CHAPTER 6: TEN YEARS LATER
The spaceport of Mos Espa is baked by Tatooine's twin suns. Adding to the misery felt by one young resident is his mother.
"Ani, go with the Jedi. I don't want you here any longer." Shmi Skywalker said pushing her young son yet even farther away from her.
Anakin with tears in his eyes started to say, "But mom..."
Shmi interrupted, "No discussion Ani. You will go with the Jedi. A slave's life is too good for you."
Anakin, unable to hold the tears back any longer began audibly crying as he turned around to walk away. Just then, one million Tusken raiders, all riding Banthas burst out of nowhere. The sand people as they are commonly known by the denizens of Tatooine artfully avoided stampeding the youth to death, continued past him. Shmi took off running as fast as her legs could carry her.
She ran as fast and as hard as she could, but she was no match for the domesticated Banthas. Shmi was concentrating only on running, not where her feet were landing and just before the Tuskens could get her Anakin Skywalker's mother fell into a Sarlacc pit.
Shmi Skywalker now gave as much effort into climbing out of the pit as she did in trying to evade her Tusken pursuers. Before she could gain any measurable distance, one of the Sarlacc's tentacles wrapped around her ankle and pulled her into the snake like mouth.
The female Skywalker fell for what seemed to be miles when she landed on a soft mucus like surface. She stood and looked around. Being in the belly of a Sarlacc wasn't anything like it was made out to be. Everyone always said that inside the stomach of the Sarlacc one would find one thousand years of pain and suffering, but Shmi was in no pain at all.
Then she heard a roaring coming from one of the dark recesses of the Sarlacc's interior. She looked around and saw a Rancor moving at a determined pace towards her. Panic gripped Shmi, she looked around for something to defend herself with but found nothing. She had no where to run, so she turned to face her fate head on and closed her eyes.
At that moment, the Sarlacc sneezed a sneeze that had to have been loud enough to have been heard all the way into the galactic core on Coruscant. When this happened Shmi was launched with a great force out of the Sarlacc and flew thousands of feet into the air and landed countless miles away from the Sarlacc in a pile of Bantha droppings the size of Mos Espa.
In order to get out of the Bantha droppings Shmi had to more or less swim through them. When she finally broke loose, she fell a mile and landed hard on the sun baked harsh ground of Tatooine.
She walked for years without stopping for food, water or rest. The man killer conditions of the planet took its toll on Shmi. She became a walking skeleton, with every ounce of life sustaining water drained from her.
Her long walk continued until she came upon a fresh oasis. Hearing water Shmi moved faster then she had in what seemed lifetimes towards the sound. When she arrived she saw two people, a young man and a young woman laying beside the running water kissing and holding each other.
"Anakin," She yelled as loud as her sun and heat chapped vocal chords would allow, "You did this to me! How could you let this happen to me? You were not and are not man enough to protect your own mother. Why did you leave me? Why did you not stand up to the sand people. Why did you let me become like this?"
Anakin and Padme shot right to their feet, Padme just gapped at the wreck of a human being while Anakin said, "But mom. You made me leave."
At that point the same Tusken Raiders that Anakin saw in his youth once again came out of nowhere. This time Shmi was too weak to run away. Several Tuskens leaped off their Banthas with what seem to be supernatural speed. All but one restrained Anakin from being able to defend his mother and Padme was in too deep of a state of shock to do anything but watch. The remaining Tusken struck Shmi with his gaderffii stick in her mid section. She collapsed to the ground; the Tusken then began repeatedly striking Shmi in the head repeatedly until it no longer resembled a human head but some slab of meat in a butcher's market.
The Tuskens then loaded the now deceased Shmi Skywalker and rode off. Anakin felt unable to move until long after they were out of sight.
Anakin screamed and jumped out of his bed sweating profusely.
"Another dream. When are these things going to stop?" We wondered to himself in thought. He whipped the sweat from the brow of his head, wrapped himself in his quarters robe and walked to the refresher to pull himself together.
