Chapter 12
The group of six climbers limbered up on a plaza on the south side of a mountainous building, which was set apart from the jumble of skyscrapers. Ravi passed out parachute packs and helmets to everyone. He nudged a distracted-looking Valia. "Hey. You with us?" he asked softly. She flashed him a quick grin. "Let's do it!" he whooped to everyone in general and leaped to the first ledge on the wall next to him.
The dubious sport of building climbing was as popular on Coruscant as mountain climbing was on other worlds. All Coruscanti had to climb were buildings, and over the past several hundred years, the sport had exploded. Over the course of her life on Coruscant, Valia had made the acquaintance and friendship of dozens of climbers. Early on they had persuaded her to join them. She had finally given in to her sense of adventure and joined them on several easy climbs.
She'd been hooked. She felt like she was twelve again, running wild with her brothers and cousins on Nyme'. They'd climbed the tallest trees, gorges, silos, anything that presented a challenge and more dismay to the more responsible, older generation. So it was that now as an adult, she found herself enjoying a beautiful sunny midmorning on her tenth climb.
"Come on, Traxis! Sluggard! After we kiss the sky, I'll let you kiss me!" Ravi screeched from somewhere above. Valia smiled and rolled her eyes. There'd be no end to the teasing if she didn't keep up with him. But then there'd be no end to the teasing anyway. A couple of their more quiet friends grinned at Valia, and they continued climbing.
Sometime later, they reached roughly the halfway point. They rested on a balcony several thousand meters above what passed for ground level on Coruscant, if anyone really knew where that was any more. The view was spectacular. They savored the knowledge that they'd used nothing more than their own muscles and stamina to get here. They were nearly up to traffic level. A police cruiser passed their rest stop with a sing-song humming. Paccaia waved amiably at its occupants. Ravi's eyes followed the vehicle with avid interest.
"Don't you dare flip them a finger, Brillion," Valia warned. Or moon them, like another time.
"No need. They haven't hassled us. I'll be saving that for the top, anyway."
"Are you sure they haven't passed any anti-climbing ordinances since the last time we were up here?"
"You worry way too much, Lia." Ravi waved a hand, and leaned back indolently to soak up the warm sunlight. "Not that I know of. They just can't ban this building. This is the best in this hemisphere."
"Yeah, no bans yet. But someone will get them passed as soon as they get annoyed with us for looking in their windows!" Paccaia raised his voice to a shout to catch the attention of Bracca who was standing against the glass of the nearby windows. He shaded his eyes as he peered in.
"Always hoping to see what he can't get himself, the little voyeur," laughed Ravi.
"Aahh, it's just offices. Nobody there." Bracca turned away. Nobody let Bracca off the hook about his everlasting hope of catching another glimpse into the private lives of unsuspecting apartment dwellers. It had happened on a climb before Valia had joined the group. It was told Bracca had nearly fallen off the wall at the unexpected sight of the full-blown multi-species orgy taking place inside an apartment. Then he had wanted to get inside the building and join it. Not long afterwards, that building had been placed on the list of structures banned to climbers. That list was growing every year, and the challenge of climbing without being arrested was growing as well. For young thrill-seekers who could not afford to make constant trips off world for climbing, this was one of the best outlets available.
"Well, let's keep moving. We're wasting daylight." Ravi, the unofficial leader of the group stretched and stood. The others stretched as well, and prepared to ascend the rest of the way. Valia took another look at the cityscape shining in the afternoon sun.
She was dressed similarly to the other climbers. Her hair was bound up in its customary loose knot under a helmet. Her knees and elbows were covered with light padding. Close-fitting black knee length pants and a sleeveless blue top kept her cool. Her heavy mid-calf boots were equipped with rubber traction cups and powerful magnets that could be activated if necessary. There were magnets on the wrists of some of the climbers as well. Lines of thin, strong cord and grappling hooks were looped over her shoulder. They climbed without repulsor jets. Only the parachutes or lines would save them from a free fall.
The afternoon wore on. The climbers passed each other by turns, taking short breaks for water and food from their packs. Ravi knew the best routes up this building, which walls had the best surfaces for climbing, the most outcroppings. They planned to make a late afternoon jump from the top. All the climbers carried commlinks, which they used to talk to each other, and in case they got separated or in trouble. They could also be used to summon transport if they decided against jumping.
This would be Valia's tenth such jump. She loved the sensation of flying, coasting past the spires of buildings, wind rushing against her skin.
At last they reached the top, their artificial mountain gleaming in the golden late afternoon sun. Tired but triumphant, they danced on the flat top, Ravi shouting and whooping incessantly. He hoped for a transport or better yet, police car to pass close enough to see his special salute. Thankfully, none did.
"Going to jump, Lia?" Bracca asked, readying himself for flight.
"Oh yeah, I'm going to go for it."
"Great. See you below, at the plaza we started from."
