A/N: So the first half (more or less) of the story is over and Sabé and Obi-Wan are finally together. Now we face the second half (more or less) where they have to deal with hiding the fact.
By the way, from now on we're pretending that Obi-Wan's ship is a two-seater, ok? Good : )
Chapter Twenty-Eight – The Missing Planet, Kamino.
When Sabé awoke she revelled in the warm feeling of lying in Obi-Wan's arms. With a growing smile she glanced up at him. "Good morning."
"Good morning. I used the Force to wake you. I hope you don't mind."
"Most people just shake me by the shoulders," she said with a yawn. "That was far more gentle on a sleepy body."
"I have to do both to wake Anakin. He sleeps like the dead."
Sabé smirked and rested her head on his shoulder. "Do we have to get up now?"
"Afraid so."
She groaned.
"Sorry."
"It's okay, I'm just comfortable."
He smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "Well, when all this is over you can be comfortable again."
A grunt was all the answer he received. Sabé pulled herself out of bed and gathered up her clothes, disappearing into the refresher to change. Despite their new-found closeness, she was still justifiably shy. When she emerged in her favourite black jumpsuit, Obi-Wan was tugging on his Jedi robe. Sabé fastened a belt and holster around her hips and slipped her blaster into it. Then she pulled on her boots and sheathed the vibroblade. Over this she wore a travelling cloak, also black.
"Since when did you start dressing like Chancellor Palpatine?" Obi-Wan teased, clipping on his lightsabre.
"Black is slimming," she fired back, brushing her hair, fighting to tame it into a simple, practical bun.
He chuckled, watching her battle with her unruly locks. Her hair was as untameable as Padmé's was perfectly groomed. It was one of the more superficial things he loved about her. She pushed a pin in place and began humming an old Nabooian folk song.
"Where did you learn to sing, Sabé?"
"I've always been able to sing, but I improved whilst studying music. I was in a band when I was younger."
"Really? I find that hard to picture."
"I'm not surprised." She laughed. "You wouldn't have recognised me. Part of my 'wild past' as Saché likes to call it."
Obi-Wan voiced the amusing mental image he was getting. "What was it? Synthetic leather trousers, hair dyed blue, spikes everywhere?"
"Oh yes."
"Really?"
She giggled. "No, not really. My hair was blue once, but it was due to an accident in chemistry when I was eight." Obi-Wan laughed flat out at that. "I don't think it's all that funny, Master Kenobi. Are you saying you've never made mistakes?"
"None as interesting as that, I can assure you. So what about Padmé? Does she sing?"
"You mean did she ever dye her hair blue?" Sabé quipped. "No, she's completely tone deaf. You should hear her rendition of 'Lapti Nek'. It sounds like a nexu being strangled."
"Isn't that a little harsh?"
"You've never heard her sing."
"True."
Sabé reached for a data pad and typed out a note for Dormé. "I won't say where we're going. Just in case."
"A wise precaution, my lady."
"Thank you, oh knight."
She smiled and left the pad on the table for the handmaiden to find. With a smooth motion of his hand Obi-Wan unlocked the door of Dormé's old room and the two of them left the apartment.
On a landing platform not too far away from the Jedi Temple, a small fighter craft sat waiting for them. Sabé took a minute to observe the surroundings. Despite the early hour Coruscant was just as bustling with life as ever. No matter what time of day or night it was, the urban planet was never still.
She turned her attention back to the ship and climbed into the co-pilot's seat. Obi-Wan slipped on a headset and spoke to the astromech droid that sat in the wing. "Set course for the hyperspace ring, R4."
The ship lifted and flew swiftly up into space, where several hyperspace rings hung dormant orbiting Coruscant.
"Which one is ours?" Sabé asked.
"The one R4's taking us to. They're coded. Only the droids know which is which for sure, but after time you can spot which one is yours by knowing how much paint has flaked off."
He guided the ship over to lock into the ring.
"Are we set, R4?"
Sabé read an affirmative on the monitor and Obi-Wan typed in a code.
