Two decks up. Obi-Wan wound his way carefully back to the level of the cargo transporter bay, taking a circuitous route to throw off pursuit. Probe droids were everywhere in the corridors; grunts as well. If he was seen only once, Xanatos would have an edge tracking him down. It took all his senses and strength in the Force to avoid detection. He peered around a corner. Seeing all was clear, he slipped past it.
His strength in the Force: it was growing, still. The intensity of his awareness nearly overwhelmed him. Sometimes, when he focused down, it was an aid: like his piloting of Terin's Dream. But most of the time, as now, it was a distraction. Too much to handle: and he could not easily distinguish possible futures from events nearer at hand, nor the where and what and how of the beings and droids closing in on him. He thought he felt Will in pain: but was that a now, or a maybe yet to be? His training had not prepared him for this onslaught.
Shrugging away his anxiety, Obi-Wan turned yet another corner. The door to the cargo bay lay ahead of him: and hopefully, behind it, his lightsaber. He came up short before it. No, it's there, his instincts told him. He pushed the door open. All was silent and dark beyond: empty, as his senses had informed him. He stepped over the threshold.
His foot never reached the other side. A trap!
Blue sparks danced before his eyes, played hide-and-seek among his outstretched fingers. Obi-Wan calmed his racing heart; willed his mind to stillness.
He was caught in some sort of energy web that stretched across the doorway: caught and held motionless. He could blink, slowly; he could wiggle the foot behind him. But that was all. The room before him remained dark. This was an unguarded trap, then. But Xanatos would have been informed of his capture by now. Xanatos was on his way. Was there a way out? He could see none. Obi-Wan closed his eyes, and searched for an answer in the Force. There was no way out.
But there was hope. Obi-Wan thought of Tahl. Was she here? Was Ki-Erin? Was Qui-Gon? Obi-Wan focused on his need. With all his strength, he flung the call from his soul, a cry for help.
Obi-Wan!
Qui-Gon? Obi-Wan could have wept for the joy that swept through him. I'm here! I'm trapped!
Reassurance washed through the young Jedi. Qui-Gon was on his way.
But there was more he needed to do. The implant - With fresh determination Obi-Wan turned his will to it. His growing strength in the Force would help him, here. He knew what it was, thanks to Data. It must be destroyed. He focused his will on the task
Pain blossomed at the base of his neck; spread upward along his spine. He ignored it. Time passed: how much, how little, he could not say. He could feel the molecules of the implant, an invader in his body: could feel the parts fusing, melting. He held on to his purpose. Held on: until finally his body failed him. He passed out.
-
A sudden bustle by the door heralded Xanatos's reappearance. "Any luck yet?" he asked a humanoid at one of the engineering terminals, one with a bulbous head.
"Nothing yet. We've got all our program decoders working to catalog their system."
"Perhaps one of our captives could be convinced to help. I believe we have one of their engineers, now."
"Great," muttered Geordi. "I had hoped he wouldn't remember that."
"Maybe we can use it to our advantage," Will replied.
Xanatos approached Geordi where he sat against the wall; stood towering over him, and pushed his long black cape back over one shoulder. Geordi refused to look up. "Well, now. What would it take to secure your cooperation, I wonder?"
"There's no point," Geordi drawled. "You won't get systems up from here."
"Oh? Then what were you so busy at in the side office? Playing games?"
"Trying to get things working, of course. But we wouldn't have succeeded, even if you hadn't interrupted us. Diagnostics showed a main power conduit has been damaged. Until it's been fixed, or power re-routed manually, nothing is going to happen."
"You expect me to believe you don't have redundant systems on a ship this size?"
"Of course we do. But we weren't exactly in good shape when you attacked."
Xanatos eyed Geordi for a time in silence. But either Geordi was bluffing with extraordinary skill, or he was telling the truth - perhaps to buy them time.
"Where must these repairs be done?"
"In the maintenance corridors by the M/AM column, two decks up. Or else in the cargo transporter bay, also on deck thirty-six."
"Boss -"
"What is it, Sherkess?" Xanatos asked without turning.
"We've caught something. Two decks up."
Will's throat constricted in foreboding.
Xanatos raised one brow. His eyes narrowed, considering, never leaving Geordi's face. "The cargo transporter bay?"
"A big room, boss. The one where we had a firefight with escaped prisoners, two days ago nearly."
"Well?" Xanatos asked quietly, this time pitched for Geordi.
"Well what?" Geordi said sourly. He knew Xanatos had already guessed, Will saw.
Xanatos's lips curled in a sardonic smile. "Shall we go see what we have caught?" Slowly, deliberately, he studied the faces of each of his prisoners, arrayed against the wall at his feet. "Gather them up," Xanatos ordered finally, speaking loudly and generally to his subordinates. "We're moving down. At which point you will help us to fix the problem, Mr. LaForge. You don't want to know the consequences of refusal."