"See you there." She was already fighting down the fluttering in her stomach. She was always terrified until she was actually in the air. Then she could relax. Bracca, Paccaia and Ravi leaped first, Ravi naturally with a banshee scream. Valia watched their chutes pop open, her friends descending beneath colorful flowers of light strong fabric. They steered in a graceful curve around the building. She stepped the ledge herself. It overlooked a deep slot cut into the side of the building. The next level was so far down they had enough seconds to deploy their chutes before hitting the building. It always seemed to work better if she just got it over with without thinking too much about it. Besides the other two climbers were waiting. Benk, the oldest member of the group smiled at her. His long gray hair was tied back in a tail. It reminded her of Qui-Gon. What hadn't reminded her of Qui-Gon all day long? She'd found herself thinking of him innumerable times throughout the climb. Him and his tongue against her fingers and the way he'd looked at her the other day... She tried to clear her head as she looked down at her blue and yellow-laced boots and the abyss beyond her toes. She couldn't get him out of her mind. She wondered what his reaction would be to her doing this. Probably his face would go all stern and serious and he'd admonish her to be wise and not do this.
It was time to jump. She had no idea what Qui-Gon's take on building climbing was, and was not likely to find out. But she knew that sometime soon they were going to have to talk and confront what was between them. Next time she saw him. On that thought, she launched herself into the sun-warmed air.
She counted, her eyes screwed shut. Then she yanked the cord she'd had clutched in her hand the whole time. With a flapping rush, the ultralight metal and silk fabric unfurled from her pack and jerked her fall to a near stop.
She opened her eyes and knew immediately that something was wrong. Her field of view twirled crazily and she was dropping faster than she ought to be. A sudden gust of air blew her toward the building and she struck a decorative ledge with her leg so hard she knew it had to be broken. She was sure she'd heard something snap over the rush of air. Her head swam sickeningly from the pain, shock and the spinning. She felt herself blacking out and desperately tried to keep conscious. That was the last thing she could afford to do at the moment. Trying to ignore the pain in her leg, she looked up and saw the left edge of her chute wasn't completely unrolled. It seemed to be wrapped in one of the lines. She jerked on it, trying to free it. No success. She realized she had little or no steering control, and it was going to take all her ability to watch where she was going. Thoughts of desperately crashing through a window to stop her fall flashed through her mind, but that was likely to break many more parts of her, if not kill her.
She was passing close to a sheer wall of transparisteel. She stuck her arms and one good leg out against it, trying to drag herself to a halt using the suction cups. She more or less succeeding in jamming them against it. But she would have to hang there upside down. She didn't have the strength to remain upright against the polished wall and the pain was clouding her consciousness. Her chute fluttered down toward her. She was forced to pull free and continue falling. By now she was breathing hard with terror and completely disoriented. What were Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan always saying about mastering fear, remaining calm and centered? Empty far-away words to her now. They'd made sense under the safe shade of the awning in front of her store. What she needed to save her ass now were whole limbs and a functioning parachute.
She saw a causeway linking two buildings. It was lit up by the sun in stark contrast to the dark canyon beyond it. Three white birds winged their way below the causeway. People strolled along the causeway, outer cloaks lifting softly in the breeze. A woman wore a beautifully patterned maroon and black gown. Valia was conscious of curiously sharpened details as she whirled downward despite her tunneling vision and the specks that danced before it. She was on a direct collision course with the causeway. She tried to relax her frantic breathing and readied her hands to grab a railing or lamppost. It was coming at her too fast. She reached out and missed. The shock on the faces of passers-by mirrored her own as the breeze whirled her over and beyond the bridge. People stopped and stared at the stared at the strange, colorful object flying away into the canyon.
Valia moaned and let loose screaming curses. She had to find something else to grab. She was going deeper into the city's lower levels. She tried again to make the parachute obey her futile tugging on the lines. All this did was put her into a tighter spin. She was now at levels she had never been before, and in seconds she'd be where no Coruscanti wanted to go. The breeze funneled between the buildings, keeping her moving, dropping her into ever cooler air. It was getting darker. She passed out.
Rumors and urban legends about the underworld of Coruscant had made their way to Valia's ears since she'd first arrived here. The stories all carried the same theme: don't go there. Those who fell or wandered below civilized levels generally did not return at all, or in any recognizable form. Rare was the tale of a survivor. No one had really catalogued the life forms on the planet surface, entombed by the city above. In addition to some very real monsters was the sewage, waste fuel and dumped machinery that fell or was illegally thrown from above. It was a toxic, dangerous hazard below the feet of every Coruscanti. With predictable regularity the issue would come up before the planetary government and even the galactic Senate. What should be done about it, and more importantly, who would pay to deal with it. Debates droned on endlessly about jurisdiction, funding, studies to be done, and on and on. Inevitably nothing was done.