"Set course for these coordinates." The droid did so and Obi-Wan made the jump to lightspeed.
The trip to Kamino seemed to pass quickly and the two soon found themselves orbiting a very real dull-grey planet.
"There it is, right where it should be," Obi-Wan said. "Our missing planet, Kamino."
"It doesn't look missing to me."
"No."
Sabé hit a succession of buttons. "Detaching hyperspace ring."
"Thank you."
Obi-Wan took manual control and they flew swiftly down to the planet, leaving the hyperspace ring behind. When they broke through the thick layer of cloud that hovered above the entire planet, they were greeted by the sight of an ongoing sea. Lightning split the sky, illuminating the ferocity of the waves.
"Hmm, must be summer," he said dryly, looking at the landscape, or perhaps it was seascape. "There's a structure."
Sabé's eyes couldn't see anything, but Obi-Wan had used the Force to enhance his vision. He guided the ship once around the city before setting it down on an available landing platform. Sabé eyed the deluge of rain outside with a sceptical glance.
"I don't think your Jedi robes are going to protect you much out there."
"One can but try."
The rain was more torrential than they anticipated. So much so that by the time they had crossed the short distance to the door, both were soaked to the skin. They ducked inside gratefully to a very white corridor. Sabé wiped excess water from her eyes and stared at the figure before them. It was a Kaminoan, obviously a female by the soft voice in which she spoke. She was very tall and thin and Sabé wondered how anyone so slender could stand up to the pressure of the weather outside.
"Master Jedi," she began. "The Prime Minister is expecting you."
Obi-Wan frowned. "I'm expected?" How could he be? Were the Kaminoans telepathic? They were certainly mysterious enough.
"Of course. He is anxious to meet you. After all these years we were beginning to think you weren't coming. Now please, this way."
She led them along the corridors at a slow and graceful pace. The two followed, feeling confused. The Kaminoan took them to a room as bright as the corridors and just as minimalist. Another sat there, a small crest atop his head identifying him as male.
"May I present Lama Su, Prime Minister of Kamino." The female gestured. "And this is Master Jedi…"
"Obi-Wan Kenobi," he put in. "This is Sabé Naberrie." Sabé inclined her head.
"I trust you're going to enjoy your stay." Lama Su smiled and summoned two chairs from the ceiling. "Please." They sat down and the Prime Minister returned to his own seat. "And now to business. You will be delighted to hear that we are on schedule. 200,000 units are ready with a million more well on the way."
"That's good news," Obi-Wan said, trying to look delighted.
"Please tell your Master, Sifo-Dyas, that his order will be met on time."
"I'm sorry, Master…"
Lama Su frowned slightly. "Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas is still a leading member of the Jedi Council is he not?"
"Master Sifo-Dyas was killed almost ten years ago," Obi-Wan told him, feeling even more perplexed by the arising mysteries.
"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that," the Prime Minister said with genuine sympathy. "But I'm sure he would have been proud of the army we've built for him."
"The army?" Sabé let slip.
"Yes. A clone army and, I must say, one of the finest we've ever created."
"Tell me, Prime Minister," Obi-Wan said, regaining his composure, "when my Master first contacted you about the army did he say who it was for?"
"Of course he did. This army is for the Republic."
Sabé felt her blood run cold. Surely this could not be the case. It would go against everything Padmé had been working towards. The Senate hadn't even come to a decision yet and it would certainly not have been thought of ten years ago.
"But you must be anxious to inspect the units for yourself," Lama Su was saying.
"That's why we're here," Obi-Wan covered.
"Taun We and I will show you the units and how we grow them."
"Thank you, Prime Minister."
During the tour of yet more sparkling white rooms Sabé was struck with horror by the sight of hundreds of thousands of men, all identical, all learning, training and…existing, (she could not quite bring herself to say living), together as a mass. Lama Su explained the process to Obi-Wan, who was quick to request a meeting with the original host, a bounty hunter of all people, named Jango Fett. Surely that could not be a coincidence.