While Anakin recovered from his dream, Obi-Wan now wearing a beard and Qui- Gon who hadn't physically changed much in the last ten years, sat in the dining compartment of the Geonosis headquarters of the Confederacy of Independent Systems enjoying their breakfast which had been prepared by droids programmed to cook and present meals at a degree of mastery which no sentient being could ever hope to attain.
"Obi-Wan, there is something that I've been meaning to discuss with you." Qui-Gon said after he took a sip of his steaming hot Java Juice.
"What's that Master?" Obi-Wan asked.
"First, you know what we decided. Masters won't call each other master. We are of equal rank. I'm Qui-Gon to you, as I have been for years now."
Obi-Wan berated himself internally over his unconscious stubborn refusal to give up the ways of the old Jedi Order. Dooku, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had all decided that formal titles would only be for those of lower status and formal occasions where non-Jedi were present, they also decided that the long forbidden dark side powers of the Force were acceptable as long as you controlled the dark and it didn't control you, also among the many changes in their true Jedi Order was that they would no longer wear the robes traditionally worn by the Republic's false Jedi since the last thing that they wanted was to be mistaken with the false Jedi. Instead they wore a black variation of a pilot's flight suit. The exception to this was Count Dooku, he would wear his fancier cloths while on missions to destabilize support for the Republic on its member worlds since he handled the higher end diplomatic situations while the others worked on antagonizing any anti- Republic sentiment that may already exist within the planet's common folk. However, on Geonosis, they all wore the new Jedi outfit.
Qui-Gon continued, "Actually that is along the lines of what I wanted to discuss with you. You are holding back on your true ability to use the Force. You could be so much stronger. Why do you not maximize your full potential?"
Obi-Wan ran his hand through his hair as he tried to phrase his thoughts, the very same thoughts that he had been struggling with ever since leaving the Jedi Order of the Republic. Finally all he said was, "I'm just uneasy with using the dark side of the Force."
Qui-Gon gave his former student a serious look of disbelief and asked, "After all this time you still struggle with the same concerns?"
Obi-Wan's frustration showed on his face as he said, "I don't know. It just seems, somehow wrong to me."
Qui-Gon spoke to Obi-Wan as if Obi-Wan not Anakin was still his Padawan learner, not as a master speaking to a master as he said, "You have to break with the old teachings. They were when we learned them and are still false. If you continue to hold to them you will never be any stronger then the Jedi of the Republic. You will have the same diminished ability to use the Force. Count Dooku has shown us how to control the dark side and how to prevent it from controlling us. It is no longer an unknown factor to us. It is not by any means evil in itself. What makes it evil is the actions you engage in while using it. The count is raising our Order to counter the threat presented by the reemergence of the sith. They use the dark for evil actions. In order to fight the dark successfully, you have to use the dark."
"But don't you think that we could take using the dark side too far?" Obi- Wan asked.
Anger showed in Qui-Gon's face and he said in a raised voice, "It is the Republic that has gone too far. They are the ones who push their weight around. That is why we now have had over 200 systems declare their independence from the Republic and join the Confederacy of Independent Systems."
Obi-Wan realized that this conversation had gone too far and that Qui-Gon was becoming easier to anger with each passing year and decided that it would be wisest if he allowed the conversation to drop. They finished their breakfast in silence.
Hours later, the Jedi find themselves what they have come to consider the war room. It is a metal room, barren of any creature comforts. All they have in the war room are one table, a chair for each of them plus a few extra for any invited guest, screens showing feedback from probe droids that the Confederacy has sent all over the universe, computers, and the like.
"We now have two hundred systems, however that is not enough. I've managed to start enough brush fires to keep the Republic busy, but sooner or later they will come after us and we will have war on our hands." Count Dooku said, seated as were the other Jedi at the table.
"We've had much luck with the outer rim; they feel ignored by the Republic. The Republic reserves all of its funding for the major worlds closer to Coruscant while ignoring the outer rim." Obi-Wan said rotating his head as he spoke to glance at each of the others.
