All right, Cerasi5, just for you :D Here's the next part. Hopefully you enjoy it.
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"Where to?" the air taxi driver and Kamon asked in unison.
Namira shrugged. "Maybe we could go to a friend of mine? She lives somewhere around here," she suggested hesitantly.
"I don't think I like that idea," Kamon replied thoughtfully. "Arones didn't seem a stupid man to me. And if he's not he knows about all your friends. No, this way we will only put ourselves and your friend in danger."
"All right then. What do you propose?" Namira asked, a slightest hint of irritation starting to creep into her voice.
Apparently seeing their uncertainty the driver stopped the air taxi, and it hovered at the side of the street. "I'll wait here while you guys decide where you want to go," he announced and turned away, giving them some semblance of privacy for conversation.
The two young people nodded, barely noticing what he had said, trying to figure out the next step.
"First of all I think we should call Master Jinn and tell him what transpired," the Padawan said reasonably.
With that Kamon picked up his comlink and called Jinn's sequence. But no answer came. Surprised, the boy called again - with the same result. Namira stared at him with nervousness growing in her eyes. Kamon shrugged, trying to hide his own worry and puzzlement from her.
"Maybe he's too busy with Obi-Wan," he suggested, knowing that wasn't the matter.
"What if something happened to them?" Namira asked. Her lower lip started to tremble - the stressful events of this day were simply too much for her.
Kamon felt at a loss. On one hand he was worried himself: it wasn't usual for a Jedi on a mission to simply forget about his or her comlink or ignore its signal. On the other hand he suddenly found out that he didn't want Namira to be distressed. Gingerly he put his hand on her shoulder, half expecting to be pushed away angrily. But she instead nestled closer to him. Feeling reassured by this he wrapped his arm around her shoulders gently.
"I don't think something happened to them," Kamon said, putting on his best I-know-I'm-right face. Force, I hope it's true! There's more than enough that already happened, he added to himself. But the more time passed the more he was unsure.
"But what do we do now?" Namira asked, suddenly looking very vulnerable.
"We need to find someplace safe," he replied, trying hard to think about such a place, remembering all he read about this planet in whole and this city in particular. But nothing came into his mind.
"I don't know if any place in this city is safe," Namira said dejectedly, echoing his thoughts. "Arones is a powerful man. He will find us anywhere."
"Then we must find a place where we can find protection of some kind."
"We could go to my father," Namira offered after a moment of silence.
"Your father?!" Kamon stared at her incredulously, his dark eyes becoming even darker with astonishment. "You said your father is an invalid, didn't you? And this is your idea of a safe place?!"
"So he is an invalid. But we have a big house, so he keeps guards to protect it. And THIS is my idea of a safe place. Do you have any better idea?!" Her tirade ended almost in a yell. Constant anxieties were taking their toll on her, and she was trembling with emotion.
The driver, who was watching the exchange through the side mirror, shook his head with a knowing smile at the almost love skirmish.
Kamon, disturbed by the girl's outburst, realizing that she was on edge, squeezed her shoulder gently. "Calm down, please," he said quietly. His almost whispered words made her strain to hear them, and she calmed down. Thus taking her mind away from the worries she had been so focused on, Kamon sent her a wave of calming Force, though he was more than sure that she would not feel even the slightest bit of it.
But contrary to what he thought she did feel it, although her perception of it was vague. She felt warmth and knew that it had come from him. She smiled up at him with gratitude, making him wonder.
"That's better," he said, seeing her relax slightly. "I guess you're right. Your father's house might be indeed the safest place we could find here." Oh, how he wished they were on Coruscant! There was one safest place in the galaxy. The Temple. And his Master. But right now he was on his own. And right now he was the protector…
"So, have you decided yet?" the driver intervened into their talk and into Kamon's thoughts that had suddenly taken an almost romantic inclination.
"Yes, we have," Namira replied, a small smile appearing on her face - a smile of woman's contentment that lit up her eyes. She told the driver the address, and the air taxi started on its journey yet again.
After what seemed an endless time, but in fact was little more than an hour, they left the city, and a wide panorama of 'cultivated' land opened before them. There were little trees in this area, if any at all. Here and there enormous piles of trash marred the plain with their ugly outlines. The unconstrained tentacles of waste crawled in all directions, threatening one day to embrace the city in the clutches of filth. Unlike Coruscant - the shining capital of the Republic - on Allura there wasn't a finely orchestrated system of machinery called to recycle the refuse and then send the unutilized remnants of it onto the planet's orbit.
The dull landscape oppressed the people, and their light banter faded away, replaced by viscous and monotonous silence, heavy as a pitch. To everyone's relief, before long a cluster of trees appeared in the middle of wasteland. The bright green of the trees' foliage dispelled the uncomfortable silence, lightening the mood.
A few minutes later the taxi drew to the house in the middle of this oasis and stopped at the main entrance to the manor. Namira paid the driver, and he took off on his way back to the city. The young people directed their steps to the mansion. Kamon looked it over with wonder and a hint of apprehension. The house was fairly large: though it was only three stories high it stretched to both sides from the main entrance, and its walls disappeared eventually in the thick shrubbery of the regular garden. The old manor had been built of large brownish red stones and decorated with white stucco molding. Wide windows ran in rows all over the facade, lightening the impression of strictness. The Padawan spotted a few shadows, moving behind the tall windows, wavering heavy curtains. Strangely enough no one came out to greet the guests. Uneasiness settled in their hearts as Kamon and Namira approached the house.
