Jedi Apprentice Special Edition 2: The Followers

Chapter 12

Qui-Gon saw a figure standing above them at the top of the chasm. It leaned over the edge for a split second, then was gone. A moment later Obi- Wan's launcher cord went slack and his Padawan fell past him with alarming speed.

Qui-Gon immediately anchored himself to the cliff and reached out to the Force to try and stop the fall. But the dark energy in the giant crevasse worked against him. He felt oddly exhausted and had little ability to concentrate.

Quickly, Qui-Gon pushed past his weakness and focused harder. He willed his apprentice to do the same.

The sound of Obi-Wan's launcher anchor scraping against the side of the crevasse was music to Qui-Gon's ears. After a few seemingly endless seconds it caught, jerking Obi-Wan to an abrupt halt. He dangled in the air somewhere below Qui-Gon.

"Are you all right, Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon called down. His voice echoed off the chasm walls.

"I'm fine," Obi-Wan replied. "And I can see the bottom of the crevasse."

Qui-Gon tested his line. It was still secure. Then he rappelled the rest of the way as quickly as he could. By the time he got to the crevasse floor, Obi-Wan had stowed his cable launcher and was searching the area by the light of a glow rod. The crevasse floor was rocky and covered by slippery vegetation. They would have to tread carefully.

"I don't see anything," Obi-Wan said. His voice sounded strangely hollow, and Qui-Gon wasn't sure if it was because of the chasm, his fall, or because they were so close to the Holocron. The concentration of dark knowledge could tap one's strength. He certainly weakened himself. But the strange hollow feeling also let Qui-Gon know they were on the right track.

He felt at once repelled and drawn closer.

Qui-Gon ignited a second glow rod and the Jedi searched the area until they came across a series of footprints. With the wet vegetation covering the chasm floor, it was impossible to tell if there was more than one set of marks.

As they moved farther away from their decension point, Qui-Gon heard a low rumble. It sounded as though a storm was picking up. Or was the sea rising? It was now well past the time of the lowest tide and the water should be coming back up.

A flash of lightning split the sky above. In the blast of light, Qui- Gon thought he saw a figure struggling toward them. But before he could be certain, a plume of water began to gush up through a large gap in the rocky shelf they were standing on. Shooting meters above his head, it completely blocked Qui-Gon's view and nearly knocked both Jedi off their feet. As it rained down on them and seeped into his boots, Qui-Gon was surprised to find that the water was hot.

With a sudden sense of dread Qui-Gon realized that they were at the bottom of one crevasse, but that there were probably several just like it below. The seafloor was a honeycomb. They were by no means on solid ground.

Water continued to push out of the hole with remarkable force. There was no question that the tide was turning. When the gush finally subsided, they were up to their ankles in hot seawater. Several meters ahead of him, on the other side of the gap, Qui-Gon could see a crumpled form lying on the crevasse floor.

Qui-Gon ran blindly toward the figure. Was it Murk Lundi?

It was. The Quermian lay limply on the crevasse floor with his face partially in the water. The apparatus that normally covered one of his eyes was gone, revealing an empty socket.

Qui-Gon was almost upon the professor when he lashed out. "You can't stop me!" he cried, lifting his head. One of his gangly arms fumbled for something under his robe, and he shakily pulled out a blaster. The weapon wobbled in his hand, and he fired recklessly.

Qui-Gon quickly dodged, escaping the blast in spite of the close range. Behind him, Obi-Wan ignited his lightsaber. The blue blade cut through the air, deflecting the bolt and knocking Lundi's blaster out of his hand. The weapon skittered across the crevasse floor and fell into the geyser gap.

"No!" Lundi cried. He struggled to get to his feet, then collapsed in the water.

"Where is the Holocron?" Obi-Wan demanded, pulling the Quermian to his feet.

"In my hand! In my hand! I held it in my hand!" Lundi screeched, jabbing at Obi-Wan with his pointed fingers.

"Where is it now?" Obi-Wan asked through gritted teeth, binding as many of the professor's skinny wrists together as he could catch.

"Let me go. Let me get it. It's not for you!" Lundi spat in Obi-Wan's face and flailed wildly but he did not have the strength to break free. "I should be the one!"

Qui-Gon's mind reeled. He could feel that they were close to the Holocron. Very close. He tried to focus, to find its location, but the dark side was playing tricks with his mind. It was so near and still beyond his mental vision. There was so much he didn't understand. If Lundi had held the Holocron, where was it now? Did someone else have it? Had he been unable to handle the power?

Questions were still forming in his mind when the rock beneath Qui- Gon's feet shuddered. For a split second the Jedi Master considered diving into the swirling waters to find his answers. With a glance at his apprentice his sanity returned. If the Jedi could not recover the Holocron it was unlikely that anyone else could, either.

