She was absolutely certain at all times that she would prevail in the end. He liked that certainty. He held an image in his mind of Zan Arbor back on a prison world while he, Obi-Wan, Siri, and Ferus watched her being led away. He needed to hold on to that vision.

"Jenna, we need to plan a plan," Teda said irritably.

"Oh, Roy, relax," Zan Arbor said. She waved at the tea table, indicating the Slams. "Slam, Valadon, have some refreshment. We need to talk. You are going to transport us off the planet - don't worry, we know where your transport is - and we have a proposition for you that the Jedi have already accepted on your behalf."

Easygoing as always, Slam pulled a chair up to the table and poured himself some tea. "This is sounding more promising. How happy I am that your messengers found me."

"Meanwhile," Zan Arbor said, "Teda, call the rest of your guards - and I mean all of them. I want General Yubicon in charge."

"But he's my personal bodyguard now!"

"Oh, don't be such a baby. I am tired of your whining." She turned to the Jedi. "They have superior weaponry, I a.s.sure you. And if you don't want anyone else harmed, you'll do best to comply." She gave a pointed look at the Slams. It was clear she would sacrifice them if the Jedi did not cooperate.

The guards moved closer. Teda spoke into a comlink and they heard the humming of swoops as more guards took to the air. They hovered above the courtyard. Anakin saw blaster rifles pointed at them - and Slam, Valadon, and the other members of the gang.

"Your lightsabers," Zan Arbor said. "Give them to General Yubicon."

Obi-Wan slipped his and Siri's lightsabers out of his belt and handed them over. Ferus and Anakin followed. Anakin knew his Master would never hand over his lightsaber unless he was fully intending to get it back shortly.

"Put the lightsabers in the prison vault," Zan Arbor ordered the general. "I'll want to study them. Put the prisoners in the holding cell for now and have them guarded severely. We'll pick them up as soon as we finish here." She leveled her icy gaze on General Yubicon. "Don't let them out of your sight, don't listen to them, and don't make any mistakes. Go."

General Yubicon's eyes flickered as he stuffed the lightsabers into a satchel that he slung on his back. Anakin could see that he did not like taking orders from Zan Arbor. Teda didn't say a word. Anakin realized who was truly in charge. Zan Arbor had Teda under her thumb.

Slam c.o.c.ked his head at them. "Sorry. I didn't mean for it to go quite this far. But all's fair."

"That's very true," Obi-Wan said. "If you join up with these two, you'll get what you deserve."

The Jedi were roughly herded out of the house and pushed along a rutted road that ran through woods with branches so thick with dark green leaves that they blotted out the sun completely.

They were marched farther down the path - playing along for now, waiting for the right moment to turn the tables. The area felt desolate and dank. Over the thump of footsteps and the buzzing of the swoops overhead, Anakin saw General Yubicon speaking to his a.s.sistant as they walked. He called on the Force to help him tune out the noises around him and focus on what the officer was saying.

"... thought we had a strong leader, but he is just as much a sham as they say he is. Am I supposed to pledge my loyalty now to Great Leader Zan Arbor?"

"What can you do?" the other officer asked in disgust. "One day we're living in a palace in Romin, the next in the middle of a swamp.

It's enough to make me join the resistance."

"And what would the resistance do to you if they found you?" the first officer said. "Look what they're doing to poor Hansel. Listen, we're safer with Teda. Or at least I thought so. Now I suspect that Zan Arbor is planning to take off with him and without us. Teda said he would take his first officers, but will she let him? They're planning something big. Teda said they will have the Senate to do their bidding."

The Senate? Anakin gave a quick glance at Obi-Wan. He could tell his Master was listening, as well.

"Here we are," the other officer said. "Mind yourself. The prisoners know something is up, somehow. They're restless. Not to mention starving."

"Just be glad you're not in their place," General Yubicon said.

The prison rose ahead, long and low, built of dark green duracrete so that it would not be visible from above or from the road. The resistance had not gotten here yet. The Jedi pa.s.sed through energy gates and into the compound. A door rose into the ceiling to admit them.

