Velk's spiky-haired head appeared in the cab doorway at that moment and he quickly but carefully swung himself back inside again. "Done," he declared. Obi-Wan followed closely and resettled himself in the back seat.
"Hang on," Velk warned over his shoulder. "Now go easy--" he began, addressing Valia as she pushed the starter and thrust the control stick forward at the same time. The engine blared, and twin gouts of dirt and grass flew in arcs from the rear tires as they spun wildly. The forward end of the crawler began to lift into the air, and then the rear tires caught and began to propel the crawler forward with heartstopping speed. The back end fishtailed and they veered toward the trees and then away again. The knuckles of Velk's good hand went white as he clutched the edge of the console in front of him, frightened beyond swearing or yelling. Valia managed to straighten out their course, narrowly missing the trees on the other side of the row. The tip of her tongue was sticking out of the corner of her mouth in deadly concentration as she fought for and gained control of the speeding, heavy vehicle.
"Maybe this wasn't--" Velk flinched as a branch, slightly longer than its pruned companions, was roughly sheared off, slapping his side the crawler with fruit and leaves "--such a good idea!"
"I'm getting the hang of it," Valia insisted, gaining more control with every second, and now racing in a more or less straight line down the row in the general direction they had heard the speeder going. Velk took a second from fearfully looking out the forward windows to glance back at Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. Aside from their arms bracing themselves against the swerving, they both wore a calm as if they were taking a cruise aboard one of the pleasure barges that plied the slow rivers near Tyannis. Evidently they trusted Valia's driving skills, or more likely a higher power to see them through this. As they went on, Velk had to admit she got better.
When bolts of blaster fire sang through the trees, Valia and Velk gasped. Startled, Valia swerved and hastily corrected their course, skidding close to the trees. The calm in the back seat vanished and two hands went to the hilts of two lightsabers. The Jedi were on their feet in the small cab, out the doors and hanging on the sides of the crawler in the time it took to blink. Valia faltered slightly when another round of firing sprayed close to the crawler, and at the sight of Qui-Gon at her left shoulder outside the cab door. The blaster fire was coming from the left, somewhere a row or two over, apparently from the speeder. It was keeping pace with them. Either the speeder had waited in ambush for them, or they had made far better time than they had thought.
"Don't slow down," Qui-Gon ordered into Valia's fear-filled eyes in what looked like a suicidal disregard for his own and Obi-Wan's safety. Branches whipped close to his back as he edged his way forward along the side of the crawler. Valia held their course straight down the row the best she could. With one hand keeping a grip on the careening crawler, and the other to hold his saber, he deflected the blaster bolts away from them. Velk kept up a steady stream of muttering, either 'I don't believe this' or 'Pop's going to be pissed.'
"Turn left the first chance you get," said Qui-Gon through the window to Valia. She mechanically nodded, but was terrified at the notion of getting closer to the source of the shooting. She swallowed with a dry throat and searched for an opening between the trees on their left side that seemed wider than the others. "There!" shouted Velk, pointing to a gap. She pushed the stick to the left and sent the crawler skidding wildly onto a new path, tearing up the turf. The crawler tilted on its right rear tire for a horrible second and then flattened out. Obi-Wan saw his side of the crawler heading for an unavoidable collision with a tree and nimbly pulled himself to the roof of the cab just before branches crashed against the crawler's side and snapped into the window. Velk yelled and ducked sideways. Branches cracked and the inside of the cab was showered once more with torn leaves, fruit and twigs. Valia straightened out the crawler and sheared away from the tree. "Where's Obi-Wan!" she gasped. Surely he had been knocked off his perch.
"He jumped on top," shouted Velk, scrabbling to pull himself upright in his seat. Looking above through the window, he could see a pair of boots hanging over the edge of the cab roof. Qui-Gon was pressed against Valia's open window, one arm stretched up over the roof, his apprentice's arm held in a steely grip.