Valia was now below any recognizable city level. The walls were closing in on either side of her. She regained consciousness and weakly reached out for one of them but only banged her arm. A dank smell was rising from below. Her limbs were throbbing now and when she finally did manage to grab a ledge, the pain forced her to let go and slip off again. Any climbing out she would have to do would be made extremely difficult by her injuries. She tried to grab at the wall next to her again. She grimaced at the mucous-like sliminess on it. Her boots and hands skidded ineffectually all over the slippery algae-covered wall. The magnets in her boots did nothing. It seemed to be a stone wall. She slid deeper into the dark crevice, her parachute now brushing both walls. The smell was growing overpowering and she thought she heard water. She dropped the final distance and fell heavily into the sludge-filled bottom of the canyon. Her ankle twisted sharply on some piece of debris under the brown bilge and she cried out. She splashed down on her hands and knees in the filth and her chute flopped down on top of her.
The shock of not moving stunned her. She then stood up carefully feeling for her footing in the calf-deep water. She quickly gathered up the useless chute with the thought of at least keeping it dry. She struggled out of her harness and bundled up the fabric into a roll. There was a small ledge about eye-level and she stowed it there along with her gear and helmet. She took note of her dismal surroundings, trying not to think of what else was down here. It was so dark she could barely see. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom and she saw the narrow crevice, probably once an alley or street stretched away on either side of her. The walls were slimy stone, and with her broken leg, climbing out was not looking like an option. A square black opening dominated the opposite wall down from her. Fallen pipes and junk lay scattered about, covered with the same stinking slime and hanging gobs of ooze. The water was a cloudy brown covered with an oily sheen of fuel. She shuddered at the thought of how many bacteria must be in it.
She listened and only heard her own breathing and a faraway dripping. She waded over to the ledge and took inventory. She emptied the pack. She had one bottle of water, three energy bars, a bandanna, and the commlink. The commlink! She grabbed it and activated it. She tried several times to talk to the rest of the climbing group. Nothing. Frustrated, she checked it over. The indicator for outgoing signals never lit up. Possibly she was too far down between the colossal structures for it to be any use. In any case, it wasn't working. She made a huff of disgust. Part of the creed of the group of climbers she was with was a disdain of anything high-tech to assist them. Here they were, able to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other, defeat distance, gravity, disease and disability but there was a rebellious clinging to low-tech forms of amusement. She couldn't really be too disgusted as she adhered to this creed in her everyday life.
However, it was now proving to be her undoing. She leaned against the wall, trying to support her most likely broken leg, stymied as to what to do. She could start painfully slogging through the muck to find a way out, and risk hurting herself even further. Or she could stay put and hope against hope someone friendly to her cause would find her.
Before she could weigh the decision any further, something slimy brushed against her right leg. Startled, she lifted it out of the water. Something ripped into her left leg with a speed that swallowed her breath. She screamed as white stars of pain exploded before her field of vision. She danced frantically in the sludge, flinging off whatever had locked onto her calf. A thick, pale slimy creature about a meter long was thrown against the opposite wall. Its mouth was concentric rings of sucking, pulsing flesh. Hooked teeth flexed out of every ring. Moaning, she scrabbled to the ledge she'd previously thought too small for her. Clenching her teeth against the pain of her injured limbs, she balanced on the narrow ledge. Comfort was out of the question, yet she'd probably be waiting here a long time. She crouched and tried to stop hyperventilating. She deliberately made herself slow her breathing. The spots in front of her eyes gradually cleared. The water still roiled with whatever was swimming in it. At last it stilled. Valia gradually became aware of a new noise down the corridor. Sounds of something furtively swimming toward her. She backed against the wall and tried to be brave.
The serene stone hallways did nothing to calm Ravi and Paccaia's frazzled nerves as they stood in the entrance to the Jedi Temple. The two sweaty sport-garbed young men felt acutely out of place. Their tight fitting brilliantly colored climbing clothes brayed loudly in contrast to the completely covering brown shades of the Jedi students and knights. They were being treated politely, even warmly, but the waiting was now driving Ravi to madness.
Between the five of them, they had managed to come up with the names of the two Jedi who they'd seen at Valia's store so often. Someone had been sent to locate Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi a half-hour ago, and still they waited. Ravi picked nervously at his fingernails.
They had waited for Valia at the plaza and she had never landed. Then Brea and Benk had arrived, asking about her, telling what they'd seen happen with her chute from above. Police had been called and were now fanning out for the search, but Ravi had gotten the distinct impression it would be a most casual operation. Until she was missing for a certain period of time, there was little they would do. The officers had reassured them that she'd probably just lost her way and would show up on her own very soon. The chief officer had looked the climbers up and down with undisguised contempt. It was the lecture that followed that tripped Ravi's temper and launched him at the officer. Only Benk and Bracca's brute strength, threats to kill Ravi, and obsequious apologies had kept them all from being arrested on the spot. With promises to never climb in this jurisdiction as long as they all lived, the climbers backed out of the police station. Frantically worried and unsatisfied with the intensity of the search, they had concluded more help was needed. Ravi's father was off world on a property-buying trip and unreachable for the sums of money Ravi could have gotten for a desperate bribe.
