Chapter XXVIII – Ord
Mantell – Part II
Sakoya casually walked into the cockpit where Xar’ek
was moving his hands over the controls.
“You’re just in time,” he said without looking back.
“We’re about to come out of hyperspace. Got that
comlink your Jedi gave you?”
The
bitterness in his voice didn’t escape Sakoya’s
notice. “Yes, I have it.” She reached up and patted
the left side of her chest where she had hidden the
small device in her clothing.
“If
my calculations are correct, we should only be
minutes behind the others.”
“Good. We’ll need to meet up as soon as possible.”
Xar’ek turned his head and twisted his torso just
enough to see Sakoya and was about to speak but
quickly held his tongue.
“Oh,
quit staring,” Sakoya sharply admonished him.
“You…look…” the Corellian cleared his throat, which
felt very dry at the moment, “uhh, nice outfit.”
Although flattered by his reaction, Sakoya felt
nothing other than that. The sparks once shared
between them were dust and had been for years. “Just
be glad you don’t have to dress up in some costume.
Fly, flyboy.”
He
hesitated, his eyes lingering on her for as long as
he could, and then turned back toward the controls
of his ship. “Time to leave hyperspace,” he said
with a twinge of regret.
As
planned, Xar’ek flew in low from the outer reaches
to avoid detection, utilizing the rocky terrain to
his advantage. He landed just outside the border of
Reynard’s compound but his ship remained concealed
by the mountains, much to his relief. They
disembarked and Xar’ek set the security controls of
his ship before they began their trek across the
rocks.
“Hey, Red,” Xar’ek called out.
Sakoya turned her head and looked back at him.
“What?”
“Nice to see you carrying a blaster again.”
Sakoya lightly chuckled and retorted, “Don’t worry,
I have my lightsaber too. Just make sure I don’t
have to turn either of them on you.”
“That’s my girl,” he said under his breath and
then added, “That security better be disabled or
this is gonna be a short trip.”
__________________________________*****__________________________________
Carefully avoiding the many stalactites suspended
from the roof of the cavern, a precautionary measure
instituted by Reynard should someone try to enter
his domain without forethought, Zula hastened into a
small control room. In there, his fingers flew over
the control panel, manipulating the security into an
overload that would force itself to shut down. He
knew the main security center would activate a
warning, but he believed the delay would be enough.
Jedi
Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Senator Bail Organa
slipped out of the ship and onto the cavern floor.
Several lights embedded into the craggy walls
illuminated the cavern and just as Zula had said,
there were a multitude of security cameras mounted
everywhere.
“No alarms,” Obi-Wan whispered.
“Yet,” Bail replied.
They
moved quickly to their left where there was an
opening and compressed themselves against the rocky
wall – the uneven surface poking mercilessly at
their backs. Leaning his torso forward, Obi-Wan
slowly peered around the bend of rock.
“Clear,” he quietly said.
They
proceeded forward, listening intently to any hint of
noise while traversing the suspended spires of rock
that threatened to obstruct their path in the narrow
passageway. Just as dangerous were a mass of the
same spires, only these erupted from the cavern
floor to mingle with an already uneven rocky
surface.
Obi-Wan followed the passageway for roughly ten
meters and then noticed how the path began to slope
downward. It was another ten meters before he
abruptly stopped and looked down to his left and
into the chasm below.
“I
don’t think we want to go down there,” the Jedi said
with some amusement.
The
Senator had trailed behind Obi-Wan but now moved up
beside him and followed his friend’s downward gaze.
“I wholeheartedly agree.”
“This way,” Obi-Wan said, gesturing with his hand
and turning to the right, carefully following the
paths winding downward slant. They wove around more
stalactite formations and eventually came upon a
wooden bridge that crossed the endless chasm they
had already discovered. Both men took notice of the
way the sparsely zigzagged bridge edged itself
around spires of rock that had erupted from deep in
the chasm.
