To Change the Galaxy
Chapter 17: Calm
After Wicaté left, it was immediately apparent that the children would not be able to fall asleep for quite some time. So, with a wordless glance, Obi-Wan and I decided to take advantage of both that fact and the medkits that Wicaté had left in the hallway for us. Thanks to the wonder of bacta and the quick medical assistance we had given ourselves on the airbus, we actually weren't in terrible shape.
My shoulder still throbbed, but the place the blaster shot had grazed me no longer looked sickening. Instead, it had the red, shiny look of healing skin. With Obi-Wan's help, my old dressing was removed and a new, simpler bacta bandage was put on. My arm would probably be practically back to normal within one or two more days. Zett's injured arm was equally well healed. He had almost full range of motion with it now, although he did grimace while moving, so it probably hurt more than he wanted to let on.
Adan was still the worst off. If the world hadn't just imploded, he would have been in a medcenter. As it was, Obi-Wan seemed to have enough experience with field medicine to make do. Adan's injury was re-wrapped with bandages soaked in bacta and then covered up by drier bandages. I did my best to distract the children so that they wouldn't look at how bloody the old bandages were. I tried not to look at it myself. Obi-Wan didn't seem too worried about it and Adan had been able to walk around pretty normally with the injury, so it couldn't have been as bad as it looked. Right?
By the time we had finished with the medkits, the little Jedi had mostly recovered from Wicaté. Meral had already dropped back to sleep and Shia looked well on her way. Along with the medkits, Wicaté had, as she said, brought food. She had even thought to bring something for the infant to eat.
So, while Obi-Wan finished bandaging Adan, I turned my attention back to the togruta baby and did another quick assessment. This time, he snuffled and whimpered a little bit as I handled him. I tried to keep my breathing even and my hopes low even as I carefully increased the pressure of my pokes and prods.
"Come on," I muttered, rubbing his little arm. "Come on, darling, open those eyes for me. Come on."
His whimpering increased slightly. Ignoring the little part of me that immediately wanted to stop causing the poor child discomfort, I continued to provide him uncomfortable, but safe, stimulation. Togruta infants were far better prepared to handle tough situations that almost any other species I was aware of. The togruta home world, Shili, was not an easy place to survive. There were an absurd number of predators and, prior to galactic contact, food had often been scarce. The togruta had adapted to the challenges of their planet. Their infants could go almost two weeks without eating or drinking if they had been born healthy and had luck on their side. But it was very obviously not healthy for the child and could lead to some severe complications later in life. If this little one didn't wake up soon, not even his heritage would—
Blue eyes blinked open and immediately filled with tears as his whimpers grew louder.
"Obi-Wan—Obi-Wan! He's awake!"
"Pardon?"
"The baby—he woke up!"
It felt like my smile was so wide it might split my face open. He was awake! The baby, unfortunately, was not nearly as excited about this fact as I was. He began to wail.
Obi-Wan appeared at my shoulder as if by magic.
"Where's the bottle? Do you have the bottle Wicaté—"
Obi-Wan handed me the bottle before I finished speaking.
"He's alright, then? Is he alright?" Obi-Wan hovered over my shoulder as I tried to persuade the unhappy baby to take the bottle.
"This is yummy, little one," I crooned as he continued to cry. "And it'll make you feel better. Come on, baby boy, won't you just—"
He took the bottle.
I laughed, beaming as he sucked it down.
After that, things seemed to fall together. The little Jedi dropped back to sleep one by one. Tension almost visibly slipped away from Obi-Wan as he sat down next to me, leaning over to stare at the baby as he finished his bottle. The two of them were fascinated with each other. Once the baby was done eating, he stared at Obi-Wan with as much interest as Obi-Wan stared at him.
For a while, I watched them watching each other, something warm bubbling up in my stomach. But then my eyes started to burn and keeping them open began to feel impossible. And Obi-Wan and the baby seemed much more interested in each other than in me.
"Here," I leaned against Obi-Wan and carefully offered him the baby—who, apparently a contrary little thing, looked away from Obi-Wan to whimper at me.
