Chapter 2 – Visitors from Outergalaxy

Auchenflower is a beautiful planet. Not only has it the artistic modern skyscrapers, but also the endless natural forests that stretch for miles in all directions. It looked like a work of art from the view in outer space. Two continents close together surrounded by sparkling deep blue sea only divided by a deep channel that stretch across half the planet; one continents packed with immense buildings and the other washed by emerald green. Obi-Wan marvelled at the image before him. He had grown up in the Jedi Temple of Coruscant, a planet where every piece of land was occupied by enormous skyscrapers. The shadow thrown by the tall buildings were so deep that the shuttles streaming between them were forced to keep their headlights on even in daytime; species of all kind dotted the walkway, and the air was thick with speeders and transports driven by pilots with much daring. On his last few missions, he had seen places with much wilderness than he'd ever imagined possible on a planet. Most of them undeveloped of course. But this planet is different. From the look of the cities, the technologies have most certainly reached Coruscant's standard. But unlike some advanced planets, they did not built their cities all over the planet, they simply used one of the continents and left the other one basically untouched. This is a rare spectacle to see in a galaxy where the population was expanding so rapidly, especially when Auchenflower didn't exactly has the least population in developed planet.

The ship flew smoothly through the planet's atmosphere, it was the Supreme Councillor DeLowk's private transport, The Leader, served to satisfy all species' comforts. This transport served the last Supreme Councillor as well, who was built slightly different from human, but certainly has a very advanced political brain, his bulging eyes as penetrating as it is intimidating. Nevertheless, he had served the Republic well, many wanted him to remain in the Supreme Councillor position since he's outstanding leadership during the chaotic time in the Out Rim had gain him more than respect but hearts of his people. Whoever, he politely turned down the request and explained that the years he had been on the seat of Supreme Councillor had worn him, and he wished to spend the rest of his life with his family of three. This gave his people insight that underneath all the stereotype politician features, there is a heart of a man.

DeLowk was quite young compared to all other Supreme Councillors, only fifty of years when voted to become the leader of the galaxy. It was recorded that one of the Supreme Councillors had been 700 years old. He was new to his position, been only elected last month. During his first month of management, many great political issues had been solved. Doowine star system famine had been managed; many corrupt Senators had been pushed off their high seats; laws had been altered so now that there was a higher security measure on routine shipping lanes so that it would be harder for pirates to hijack another ship.

Following the The Leader, fleet of ships fully armed served as escorts for the ship. As it entered the atmosphere, six of the fleet of bodyguard ships decended with The Leader and landed on a grand docking bay near the grand castle in the centre of the city. The Mayor and many of his offcial were greeting them at the port. The Mayor was a bald plump man, probably in his late forties, with a round, good natured face which, Obi-Wan noted, was flushed with joy, grining widely as he reaching out his hand. "Welcome Supreme Councillor DeLowk, it's such an honour to meet you!" his grin grew even wider as DeLowk reached out his hand in return and shook it.

"The meeting is ready to begin, Supreme Councillor, I hope our Grand Hall would be splendid enough for this important meeting!" DeLowk nodded his thanks and the rather excited Mayor lead the way to a metallic silver building which stood tall and grand above all other skyscrapers. Ceremonial drapes hang down from the top of the building and guard speeders patrolled the air around it. The Jedi followed them along with a patrol of guards dressed in ceremonial armours.

The Grand Hall inside the building was nothing like Obi-Wan had ever seen. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon followed in with DeLowk and the Mayor as the guards waited at the door. The single hall was more than a three hundred meters long and ten stores high. The high ceiling was decorated with beautiful swirl of colours that formed the styles of the Auchenflowerian culture.

Looking around the hall, it was decorated with artistic treasures. Dazzling sculptures covered in gold and crystals; paintings that shift shapes as light shone on it on a slightly different angle; holograms of a lash green jungle was projected on the other end of the hall, waving slightly as through in a gentle breeze. Splendid chairs which yet occupied nobody were lined around a round table carved out of diamond and incrusted with rare gems in the centre of the hall showed the wealth of the city.

Light poured in from the huge windows that dominated large areas of the wall on the two sides opposing each other. As the Grand Hall was near the top level of the building, no towering structures blocked the views outside the windows. From here, one could see hundreds of thousands of miles across. Obi-Wan could even see a faint outline of green which he thought must be the edge of the jungles on the other continent.

Obi-Wan thought he saw a glint of silver on the edge of the forest when his Master's voice calling him dragged him back to reality.

"Padawan, do you know why the Senate choose this planet in this star system for the meeting?"

