Legacy III
Chapter 14
"This isn't very comfortable," Zhoa complained, mildly.
Obi-Wan released a short breath and wriggled his left toes, wondering why he had agreed to this bantha-brained arrangement. "Another reason to hate flying," he replied.
The Nautolan padawan giggled and squirmed herself into an even more cramped position. Effectively wedged into the all but non-existent space between Obi-Wan's knees and the Delta's console, she would have put many a professional contortionist to shame. Her weight, however, still threatened to cut off circulation to his feet.
"Did Master really have to take Premier Mynn back himself? I mean, couldn't he just get a shuttle?"
The Phoeeban prime minister had usurped Zhoa's special jumpseat behind Feld in the other fighter; the loss of her privileged position in the double cockpit seemed to provoke a special kind of resentment.
"You aren't attached to that particular seat, are you, Zhoa?"
He could only see the top of her headtails; these dusked to a mottled olive.
"Padawan."
Slim shoulders drooping, the young Jedi confessed in a mortified whisper. "I'm hiding a pet under the acceleration cushion."
Happily,she could not see his grin – and he was far too adept at shielding to give himself away. "Pets are forbidden, Zhoa. Which you must know, or else you would not be hiding one."
"It was just an accident!" the girl protested. "He was inside my cloak and I didn't notice until too late and he's very nice, he's a drassil lizard and he has such a beautiful fringe, it sticks up when he's excited and he has a very nice pink tongue and he's ever so handsome. And smart, too. And he only looks fierce- he's very gentle on the inside. I can tell, in the Force."
"Oh?"
"You would like him, Master Obi-Wan. He's just like you."
"I see." They broke free of the gravitational well and made for clear space, where the hyperdrive rings awaited. "All the same, you are going to tell your master about this stowaway of yours, and then the two of you will find him a suitable new environment. Besides, you may think he's cute now but he'll grow to be a pest, given enough time. Pathetic life forms are like that."
Zhoa's dubiety leaked across her amateurish shields, but he ignored it. She would learn in time – adoption seldom paid. A cynical smirk briefly graced his features. One had only to make the acquaintance of Master Pertha – or his nefarious junior consort, Master Jinn – to grasp the truth of this adage.
"Master? I was just thinking. It must truly have been the will of the Force that the Nemoidinas' cargo holds malfunctioned just when they did…. I mean, that automatic jettison provided just the perfect solution to the problem at hand!"
Obi-Wan's brows rose very delicately. "Indeed it did."
"But… how did you and my master know that would happen? Or did you? And if you didn't, then how were you sure? I mean, you seemed so confident you could settle the dispute, but without that coincidence… oh. Sorry."
"There is no such thing as coincidence, Zhoa."
"I know, but… but… what about my other point?"
The young Knight opened his ship to ship comm. Frequency and hailed the remaining members of the squadron. "A very wise acquaintance of mine is fond of saying that a solution will present itself; it behooves a Jedi therefore merely to be patient and listen."
"So… you were waiting and listening to the Force, when we were negotiating with the Trade Federation?" the tiny padawan earnestly pressed, head tilted to one side.
"Well." Obi-Wan canted to starboard, and looped the Delta in a wide arc. "There's no harm in taking a proactive approach, either, now is there?"
A triumphant crow filled their cockpit as Garen Muln's artificially magnified voice reverberated across the comm. "Stagg Four, reporting to rendezvous. Mission objective achieved - no collateral damage."
"Stagg Three, right here," Reeft chimed in.
"No trouble making an exit?" Hartstagg Alpha inquired.
The two missing Deltas appeared in formation, a point or two ahead. They waggled their thrusters, clearly enjoying the afterglow of a successfully completed solo assignment.
"Nope. Jettisoned our bad selves out with the last box, and the droids swooped in for a pick up after we hit bottom."
Garen snorted. "He over-romanticizes it. I had to endure Reeft's musk at close quarters for fifteen minutes – in freefall – and let's just say the anti-grav propulsion buffers on those cargo crates are chiszzk. I need physical therapy for the bruises and whiplash."
"Hey," his fellow padawan brightly suggested. "There's a place over on Rugosa where you can hire a Twi'Lek masseuse to-"
"I have Zhoa here with me," Obi-Wan curtly interjected, staving off disaster by a narrow margin.
"Yeah, Reeft, you salacious reprobate. Cheers, Zhoa! See any action in the diplomatic arena?"
"I was under the table, mostly," the small Nautlan admitted, shyly.
Her fellow apprentices guffawed in delight. "Blast it! How many times have I longed to be under the table instead of at the table during negotiations?" Garen lamented.
Reeft moaned in sympathy. "Or swap it out for a banquet table. Stars' end… she's a smart one."
"So, Kenobi," his irrepressible accomplice continued. "Are you going to commend us to the Council for 'timely and effective action in the field, with minimal supervision'?"
Obi-Wan's answering chuckle was dark-edged. "What action, my friends? As I recall, your role in this operation was extraordinarily clandestine."
"Damn you, Obi, you scheming gundark! You did that on purpose – rob us of all the glory so we can't rank up on you. I sense jealous insecurity."
"That's just Reeft's belly growling, Gar."
The subject of this jest protested hotly. "He's not attuned to my innards!"
"Thank the Force," Garen scoffed. "If I felt a disturbance every time you were about to let off a-"
"But what did they do?" Zhoa insisted, in manifest confusion.
"They admired our ambassadorial skills from a safe distance," Obi-Wan blithely informed her. Eventually, when they're old enough, I'll actually let them into the room during live negotiations."
