The Chosen Apprentice/Chapter 14

The passage to Naboo had been without any trouble, Obi-Wan had expected as much. Trouble, he knew, if it occurred at all would arrive on the way back. A message from Bail Organa that he had received when he had finished with Captain Panaka confirmed this, Stokra knew about Obi-Wan’s mission. The nature of the trouble, whether it be an ambush in space or otherwise, remained to be seen.

Several parsecs out from Devaron, Obi-Wan found out just how exacting Stokra could be. He was in the back cabin of his runner when loud alarms blared from the cockpit, signalling his ship was leaving hyperspace.

“What the blazes is going on here?” Obi-Wan growled, reaching up to flip several switches with one hand on the hyperspace throttle.

The starlines gave way to stars, and immediately in front of Obi-Wan’s ship was one—no two—Corellian Corvettes. He quickly made several scans and what he found looked grim.

“Interdiction field,” he muttered, shaking his head. It was the perfect ploy space pirates used, they waited in main shipping lanes with their gravity wells activated to bring ships just like his out of hyperspace as well as stop them from jumping to safety.

The question remained whether they were interested in boarding, or simply disintegrating him.

Pulling his ship into a steep dive with one hand, Obi-Wan gave the console a few quick commands to calculate the edge of the interdiction field. As the ships started to fire upon him he was given the readings.

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. “That far?” He glanced at it again, this time the readout looked somewhat better. According to the calculations, only one of the blockade runners was emitting the field. All the same, Obi-Wan could not help but murmur to himself, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

He altered a few of the controls and set a course, as much as he hated to he would have to try one of Anakin’s tricks.



In the cockpit of the Aeolian, Penak Ardesh watched the Jedi’s ship run an erratic course that was neither away from or towards them. He ran his hand over his dark closely-clipped hair, his mouth opening in surprise.

“What in space is he doing?” he murmured, watching as the runner evaded their blasts but kept the same distance. He turned to the pilot, a red-skinned Trandoshan named Krassk. “How many hits have we given him?”

Krassk considered this for a moment. “None, he doesn’t seem to take any hits.”

“Perhaps it’s because he’s a Jedi,” suggested the Falleen co-pilot.

Ardesh shook his head. “I’ve seen Jedi blown out of the sky before,” he said. “Engage the tractor beam, if we can’t vape him we’ll just catch him.”



So far all Obi-Wan had managed to do was confuse them, that was fine yet it wasn’t enough to get him out of the interdiction field. It was a trick he had learned from Anakin during the war: the quickest way to get someone to lower their defences was to get them to question your motives. Or even better, let them think that you have no motives at all.

Fortunately he did have a plan, as well as a few surprises on board his ship.



“He’s changing course,” said the Aeolian’s co-pilot, a Falleen named Xian, “he’s moving to—what the…?”

“What’s going on?” Ardesh asked.

“He’s attacking,” said Xian, “heading straight for us.”

“Can our tractor beams get a lock?” Ardesh asked, feeling himself starting to sweat.

“Yes, they—no, he’s getting too high above us.” Xian watched his targeting screen with an amazed face. What did this guy this he was doing?

“Get the Stiletto around to cut him off!” Ardesh roared. “We can’t let him escape!”



As he climbed above the first pirate ship, Obi-Wan noticed the second one coming around to block his escape. Fortunately, this was not the one with the interdiction field. It immediately started firing, and unlike before he scored several hits to his shields.

Obi-Wan frantically put his craft into a dive, feeling his stomach fall with the dissent. He had never liked flying, had liked it even less during the Clone Wars. There were far too many things going on for him to concentrate properly.

He flew lower, almost skimming the top of the first Corvette with the underside of his runner. The second ship continued to fire but the blast mostly hit on the hull around him. Yet Obi-Wan was oblivious to this. Through the Force he could see the durasteel hull below him, he waited…and waited…then dropped a bomb right on the ship’s stabilising fin.



An enormous explosion shook the ship, Ardesh almost fell from his command chair. He had only taken on this job for the immense capital that had been offered, but he vowed this would be the only time he would go after a Jedi.

“Assess the damage,” he ordered.

“Captain, he’s hit our main stabilising fin,” Xian said grimly. “I’m shutting down the main reactor.”

“Isn’t there any way—”

“Captain, even you know as well as I do we’re all but dead in space once our stabilising fin is shot,” the co-pilot interrupted.

For a long moment Ardesh was silent. “What’s the report from the Stiletto?” He finally asked.

“They’re still engaging,” Xian said after a moment’s communication, “several hits, they believe they can take him even though he’s out of their tractor beam range.”

“Tell them to let him go,” Ardesh sighed.

Xian’s eyes went wide. “Captain?”

“You heard me, belay that order,” Ardesh barked. “We’re not giving up if you think that’s what I mean,” he hastily amended, “he won’t get far, not with the damage we’ve given him.



Within reasonable range of the two now stationary pirate ships, Obi-Wan escaped into hyperspace. Yet from the state of his ship, the trip would not be a long one.