien presence that the Kleranoms exuded.
The newly opened section held two smaller, male Kleranoms, scuttling about on eight legs. In cages all around him, panels slid open allowing male Kleranoms to join the females.
He made his way out from among them quickly. From what he had heard of Kleranom mating practices, the whole area was about to get very messy.
Perhaps that explained the lack of guards in this section of the compound – only a great fool would want to be within meters of mating Kleranoms.
Qui-Gon set himself to his task with renewed urgency. If someone was breeding Kleranoms for the purpose of developing a biological toxin that could cripple the Jedi, then that would explain the collection of Force-sensitives in non-Republic space. Tahl’s lover and those like him were being used as test subjects. Or . . .
The circumstances surrounding his first meeting with Obi-Wan flashed before Qui-Gon’s memory – Durante had been planning to use Obi-Wan as a host for Kleranom young. Qui-Gon realized the Force had been guiding him all along. He had been drawn to rescue Obi-Wan, and circumstances ever since then had led him to this moment.
This mission he had fallen into with Tahl was his chance to protect the entire Order, and help Xanatos in the process. He was exactly where he was supposed to be.
He rounded a corner, checking for vid cameras. There was one, mounted just above a door he thought looked like a good place to start. It took only a moment to disable it with the Force. It sparked as he approached the door where it hung. It was locked, but no match for his lightsaber. Inside, he found a lab – clean and empty, but with several state-of-the-art data terminals.
Qui-Gon tried to open files through these terminals, but they were all encrypted. Well, when finesse fails, use the direct approach. He dialed his ‘saber to a low setting so as not to fry the internals, and used it to open the data terminal casings. Once that was done it was simple enough to grab the memory cubes.
He tossed the cubes from the first two terminals into his belt pouch and began working on the third, when a klaxon sounded. Lights began flashing and a blast door slammed down covering the entrance.
“Hells!” Qui-Gon felt a pang of urgency through the Force – Tahl needed him. He'd have to cut his way out and find Tahl quickly if they were going to get the captives and escape before guards overwhelmed them. He dialed up the power on his lightsaber and plunged it through the thick durasteel of the blast door. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he applied steady pressure. A blast door on a lab this size must mean the data he had in his possession was very valuable.
If only he had time to get into the last terminal... but there was no help for it. Once he'd made a hole big enough to pass through, there wasn't a millisecond. He could hear the stomp of many pairs of boots coming his way.
Qui-Gon had barely gotten free of the lab before a motley gang of beings came charging around the corner. He saw immediately that some of them had been wakened. Many were not wearing shoes and one reptilian guard was entirely naked but for his gun and a bit of body armor that kept slipping off his narrow shoulders.
He took note of this in a fraction of a second. As soon as they turned the corner, some of them paused in surprise at seeing him, and others coming from behind ran into them. Qui-Gon had a feeling that the look on one humanoid guard's face was shock. And recognition.
Not hesitating to ponder the interesting things that expression suggested, Qui-Gon brought his lightsaber to bear. His first stroke cut two blasters in half, and then he began to deflect the blaster fire coming his way. They had not been expecting a Jedi, certainly, though Qui-Gon had to wonder what they had expected to find if they thought such a sloppy response would be sufficient.
"Qui-Gon, I need you," Tahl shouted, not far away. He sprinted toward her voice, taking the turns as the Force led him, deflecting blaster fire all the way. When he reached her, he saw that she had more than a dozen prisoners with her.
Obi-Wan was not among them, but Qui-Gon did not have the luxury of time to be either disappointed or relieved. At least his Obi-Wan had not been at the mercy of slavers like the ones Qui-Gon had encountered.
Blaster fire from a significantly better prepared group of fighters was keeping Tahl very busy. "I can handle them," she shouted as Qui-Gon approached. "You get these people moving. I'll cover you."
She didn't miss a beat, deflecting each blaster bolt that came her way back into the line of fighters. They were well-armored, but it kept them hopping all the same.
Qui-Gon grabbed a younger man by the arm and shouted, "Get them all to follow me!"
