Blaze: yay! Chapter 7
Darth: when you get to the events of Revenge of the Sith, the chapters are going to be shorter, aren't they?
Blaze: probably
Darth: ah
Blaze: what are you doing here?
Darth: waiting…
Vader: waiting for who?
Anakin: who are you?
Palpypie: mwahahahahaha
Darth: (slices Palpypie in half with his green lightsaber) him
Anakin: why did you do that?
Vader, Darth and Blaze: because he's an idiot
Anakin: well, okay then
Blaze: here's chapter 7 and I hope that you like it, reviews are much appreciated.
Nataly SkyPot: yo no habla mucho Español pero gracias por la comentario sobre esta historia, pero no tengo el tiempo para traducir sus comentarios en Español, lo siento.
Chapter 7
Anakin narrowed his eyes as he gazed through the viewport windows at the dull red and pale brown planet that lay in front of him. Charros IV floated in front of him, filling the viewports of the Republic cruiser. The cruiser wasn't that big but Anakin was able to come up with a way to fit Luke in the cockpit of the ship because it was a twin-piloted ship.
Luke was standing at Anakin's side, examining the planet that lay in front of him. "Is that Charros IV?" he asked.
"That's it," Obi-Wan replied. Anakin could still sense the shock in his former master's posture, though his voice masked it, ever since he learned that Anakin was a father in the future and that Luke was his son. But Obi-Wan was hiding his surprise so well that the only reason Anakin sense the surprise Obi-Wan was feeling was because of the Master/Apprentice bond between them.
"Doesn't look too eventful," Luke muttered a bit disdainfully.
"Well, it's still better than Tatooine," Anakin said smiling.
"That's true," Luke agreed.
Anakin glanced at the display screen set in the instrument panel as they neared the planet. "Landing coordinates coming in," he said.
Obi-Wan smiled, looking pleasantly surprised. "That will teach me not to be skeptical. In the past when we've been informed that Intelligence has done the advance work, I've found that to be anything but the case," he said.
Anakin laughed suddenly and Obi-Wan glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Something funny?" he asked.
"I was just thinking, Here you are again…"
Obi-Wan sighed, leaning back in his chair as though he was waiting for the rest of it.
"I only mean that, for someone with a reputation for hating space travel, you've certainly taken part in more than your share of exotic missions. Kamino, Geonosis, Ord Cestus…" Anakin replied.
"You hate flying?" Luke asked looking at Obi-Wan with surprise in his eyes.
Obi-Wan shrugged. "Depends," he replied to Luke before looking at Anakin and adding, "Let's just say that the war has prompted me to take a long view of things."
Anakin smiled. "Master Qui-Gon would have been proud of you."
"Don't be too sure."
Anakin frowned but he didn't ask what Obi-Wan meant by that last statement. Instead, he fell silent and left Obi-Wan with his thoughts for a long moment. "Do you think the Xi Char will talk with us?" he asked finally.
Obi-Wan blinked before swiveling around to face him. "They've every reason to be accommodating. After the Battle of Naboo, the Republic refused to do any business with them, for their having supplied the Neimoidians with proscribed weapons. They've been eager to atone ever since, especially now that their signature designs are being mass-produced more cheaply by Baktoid Armor and other Confederacy suppliers," he replied.
Anakin pursed his lips together in an expression of wariness. "I hope they won't hold it against us that I destroyed so many of their fighters," he said.
Luke glanced at him. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"During the Invasion of Naboo, I destroyed a lot of the fighters there," Anakin explained.
"And you were nine at the time," Obi-Wan added laughing shortly. "Let's hope your fame hasn't spread this far into the Outer Rim. But in fact, our success hinges almost entirely on whether TeeCee Sixteen can speak Xi Char as fluently as he claims."
"Master Kenobi, I assure you that I can speak the tongue almost as well as an indigenous Xi Charrian," the protocol droid chimed from where he was sitting beside Luke.
"Kind of reminds me of Threepio," Luke commented.
