JEDI DREAMING

by: ardavenport

- - - Part 2 - - -

Obi-Wan wanted to speak to Master Yoda that morning, but when he commed his request he only received a recorded message that the elder Council member was unavailable.

After first meal, Obi-Wan went to the training arenas to practice. His participation with the embassy visits only came every third day. The rest of his time was split between a seminar on survival techniques, lightsaber practice and his studies.

Obi-Wan scanned the large room of Jedi exercising, sparring and practicing lightsaber forms. Seeing a welcome and familiar form, he hurried to one training arena and took a seat on the bench next to it.

Master Clee Rhara directed her Padawan, Garen Muln, through a series of spins and jumps, a simple exercise that tested a Jedi's response to spoken orders.

"Jump back! . . . . Left! . . . . Down . . . . Stay down! . . . . Back!"

Garen responded swiftly, gracefully diving and dodging with her shouted orders, his motions anticipating each one. Clee paced the perimeter of their training area, watching Garen, but her eyes flicked back toward Obi-Wan.

Finally she called 'stop' and Garen spun back to her and, breathing heavily, bowed.

"You have improved, but you still must learn to channel your strength through the Force better, my Padawan. And you have an admirer," the red-headed woman said with a smirk of amusement, her eyes glancing back toward Obi-Wan's bench.

Garen grinned and Obi-Wan returned his friendly slap on the arm.

"You can join us," Garen suggested, but his Master, still smiling, shook her head.

"I have enough to do with training one of you." Clee told him. "Where is Qui-Gon?"

"He has been sent on a mission by the Council," Obi-Wan answered.

"And left you here to find your own sparring partners, I see." She nodded to them both. "I will leave you to each other's company. Padawan, I will be at the Archives." She bowed and left them.

"She needs to finish reporting on our last mission," Garen explained. "We just got back."

"Did it go well?"

Garen grimaced. "Well, Clee said it went as well as could be expected, but I could have done better." Garen demonstrated with his lightsaber some aspects of deflecting blaster bolts that he had not heeded.

"What's Qui-Gon mission?" Garen asked, deactivating his saber.

Obi-Wan frowned. "I don't know. It's for the Council. But I wanted to talk to you about it." They left the training arenas and their echoing sounds of exertion. Strolling together through lower level halls of the Temple, Obi-Wan told his friend about his dreams, his inability to contact Qui-Gon, Yoda's advice and the result.

"I feel like I need to do something," Obi-Wan finally admitted. "More," he added hastily. The flush of panic from his dreams had left him, but the memory of it disturbed his concentration and repeatedly intruded on his thoughts. He had no place to go. He did not know where the Jedi Council had sent Qui-Gon and communication was barred. Obi-Wan wanted to speak with Qui-Gon. Perhaps his Master had sensed something similar to his dreams, or could explain them.

Qui-Gon might not have sensed anything at all. He might even be annoyed that Obi-Wan had contacted him about something so ephemeral and unreliable as a dream vision. But Obi-Wan would have welcomed Qui-Gon's disapproval over his present inaction. He was frozen in place, trapped in the Temple and his own inability to act.

Garen had no answers. Obi-Wan had not expected that he would, but he felt better after telling him about his dream.

"Maybe Master Clee can speak with Yoda about it?" Garen suggested. "I'm sure she'd be happy to speak for you. Or Yoda might let her talk to Qui-Gon for you?"

Obi-Wan frowned. "I don't think they'll allow it. I have more reason to talk to Qui-Gon than she would, and they won't let me." Jedi did not com other Jedi on mission just to chat.

Garen shrugged. "I don't think it can hurt to ask Clee about it. She won't do anything that she thinks is a bad idea."

"I suppose not," Obi-Wan agreed. Then he smiled. "Thanks." Minor as it was, he had something to do other than wait and meditate.

Garen grinned and slapped him on the shoulder.

They found Clee in the Archive and after Obi-Wan had given her an abbreviated account of his visions about Qui-Gon (with a few prompts from Garen) she considered it. Clee looked at him with sympathy.

"I regret that I do not have any better advice for you than Yoda. Dream visions are unknowable mysteries, Obi-Wan. It really is best not to get involved in them," she said, her voice low and serious. "I will tell Master Yoda that your meditation was even more disturbing than the vision itself. Perhaps if you can meditate together that will ease your thoughts. And if he can't, then Garen and I would be pleased to join you." She smiled and Obi-Wan reluctantly returned it. More meditation was not what he had been hoping for, but he would not turn it down either.

Clee seemed to read his thoughts. "I cannot ask about Master Qui-Gon or his mission. That is the Council's affair only." Her tone had gone serious, but her face was kind and Obi-Wan appreciated that. He nodded his understanding.

"But first, I must finish our last mission report. And I need you now for that, Garen."

Obi-Wan bowed and promised to meet them for first meal in the morning. He left Master and Padawan together in the Archives.

o-o /O-O-O\ o-o \-O-O-/ o-o /O-O-O\ o-o \-O-O-/ o-o /O-O-O\ o-o

Alone in his room, seated on a floor cushion, Obi-Wan thought of Qui-Gon.

