Дэйв Волвертон - Jedi Apprentice 1 - The Rising Force

“Well, well,” Jemba roared. “I’m glad to see that you are brave, even when your Master is not at your back!”

“Leave, Jemba,” Obi-Wan managed to say. He was choking on his anger, and because his voice was changing, it cracked comically.

At his back, Clat’Ha appeared, blaster drawn. “He’s right. You’re not welcome here.”

“Very well,” Jemba boomed. “If that’s what you want, I’ll gladly leave your friends to die.”

“Leave them the dactyl!” Obi-Wan ordered. He gripped the lightsaber, could feel its heat warming the heavy handle. The blade thrummed in the air, and his every muscle ached to leap forward and begin slicing. Sweat poured down Obi-Wan’s face, and he gritted his teeth.

“Isn’t this amusing!” Jemba rumbled to his cohorts. “He is not a Force used, this one. It’s in the ship’s records. He is nothing more than a farmer, a reject from the Jedi Temple.”

Obi-Wan fought back his rage at Jemba’s taunt. For long seconds he struggled as he sought within him a place of calm, of peace. Then he remembered Qui-Gon’s words. Jemba was not the true enemy. Anger was.

At last he found the calm he needed. He reached out with his senses to touch the Force. He felt it now, around him, in Jemba, in the stones, in the Arconans fading so fast behind him. He felt it and gave himself to it.

“Qui-Gon!” Obi-Wan shouted in surprise.

He’d been so focused on calling to the Jedi Master for help that he felt astonished to suddenly feel something else: Qui-Gon was calling to him for help.

“Jemba, get out of my way!” Obi-Wan said. “Qui-Gon is in danger!”

“Hah! Hah!” the great Hutt roared. He slapped his sides as if the laughing pained him. “Why does that not surprise me? Maybe it’s because I sent my men to kill him!”

But it wasn’t just Qui-Gon. Danger was coming to all of them. Qui-Gon wasn’t just calling for his help. He was trying to warn Obi-Wan.

“I mean it, Jemba,” Obi-Wan warned. “We’re all in trouble!”

“What would you have of me, little one!” Jemba asked. “Do you want me to look down at my shoes so that you can stab me? Ho, ho, ho! That trick won’t work on me. Hutts don’t have feet!”

He was wasting time. Obi-Wan somersaulted once in the air, and landed in front of Jemba. Then, using the momentum of his landing, he sprang over the Hutt’s head. Obi-Wan landed on Jemba’s back, and the Hutt howled.

“You have been warned!” Obi-Wan shouted, gripping his lightsaber tightly. Then he raced down Jemba’s tail and sprang over the heads of the surprised Whiphid guards.

One Whiphid fired his blaster at Obi-Wan’s retreating form, but Obi-Wan managed to bring his lightsaber over his back and deflect the blow. He raced through the tunnels, past the startled Hutts and Whiphids. His need to find Qui-Gon was overpowering. He was astonished to feel the Jedi Knight’s warning call, to feel this connection.

Behind him, a few Whiphids roared war cries, but Jemba shouted above the rest, “No! Leave him to me! The boy id mine!”

“There my friend,” Qui-Gon said to the draigon. He pointed toward the caves. The dozen passages to the cavern were all set within a single hill, and from the sky the cave mouths looked like wormholes.

Qui-Gon fought to control the draigon’s mind, bring it safely to the ground. He was worried. As far as the eye could see, draigons flocked toward the caves. Their roars were deafening as they called to each other.

Qui-Gon had seen the giant trees in the Silver Forest of Dreams on the planet Kubindi. Some of their vast leaves could be twenty meters wide, and when they fell in the autumn, they floated like giant rafts through the sky. That is what the draigons reminded him of. They dropped through the leaden skies, just as the leaves floated from the Kubindi forests.

Yet these creatures were deadly; and like Qui-Gon, they were headed toward the caves.

Qui-Gon called with his mind, warning young Obi-Wan Kenobi again of the danger. Then he waited as the draigon wafted downward, close to the narrow ledge outside the caves. Qui-Gon chose his moment, then sprang off the back of the beast. He landed on the ledge, steadying himself with a hand against the outside wall of the cave. The draigon flew off with a soft confused cry, his mind released.

Qui-Gon had taken two steps toward the cave when he saw Obi-Wan race from its mouth, lightsaber held high.

Obi-Wan ran from the cave only to stop short. He stared at the sky in horror.

At first, he’d thought it was just dark clouds. But now he realized that scores of draigons were blocking the sun. And they were all winging toward the caves.

Never in his young life had he imagined such terror. His legs went weak, and his mind was suddenly blank. He didn’t know what to do.

The he saw Qui-Gon heading toward him. Relief flooded him. The Jedi looked battered and bloody, and he was holding one shoulder stiffly. Still, he was alive.

“Did you get the dactyl?” Obi-Wan called.

Qui-Gon nodded. “The Arconans?”

“Still alive, but barely. Go, Qui-Gon. I’ll hold the mouth of the cave.”

Obi-Wan expected Qui-Gon to argue, to send him back into the cave with the dactyl. The Jedi Knight merely gazed at him for a tenth of a second. In the master’s eyes, Obi-Wan saw respect and acceptance.

“I will return,” Qui-Gon promised, and rushed into the caves.

In seconds, the draigons were on Obi-Wan. His lightsaber slashed and burned, sizzled and shrieked. Draigons roared in pain and fell before him. He was fighting better and stronger than he ever had, ever thought he could.

But he knew he could not hold the draigons off for long.

Qui-Gon raced through the caves, past Whiphid and Hutt guards, carrying his bag of dactyl.

Such was the look of purpose in his eyes that no one dared to stop him. Instead, Jemba’s guards cowered in fear, until Qui-Gon, halfway through the tunnel, meet Jemba himself.

“Halt!” the enormous Hutt ordered. “Where are you going?”

Qui-Gon stared evenly at Jemba. You had better get your guard to the mouths of the caves,” Qui-Gon warned. “We’re in trouble.”

“Hah!” Jemba laughed. “Your foolish pupil already tried that trick!”

Suddenly a draigon roared near the mouth of the tunnels. The sound was astonishing. The cave trembled. Bits of dust shook loose from the roof.

“It has started,” Qui-Gon said evenly.

He shouldered past the enormous Hutt and raced to get the dactyl to the Arconans.

Grelb squeezed between two flat rocks and lay for a moment, his heavy blaster in hand, staring down at the caves. He’d missed his chance to kill Qui-Gon Jinn. The big Jedi had already raced into the caves. But his pupil guarded the moth of the cavern, lightsaber ready.

He wanted the Master, but the pupil would have to do for now.

Draigons hurtled from the sky by the dozens, converging on the lad. Even Grelb had to admire the young Jedi’s skill. His lightsaber struck again and again, and the boy showed no sign of tiring. It was almost a pity to kill him.

Lightning split the sky. Rain pounded the stones over Grelb’s head. One good thing about hiding under these rocks — at least it was dry.

He raised his blaster rifle and tried to aim at the young Jedi. The boy’s lightsaber flashed among the draigons.

All I need now, Grelb thought, is one brief moment to pull of my shot. Just one…

The battle was like none Obi-Wan had ever imagined. He felt no fear. He had accepted his death. The odds were just too great against him. Now he only fought to protect the Arconans. He felt no anger. He did not hate the hungry beasts that dropped endlessly from the blackened skies.