Title: An Uncertain Future
By: Quiet as a Ninja – kungfuchickie@hotmail.com
Rated: G
Summary: Obi-Wan frets as his time as an initiate at the temple is about to end.
Author's Notes: My first fan fiction! This is just a little introductory piece where we meet Mira and Tar'rs, Cean and Bant. I hope to carry on this piece, I'm not sure if it's going to be more centred on Mira or Obi-Wan. I guess we'll see as I write!
Feedback: Please!
p.s Obi-Wan and Bant aren't mine!
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"I think you are worrying too much Ben," Mira Solo said. At the young age of nine she spoke like a grown woman sometimes. Her explanation was that she was an old soul. Ben, otherwise known as Obi-Wan Kenobi, was on the verge of his 13th birthday and still had not been chosen to be a Padawan learner. His constant fretting and worrying was being broadcast to all his friends, especially the force sensitive Mira; she was sharing much of his anxieties, and it was starting to get on her nerves.
"I'm trying not to worry. But if I can't be a Jedi I don't know what I'm going to do. Or what's gonna to happen to me!" his grey-blue eyes widened at the thought of being shipped off to some mining project, or to a moisture farm.
"Well I heard that the last couple of jedi hopefuls that didn't get picked to be padawans were being shipped to some eco farms. And on the way their transport was hijacked by space pirates took them and sold them as slaves!" Mira got more excited as she told the story. She liked to watch the fear rise in her best friend.
She and Obi-Wan had known each other for as long as either one could remember. When they were little Mira could never pronounce Obi-Wan right, after a while his name just morphed into Ben, and she had been calling him that ever since. Mira threw her head back in giddy laughter. Her long black hair was a mess, tangled and sticking up all over the place as usual. "You know I'm just making that up, don't you bantha-butt?" she kept on laughing, "you should have saw the look on your face!" Obi-wan gave her a dirty look at managed to shove her off her chair using the force, but that didn't stop her from laughing. Her coal black eyes sparkled. Watching Mira laugh lifted Obi-wan's spirits.
As Mira rose back onto her chair the door chime rang. In came Bant and Cean, two of their friends. Bant was a Calamarian, about a couple of months younger than Obi-wan. She had glistening, amphibious skin, large inquiring eyes, and a sweet disposition. She was clad in her green bathrobe ready to go to bed. Cean was humanoid with iridescent blue skin that would glitter when he was excited and turn dull when bored. They could read him like a book. None of the friends remembered exactly what species he was, they were sure they knew sometime back when they first met, but any differences were quickly forgotten.
"We just came to say goodnight and to remind Mira that we have a test tomorrow on lightsaber construction. If you don't pass this they're not going to let you train with one until next semester," Cean said. He was the same age as Mira. Bant and Obi-wan Already had some lightsaber training. Mira nodded.
"I should remind Tar'rs. He doesn't need to fail another semester." Mira said of their friends Tar'rs Micron.
"We just saw him. Onta is in there tutoring him right now," Bant replied. Onta was their annoying Twi'lek friend. He was annoying, but the group had grown used to it and even missed him when he was not around. Onta was quite weak with the force, but his brilliance and agility made up for his lack of force sensitivity. "Anyhow, I'm off to bed. Goodnight," Bant said as so turned to leave.
"Goodnight," Cean smiled and turned to follow Bant out, but paused and turned to Obi-wan and said, "do you think you could keep the worrying down tonight? You're starting to keep Tar'rs and I up at night." With that he left the room leaving Obi-Wan quite embarrassed. He didn't realise that he had been broadcasting so loudly.
/You haven't been/ Mira said, answering his thoughts. No matter how long they had known each other, her abilities never ceased to amaze him.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"They're just picking it up more because they are more in tune with you, because we are together so much and because they already know that you're scared."
"I'm not scared!"
"Are so!" Mira countered.
"I'm just nervous." Obi-Wan said, but he the reality of it was that he was scared. He didn't know exactly what was going to happen, but he didn't want to give up hope. Not yet.
