Part 11 (2/2)
Anakin's hands flew across the instruments, shutting down some systems and activating others.
”Don't try to fight it, Anakin. This s.h.i.+p won't hold together.”
A deep shudder from the bowels of the cruiser reinforced his words.
Anakin clenched his jaw, then let his hands fall to his sides.
”Look at it this way,” Obi-Wan said, as the cruiser was being drawn toward the distant facility. ”At least you made them work for it.”
Gentle with the cruiser, the tractor beam had deposited it in a guild-made crater that was now a docking bay. Ordered out of the s.h.i.+p, Obi-Wan and Anakin stood at the foot of the boarding ramp with their hands clamped on top of their heads. Uniformed Neimoidians and Gossams surrounded the cruiser, and a security team comprising humans, Geonosians, and battle droids was marching toward them.
”Not exactly the warm welcome we received on Charros Four,” Obi-Wan said.
Anakin nodded slightly.
”Almost makes me nostalgic for the Xi Charrians.”
”Keep your hands where we can see them!” the human chief of the security detail shouted as he stepped onto the landing platform. ”Make no sudden moves! ”
”Such drama,” Anakin said.
”No mind tricks,” Obi-Wan cautioned.
”Spoilsport.”
The light-complected, blond security officer was as tall as Anakin and wider in the shoulders. A Commerce Guild badge affixed to the collar of his gray uniform showed him to be a captain in the Escarte Guard. He brought the security detail to a halt when everyone was still three meters from the boarding ramp. At his signal, the Geonosians spread out to both sides, brandis.h.i.+ng wide-muzzled sonic blasters. The captain looked Obi-Wan and Anakin up and down, then circled them once, hands clasped behind his back.
Eyeing the s.h.i.+p, he said, ”I haven't seen one of these in a while. But judging by the retrofitted cannons, I'd have to guess you're not amba.s.sadors of goodwill.”
”Let's just say we've been forced to adapt to the times,” Obi-Wan said.
The captain scowled at him.
”What's your business in this sector?”
”We were hoping to find freelance work,” Anakin said.
”You were informed otherwise. Why create problems for yourselves by hara.s.sing one of our corvettes?”
”We felt that you'd been impolite - - when all we wanted was to introduce ourselves.”
The captain almost laughed.
”Then this has all been a misunderstanding?”
”Exactly,” Obi-Wan said.
The captain shook his head in amus.e.m.e.nt.
”In that case we'd be glad to show you around - - starting with the detention level!”
He swung to two other humans in the detail.
”Stun-cuff these comedians and search them for concealed weapons.”
”Can't we simply pay a fine and be on our way?” Obi-Wan asked as the magnetic cuffs snapped into place around his wrists.
”Tell it to the judiciary.”
Frisks completed, the two humans stepped away.
”They're clean.”
The captain nodded.
”That's one thing in their favor. Search the s.h.i.+p and impound anything of value. And alert detention that I have two for containment.”
Drawing a blaster from his hip holster, he motioned Obi-Wan and Anakin toward the turbolifts. The crater docking bay was accessed by several corridors, some unchanged since the days they had served as mining tunnels, others reinforced by plasteel girders and dressed up with ferrocrete panels. It was apparent also that some of the turbolifts were housed in former mine shafts.
The captain indicated an unoccupied lift and followed Obi-Wan and Anakin inside. When two Gossams hurried for the same lift, he waved them away.
As soon as the door closed, he lowered his weapon and spoke with a sudden urgency.
”We have to make this quick.”
”You're Travale,” Obi-Wan said, using the code name he had been furnished.
”Things have gotten more complicated with the Bith. He's slated for execution.”
Anakin's eyebrows met in a V.
”What did he do, murder someone?”
”Some sort of accounting error.”
”Execution seems a rather harsh penalty,” Obi-Wan said.
”Escarte Judiciary claims it wants to make an example of him. But it's clear the charges were trumped up.” Travalc paused. ”Could have something to do with your being here to see him.”
Travale hadn't been given the reason, but Obi-Wan nodded in acknowledgment.
”If he's expecting to die, he may not feel inclined to talk to us.”
”My thought, too,” Travale said. ”But maybe if you could break him out...
<script>