Джуд Уотсон - Jedi Apprentice 18 - The Threat Within

Obi-Wan kept waiting for one of them to ask him who he was and why he was following them. But they never did. Grath's initial acceptance of him seemed to be all that was needed. Either that, or the Freelies were such a big group that they were used to not knowing one another.

It didn't matter as long as the students continued to let Obi-Wan tag along. The more time he spent with them, the easier it would be to gain their trust. And the easier it would be to eventually convince them to do the right thing.

Though he longed to know where they were going, Obi-Wan didn't want to risk blowing his cover by asking any questions. It would be better to listen. Unfortunately, nobody was saying much.

About a kilometer away from the school, the small band of Freelies turned in to a refuse facility. Flip and Nania began pulling scrap off a huge pile and tossing it aside. Obi-Wan wasn't sure what to do.

Wondering if the next prank involved garbage, he reached over to grab a piece of trash himself. Then Nania pulled a large piece of wreckage off the pile and Obi-Wan spotted something familiar underneath. It was the back of the shuttle he'd ridden last night. Apparently the Freelies kept it stashed here.

"Hop in," Flip said, gesturing to the panel door. The kids piled in.

Nania took the pilot's seat and the repulsorlifts roared to life, dislodging debris from the viewscreen.

"Hold on," Nania said over her shoulder. With a lurch and a shudder the small craft broke free of the garbage pile and zoomed out of the facility.

Flip, who obviously hadn't been holding on tight enough, landed in Grath's lap.

"So what do you think they're doing in the Multycorp offices right now?" he asked, grinning at the older boy.

Grath pushed Flip off him with a laugh. "I don't know," he said slyly. "Dancing?"

Obi-Wan didn't get the joke, but he laughed along with the rest of the kids. When the laughter had faded Grath spoke again.

"But they won't be dancing tomorrow. Tomorrow they'll be walking."

Grath sounded serious, and the mood in the shuttle changed. The group was clearly ready to get to the business at hand. Whatever that business was.

There was not much light in the back of the craft, and Obi-Wan had to hang on to keep from being hurled about by Nania's erratic driving. As he braced himself for the next turn he suddenly noticed something he'd missed before. The shuttle's entire hull was lined with small, homemade explosives.

With a final gut-wrenching turn, Nania brought the maintenance shuttle to a stop inside a transport shuttle bay. Grath, Flip, Pel, and Nania grabbed armloads of the explosives and piled out of the maintenance craft. Despite his misgivings, Obi-Wan picked up several explosives and followed.

"Pel, Nania, you two cover the east wing. We'll do the west," Grath directed.

Obi-Wan watched uneasily as Grath crawled underneath one of the shuttles with the explosives. He needed to find out what they were doing and he needed to do it now. It looked like Grath and Flip were attaching the explosives to the undersides of the passenger compartments. Were they planning to blow up the crafts with passengers inside?

"So, I forget, when do we trigger these?" Obi-Wan tried to sound casual as he climbed under the shuttle next to Grath and began to fiddle with one of the devices.

Grath gave Obi-Wan a strange look. "Don't worry. Nobody will be hurt.

That's one of our rules, remember? We're hiding the explosives so nobody sees them during the evening ride. Then tonight, when the shuttles are back in the bay, we'll trigger them by remote. So tomorrow, when everyone is ready to go to work, well… they won't have their usual transportation, will they?" A smile spread across Grath's face, but Obi-Wan was too concerned with all that could go wrong to smile back. This plan was dangerous, far more dangerous than changing numbers on a datascreen or giving computer systems false commands.

Grath noticed that Obi-Wan wasn't smiling. "Don't worry," he said again more quietly. "We really aren't going to kill anybody. We just want to wake them up."

Obi-Wan forced a smile and a nod. "To work then?" he asked.

"Not tomorrow!" Grath laughed.

Qui-Gon took a deep breath and flipped a switch. The screen in front of him went blank, then blinked back on. Down the hall the shrieking finally stopped. The break had been successful. The circuits stopped shorting, and the children's hospital was safe. But it had been close — too close.

Qui-Gon sighed. He knew the next thing he had to do was to tell Chairman Port about the near disaster, a prospect he did not relish.

Perhaps he had been wrong to give Obi-Wan three days. After this latest Freelie prank it was going to be harder than ever to stall the nervous Vorzydiak.

Maybe even impossible, he thought as he made his way back up to the twenty-fourth floor. He was not prepared for what he saw when he walked into the meeting room.

Chairman Port stood before a large projection of a regal-looking Vorzydiak wearing a turban. It was Felana, the leader of Vorzyd 5.

"What is the meaning of this?" Felana demanded. "You dare to accuse Vorzyd 5 of sabotage after you have already insulted us by banishing our ambassadors? I do not understand you, Chairman Port."

"Here is the J-J-Jedi," Chairman Port stammered. He motioned Qui-Gon to join him in front of the holoprojector. "He knows the truth. He will tell you."

Felana looked even more aghast. "You have called in outside counsel?

Do you think this will make your baseless accusations stronger?"

For a moment Qui-Gon was not sure what to do. This was certainly not the way mediation was supposed to work. Chairman Port had put him in an awkward position, and now it would be impossible to establish himself as a neutral party. All he could do, he realized, was try to keep the damage to a minimum.

"Tell her," Chairman Port screeched at the Jedi. "Tell her what she has done to our planet!"

"That is enough!" Felana seethed. "We have been under your thumb for a long time, Chairman. And now you accuse us wrongly. We will not tolerate your accusations."

Qui-Gon put a hand on Chairman Port's shoulder. Using the Force, he calmed the distraught Vorzydiak enough to prevent him from saying anything else he would regret. Then he turned to the image of Felana.

"Please accept the chairman's apologies," Qui-Gon bowed. "Vorzyd 4 has been experiencing some terrorist activity and he meant only to alert you to that fact so that you may be on the lookout for similar activity on your planet."

Qui-Gon could tell by the look on her face that Felana did not believe him. But she was not going to contradict him, either.

"Please tell the chairman that I appreciate his concern and assure him that Vorzyd 5 is prepared to fight," Felana replied in a cool tone.

"Vorzyd 5 will not be humiliated. We are not the weak planet in the system any longer. We need only the opportunity to show our strength."

Qui-Gon thanked Felana and ended the transmission. He recognized her last statement for exactly what it was: a threat.

If Vorzyd 4 persisted in accusing Vorzyd 5 of illegal activity, the likely result would be devastating.

War.

Qui-Gon paced the long hall of the retirement home while he waited for his Padawan. He realized that he could simply summon Obi-Wan on his comlink, but he did not want to destroy the young Jedi's cover or put him in danger. Besides, he needed some time to think about what he was going to say when Obi-Wan did appear.

Qui-Gon reached the end of the hall and turned on his heel. If he did not give Obi-Wan the three days he'd promised, the boy would lose confidence. But things were getting out of hand. If Qui-Gon kept silent…

Suddenly Qui-Gon's thoughts were interrupted by a timid woman's voice. "Excuse me," she said.