“And you?” Obi-Wan asked.
“I was in the Clear Sector, as was Galen, when we heard. I came here. I was trained as a medic originally. Here is where I was most needed.”
“It was brave of you to come,” Soara said.
Curi pressed her lips together. “It was the least I could do.”
“Have you investigated the leak at your lab?” Siri asked.
Curi shook her head. “I didn’t have time to review safety procedures, so I just ordered it shut down. It was clear very quickly that we were dealing with something that moved very fast. I came back when I knew we were running out of time to help the sick. We didn’t realize that the sick would turn into the dying. We had no idea what to expect. Galen was involved in weapons development, you see. He was experimenting with the toxin for a future bio-weapon. He had no idea what he had.”
“What do you know about the toxin?”
“We know more about what it isn’t than what it is,” Curi admitted. “We know it isn’t a virus. It isn’t a gas, but it has been carried through the air. Somehow it is absorbed into the system, but we aren’t sure how. It could be through the skin. The particles are so microscopic that even a bacta bath would not clear it all away.”
“It doesn’t seem that you have the same problems here that the Clear Sector does,” Obi-Wan observed. “There’s no sign of panic or rioting.”
Curi nodded tiredly. “There was no time for panic. The dying cannot riot. Those who couldn’t make it here to the med center are dying in their homes. I make the rounds. I do what I can. That is very little.”
“What other kind of help can we give you?” Siri asked.
“You have brought the medicine. That was a great help. Perhaps you could patrol the city and find out how many still need help. I haven’t been able to get to every dwelling. You can help us organize. People will listen to you. Once the ships arrive, they will have more advanced med care. We might be able to save a few. You have to give them hope, at least.” Curi’s voice faltered.
Obi-Wan nodded, then turned to the others. “We should split into two teams. We can call two of the Padawans here, and two Masters can return to the Clear Sector.”
Ry-Gaul nodded.
“We might be able to move another team back after we accomplish something here,” Soara said as Siri nodded in agreement.
Curi looked from one Jedi to the other. “But you can’t return.”
“What?” Soara asked.
“Didn’t Galen tell you? Once you cross over to the Isolation Sector, no one is allowed to return. It is forbidden. Until we know that you’re not carrying the toxin back on your skin or clothes, we can’t risk it.”
“We’re wearing bio-isolation suits,” Siri said.
“Yes, but you can’t wear them back to the Clear Sector,” Curi explained. “The toxin may now be on your suit. Even if you remove it, some residue on the suit may touch your skin. Until we know how much of the toxin is needed to cause the epidemic, we can’t let you return.” She looked at them helplessly. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew. When the evacuation ships arrive, you will be able to undergo bio-cleansing aboard ship. Then I imagine there will be a quarantine period. We don’t have the facilities here.”
Obi-Wan looked at the other Jedi Masters. Curi’s news was exasperating, but Jedi did not waste time on such emotions. He knew that, like him, they were all thinking of what to do next.
“We should contact our Padawans with more detailed instructions,” Soara spoke crisply.
“They will have to handle any problems in Tacto,” Siri said. “Perhaps we should contact the Jedi Council and ask for an additional Jedi team, or maybe two.”
“By the time they arrive, the evacuation ships will be here,” Obi-Wan said. “The Padawans will have to handle things on their own.”
He could see that none of them liked this prospect. Some of the Masters had not had their Padawans very long. It made him uneasy to think of Anakin in an unstable situation without him. But there was no other solution.
Obi-Wan activated his comlink. He was relieved when he heard Anakin’s voice. He knew the communication between the two sectors could be difficult. That would be another problem.
“We have a problem here,” he told Anakin. “We are unable to return to the Clear Sector. You and the rest of the Padawans will have to manage that aspect of the mission.”
“I see,” Anakin said neutrally.