"You know Threepio?" Obi-Wan asked.
Luke nodded once in reply.
Anakin chuckled. "I built him, you know," he said.
Luke smiled slightly before taking on a slight pained expression. "Did you have to make him so annoying?" he complained.
Anakin laughed. "I was nine, it wasn't my fault," he said. "He's not that annoying, is he?"
Luke smiled. "Let's just say, he talks about a mile a minute," he replied.
TeeCee had fallen silent when Luke had begun speaking. He began speaking again when Luke fell silent. "My term of service to Viceroy Gunray demanded that I familiarize myself with the trader's tongues used by all the hive species, including the Xi Char, the Geonosians, the Colicoids, and many others. My fluency will ensure complete cooperation on the part of the Xi Char. Although I expect that they will be rather disgusted by my physical appearance," he said.
"Why's that?" Luke asked curiously.
"Devotion to precision technology forms the basis of Xi Char religious beliefs. They accept as a matter of faith that meticulous work is no different from prayer' indeed, their workshops have more in common with temples than facotories. When a Xi Charrian is injured, he goes into self-exile, so that others won't have to look upon his imperfections or deformities. A Xi Char adage has it that, 'The deity is in the details.'"
"Wear your flaws proudly, TeeCee," Anakin said raising and clenching his right hand. "I do mine."
"What do you mean?" Luke asked.
Anakin shrugged. "Dooku, when we first met, he sliced my right arm off," he replied gesturing to his right arm.
Luke frowned. "That's another thing we have in common," he said flexing his right hand.
"You got your arm sliced off too?" Anakin asked.
"Not my arm, my hand," Luke replied and Anakin narrowed his eyes when he sensed that Luke was keeping something from him. His electric blue eyes were narrowed and they seemed to have a slight haunted look to them.
"What's the matter, Luke?" Anakin asked as the Republic cruiser descended into Charros IV's ice-clouded atmosphere.
"Nothing," Luke murmured in reply.
Anakin narrowed his eyes but nodded before turning to watch as Obi-Wan gazed down through the viewport at the arid, almost treeless world. Anakin knew that the Xi Char lived on high plateaus, hemmed in by ranges of snowcapped mountains. Expansive black-water lakes dotted the landscape.
"A bleak planet," Obi-Wan commented.
"I'll still take this over Tatooine any day," replied Anakin.
"So would I," Luke agreed.
"I can think of far worse places to live than Tatooine," said Obi-Wan.
Anakin smiled slightly before glancing as the oval-shaped newly-built landing platform came into view and Anakin guided the cruiser to the platform.
"I'm certain that it was constructed specifically for us," TC-16 said. "That's why the Xi Char were unremitting in their requests to know the cruiser's exact dimensions."
"The Republic could use the Xi Char right about now," Anakin commented glancing at Obi-Wan as he set the cruiser down on its' broad disks of landing gear and extended the vessel's starboard boarding. Obi-Wan walked to the top of the boarding ramp with Anakin and Luke just behind him and TeeCee bringing up the rear.
A runner stood in front of them and on either side of the landing platform were hundreds of excited Xi Charrians. "Guess they don't get many guests," Anakin murmured.
"Looks like it," Luke agreed as he walked at his father's side. TeeCee walked to Obi-Wan's side as the four of them started down the ramp.
As was often the case, the Xi Char's technological creations mirrored their own anatomy and physiology. With their short, chitinous bodies, quartets of pointed legs, scissor-action feet, and teardrop-shaped heads, they might have been living versions of the shapeshifting droid fighters they had helped produce for the Trade Federation--inwalk/patrol mode, at any rate. The wild chitterings of the hundreds-strong mob of welcomers was so loud that Anakin had to raise his voice to be heard."
"Celebrity treatment! I think I'm going to enjoy this!"
"Just be sure to follow my lead, Anakin, and you too Luke," Obi-Wan said with a pointed glance at Luke as he added in a lower voice. "If you are anything like your father, you most likely won't listen to orders as it is."