The inside of the prison stank of dirt and rot. There were no windows. A security console ran along a blank wall. Droids that had not been affected by the revolt in the city sat monitoring the equipment.

Their sensors flashed green as General Yubicon entered.

Energy cages hung suspended from the ceiling. The walls and floors were stained with dark matter. Desperation and pain seemed to be as much a part of this structure as durasteel and duracrete.

Obi-Wan looked at Anakin.

Not yet, but soon.

The guards flooded in behind them. Now they would not have to deal with the swoops overhead.

The guards opened a second door, which also rose vertically. Behind an energy fence was an enormous cell. It was stuffed full of beings and aliens from many worlds. Most of them wore rags and were barefoot. They eyed the guards with hatred. Some of them looked cheered at the prospect of breaking in new prisoners.

"When, Master?" Anakin asked urgently.

"It seems to me," Ferus said politely, "that now would be an extremely good time."

"Okay," Obi-Wan said. "Now."

The four Jedi moved as one. There were twenty-two army officers in the prison and five prison droids within their sight. No doubt more droids were in the inner rooms of the prison. But now was as good a time as any to attack.

Obi-Wan, Ferus, and Anakin went for the officers, using the Force to push the first line with such power that they bowled over their fellow officers. Blaster shots went wild and pinged on the prison walls. Siri whirled and kicked General Yubicon in the chest, knocking him backward.

His head hit the duracrete floor, knocking him out with the stunned expression still on his face. She leaned over, deftly plucked the lightsabers from the satchel, and tossed them to the Jedi.

Anakin leaped above the guards. He grabbed the bottom of an energy cage and flipped himself in a midair somersault, then landed behind them.

From there it was easy to simply disarm two officers before they had a chance to turn around. Without their weapons, the guards turned, looked at General Yubicon on the floor, and simply ran out.

Lightsabers blazing, the Jedi advanced through the rest of the officers and droids, deflecting fire. Behind them, the prisoners roared approval.

Then Anakin heard a voice above the rest, coming from the holding cell. The prisoners were shouting, and it took him a moment to make out the words. "The stun nets!"

More guards flooded the main room, stun net launchers in hand. They didn't care that they would snare other guards. They let loose the nets with their electrical charges. The nets hung in the air for a split second. In a blink of an eye they would blanket the room.

In that split second Anakin made his calculations. He knew if they were hit with the nets, the paralyzing charges could hamper them. The nets would ensnare them, and every time they moved, sensors would deliver another paralyzing charge. Better to avoid them completely then slash away with their lightsabers. The nets wouldn't stop them, but they would slow them down.

He stepped forward before the others could move. He held up a hand.

He felt the Force in the room. Could he do it? He reached out with his mind, gathering in the Force. He thought of his lessons with Soara Antana. Everything in the prison became fluid to him. It was easy to move, easy to manipulate.

Using the Force, he flipped each of the nets backward and onto the guards.

The guards fell, shouting and kicking. Within moments, they were still, unwilling to cause another charge to jolt them.

The prisoners sent up a roar.

Suddenly, the prison wall began to glow. A red line appeared on the wall, moving upward quickly.

"The army must be outside," Obi-Wan said. "They're using laser artillery. Watch out... the wall is going to come down!"

They leaped backward as the entire entry wall suddenly fell with a crash, exposing the prison to the woods beyond.

Then they got the bad news. Outside was an entire battalion of soldiers.

"Surrender!" an amplified voice cried.

"Let us out!" one of the prisoners cried. "Let us fight!"

Obi-Wan leaped over and deactivated the energy fence. The prisoners rushed out, grabbing blaster rifles and stun batons from the fallen guards.

"We can do it. Just give us a chance." A short Romin in a tattered tunic stood next to Obi-Wan, a blaster in his fist.

"We didn't free you to see you slaughtered," Obi-Wan said. "That's an army out there. With grenade mortars and missile tubes."

"Surrender or die!" the voice repeated.

Anakin looked at the prisoners. Their faces were grim. They were ready to face whatever came.

"Do what you want," the prisoner said. "We've been inside too long.

