We had no trouble getting down to the archive. The lifts worked perfectly, the halls were empty - all serene.
"I have a very bad feeling about this." I said grimly, and my nervy apprentice gave me a nervous look.
The last doors slid open and we stepped over the broken bits of battle droid into a soaring, bi-leveled hall furnished with row upon row of holo-books and a file of reader desks. The others were already there.
"Well, Luke?" Kensai Moriah asked mildly.
"By deactivating the security system I triggered a back-up program." I answered baldly, without explanations or excuses.
Amazingly a faint smile passed over the old Jedi's still lovely face. "I wonder who came up with that?"
"You know me, Kensai. Always tinkering."
I started a little as Father's voice came out of nowhere, and saw by their reactions that the others had heard him too. Moriah was shaking her head. "Anakin, Anakin."
Father materialized at my side, head hanging in shame but with a glint of humor breaking through. Dov jumped; Arkady gasped and Elana's eyes went round as she moved closer to her father. The older Jedi barely blinked.
"Well Anakin, what can we expect from this brainchild of yours?" the Kensai asked calmly.
Father straightened, folding his arms into his sleeves. "The system was designed to keep intruders from escaping. Until then you're perfectly safe."
"So that's why nothing happened when we were coming down here!" I said, and Father nodded.
"And when we leave?" Moriah prompted.
I'd never seen a Force apparition blush before. "Uh, remember Grievous' Magna guards?"
"Vividly." Eriol and Jezra said in unison.
"I made a few improvements," Father admitted. "They'll attack when you get within thirty meters of the great doors - and those are the only way in or out. If you get past my Ultima guards there's still a battery of laser cannon in the vestibule."
"You always were very thorough, Ani." Moriah said dryly. "Well, it seems there's no reason why we shouldn't finish our work here. After that -"
"After that it gets interesting." Eriol finished even more dryly.
So we all set to work downloading the archives. I went down an aisle, inserted my high density data cube into the slot on the control board and set for data dump. Father hovered behind me.
"What do you mean the main doors are the only way out?" I asked as the indicator lights started winking out one after another.
"This is a fortress, Luke. They aren't built with multiple exits." he answered.
I looked over my shoulder at him. "Come on, you expect me to believe the Emperor didn't have some kind of emergency escape route?"
"He did." Chani said, putting her head around the neighboring stack. "But we trashed it when we attacked the palace - unless Uncle Anakin knows about a back-up?" she looked inquiringly at Father, who shook his head.
'Uncle Anakin' startled me a little but then I worked it out; Ben was Uncle Owen's brother which meant Father was his stepbrother too, which did make him Chani's uncle - sort of. Then the rest of what she said registered.
"What do you mean 'when you attacked the palace'!"
"Just what I said." she answered calmly. "It was necessary to destroy the Emperor's administration - so we did."
"Just the eight of you?" I squeaked disbelievingly.
"Twelve." Chani corrected. "We had Kensai Moriah, Yedda, Master Pater and Nyssa with us too."
"Twelve Jedi against the entire Imperial Guard? that's crazy!"
Her eyebrows went up. "This from the man who surrendered himself to the Emperor?"
"Uh..." she had a point there.
"You don't have to be crazy to be a Jedi, but it helps." Father put in, amused.
"That's what Raj always says." I admitted, then looked at my father in sudden realization. "He got it from you."
Father nodded. "He was my student, if only for a brief time." he reminded me a little sadly.
Finally it was done and the hundred odd data-cubes stowed away in the pockets of our Jedi robes, (bet you didn't know they had pockets - I sure didn't until I got my own). We descended unopposed to the main floor and started for the doors in no particular order.
Thirty meters on the spot Father's Ultima guards appeared, tramping out of panels that'd opened up in the red marble walls.
They were two meters tall, their skeletal limbs gleaming black, and armed with some kind of energy staff. They blocked way to the doors in front and retreat in the rear. Then they just stood their in their silent ranks, waiting for us to make a move.
"My droids have triplicated control centers in head, chest and pelvis. You'll have to cut them to pieces. And that's double neutronium armor, so it'll take more than one strike per target." Father instructed.
"Nice design, Dad." I said.
"Thank you." he answered ruefully.
"I count sixty all told." Eriol reported calmly.
"That makes it six apiece, no problem." Chani said cheerfully, and got a disbelieving look from Arkady and an almost indulgent one from Jezra.
"We're not all as good as you, little one." she said.
"Okay, I'll take on any you can't handle."
"Keep close to me." I told my apprentice, and tried to grin encouragingly. "I need all the help I can get."
"Not from what I've seen." Dov retorted with a pale answering grin.
"Trust me, kid, you ain't seen nothing." I said ruefully. "Why Master Dai-Men himself told me I was the second worst swordsman in the Order." suddenly I remembered who was supposed to the first and looked at Kensai Moriah.