An auxiliary irrigation terminal caught Valia's eye just before it was too late to swerve. Velk saw it at the same time and yelled something that vaguely sounded like 'Look out for the damned freaking pipe'. Valia guided the crawler toward the space between it and the trees on the left side of the row, thinking with a strange detachment that the placement of the water line explained why this row was wider than the others were. She knew before she struck the upright pipe that she would never make the gap. A short shriek of metal on metal and a snapping noise told her she hadn't been quick enough. A glance in the rear view screen showed a rapidly receding fountain of water gushing high into the air and splattering down onto the leaves. With the same detachment she noted how prettily the sunshine sparkled on the wet leaves.
"There goes the irrigation line," snarled Velk.
"I didn't see the blasted thing in time to--"
"Right turn," ordered Qui-Gon through the window, apparently catching sight of the speeder. Valia prayed he and Obi-Wan were using the Force to hang on, because she complied at once. She managed to do a better job on this turn than the last one. Everyone clung tightly as she whipped around a corner and shot down the new row.
Movement ahead startled them. Now what? A herd of kuodimos, probably spooked by the passage of the speeder going down the row they had just passed, galloped diagonally across their path. They bleated in fear, dodging this way and that as the crawler bore down on them.
"Go ahead and run them down, why don't you?" Velk yelled. "You could take a few of them out while you're at it!" Valia spared half a second to turn and give him a dirty look. Miraculously all the animals cleared the row and escaped.
Far ahead of them down the row they could see what looked like a landspeeder slip past in the clear space beyond the edge of the grove.
"Looks like they're headed toward town," shouted Velk. Maybe they hoped to lose them in the festival crowd, Valia thought. What would happen then? She hadn't thought much beyond the next second as she had driven on their mad course through the orchard. She glanced at Qui-Gon, who still rode outside and just ahead of her window. What kind of plan did he have in mind? She was reminded of some of the bad action-adventure holos she had seen. Had they planned on coming behind the speeder and leaping onto it to capture them? At this point, she might not be surprised if that's what they would do. She glanced to her right at Velk, who sat frozen in his seat. There was a half-smashed freela in his lap, and juice spattered on his shirt and leaves in his hair. A hysterical giggle rose out of her. Velk tore away his stare out the forward windows to look at her.
"If you're cracking up now, I'm going to have to drive," he growled at her.
Valia quickly quashed the laughter and concentrated on driving toward the clear space ahead and the road she knew was there. "Maybe they're headed toward the space port," she shouted. The small port was mostly for intercity travelers, but there were facilities for space-going vehicles, most of them agricultural cargo ships. An escape off-planet would ensure whoever drove that speeder would be more difficult to track.
"I think you know to turn left when we hit the road," Velk said.
Valia had mastered off-road driving in the orchard, so she looked forward to the smooth, unobstructed course she would have on the road that served as a border between the Traxis and Dekkar lands. But to get to the port, if that indeed is where they would chase the speeder to, they would have to go through town. That was going to be interesting, she thought, glancing at Qui-Gon, wishing she knew what plans or ideas he had.
They burst out of the trees and lurched over the bumpy edge of the road. Valia swung the crawler onto the road, skidding on its smooth surface, nearly plowing over the other verge. The speeder was unbelievably not that far ahead of them. It looked like it had actually come to a stop, waiting for them. The driver gunned the engine and it leaped forward, the back end fishtailing. Valia could see the canisters tightly bound together in a holder in the flat cargo area in the rear of the vehicle. Two men sat in the forward compartment. The speeder went out of sight in a cloud of dust kicked up from the dirt road. Qui-Gon drew and ignited his saber again, readying himself. Valia tensed as she watched him. That must mean...
Blaster fire leaped out of the dust cloud at them. Valia instinctively gasped and ducked. She slowed the crawler.
"Keep going," Qui-Gon barked at her. Obeying him, she thrust the stick forward again and pushed the crawler ahead at top speed into the dissipating dust cloud. She saw their well-practiced, wordless teamwork, and knew she could trust him and Obi-Wan to block the bolts, but in her gut it seemed foolish in the extreme to drive into gunfire. Rows of trees flitted past as they picked up more speed. She flinched at every bright bolt that came at them, but the brighter saber blades turned aside each one.
