It was the first time Ferus had asked his opinion. Anakin nodded. "Sounds like a good plan."
"We have an agreement," Darra muttered. "Remind me to declare this an annual holiday once we get back to the Temple."
She leaned over and accessed a map to the canyons. Quickly she flipped through different sites. Then she stabbed at the viewscreen with a finger. There. If you can maneuver the ship there, we can bring the droids through that smaller canyon and out into the clearing. Then we've got them."
The four Padawans looked at one another, exhilarated. They were going to save their Masters.
"No stress with that," Ferus said confidently.
"Completely," Anakin echoed.
There was a pause. After the initial confidence, the weight of the task ahead settled on them.
"May the Force be with us," Tru said quietly.
Ferus and Darra exited the airspeeder. Hugging the rocks, they started off through the canyon toward the sound of blaster fire.
Anakin and Tru headed in the opposite direction. They paused in the shelter of a rock to watch the MTT and its inhabitants. They could just make out the heads of the droid pilots. They rotated in constant surveillance.
"Anakin — "
"I know," Anakin said. "It's a question of timing."
"I was going to say, we just have to run really, really fast," Tru said, flashing him a quick grin.
"Aim for the dust cloud."
"Right."
Anakin fitted a filter mask over his nose and pulled his hood up. Tru did the same. They slipped goggles out from their utility belts and pulled them on.
As soon as the droids' heads turned the opposite way and they were no longer in their sight line, they ran, Anakin felt the Force rise around him from the rocks and dust. It seemed to push him faster, allowing him to dive into the sand cloud kicked up by the ship's exhaust.
Anakin hated sand. He had seen and tasted too much of it while a slave on Tatooine. Now it filtered through the dust mask and settled in his mouth. He could barely see. He could sense rather than see Tru beside him.
He held up a hand, feeling along the underside of the ship. The sand and dust were so disorienting it was hard to visualize where he was. Then he felt a raised piece of metal. Could it be the repulsor cooling fins? He ran a hand along one ridge, then another. That meant the vents were just ahead.
The wind blasts were stronger than he'd anticipated. The thought of his Master pinned down by a platoon of droids pushed him on. He could feel Tru battling the wind beside him.
Anakin reached the vents. He hoisted himself up and inside, spreading his hands out to support himself against the rounded walls and bracing himself with his feet. He would be able to move sideways up the shaft. The blast of wind was warm, but not hot. It pushed against him, but he was able to move slowly up the shaft, meter by meter, first using one hand and foot, then the other. Tru was directly beneath him.
Halfway up the vent, Anakin felt as though his legs were made of ferrocrete and his arm muscles had begun to shake.
One foot slid and he almost lost his position and fell. He felt Tru touch his back. Anakin turned, and Tru motioned to him. He would lead the way.
Anakin curled himself into a ball so that Tru could crawl past him. As soon as Anakin was behind Tru, he felt the wind lessen. Tru's flexible arms and legs were much more suited to scrambling up the vent. His body now acted as a shield.
It gave Anakin a chance to restore his own strength. This is what Obi-Wan means, he thought suddenly. I do not a/ways have to prove I can lead. Sometimes someone else can do the job better.
At last the vent opened out into the engine room, next to the humming repulsorlift generators. Anakin and Tru collapsed on the floor, trying to catch their breath.
"Whew. Some stress with that," Tru said, gasping.
They got to their feet and looked around the engine room.
"I'd say-"Tru started.
"That way," Anakin agreed.
Once they left the engine room, they had to turn sideways to navigate the corridor. Every centimeter of space was used on the vessel to pack in droids. They squeezed past the empty troop deployment racks and climbed a narrow metal staircase to the bridge. Outside the bridge door they activated their lightsabers. Taking a breath for concentration, they accessed the door and burst inside.
The droids swiveled, instantly taking in the danger. Their arms moved forward in blast mode.
Anakin and Tru were faster. They somersaulted in the air and came down with their lightsabers, each neatly slicing a droid in half.
Anakin kicked aside the droid and immediately moved to the controls. He studied them.
"Can't help you out here," Tru said. "I never got this far in the manual. Got too bored."
"It's okay. These controls are basic. You'd better strap into the copilot's seat. It might be rough going."
Experimentally, Anakin eased the controls forward. The ship gave a great lurch. Tru hadn't had a chance to sit, and he went flying. He landed on the floor.
"Might be rough?" Tru picked himself up, kicked the droid out of the way, and sat in the copilot's seat.
The next time Anakin eased the controls, the ship moved more smoothly. He took it slow for several meters, getting used to the way the ship handled. This was no nimble starfighter. This was a lumbering beast.
He would have to navigate around this canyon, through a narrower passage, and then get the beast down a smaller passage into the large clearing. Everything depended on him and Tru getting there. No one had said it, but everyone was aware that if Anakin could not maneuver the ship there, the Jedi would be trapped in the canyon with a platoon of droids — and no way out.
Anakin turned the ship into the narrower passage. He accelerated, searching for the passage Darra had marked.
After a few minutes Tru spoke. "We should have passed the turning by now."
"I know. Let's just. ." Anakin's words died. Ahead, he saw only solid rock. They had come to the end of the passage. There was no way into the clearing.
"This can't be," Anakin said. He pounded the controls with his fists. "It can't be!" There was no passage. Darra had read the map wrong. They had failed, and his Master was trapped. He shouldn't have listened to Ferus. He should have -
"Can you back this thing up?" Tru asked.
Anakin tried to quiet the ranting voices in his head.
"What?"
"The passage to the clearing must be blocked. It was probably a rockslide. Remember we passed that area of the wall that had all that sheared rock in the road?"
With a swift motion, Anakin reversed the engines and zoomed backward. He stopped the MTT where Tru had indicated.
A passage had been here once, but it was hard to tell. Huge boulders now blocked it.
"Is there any other way to the clearing?" Tru asked.