Obi-Wan sat wakeful on his bed, legs crossed in a meditative position. It took him a while to clear his mind of his frustration with Will and Deanna's misunderstanding of his situation. He wished he could have gone to Lansar with them himself. But of course he couldn't: he must be easily recognizable there, after all the times his arena matches had been broadcast on the 'vids. And he still needed to prepare a defense against Xanatos' arrival in force.
He was running out of time, he could sense it: Will and Deanna's excursion this morning on the planet's surface had only brought Xanatos closer to finding them. Obi-Wan had to put the pieces of his plan into motion, and quickly. He needed to finish his new lightsaber.
He'd finish it tonight.
Certain in his decision, Obi-Wan slipped under the blanket on his bed, lying down to rest and wait until Deanna was gone and Will gone asleep. He closed his eyes and stretched out with his feelings. A gentle presence that must be Deanna was just leaving, passing briskly away towards the heart of Enterprise's saucer section. Will's bright flame approached Obi-Wan's door. Obi-Wan slowed his breathing. When Will peered in at him, the light of the living area behind illuminated a boy relaxed and motionless, apparently deep in slumber. The door closed; Will passed to his own sleeping area. A half hour passed. Finally Will's presence blurred into sleep.
Obi-Wan waited a half hour more, his spirit awash in the life of the ship around him, as most of the many sparks it carried settled in for shipboard night. At last the boy swung his feet to the floor. In darkness he padded silently to the desk where he kept the parts of his new lightsaber. From the pocket of his jacket, hung by the door, he fished the two replicated Adegan crystals, transferring them to the pocket of his bathrobe, which he pulled on over his pajamas.
All was quiet in the hall, lights dimmed to half for night. Open to the Force, Obi-Wan could feel no one up and stirring in the halls; still he walked with caution, for he did not wish to be stopped or hindered in his quest, and his presence alone in the halls at this time would certainly arouse any crewmember's curiosity. Five levels down; Obi-Wan used the utility ladders rather than the turbolifts so as to better avoid wandering eyes. Finally he reached the hall of mineral samples.
After some consideration, Obi-Wan had chosen a lightsaber design that would make use of one rather than two Adegan crystals. Though a single crystal would limit the saber's functionality to a constant blade length - two would have allowed him to adjust the blade length - that small sacrifice in function bought him a day or more in time he would have needed to build in the extra functionality: time he could not afford. So when he found the bin of Adegan crystals, Obi-Wan traded only one of the replicated crystals for its original.
Now for the difficult part: time to fuse his lightsaber into a working whole. He needed to do so in a place where he would not be easily found or disturbed; somewhere he could sink into a working trance for as long as necessary. All day, touring the ship, he had kept his eyes open for such a place; now he turned his attention to reaching the secluded spot he had chosen. It was not far. A few turns and one level down, and he reached it: the ship's main gardens.
He wound his way through plants and trees, to the heart of the great room. As in the rest of this area of the ship, the lights here had been dimmed; only the guide-lights that curved around the edges of the chamber of the room were lit. The great full-spectrum lights that, during ship's day-shifts, filled the room with the brightness of a planet's day-cycle, were dark: to give the plants their nocturnal rest. Beneath the quiet of the greenery all was dim as a wood in moonlight. Obi-Wan slipped from the main path, stepping on stones and roots to avoid leaving a trail in the soft loam with his bare feet. Finally he reached a spot, deep among the sheltering bushes, where he could sit for a time at peace. Water flowed close by: a trickle of a stream over rounded stones: part of the garden's irrigation system, fashioned with a care and eye to aesthetics that Obi-Wan had found was typical of Enterprise. It reminded him of the gardens at the Temple, in a way both alien and home-like, that filled him with sadness and longing and comfort all at once. Some day, Force willing, he would return to the Temple, to the life he was meant to live. For now he had a task before him.
He slipped easily into a Force-trance, helped by the green life that surrounded him. Legs crossed beneath him, seated at the foot of a small tree, the parts of his unfinished 'saber in his lap, he let himself sink deeper. His hands would know what to do. He must join with the Force to be certain the task was done correctly. There was no way else to properly align an Adegan crystal in its housing: no machine could meld crystal and components into an elegant whole. To try this task without the Force's guidance would not only be fruitless but dangerous: the entire assembly would most likely explode spectacularly the first time it was activated. Slowly Obi-Wan let go his consciousness, trusting in the Force.
-
With light came wakefulness, slowly, as the light grew slowly. Obi-Wan relaxed in the growing brightness, letting go his dreams, as he had all the days of his childhood, with lights in all the rooms of the Temple cycling from the dimness of dawn to the intensity of the morning sun streaming in through a window. Of course, none of the Jedi children's quarters actually had windows: the massive Temple was built on populous Coruscant after all, where space for windows was difficult to come by.