"I'm sure," Geordi muttered as he was yanked to his feet.
The cargo transporter bay was a large open space with multiple entries, much less easily defensible from a strategic point of view. If Worf could only get this far, he'd have a much improved chance of breaking them free than from the engineering control room. Will only hoped they could stall long enough for the others to arrive. Xanatos was in a cruel mood. He had refused to let the adult prisoners use their hands, so the guards had to manhandle them down the tubes. He left everyone under guard in front of a bank of workstations by the port wall, and went immediately to the shimmering energy trap at the door to the Jefferies tube.
It was as Will had feared: Obi-Wan hung suspended in the trap. When Xanatos switched off the field, he collapsed to the floor and lay there, unstirring. Xanatos flipped him to his back with one foot, staring down at him. Then he crouched beside him and put a hand to the back of Obi-Wan's neck.
"Clever," the man muttered. "You've exceeded my expectations, boy. But it was a pointless gesture, you will see. I can always fit you with another control circuit." Xanatos turned to Sherkess, standing near. "Keep him under guard until he wakes. Remember he is dangerous, and take appropriate steps." Then, rising, he approached his prisoners, slowly, like a cat who knows its prey is cornered. Behind him Sherkess fastened the Obi-Wan's wrists in front of him with heavy cuffs like the rest of them wore, and took up guard standing over him.
Xanatos fixed his gaze on Geordi. "You have a job to do, here," he said.
"And how am I supposed to do that without tools, or -" Geordi shrugged expressively. His hands were still bound behind him.
"What do you need to do to repair the problem?" Xanatos asked Geordi impatiently.
"Use of my hands would help."
Xanatos called a guard over. "Free his hands," he ordered. "And?"
"A second set of hands."
Xanatos gestured to one of his engineers.
"She doesn't know -"
"Then you'll have to tell her."
Geordi hesitated.
"Don't try my patience."
"Right," Geordi answered sourly. The chief engineer led the way to one of the main control circuits across the room. They could hear him explaining to the woman beside him, though they could not hear the words. Xanatos trailed them, watching and listening.
Geordi's planning something. Deanna's voice echoed softly in Will's thoughts. He cleared his mind, with more difficulty now than before. His body was weakening.
He'd best be careful. Xanatos is sharp, and I'm sure he's expecting trickery.
You know he'll be careful.
Will sighed. He knew Geordi would use every ounce of cunning he possessed - and he was a skilled and competent man. But something told him Geordi may have met his match in Xanatos.
-
Obi-Wan woke slowly, stiff and sore. A stirring in the Force warned him to be cautious, to hide his consciousness. Xanatos was here. He heard the dark Jedi's sharp voice soft, controlled: barely veiling his impatiance. Deanna was here, and Will, and Wesley - and others of the crew. So they, too, had been captured.
Obi-Wan relaxed his body, but his mind raced. His hands were bound. Perhaps he could free them with the Force. The magnitude of power flowing through him made him giddy. Dared he use it? Only with a plan, with some hope of success - And a guard stood over him, watching. No, now was not the time.
Xanatos was giving orders. Listening carefully for a time, Obi-Wan realized he had Geordi working on repairs. Xanatos had focused his senses on the engineer, watching for an act of subterfuge. That Geordi had a plan in mind was evident. Obi-Wan could feel his tension and anticipation.
In the far corner of the room, behind the transporter platform, Obi-Wan's lightsaber lay waiting, as yet undiscovered.
And somewhere in the belly of Enterprise, Qui-Gon was there, looking for him.
The minutes passed. Five... ten... Obi-Wan felt tension building in the Force. What did Xanatos make of it? How long would he take to realize that Qui-Gon's arrival was contributing to the shifting currents?
With sudden ferocity, Xanatos seized Geordi and spun him around, slamming him into the wall and pinning him there. "You were starting to send a signal. Some kind of encoded message. What was it?"
"I needed to test the line -"
"Don't try to mislead me. There's more you're hiding. Explain what you were doing, and why."
Geordi stared at the man, his face unreadable with his visor in place.
After only a few seconds, Xanatos threw Geordi to the floor. "Bring him," he ordered generally, and two of his minions jumped to obey. He strode to where the others were held under guard, lined up sitting against the wall. Then he turned to Geordi, held between two guards. "I grow impatient with your tricks. Perhaps you need a demonstration that I mean business."
"What do you mean to do?" Picard demanded.
Lying still on the floor, Obi-Wan tensed. The time had come to act: it was now, or never. He only hoped he could keep Xanatos occupied long enough for help to arrive. He pursed his lips, his thoughts grim. His best was all that he could give. It would be enough. It had to be.