Star Wars - [Legacy of the Jedi 02] - Secrets of the Jedi (by Jude Watson)

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SECRETS OF THE JEDI
JUDE WATSON
CHAPTER 1
Qui-Gon Jinn couldn't sleep. Every night he spent some time trying, but in the end he decided to walk
off the need for rest.
He didn't understand it. As a Jedi, he was used to sleeping anywhere, in all sorts of conditions. He
had slept in cargo holds and spaceport hangars and on a pile of droid parts. He had slept four hours in
the middle of a field during a driving rainstorm. When he needed sleep, he told his mind to empty and his
body to unwind, and they obeyed.
But in the past, he'd never had to deal with his heart.
He had done the forbidden. He had fallen in love with another Jedi Knight. He had pledged himself to
her. And she had died. He was paying a price he was glad to pay, because those few days of loving and
of knowing he was loved were worth it. But how to put his heart back together? Tahl had changed him.
She had made him whole, and she had broken him with her death. Qui-Gon could not figure out how to
reassemble.
So he didn't sleep. He and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, had been at the Jedi Temple for weeks
now. Yoda had called them back for what they'd expected to be a briefing for a mission, but there had
been no mission. "Need your Padawan does days of reflection," Yoda had said. "Important they are as
days of action."
There had been much action lately. Mission after mission. The Senate was fractured, torn apart by
special interests, by warring clans and alliances.
There seemed to be plenty Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan could be doing, but Qui-Gon did not want to
cross Yoda, so they stayed. But the weeks at the Temple only made Qui-Gon's sleeplessness worse. He
walked the empty halls at night. The glow lamps were powered down to a soft blue, making it a restful
time to stroll. It seemed that every hall, every room, held a memory of Tahl, but he didn't court those
memories. He tried to allow his grief to be his companion, not his master. He opened his mind and simply
walked.
He found himself, at the end of a long night, back near his quarters. Qui-Gon hesitated. He was not
ready to return to his small room and stare at the walls.
"Glad I am to find you awake." Yoda scuttled forward, leaning on his gimer stick.
He blinked at Qui-Gon. "And why, my friend, does sleep not find you?"
Qui-Gon did not want to discuss his heart with Yoda. He loved the Jedi Master, but he did not want
to confide in him. He had never told Yoda of his feelings for Tahl, and there was no need for Yoda to
know how close Qui-Gon had come to violating the rules of the Jedi Order. So instead of the full truth,
he said, "I find peace from walking."
"See I do many things in you," Yoda said. "Peace is not one of them."
Qui-Gon didn't answer. He didn't shrug, or turn away, or drop his eyes. He knew Yoda would read
the unspoken message. I am not ready to talk about this.
"Need a mission now, you do," Yoda said.
Qui-Gon nodded. "And you have one for me. It's about time."
Behind him he heard soft footsteps. The smell of rich tea came to his nostrils — his favorite, a blend
from the leaves of a sapir plant, green and fragrant.
It must be near dawn, then. Obi-Wan had taken to brewing him tea and bringing it to his quarters in
the early morning. Qui-Gon had gently tried to discourage him; he didn't want his Padawan to wait on
him. But Obi-Wan, in his own stubborn way, kept showing up. Qui-Gon was both irritated and touched
by this. Obi-Wan didn't know the details. But he was eighteen now, old enough to make a good guess as
to what had happened on Apsolon between his Master and Tahl. He could sense the depths of
Qui-Gon's sorrow, and he felt he had to do something to help, no matter how small.
Qui-Gon could feel him hesitating now, back behind a pillar. He did not want to interrupt his Master's
conversation with Yoda.
"Step forward you may, Obi-Wan," Yoda said. "Concerns you, this does."
Obi-Wan came out of the shadows. Yoda took in everything in a glance — the small teapot on the
tray, the steaming mug, the expression of concern in Obi-Wan's eyes.
