Chapter 5 – Investigation
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"Mister Skywalker," said a man with a weird hairdo.
"Hello..." Luke responded, not remembering the Centauri's name.
"Londo Mollari," he replied.
"Ah yes, the Centauri Ambassador, I've heard a lot of bad things about you," Luke said as he began to walk off.
"Mister Skywalker, please...Let me buy you a drink; we need to talk," Londo said as he scurried around in front of Luke.
"We can talk, but I don't drink."
"Yes, of course."
Londo lead Luke to the bar that he often occupied. Londo sat down and ordered his usual, Luke sat next to him.
"What is it, Ambassador?"
"I heard about your little stunt yesterday. Very impressive...very impressive indeed. I would like to know how you did it."
"The force, it told me to use a mind trick on the ship, it worked very easily, I managed to convince the ship to stop. I just have to get fairly close in order to do it."
"Oh really, well congratulations on your first victory against the shadows, I bid you farewell."
Londo threw back his head and swallowed the last of his drink, placing the glass on the bar, and handing the waitress a small coin. Luke looked back at the Centauri and laughed as he stood up. He walked back to his quarters in green-4. He walked into the room to see that his wife was not alone. A beautiful young woman with ebony curls that spilled over onto the floor sat talking to Mara, both of them holding their infant sons on their laps.
"Linauri, how are you doing?" Luke asked the woman.
"Just fine, Elendur here is growing up so fast," she said as she turned and saw her master's face.
"Thank you for taking care of Ben while Mara and I were meeting with Captain Sheridan."
"No problem, it was fun actually, the little guy is fun to be with," she said in response, "You want to hold Ele?"
"Yes, please," Luke said as Linauri extended her son to him. Luke took the week old baby into his arms and rocked it back in forth in his arms. Mara looked up and then noticed that Ben wanted to be held now.
"Luke, dear, I think Ben is jealous," Mara said with a giggle.
Luke handed Elendur back to Linauri and took Ben from Mara's extended arms. Mara smiled as Ben began cooing in Luke's arms. Luke handed Ben back to Mara.
"I've got a meeting with the captain in a few minutes; I just came by to tell you."
"It's okay Lukie-ookie, Ivanova told us about it earlier, she messaged you on BabCom and I answered," Mara told her husband, "Now go, so we can get back to our girl talk."
"It was nice talking to you Master Luke, or should I say lukie-ookie" said Linauri with a giggle.
"You too, Lin, well gotta run, see you two girls later," he responded, turning away blushing.
The girls saw him blushing and began to giggle and laugh. Luke walked fast out into the corridor and down towards Captain Sheridan's office. Lin looks over at Mara and giggles, pointing a finger at her saying, "Lukie-ookie....?"
Mara begins to blush and then force pushes Lin into the side of the couch making both women laugh.
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Londo walked through the Zocalo, looking at the various items people were selling. He stopped at a flower shop and saw some starlaces. He quickly scowled and turned away.
"Ambassador Mollari," said a voice behind the Centauri.
"What do you want, Mister Morden?" he replied quickly.
"I noticed you had a talk with that Jedi, I would like to know what you talked about. My associates would also like to know how he managed to completely immobilize a mothership so easily," Morden replied with anger in his voice.
"He went on about something called the force; I don't know what he was talking about; Now leave me be, Mister Morden."
"Thank you Ambassador; my associates would like you to find out more if you can."
Morden turned and walked away from Londo. Vir Cotto walked past him and gritted his teeth at the foul creature.
"Londo, Londo!"
"Yes, Yes, what is it Vir?"
"Lord Refa wishes to speak to you immediately."
"Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes."
Vir ran off to his room to tell Lord Refa Londo was on his way. Londo looked up and saw Garibaldi standing on the catwalk looking around. He waved and yelled out, "Mister Garibaldi, my good friend!"
Garibaldi walked down the stairs and smiled as Londo walked up to him, "What is it this time Londo? What do you need, I don't have any money on me right now."
"This isn't about money. I want to know what this force thing Skywalker talks about is."
"I honestly don't know what to tell you, maybe you should check up on that. I'm on duty, but maybe I'll see you at the bar later."
"Yes, at the bar, good day Mister Garibaldi."
Londo turned around and left for his quarters, where Vir was waiting with the link with Refa.
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Ambassador Kosh watched Luke as he walked into Sheridan's office. Luke stopped all of a sudden, feeling a mental probe. He looked over and saw Kosh turning the corner. As soon as he was out of sight, the probe ended. Luke ran after him, but when he got to the corner, Kosh was nowhere to be seen. He tried to scan for him using the force, but he couldn't find him. He turned back toward the office and pressed the pager on the door.
"Open," said Sheridan from inside, "Ah, Luke, glad you could make it."
"You said you wanted to see me?" Luke asked.
"Yes, I was wondering if we could go try those X-wings out. I'd like to see how they compare to a Starfury."
"Yeah, sure, no problem."
"Good...because I've already cleared us a transport to your ship."
"Let's go."
The two men walked out of the office and down to the private launch bay. John opened the door using his clearance code and motioned for Luke to enter. Luke walked into the ship and John followed. John sat down in the captain's chair and told the Minbari crew to fly them over to the lead star destroyer. Luke pulled a comlink out of his pocket and requested clearance for the Whitestar into docking bay 27.
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"You'll notice that the X-wings have their own life support systems. The helmet is just for protection."
John pushed forward on the acceleration lever and zoomed past Luke.
"Whoa, these things are fast."
"Heh, yeah, they can get 1700 g's easily."
"Wow, this thing will smoke anything we can throw at it."
John flew around in the x-wing for a while, and then came up next to Luke's. "Wanna race?" he asked the jedi.
"Sure...why not?"
Luke looked out into space, and spotted an asteroid.
"First one to that asteroid buys dinner."
"You're on."
Luke looked over at John as they set the departure clocks for 10 seconds. The timer went off and Luke slammed forward on the acceleration bar. He looked over and saw John was somewhat ahead of him. He checked the computer; John's reaction time was incredible...0.06 seconds. He sighed as he knew he would never catch up. He began to mentally count his money. Mara was going to beat him for losing, after laughing for a few minutes, that is.
"How did you start so fast, John?"
"I used to drag race back on Earth. Oh, I thought I had told you," John said with a laugh, "Oh, and thanks for picking up dinner."
"Yeah...No problem," said Luke with confusion in his mind.