Obi-Wan piloted the Monument among the glimmering stars. Warning claxons were ringing everywhere. Monitors showed air leaks from a dozen holes.
“It looks like the shi is falling apart,” Obi-Wan said to Si Treemba.
Si Treemba nodded his triangular head worriedly. “We have to land now, Obi-Wan.”
“Land where?” Obi-Wan asked, looking ahead at nothing but empty space.
Si Treemba bent over the nav computer. “It’s not working,” he said.
“I know,” Obi-Wan replied. “That’s why I’m flying manually. Where are the crew? Why isn’t anyone coming to help us?”
“They’re probably dealing with the wounded or maybe they are wounded themselves.” Si Treemba peered ahead through the view screen. “Wait! There!”
Obi-Wan could just glimpse the planet ahead, a blue marble the color of water, shot through with white clouds.
“How do we know we can breathe the air?” Obi-Wan asked. The atmosphere might be poison, the planet might be hostile.
“It had got to be better than breathing in a vacuum,” Si Treemba suggested.
The Arconan’s faceted eyes met Obi-Wan’s. The great ship shuddered, and another warning monitor went off, signaling that the air pressure was dropping.
“We don’t think we have a choice,” Si Treemba said softly.
Grelb and his men hurried down the hallways through the Arconan side of the ship. Jemba the Hutt’s miners had fought well against the pirates on their side, but dozens of stout Hutts and Whiphids had died.
There was a good chance that the Arconans would be dead, too. Grelb was hoping to steal some loot from the bodies.
But when he reached the doors to the Arconan hold, he found that the Arconans hadn’t fought at all. Instead, they’d let their pet Jedi protect them.
Grelb glanced around a corner and saw the hated Clat’Ha helping Qui-Gon off the floor. The Jedi had a deep wound in his right shoulder, and his left arm was sore and swollen.
The Hutt smiled, and jerked his head back from the corridor before anyone looked his way.
He whispered to the Whiphids at his back, “Go and tell Jemba: the Arconans are all cowards who dared not come out of their rooms to fight. And their precious Jedi looks as if he’s barely alive. Now is a good time to strike!”
Obi-Wan flew over a watery world from daylight into darkness, to a night lit by five glowing moons that hung in the sky like multicolored stones. Beneath him, enormous creatures flew in great flocks. They were silvery in the moonlight, with long bullet-shaped bodies and powerful wings. They looked like some strange species of flying fish whose wings had evolved to a remarkable size. They stretched their wings wide, half-asleep as they rode the wind. Some of them looked up at his ship curiously.
Clinging to the manual controls, with the ship buckling and rattling, Obi-Wan could see only ocean in every direction. Then, at last, on the horizon ahead he glimpsed one small rocky island, waves breaking against its shore.
He aimed the ship at the rock, held tight to the controls, and groaned with effort as he tried to slow the ship’s fall.
Chapter 14
Dozens of miners had been killed or injured in the attack, so the sickbay was full. Yet few of those injured were Arconans. As Clat’Ha had predicted, all the Arconans but Si Treemba had locked themselves in their rooms at the first sign of danger. Most of the injuries fell to the ship’s crew and to some of Jemba’s miners.
Qui-Gon’s injuries would have been severe to a common man, but the Jedi waited until others were attended to before requesting the medic droid to bandage him in his room. Clat’Ha refused to leave his side, no matter how he urged her to rest.
“Not until I know you’re okay,” she told him steadily.
Obi-Wan landed the ship only a few meters from the rocky beach. Night hung like a mist over the island. After determining that the atmosphere was stable, a dozen of the ship’s crew had gone outside to begin repairing the damage to the hull, and others were checking the surroundings. The silvery draigons were everywhere, riding the night sky, apparently asleep on the wing. Many of them also perched on the island cliffs. It wasn’t safe to stay outside, and the captain said that no one would be allowed to work in the daylight, once the beasts awoke. The ship’s engineer reported that it might take two nights to get the ship running.
Obi-Wan reached Qui-Gon’s cabin just as the medic doid finished spraying a disinfectant bandage over Qui-Gon’s ghastly wound. Then he began to glue the wound closed. The pirate chieftain’s vibro-ax had slashed Qui-Gon across the back of his shoulders, down to the ribs. Obi-Wan felt dizzy just looking at the wound, but Qui-Gon sat quietly, letting the droid do his work.
“You’re lucky to be alive,’ the medic droid told qui-Gon. “But your wounds should heal in time. Are you sure you don’t want something to ease the pain?”
“No, I’ll be fine,” Qui-Gon answered, his voice steady. He turned his gaze to Clat’Ha. “Now will you get some rest?”
She nodded wearily. “I’ll check back on you later.” Clat’Ha left with the medic droid. The door hissed closed behind them.
Qui-Gon eased himself into a chair. Obi-Wan waited for him the speak or acknowledge his presence.
Qui-Gon’s blue gaze studied Obi-Wan keenly for a moment. “Obi-Wan, when you accelerated the ship, what thoughts did you have?”
“Thoughts?” Obi-Wan asked doubtfully. “I wasn’t thinking about much of anything. I was afraid of the pirates, and I just knew I had to get away fast.” He was too exhausted to care too much about giving the wrong answer. Better just to speak the blunt truth. Qui-Gon would approve of his actions or not. He was tired of trying to please him.
“So you didn’t think about the fact that you would tear the ships from the docking bays and kill hundreds of pirates in the process?” Qui-Gon asked in a neutral tone.
“I didn’t think about what I was doing,” Obi-Wan replied. “The Force led me.”
“Were you frightened? Angry?”
“Both,” Obi-Wan admitted. “I… fired on the pirates. I killed, but I didn’t do it in anger. I did it to save lives.”
Qui-Gon nodded, just the smallest of movements. “I see.” It was the answer Qui-Gon had been looking for. It demonstrated that Obi-Wan was growing stronger in the ways of the Force.
Yet Qui-Gon felt strangely dissatisfied. He tested his heart. Had he actually wanted the boy to fail his test? That would be a grave flaw for a Jedi.
But he couldn’t help himself. True, Obi-Wan had not let him down. He had bravely accepted the task of piloting the ship. Hundreds of lives had been in his hands, and he had not hesitated. He had done honor to his training.