“The safety of the population is your first priority,” Obi-Wan said. “Establish safety patrols to keep the peace. Try to keep misinformation from spreading. Coordinate with Galen as to the evacuation schedule. Avoid using violence, and take no lives.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Now, as for details,” Obi-Wan began, but suddenly, the communication was cut off. When he tried to contact Anakin again, he could not reach him. Obi-wan hid his frustration as he tucked his comlink back in his belt.
“They’ll be fine,” Siri said. “I trust Ferus. He’s been on many missions.”
“And I trust Anakin,” Obi-Wan agreed. Still, a small voice inside him hoped that Anakin would be able to work well with the other Padawans without his watchful eye.
“We’ll try again later,” Soara said. “In the meantime, we should split into teams.”
Obi-Wan glanced at Siri, and she nodded. There were many times that they had clashed in the past. But that did not matter. They had worked together before and knew each other’s rhythms.
“Obi-Wan and I will begin to search the city for more of the sick,” Siri said.
“We’ll take the north sector,” Obi-Wan said. “We need to compile lists so that we can assure there is space for everyone. We must make sure all the sick are evacuated. We’ll check in when we can.”
Ry-Gaul nodded.
“May the Force be with you,” Soara said.
“May the Force be with you,” Obi-Wan and Siri repeated. Then they turned toward the eerie emptiness of the city and began their walk toward death.
Chapter Seven
The Padawans had just left the med center when Obi-Wan contacted Anakin. They had remained to make sure that the Radnoran father would be all right. They had questioned the family, but no one knew the raiders. They had arrived out of nowhere. Other families in the neighborhood had been hit, too, so they’d been worried that they would be attacked. But there was no way to defend themselves against the prototype droids.
The four Padawans paused on the outside of the med center. Suddenly, they felt very alone.
“I spend half my time impatient to be a Jedi Knight,” Darra said finally. “Now all I want is to be a Padawan. I wish Soara were here.” She reached into the pocket of Tru’s tunic and withdrew the bag of candy he kept there. She popped a piece of figda in her mouth and chewed furiously.
“We’ll do fine,” Anakin said confidently.
“No stress,” Ferus agreed. The expression in his dark eyes was serene. “Among all of us, we’ve been on enough missions to handle this.”
“How should we start?” Tru asked. “Did they want all of us to go on safety patrols? Or should one team coordinate with Galen on the evacuation?”
“Obi-Wan didn’t say,” Anakin answered. “But if you ask me, safety patrols won’t accomplish much if we don’t flush out the raiders.”
“Hold it,” Ferus said. “That would be overstepping our instructions.”
“We’ve received no clear directions,” Anakin pointed out. “The communication cut out. We know our first priority is the safety of the citizens, and we can’t possibly accomplish that with safety patrols alone.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Ferus said.
Darra looked from Anakin to Ferus. “Excuse me. I don’t want to interrupt, but I just wanted to point out that there are two other Padawans here. Do we get a vote?”
“Sure you get a vote,” Anakin said. “As long as you agree with me.” He smiled to let her know he was kidding.
“What do you have
in mind?” Tru asked Anakin. “Let’s discuss the plan first, then vote on it.”
“It would be much more fun to stand here arguing,” Darra said.
“I say we split into teams,” Anakin said. “One team can conduct safety patrols. The other can work on finding the headquarters of the raiders.” He knew very well that he wasn’t going to be on the team conducting safety patrols. He and Tru would go after the raiders.
“How?” Ferus asked. “We don’t have the resources to comb the whole city.”
“We don’t have to. I have an idea,” Anakin declared. “Even a Prototype Droid would have a homing device. All we have to do is take one of the droids we deactivated and tap into it.”
“Do you know how to do that?” Darra asked.
“Sure,” Anakin replied.
“It can’t be that easy,” Darra said.
Anakin grinned. “I didn’t say it was easy. I said I could do it.”
“Hold on a second,” Tru said. “These are Battle Droids. Most likely they undergo an automatic memory wipe if they are captured or deactivated.”
