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STAR WARSCHANGING SEASONS.PART II.PEOPLE OF THE GUARDIANby Timothy ZahnSynopsis: Changing Seasons Part 1: Guardian of the PeopleObi-Wan Kenobi has ventured to the planet Dagro to discover that the rumors of the Separatists' occupation are true. After barely escaping one battle that left him injured and in the care of locals, Kenobi again engages battle droids, only to be assisted at the last moment by Anakin Sky-walker and his survey team. The two Jedi now find themselves on a mission to deal with an even bigger Separatist threat....With a final salute through the canopy of his scout ship cockpit, Task Force Commander Fivvic lifted off the ground, the rest of the survey team close behind. Standing outside the Swens family barn where he'd spent the past four days, Obi-Wan Kenobi watched the ships disappear into the Dagro sky, wondering if this might possibly not be the smartest decision he'd made this month.Beside him, Anakin Skywalker stirred. "It's not too late to call them back," he pointed out.Obi-Wan took a deep breath. Smart or not, it was what they had to do. "Yes, it is," he said firmly."Good." Anakin turned to face east, holding a hand up to shield his eyes from the early morning sun. "So they're in there, huh?"Obi-Wan turned, too. Cutting across the vast expanse of farmland in the near distance was a line of tall, gray cliffs. A kilometer or so south of where they stood, a raging white-water river boiled out of a narrow gorge in the cliff face, the turbulence subsiding as the water spread out into a wider riverbed and turned toward the north. "So it would seem," he told Anakin. "The trick's going to be getting in there with them.""Flying in is definitely out," Anakin mused. "They'll be expecting that, and a gorge that narrow doesn't leave much maneuvering room. Could we rappel down from the top of the cliff?""That would be an awfully long rappel," Obi-Wan pointed out doubtfully, measuring the cliff face with his eyes. "At least half a kilometer. And we wouldn't know where to start-Kirlan said the mountains run 10 kilometers back from the cliff face.""Then there's only one approach left," Anakin said. "If we can't fly or rappel, we'll have to swim.""I was afraid you were going to say that," Obi-Wan said. "Let's go see what Kirlan says."Kirlan Swens's response was pretty much what Obi-Wan had expected. "You two," he declared, "must be insane.""That goes without saying," Anakin agreed. "But is it possible?""Not a chance," Kirlan said, gesturing them to the table. "Trissa, can you get us some misti?""Sure," his wife said, crossing over to the simmering urn. "You children, go work on your chores.""Aw, Mom," 10-year-old Kit protested. "Can't we stay and listen?""We won't interrupt," his younger sister Zizzy added. "We promise.""Off, both of you," Trissa said firmly. "This is grownup talk. Maybe later you can spend some more time with our guests."Silently, clearly under protest, the children left. "First problem's the current," Kirlan said, turning back to the Jedi. "You'd need a high-speed dive boat to make any headway, only I doubt a dive boat would have enough room to submerge in that maze of boulders where the river comes out.""What about going in from the upstream direction?" Obi-Wan asked.Kirlan shook his head. "The entrance to the gorge is even narrower than the exit. I don't know of any dive boat that would fit in there.""How about a regular boat?" Anakin asked."They're bound to spot anything on the surface,'1 Obi-Wan pointed out "Could we climb our way in from the upstream end? Say, halfway up the cliffs where they might not have any sensors placed?""You could try rappelling," Trissa suggested as she brought a fresh pitcher of misti to the table."They'll be watching for intruders coming in from above," Obi-Wan told her."I didn't mean that kind of rappelling," Trissa said. "1 meant the underwater type."Obi-Wan blinked. "Excuse me?""It was something my friends and I used to do when we were younger," she explained. "You fasten a cable above theentrance to the gorge, then hold on and slide along it, letting the river current carry you downstream."Kirlan looked at her, his mouth hanging slightly open. "Your mother told me you'd been a wild child," he said. "But that's just nuts.""Remind me to tell you sometime about Anakin's career in Podracing," Obi-Wan said dryly. "Trissa, can this be done completely underwater, or is the river too shallow at that point?""We never submerged completely," Trissa said, frowning in concentration. "At least, not on purpose. But as long as we stayed in the middle of the channel, I don't remember the rocks being a problem, 1 think you could get far enough underwater to be hidden and still be safe. Of course, you'd need some kind of breather equipment.""Those we've got," Obi-Wan told her."What do you think, Anakin?"The younger