Qui-Gon and young Obi-Wan must have made quite an impression on the Neimoidians.
"Master Dooku is an accredited representative of the Supreme Chancellor himself," Sly Moore told the Viceroy's hologram image, an unaccustomed edge of exasperation in her usually expressionless voice.
Nute Gunray's answer held a distinct note of hysteria; "I will not have a Jedi here!"
Dooku decided it was time to take a hand and stepped into pickup range. "I understand your concerns, Viceroy, and I am willing to submit to any security measures you think necessary." Gunray blinked at him uncertainly as Dooku did his best to look harmless and elderly.
"We are ambassadors from the Supreme Chancellor," Sly Moore reminded him. "It will raise suspicions in the Senate if you refuse to receive us."
Neimoidians are notably lacking in intestinal fortitude, the subtle threat worked. "You will leave your weapon on the cruiser," the Viceroy told Dooku.
He bowed slightly: "Of course."
"And you will be searched and restrained upon landing."
Sly Moore started to protest but Dooku cut her off with a sharp gesture: "As you wish."
"This is intolerable," she said after the hologram vanished.
"Not at all," Dooku replied calmly. "I am going down there to negotiate, not to fight."
"It is an insult to the Supreme Chancellor," she fretted.
"I can't say I like it either, sir," the captain of the cruiser spoke up from the doorway of the conference room. "If something happens down there you'll be completely helpless."
Not quite. Dooku took his lightsabre from his belt and handed it to the captain along with an innocent look, one eyebrow slightly arched. "Why should anything happen?"
"The Neimoidians tried to kill the last Jedi sent to deal with them," the captain pointed out. "I suspect treachery, sir."
"Oh so do I Captain Dodonna, so do I," Dooku agreed with a touch almost of amusement.
"Then I'm going down there with you."
Dooku hesitated, glancing at Sly Moore. There was her safety to be considered too. "Very well, Captain. Perhaps the presence of a Republic officer will be some protection."
…
Jan Dodonna gave the Master a sharp look as he rejoined his companions trailed by battle droids with weapons leveled. He looked unruffled as ever, hands folded out of sight in the voluminous sleeves of his dark robe, "Are you all right, sir?"
"Of course," Dooku gave him a smile meant to be reassuring, it wasn't. Under that practiced Jedi serenity was a glint of something else. A reckless near wildness that reminded Dodonna of the daredevil fighter pilots he'd known. The old Jedi Master was walking into danger and he knew it, even welcomed it. Sly Moore said nothing, looking straight ahead of her, face set in a mask of stony disapproval.
A nervous Protocol droid showed them to a luxuriously appointed meeting room and offered beverages. Dooku stretched out a hand to accept a cup and Dodonna saw the binders on his wrists. "Sir!" he started to his feet in furious alarm only to be nailed by a pair of dark, piercing eyes.
"I know what I am doing, Captain!" The fierce gaze softened slightly. "Don't worry about me."
Dodonna subsided reluctantly. He didn't like this one bit but watching Dooku calmly sipping his tea the captain recalled his first instinctive reaction upon meeting the Jedi Master. This was a dangerous man, even disarmed, bound and under the guns of five battledroids.
…
To call Kamino a water planet would be to indulge in Jedi-like understatement. Not only was it covered from pole to pole by a worldwide ocean but the atmosphere was churned by a perpetual monsoon.
"We should have brought a submarine, not a spaceship!" Jacen told his Master struggling to hold the fighter steady against hurricane force gusts.
"A little rain never hurt anyone, Padawan," Obi-Wan replied then glanced up at the streaming canopy. "Of course no one could call this a 'little' rain."
Their ultimate destination was sleek white city standing on stilts high above the wind whipped waters. Jacen set down on one of the landing platforms ringing the city and regretfully popped the canopy, climbing out into the driving rain.
Their Astrodroid whistled a complaint and Jacen patted its dome consolingly. "I don't think R4 likes it here," he called to his Master.
"He'll be all right, he was designed to withstand far worse than this."
