Staying in the shadow of the hill, Obi-Wan and Andra followed. The droids were no longer in surveillance mode, so their heads no longer swiveled. As they followed, the noise grew louder.

When they rounded the pile of malab, another devastated landscape met their eyes. A mound of sand rose in front of them. A huge pit had been dug in the ground. The source of the noise was the golden sand being sucked into giant machines. Workers dressed in unisuits tended the operation. The droids headed toward a ring of tech domes in the distance.

"There are trace minerals in the sand," Andra yelled over the noise of the machine. "They must be mining it."

The workers were intent on operating the machinery and did not turn. Andra turned on her holograph recorder and Obi-Wan his recording rod.

Another team of surveillance droids exited the first tech dome and began to make their way across the yard.

"Hurry," Obi-Wan urged. "They might switch to surveillance mode again." He lowered the recording rod and slipped it back into his tunic.

"I want to make sure the image is clear," Andra muttered.

Obi-Wan saw the infrared sensors click on. "Stop recording!" he whispered. "They might pick it up on a sensor."

"Just one more second…" Andra switched off the holographic recorder just as the droids' sensors began to blink.

"Don't move," Obi-Wan muttered between his teeth.

The droids' heads slowly revolved as the sensors took in every quadrant.

"This doesn't look good," Obi-Wan murmured. "Something has alerted them. We'd better get out of here."

"But we don't have enough yet!" Andra protested.

"What we have will have to do," Obi-Wan said urgently. "It will be worse if we get caught. I promised Qui-Gon we wouldn't take chances." He yanked a protesting Andra back. The droids slowly turned and headed across the yard toward them. Obi-Wan and Andra picked up their pace.

"Hurry," he urged.

Within a moment, they had ducked around the hill and were out of sight of the droids. They began to run for the cavern.

"Intruders! Intruders!"

Blaster fire suddenly ripped into the ground next to them. Obi-Wan drew his lightsaber and whirled to deflect the next blast. They were almost at the cavern entrance.

Pingpingping! The blaster fire hit the cavern wall. Chips of stone flew out, cutting Andra on the cheek.

"Get inside!" Obi-Wan shouted.

Andra ducked inside the cavern. Deflecting one last round of fire, Obi-Wan hurried after her.

They could not move as fast inside the cavern. The floor was too slippery. When they reached the velvety darkness deep inside, Obi-Wan paused.

"I don't hear anything," he said.

"Maybe they've gone for reinforcements," Andra suggested. "Come on, the exit is close by."

Obi-Wan could hear the faint murmur of the creek as he carefully followed Andra. She made her way through the maze of turns, then stopped before the sheer wall. Obi-Wan saw her flatten herself against the wall, then slip between the fissure.

They stepped out into the creek and hopped from stone to stone. They had to hurry. No doubt a full-scale alert would send other surveillance teams after them.

Obi-Wan hurried behind Andra as she snaked through the tall trees of the glade. She hugged the rock wall, then emerged where they had left their swoops.

They tossed aside the branches they had used for camouflage. The swoops were gone.

They looked at each other, stunned. There was a crack of a twig behind them, and Obi-Wan spun around.

Surveillance droids surrounded them in a semicircle, blasters drawn.

Obi-Wan knew he was in danger even as he was turning. His turn was deliberately off center, his hand already reaching for his lightsaber in a motion so fast it was undetectable. With the other hand, he reached out and pushed Andra aside.

The blaster fire ripped between them and left a pockmarked wall.

Andra had quick reflexes. She hit the ground and kept rolling until she had reached safety behind an enormous fallen tree trunk.

Obi-Wan was seriously outnumbered. Qui-Gon's lessons snapped through his mind in precision order.

Keep moving.

Use reversals? surprise them.

Change hands when you can.

Come at them from above and below.

Use your ground.

The ground was uneven. The droids would have more trouble maneuvering. Obi-Wan used the fallen logs and soft moss beds to give him height and spring. He flipped backward and dispatched one droid with a blow to the head. Using the momentum of the swing, he dived at the next one's legs.

Two down.

Andra rose, vibroblade in hand, as Obi-Wan slashed at the third droid. Andra deftly evaded blaster fire and smashed the droid from behind.

Three down.

The fourth droid swiveled to attack Andra. Obi-Wan deflected its blaster fire with his lightsaber, then kicked out at the droid who was coming at him from the right. Andra leaped and cleaved off the droid's arm. Off-balance, the droid wobbled, and Obi-Wan was able to cleanly slice it in half. It toppled.

A vine hung down from a tree overhead, and Obi-Wan, grabbing it with one hand, used it to swing himself forward to knock over the droid who was aiming at Andra. The blaster fire erupted a split second before he swiped horizontally, cutting the droid in half.

Andra gave a cry and lay still.

Obi-Wan whirled even faster now, beheading one droid and turning to knock another off its feet. He buried his lightsaber in the droid's control panel.

Obi-Wan rushed to Andra's side. He bent over her, feeling for her pulse.

Her hand came up, weakly swatting him away. "Don't worry, I'm not dead. I just had the wind knocked out of me."

Obi-Wan rocked back on his heels, relieved. "Are you sure?"

"The blaster fire hit my pack, I think." Gingerly, Andra slipped the pack off her shoulder. Blaster holes had shredded the material. She reached inside and took out the recorder. The case was pockmarked with blaster fire, and part of it looked melted.

"Oh, no!" she breathed. She accessed the playback mode, but the recorder merely buzzed and then went still.