Chapter Seven: Of a Brief Break in Tension
Qui-Gon blinked. "Excuse me?"
Obi-Wan shook his head in frustration. "Is there any particular reason you chose to pick on my Padawan, or do you just have double standards for everybody now?"
"Your Padawan spoke out of turn and was making assumptions, I was merely correcting her."
"Yes, she did speak out of turn and did so rudely – she admitted that freely and I have her meditating on that now. What I want to know is why you couldn't give your thoughts on the questions she was asking, rather than being deliberately dense."
"Obi-Wan!" Qui-Gon stood up straighter, his hands on his hips, "I think I can see where she gets it from."
Obi-Wan blew out a breath of air and looked to the ceiling. They were both loosing their tempers and had only been speaking for less than two minutes! "Unless you wish for me to start listing Anakin's problems and their origins, please refrain from doing so with Ashden. Let's leave the young ones out of this." Looking expectantly at the older Jedi and seeing a nod in agreement, he continued, "I came to confront you about how you handled Ashden's questions in the 'rec room."
"I responded as I saw appropriate – she was making assumptions and needed to be discouraged from doing so." Qui-Gon spread his hands in front of him "I was merely doing what needed to be done. The earlier she learns such lessons, the better."
Obi-Wan couldn't fault the man doing what he thought was honestly the right thing to do. He could sense that the older Jedi wasn't lying, but still... Good intentions. The road is paved with them.
"If that was what she had been doing, I wouldn't have a problem with what you did. Did you not consider that at 13, she's a little nervous? That at 13, she wanted the opinion and thoughts on what was going on from her elders? She'd already asked Gelle and Sigmond, they didn't have a problem with it. "
Qui-Gon crossed his arms. "She's a Jedi, she shouldn't be nervous at all!"
Obi-Wan scoffed, his own hands going to his hips, "In all the time I was your apprentice, in all the time before and since, you were never nervous? About anything at all? I certainly was, about all manor of things!"
"That is not the point."
"It's exactly the point, Qui-Gon. She wanted to know the opinions of her seniors, that's all. Instead you shot down her questions and accused her of potentially causing the deaths of innocent people." Obi-Wan fixed his former Master with a knowing look, "Would you have wanted anybody speaking to Anakin like that and accusing him of such things when he was that age?"
Qui-Gon sighed, his hands going to his hips and Obi-Wan began to prepare himself for the worst, but then,
"You're right, Obi-Wan." The harsh, guarded look that had been fixed into place softened just a little, "I misjudged the situation and treated your Padawan too harshly. The next time I see her, I will answer her questions and explain why I responded the way I did to begin with." With a nod, he turned and walked away, leaving Obi-Wan slightly stunned in his wake.
He shook his head, and entered the 'rec room.
Ashden emerged from her meditation still feeling slightly ashamed of her reaction, but knew there was nothing to be done about it now except to give Master Jinn a proper apology. There was no point in her making things worse between the two Masters!
Sensing nothing other than that her Master was busy, Ashden decided to head up to the cockpit to see who was up there and found Anakin quite literally with his feet up, dozing. Unsure of what to do, she stood hesitantly in the entrance.
"You can come in you know, we're just zooming through hyperspace." His voice was amused, and a small quirk graced his face. Anakin pulled his feet off the dashboard and turned to face his newcomer. "There's not much to do, but it's kinda wizard to look at."
Ashden smiled back and sat down in the seat next to him. "Yeah, I like hyperspace too."
Anakin grinned back and turned back to gaze at the vortex before them, Anakin apparently not feeling any need to fill the silence, until Ashden could take in no longer. A generic, safe question, perhaps? The previously Very Important Padawan was still known for his attitude after all.
"So what's your favourite subject?"
He shrugged, "Kind of hard to say, I love 'saber class, but I really like mechanics too. And I'm better at that stuff." Anakin continued to look outwards towards the stars, "What about you? Ashden, right?"
Ashden nodded, slightly surprised he knew her name. Then again, with only two Padawans on the mission it wouldn't have been a hard guess. "I like mechanics too! I really don't like biology and stuff like that. I like building things, fixing things, stuff like that."
"Fun, isn't it?"
Ashden nodded, giving him a small smile back. "What do you get to do in your Mechanics classes?"
Grinning, Anakin turned to face her and started talking animatedly about everything they'd done so far.
