Clone Wars Gambit: Siege Part 23

"I know, " he said gently. "Sometimes it feels as though you'll never feel anything else. As though the rest of your life will feel like this. "

"Yes, " she whispered. "I can't afford medicine from Lantibba. Sufi does what she can with her herbs but..." She smeared a hand across her eyes. "I don't suppose-is there any chance you could..."

Regret cut keenly, like a blade. "I'm so sorry, Devi. I'm not a dedicated healer. Besides, the original injury happened some time ago, didn't it? Even if I were trained, I'm not certain it could be fixed. "

She closed her eyes. "I see. "

"But I will make you more comfortable, " he promised. "Now. Breathe slowly and deeply for me. Yes. That's it. "

It was a relief to help her, to sink himself into the Force and use it in such a good cause. Knowing that countless innocents would suffer and die if he and Anakin failed to stop Lok Durd and Count Dooku, this one small act, this brief, transitory kindness, took on a grave and greatly personal significance. In healing Greti's mother and Rikkard's son, in easing this courageous woman's pain, he was making a difference. Anything he could do to leave these people better than he found them was a balm to his weary, fretful mind.

When he was finished, and Devi's pain was near to banished, he left her to stir awake and turned his attention to the antigrav harness.

It was indeed a sorry piece of equipment, broken and mended and tricked up and falling apart. He'd do what he could, but doubtless Anakin could do better. He'd ask him to look at it before they returned to the city.

Feeling eyes on him, he glanced up. Devi was smiling.

"I don't hurt, " she said, wondering. "I can't remember the last time that something, somewhere, didn't hurt. Obi-Wan..."

"You're very welcome, " he said. "Now, let's see if I can make a difference to this harness, shall we?"

His repair job wasn't perfect, not by a long shot, but there was a definite improvement. Once he'd finished, and helped Devi strap herself back into it, she threw her arms around him and held on tight.

"Thank you. I don't know why you're on Lanteeb and I don't care. I don't care what anyone has to say about the Jedi. Thank you. " And then she let go and practically danced to the monitors. After checking the theta-level readout she pumped her fist in the air. "Yes! We can lower the s.h.i.+eld. " Grinning, she turned to him. "Would you like to do the honors?" She pointed. "It's that panel there. The red toggles to lower the s.h.i.+eld, and the green switch to sound the all-clear. "

And so, with great solemnity, he deactivated the storm s.h.i.+eld that had kept them alive through the long, wild night.

"Come on, " said Devi, heading for the door. "Let's go breathe some fresh air, shall we?"

The all-clear siren sounded through the village, a lighter, more cheerful wailing than the strident blaring of danger. Emerging into the unfiltered suns.h.i.+ne, Obi-Wan saw that he and Devi weren't the only people rus.h.i.+ng outside to celebrate. Everyone aboveground that he could see had downed tools, was hugging and laughing as the trapped smoke from the burned refinery began to dissipate, shredded by a lively breeze. He felt a familiar s.h.i.+ver in the Force. Yes. There was Anakin, over at the ruined building, his height and his light hair making him stand out in the crowd. Anakin, sensing him in turn, raised a hand above his head and waved. He waved back, an unexpected rush of optimism lifting his dull, beleaguered spirits.

Perhaps we can win this one after all.

And then somebody shouted. "Look! Droids!"

Freezing apprehension swamped him. By his side, Devi s.h.i.+fted around, staring. "What's Teiki on about? Is the convoy here early?

Rikkard's going to explode. "

Obi-Wan saw sunlight on durasteel, wickedly glinting, heard a faint thud thud thud of heavy metal feet on hard, dry ground. Then came a high, buzzing drone, a familiar metallic whining-and a swarm of mosquito droids flowed over a rise and began to spit blaster bolts at the unprotected village.

A villager screamed and fell and abruptly stopped screaming.

97.Obi-Wan spun around, sending a frantic mental call to Anakin.

They've found us. Get everyone inside!

Without waiting for an answer he sprinted to the power plant. Reaching it, he threw himself inside, leapt for the storm- s.h.i.+eld monitor, and slammed the switches on again. He had no idea how long it took for the generators to engage, if the s.h.i.+eld could repel blaster bolts, or how long it would hold out against a concerted attack. The only thing he did know was that the s.h.i.+eld might be their only hope.

They were waiting for us. It was always too late.

"Obi-Wan! Obi-Wan? What's going on, what are you..."

He turned. "It's not the convoy, Devi. Stay in here. Do not go outside. Divert all the power you can to the s.h.i.+elds and contact Rikkard in the mine. Tell him to keep even-one underground. Right now it's the safest place to be. "

Shocked, her eyes wide, Devi moved into position. He could feel her terror like a living thing. Cutting himself off from it, he reached inside his s.h.i.+rt, pulled out his lightsaber and flicked its switch. The burning blue blade hummed into life.

She gasped. "You're going to fight them?"

