DISCLAIMER: Star Wars and all publicly recognisable characters, names and references, etc are the sole property of George Lucas, Lucasfilm Ltd, Lucasarts Inc and 20th Century Fox. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.
Stars trailed past the shuttle in a continuous stream as Obi-Wan and his captor sat in strained silence. Finally the Apprentice spoke again. "Where are you taking me?"
"My home planet. I have...some...unfinished business."
Obi-Wan was somewhat surprised that Eidolon had even bothered to reply. Following up on his momentary advantage he pressed for more answers. "Why did you kidnap me?"
"I needed a pilot. Now shut up or I shall shut you up permanently." The conversational tone of his voice was belied by the very real threat lying just beneath it.
Obi-Wan ignored the warning. "Why?" he said.
Eidolon shot him an annoyed glance. "Why what?"
"Why did you need a pilot? You obviously have enough knowledge to start up the ship's shields and to use the weaponry system. Why do you need a pilot?"
Eidolon laughed sharply. "I was bluffing."
The Apprentice blinked. "What?"
"Bluffing. The shields were easy - they're marked. But as for the weapons or taking off -- no, I needed you to do that."
"So..." Obi-Wan's voice trailed off.
"So the security forces on Kheros were never in any danger. If you had just stayed put, you would probably have been rescued by now."
Obi-Wan felt like kicking himself. Frustration and annoyance shot through him but he hastily shoved them aside. At least the alien was talking. Information - any information - might be valuable. His own, not to mention Qui-Gon's life, might depend on it. "How can you know about me and my Master, about Kheros...yet not know how to pilot this ship?" Obi-Wan asked.
Eidolon answered almost absently. "Qui-Gon never piloted a Kherosian shuttle. Therefore, I don't know how to pilot one." The alien waved a hand in the air. "Yes, I probably could have figured it out, given time and his knowledge, but time is something I'm rather short of. Now are you going to stop asking questions?"
"Probably not." Obi-Wan paused. "Why me?" he said insistently. "Surely anyone would have done..."
He was cut off in mid-flow. "I can't imagine why Qui-Gon put up with you," Eidolon said. "You are definitely the most annoying human I have met."
"Fine." Obi-Wan didn't pause. "Give Master Qui-Gon back his body and you can be rid of me. No problem."
"I'm afraid that's not an option right now, Padawan." Obi- Wan flinched at the term. "It bothers you, doesn't it?" his captor continued.
"What?" Obi-Wan asked harshly.
"The fact that I took your Master's thoughts and memories before I killed him."
Obi-Wan flinched again. "He's not dead," he said firmly. He couldn't be. Obi-Wan wouldn't let him be dead. The alien might have stolen his Master's body, but Qui-Gon was still in there somewhere. He had to be...
Eidolon laughed suddenly. "You know, this is all really quite amusing. Would you like me to tell you what your Master really thought of you? He only took you as his Apprentice because he felt sorry for you, you know."
Obi-Wan's hands clenched into fists but he carefully kept his voice neutral. "I don't believe you because you've given me no reason to," he said. There's no proof that what you've told me are anything but lies. And as for Master Qui-Gon's thoughts, they're his thoughts and they're private. I don't want to hear any more."
"But Padawan," Eidolon said mockingly, "I could tell you such things about him. And what he thought of you. How often he regretted his decision..."
"Stop it. Or the shuttle goes off-line right now and we drift through space until the Kherosians catch up with us." Obi-Wan's tone held no compromise.
For a moment Eidolon hesitated then decided that the boy probably meant it. "As you wish," he replied tauntingly. A strained silence fell.
Obi-Wan struggled to keep his mind blank...to not think. Qui-Gon couldn't be dead. And Eidolon was lying about... No. Don't think about it. Think about getting out of this mess, getting that...parasite...out of his Master's body, and dealing with...the rest...later. Much later. He took a couple of deep breaths and stared unseeingly out the window.
Qui-Gon watched his Apprentice trying to recover his composure and cringed inwardly. He wished he could regain control of his body, for just a moment, to tell Obi-Wan that the alien was lying, that had never once regretted taking the boy as his Apprentice. But he couldn't...and his Padawan was on his own.
The Jedi's thoughts turned to the rest of the conversation. Did the alien really believe he was dead? Was Eidolon truly unaware of Qui-Gon's presence, trapped somewhere in the back of his mind? If that were true, he might be able to use it to his advantage. Somehow. And...why wasn't he dead? A stray thought flashed through his mind -- he had been meditating when Eidolon had taken his body, had been one with the Force. Perhaps the trance had protected him. If so...he might be able to use that to free himself. With a sudden upswing of hope, Qui-Gon turned his thoughts toward the previous night, trying to ignore the sight of Obi-Wan as Eidolon watched him through hooded eyes.
It had taken a while, but Obi-Wan had finally regained mastery of his emotions and, as a not-so-inconsequential side-effect, a plan. True, it wasn't much of a plan, but it was the best he could do at the moment. And it wasn't as if he had a lot to work with. Ignoring the fact that someone more logical or less desperate would not call it a plan at all, but almost certain suicide, Obi-Wan went over the details once again in his mind.
It seemed he wasn't a moment too soon. A distant planet was growing larger in the viewscreen. It was small and greyish brown, with hints of blue here and there. There were a few small seas but overall it consisted of several large continents joined by vast land bridges. There was little cloud cover. Obi-Wan wondered about the atmosphere. If it were anything but oxygen and nitrogen-based, Eidolon wouldn't be inhabiting Qui-Gon's body for long. Of course, neither of them would be around to celebrate that fact... "Stop borrowing trouble, Padawan," he told himself firmly, "You have enough to worry about." He reached forward and set the shuttle back on manual, taking the instruments and heading for a low-level orbit. Eidolon watched him, but said nothing.
