Part Forty-Six

"Nothing's wrong, Master. It's just the opposite. Or it will be soon," Anakin said blithely. He scanned the crowd, spotting about thirty Congressmembers and their cobbler in the press.

Did I say that out loud? Or did he guess I was thinking it because he knows me so well? "Ooookaaayy." Obi-Wan took a moment to get his bearings. "Mr. President, Cabinetmembers." He bowed to Leader Qikal. "We're surprised to see you together. You must have traveled nonstop to make it here so soon." So that's why Kuki is exhausted. Traveling back and forth from Upper-Cremba-on-Gitchy to Nepsa three times in as many days used all her reserves of strength. Couldn't drums communicate as well? Probably not. Subtleties would be lost in all the thumping.

Qikal gathered to himself the dignity of his office. "Master Jedi. Young Jedi. My advisor" --- he nodded at Kuki, who managed to nod back --- "and I consulted upon her return. We consider you fellow tribesmen, and once I explained it to her fully, she and I stand in agreement with President Strenghis' plan for neutrality, with some modifications, now and forever. As you two are naturalized citizens of Upper-Cremba-on-Gitchy, however, I am your advocate and will mediate any disagreement between my superior and you. I bring appropriate dress for you both." He indicated two folded stacks of cloth on the table in front of him, formal lavalavas with at least a meter's more length of material than the simple ones of the late Dunri that they had donned in Kuki's home.

Obi-Wan addressed Strenghis only. "You agree to this mediation?" If it will help this mission, I will wear nothing but nutrient paste.

Strenghis obviously did not believe in closed-door negotiations all the time. "I am agreeable to settling this issue tonight. I've debated with Congress all afternoon and when Qikal arrived a short time ago with this proposal, I told Congress to meet me here when they could. Some have family obligations, you know, but will show up later, I'm sure."

After they have dinner, make sure the children are down for the night, bed down the aloas with some liana-straw ... It was small-town thinking, transferred to small-planet circumstances. Anakin couldn't stand it. "Start this right now?" he asked.

"Yes. I've been mulling the situation over for a year. I'll decide tonight. Trokas has brought the Mother's point of view home to me," Strenghis gravely added, and the crowd stilled reverently at Her name. "Let's begin."

We're in litigation, sort of, and must dress respectably, but how do you tie this thing? Obi-Wan peeked out the door of the downstairs 'fresher, and gestured to the pimply-faced desk clerk who doubled as a maitre'-d. He augmented his whisper with the Force to penetrate the din. The youth jerked his head up from directing his staff at the "Pssst!" and came promptly to the cracked-open door.

"Help us with this?" Obi-Wan clutched the wad of flowered material about his waist, feeling that he was going to appear ridiculous wearing boots underneath it. The utility belt with lightsaber dangling from it would add even more ammunition for jollity. With the crowd growing more excited by the minute at the momentousness of the evening, he and Anakin might even be laughed at. Not good.

"The belt has to go, gentlemen," said the teen. "I'll help you fold carrying pockets like we all have." With five minutes' worth of dexterous twining and tucking, Anakin and Obi-Wan stood bare to the waist, a calf-length lavalava girdling each of them. The ingenious garment had a front carrying fold as well as a back one. The Jedi put the lightsaber bulge in the back fold to avoid comment.

The door opened as their cobbler poked his head in. "Here," he said gruffly in Basic. "Had 'em all ready for tomorrow morning early, like you asked. Might as well give 'em to you now." He thrust two pairs of sandals at them and shut the door. Their ensembles complete, the Jedi braved the gathering.

"Trokas, let everyone hear what these Jedi have done." Strenghis couldn't have gotten more dour since the last time Obi-Wan had seen him. It only looked that way. The worries that the Mother couldn't soothe and in fact added to showed in his unquiet hands as he rubbed his thinning temples.

Obi-Wan's and Anakin's mutual tidal waves of dismay crashed in the middle of their bond. The backlash made them gasp. Strenghis looked alarmed and gestured that they pull up some chairs and sit informally at his crowded table. They sat elbow-to-elbow as straight as they could on the finely-crafted rattan chairs.

"Mr. President, esteemed Congress, and good citizens all, let me begin by praising their conduct on our sacred Festival Night. Their response to our customs overwhelms me. We had some personal disharmony" --- here he may have sighed in regret, glancing sideways at Anakin --- "and not all was as usual" --- Obi-Wan leaned back in his chair from his upright posture, it was going to be all right, beyond all hope --- "but they honored the Mother when on the Mother's territory, and that is what counts. They honored Her spectacularly." Obi-Wan stared fixedly ahead.

"So they have a sense of propriety, well and good. And we have witnessed them doing incredible things with their power. Can they offer us force pikes, or something more powerful, or give us artillery to defend ourselves? What if their clone army, and what is a clone, exactly, is busy elsewhere? Your testimony, Trokas, makes me feel akin to them and their Republic and we certainly do not want to end up as puddles like the misbegotten Gungans" --- so the vid did make some impression, thank you, Mace of the Windu, Obi-Wan thought --- "but I need some hard assurances. What can you tell me, Master Jedi?"

So it's on to Stuff and can we offer more Stuff than the Separatists can. Mother.

The river overflowed.

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