Chapter 7. When One Door Opens, Another One Closes
"Senator Amidala, I hope this discussion has addressed your concerns about the Officer Training Academy Bill. If our reverend Jedi Masters are in agreement that this is the best path to take, and if it will ease their heavy burden of having to supply commanders for our troops, then surely you can have no further objections?" The Supreme Chancellor spoke with the greatest warmth and kindness.
Padmé's stomach still was tied in knots, as it had been during the entire meeting. She was beginning to wonder whether she was losing her grip. In the past it had never been difficult to think clearly. Now she constantly was hearing things one way and feeling them another way. She looked around at the others who were seated at the Chancellor's massive desk. Masters Windu and Mundi were as impenetrable as ever. Master Yoda kept watching her and making her thoroughly uncomfortable. The Chancellor was exactly as he had always been, but she nevertheless was reacting to him in odd ways without knowing why. Bail Organa was the only comforting presence in the room, except he was firmly in favor of the proposed legislation and she had the distinct feeling he was annoyed with her.
There was no doubt about the way she felt. No doubt at all. Padmé had serious concerns about putting the amount of resources that were under discussion into a training academy for military officers. It was going to be huge, and its reach would cover the Galaxy. As conceived in this draft of the bill it would turn out far more trained military personnel than were needed at present, even under war conditions.
But the Jedi were supporting it. Padmé was alone in arguing that the bill, in its present scope, was the first step toward the development of a massive military hierarchy that would supersede the sovereign military forces of the member planets. And yet the Jedi seemed to see nothing wrong with that. Why?
"I'm curious," Padmé said, "what role your Graces see for the Jedi Order in the future that this proposed legislation describes."
Mace Windu fixed her with a level look. "Role, Senator? I'm not sure what you mean. The role of the Jedi Order will remain the same it always has been. To ensure peace in the Galaxy."
Padmé had to hold on to herself tightly not to retort out loud, well, you haven't done a very good job recently, have you? Instead she behaved herself and said only, "I ask because the development of a very large military force reporting to the Senate easily might end up assuming some of your traditional roles."
"Perhaps you are reading too much into this," the Chancellor intervened smoothly. "We are only talking about making certain that we have trained officers to command our armies. You must admit that our need is grave, and immediate."
"I am asking what comes after," Padmé persisted. "You, Chancellor, have vowed that you will lay down your emergency powers as soon as the crisis is over. What will happen to this Academy, and to the tens of thousands it will have trained, at that time? The Senate will no longer need an army then." She looked pointedly at the Jedi Masters who sat in the plush red office so implacably in their modest robes. "Suppose the Senate sees fit to retain a standing Army of the Republic and have it take over the peacekeeper role?"
"What are you suggesting, Senator?" Master Mundi asked sharply. "That the Order no longer has a place in the Galaxy?"
"No, Master Mundi, not at all," Padmé cut in quickly. Can you not hear what I am saying? Listen to me! "I am saying that there is a danger the Order might find itself pushed out of its place."
There was a very deep silence in the room.
"Padmé," Bail said uncomfortably, "I think you are carrying your concerns too far. If what you outline were the case the rest of us in this room surely would not be in agreement on this bill."
"No, no, Senator Organa, Senator Amidala is right," Palpatine said smoothly. "As always she serves as our conscience and our constant reminder of our love for democracy and freedom that underlies all that we do."
He smiled warmly at her, making her stomach lurch.
What is wrong with me? Padmé thought.
"I suggest you take on this bill, Senator Amidala, as I have asked you to do from the beginning. Take it on. Build in whatever safeguards you must. But then let's get it passed, so that we can finally relieve our Jedi brethren of their heavy burden."
There may not be enough safeguards in the entire Galaxy for this one, Padmé thought. And he knows it.
"Please, Padmé," said Bail. "It's time to move forward with this."
Padmé's head told her that the bill was safer in her hands than in someone else's, and so she agreed. Her feelings continued to tell her that there was far more to it than met the eye. She was beginning to get a headache.
Palpatine settled back with an air of relief. "Well, another piece of good work done. Thank you for joining use, your Graces." The Jedi stood to take their leave and everyone else stood with them.
"Tell me Master Windu," Padmé heard the Chancellor ask as they strolled across the spacious office toward the door. "How is my young friend Skywalker? I haven't seen him since before he accompanied Senator Amidala back to Naboo. Is he away on a mission?"
Padmé froze, listening, but tried to do it in a casual way.
"He is well, thank you, Chancellor," Mace said formally. "He is here on Coruscant."
"Ah," said the Chancellor. "I enjoy watching his progress. Is he close to achieving his Knighthood yet?"
"Not yet," said Master Windu briefly, turning to go.
"Such a fine young man," the Chancellor said. "And such skills! He did a remarkable job in that unfortunate encounter with the D'laians." He turned back to Padmé. "Didn't he, Senator?"
Padmé wondered what he was playing at. The Jedi were notably silent on the subject. Well, she thought. I might as well play, too.
She looked up and raised her chin. "He saved our lives," she said. "He saved us all."
