Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker had just finished a brief flying exercise. It was mandatory that padawans gained a specific number of hours in flight training, and Obi-Wan had taken his apprentice out so that they could clock the appropriate hours. There was not much point in this, Anakin was a better pilot than Obi-Wan, but the Jedi Council was strict about their rules.
Obi-Wan affectionately called flying exercises, "torture." He hated flying, particularly when his sixteen-year old padawan made snide remarks or suggestions to improve his flying skills. The eleven-year age difference between the master and padawan did not seem to elicit any respect.
"Come on master, I'll race you home." Anakin's voice came through Obi-Wan's comm. system.
"Now Anakin, there is no need to be in a rush."
"What? Scared I'll beat you for the hundredth time?" Anakin goaded.
"No, It is just…"
"You hate flying. Why? It is easy!"
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "It is not my preferred means of travel."
"Scared!" Anakin taunted.
"Am not!"
"Yes, you are!"
"Am not!"
"Prove it!"
Obi-Wan gritted his teeth, while Anakin flashed a smile at him from the cockpit of his own ship. Anakin had trapped him, he had to go through with this, or run the risk of being nagged by his precocious padawan.
"What happens when I win?" Obi-Wan asked.
There was a long pause while Anakin thought for a moment before he spoke, " I'll promise to follow all of your orders without question, and be a model padawan."
Obi-Wan quirked an eyebrow as he looked out one of his view ports at Anakin's ship, "Really?"
Anakin smiled as he gazed back at Obi-Wan's ship, "Yes, but I'm not going to lose, so I don't need to worry."
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes at this, "We'll see, what do you want if you win?"
"You have to spend a whole day not lecturing me."
"Only a day?"
Anakin chuckled softly, "Well you could not go any longer than that without a lecture, my master."
Obi-Wan glared at Anakin's ship before replying, "You're on! On the count of three, one…. two…. three…."
Both Obi-Wan and Anakin simultaneously sped off and began to set the coordinates to jump into hyperspace.
Obi-Wan gave a frustrated sigh as Anakin's ship took off into hyperspace before him. He hurriedly inputted the last of his coordinates in a futile attempt to catch up to his padawan.
Obi-Wan jumped into hyperspace with no problems, but 2 minutes into the jump, sirens started blaring within his ship. "Blast, this is why I hate flying!" Obi-Wan exclaimed as he checked the ship's readouts to determine the problem. Nothing appeared to be wrong with the ship, but when it gave a violent lurch, Obi-Wan knew he was in trouble.
"R4, shut down the hyper drive." Obi-Wan told his astromech droid. The little droid did as he was told, but Obi-Wan's ship continued to spin and shutter violently in space. "Try to stabilize us, R4." Obi-Wan called out, and then he switched the channel on his comm. and tried to call for help. "This is Obi-Wan Kenobi, I have lost control of my ship, please send assistance."
R4 displayed a message on the ship's computer screen, dictating what the problem was. Obi-Wan then dictated this in his distress call. "This is Obi-Wan Kenobi, my ship has entered a wormhole. I will activate my ships homing beacon, please send assistance." Obi-Wan stated, trying to remain calm as he switched on his homing beacon.
"R4, can you do anything to stabilize us?" Obi-Wan asked, nervousness creeping into his voice. However, the astromech droid did not answer because the ship made another violent tumble and the top of the droid was torn apart. "R4!" Obi-Wan exclaimed, worry knitted all over his face.
"If I survive this, I am never racing Anakin again!" Obi-Wan stated as he called upon the force to help him. However, his meditations were interrupted when the ship gave another violent lurch. He looked out his view port to see that he appeared to have escaped the wormhole and was heading towards a bright blue planet.
Obi-Wan noticed that he seemed to be being pulled in by the planet's gravity. He tried to fire up his engines and avoid the planet's pull, but his trip through the wormhole seemed to have damaged his ship. He quickly tried to run some figures to determine where he was, but it appeared he was approaching an uncharted planet. He tried to call on the force to give him insight, but even it could not tell him where he was.
Fear crept into Obi-Wan's voice as he sent one more distress call, "This is Obi-Wan Kenobi, my ship has escaped the wormhole and is now approaching an unknown planet. My ship is badly damaged and is not functional. It appears that I will crash! Please send assistance!" Obi-Wan finished with desperation.
He finished his transmission just as his ship started to enter the mysterious planet's atmosphere. Fire seemed to blaze around him, and he watched as his antennae for his homing beacon and comm. unit were ripped off his ship.
The ship began to shutter violently, and Obi-Wan could not watch his descent anymore. He could hear parts of his ship ripping off and he knew the end was near. Trying to manage his fear, Obi-Wan closed his eyes and immersed himself in the calming presence of the force. The force gave him a sense of peace as the ship violently shuttered around him.
All of a sudden, the shuddering stopped, and Obi-Wan opened his eyes expecting that he was dead. However, he quickly realized he was still alive and his ship was approaching a large land mass. The fire that had engulfed his ship earlier had dissipated and he was now falling through clear air to the ground below.
Desperately, Obi-Wan made one more attempt to fire up his engines to soften his landing, but they failed again. With nothing left to do, Obi-Wan closed his eyes one more time and used the force to brace himself for the upcoming impact.
Meanwhile, Anakin landed his ship in the Jedi hangar bay. He jumped out of his cockpit enthusiastically, and with a smile on his face, waited for Obi-Wan to return. He knew his master could not beat him, and he looked forward to gloating when his master finally arrived in a few minutes.
However, his master did not show up and Anakin grew concerned. He climbed back into his cockpit and tried to send a message to his master, "Obi-Wan where are you?"
Anakin's worry grew when there was no answer, and he called out to Obi-Wan again. When he still received no answer, Anakin quickly got out of his cockpit and looked for someone to help him. He spotted a tall, bald, black man walking in the hanger bay, and called out to the man, "Master Windu!"
Mace Windu turned towards the blue-eyed padawan and replied, "Yes, Padawan Skywalker?"
Anakin was out of breath and was panting heavily as he addressed the Jedi Master, "Has Obi-Wan reported in?"
Mace quirked an eyebrow at the young boy, "No, I thought he was out on a flying exercise with you."
Anakin's eyes widened in shock and his face grew pale at his news, "He was. We were flying home, but I do not know where he is. He was behind me, but he should have been here 30 minutes ago."
"Hold on padawan, I am sure he is fine. Did you try to contact him?"
"Yes master, but he did not respond. I think something terrible has happened."
A troubled expression crossed Mace's face at Anakin's words. It was not like Obi-Wan to not respond to a communication. This required some investigation. "Calm down Anakin." Mace said as he laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Let us go to the communications room and scan all our frequencies. If Obi-Wan is in trouble he should have left a transmission on one of the emergency frequencies. We need more information before we jump to conclusions."
"Yes, master." Anakin replied with worry in his voice.
Mace gently nudged Anakin to walk next to him so that they could go to the communications room together. In an attempt to calm the young padawan, Mace replied, "Obi-Wan is quite capable of taking care of himself, I am sure he is fine." After this, both master and padawan remained silent as they walked together.