Chapter Six

When Ashanti swung by Qui-Gon's quarters later that evening, Qui-Gon greeted her at the door with a grin as smug as her own. She gave him a wary look. "What have you been doing?" she asked.

"Resolving my family problems. Are we at port?" he returned, settling back in his chair, moving his glass of blue juice out of the way of his elbows.

Ashanti squirmed in place. "Um, no, we're at the mining colony on Heine IV."

His brow furrowed. "The mining colony at Heine IV? Why?"

"Uh, resolving negotiations?" Ashanti said weakly, going to the other side of the table. She figured she could make the door before Qui-Gon reached her.

His blue eyes narrowed. "What did you do, and why do I *know* I'm going to regret giving you charge of the negotiations?"

"What did the Prime Minister say? Mai-Lin have any good suggestions? She's a bright one, that Mai-Lin." Ashanti changed the subject.

Qui-Gon changed it back. "You did something that Yoda's going to kill you for, didn't you?"

"It's resolved, Qui-Gon, let's leave it at that," soothed Ashanti, her tail so low to the ground it looked like a seperate dead entity.

"No, you tell me what you did so I can figure out to get me and Clea out of whatever you got us into."

Ashanti moved both the table and chair between the two of them, thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. "They all agreed to allow the Trade Federation to control the trade routes without taxation or tolls."

"Good, but how did you do that?" Qui-Gon stood up and walked between Ashanti and the door, sensing she'd make a bolt if she thought she could get away with it.

"Um."

"ASHANTI!" shouted Qui-Gon, his temper ready to explode.

Her shoulders slumped. "I threatened to leave them planetside if they didn't agree to something."

Qui-Gon stared at her, hoping he didn't hear right. "You did what?" he asked dumbly.

"I only had to transport down one for a couple of hours. The others fell in line with just the mere suggestion." Ashanti held up her hands defensively. "They are all happy now, Qui-Gon. They even ate dinner together without one argument or scowl. One even thanked me for helping out."

Qui-Gon turned away, shoulders shaking with laughter. He couldn't believe it, though why he should be surprised, he didn't know. In actuality, he was surprise Ashanti hadn't threatened them before hand.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Ashanti actually sounded worried about the possibility. He realized she didn't know he was laughing. Controlling his expression, he forced a deep frown, hoping his eyes wouldn't twinkle and give him away.

He turned back to her. "I won't kill you, but I want to be there when the *Council* does. They will want a full report and Master Yoda knows you too well. He'll know you pulled something underhanded."

"It wasn't underhanded," defended Ashanti, tail corkscrewing in consternation. "It was....uh....devious."

"Devious?" he repeated in disbelief. "I'd hate to know what you would consider illegal!"

Ashanti finally noticed the laughter in his eyes and sagged with relief. "Oh, good, you aren't angry."

"No, I'm not *too* angry," Qui-Gon clarified. "Come on, let's go talk to my cousin."

Clea had been getting bored and had finally fallen asleep. She'd done a full systems check to make sure the double-crossing pilots hadn't done any sabotage. She tested the weapons array to make sure that they were still functional and she'd verified with all decks that things were still secure.

There had been nothing else to do but take a nap.

She awoke with a start to see Ishati Jinn enter the bridge area. Without a word he walked right up to her and bashed her with a long staff. She rolled, taking the blow on her shoulder instead her forehead. She dashed behind a console and activated her lightsaber.

Ishati just stood there, his blue eyes, so similar to her master's she took note, gleaming madly. "Your master thinks to have someone dissolve the family," the man informed the apprentice.

"Probably," Clea agreed, edging further away from him.

"I'm going to stop him and you're going to be how I do that."

"Yeah?" asked Clea, wishing she were anywhere than there, something she'd been doing all afternoon.

"Yes." Ishati smiled and moved his right hand. The Force warned the apprentice but she didn't react quickly enough. Her last coherent thought was that the ability to tap into the Force obviously didn't just occur with Qui-Gon in the Jinn family. A wrench flew into the nape of her neck, knocking the pale skinned girl cold.

Qui-Gon and Ashanti were standing in Ishati's quarters, frowning at the emptiness of it. "His clothes, his datapads, everything is gone," Ashanti was muttering as she jerked one drawer after another open, looking for some sign of life.