"Don't worry, Master, we'll be fine," Anakin said putting his arm around Luke's shoulders though his eyes were glimmering with amusement.
The closer the Jedi and the protocol droid drew to the edge of the landing platform, the louder the chitterings became. Anakin wasn't sure what to make of the sheer eagerness he felt coming from the aliens. It was as if some sort of footrace were about to begin. Frequently, an individual Xi Charrian, carried away by enthusiasm, would leap onto the sleek runner, only to be yanked back into the crowd by others.
"TeeCee, are they normally so zealous?" Obi-Wan asked curiously, noticing the same thing that Anakin was noticing.
"Yes, Master Kenobi. But their zest has nothing to do with us. It's the ship."
Luke smiled slightly as they stepped off of the landing platform. "That would explain that," he said pointing to the Xi Charrians that surged forward and swarmed the curiser, covering it from flat-faced bow to barrel-thrustered stern. The three Jedi watched in awe as patches of carbon scoring disappeared, dents were straightened, pieces of superstructure were realigned and transparisteel viewports were polished."
"Let's remember to tip them when we leave," Anakin said and Luke laughed in reply to that.
Occasionally, a Xi Charrian would leap on TC-16 or make a grab for one of his limbs, but the droid was able to shake his assailants off. "In their eagerness to peret me, I'm afraid they'll wipe my memory!" the droid said.
"Would that be such a bad thing?" Luke asked.
"Especially after what you claim to have been through?" Anakin added.
"How can I be expected to learn from my mistakes if I can no longer remember them?" TeeCee protested.
They were halfway down the runner when a pair of larger Xi Charrians scurried out to meet them. TC-16 exchanged chitterings and stridulations with them, and explained.
"These two will take us to the Prelate."
"No weapons, that's a good sign," Anakin said quietly.
"The Xi Char are a peaceful species," the droid explained. "They care only about the engineering of a piece of technology, not its intended use. That was why they felt unjustly accused and harshly judged by the Republic for the part their droid fighters played in the Battle of Naboo."
Anakin narrowed his eyes as the enormous building TC-16 had called a workshop topped two hundred meters in height and was crowned with latticework spires and towers that evoked strains of eerie music from the steady wind. Arrays of tall skylights lit the vast interior space, in which thousands of Xi Charrians toiled. Arcades of exquisitely engraved columns supported a vaulted ceiling of exposed roof trusses, among which roosted several thousand more Xi Charrians, suspended by their scissor feet and humming contentedly.
"The night shift?" Anakin wondered out loud.
"The Prelate is going to ask for introductions. I know who you two are but I do not know who you are," TeeCee said quietly gesturing to Luke.
"I am Luke Skywalker," Luke replied.
"I do not think it would be wise to introduce you to him as a Skywalker, they could put two and two together and figure out that you are related to Anakin," Obi-Wan pointed out. "And I don't think news of someone related to Anakin should be spoken as lightly as it has been since we left Cato Neimoidia."
"He does have a point," Anakin said. "For all we know, there may be Separatists spies, not that the Xi Char will allow that to happen but they could be here for a reason that we don't know. And the Separatists don't like me at all."
"They don't like any of the Jedi," Obi-Wan pointed out. "I think he should be introduced as Luke Starkiller just to keep them, or any spies that may or may not be in the area, from putting two and two together."
"Very well," TeeCee said before leading the way after the pair of escorts that had drawn far ahead of them. Anakin, Obi-Wan and Luke hurried quickly after TeeCee to catch up with their escorts before they noticed they were missing.
They entered into a kind of chancery, whose tall doors opened on a spotless room that could have passed for the captain's cabin of a luxury space yacht. Occupying a throne-like chair in the center of the room was the largest Xi Charrian the Jedi have yet seen, being attended to by a dozen smaller ones. Elsewhere, groups of tool-wielding Xi Charrians were going over every square millimeter of the chamber, scrubbing, cleaning, polishing.