"Indeed he did," Palpatine went on, warming to his subject. "He saw straight through the D'laian's duplicity and gave us the vital information we needed to secure that Sector." The Chancellor beamed at the Jedi Masters. "He is a real credit to you."
All three Jedi Masters maintained their stony silence.
Padmé glowered a bit, thinking about the military force that now swarmed over Naboo.
"I was wondering," the Chancellor persisted, "whether you might consider making him available to me at some point soon." He paused and made a courteous half-bow in Mace's direction. "If it does not interfere with his other duties, of course. There are some pressing matters he could help me with greatly."
Padmé turned her back to them and gazed unseeingly out the window.
"What matters?" Mace's voice was a bland and carefully modulated as always, but Padmé could have sworn she sensed concern. "Do you require protection?"
The Chancellor shrugged. "I have more security than I know what to do with. No, it's not a bodyguard I need. I have something with a bit more scope in mind." He looked earnestly at each of the Jedi Masters in turn. "In truth no one turns out better tactical thinkers than Your Graces. I desperately need someone who can help me solve some pressing problems having to do with overall Senate security."
One of the great pleasures of forming complex plans, thought Palpatine, was watching them take on a momentum of their own. Without Anakin's stunning initiative and skill in performing the Life-Force Transference, he would not now be in a position to stand before these members of the Jedi Council asking them to part with their finest jewel. A jewel on which they seemed unable to place any value.
And they would agree. He had foreseen it.
He looked around at the venerable Jedi Masters who held the Order's fate in their hands. Fools, he thought. Blind Fools. They stand here saying nothing. They should fight me for him!
"I would be most grateful for our young friend's assistance," he crooned with an air of the deepest humility. "The Jedi Order turns out the finest strategic minds and the most skilled warriors in the Galaxy. Staff of many talents surrounds me, but there is no one who combines these skills in the way that your Graces make possible with your superb training. The help of such a one would aid greatly in my struggle to end this terrible conflagration in which we find ourselves."
Bail was turning to leave and Padmé put her hand on his arm to keep him there. She was straining to listen to the conversation between Palpatine and the Jedi, but did not want to appear too eager.
"Let's walk back together when they are finished," she whispered, making it look as though she were trying to give the other conversation some privacy. "We can talk a bit more on the way."
Bail nodded and joined her at the window, thinking his own thoughts as he looked out upon the streams of traffic far below.
"Would not an experienced Knight be more useful to you?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked, speaking up for the first time.
Palpatine spread his hands out before him palms up, as if indicating their recent discussion. "There are none to spare. I know this better than anyone. That is why I thought of young Anakin. He is not a Knight and would not be needed for a command position, but he has all the skills to be of assistance to me." He allowed a little pause to go by. "To the Republic."
Mace Windu fixed the Chancellor with a flinty gaze. "What tasks do you have in mind for Skywalker?"
"They are almost too numerous to mention," the Chancellor sighed with the air of a leader who is being beleaguered by annoying details. "To begin with, the Senate's own security Forces are badly in need of re-structuring and re-training. We don't have a cohesive contingency plan in case of attack by terrorists. Each of the delegations brings its own security force to the capital but the lines of authority between those forces and Senate security are unclear and the source of daily, time-wasting friction." He stopped. "Shall I go on?"
"No thank you, Chancellor. We understand." Mace contemplated the supreme leader of the Galaxy in silence for a while. "And you believe that Skywalker can be of assistance to you in solving these problems?"
"Without a doubt, Your Grace. I need someone who is both bold and creative in his thinking, and fearless in his actions."
Every single Council member both in this room and back at the Temple thought that Anakin did indeed have those qualities. It was what he did with them that caused the worry.
"He would work under my personal supervision, of course," Palpatine went on smoothly. "I can teach him the subtleties of Senate politics quite quickly. And if he experiences any difficulties, he can come directly to me. He would have the authority of my office behind him." The Chancellor allowed his face to brighten, as if he had just thought of something. "I will serve as his mentor. And I will report back to you on his progress regularly."
Padmé thought that she was going to stop breathing soon. The idea of having Anakin out of the Temple and working here in the Senate building completely blotted out the discomfort she felt around Palpatine lately.
She felt, rather than saw, Master Yoda's eyes on her.
They won't want to let him do this with me here. My presence is a constant threat.
To Bail Organa's complete surprise, Padmé took his arm in both hands and demonstratively pulled him over to the other group to take her leave of them. She still was leaning on his arm in a very friendly way as they walked across the office and out the door. To keep him from commenting on her unexpected behavior, she kept him engaged in a very serious discussion about the Officer Training Academy Bill all the way to her office.
The less they saw of her, she thought, the better.
* * * * *
"Oh, no," Lon Erian groaned out loud. "It can't be. This has to be a mistake."
Anakin grinned at him, waving a data pad in his hand. "Afraid not, Lon. Saber Master Class. Final rankings. I'm teaching." He pointed to the list on the pad. "See? It says it right here."
Lon tasted bitter gall. That meant Skywalker was empowered to approve his Saber Master qualification. Whatever happened, it was going to be his signature on the final document.
