[Legacy of the Jedi] - 02(18)

He didn’t like the feeling. But he liked it, too. Thoroughly confused, Obi-Wan stamped over to stare with unseeing eyes at the nav computer and try not to look at his friend again.

A day later, they drew close to the coordinates for reversion. They were almost to Coruscant.

“By nightfall, we’ll be sitting in the Temple,” Obi-Wan said with satisfaction. He would be glad to be back. Glad to get Taly to safety. Glad to put this mission behind him.

Siri worked at the nav computer. “Coordinates set for reversion outside Coruscant airspace.”

Obi-Wan began to flip switches. He frowned. “Everything okay?”

“I’m getting a funny readout from one of the security system checks. I’ve never seen one like it before.”

Obi-Wan went to the manual security scan. He ran through the readouts. Suddenly, he felt the blood drain from his face.

Taly drew closer behind him. Siri spun around in her chair. “What is it?”

Obi-Wan’s throat felt tight. “It’s an anti-thievery device. Magus did have a surprise for us. The ship is programmed to self-destruct upon reversion.” He turned to Siri and Taly. “We can’t get out of hyperspace without blowing up.”





CHAPTER 13


Obi-Wan looked at Siri. “How much fuel do we have?” Siri hesitated. She glanced at Taly.

“Say it,” Taly said. “I need to know, too.”

“Two hours. We barely had enough to get to Coruscant.”

“Cancel reversion,” Obi-Wan said. “We have to dismantle this device.”

“Let me look,” Taly said eagerly. Obi-Wan motioned him over and pointed to the schematic on the datascreen. “There are two places to try to dismantle it - at the switch, or at the source. The only problem is…”

“If you do something wrong, you destroy the ship,” Taly said, nodding.

Siri leaned over the datascreen. When she turned to speak, her face was very close to Obi-Wan’s. She quickly moved away. “These kinds of things aren’t my strong suit,” she said. “I don’t know engines like you do, Obi-Wan.”

Obi-Wan didn’t know them that well, either, but he decided it was better not to say that. He, like any Jedi, could diagnose problems, even if the shipboard computer wasn’t functioning. He knew how to bypass systems and tinker with a sublight engine. But this was way over his head.

“I can try to find the contact point for the device,” he said. “If only we could contact the Temple and someone could talk me through it!”

But there was no comm service in hyperspace.

“We can send a distress signal to the Temple,” Siri said. “We should at least do that, so they know we’re in trouble.”

Even if they can’t help us. Obi-Wan knew exactly what Siri would not say.

She leaned over and sent the distress signal.

Taly was flipping through diagrams on the screen. “Let me study this schematic for awhile.”

Taly leaned closer to concentrate. They watched as he studied diagrams and readouts. Then he turned around. “Uh, guys? Would you mind not hovering? It’s not helping my concentration.”

Obi-Wan crossed to another datascreen. He and Siri went over the same information as Taly.

“I don’t know what to do,” Obi-Wan confided to her. “I could go over this information a thousand times, and I don’t think I could figure it out. “

“You’ll think of something,” Siri said. “Or I will, or Taly will.”

“We have two hours,” Obi-Wan said.

Time seemed to creep, but suddenly, an hour had passed. Obi-Wan tried not to look at the chrono on the instrument panel, but the seconds ticked by in his head. Taly had his head in his hands.

“There’s one thing we can try,” Taly finally said. “Disrupt the reversion process during the last cycle and reverse it. Then go forward again, but this time, switch over to auxiliary power. “

“In other words, you’d activate the explosion, then cancel it, and hope it doesn’t reactivate in time,” Obi-Wan said.

“But we have no way of knowing how fast it will re-arm,” Siri pointed out. “We could blow ourselves up.”

“That’s the danger,” Taly conceded.

Obi-Wan and Siri exchanged a glance.

“At least Taly’s plan gives us a chance,” Obi-Wan said.

Taly balled up his hands into fists. “I should be able to figure this out! I should be able to dismantle it!”

Obi-Wan put his hand on his shoulder. “Taly, it’s all right. It’s very ingenious. Very detailed. None of us can dismantle it.”

“Let’s wait until the last possible minute, to be sure we can’t come up with another idea. Then we can follow through,” Siri proposed. “Agreed?”