Obi-Wan and Anakin headed off to join the river of workers crowding aboard cloud buses for the journey out to the Yellow District. They rode to the end of the line, then hiked the remaining distance. The other workers were silent, their faces gray and composed. The long, hard day lay in front of them.
Obi-Wan and Anakin went directly to the employment office. There, no questions were asked and they were given passes to the main factory floor by the employment officer, a Falleen named Wanuri.
"We are interested in working in the transmission wing," Obi-Wan told Wanuri as the Falleen pushed two security swipe cards across the desk to them.
Wanuri shook his head. "Can't do it, even for Mazara. Word has come down that no more workers are needed there. The night shift has been canceled, so everyone will be leaving exactly at six. The last hire always sweeps the factory floor. Be sure and lock the hydromop and repulsorbroom back in the utility closet. Here's the card. Be sure not to stay. Two security officers and droids make a sweep of the factory every fifteen minutes."
He pushed the card across the table. Obi-Wan pocketed it.
"Great," Anakin murmured as they headed to the factory floor. "Not only do we have to work all day, we have to clean up afterward."
"He gave us the job as a way to stay behind," Obi-Wan told Anakin. "We can hide somewhere until everyone leaves. He also told us how security is handled."
Obi-Wan and Anakin clipped the swipe cards to the front of their red unisuits, the uniform of the workers. They were given a manager to report to. He split them up into two different areas of the factory.
Obi-Wan took his place in a line of workers who were checking levels on machines that monitored the injection of liquid into small canisters. He could only assume that the Zone was packaged somehow within the canisters, but he didn't know if it was liquid or gas or some kind of suspended particles.
He was surprised at how disorganized the factory floor was. It was hard to tell what, exactly, was being manufactured. Each part of the factory was sealed off from the next, and Obi-Wan had no idea where the final product was being assembled.
Deep troughs were cut in the factory floor for the waste, which was simply flushed down through the floors to outflow valves. If a worker stepped or fell into the trough by accident, he or she was coated in waste material. There was no way to know if the material was toxic. Unlike other factories, there were no decontamination rooms.
The work wasn't hard, just grindingly dull. The workers were used as a double-check to the machines, which rarely made errors.
The interesting thing to Obi-Wan was that supervision was light. A tier ran around the upper level of the vast space, where managers were supposed to monitor the workers below. But he noted that the managers rarely looked down. They were more concerned with eating, drinking tea, and joking with one another. There seemed to be no central authority making sure everything was getting done.
This worried Obi-Wan. It wasn't like either Omega or Zan Arbor to run a slipshod organization. Was he in the wrong place?
He confided his doubts to Anakin at the break. Anakin nodded.
"I've noticed the same thing, Master. My work partner said the managers all changed two weeks ago. The workers haven't had to work as hard. They're all relieved."
But Obi-Wan wasn't. He was uneasy.
"We're wasting time if this factory isn't preparing the Zone for use,"
Obi-Wan said.
"We'll find out tonight," Anakin said.
But would it be too late? Obi-Wan couldn't shake his uneasiness.
The rest of the day passed in repetition and drudgery. The workers were bored and worked at half speed, and none of the managers cared.
Before the end of the workday, Obi-Wan reported to the manager in order to clean the factory floor. Together with Anakin, they swept and mopped. There was no one to oversee them or make certain they did a good job. When the buzzer sounded, signaling the end of the workday, Obi-Wan and Anakin headed to a utility closet. They placed the repulsorbroom and hyrdomop inside. With a quick glance to make sure no one was watching, they ducked inside the closet, too.
The noises of the departing workers faded. They heard a lone security guard make his rounds. Then everything shut down at once. They heard the locks slam home on the doors outside. The tiny light in the closet shut off.
They waited a few minutes, listening intently for any movement outside the door. Then Obi-Wan opened the door carefully. They quickly moved down the hallway and peeked out on to the factory floor. The machines looked like sleeping creatures in the dim light.
"We have about eleven minutes before the droid sweep," Obi-Wan murmured. "Let's head for the wing."
They ran down the aisle, keeping an eye out for the security guard.
They hurried to the door that led to the restricted wing.
Now they were faced with a double-coded lock.
"Our swipe card will work if we can override the code," Obi-Wan said.
"We don't want to tip anyone off that we were here."
He worked at the keypad for several minutes. "Master, the droid sweep.
" Frustrated, Obi-Wan tried another combination. He had studied codes at the Temple with the great Jedi Master Nan Latourain, but this code was proving too difficult for him.
"Master!"
Obi-Wan jumped away as he heard the whirr of the droids. He and Anakin hid behind a gravsled as the droids swept by, their surveillance unit revolving steadily. As soon as they were gone, the Jedi re-emerged.
Obi-Wan attacked the keypad again.
"Let me try," Anakin suggested.
Obi-Wan stepped aside. He watched Anakin work. He felt Anakin call upon the Force. The Force grew around them, pulsing and shimmering, but the Force could not unlock keypads.
"We're stuck," Anakin said. "There has to be another way."
Obi-Wan felt the same uneasiness, the same sense of urgency, he had felt earlier today.
Suddenly in his mind, he saw Qui-Gon Jinn's easy smile.
You know the answer. Why don't you trust it?
Obi-Wan withdrew his lightsaber and slashed through the lock in one motion. The door swung open.
"Well, that's one way," Anakin commented.
They found themselves in a short hallway with another security door.