His gaze returned to Qui-Gon. In that gaze Qui-Gon read the truth. Yoda knew of his nighttime
walks. Yoda knew of the tea Obi-Wan brought every morning. And perhaps he even knew about Tahl.
How could Qui-Gon have forgotten that there was so little that Yoda did not know?
Yoda had not called them back in order to give Obi-Wan a chance to reflect. He had called them
back for Qui-Gon's sake.
"Not ready I am to let you go," Yoda said. "Yet let you go, I must."
CHAPTER 2
It all started with a young boy who liked to build things.
Talesan Fry was ten years old. He had long ago become bored with school. He much preferred to
be home, in his room, working with devices he had built himself. At the age of eight, he had set up a
communication system in his home that used voice activation to track his movements. At the age of nine,
he had discovered how to get around it by giving the system a false reading so that his mother was never
exactly sure where he was or what he was doing. Now, at the age of ten, he had moved on to spying on
his neighbors. Perhaps it was a normal pursuit for a young boy, but in this case, Taly made a special
effort to spy on neighbors who went to great lengths not to be overheard.
Breaking into the main comm channels on his homeworld of Cirrus was too easy. What Taly liked to
do was lurk. He would break into the secure channels, past the security gates, opening one after the
other with a few tweaks and clicks on his system. He never heard anything very interesting. Politicians.
Security officers. Corporate vice presidents. Nobody with anything worth saying, in his opinion. Still, he
kept lurking, because he liked to do what was forbidden.
And then one day he heard something interesting. At first, it wasn't enough to even raise his head
from the sleep couch, where he was listlessly flying a model of a Gion speeder by remote. He heard a
quick exchange, a communication about a job coming up.
"Negative," someone said. "Concussive missiles attract too much attention in close quarters."
"Wouldn't hurt to have them. I don't care what our employer says. He's not doing the job, we are.
No blood on his hands. I want to be able to blast my way out if I have to."
Slowly, Taly raised his head.
"If it comes to that, you'll have half the galactic security force on your tail. It's got to be in and out,
quiet and quick."
"You think bagging the leader of —"
"No names." The voice was curt. Taly now had his ear against the transmitter. He had activated a
recording rod.
His eyes widened as he listened. He could pick out five distinct voices and it didn't take him long to
realize they were bounty hunters. Five bounty hunters working together? Taly didn't know much about
bounty hunters, but he knew enough to be sure an alliance was highly unusual.
He knew he had stumbled onto something big. They were talking about a rendezvous on some
planet, about an assassination. They had already picked the date, and it was only fourteen standard days
away. This was something he could not keep to himself. Something — and this was worst of all — he
would have to tell his parents about.
An hour later, after he'd worked up the courage, he brought them the recording rod. His parents
were too alarmed to punish him. They contacted Cirrus security, who notified galactic security on
Coruscant. Eventually the story of a boy who had information on a major assassination plot made its way
to the Senate Investigating Commission on Crime Syndication, Dissemination, and Proliferation in the
Core and Mid-Rim Systems. The commission had been deadlocked for two months on the question of
whether the scope of their investigation should include the Outer Rim. Taly's news hit them like an
electrojabber, prodding them into an action they had been reluctant to take. They called on him to be
their star witness.
By the time this request had made it back to the Fry family on Cirrus, news of Taly's recording had
reached enough security officials, Senators, and Senatorial aides that it might as well have been broadcast
on the HoloNet. It didn't take long after that for a corrupt official to find the right person eager to bribe.
Within two days, Talesan Fry was marked for death by the very bounty hunters he had overheard.
Taly's parents knew enough to realize that their boy had landed in the middle of a great deal of
trouble. They decided to keep the recording rod and bring it themselves to Coruscant. They would let
Taly testify in secret, and that would be the end of it.
The night before they were to leave, they were attacked at midnight. The raid failed only because of
the attacker's arrogance. The bounty hunters did not pause to consider that a young boy capable of
infiltrating their secure communications system would also be capable of fashioning a security system in
his own home that could confound them.