"Because in this star system comics rarely invade so that it could not disterrupt the sensor to pick up any signals of vessels so that the meeting would not be attacked by hostile fleets. On this planet because there is no moon so that ships cannot be hid on them. The choice was to be in control of the situation and higher security." Obi-Wan answered immediately, he had studied about this star system last night so Qui-Gon's test was no problem to him.

"Correct, Padawan, and most importantly, this is the first official contact with outergalaxy, possibly the most important event in humanity, precaution and alert is highly recommended. We do not know what to expect of the alien species."

Catching the hidden warning under the words. Obi-Wan once more turned his attention back to this mission, focusing on the door at the far side of the hall were the alien visitors would sooner or later walk through. Suddenly, Obi-Wan felt a disturbance in the Force and shifted uneasily.

Qui-Gon saw the change of posture of the boy beside him, he turned and gave him a questioning look. Through their bond, he sent /what's wrong, Padawan/

Obi-Wan felt it again//A disturbance in the Force, Master./

Qui-Gon frowned slightly, he hadn't felt anything. /I don't feel anything. Concentrate on the present, Padawan./

"Yes Master." Obi-Wan replied automatically, feeling even more ill at easy at the fact that Qui-Gon did not feel what he had felt. Is it because the danger is directed at me only? Why do I feel such an unease?

/Obi-Wan/

/Sorry Master./ shielding his thoughts tighter, Obi-Wan once again focused on the door just as it opened.

The aliens looked almost human, despite their electric blue skins. Their eyes are silver, as if sightless. Their bald heads gleaming under the daylight. There are six of them, they were all wearing uniforms with colours that matched their skins. The one standing in the front was tall and sturdy built, reminds Obi-Wan of Grelb the Hutt he had encountered on the transport to Bandomeer. The others behind him are of a slightly smaller built, but even they are taller than Master Qui-Gon. Very intimidating looking surely. Obi-wan thought silently, unaware that his mental shield had loosen during his curious inspection of the aliens. The leader of the group turned and looked directly at him…at least he thought, because the silver eyes hardly gave him any indication of what he where he was looking.

The alien beings spoke…well, not exactly by their mouth as Obi-Wan realised to his horror that the aliens did not have one! Nevertheless, Obi-Wan heard clearly what they said: Greetings, my name is Elslwsikwwy Iekslaiow Neowazze, these are my crews, Hwelw Qhels Ogpesleko, Veodrye Ldowne Seople, Adwolena Lwhoe Ksavselope, Nweaeni Anewpoi Woaiue, and Melpel Keowo Planeits. We are from the galaxy Peonwlwen and our quest is seeking peace in the universe.

It's telepathy! Obi-Wan realised, the voices sounded as if they were inside his head, but at they same time, everybody around him had heard it. And all those weird long names. Obi-Wan wondered how they could have remembered them themselves. And even more surprising, the aliens could speak basics…or is it really words he heard. It's more like a feeling than sound. Maybe that's how the aliens communicate. Obi-Wan thought quietly, Sending feelings rather than words so all species could understand them. Wonder what they do to make a living in their galaxy…

/Obi-Wan, concentrate on here and now./

Qui-Gon's stern voice awoke him from his daydreams. This negotiation is guaranteed to be very eventful. Tightening his shields again, Obi-Wan thought hopefully. But the uneasiness tagged at him again. Why do I still feel so uneasy?

"Welcome, outergalaxy visitors," DeLowk began. "We appreciate your quest for peace, this is the purpose of this meeting. I am the Supreme Councillor DeLowk, this is Mayor Bobsoen as you already know and," DeLowk gestured the Jedi, and the aliens turned their silver eyes in their direction, "they are the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi."

The Jedi bowed at the mentioning of their names and the unease was increasing every moment. Obi-Wan briefly wondered what was wrong with him when the aliens spoke again.

The Jedi? We have never heard of them before.

Obi-Wan's unease increased as the aliens set their silver eyes on him again. It felt as if they could see right through him into him mind.

"The Jedi are the guardian of peace of our galaxy, it is our way of keeping peace in a galaxy." DeLowk explained and gestured them to take seat at the round table.

Sitting down, the captain alien nodded at the explanation, Very different to our system of work. We only require security forces.

The alien suddenly looked at Obi-Wan, and stared at him for a intense moment. Obi-Wan fought the urge to look away.

How old are you, boy? the alien finally broke the silence.

"Fourteen, sir." Obi-Wan wondered why the alien was showing such an interest in him.

Fourteen? Fourteen is a very young age among my species, is it different in yours? The captain turned towards DeLowk.

