Blaster fire lit the smoky corridors of the Monument, blinding him. Qui-Gon deflected and dodged the bolts.
Dead Togorians were strewn in the hall behind. Live Togorians choked the hall ahead. Their roaring resounded from the walls.
For a moment, he was pinned behind the dead. He wished that he had some backup. But the Offworlders were fighting on another front.
“Where are your Arconans?” he shouted to Clat’Ha. “We could use some help.”
“Arconans don’t fight!” Clat’Ha shouted back as she snapped a shot at a Togorian. “They probably locked themselves in their rooms!”
“What about Jemba’s men?” Qui-Gon asked. “Maybe you should contact them for help!”
“They wouldn’t come,” Clat’Ha said grimly. “I’m afraid it’s you and me, Qui-Gon..”
A Togorian pirate captain lunged down the corridor, bursting through the screen of smoke. He was huge, nearly twice as tall as a man. His black body armor was scarred and pitted from a thousand fights. A Human skull dangled from a chain around his neck. His fur was dark as night, and his green eyes gleamed wickedly.
He carried a huge vibro-ax in one hand, an energy shield in the other. The pirates pointed ears were drawn back flat against his skull. He stepped forward to meet it.
“Meet your death, Jedi!” the Togorian pirate roared. “I have hunted your kind before, and I will gnaw your bones tonight!”
Suddenly, Qui-Gon realized that the pirates behind their dark captain were retreating, back toward the hold. There was nowhere to go back there, except another access tunnel. The pirates were probably trying to circle behind him.
Clat’Ha rushed forward and fired her blaster. The Togorian raised his shield against it, deflecting it easily. Then he raised his deadly vibro-ax. With only the slightest touch, the weapon could sever a man’s head. Qui-Gon moved forward in one flowing movement, his lightsaber held high.
“No doubt you have killed before,” Qui-Gon said softly. “But you shall not be gnawing any bones tonight.”
He leaped at the Togorian pirate. The pirate roared and swung his ax.
A blinding flash as bright as a solar flare lit space as the proton torpedoes struck the Togorian gun ship.
Obi-Wan shielded his eyes from the intense light. Si Treemba cried out.
Half of the gun ship disintegrated, hurtling debris into space. A second blast followed the first, as the gun ship’s arsenal exploded.
Bits of metal riddled the Monument. A huge section of the blown gun ship hurtled into a second Togorian warship.
Obi-Wan didn’t plan to wait and see id the pirates would shoot him down. While they recovered, he hit a button, loading more torpedoes into his launch tube.
With the navigation console out, the only way to fly the ship was manually. Obi-Wan grabbed the control, pulled back hard, and hit the thrusters. He heard the harsh sound of metal rending. Had he just ruined the engines?
Quickly, he consulted the display terminals. He saw the source of the sound. Two Togorian cruisers were latched to his docking bays. By blasting off, Obi-Was was ripping away from the ships — tearing apart seals to the doors.
All the air by the docking bays would rush into space.
Qui-Gon had gone to stop the pirates’ boarding party.
Obi-Wan gritted his teeth and fervently hoped that only pirates would be swept out into space with the wreckage.
Ahead of him, a Togorian warship opened fire.
* * *
The floor lurched under Qui-Gon’s feet as he met the pirate captain. The huge Togorian weighed four times as much as a man.
Even under normal circumstances, it would have been all the Qui-Gon could do to fend off the pirate. He tried to catch his footing as he blocked the monster’s blow.
The pirate almost fell, but recovered in time to raise the vibro-ax. The blade bit deep into Qui-Gon’s right shoulder, driving him to the floor.
Qui-Gon gasped from the searing pain. His shoulder burned as if it were on fire. He tried to lift his arm, but it was useless.
Behind the pirate, Qui-Gon heard the sound of peeling metal. The seals to hold had ripped apart. Wind howled down the hall as the ship’s air screamed away. Qui-Gon saw droplets of his own blood stripped away like rain in a storm.
Debris came hurtling down the hall — blasters and helmets of dead Togorians. They battered the huge Togorian pirate, and he raised his shield, fighting forward, pressing the attack.
Qui-Gon let the wind pull him, so that he slid along the floor toward the vacuum of space, closer to the pirate captain.
If he died, he would take the monster with him.
