As they rode on, Anakin saw that deep fissures had cracked the earth and split gigantic boulders in two. The steam rose hundreds of meters high in some places. He heard a muffled sound, like a faraway star-fighter engine roaring.
"Groundquakes," Obi-Wan said. "Small ones, so far."
Anakin looked ahead. He saw a line of soldiers hiking down the mountain. He pointed them out to Obi-Wan.
His Master frowned. "This area was supposed to have been evacuated.
Let's get a little closer."
They descended. Hearing the noise, the soldiers looked up. Some of them raised blasters.
"Master?"
"Don't worry." Obi-Wan suddenly zoomed down, landing directly in front of them. Anakin followed his Master to the head of the line to stand before a gaunt soldier with a grimy face and a beard gray with ash.
"I see we meet again, Captain Welflet," Obi-Wan said.
The captain nodded a greeting. "I thought you evacuated." A groundquake shook the area, and the captain staggered. "You should have."
"We did. We came back. We're looking for Granta Omega," Obi-Wan said.
"Have you seen him?"
"No," the captain said. "I have enough worries."
He stared at Obi-Wan when he said this, but Anakin knew he was lying.
"This area was evacuated," Obi-Wan said. "The volcano is about to erupt."
"I know," Captain Welflet said. "But we had word of enemy patrols in the area. They are using the eruption to gain land."
"But you will all die," Obi-Wan said. "The eruption will cover all this." He swung an arm out. "The scientists know this. The sensors indicate it."
Captain Welflet snorted. "Scientists and sensors. This is our land. We are not going to lose it."
"I see you have some new weaponry since I saw you last," Obi-Wan remarked.
The captain shifted his gaze. "Is the Jedi so interested in our weaponry?"
The mountain rumbled. A steam column suddenly split the rocky ground and spewed into the air.
"We don't have much time," Obi-Wan said. "Let me tell you what I think, and what you don't know. I think you accepted payment in weapons for land that will be useless to you. But you were tricked."
"That is an interesting supposition," the captain said cautiously.
"Granta Omega paid you for the rights to the new sea," Obi-Wan said.
"What you don't know is that he wants it for a reason. The volcano will deposit titanite on the land before the wave brings the water. He will mine it and make a fortune. And you will lose out."
"He said he wanted it for a fish farm," the captain muttered. "And we believed him! He had us meet him here to do the deal." He looked down at the plains below. "It belongs to him now."
"Tell me where he is, and I might be able to help you," Obi-Wan said.
"He does not deserve our loyalty," the captain said. "He is above, on the ridge, conducting experiments. Here are the coordinates." The captain gave them to Obi-Wan.
"You must get down the mountain as quickly as you can," Obi-Wan said.
"We have air transport below. But we are on the lookout for the enemy.
" "Forget the enemy," Obi-Wan said. "If you don't, you will die."
"Then we will die," Captain Welflet said. "But we will die on our land."
Obi-Wan swung his leg back over the swoop and motioned to Anakin. He plugged the coordinates into the onboard computer.
"We must hurry, Padawan," he said. "I don't like the look of this scanner. The groundquakes are intensifying."
"But the captain and his men," Anakin said. "How can we leave them?"
Obi-Wan shook his head sadly. "I cannot change his mind, Padawan. They must do what they will do, and we must do the same."
They took off to the spot where the captain had left Granta Omega.
Flying was difficult now, as the steam hissed suddenly into the air, sometimes followed by showers of large rocks. Anakin felt dread rising within him. He did not want to see Granta Omega again. Yet he had to.
They saw him high on a snowy ridge. He was with Mellora. They were both dressed in white thermal gear to protect them from the cold. They were packing up their equipment and heading for their swoops. They clearly did not trust anyone else to pinpoint the titanite before the eruption.
Obi-Wan leaned over his swoop, urging the machine to go faster. Granta Omega looked up and saw them. Even from that distance, Anakin could tell he was dismayed. He spoke a quick word to Mellora and they took off.
"We'll follow them to the ship," Obi-Wan said. "We can commandeer it and return them to Coruscant." "It can't be that easy," Anakin said.
"It won't be," Obi-Wan said.
Granta and Mellora did not attempt to lose the Jedi. No doubt they knew they could not. The Jedi gained on them, but Mellora and Omega managed to reach their SoroSuub at the foot of the volcano. Omega activated the landing ramp and they flew inside.
"We can make it!" Obi-Wan shouted as the landing ramp began to close.
Anakin zoomed alongside his Master. They angled their swoops as the ramp slid closed. They slid inside, feeling the whoosh of air as the ramp slid into place.
The cockpit of the ship was empty.
Obi-Wan leaped off the swoop and activated his lightsaber in one motion. He ran through the SoroSuub. It took only a few seconds to discover what had happened.
"They flew out the cargo door as we came in through the landing ramp,"
Obi-Wan said, disgusted. "He planned it."
He ran to the cockpit controls. He stabbed at the activation key for the landing ramp, then the cargo doors.
"He's locked them." He tried the engines. Nothing happened. "The ship is in complete lockdown."
Obi-Wan's face was dark with anger. Anakin watched, fascinated, as his Master absorbed his anger and then released it.
"So here we are," Obi-Wan said in a measured tone. "Locked in." He crossed to the cockpit windscreen. Granta Omega and Mellora were nowhere in sight. But the mountain was. It filled their vision as it belched rocks and steam.
As they watched, the ship suddenly shook with the tremor of a huge groundquake. The scene in front of them vibrated. Anakin couldn't believe what he was seeing. The peak was now disintegrating. Huge chunks of the mountain were falling away. The entire side of the volcano was collapsing in a tremendous landside.
And they were in its path.
Chapter Sixteen
Obi-Wan tried the engines again. "I don't know how to override this."
"Let me try." There was nothing Anakin couldn't do with engines. He slid open the panel to the engine and slithered inside. "This will take me about twenty minutes."
"We don't have twenty," Obi-Wan said. He had already calculated the speed of the landslide. "We have maybe five before the lava pours out. If we're lucky. We'll have to cut our way out."
Anakin scrambled out and followed Obi-Wan to the opening to the ramp.