Chapter 4
The 'Diadem' re-entered normal space and cruised into orbit around the green and blue world of Nyme'. The ship docked in Tyannis midmorning and its passengers disembarked uneventfully. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan shed their dark cloaks in the warm, humid air and tucked their lightsabers into concealing pockets. There was no reason to hide their identities as Jedi, but it was with customary caution that they did not widely advertise them either.
The day was already warm and stifling. Tyannis was nestled in at the convergence of three rivers in a subtropical forest north of Nyme's equator. It was often called City of Bridges, after the many varied and beautiful structures that crossed the rivers. The white and silver spires of the buildings contrasted with the dark green of the forest and the blue and brown of the rivers. Valia mentioned she would have loved to take a day or two, or better yet, three or four, to show them the sights and play tourist. But her brother would be waiting to meet them, and as Qui-Gon pointed out, they had a job to do. He suspected she would have greatly welcomed any delay in setting foot on the Traxis homestead.
There was no time to see anything of Tyannis beyond the spaceport windows, as the three arrivals only needed to walk to its far end. There they waited for a small shuttle that would take them to Alcotis, the small town nearest Valia's ancestral home. While Valia sat near Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan stood on the other side of her, she felt as though she might as well have been alone. She felt them distancing themselves from her, moving on a plane she had no access to. She had placed her hand on Qui-Gon's as they waited, but he only gave it a brief squeeze and let it go again. He moved away from her. Valia knew she would not see the side of him she'd enjoyed aboard the ship until later, either when there was a quiet moment at the Traxis farm, or when this job was completed. Both Master and apprentice were on high alert, all their senses directed outward to their surroundings. What they were trying to feel or see after spending mere moments on the planet's surface Valia could not begin to guess. She was tempted to ask them if the Force would obligingly point the way to Razuul's hideout, but she was sure neither one of them would appreciate her questions at this moment. They reminded her of the lean, sharp-nosed hunting dogs that roamed the grassy plains between here and her family's farm far to the north. They seemed to be scenting the air for prey. So she waited silently, trying not to distract them, and trying to keep her mood from sinking. She had to be content to distract herself with a third-rate romantic holo-drama playing on the arm of the couch.
Qui-Gon shortly led them aboard their shuttle, where Valia was surprised at the number of other passengers. Why would all these people be going to the backwater of Alcotis, she wondered. Then she remembered it was nearly harvest time for the freela crop. These were probably seasonal migrant workers, and tourists who came to enjoy the yearly festival, which was about the only high point on the town's entire calendar. Valia sighed and settled herself into a seat near a window. At least this might offer some distraction during this trip, and it meant the family would be busy. The number of passengers forced Qui-Gon and her to sit quite close. After the craft was airborne, he surprised her by reaching for her hand and holding it. Valia smiled and turned to watch the green landscape pass below them.
Qui-Gon smiled in return at how this small gesture pleased her. Overt public displays of affection were not his style even when he wasn't directly working on a mission. He hoped she would understand his seemingly impersonal attitude was simply how he approached any job. He reserved those affectionate gestures for their private moments. She'd shown him quite a number of gestures of her own the last several days. He resisted the strong temptation to daydream about the last two days and nights. After he apologized for dragging her into the closet and treating her in such a common way, she had merely laughed and told him how much she enjoyed his show of spontaneity. And then she had locked them both in her cabin and proceeded to both stoke and satisfy an appetite he had not known he possessed. The closet episode had only been a prelude to the inspired lovemaking they had shared in her cabin. He had simply given himself up to it. Love and lust were still so tangled together in a heady mix. He centered his gaze on the dewy little indentation above the center of her finely chiseled upper lip. Those lips, and teeth flashing a bright smile at him through a silky toss of hair before he had hungrily covered it with his own mouth. All the places on his body those lips had so sweetly visited. The sight of her lithe back, her pretty shoulder blades flexing, all those enticing curves and shadows and hollows... He halted the daydreaming he had sworn not to begin. He shifted on the seat and crossed his legs, quieting his body's arousal. How difficult was focusing going to be the next couple of days, having her so close?