But something was strange, here: these were not the scents or sounds of his own quarters. The air was rich with the scent of earth; the room echoed with rustling and soft voices. For a moment only, he wrestled with disorientation. Then, as memory of the past weeks rushed back to him, he opened his eyes.
He was lying on the dirt beneath a tree, in the Enterprise gardens: he must have fallen asleep, exhausted, when he finished his meditation. Before him lay his lightsaber, whole and complete. He heard voices approaching: anxious voices. Worf's deep tones were easy to identify. Quickly Obi-Wan picked up his new 'saber and tucked it into a deep pocket of his robe. Just in time.
"There he is," called Worf in a calm voice. Light footfalls and the rustling of bushes heralded their arrival: Deanna and Will, both looking anxious. Obi-Wan, still curled up on the ground, looked up at them, not needing to feign sleepiness. He was still tired out from the night's endeavor.
"What are you doing here, Ben?" Deanna fussed.
Will said, almost at the same time, "Have you been here all night?" Together the two officers pulled him gently to his feet. Obi-Wan rubbed his eyes and shook out his cramped muscles while they brushed him off. Deanna looked like she was wrestling with some decision. Her eyes crinkled when she looked at him. She was worried about him. Obi-Wan dropped his eyes, embarrassed. He had not wanted to worry anyone, least of all these two. He should never have fallen asleep last night after he finished.
"Ben, did we upset you last night?" Will asked quietly. Deanna raised a hand to him as though to stop him, then seemed to think better of it and let it drop. Obi-Wan looked up at Will, troubled. He had been upset last night, at least at first, but...
"Do you want to move to Dr. Crusher's quarters?"
The question took him completely by surprise. He shook his head in a vigorous no, then bit his lip, seeing Will's honest concern for his well-being.
"I'm sorry, Ben. I wish we could talk this over. I really don't know what to do to help you right now."
Obi-Wan shrugged, trying to let them know that there was nothing he thought they could do. No one wanted more than he that he could talk again. Until his voice came back to him, he was on his own.
"Commander -" Worf called out.
"We'll be right there, Lieutenant," Deanna called back.
"Just - please don't leave our quarters like that without letting me know, okay?"
Obi-Wan nodded. For now he'd do his best to avoid alarming his temporary guardians. For as long as he could manage it, anyway.
-
"Commander." Worf quietly held Will back as Deanna and Ben disappeared into his quarters. Will turned to face him, letting the door slide closed.
"Yes, Lieutenant Worf?"
The Klingon, normally self-assured, paused, looking strangely ill-at-ease. "Sir, as security chief it concerns me that Ben is wandering the ship unsupervised. He is, as yet, an alien of unknown and apparently unknowable intention."
"He's only a boy, Lieutenant."
"A boy who is well-trained and extraordinarily skilled in the martial arts. A boy who wandered six decks and a considerable distance from his quarters last night without being seen."
"His history as a slave, Lieutenant..."
"He does not act as a slave would, not as you described slave behavior on the planet."
"When I asked he let me know he had only been enslaved a short while."
"Then where, and why, did he learn to fight so well? He must have been training intensely for most of his young life to be so skilled. And another thing - what is the heavy object he is carrying in the pocket of his robe? He touched it several times during our walk here, and let his hand hover over it as though to protect it, or to keep it from our sight."
Will frowned. Though he could not help but feel that Worf was overreacting, it was the security chief's job to be careful. His concerns could not be dismissed. "I don't know what he's carrying: perhaps the device he's been making with Wes. If you like, I can arrange for him to be supervised outside of our quarters while I'm on duty."
"That won't prevent him from wandering the ship at night."
Will thought for a moment. "I can set the door to inform me when he exits or enters our quarters, and we can have him carry a padd, to make it easy to track him down."
Worf nodded. "Thank you Commander, it will ease my mind to know you are taking those precautions."
"Thank you for your help this morning, Worf."
"Of course, sir." The burly Klingon nodded respectfully, and left.
Will went to his quarters, bemused by the Klingon's concern. Ben and Deanna were just setting food on the table for breakfast. The boy was already dressed. Will joined them.
"Your nocturnal wandering has Worf concerned, Ben." The boy glanced up at him, looking embarrassed. Well, it was good to know he valued the good opinion of others. Will pressed on. "He asked that you not leave our quarters unaccompanied. I won't have time this morning to arrange for you to stay with someone; will you agree to remain here until I return, or until Wes comes for you?"
Ben's face fell, but he nodded.
"All right then. I'll see about arranging something more interesting for tomorrow. In the meantime, you still have tools from Wesley for your projects, right?"
The boy nodded, and forced a smile.
