"I feel a surge in the Force," Obi-wan said.
"You feel a what in the what?" Floria's head whipped from Obi-Wan to Anakin.
An explosion outside almost threw Obi-Wan to the floor. Floria screamed and gripped her chair. "Please, let's take off!"
Obi-Wan gripped the console, concentrating, as though there were no blasters, no explosions outside. And now Anakin could feel it. Too. The dark side surged. He had been too intent on leaving, on Floria's panic, on the blaster fire. This was something he had to learn. His connection to the Force was strong, but sometimes it got crowded out by mor immediate things. Obi-Wan was able to hold everything in his mind at once.
Obi-Wan dropped to his knees. Floria looked down at him as though he were crazy.
"Is he afraid?" she whispered to Anakin. "I don't blame him! Let's take off!"
"Wait." Anakin watched Obi-Wan. He knew now that the darkness was inside the ship, not outside it.
"I found it." Obi-Wan's voice was muffled, and Anakin has to strain to hear over the sound of the blaster fire.
Obi-Wan raise his head, then stood. He held a black box in his hand, "A sleeper bomb. If we had taken off, we would have been blown out of the sky."
Chapter Eight
Floria looked as though she might faint. "A bomb? Can you d-defuse it?"
"I'm afraid not," Obi-Wan said. "It could go off at any time. So lets go."
"The comlinks — " Anakin said.
"No time. Go!" Obi-Wan ordered, leaning forward to access the landing ramp.
Floria was already out of her chair and running to the exit. Obi-Wan pushed Anakin ahead of him and they hurried after her, leaving the bomb behind.
As they raced down the ramp, Obi-Wan caught a glimpse of a figure dressed in black at the cargo door. He was trying to sneak aboard.
Floria screamed, and the bomb went off. Obi-Wan was blown off his feet. The figure in black went flying as well. Smoke rolled over them. Obi-Wan raised his head, trying to see. Coughing against the acrid smoke in his mouth, he struggled to his knees.
Obi-Wan peered through the rolling smoke to make sure Anakin and Floria were all right. Anakin was already standing and bending down to help a coughing Floria to rise.
"Anakin, check the area!" Obi-Wan shouted as he headed for the figure in black.
The figure rose shakily. Stumbling and falling, he attempted to run away. Obi-Wan raced towards him.
He had almost reached him when he felt something heavy land on his back. Hands covered his eyes. Hair brushed against his face.
Obi-Wan tried to twist away. "Floria?"
Suddenly the slender young girl had the moves of an assassin. She used a variety of intricate holds to slow down Obi-Wan while he struggled to move toward the figure in black. He tried to shake her off, but he didn't want to harm her.
Hands covered his eyes, and he carefully pried them off.
"I don't want to hurt you. " he said.
She didn't answer, just wound one leg around his, trying to trip him, while she grabbed his ear.
"That's enough." Obi-Wan grabbed her wrists and expertly flipped her over and down onto the ground. Her breath left her as she landed hard.
The figure in black hesitated. It was easy for Obi-Wan to stride forward and grab him by the scruff of the neck.
"All right, you two. What's going on?" he asked sternly.
Anakin ran back to him. "The blaster fire and explosions were set off by timed devices." He looked at Floria, who gazed up at Obi-Wan furiously from the ground. Then he looked at the squirming figure in Obi-Wan's grip. "What's going on?"
"That's what I'd like to know." Obi-Wan the back the figure's black hood. Close-cropped blond hair and wide eyes the same brilliant blue as Floria's met his. The boy was only a few years older than Floria.
Obi-Wan looked back Floria. "Your brother, I presume."
The boy shot Floria a look clearly intended to keep her silent. Obi-Wan sighed. "Anakin check his pack."
Anakin picked up a small pack the boy had worm on his back. He opened it and went through it. "Just some basic survival gear. A tarp and some rations."
Obi-Wan gave the boy a little shake. "I'm losing patience."
"Dane, we've been double-crossed," Floria said, rising gingerly and rubbing her elbow. "Why shouldn't we tell them? I'm getting a bad feeling about this planet. There was a sleeper bomb aboard that ship! That's totally against the rules!"
Dane said nothing.
"What rules?" Anakin asked.
"Now we're stuck here with the Jedi with no way to get off the planet," Floria continued. "we destroyed that ship for nothing. You and you're big ideas!"
"You destroyed your own ship?" Anakin asked in disbelief.
"Cooperation doesn't seem like such a bad idea, considering the circumstances," Floria said, still speaking to her brother.
Dane shrugged. "So things didn't work out. They could have."
"But they didn't," Floria said.
"But they could have," Dane shoot back.
"Who are you two?" Obi-Wan asked angrily, his patience exhausted.
"Bounty hunter," Floria said.
Anakin and Obi-Wan exchanged an incredulous look. These two young people, bounty hunters?
"Who are you hunting?" Anakin asked.
"You," Floria told him. "We're supposed to find the Jedi and bring you back, dead or alive."
"Bring us back where?" Obi-Wan asked. "Who hired you?"
"Let me point out that we weren't going to kill you," Floria said quickly, not answering Obi-Wan's question. "We weren't the ones that planted the sleeper bomb, obviously."
"What about the blaster fire?" Anakin asked.
"We knew you could handle that. We just wanted to add a little urgency to the situation," Dan said. "You'd take off if you thought you were under attack."
"We didn't to kill you," Floria assured them. "We don't kill beings. We just trick them. Just like we tricked you. It would have worked if there hadn't been that bomb. Listen, tricking is much safer."