“There isn’t a memory wipe that I can’t get around,” Anakin said confidently. “The homing device is coded into the main sensor suite. I can find it. If we revive a droid, it will lead us straight to the headquarters.”
Darra shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”
Tru nodded. “All right. I say we go after the headquarters.”
“Then it’s decided,” Ferus said. “Though I don’t think we should split into teams. If Anakin is successful and we do find the headquarters, no doubt there will be more of those Prototype Droids. Too many for one team to handle.”
Privately, Anakin thought that he and Tru could handle the droids, but he nodded. “All right.” Obi-Wan had given him a warning that he must cooperate, respecting Jedi values. Anakin took that seriously.
They headed back to the Radnoran family home. The fallen droids still littered the grounds. Anakin found one that was mostly intact. It had lost its arms and its artillery control panel had fused, but the main sensor suite wasn’t too badly damaged.
Anakin removed his utility kit from his belt and went to work. He opened the sensor suite panel. Tru bent over to look.
“Standard, except for those circuits,” he said, pointing. “I remember seeing a manual regarding the OOM-9 Battle Droid. This looks similar.”
Anakin was grateful for Tru’s photographic memory. Some of the circuitry was new to him. He pointed to a tightly packed array of multicolored wires by the sensory input cable. “Do you remember which wire goes with what?”
“The green are for locomotion. The white connect to artillery devices. See how they fused and shorted? The blue are for passive-mode sensors. And I think these cables here are part of the signal receiver assembly.”
“I bet the homing device is connected somehow,” Anakin murmured.
“It’s a good place to start,” Tru agreed.
Darra seemed interested in their progress, but Anakin could feel Ferus’s impatience behind him. He tried to screen it out as he worked.
“I’ve got it!” Anakin said at last. “I reconnected the homing device to the locomotion sensor through the sensory plug-in. If I turn it on, the droid should head back to its origin point.”
“Let’s give it a try,” Tru said.
“Remind me to get you guys the next time my comlink malfunctions,” Darra said. “You’d probably rebuild it into a cargo lifter.”
“We’ll have to move fast to keep the droid in sight,” Ferus said. “Is everyone ready?”
When he saw everyone nod, Anakin switched on the droid. They stepped back as it beeped and checked circuits. Then suddenly it wheeled around and fired its repulsorlift engines, taking off down the boulevard.
The four Padawans had to race to keep it in sight. They flew down the streets of the city, occasionally Force-jumping past obstacles. They quickly passed through the neighborhood of fine homes, raced through a commercial district, and then found themselves outside a small warehouse. The droid hovered outside for a moment, its head rotating. The Padawans dived behind a wall.
They watched as the droid accessed a control panel hidden behind what appeared to be a sheer wall. A door slid open, and the droid disappeared inside.
Anakin leaped forward and shoved his lightsaber hilt between the closing door and its frame. The door stayed open a fraction. With Tru, Ferus, and Darra, he pushed it open the rest of the way. The Padawans slid inside.
It was a gloomy interior. At first they could see or hear little. Anakin concentrated. He detected the sound of voices. He motioned to the others. When their eyes had adjusted to the light a few moments later, they could see that the warehouse was full of items they could only assume were stolen. Rich tapestries and rugs were rolled and rested against the walls. Silver and intricate metalwork objects were stacked on shelves. Anakin saw gold peggats and aurodium ingots heaped in a corner. Durasteel bins were no doubt filled with more valuables.
The voices were coming from around the corner. It was the raiders.
The Padawans crept closer. Now they could make out words.
“The bloc between Evermore and Acadi is first. Then from Acadi to Montwin. We can easily clear out the two blocs using what we have.”
“Sure we can clear them, but where will we put our stash? We need more storage.”
“That’s one problem I’m happy to have.”
The sound of soft laughter came to the Padawans.