He toggled the comm. Interface to standby before either libeled padawan could make a retort, and sailed smugly into the docking clamps of his assigned hyperdrive ring.
Origination 00'32'016' Jedi Temple Coruscant
Encrypted shortburst protocol B
-begin transmission transcript—
Having just read – or perhaps I should say, read between the lines of- your latest mission report, I must congratulate you on having reached that most essential of milestones. It is a poor student who does not at some time surpass his teacher; here, I think, we have finally reached that enviable goal. And I am fairly certain that the Council also sees the matter for what it is, and is suitably impressed. After all, there is no such thing as coincidence.
Master Dooku and I spoke at length yesterday evening – regarding you, of course. There is very little else he and I share in common, and even this topic is fraught with peril. He still believes your prodigious talents to be wasted upon the Rim Patrol, and desires to know more of this Dark presence you sense in meditation. I told him very little, for what you shared with me was spoken in confidence.
Besides, my old master is highly distracted by current political affairs – his homeworld, Serreno, has openly refused to comply with the Universal Protection Act – a far more meaningful insurrection than the pint-pot rebellion brewing on Phoeeb. Without the support of the galaxy's most affluent systems, the entire scheme will fail, as it relies on the shunting of vast funds outward from Core to Rim. The Senate fears that other wealthy star systems will follow in Serreno's wake; you can well imagine which among them are held in greatest suspicion. The legislature is more bilaterally divided than ever; and the Chancellor is flailing helplessly in the midst of such strife. Dooku's patrician sensibilities will not permit him to consider the need of impoverished worlds so far outside the range of cultural hegemony, nor will his pride tolerate the imposition of such demands upon a powerful and self-sufficient sovereignty. Though, I must admit, he has several legitimate and worrisome points about the dictatorial and capricious nature of recent Senate rulings – the vote more and more frequently is swayed by the needs of the corporate sector, or partisan extremists. The common good, and the middle ground, are more obscured by greed and empty idealism, day by day. Compromise has been replaced by the pendulum swing of petty victories, and public-mindedness by the avaricious squabbling of carrion birds over a dying corpse, every special interest group jockeying for its share of budget and privilege.
In a word, the Senate is corrupt, and I am not afraid to say it. So perhaps Dooku and I have more in common than I am inclined to admit.
It is a mercy of the Force that he long ago declined the hereditary seat on Serreno – he would be planetary ruler there by birthright- I do not know if ever he told you. And one of the richest and most powerful men in the galaxy, to boot. And what a tyrant he might be – or any of us, given such power. Jedi asceticism is not only for the sake of personal discipline, but also for the protection of the innocent.
I am rambling, and can well imagine your impertinent smirk and the inevitable reminder of my encroaching senectitude.
May the Force be with you.
Origination 56'98'140 Baroonda Minor substation
Encrypted shortburst protocol B
-begin transmission transcript—
Qui-Gon. I was sorry to have missed you yet again. Your news regarding the present uproar in the Senate comes as no surprise. Do you remember that dreadful legislative debriefing I attended in your stead during our last furlough? For which act of selfless altruism you still owe me, by the way. I could have predicted the fallout from the proposed changes, even then. Besides that, Master Tinn has been following the holo-net's pastel-tinted "news coverage" for some weeks, and was amusingly caustic about its implications. Master Dooku is not the only Council member to wallow in disgust at the state of our Republic's noble leaders.
We haven't time to pine for utopian solutions here, however; the latest crisis to evolve is one demanding my utmost attention. Feld has at last discovered that his padawan is quite human and fallible. Well, fallible anyway. Technically she's Nautolan, but you know what I mean. The occasion of her fall from grace will amuse you , Master: apparently the youngling smuggled home a pet from some world or other, a drassil lizard upon which she has bestowed the moniker "Obi-San." I have not asked, and shall abstain from ever doing so. She then proceeded to hide the existence of this pathetic life form from her master for several weeks, feeding and coddling the creature in secret, for fear he would make her relinquish it.
The deception, however mild, has created a shocking tempest; I cannot say which little girl is more heartbroken by the implied betrayal: Zhoa or Feld. I have been called in to counsel the padawan regarding detachment and the binding oaths of apprenticeship, and also to advise Feld on appropriate punishment for such wicked infraction of the sacred precepts of our Order.
Have you any sage insight to offer? Besides an injunction to keep a straight face, a feat which I cannot possibly accomplish without the Force's aid.
Fear not – a full account of this tragedy's unfolding shall not be denied you.
Origination 00'32'016' Jedi Temple Coruscant
Encrypted shortburst protocol B
-begin transmission transcript—
Ah, do not mistake inconsequential circumstance for a proportionate triviality of meaning; though Zhoa's infraction is mild in aspect, the profound lesson for both master and padawan remains. I need not remind you of this, although I will admit our own history played itself out upon a more dramatic scale.
Zhoa is your friend Feld's first student – and the realization that he is charged not with the upbringing of a sweet angel but with the gradual domestication of a willful and passionate child, is one he should be grateful to have made. Disillusionment is the beginning of wisdom, is it not? In your case, of course, there was no danger of making such an initial mistake, for you took pains from the very outset to make it clear I had on my hands an incomparable and unabashed brat.
I shall be gone for some days – I have agreed to accompany Master Pertha on a joint recruitment and exotic specimen collecting trip. Do not think it, my young friend, much less say it aloud. Or I will volunteer you to escort him on the next expedition.
May the Force keep you.