See the first part for notes.

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Finally the briefing was over. It had lasted for seven hours and now everyone was virtually drained to near death. At first the conversation was flowing slowly. The two sides tested each other, probed if the other was ready to concede. Then the heat raised. In the blink of an eye the two head representatives were shouting at each other like dealers in a market. Their assistants were not far behind. Soon the hall was far more noisy than it had been before the briefing. Everyone tried to prove their point to their opponent. No one was listening to anyone, only themselves. It all came to such an extent that Qui-Gon had to interfere. He managed to settle the overexcited people enough for something resembling a dialogue to resume. Through the course of the briefing occasional disputes peaked in the heat but never to the extent of the first one. And in seven hours these people could not reach the agreement. The ending was as quiet as the beginning had been because no one had any more energy left for arguing. Only Tarnos Imata and Surten Arones seemed to still have some energy. But even they have limited their confrontation to angry and stubborn stares. At last the end to the meeting was called. Both parties gathered their papers and filed out. The Jedi were the last to leave.

Throughout the meeting Obi-Wan kept his eyes firmly set on Surten Arones. And occasionally his gaze would shift onto the woman next to him. It was unfair for the Padawan that this woman had to sit so close to the object of his supervision. If there was anything in Arones' behaviour that could give away the reason for his confidence it slipped past the Padawan's intense scrutiny. Obi-Wan honestly tried to follow all the loops and rotations of the conversation but to his displeasure he had lost it entirely after the second hour. All Obi-Wan managed to get from this briefing was considerable headache. Though it seemed he wasn't the only one. Kamon didn't look like he got more from the briefing than Obi-Wan did.

And now Obi-Wan's Master wanted to know why his Padawan had been gaping at the woman instead of doing his job. Obi-Wan followed the Master into the common room of Qui-Gon's quarters. There he fell bonelessly onto the couch refusing even a thought of getting up to enter his mind. Qui-Gon took two cups of tea from a tray delivered by a droid and strode to his chair, giving one of the cups to Obi-Wan as he passed him. The young man sat upright, internally steeling himself for an upcoming conversation. He knew Qui-Gon was not overly pleased with his behaviour. And he knew that the Master was tired, too, though it took someone who knew him closely to notice it.

"Padawan," Qui-Gon started, his expression neutral. "You were distracted by that woman. It is not very becoming of a Jedi. You must remember that you are on a mission."

"I'm sorry, Master. I shouldn't have let her distract me this way." Obi-Wan lowered his gaze and stared into his cup, suddenly finding it very interesting.

"It's all right. But make sure it doesn't happen again. I suggest you meditate on this," Qui-Gon looked at the boy. He could see his Padawan's embarrassment.

"Umm, Master, I need to tell you something…"

"Yes, I'm listening," Qui-Gon watched his apprentice closely. Did the boy have this famous bad feeling of his again, he wondered. Obi-Wan still kept his gaze down.

"I have a strange feeling. It concerns me but I don't know what it means."

Just as I thought. Qui-Gon sighed inwardly. He wished he were on Coruscant so that he could relax in his favourite chair with a cup of hot fragrant tea. With an effort he forced himself to return from his wishful thinking to the matter at hand. This one never stops worrying about the future. And never keeps his thoughts on what is going on in the present. "Obi-Wan, I think you are worrying about nothing. It possibly only means that you take everything too seriously. You need to relax. Looks like this mission will be long and boring. So do go out and have some fun."

Obi-Wan looked up at that, surprised. He saw a little grin tugging at the corners of his Master's mouth and a raised eyebrow, hinting that he better not try his luck. As he had thought Qui-Gon dismissed his concerns.

"But, Master," Obi-Wan tried to argue. "This might be important. It…"

Qui-Gon rarely interrupted his Padawan, but at the moment he was too tired to listen to any reasons the apprentice could think out to justify his concerns. "Obi-Wan, you are giving too large meaning to it," he said in a stern tone, hinting that he was not up to arguing at the moment.

Obi-Wan broke off in the middle of a word and looked at his Master. He saw that anything he could say would not reach the older man now. There was no point to argue any more. The only option was to concede and do as he was told.

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Obi-Wan shuffled out of Qui-Gon's apartment, upset and disappointed. Though somewhere deep in his mind he knew it would happen this way it still hurt. Why couldn't Qui-Gon listen to him just once? What if it proved to be dangerous?

Obi-Wan gloomily looked out the large mullioned windows that overtook the wall to his right. Through them he saw a glorious crescent of the sun slowly making its descent down into the abyss of night and casting scarlet rays into the darkening skies. After Coruscant, Allura's air-traffic seemed somehow abysmal. Occasionally hovercrafts and air taxis flew so close to the widows that one could see their passengers. Had this been sometime else, or had he been someone else, he would have immensely enjoyed the breathtaking view. But this wasn't sometime else. And he wasn't somebody else. He was Obi-Wan.

Being thus completely occupied, Obi-Wan totally forgot to look where he was going. The whimsical lady called 'fate' didn't fail to prove his Master's point of keeping one's focus on the here and now: Obi-Wan bumped into someone. He raised his head, startled out of his gloomy thoughts to look at the happy face of a fellow Padawan.

