Chapter Twenty Five

Maure was drained and dejected after explaining to Laure what was going on. Yoda looked sympathetically at her as she slumped back on the slab that passed for a bed and pulled the still sleeping infant to her.

"That, was bar none the hardest thing I've ever done. Laure was so distraught at the thought of Luka being held captive by bounty hunters. They are calling the temple and requesting help to rescue Luka."

"Captive, also you and I are." Yoda reminded her.

"Right now she's not concerned with our safety." Maure sighed. "Who could they be? No one except Killum is after me and he left us alone for almost two years. Why would he be after us now?"

"Searching for Jocna, we are. Captors know looking for him, we will come." Yoda said, realizing they put the child at risk bringing him along.

"And we decided to take Luka to the temple knowing that. Oh! How dumb can I get," Maure whispered when Luka started to stir.

"Hi! Little man, Aunt Maure is going on a big adventure and you get to come along. I think I smell a dirty diaper." She noticed Yoda crinkle his nose and nod. "Let's get you cleaned up."

"There, that's better," she said a few minutes later as she placed the soiled diaper in a sealed container, much to Yoda's relief. "How about some milk; are you hungry?"

Luka kicked and grinned at the mentioning of milk.

"Thou planet twilight and stars grow dim, lovers meet at journeys end..." Maure sang as Yoda paced, then noticed under the slab a small imperfection in the bulkhead between the two cells.

Maure saw a smile spread across his face as he dove under the slab and she heard noises of metal being pried loose by the small master. After the baby's bottle, burping and several games of peep pie, Yoda emerged and quietly announced, "A hole, big enough for me to get through, I have made. Back soon, I will be. Safe here, you are for now."

Maure watch as he disappeared under the slab again before she could protest. "It looks like Aunt Maure is going to stay here and play peep pie with Luka. Aah! Boo!" Luka rolled with laughter at his funny aunt.

oOo

Yoda climbed through the hole into the next cell, which was empty and he saw the door was open. He reached out with the Force and searched the hall outside and found it empty. Apparently the bounty hunters were not concerned with them escaping. 'Over confident, they are. Their downfall, it will be.'

Yoda quietly took the cover off the air vent in the hall and climbed in. 'Bad, this could be,' he thought as he remembered being stuck in the vent when Nyla was captured. 'At least, strange roots, I have not eaten.'

An hour later and what seemed like miles of conduit, he found the captain's quarters and the bounty hunter sleeping loudly on the bed. The desk nearby was covered with an assortment of datapads, a pair of undergarments and a half eaten sandwich. Yoda frowned at the sight, but noticed one of the datapads showed a message. He floated the pad to the vent cover and read.

Bounty: 50,000 credits for Yoda, dead or alive. Last know assignment to retrieve Maure Jinn from Naboo for a mission to Rustanic to collect contact...

The bounty hunter groaned and turned over in bed, causing the already shocked Yoda to lose concentration and drop the datapad.

A startled bountyhunter sat up in bed, looking for the sound that woke him. Yoda leaned back in the shadows of the vent and sat quietly, waiting to see what the hunter would do. He checked the lock on the door and found it secure, then noticed the pad lying on the floor. 'I have to get around to cleaning this room.' He shut down the pad and threw it farther back on the desk and crawled back in bed. His snores soon filled the room again.

'Me, they are here for. What did I do? Unusual, this is,' Yoda thought. 'Must get back to Maure before discovered missing, I am.'

oOo

Soon, Yoda crawled back into the cell, startling Maure. "Did you find out anything?"

"Yes," Yoda said sheepishly. "Yoda, they are after, not you."

"What did you do to have someone put a bounty on your head?" Maure asked, but before she could get an answer, the door lock started clanging and the ship dropped out of hyper-space.

"We are here and you are about to make me a rich man." The bountyhunter said, looking down at Yoda.