"I agree. I think Tatooine would be a great place to bring in. There you have a thriving criminal element which if we make contacts in we could pull to our aide when needed. You have Black Sun, Jabba the Hutt's organization, bounty hunters and assassins of every strip and color. In addition to the criminal element you have a civilian population of mostly poor disenfranchised moister farmers who squeak out a meager existence on the planet's wasteland surface." Qui-Gon added.
Anakin not caring to hear his home world described as such, but having to real true memories of it didn't say anything.
Just then one of the data droids entered the room. Data droids were your standard protocol droids with the exception that they were designed by the Commerce Guild with a slot to insert data disks and have a fold out compartment on their chests which once a data disk has been inserted fold out and allows the recorded transmission to be viewed.
The droid brought a copy of the newest Holo News data disk. The Holo News is the major source of information to the Republic's civilian population. Count Dooku maintained a subscription because the Republic's leadership was sloppy enough to broadcast any and all information of the Holo News. The little bit of information that the government attempted to keep secret the reporters would dig and dig and dig some more until they discovered what it is the Republic didn't want them to know and then would broadcast it anyway. Dooku loved having an enemy that who didn't control its reporters and whose reporters had no professional ethics.
Plotting anti-Republic sentiment came to a halt as Dooku loaded the data disk into the droid. The droid's chest compartment folded out and the Holo News came to life. They sat through mostly news that they didn't care about in their newly created Confederacy.
Then at the end of the broadcast, where the Holo News always put the good stuff to keep you watching they saw the Senate Landing Platform in flames.
"This is from an apparent assassination attempt on Senator Amidala from Naboo," an off holo voice said, "The Senator wasn't aboard her ship at the time but the explosion did kill one of her body doubles and several of her personal guard. While no comment has come from the Naboo Consulate, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine expressed his horror and disbelief that someone would attempt to murder one of the finest and most upstanding members of the Senate. Senator Amidala's current location is unknown and we are just being told that she is under protection. However we have reporters on it and will be sure to inform you where she is."
With that, the Holo News data disk ended, the droid's chest compartment closed back up, and without being excused the droid left the room.
Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Anakin's expressions showed the shock they felt. Neither of them had seen Padme Amidala for ten years, but the adventure they shared together creates a bond passing ones lifespan. The fact that someone had tried to kill Naboo's former Queen was more then they could believe.
So shocked they were that they did not see Count Dooku's response to the news. Instead of a look of shock, his was of murderous rage. Before the Jedi fools could see his response he stood and said, "My friends I have some other business I must attend to. I'll be back shortly." With that he excuse he walked out of the room with is normal regal air.
Count Dooku stalked from the war room to his private quarters like a man with a vengeance mission. Fury filled every fiber of his being. In short, he was not a happy spacer.
He stopped at his closet and pulled out a long range communications set. He adjusted it until he has a strong line with the watery world of Kamino where one of the Confederacy's most important covert projects is occurring.
A holo of a well built, tan skinned man appeared, "Lord Tyranus. To what do I owe the privilege of this contact?"
"Don't play games with me Jango," Dooku said his displeasure making no attempt at being covert, "Why is Senator Amidala still alive? That is not what you've been paid for."
"She used a decoy; otherwise I would have gotten her. That was an unforeseeable and unmanageable event. Nothing I could do about it. Have faith in me though because it won't happen again." Jango Fett, one of the most successful and notorious bounty hunters in known space said in way of a reply.
"This is not your first failure to bring about her death." Count Dooku rebutted.
An audible sigh came through the hologram and Jango said, "I know. She is proving to be a challenging target but I will get her. The only way for her to survive is for me to die."
The displeasure in Count Dooku/Lord Tyranus's voice hadn't dissipated any, "I need her dead to get the Trade Federation's droid armies. That is the stipulation that Viceroy Gunray put on his assistance."
"She will die Lord Tyranus. On that you have my guarantee." Jango Fett encouraged his current employer.
"That's good bounty hunter. She had better, because my patience with failure can not last forever." Dooku said and broke the connection before Jango Fett could reply.
