A/N: Thanks for support and reviews. Here's the next chapter, hope you all enjoy.
After lunch, and after a maintenance droid had exchanged the defective cooler unit against a new one, Drex took Kade to Coruscant's main spaceport. He thought it would be good for the boy to get an idea of the enormity of galactic traffic, the variety of travellers to and from Coruscant and the general workings of it all.
They emerged from an express shuttle onto a shuttle deck that was as large as a small town, but considerably busier.
"Look for the signs and take us towards Hall A," Drex told Kade. "That's the central hall. I can get us access to the tower from there."
Look for signs? He had to be kidding. By now Kade was accustomed to the hustle and bustle and the scenes around Coruscant, or so he thought… "Force," the boy spoke more to himself than to Drex. The deck was absolutely enormous, and had he not been glued to his master's side, he probably would have been mowed over by an impatient traveller trying to board. Kade guessed they rushed to get seats but couldn't be sure.
The padawan stood there for a moment, his head whipping around in search of a sign that would point them towards Hall A. It was hard to see as the majority of beings were adults and taller than he was, but eventually he spotted what they were looking for.
"Take us inside the hall, up to the twelfth floor and locate the security central," Drex told Kaden. He could have found it himself since he knew Coruscant's spaceport inside out, but he wanted Kade to gain experience. The main spaceport was one of the largest, most crowded and most chaotic places the planet had to offer, and that was saying something.
Finding Hall A was tricky, but the boy managed; finding the lifts that would take them to the twelfth floor, however, was decidedly more difficult. Every sign he followed led to yet another sign pointing into a different direction! Kade frowned; the multitude of beings rushing around him and the sheer vastness of the spaceport itself were not making the ambiguous signage any easier to deal with.
It took them a good fifteen minutes to locate a turbolift that would actually take them 'up' and not down, across or for Forces sake, to a specific level before returning! "This is ridiculous," Kade muttered quietly as he was once again mashed into his master's side by some oblivious being. Well, at least they were in the right lift…
"This is what life is like for a lot of people on this planet every hour, every day," Drex told him quietly. "Ah, here we are."
The lift had announced level twelve in a mechanical voice, and they left. Taking pity on Kaden, Drex told him: "The security central is at the far left end of the hall."
It was a bit less crowded here since this level did not hold any passenger services; it was mostly devoted to administration and logistics. Nevertheless, they had to be careful not to be knocked over by huge luggage hovercarts that were zooming through the hall or by staff on speed skates which they needed to navigate the vast spaceport. All Kade could think was how much he wanted a pair of those speed skates!
Finally, they reached their destination. Drex entered, only to be held up by a burly Iktotchi. He held out a card and told him he was a Jedi, come to talk to Officer Bento'osh. A moment later, a cheerful elderly human with greyish hair that was cropped short came rushing to meet them, shook Drex's hand, said hello to Kaden and took them to a staff lift that brought them right up to the top of the central tower.
"This is the best place to watch," Drex told, "and it's inaccessible for most ordinary beings. People do work there, so take care to stay out of their way."
Kade bowed politely to Bento'osh, then followed silently at Drex's side as they entered the lift.
"Far out," he said quietly, taking in the scene below them. From this vantage point it was easy to pick out trends in travellers movements; there were certain shuttles most of whose passengers moved to the same platforms to wait for the same onward shuttle. The longer Kade watched, the more he noticed a subtle, albeit discernible pattern to the chaos.
Drex directed Kade to the large set of view screens that showed the departure and arrival platforms where nearly every second a starship landed or took off. Hall A was for the passenger ships, or at least those to most of the Inner Rim worlds. There were other halls with their own towers for freighters, long-distance transport and private spaceships, but Hall A was the oldest and most central one and its tower was highest. If one looked up into the sky, one could see spaceships shooting off into space or landing on platforms which expanded across many levels and for kilometres in every direction. The tower had many levels, too. The operators were all wearing headsets and were rapping out orders to the pilots constantly.
"A quiet day, today," Bento'osh said peacefully, raising his voice to be heard above the hubbub. "Would you care for a flight around the spaceport? I could take my break now and take you on a tour. I still owe your master one, you know."
A quiet day? Kade silently guffawed, wondering if the man was joking. He was not. The boy looked skyward, spotting several spaceships taking off and a couple landing in their places.
The officer's suggestion made him smile. "Yes, please," Kade replied politely, and both Jedi followed at the man's gesture.
"Master," Kade asked quietly, "what favour does he owe you?"
"He doesn't really owe me anything," Drex replied quietly. "There was a terrorist attack on Coruscant's spaceport last year. They had planted time bombs. I was head of a team of Jedi who were to find the bombs. Bento'osh is head of security; he was in charge of evacuating the spaceport and of deactivating the bombs. We worked together well, and he told me that working with Jedi was much more efficient and pleasant than working with the police."
Bento'osh ushered them into the hovercraft and took off. He took them through several halls, including the gigantic cargo hall where skyscraper-sized spaceships were unloading enormous amounts of food and raw materials. Then he took them out to the landing pads were spaceships in all shapes and sizes were coming in and taking off constantly. He flew a big loop around the sector used by private ships. A long, gleaming spaceship that looked as if it was made from solid gold was currently landing at the terminal reserved for diplomats.
"The Senator of Malastare," Bento'osh remarked. "You get the most interesting vessels over here. See that one over there? The one that looks like it's going to fall apart any moment? Pirate hunters. You won't easily find a faster ship."
"That guy seems to pop up a lot lately," Kade noted as Bento'osh pointed out what would have to be the shiniest ship he'd ever seen. He grinned at seeing the pirate hunters' ship which was the picture of disrepair. "I bet it does. I've heard stories about pirate hunters and their amazing ships," he stated enviously; one day, he thought to himself as they moved along.
By the time they'd finished the tour, Kade had a far better understanding of how things worked. It was one thing to read and be told, but entirely another story to see it firsthand. "Thank you, Sir," the padawan told Bento'osh as he sprang from the hover cart.
When Bento'osh had said goodbye and returned to work, Drex had Kade take him to the basement level of Hall A where the shops and food stalls were.
"The basement of the cargo area is even better," he told Kade. "There, you get merchandise straight from the incoming ships, which is especially nice if you want to eat really fresh food. There are greenhouses on Coruscant, but most of the food, and especially the better-quality food, is imported. However, that's too far away for us right now. You've got a school day tomorrow, after all."
They had dinner at an Alderaanian food stall and then Drex found them a cab that took them back to the Temple. Taking the shuttle would have taken too long. Kade had had a rather long day, after all, and after a short evening meditation, Drex sent him straight to bed.