Obi-Wan tried to conceal his surprise at his first meeting with the colorful Kladmean female. She resembled a human female in every aspect except for three things: the light lavender of her skin, the wideness of her eyes, and her webbed slender hands. Since becoming Qui-Gon's apprentice, he had met hundreds of different beings from all over the galaxy but he had never seen a more delicate alien being than this.
Her voice, when she spoke to greet them in her chambers, surprised him with its musical tones and softness and he found himself smiling at her. Focusing in the Force and directing it at her, he felt only peace and gentleness in this graceful being. Who would want to kill her?
Politics, he thought disgustedly. The older he became, the more he hated anything to do with politics.
"…my Padawan learner, Obi-Wan Kenobi," Qui-Gon was introducing him.
As respectfully as he could, Obi-Wan bowed, his hands in the opposite sleeves of his Jedi cloak and long braid dangling in front of his face for a brief moment. When he straightened, he noticed Representative Lamkptu's intense blue eyes on his for a moment and he read puzzlement radiating from her through the Force.
She turned to his master and asked, "Master Jinn, I have believed Padawans to be younger. Is he not too old?"
Obi-Wan flushed red as he felt his master try to hold in a laugh. Very seriously, Qui-Gon answered, "Padawans stay with their masters until they are old enough to take the trials to become a Knight, Representative Lamkptu. And that differs from each Jedi to the other on age and maturity."
The alien nodded with understanding. "My apologies, Jedi Kenobi," she said as she faced him again.
Obi-Wan swallowed his stung pride and responded, "No offense taken, Representative Lamkptu."
Obi-Wan felt Qui-Gon growing more serious and alert as they all sat on chairs that resembled waves and contoured to the body occupying them. Leaning forward, Qui-Gon got down to their business.
"Master Yoda said that you believe your life to be in danger. Could you elaborate for me by whom and why?" The Jedi Master inquired, folding his hands into the shape of a steeple as he listened.
The purple being crossed her long legs before beginning her tale of being threatened in the Senator chamber that afternoon by her opposing Senator, Manklili of the Quarlin ruling race. "And he never lies, friend Jedi Master," she completed. "My people cannot send another in time for voting here on the morrow. I…" A dull ringing sound broke off her sentence. "Excuse me, Jedi."
With unhurried strides, Lamkptu crossed her spacious chambers to access her portable Holonet connector. Typing in her password with her flexible fingers, she read the message that awaited her there.
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan could feel her dismay coming in strong waves through the Force. They stood as she turned around, luminous drops of wetness in her eyes.
"What is it?" Qui-Gon demanded.
"It is done," she whispered, half in shock.
"The voting?"
She shook her head of white blonde hair. "No. That the voting is prolonged. Manklili succeeded in convincing the voting to be taken a week from now, instead of on the morrow. I am afraid that my protectors for longer than you intended you will have to be, friend Jedi."
"Master, I have a bad feeling about this…" Obi-Wan trailed off, his focus mostly in the Force.
Qui-Gon watched his apprentice, knowing fully well the strength of Obi-Wan's connection to the Force. Everyone but Obi-Wan seemed to be aware that Obi-Wan was one of the strongest Jedi at the Jedi Temple, which was probably for the best. So even though Qui-Gon did not yet feel anything, he knew to trust his Padawan's instincts.
"Can you pinpoint it, Obi-Wan?"
His apprentice slowly shook his head. "It's elusive…"
"Then do not try too hard to focus on the feeling," Qui-Gon cautioned. "It will emerge in time."
"Yes, Master," was the reply but Qui-Gon could feel that Obi-Wan was still uneasy.
"I am ready," Lamkptu said as she came into the main area of her chambers. Dressed in a enveloping cloak to try to hide and shadow her distinctive features, the Kladmean swept past the Jedi.
Shortly after the shock of the postponed vote, one of Lamkptu's contacts in the Coruscant underground had contacted her and requested a meeting. Her contact had hinted at the possibility of the meeting consisting of another Senator sympathetic to her cause so she had accepted—without consulting the Jedi.
Qui-Gon had argued that it could be a trap meant to catch her out of the safety of her chambers but Lamkptu had refused to back down from her meeting. Obi-Wan had a hard time trying not to roll his eyes at the representative's reasoning.
"I need sympathetic ears to help out the voting," was her constant fall-back argument. "And you will protect me."
So now the two Jedi were discreetly following the representative further and further down into the bowels of Coruscant to a shady cantina named The Mynock's Breath. Obi-Wan could not understand why someone would want to eat at an establishment named for the breath of one of the ugliest creatures in the galaxy but he followed anyway.
The inside of the cantina was dark with very little lighting. All the booths were in recesses to hide the patrons who occupied them and a very horrible screeching creature was on stage performing its version of music.
Obi-Wan's sense of danger increased. "Master…"
"I feel it, too," was his master's tense reply. "Separate. I will navigate the rest of the cantina, searching with the Force, and you stay close to the representative. I'll come back to you when I am satisfied."
Obi-Wan nodded and continued to follow the tall alien as his master detached from her side to become one with the plentiful shadows in the cantina. Lamkptu quickly found her contact in a booth near the back exit door. He stood behind her chair, senses alert, as she sat down.
"It is just you. Where is the Senator?" Lamkptu was asking, confusion in her voice.