There was a faint smile on Obi-Wan's face as he glanced away from the baby, towards me. "I think he likes you."
I sagged against Obi-Wan, even as I reluctantly brought the baby closer to me again. "I like sleep."
Obi-Wan laughed quietly. "Can you put him in your lap?"
"Huh." That was not a bad idea. With some maneuvering, and the baby making his feelings known when I positioned him in places he didn't like, he was eventually settled safely in my lap. Very shortly after that, my eyes slipped shut.
What felt like only seconds later, someone shook me.
"As adorable as this is, we have business to get to."
I groaned. There was something warm at my side, warm at my cheek and something warm on my legs and I really did not want to move.
"I am absolutely not joking, Sabé. Wake. Up," the familiar voice insisted. My shoulders were given another rough shake, sending my head lolling and knocking into something kind of hard.
"I hate you," I mumbled, forcing my eyes open.
Wicaté scowled down at me from her hoverchair. "Yeah, well, I don't like you right now either."
"We truly appreciate everything you've done for us, Miss Wicaté. Truly." Obi-Wan's voice was very, very close.
I blinked again. Why was he so—? Oh. I had fallen asleep against Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan was probably the only reason I hadn't tumbled to the floor and knocked myself out. My cheeks burned and I bolted upright.
The togruta, still safely in my lap, let out a small gurgle as Obi-Wan's arm slipped off my shoulders. Wait—his arm had been around my—? Focus, Sabé! I glanced down at the baby, who was safe, awake, and scrunching his face at Wicaté. I craned my neck to look at her again.
"Yes, well, I'd really appreciate it if the two of you got your act together," Wicaté snapped.
"Hey," I protested, "Our act is very together. We are alive and safe and have—"
"No plan to speak of," Wicaté interrupted. "I am well aware. Luckily for you, unlike some people, I did not spend the last six hours doing nothing."
I scowled at her. "We did not spend—wait." All of her words finally sunk in. "What have you been doing then?"
"I have a plan." Wicaté smiled.
"You… have a plan?" I could not recall Wicaté ever having a plan that didn't involve clothes.
"That is exactly what I just said, yes. Keep up, Sabé."
"I—what is this plan, exactly?"
"Saché is flying in from—"
"What? Saché? You and Saché made this plan?"
We were dead. We were so incredibly dead.
Wicaté rolled her eyes. "Don't look at me like that. Eirtaé did the planning. I just decided which parts of the plan were stupid and should be ignored."
I kept staring at her. "Eirtaé's involved in this?"
Wicaté looked at me like she thought I might have brain damage. "Are you an idiot? I just said she did most of the planning. Yané kept us off the radar and Rabé said she'd clear it with the Queen. Can we talk about the plan now? In a different room? Before these children of yours wake up?"
She said 'children' like it was a dirty word. And she had talked to practically all of our friends on Naboo.
Obi-Wan said, "We shouldn't go far."
"Fine." Wicaté spun around and nudged the hoverchair out of the room.
I glanced behind me. All of the children were asleep and, for once, none of them seemed to be having nightmares, although Trinna, Jewsi, and Adan did have tear tracks on their faces.
As Obi-Wan stood up, I carefully placed the togruta on a nearby pillow. He immediately scrunched up his nose and began to whimper.
"One moment, little one," I said as soothingly as I could.
"Sabé," Obi-Wan said.
I turned to see him offering me a hand. I smiled and gratefully took it. With his help and only one small hiss of pain, I got to my feet, my cane in position.
The togruta's whimpers grew louder, even as Obi-Wan swooped him off the pillow and into his arms.
"Shh, shh," I told the baby as Obi-Wan and I slowly followed Wicaté out into the hallway.
The baby didn't listen and his whimpers grew into something dangerously close to a cry.
"Can you hold him, Sabé?" Obi-Wan asked.
I frowned, looking at him properly for the first time since waking up.
He wasn't holding himself so carefully anymore, or looking polite and distant. But there were bags under his eyes and lines between his brow. And it looked like keeping up with my slow, hobbling pace was challenge.
