When Anakin had first seen Tru, he had immediately wanted to spend time with him. Now he could hardly wait to leave him behind. This wasn't Tru's fault-Anakin just wanted time alone to explore. About Podracing.

He walked alongside Ferus and Tru. The streets were crowded and they had trouble staying together. Ferus didn't seem to notice. He strode ahead at the pace he always set, talking without making sure the others were able to hear.

"The opening rituals are at Stadium One," Ferus said. "We could take an air taxi, but there don't seem to be many around."

"We can get there on Transit Yellow," Tru said. "Four stops. I memorized the transit system maps on the way here."

"It's the perfect opportunity for us to see all sorts of beings from all over the galaxy," Ferus said. "We should observe customs and protocol."

Leave it to Ferus to have a lesson plan for the afternoon, Anakin thought.

As if he had read Anakin's thoughts and was afraid he would speak them aloud, Tru extended one flexible arm and slid his hand over Anakin's mouth.

Anakin batted it away with a grin. No doubt Tru was remembering their mission to the planet Radnor, when Anakin and Ferus had argued every step of the way. But Anakin had no desire to argue with Ferus again. He didn't care about him enough to argue.

He had more important things to do - like check out the Podracers.

Anakin told himself that someone on the Jedi teams needed to do so.

Logically, he was the best candidate. He was the only one who had raced, and he was sure to know some of the beings involved. He hadn't raced since he was eight years old, six and a half years ago. But the racers tended to keep racing, if they weren't killed.

Of course, Obi-Wan hadn't asked him to check out the Podracers. But he had left him free to choose what he wanted to see. Anakin a.s.sured himself that he wasn't disobeying Obi-Wan by going.

Still, he didn't want to advertise his plans to his fellow Padawans. He could trust Tru, but Ferus was another matter. It would be just like Ferus to make a big deal of it.

"I'll catch up with you later," he told Ferus and Tru. "I have something I need to check out first."

Disappointment clouded Tru's silvery eyes. "Oh?"

Anakin knew that Tru had been looking forward to spending time with him, too. When you made friends among the Jedi, you treasured the times you were together because they could be rare.

Ferus gave him a glance that was more pointed. "Obi-Wan asked you to do something?"

Anakin could not lie. Not even to Ferus. He pretended he had not heard him over the noise of the crowd. He turned to go, and Tru leaned over and spoke softly in his ear. "Transit Red, end of the line."

So Tru did know where he was headed.

"You're a good friend," Anakin said as he dashed off before Ferus could say anything more.

Eusebus had converted its largest air taxis to a free transit system. He found Transit Red and hopped aboard. He didn't mind missing the opening rituals, which no doubt would be filled with parading teams and boring speeches. The real fun was taking place elsewhere At the last stop on Transit Red, the buildings ended abruptly.

There was no gradual thinning of structures. An apartment block ended, the road narrowed, and the horizon was before him. There appeared to be nothing in sight but bare hills.

Now what? Anakin wondered as he descended from the air taxi and looked from right to left.

He closed his eyes and summoned the Force. He felt it rise from the red dust and bound off the hills back at him. And then he felt the Living Force as a wave that gathered momentum and broke over him in a shower of light.

There.

He took off toward the hills to his left. Well, if this mission was supposed to teach him about the Living Force, he doubted there was much to learn. Sometimes he thought he was in better touch with the Living Force than his Master. Obi-Wan lived in his head. His emotions were reserved. Anakin often had no idea what his Master felt or thought.

Sometimes he seemed to respond to the beings they met on their travels simply as ways to get something accomplished. A sc.r.a.ppy pilot with hair-raising stories of smuggling tech parts through the Outer Rim systems was just a means to get from the Manda s.p.a.ceport to Circarpous Major. A tavern owner who kept pet d.i.n.kos was a contact to discover the location of a possible weapons cache. A young brother and sister bounty-hunting team was taken along just to provide an answer to the mystery of who was behind a Jedi's kidnapping.

It wasn't that Obi-Wan lacked compa.s.sion, Anakin mused. It was just that there was a little more distance between him and other living beings. Qui-Gon had not been able to pa.s.s along his connection to the Living Force to his Padawan, Anakin felt.