* * *
"I totally aced that!" Cean exclaimed as he walked out of the classroom with Mira and Tar'rs. Mira just looked at him annoyed. She has a feeling that she had not done so well on her test and would have to put off lightsaber training for another semester.
"I think I did ok." Tar'rs said in a very unconvincing tone. Apparently Onta's tutoring did not help at all. Whenever he had to take a test Tar'rs mind would go blank. The three entered the large cafeteria and spotted Obi-Wan and Bant already seated at a table. At the table they were in a discussion about where they came from and what they thought about the lives they had to leave behind.
"A lot of the time I wonder what kind of family I left behind and if I had any brothers or sisters or what my parents did for a living," Obi-wan said, "but then I think about getting to be a jedi and I don't feel so bad anymore."
"I wonder that too sometimes, but it would have been such a waste if I had not developed my powers and I can do so much for the galaxy. I doubt I could have if I never left Mon Calamari," Bant said. The two of them tended to have more interesting conversations as of late. The age gap between the group of friends had never been so apparent until now, with Obi-wan and Bant almost teenagers and the rest of the group 2 or 3 years younger. At this point in their lives it seemed as if there were light-years between them sometimes. Bant and Obi-wan's conversation was rudely interrupted when someone spilled their half-empty tray of food onto Obi-Wan. Obi-wan looked up to see Bruck Chun standing over him, with his lackeys not far away.
"Way to go Oafy-Wan, you made me drop my tray," he said. His lackeys laughed. It clearly was not an accident, and Obi-Wan had in no way provoked it. Bruck was still bitter about the incident in which Obi-Wan tripped Bruck by accident and took them both down in front of many jedi masters. He could feel his anger rising, but he tried his best to keep it in check. He wiped the food from his beige jedi tunic. Behind him, Obi-Wan could sense Mira and the others approaching.
"Get lost Bruck and I won't tell master Yoda about you spilling your food all over the place." Obi-Wan said trying to keep the peace, but Bruck was in this to provoke him and get Obi-Wan in trouble.
"Me spilling the food? Try again Oafy-wan. You should apologise and start cleaning this up before I tell master Yoda about you tripping me again!"
"You're such a freaking nerf herder," a voice from behind Obi-wan said. It was Mira. She had an extreme dislike for Bruck, he always teased her because she was unusually tall and gangly for her age.
"Get lost, Taun Taun breath, this isn't any of your business. This is between me and klutzy here. Master Qui-Gon is coming in a couple of days to see me fight. It looks like I'll be a jedi after all and you are just going to be some farm hand in the outer rim somewhere," Bruck said trying to upset Obi-Wan. But he had talked to Master Windu earlier and had heard that Master Qui-Gon was coming to see many potential padawans and it didn't bother him. Bruck began to walk away as Mira and the others sat down. Mira put down her try and glanced over at Bruck and the next thing Bruck new he was falling on his back. Hard. He had slipped on a piece of food that had not been under his foot before. Tar'rs and Cean howled with laughter. Mira just smiled at Bruck smugly who was glaring at her from the floor.
/You know you're not supposed to do that!/ Bant said to Mira in her head. That wiped the smile off of Mira's face, but she still thought he had it coming to him. Obi-Wan tried to hide his smile, he knew that the force wasn't supposed to be used like that, but he agreed that Bruck did deserve it.
* * *
"Mira, I don't think this is a good idea," Cean said as he followed her down the long dark hallway.
"Shhh!!"" she hissed, "we're not doing anything wrong, Cean. We're just going to walk by and see what Master Windu and Master Qui-gon are talking about. We're doing this for Ben," Mira whispered.
"Obi-Wan will be fine without our help Mira. Lets go back," Cean pulled at her arm. She struggled free and kept going. Cean followed, if she was going to continue he wasn't going to abandon her. They arrived in front of the door. Mira instructed Cean to sit on one side of the doorframe as she sat on the other. He leaned closer to listen. He could feel the Master's strong presences inside the room, but he didn't seen how they were going to hear them.