It was too much to bear.
"I thought you were teaching the young ones?"
"I finished with that. I just have to clean up this lot." He waved his hand to indicate the nine other young adult Padawans who were milling around the training room, stretching and chatting.
"I want another teacher present on grounds of extreme prejudice."
"Don't worry, Lon," Anakin said kindly. "The competition matches are all juried. My job is to make sure you're qualified to enter them."
Lon groaned again.
"So…Lon," Anakin asked, all solicitous concern. "How's your wrist?"
Lon had enough sense not to say what he was thinking out loud, but Anakin picked up the feeling behind it perfectly well and laughed.
He loved being in charge.
Calling the class to order Anakin made them go straight through five basic forms just to see what he was dealing with in terms of balance, strength and grace. They were all pretty good, as they ought to be by this level.
As usual Anakin made them go through several forms in his personal triple-slow motion style. There were groans all around. Predictably enough he quickly picked out a number of weaknesses that had been hidden by the momentum of the faster forms. Lon had a noticeable imbalance between his right and left arms. The problem seemed to originate in his shoulders and upper back. His wrist seemed fine.
Anakin decided that picking Lon out to work with first was asking for trouble, so he paired them all off and set them to sparring while he assisted one pair at a time. Over the next two hours he worked his way through the whole class, systematically identifying weak points and offering methods for curing them. Finally he couldn't delay the inevitable any longer, and moved over to Lon. He was sparring with V'ar again.
There wasn't much advice he could offer V'ar. She was brilliant, as always. Maybe just a little slow on the attack sometimes…but he couldn't figure out why.
"Come and spar with me for a minute," he suggested to her. He needed another look.
Lon glowered off to the side.
"There's nothing wrong with V'ar's style," he said pointedly.
"I never said there was," Anakin said, without taking his eyes off his partner. They both began with the same stance. V'ar lunged with her usual aggressiveness only to find that, wherever her blade went, Anakin's was there already. He felt her pause. "Go on," he encouraged. His intentions were purely diagnostic. She attacked again and they fought for a few more moves.
There was nothing wrong with her style. It was her thinking. Anakin called a halt and puzzled about how to put into words something that he could feel and perceive in the Force, but could find no physical equivalent for.
Anakin's continued meditation sessions with Master Yoda had begun to give him a different perspective on the Force. Before it always had been something he used, like a tool. Something that he reached for or into when he needed it. Now he gradually was beginning to feel the Force as something he lived inside of - something that was no different from himself. When he thought about something or reached for something or moved through space he was doing it as though he was the Force - and therefore there were no limits on his thought or his movement. There were only limits if one believed there were. He himself was the Force.
Belief. That was the key.
"Try imagining that your blade has already arrived at its destination before you begin to move," Anakin suggested to V'ar. "See it there. The blade will follow."
Lon made a disgusted noise by the side.
V'ar ignored him. She wanted to learn to move like Anakin. They tried a few more patterns and soon V'ar found herself arriving at her destination at almost the same time Anakin did. She grinned widely.
"Amazing," she said. "Thank you."
Anakin smiled back. "Just trust yourself," he said. "You won't have any more trouble." He turned to Lon, who was of course glaring at him.
"Let me show you something," Anakin said, as a teacher.
"There is nothing you can show me," Lon growled, as an adversary.
"Come on, Lon," said Anakin reasonably. "This is just a class. There's nothing more to it than that."
"You have no business teaching a class," Lon said in a low and dangerous voice. "You have no business teaching anyone. Especially the kids." He glared at Anakin. "I know what you said to Gren. You told her to fight by imagining that her opponent is the one who betrayed and killed her Master." There was a ripple of murmurs among the Padawans closest to them who had heard him. "That's just wrong."
Anakin looked at him silently. There was obviously more to come.
The rest of the class had gotten wind of something going on and went suddenly quiet.
"I know that you leave the Temple almost every night and don't come back until dawn. I know it and so do a lot of other people. The threshold sentinels see you come and go all the time. You pretend that you're following all the rules, and then you go and do exactly as you please. As far as I'm concerned you are not to be trusted. Believe me when I say that there is nothing…but nothing…that I want to learn from you."
Anakin took a good look around the training room at all of the expectant faces. Then he looked back into Lon's eyes and ignited his lightsaber. The collective gasp that rippled around the room told him even more than Lon's tirade had done about how he was seen in the Temple.
They fully expected him to use it on Lon.
"You have an imbalance between your arms that originates from your shoulders," Anakin said coolly to Lon after a long silence. "I am offering to help you correct it by sparring with you. I can teach you how to overcome it."
When Lon didn't move or answer right away Anakin took a step closer to him, his blade still humming in the hushed room. "If you want to carry this further and go head to head with me I will. Outside. But you need to understand something. You need to understand that you have everything to lose. I, on the other hand, have nothing left to lose. The choice is yours."
Lon finally turned on his heel and left the room, closing the door behind him. Anakin disengaged his lightsaber with the gut feeling that a similar door had closed somewhere inside of him.