Anakin treasured his Master. But sometimes he wondered what it would have been like to have Qui-Gon as a Master instead. Would Qui-Gon have shared his feelings more easily? Anakin had felt a connection to Qui-Gon from the start. It had taken more time with Obi-Wan. It was still taking time.

He reached the hills, which were covered with th.o.r.n.y green bushes and small, squat trees. Anakin followed the hillside until he spotted scorch marks, then an abandoned hydrospanner. He was close.

He strode forward ten meters, pushed aside a dense covering of leaves, and found the cave opening. He walked inside, already feeling the presence of living beings. The cave opened out as he walked. There were two security guards, but they were unaware of Anakin's silent tread. Soon the ceiling soared a hundred meters over his head.

He heard the clang of metal. The m.u.f.fled sound of shouts and curses. The whine and sputter of engines being tuned and tweaked. The roar of powerful turbines. Someone whistling off-tune and someone else shouting at him to stop or he'd shove an oily rag down his slimy throat.

Anakin smiled. It sounded like home.

The cave opened out and he saw a makeshift pit hangar set up ahead.

Podracers were parked haphazardly while beings of every size and description and varying degrees of oil-soaked clothing worked on them.

Pit droids scuttled about, hauling huge lubricant hoses and tugging power cell chargers.

He stopped at the edge and watched for a moment. Hydrospanners clanged and macrofusers flew. Someone yelled for a fusioncutter. Some of the Podracer pilots sat on elaborate folding chairs, sipping grog or tea and keeping a watchful eye on their mechanics. Other pilots, not yet rich enough to have someone else to tweak their engines, worked steadily and with enormous concentration. The smallest mistake could cause a Podracer to turn a fraction too sluggishly, resulting in a spectacular crash.

Anakin recognized Aldar Beedo, a Glymphid he had raced against several times. He was surprised Beedo was still alive, let alone racing.

Beedo had never been particularly skillful, but he'd been cunning and fearless and willing to cheat, and that had made him more successful at Podracing than he had any right to be. Anakin would have thought he'd have crashed or been run out of the Podraces by this time. Then again, there wasn't much policing of Podracing. Race officials attempted to keep some sort of control, but Podracers schemed to get away with as much as they could.

Anakin noticed a Podracer mechanic nearby. He could only see a pair of short legs sticking out from underneath while another mechanic stood near the console, pushing b.u.t.tons in what appeared to be a random fashion. The two mechanics were Aleenas. He recognized their three-toed feet and bluish scaly skin. The Podracer looked familiar. It had been re-painted and buffed, but he was sure he recognized it. He took a couple of steps closer.

"Doby, hand me that hydrospanner, will you? I've almost got this fused. Then we can start her up again."

A hydrospanner twirled through the air, nearly taking off the tip of Anakin's nose. A hand reached up from underneath the Podracer and caught it.

"Go ahead and use it, but I'm telling you, Deland, it's not the joint, " the mechanic at the console said. "No chance, never ever. If the engine overheats during gear switches, it's got to be a sensor problem."

"But the sensor doesn't show a problem, blope-head."

"That's the problem, bantha-breath. If you'd just let me finish checking out the sensor suite..."

"I've been doing this longer than you have, baby brother, so slap your flapping lips shut."

"You're only fourteen months older..."

"Fourteen and a half. And I'm the pilot. You're the mechanic."

"My point exact - "

"Got it!" A face stained with grease appeared in a pair of grimy welding goggles. Deland sprang to his feet in one motion. "Let's fire her up."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Anakin said.

Doby and Deland peered at him from behind their goggles.

"And we should listen to you because?" Deland asked.

Anakin took a step closer. "Because if your engine is overheating during gear changes, the problem could be in the current filter. Have you used an impulse detector?" The words flowed easily, like a native language he had not spoken in years but would never forget.

"Not that it's your business, but yes," Doby said. "It didn't show anything wrong."

"Then it's definitely the current filter," Anakin said. "It's clogged. "

"Slap it shut, you son of a durkii," Deland warned his brother.