Taly and his parents escaped in an airspeeder that took off from their roof as the lights and alarms
sounded. The bounty hunter, working alone because the five had decided that only one was needed,
found the recording device. He used a concussion missile to destroy the house. He used double the
firepower he needed. He was annoyed.
Now Taly and his parents were in hiding, afraid to move, afraid to trust. The Senate commission
realized they had bungled this job and asked the Jedi for help. In a galaxy where no one trusted anyone,
most still trusted the Jedi. Taly's parents would allow them to escort the family to Coruscant.
The planet Cirrus was known for its golden seas and its lovely cities. The Jedi landed at the
spaceport of the capital city of Ciran. The city folded around a vast bay that served to bounce the light,
turning the sky pale yellow. Two orange suns blazed overhead. The combination of the golden light and
the bright suns had a stunning effect, as though the very air was too bright to see.
Humans were native to Cirrus, but the streets were thronged with many species. The city was built on
two levels, with businesses below and residences above. Lift tubes and ramps were stationed at regular
intervals. Ciran was a city that tried to control its air traffic by making walking pleasant and easy for its
citizens. Large awnings —pieces of strong, flexible fabric — stretched across the walkways, providing
shade and eliminating some of the glare. They rippled like colorful flags and cast shadows like rainbows.
"We must take care that we aren't followed," Qui-Gon said as they took the tube down from the
spaceport to the business level. "The bounty hunters will no doubt expect the Senate to send some sort of
security to pick up Talesan. They'll be watching, hoping we lead them to the Frys."
"I don't pick up anything," Adi Gallia said. "Siri?"
Obi-Wan hadn't seen Siri Tachi with her Master in years. He noted a new sense of respect when Adi
turned to her Padawan. For the first time since they'd boarded the ship together at the Temple, Obi-Wan
really looked at his friend. Siri was taller, certainly, but she also carried herself differently. There was less
aggression in her stance. She had grown comfortable with herself. Her own beauty had once thoroughly
annoyed Siri, but now Obi-Wan saw that she was more comfortable with it. She did not try as hard to
hide it; she simply didn't care.
Siri hesitated before answering, as if she wanted to be sure. "Nothing."
"Good. Siri has an extraordinary sensitivity to Force warnings," Adi told Qui-Gon. "She's gotten us
out of quite a few tight spots."
"Well, I might sense the danger, but Adi gets us out of it," Siri amended, flashing her Master a grin.
"Just to be sure, let's walk a bit before we head for the Frys," Qui-Gon said.
Taly and his parents had kept moving since their home had been destroyed. They had chosen to hide
in the densely populated city, moving from hotel to hotel, from hired room to hired room, not wanting to
put friends in danger. The Jedi had received the coordinates of their current hideout just as they landed.
The Frys were expecting them.
They had taken refuge in an inn that catered to short-term residents, beings who traveled to Cirrus
frequently on business. The inn did not advertise and was known only among the network of business
travelers. It had no sign outside, just an anonymous door. Taly's father had known about it through his
contacts.
The Jedi waited in an alley a few steps away, just to make certain they were not followed. When they
were sure, they went to the door and pressed the button alongside a security monitor.
"Key in your code number," a voice from the monitor requested.
"We don't have one," Qui-Gon said. "We're looking —"
"Full up." The monitor blinked off.
Qui-Gon pressed the button again. "We are expected by one of your guests," he said quickly, trying
not to sound annoyed.
"Name?"
"Yanto." It was the name the Fry family was hiding under.
"One moment."
It was more than a moment, but the door slid open. The Jedi slipped inside. A heavy gray curtain
was immediately in front of them. They pushed it aside and found themselves in a small circular hall. A
round desk sat in the center of the space. The young man sitting behind it wore an expression of great
boredom. He had long fair hair that he wore loose over his shoulders.
"They aren't in," he said. "I checked."
"We'd like to wait in their room," Qui-Gon said. The young man shrugged.
