Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Jedi Silence

When Obi-Wan's signal had been received by the Temple, he'd felt a physical relief unlike anything he'd experienced in ages. Even as he'd waited in silence for his call to be redirected to the council chambers and a quorum to be assembled, his heart had very nearly fluttered with the knowledge that he was speaking to his home, that at last they'd know he was all right. Seeing Qlik, and Luminara, and Eeth Koth and Saesee Tiin and even Cin Drallig make their way into the chambers, each greeting him in turn with relieved expressions of their own, had kept that flutter going.

It had lasted until the moment the warmth had faded from Drallig's eyes and she'd asked him what the hell had been going on. Then that old tightness in his chest had sprung up again, and the more he'd told the assembled Jedi, the more acute that tightness had grown.

When he'd finished, Qlik was the first to speak, his normally jumpy voice subdued. "Glad you've hung on. Pass our thanks to Padmé Amidala."

Drallig cut in before Obi-Wan could reply, as though she thought the idea of thanking a non-Jedi beneath her. "Under ordinary circumstances, Master Kenobi, you'd be subject to disciplinary action for leaving the Temple quarantine in the first place during the battle."

A muted chorus of murmurs rose from behind her, and Luminara went so far as to say, "Master Drallig, with all due respect—"

The battlemaster raised her hand, without deigning to so much as look at her colleague. "However, it's obvious that whatever Palpatine and this Tarkin are doing has been in the works for a long time. Your saving some innocents isn't what caused this, and as it is I can only hope you make it back to us in one piece sooner or later."

Nodding gratefully, Obi-Wan replied, "I'll certainly try." He could feel his heart sitting beneath his ribcage like a misshapen rock, every beat grinding against something within him. Now that he'd spoken to the Order about things, he'd made them real. What came next . . . well, the Force hadn't given him any insight yet. If it ever would.

"I don't know how many of us are still placed within the Senate," he said, hoping his old general's voice would provide some confidence where the Force did not. "But if you've ears, use them while you have them. And while it's not my place to say . . ." He locked eyes with Drallig, whose expression had soured somewhat at the notion of anyone giving her orders. "Keep away from Tarkin, if you can. We lose nothing by me placing myself in danger, he's already after me. There's no point in anyone else being put in this investigation's crosshairs."

Adi Gallia sighed, then, a whisper of static through the holoprojector. "Perhaps some of us have already put themselves there."

While Obi-Wan glanced from face to face, puzzled, the assembled Jedi exchanged knowing looks. Finally, Luminara spoke. "Mace Windu has fled Coruscant space. And before he did, he was speaking of . . . wild notions. Palpatine as the mastermind behind the Clone Wars. Deposing him, possibly by force."

The rock that was his heart grew a little denser. Thinking back to a day that felt impossibly distant now but could only have been a few months ago, Obi-Wan remembered their final exchange in the Hall of the Fallen.

Mace, what is it you plan to do?

What I have to, Kenobi.

"Under no circumstances can he be allowed to do that," he said through a mouth suddenly absent all moisture.

"Nor will he be," replied Drallig, her lips drawn narrow with resolve. "We've put a watch out. If he returns to Coruscant, he'll be placed under immediate arrest."

"That man has been a thorn in the Order's side for far too long," Saesee Tiin sniffed, as though Windu were a particularly foul odor that had passed under his nose. "Bringing him back to the Temple when the war broke out in the first place was a mistake. He should have been left to waste himself in Hutt Space."

"But he saw what many of us couldn't," Qlik broke in. The quartermaster shuffled from foot to foot as eyes turned to him, looking as if he'd like nothing more than to slink out of the council chambers, but as he spoke again his spine stiffened. "Start the Clone Wars, who could say. But the Chancellor is a far greater threat than we realized."

"No question," Drallig rumbled. "But Windu only knows how to break things. His ability to see a threat doesn't make his solution any less dangerous."

In the silence that followed, Obi-Wan knew the same thought had formed for every person present for the conversation. He could see it in their faces, alien and human alike, even as it ran through his own mind.

Mace's solution is dangerous, but at least he has one. The rest of us are flailing around blind.

"We'll contact the other enclaves and warn them of this witch hunt," Luminara said at last, gnawing at her tattooed lower lip between sentences. "Obi-Wan, you and Ms. Amidala may be able to take shelter at one of them if you find yourself unable to safely return to the Temple."

Now there's a strange thought. Padmé living in a Jedi enclave was about the least likely picture he could have imagined. And it wasn't as though she were on the run. One way or another, when this was over, he'd just supposed she'd . . . go back home. Stay with Bail.

Have her child. Anakin's child.

Aware he'd been silent too long, he hastily cleared his throat and looked back at Luminara. "It may be a good idea to call all Jedi within Republic space back home. Gather them at the enclaves, the Temple. Unobtrusively, of course."

Cin Drallig gave a cough that could have been a sound of bitter amusement. "Coming around to my approach after all, Kenobi?"

The old woman looked so exhausted that Obi-Wan didn't have it in him to be irritated. "We'll all need each other, no matter how this goes. And if there's one thing we can't afford at this juncture, it's increased attention."

As the assembled Jedi nodded in agreement, he threw a glance over his shoulder at the cockpit entry. They'd be coming up on their destination soon, and given a lack of shouted responses from the pilot's seat when her name was mentioned, he had a suspicion Padmé might have fallen asleep. "I'll be in touch when I can. When it's safe. For now, may the Force be with you. With all of us."

Drallig grunted in the affirmative. "May the answers you seek come speedily, Kenobi. For all our sakes."

In the last instant before the hologram winked out, Obi-Wan tried to fix each face within his memory. Qlik's jumpy tics, Luminara's artwork, Kit Fisto's perpetual half smile—filtered through blue scan lines, but still the closest he'd gotten to home in a long, long time.

