AU Scenario:

When Queen Amidala escapes from Naboo with her Jedi protectors, the hyperdrive is never damaged, and consequently, they never land on Tatooine and never meet Anakin.

Once they reach Coruscant, everything proceeds pretty much unchanged from how it occurred in Phantom Menace. Obi Wan still defeats Maul, and Qui Gon still dies in the process. The only difference is that now Anakin is not there to take down the droid control ship, so now Padme and Obi Wan are taken prisoner until Palpatine plays the hero and shows up with an army to save them.

Obi Wan is knighted but has no Padawan until he takes on Ahsoka a couple years before the start of the clone wars. Because of this, Obi Wan in this AU is only a Jedi Knight and not a Master at this point and has a bit less authority.

Meanwhile on Tatooine, a young slave gets to be exceptionally good at podracing. Within a few years, Anakin is winning just about every podrace there is, making Anakin the most highly valued slave on all of Tatooine.

"Do you feel that?" Ahsoka asked. "It feels weird…. Almost like Coruscant but…" Ahsoka trailed off.

Obi Wan knew what his Padawan meant. The force seemed weirdly awake for a planet so small and remote. The life readings were small - well under a million sentient beings - and yet… it did have a certain energy in the force that would be more typical of a Jedi stronghold.

That did not bode well, Obi Wan realized. It could easily be some trap of the sith. "Stay close and stay alert," he told Ahsoka.

The more Obi Wan considered it though, the planet did not feel threatening, not really. Maybe there is some sort of naturally occurring force phenomenon on this planet? Obi Wan thought. He pulled up what data the Jedi had for the small desert planet on the ship's navicomputer to see if there was mention of some such anomaly.

Nothing. The files described the local government (the Hutts and their gangs), the local economy (an unsavory mixture of smuggling, gambling, and the slave trade), and the climate (hot and dry). No mention of anything out of the ordinary where the force was concerned. Heck, there were hardly even any Jedi to ever come from Tatooine from what the records showed. That made sense - it was far outside their typical recruiting grounds - but did not explain the planet's unusual force presence.

Despite his hesitance, Obi Wan landed the ship, and he and Ahsoka walked up to Jabba's palace, her with an infant Hutt in tow.

Rotta the Hutt is returned, and the negotiations go well. Afterwards, Jabba invites them to stay around for a while as guests, an invitation not easily refused, and a twi'lek woman offers Obi Wan a drink. She is a slave, he knows, and he feels a tightness in his chest at the knowledge. Nonetheless, he takes the drink, not wanting to offend Jabba at the moment.

That is when Obi Wan notices the small boy trailing behind her, carrying another tray laden with empty glasses. No doubt, this is the serving woman's son. A slave too and no more than 4 years old, Obi Wan realizes with pang.

The boy has some human ancestry, Obi Wan notices. His lekku are not all that pronounced, and his skin tone has splotches of tan. That is somewhat rare in the core worlds but probably common enough here. Anyhow, it is not the most interesting thing about the child because a moment later Obi Wan realizes with a start that the child is force sensitive. He lowers his shields a bit to confirm, and yes, this boy is very strong in the force. Exceptionally strong even. Obi Wan will have to find a way to get the boy to the Jedi where he belongs.

That's not all though, Obi Wan realizes, surprised as he senses yet another strong presence in the force. Runs in the family maybe, thought Obi Wan. It was fully possible for there to be siblings or cousins here who were both force sensitive.

Obi Wan's surprise turns to outright shock when he lowers his shields a bit more and finds that there are not just two but three, four, five… Obi Wan senses as many as eight force sensitives in the immediate vicinity, aside from himself and Ahsoka. All untrained and all very strong.

This is not good. Not good at all.

Judging by Ahsoka's wide eyes, she's noticed too. Not caring that he is being rude and might offend Jabba, Obi Wan excuses himself, saying that he and Ahsoka had really better be off. Jabba makes a comment in Huttese that the protocol droid apparently decided shouldn't be translated, and Obi Wan and Ahsoka are practically running in their rush to leave.

Once they make it back to the ship and have safely cleared the atmosphere, Ahsoka finally dares speak. "Why… Do you think Jabba has been capturing Jedi or something?"

"No, not Jedi," he responds. "They are all force sensitive but completely untrained. Maybe even all children from what I could tell."

"But how? Why?"

"That I can not say. But I will say that I don't think it's only Jabba's palace. The whole planet feels weird. Like there are way more force sensitives on Tatooine than a remote planet in the outer rim has any right to have. In fact, I've never seen this concentration on any planet without a significant Jedi presence."

"So what do we do now?" Ahsoka wondered.

"Now we report this to the council and await their orders." Obi Wan picked up a small holo recorder and entered the frequency for the Jedi council chamber.

"Ah Kenobi. And Padawan Tano. Return Rotta, did you?" Yoda greeted.

"Yes master," said Obi Wan. "Though there is something else you should know about happening on Tatooine."

Obi Wan explained what they had found. 8 force sensitive beings within Jabba's palace. Who knows how many more throughout the entire planet. When he was done, everyone sat silently for a moment.

It was Kit Fisto who finally broke the silence. "Perhaps the force just runs in some of the families on Tatooine," he said. There was not a lot of confidence in his voice. He does not even believe his own words as he speaks them, thought Obi Wan.

Mace shook his head. "We don't have a whole lot of data on the matter for obvious reasons, but from what we do have, force abilities do not really pass from generation to generation very well. The offspring of even a strong force sensitive would have maybe a 50% chance at being noticeably force sensitive, and even then it's usually quite diluted. It's far more common for force sensitives to appear randomly, born to parents who have no significant force ability."

"Going on, something more sinister is, I fear," said Yoda. "Investigate this more, you must. But careful, you must be."