Adi spoke crisply. "They left word that we could enter, didn't they?"
The clerk looked down at his datascreen. "I guess so."
"Then let us up." Adi's voice rang with authority. The young man pushed a key card across the table.
"Suite 2344. Have a ball."
The Jedi stepped into the turbolift. It rose swiftly to the top floor. They found the room. Qui-Gon
knocked, and when there was no answer, he inserted the key card. A series of numbers flashed, and the
door slid open.
The room was modest. Two sleep couches were in an alcove, and a desk stood against a wall.
Vidscreens and datascreens were recessed in the wall. One window overlooked the street but was
covered by a gray curtain.
Siri checked out the travel bags near the sleep couches. "Looks like it could be them," she said.
"Basic necessities are still here."
"So we wait," Adi said.
Qui-Gon went to the window and slid the curtain back a slight bit. He looked out onto the street.
Obi-Wan watched his face.
"He let us up too easily," Qui-Gon said.
"We were expected," Adi said.
"He didn't ask our names."
"He didn't seem to care much about security," Obi-Wan said.
"Yes, he seemed to advertise his indifference," Qui-Gon murmured, his eyes darting around the
room.
Siri bent over to examine the items more closely. She fingered a few items thrown on the end of the
sleep couch. Suddenly, she straightened.
"Something's wrong," she said.
Qui-Gon turned, his gaze sharp. "Tell us."
"They aren't coming back." Siri indicated the items at her feet. "I sense it. These items are
camouflage. There should be something personal here, and there isn't."
"Their house was destroyed," Adi said. "They might not have any personal items left." She said this
not as a challenge, but as an observation, trying to focus Siri's thinking.
"That could be true," Siri said. "But still. They have been here for three days, they said. There should
be evidence that they have been living here. A crumb of food. A loose thread. A stain on the clothes. A
wrinkle. A scent. Something."
"And the clerk . .." Qui-Gon said, but he didn't finish his thought.
"If they felt they had been traced here . . ." Siri said.
Obi-Wan looked at the others. He had felt nothing, no surge of the dark side. He had only felt the
normal uneasiness of being in a strange place, knowing that who they were looking for was being hunted.
He felt a flash of envy of Siri, who seemed tuned into Qui-Gon's thoughts.
Just then, Siri looked up. Her hand flew to her lightsaber hilt.
Qui-Gon was already moving, streaking to one side of the door. "The clerk. He's coming," he said,
just as the door slid open and blaster fire pinged through the air.
CHAPTER 3
The being who burst through the door bore little resemblance to the bored clerk. Now he wore black
armorweave body armor. A holster for a blaster rifle and vibroblade crisscrossed his back, and wrist
rockets were strapped to his forearms. His long fair hair streamed behind him as he rolled into the room
like a droideka, surprising the Jedi by the unusual angle of attack.
He rolled a Merr-Sonn fragmentation grenade into the center of the room. It exploded immediately,
sending shrapnel in all directions. He rolled to a stop, crouching behind a lightweight shield.
Qui-Gon felt the air shimmer with the blast, and the shrapnel exploded around him. He leaped in front
of Obi-Wan and Siri to protect them. It was hard for even a Jedi Master to deflect grenade shrapnel. It
was fast, unpredictable, random. It took all of Qui-Gon and Adi's concentration to block it. The shrapnel
was flung back from their lightsabers and slammed into the walls and floors. A few deadly missiles
thudded into the bounty hunter's shield, but they bounced off.
Qui-Gon saw the flash of surprise on the bounty hunter's face at the sight of lightsabers. No doubt
he'd been expecting a standard Senate security force, not a Jedi team. He fired off two wrist rockets in
rapid succession, then backtracked, rolling out through the door again.
On his exit, he tossed another grenade inside the room. Qui-Gon leaped forward and turned it into a
hunk of smoking metal before it exploded. He kept his eyes on the bounty hunter. He had paused for an
instant outside the door. A flash of something lit the bounty hunter's eyes, and he turned around and fled.
