Chapter Twenty-Three

Two Jedi fighters followed the bounty-hunter ship Slave I. Quite suddenly, the pursued ship ejected a small device. Sarali's instruments detected it first. Almost instantly, she recognized it and warned Obi-Wan. "Seismic charges! He's detected us!"

The two ships began to manoeuvre away from the device, just in time for it to explode in blue light. The energy blasted outward, destroying the asteroids that met its path. The two ships were lucky. They made it out unscathed. However, another device had been released. They were just barely in time to avoid its blast.

Obi-Wan and Sarali turned their attention back to the ship they were following. Quickly they followed it as it wove in and out amongst the asteroids. After a few minutes of rather fancy flying, Slave I opened fire on the two Jedi fighters.

Almost immediately, Sarali's fighter took a direct hit. Obi-Wan barely had time to see her fighter explode in a shower of parts before he had to keep flying, attempting to save himself from the same fighter. His heart felt suddenly empty, as though a Void had been placed inside it which nothing could fill, except something did fill it: sadness. She was gone.

As he attempted to hold himself together, a thought stayed in the back of his mind. He had not felt her death through the Force. Something was not as it seemed...

"Obi-Wan, jettison your spare parts canister!" he heard Sarali's voice over the comm.

She was alive! Relief stronger than any he had ever felt flooded through him, that is, until he registered what she had said.

For the second time within a very short amount of time, he thought she was dead. He wasn't sure if he could take this fear that she would be killed for much longer. In his heart, he was pleading that if she survived, she stayed on Coruscant where it was safer.

"R4, prepare to jettison the spare parts canister," Obi-Wan instructed. The droid whistled and beeped in return.

Seconds later, the parts canister exploded amidst the fire of the bounty-hunter's ship. Obi-Wan took that opportunity to land on an asteroid and shut down all but essential power.

Slave I remained for a few seconds more before continuing its journey. Only then did the Jedi fighters follow it to the planet looming ahead.

"Geonosis," Obi-Wan said over the comm. As they approached the planet's surface.

"Federation ships," Sarali said.

"A lot of them," Obi-Wan commented, looking over at the same area as she.

"We'll land over by that rock formation. It's more isolated," Sarali said. It was obvious which she meant.

Only minutes later, the two jumped out of their ships and approached each other. "That was a good idea," Obi-Wan commented, referring to the spare parts canister. On the inside, he was thinking something very different. I thought you were dead...Why did you not warn me?

"Thank you. Anyway, we had best sleep at least until dawn. Not much is likely to happen until then," she commented.

Obi-Wan nodded.

"Do you have a cloak or a blanket?" he asked.

Sarali merely shook her head.

Obi-Wan gestured for her to come closer as they sat between their ships. He quickly noticed her hesitation and said, "I won't bite."

Sarali snorted and said, "Shouldn't you be more worried about me biting?"

"Not unless you bite in your sleep," Obi-Wan said with a joking smile.

"Only a little," Sarali said sarcastically as she settled in under his cloak. They said nothing more as their proximity made them both particularly aware of the other.

Within a minute, Sarali was asleep. Obi-Wan took somewhat longer to fall asleep, mostly due to his reflecting on his experiences that day. He had after all thought that she was dead twice. That was forcing some inappropriate feelings to develop. For instance, he could not help but notice her beauty. Her feline features fit her personality so perfectly that he could not fathom why he had not noticed sooner. She was intelligent, and she was clever. They worked so well together.

He did not, could not, love her, yet an attachment was certainly forming, which was against the Jedi Code. But were not only selfish attachments banned? He certainly wanted her to be happy, but did he not wish that for everyone? What made her so different?

He liked her, but he liked many people...

Why did he care so much about her?

With these thoughts in his head, Obi-Wan fell into a deep, restful slumber.