This is impossible, Eiva told herself for perhaps the twentieth time, resisting the urge to throw something. But she was impatient even with her own frustration. She roused herself with a shake of her head and a sigh, and began again, concentrating on the screen before her once more, pulling up image after image, searching for a pattern.
She had been through these so many times she could close her eyes and reproduce the images in her mind down to the finest detail. She was wasting time, there was just nothing here.
She sighed and sat back in her chair, chewing thoughtfully on the stylus in her hand, frowning. For days now she and the healer, Marayanna, had worked non-stop, poring over tissue and blood samples, studying history and genetic structures, searching unsuccessfully for the puzzle piece that would make sense of it all, the piece that she and Obi-Wan shared, the thread that somehow tied them together. Eiva wished her father were here.
It was time for a break. Eiva tilted her head to one side, stretching the tired muscles in her neck and glanced across the room to where Obi-Wan sat cross legged on the floor, eyes closed, brows drawn together in concentration. In his lap was the tiny prism casing from the lab's most powerful microscope. He held his hand outstretched over the small silver box, his fingers extended just above but not touching the smooth surface.
Somewhere inside the unassuming palm sized metal box was a single prism filament, too small to see without the aid of powerful equipment. The strand was really a chain of organic light-emitting particles that allowed scientists a glimpse into the mysterious world of subatomic matter.
In the corner of the lab, the massive machinery that housed the filament sat unused and useless. Somehow the tiny prism at its core had become dislodged; even a hair out of alignment rendered the microscope inoperable. Hard to believe that the power of such an imposing piece of equipment lay in a single insubstantial thread.
Eiva had worked hard to hide her skepticism of Obi-Wan's offer to repair it. Even with the proper tools, to be found only on the far side of the galaxy for a price Eiva could not even begin to imagine, the precision required to place the filament was almost incomprehensible. She had not discouraged his attempt in truth because she was grateful for his presence in the lab. He had a calming influence on her.
Obi-Wan had been silent for more than an hour and he had yet to touch the fiber casing. Eiva wondered if maybe he had given up.
Suddenly his eyes flew open, a brilliant flash of blue that caught her gawking. His face lit with a delighted grin. Had it been anyone else she would have turned away, put them at a safe distance with a biting comment or disdainful glare. But something about this young Jedi let her be herself, she did not have to hide from Obi-Wan. Eiva found herself returning his wide smile.
He was on his feet and in one smooth movement dropped the small box into her hands. "Try it now."
She could only stare. Surely it was not possible? He's a Jedi, remember. Impossible just did not seem to apply.
"P12?" A small silver and red equipment droid at her elbow blinked to life, rotating toward her expectantly. "Please return this housing to the prism scope and run through the start up alignment cycle."
The droid took the piece from her hand and turned it over and over in its pincher like claw. She thought she heard skepticism in the hum and buzz of its cursory analysis. It stopped suddenly and let out a long low whistle. Then with a click and a resounding beep the droid spun on its wheels and glided smoothly to the large ugly machine on the far side of the lab and began the complicated process of placing the prism.
Eiva stared at Obi-Wan in amazement. "So tell me, are all Jedi padawans perfect?"
Obi-Wan just laughed. "None of us are perfect, and I am far from it, one of the farthest. Just ask Qui-Gon. He can probably make you a list of everything I still have to learn.
"Hmmm, and you think he has all of the answers?" Eiva arched her eyebrows at him provokingly, but Obi-Wan ignored the look. He knew where this was going.
"Eiva," he said quietly, "we have been through this already. Qui-Gon did not ask me to stay, it was my own decision and I don't regret it. He respects that, why can't you?"
"If he truly cared about you he would order you to leave."
"It would be pointless, I will not leave him. We have an understanding and I will not dishonor it. I will see him through this." His voice was low and steady, certain, as if his decision was already final.
Oh! She fumed silently. He is so stubborn! Well, he's not the only one. She was not about to give this up without a fight. "Obi-Wan, we do not know if this resistance to the virus will last. You must go while you still have the chance. You are quick enough to make it past the Ion shield, take the chance and escape.
Tears blurred her vision, but she did not look away. She was pleading. "You are special Obi-Wan Kenobi. You were meant for greater things. Honor your master's memory by living your life, not by throwing it away."
"You talk as if he's dead."
"You talk as if there's hope."
At this, Obi-Wan smiled unexpectedly. Eiva blinked away tears, as he came and sat beside her.
"And what about you," he asked quietly. "Would you come with me?"
She turned away impatiently, this was going no where.