He led them back to the corner, where the motley group of guards had paused to await their retreat, knowing that the other group had the prisoners and whoever was helping them pinned down.
Qui-Gon had a surprise for them. He came out boldly, relying on the Force to guide his movements. On either side of the door the fellows crouched, expecting to take out anyone who came this way. Qui-Gon deflected a few bolts back toward them, but mostly the Force was guiding him to evade the stun bolts. Anything that made it past him without either hitting him or being deflected served to hit the guards on the other side. These people, whoever they were, were the worst soldiers or mercenaries he had ever seen. All he had to do was keep the innocents back and they would take care of each other.
It didn’t take long to rout the shoddy group he had encountered first, then all he had to do was deflect the blaster fire from the others while the prisoners filed past behind him.
When Tahl joined him, he surrendered the blaster deflection to her and ran to catch up with the prisoners. Their apparent leader was a tall man with black hair, who seemed to have some tactical training. None of the prisoners looked truly well -- most appeared haggard and pale, but none of them were injured.
"Which way to the hatch?" the tall man asked Qui-Gon.
“This way!" Qui-Gon set off, lightsaber ready. He knew the shortest way was between the Kleranom cages. "Keep everyone close to the middle. Stay out of reach of both sides."
The tall man and two teens, a boy and a girl, spread the word through the group, using several different languages. Qui-Gon could feel them all in the Force -– these were the Force-sensitives who had been taken from various Rim worlds, ripped from their lives in a plan to destroy the Jedi.
Qui-Gon moved forward, senses alert for possible ambush. Luckily, going through the Kleranom gauntlet did not appeal very much to their pursuers.
Some of the Kleranoms were mating, while others had moved on to eating the spent males. A younger boy stopped in horror, perhaps wondering what it was he was seeing. One Kleranom female was eating her rejected suitor while the acceptable mate did his work. Thick, gelatinous fluid spurted from the broken carapaces.
The tall man snatched the boy by the shoulders and said something Qui-Gon didn't catch. The whole exchange didn't slow them down; their leader kept them focused, with just the right blend of urgency and encouragement. Qui-Gon had assumed from the first that this must be Rensi.
He could hear the hum and sizzle of Tahl’s ‘saber as she deflected blaster fire from behind the group. Qui-Gon reached out with the Force to sense any more guards lying in wait ahead. The Force felt murky and odd in the midst of the Kleranom cages.
He could see far enough ahead to know that they would be safe until they turned the corner. From there it would be a straight shot to the tunnel. Perhaps if they could get everyone in the tunnel and running for the hatch, they could make it to the ship before another security team reached it. They must have located it with external sensors by now.
He rounded the corner with his ‘saber at the ready and deflected the bolts of blaster fire that erupted in his direction. He sent as many back toward the attackers as he could manage, but made sure none got past him.
He managed to stun several of the men with their own blaster fire before he advanced on them, deflecting the barrage easily enough. As the stun bolts scorched the wall beside him, he realized these men wanted to take them alive. He didn't allow himself to think of what might happen if the person behind this plot captured two Jedi for use in their experiments.
He fought hard. No new security forces arrived to replace the ones that fell, and soon those who remained were retreating behind cover. Their odds of stunning a few of them as they tried to cross the corridor would be much better from a protected position. Perhaps they were trying to delay them long enough for others to capture the ship.
Tahl appeared beside him. "The ones back there are out cold," she said, explaining why she left the rearguard open. The escapees huddled together, close behind the two Jedi. They looked at Rensi, trying to gauge how afraid they should be based on his demeanor. He appeared calm and focused.
Qui-Gon allowed himself a fraction of a second to acknowledge Tahl's taste in men before getting on with it. "That first batch was ill-prepared, and this bunch is not getting any reinforcements. Either this place is understaffed or-"
"Or they've found the ship on their sensors and are trying to get there first." Tahl peeked around the corner and winced. The remaining guards had set up an impromptu gun emplacement, a shield of equipment and blast deflectors with small gaps so they could shoot their blaster rifles with minimal exposure. It would be nearly impossible to take them out with deflected stun bolts alone. "We don't have time to engage them. We’ll have to deflect as much as we can while the others run for the hatch."