The spaceport of Mos Espa is baked by Tatooine's twin suns. Adding to the misery felt by one young resident is his mother.
"Ani, go with the Jedi. I don't want you here any longer." Shmi Skywalker said pushing her young son yet even farther away from her.
Anakin with tears in his eyes started to say, "But mom..."
Shmi interrupted, "No discussion Ani. You will go with the Jedi. A slave's life is too good for you."
Anakin, unable to hold the tears back any longer began audibly crying as he turned around to walk away. Just then, one million Tusken raiders, all riding Banthas burst out of nowhere. The sand people as they are commonly known by the denizens of Tatooine artfully avoided stampeding the youth to death, continued past him. Shmi took off running as fast as her legs could carry her.
She ran as fast and as hard as she could, but she was no match for the domesticated Banthas. Shmi was concentrating only on running, not where her feet were landing and just before the Tuskens could get her Anakin Skywalker's mother fell into a Sarlacc pit.
Shmi Skywalker now gave as much effort into climbing out of the pit as she did in trying to evade her Tusken pursuers. Before she could gain any measurable distance, one of the Sarlacc's tentacles wrapped around her ankle and pulled her into the snake like mouth.
The female Skywalker fell for what seemed to be miles when she landed on a soft mucus like surface. She stood and looked around. Being in the belly of a Sarlacc wasn't anything like it was made out to be. Everyone always said that inside the stomach of the Sarlacc one would find one thousand years of pain and suffering, but Shmi was in no pain at all.
Then she heard a roaring coming from one of the dark recesses of the Sarlacc's interior. She looked around and saw a Rancor moving at a determined pace towards her. Panic gripped Shmi, she looked around for something to defend herself with but found nothing. She had no where to run, so she turned to face her fate head on and closed her eyes.
At that moment, the Sarlacc sneezed a sneeze that had to have been loud enough to have been heard all the way into the galactic core on Coruscant. When this happened Shmi was launched with a great force out of the Sarlacc and flew thousands of feet into the air and landed countless miles away from the Sarlacc in a pile of Bantha droppings the size of Mos Espa.
In order to get out of the Bantha droppings Shmi had to more or less swim through them. When she finally broke loose, she fell a mile and landed hard on the sun baked harsh ground of Tatooine.
She walked for years without stopping for food, water or rest. The man killer conditions of the planet took its toll on Shmi. She became a walking skeleton, with every ounce of life sustaining water drained from her.
Her long walk continued until she came upon a fresh oasis. Hearing water Shmi moved faster then she had in what seemed lifetimes towards the sound. When she arrived she saw two people, a young man and a young woman laying beside the running water kissing and holding each other.
"Anakin," She yelled as loud as her sun and heat chapped vocal chords would allow, "You did this to me! How could you let this happen to me? You were not and are not man enough to protect your own mother. Why did you leave me? Why did you not stand up to the sand people. Why did you let me become like this?"
Anakin and Padme shot right to their feet, Padme just gapped at the wreck of a human being while Anakin said, "But mom. You made me leave."
At that point the same Tusken Raiders that Anakin saw in his youth once again came out of nowhere. This time Shmi was too weak to run away. Several Tuskens leaped off their Banthas with what seem to be supernatural speed. All but one restrained Anakin from being able to defend his mother and Padme was in too deep of a state of shock to do anything but watch. The remaining Tusken struck Shmi with his gaderffii stick in her mid section. She collapsed to the ground; the Tusken then began repeatedly striking Shmi in the head repeatedly until it no longer resembled a human head but some slab of meat in a butcher's market.
The Tuskens then loaded the now deceased Shmi Skywalker and rode off. Anakin felt unable to move until long after they were out of sight.
Anakin screamed and jumped out of his bed sweating profusely.
"Another dream. When are these things going to stop?" We wondered to himself in thought. He whipped the sweat from the brow of his head, wrapped himself in his quarters robe and walked to the refresher to pull himself together.