We won't surrender."

"We can win, Master," Anakin urged.

"There has to be a weapons room," Obi-Wan said rapidly to Anakin.

"Go with Ferus. Bring back what you find."

Anakin motioned to Ferus, and they leaped over the guards in the stun nets and ran down the hall. It wasn't hard to find the weapons room.

They found blaster rifles and more stun net launchers. The prisoners crowded in with them, quickly grabbing blaster rifles and stun batons.

Anakin picked up a flamethrower. Then he and Ferus hurried back to Obi-Wan and Siri with the stun nets.

"They're re-forming their battle line," Obi-Wan said. "They want to risk as few soldiers as possible. These stun nets can come in handy. But they don't have much range."

"You wouldn't have to worry about range from a swoop," Ferus said.

"There are some outside the front door."

"You'll get blasted into the sky if you stick a toe out there,"

Obi- Wan said.

"Cover me," Ferus said.

Anakin would have just run. But Ferus waited to get Siri's nod. He dashed toward the front of the building.

"Anakin, use that flamethrower launcher," Obi-Wan said. "Don't hit the front line. Just keep it moving along so they back up. Try to drive them between those trees so that Ferus can drop the nets. Siri, come on."

Anakin powered up the flamethrower while Siri and Obi-Wan ran out.

The army began to fire. Using wrist rockets and small missiles, the army tried to advance, as Anakin concentrated the flamethrower on the center of the line.

Siri and Obi-Wan Force-jumped past the flames, aiming their lightsabers at the weapons the troops had left behind as they hurried to escape.

Ferus flew overhead, piloting the swoop with one hand on the bars, using his knees to steer. With astonishing speed, he activated the net launchers, one after the other, and tossed them over the front lines.

The soldiers fell, and the others behind were confused. They looked to their captain, but he had been diverted and was ordering the others to put out the fire that had started in the brush. Smoke began to roll over the soldiers, making them cough.

Obi-Wan looked back at the prisoners. He held up a hand. "Now!" he shouted.

With a cry, the prisoners surged forward. The Jedi had succeeded in confusing and disorienting the army. But it had not vanquished them.

Mortar fire pounded and blaster fire shuddered. The Jedi moved, leading the charge, deflecting fire when they could and Force-pushing the troops away.

Anakin felt his blood pumping with the challenge of facing an army.

He felt certain of victory, yet he also saw that it would be difficult.

Obi- Wan had been right. What kind of a victory would they have if the prisoners were slaughtered? They were falling around him, no matter how quickly he moved, no matter how many missile launchers he took out. There were too few Jedi and too many weapons.

Just then, a sleek cruiser glowed red in the sky. It dropped down like a stone to a perfect landing, like a feather on a blade of gra.s.s.

Anakin felt a surge of relief. There were only two or three Jedi he knew who could land a plane like that. He was one of them. Another was Garen MuIn, Obi- Wan's old friend.

The ramp slid down. Mace Windu, Bant Aerin, and Garen Muln charged down the ramp. Their lightsabers were a blur as they moved through the troops.

The Force was strong now, compounded by them all fighting at the peak of concentration. They joined together, strategically targeting the army so that they separated divisions from each other and knocked out the leaders who tried to organize.

Within a short time, the tide of the battle turned. When the captain of the troops found himself facing the Jedi personally, he laid down his weapon and surrendered.

When the rest of the army threw down their weapons, Anakin could almost hear the sighs of relief. Everyone was tired of fighting. Everyone just wanted to go home.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"Rescuing you is becoming a habit," Garen said to Obi-Wan.

Bant smiled her shy smile. "This time I came along for the ride."

Obi-Wan put his hands on her shoulders. He did not say a word. They smiled at each other. He hadn't seen Bant in three years. They had worked out a system of communication, however. Whenever one of them was at the Temple, they would leave the other a message or a small gift. A river stone, a sweet, a dried flower, an odd turn of phrase they had learned in a new language, written on a folded durasheet and tied with a bit of fabric. So Obi-Wan had continued to feel her gentle presence in his life.

But seeing her was better.