"Apart from his pay, which is considerable," Lama Su was saying, "Fett demanded only one thing. An unaltered clone for himself. Curious, isn't it?"
"Unaltered?" Obi-Wan questioned.
"Pure genetic replication. No tampering with the structure to make it more docile and no growth acceleration."
"I would very much like to meet this Jango Fett," Obi-Wan said, the very essence of Jedi authority.
"I would be very happy to arrange it," Taun We said melodically.
The Kaminoans led them out onto a balcony where below countless numbers of troops, all armoured in white, stood in formation. Sabé fought to keep her jaw from dropping. She felt sick. The sight of this would pain Padmé no end.
"Magnificent aren't they?" Lama Su said proudly.
'Magnificent is hardly a word I would choose,' she thought.
"They're impressive, Prime Minister, very impressive," she forced out. She could tell by the tight expression gracing Obi-Wan's face that he was as horrified as she was.
"I will take you to meet Jango," Taun We said at last, leading them back the way they had come.
She took them through the maze of corridors and stopped outside one of the doors. All the doors in the identical corridors looked the same and Sabé couldn't even begin to imagine how an outsider like Fett would find his way around. It seemed to her that everything on Kamino, the buildings, the corridors, the people, were so similar they could almost be clones too.
A small boy opened the door to them, drawing surprised looks from both Sabé and Obi-Wan.
"Boba," Taun We said, "is your father here?"
Father? Jango wanted the unaltered clone for a son?
"Yep," the boy said, eyeing the visitors with a suspicious look.
'Definitely got the DNA of a bounty hunter,' Sabé thought.
"May we see him?"
"Sure." He let them in, calling, "Dad, Taun We's here."
An older and more rugged version of the clone troops appeared from a doorway. Sabé recognised him at once.
Taun We acknowledged him. "Jango, welcome back. Was your trip productive?"
Jango was summing up the newcomers in the same manner as his son. "Fairly."
Sabé caught sight of pieces of purple and grey armour in the doorway of the room he had just vacated. She wondered if Obi-Wan had noticed it. If he had, he could identify it as the armour on the bounty hunter he and Anakin had seen.
"This is Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Sabé Naberrie. They've come to check on our progress," the Kaminoan announced.
Obi-Wan looked Jango straight in the eye. "Your clones are very impressive, you must be very proud."
"I'm just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe."
"Ever made your way as far into the interior as Coruscant?"
"Once or twice."
"Recently?" the Jedi didn't waste words.
Jango looked at him cautiously. "Possibly."
"Then you must know Master Sifo-Dyas," Obi-Wan said, changing the tone completely.
Jango turned to Boba, who looked surly and suspicious, and said something in a coded language. Sabé's gaze followed the boy while Obi-Wan kept Jango's attention.
"Master who?" the bounty hunter asked, drawing their gaze elsewhere by walking around the room.
Sabé watched Boba walk down the corridor and close the door, shutting off her view of the armour. Upon his return to the main room he shot her a glare and she raised an eyebrow.
"Sifo-Dyas," Obi-Wan repeated to Jango. "Is he not the Jedi who hired you for this job?"
"Never heard of him."
"Really?"
"I was recruited by a man called Tyranus on one of the moons of Bogden."
Obi-Wan frowned. "Curious."
"Do you like your army?" Jango changed the subject swiftly.
"I look forward to seeing them in action," he lied.
"They'll do their job well, I'll guarantee that."
"Thank you for your time, Jango," Obi-Wan said in a polite tone, looking as if the bounty hunter was the last person in the galaxy he trusted.
"Always a pleasure to meet a Jedi," he said smoothly.
Sabé nodded to him and followed Obi-Wan out of the room, wondering what Jango had meant by that.
Taun We turned to them. "Would you like me to show you to guest quarters?"
"No thank you," Obi-Wan told her. "I must report to my Masters on how well the army is coming on."
"Of course. This way please." Good naturedly, Taun We led them back to the landing platform. She exchanged pleasantries with them both, then the two visitors stepped back out into the torrent of rain.