While Anakin recovered from his dream, Obi-Wan now wearing a beard and Qui- Gon who hadn't physically changed much in the last ten years, sat in the dining compartment of the Geonosis headquarters of the Confederacy of Independent Systems enjoying their breakfast which had been prepared by droids programmed to cook and present meals at a degree of mastery which no sentient being could ever hope to attain.
"Obi-Wan, there is something that I've been meaning to discuss with you." Qui-Gon said after he took a sip of his steaming hot Java Juice.
"What's that Master?" Obi-Wan asked.
"First, you know what we decided. Masters won't call each other master. We are of equal rank. I'm Qui-Gon to you, as I have been for years now."
Obi-Wan berated himself internally over his unconscious stubborn refusal to give up the ways of the old Jedi Order. Dooku, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had all decided that formal titles would only be for those of lower status and formal occasions where non-Jedi were present, they also decided that the long forbidden dark side powers of the Force were acceptable as long as you controlled the dark and it didn't control you, also among the many changes in their true Jedi Order was that they would no longer wear the robes traditionally worn by the Republic's false Jedi since the last thing that they wanted was to be mistaken with the false Jedi. Instead they wore a black variation of a pilot's flight suit. The exception to this was Count Dooku, he would wear his fancier cloths while on missions to destabilize support for the Republic on its member worlds since he handled the higher end diplomatic situations while the others worked on antagonizing any anti- Republic sentiment that may already exist within the planet's common folk. However, on Geonosis, they all wore the new Jedi outfit.
Qui-Gon continued, "Actually that is along the lines of what I wanted to discuss with you. You are holding back on your true ability to use the Force. You could be so much stronger. Why do you not maximize your full potential?"
Obi-Wan ran his hand through his hair as he tried to phrase his thoughts, the very same thoughts that he had been struggling with ever since leaving the Jedi Order of the Republic. Finally all he said was, "I'm just uneasy with using the dark side of the Force."
Qui-Gon gave his former student a serious look of disbelief and asked, "After all this time you still struggle with the same concerns?"
Obi-Wan's frustration showed on his face as he said, "I don't know. It just seems, somehow wrong to me."
Qui-Gon spoke to Obi-Wan as if Obi-Wan not Anakin was still his Padawan learner, not as a master speaking to a master as he said, "You have to break with the old teachings. They were when we learned them and are still false. If you continue to hold to them you will never be any stronger then the Jedi of the Republic. You will have the same diminished ability to use the Force. Count Dooku has shown us how to control the dark side and how to prevent it from controlling us. It is no longer an unknown factor to us. It is not by any means evil in itself. What makes it evil is the actions you engage in while using it. The count is raising our Order to counter the threat presented by the reemergence of the sith. They use the dark for evil actions. In order to fight the dark successfully, you have to use the dark."
"But don't you think that we could take using the dark side too far?" Obi- Wan asked.
Anger showed in Qui-Gon's face and he said in a raised voice, "It is the Republic that has gone too far. They are the ones who push their weight around. That is why we now have had over 200 systems declare their independence from the Republic and join the Confederacy of Independent Systems."
Obi-Wan realized that this conversation had gone too far and that Qui-Gon was becoming easier to anger with each passing year and decided that it would be wisest if he allowed the conversation to drop. They finished their breakfast in silence.
Hours later, the Jedi find themselves what they have come to consider the war room. It is a metal room, barren of any creature comforts. All they have in the war room are one table, a chair for each of them plus a few extra for any invited guest, screens showing feedback from probe droids that the Confederacy has sent all over the universe, computers, and the like.
"We now have two hundred systems, however that is not enough. I've managed to start enough brush fires to keep the Republic busy, but sooner or later they will come after us and we will have war on our hands." Count Dooku said, seated as were the other Jedi at the table.
"We've had much luck with the outer rim; they feel ignored by the Republic. The Republic reserves all of its funding for the major worlds closer to Coruscant while ignoring the outer rim." Obi-Wan said rotating his head as he spoke to glance at each of the others.
