The Heart of the Jedi
by ardavenport
/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\ - - - Part 2
Qui-Gon carefully cleaned his hands at the fresher in the rear of the ship. The residue of blood and gore came off easily and then the residual cleaner solution dried to nothing on his skin. Both Eclin and Obi-Wan watched him without looking at him while his initial fury waned. He focused on the mundane task of washing and let the rest of it go. He checked on Eclin, but Obi-Wan was trained well as a field medic, as all Jedi apprentices were. He had already replaced or reinforced the quick bandages that they had applied in the speeder, attached a fluid replenishment pack to her arm to make up for the lost blood and given Eclin antibiotics. The side wound was serious and she was most in danger from infection.
"Have you set the coordinates for Coruscant?" Qui-Gon called out.
"Yes, Master Qui-Gon," Semko replied from the pilot's controls.
"Then it is time to leave." He finished with his hands. He picked up the debris left over from Obi-Wan's ministrations to Eclin's wounds and went to the disposal. Obi-Wan and Eclin were still not looking at him and he was still not looking at them. His anger was not directed at them, but he could do nothing about it making them nervous. That did not concern him.
The ship made the jump to light speed smoothly. They would be back on Coruscant in less than half a day.
Amid the tense silence in the cabin, he finished at the disposal and went back to the sleep couch. He reached to an upper compartment that was too high for his fourteen year-old apprentice to reach. The panel slid aside and he took out a blanket and handed it to Obi-Wan. Eclin looked up, her mouth open. Qui-Gon coolly looked down at her. She closed it.
Qui-Gon went forward.
He stood behind the left pilot's seat. The glowing, random shapes and darknesses of hyperspace passed by like malformed ghosts. Qui-Gon sensed dread immediately before him. Disappointed, Qui-Gon remained silent, while he looked at the nothingness beyond the ship. The dread ebbed, but it did not entirely go away.
"You were not aware of the danger when we entered the ship," he finally stated.
"No, Master Qui-Gon." Semko's voice was quiet.
"You rushed forward directly under where four mazivs had concealed themselves."
"The Force must have been with me, Master Qui-Gon."
Qui-Gon's expression soured. "No, it was not, Knight Semko," he said, sternly. He waited, until she turned her seat around. She faced hm.
"I know." Then she lowered her small brown eyes. "I was careless." Qui-Gon looked down at her short, thick blond hair. Semko was an agile, slender humanoid with fine, short hair covering her in shades of cream, with light brown stripes marking her face and hands.
"You were not aware of your surroundings. It is fortunate that, even injured, Eclin was aware enough to defend herself, and my Padawan, who is unarmed because he sacrificed his lightsaber to save me.." Semko started, but she did not look up. Qui-Gon folded his arms before him. "You are inexperienced, but you have been on many missions. This is Eclin's first, as a Jedi Knight." Qui-Gon waited, letting the meaning of his words sink in and letting his own rekindled fury fall and diminish. He had felt it, creeping into the tone of his rebuke. Contempt and anger were dark and forbidden, and could only aggravate Semko's shortcomings. Qui-Gon banished any thoughts of acting on his anger over their catastrophically failed mission followed immediately by Semko's near-fatal mistake.
He waited, aware of the mass of discordant surface thoughts in her.
"Are you afraid of what I will do next, Semko?"
She looked up, surprised by the question, the facial stripes, radiating out from her eyes accented her expression.
"Yes," she said, but nothing more. Qui-Gon's anger released, dissipated, upon hearing her simple, honest answer. He did not ask her anything else, because he sensed that she didn't know anything else, but she accepted her actions as they were, with no dissembling.
"I will recommend to the Council that you receive further training. There is no point in dwelling on your mistake, Semko. Your focus should only be on not repeating it." he laid his hand on her shoulder. She did not start this time; she only nodded and then looked up at him, her brown eyes earnest.
"Thank-you, Master Qui-Gon." He nodded back to her, satisfied that she would learn well from this near-costly error. He lowered his hand and went around her to sit in the right pilot's seat. There was no more to say.
After a moment, he heard her quiet footsteps going aft and then her voice asking Eclin how she felt. Eclin told her in great detail, and then she asked in a near whisper what Qui-Gon had said to her. Semko declined to discuss it, but that didn't stop Eclin from finding a new topic to expound on, her impeding stay at the Temple med-center and her former Master's reaction to her injury.
It was a small ship and really impossible not to hear some of Eclin's chatter. Qui-Gon supposed that while she talked, he could be certain that her injuries were not worsening.
Qui-Gon settled back in the padded seat and closed his eyes. Eclin and Semko and Obi-Wans' voices faded to background sounds as he cleared his mind.
/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\
As soon as their ship emerged from hyperspace and joined the orbital traffic around Coruscant they received a com from the Jedi Temple. They were told to report to the Jedi Council immediately upon disembarking. Qui-Gon confirmed the message and requested a medical capsule at the landing platform before closing the com.
Semko piloted the ship down into the atmosphere. The approach path to the Temple was reserved, so there was no traffic. Upon landing, they first gave Eclin Moli to the medical droids and the Jedi that waited for them. Qui-Gon smiled at her, Obi-Wan promised to visit later and Semko kissed her lightly on the forehead. She unhappily looked after them, clutching the battered, dark brown robe that Obi-Wan had retrieved from the back of the speeder for her.
The three of them did not speak as they passed through the hangar level, nor did they say anything as Qui-Gon strode through the great halls inside the Temple, Obi-Wan and Semko following. They took a lift that whisked them up to the tower above the Temple where the Council met.
The door was open to them. They were expected.
