padding covered her shoulders and chest. On her pale cheeks were red scars that on closer inspection he realized were facial markings designed to give her a fierce appearance. Her bright blond hair was darkened with some kind of grease. Obi-Wan was shocked by her savage appearance.
Yet he had to trust that she would not fire on Anakin.
'Anakin, get in,' he called.
Anakin eyed Siri's blasters.
'You won't shoot him, Siri,' Obi-Wan said.
'I am Siri no longer,' Siri answered. 'I am Zora.'
'There is still Jedi in you,' Obi-Wan said, 'even though you have betrayed every part of our code.'
'There are so many things I do not miss about the Jedi,' Siri said thoughtfully, blocking Anakin from the ship. 'One is their self- righteousness. It's so boring.'
Anakin gazed from Obi-Wan back to Siri, amazement on his face.
'Zora!' A huge, bellowing voice filled the space. 'Did you find the intruders?'
'Krayn,' Anakin said, even though no one was in sight yet.
'Get in!' Obi-Wan hissed.
'Zora!' The bellow was loud and close.
Siri sprang forward. With one sweeping motion, she closed the hatch, separating Anakin from Obi-Wan. Then she spun sideways toward the giant turbines. She accessed the control panel and pressed several buttons. The giant turbines began to spin faster.
Obi-Wan guessed her strategy a few seconds too late. He just had time to grab the controls when the turbines roared to life at three times their normal speed. A gust of wind picked the craft up like a feather and hurled it toward the shaft.
Fighting for control, Obi-Wan struggled to hold the ship steady. It crashed against one wall of the shaft, then smashed against the other side.
He quickly opened the side wings slightly for more control. It wasn't easy to prevent the ship from crashing and burning in the narrow shaft, but he managed to keep it heading down the middle as it lurched.
The turning propellers ahead reminded him that he could be cut to bits. Obi-Wan drew on the Force, concentrating all his will on the task ahead. Time seemed to slow as he gauged his own speed and the speed of the powerful rotors. At the last possible second, he activated the wings fully and flipped sideways. As the ship slipped through the rotors, one of them clipped a wing. Spiraling crazily, the ship shot out into space.
Obi-Wan fought for control. He activated the third wing to take up some of the control he had lost. The ship slowly steadied beneath his hands. He cut back the engines and spun the craft around. Should he follow the ship, or attempt another landing inside the exhaust shaft? He asked himself the question, but he knew the ship did not have the control necessary to navigate that shaft again.
He couldn't leave Anakin to be captured by Siri and Krayn. He could not allow his Padawan to become a slave once again.
Then as he watched, Krayn's ship blasted into hyperspace in a shower of light energy.
He could not follow. His Padawan was gone.
Chapter 10
Everything had happened so fast. It was rare for Anakin to be caught by surprise. One moment he had been furious at Obi-Wan but ready to board the ship, and the next moment his Master was being blasted down the shaft.
His Jedi reflexes still needed honing. Siri-Zora had completely turned the situation around while he was still absorbing what was happening.
Krayn appeared on the catwalk above.
Krayn was humanoid, but had the size and heft of a natural formation, a boulder, a tree. His body seemed carved out of rock. His shaved head glinted in the dim light. As he drew closer Anakin could see various items hanging from the double utility belt he had slung around his waist. They swung with the motion of his walk. He clutched a vibro-ax in one meaty fist, and his small, glittering eyes swept the scene before him with shrewdness.
A huge Wookiee stood by his side. Anakin realized this must be Rashtah. Ammunition belts crisscrossed his hairy body and a row of blasters were strapped to his waist. A jagged scar began under the hair of his scalp and traveled through his eye down to his lip. An eye patch covered that eye, hiding the damage. Rashtah waved his vibrosword at Siri and sent his own bellow of greeting.
Siri reached over and powered down the turbines. Anakin wondered what his best move would be. There was no game plan for this particular situation. Would the Siri part of Zora cover for him, or would the heartless- seeming Zora give him up immediately? She had certainly acted ruthlessly in the case of Obi-Wan.
His instincts flared. Stay silent. Let her speak.
So Anakin said nothing as Krayn stomped toward them, the vibro-ax twirling like a child's toy in his other hand.
'What's this? Have you caught our intruder?'
'No. This is nobody, just a slave,' Siri said. 'I grabbed him as a shield just in case, but he wasn't needed. I'm afraid our intruders took the exhaust tunnel back into space.'
'If they made it.' Krayn's dark eyes glittered. 'I gave the order to jump to hyperspace. If they were in the