Velk fumbled with his good hand on the floor behind his seat. He was reaching for one of the rifles they had been carrying when they had climbed on board. His window was clear because Obi-Wan was perched on the roof, his legs partially blocking Velk's view out the forward window. He wriggled into a position where he could lean out the window and aim the rifle ahead. He fumbled with his injured hand, readying himself to fire. Valia nervously glanced at him and what he was doing.
"No one's going to shoot at us without getting a taste of the same," he growled in answer to her questioning look. He squeezed off shots, a few of them coming close to the speeder. They could see one of the men facing them, lying over the back of the seat, and aiming a blaster at them.
"No!" shouted Obi-Wan from above. "Don't hit the canisters."
"Not aiming at the canisters." Velk fired more shots, which sailed over the cargo and the heads of the men in the speeder. The bolts exploded on the road's surface far ahead of them. If nothing else, Velk's shooting had their quarry hesitating and they had slowed down. The crawler was gaining on them. Qui-Gon had angrily turned toward Valia's window to tell Velk to put the rifle down when one of his shots appeared to strike the back of the speeder. It faltered and kicked up another cloud of dust. To their amazement, the man in the passenger side tumbled out. He spilled in a heap on the dry road as the speeder jetted away. The way he lay crumpled and motionless held a foreboding message. Valia pulled back on the controls and brought the crawler to an ungainly, sliding halt. Obi-Wan leaped to the ground.
"He's dead," he confirmed after a quick examination of the body. Valia turned a shocked look on her brother. "Great shot," she said in a shaky voice.
"I didn't think I..." Velk faltered at the sick sensation in the pit of his stomach. He'd been aiming at the rear repulsors to cripple the speeder, but only on pain of death would he admit how terrible his aim had been. He hadn't intended to kill anyone.
"No, I don't think you did this," Obi-Wan said. The blaster had burned a horrible wound in the man's temple, and had been fired at very close range. Obi-Wan pulled the man's body off the road into the grass. Valia and Velk watched, dry-mouthed. Freshly dead bodies were also a shocking new experience for them.
"It was not Velk's shooting that killed him." Qui-Gon said. "And there won't be any more of Velk's shooting," he warned sternly. Chastened, Velk put the rifle back on the floor of the cab. "Quickly now, let's move." Obi-Wan hopped back aboard the crawler. "We'll take care of Jax's companion later."
"That's Jax himself, driving that speeder?" Valia asked.
"Yes, I believe so."
Valia accelerated the crawler, and in seconds they were roaring down the road at full speed once more. It was a relief to be driving on a wide, level surface, and even more so to have no one shooting at them. The source of that problem seemed to be lying at the side of the road behind them, and the lone speeder occupant had all he could do to drive. Also, to her relief, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had climbed back inside the cab. While part of her had admired the dashing way the wind blew Qui-Gon's hair and plastered his tunic against his chest, and loved to see him wielding that lightsaber, she really preferred to have him inside the relative safety of the speeding orchard crawler.
As they had suspected, Jax held a course toward town. Valia pushed the crawler as fast as it would go, thinking this could hardly be good for the engine. She had smelled what were probably overheated metal and parts for some minutes now, but couldn't see the sense in mentioning it. There was a sudden glint of sunlight on the metal surface of the speeder as it left the road. It turned to the right and sped into the fruit trees on the Dekkar property. Qui-Gon did not have to tell Valia to turn and follow when they reached the point where their quarry had gone into the grove. They braced themselves for another harrowing ride.
This field was hillier, and the row rose and fell with the slopes. And it was bumpier. One sickening lurch followed another as the crawler's wheels sailed over the uneven terrain. Qui-Gon was forced to brace a hand against the cab's ceiling to keep his head from slamming into it.
The speeder turned left. Valia saw a gap where a tree had been removed, and turned into it, not waiting to reach the row where Jax had gone. They shot through two or three rows and exploded out of the trees into an open field. Only it wasn't so open at the moment.
"The festival!" Valia and Velk shouted together. The normally open field between the Dekkar groves and town was filled with tents, pavilions and wandering festival-goers. This was the same place it was held every year. Valia had forgotten how close they were getting to it. In a second of agonized indecision, she faltered on which way to go.
"Left," instructed Qui-Gon behind her with a calmness that made her want to laugh hysterically again. Left made no sense to her at first, but it was too late now to turn right and skirt everything. "Yeah, right," she answered him sarcastically.