Two days later and they were nearly at their destination and due to drop out of hyper-space within the next half hour. It had been remarkably quiet since the initial altercation – Ashden had delivered an appropriate apology to Master Jinn, who in turn had sat down and answered her questions and explained his reaction to her original questioning. It had been an interesting sight, watching his old Master chatting with his Padawan, one that he wasn't sure how to feel about.
Obi-Wan ran a hand through his hair and bought his focus back to the here and now – where he was beating Knight Gelle in a game of Chess. Winking at the other knight, he reached across to move the piece into a final and winning position -
- and instead found himself on the floor, the sound of tearing metal filled the air.
"The hyperdrive has stopped!"
The floor made a sharp left turn, without their feet, and there was a sound of weapons fire scraping along the hull.
"We're under attack!"
Obi-Wan pulled himself back onto his feet with the assistance of a nearby table, was in fact already at the door as they heard a second barrage, but this time apparently dodged the main barrage.
Obi-Wan ran as fast as his legs could carry him (with a Force assist) up to the cockpit, managing to match Gelle's considerable speed with her far longer legs. The ship rocked again as the force of another projectile hit them, causing the ground to shift violently beneath their feet once again.
Ashden and Anakin were in that cockpit. The two had taken to sharing their shifts at the helm a couple of days ago. It must be Anakin piloting.
He sensed Qui-Gon and Sigmond catching up from behind – they must have walked some distance earlier during their discussion about some various lifeforms or another... They were so close –
Another blast and this time Gelle stumbled. Obi-Wan grabbed her arm and pulled her back up even as he continued their mad sprint. Not far to go now – he tried to pass as much on to Ashden through their bond, but she was too busy concentrating on something else. He continued to do so anyway.
They arrived at the cockpit and quickly tried to take stock of the situation – with a brief gesture, Obi-Wan sent Gelle to check the environmental controls. Anakin was at the flight controls, Ashden at the engineering controls. Sliding into the rear right seat, Obi-Wan took over what little weapons, and weapon control, that they had.
Outside two ships were bearing down on their position, firing relentlessly. It was apparently only Anakins' flying that had kept them in as good-a shape as they were in now..
Qui-Gon and Sigmond burst in a moment later, Obi-Wan noted absently but was slightly too caught up in the shooting shipsto note more than their arrival. Why hadn't he sensed their attackers?
"The engines aren't going to take much more." Sigmond grunted as the ship made a sharp bank to the right. "Hits or otherwise."
"We're nearly at the planet." Anakin nodded to a brown planet up ahead.
"We're not going to make the port. We could get to the Southern hemisphere."
So close, but so far. Caughrean was a big planet, and whilst it was inhabited and a part of the Republic, much of the surface, especially South of the equator was only sparsely populated: farmers, small villages and a few towns. Only two cities sat in the South, versus the twelve in the North.
The ship lurched again, an alarm started shrieking from the engineering and environmental consoles – they were loosing atmosphere. "It'll have to do - just get us there as quick as you can, Anakin!"
"Oh well I thought I'd take the scene route, actually!" Anakin's following snort of amusement was felt, rather than heard, and the planet edged closer and closer as they dipped and dived around the assault – far more expertly that Obi-Wan could have managed himself, he noted. Who were these people? He tried reaching out but – nothing. No Darkness. Just, nothing.
It felt like they were on some gravity defying amusement ride rather than a ship. Sparks flew from consoles dangerous, their white hot heat licking at the Jedi's skins. A particularly close hit had Obi-Wan holding tightly to his seat as they tilted wildly to an odd angle and he cast about for Ashden.
"Everybody, strap in!" he shouted, even as Sigmound yelled,
"Engines are gone!"
The planet atmosphere filled the view screen. This was going to be close. Shots were coming in harder and faster now. Would they follow them down?
"This is going to get bumpy!"
A/N: … and cut. Ok – I'm getting better! And the good news is I've got big chunks of the following chapters already written now! Still.. apologies are still due. I'm sorry for the delay! You guy are all awesome though, thank you for the amazing reviews. They spur me on.. guilt-trip me... you guys rock.
My next aim? LESS than a year (it's not funny... I know) – really though. Less than a year. I'm going to aim for no later than the end of August. Upcoming chapter titles include 'Of Barren Lands' and 'Of Conversations in the Dark'...