"Yes, " he said, moving for the door. "All the power you can spare, Devi. Nothing else matters. "

Outside again he looked up, counted ten-twelve-sixteen mosquito droids. Looking around he saw more dead or wounded villagers and closed his mind to their plight. Anakin, still shouting at people to run, was drawing the droids' fire and deflecting their lethal blaster bolts with his own lightsaber, its blade a blur.

The storm s.h.i.+eld still hadn't engaged. And there were more droids coming, dazzling bright in the suns.h.i.+ne. Durd had sent an army after them. Battle droids, ranks of them. They were close enough to count.

How could I have been so wrong? How did I not sense this? These people-these poor people...

"Obi-Wan!"

He leapt into the fray, putting himself between the last straggling villagers and a hunting pack of droids, and took out three of them in swift succession even as he fought his way to Anakin.

"Where's the s.h.i.+eld?" Anakin shouted above the searing shriek of the droid attack. "You turned it on, right?"

"No, Anakin, I disabled it!" he shouted back as he destroyed another mosquito. "Of course I turned it on!"

"Then why hasn't it..."

With a humming rush of power the storms.h.i.+eld reengaged-but not fast enough to prevent the first marching battle droids from entering the village.

"Obi-Wan..."

He almost never got angry, but now he felt sick with fury. You fool, Ken.o.bi. You arrogant fool. "I know. I've got them, Anakin. You take care of these mosquitoes. "

And without giving Anakin a chance to argue he sprinted to the road leading out of the village, where the battle droids were marching toward him in perfect lock step. How many? Twenty. Maybe more. They saw him and aimed their blasters. Running headlong to meet them he raised his lightsaber. Raised his other hand ready to Force-push- "Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" the droid commander blared. "Target acquired! Capture, not kill!"

What? But before he could consider the implications of the order the droids were flipping switches on their blasters and the next thing he knew they were firing stun charges at him.

98.Still running, he summoned the Force and vaulted over their heads. Their blasters tracked him, firing without pause. One stun charge clipped his shoulder in pa.s.sing. Dizzy, his vision crimson around the edges, he hit the ground and stumbled. Spinning around, off kilter, he Force-pushed the droids nearest to him. They Hew backward, stun charges harmlessly st.i.tching the air. Three of them collected another four as they tumbled. Good. Still dizzy, he tried for another Force-push. Not as effective this time, only two droids went flying. And the other droids were swiftly closing in, starting to flank him, surround him. He shook his head hard, trying to clear it. The damot.i.te headache was back, fiercer than ever. Or maybe that was the stun charge. He was going to be sick.

"Obi-Wan! Break left!"

"Careful!" Obi-Wan managed to croak as he staggered in more or less the right direction. "Stun charges. They want to take us alive. "

"I know!" Anakin shouted, and pa.s.sed him at a run.

And then he thought perhaps he really was unconscious and having a wild dream, because Anakin threw his lightsaber, sent it spinning into the midst of the droids, dismembering them into sc.r.a.p metal, using the Force to control his weapon's speed and trajectory.

Swaying like a drunk in Coruscant's seediest nightclub, he watched Anakin obliterate the remaining battle droids. If he hadn't felt so ill he'd have laughed or cheered.

Good boy. Oh, good boy. You show the barves.

With effortless, arrogant ease, Anakin summoned his lightsaber back to his hand, nodded once at the destroyed droids, grimly satisfied, then turned. "You all right?"

He couldn't answer. Not only because he was still shaking from the stun charge's nimbus, but because- "Hey!" Anakin said sharply. "Obi-Wan. This isn't your fault. They didn't teleport here from Lantibba. They must've been traveling for hours. They left the city sometime after we were trapped here by the theta storm. We were never going to get away. You know that, right?"

Slowly, the worst of the nausea subsided. Standing a little straighter, he deactivated his lightsaber. "Perhaps. But that's hardly consolation for these people. They took us in-and look what their act of mercy has brought them. "

Anakin was staring down the road that led out of the village. On the other side of the storm s.h.i.+eld, gently distorted by the s.h.i.+mmering plasma, more battle droids and mosquitoes gathered. Frowning, Anakin summoned one of the dismembered droid's blasters to his hand, switched it back to lethal mode, then aimed it at the storm s.h.i.+eld and fired. The blaster bolt splashed against it, energy dissipated. The s.h.i.+eld s.h.i.+vered but held.

"Well, " said Anakin, and tossed the blaster aside. "That's one question answered. "

Obi-Wan rubbed his temple, fighting to control the vicious pain. "That's a single blaster bolt, " he said. "What if they fire a hundred?

What if they fire worse? This is a storm s.h.i.+eld, not a siege barrier. "

Anakin shrugged. "It isn't right now. But if you give me a few hours... "

"Are you serious? Anakin, are you saying you can convert a theta s.h.i.+eld to a siege barrier?"