Would the Jedi help them? Would they grant a personal favor to a half-dozen people they knew by sight and name only? Ravi fervently hoped he was right about the Jedi Master's 'thing' for Lia and was now banking on it. His stunted sense of personal responsibility and guilt were kicking in. He loved Lia, even sometimes had fantasies of one day marrying her. But he knew she was not for him, not that way. She needed someone who could give her things he never could. But a guy could still dream. Sensible and cautious, Lia had had to be coaxed into climbing with them. Once she had done it, she was totally into it, but Ravi suspected she wouldn't be doing it on her own.
"Good evening. What seems to be the trouble?" A deep, slightly accented voice spoke behind them. The two young men jumped and turned to see Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan standing placidly behind them.
"It's Valia. She's missing. We jumped off the top of the Montikka building and she had trouble with her chute," Ravi blurted out.
An expression of concern furrowed Qui-Gon's face at the mention of Valia's name. A look of disbelief crossed Obi-Wan's. "You jumped off a building?"
Ravi had no further desire to defend the sport of base-jumping today. Besides, even he knew it was not a good idea to cross Jedi Knights. He looked down at the floor, chagrined. "We usually do after a climb. Sometimes we get picked up if we're too tired."
"Well, never mind about that now. Come along and show us where you last saw her. We will find her." Qui-Gon laid a hand on each man's shoulder and guided them out toward the plaza. "Obi-Wan, go get anything you think we might need. Meet us outside here." The complete lack of worry and hurry in Qui-Gon relaxed Ravi and Paccaia as they walked out into the mellowing afternoon light.
Where Ravi and his friends had run into a solid wall of bureaucracy and apathy, the Jedi strolled through effortlessly. The police handling the search in and around the Montikka building immediately called in more staff and deployed another dozen searching hovercraft as well as two probe droids. Qui-Gon's questions were answered promptly and if the answer wasn't known, someone was sent to find it. The Jedi never raised their voices, never appeared worried or rushed in any way. They were treated deferentially and respectfully, most particularly by the chief officer Ravi had had his trouble with. Ravi couldn't help but roll his eyes disgustedly at the manner in which the officer was nearly fawning before Qui-Gon and his padawan.
After it was determined Valia was nowhere in the building or on its surface, it was time to widen the search. "Do you think she may have fallen all the way to the bottom, Master?" asked Obi-Wan.
Qui-Gon turned from his silent, pensive study out the window to look at Obi-Wan. There was now clearly worry in his dark blue eyes. Half a dozen terrible scenarios had gone through his mind before he firmly dismissed them with calming techniques, concentrating on what they knew to be fact.
"That is a possibility. We'll have to find a way to search as far down as we can." He turned to the chief officer, whose name was Gagnonn. "Is there someone who knows the lowest levels of the city surrounding the building?"
Gagnonn's eyes widened. This was the first time he had hesitated at any request the tall Jedi had made.
"Not even the police go to those levels of the city, Master Jinn." He laughed and blustered. "There is no need for anyone to know the bottom. Whatever is down there that would be a danger to the citizens most likely would not survive outside its environment. And the...residents of the underworld have a way of keeping themselves in check for us."
Qui-Gon's eyes narrowed. The very air seemed to freeze. Hands on his hips, he took one, then another slow step forward. The police chief swallowed and shrank backwards.
"We have someone who at this moment may be out of her environment And if she is not found very shortly, she will cease to be your problem, and I will take her place." He spoke very softly, so softly that Obi-Wan knew he was controlling a rare fury. "Please locate whoever has knowledge of this area and its lowest levels. We will go find her ourselves."
Gagnonn stammered and spoke to the floor. Yes, there was a civil engineer he could call, yes, that was it, that's who could help them.
Ravi could not resist giving Gagnonn a derisive sneer and wave has he hurried out of the chamber.
Valia could not remember being so cold in all her life. There was no way to get warm except by huddling in her damp parachute. She squatted or lay awkwardly on the ledge, continuously shifting to keep her legs from falling asleep. Her ankle was stiff and hurt sharply. Her leg was swelling and stiffening and her arms throbbed. The bite on her other leg burned like madness and would not stop bleeding. She gripped the piece of metal pipe with both hands, fearful of dropping it. She'd risked one more painful dash into the water to grab a weapon. There had been things, rubbery things slithering through the water and reaching up to her. She'd stabbed the bar at them. The metal had sunk wetly into the flesh of whatever was grasping up at her. Thankfully they seemed easily frightened and had retreated...for the time being. What if there were dianogas down here? She would never escape one of those. Valia's overstretched senses had detected more movement coming from the cavelike opening. Now she wondered if she was beginning to hallucinate. Wispy ghost-like tendrils of blue and green gas appeared at the corners of her vision and disappeared. At least the smell had just about vanished. Her nose had probably just given up. She'd finished her water and had decided to hoard her last two energy bars. She'd caught herself nodding off to sleep but snapped herself back to wakefulness. She was in terror of falling off the ledge and being caught by those grasping things in the water. She wondered if this was how it would end, if she would end up being compost at the roots of the city. She tried to master her fear the way she knew Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan must know how to do, but it was too abstract a concept. Fear filled her, was splashed on her, was all around her.
"How long do you suppose it's been since this place saw the light of day, Master?"