/With the force, genius/ Mira said in Cean's mind. He was strong with the force but didn't apply his skills. The two of them sat and concentrated, they were concentrating so hard that they forgot to shield their presence. Before they were discovered Mira and Cean did pick up a little bit of the conversation in which they were eavesdropping on.
"I will look tomorrow but I'm not going to take on another padawan." Qui-Gon Jinn said.
"Don't you feel that it's about time? It's been many years since-" Mace Windu paused, he had picked up the spies and stood to move towards the door. Qui-gon followed. The two masters opened the door and found Mira and Cean sitting there on the floor. The two immediately shot up on their feet and bowed.
"Can I help you two?" Mace asked her trying to hide an amused smile. He liked Mira a lot. She was very powerful in the force, but reckless. She had a love of fun, and liked to play, and not take things seriously. She had good ideas, but she still lacked the control necessary to use the force. It all reminded him of himself as a youth.
"No Master Windu, we just dropped something here, and we were looking for it, but it's not here, so we're going to go now," Mira grabbed Cean's arm and started to walk away.
"Not so quickly!" Mace called after them. He wanted to introduce the two young students to Qui-Gon. "You have not yet met, Master Qui-Gon Jinn." Mira and Cean both bowed again. "This is Mira Solo and Cean Li'thwia. They are both initiates."
"Pleased to meet you both," Qui-Gon said. He had seen both Mira and Cean around the temple, and he was especially impressed with what he had seen of Mira. "Will I be seeing you to tomorrow in the demonstrations?" he asked knowing quite well that they did not even have lightsabers yet, but wanted to hear her answer. All he had heard her say so far was a lie.
"No master, we're only nine, and haven't even built our lightsabers, or have had much training. Even though we both have had our blueprints for them for almost a year now." Mira replied. Cean was dull and pale with nausea, he didn't like dealing with authority figures and still though that they were in for it.
"Well then my sight decieves me, I was under the impression that both you and Cean were old enough."
"We are old enough, but we're giving stupid tests that are supposed to show our instructors that we're ready but they are so hard that they scare a lot of us into failing them, and we miss out on a semester or sometimes two or three of lightsaber training. I don't think they are fair." Mira said. Qui-gon was pleasantly surprised. She was outspoken, but tactful, as tactful as a nine-year-old would get.
"Life's tests are not always fair," Mace said
"Yea well that sucks," Mira said. The masters could do nothing but laugh at that comment, and with that the two were dismissed. They ran down the hall back to the dorm area where the students lived. They went straight to Obi-Wan's to report what they had found out.
Obi-Wan opened the door to let Mira and Cean in. He had been in the middle of reading his Corellian history book, which was not only about Corellian history but was written in Corellian, which Obi-Wan was very rusty at. Any other inner core star system alphabets was easy, but Corellian always confused him. He was relieved to see Mira, who was from Corellia, and seemed to have an inborn ability to read the confusing text.
"Obi-Wan, you would never guessed what happened. We just went to listen in on Master Windu's conversation with Master Qui-Gon and we found out that he isn't going to take a padawan." Cean blurted out; he had gotten a rush of adrenaline from getting away with what they just did. He was a follower of rules and spying on Jedi Council conversations was definitely against the rules, even if they were spying on newly admitted council members like Mace Windu.
"What?" Ben said, partly out of the shock of hearing that he was losing his chance to be a Jedi and partly out of the shock of them actually having the nerve to go eavesdrop on Jedi Masters. Obi-Wan suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He was going to have to leave the temple to become a farmer! Not that there was anything wrong with farmers, it was a good honest profession, but farmers were not Jedi Knights. Not a lot of kids dreamed about being a farmer.
"I don't know what happened before, but Qui-Gon is not going to take a padawan. He said so, but you never know. Maybe if you really show him how good you are he will change his mind." Mira said trying to encourage Obi-Wan, she could feel that he was beginning to feel hopeless.
"Maybe. I guess we'll see," Obi-Wan closed his text. Cean and Mira could do nothing but nod in agreement. They could do nothing but wait and see.
*To find out what happens to Obi-wan read the YA jedi apprentice novels!