"This guy could be working for another Podracer. He's just trying to spook us."

Doby leaned toward his brother and said in a whisper, "Haven't you noticed? He's a Jedi."

"He's a fraud and a fake," Deland hissed. "Sebulba probably hired him. "

Anakin felt a rush of heat that made his face flame. Back on Tatooine, Sebulba the Dug had tried to cheat his way to victory in the Boonta Eve race and nearly killed Anakin in the process. They had always sparred, though Sebulba had never taken him seriously enough to worry about him. Until the race on Boonta Eve, when he'd beaten him in an extremely close race. "Sebulba is still racing?"

"Everybody knows that," Deland said. "Now I know you're lying.

Doby, fire up that engine!"

"You're going to blow out the intake valves on the turbines,"

Anakin warned.

In answer, Deland reached over and flipped on the engine. Anakin had already stepped out of the way. Aloud explosion blew Deland back onto the ground. Doby was almost blasted by a roar of fire from the left turbine. Anakin reached over and shut off the engine.

"I'll be a Kowakian monkey-lizard!" Doby cried. "You were right!"

Deland picked himself up and dusted off his leggings. "Lucky guess."

"Are you two related to Ratts Tyerell?" Anakin asked curiously. "I think I recognize this Podracer."

Doby nodded proudly. "He was our father. He died in the great Boonta Eve Cla.s.sic six years ago. Did you know him?"

"I raced against him in that race," Anakin said. "He was one of the fastest. Incredibly quick reflexes." "Not quick enough," Doby said sorrowfully.

"Lying again," Deland said to Anakin. "No human can be a Podracer."

"One was," Doby said. "A human child. A slave. He won his freedom, and after the race he disappeared. His name was - "

"Anakin Skywalker," Anakin supplied. "Pleased to meet you."

"Now you're a Jedi?" Doby asked in disbelief. "And you were a slave?"

"It's a strange galaxy," Anakin said with a grin.

"Totally true," Doby agreed.

"Don't want to interrupt this getting-to-know-you gush, but we have a job to do," Deland said gruffly.

"I'll help you if you want," Anakin said spontaneously. He'd love to get his hands on a Podracer engine again, but he knew Obi-Wan would certainly disapprove.

"What's in it for you?" Deland asked suspiciously.

"Who cares?" Doby asked. "He beat Sebulba, Deland! Now we have to."

He turned to Anakin. "After our father died, we had no money, so our uncle sold our sister into slavery. Djulla's master is now Sebulba. We have to get her out of his clutches! We bet our Podracer that we'd win.

Sebulba bet Djulla's freedom. This time, though, he's not racing. His son Hekula is."

"I'm sorry that your sister is a slave," Anakin said. "Do you know Shmi, my mother? She's a slave, too. Or she was, when I saw her last."

Doby shook his head. "Mos Espa is full of beings. We don't know them all."

Anakin blinked as tears filled his eyes, surprising him. For a moment, Shmi had seemed so close. But she was as far away as she always was. He turned away quickly, his gaze roaming around the makeshift hangar. He didn't see Sebulba. But he did see something familiar - his old Podracer. Could it be?

"Whose Podracer is that?" he asked, pointing it out.

"Hekula's," Deland said, giving it a glance.

Yes, it was definitely Anakin's old Podracer, a customized Radon-Ulzer. It had been painted and retooled, but he would recognize it anywhere. He knew Qui-Gon had sold the Podracer, but not to whom. Sebulba must have bought it. Anakin burned at the thought of Sebulba owning the Podracer he had built and maintained so lovingly.

A tall young Dug suddenly moved into Anakin's field of vision.

"What are you looking at, spy?" he shouted.

"What I look at is not your concern," Anakin shot back.

"When it's my Podracer it is," the Dug hissed back. "Spy!"

"It's Hekula," Doby warned Anakin in a whisper. "Be careful."

Anakin looked at Sebulba's son carefully. He felt the dark side of the Force shimmer off him. He had taken after his father, that was clear.

A movement caught his eye. Another Dug had scuttled across the distance toward him.

Anakin found himself face-to-face with his old enemy, Sebulba.

CHAPTER FIVE.