Jedi Voyage #1 - The Apprentice

Chapter Eight

They had been ordered to take no lives. Somehow they would have to deflect blaster fire and capture the raiders without harming them. As Anakin swung his lightsaber in a blur, deflecting fire, he realized for the first time that they had overlooked something. If they caught the raiders, what would they do with them? There weren't enough security officers to guard the criminals. The Jedi were now the backbone of the security force on the planet. If they watched the raiders, who would patrol the city?
The present moment is the crucial moment.
  Yes, Master. Anakin gritted his teeth. He advanced toward the raiders. One thing at a time. The raiders were endangering the citizens and must be stopped. The Padawans would figure out what to do with them when the time came. One of the raiders must have activated some droids, for suddenly they appeared. They wheeled into battle formation and came at the Padawans. Anakin at first felt confident that he could defeat the droids. He had not fully realized how much he had depended earlier on the Jedi Masters. Within moments he saw that they would have a hard time winning this battle. He hated to admit it. Ferus had been right. He and Tru could not have handled these droids by themselves. The raiders maneuvered the droids to come between them and the Jedi. Then they disappeared. Too occupied with the attacking droids, the Padawans could not follow.
  "We've got to stay together!" Ferus shouted. "Don't let them separate us."
  Ferus was right again. As one unit, they could defeat fifteen droids. The Padawans kept close together, attacking and retreating, trying to pick up on one another's unfamiliar rhythms. Anakin lost himself in the battle. There was only the smell of the smoking droids, the blur of his lightsaber, the balance and heft of it in his hand. He saw everything at once – the position of each Padawan, the attack pattern of each droid, the moves they would make next. His focus was complete. He sliced through one droid, then pivoted and buried his lightsaber in another droid's control panel. Ferus dived and came up underneath a droid, halving it down the middle. Tru whirled and kicked one droid while cutting off the legs of another. Darra seemed to be everywhere, her lightsaber in constant motion as she took out one droid, then another. She always landed exactly where she'd planned, ready to launch another attack or defend her fellow Padawans. Her face never registered effort, only concentration. She had learned well from Soara Antana. At last the droids lay in heaps around them. The Padawans all slumped to the floor, exhausted. They missed their Masters.
"We still might be able to track the raiders," Anakin said, panting. "Let's go."
"Wait." Ferus put a hand on his sleeve. "If we run off, we could lose a precious opportunity."
"For what, droid repair?" Anakin asked.
"Information. It's more important than the raiders themselves. What will we do with them when we get them, anyway?" Ferus asked. "Better to head them off another way. We have more important tasks. Once the evacuation starts, we'll be needed."
"That could be a waste of time," Anakin argued. "We could catch the raiders if we follow them now. I want to show Obi-Wan that I can handle a complicated mission."
"You mean you want to help the planet," Ferus said pointedly.
Anakin felt his face grow hot. Of course Ferus was right. Ferus gave the correct Jedi response. Anakin's first concern should be the people of Radnor, not his need to impress Obi-Wan. He had just expressed himself badly. He had blurted out what was in the back of his mind, not what was in the front of it. He wished he wouldn't keep running into the fact that Ferus took a more Jedi approach to action.
"What are you thinking, Ferus?" Darra asked curiously.
  "We need to examine this hideout," Ferus said. "I have a feeling it has something to teach us."
  "What can it teach us?" Anakin asked. "That the raiders like riches?"
  Darra ignored Anakin. "Remember what we heard? Evermore and Acadi and Montwin are probably street names. They're not just striking randomly. They have a plan."
  Ferus nodded. "If we can figure out their plan, we can be ahead of them instead of behind them."
  "There's got to be a datapad here somewhere," Tru said, rising. "They left too fast to destroy their records."
Anakin trailed after the others. His whole body itched to follow the raiders. He always felt more comfortable in physical activity. He always ached to move. But he hoped he was wise enough to realize when it was better to wait. He just wasn't crazy about the fact that Ferus was the one to suggest it. He knew what Obi-Wan would say. It didn't matter who suggested it. The outcome was the goal. Resentment was ego. He knew all this, but it did not chase the resentment away.
You can feel the emotion, Obi-Wan would say. Just let it go.
  Anakin gritted his teeth. I'm trying, Master.
  "Over here!" Darra called out. "I found their holofiles."
  The files had been concealed in a durasteel bin just like countless others that lined the walls.
  "How did you find them?" Anakin asked.
  Darra was already accessing the files. "I figured that they had been consulting the files while they were talking. The slight delay before they came to attack us meant they were concealing them. They had to be nearby."
  "Good thinking," Tru said admiringly.
  The Padawans bent over the files. Darra expertly accessed one after the other.
"These are lists of assets held by individual families," Anakin said. "How could they have gotten them?"
"Look at these notations," Tru said. "They're coded ECC."
"Emergency Command Center," Darra murmured.
"These files were drawn up so that if the entire planet had to be evacuated, there would be records of what Radnorans left behind," Tru said. "That way they could recover everything later."
"So the raiders must have stolen these files," Ferus added.
"Or bribed someone on the evacuation team to hand them over," Darra said. "Look at this. This is what they were talking about. They have a list of how the evacuation is going to take place. The first group to be evacuated will be from the bloc between Evermore and Acadi. As soon as those families evacuate, the raiders will move in and clean them out."
Tru gave a low whistle. "That's some organized system. But why are they looting now?"
"Easy answer?" Darra shrugged. "Because they can."
  Anakin nodded. "The city is falling apart, and they see an opportunity. But are they counting on coming back to the planet for this stuff, or do they have plans to take it with them? It would be hard to smuggle it aboard the evacuation ship. The families are only allowed what they can carry."
  Tru reached around his head with one flexible arm to scratch his ear thoughtfully. "The raiders said something about 'they' had better come through on their promise to move the stuff. Who's 'they'?"
"Maybe they have a contact who will help them smuggle it," Ferus said, frowning.
Darra looked up at them, her face tinged blue by the light cast by the holofile. "The important thing is that they have access to all the evacuation orders. That means someone on the inside is helping them."
"Well, at least we know exactly what to do next," Anakin said. "We have to find out who."
He looked over at Ferus. He expected his fellow Padawan to argue, but Ferus nodded.
"And why," Ferus added. "That might be the most important question of all."