"But that doesn't mean he has to like it," Jacen muttered and the droid bleeped agreement.
The lucent doors into the city were only a few dozen feet away but both Jedi were thoroughly soaked by the time they got through them - and found themselves confronted by a tall, willowy, pallid being who smiled welcomingly down upon them. "Master Jedi, so good to see you." the genuine warmth of her welcome was unmistakable - and slightly bewildering. "The Prime Minister has been expecting you."
"I'm expected?" Obi-Wan asked cautiously.
"Of course," the being fluted. "He is anxious to meet you. After all these years we were afraid you weren't coming. Now, please, this way."
The two Jedi exchanged puzzled looks behind their guide's back and followed.
The passage was walled, floored and ceilinged in luminous white. At the end of it they found a circular white chamber with a second Kaminoan sitting in a floating white chair in its center.
"May I present, Lama Su, Prime Minister of Kamino." their guide said formally. "And this is Master Jedi -?"
"Obi-Wan Kenobi." the Master supplied quickly with a bow. "My Padawan apprentice Jacen Darklighter." Jacen bowed.
A second chair lowered itself and Lama Su waved Obi-Wan into it. Jacen took up his usual stance beside his Master and their guide, apparently some sort of aid, moved to stand next to the Prime Minister. "You will be delighted to hear we are on schedule." Lama Su told them. "Two hundred thousand units are ready, with another million well on the way."
Jacen struggled to maintain an impassive front. Even Master Obi-Wan seemed ever so slightly taken aback. "That is...good news." he said cautiously.
The Kaminoan either didn't notice their reactions or failed to interpret them correctly. "Please tell your Master Sifo-Dyas that we have every confidence his order with be met on time and in full. He is well I hope?"
Sifo-Dyas? Jacen tried to place the name. Obi-Wan seemed to be having trouble with it too. "I'm sorry, Master -?"
"Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas," now the Kaminoan shared their puzzlement. "He's still a leading member of the Jedi Council, is he not?"
"Master Sifo-Dyas was killed almost ten years ago," Obi-Wan answered.
Jacen frowned a little. Surely it had been longer ago than that. Hadn't Ki-Adi Mundi replaced him on the Council?
The Prime Minister blinked his huge black eyes. "Oh, I am sorry to hear that." he seemed genuinely distressed. "But I'm sure he would have been proud of the army we've built for him."
Army! Jacen shot his Master a sidelong look. Even Obi-Wan was having trouble keeping his countenance, "The army?"
"Yes, a clone army." Lama Su answered, serenely unruffled, possibly putting their reactions down to an insufficient briefing. "And I must say one of the finest we've ever created."
"Tell me, Prime Minister," Obi-Wan probed, "when my Master first contacted you about the army, did he say who it was for?"
"Of course he did. This army is for the Republic."
Master and Padawan exchanged another look. This was incredible and given the erasure of all information about Kamino from the Jedi records, highly disturbing.
"But of course you must be anxious to inspect the units for yourself."
"That's why we're here." Obi-Wan replied, in a tone that wouldn't have fooled a child but apparently did fool the Kaminoans. Both Lama Su and his aide seemed serenely unaware that anything might be wrong.
….
Yan Dooku sipped his tea, ignoring the diplomatic inanities passing between Sly Moore and the Viceroy. His Padawan's Padawan would no doubt disapprove of what he intended to do, the contrast between Obi-Wan's vocal caution and reckless actions always amused Dooku, but the time for timid half measures was long past. He looked speculatively at Gunray, no not yet. He took another sip from his cup and went on thinking about Obi-Wan. They were very much alike, his Padawan's Padawan and himself; intense, driven perfectionists, impatient of weakness and folly, inherently ruthless...all potentially dangerous traits. Qui-Gon Jinn had been good for them both. Dooku didn't like to think what he might have become without his Padawan's gentle, tempering influence. He'd learned far more than he'd taught, though Qui-Gon would never believe it. Dooku's role had been to keep the massive machinery of the Order from crushing the light and life out of his maverick apprentice until he was old enough and strong enough and secure enough in his faith to stand alone.
