Star Wars_ Labyrinth of Evil Part 11

"Hasten the end," Mace said.

Palpatine nodded in finality.

"Then I trust that you will accept my apologies. Do whatever you must to hunt Sidious down."

24.

"When the Xi Charrian said it was an asteroid mining operation, I wasn't picturing an actual asteroid," Obi-Wan said from the copilot's seat of the Republic cruiser.

"It was TeeCee-Sixteen who told us that," Anakin said. "Maybe something was lost in translation."

The protocol droid had been sent to Coruscant for further debriefing by Republic Intelligence; R2-D2 was on Belderone, where technicians were seeing to damages he had sustained during the battle there. Obi-Wan and Anakin had the old white ship to themselves, and had exchanged their Jedi robes for outfits more suitable to itinerant s.p.a.cers.

Named for the asteroid belt in which it was prominent, the Escarte Commerce Guild facility orbited between ma.s.sive, multi-mooned gas giants in an otherwise uninhabited star system two hypers.p.a.ce jumps from Belderone, on the Rimward side of the Perlemian Trade Route. Oblate when mining operations had commenced twenty years earlier, Escarte was now a concave hemisphere, heavily cratered by the forces of nature and the gargantuan labor droids of the Commerce Guild. Satisfied that every bit of ore had been extracted from Escarte, the guild had converted the asteroid's consequent quarries, tunnels, and shafts into processing centers and field offices. State-of-the-art tractor beam technology allowed the guild to capture small asteroids and draw them directly into the facility, rather than have to use tugs or engage in on-site mining.

In many ways Escarte was the ore-mining equivalent of the Tibanna-gas-mining facilities that floated in the dense atmosphere of Bespin, far across the stars. Unfriendly s.p.a.ce, the belt was defended by Commerce Guild corvettes and fleet patrol craft modeled on the Geonosian starfighter. Regardless, Republic Intelligence had managed to insert one of its agents onto Escarte. Obi-Wan and Anakin hadn't been told when or even if they were going to make contact with the agent, but moments before leaving Belderone they had been informed that Thal K'sar - - the Bith artisan who allegedly had designed the hyperwave transceiver and holoprojector for Gunray's mechno-chair - - had been arrested, on charges yet to be learned.

An alert chime sounded from the cruiser's instrument console.

"Escarte," Anakin said.

"Demanding that we identify ourselves and state our intent."

"We're freelance merchants in search of work," Obi-Wan reminded him.

Anakin activated the comm and said as much into the microphone.

"Corellian cruiser," a husky voice returned, "negative on your request to dock. Escarte has no job openings. Suggest you try Ansion or Ord Mantell."

Obi-Wan's gaze drifted to the viewport. Off to starboard, a corvette was coming about.

"Intercept vector," Anakin said. "Any last-minute instructions, Master?"

"Yes: stick to the plan. Our best hope for getting close to K'sar is to get ourselves arrested."

Anakin grinned.

"Shouldn't be a problem. Hang on."

Obi-Wan already was, and so was able to remain more or less upright in the chair as Anakin firewalled the thrusters and threw the cruiser into a hard turn - - not away from the corvette, but aimed directly toward it.

The console chimed another alert.

"They're warning us away, Anakin."

Anakin kept the cruiser on course.

"Quick flyby. Our way of saying we're not happy about being turned away."

"No lasers."

"Promise. We're just going to buzz them."

Obi-Wan watched the corvette grow larger in the viewport. The console continued to chime, in escalating alerts. An instant later, two turbolaser beams streaked across the cruiser's bow.

Obi-Wan clenched his hands on the chair armrests.

"They're not amused."

"We'll just have to try harder."

Dropping the cruiser's nose, Anakin increased speed. He seemed bent on maneuvering directly under the corvette, but at the last moment he pulled back on the control yoke, taking the cruiser through a spiraling, high-boost climb. A fusillade from the corvette's forward batteries narrowly missed clipping the ship's tail.

"Enough plausibility," Obi-Wan said. "Level out and signal that we're complying."

"Master, you are not taking our a.s.signment seriously enough. If we make it too easy for them, they'll suspect we're up to something."

Obi-Wan saw that two patrol craft were rushing in to join the pursuit.

With flashes of scarlet light racing alongside, Anakin whipped the cruiser through a teeth-rattling bank and shot for the thick of the asteroid belt.

"The only thing worse than being your wingmate is being your pa.s.senger!"

Anakin had the ship tipped to one side, intent on weaving it through a cl.u.s.ter of rocks, when a laser bolt struck the closest asteroid. Rubble from the explosion peppered the cruiser's shields, but the console displays confirmed Obi-Wan's hunch that no damage had been done. Anakin took a firm grip on the control yoke and yanked the cruiser into a turn.

The patrol craft clung doggedly, angling to outflank the larger ship, but Anakin kept cheating the turn tighter and tighter, forcing the fighters to break off. The cruiser had no sooner realigned itself than it gave a sudden lurch, snapping Obi-Wan and Anakin back into their seats, then forward into the console. Anakin reached over his head to make adjustments, and the cruiser raced forward once more, only to freeze, then tremble.

Obi-Wan scanned the displays.

"Are we hit?"

"No."

"Asteroid?"

"Not that, either."

"Don't tell me you've come to your senses and decided to surrender?"

Anakin showed him a long-suffering look.

"Tractor beam."

"From Escarte? Impossible. We're much too far away."

"That's what I thought."

Anakin's hands flew across the instruments, shutting down some systems and activating others.

"Don't try to fight it, Anakin. This ship 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 ship, 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, brandishing 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 ship, 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 ship 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...