A WIDER FOCUS
by ardavenport
Obi-Wan Kenobi listened to the night.
Outside the small domed hut the night twittered and hummed, alive with insects and tiny animals. Little chirps and tik-tik sounds came in through the high, screened windows. And the low huuuuummmmm of six seek-and-attack droids, circling closer than had been agreed to, but still maintaining an even distance.
Inside, the flickering sim-fire light from the hut's center pit turned everything to shades of yellow-orange and deep dark shadows stretching out over the walls.
Sitting cross-legged before the artificial light, Obi-Wan saw everything with all his senses.
The hut around him, a round hemisphere, separate from the other buildings of the abandoned settlement, empty, some of the local night fauna already come out of the forest, scratching and probing for openings. The night wind rustled in the tall trees and the long grasses.
Six seeker-killer droids hovered just above the doorway height, circling in the air, closer than had been agreed to, but still far enough away so that their hum blended in with the insects and night peepers.
And nearby, Cheziter, curled protectively around her egg, nearly mature and half buried in the fine birthing sand. An egg that none of Commander Techerian's crew would move until its hatching, or worse, part from its mother.
The hatchling in the egg slept.
The night outside remained thickly black, a planetside opaqueness that concealed things, not the void of space. But Obi-Wan felt dawn approaching.
And next to him, on their side of the sim-fire, Obi-Wan's Master was dreaming.
Random flickers of memory. The halls of the Jedi Temple. Dusty ground. Blue sky. A low humming sound like the seekers outside.
Obi-Wan had never sensed his Master's sleeping thoughts so clearly before.
People in iridescent loin clothes with long necks and wing flaps under their arms and green spotted skin. Drinking tea. And passing sticks and boots around.
Obi-Wan smiled. He had only been sitting his turn at watch, his awareness opened to everything around them. Cheziter and her egg. The night creatures outside. And especially the seekers, hovering in the dark. Qui-Gon's dreaming was a new discovery for him. A sharpness and maturity in his senses that he had not realized until now.
The spotted people kicked over potted plants as they drank more tea and littered the pathway with boots. Seeker droids blasted them with needle thin bolts of orange energy, puffs of smoke rising from each one. Somebody was complaining about it from a Temple walkway above.
By the sim-fire, the hatchling in the egg stirred. The tension in the small unborn creature rapidly increased, as if filling the egg with the pressure its need to be born. But the mother remained restlessly unaware.
He hesitated. Cheziter had been adamant that they not come near her or her hatchling.
'None of your Jedi tricks! You're not tricking me into going! This hatchling's going to be born in her home! Our home!' Commander Techerian had taken her side for this one delay, unwilling to interfere with the sanctity of a mother's rites of birth.
So, now, they would wait. They had waited and watched while the system security patrol had herded weeping and cursing families together, forcing them to collect only what they could in a day, leaving the rest of the illegal settlement behind. The treaty that would finalize territory disputes that had gone on for centuries would be strictly enforced. The Jedi had been sent to witness it and serve as neutral arbiters for any disagreements.
The egg, its smooth beige surface golden in the sim-firelight, began to rock.
Obi-Wan slowly climbed to his feet. He bit his lip and shifted his weight from foot to foot. Tension radiated out from the egg, increasing to panic. Was this normal?
Cheziter started awake. Her tail switched, slapping into the sand. She put her long nose to the twitching egg. She stroked it lightly with one long, clawed digit. But the egg was drowning.
Air. Air. Air. Blind reflexes. Panic. Terror flared.
"Is it well?" he asked, his voice loud under the roof of the hut.
"Hssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!" Cheziter glared at him, her heavy brows low over pale blue eyes with slitted pupils. "Do NOT interfere, Jedi. My youngling is deprived of her family for her emergence. YOU have no part in this. Hsssssssssssssssssssssss!"
He remained tense, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet, ready to leap forward. But he did not answer or move from his side of the sim-fire, thought she was completely unaware of the frantic fear inside the egg.
It cracked with a wet crunch.
"Fffffzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzttttttttttttt!!!"
Qui-Gon Jinn landed on his feet, crouching, looking all around him. Obi-Wan leaped back and automatically grabbed his own saber when his Master's activated.