Qui-Gon was out the door in a flash, shouting Clea's name. Ashanti darted after him. She had no idea what had happened but she had felt the disturbance in the Force and the pain that flashed through Qui-Gon had been very apparent. The two Jedi made a mad dash for the bridge but when they burst into the small room, it was empty.

The two looked at each other and said in unison, "Escape pods." They turned on their heels and head below decks.

Too late. The hatch and just closed and fired when they skidded to a halt at the pod deck. " In Quizia's name!" blasphemed Ashanti, beating her fists and tail against the hatch door. The two of them watched the pod enter the atmosphere. "They could land anywhere. We need to contact the mining colony."

They raced back to the bridge. Ashanti collapsed in the chair next to the communications array. The screen lit up as she punched the coordinates to the miners' communications buoy.

"Calling back again so soon, Ashanti Vende?" asked the amused mining leader. His grimy face had a white slash where his teeth broke up the dirt.

"We have a situation. One of our guests on board has gone off his cracker, kidnapping the Jedi apprentice with us. He escaped in an escape pod, but he wasn't heading for the colony base. Is there somewhere else he could be going?" Ashanti wasted no words.

Neither did the mining leader. "Yes, there's a small volcanic lake about twelve miles east of here. Get down here and I'll take you and a security contingent there." Qui-Gon was already out the door with Ashanti not far behind. She stopped long enough to grab several of the diplomats and sendin them up to the bridge, giving a summary of what had just occurred. Qui-Gon was firing a small shuttle pod's engines as she clambered on board.

They rode in silence to the surface, each trying to get a bead through the Force on where the apprentice was at. Qui-Gon could sense that she was alive and basically unharmed, but Ashanti was sure that the girl might not be for long.

As they scrambled out of the shuttle, Ashanti warned Qui-Gon. "He's insane. More than I thought. Clea will try to out-think him using logic and the Force. We have to think as insanely as him."

"Shouldn't be difficult for you," retorted Qui-Gon worriedly. Ashanti let the comment pass.

"This way. I'm Dom Gitally. I've got two speeders ready. We'll take the east side of the lake. You take the west and we'll meet by the outcropping on volcanic rock on the north." The two Jedi nodded and got into the speeder, taking off to where the map indicator showed a large body of water.

Qui-Gon closed his eyes, sending out feelers through his bond with Clea Tari, hoping that she'd regain consciousness enough to respond. Ashanti dodged rocks, boulders, bushes and giant trees as she drove to the west end of the twenty mile wide lake. The Force guided her hand and she did not question the path.

The Force was the know-it-all of everything, Ashanti knew, and could not argue the course she took. It wasn't like she knew otherwise anyway.

Within the hour, Ashanti parked the speeder next to the crashed escape pod. Clea's lightsaber was lying beside the pod's open door, it's open end facing toward a huge cliff face. The two Jedi looked up and saw an opening quite a ways up.

Ashanti was relieved to note that there were trees that reached to almost the cave opening. She began to climb, her claws sinking into the tender bark and her tail balancing haphazardly on tree limbs. Qui-Gon began climbing the cliff itself, a more slow-going path, but he couldn't climb the tree as well as Ashanti could.

Ashanti slipped several times in her haste to make it up, losing time and ground. She and Qui-Gon reached the opening at the same time and activated their lightsabers in perfect unison. The green blade of Qui-Gon's lightsaber lit the cave eerily when he went in first and the glow turned brighter when Ashanti followed with her purple blade.

"ISHATI!" Qui-Gon shouted, his voice thundering through the cave and causing Ashanti to wince.

"Why don't you eliminate the element of surprise?" Ashanti groused sarcastically.

"He knows we're here. Can't you feel his madness in the Force?" Qui-Gon didn't even break stride. Ashanti stopped, her expression turning peculiar.

"What do you mean?"

"He's Force-sensitive, Ashanti. He probably took Clea by surprise, blocking her somehow. Or outmaneuvering her." Qui-Gon continued deeper into the cave, his cloak swirling as steam eddies caught the material and moved it.

Ashanti was unnerved. "How long have you known that?"

"I've suspected for a couple of days now, but everytime I tried to press at his mind through the Force there was a block. I figured he was either Force-sensitve or had a natural block of some kind." Qui-Gon disappeared around a corner and Ashanti hurried to catch up.

"Well, I wish you had told me this before hand."

