"Not more," Anakin said. "It's just that we put ourselves in the way of danger. It is our path. We see one another's strength. We see one another at our best. So we know exactly how much we lose when one of us goes down. And we feel… if only we could have been the one to fall."
He felt Tic Verdun's eyes on him. "I saw that you wanted to go with your Master and Soara Antana. If you wish to follow them, I will take responsibility for Darra Thel-Tanis and the rest of us. The others are tired. I am still strong."
Anakin was impressed. No wonder Tic Verdun had been the group's scout.
He had great courage.
Anakin shook his head. "I can't go. But thank you." He turned away again and sat down next to Darra. He didn't want to be rude, but he wasn't in the mood to talk.
But Tic Verdun didn't get the hint. He sat down, too. "The Force," he said. "You have to see how it would be intriguing to a scientist. Something that cannot be seen, cannot be measured. And it can only be felt by a select few. Here I am with someone who can feel it and use it. I saw it happen just a short while ago. Can you explain how it works to me? Can you tell me anything at all?" He added hastily, "Or is it forbidden to speak of it?"
"It is not forbidden," Anakin said. "But it is not done."
Tic wrapped his arms around his knees. "I see."
Now Anakin was afraid he'd been rude. "It is hard to talk about it. It is something I can feel around me. Something I can gather and tap into, like a deep well. It sustains me and frustrates me — "
"Frustrates you?" Tic's dark eyes were alive, curious. Anakin leaned back against the cold stone wall. He felt very tired. "Sometimes. It is so vast…"
"That you feel small." Tic gave a sad smile. "I study the galaxy. I know how that feels. How simple it is, and yet how intricate and complex.
It is all around you and you are at the center of it, yet you are nothing compared to it."
"Yes," Anakin said. Tic had put into words what he had been feeling.
No one had ever done that before. Not even Obi-Wan. Sometimes the Force made him feel… lonely.
"And you will never truly understand it," Tic added softly, "yet you will spend your life trying. And sometimes you ask yourself, is it worth it? Is it foolish of you to devote yourself to trying to know the unknowable?" He laughed. "All I know is, it can't be wise."
"Wisdom is not what we seek," Anakin said, repeating a Jedi saying.
"Wisdom can only be found."
Tic shook his head, grinning. "Whatever that means. And I thought the scientific institute was hard."
When Tic smiled, Anakin realized that he was younger than he'd thought. He wasn't much older than Obi-Wan. Tic had made him feel better, and he didn't think anyone was capable of that.
Suddenly the sound of explosions split the air. The scientists all jumped to their feet, fear on their faces. Darra stirred but did not wake.
"What is it?" Reug Yucon whispered the words harshly.
Anakin heard the sound of alarmed voices from the Haariden camp. Soara and Obi-Wan had begun their attack. Every muscle seemed to contract with the effort of staying still. He wanted so badly to go.
"Should we leave?" Joveh D'a Alin asked anxiously. "We could be trapped here."
"No," Anakin said. "We'll wait here."
Waiting was the hardest thing. Like him, the scientists wanted to move. But they wanted to run from the source of the explosions. He wanted to run toward them.
"We are lucky to have you with us," Tic said quietly. A small consolation, Anakin thought. But he'd take it.
Chapter Five
If any of the Haaridens were trying to grab some sleep, they were now disappointed. The patrol troops had been so certain that they were safe that they hadn't bothered to post guards. It was easy for Obi-Wan and Soara to sneak into the camp. The Haaridens had left the small arms jumbled together in a heap. Soara and Obi-Wan easily jammed the flechette launchers and the missile tube, and pocketed all the thermal detonators.
Then they tossed a detonator into the brush in order to wake everybody up. While the Haaridens scrambled for their blasters, the only weapons left to them, the Jedi stood, waiting.
Before the quickest Haariden could shoot, Obi-Wan called, "Think first. Surrender is your best option." The Haariden captain spoke up, his blaster leveled at Obi-Wan's chest. "Why should we surrender? We are forty, and you are only two."
"I can think of one good reason," Obi-Wan said, holding up the thermal detonators. "We have ten of these. The blast radius is five meters for each. We can toss these accurately and quickly and demolish this entire patrol in exactly five seconds."
"You'll blow yourself up," the Haariden captain sneered.
Obi-Wan smiled. "I don't think so."
The next thing the captain knew, Obi-Wan had somersaulted over his head and landed on his other side. "Maybe I need to remind you," Obi-Wan said. "We are Jedi."
The other Haariden soldiers looked nervous. They glared at one another, then at their captain.
"I'm not inclined to find out if they can do it," one soldier muttered.
"Why should we?" another said.
"This isn't even our fight," the first soldier added. "Why can't we just return to our unit?" another asked.
The captain eyed the thermal detonator in Soara's hand, her thumb over the release.
"What happens to us?" he asked.
"We have no quarrel with you," Obi-Wan said. "As long as we have safe passage to our transport."
The captain paused. Then he slowly lowered his blaster.
Soara and Obi-Wan dropped the thermal detonators back into the pockets of their tunics.
"What do you mean, it's not your fight?" Soara asked.
"We were paid to split off from our unit and attack you," the captain said, wiping a weary hand across his forehead.
Soara and Obi-Wan exchanged a glance. "Who paid you?" Soara asked.
The captain looked evasive. "No one we knew. I mean, not a native Haariden. An outlander."
"His name?"
"He didn't say."
"What did he look like?"
The captain was about to answer, but a blank look came over his face.
He shook his head several times. "Isn't that strange," he said. "I honestly don't remember."
A pulse began to beat inside Obi-Wan. He gripped the hilt of his lightsaber.
"What is he to you?" Soara asked. "I would think you would rather have the Jedi on your side."
The captain gave a sad smile. "The Jedi can't help us. We are perfectly capable of destroying ourselves. Yes, he gave me his name. It was Granta Omega."
The name only confirmed what Obi-Wan had already suspected. He had met Granta Omega before. Omega had hired a group of bounty hunters to hunt him down, as well as Anakin and another Jedi. Obi-Wan had still not found out why. He knew that Omega was not a Sith, but he collected Sith artifacts.