"I can answer that for you. You will not leave these people either. So can we agree to leave it alone and not argue?"
"Who's arguing, you stubborn bull-headed gundark."
"Besides, I lack your finer debating skills."
She was laughing through her tears in spite of herself. "We can agree that you are an impossible pea-brained son of a nerf herder"
"Quite possibly." He had said it jokingly, but instantly regretted it when he saw the change in her expression.
Eiva stopped laughing and looked at him intently. Again, he knew before she spoke exactly what was coming but was somehow still unprepared for the impact of her words when it came.
"You don't know anything about your family do you?" She asked quietly.
"Eiva." He was warning her not to continue.
He did not want to discuss this, but she refused to let it go, even after she saw the bright pain in his eyes. It might be his only chance. If maybe, just maybe she could convince him that there were others who needed him, far away from this wretched little moon.
Besides, he deserved to know. "It's all in here." She patted the datapad on the table in front of her.
As soon as communications had been re-established with the main planet, Marayanna had asked the governor to request Obi-Wan's complete family history from the Jedi Temple. Genetic information was key to their investigation. Yoda had instructed the archivists to comply and the information had been sent immediately.
"No one would fault you for looking. No one should fault you." She was going to say more, but the look on his face stopped her.
"You don't understand, Eiva." Obi-Wan wanted to explain, he wanted to find the words and the wisdom that would make the pity in her eyes go away and make his hands stop trembling. But there were no words that could make her understand what it meant to him to be Jedi. It was impossible to explain to her how something as natural and right as breathing was at the same time so difficult, the hardest thing he had ever done.
He did not need to see her face to know her expression had not changed, determination rolled of her like waves of heat from a blast furnace. She was trying to help him the only way she knew how. No, he did not think she would understand.
Eiva watched his struggle and was sorry for the pain she had caused, but she would not back down. She could not imagine what her life would have been without her father, even if all she had left were memories. Obi-Wan might never be given another chance to find out.
She silently pushed the data pad toward him.
Obi-Wan's hands dropped to his lap. Then he quickly jammed them into his pockets as if he had to find something to do with them or else they might take hold of the pad against his will.
Suddenly the darkness on his face lightened and the tension eased out of his features, smoothing the worried crease between his brows. He seemed to have found his footing. He pulled something from his pocket, turned it over once before his hand closed protectively over it and he finally spoke.
"Eiva, I barely remember my birth family." There was a slight tremor in his voice. "I have lost the memory of my mother's face." He looked up at her and the bare blue desolation in his eyes almost made her turn away. But he was not really looking at her, he was remembering. "Sometimes I think I can see her eyes or hear her laughter, but I am not sure if they are real or from my dreams."
He paused and looked down at the object in his hands before he continued. "But I remember the feelings and I know they are real. I know she loved me." He cleared his throat. "Loves me," he corrected.
"That can never be taken away from me." He looked up at her, his eyes still bright with emotion, but he was calmer now. "And that is what I choose to hold on to."
Eiva could say nothing. She tried to draw a breath, but her throat constricted with mixed feelings of sorrow and compassion and admiration. They sat in silence for a long time, each sorting through different emotions. When it was finally possible to breathe again she said, "Alright, Obi-Wan. I will respect your wishes. Just remember you can always change your mind."
"I won't."
And somehow she knew he wouldn't.
"I am so sorry Obi-Wan, I would never do anything to hurt you." She reached for his hand and realized he was still holding something. At her enquiring look, he opened his closed fist and showed her. It was a rock. He dropped it into her outstretched hand.
"Where did you get this?"
"It was a gift from Qui-Gon on my thirteenth birthday." It seemed a lifetime ago. "I thought I had lost it when the raiders captured us, but Qui-Gon returned it to me the morning he found us."
She turned the stone over in her hands and studied it thoughtfully. It was beautiful, but not really that different from thousands of other rocks. Still, she wondered…
"Eiva?"
"Hmmm?" Obi-Wan must have been talking to her but she had been lost in thought and had not heard a word he had said.
He snatched his rock from her hands and with a comment about manners resembling a nerf herder's headed toward the door, laughing at her.
"Me?" She laughed distractedly too, though she was suddenly anxious to get back to work. "Actually, I've read your file and your ancestors make nerf herders look refined. I happen to know you come from a long line of stubborn thick skulled halfwits."
Obi-Wan turned and flashed her a brilliant grin, "Well then you've already solved it."
Eiva looked at him puzzled, "Solved what?"
"What we share in common."
She looked around for something to throw at him, but he was already out the door.