“They’d better come through on their promise to move all this stuff—”
The voice broke off as an insistent beep began to sound. It played through several coded sequences.
Anakin heard the sound of chairs scraping. “It’s the droid,” someone said in a low tone. “That’s the activation signal for tampering. Someone might be here.” The voices fell silent. Anakin could just make out a whisper of movement, and then stillness.
“Activation signal for tampering?” Darra whispered.
Anakin and Tru exchanged a look. “I guess it’s in case the homing device is activated by someone other than the programmer,” Anakin explained.
“Easy, you said,” Darra whispered. “What should we do now?”
“Defend ourselves!” Anakin exclaimed as the raiders suddenly raced around the corner, blasters in hand.
Chapter Eight
They had been ordered to take no lives. Somehow they would have to deflect blaster fire and capture the raiders without harming them.
As Anakin swung his lightsaber in a blur, deflecting fire, he realized for the first time that they had overlooked something.
If they caught the raiders, what would they do with them?
There weren’t enough security officers to guard the criminals. The Jedi were now the backbone of the security force on the planet. If they watched the raiders, who would patrol the city?
The present moment is the crucial moment.
Yes, Master. Anakin gritted his teeth. He advanced toward the raiders. One thing at a time. The raiders were endangering the citizens and must be stopped. The Padawans would figure out what to do with them when the time came.
One of the raiders must have activated some droids, for suddenly they appeared. They wheeled into battle formation and came at the Padawans.
Anakin at first felt confident that he could defeat the droids. He had not fully realized how much he had depended earlier on the Jedi Masters. Within moments he saw that they would have a hard time winning this battle.
He hated to admit it. Ferus had been right. He and Tru could not have handled these droids by themselves.
The raiders maneuvered the droids to come between them and the Jedi. Then they disappeared. Too occupied with the attacking droids, the Padawans could not follow.
“We’ve got to stay together!” Ferus shouted. “Don’t let them separate us.”
Ferus was right again. As one unit, they could defeat fifteen droids. The Padawans kept close together, attacki
ng and retreating, trying to pick up on one another’s unfamiliar rhythms. Anakin lost himself in the battle. There was only the smell of the smoking droids, the blur of his lightsaber, the balance and heft of it in his hand. He saw everything at once—the position of each Padawan, the attack pattern of each droid, the moves they would make next. His focus was complete. He sliced through one droid, then pivoted and buried his lightsaber in another droid’s control panel.
Ferus dived and came up underneath a droid, halving it down the middle. Tru whirled and kicked one droid while cutting off the legs of another. Darra seemed to be everywhere, her lightsaber in constant motion as she took out one droid, then another. She always landed exactly where she’d planned, ready to launch another attack or defend her fellow Padawans. Her face never registered effort, only concentration. She had learned well from Soara Antana.
At last the droids lay in heaps around them. The Padawans all slumped to the floor, exhausted. They missed their Masters.
“We still might be able to track the raiders,” Anakin said, panting. He started to rise. “Let’s go.”
“Wait.” Ferus put a hand on his sleeve. “If we run off, we could lose a precious opportunity.”
“For what, droid repair?” Anakin asked.
“Information. It’s more important than the raiders themselves. What will we do with them when we get them, anyway?” Ferus asked. “Better to head them off another way. We have more important tasks. Once the evacuation starts, we’ll be needed.”
“That could be a waste of time,” Anakin argued. “We could catch the raiders if we follow them now. I want to show Obi-Wan that I can handle a complicated mission.”
“You mean you want to help the planet,” Ferus said pointedly.
Anakin felt his face grow hot. Of course Ferus was right. Ferus gave the correct Jedi response. Anakin’s first concern should be the people of Radnor, not his need to impress Obi-Wan. He had just expressed himself badly. He had blurted out what was in the back of his mind, not what was in the front of it. He wished he wouldn’t keep running into the fact that Ferus took a more Jedi approach to action.