"Can we not go any faster?" pleaded Leila.
"I'm pushing it as high as it will go," said Qui Gon.
They where rocketing across the gray sea, just inches above the waves. They where bound for the mining platform.
Suddenly, Leila grip his arm in an almost painful grip. "Look there."
It began as a darker gray smudge on the gray horizon line of sea. As they drew closer the smudge formed into towers and buildings, a small city in the middle of the sea.
"Here," said Qui Gon. With one hand he held the controls, and the other, he handed Leila a pair of electrobinculars. "What can you see?"
Leila scanned the platform for any sign of Obi Wan. Suddenly, she stopped and went back. She gasped.
Qui Gon snatched the binoculars. He saw movement on the very edge. A group of men were pushing something…his grip tightened to an almost crushing point as he zoomed in on the sight. It was Obi Wan! Guard were jabbing him with the dull ends of electro-jabbers, pushing him toward the edge of the platform. They were going to push him off! "Take the controls."
Leila took the controls. She gunned the monitor. Despair flooded over her as she realized they were too far away. "We're too far away," she said.
Qui Gon was quiet as he watched what was happening.
"What are we going to do?" asked Leila calmly. She was sure he would have a plan. Of some sort.
"Our only hope is that he'll survive the fall," said Qui Gon. "And we'll be able to pick him up."
They raced across the flat sea, closer and closer.
Obi Wan was now at the very edge. Qui Gon's heart contracted with pain. To lose him this way! He would never forgive himself.
Leila was bending the Force, her face looking much calmer than she felt.
"What the…" began Qui Gon.
"What?"
Something had caught his eyes. Movement on the lower level of the platform. Someone had fashioned a kind of sling out of a spun carbon tarp. He was tying it on the struts that supported the main platforms. Even as Qui Gon stared, two long arms shot out, positioning the sling in midair.
Obi Wan fell.
Leila gasped.
Qui Gon watched through the binoculars. Obi Wan's face was grim, but composed, free of terror. Determined to fight to the last, but accepting death as it came, thought Qui Gon. Like a Jedi.
Then Obi Wan saw the sling.
Leila's sharp eyes caught sight of the sling. Her face was pale and veins stood out starkly on her small hands as she kept a crushing grip on the controls.
Even from the distance they where, Qui Gon felt the Force bending around Obi Wan. He looked at Leila.
Her eyes where fixed on the falling body.