Qui-Gon considered the question as they slogged through the gloom. "Who knows. A thousand years, maybe."
With the help of an extremely ancient and cranky civil engineer, the two Jedi had found long unused passages down into the depths and finally a hatch, which opened into the gap between buildings. The filth and stench were nearly overwhelming. Daylight was now fading, not that it made much difference down here anyway.
Obi-Wan sighed. "This is slow going. It would have helped if we had more eyes and ears to search here." The police had refused to accompany them, quoting regulations and bureaucratic babble. Gagnonn had very subtly hinted that for a price, more help could be had. Qui-Gon had tuned it all out, focusing his mind on Valia and the coming search.
"Stop, Obi-Wan. I want you to listen with your mind and feel very carefully. Do you sense her?"
They paused between the dripping walls, breathing as shallowly as they could. Obi-Wan wondered at the request. Ever the patient teacher, Qui-Gon was giving exercises even in this cess pit.
"But Master," he hesitated. "You are the one who...you are much closer to her than I am. Shouldn't you sense her far more than I?"
Qui-Gon leaned almost wearily against a wall. Obi-Wan studied his master in the darkness. He suddenly had an idea of the grief that would consume him if what they found wasn't a living, breathing Valia.
"I love her." The statement was made as though it was a terrible confession, as if he'd admitted to secretly studying Sith writings. There was a touch of amazement in it as well.
Obi-Wan stared. Of course. It all made sense. What an idiot he'd been. Qui-Gon was never one to do anything halfway with his heart, all the while acting as unemotional as a machine. This was not just some casual physical dalliance, and he wasn't losing his mind. There he stood in calf-deep dreck, speaking of love. He wanted to laugh, but the gravity of the situation and the look on his master's face stopped him. For a long moment he stared straight ahead at the damp wall, trying to comprehend what this meant as a Jedi. Then he thought of the dear friend, the father figure next to him, and his closed tight-lipped smile threatened to crack his face wide open. Qui-Gon regarded him curiously.
"Well," his student managed to speak finally. "That certainly has to be the most terrible thing you've ever done." He hoisted his cloak out of the muck. "Congratulations, Master. You're a human being."
Qui-Gon gave him a wry look, and that short, one-note laugh of his. Although this was surely going to add a new dimension of interest and challenge in being his apprentice, Obi-Wan reached out to squeeze his arms to reassure him she would be found, and his loyalty to him was unwavering, no matter what happened. Then he closed his eyes and shut out every intruding sensation one by one. He spent a minute focusing, searching. In the process, he experienced a renewed sense of calm and confidence. He opened his eyes.
"Misery. I sense misery, fear, jealousy of the world above. Nothing evil or threatening. And just the faintest cry of someone who doesn't belong here. Almost more like a heartbeat." He paused thoughtfully, looking down the passage. "That way. She's here. She's not far."
Qui-Gon smiled with relief. "I felt her, but I...wanted to be sure. She's in much pain." And so was he. He had been listening with his heart. He started in the indicated direction. "Let's get her out of here."
Valia was shaking uncontrollably now. The flimsy chute was no protection from the damp, chill air. All the light was gone now except for the phantom illusions that swam in front of her eyes. Her arms ached with the tension of holding the pipe to defend herself, should one of those phantoms prove to be solid.
A bluish glow was coming from the left. It didn't vanish like the other lights. What new terror was this? Or was it possibly help? Now she heard heavy sloshing footsteps. Friend or foe? Fully awake now and trembling with fear, Valia watched and waited. Two large forms materialized out of the dark. Obi-Wan held his lightsaber over his head like a torch. Qui-Gon was behind him. Now she was sure she was hallucinating. The ones she'd most desired to see had been conjured before her by her pain and cold-befuddled mind. They wore expressions of relief.
"Well, now. Here's a very pretty piece of flotsam." Obi-Wan stood before her.
What! Here she was cold and broken and miserable, and he was basically calling her garbage. Smart-ass! She scowled at his calm, smiling face. Still not quite certain he was real, she let the spurt of anger at him and her situation surface. She swung the pipe at his head. He easily ducked it.
"She seems to have gotten a bit paranoid down here." Obi-Wan quipped.
Qui-Gon shot him a look, and began to assess how badly she was hurt and what her state of mind was. "There may be a good reason." He looked around warily.
Valia opened her mouth to tell them she was glad to see them, if they were real, and to watch out for the suckers and slithery things in the water. But her teeth chattered so badly and she was so weak, nothing but soft nonsense came out. She tried again. It was so important that they know! Her voice rose in pitch with her desperation to communicate. There was danger in the water, this was all a silly accident. She peeled her lips back in a snarl and shifted her feet to be ready to swing the pipe if necessary. She slipped off the ledge and fell forward. Qui-Gon made a quick lunge and caught her before she could tumble into the ooze. She cried out in pain.
"Lia!" an agonized Qui-Gon gasped. He half set her down and bent over her. He removed his cloak and flung it around her. He wrapped her in it and scooped her back up. Obi-Wan had suddenly gone alert, sensing danger. He was searching both ways down the crevice, lightsaber held high. He started toward it, intending to face it and send whatever it was fleeing.
