Chapter Nine
The water was dark now. The shades of blue had blended from a cerulean to a deep sapphire darker than a midnight sky on a planet with only one sun. Silence reigned, becoming a tangible pressure on their ears the farther they swam, pressing in on them like their sodden clothes.
Neither of them had any kind of light to illuminate their way so it was a welcome relief to their straining eyes to detect a glow in the distance. Qui-Gon tapped Kyran on the shoulder to point at the glow. Kyran's head moved in what was most likely a nod.
Looks like you were right, my friend, Qui-Gon heard in his head in Kyran's mental voice.
Yes, but let's hope that I'm also correct on Obi-Wan being kept here, Qui-Gon sent back to his friend through the bond that they had shared since Qui-Gon was five and Kyran eleven.
Kyran swam a little ahead of Qui-Gon, his movements as sure as his next statement. You will find him.
Qui-Gon would have sighed if the breather would have let him. He was not as sure anymore if he would find Obi-Wan, or even if his padawan would be alive when he did. He was nearing the city of the Pennetians, yet he still did not feel his padawan. He did not want to dwell on what that could mean.
The lack of life in this area disturbs me, Kyran sent the farther they swam, the city becoming more of a presence than just a glow now. They could see walls made of coral, tall spires and open windows, but not a single Pennetian swimming toward them to ask what they were doing there—there was not a single merperson as far as they could see.
Qui-Gon refrained from commenting. He halted as they drew up to the large, sprawling city devoid of life. The coral gave off a soft glow: the glow that had drawn them here. But where were the Pennetians?
Qui, look! Kyran suddenly pointed toward the left where a large, enclosed section of the city was. Humans! Mainlanders, I suppose.
Qui-Gon wondered how Mainlanders could survive down here in the water...until he looked closely at the section of the city that Kyran was referring to. There was a kind of bubble that encircled the city that held the humans. They walked and talked, seemingly happy, down the halls of coral, clad in the same type of dark green mesh that Zodek had used for a belt.
We need to see what they know, Qui-Gon decided. He kicked upward and quickly approached the bubble, startling a few humans. They stared at him as he pressed his hands against the bubble. The bubble was hard, yet cushioned and was flimsy enough that it pressed inward, though it did not break. I wonder how we get in?
A human girl, dressed in barely anything at all, approached him, smiling. She made motions with her hands that he should follow her. She ran down the corridor toward the far left of that section where a kind of blister was. It was here that she stopped and backed up a few steps, gesturing that they were to press hard against the blister.
Qui-Gon glanced at Kyran, who shrugged and indicated that he should go first. Thanks a lot, Kyran, he told his friend, who sent back a mental laugh. Experimentally, he pressed his full body against the blister...and found himself suddenly in a dry atmosphere and out of the water, the scantily clad girl giggling at him. He removed his breather and took a deep breath—the air was musty but good.
Kyran stumbled to the ground beside him. He groaned as he straightened, pulling off his breather as well. "I'm getting too old for this," he muttered.
The girl and several others were watching them, some were wary and others joyful.
"Tell us of news from the Mainland!" An old man suddenly appealed. As if he had burst a dam, the crowd of people all began talking and asking questions of them.
"How did you get here without being caught?"
"What do you want here?"
"What's going on up there?"
"Do you know what's happened to my kin?"
Qui-Gon held up his hands for silence. "Hold it, hold it!" Obediently, they quieted. "Hello," he smiled at them. There were about forty around him and Kyran now. "I'm Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and this is my friend, Jedi Knight Kyran Josel. We're searching for my padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Chieftain Zodek took him about two weeks ago. Has he arrived here?" His eyes searched the crowd, but did not really expect to see the tousled head there.
The people murmured, confirming among themselves. Evidently, the places they lived in were not all in one place. Finally, the word came back that none of the human captives had seen a young Jedi boy in any part of the city.
"Wait!" A voice called from the back. A young woman was running up to them. "A Jedi boy, you say?"
Qui-Gon's heart leapt in his chest. Could this woman have information about Obi-Wan? Was he simply to go to the next bubbled section of the city and there he'd be, grinning up at him and saying "Well, it took you long enough, Master" in that playful tone he sometimes took?
"What news do you have?" Kyran was asking her as she pushed her way through the crowd.