"No, Lia, I said left!" Now she saw a wide corridor she could negotiate between pavilions. She jerked the steering stick that way, throwing everyone in the cab sideways. Qui-Gon didn't object when she slowed down this time. For a second she had the ridiculous notion that if they were quiet enough they could sneak through the festival without anyone noticing. Oh, sure. A large, yellow piece of farm equipment with a roaring engine that was already causing many heads to turn in alarm. The crawler's housing nicked the corner of a floating pavilion roof, making it spin and wobble crazily on its repulsors. Everyone sitting at the tables beneath it rose to their feet in a panic, if they had not already gotten to their feet, screaming and shouting, to run out from beneath it. There were glimpses of spilling food and drink, legs churning, chairs overturning.
"Someone else is going to get killed," said Valia shakily. She brought the crawler nearly to a stop, horrified of running someone down. There were small children everywhere.
Qui-Gon laid a hand on her shoulder. "One deep breath," he said gently. Valia took it, squeezing her eyes shut tightly for one blessed second. Amazing, she thought. Whatever turmoil was going on, private or public, the man was constant as the stars. His hand was warm and steady on her. "Now another," he instructed. She felt her hammering heart slow down to a more reasonable thudding as she slowly guided the crawler up the lane. "One more," intoned Qui-Gon.
"Can't you just use the Force and make this thing fly?" Velk asked the Jedi with a slightly frantic note in his voice.
"That would be cheating," answered Obi-Wan with a completely straight-faced expression.
The landspeeder and Jax were lost from sight now. "If he had to negotiate all this, Jax probably had to slow down as well," suggested Qui-Gon. "But he most likely avoided this area so he wouldn't be seen. Make for the space port," he told Valia.
Valia nodded and pushed the speed stick forward, able to move faster now. She had turned again and now had a clear shot between a row of temporary sheds and pre-fab buildings. She had entered a less populous area, and no one was in her way now. She nudged the stick a bit more. Fate had other plans, however. As though to mock her relieved thoughts, a long anti-grav sled nosed from between two sheds and floated directly into her path. It was piled high with crates, and the man guiding it seemed oblivious to the orchard crawler roaring toward him. The noise of the engine must have reached his ears above the din of the festival. He froze, a look of disbelief on his face. He jerked the gliding sled to a stop. Valia steered, she hoped, on a course that would shoot them between the nose of the sled and the building opposite. A sickening crunch on the right side and a shaking in the crawler's frame told them she'd spared the man and his load, but not the shed. The small viewscreen of the rear view showed the flimsy structure collapsing into a cloud of dust, its thin walls shivering.
"I sure hope that was empty," commented Velk, leaning out the window to look back. He saw someone he knew as they passed a cluster of people and withdrew his head back into the cab and shrank back against his seat. He moaned in dismay. Valia moaned at the same time, because she saw she was quickly running out of clear path. A series of festively colorful pennants and banners hung between the last two buildings. Of course, the high cab of the crawler was going to hit them. Valia kept going. The cords twanged and popped, breaking away from their hooks. There was a series of whapping noises as banners stuck against the forward windows. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon were out the doors once more, and pulled the blinding advertisements free. A gaudy ad for the planet's most popular soft drink fell away, followed by a sponsorship plug for the planet's best agricultural equipment, and another proclaiming the 182nd Alcotis Freela Festival. A string of bright pennants trailed behind them as they roared across the festival grounds.
"There are too many people here!" Valia yelled. People milled about, gaping at them, and more or less trying to move out of their path.
"This is the shortest way to cut across the grounds," Velk insisted, pointing out a diagonal path in the direction of the spaceport. "If they don't have the good sense to get out of our way, then--"
"We're in the thick of it now," agreed Qui-Gon. "Slow down, but keep moving forward."
"There's a big gate in the fence between here and the port," said Velk, straining to see ahead. "Keep going this way."
"But where's Jax?"
"Must have gone around all this somehow," Velk guessed.
