No one stopped them as they walked across the compound and moved onto the landing pad.
“This looks fast.” Obi-Wan climbed up on a small starship. “We need something that can get us to TyphaDor.” He accessed the cockpit and jumped in. “Let’s go, Anakin.”
Anakin leaped up on the starship and slid into the cockpit next to his Master. He looked at the controls. “I’m going to have to hot-wire it,” he said.
“That’s the idea,” Obi-Wan answered.
Anakin opened the sensor panel. Even though he still existed in the bubble of his calm, he remembered exactly what to do. He switched wires and juiced the ignition. Then he closed the panel and slid back into the pilot’s seat. The engine started on the first try.
“Great,” Obi-Wan said with relief. “Let’s get out of here. Now,” he added urgently, as a security officer began to wave frantically at them. No doubt he assumed they’d forgotten the departure check proceedings.
Anakin eased the throttle. The graceful ship rose, and he shot away from the camp.
Obi-Wan let out an audible sigh. “Things aren’t usually that easy.”
Anakin glanced at the cockpit indicators. “They aren’t this time, either. Apparently by hot-wiring the ship, we skipped an essential step in the procedure.”
A red light was blinking on the console. Obi-Wan leaned forward. “What’s that?”
“We should have entered a code on the ground. It’s a system to prevent escapes, I guess.”
“And what is it?” Obi-Wan asked impatiently.
“The ship is programmed to self-destruct,” Anakin answered.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“I’d guess we have about four seconds,” Anakin said as he increased the ship’s speed, heading toward the surface.
“You guess?”
Anakin cut back on the speed, almost throwing Obi-Wan to the floor. He leveled out the ship. “We’d better jump.”
Anakin’s calm was getting to Obi-Wan. “Excellent notion.” Considering that the ship is about to explode.
Anakin raised the cockpit dome. They jumped to the top of their seats. Obi-Wan knew he had about two seconds to pick a place to land. Anakin had plotted the course well. They weren’t over rocks, but a gradual slope. Still, landing would be tricky.
“Jump!” Anakin shouted as the siren began to sound.
They jumped. The Force pulsed around them. Obi-Wan looked down at the hard ground below. It became less than solid in his mind, an accumulation of particles and pebbles. It would yield to him. He would fall as lightly as a leaf.
He landed hard for the second time that day. Obi-Wan groaned. The Force was with him, yes, but the ground was still hard. He landed more like a tree trunk than a leaf. He fell onto his shoulder. He felt his tunic rip and a rock scrape his cheek.
Anakin landed more gracefully, seemingly without effort, and went into a roll to absorb the shock. Above them, the ship exploded.
Now the danger was from the sheets of falling, flaming metal. Obi-Wan and Anakin kept rolling down the slope, gaining speed now. Obi-Wan saw a cluster of boulders ahead and simply rolled right up to it. Anakin did the same. They huddled in the shelter of the largest boulder, watching the metal fall to the surface and burn out.
Obi-Wan leaned against the boulder. “That was fun.” “Sorry, Master. I didn’t realize.”
“Not your fault. There was no way to know.” Obi-Wan sighed. “Without transport, we’ve got a problem,” he said. “We’re in the middle of a wilderness infested with gundarks.”
“We’ve got another problem,” Anakin said. He pointed to the sky. A fleet of STAPs and two security transports with mounted laser cannons were headed toward them.
“No doubt the self-destruct sensor sends a signal back to the camp that an escape is in progress,” Anakin said.
“No doubt,” Obi-Wan said dryly. He scanned the area for cover. The only good cover lay in the deep craters. “Here’s a question. Would you rather take your chances with a fleet of STAPs or a nest of gundarks?”
The first laser cannonfire thundered. Obi-Wan and Anakin exchanged a glance, then began to run. They would take their chances in the craters and hope to avoid the gundarks.
The cannonfire ripped the ground behind them as they ran. The air rolled into them with the shock of the blast. It was hard to stay on their feet as they dashed toward the deeper craters.
“Not that one!” Obi-Wan shouted as blaster cannonfire thundered past his ears. He recognized the prints of gundarks outside the crater.
Anakin veered. He was running fast, moving and weaving, but Obi-Wan picked up no communion with him, no Force connection. It was as though he were running with a stranger.