Part 25 (2/2)
”Nothing's ever as simple as it looks on the surface, Devi, ” he said. ”If I've learned nothing else as a Jedi, I've learned that. ”
”Anakin...” She hesitated. ”What's it like, being a Jedi?”
”Wonderful, ” he said. ”Terrifying. Overwhelming. ”
”Oppressive?”
The question startled him. ”Why would you say that?”
”I don't know. Just...” She blushed. ”Sometimes I feel oppressed, knowing everyone relies on me to keep this power plant running. I thought maybe sometimes you felt like that, too. Everyone in the Republic expects you to save them, don't they?”
Her awkward, unexpected sympathy touched him. ”I'm fine, Devi. Don't go losing sleep over me. ” He tapped the nearest bank of monitors. ”I've thought of some tricks to strengthen the storm s.h.i.+eld. I'd like to get started, if it's all right with you. ”
She smiled again, tired but willing. ”Sure. I'll give you a hand. ”
Nearly an hour later, Obi-Wan found them in the plant's substation, reconfiguring the liquid damot.i.te's flow pattern. Feeling his approach, catching a swift sense of his habitually disciplined emotions-worry, guilt, uncertainty, determination- Anakin turned. The look on Obi-Wan's face said it all.
”We can stay?”
”Yes, ” said Obi-Wan, subdued. ”Now- it's our job to see that the villagers don't regret their decision. ”
”We won't, ” said Devi. ”We...” And then she gasped. ”Oh, no... ”
The droids were firing again.
Anakin turned to her. ”We're safe, Devi. They can't get in. ”
”For now, ” she muttered. Then she straightened. ”All right. Let's get back to work. ”
Eventually they stopped listening to the relentless, crumping thud-thud-thud of blaster bolts. .h.i.tting the s.h.i.+eld.
After several hours of checking the primary power conduits for short circuits and replacing the most suspect wiring, Obi-Wan returned to his self-imposed duties in the sick house. Three hours after that, Anakin sent Devi off to get some rest.
”We can't afford you collapsing, ” he said, when she protested. ”Now do as you're told. Please. ”
It was the kind of high-handedness Padme deplored. Had she been here, she'd have scolded-but Devi gave in.
”Fine. I'll take a couple of hours, ” she said. ”And then I'll be back!”
Welcoming the solitude, keeping one eye on the monitors, he started the tedious task of cleaning yellow section's corroded secondary fuel-injection valves. As far as he could tell, they hadn't seen an oil bath in months. But even though the task was important, more than 107 anything he wanted to seek for Padme in the Force, to make sure she was all right. He didn't dare. Not with Obi-Wan so close. Her absence was an ache in his chest. Sometimes, missing her, he found it hard to breathe. And the thought of dying here, of leaving her alone in a dangerous galaxy, frightened him so much, his fingers fumbled the dirty- valves. Eyes closed, he conjured her beautiful face and the feel of her skin warm against his.
Be safe, my love. Stay out of trouble.
Devi made good on her threat and returned two hours later. ”They've stopped firing, Anakin. Did you realize? What a relief. Now get some rest-and eat. I'll manage without you. ”
He found a tired smile for her. ”Yes, Teeba. ”
Outside, the night air nipped at his face. Thin and cool, it reminded him of Tatooine after sunset. He looked up at the distant stars, widely scattered in this part of the galaxy. And then, anger stirring, he looked at the battle droids ma.s.sed beyond the storm s.h.i.+eld. Had they run out of ammunition? Or did they now think their presence alone was enough to frighten Torbel into surrender?
Prowling toward the s.h.i.+eld perimeter, Anakin raised his fist.
I wonder... I wonder...
”Don't, ” said Obi-Wan, emerging from the shadows. ”Not even you can destroy an entire army. And it's best we leave them unprovoked. ”
Regretful, he relaxed his fingers. ”I know. I just wish I could...”
”So do I, ” said Obi-Wan, and smiled at him.
”Obi-Wan...”
Another smile. ”Yes, Anakin. We're fine. Now come and eat, then get some rest. ”
They turned their backs on Durd's army and walked away.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
Bail was bogged down in a finance subcommittee meeting when word blasted across the HoloNet News network.
Chandrila's Haiuta City suffers devastating bioweapon attack.
The machinery of the Senate came to a shuddering halt. Senators and their aides and their staff and their staff's staff milled in circles, dazed by the ferocity of the unexpected a.s.sault. In stunned silence they gathered in front of the sprawling Senate Building's enormous flatscreens and holoimagers and watched in horror as the HNE droidcams faithfully recorded and tight- beamed around the Republic images of suffering that made the service's war footage look like a romp in the park.
Standing with his senatorial colleagues in one of the open meeting areas near his office, Bail could feel nothing but a deep and freezing grief. The Separatist bioweapon was a monstrosity he was having difficulty comprehending, even as he witnessed its results-sentients of at least seven different species, of all ages, reduced to b.l.o.o.d.y slime and gritty froth. Beside him, his personal a.s.sistant began to weep.
Heedless of protocol, he slid his arm around Minala's shoulders. In all the years he'd known her, during all the crises they'd shared, she had never shed a tear in front of him. But this attack was unprecedented.
And then his comlink sounded. Answering it, he heard the blandly autocratic voice of Mas Amedda, summoning him to the Supreme Chancellor's office.
”Minala, ” he said softly. ”I have to go. And there are things I need you to do for me. ”
She pulled herself together, breath by breath becoming the woman he relied on every day: rigorously efficient and self- contained Minala Lodilyn.
108.
”Of course, Senator. ”
He and Minala returned to his offices. With the door closed and his privacy screens engaged, he turned to her. Stunned grief was fast surrendering to rage.
”Eyes only to Agent Varrak, ” he said. ”I want her on a needle job. I want to know how this happened before sundown today. Then contact Nathe at the Special Operations Brigade. I want the securecam footage from both of Chandrila's public s.p.a.ceports and all of its private docking bays-I don't care who owns them-as well as the footage of every street in a five-klick radius of the dead zone, deconstructed frame by frame. ”
Minala nodded. ”What about any incidental HoloNet News footage?”
<script>