Qui-Gon had tried to do the same for Obi-Wan and to a degree he had succeeded. But unlike his Master and his Master's Master Obi-Wan was no rebel. He accepted the Council's Code and had the strength and the will to crush himself into the Jedi mold. So far the boy still had his renegade side but how long that would last now he was constantly under the Council's eye...
Certainly he'd chosen himself a completely conventional Padawan. Not that there was anything wrong with young Jacen. He would make a fine rank-and-file Jedi, the backbone of the Order. But Obi-Wan had the potential to be so much more, if only he'd learn to listen to himself instead of to the Masters.
Dooku wondered bleakly how many promising, conscientious youngsters the Council had ruined by forcing them into its mold, rather than leaving them free to become the Jedi they'd been born to be. Perhaps mercifully he'd never know. But he was very sure he didn't want to see that happen to Obi-Wan, and not just because of the bitter waste of a potentially great Jedi.
Gunray's voice rose shrilly in a foolish rant about scheming queens and homicidal Jedi poisoning the Senate's mind against the Trade Federation. 'Now' Dooku thought, and sliced through the verbiage with a question as edged as his light sabre. "And what of your Sith Master?"
Gunray froze, outrage melting into shock and then into fear, "Sith? We accepted the services of one who claimed to be a Sithlord, but of course we knew it was not true, the Sith were all destroyed by the Jedi long ago."
"Obi-Wan Kenobi killed a Sith on Naboo ten years ago." Dooku reminded the Viceroy, the deep piled velvet of his voice freighted with gentle menace. "But there are always two, Master and Apprentice. The Master lives, he controls you and your Federation even now."
"Nonsense," Gunray stammered, looking desperately at Sly Moore, "superstitious Jedi nonsense! You slander us. The Trade Federation was loyal to the Republic until it turned against us! We would never have allied with its enemies!"
"You fool yourself, Viceroy. You are not an ally but a slave, the Sith will use you and then destroy you. Such is their way." But Dooku's mind was no longer on what he was saying. He had expected to learn much from Gunray - but not this! He was all but reeling with the shock of it, and grimly grateful for the decades of Jedi discipline that enabled him to hide his state from his opponent - though only just.
"I will not stay here to be insulted," Gunray told Sly Moore hysterically. "This negotiation is ended!" He scuttled out of the room without dignity, followed by his confused and frightened retinue and the five battle droids.
The Chancellor's Aide turned to Dooku, a hint of displeasure on her cold face. "Really, Master Jedi, what did you expect to accomplish with such charges?"
Dooku returned her gaze levelly, his dark eyes burning laser-like into her flat, expressionless white ones. "Confirmation of what I already suspected, that the Separatists are controlled by the Sith."
She frowned. "You cannot be certain of that."
"Oh but I can. Gunray's fear revealed the truth."
A hint of perturbation crossed the Umbaran's cold, pale face. More than a hint was clearly visible on Captain Dodonna's. "We've got to get out of here!"
"Yes," the Master agreed calmly. "Gunray's next move will be to destroy us, as he tried to destroy Master Jinn and Jedi Kenobi ten years ago."
"Impossible!" Sly Moore seemed genuinely taken aback. "He wouldn't dare!"
"He has no choice." Dooku returned flatly then nailed Dodonna with his most intense darkling stare. "This news must get back to the Chancellor and the Senate, Captain. They must know further negotiations are useless. The Separatists are being used by the Sith in a covert attack upon the Republic."
Dazed, but not at all disbelieving, Dodonna nodded. "Yes sir." He looked at the door.
The Master shook his head. "It will be locked and guarded. We cannot escape that way." Rising he moved swiftly to the panoramic window dominating the far wall of the conference room and looked out. "There is a balcony just one floor below us."
"That's three inch transparisteel, Master," Dodonna said, "we'll never break through -"
Dooku gathered the Force and flung it at the window. Transparisteel shattered like the thinnest and most fragile of glass, tiny shards raining down onto the balconies below; "Quickly, Captain!"