Her contact, a small scaley reptilian creature, shrugged. In a voice like ground marbles, he said, "I didn' promise he'd be here, honey. Besides, I got paid more for another job."
Lamkptu was about to inquire about his 'other job' when Obi-Wan's sense of danger flared through the Force. Snapping his lightsaber up and out, he felt a shock from a stun setting on a blaster catch him in the small of his back, dropping him, nerveless, to the floor.
As he lay there, panting with the uncomfortable tingling sensation of the stun bolt flowing over him to render him helpless, he sent out an urgent call to his master through their Master/Padawan bond.
Master!
Two large booted feet entered his view from his uncomfortable sprawled position on the floor. With the effects of the stun bolt he could not lift his head to look at his assialant. A large beefy hand picked up his lightsaber before crouching in front of Obi-Wan so he could see who it was.
Obi-Wan didn't recognize the other human with the large scar running down the left side of his face and in his befuddled condition he couldn't pull enough of his senses together to send the image to his master, wherever he was.
"Caught a little Jedi rat, I did. But this is a Padawan so the Master is nearby. Let's konk you out so you can't help out your Master any, little Jedi," the human said with a nasty grin. Holding his blaster so Obi-Wan could see exactly what was about to happen, he pointed it at Obi-Wan's head, giving Obi-Wan an excellent view of the barrel. Through his life, Obi-Wan had heard of the problems law enforcers had had with shooting down their criminal captives and the lingering side effects of being hit in the head with a full blast from a stun bolt. If he could have, he would have winced.
Mast—
Blue from the blaster surrounded him, making the nerves in his limbs jerk and spasm painfully before darkness mercifully took him.
Qui-Gon had swung around when Obi-Wan's first call from him had shot through his brain. He had not seen where Lamkptu had went so now he had to try to find his Padawan the hard way since all he was picking up from their bond was uncomfortable pain. He had taken one step in the opposite direction when three hulking shadows had surrounded him.
Whipping his lightsaber into his hand, he stood facing them beyond the green blade, his eyes taking in their professional manner of waiting. Waiting for what, he could not guess.
When the silence had stretched for a moment, Qui-Gon broke it with a question. "What is it you want with me?"
One of the humans who surrounded him shuffled a little forward. "We don't want anything with you, Jedi. One of us has an appointment with someone you are guarding and we just need you to stay put for a minute."
Qui-Gon immediately thought of his apprentice but did not mention him. He was considering what to do next, since they were making no aggressive moves toward him, when he heard Mast—and then felt only silence from his padawan.
That decided him.
"Sorry, I'm afraid I can't do that," he answered, gathering the Force around him in preparation for a leap.
At his words, the men unsheathed their blasters and he found himself having to try to deflect the blots into the walls to avoid the now panicking patrons of the cantina. His green blade became a blur of motion but with three against one the odds against completely avoiding a blaster bolt were slim.
As he was directing his blade toward two simultaneous shots, a third buried itself into his upper arm, burning a hole through the packed muscle there. The intense fiery pain shot its way into his concentration and he had to adjust his fighting position to be mainly one handed since his right arm was sluggish now.
He was about to try to leap over their heads when a big booming voice commanded, "Stop!"
Immediately, the three men stopped shooting at him, giving him time to try to catch his breath and grit his teeth against the pain in his arm.
"What is the meaning of this?" The voice, hidden in the shadows, asked in a cold voice. Shocked, Qui-Gon could feel the dark side of the Force coming from the shadow in waves. Here was a formable opponent, and he was telling them to stop.
Once the three men had reholstered their blasters, the one who had spoken to Qui-Gon earlier stepped forward. "Forgive us, sir. He was trying to leave and we had to stop him."
With cold fury, the voice said, "I told you not to wound him. That was my duty, not yours. Whose is the blaster that wounded him?"
As the three denied having anything to do with harming Qui-Gon, Qui-Gon himself was struck by the bizarre irony of the situation. Since they were preoccupied, he searched for an opening around them to try to continue his search for his apprentice.
The dark Force user in the shadows noticed his direction of thought immediately. Using the Force to cut off the three men's air supply, he held a hand out to Qui-Gon. "Stop there, Master Jinn, or your precious little Padawan has drawn his last breath."
Taking a risky chance, and trying to ignore the hot pain in his arm, Qui-Gon replied, "If you truly had my Padawan, you would show me and stop hiding in the darkness like a spider." He relaxed his grip on his lightsaber, but kept it on in case he needed it. His response he was hoping would either bluff them out, or make them show him that they did indeed have Obi-Wan.
Qui-Gon sensed a smile from the shadows. "Very well, Master Jinn. You wish to see your precious little Jedi so here he is!"
With an abruptness that surprised him, the man in the shadows stood fully in the light without taking a single step. Qui-Gon did not even notice the long scar that ran down the left side of his face at first because his horrified attention was caught on what the man held.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, a gangly and sturdy sixteen-year-old, lay limp in the man's arms, seeming to be small and frail in his unconscious state. With a quick mental probe, Qui-Gon could tell that his apprentice was mostly unharmed, though a strange electrical kind of buzzing echoed in Obi-Wan's brain that Qui-Gon did not like.
"What do you want?" Qui-Gon asked quietly, finally powering down his lightsaber.
The man with the scar grinned and motioned toward the side, prompting a terrified Lamkptu, who was also surrounded by men and one strange reptile creature, to come to him. "I want you all to come with me. We have some things to discuss."