"I agree. I think Tatooine would be a great place to bring in. There you have a thriving criminal element which if we make contacts in we could pull to our aide when needed. You have Black Sun, Jabba the Hutt's organization, bounty hunters and assassins of every strip and color. In addition to the criminal element you have a civilian population of mostly poor disenfranchised moister farmers who squeak out a meager existence on the planet's wasteland surface." Qui-Gon added.
Anakin not caring to hear his home world described as such, but having to real true memories of it didn't say anything.
Just then one of the data droids entered the room. Data droids were your standard protocol droids with the exception that they were designed by the Commerce Guild with a slot to insert data disks and have a fold out compartment on their chests which once a data disk has been inserted fold out and allows the recorded transmission to be viewed.
The droid brought a copy of the newest Holo News data disk. The Holo News is the major source of information to the Republic's civilian population. Count Dooku maintained a subscription because the Republic's leadership was sloppy enough to broadcast any and all information of the Holo News. The little bit of information that the government attempted to keep secret the reporters would dig and dig and dig some more until they discovered what it is the Republic didn't want them to know and then would broadcast it anyway. Dooku loved having an enemy that who didn't control its reporters and whose reporters had no professional ethics.
Plotting anti-Republic sentiment came to a halt as Dooku loaded the data disk into the droid. The droid's chest compartment folded out and the Holo News came to life. They sat through mostly news that they didn't care about in their newly created Confederacy.
Then at the end of the broadcast, where the Holo News always put the good stuff to keep you watching they saw the Senate Landing Platform in flames.
"This is from an apparent assassination attempt on Senator Amidala from Naboo," an off holo voice said, "The Senator wasn't aboard her ship at the time but the explosion did kill one of her body doubles and several of her personal guard. While no comment has come from the Naboo Consulate, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine expressed his horror and disbelief that someone would attempt to murder one of the finest and most upstanding members of the Senate. Senator Amidala's current location is unknown and we are just being told that she is under protection. However we have reporters on it and will be sure to inform you where she is."
With that, the Holo News data disk ended, the droid's chest compartment closed back up, and without being excused the droid left the room.
Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Anakin's expressions showed the shock they felt. Neither of them had seen Padme Amidala for ten years, but the adventure they shared together creates a bond passing ones lifespan. The fact that someone had tried to kill Naboo's former Queen was more then they could believe.
So shocked they were that they did not see Count Dooku's response to the news. Instead of a look of shock, his was of murderous rage. Before the Jedi fools could see his response he stood and said, "My friends I have some other business I must attend to. I'll be back shortly." With that he excuse he walked out of the room with is normal regal air.
Count Dooku stalked from the war room to his private quarters like a man with a vengeance mission. Fury filled every fiber of his being. In short, he was not a happy spacer.
He stopped at his closet and pulled out a long range communications set. He adjusted it until he has a strong line with the watery world of Kamino where one of the Confederacy's most important covert projects is occurring.
A holo of a well built, tan skinned man appeared, "Lord Tyranus. To what do I owe the privilege of this contact?"
"Don't play games with me Jango," Dooku said his displeasure making no attempt at being covert, "Why is Senator Amidala still alive? That is not what you've been paid for."
"She used a decoy; otherwise I would have gotten her. That was an unforeseeable and unmanageable event. Nothing I could do about it. Have faith in me though because it won't happen again." Jango Fett, one of the most successful and notorious bounty hunters in known space said in way of a reply.
"This is not your first failure to bring about her death." Count Dooku rebutted.
An audible sigh came through the hologram and Jango said, "I know. She is proving to be a challenging target but I will get her. The only way for her to survive is for me to die."
The displeasure in Count Dooku/Lord Tyranus's voice hadn't dissipated any, "I need her dead to get the Trade Federation's droid armies. That is the stipulation that Viceroy Gunray put on his assistance."
"She will die Lord Tyranus. On that you have my guarantee." Jango Fett encouraged his current employer.
"That's good bounty hunter. She had better, because my patience with failure can not last forever." Dooku said and broke the connection before Jango Fett could reply.