Without ceremony, TC-16 approached the prelate and tendered a greeting. The droid had tasked his vocoder to provide Obi-Wan, Anakin and Luke with simultaneous translations of his utterances.
"May I present Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Luke Starkiller," TeeCee said.
Waving away his retinue, the Prelate pivoted his long head to regard the three Jedi in front of him.
"TeeCee," Obi-Wan said, "tell him we're sorry to have disturbed him during his ablutions."
"You're not disturbing him, sir. The Prelate is attended to in similar fashion at all hours of the day."
The Prelate chittered.
"Excellency, I speak your language as a result of my former employment in the court of Viceroy Nute Gunray." The droid listened to the Prelate's response, then said: "Yes, I realize that does not endear me to you. But may I say in defense that my time among the Neimoidians was the most trying of my existence. To which my physical appearance surely attests, and is cause for my great shame."
Clearly mollified, the Prelate chittered again.
"These Jedi have come to seek permission from you to pose questions to a devotee in Workshop can-a certain t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak." TC-16 supplied the glottal stops and clicking sounds necessary to pronounce the name.
"A virtuoso engraver, to be sure, Excellency. As to the Jedi's interest in him, it is hoped that a work of art to which he devoted himself will provide a clue as to the current whereabouts of an important Separatists leader." The droid listened, then added: "And may I add that anything that brings joy to the Xi Char brings contentment to the Republic."
The Prelate's eye grooves found the Jedi again.
After a brief exchange, TC-16 said, "The lightsabers are not weapons. But if permission to speak with t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak rests on their surrendering the lightsabers, then I'm certain they will comply.
Obi-Wan was already reaching for his lightsaber but both Anakin and Luke looked dubious.
"You did say you two would follow my lead," Obi-Wan pointed out.
"To be fair, we said we would try," Luke said but he and Anakin relented and handed their lightsabers over to TC-16 who presented them to the Prelate for inspection.
"It hardly surprises me that you see room for improvement, Excellency," the droid said after a moment. "But then, what tool coud fail to benefit from the touch of the Xi Charrian?" He listened, then added: "I'm certain that the Jedi know you will honor your pledge to leave the imperfections intact."
~*~
"Where will we stay when we reach Coruscant?" Leia asked curiously as she and Han stood behind Yoda and the Intelligence analysts Dyne as they flew the Republic cruiser to the capitol of the Republic.
"If you want my opinion, Master Yoda, there may be a spot in the Senate Apartment Complex," Dyne said.
"Stay with a senator you two may," Yoda said. "Perhaps Senator Amidala, allow you to stay with her for a while she may."
"Amidala?" Leia echoed. She remembered hearing the name during the time she stayed with Bail Organa on Alderaan before the planet was destroyed. She didn't know much about the senator but she did know that she was one of the best Nabooian senators known. "Would we really get the honor of meeting Senator Amidala?"
"Yes you may," Yoda said. "Meet her you shall if agree to house you she does."
"How much longer until we reach Coruscant?" Han asked curiously.
"Three days it shall take us to reach the Coruscant," replied Yoda.
"Oh okay," Han replied.
Yoda chuckled. "Not used to the Republic ways are you?" he asked.
"Well, where we come from, the Republic doesn't exist," Han replied.
"Strange that is," the little green dwarf said. "Knew from the future you came but know the Republic didn't exist I did not."
"Yes, as far as I can tell, it ended around the same time I was born," Leia said.
Yoda nodded his little green head. "Reach Coruscant soon we will and speak with Senator Amidala I shall," he said.
Leia and Han nodded and the two of them turned their attention to the stars that flashed outside. "I wonder how Luke is doing," Leia murmured.
Han pursed his lips together. "The Kid can take care of himself, look how much he got himself into just to save me," he said.
Leia smiled before chuckling. "That is true," she agreed before she looked at Han. "I love you."
"I know, I love you too," Han muttered in reply.