"Where do you want me to land?"
After a pause, the alien brought up a schematic on the computer and pointed. "There." Obi-Wan glanced across. It was in the Northern hemisphere, not far from the Equator. He angled the trajectory a little more and sent the shuttle soaring through the exosphere. Turbulence buffeted them and the Apprentice quickly realigned the shields as they sank deeper into the atmosphere. He spared a quick glance at the sensors and was relieved to note that it was breathable -- there was a bit more nitrogen, a bit less oxygen, and a few exotic trace elements -- but other than that it was safe. Good. He really hated breathing gear... Although he doubted he would ever get the chance to use it if his plan failed... Obi-Wan had the nasty suspicion that Eidolon intended to kill him as soon as they were on the ground. But he wasn't going to get that chance, the Apprentice told himself firmly.
They passed rapidly through the stratosphere and then they were skimming low over rocky terrain, the shuttle casting a swift-moving shadow over patches of small, stunted vegetation and the occasional weathered tree.
"Over there." Eidolon pointed straight ahead. Over there, indeed. Obi-Wan suppressed a smile. That would do nicely. There was a series of rocky outgrowths -- tall towers of rock and stone, some linked at the top by capstones, with narrow canyons threaded between them. Eidolon was indicating the clear space just to the left, but Obi-Wan ignored him. With a sudden jerk of the controls, he sent the shuttle swinging onto its side, heading straight toward the monoliths. Caught by surprise, the alien clawed frantically at his chair.
"What do you think you're doing?" For the first time, there was a trace of fear in his voice.
Obi-Wan had no time to respond. He was too busy threading the shuttle between the first two towers, taking a narrow passage that had never been designed to accommodate something so large that was still moving at nearly half the speed of sound... Pillars whistled by, perilously close. Obi-Wan clenched his jaw and ignored everything except flying the shuttle, reaching out for the Force to guide him. The shuttle dropped at an alarming rate to dive under a capstone, then practically stood on its nose as the Apprentice wrenched it around to avoid a rock wall directly before them. The engines whined at the sudden demands on them and then the ship was swooping around in a steep bank that should have caused a stall...but didn't. Obi-Wan braced himself against the effects of the turn and threw all his strength into his battle with the controls. Seeing a narrow gap, he threaded the shuttle through it, resisting the impulse to close his eyes. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...
Beside him, Qui-Gon's face had gone pale as Eidolon watched the canyon walls speeding past them. "Are you insane?" he shouted, trying to maintain his balance.
"Probably." Obi-Wan turned the ship completely on its side to pass through the far end of the canyon, then continued the roll as something sheered off the starboard side. The ship shuddered, dipped slightly, then regained altitude, albeit in an inverted position. Eidolon looked up, saw the ground rushing by above his head, and promptly turned grey. Managing to prise the fingers of one hand from his chair, he reached for the blaster.
"Get us out of here. Land this thing now." He waved the weapon for emphasis.
Obi-Wan didn't spare him a glance, being too busy coaxing a series of aileron rolls out of the reluctant shuttle while dust and rocks were kicked up in their slipstream, obscuring the rear sensors. "If you shoot me now, we both die," he managed to say. Then all his attention was caught up in pulling the ship into a steep climb to avoid a fallen boulder. They soared up and over it and he threw the vehicle into a quick snap roll and dive, sending the shuttle screaming back into the ravines.
No, this was definitely not one of his more brilliant plans, Obi-Wan decided as something else was ripped away with a tortured scream of metal. Crash the ship. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time... He would be ready for the impact, Eidolon would not. He could use that advantage to regain his weapon, take control of the situation... But now that the moment had arrived, Obi-Wan was finding it incredibly difficult to actually send the ship plummeting into the ground. Purposely crashing a starship was not something they had covered at the Jedi Temple. Most of his teachers' efforts had involved keeping the things in the air. "Still," thought Obi-Wan as the ship bucked again and he neatly lopped off a small outcropping of rock, "crashing the ship might not be a problem after all, given the way things are going..." Ahead lay a dizzying labyrinth of stone and he caught his breath.
The end came when they were once more inverted, sailing through a shuttle-sized hole in a monolith the size of an asteroid. Obi-Wan snap-rolled again, hit the reverse thrusters and spun the ship back onto its previous course to avoid a thick tangle of towers. The ground rushed by only inches below them. Ahead lay another impenetrable thicket of stone. Obi-Wan was preparing to swing the shuttle around it when he felt fingers clutching tightly at his arm.
"Land. Now!" Eidolon's voice was hoarse with panic.
Obi-Wan jerked free, but that was enough. All his options had vanished. Taking a deep breath, he shed all speed, hit every reverse thruster he had, and aimed the shuttle at the ground in a shallow dive, ignoring the strangled cry that came from Qui-Gon's throat.
For a long moment they sailed along the base of several enormous columns then Obi-Wan braced his feet, let go of the instruments, and threw up his arms to protect himself. Another heartbeat passed...and they were down, cutting a deep wake in the sandy ground. Despite this, the shuttle did not slow noticeably until one wing hit a pillar of rock. The ship veered left, digging itself even deeper into the sand as the left wing was torn completely away. The tormented shriek of breaking metal drowned out the sounds of the straining engines. Inside, the secondary console flared then exploded. With one more bucketing leap and a last painful scream the engines stalled and the shuttle settled deeper into the earth like a wounded bird. Silence slowly descended.