Anakin is working on one of the many broken machines in the garage of the Lars homestead. The equipment was not that badly in need of repair, but enough to need care to remake part of the device or to write down what part was needed. The pile of fixed parts and devices was much bigger than the one that needed replacements. Qui Gon calmly walked in and sat down not an hour before meditating with the busy noise of Anakin working. Finally Anakin sighed before taking a larger full breath that radiated the Force around them.

"Finished?"

"Yes master, as much as anything in this room gets finished. Never knew there were so many different machines designed just to pull water out of the air."

"Not many really, but I assume that many of those parts are just to make sure a vaporator does its job."

"Did you come in here for a reason?"

"A few." Anakin looked at Jinn wondering if he would have to guess what was interesting to his master lately other than two factions ready to fight a war.

"The war?"

"It is coming. You four already changed the start of it, but it will still happen. Not sure which side will start or be blamed for starting it."

"Our marriage?"

"Ah yes. That is a question and I do approve just don't think this is the proper time for it. It would also affect whether you continue with the Jedi Order or become a Jedi Knight."

"I was thinking of accepting the rank and then telling them about our marriage. I know they will probably remove me from the order, but I would be recognized at the Knight level."

"Sound enough, but not the point. Anakin in many ways you have surpassed me as a master. The only thing lacking is your experience. Experience that Obi Wan has you eclipsed."

"Obi Wan is Obi Wan and you yourself said I was not diplomatic materiel. That I was more suited to being a warrior guardian."

"You are learning and even a warrior needs to learn diplomacy. You lack the ability to fight with the right words. To know that someone is not needing you for you. Palpatine always trying to be your friend, father, uncle, benefactor in anyway is the perfect example. Do you still think the same?"

"That is hard as he has never misplaced his gratitude or his helpfulness. I still find it hard to see his motives. There has to be something else? Something none of us have picked up on."

"Then I can say you are learning. He rubs me wrong enough to consider it like sand paper. Not coarse enough to cause harm, but not far off." Anakin focuses for a second on a new part, then works to pull it apart.

"I feel you are worried about those things, but there is something else. I think it has to do with Nal Hutta going dark."

"Yes it is a bigger worry and one that screams in the Force. The clone troops are loading and the droids of the CIS are as well, but the Force is only telling me to be ready. Nal Hutta feels as if it is too late."

"I think Jenica has a mission close to there. Are you perhaps worried about her going near there?"

"Hmm, possible but I would think Obi Wan would pick up any danger she could get into. He sent me a message that he had arrived back on Coruscant and to come back to the Temple when I am ready."

"Are you not fully healed?" Qui Gon chuckled.

"Yes I am healed. Just not ready to face the High Council, but ready enough to see you become a knight."

"I am worried about Jenica. I had a dream about her. Nothing direct. Like chasing shadows."

"So soon after we saved your mother. The Force sure does not act quietly around you." Anakin nodded then stopped to look at Qui Gon.

"Padme is Force sensitive isn't she?" The silence carried for several minutes until Anakin set down the part he had been working on in the fixed pile.

"Yes."

"Why was she not taken to the Temple?"

"Not sure of the reasoning, but Ruwee has a very strong mind. So does Jobal. I would assume they did not want their daughter to be a Jedi or in harms way. They want her to settle down and I am sure they will start to pressure you as well."

"Could I teach her a few things? Mental shielding, how to jump with the Force, push or pull things? Nothing too advanced or so. No lightsaber combat. Maybe Echani styles."

"You would like that. Echani styles require the combatants to fight naked when personally training. However, I would be very careful what you teach her."

"Understood master. Maybe you should teach her. You could be her personal Jedi."

"I doubt the Council would like that. It would also set her as higher than the others to rate a personal Jedi as her bodyguard."

"Well if I am honest then protecting her seems to be a full time Jedi job. She has already prepared a speech that will attack Chancellor Palpatine of being not only a warmonger hidden by false claims of peace seeking, but directly manipulating another to make the proposition for emergency powers instead of waiting for an actual attack or the passage of the Military Creation Act."

"Ah yes peaceful, him accepting the new powers only to accept the clones with his first act. I can see what she is claiming."

"That sure, but there is something else." Qui Gon looked at his padawan as he worked out all the feelings that crossed his padawan's mind. His hand reached out to take up the datapad and read through the entire set of emergency powers. If he was not already sitting this would have made him sit.

