Obi-Wan gave him a shrewd glance. "What do you want in return?"

The boy pointed to Obi-Wan's lightsaber. "This."

No Jedi was ever willingly separated from his lightsaber. Obi-Wan reached out with the Force. He turned his attention to the boy's mind.

"You admire the lightsaber, but do not want to possess it," Obi-Wan said. "You will tell us the information freely."

The boy looked puzzled. "No, I won't. I just told you that. It's a trade, or nothing."

It never failed to amaze him. Just when he began to feel confident of his Jedi abilities, he was reminded that he was only an apprentice. He could not access the Force as surely as Qui-Gon. He could not affect the boy.

"Come on. What do you say?" The boy's avid eyes rested on Obi-Wan's lightsaber, tucked securely in his belt.

Stricken with doubt, Obi-Wan hesitated. He could not give up his lightsaber. It was unthinkable. But was it the only way to save his Master?

He felt trapped between centuries of Jedi tradition and his own anguish. The dilemma squeezed the air from his lungs. He could not speak.

He could not choose.

And meanwhile, his Master could be dying.

Chapter 9

The next time she let him out of the tank, Qui-Gon was alarmed at the extent of his relief. He had feared that she would change her mind.

Again, he fell to the floor of the lab. Again, he did not rise until he was sure he would be able to stand.

Dressed once more in white, her pale hair drawn back, she surveyed him with glittering eyes. "I am disappointed in you."

His small smile was an effort. "How tragic for me."

"You are not weakening as fast as the others. I don't know why."

"I am sorry to disappoint you. Should I try to die quicker?"

Nil sidled forward a few more steps, his hostile gaze on Qui-Gon. He poked him with the barrel of a blaster. "Do not joke with Madame!"

"Are you going to help me this time so you can have your freedom a little longer?" Zan Arbor asked sharply.

"If I'm to help you, I need strength. I must use my muscles," Qui-Gon said. "If I could walk outside the lab…"

She shook her head. "Impossible."

"If you want me to use the Force, why do you weaken me?" Qui-Gon asked. "When the body weakens, its ability to connect to the Force does as well."

"I know that," Zan Arbor snapped. She prowled around the lab restlessly. "I discovered that right away. But I need to analyze your blood. I believe there is a way to harness the Force in it. But I can't find it! If I can discover more properties of the Force and how it's used, I can begin to break down exactly what it is."

Qui-Gon did not want to anger her, only distract her. He wanted her to forget how long he was outside the chamber.

"What about your other research?" he asked. "Is investigating the Force worth giving all that up? You saved beings throughout the galaxy. You are renowned."

"I am tired of renown," Jenna Zan Arbor said, as sulky as a child.

"What did I get for it?"

"Respect," Qui-Gon answered. "And the knowledge that you have done good for your fellow beings."

"I thought that mattered once," Zan Arbor said bitterly. "It does not. I still had to fight in the Senate for research money. I still had to convince half-brained leaders to run trials of my vaccines. I still had to spend endless hours trying to fund my projects. I should have been working!

I am too valuable to have to waste my time."

"That is true," Qui-Gon said. "I did not realize your difficulty."

Jenna Zan Arbor was consumed with her own brilliance, he saw. Such beings liked to talk about themselves. If he was careful not to annoy her, he would be able to stay out of the chamber and learn more about her. His only hope for escape lay in understanding his captor.

"No one does," Zan Arbor said, pacing back and forth. "When famine struck Rend 5 and I bioengineered a new food to feed the entire planet, did I get a reward? When the Tendor Virus struck the entire Caldoni system and my vaccine cured millions, what did I receive in return? Not enough. I learned my lesson."

"What did you learn?" Qui-Gon noticed that Nil was looking at Zan Arbor worshipfully. His attention had drifted from guarding Qui-Gon.

"That I must not depend on the galaxy to recognize my greatness," Zan Arbor said. "I must depend on myself to raise the funds I need. A famine here, a disease there — what does it matter? They will get sick, they will go hungry for a time. Then they will pay for a cure." "I don't understand,"

Qui-Gon said.

Zan Arbor did not answer him directly. "There is morality in the galaxy, but I have not seen it," she mused. "I have seen greed and violence and laziness. If you look at it that way, I do them a favor. I thin out populations and the strong survive."

Qui-Gon saw behind the veil of her words to a truth that shocked him.

He struggled to conceal his disgust. His voice was calm and even when he asked the next question. "So you introduce a virus into a population so that you can then cure it?"

But Zan Arbor must have picked up something in his tone. "I forgot for a moment about the Jedi morality. You think this is wrong."

"I am trying to understand your reasoning," Qui-Gon said. "You are a brilliant scientist. It's hard to follow the turns of your thoughts."

The answer seemed to please her. "Of course I approached the problem scientifically. I used models. I calculated how many deaths it would take before a population panicked. Then I introduced the virus in a certain amount and waited for it to replicate. When a certain amount of people were killed, the leader would contact me. Then I would pretend to work on the antidote I already had prepared. When they were desperate and ready to open their treasuries to me, I dispensed it. So you see there were no unnecessary deaths."

Zan Arbor's eyes were shining with the pride of accomplishment. Qui- Gon saw that everything she said made absolute sense to her. He realized that she was crazy.

Did that make his situation easier, or more complicated?

"You are greatness!" Nil burst out.

Zan Arbor did not seem to register his praise. "I had to do this, you see," she said to Qui-Gon. "The mystery at the heart of the Force is my greatest research problem. I had to fund that research. If I get to the heart of the Force, I get to the heart of power. I get to the heart of existence itself."