man shrugged. "If it was easy, everyone would do it," he said. "Let's go see how much cable we've got with us."The river was a narrow torrent of foam and spray cutting through a groove in the mountains as it raced toward the taller line of cliffs ahead and the valley beyond them. "We usually started further downstream, right at the beginning of the cliffs," Trissa said, her voice barely audible over the noise, "1 don't know any good places to attach your cables up here.""We'll find something," Obi-Wan assured her, looking around. It would indeed have been simpler to start at the gorge itself, but the Separatists would have sensors planted there to watch for intruders. Here, a couple of turnings upstream, they could hopefully get far enough underwater to slip in unnoticed."How about that?" Anakin asked, pointing to a short but thick-trunked tree growing between two large boulders on the far side. Without waiting for an answer, he did a Jedi leap over the roiling water to land beside it. He gave the trunk a couple of experimental tugs, then turned and nodded.Obi-Wan nodded back. "Looks like we're set," he told Kirlan and Trissa. "Thanks for your help. And thank Pickers again from us for letting you borrow his tandspeeder.""Sure." Kirlan looked down at the river. "Do you want us to wait for you someplace?""No, just go home," Obi-Wan said. "We'll let you know if and when we need a pick up.""All right," Kirlan said. "Good luck," Turning, he started picking his way through the boulders back toward where they'd left the landspeeder. Trissa lingered for one last look at Obi-Wan, then nodded silently and followed her husband.Obi-Wan watched until they were out of sight. Then, stretching out to the Force, he leaped over the river to where Anakin had just finished fastening his line around the tree. "Trissa doesn't seem happy about this," the younger man commented."She was pretty angry with her husband for bringing me to her home after I got shot down," Obi-Wan explained as he pulled out some cord from his cable dispenser. "She was polite enough about it, but it was obvious. I think she's working through some guilt over that.""Well, ! sure wouldn't want to risk my family for a stranger," Anakin said darkly. "I mean...if! had a family."Obi-Wan's throat tightened as he felt the ache in his Padawan's heart. It was 12 years after his mother's death, yet her absence was still as fresh as the day Anakin had lost her. Someday, he would have to get the young man to tell him the whole story of that incident."That water's not going to get any warmer," Anakin pointed out, and Obi-Wan could sense him pushing the pain away into the back of his mind."Right," Obi-Wan said, checking his line and then Anakin's. The tree they were using had broad purple leaves; pinching off a handful of them, he stuffed them into his tunic."What's that for?" Anakin asked."You'll see," Obi-Wan told him, pulling his Aquata A99 breather from its pouch with a twinge of painful memories of his own. The breather would always remind him of that mission to Naboo, and the loss of his Master Qui-Gon....He shook the thoughts away. "Watch out for sensors," he said and set the breather between his teeth. Getting a grip on his cable dispenser, he waded into the river.He'd made it only knee deep before a sudden surge in the flow knocked his feet out from under him, He toppled backward, but Anakin was ready and caught him in a steadying Force grip. Regaining his balance, he played out the cable and lowered himself the rest of the way.Once, a long time ago, he'd been caught in the open during one of the sudden monsoon rainstorms of Matarri, where huge drops driven by strong down-draft winds came down with enough force to bruise the skin and occasionally even kill small animals. This was very much the same sensation, except that instead of lukewarm tropical rain, the water here was mind-numbingly cold. It pounded his head and shoulders, tearing at his hair and tunic, buffeting against him and trying to twist his head sideways as he moved deeper into the stream.Half a meter below the surface, thankfully, most of the turbulence was gone. But the current was, if anything, even stronger. Instead of a rainstorm, he now felt as if he was being dragged through a lake by an angry acklay running at full speed. Bowing his head slightly to try to see past his feet, wincing as the shift in posture funneled a torrent of the icy water straight down the back of his neck, he started downstream.Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something large ease past him. It was Anakin; but unlike Obi-Wan's more cautious feet-first approach, his Padawan had turned himself around and was heading face-first down the river, his cable dispenser held tightly against his chest, t... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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