"He is a dictator now."

"No he is not."

"Anakin, yes he is, just need a few better words and it becomes so. The emergency powers can not be taken back. He has to give them up."

"Will the High Council see this and alert the Senate to their worries? Could be something Padme could voice?"

"She could but if this is what he wanted than it is already too late."

"Vote of no confidence would remove him."

"I doubt the Senate is unified enough to get such a vote to pass." Padme walks in just soon enough to hear.

"I will doubt anything will get done in the Senate at the rate systems are leaving for the CIS or going neutral with or without secession. I have twenty messages just in the last hour alone speaking of the such systems. I think we can spend a few more days here, but not longer. With Nute Gunray dead I doubt I will have a direct threat against me in the near future."

"In that case I think there are a few things that may just help you notice such danger." Both Jedi sudden turned on her as one. The action was creepy but the next thing surprised her even more.

"Hi my love" Anakin talked in her head. She started to back up as panic and fear rose up even if it was her husband.

"Annie that is a bit strong. Might want to ease back a bit. Padme do not be frightened, wary yes, but not with us." She looked from one to the other and felt Anakin shrink in her mind. Was this what he was talking about when he was afraid he was making her believe she loved him?

"You can just focus on what you want to say. Right now you are thinking too fast."

"Annie?" She felt approval from Qui Gon and a burst of love from Anakin and pride.

"See not so hard."

"For you two maybe, but my head hurts."

"Indeed, you will have to work on it an we can show you how to lesson the strain. It will become second nature between us. The main point is to be able to actively and passively block out another Force user."

"Why are you doing this?"

"I think my Master can do this better. He is a great teacher."

"You could have been a Jedi. Probably long ago would have been trained, but most likely not strong enough to be one in this age. With a Sith influencing the Senate you need more than a strong mind and a quick wit to defend yourself."

"Mental shields?"

"And more? Basic telekinetic training, pushing, and pulling. Boosting physical abilities running faster, jumping higher, more self defense training."

"I know martial arts, and being able to jump or run faster is not an interest."

"If you knew how to jump with the Force you would have been able to jump out of that crucible." Padme's fear of that moment flared through the Force before she took a breath and pushed away.

"When do we start?" The look she got from both of them widened her eyes, but suddenly they just pointed to the cushioned bench.

The Ebon Hawk pulled out of hyperspace on the edge of the Opoku System. Gamorr was the primary planet. The Gamorreans were known fighters, thugs, and henchmen of many criminal organizations. However, on their homeworld they were warriors, warlords and generals of large scale melee combat. Their axes were not ceremonial in any sense. On Gamorr they were lean hardened warriors above all else. Their thick hide resistant to the average blaster bolt as the outer layer was more like dried leather so lacking the moisture that made the plasma bolt burn and explode normal flesh. Even firearms firing projectiles had a hard time doing any damage as well. So other than exporting slaves and fighters and importing durable technology it was pretty much left alone.

Though there was a large space station in the system that did brisk trade in fuel and goods bound for other systems. It also hosted several cartels that worked under the Hutts to deal business in the system. Even then it was quiet and I remembered stopping here the first time, but now the entire system lit up with thousand of ship contacts. The navigational signals lighting up her boards making Arnine turn her head back to Teefive.

"Mistress the system is severely over crowded."

"I am not blind, but why?"

"Unsure, but we will be getting no fuel here. Most of these ships are waiting for hyperfuel."

"I suggest we go back to the jump point go far above the system plain to get to the exit point on the other side."

"Thank you for the suggestion, but I have a feeling it will not be that easy."

"Do you feel a threat through the thing you call the Force?"

"No Zerdy, if this system is short on hyperfuel than anyone that has the fuel to continue is a target. Even the Ebon Hawk. We will need to bypass the system if we can."

"Our Navicomp is showing no recorded routes passed the system. It maybe that there is no way around."

"Any Exploration Corps ships?"

"There is one on the other side, but it is showing out of fuel and power."

"Then we should pay a visit." Jenica kept as many channels open as she could understand. Zerdy listened to more as well as Arnine. Teefive called out warnings of collision alerts, speeds, and vectors. Then they arrived at the modified ship that spun slightly in several directions. It was a complicated pattern that when I pushed out with the Force I noticed that the ship continued to resist.

"Zerdy I need you to slice the ship comp and get the thrusters shut down. Arnine take over and lock on once the ship's spin is stable enough to match." I got up and headed out of the cockpit.

