Jude Watson: Jedi Quest 1: The Way of the Apprentice

Anakin made his way to the frightened owner. "I must use your voice amp," he told him. "I can calm the crowd."

The owner handed him the amp. "Be my guest."

Anakin spoke clearly into the amp system. "The Avoni have pledged a fleet of ships to airlift the citizens off-planet.

They are achieving orbit now. There is room for all.

Everyone will be evacuated before the winds shift."

A few Radnorans closest to the amp heard the message and began to talk among themselves. Anakin repeated the message.

Gradually, the crowd began to settle down.

"Where do we report to? How will this be handled?" someone called.

"The evacuation team will alert each of you where and when to show up," Anakin announced. "But that means you must return to your homes."

Slowly the crowd began to disperse. The crisis was averted. But the owner's business had been completely destroyed. The battered sign reading bio-iso suits 5,000 karsems swung crazily in the stiff breeze.

"It almost serves him right for charging so much" Darra said as a last burst of wind sent the sign crashing to the street.

"I wish communication were better with our Masters," Tru said. "They will know when and how the Avoni fleet is arriving. We need to give the Radnorans more information."

"I think we should take a look at the comm system," Anakin said. "There might be a way to fix it, or at least fabricate a makeshift comm unit that has enough power to reach the other sector."

Ferus shook his head. "We won't be able to fix a planetary system," he said. Atmospheric disturbances are too great."

"We don't know that," Anakin argued. "It's worth a try. We need to coordinate with the other sector."

"Here we go again," Darra said, looking from Anakin to Ferus. "Don't you two ever agree?"

Anakin looked at Tru. He needed backup.

"I think we should try it," Tru said.

"Why not?" Darra agreed. "We're at a dead end, anyway."

Ferus nodded. "All right. But while you and Tru work the comm problem, Darra and I should investigate those Prototype Droids. Maybe if we find out how they were stolen, we can find out more about the raiders.

I'm still worried about who is behind them."

So am I, Anakin said silently. We all are.

The two Padawan teams split up. Anakin and Tru retraced their steps back to the Emergency Command Center. They needed to get permission from Galen to access the central power source.

"Why not?" Galen said, waving a hand. "Our tech experts can't fix it. Give it a try."

Anakin and Tru entered the comm center. "Thanks for backing me up," Anakin said. "Have you noticed how Ferus has been taking control?"

"No," Tru said. "I've noticed he's had some good ideas. So have you."

"Well, I don't like being bossed around," Anakin muttered.

Tru gave him a sidelong look. "This isn't a game of sabaac, Anakin. No one is keeping score. We're all just trying to do the right thing."

"I don't like the way he operates, that's all," Anakin said.

Tru shook his head. "You're doing the same thing he's doing, Anakin. You're thinking ahead. You're coming up with ideas. You two are the most experienced Padawans on the mission. It's natural. I like Ferus. You would, too, if you gave him a chance. He has plenty of friends for a reason."

"Ferus doesn't have friends. He has followers" Anakin said. He didn't like the way the conversation was going, so he began to study the console. "This is pretty standard."

Tru bent over some large-scale holofiles. "I found the blueprint of the system," he said. "We should be able to pinpoint the problem. Fixing it is another matter."

"Let me try the rangefinders first," Anakin said. He bent over the tech console, his fingers flying. He was lucky that he had excelled in his tech classes. He hadn't been content to merely learn what the Masters had wanted him to. He had haunted the tech rooms at the Temple, eager to find out how everything worked.

Anakin tried sending a series of messages, then backtracked through the system, attempting to locate the precise problem.

Puzzled, Anakin frowned.

"I know, I don't get it, either," Tru said, jumping into the middle of a conversation they weren't having, as he usually did. "It doesn't make sense. If the toxin had created a disturbance in the atmosphere, the sensors should be recording the activity."

"Everything checks out on the planet itself," Anakin said, clicking a few more keys. "The system should be working."

"Only it isn't," Tru said. "You've got to trust reality over a sensor. No matter how much it hurts."

"Sensors don't lie unless they're broken," Anakin said.

"And these aren't." Suddenly, he looked up and met Tru's silvery gaze.

"No," Tru said.

"Yes," Anakin said. "What else can it be? The comm system isn't being jammed in the planetary atmosphere. It's being jammed from space."

Tru whistled under his breath. "Which means someone, somewhere, wants to cut the planet off. And that can only mean one thing."

"Invasion," they said together.

Curi sat in the office, a plate of untouched food pushed away from her and a datapad in front of her. She rested her head against her hand, and, behind her mask, her eyes were closed.

Obi-Wan and Siri paused. If Curi was resting at last, they didn't want to disturb her.

Without opening her eyes, she spoke. "We can't find it.

Whatever makes Wilk immune to the toxin, we might never know. We've checked out everything."

"I'm sorry," Siri said.

Curi opened her eyes. She started to scratch her head, then remembered she was in her bio-iso suit. She grimaced.

"There's something else. We used our lab facilities to run the tests. While we waited for results, I looked up everything on the toxin. I'd already done that when this first happened, but things were moving so fast… I didn't have time to look closely. There are gaps in the research."

"What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked. "Gaps in the way it was conducted?"

"No," Curi said. "Gaps in the records. There are files missing."

"So it's possible that — " Siri began.

"That the accident wasn't an accident," Curi finished.

They left Curi, who was about to return to her lab to investigate further. Obi-Wan looked at Siri.

"The ferry ships should have landed by now."

She nodded. "Let's go."

The Avoni fleet had landed on the outskirts of the Isolation Sector. Obi-Wan and Siri took Curi's airspeeder, which she'd made available for their use. They stopped the speeder a few hundred meters away from the ferry ships, hiding it behind a rocky outcropping.

The wind was strong here, driving the dust against their clothes. The bio-iso suits protected their eyes and skin from the peppery blasts.

The gleaming black ships had landed in formation. A few Avoni workers dressed in bio-iso suits were ferrying skiffs out the cargo loading doors.

"No doubt they're going to use the skiffs to ferry the Radnorans from Aubendo to the fleet," Obi-Wan murmured.

"There must be another ship on the other side of the energy gate for Tacto."

"Then why off-load them now?" Siri asked. "And why are they full of durasteel crates?"

"Good question," Obi-Wan said. "Let's get closer."

They moved from rock to rock, trying to get close enough to see what was inside the skiffs. As they lingered in the shadow of a ship's wing, the passenger ramp suddenly lowered. An Avoni officer strode down.

"Progress report!" he called out to the workers.

The worker quickly approached him with a datapad. Obi-Wan glanced at Siri, and after a wordless communication they both dashed up the passenger ramp.

The ship hallway was deserted. Quickly they made their way down it. Now they were in the cargo hold of the ship. There were no ground craft here. No guards or officers.