Dodonna closed his mouth and hustled a bewildered Sly Moore to the now gaping window then handed her off to the Master before making the leap down to the lower balcony. He rolled to his feet and looked up. "Jump, Madame Moore, I'll catch you."
"No - this is ridiculous. Master Dooku -" she broke off with a gasp as the old Master lifted her off her feet and unceremoniously dropped her into Dodonna's arms just as the door behind him burst open.
"Go! I'll hold them off."
Dodonna hesitated only a fraction of a second then threw Dooku a salute and vanished into the building dragging the still protesting Sly Moore after him.
The Master whirled to greet a troop of battle droids - three ranks of five their weapons leveled - with a smile that would have frozen any sentient being with an IQ of more than one digit in its tracks.
Surprisingly it seemed to have a similar effect on the droids. They hesitated, presumably awaiting orders. Dooku raised his eyes to the elaborate ceiling studded with faceted iridite crystals the size of his head and sharply pointed. An almost gentle touch of the Force brought them crashing down upon the droids, crushing metal skulls and smashing blasters and the hands holding them from metal bodies.
As iridescent dust settled over the wreckage Dooku glanced briefly down at his wrists and the binders clattered to the floor. Then stepping carefully around the litter of broken metal and crystal he went through the open doors of the conference room into the lofty, pillared hall beyond.
Two hours ago it had been crowded with Neimoidians and their drone attendants, now it was completely empty which was all to the good. The image of a serious, sixteen year old Qui-Gon flashed briefly before Dooku's mental eye saying with just a touch of reproach; 'We don't want to hurt anyone, do we Master?'
'No Qui-Gon I don't' Dooku silently answered the memory. 'The Viceroy has doomed his people by throwing their lot in with the Sith and I have no wish to add one iota to what they will suffer as a result. But I must cover Dodonna's escape.' A pair of destroyer droids rolled around the corner. The Master raised a hand, almost casually, and one of the great pillars dissolved into its constituent drums, crushing the droidekas beneath their weight. 'The best way to keep Gunray's attention is to threaten him directly.' Dooku told himself, and headed up the hall.
A quartet of a newer and more massive type of battle droid were drawn up in front of the battery of lifts to the Nemoidian elite's private quarters in the tower pinacles of the Viceregal palace. At their first glimpse of Dooku they opened fire. The old Jedi Master caught the red energy bolts in his bare hands, formed them into a globe and cast it back into the super battle droids' teeth. The two centermost exploded, blasting the outer pair flat. Dooku reeled and struggled to maintain his focus, trying to ignore the pain and the smell of his own burned flesh. He turned at the thunder of metal feet. A dozen ranks of conventional battle droids were pounding towards him, weapons rising to firing position. The soaring windows latticed in precious metals and inset with gemstone panes, lighting the great lobby suddenly imploded inward, spraying the oncoming droids with sharp edged shards like a flight of glistening spears.
'A pity, they were beautiful. Qui-Gon would not approve' Dooku thought vaguely, then with a touch of icy clarity: 'I am losing control.' The Force, loosened as his focus wavered, spiraled outward sweeping up the droid wreckage in a whirlwind of steel, ripping away the lift-shafts' shells and the ornate stone and metal fretwork decorating the walls. Fluted crystal columns toppled like dominoes, smashing into glittering fragments, and high above the rotunda dome cracked and began to crumble. Dooku, at the center of it all, drained and no longer able to keep his feet, could only hope, as darkness took him, that Dodonna was clear for he could do no more.
….
The first thing Amidala saw as she got off the Speeder bus was Master Jinn standing, tall and still like a great tree, waiting for them. Anakin saw him too and broke into a broad grin of pleasure and relief. 'He's been more worried than he let me see,' Amidala realized. It bothered her that he could hide his feelings so effectively from her - which was silly. He was a Jedi Knight, controlling emotion was central to his training. But he'd been such an open and ingenuous little boy. Somehow it hurt to think of him becoming reserved and impenetrable like his Master or Obi-Wan.