Qui-Gon nodded, and watched as Tahl made eye contact with Rensi. He felt a tickle in the Force and realized they must be bonded so closely that they had a telepathic link. Rensi nodded and began whispering to the Force-sensitives around him, pairing them off.
Tahl turned to Qui-Gon and nodded. In unison they both jumped around the corner, lightsabers flashing. By twos, the captives rushed past them on the way to the hatch. Rensi was the last; Qui-Gon and Tahl followed him close behind. The hatch to the tunnel was just ahead. Qui-Gon ran to it and held it open for the others, telling them not to go too far down the tunnel, in case more guards waited for them at the other end.
He almost wished they would meet more forces in the tunnel. To make it to the hatch from outside the station, the guards would need breathers, and Qui-Gon doubted Tahl had enough for everyone.
Tahl and Rensi came through last. Tahl dialed her lightsaber down and used it to weld the seam around the door, while Qui-Gon ran to the front of the group. The tunnel was dark, but he didn't sense anyone ahead.
Using his lightsaber as a torch, he walked steadily forward. Qui-Gon focused on the problem of getting the prisoners safely across the surface. The lighter gravity could be helpful, but there was no way they could make it to the ship without breathers, especially if they encountered resistance. Force help us, he thought.
Once they had all made it just below the hatch, Tahl and Rensi came forward together.
"Some of the prisoners are ill, but I think most of them can make it with a little help," Rensi said, his face grave in the blue light of Tahl's saber.
"We need more breathers," Qui-Gon said. "If there aren't forces out there waiting for us already, we don't have much time until there will be."
"I'm shocked you'd think me so ill-prepared," Tahl said, grinning wryly. She pulled several breathers from her pack. "I brought ten, other than the ones we used."
"So three of us will have to go without," Rensi said. “Assuming that you Jedi won’t need them.”
Tahl nodded. "We can make it to the ship without them, but what about the others?"
Rensi looked at the freed captives, thinking. "Jem and Nirva are small enough to carry. Perhaps if we hurried..."
"It's risky," Qui-Gon said.
"Making two trips is riskier," Tahl shot back, as she handed out the breathers.
The teens Qui-Gon had noticed earlier picked up Jem and Nirva.
“We’ll share with them,” the girl said.
Tahl nodded. "That still leaves us short by one." Qui-Gon could see the line of Tahl's shoulders tense.
"I'm the third," Rensi said, as though Qui-Gon's assumption had been absurd. “I can make it."
Qui-Gon nodded, but could not help glancing at Tahl to gauge her reaction.
She nodded, lips pressed to a thin line. "You go first, Qui-Gon. I'll take the rear."
No sooner had she said it than she was off down the line. Qui-Gon wondered how he would have reacted, had it been Obi-Wan volunteering to suffocate on the surface of an asteroid to save a few innocents. A shudder ran down his spine as he opened the inner door. He left it open behind him, and climbed up the ladder. He checked that the group had their breathers in place, pausing to prepare his body for oxygen deprivation.
Then he pushed up the outer hatch.
As he climbed out onto the surface, the pressurized air whooshed past him. No one appeared to be out there waiting for them.
He helped some of the captives out of the hatch, seeing to it that the two teens laden with smaller children came up first. Qui-Gon led them as quickly as possible over the surface toward the hidden ship, trusting Tahl to be mindful of any stragglers. With no standard gravity, the normal exertion of walking produced significant leaps. Some of the captives seemed rather wild-eyed at first, but they adapted quickly.
Qui-Gon had no difficulty holding his breath, but he hoped that he could get the captives to the ship without a fight. A sustained battle would be difficult, even for a Jedi Master.
He topped the last rise before they reached the ship and discovered a small force attempting to disable Tahl’s ship. Thank the Force that Tahl had left shields on -- the blast rifles did little damage.
Qui-Gon signaled to the refugees to stay down and he leaped at the forces now surrounding the ship. There was no time to lose. Waiting would only endanger Rensi and the others, and give the stunned guards in the base time to wake up and follow.