Wordlessly, Bail trailed his Jedi counterpart as
they ventured onto the expanse of wood. He reminded
himself that he’d been in speeders flying across
Coruscant’s cityscape and other transports high into
the atmosphere, and yet walking across this bridge
made his heart palpitate wildly.
“You’ll be fine – just don’t look down,” Obi-Wan
assured him, sensing his friend’s agitation through
the Force.
“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” the nervous
Senator replied.
“There’s a force field on each side. We’ll be safe.”
“Safe,” Bail muttered as he took a deep breath and
then swallowed hard.
The
Jedi could still sense the fear in his friend and
used the Force to reach out and steady the shaky
Senator. “Just keep going.”
They
were a little more than halfway across when Obi-Wan
unexpectedly exclaimed, “Oh, I have a bad feeling
about this.”
“What?” Bail barked with an unsteady voice.
“We
might want to become invisible rather quickly.”
“No,
don’t tell me that someone’s coming our way!”
“I’d
be lying if I told you any different,” the Jedi
calmly replied.
Bail
groaned and took a deep breath. “Could it be Sakoya
and Xar’ek?”
Obi-Wan turned his head and said over his shoulder,
“I’m sorry, but no.”
“Where?”
“In
front of us – not too far away. I can hear their
footfalls through the Force.”
Bail
quickly glanced around. “Obviously there’s no cover
here.”
“Then we have no choice but to get to the other side
of this bridge and find some place of concealment.
Take hold of my tunic and I’ll guide you across.”
Bail
didn’t even hesitate and grabbed the Jedi’s clothing
from behind. “I don’t understand –”
Obi-Wan interrupted him and said, “We’ll discuss it
later.”
__________________________________*****__________________________________
Sakoya and Xar’ek were well inside the perimeter and
near the designated tunnel that would lead them into
Reynard Sindre’s compound when an alarm rang out and
laser blasts began firing all around them.
Simultaneously, they dove for cover under an
outcropping and waited for the weapons to stop their
barrage.
“I
thought the security was going to be disabled!”
Xar’ek spat.
Sakoya retrieved her comlink and activated it.
“Obi-Wan, come in!”
No
answer.
She
tried again.
Silence.
“There’s probably a shield or something that blocks
transmissions,” Sakoya stated.
“We’re on our own. Great!” Xar’ek grumbled. “Just
great!”
No
sooner had Sakoya tucked the comlink back into her
top than she found herself looking down the barrel
of a blaster.
__________________________________*****__________________________________
Obi-Wan and Bail had managed to sequester themselves
into an opening in the cavern wall that hid them
from view as a handful of Reynard’s personnel ran
past. Bail cringed inwardly as he thought of the
bridge the scientist’s henchmen were running over
without hesitation.
I’ve never had an issue with heights before. Why
now? he silently pondered. Obi-Wan interrupted
the Senator’s musings as he moved forward and out of
hiding. “What now?” he quietly inquired.
“We
keep going farther in.” Obi-Wan removed the datapad
Vaarn had given him in Kuryn from the waistband of
his pants. “According to the readout, I don’t
believe we’re far from one of the labs but these
caverns are riddled with different passageways, we
better be mindful.”
They
continued on, weaving through one tunnel after
another when Bail suddenly asked, “Shouldn’t we have
heard from Sakoya and Xar’ek by now?”
Obi-Wan inhaled deeply and then slowly let the air
escape through his parted lips. The increasing
humidity made his throat feel thick. “Yes, we should
have,” he replied uncomfortably. Knowing he may
require the use of his tools, Obi-Wan had strapped
on his Jedi belt over the irritating tunic he wore.
He reached into one of the pouches and pulled out
the small communications device.
Activating it, he said, “Sakoya?”
No
static, no reply – nothing at all came back through
the comlink.
He
tried again. “Xar’ek?”
Again, there was silence.
“Why
do I have a bad feeling about this?” the Jedi
murmured.
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