"Obi-Wan, I don't like the smell of fuel here. Have a care with your saber. It might ignite it." Qui-Gon cradled Valia tightly in his arms. Holding her living form filled him with a rush of joy and relief. But her pain and fear were like blinding black smoke. She was still trying to talk through her wildly clattering jaws.
"Hush now," he breathed, his lips against her forehead. Abruptly she stopped struggling to talk and relaxed. Valia wondered what it was that had been so important she tell them. It didn't matter any more now, whatever it was, because Qui-Gon was here. He understood. He was holding her, nodding at everything she babbled, concern and affection in his face.
The water boiled just beyond Obi-Wan, just outside the cavernous opening. A huge brown tentacle snaked high out of the water and lashed toward him with lightning speed. Reacting with pure instinct, Obi-Wan brought his saber down and sliced it in half. Valia flinched and raised a hand to block out the sudden flare of light. More tentacles whipped out of the water at them, thicker and longer. Most likely the dianoga had been waiting for prey nearby, attracted by the vibrations of footsteps and Valia falling off the ledge. Qui-Gon swung Valia behind him and supported her with one arm behind his back while the other brought up his lightsaber. He had it lit and had slashed two tentacles off before a dazed Valia could process what was happening. She clearly saw the brilliant green blade sink into the gelatinous flesh. She was pushed along as the two Jedi began a retreat back the way they had come, as they both fought off the dianoga. She hung, supported by Qui-Gon's strong arm. Pieces of tentacle thudded against the walls and the saber noise and splashing in the narrow space were deafening. Several sparks flew and landed on the surface of the water, igniting oily patches of floating fuel. Obi-Wan cautiously kicked at them with a foot, managing to douse them. The dianoga made one last try bring down prey with a remaining tentacle. Master and apprentice both swung at it, severing it in two places. Qui-Gon was already sloshing away at a near run, Valia back in his arms. His student turned to follow, holding his saber high to light the darkness again. He glanced back nervously, and satisfied there were no more lunging tentacles or blazing fireballs, he turned and ran after his master.
The return trip back to the surface took less time than the trip down, now that they knew where they were going. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan moved as fast as they could, Qui-Gon easily carrying Valia. She later foggily remembered dark dusty corridors and passing several skeletons. She was too exhausted and cold to react. They re-emerged where they'd left Ravi and Paccaia to pace helplessly and wait. Darkness was just falling. Ravi's fingernails were bloody from nervous chewing. He gave a whoop when he saw Valia slumped in Qui-Gon's arms, then checked himself when he saw how white and unmoving she was.
"Is she…is she dead?"
"No. She's very much alive. But we need to get her to a hospital." Qui-Gon continued past him, showing no sign of weariness other than in the lines of his face.
Satisfied to have rid themselves of this matter, the police dutifully filled out their reports. Ravi, Paccaia and the Jedi made their way quickly to the nearest public transportation platform. Here the city-smart Ravi and Paccaia took over with their knowledge of taxi routes.
When the transport Ravi had selected approached, they made ready to board. Quickly stepping aboard, they were met with the sight of thick, expensively cut fabric and sparkling jewels. Feathered headdresses jerked as richly dressed theater-goers gasped and backed toward the far end of the transport. Paying them no attention, the Jedi settled themselves in the long couch at the back. They both began removing items from their belt pouches and attending Valia's injuries. Ravi and Paccaia faced the well-heeled occupants of the airbus. No one spoke. A woman's nose wrinkled in distaste, and several of them looked up and down at the new arrivals with open curiosity and disgust. The smell of sewage and fuel filled the interior of the bus. Even some of the males fanned their noses in an effeminate manner. But they all stared. Ravi made a scoffing noise. Everyone loved the spectacle of an accident. These were the people he would some day be performing for, writing plays for? For once he didn't welcome this avid attention. Worried about Lia, he turned to the bench behind him.
She was still wrapped in Qui-Gon's dark cloak and settled in his lap. She'd finally relaxed the stranglehold she'd had around his neck for the last hour. Obi-Wan was on the floor, bent over her leg and examining the bite. Her other leg was fractured below the knee. He winced at the damage. Hooked teeth had cruelly pulled at the flesh and left many jagged tears. The calf was swelling and puffed painfully above her bloody boot.
"I'll start cleaning this up," he said glancing up at Qui-Gon, who nodded. His cheek was pressed against her pale face. She was still so cold. Her eyelids fluttered, trying to stay open. She mumbled something and started to reach down to her leg. She whimpered as Obi-Wan probed the wound and removed a tooth. Her breath hissed and she took a drunken swing at him, trying to swat him away. Her brow creased with pain. She struggled, either trying to get off Qui-Gon or curl up in a ball.
