"What do you mean that no one in the city has seen him?" Qui-Gon shouted angrily at Abido the next day. "You have holo cameras all over the city, and not one of them shows a twenty-year-old Jedi walking around?"
"I could check again, but sir, that is a lot of cameras to go through. We have no idea what part of the city he was in, and the hotel does not have a camera by it."
"Check them again. I have to find my Padawan. If he is not found, the Jedi will pull me out of this mission, and you will be worse off than before."
Abido held up his hands. "Alright. I will get more people to scan the holos. Do you perhaps have a holo of the young man, for those who don't know what he looks like?"
Qui-Gon nodded and reached for a small holo projector on his belt. He flipped it on, and a holo of a younger Obi-Wan appeared. Qui-Gon flipped through holo after holo until he finally reached one taken a few days before the pair had left for Domili. It showed Obi-Wan turning towards his Master as he was getting into a starfighter, a smile on his face. Qui-Gon stared at it for a moment, wondering if he would ever see the real Obi-Wan again, or if the holos were going to be all that he had.
Abido watched the large Jedi for a moment. "We'll find him, Master Jedi. Or we will catch the son of a gundark who took him."
* * * * * * * * * * *
Obi-Wan jolted awake suddenly from his restless sleep. Something was different. The ship had stopped, he realized. They were where they were supposed to be. Where he would meet the man who had purchased him. He turned to look at Arlin, but she had here gaze fixed on the ceiling.
A grating noise caught Obi-Wan's attention, and he too looked up at the ceiling. Light had appeared in the middle of the roof, and was steadily growing bigger. It was a door, he realized. He could also hear footsteps above them and men shouting orders. He stood up and stared up at the light.
A figured appeared above him, blocking out part of the light. He seemed to look down at them for a moment before motioning to others out of Obi-Wan's vision. Then, there were suddenly half-a-dozen figures blocking the light, and were dropping cords down into the box.
The men slid down the ropes and came to a rest feet from Obi-Wan. He instinctively took a step backward and raised his hands into a defensive position. The man in front of him raised his hands.
"Calm down now. We don't want to hurt you. You're much too valuable for that. Cost our boss too much. We're just going to take you out of this place so you can get processed." He took a step forward and Obi-Wan hunched back a bit, ready to lash out if the man tried anything. "Don't make this hard," the man said, nodding.
The Force warned Obi-Wan a second before. A man behind him lunged with what looked like a syringe. Obi-Wan dodged, but there were too many men. He felt a sudden pain in his neck, then nothing. He didn't even feel it when he fell to the floor. He could watch the men as they gathered around him, but couldn't will his body to move. Nor did he really want to. For some reason, he felt very content.
The first man stepped into Obi-Wan's view. "Good stuff, ain't it?" He turned to another man. "Let's get them out of here."
* * * * * * * * * * * Qui-Gon stared out of a window at the ruined city of Genabishu. It pained him to know that Obi-Wan could be out there, hurt, and he not know it. It hurt even more to know that Obi-Wan could not be out there, and Qui-Gon wouldn't know where he was. Footsteps behind him interrupted his thoughts. He turned to see who it was.
Abido froze when the Jedi turned. He had just been about to knock on the doorjamb, but the Jedi seemed to already have heard him. He scratched his balding head. "Master Jedi, we've found something. But uh...you might want to come and watch it yourself."
Qui-Gon nodded, a sinking feeling in his stomach. He followed Abido through the crumbling streets into the town hall. He was led into what looked like a conference room, although it was missing a whole wall on one side. Abido motioned for him to sit, which he did.
The small man cleared his throat. "I had my people look through the holos, as you asked. One man found this," he said, pushing a button on the table. A holo-projector flipped on in the middle of the table, showing what looked like a busy street. With his sharp eyes, Qui-Gon caught an image of his Padawan walking down it. Nothing seemed to be wrong. The image then shifted, showing what looked like was around the corner of the first street.
Qui-Gon watched as his Padawan nearly collided with a big man, then as the man picked up Obi-Wan by the throat. The man put him down, and Qui-Gon watched as a woman stepped forward and shot his Padawan in the chest with a blaster. His heart dropped to his stomach as he watched Obi-Wan crumble to the ground.
Abido turned the holo projector off and turned to Qui-Gon, who had now buried his face in his hand. "We don't believe he is dead. Our police force recognizes the man as Tula Hereas. The woman is Yulia Misk. They're slavers, Master Jedi."
Qui-Gon looked up at him slowly. "Slavers? My Padawan has been captured by slavers?"
"I'm afraid so. This certain group uses a specialized blaster to drug their victims. They probably took him to the underground slave markets."
Qui-Gon stood up. "We must find them. They are the only ones who will know who has Obi-Wan."