Qui-Gon gave her a small Jedi smile, but his eyes were warm and held a teasing glint. "Did you enjoy your journey, 'young handmaiden'?"
She smiled back. "Yes I did. The accommodations weren't much but the company was excellent."
"This is new," Anakin observed as they began walking towards the green domes of the palace across a great circular plaza ringed by a decorative canal and imposing arcades. "It's beautiful."
"Thank you." Anakin looked down at her in surprise and Amidala explained: "It's customary for a monarch to memorialize her reign by some building project. This is mine." She looked with satisfaction at the sparkling water, the graceful colonnades, and best of all the Naboo and Gungan citizens strolling side by side in friendly conversation. "It's called the Plaza of Reunion, I meant it to symbolize our alliance with the Gungans, the two halves of our world become one whole, an unbroken circle."
"A beautiful thought, beautifully embodied," Anakin told her, his voice dropping into that unnervingly intimate tone that made his words seem meant for her ears alone.
She felt herself blush and shot a quick sidelong look at the Master.
"You can be proud of your plaza, Highness," he said, "and even prouder of the accomplishment it memorializes." There was not even a shadow of reproach or disapproval in word or manner but Anakin seemed abashed just the same.
"Tell me, Pad - your Highness, did you dream of being queen as a little girl like I dreamed of becoming a Jedi?" he asked quickly
Amidala laughed a little self consciously; "Oh no. I wanted to be a legislator I never intended to stand for election to any throne." She frowned a little. "I wasn't the youngest queen ever elected but now that I think back on it I'm not sure I was old enough. I'm not sure I was ready." She laughed again ruefully. "And now I'm getting too old. According to custom I should abdicate this year, leave public service and start living my own life...have a family...but how can I with the Republic in the state it's in? I have responsibilities beyond Naboo now. But I don't want to hang on to power past my proper term either. It's wrong and it sets a bad precedent."
Qui-Gon nodded. "I understand your concerns, your Highness. You must do what you feel is right."
"That's just the problem, both courses feel wrong!"
"I know what you mean." Anakin looked over her head at his Master. "What do you do when all the paths feel wrong? Or when different paths both feel right but lead in opposite directions?"
"You quiet your mind and listen for the voice of the Force." Qui-Gon answered. "And then you do Its will whatever that turns out to be."
Anakin nodded, face closed, distant. It made Amidala uncomfortable. "But what if you're not a Jedi?"
The Master looked down at her and she was transfixed by the pure, crystaline intensity of his gaze. "Every living thing is connected to the Force, your Highness. Listen for it and it will speak to you too."
...
"Your Highness!" Sache jumped up from her chair and rushed to embrace her queen and friend, not quite tripping over the skirts of her typically cumbersome royal robes. "I am so glad to see you, we've been so worried!"
"Well you shouldn't have been. Why would anybody look twice at a young matron from the Thousand Moons?" Amidala scolded returning the hug. "Besides I had a Jedi Knight to defend me. If anybody was in danger it was you - that's the whole point of a decoy." And she hated it, hated sending her friends to take her risks for her. She forced herself to continue cheerfully: "But now we're both safely home and we can relax a bit." She turned to Qui-Gon. "Master, I had planned a vacation with my family in the lake country -"
He nodded. "So I have been told. I see no reason for your Highness to alter your plans. The Lake Palace should be easy to secure and the rest will do you good."
"Do us all good," Eirtae said emphatically. "Your family left yesterday, your Highness, I told them to expect us this afternoon."
"We'd better hurry then. You know how my mother worries. I'll never hear the end of it if I'm so much as one minute late."
What Amidala loved most about her rare vacations was the chance to wear soft, comfortable, beautiful clothes, like other young women, instead of burdensome royal robes. But she wished now she'd chosen something a little less airy. The admiration in Anakin's eyes made her feel strange, conscious of her body in a new and disturbing way. And when the rough wool of his sleeve brushed her bare shoulder as he helped her out of the skimmer it sent tingles all through her - like she'd touched a live wire. Then she saw her nieces rushing down the water steps to greet her and forgot everything else, hugging a double armful of wriggling little girl. "Ryoo, Pooja!"