He recalled his Master telling him that he had been assigned to a priority mission by the Jedi Council. But he only shook his head when Obi-Wan asked about it. Obi-wan had accepted that any information about priority missions for the Council was not meant for Padawans and they discussed Obi-Wan's studies and training over the rest of their dinner.

Obi-Wan's thoughts explored the details of that talk, their last long discussion before Qui-Gon left the following morning.

Obi-Wan would continue to participate in the embassy visits. Of course, he would continue with lightsber training at their usual times. His studies of some ancient Jedi holocrons would be suspended since Qui-Gon needed to be present for him to access those, but he could use the break to review the related historical information. Qui-Gon had suggested that he might study with Padawan Teekoh. She was apprentice to Master Ynofique, who would also be on the same mission with Qui-Gon. Since Ynofique was an Archivist, Teekoh had some duties in the Archive. . . .

Obi-Wan opened his eyes. It was evening. He faced the holo-window in his room, a wide image of a planetary crater illuminated by the nighttime reflections of a green sister planet.

He had not followed up his background studies on the ancient Jedi holocrons yet and the one time that he had looked for Teekoh, she had been busy. But her Master was on the same mission as Qui-Gon. There were two others, but Obi-Wan did not know who. Qui-Gon only mentioned Ynofique and Teekoh as an aside when they were discussing his studies.

Obi-Wan breathed in and out slowly. If he was seeing images of Qui-Gon dead, was it possible that Teekoh was experiencing something similar with her Master? He got up and put the floor cushion away under the table in his room. It was too late to politely com Teekoh for a meeting. Obi-Wan began to prepare for sleep. He would contact her in the morning.

o-o /O-O-O\ o-o \-O-O-/ o-o /O-O-O\ o-o \-O-O-/ o-o /O-O-O\ o-o

Obi-Wan walked in darkness.

He knew this was a dream. It had to be. He knew he should wake up, but he did not want to miss anything important.

His boots thumped loudly on the black floor. In the distance he saw a faint horizon, a line of rising smoke in the distance into uneven patches of glowing, transparent blue. The smoke stabilized in places as other tendrils of it continued to drift upward. Obi-Wan's gaze followed it.

He stopped walking.

The glowing, smoky image of the top of his Master's face curved high above him. Obi-Wan tilted his head back looking up past forehead and hairline. He turned around, still following the translucent hair to the tie on the back of the head. On either side of him were two enormous ears, dimly glowing in the distance.

Obi-Wan supposed that this was better than the last ghastly vision from his meditation. This was just. . . . weird. He seemed to be standing on a black plane that bisected a gigantic holographic image of Qui-Gon's head, and he was seeing it from the inside.

A light breeze chilled his skin. He turned in that direction but there was nothing but the image of the face in the distance.

The air moved again, this time with a long, low moan of discomfort. Obi-Wan saw a cloud of his own breath, glowing blue in the sudden cold. He listened carefully. The moan tunelessly groaned and faded into silence again, like a sleeper unwilling to leave the comfort of a dream. The air became still again. Obi-Wan's heart beat faster. He recognized the voice of the moaning.

Icy air touched his cheek again. He turned his back to it. Air rushed around him, escaping. Now he felt the living Force going with it. Above his, the enormous eyes whitened, going blank. Obi-Wan threw his arms out, trying to catch some of it, but not even a trace of the ebbing life would stick to him. It ran away between his fingers, slipping around his body and limbs. The image around him began to break up.

He threw his arms up, desperately trying to save some little bit.

Obi-Wan stared up at the plain ceiling of his room, faintly tinted green from the light of the holo-window. Lowered his arms, he sat up.

Emptiness froze his thoughts. He couldn't remember what Qui-Gon looked like. He knew what his Master looked like, what color his hair and eyes were, how tall he was, what he wore, but the image would not come. That was more disturbing than his dream.

Had something happened?

He sensed no violence, no danger, just like the other visions. Other than the dreams themselves, there was no disturbance in the Force, no immediate instinct to act, just the need.

Obi-Wan got up, walked across the room and put his robe on over his nightshirt. His room felt very small and confining. He went out into the dimmed hallway to the lifts.

He exited on a lower level, passing no one in the dimmed nighttime corridors. His bare feet made almost no sound on the cool floor. Without his boots on, the hem of his robe brushed the ground in his wake.

Entering a large hall, he went to its center and looked up at the darkened ceiling high above. He closed his eyes. An impression of the vastness of the Force around him returned, like he was touching space itself far beyond the Temple. He realized that he had felt the same thing in his earlier visions as well.

An involuntary chill of panic clutched his insides. Would Qui-Gon die in space?

He automatically pushed past this thought to defuse the fear. A death in space was sudden and violent. He felt none of that. He felt as if Qui-Gon was not alive, but not gone either. Feeling lost, one dot in an immense galaxy, Obi-Wan looked up again.

Where was Qui-Gon?

- - - End Part 2 - - -