Once she was in front of them, they could see that she could not have been much older than Qui-Gon. Her hair, like all the women they could see in the bubble, had been cropped short, though it still retained its coppery shine. "My son!" she panted. "My son has been taken from me. He..." She stopped, having to pause for air. Someone must have told her from farther down in the bubble that two Jedi had been seen swimming for the entrance.
Qui-Gon was ready to burst, ready for her next words. He was certain that now he would find his padawan and take him away from this place. Then they would return and demand the release of the other captives.
"He was to be taken for a special assignment," she finished. "I don't know what for, but on the visit I was allowed he mentioned that he fed a Jedi boy who was being kept secluded in the deepest part of the city."
"Where is this?" Qui-Gon asked, unable to keep the excitement from his voice. "Where do we find it?"
The woman pointed at a deep crack in the rock over to their right. Her answer was in a hushed tone and the others were quiet as she spoke it. "Where the merfolk are gathered: in the Crater Rock where She is."
"'She' who?" Kyran immediately asked, his tone gentle.
The humans all glanced at each other uneasily. Finally, the old man who spoke first earlier spoke again. "The Mother Planet. Or at least that's what the merfolk call Her."
Qui-Gon's blood chilled. The...'mother planet'? "What...what does she want with Obi-Wan?" he forced himself to ask.
Kyran stepped closer to him in a gesture of support, should he need it. He certainly hoped he wouldn't, not in front of all these people with more adding to the crowd all the time.
A young girl about twelve with extremely dark brown hair folded her arms as if she were cold. In a small voice, she answered, "She wants to survive, like us. But we rely on each other. She takes it from others."
"It's the balance," a man in the back argued. "I've spoken with Triandeena herself about it."
The crowd murmured at the name.
"Who's this Triandeena?" Kyran called over the noise. "What does she know?"
"She's the Speaker for the Mother Planet," the woman whose boy attended to Obi-Wan informed them with a shudder. "She's the one who came to get my Niklas. She's second only to Zodek himself."
Qui-Gon and Kyran exchanged a dark look. This was definitely not sounding good for Obi-Wan.
"So what did she say?" Qui-Gon asked the man in the back.
The crowd turned to face him, and the dark-skinned man fidgeted nervously as he found so many pairs of eyes on him. "They've been searching for someone to stabilize the planet for years now...another Jedi. They say the first Jedi kept the balance of good and evil, light and dark, for a long time, but now there is so much here of evil that She needs someone more powerful to create the harmony again."
"She, as in Triandeena?" Kyran inquired.
"No." The man shook his head. "The Mother Planet."
"I don't understand this 'mother planet'," Qui-Gon said in frustration. "What do you mean by that? Who is she?"
"She is the life of the planet," the twelve year old girl piped up again, her eyes large pools of sadness. "She is the planet."
Kyran sucked in a deep breath. "You mean...the planet...Penne't II...is sentient?"
The adults nodded, though the girl was clearly confused at the word.
Qui-Gon briefly closed his eyes. His padawan was the one the planet wanted—or was it needed?—to keep the balance of light and dark. "Merciful Force..." he whispered. Would Obi-Wan even still be alive?
"There's still time," the young mother's voice said harshly.
Qui-Gon's eyes flew open to find her staring at him. "What do you mean?" Hope threatened to blossom in him again.
The man in the back was nodding. "Jarba's right. There is still time, I think. The ritual won't be complete. You might could save him, though I don't know if the process can be reversed once it's begun."
"How?" Qui-Gon's voice was a whisper of longing.
The mother pointed at the blister. "Leave here the same way you exited. Go to the coral that you will see. Find my son, Niklas. He will know where your padawan is. Beware of other humans in that area. They are so warped by what the merfolk tell them that they are fiercely loyal to them."
Qui-Gon immediately turned to the blister, slipping his breather back on his face. Behind him he heard Kyran say, "We'll come back to free you."
"Don't bother," one voice said. "We like it down here or we could have left ages ago."
Someone else snapped, "Oh, shut up, Gloute. Some of us want to go home. If we could hold our breaths that long, we'd already be there."
Qui-Gon felt Kyran gently press on his back to signal that he was right behind him. Together, they pressed on the blister and were once again on the hunt for Obi-Wan.