Obi-Wan saw the blinking lights of a seeker pass by a high window, its hum much closer than before. The sky beyond was just beginning to lighten.
"Hssssssssssssssssssssssssss!" The mother crouched protectively over the cracked egg, 'meeeep, meeeep' sounds coming from it.
"They're not attacking!" Obi-Wan stepped toward his Master, reattaching his inactive lightsaber hilt to his belt. Qui-Gon's dark blue eyes widened. Surprised and . . . . . cross.
"Meeeep meeep meeep meeep meeeeeep meeep meeep meeep!"
"Hoooooh, hoooooh, hoooooh, hooooh." Ignoring them, the young mother nudged the egg with her nose, urging the hatchling to struggle free from the shell.
Obi-Wan kept his eyes on his Master's.
"Meeeep meeep meeep meeeeeeep!" The egg cracked in half, little limbs flailing out of the new opening.
"Hooooooooooh, hoooooh, hoooooh."
Qui-Gon broke eye contact first and looked over his Padawan's head. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back as if to sample the air with all his senses, his presence expanding with his awareness in the Force. His lightsaber went out, the green light vanishing, leaving yellow and orange.
"Meeeep meeep meeeeeeep meep, meep, meep, meeeeeep!"
"Hooooh, hoooooh, hoooooooooooh."
The hatching struggled free from the egg, rolling into the soft sand.
"Meep meep meep meep, meep, meep, meeeeeeeeeeep!"
"Hooooh, hoooooh, hoooooooooooh."
Clawed hands held protectively on either side, mother and twitching daughter touched noses.
Obi-Wan heard all the seekers humming outside, but they seemed to have moved further away now that there was no active weapon to attract them.
The newly hatched youngling reached her mother's knees and was immediately scooped up to be cradled tenderly to the front of Cheziter's loose blue dress hanging from thin straps over her narrow shoulders. Their noses touched continuously.
Opening his eyes slowly, Qui-Gon inhaled deeply and let it out, lowering his head and dropping his shoulders. His expression resigned, he looked toward their charge, who gave them one evil glare before cooing over her new youngling again. He put his lightsaber back on his belt under his robe. Obi-Wan moved to stand next to him.
"We'll be able to leave when the transport arrives at sunrise."
His Master nodded silently to him. The sky outside had lightened to a deep blue.
"Meeeeep meeeeep meeep, meeep, meeep!"
"Hoooh, hoooh, hoooooh."
"The seekers will not interfere," Qui-Gon stated. He sounded weary.
"You were dreaming about them."
His Master turned to him with surprise. Obi-Wan grinned. "I sensed it." He folded his arms into the wide sleeves of his robe, serene while Qui-Gon continued to closely scrutinize him. His internal peace only deepened as the examination continued. His Master's presence felt different . . . . and the same, but more . . . . with more shades and colors than he had ever realized; experiences that went back years before he had been born. He had always known this, of course. But now he could feel it.
And Qui-Gon sensed this awareness in him, magnifying a new mutual understanding between them, like the infinite reflections between two mirrors facing each other.
Qui-Gon folded his arms into the sleeves of his own robe.
"You should have had your attention on the droids outside, my young Padawan," he said, but with no recrimination in his voice.
"I did. The droids inside your head were only a minor distraction for me."
"You should narrow your focus to your task, Obi-Wan. You attention should be on the moment."
"Yes, Master. But I do have a wider focus than you."
Qui-Gon rolled his eyes upward. "That would appear to be your way." He sighed, but there was an accepting smile.
The transport came just as the first fiery sliver of sun appeared over the horizon. Cheziter cursed them, cursed all Jedi, cursed the system patrol, cursed the treaty as she stomped on the shell outside and clutched her meeping youngling to her. The guards respectfully kept their eyes lowered, allowing her the final rite of birthing. The seekers moved away but stayed at the perimeter of the settlement, zooming around in a wide circle.
She complained, but let them hustle her and her daughter into the transport. Qui-Gon put his arm over Obi-Wan's shoulders as they climbed in last.
The transport zoomed up into the clear morning sky just as the last of the sun emerged.
~~~ ~~~ END ~~~ ~~~
This story was first posted on tf.n: 27-September-2009
Disclaimer: All characters and situations belong to George and Lucasfilm; I'm just playing in their sandbox.