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The attack took Jos as much by surprise as it did the Jedi. At first he was not sure what had happened; only that there had been a brilliant flash of light, a deafening explosion, and when he regained his senses he found himself lying across Barriss’s still-unconscious form, both of them half buried in warm mud. Not far away, in the grove of broad-leaved trees, one tree was now a shattered, smoking stump, its sap having been instantly superheated by the energy of a powerful laser blast that had turned the tree into an organic bomb. Jos’s face tin-gled painfully, and he realized that his skin had been peppered by tiny splinters. It was a miracle he hadn’t been blinded.

He looked up. His vision was blurry, and he was nearly deaf from the explosion, but he could see well enough to realize that a battle droid was standing on the other side of the bota field, its telescoping chest cannon still extended. It looked like it was lining up another shot.

Jos scrambled to his feet-or tried to; Drongar sud-denly seemed to be rotating in several directions at once, and he fell again, this time landing alongside Barriss. His face wound up in the mud, only a few centime-ters from hers.

He saw her open her eyes.

Another cannon blast scorched the ground a meter in front of them, ripping up rows of bota and raining frag-ments of the plant down around them.

Barriss rose to her feet-just how, Jos could not have said. She seemed to levitate-one moment she was sprawled on the ground, and the next she stood upright. Impressive as that was, however, it was nothing com-pared to her next action.

As Jos watched in astonishment, the Padawan leapt across the bota field, covering a distance of at least ten meters in a single bound. As she arced through the air toward the droid, Jos saw another flash of light. At first he thought the droid had fired again, but then he real-ized the glow came from Barriss’s hand.

She had drawn her lightsaber.

Jos had seen images and holos of the Jedi weapon in use, but he had never before seen one in real life. Bar-riss’s energy blade was an azure streak about a meter in length. It made a sound like a nest of angry wing-stingers, and, even over the noisome stenches borne on the breeze from the nearby swamp, he could smell the acrid scent of ozone it produced.

He watched, openmouthed, as Barriss landed next to the battle droid. Before it could fire again, she struck a single blow with the energy weapon that sheared halfway through the droid’s torso. Sparks erupted, and the droid collapsed.

Jos managed to get to his feet and stay there as the Padawan deactivated her lightsaber.

Hooking it to her belt, she walked back to him, taking care to go around the bota field to avoid causing any more damage to the precious growths.

"That...," he said, at a loss for words for one of the few times in his life. "That was...

you’re amazing."

She made a grimace of annoyance. "I’m an unwary amateur," she replied. "Had I been more mindful of the Force, that droid would never have gotten close enough to attack us.

"We’d better get back. I think that was a single scout that managed to penetrate our lines, but there might be more." She started back toward the base, and Jos hur-ried to keep pace with her.

"I can’t believe it missed us," he said.

"It appeared to be battle-damaged; perhaps its target-ing computer was malfunctioning. In any event, I doubt such luck will be ours more than once. Best we hurry. Also, we need to get you treated-you look like you’ve been shaving with a raven thorn."

Jos was in ready agreement with that. Suddenly fac-ing Tolk in the OT didn’t seem nearly as traumatic. This was an aspect of the war he had not been exposed to un-til now. It wasn’t one he was eager to experience again.

And, of course, Zan was not impressed when he did get back.

"You’re ten minutes late," he said.

"I nearly got killed by a battle droid," Jos said.

"No excuse. It didn’t kill you, didn’t even burn off a leg or anything."

Jos only half heard him. His mind was occupied with the memory of Barriss