Another shrug. "I can try. "

Heart thudding, Obi-Wan stared at the scattered bodies of the men and women who'd died. I'm sorry. So sorry. Then he turned back and stared again at Durd's army.

"Yes, I'm sure you can, Anakin, " he murmured. "Just as I'm sure that you would succeed. So the question becomes not can you... but should you?"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"surrender?" exhausted and filthy, Rikkard stared at them. "Are you saying you want to hand yourselves over to those droids?"

99."Want to?" Obi-Wan shook his head. "Of course not. But your village cannot withstand a protracted siege, Teeb. Your supplies are inadequate and there's no guarantee the storm s.h.i.+eld will hold until sunset, let alone for days. Or weeks. Besides, you have nine dead and seventeen wounded already. Anakin and I cannot ask you to add to that tally by protecting us. "

"You think it will take weeks for the Republic to come?" said Teeba Jaklin, frowning.

"Not weeks, no, " said Anakin. "They should be..."

"The problem is, " said Obi-Wan, with a quelling look, "we can't promise you that help is on its way. In fact, I think we must a.s.sume we're on our own. "

"Oh, " Teeba Jaklin said, her voice faint. She pressed her fingers to her lips, swamped by grief and bewilderment. Rikkard, just as shaken, rested a hand on her shoulder.

The four of them stood on the charter house step. Feeling the village leaders' fear echo through the Force, and sharply aware of Obi-Wan's mood, Anakin looked across the square. Nearly half an hour had pa.s.sed since the droid attack. Torbel's people were still in shock, mourning their dead and trying to comfort the wounded.

A handful of villagers had defied Jaklin and Rikkard and drifted to the end of the main street to stare through the storm s.h.i.+eld at the ma.s.sed battle droids on its other side. Not including the buzzing flock of mosquitoes, at a rough head count there were three hundred of them, heavily armed. By some miracle they hadn't fired a shot for nearly ten minutes. Since most droids lacked initiative, probably they were waiting for further instructions. At least the storm s.h.i.+eld had been down long enough for the air to clear, which meant no more breathing toxic smoke. But aside from that...

Every time I think we can't get ourselves into worse trouble, we do. Obi-Wan can't believe our best bet is to surrender. He just can't.

Except, glancing at Obi-Wan's severely self-contained face, he was pretty sure his former Master was deadly serious.

Which means we have another problem.

"You're sure there's no chance you can fix our communications hub?" Teeba Jaklin said at last. "If we could find out when the help you asked for is coming..."

"I'm sorry, " Anakin said. "The entire central processing relay is burned out. You don't have the right replacement parts, and what parts you do have I can't get to work. "

Her accusing glare scorched him. "But you've fixed everything else! Devi says you're some kind of genius. You have to fix the hub.

It's our only link to the rest of Lanteeb. "

"I'm sorry, " he said again, feeling helpless. He didn't know what else to say.

Rikkard lightly shook the woman's shoulder. "Jaklin, don't hunt the boy. He's done his best for us. They both have. "

"Done their best?" said Jaklin, incredulous, and knocked his hand away. "Rikkard, they've brought this on us! If not for them we'd have no children weeping over their lost mothers and fathers, would we? Sufi wouldn't be bloodied to the elbows with wounded and Brandeh-dear Brandeh..." Her voice broke. "She wouldn't be dead. "

"I know we're in a bad way, Jaklin, but be fair!" Rikkard snapped. "We're alive thanks to these men. I'm still a father because of them.

And you want us to throw them to those droids like raw meat to spika-wolves? For shame, woman. I thought much better of you. "

Teeba Jaklin paled beneath the dirt and sweat smearing her face. "Yes, they did us a good turn, Rikkard-but they were saving themselves, too. That's not n.o.ble. It's pragmatics, that is. And you heard the Jedi clear as I did. The storm s.h.i.+eld won't hold. Not against an army of droids. "

Anakin opened his mouth to argue that, but Obi-Wan elbowed him silent. He shot his former Master a quick, frustrated look.

Obi-Wan, listen to me. You're making a mistake.

But Obi-Wan, feeling guilty, his mind made up, refused to yield... or even acknowledge that he'd heard the plea.

"What will happen if we give you to the droids?" said Rikkard to Obi-Wan. "Will they kill you?"

100."No, " Obi-Wan replied. "They want us alive. They'll take us back to Lantibba and hand us over either to the Separatist- controlled government or to Lok Durd, who's already tried to capture us once. "

"And then you'll be killed?"

"It's possible, " Obi-Wan admitted, after a moment. "Or they could attempt to use us to extort concessions from the Republic. "

Rikkard thought about that. "Would they torture information out of you?"

"They might try, " said Anakin. "But they'd fail. "

"Still... " Rikkard hunched his shoulders. "If you went with them-could you escape between here and Lantibba? I mean, you're Jedi.

You can do things the rest of us can't imagine. "

"Of course that would be our aim, " Obi-Wan said carefully. "But given that we've escaped them once, I doubt they'll be taking any chances. "