Part 13 (2/2)
Bolts from the droids' blasters ricocheted from the fuselage and transparisteel panels. Traversing the cruiser's fore and aft cannons, Anakin fired, burying the droids under huge chunks of ferrocrete blown from the walls and ceiling. When the flight systems were online he left the c.o.c.kpit to search for K'sar, who was sitting on the floor of the main hold, panting.
”Why aren't you raising the s.h.i.+p?” the Bith said.
”Guild corvettes are probably already on the way.” Anakin stepped closer to him, his expression darkening visibly.
”You and I need to talk first. And either you answer my questions, or I jettison you here, and let the Gossams do what they will with you.”
The Bith's eyes expanded. ”Talk? About what?”
”A hyperwave transceiver you designed fourteen years ago.”
”Fourteen years ago? I can barely remember last week.”
Anakin glared at him from beneath an angrily furrowed brow.
”Think harder.”
”Why are you doing this to me? I just saved your life!”
”Remind me to thank you later. Right now you're going to tell me about the transceiver. It would have been a special order. More than the usual secrecy. You would have been well paid. You installed it in a mechnochair.”
K'sar started. His wrinkled mouth puckered and he stared at Anakin in terror.
”Now it all comes together - - my arrest and imprisonment, the death sentence! The transceiver... that's what brought you here.”
”Who placed the order?”
”I suspect you already know the answer.”
”How did he contact you?”
”Through my personal comlink. He needed someone of great skill. Someone willing to follow his every instruction without question. The designs he sent were like nothing I had ever seen. The end result was almost...
artistic.”
”Why did he allow you to live - - afterward?”
”I was never sure. I knew I'd been useful. I thought he might require additional devices, but I never heard from him again.”
”If you're right about your arrest, that means he has been keeping an eye on you. Tell me the rest and we might be able to keep you from his long reach. ”
”That's everything!”
”You're holding something back,” Anakin said in a flat, menacing tone. ”I can feel it.”
K'sar gulped, and clutched at his neck. ”I built two of them!”
”Who received the second one? One of the Separatist leaders?”
Swallowing with difficulty, K'sar said: ”It went to Sienar!”
Anakin blinked in surprise. ”Raith Sienar?”
”To Sienar Advanced Projects. It was designed for some sort of experimental s.p.a.cecraft they were building.”
”Who was the craft meant for?”
”I don't know - - I swear, Jedi, I don't.”
K'sar paused, then added: ”But I knew the pilot Sienar hired to deliver the s.h.i.+p.”
”Knew?”
”I don't know if she's still alive. But I know where you could begin to look.”
Obi-Wan and Travale negotiated the cofferdam that linked Escarte's air lock to a docking ring just forward of the cruiser's tri-barreled thruster fantail.
Stepping into the main hold, Travale gave a shout of joy.
”Good to be alive!”
Obi-Wan glanced at Thal K'sar, thinking the Bith might feel the same.
Instead, K'sar was curled up on the hold's worn acceleration couch. Obi-Wan hurried on to the c.o.c.kpit and strapped into the copilot's seat.
”Any problems reaching the s.h.i.+p?”
”The usual close calls,” Anakin said evasively.
”Obviously you were successful at disabling the tractor beam.”
”Not a skill I expect to draw on again, but, yes, thanks to Travale.”
Anakin glanced at the console, waiting for the cofferdam telltale to go off, then called on the thrusters to move the cruiser away from Escarte.
Off to port, Obi-Wan saw two Guild corvettes dead in s.p.a.ce.
”And here I was certain we weren't out of this yet.”
Anakin shrugged.
”Anticlimactic.”
Obi-Wan regarded him for a moment.
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