Part 17 (1/2)
Blaster bolts began to sear into the ice around them before they made the first bridge. Glancing over his shoulder, Obi-Wan saw three sleds gaining on them from upriver. On the bridge, two beings bundled up in cold-weather gear were drawing a bead on him with a pintle-mounted repeating blaster.
29.
The star that warmed Naos III was a white blur, low on the horizon.
Ominous clouds obscured the mountains to Obi-Wan's right. Snow was falling harder. Tearing into it as fast as the sled would carry him, he felt as if he had run smack into a blizzard. The lovely, crystalline flakes would have been like pellets against his face and hands if not for the Force. Even so, he could barely see, and the ice - - gray, white, and sometimes blue - - was nowhere near as smooth as he had thought it would be.
Pebbly where surface water had thawed and refrozen countless times; mounded up over debris trapped during the freeze; pocked by fis.h.i.+ng holes; heaped high with ice that had filled the holes... Matters weren't helped any by the fact that he was being shot at. Bolts from the repeating blaster on the bridge had him weaving all over the river, slaloming around ice dams and leaping small mounds. The repulsorlift would have allowed him to fly over the obstacles - - as Anakin was doing, farther downriver - - but Obi-Wan just couldn't get the hang of it. More to the point, engaging the repulsorlift required using two hands, and just now he had none to spare. His left was gripped on the control bar/throttle; his right, tight on the hilt of his ignited lightsaber, as he fended off bolts from above and behind. For a moment he was back on Muunilinst, jousting with Durge's speeder-freak lancer droids. Except for the snow.
A vacillating roar in his right ear told him that one of the pursuit sleds had caught up with him. Out of the corner of his streaming eye, Obi-Wan saw the sled's human pilot bend low over the control bars to provide his Rodian rider with the clearance he needed to send a blaster bolt through Obi-Wan's head.
Braking, Obi-Wan allowed the sled to come alongside more quickly than the Rodian had planned. The rider's first shot raced past Obi-Wan's eyes; the second, he deflected slightly downward, straight into the sled's engine.
The machine exploded instantly, flinging pilot and rider head over heels in opposite directions.
Quickly, however, a second sled was catching up. This one carried a pilot only, but a more skillful one. Twisting the throttle, the pilot drove his sled into Obi-Wan's, trying to send it spinning out of control or, better still, into the trunk of ma.s.sive tree that was protruding acutely from the thick ice. Narrowly missing the latter, Obi-Wan went into a sideways skid. Overcorrecting, he added spin to his slide and couldn't resume his course until the sled had whipped through half a dozen counter rotations.
By then his crash-helmeted pursuer was well positioned to ram him a second time, but Obi-Wan was ready for him. Turning sharply, he steered into the pursuit sled, hanging on through the jarring collision, then directing a Force push at the rebounding pilot. The sled shot forward as if supercharged, with the pilot all but dangling from the control bars.
Speeding up the face of a hummock, the craft went airborne, then ballistic, plummeting into a thinly iced-over fis.h.i.+ng hole at an angle that took machine and rider both deep under solid ice. Water geysered into the air, drenching Obi-Wan as he raced past.
The third sled was still clinging to his tail, and blaster bolts were whizzing past his ears. Up ahead, he saw Anakin and Fa'ale lean their sled through a sweeping turn to the south, between two of Naos III's many hills. Lethal hyphens of light streaked down from the bridge that linked the hills, but not one found Anakin or Fa'ale. Unable to replicate Anakin's deft turns, Obi-Wan was falling farther behind with each quarter kilometer, and was now making himself an easy target for the a.s.sa.s.sins on the bridge. With no hope of negotiating the hail of fire, he maneuvered the sled through a long turn away from the span. But no sooner did he emerge from his half circle than he found himself on a collision course with the last of the pursuit sleds. The inevitability of a head-on crash left him no choice but to abandon his machine for what was going to be a very long slide on the ice.
But just short of his leap, a bolt in the jagged line the bridge gunners were st.i.tching along the river caught the pilot of the onrus.h.i.+ng machine in the chest, hurling him into the air. Twisting the throttle, Obi-Wan swerved around the pilotless sled and continued to race upriver, out of range of the blasters. To his right a clamor built over the hill, and the shadow of something large and swift fell over him. A repeating blaster clacked repeatedly, fracturing the ice directly in his path and opening a wide, surging breach of agitated water. Uncertain he could leap the gap even if he wanted to try, Obi-Wan applied the brakes - - hard!