"What will you do mistress?"

"Jump over and see if anyone is alive?" I rushed to the airlock and removed my robes leaving me just in my body glove. A few minutes later I had a full space suit on an locked the helm in place as I walked into the lock. With a hiss the air was pulled out of the airlock and the light went from green to yellow to red before the outer door opened wide. The other ship was still spinning but there was a center point that with a push with the Force launched me across and with several touches of the other ship I was nearly motionless with the hull enough to lock in my mag boots and gloves.

Though if I was relying solely on the mag gear I would have been launched away from the ship as it produce a significant amount of Gee forces. The airlock thankfully fully functioned and the weight once inside the ship stabilized somewhat at about half of the inertia being countered. The bridge showed a complicated pattern set up on the thruster board.

"I am almost inside the ship computer. I will have control of the thrusters soon."

"No need." I flipped several switched an the spin of the ship stabilized and the metallic clunk told me the ships were now linked together.

"Air pressure is stable. Power level at seventy five percent. There should be no reason for the ship to be so out of control."

"Understood Zerdy, but this was on purpose, but not sure if the spacer knew what it would do to them. Any life signs?"

"There is one the center cabin if my calculations are correct it would be the one spot with the least gee forces." The sudden snap hiss of a lightsaber came after a warning in the Force that screamed of danger and my lightsaber stopped the flurry of strikes from my unknown assailant. He was male as I noticed right after he launched himself back no longer projecting any threat in the Force. A presence I knew.

"Newels?"

"Hey um who are you?" I popped my helm's seal and took it off giving him a big smile at his sudden recognition. "Jenica, wow."

"What is with the ship?"

"Oh um protection."

"Protection?"

"Sure an out of control ship reporting a malfunction requesting assistance and fuel. Though I had a vector to get me passed everything and out of this system."

"Was not getting you very far and a large chunk of risk."

"Not really, seen several battles already. Blown up ships trying to flee or fight. Hope you are empty or nearly so. I feel we are no longer safe."

"we can transfer all your fuel and gear to my ship."

"I am not going to give up my ship."

"Does your ship have more than that tiny blaster cannon?"

"No but I toss thermal detonators out and blow them when my pursuer is behind me."

"Really?"

"Oh ya works like a charm."

"So do fully rotational dual laser cannons and concussion missiles with tracking gear."

"True, alright won't take me long." He went to pack while Arnine and Zerdy hooked up to drain all his fuel while Teefive pulled out several power cores. A large round container sailed from one ship to mine followed by Newels and another container. After that a small spider droid clattered on by. It was no sooner than the ship reported full that Newels tapped me with the Force as I unhooked the lines.

"We got company." I locked my helm back in place and held on to the transfer hose.

"Close the inner hatch and blow the shiplink."

"But you are not inside."

"I will be." The magnetic ring released the ship and the sudden rush of air out of the nearly dead ship launched it away from the Ebon Hawk at the same time pushing the ship in the other direction. The hawk now free stabilized which pulled me right into the hatch and it closed as I pulled in the last of the hose. No sooner than I was inside than the ship flipped and blasted away from the others.

Ion cannon fire filled the space in between the emptiness of several ships and the Ebon Hawk. Jenica raced to the cockpit passing Newels as he ran to the upper turret.

"Zero point one hyperjump now."

"But that is b..." The view blurred to white and then nothing before going back to the star filled void. "...lind." The mess of ships was now far away and Jenica laughed until Newels came back to the cockpit.

"Are you crazy?"

"Nope."

"Than why are you laughing."

"Because of that." I pointed to a screen and Newels blinked seeing his reaction to the sudden abbreviated jump. He chuckled a bit before finding a seat.

"Okay but we are not out of the mess."

"True, but out of the trash now to circle the rim."

"You still want to go further?"

"Yes, I have a mission. There have been too many ships being reported as missing."

"You don't have to go any farther. Jeri and I saw it first hand. He was going to Nal Hutta to warn the Hutts and I was going to swing down to the Corellian Run and warn the Republic. Than everything went dark. Thousands of ships arrived here at once from dozens of sectors. There is a war going on one that leaves no survivors."

"Newels what war?"

"You should ask with whom."

"Okay you are not feeling well."

"An empire is attacking the Hutts. They are killing any and all Hutts from what I have heard."

"Who are they?"

"Not sure some call them Keshiri."