[Legacy of the Jedi] - 02(19)

“Agreed,” Obi-Wan said.

Taly nodded, his face pale.

It was a gamble they could pay for with their lives, and they knew it.

They had nothing left to try.

Taly sat in the far side of the cockpit. He had accessed the holomap and was simply flicking through space quadrants, one after the other, staring at the light pulses that indicated planets and moons.

Siri had disappeared from the cockpit. She had been staring at the datascreen. She had climbed down into the engine bay. She had gone over operations manuals. She had not come up with anything. Obi-Wan knew she felt just as helpless as he did. They weren’t used to feeling this way.

He went searching for her. She was curled up in the cargo hold, on the floor, wrapped in a blanket. Without a word she opened the blanket so Obi-Wan could slide next to her. It was cold. He was reminded of the early morning hours they spent in the cave, watching the sun come up.

“I think we’ve hit something we can’t solve,” Siri said. “That’s not supposed to happen.”

“Yoda would say that Jedi aren’t infallible. We are only well prepared.”

“Well prepared, we are,” Siri said gently in Yoda-speak. “Infallible, we are not.”

They laughed softly.

“When the moment comes, we’ll be together,” Obi-Wan said.

He put out his hand. Siri slipped hers into it. At her touch, something moved between them, a current that felt alive.

At last he felt what it was like to touch her. He realized that he’d been thinking about it for days. Maybe for years. She wound her fingers around his, strong but gentle, just as he knew she would. He could feel the ridge of callus on her palm from lightsaber training, but the skin on her fingers was soft. Softness and strength. He’d known he would feel that.

Something broke free inside him. He felt filled up with his feeling, even though he couldn’t name it. He couldn’t dare to name it. Yet it was suddenly more real than anything in his life. More real than the danger they were in. More real than the Jedi.

“Siri.”

Her voice was a whisper. “I feel it, too.”

She turned her face to his. Her eyes were brimming with tears. She half-laughed, half-cried. “Isn’t this funny? Isn’t this the strangest thing?”

“No,” Obi-Wan said. “This has always been there. I just never wanted to see it. Since that first time I spoke to you, when you were so angry at me for leaving the Jedi,” Obi-Wan said. “You were eating a piece of fruit. You just kept chewing and staring at me, as though I didn’t matter.”

Siri laughed. “I remember. I was out to get you. I wanted to make you angry.”

“You made me furious. You always knew how to do that.”

“I know. And you were always so right. So fair. You made me furious, too. Lots of times.”

“And then we became friends.”

“Good friends.”

“And now,” Obi-Wan said, hardly daring to breathe, “what are we?”

“On a doomed ship,” Siri said. “So I guess the question is, what would we have been?”

She tightened her grip on his hand. She leaned forward, and put her lips against his cheek. She didn’t kiss him. She just rested there. In that instant Obi-Wan felt something: a connection that bound him to her, no matter what. Siri. He wanted to say her name out loud. He wanted to never move from this cold floor. He wanted to touch the ends of her shimmersilk hair and breathe in the scent that came off her skin.

“Whatever happens,” she whispered against his cheek, her lips warm and soft, softer than he could ever imagine, “I’ll remember this.”





CHAPTER 14


Qui-Gon piloted the pod to the nearest landing available, a spaceport moon aptly named Haven. The bounty hunters tried a pursuit, but they weren’t very determined and it was soon clear that they didn’t regard the Jedi as much of a threat. They had somewhere to get to that was vastly more important. Bounty hunters were always concerned most with finishing the job and receiving their payments.

Qui-Gon and Adi sat at a table in a dingy cafc called The Landing Lights. They had tried to contact the Temple, but a meteor storm in the upper atmosphere at the spaceport had temporarily cut all HoloNet communication and grounded the ships. They had managed to procure a ship, a fast star cruiser with a pilot who would cheerfully do anything for the Jedi. It was fueled and ready to go. The only trouble was, they had no clue as to where they were going. If all had gone well, Obi-Wan and Siri had caught the freighter and were on their way to Coruscant with Taly. Their Padwans could even be waiting for them to be in touch.

“Well, we didn’t learn much by boarding that ship,” Adi said. “Was it worth it?”