"Is it always this quiet here?" Kamon asked in a subdued voice, looking around as though he expected some unknown danger to jump at them any moment.
"N-No," Namira replied in an equally subdued voice that was quivering a little. "I grew up here and it was never this… this… scary here." She shivered slightly, hugging the edges of her blue jacket tighter around herself.
They resembled two little children who ran away to play and accidentally got into the old castle, full of ancient dust, legends and ghosts. Namira's hand unconsciously slid into Kamon's larger one, and he squeezed it gently to reassure her.
They approached a huge wooden door and rang a bronze bell. The deep sound of the bell echoed hollowly in the hall behind the door. Namira shrank and clasped Kamon's hand tighter.
With a shrieking crunch the heavy door opened, revealing a fairly young man standing on the threshold. At the sight of him Namira gave out a quiet whimper. She recognized him immediately as soon as she saw him - it was one of Arones' men. One of his closest and trusted men.
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Qui-Gon stood on the spacious landing field of the busy spaceport, watching helplessly as the ship that was carrying his padawan, the soulhunter, and the Dark Jedi turned into a shining speck of light and then disappeared completely in the peaceful azure of the day sky. And as peaceful was the sky as troubled was the Master's heart, ripples of unease hiding just under the serene countenance the Master maintained, perhaps out of lifetime habit.
The kidnappers had gotten away from him. It would have been an insuperable impediment for any other person. But it was a minor obstacle that would not, by any estimation, prevent Qui-Gon Jinn from getting to his apprentice. No, he wouldn't be stopped simply because they had a ship at the ready while he had not.
Moments later Qui-Gon found himself walking briskly to the office of the spaceport's chief through the maze of corridors the main spaceport's building had. At the door to the office he paused, closing his eyes for a moment listening to the Force intently. It was weird, foolish even, but he could still sense the presence of the Dark Jedi like a marred spot on the crystal web of the Force. It could mean only that the abductors were still in this planetary system - they didn't jump into hyperspace.
Qui-Gon snorted quietly. "Fools. They make it so much easier!"
The dark presence lingered in the Force, creating a clear trace for the Jedi Master to follow. And follow he would, as soon as he gets a transport.
It didn't take long for Qui-Gon to convince the spaceport's chief to give him a ship. After all, every official was bound to help the Jedi should they require some help. The chief had checked some records and gave Qui-Gon a dock number. The Master was out of the door as soon as said number left the chief's lips. The chief looked after him in a slight shock, then shook his head and returned to his computer terminal. Those Jedi are so weird! he thought before setting his mind on other matters.
Qui-Gon found the right dock rather quickly. The ship was there, all right. Of course, it wasn't the fastest transport Qui-Gon had ever seen, being a rather old and battered corellian ship as it was. But right now anything would do - there wasn't much of a choice anyway. The Jedi Master couldn't afford to loose even a minute in search of a better ship: the abductors might realize their mistake any minute and go into a hyperspace jump, which undoubtedly would result in Qui-Gon loosing all the tracks of them. So he could only hope that the corellian transport would keep the reputation of the manufacturers and turn out to be better than what it looked.
Getting onboard the ship Qui-Gon swiftly started to run the preflight procedures. The chief had offered him to take a pilot, but the Jedi refused, knowing that he would be better on his own and not wishing to put an innocent person in a dangerous situation that the events might turn into. A sharp beep signaled the ship was ready for the flight, and Qui-Gon started the engines. A minute later the ship shot out of the atmosphere, following the clear trace the dark Jedi's presence had left in the Force.
Around an hour later a small black corellian transport appeared in the upper atmosphere of Amaltea, another planet of Allura system.
Qui-Gon looked out the front viewport at the planet that stretched beneath his bulky ship. Amaltea's surface was mostly a pleasant soft green as it was covered with rich vegetation. Here and there gray spots and tendrils indicated mountain massifs; deep blue marks indicated seas and oceans. Warps of clouds floating high in the atmosphere smeared the view, making the perspective vague.
The planet was beautiful, and much more pure than Allura, almost wild in its nature as it was left untouched during the years the main planet of the system had been colonized and urbanized. But its beauty was lost on the frowning Jedi Master who studied it intently. How could he enjoy the beauty, no matter how bright, when his Padawan, the closest person to him, was in grave danger? Qui-Gon had no illusions concerning what the dark Jedi might want with the young Padawan.
The presence of the dark Jedi was strong here: apparently the kidnappers had landed on the planet. But suddenly a problem arouse - where exactly had they landed? Qui-Gon tried to pinpoint the location through the Force, honing his senses to the incredible acuteness, but all of his efforts proved to be futile. The Living Force of the planet was so bright and radiant it was almost blinding. The planet thrived with life. Any other time Qui-Gon would have basked in the luminosity of the Living Force here, his connection to it had always been so deep and innate he felt himself part of nature, part of the Living Force. But right now he wasn't glad to feel it, right now it was a hindrance. Billions of life forms produced an incredible mix of signatures, a mix even a Jedi Master couldn't sort through. Qui-Gon had the whole planet before him and no clue where to start searching. He was so close yet so far...
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