Tories peered upward. In the distance a black speck had appeared, dropping from space toward them. "Look on the bright side," he suggested.
"Maybe it's a transport coming to take them all away."
"Yeah. Right," Corf grunted, stooping and picking up another stone.
Tories watched him warily, but the boy merely began fiddling with it. "Dad would have said something if they were about to clear out. Or at least he'd have started smiling again.
Besides, it's only been a week, and that fancy-pants Doriana said they'd be here for four."
"Master Doriana," Tories corrected him automatically. "And you shouldn't always look on the negative side of things.
Considering the progress they're making, they could very well decide to cut their time short."
"Why would they?" Corf countered. "If they're getting so much done, why quit?"
That was a good question, Tories had to admit. And if he could come up with a good answer, he might actually be able to argue Doriana onto precisely that path.
Think, Jedi, he admonished himself. After all, mediation had been his primary job for the past thirty years. Surely, he could come up with a way to hammer a compromise out of this situation.
And then, suddenly, he had it. Maybe. "Where's your father?" he asked.
"In the plant," Corf said, frowning up at him. "What is it?"
"Maybe the right lever to use on Doriana," Tories said, pulling out his comlink.
"Master Doriana."
"I stand corrected," Tories said dryly as he keyed in Lord Binalie's frequency.
"So what's the plan?" Corf asked. "Come on, tell me."
"What's the possibility that has to concern Master Doriana the most?"
Tories asked rhetorically. "Answer: that the Separatists will find out about this and move in to stop it."
"Okay," Corf agreed, frowning. "So?"
"So all we have to do is convince him that four weeks will be pushing his luck," Tories said, frowning in turn. The comlink seemed to be taking an unusually long time to connect. "Because if the Separatists do figure it out, Spaarti is lost to him forever. Dooku's people will blockade Cartao, and that'll be the end of it."
Corf made a face. "Yuck."
"Yuck, indeed," Tories agreed. "If, on the other hand, Doriana takes this in small bites, sneaking his people in for just a few days at a time, he may be able to keep the whole process going indefinitely."
"You mean he'd be taking over the plant once every month or so?" Corf asked doubtfully. "Boy. I don't think Dad'll go for that."
"He will if it comes to a choice between Doriana's annoyances and a Separatist blockade," Tories said, turning the comlink off and then on again, the skin on the back of his neck starting to tingle. Something was very wrong here...
He caught his breath, twisting his head to look upward as he silently cursed his lack of attention. The black speck they'd seen earlier was much closer, dropping toward them like an impatient asteroid.
And at this distance, Tories could now see the ship's ail-too distinctive double-winged silhouette.
"What is that?" Corf asked, his voice tight.
"A Trade Federation C-9979 landing ship," Tories bit out, jabbing one last useless time at his comlink's controls.
"Oh, no," Corf breathed, fumbling at his belt for his own comlink. "We have to warn Dad!"
"We can't," Tories told him, shoving his comlink back into its pouch.
'They've knocked out the system."
"Then we have to get over there," Corf said, turning back toward the house. "Come on."
"Wait a minute," Tories said, catching the boy's arm, his mind racing. By the time they made it back to the house and down the tunnel, the invasion would be well underway. What they needed was some way to send a message now to the people inside.
"What?" Corf demanded. "Come on."
"Quiet," Tories ordered him. "Let me think." Above them, the C-9979 settled into a high hover position directly over the plant, and perhaps twenty tiny craft erupted from its leading wing.
STAPs, he recognized them: nimble flying platforms carrying a single battle droid each. They swept outward from the landing ship in ever-increasing spirals, searching for defenses or other threats that might interfere with a landing or troop deployment.
And three of them were at this very minute flying over the forbidden stretch of grassland between the Binalie estate and Spaarti Creations....
It was a long shot, he knew, in every sense of the word. But it was all he had. Pulling out his lightsaber, he ignited it and locked the activation stud, picking out the STAP that seemed to be drifting the closest to where he and Corf were standing.
Judging the droid's speed and distance as best he could, he stretched out to the Force and hurled his lightsaber toward it.
The droid, its attention on the ground around the plant, probably never even saw it coming. The spinning weapon shot across its STAP, the brilliant green blade slicing through the power cell housing just above the footlocks.
With a flat electronic exclamation of surprise, the droid and machine dropped out of the sky and thudded to the ground.
The other droids reacted instantly, two of the STAPs swinging around toward their downed comrade, metallic heads swiveling back and forth as they searched for the source of the attack.
"Run," Tories ordered Corf as he called the lightsaber back toward him.
"Back to the house and the safe room. We've done everything we can here."
"But what about Dad?" Corf asked anxiously, moving a couple of reluctant steps down the hill.
"I'll take one of the landspeeders down the tunnel as soon as you're safe," Tories told him. The droids had spotted him now, and the STAPs' twin blasters were starting to track. "Go on-I'll be right behind you."
A pair of blaster bolts shot past them, uncomfortably close.
"All right," Corf said, finally turning and taking off. "But I'm going with you," he shouted back over his shoulder. 'The landspeeders won't work without someone from the family in them."
The lightsaber made it back to Tories' hand about half a second before the droids finally found the range. But for a Jedi, half a second was more than enough. The lightsaber blurred in his grip, twisting like a hunting makthier as it intercepted the blaster bolts and sent them bouncing back again. A pair of volleys later, there were three ruined STAPs and droids lying crumpled in the forbidden zone.