Only one of the group saw him coming, and he didn't have time to warn the others before Qui-Gon's lightsaber sliced his blast rifle in half. Qui-Gon noted that they all wore full encounter suits, pressurized and flexible, each with its own air supply. They were probably well-insulated as well, so they would not be subject to the rapid hypothermia that threatened Qui-Gon and those he protected.
He grabbed the tubes that connected the closest guard's encounter suit to its air supply and pulled them free. The fellow was not incapacitated immediately, but was more concerned with his own survival than with fighting a Jedi.
The rest of them had turned to fight. Qui-Gon counted twelve, including the one now crawling away. His lightsaber flashed as the Force flowed through him, deflecting the bolts that came his way. They were red now, set on kill. Three of the bolts went back at the security forces, but were partially deflected by the armor. He heard two of the men cry out, even through their masked helmets.
The barrage continued, and Qui-Gon had to work hard to block most of them, hoping that the civilians stayed down. He began to sweat, but the sweat formed into ice crystals as soon as it sprang up on his skin, so that little flashes of glittering light surrounded him as his movements flung the crystals off in all directions. His lungs began to burn.
Three more went down, but he was outnumbered and beginning to tire.
Sensing his distress, Tahl joined him. They fell into a comfortable rhythm in the Force, and four more were hit. The rest threw down their rifles and ran, leaving their injured compatriots to make their own way to the safety of the base. Qui-Gon dashed among them, making certain they were disarmed before going back for the captives. Tahl opened the ship and rushed to assist the others. As soon as the firing had stopped, they had started running for the sh.
Qui-Gon saw that the two teens who had been sharing their breathers with the children looked pale and cold, but remained conscious. Tahl had run to Rensi and was helping him toward the ship, so Qui-Gon concentrated his efforts on getting everyone else inside as quickly as possible. The teens and the two children went through first. They left their breathers in the airlock before closing the inner door.
Qui-Gon grabbed them gratefully and slipped one on, even as he steadied an older woman who had stumbled. His every movement had become painful by the time he got the breather on, as if his exertion had been the only thing keeping his body warm during the confrontation. The cold affected everyone, making muscles stiffen and joints throb. Now that he was not fighting, Qui-Gon felt the bite of it even more.
Once they got to the ramp, some of the energy seemed to drain out of the group. They trembled from the cold and struggled to stay upright. Qui-Gon took the other abandoned breathers to Tahl and Rensi, all the while helping to cycle people through the airlock.
Tahl and her man were last on the ramp. Tahl's gold-ringed eyes met Qui-Gon's as she helped Rensi forward, and he saw worry there. Rensi seemed nearly insensible, moving awkwardly as he leaned on her, muttering into his mask. Qui-Gon helped her get him inside, and hurried to the cockpit, knowing that Tahl would wish to stay with her lover.
As he rushed through the preflight routine, Qui-Gon thought, what if that had been Obi-Wan, risking himself for others with such foolish bravery? Would he feel proud or would he be incensed that his lover had needlessly risked himself? Would he have been able to focus on the confrontation with the security force, or would his mind have been clouded by the knowledge that Obi-Wan’s lips were slowly turning that horrible shade of blue? Afterward, would he hold him close and whisper encouragement or shake him by the shoulders and berate him for a fool?
Close, possessive relationships could certainly be volatile.
He had the engines going when Tahl appeared beside him and started flipping switches. "I had it set for a quick-start, coordinates already in the navicomputer and everything," she said. They lifted off easily, and Qui-Gon felt a thrill of relief to feel Malum IV fall away underneath them. "But I suppose this will do, since this place has no orbital defenses."
"How are they?"
Tahl didn’t look at him while she checked the last of the settings and punched the ship into hyperspace. At last she answered, still not making eye contact.“They’ll live.”
Once the ship had settled into hyperspace, she unbuckled and headed back to tend to the refugees. Qui-Gon checked the navicomputer. When he saw the destination was Coruscant, he let out a sigh of relief and went to help her.