Then they were gone, and he was turning on his heel to go wake Padmé.

"You didn't tell him."

Drallig cocked her head a bare degree to the side, as if daring the Temple quartermaster to speak again. "What was that, Qlik?"

The Duros twitched, but met her gaze, flat orange eyes answering hawk's blue. "Told Obi-Wan that Mace Windu wanted to kill the Chancellor. Didn't tell him why."

"We've been over this in council, Quartermaster Qlik," Drallig replied. She raised herself up past her full height, suspending herself just noticeably on the balls of her feet. "Windu's conspiracy theories are unproductive. Especially when there's an actual conspiracy right in front of us. Palpatine is plotting against the Jedi, that much is obvious. And it's reason enough to thwart him. Speculations about another Sith Lord when we have two right in front of us is a waste of time."

"Seems a decision Master Kenobi could make for himself. When presented with Windu's opinion in the first place."

The battlemaster pushed herself higher, as though she were threatening to spring. "You are not in charge here, Quartermaster—"

"—and neither are you, with due respect, Master Drallig," Adi Gallia cut in, putting a hand on Qlik's shoulder and holding it there. Her own amber eyes were a match for the battlemaster's, and though she lacked the leathery sinew of the older woman she was a head taller. "We decided in council to dismiss Mace Windu's conjectures and to expel him from Coruscant. Not to lie to Master Kenobi when he's risking everything for us."

Drallig opened her mouth, then flitted her eyes back in Qlik's direction. Seeing the Duros looking down at the floor, as though his brief moment of self-assertion had exhausted him, she sighed and lowered herself herself fully. Even-footed, she was even shorter than Adi Gallia, as though she'd deflated. "That risk is just why we can't tell him. Palpatine is already looking to smear the Jedi. What will he do if Master Kenobi is captured, and admits under interrogation that members of the Jedi Order believe him to be a Sith Lord?"

"He won't be captured," Luminara murmured, her voice filled with the fervor only self-doubt can summon. "He's too clever for that."

"I have every faith in Obi-Wan," Drallig replied, not deigning to look at Luminara. "But our faith in each other isn't enough anymore."

For a long time after that, the assembled Jedi stood in silence, many looking at the dormant holoprojector as if wishing they could summon Obi-Wan back. Adi Gallia still had an arm around Qlik; he started, at one point, to return the gesture, but then lowered his arm, as if afraid to grow too comfortable.

Saesee Tiin cleared his throat, dipping his horns in resignation. "All in favor of informing the enclaves of the situation, then ordering Jedi in the field back?"

After a chorus of ayes, Kit Fisto noted, "In pulling back from the field, we accept that we've failed. Maul and Valis remain unopposed."

"They've remained unopposed all this time, Kit," said Luminara, her voice gentle but solemn. "All we've done is waste lives against the enemy we knew instead of the enemy we couldn't see right in front of our noses."

"Maul and Valis won't be coming back," Drallig said. Now that a decision had been reached, some of the old firmness was back in her voice. "Not for a long time. Their own former allies and the Republic fleet are between them and us. Once we've weathered this investigation—collected ourselves and prepared to return to the galaxy—we'll be able to deal with them."

"Focusing on the Sith against all else was a mistake, yes," Kit Fisto replied, his voice showing the distress his black amphibian's eyes could not, "but abandoning the conflict with them altogether—"

"What would you have us do, Knight Fisto?" Drallig snapped, her voice rising in a whipcrack. "Send more of us to die rather than defend what we have?"

When the tentacled Jedi said nothing, the battlemaster curled her lip in contempt—not for him, but for everyone present, herself most of all. "The vote has been cast. Contact the other enclaves. Pull everyone back."

As the room's occupants slowly filtered out in ones and twos, many muttering to each other, Luminara remained standing behind Cin Drallig. "Master Drallig, I . . ." She hesitated, then said, "This Temple has never once been found. If we stay here, we'll be safe. Palpatine can't go after an Order that's invisible."

"An Order that's invisible." The battlemaster gave a cough that was her best approximation of a bitter laugh. "Aye, you're right, Master Unduli. Nothing can be done to us. And we can't do anything. Just as I wanted it."

"Master, you can't blame yourself," the Mirialan said. She reached out in a mirror of Adi Gallia extending her hand toward Qlik . . . only for Drallig to take a step toward the door, Luminara's hand brushing nothing but air.

"I don't," the battlemaster said simply, still not looking her fellow Jedi in the face. "We've done what we've had to do. But to preside over the beginning of a Jedi silence is not how I envisioned the final years of my service to the Order."

Without turning to exchange final pleasantries, or even nodding her head in farewell, Cin Drallig left the council chambers.

Luminara was left alone to think.

By the time she departed the chambers, night had fallen on the Temple.

Jedi Archives: Emergency Recall Order

[BEGIN TRANSMISSION]

PRIORITY CODE TYTHON

ATTENTION ALL ENCLAVES

By unanimous order of a Council of Jedi Masters, an immediate recall to the Jedi Temple is now in effect. All Jedi must return to the Temple within 72 Galactic Standard Hours.

Once you have made planetfall, await further instruction before approaching the Temple entrance. Temple security lockdown will be in effect. In the interest of shared safety and security, a staggered Temple arrival schedule will be maintained. Do not attempt to enter the Temple district until you have been contacted. Identification code will be required upon Temple approach.

Jedi Temple silence protocol will be initiated once all Jedi have returned home. In the interest of community safety, do not delay your journey. May the Force be with us all.

[END TRANSMISSION]

[Archivist's note: a separate version of this transmission was sent only to the Nar Shaddaa enclave. It is not on file anywhere within the Jedi Archives]