Qui-Gon raced out as the bounty hunter blasted a hole through the hall window with his wrist rocket,
then flew through the shattered panes. Qui-Gon saw a liquid cable line arc out.
He reached the window and looked down. He could just see the silver cable slithering back down
through the air. The bounty hunter had landed on the pedestrian walkway below. Within seconds he had
been swallowed up by the crowd, disappearing underneath one of the colorful awnings.
Adi stood next to him. "He was waiting for them. Figured he would take us out in the meantime."
"At least we know one thing," Obi-Wan said. "He doesn't know where they are."
"I'm not so sure about that," Qui-Gon murmured.
He strode back to the hallway outside the blasted door.
He stood where the clerk had stood. A flash of surprise had lit his eyes, a revelation, and then
smugness and purpose. All of this Qui-Gon had seen.
The bounty hunter, once disguised as the clerk, knew where they had gone.
There was so little time. The bounty hunter was already on his way. But Qui-Gon didn't let himself
think of that. He slowly considered each object he could see from this vantage point.
Floor. Corner of a window. Corner of vidscreen. A pillow on the sleep couch. The edge of a pack.
Nothing.
Qui-Gon looked at the door itself. Then the keypad that they'd used to enter.
"The keycode," he said. "I know hotels like this. The occupant chooses a code that is easy to
remember. The code is entered into security and on the individual cards. The occupant can either use the
card or key in the number to get inside the room."
Adi nodded.
Qui-Gon lifted a hand, and the door card flew from where he'd left it on the sill and into his hand. He
swiped the card and noted the number sequence that flashed.
"The code here is 2N533," Qui-Gon said. "The city of Ciran is shaped like a five-pointed star. There
are five districts, and coordinates and addresses reflect that. Every address starts with the district
number. 'N' could mean north."
"You think the key code is the address where they are staying?" Adi asked.
"That's taking a chance," Siri said. "Wouldn't they be afraid the bounty hunter would figure it out?"
"They didn't know he was here. They just knew he was close. But they had to leave us a hint."
"Besides," Obi-Wan said, "he wasn't sure they were gone for good. He was waiting for them to
return."
As he spoke, he was already accessing the map of Ciran on his datapad. "2N533," he said. "Without
a street name, I'll have to cross-check . . . wait . . ." He looked up. "District 2, 533 North Ascin Street.
That's the only 533 address that's in the second district and has a north designation. It's got to be it."
"The bounty hunter has a head start," Adi said. "We can't afford to make a mistake."
"He is on foot," Qui-Gon said. "So are we. So we must be faster."
CHAPTER 4
They ran through the streets, never hesitating, never stopping. Their Jedi training helped them.
Obi-Wan was able to memorize the map in seconds. Siri was able to point out shortcuts. Qui-Gon and
Adi used the Force to find the easiest way through the crowd.
They saw no sign of the bounty hunter. When they got to the address, Qui-Gon and Adi stopped to
study the facade. It was a building of gray stone, appearing identical to the other residences surrounding
it.
Qui-Gon crossed the street and stood in front of the door. He raised his hand to push the indicator
bell on the intercom.
He felt it before it came. A window flipped open overhead and a large vibroblade swung down. He
felt the whistle of the wind against his back as he jumped. Another second and it would have gone
through his head.
Obi-Wan sprang forward to help his Master, and Adi and Siri began to move around him, trying to
see in the windows by the door.
"There appear to be" — Adi started as darts flew out of a concealed panel — "booby traps."
"Enough of this," Qui-Gon muttered. "There isn't time." He unsheathed his lightsaber and cut a hole in
the door.
An oily, slick substance rolled out and covered the floor, splashing on Qui-Gon. He looked down at
his soiled boots.
Blaster fire suddenly pinged from the lift tube. Qui-Gon swung his lightsaber to deflect it, not moving
an inch. "We're Jedi!" he thundered. "Stop this! There's no time!" The blaster fire stopped.