Leia smiled and the two of them kissed as the Republic's Intelligence cruiser made its' way back to the capitol of the Republic.
~*~
Luke found himself surrounded on all sides by Xi Charrians but he couldn't seem to find the one that they were looking for. TeeCee, Anakin and Obi-Wan seemed to have know for their attention was on a Xi Char that was engrossed in engraving a corporate logo into a piece of starship console. Dozens of yet-to-be-completed pieces walled him in on one side' completed pieces were on the other. When TeeCee called his name, he glanced up from his work.
"t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th-ak, first allow me to say that your works is of such exceptional quality that the deities themselves must be covetous," TeeCee said.
The Xi Charrian accepted the compliment in humility and chittered a response.
"We appreciate the offer to watch you at work. But in fact, we are not unacquainted with some of your finer pieces, and it is because of one piece in particular that we have journeyed so far to speak with you. An example that recently came to light on Cato Neimoidia."
Luke noticed the Xi Charrian took a long moment to respond.
"A mechno-chair you adorned for the Trade Federation viceroy, Nute Gunray, some fourteen standard years ago." TC-16 listened, then added: "But surely it was yours, for the inner portion of the rear leg bears your devotional symbol." Again he listened. "A Baktoid forgery? Are you suggesting that your work could so easily be imitated?"
Luke glanced around to find that Xi Charrians that were working nearby were beginning to take a keen interest in the conversation. He nudged Anakin who glanced over his shoulder before nudging Obi-Wan to let him know about what was happening around them.
"We understand your reluctance to discuss such matters," TC-16 was saying quietly when they tuned back into the conversation. "Why, the very fact that you autographed a piece could be interpreted by the Prelate as a statement of pride."
T'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak's anger was apparent.
"Well, of course, you should be proud. But should the Prelate learn that the piece has for all these years resided with a personage such as Viceroy Gunray--"
Without another chitter, the Xi Charrian let go of his tools and launched himself from his work pallet--not at TC-16 or either of the Jedi, but straight up into the web of overhead girders. Ignoring indignant squeals from the rudely awakened Xi Charrians, he began to leap from one girder to the next, clearly determined to reach one of the tall skylights that perforated the roof.
Luke narrowed his eyes as the Xi Charrian leapt away. But we need to know who asked him to make this mechno-chair. Perhaps that will help us to find this Sidious person, he thought. He knew he wasn't set back in time to help the Jedi solve every problem but if he could find out if Sidious is the person he thinks it is then he can stop his father from turning to the dark side, if what he suspects is true.
"I don't think he wants to speak with us," Obi-Wan said.
Before Anakin could say anything, Luke used the Force to leap in pursuit of the Xi Charrian.
"Luke!" Anakin yelled leaping after him as Luke hurried after the Xi Charrian.
"Anakin, Luke, wait!" Obi-Wan called. "Oh what's the use?" he added in a lower voice that Luke was able to hear as he ran after the Xi Charrian with his father just behind him.
t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak was trying to squirm through a partially opened roof window when Luke and Anakin caught up with him, Obi-Wan was somewhere behind them.
The Xi Charrian's insectile forelegs were already outside the window when Luke grabbed the Xi Char in an effort to return him to the floor. Anakin grabbed his other side and between the two of them, they struggled to pull both of them down.
"Force, he's stronger than he looks," Luke said.
"Yes he is," Anakin agreed as both of them struggled to cling on as t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak leapt for a higher window, taking Anakin and Luke with him.
"Come on, Luke, we can do this together," Anakin called to his son.
"I'm too light to bring him down even with your help," Luke called back.
"Reach out with the Force, push against the roof that t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak is reaching for," Anakin said.
Luke did as he was told and he, Anakin, and t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak suddenly found themselves flying to the ground, taking at least thirty inverted Xi Charrians with them.
Obi-Wan leapt to the ground after them, landing just behind t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak and grabbing hold of him before the Xi Char could run off. "Are you two all right?" he asked.
