Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 12_ Return to Ord Mantell - Kevin J. Anderson [57]
The miners took the lead, showing where they had strung their wires between trees. Lowie could barely see the laser-sharp lines, but he knew they were there. He and Tenel Ka drew their lightsabers and swept through the air, as if fighting invisible spiderwebs. The scaring blades severed the monofilament wire, making the passage safe again.
Lowie sniffed. On the forest floor below where the cutting web had been strung, he saw numerous dead animals: birds whose wings had been neatly amputated when they flew between the wrong trees, and larger forest animals, cut down as they walked, left to decay in the forest mulch, surrounded by the bodies of carrion eaters who'd also ventured into the deadly trap.
Both sides were subdued now, resentful but cowed.
"Come," Tenel Ka said gruffly, marching forward. Her pale skin and glittering lizard-hide armor looked out of place in the silent, primeval forest. "We have much ground to cover, and years of accumulated dangers to eliminate."
Jaina once again took her place as the Millennium Falcon's copilot.
She felt very comfortable in the position, though she realized that as soon as they left Anobis, her father would travel with Chewbacca again.
She didn't feel sad, however. Being her father's copilot was a wonderful experience and had taught her much, but she preferred flying the Rock Dragon. Even though the Hapan passenger cruiser technically belonged to Tenel Ka, Jaina knew that once her skills were sufficiently advanced, she would get a cruiser of her own, perhaps an old ship like Zekk's Lightning Rod, or maybe something newer and faster.... She grinned at the thought.
Han looked over at her, wondering what she was thinking. "Don't get distracted now, Jaina," he said. "This is a touchy operation."
The Falcon cruised over the treetops and suddenly burst out above the open cropland. Jaina could see where the land had long ago been cleared for farming. Green weeds showed how fertile the dirt could be, but first the deadly harvest planted beneath the soil, the burrowing detonators that waited for any unsuspecting footfall, would have to be removed.
"All right, kids," Han said. Anakin came forward to stand between Jaina and his father. "I need something that not even the Falcon can do for me.
Use your Jedi senses to help your old man find those detonators and get rid of them."
Anakin nodded, squinting his eyes in concentration. Jaina recalled how she had avoided the buried explosives during their desperate flight from the knaars. In her mind she saw a dotted pattern of ripples below, like a scrambled checkerboard of targets on the ground.
"There's an awful lot of them, Dad," Jaina said.
"Swarms," Anakin added.
"Well, let's get started then. Give me some coordinates."
"Just fly in a slow rig-zag across the field, Dad," Jaina said.
"It will be hard not to find a detonator," Anakin agreed. He helped his sister aim one of the ship's laser cannons.
Jaina fired from the copilot's controls, and was rewarded with a large explosion, much greater than the laser should have made. "Got one!" she cried.
"There are hundreds more," Anakin said.
Jaina targeted another detonator, and the laser cannon eliminated that one as well. After she blew up three more, Han asked, "We getting close?"
"Not in the least," Jaina said. "This'll take all day."
"A single footstep could set one off at any time," Anakin said.
"But they move around a bit. We'll have to target each one precisely."
"You kids are doing great." Han patted the Falcon's control panel.
"But I think I've got a faster way."
"We can't miss a single one," Jaina warned. "It could start the fighting all over again."
"Don't worry, I think we can get full coverage." Han activated the ship's deflector shields, which had blasted comets out of the way during their final trial run of the Derby. Now, as he cruised low, the force field pressed down, like a heavy unseen hand, on the ground.
"We'll just cruise over the