The sled was ten meters from the ice-chunked fissure when a metal claw dropped over him, snapping shut and plucking him from the seat. Wrenched from his hand, his lightsaber flew onto the ice, and the sled sailed off into the frothing water.
”Stars' end,” Obi-Wan muttered.
Suspended on a swaying cable, the claw began to ascend toward the open belly of a graceless snow skiff. Red hands clamped around Anakin's waist, Fa'ale whooped and shouted, clearly enjoying herself. Even through the daze of too many drinks - - or more likely because of them.
”You missed your calling, Jedi,” she shouted into his right ear. ”You could have been a champion Podracer!”
”Been there, done that,” Anakin said over his shoulder. It was then that he caught sight of Obi-Wan being lifted from his sled. Bringing brakes and thrusters to bear, Anakin powered the sled through a fast 180 and shot back upriver, under the bridge they had just left behind, dodging the unrelenting fire of hand blasters.
”Sharptooth collector,” Fa'ale explained when she saw the snow skiff.
”Gathers catch, so the fishers won't have to ferry their loads into the city. That's what I do here - - my job, such as it is.”
The claw that had Obi-Wan in its grip was halfway to the skiff.
”I don't see any way of reaching him in time,” Fa'ale said.
”Get ready to take the control bars!” Anakin said.
Fa'ale's hands clutched his robe.
”Where are you planning to go?”
”Up.”
Pouring on all speed, Anakin steered the sled up the side of the hill that supported one half of the bridge. At the zenith of the climb, he engaged the repulsorlift. Then, leaping from the now rocketing sled, he called on the Force to propel himself toward the swaying cage. The pilots of the skiff saw him coming, and banked hard to starboard, but not soon enough to prevent Anakin from latching onto the claw. A Rodian in the copilot's chair cracked open the door and began firing down at his moving target.
”I had a feeling you'd show up,” Obi-Wan said from inside the claw.
A lucky shot from above hit the cage and ricocheted.
”Hang on, Master! This isn't going to be pretty.”
Obi-Wan heard the snap-hiss of Anakin's lightsaber. Peering through the metal fingers of the claw, he saw what was coming.
”Anakin, wait - - ”
But there was no stopping him. As the claw came within reach of the cargo hold, Anakin swung his lightsaber and sliced open the floor of the skiff's c.o.c.kpit. Sparks and smoke poured from the rend, and almost immediately the craft slued to starboard. Pa.s.sing within a meter of one of the bridge towers, it began to twirl toward the hillside. An instant before the crash, Anakin severed the claw cable, and the cage plummeted, striking the slippery ground and racing down to the frozen river, out onto the ice, spinning crazily, with Obi-Wan bouncing around inside and Anakin Force-fastened to the outside through all the unpredictable pitches and tumbles.
The skiff crashed into the hillside. By the time the claw came to a rest on the far side of the river, the two Jedi were so covered in snow they looked like wampas. Anakin's lightsaber made short work of the fingers of the claw. Obi-Wan scrambled out, spitting snow, and shaking like a hound.
”That has to make it forty - - ”
”Stop,” Obi-Wan said. ”I concede.”
He paused to empty the sleeves and hood of his sodden cloak.
”Where's Fa'ale?”
Anakin scanned the hillsides. The a.s.sa.s.sins on the bridge had packed up and fled. Ultimately, he pointed toward the opposite bank of the river, where a sled was wedged between two mounds of ice. When they reached her, Fa'ale was laying facedown a few meters from the machine, which had been holed by blasterfire. Gently turning her over, Anakin saw that one bolt had amputated the Twi'lek's right lekku. Her eyes blinked open, focusing on him as he cradled her in his arms.
”Don't tell me,” she said weakly. ”I'm going to live, right?”
”Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.”
”A week in bacta and you'll be good as new,” Obi-Wan said.
Fa'ale sighed. ”I won't hold it against you. You did your best to get me killed.”
She gazed around.
”Shouldn't we be looking for cover?”
”They're gone,” Anakin said. Fa'ale shook her head. ”After all these years, they finally - - ”
”I don't think so,” Obi-Wan interrupted. ”Someone more important than Raith Sienar doesn't want us to learn too much about the star courier.”
”Then I had better tell you the rest - - about Coruscant, I mean.”