"Did you bring us something from Coruscant, Auntie Padme?" Ryoo asked. Then she caught sight of Anakin and the Master, tall and unfamiliar in their brown robes, standing among the handmaidens and guards of the Queen's entourage and stared open mouthed.
"As a matter of fact I did," Amidala said quickly. "I brought you two new friends. This is Master Qui-Gon Jinn and this is Anakin Skywalker. They're Jedi Knights from the Capital."
"Jedi? Wow!" Ryoo was clearly impressed. Pooja was speechless.
"That's never little Ani!" gasped a voice from the top of the steps.
Anakin looked up at the three adults descending to greet them and grinned. "I'm afraid it is, Madame Naberrie, I've grown some since you saw me last."
Amidala's mother reached out to hug him. Their heads were nearly level, but only because Anakin was still two steps down. "You certainly have! And what's this 'Madame Naberrie' business? You're a grown man now, call me Jobal." She turned to embrace her daughter. "Honey, it's so good to see you safe. We were so worried."
"Yes, Mom, I know," Amidala said resignedly. "But everything's all right now. I'm home safe and sound."
"With two Jedi bodyguards," her father said quietly. "Sweetheart, I know you don't like us fussing over you but you can't expect us to just laugh off an attempt on your life."
"But I'm home!" she said impatiently. "Everything's fine now. Master Qui-Gon and Anakin are just here as a precaution."
"Like the Chancellor's personal guards?" her sister Sola asked in that same quiet tone.
Amidala looked at the red guards stationed at the top and bottom of the stairs, faceless and motionless as statues, sighed. "Palpatine worries almost as much as you all do. If sending a detachment of his own picked men to watch over me makes him feel better I'll humor him, but nothing's going to happen. This is Naboo after all."
She'd been dying to see her family but was just as glad to get away from them for a few minutes on the pretext of showing Anakin the view from the south terrace. "This has always been my favorite of the royal retreats." she told him. "We came here all the time when I was in Level Three. See that island? We used to swim out there every day. I love the water."
"I do too. I guess it comes from growing up on a desert planet."
She could feel his eyes on her and kept her own determinedly on the island as she rattled on: "We used to lie on the sand and let the sun dry us...and try to guess the names of the birds singing."
"I don't like sand." he said firmly. "It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets in everywhere on Tatooine. Not like here. Here everything's soft...and smooth..."
She felt his hand come to rest on her shoulder, large and warm the palm calloused from his lightsabre, then slide gently down her bare back. Her heart pounded so loud she could scarcely hear her own voice babbling something about the old glassmaker who'd lived on the island when she was a girl. "- He used to make glass out of sand - and vases and necklaces out of the glass. They were magical."
"Everything here is magical." Anakin said in that soft, intimate voice.
She looked up at him and was captivated by those eyes, so very blue, like the lake water or the old man's glass. She had to keep talking - anything might happen if she stopped! "You could look into the glass and see the water. The way it ripples and moves -" 'Like the light ripples and moves in your eyes. Is it the Force?' "- It looked so real...but it wasn't."
"Sometimes, when you believe something to be real, it becomes real."
She swallowed hard with a dry throat and forged determinedly on: "I used to think if you looked too deeply into the glass - " or a pair of eyes this pair of eyes. "- you would lose yourself."
"I think it's true."
'Oh it is, it is.' She was losing herself, drowning in light shot azure depths coming closer and closer. Then his mouth was on hers and the blood was singing in her ears and her body was filled with warmth like she was lying naked on the sand letting the sun dry her... No! She pulled away in panic and heard her own voice stammer; "No. I shouldn't have done that."
Anakin straightened, abashed, a little hurt, and every bit as dismayed as she was. "I'm sorry. I forgot myself. It won't happen again."