The old lady smiled. "And I am so bad I've given up carrying a saber at all."
Huh?
"Stand here until they rust away the plan is?" Yedda demanded with Yoda-like asperity.
"Hush, Padawan, let me improve the odds a bit first." Moriah said serenely. "Stand back everyone, if you please."
As we edged away she turned sideways, extending both arms. A tremendous inrush of the Force almost sucked me off my feet focused on her little dark robed figure, then she made a slight shoving gesture with her hands and the Force surged outward mowing down the nearest ranks of droids and sending the pieces skittering sparking across the marble floor.
Wow. No wonder she didn't bother with a saber. Then the remaining droids attacked and things got real interesting just as Eriol had predicted.
Father had programmed his guards for hand to hand, maybe especially for Jedi, and those energy staffs were no joke. I blocked and ducked and leapt and rolled and got in a cut whenever I could, doing my best to cover my apprentice. I was reasonably effective but my moves were clumsy and uneconomical and I knew it. Ducking low under a swinging staff I took a leaf out of my student's book and hacked the droid off its feet with a fore and back strike. It toppled with a crash and Dov sawed off the head while I stabbed it through the chest. A sparking leg lifted and nearly caught me from behind. I spun and hacked it off then thrust my blade through the joint into the pelvis.
"Remember, Luke, three motive centers." my father said urgently.
"I remember," I panted, "I remember."
"Look out!" a staff came through Father's apparition, I dodged just in time, knocking it out of line with my saber. Father vanished as a green blade came through the droid's chest and I hacked off its head.
Dov appeared behind the droid as the torso crashed to the floor. A prehensile robotic foot reached out to grab the fallen staff. "The pelvis!" Father shouted, popping back into existence next to me. My apprentice and I struck simultaneously slicing the lower half of the droid in two.
"I know, I know!" I snapped. "Dad, you are not helping my focus here!"
"Sorry, Son." he disappeared again.
I looked around. Yedda was bouncing around like a berserk balf ball with a wheeling lightsaber. Chani was almost as fast and agile, spinning and leaping, using feet as well as blade. Jezra and Eriol in contrast seemed scarcely to move letting the enemy come to them dodging the droids' blows and getting in their own strikes with deft economy. Mylo was the powerhouse I remembered from Kessel, unstoppable as Vader and far more graceful. Even the padawans had more style than I did. No question about it, I had to do something about my swordsmanship - and soon!
Kensai Moriah wasn't using a blade at all. She stood perfectly still with eyes half closed, but I could feel the Force swirling round her and her fingers moved in tiny gestures snatching up droids and hurling them against walls, columns and floor.
Almost all the Ultima guards were in pieces and the few still on their feet were sliced or smashed into uselessness as I watched. Hmmmm...maybe twelve Jedi against the Imperial guard wasn't as crazy as I'd thought.
Father rematerialized looking frustrated. "I HATE being a Force apparition!"
Moriah clucked her tongue. "Don't waste your time wishing and wanting, Anakin. Accept and make the most of who you are."
"I was never very good at acceptance." Father said grimly. "Which, come to think of it, is how I ended up as an apparition."
"It's never to late to change, dear." the old Jedi answered calmly. "You said something about laser cannon I believe?"
"Yes, covering the vestibule."
"Follow me." the Kensai said, and we did. Her eyes were all the way closed now and she glided smooth as if she was riding a repulsor disk across the marble tiled floor. I started a little as apertures opened in the walls and a number ugly cannon muzzles slid out. The Force rippled just before they opened fire and the thick red beams cris-crossed well above our heads as each battery demolished the other.
The walls exploded, showering us with fragments of stone and metal. Mylo strode forward, sweeping up Yedda in one arm and the Kensai with the other. "Run!"
The rest of us didn't need to be told twice.
We hurtled down the long stairs as they quivered under our feet and the building behind us rumbled with explosions. Gaining the cover of our transport we turned back for a look. Flames belched from the entrance as the carved pylons came crashing down shattering into boulders that swept away the creepy statues lining the steps. The five towers shivered into pieces and fell straight down into the bulk of the palace and if crushed by a giant hand. Then the whole mountainous mass quivered and came apart, imploding with a roar as fire spurted redly upwards and a blast of heat swept over us flapping our robes.
"Chain reaction." Father said, sounding a little awed.
"I do seem to have overdone it a bit." Kensai Moriah conceded serenely.
"Mind the Praetor will not." said her apprentice. "Save him much labor this will."
Eriol was looking upward, and I followed his gaze to the circling news skimmers. "Something tells me we've just made quite an impression." he murmured a little ruefully.
"But maybe not quite the one we want." I said.