Valia nodded, feeling her heart beginning to race again. She pulled the steering stick to the right, where it looked like the fewest people were. But the crowd, not sure which way the lumbering farm equipment was going, scattered in every direction, most of them directly in front of her. There was a glimpse of a long table beneath more of the fluttering pennants, and what may have been a pie-eating contest or whatever else people did with fruit at these festivals. A panicked wave of festival-goers washed into the table and it overturned. Chairs and people upended. Dark red fruit filling spattered against a white cloth backdrop. Valia raised her eyes toward the cab ceiling helplessly. There was nothing for it but to hold back and brake to a stop, or else run someone down.
"Don't these things have horns?" Valia asked impatiently.
"No," answered Velk. He leaned out the window. "Get out of the flaming way, this is an emergency!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs, his neck cording. Startled, the crowd actually complied and parted in front of the crawler.
"Gods, its the police," Valia said, catching sight of an air-car with markings on its side. It was pushing its way through the crowd toward them.
"Under the circumstances, I think we had better keep going," said Qui-Gon.
"But it's the police."
"Sure, now that we don't want them, they show up," Velk complained.
"We'll take care of the matter later," said Qui-Gon calmly. "Keep moving."
"They call you the Master," said Valia with a shrug and another nervous glance out the side window, and nudged the crawler forward. Amazingly there was a clear area opening in front of them. The crowd was now milling in the path of the police speeder, and a second one which was trying to make its way to the scene of the disturbance. A burst of siren cut the air, startling everyone. Valia cautiously kept going, wondering what the penalty was for the charge of operating farm machinery off the farm. Meanwhile Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan silently agreed that a little crowd control would help, and bent their wills to direct the festival-goers out of the path of the crawler. They were getting closer to the fence and the gate Velk told them was there.
Their combined wills apparently were not strong enough to penetrate the mind of one particular individual. Danz Tera, the mayor of Alcotis marched directly in front of them, holding up an imperious hand, signaling them to stop.
"Get out of the way, you old windbag," muttered Velk.
"He's probably upset he didn't get to sample the pies before they got spilled," added Valia. She was already speeding up and had no intention of being stopped again. The mayor stood his ground for all of three seconds, then dropped his jowly jaw when the crawler kept rolling toward him. His legs pumped up and down for the first few steps, not carrying him anywhere, then he turned and began to run. One suspender strap slid off his shoulder and flapped uselessly. He ran one direction, then the other, succeeding only in staying in front of the crawler. Valia cursed in frustration as she attempted to steer around the heavy, red-faced, puffing mayor. She heard scattered laughter coming from the crowd. She glanced over her shoulder at Qui-Gon. He was leaning forward from his seat and frowning in concentration out the forward windows. He focused on the mayor's back. At the exact moment the mayor was centered in front of them, the other suspender strap snapped and gave way. He tripped over his pants and went face down in a heap. The crowd roared. Valia made a squeaky gasp and shut her eyes in terror. It was too late to turn. She instinctively froze and held her course. Then she realized the crawler had plenty of clearance to pass over him, if he stayed down. She accelerated toward the empty field in front of them, and the fence beyond. Velk snickered at the rear viewscreen. A dirty, sputtering, but unhurt mayor was being helped to his feet by three or four people. Valia threw Qui-Gon a grateful look for what she was sure he had done.
"Where's that gate?" she wondered.
"I don't see it!" Velk craned his head out the window, looking for a lane or break in the fence as they sped at an angle toward it.
"There," pointed Obi-Wan.
"Where!"
"There."
"It's shut!"
"Go through it," came the calm order from the seat behind her. She hadn't gone too wrong yet today listening to that voice, so Valia obeyed and gunned the crawler into the gate. In disbelief, Valia watched the screened gate quiver and the two halves swing wide just before the nose of the crawler could strike them.
Leaving the festival behind, Valia drove the crawler as fast as it would go toward the buildings and parked ships of the spaceport. The engine was making a rough noise now, and she was sure she saw a plume of smoke trailing behind them.
"I think the police insist on speaking with us," Obi-Wan said to Qui-Gon after a glance behind them. Police speeders were coming behind them up the lane and gaining on them.
"Stop for them now," advised Qui-Gon. "We'll explain the situation." He left the seat and prepared to jump to the road as the crawler slowed to a stop.