Obi-Wan quickly read through the plans, which included importing workers from other worlds, building spaceports for the huge transports that were part of Offworld operations, and "recruiting" native Galacians for the work.
The company was a front for Offworld.
Deca Brun must have agreed to the plans in exchange for financial support, Obi-Wan realized. Deca claimed his treasury was based on small donations from the average Galacian. It was proof of his wide support. But instead, most of his campaign had been funded by Offworld.
Obi-Wan quickly shut down the holofile. He turned and hurried through the door where Jono had disappeared. He had to find the boy, get out of there, and warn Qui-Gon…
Instead, he ran into four blasters pointed at his chest. Four guards stood in the hallway. Behind them was another door. Obi-Wan heard the lock click behind him on the door he'd just run through.
"Give me your weapons, spy," one of them said.
"I'm not a spy-" Obi-Wan began. Blaster fire suddenly erupted. Obi-Wan heard it whistle by his ear and thud into the wall behind him. Bits of stone flew out.
One cut his cheek.
"Give me your weapons, spy," the guard repeated.
Another guard came forward. He took Obi-Wan's lightsaber and comlink.
"Do you know," the guard said conversationally, "how much food it takes to feed Deca's organization?"
Surprised by the question, Obi-Wan shook his head.
"Let me show you," the guard invited. He pushed Obi-Wan forward roughly with his blasters.
They took him to a vast kitchen area. Then they opened a thick durasteel door and shoved him inside. It was a food storage area. Boxes lined row after row of shelves, and meat hung from hooks on a far wall. It was cold. Obi-Wan landed on the floor of the huge freezer. He heard the thick door shut, and the bolt shot home.
As soon as Qui-Gon woke, he knew the storm was over. The wind had died, and an eerie stillness lay over the camp. When he cracked open the door of the dome, he saw a white blanket of snow, and a clear blue sky. Elan would want him to leave today. Qui-Gon gathered his things, trying to gather his thoughts as well. Was there another argument he had yet to try? He refused to give up. He sensed that Elan's participation in the election process was crucial for its success.
He ate a small breakfast and walked through the snow to Elan's dome. The hill people were already stirring. Children were playing in the snow. A man gathered late season berries from a bush. Dana waved at him from across the clearing, where he was carrying wood for an elder.
Qui-Gon knocked on the door of Elan's dome, and she called out an invitation to enter. She was mixing salves and potions at a work table in front of a small, cheerful fire. Qui-Gon remembered Obi-Wan's suspicions. He had discounted them immediately. Had he been wrong to do so? Yet something in Elan felt pure to him, felt real. He could not imagine her capable of condemning someone to a slow death by poisoning. Qui-Gon pulled up a chair next to her.
"Don't get too comfortable," she said. "You're leaving this morning."
"The snow seems deep," Qui-Gon observed.
"We'll give you a swoop," she said. She began to rub herbs into a paste.
"My wounds still trouble me," Qui-Gon said.
"I'm making you some medicine," she answered, unperturbed. "Almost as good as bacta." She looked at him at last with a faint smile. "Do you think I will change my mind, Qui-Gon? If so, you don't know me."
"Ah," he said. "But I feel that I do."
The rumble of thunder suddenly rolled through the still air. The dome rattled with the power of it.
"Another storm," Qui-Gon said.
She grinned. "You'll make it."
The thunder rumbled again. Qui-Gon sat up straighter. When he looked at Elan, he saw that her smile had faded.
"That is not thunder," Elan said.
"Tanks," Qui-Gon replied.
When they ran from the dome, Dana was racing for them. "We're under attack," he said breathlessly. "It's the royal guard! I saw the insignia."
The rumble of tanks made the ground shake. Qui-Gon saw them approaching across a wide plain. The tanks were hampered by the deep snow, but they would make it.
The hill people didn't have much time.
"We've got to divert them from the camp," Elan cried.
A shadow fell over the snow. Qui-Gon looked up. A massive royal guard transport ship banked over the camp. It landed in a snow-covered meadow near the moving tanks. Ramps slid down around the transport. More tanks rolled down.
"Proton tanks," Qui-Gon said. "The troops are inside. They won't risk exposure if they don't have to."
"The camp will be leveled," Dana said.
Elan bit her lip, thinking. "The wind came from the northeast during the storm, right, Dana?"
"Yes, but…"
"Get everyone to the swoops," Elan ordered crisply. "Have Nuni take all the children and elders to the safe shelter. And send Viva to gather my medicines.
We… we could need them later. Quickly!"
Dana nodded and ran off. Elan turned to Qui-Gon. He admired her coolness in the face of such odds.
"And you, Qui-Gon," she said. "I will need every swoop for battle. I can't loan you one now. But you can escape down the back of the mountain that way." She pointed to a narrow trail that snaked past the domes.
"I'll take that swoop you promised me," Qui-Gon answered.
"But I can't-"
He activated his lightsaber and held the glowing green light front of her. "I will not leave your people unprotected," he said.
The hill people were ready to go — everyone over the age of ten and under the age of eighty sat astride swoops, Qui-Gon guessed.
Elan swung a leg over her swoop. Qui-Gon did the same.
"Here's the plan," she told the others. "First, we buzz the tanks. Make them angry. Keep out of cannon range. Remember the zoomball game?"
Everyone nodded. She grinned at them, meeting as many eyes as she could. "Make the tanks the goalposts. Fly as though you're up against the best zoomball players in the galaxy. We're going to try to drive them away from the camp. Then when they're good and mad, we'll head to Moonstruck Pass. "
"Moonstruck Pass?" Dana asked. "But-"
Elan grinned. "Exactly."