"No," Taly said. "Mom! Dad! Don't do this! I can protect us!"
The sight of their young son made the parents' faces crumple with love and pain.
"You can do so much," Grove said. "You can't do this."
Over Taly's head, Nelia turned her stricken eyes on Qui-Gon. "There's no time. Go. Please. Take him." Her voice ended in a sob.
Siri put her hand on Taly's shoulder. "Come on, Taly." She led him to Qui-Gon's swoop.
"Are you sure I cannot convince you to join us? Or two of us can stay with you."
"Go," Grove said. "Now."
Qui-Gon rested his strong gaze on Nelia. "I will protect him."
She nodded but did not speak. Tears streaked her face. The Jedi felt the surge in the dark side of the Force. A warning. He was close.
"Hold on to me, Taly," Qui-Gon said kindly. "We will be traveling very fast."
They took off, keeping their acceleration low so as not to make noise. Then Qui-Gon quickly dipped down into a lower space lane so that they would not be visible from the building. Taly's parents disappeared from sight.
He felt the boy behind him, holding onto his tunic. He felt the cloth dampen with the boy's tears.
Chapter 5
They made a clean getaway in the Republic cruiser. The city of Ciran retreated to a small yellow spot in a wide landscape. Then Cirrus became a yellowish round shape surrounded by clouds. In another few minutes, they were zooming through stars.
Adi piloted the ship. Qui-Gon set a course for Coruscant. Obi-Wan sat, watching Siri and Taly.
Siri did not speak. She moved about the cabin, close to Taly. She placed a small thermal blanket on his knees. Moments later she gave him something to eat and drink. Taly did not touch them. He held the blanket around his small body and stared at the ground.
Finally Siri came and sat beside him. She leaned forward and spoke to him gently. Obi-Wan could not hear her words but he saw by her posture how careful she was trying to be. He saw, gradually, how Taly's neck muscles relaxed, how his fingers no longer clutched the blanket with the same desperate grip.
Siri slipped something out of her utility belt. Obi-Wan recognized the warming crystal Siri always carried, deep blue with a star in the center. She handed it to Taly and he closed his fist around it, smiling at how it warmed his hand.
Siri drew her legs up underneath her and sat next to Taly, not too close, but not too far away.
Was this the Siri he knew? Hardly. Obi-Wan hadn't known she possessed such delicacy. Siri was never delicate. She said what she meant and she felt a great impatience for those who did not. She didn't like emotional reactions, she hated delays, she never waited on anyone or expected to be waited on. She liked to do everything herself.
These were the things he knew about her. But he did not know this. He hadn't realized she knew exactly what to do for a wounded child.
Suddenly Qui-Gon leaned over the nav console. "Unidentified cruiser coming up fast."
"I'll increase speed." Adi pushed the controls. "He's speeding up," Qui-Gon said.
"You think it's our bounty hunter?"
"I have no doubt. And by the looks of that cruiser, he might be able to outmaneuver us. It's a SoroSuub light freighter."
Adi's mouth set grimly. "Nobody outmaneuvers me."
Qui-Gon gave a wry smile. "I didn't mean to suggest it. Deflector shields down."
The Republic cruiser was an agile craft, but it was built to ferry diplomats and serve as a base for high-level meetings. Adi was an excellent pilot, but she would not be able to hold out against a heavily armed SoroSuub for very long.
By the posture of her shoulders, he knew exactly when she admitted this to herself. "Find us a safe port nearby, just in case."
Qui-Gon began to search the star chart on the nav computer. "We're close to Quadrant Seven," he said.
"I know," Adi said. "But what about a planet?"
"The planet's name is Quadrant Seven," Qui-Gon explained. "It's not in the Republic — it doesn't have a Senator and it's not particularly friendly to outlanders, but it doesn't forbid them, either." Qui-Gon entered the coordinates into the nav computer.
Adi pushed the ship to a faster speed. Obi-Wan and Siri got up and moved into the cockpit.
Taly followed. He leaned in close to the nav screen, sending a bluish light onto his features. "He's going to catch us," he said.
Qui-Gon met Adi's gaze. They both knew the boy was right.
Laser cannonfire thundered around the ship, rocking it. Taly gripped the console.
Adi kept the ship moving. She could not maneuver the way she would like, but she was able to swerve to avoid the next barrage. It boomed harmlessly in space.
"This is how he works," Taly said. "He uses everything. He never stops. He has blasters and grenades and missiles and… everything. I beat him, and that made him mad, because I'm just a kid. He won't let me go this time."
Qui-Gon looked at Taly. He had put the battle in terms of a young boy, but it made sense. Qui-Gon felt it, too, through his connection to the Living Force. This bounty hunter went beyond determination. This was a grudge.
"What should we do?" Adi asked. Her voice was perfectly calm despite the cannonfire that shook the ship. But Qui-Gon knew the situation must be dire, because Adi never asked him what to do.
Suddenly, a large blow rocked the ship.
"We've lost the horizontal stabilizer," Adi said. "It's affected the hyperdrive."
"We must send off the salon pod," Qui-Gon said. "He might think we escaped on it."
"But why would he fall for it?" Taly asked.
"Because then we're going to crash this ship," Qui-Gon said.
Chapter 6
"Maybe you'd better fill me in on this one," Adi said drily. "After all, I'm the pilot."
"This ship has a double-reinforced cargo hold," Qui-Gon said. "The work was done in order to protect a shipment of vertex on its last mission. So if we were hit there, it would cause minimal damage. We could make it look worse. We could trick him into thinking the ship was failing. Then we eject the salon pod. He knows that salon pods on these cruisers are capable of long space flights." Qui-Gon leveled his gaze at Adi. "Can you do it?"