"That'll be enough of that," Qui-Gon growled softly. He took her arm and tucked it back under his robe. He banded his arms around her tightly and pressed his forehead against hers. "Sshhhh." Her muttering ceased. "Rest now, dear heart," he whispered so only she could hear. Valia's purple-shadowed eyes struggled to stay open and locked on his. With an expression of reverent adoration on his face, the Jedi Master touched the center of her forehead with two fingers and slowly trailed them down her face. A mental fusion sparked to life and Qui-Gon led her away from the pain she was so determined to fight. He took her to a quiet place deep within his consciousness. She smiled sleepily at him. She withdrew a hand and caressed his bearded jaw, as if to make sure he was real. Their eye contact held until Valia's eyelids grew too heavy. Before she closed them, she dazedly looked around at the sparkling cityscape out the windows and the audience of well-dressed people. Before she could make sense of what she'd seen, she fell asleep smiling, nestled in the sheltering cove of Qui-Gon's strong neck. She'd stubbornly sneaked her other arm out from the robe again and wrapped it around him. Qui-Gon sighed and rested his face against her mussed hair. His eyes met Obi-Wan's when the younger Jedi looked up from cleaning the shredded and freshly bleeding wound. He hadn't missed the exchange between Qui-Gon and Lia. It had been more than simply providing comfort. He smiled and sighed. Whatever the consequences of it might be, the bond between the two of them was there to stay. Obi-Wan saw with a sudden clarity that it was forever. Death would merely be a physical absence to be waited out when it came for either one of them. For now, there was only the problem of how to pry them apart when they reached the hospital.
Qui-Gon read Obi-Wan's acceptance in his eyes and closed his own. He continued to hold Valia in a mental and physical embrace. The shaken look on his face was gone. Ravi's marriage fantasies evaporated at the sight of the warrior's noble visage as he held her close to his heart. The two of them had been falling in love for almost a year. No one had truly noticed it. Except himself and his laser-sharp eyes, of course. They were a natural.
Obi-Wan continued to attempt to clean Valia's leg. Ravi and Paccaia continued to alternate their stare-down with the theater crowd with concerned glances at her. Brown sludge dripped slowly from the hem of Qui-Gon's robe and puddled on the floor. No one said a word.
The Jedi Master refused to leave Valia Traxis' room. So the hospital staff and droids left him alone, a benevolent but intimidating presence in the corner. In the quiet deep of the night he meditated, head lowered over his knees in the chair someone had brought. Part of him heard every noise, every approaching tread or footstep and its intent. Another part of him was wrapped up in Lia's sleeping form, listening to her breath, her heartbeat, her healing wounds. And another part of him focused on the currents of the Force, testing its flow, seeking direction. He sensed nothing contrary. Not a ripple. His being here was not compromising the greater good. He supposed there would eventually be trouble, in the form of the protocol and policy-obsessed Council. Well, let it come. It usually did. He would guard her from that as well.
She stirred in the confining treatment couch. She'd been bathed and treated and dressed in a thin white gown, while he had gone back to his chamber in the Temple to wash and rid himself of his reeking clothes. He admired her while she slept. It was something he knew he could never tire of doing. Would there always be this choking surge of emotion while he did it? She was softly beautiful, vulnerable. Her lashes made sweet dark crescents above her delicate cheekbones. Her icy coloring and chiseled features no longer gave her a look one might mistake for arrogance but of fragility. Her slender hands, so quick with a knife, hand blender or a jab in the chest of one her impudently teasing friends, lay half-curled on the covers. She didn't wake. Satisfied all was well, Qui-Gon retreated into a guarded half-sleep.
Valia awoke with a start, bracing herself for several kinds of pain and cold. She sat upright, confused to find none. She was warm, nearly pain-free, and clean. Hospital sounds sights and smells...Hospital? She hated hospitals as much as hyperspace jumps. Maybe more.
"Oh, rot! If this isn't a freaking crock of dufalop dung..."
Qui-Gon's forehead wrinkled as he regarded her from the shadows at her bedside. "And a good morning to you," he said pleasantly, leaning forward.
Valia somehow knew he'd been right there all night. She struggled to remember everything that had happened. The clearest thing to her at the moment was the vivid dream she'd had. A strange, but most pleasant dream. She'd been standing by a gate set in a high wall. Qui-Gon was closing the gate and telling her to not go through it. She knew there was something bad she needed to give her attention to on the other side of it, things she needed to deal with. She strained with curiosity to see over, but it was too high. She tried to push past Qui-Gon, but he stood immovably. Then he'd taken her hand and gently but insistently led her away. He'd walked her through an amazing, beautiful garden, the likes of which she'd never seen on Coruscant. She couldn't remember what they'd talked about, but it had made her laugh, whatever it was. She very clearly remembered the fuzzy warmth from holding his hand.
As if he read her thoughts, he left the chair and dropped to one knee beside the couch and took her hands in his. The contact of his big hands around hers did not cause crazy electrical charges to ricochet around inside her the way it would have before. It just felt good. She smiled directly into his dark eyes. No longer was there any skittish urge to look away. She was aware of a deeper, more intimate bond between them.
"If you wanted to be alone with me, you really didn't need to go this far, Lia."
