Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his eighteen-year-old Padawan learner, Obi-Wan Kenobi, sat in companionable silence in the passenger compartment of their transport to the newly inhabited planet of Tangoria on the edges of Known Space. The colony of about five hundred humans that had settled there had asked for a Jedi team to come and mediate during their elections of their first monarch and the Jedi Council had sent Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.
"I think they just wanted to get rid of us for the moment, Master," Obi-Wan finally said, still looking straight ahead at the back of the pilot's head. A slight smile tugged at the corners of his mouth but did not emerge. Now a man, the Padawan Jedi had a braid that hung to his middle back and piercing eyes that a liar could not look in.
Qui-Gon let his smile blossom fully on his face. "That may indeed be the case, Padawan," he agreed simply, his deep voice quiet.
Obi-Wan sneaked a glance at the Jedi Master. "If you don't quit defying the Council, Master…" He couldn't help himself from saying.
"Peace, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon answered, trying not to laugh. Even after six years together, Obi-Wan loved to point out to him each time he defied the Jedi Council. To Qui-Gon, it was more like a joke now; he wasn't so sure about how serious Obi-Wan was with it sometimes. "You knew my reasons."
Grinning openly now, Obi-Wan turned his head toward the sole window in the tiny transport to gaze out at the wideness of the empty space. The planet of Tangoria was beginning to loom larger in the window, reminding Obi-Wan again of how the Council had decided to send the two Jedi where they could do the least damage. Tangoria was a beautiful blue-green jewel that seemed to radiate peace and love and Obi-Wan found himself almost sleepy with all the peace he was feeling from the planet.
Until suddenly, with a violent crack of soundless shock, Obi-Wan found pain, terror, death and sorrow slamming into him via the Force. Jerking back reflexively from the window, he noticed a slice of—light?—stretch through blackness of space. Straining to see, he glimpsed a gigantic fireball and a black speck before the light vanished.
"Master?" He murmured, his eyes fixated on a barely discernable black speck floating near the day side of the planet that they were approaching.
A hand rested soothingly on his shoulder and he knew that Qui-Gon was peering out the window now as well. "I felt it too, Obi-Wan."
The echo of pain remained, as did a fading presence that was in the direction of the black shape they were nearing. "What happened?" Obi-Wan asked, confused. "I've never felt or seen something like that before."
"I don't know, but we need to find out, hm?" Qui-Gon gracefully maneuvered his tall frame out of the squeezed in passenger section and knelt beside the pilot. "See that shape? I need you to go out there. We might need to tractor it in if it's too big to fit in your cargo hold."
The pilot, used to dealing with traveling Jedi, nodded and moved his ship to directly pass by the freely rotating shape.
Obi-Wan, with his love of piloting, studied the ship as they approached. Though blackened and obviously heavily damaged, he could not place the design as anything he had ever seen before. An obviously one-man craft, its body was an elongated bubble and its two wings were shaped like an X. Already his hands itched to get near it to explore it and he had to calm himself.
"It's small enough to fit, Master Jinn," the pilot was saying. "I'll have it scanned for any harmful substances before you go back there."
Qui-Gon nodded. "Thank you." Standing, he sent Obi-Wan a slight prod through their Force link. "Come with me, Padawan."
The damage seemed even more extensive in the harsh lighting of the cargo bay to the ship. Canted on its side, it seemed inelegant but agile. On closer inspection, Obi-Wan could see that the nose of the ship was pulled slightly outwards like a faceted spear. There was also a space behind the cockpit that looked like a droid would fit but was empty. On each side of the cockpit were bristled nozzles.
"It's a fighter," Obi-wan breathed, amazed. "Like no fighter I've ever seen before."
"Nor I," Qui-Gon dryly commented from beside him. "Let's see the pilot of this fighter. I sense he has little time left in this galaxy."
Obi-Wan nodded and together the two Jedi lifted the cockpit canopy up with the aide of the Force. The pilot was slumped against the side of the interior, quite obviously unconscious. Very gently, the Jedi worked together to unstrap the restraints holding the pilot in place and laid him on the ground beside them.
Kneeling on each side of the man, both Master and Padawan observed the blood soaked and unfamiliar black jumpsuit the man wore. The helmet was cracked from what must have been an extremely hard blow against the canopy and blood leaked out of the helmet from the head to drop onto the floor. The right knee was crusted in blood and twisted at an awkward angle, a little piece of the bone poking through the jumpsuit and Obi-Wan winced in sympathetic pain.
Being extremely gentle, Qui-Gon lifted the helmet and pulled it off of the man's head to reveal a man about ten or twelve years older than Obi-Wan. A large gash that revealed the skull above his left eye poured blood and his skin had a grayish cast.
Obi-Wan frowned. Didn't he know this man? Where had he seen him before? A memory tried to click into place in his mind, but something prevented it. It was the oddest feeling, and Obi-Wan felt as if he was floating in time, seeing this young man's face overlaid with a younger version of it. But how did he know him? He'd never seen him before—had he? Dizzy, he tried to stand and found that he couldn't tell up from down.
Strong arms caught him as he fell.
"Padawan, what is it? I can feel…What is it?" He heard Qui-Gon asking as he fought to stay conscious.
Opening his eyes, slightly surprised that they were closed, Obi-Wan found himself staring at a very concerned Qui-Gon. "I…don't know…It's as if I know him, but I don't…It's the strangest feeling, Master."
Qui-Gon's eyes hardened as he thought.
"Master? What is it?" Obi-Wan asked, sensing the direction his master's thoughts were going.
Qui-Gon shook his head. "Later," he murmured, helping Obi-Wan stand. He turned to stare down at the young man lying so close to death…and noticed for the first time the lightsaber that hung at his side.
This man was a Jedi? There were hundreds of Jedi but Qui-Gon knew the faces of all the ones younger than himself. He had not seen this young man before, he was sure of it. So where had he come from? And what was the ship he had been in?
And what was he, a Jedi Master, doing pondering questions while this man's life was dwindling away?
"Come, Obi-Wan, we need to get him into a bacta tank on the planet as soon as possible," Qui-Gon ordered. Deciding that lifting the man with hands might be too risky with his outward injuries and possible inside ones as well, Qui-Gon used the Force once again to lift him. "We'll see what we can do through the Force until we land."
Obi-Wan, still feeling a lingering effect of the strange disturbance of time, nodded and followed his master.