I shouldn't have fallen asleep. He should have napped while I kept watch. Barely even a day ago, he had been fighting General Grevious on Utapau. Then he had watched as his people were massacred while trying to keep his best friend from going off the deep end. Why had I fallen asleep?
Obi-Wan continued. "I know your arm is injured and you must be tired, but he'll be calmer with you. The only reason children come to the temple when they are this young is if their parents can't handle them. Younglings like him feed off the emotions of the people around him. I'm not—" Obi-Wan swallowed. "I am not good for him right now."
My heart hurt.
"Of course I'll hold him. Of course. Just—" I grimaced. "You two going to be okay for another second or two?"
As if in answer, the baby began to cry. I sped up.
Finally, we reached the hallway, where Wicaté was waiting for us impatiently. Three huge purple velvet bags had been propped up against the wall in the hallway behind her.
She tapped her finger against her armrest impatiently as I leaned back against the wall, so I could put my cane to the side and accept the baby from Obi-Wan.
"Are you done yet?" Wicaté demanded, although she had at least had the courtesy to wait until we actually were done.
"Yes, thank you for your patience," Obi-Wan answered, his polite smile firmly fixed into place.
Wicaté and I both rolled our eyes at him. Wicaté was not worth the effort he was putting in. About half the time, I honestly thought she responded better to rudeness.
Wicaté just said, "You didn't give me a choice. Anyway, I've brought your costumes." She nodded her head at the bags behind her. "So focus. We have a time limit. We have about thirteen hours before Saché lands on planet and you need to be in place at least an hour before that. Eirtaé said to allow ten hours for travel time but that's because she's crazy. Six should be more than enough, although I don't think the Galactic Scouts plan will work again. The number of clones on patrol in this area has tripled—you'll have to take multiple trips, Sabé, and Ambassador Kenobi will have to travel on his own. He's far too recognizable to be making the trip more than once. Also, we need holopics of the children. Preferably while they're awake and within the next hour or two. Yané said it would only take her a few minutes to edit and manipulate the holopics needed to sell the story but it's Yané. She can't do half the stuff she thinks she can. We'll also need to brief the children and have them practice their roles. Are they as terrible at acting as they seemed on the way here? Because if so—"
"Wicaté, stop!"
How many moving parts were there to this plan? Costumes? Time limits? Ten hours of travel time?
"Do you think you can give us the overview of the plan before bombarding us with details?"
She huffed loudly, rolled her eyes, and then, with the air of someone doing an immense favor, told me.
Obi-Wan's polite mask slipped away, turning to incredulous disbelief.
"Did you say Eirtaé made this plan? Are you sure?" I demanded, staring at Wicaté in equal disbelief.
"Yes, I'm sure," Wicaté scowled. "Why is everyone questioning me today?"
Because the plan sounded way more like the kind of crazy thing I would come up with. I had expected something a lot subtler and a lot saner from Eirtaé. Something like panic rose in my throat. The baby started to whimper again, and I absentmindedly began to bounce him up and down.
"I don't suppose we have a way of contacting Miss Saché, do we?" Obi-Wan asked, his mask already back in place.
"No," Wicaté said. "She's in hyperspace right now. And when she emerges, she'll be Coruscanti airspace."
I swore.
Wicaté glared. "Don't swear at me. If you had wanted to come up with a plan, you should have stopped congratulating yourself on your escape long enough to do it! You're lucky we're even helping you. Otherwise you'd be sitting here counting down the minutes until the clone patrols searched this place and executed all of us!"
"The clones are searching private property?" All of Obi-Wan's attention focused in on Wicaté.
For a moment, she blinked, looking like she wasn't quite sure what to do with it but, being Wicaté, she rallied quickly.
"What did you think they were going to do? Just sit around and wait quietly for the survivors to find a way to escape the planet? Of course they're searching private property! The only reason you're safe for now is that they're starting with the sectors closest to the Temple and working their way out. Now do you want to hear the rest of the plan or not?"
We heard the rest of the plan.
The poor baby wailed as we went to work on enacting it.
Expected Update Time: By Nov 26 hopefully; Dec 17th definitely (one day-one day I will be able to go back to putting only one date down here. It's going to happen someday. Just...not today...)