"No, Jedi apprentices are supposed to be taken into training when they are young, Obi-Wan had just stepped out from his childhood."

The captain seemed to consider this. Nodding, he said, Your specie certainly has fascinating cultures.

After this brief exchange, the aliens began to talk about some interesting things about their galaxy and the formal peace making procedures. However, through the talk, Obi-Wan only half listened. Not only did his sense of dread increase, his suspicion had grown stronger after the aliens surprising shown of interest in him. Why me? If they never heard of Jedi before, my Master knows more about them than I do. Through the meeting, Obi-Wan only dimly thought he saw something moving at the door. When he spared a glance at it, it was only the guards taking their shifts. However, Qui-Gon's sharp eyes failed at noticing nothing, scold channelled silently through their bond, telling Obi-Wan to focus. Obi-Wan decided against telling Qui-Gon of his uneasiness, surely Qui-Gon would have felt it by now.

Then he felt it. Obi-Wan flung himself into action, not really surprised when Qui-Gon did the same. The older Jedi shouted everyone to duck and ignited his emerald lightsaber. Just then, a silver shuttle crashed through the high windows and sped across the room. The aliens and DeLowk had already reacted at Qui-Gon's shout of warning and ducked under the table. The plump Mayor, however, was shocked at seeing his grand hall windows been crashed through like that and beautiful royal maroon carpet littered with shattered glass that he just stood there and gap. Frustrated, Obi-Wan pulled him down to the floor just as the shuttle speed over head, it's underside screeching across the diamond table. That was close.

Qui-Gon dodged as the shuttle passed overhead and, using his extraordinary lightning quick Jedi reflexes, severed a small wing of the shuttle as it passed, tumbling towards the other side's high windows, the sound of another deafening crash as the shuttle brought down the other side's windows as well.

Obi-Wan turned to see that Mayor Bobsoen was whimpering and trembling and he looked as if he's going to burst into tears. Obi-Wan felt sorry for him. The Grand Hall must have been his most prideful hall.

The Mayor's fear suddenly turned into anger, for his face immediately flushed red, this time from fury. He shouted after the shuttle, "Ahhh! You bastards! You destroyed my Grand Hall! I'm going to kill you!" as he shouted, he ran towards the broken window where the shuttle had left through, and kept shouting and swearing after it, as if they would hear. The shouts had certainly attracted a lot of attention from the traffic down below and a few shuttles flew up in level with the hall and asked what's going on.

Then, chaos erupted. Blaster shots came sizzling into the hall from both doorways. The guards were shooting at them! Obi-Wan quickly drew his lightsaber and with Qui-Gon they deflected the blaster shots one after another, not only the ones coming straight at them but defending everyone else in the room as well…wait a minute…the aliens are gone! Obi-Wan looked around the room and saw an electric blue boot disappearing around a corner of the doorway. It's a trap! Obi-Wan thought alarmingly. They had to think of a plan to get away, more attackers are coming in and they wouldn't be able to held them off for very long. As the minutes dragged on, Obi-Wan felt his muscles tiring.

Then the angry Mayor beside them shouted to them suddenly, "I have a automatically controlled shuttle, we'll escape through the window."

The Jedi and the Supreme Councillor somehow managed to hear him above all the noises of blaster fires and lightsaber buzz. They ran quickly towards the broken windows on their right and Mayor Bobsoen fumbled with his remote control. When they reached the window, they saw that a dark blue shuttle was coming towards them. "That's my shuttle, we get onto that one." Mayor Bobsoen tapped in a few code and the shuttle door opened. Qui-Gon quickly helped the Supreme Councillor DeLowk to get onto the shuttle first, when he turned to help the Mayor, he saw a man, coming out of nowhere, leapt towards Obi-Wan. The boy sensed it coming and tried to dodge out of the way, but something was topping him, as if freezing him on the spot. Qui-Gon sensed the Force's presence stopping Obi-Wan. The attacker was a Force-user! The man landed a solid kick to Obi-Wan's chest, knocking him onto the floor.

"Obi-Wan!" Qui-Gon rushed forward as he shoved the Mayor through the door. The man already felt him coming and to Qui-Gon's surprised, ignited a blood red sabre and blocked Qui-Gon's blow. Xanatos. Qui-Gon took a sharp intake of breath as he recognized his former apprentice, who had betrayed him many years ago. Heart still filled with the burning urge of revenge for the loss of his wealth, his power, and his father.