"I'll carry him," Qui-Gon told his Padawan abruptly. He did not want to waste his strength explaining himself.

Before Qui-Gon could lift Lundi from the chasm floor, a second rush of water hurtled out of the gap. Obi-Wan saw it coming and steadied his Master, helping him get the Quermian onto a shoulder. But now the water was halfway up their calves.

Obi-Wan led the way, holding his glow rod out in front of them. They had to walk carefully along the rocky shelf, back to the crevasse wall.

The water around Qui-Gon's legs made it difficult to know where to step, and Lundi was continuously flailing several arms and raving in his ear.

"The Holocron!" he screamed, struggling against Qui-Gon's firm grip.

"I must get the Holocron! It's mine. Mine!"

Qui-Gon tried to ignore the professor, which wasn't easy. Finally he could see the place where they'd descended. But how were they going to get back up to the top with a maddened Quermian and only one anchored cable launcher?

"I can climb up and toss the cable back down to you," Obi-Wan suggested.

Qui-Gon wasn't sure they had time for that — or that he could make it while holding onto Lundi. But he didn't see a better option, and he couldn't think with Lundi screaming in his ear.

Obi-Wan had just hoisted himself off the rocky shelf when a small ship appeared overhead. Dropping back to the floor, he and his encumbered Master pressed themselves against the crevasse wall for cover. There was no way of knowing who was inside, or what they were after.

The ship descended as close to the crevasse as it could, and a long ladder dropped down in front of the Jedi. The vessel looked vaguely familiar, but in the darkness it was hard to identify it. Obi-Wan looked at his Master with uncertainty. Qui-Gon was not clear about the ship, either.

But he was not one to refuse help that they truly needed.

The Jedi grabbed hold and climbed. Even with the evenly spaced rungs, getting the struggling professor safely to the ship was no easy feat. About halfway up, Lundi passed out. When Qui-Gon finally pulled himself into the ship, he was exhausted. Holding Lundi with one arm Qui-Gon gripped each step with his teeth in order to move his free hand to the next step. Twice his boots slipped on the wet rungs, nearly sending him and his heavy load into the waters below. At last he reached the ship's hatch and dragged himself and his burden aboard.

"Nice to see you again," came a gritty female voice from the cockpit.

Qui-Gon was surprised to see Elda. She grinned at his reaction.

"Didn't expect to see me, did you?" she asked.

Qui-Gon shook his head. "But it's a pleasure," he told her sincerely.

"Thank you for coming."

The pilot turned back to her controls and lifted the ship into the air. "You don't have to thank me," she replied. "Something about you or this place got under my skin, and I came back shortly after leaving. I just couldn't leave you here. After all, you saved my ship from being blown up.

I wanted to return the favor."

"We're grateful," Obi-Wan remarked as he slumped into a chair.

Qui-Gon set Lundi down in another seat and secured him to it with a length of cable. He didn't think the old Quermian would have much strength when he woke, but he didn't want to take any chances.

Suddenly the professor's head snapped up.

Qui-Gon stepped back, but Lundi craned his long neck forward, forcing the Jedi against the ship wall.

The Quermian's good eye rolled around in its socket as he closely examined the Jedi. "Peacemakers!" he spat. "You have begun a war." Lundi whipped his small head back and forth on the end of his slender neck. "War!

War!" he repeated over and over, each time his voice growing louder and more shrill.

Qui-Gon opened his mouth to speak but saw that it would be of little use. He could only watch as the once brilliant historian whipped himself into a frenzy. The power of the dark side had corrupted him. It was clear to the Jedi Master that Lundi was insane. He would be escorted back to the Temple and evaluated. Qui? Gon felt quite certain that he would need psychiatric help. And there were also questions for the Galactic Republic regarding what he'd intended to do with the Holocron.

This was not the way Qui-Gon had hoped to return from this mission.

He did not have the Holocron. His apprentice seemed rattled. There was also still the question of who, besides the Jedi and Professor Lundi, knew it was down there. Who had unfastened Obi-Wan's cable launcher? Had anyone else been able to get down into the chasm? The best they could hope for was that the Holocron was still at the bottom of Kodaian sea — at least until the tide dropped again in ten years.

"You can't handle it! You don't know what to do with it! You don't deserve it!" The professor raved on. Qui-Gon wasn't sure if Lundi was even talking to him any longer.

Taking a deep breath, Qui-Gon tuned out Lundi's mad rants. He tried to quiet his mind, consoling himself with the fact that the Holocron was not in Lundi's possession. Still, he knew this mission was far from over.