They continued their grim tour, looking for survivors. The death toll was complete. There was not a living being in the camp.
As they started back, they saw Yanci walking toward them. Her legs moved, but she did not seem to be powering them herself. She moved like a droid, with jerky, articulated motion.
'Everyone is gone,' she said. 'It was a massacre. There is nothing I can do. I can't find Bini — '
'I'm sorry,' Obi-Wan said gently. 'I found her.'
Yanci bowed her head. 'I was jealous of Bini. She was close to Kevta.
It was stupid of me. I can never tell her that.' She wandered away and sat on the ground, her head in her hands.
'Yanci,' Qui-Gon called. 'Can you tell us what the Absolutes took this time?'
She lifted her head. 'Everything,' she said numbly. 'All our blasting equipment is gone.'
Qui-Gon nodded. It was what he had expected. 'Let's look for clues,'
he said in a low tone to Obi-Wan.
They started with the target of the Absolutes — the sheds where the blasting equipment was stored. Here the fiercest fighting had taken place.
Obi-Wan pushed down the revulsion he felt rise in his throat at the desperate postures of the dead. They lay as they had died, fighting to the last.
He concentrated on the task, picking over the ground carefully, then moving into the shed.
Qui-Gon stooped and sifted something through his fingers. When he held up his hand to Obi-Wan, his fingers were stained red.
'This soil is not from this area,' he said. 'The Absolutes tracked it in. Look at the boot marks. They aren't the same patterns as the Rock Workers'.'
Obi-Wan bent and took a small sample of soil. He tapped it into a specimen container from his utility belt. 'Let's ask Yanci. She said she knew the quarries better than anyone.'
They returned to Yanci, and Obi-Wan showed her the soil. She rubbed it between her fingers.
'Red,' she murmured. 'I've seen this soil.' She closed her eyes. When she opened them, her gaze was filled with certainty. 'I know exactly where their hideout is.'
Chapter 13
Within minutes, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Eritha were back on their transports. They had entered the coordinates Yanci had come up with into their nav systems.
Qui-Gon turned to Eritha. 'I cannot order you to stay here. But I strongly recommend that you do so.'
She shook her head. 'You haven't been able to get rid of me yet.
After seeing this, how can I stay behind?'
Qui-Gon turned away, displeased. It would be so much easier if he did not have to worry about Eritha. Despite her strong words, he knew she was not prepared for what they might find.
'The site is to the west, in the quarries abandoned years ago. As you get closer, the canyons will narrow,' Yanci warned. 'You will have to abandon your vehicles, even the swoop. You must approach on foot. There is a road, but I'm sure it will be under surveillance. This is the best way to approach without being seen.'
'What will you do?' Obi-Wan asked, concerned. The haunted look had not left Yanci's eyes. She had been damaged and would never be the same.
'I will bury my dead,' Yanci said.
'I contacted the Workers in the city,' Eritha told her. 'They are sending help to you. They will be here by dawn tomorrow. Will you be all right?'
'I am with those I love,' Yanci said. 'I wish you success on your mission.'
Qui-Gon turned away. He felt a heaviness inside him. For the first time since he had become a Jedi Knight, he could not face someone's grief.
Grief was part of life, and Jedi saw it more than most. Qui-Gon knew the forms it could take, how it could twist and spiral into rage or revenge or dead numbness. There had been times when sorrow had been so much a part of what he saw that it became the only thing he saw. Part of his training had been to see the joy in the galaxy that existed alongside the grief. He remembered early in his life as a Jedi Knight how he had returned to the Temple for long talks with Yoda. Yoda had helped him see the balance in the galaxy, just as he had taught him the balance in the Force.
But now he looked at Yanci, and he saw a possibility of what he would become. His eyes would be that empty. His heart would be that shattered.
Qui-Gon accelerated the engines. The wind blew in his face, making his eyes tear. He knew he was pushing his craft in order to outrun his fear, and he knew it was not what a Jedi should do. But at that moment, the wind and the speed comforted him as no Jedi wisdom could.
Now that they had a clear direction, they made good time through the quarries. The landscape was rough, with unexpected looming cliffs and canyons. Yanci had prepared them for switchbacks and sudden huge pits of water as large as lakes.
At last they reached an area where the canyons narrowed to mere slits in the cliff walls. They abandoned their transports as Yanci had told them.