"Hey, Obi! What are you doing here looking like a player in a casino that has just lost his last credit?"

"I-umm…" Obi-Wan tried to think of something to reply with but Kamon didn't wait for explanations of any sort.

"Come to a club with us. You seem to be in a desperate need of a good time out." Kamon virtually dragged the other Padawan along.

"Us? I don't see anyone else, unless you are walking around with a ghost," Obi-Wan quipped sarcastically. But his sarcasm fell on deaf ears.

"Namira's waiting for me at that club. Now she's waiting for us , only she doesn't know about it yet. There's no way I will let you walk around with a face like that. You'll scare all those representatives and they will run off like a herd of banthas. You want to catch them after that? I rather not." Kamon kept speaking all the way down to the landing pad where an air taxi was waiting for them. Obi-Wan didn't have a chance to put in a single word. He could only listen and smile at what the other said. Kamon definitely knew how to lighten someone's mood.

The air taxis here were almost the same as the ones on Coruscant. Their air taxi glided lazily along the line of traffic, making its way towards its destination. Where its destination was left unknown to Obi-Wan. He leaned against the back of his seat, absent-mindedly listening to Kamon's babbling next to him. Thoughts of Qui-Gon's dismissal returned to plague him. He couldn't forget the casualty with which the Master told him to go out, the indifference on Qui-Gon's face. The sense of foreboding, that very same feeling he couldn't grasp, suddenly surfaced as well. Obi-Wan straightened abruptly and started looking around, trying to determine the source of it. But he saw only the blue sky, the flying traffic, and the tall buildings they passed. There was no other warning from the Force either.

Shaking his head in disappointment, he leaned back in his seat again. Kamon looked at him worriedly but had no time to say anything. For the air taxi slipped out of the line and stopped at a platform. The two Padawans got out of it and, having paid for the ride, started towards a door. A neon sign above the door proclaimed this establishment to be a club with a strange name, 'Lakucha Iva'.

The club itself looked like a two-storied round building, situated on the roof of another, also round, building. The roof was bordered with the line of blinking neon arc's of different colour. To both sides of the entrance there was a parking lot, enclosed in the neon fence. Obi-Wan thought that this club would definitely benefit if there was any dark time on this planet. At the moment the parking lot was only half-filled. Two twi'lek's were arguing loudly, standing on different sides of an odd-shaped bright-orange vehicle. They paid no attention to the two padawans. The third twi'lek came out of the club and the two arguing immediately calmed down. The three of them got into their vehicle, whatever it was, and took off.

"What could it mean?" Obi-Wan wondered aloud, staring at the name. Kamon just shrugged, obviously uninterested, and proceeded inside. They found themselves in a large room, though the real size of it was pretty hard to determine. The dim illumination of the room created a special fictitious atmosphere. The dark walls seemed to lead into infinity. Slightly aromatic smoke was emerging from some devices hidden in the walls. It covered the floor masking it completely and dissipated away as it rose higher. People on a dance-floor seemed to hover over the floor rather than dancing on it.

Out of habit, Obi-Wan scanned the room with his eyes, unconsciously looking for a hidden threat. The room had an improper shape, all curves and corners at unexpected places. There was a stage, illuminated with neon – What a surprise Obi-Wan thought sarcastically – where a band of humanoids was playing, dance-floor and many hexagon-shaped tables scattered around the club. Different aliens were drinking whatever it was they considered alcoholic. Obi-Wan didn't have time for a more detailed observation because Kamon was already dragging him to the table Namira was at. She had started to wave at them as soon as she saw them.

"Hello, guys," she said to them as soon as they were in a hearing range. "What took you so long to get here, Kamon? Glad you decided to join us, Obi-Wan," she added to him. As soon as the boys got themselves seated at the table she started to talk.

She's just like Kamon, can talk for hours all by herself, thought Obi-Wan in displeasure, leaving all attempts to put in a word. He resorted to watching and listening, wondering how they will fare together. Their conversation sounded more like a competition in oratorical art than a friendly talk.

A waiter materialized at their table, seemingly out of thin air. He looked like a hybrid between a human and an insect. He put a small disk before each of the table's occupants. He touched each disk in the middle and a holographic menu jumped out. It was operated by passing one's hands over the disk. The two talking closed their mouths for awhile to study the menu. Namira, being native, orientated easily in it and made her order quickly. The two boys were not so quick and she ended up helping them to make an order because some of the menu items had names no less strange than the name of the club itself. After making an order the two returned to their heated discussion.

Obi-Wan just shook his head. How could people be like this? He honestly tried to follow their conversation for some time. But soon it started to remind him vividly of the briefing earlier that day. He was grateful that at least they kept their voices down. It would have been too much if the whole place could listen to them. The waiter returned with their order. The colour of Obi-Wan's drink oddly resembled the colour of his lightsaber. Namira and Kamon barely took notice of their order being brought.

Feeling himself left-out and desolate Obi-Wan sipped his drink and let his gaze drift around the room. His survey came to an abrupt stop when his gaze fell upon one of the tables across the room.

There was… SHE…

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