Xanatos father was the planet ruler of Telos and for power and wealth, he had lead his planet to a civil war with the help of his son and mercilessly killed millions of his own people. Qui-Gon had tried to help to bring peace to the planet but Xanatos turned against him. Qui-Gon had not killed Xanatos' father in cold-blood, but in defence. Xanatos, however, only acknowledge the fact the Qui-Gon had killed him, and turned his sabre against his Master. Qui-Gon was far more experienced than him and, of course, brought him down, but he could not bear to kill his own apprentice.

Xanatos had escaped then, but he returned when Qui-Gon had taken a mission on Bandomeer. That had been before Obi-Wan had became Qui-Gon's apprentice, not yet thirteen, but was sent to the Agriculture-Corps on Bandomeer as well. Xanatos had seen them together and mistakenly thought that Obi-Wan had replace him and had hurt and kidnapped him, imprisoned him on a deep sea mine where miners are kept as slaves to lure Qui-Gon into the trap he had planed for him. Xanatos had trapped both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in a mine deep underground and told them of his plan of blowing the whole planet up just as he left in order to make Qui-Gon's death more painful with the knowledge that millions of people are going to die in less than five minutes and he's powerless to help them. It was Obi-Wan's courageous act of sacrificing his life – activated the bomb on his slave collar to blow the door open to get Qui-Gon out of the mine in order to disable the central bomb that made Qui-Gon remember the dream he had one night at the beginning of the mission that enable him to open the force sealed door without losing Obi-Wan. It was then that Qui-Gon realised the true potential and courage that Obi-Wan possess. It was in Xanatos' trap, when they stared in the face of death that brought the Master and Padawan together.

Of course, Xanatos had escaped again, and he returned almost too soon, only a year had passed counting the days from the event on Bandomeer. And this time, Obi-Wan's fully Qui-Gon's Padawan and was in even greater danger.

Qui-Gon brought his sabre up to block a blow from his former apprentice. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Obi-Wan clutching his chest, trying to climb to his feet. The trace relieve in his eye must have gave it away for Xanatos suddenly stretched out his left hand and with a surge of Force, swept Obi-Wan off his feet and sent him crashing on to the floor a few meters away. To even more of Qui-Gon's horror, a soldier close to Obi-Wan pointed his blaster at the boy and pulled the trigger. Obi-Wan was momentarily stunned by the impact and was unable to move out of the way in time, the blaster caught him on his shoulder and he went limp on the floor.

"No!" The momentary distraction was enough, Xanatos slashed his sabre down and kicked out at Qui-Gon, whom, caught off guard and as the kick connected with his abdomen, he fell through the broken window. Xanatos gazed down in victory as he watched Qui-Gon falling away towards the traffic below but it was quickly turned into anger as Qui-Gon managed to use the Force to grab a flagpole extended out of building to stopped his fall. Xanatos roared in rage as a dark blue shuttle came up below Qui-Gon and pulled him safely into the shuttle. He had came so close to finish him off again and he escaped! But then he smiled, this time was different, he had the boy in his clutch. Yes, he will return, for this boy's sake if not more.

Xanatos turned away from the window and checked the pulse on the unconscious boy on the floor. Still alive, good. He turned and commanded the guards, "Take him to the shuttle."

Supreme Councillor DeLowk and Bobsoen the Mayor pulled Qui-Gon into the shuttle and helped him down onto a seat by the control. "What happened? Where is your apprentice?"

"Xanatos is back, he's seeking revenge and his guards shot Obi-Wan." DeLowk was Qui-Gon's old friend and he know what Qui-Gon's talking about, however, Bobsoen was at sea. "Who's Xanatos? Why is he seeking revenge?" After a short and brief explanation DeLowk turned the conversation to the more important matter, "Obi-Wan was shot, are you sure he's still alive?"

"Yes, I could still feel him through our bond." Qui-Gon replied grimly, brooding over his thoughts.

"We should go back for him, the poor kid would be killed!" The Mayor said worryingly. Obi-Wan had saved his life nevertheless.

"They wouldn't kill him, Xanatos would keep him alive until he killed me." Qui-Gon prayed silently at what he had said. "If we go back now, it would still be to late, they would have took off on their shuttles already."

The three of them glanced through the viewport, shuttles and speeders sped past them there was no way to tell which one of the shuttles are the attackers'.

"Let's all get to my office and get things settled, it won't be a long ride." Mayor Bobsoen offered and none of them refused.

Maybe then I'll be able to find out where Xanatos had set his trap for me. Thought Qui-Gon, he silently wished that Xanatos wouldn't kill Obi-Wan before he could save him. Either way, he had to act fast, considering what Xanatos had done to Obi-Wan before, the lesser time Obi-Wan had to stay in Xanatos' hands, the better.