The door of the lift tube was cracked slightly, the seam open just enough to give someone hiding a
narrow view into the room. It opened a few more centimeters.
A boy poked his head out. His hair was red and stuck up in tufts all over his head. His eyes were a
vivid green. His narrow, pointed nose twitched. Next to him were a man and woman. They each held
blasters, but slowly lowered them as they saw Qui-Gon's lightsaber.
"We didn't know," the woman said.
Qui-Gon sheathed his lightsaber. "We understand."
"I am Nelia Fry. This is my husband, Grove. And this is Taly."
The boy pointed to the floor. "If you move, you'll slip. That's synthetic oil mixed with soap. My own
recipe."
"I won't slip," Qui-Gon said, just as he took a step and slipped sideways. He regained his balance,
slipped again, and slid into the lift tube door. His hands slapped against it and his aggrieved face was now
centimeters from Talesan's.
"Sorry?" Taly offered.
Adi Force-leaped over the slippery mess and landed next to Qui-Gon. "We have to leave
immediately. A bounty hunter is on your trail. He has this address."
The family exchanged worried glances. "No matter where we go, he finds us," Grove Fry said.
"We have an exit plan," Nelia said. "We have swoop bikes on the roof."
The Jedi hurried the family aboard the lift tube and it took them swiftly up to the roof.
There were three swoops, fully fueled. "We'll have to double up," Qui-Gon said. "Talesan, ride with
me."
"Call me Taly," the boy said. "I have a feeling we're going to hang around together for awhile."
"If you two can fit on this swoop, my Padawan can take the pilot seat," Qui-Gon told Nelia and
Grove. "We left our ship near the landing platform, in a secure location."
Just then a transmitter on Grove's belt blinked rapidly. "Someone else has entered the building," he
said worriedly. "Taly rigged up a silent alarm."
"He's here," Siri said quietly.
"It's going to take him a few minutes to search," Qui-Gon said. "Let's go."
Grove and Nelia exchanged a glance. "We're not coming with you."
"What do you mean?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Dad? Mom?" Taly's voice suddenly sounded very young.
Nelia crouched to look into her son's eyes. "Dad and I think you'll be safer without us. He is too
close. If we wait and leave a few seconds after you, he might follow us instead. We can lead him away
from you. Give you time to get far from here."
"This isn't necessary," Adi said crisply. "We can protect you."
"We mean no disrespect," Grove said. "We trust the Jedi. But we also want every chance for our
son."
"You must come with us," Qui-Gon argued. "To stay is too great a risk."
Grove's eyes filled with steely determination.
"That is for us to decide, not you," he said. "We have talked about this at length; we know what we
have to do. Nothing you can say will convince us. And you cannot force us. If we can do any small thing
to save our son, we will. You have a better chance without us, especially if we create a distraction. That
is our decision."
"We'll find our way to Coruscant," Nelia told Taly. "We'll find you."
Taly had gone very still.
Nelia straightened quickly. Her eyes were wet with tears. "Take care of our son," she whispered.
She put her arms around Taly and held him against her. Grove came behind her and the three of them
rocked together. Then the parents broke away.
"No," Taly said. "Mom! Dad! Don't do this! I can protect us!"
The sight of their young son made the parents' faces crumple with love and pain.
"You can do so much," Grove said. "You can't do this."
Over Taly's head, Nelia turned her stricken eyes on Qui-Gon. "There's no time. Go. Please. Take
摘要：

SECRETSOFTHEJEDI JUDEWATSON CHAPTER1     Qui-GonJinncouldn'tsleep.Everynighthespentsometimetrying,butintheendhedecidedtowalkofftheneedforrest.     Hedidn'tunderstandit.AsaJedi,hewasusedtosleepinganywhere,inallsortsofconditions.Hehadsleptincargoholdsandspaceporthangarsandonapileofdroidparts.Hehadslep...

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