Qui-Gon took his place in the center of the patterned floor of the circular room, Obi-Wan and Semko respectfully behind him. They all bowed together.
There were only four Council members present. Master Yoda and Master Yaddle, two ancient Jedi of the same diminutive, green species, Depa Billaba, a solemn, dark-haired, light-skinned woman in a plain brown robe and long tunic, and Maga-Tel Dal, a frowning, square-jawed, older male with silvery gray hair and large, seven-fingered hands.
Immediately, Dal asked where Eclin Moli was and Qui-Gon informed them of her injuries. All four Council members exchanged looks but offered nothing in return.
Qui-Gon reported their mission. The planet, Zunus, had harbored illegal settlements for thousands of years, so long that one wondered why they had never petitioned for official status. But a strong streak of independence among the inhabitants ensured its outlaw status. For the past few generations, a schism had grown between the factions that traded with the Potep Union (the systems that nominally claimed Zunus, but hadn't enforced its claim in centuries) and the stubbornly planet-bound factions that wanted nothing to do with 'dirty machine-users', or the rest of the galaxy. The planet-bound faction had been gaining territory and influence for some time and had systematically forced the traders into smaller and smaller reserves. The castle was their last stronghold. A truce had held for several years, but new leaders among the planet-bound factions began attacking. The Zunusian traders petitioned the Republic, through the Potep Union's Senator for negotiators to establish a new truce. The planet-bound factions valued strength and fighting prowess, so the Jedi were sent.
They received questionable landing instructions upon their arrival. Instead of using the stronghold's landing field, they were told to set down on the open plain below the castle. Qui-Gon, the senior Jedi and in charge of the group, had selected a secluded area and they approached by speeder to investigate. The castle, the landing field and the town around them appeared wrecked and abandoned when they had arrived.
A lone individual, waving a red banner, flagged them down to the castle grounds. She had been a large woman, her blue body armor hand made and spun. She informed them that they were welcome to take away the last of the trader faction.
The invitation was obviously a trap, but Qui-Gon did not feel that he could leave without confirming the status of any survivors. They warily entered the castle. There, in a large, high-ceilinged meeting hall, the leaders of the planet-bound factions presented Qui-Gon with the heads of the remaining trader faction. Stacks of them.
The leader of the planet-bound faction's ruling tribunal assured Qui-Gon that the Jedi would be allowed to leave. Their witness was required to inform the Potep Union that their collaborators had been eliminated. Qui-Gon had believed her. She, and the other members of the tribunal had been sincere. They had been, until arrows simultaneously felled some of them. Apparently not all the leaders of the planet-bound factions had agreed to let the Jedi leave, or on who should actually be in charge.
The room had instantly turned into a melee, where only some of the combatants and fighting animals were trying to kill and dismember the Jedi, while more of them were fighting amongst themselves. The Jedi team had separated. Qui-Gon had defended their retreat, while Obi-Wan ran out to get their speeder.
At this point, Qui-Gon described how Obi-Wan used his lightsaber to keep the door open for him. Qui-Gon glanced back to see an embarrassed expression on Obi-Wan's face. He stood with his arms crossed before him, tucked into the opposite sleeves of his robe, a proper stance for meeting the Jedi Council, but it also conveniently hid his lack of a lightsaber.
Qui-Gon described the rest of their escape, and Semko's error when they returned to the ship. Qui-Gon stated his opinion that Semko should be given training to sharpen her awareness of her surroundings.
"Hmmmm, agree, you do, Knight Semko?" Master Yoda asked in his aged, raspy voice.
"I do, Master Yoda. I should not have been so careless," Semko responded from Qui-Gon's left.
"Hmmmm," Yoda seemed to ponder this, but his green eyes settled on Qui-Gon and instantly he knew that the aged Master was considering him for the task. While Qui-Gon would have accepted, if asked, he did not want the task. He would be assisting Obi-Wan in building his new lightsaber and he did not want his attention divided.
"Master Guiyusinth, a keen observer is, and available, I believe," Yaddle said, drawing the attention of the other Council members. "Since Knighted her Padawan, Eclin Moli, is."
"Hmmm, agreed," Yoda affirmed, though Qui-Gon thought that he saw disappointment in the small Master's eyes. "Busy Master Qui-Gon will be. Assisting his Padawan, to build a new lightsaber, he will be," Yoda finished, practically reading Qui-Gon's thoughts. A smug smile formed on Yoda's wrinkled face. Qui-Gon kept his expression blank.
Yoda had urged Qui-Gon to take Obi-Wan as his Padawan, a partnership that Qui-Gon stubbornly declined, but the Force itself seemed to bring them together anyway. Or perhaps it had just been one small green Jedi Council member.
Qui-Gon strongly suspected that Yoda had arranged to have them on the same transport to Bandomeer. The personalities of Master and student had clashed badly at times and Obi-Wan had even left the Jedi Order to join a children's war on Melida/Daan, but circumstances put them back together again, and Qui-Gon could not deny that the bond between himself and Obi-Wan was real.
Qui-Gon Jinn thought that Master Yoda enjoyed being right a bit too much sometimes.
"Acted well, young Obi-Wan did." Yoda nodded his approval.
"He did," Qui-Gon acknowledged, letting the aged Master have his gloat.
The Council agreed to Semko's training and Depa Billaba returned to their mission.
"Your mission was lost before you left. When you were in hyperspace, returning to Coruscant, we received a warning from the Zunusians who had escaped to the Potep Union not to send anyone, that their world was gone and that they were banished and would not petition for return."
Qui-Gon nodded. There was little more to say about the failed mission and the group was soon excused. They all bowed and left.
/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\ End of Part 2 /o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\