Two more turns later they came face to face with Clea. She was hanging upside down over a volcanic pit. Far below lava bubbled and boiled. Clea's left eye was swollen shut and a gag blocked any sound coming from her mouth. Her good eye widened and the two Jedi turned behind them.

The blast knocked the two Jedi backward into the pit. Qui-Gon managed to fall more to the side, and with some help from the Force, he managed to land on one side of the hole.

Ashanti fell straight down.

Qui-Gon closed his eyes and concentrated on keeping hold of his lightsaber, knowing that the battle against Ishati was going to take a lot out of him. He didn't dare look down to see if Ashanti splashed into the molten lava. He wasn't sure he'd make if he watched his beloved master melt out of his life.

"I was so sure that would catch both of you," pouted Ishati, his free hand balling into a fist. He leveled the blaster at his cousin and fired again. Qui-Gon blocked with the lightsaber, bouncing the blast harmlessly away from himself and Clea. The chamber they were in was small, with little room to maneuver around the hole. There was no back way around the hole and Qui-Gon wasn't exactly sure how Ishati got Clea up there to begin with.

Clea was struggling with her bonds and Qui-Gon satisfactorily noted that the ropes were slowly working loose. His padawan was capable and well-trained, he knew. She would get free. Qui-Gon focused all of his attention on Ishati.

"...called Mai-Lin and found out she's pregnant?" Ishati was saying as he fired blast after blast at his cousin. "Is that your new heir, cousin?"

Qui-Gon blocked each blast, slowly blocking them to where they bounced closer and closer to Ishati. Ishati didn't seem to notice. "Yes, Mai-Lin's child is my heir. You obviously can't handle the stress."

Ishati gritted his teeth but jumped back into the chamber wall when Ashanti's purple blade shot up and over the side, imbedding itself where he had been standing. The blade immediately shut off. Ashanti controlled her blade's power and strength through the Force, one of the few Jedi who could control their weapon without a switch.

Ishati, not knowing this, eagerly reach for the blade, giving Qui-Gon the opening he needed. He leaped across, tackling Ishati and sending the two of them rolling out of the cavern in a power struggle for the blaster.

Ashanti climbed out of the pit looking a little singed and grumpy, but relatively unharmed. Attaching herself in that peculiar way of her species, Ashanti climbed up the wall and across the ceiling to where the apprentice hung upside down and still struggled with her bonds.

"Hold still or you're down there. Trust me, a tropical vacation it isn't." Clea tensed as Ashanti's tail wrapped around her waist and lowered her the right side of the pit. The apprentice shook off her bonds and pulled off the gag, squinting at the diminutive master as she flipped to an upright position on the floor.

"He's going to kill Qui-Gon," she panted.

Ashanti shrugged. "Doubt it. Qui-Gon knows I'll never forgive him if he dies without my permission."

Clea didn't blink at the absurd comment but bolted out of the volcanic chamber. "This thing could blow!" she shouted.

"Tell me about it!" Ashanti shouted back. "The lava level is rising at a quick pace!"

The two reached the outdoors and saw Qui-Gon and Ishati still fighting each other. Qui-Gon couldn't get far enough away to use his lightsaber. Ishati stayed close enough to Qui-Gon that the weapon was useless.

It looked like they had rolled down the cliff. Their clothes were torn and shredded and grass and rock clung to their hair. Ashanti leaped out of the hole and down into the tree she had climbed to come up. Clea, throwing common sense and caution to the wind, followed. The two broke new records getting to the ground, Ashanti far more gracefully that Clea, but the fight was over by the time they got down.

Qui-Gon grabbed a rock in the midst of the rolling around on the ground and had been trying to get his primitive weapon to smash Ishati's head. Ishati, sensing each move Qui-Gon made, adequately blocked each maneuver Qui-Gon made.

A tree limb snapping above them caused Ishati to look up, giving Qui-Gon the opportunity he needed. He bashed his cousin in the head, felling the madman with the heavy blow.

He was panting when his padawan and former master landed on the ground. "We have to leave, now!" Ashanti panted. "This whole place is an underground volcano and at the rate the lava was rising as I was climbing up the pit indicates it's not going to be quiet for long."

Qui-Gon nodded and hoisted his relative over his shoulder. Clea climbed into the speeder and Ashanti began to contact the other search party, giving them warning and evacuation notice.

Ishati never woke up.