Had that wish of hers just been three or four days before? "Believe me, this wasn't planned." Valia moved the covers aside to inspect her legs. Cuffs with blinking indicator lights and medication cartridges were fitted over the break in one leg and the bite on the other. A monitor with more medication being delivered through her skin adorned her wrist.
"I'm told you should be able to leave later today. You responded very well to the new bacta fluid they used. That bite had gotten infected and spread through your bloodstream. The hypothermia was fairly easy to reverse."
Valia reached above her head to consult the screen of her chart. "When today can I get out of here?" She scanned for this vital bit of information. "The sooner I'm out of this place the better. I need to be at both stores today."
"Certainly not. You will rest until you are recovered." Qui-Gon took the screen out of her hands and replaced it in its holder.
Their wills engaged in a stand-off as gray eyes met blue. She swallowed a knot of frustrated anger. What did he know about her plans, the daily effort it took to build her dream, the things she needed to oversee? Finally Valia sighed. "All right. While you're at it, let's hear it. Go ahead and tell me exactly what you think of the dangers of building climbing. Why we shouldn't have been doing it."
When Qui-Gon said nothing, Valia hitched up her eyebrows to prod a response from him. His own climbed a notch. "You're expecting a lecture?"
"As a matter of fact, yes."
"I'm not going to give you one."
"You're not?"
"No."
Valia wondered why as the Jedi Master regarded her calmly. "Perhaps what you expect is for me to validate with words what you already know to be true."
Yes, Valia thought, it was true that she'd overridden her more sensible nature in favor of thrills and demonstrations of bravery.
"Risk is part of life," Qui-Gon told her, studying her hands. How well he knew that. "You're not a child, Lia, and you're not my Padawan. You can decide for yourself how much risk you live with." Part of him wanted to forbid her from doing anything remotely like what she and her friends had done ever again. But it would be hypocritical of him, and he knew it. He'd been told enough times how many risks he took.
"I...I feel so... so alive when I'm climbing, and jumping."
He struggled to understand this. He was so closely bound to the living Force. Yet for those who were not, games that flirted with death would be a way to affirm life. He smiled and rubbed her hands. "I would have you be alive as well."
Valia smiled and settled herself in this new closeness with him. To her delight, he was clad in something other than humble Jedi brown for a change. He wore a midnight blue cloak with a peek of white shirt beneath. His eyes sparkled with the reflected light of the monitors in the darkened room. His silver-shot long hair gleamed. Age had only deepened his truly handsome features. She was curious what he had looked like twenty years earlier. Then she decided it didn't matter. She felt somehow that their paths were meant to converge now, as they were.
Qui-Gon rose from the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. He cupped her face in his hands and slowly leaned close. His hands were so unbelievably warm. She closed her eyes. A small tremor shook her at the pure pleasure, the need of his nearness. Her heart beat with deep slow thuds.
Say it. Tell her now, Jinn. "I will tell you this," he said very softly, his mysterious accent becoming more pronounced. "I love you. And the possibility of losing you yesterday threatened to undo nearly fifty years of training in self-control."
He'd never spoken such a thing to anyone before.
Valia's eyes popped open and her lips parted in surprise between his hands. The admission sounded as though it had been wrenched from him. She drew in a breath and all at the same time tried to ask why me, could he do that, and tell him she loved him too, and she was so happy, when he stopped the impending collision of words with a raised finger held to her lips.
"Think carefully about what you feel for me, Lia, before you say anything. Gratitude and love are not the same thing."
Valia stared at him. She nearly sputtered in frustration at his bland caution toward her feelings. All right, yes, I'm grateful to you for saving my life. But if you think that's all I feel for you, I've got news, Master Know -it -All. How can you know what you feel, but I can't?
His blue gaze was only inches away. Because this is not going to be easy later.
What was that you were saying about risk?
She closed the gap and impulsively kissed his mouth, hard.
They drew apart quickly. Valia watched a startled and then scandalized expression cross the Jedi Master's face. Then a look crept over it that clearly said even he knew that was no proper kiss. Smiling, he leaned forward and completely committed himself to the path of the most exquisite and interesting detour of his life.
He gently took her slack lower lip between his. Tentative exploration blossomed into a full-blown, open-mouthed expression of passion. Light seemed to flicker outside their closed eyelids. Detour? No. Destiny. Valia's arms automatically went around his neck. Velvety soft, hard, sweet and salty all at once, his lips on hers. And...knowing. As if he'd done this with her before. She sensed a wild lust for life, a sensual creature under that carefully controlled exterior.
When it ended, Valia sagged back on the bed. She was suddenly so drained. So tired. It was still middle of the night. She put her hands on her stomach to stop the fluttery sensation of it floating away. Her rejoicing skin was doing a mad shivery dance. Parts of her wanted nothing to do with sleep. He loved her.
"You need your rest," she heard Qui-Gon murmur in her ear as the bed covers were drawn up over her. As if he'd merely given a child a drink of water while tucking her in. She hadn't heard the ever so slight tremor in his voice.
"Great... flaming... gobs of..." she muttered as exhaustion swept her into a deep sleep.