"Been better," Luke muttered pushing himself off of the floor. "Anakin, are you all right?"
"Just bruised," Anakin muttered getting to his feet and narrowing his eyes as blasterfire erupted in the workshop, and into the midst of the throng of infuriated Xi Char appeared the Prelate himself, seated on a litter carried by six bearers and grasping a weapon in each foot. Each weapon was pointed at Luke, Anakin, Obi-Wan and t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak.
Twenty Xi Charrians flattened themselves to the floor as the Prelate brought the blasters to bear on Obi-Wan, Anakin and Luke. Before a bolt could be fired, TC-16 appeared from a side gallery, his body realigned and polished to a dazzling luster, shouting: "Look what they've done to me!"
Luke, in spite of the seriousness of this situation, couldn't help but chuckle and Anakin chuckled as well until Obi-Wan glared at them and they fell silent. The droid's tone of voice combined with anguish and wonder but the change in him was so unexpected and remarkable that the Prelate and his bearers could only gape, as if a miracle occurred in their midst. A babble of chitterings was exchanged, before the Prelate swung back to Obi-Wan, Anakin, Luke and t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak, raising the blasters once more.
"But they meant no harm, Excellency," the droid intervened hurrying forward. "t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak fled in response to their questions! Master Obi-Wan, Jedi Skywalker and Jedi Starkiller sought merely to ascertain the reason."
The Prelate's gaze singled out t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak, who was still being held by Obi-Wan.
TC-16 translated. "Master, Kenobi, the Prelate advises you to pose your questions and to leave Charros IV before he has a change of heart."
Obi-Wan gave t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak to Anakin who held him before he looked at the Xi Char. "Ask him if he remembers the chair."
TC-16 relayed the questions before listening at the reply. "He remembers it now," the droid replied.
"Of course, he remembers now," Luke muttered.
"Indeed," Anakin agreed.
"Was the engraving done here?" Obi-Wan asked throwing Anakin and Luke a warning glance and father and son fell silent.
"He answers, 'yes sir.'" TeeCee replied.
"Was the chair brought to Charros four by the Neimoidians or by another?"
"He says, sir: "By another.'"
Obi-Wan and Anakin exchanged eager glances and Anakin let go of t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak before asking, "Was the hyperwave transceiver already affixed to it?"
TC-16 listened to t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak chittered response. "Both transceiver and the holoprojector itself were already affixed to the chair. He says that he did little but inscribe the legs of the chair and tweak some of its' motion systems." Lowering his voice, he added: "May I sa, sirs, that t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak's voice is…quavering. I suspect that he is hiding something."
"He's afraid," Luke murmured.
"And not of Nute Gunray," Anakin added.
Luke watched as Obi-Wan turned to look at TC-16. "Ask him who made the transceiver. Ask him where it was shipped from," he said.
t'laalak-s'lalak-t'th'ak chitterings sounded contrite as he replied to the question.
TC-16 listened before looking at Obi-Wan, Anakin and Luke. "The transceiver unit arrived from a facility known as Escarte. He believes that the device's maker is still there."
"Escarte?" Anakin asked.
"What's that?"
"An asteroid mining facility," TC-16 explained, "belonging to the Commerce Guild."
A/n what do you think?
Blaze: that was chapter 7
Darth: are you going to start chapter 8 soon
Blaze: yup
Darth: that's cool
Blaze: (hands Darth a cappuccino the size of the Death Star)
Darth: YAY!
Palpypie: don't mind if I do (takes cappuccino)
Darth: (ignites lightsaber)
Chewbacca: (pulls out crossbow)
Luke: (ignites lightsaber)
Anakin: (ignites lightsaber)
Han: (pulls out blaster)
Leia: (pulls out blaster)
Blaze: (pulls out candy sword) attack!
Palpypie: Ahhhhhh! (Runs away)
Blaze: (puts away candy sword and laughs) please review and I'll post chapter 8 as soon as I possibly can but I doubt it will be anytime soon.