Many times he felt he was simply feeling his way along in his relationship with her. Literally. Much of all this was still so new to him. He wondered what this would have been like had this happened earlier in his life, when he had been a much younger man. Most men did not fall in love, not like this, for the first time at his age. But then most men were not Jedi, most of who passed their time in the physical plane having never known the experience. What had his life been like before he had known and loved her? He could no longer imagine it. That connection to her seemed so essentially close to life itself.
Life and the Living Force could be felt in abundance here. From the moment they had arrived he had been struck with the power of its presence. It flowed from the heavy plant and animal life in the equatorial forest. He saw evidence everywhere of the deep respect for the environment Nymeans had. There was the incentive of wealth and prosperity for those who treated the land well, and knew how to work within its capabilities. Cleanliness was an ingrained philosophy, even in the capital city. The fragile river systems around the city were protected, or cultivated only in ways that had minimal impact on the environment. The shuttle passenger cabin boasted a plaque proclaiming an engine upgrade, which reduced pollutants to a nearly zero level. Quality crops were taken seriously, almost to an extreme on this world. While the peace-loving citizens would hardly welcome such a thing, a war that spread here would threaten all of this and do irreparable damage. All the more reason to do what they could to preserve the state things were in.
The green of the world below was reflected in the eyes of the woman next to him as she gazed out the window. He covertly admired Lia as she lost herself in her thoughts. She was quietly unaware of his observation. She reminded him of one of the pale slender flowers he'd seen growing in a container near an information kiosk at the spaceport. Flowery endearments and poetic odes to her beauty were definitely not his style either. But then he'd never been inspired to try such things before he'd met her. He supposed any serious attempts at these on his part would only send her into helpless fits of laughing. The thought made him smile again.
They traveled northward, and the forests thinned and gave way to grassy savanna, already brown and dry in the early summer heat. After a couple hours, Alcotis appeared as a silver speck amid an endless patchwork of fruit groves, and row upon row of trees. As they landed, Valia took note that nearly nothing had changed since the last time she'd visited, six years ago. She sighed and prepared to exit the shuttle. The one bright note in all this would be seeing Velk again. She found herself actually looking forward to that, and seeing how he'd done with the farm. They walked down the shuttle ramp and she scanned the small excuse for a passenger arrival bay for him.
It was Qui-Gon who saw him first. The hair was a shade or two darker than Valia's and cropped into a short, spiky do, but the angular features were the same. The man had to be related to Valia, because he was restlessly pacing while he waited. His tall, lean form was clothed in a brown farmer's coverall. He might have been just one more migrant worker. The knuckles of his left hand looked freshly scraped, and there was a small burn scar on his other forearm. Soiled and stained sleeves were rolled up past his elbows and a pair of thoroughly scuffed work boots topped out at the knees. His only concession to fashion, fancy or his station was a slender, pale blue crystal that dangled rakishly from one earlobe.
The smile was the same, too, when he saw his sister. It squeezed his gray eyes half shut the same way. It became a shade more reserved when he saw her companions behind her as he approached them.
"Hey,'' he greeted her, lightly tapping Valia between the shoulder blades.
"Hey, yourself," Valia said, returning the casual gesture. He stepped back, clearly wanting to quickly dispense with introductions and to be on their way to the farm. Valia abruptly grabbed him around the waist and squeezed him.
"Ulf...!"
"Good to see you too, brother."
"Yeah, yeah," Velk mumbled, but he smiled as he returned her hug. He saw a friend and neighbor trying to say hello near the exit and could do little more than toss a wave and a nod in greeting to him over Lia's head.
Valia handled the brief introductions. "Velk, these are my good friends from Coruscant, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi." Valia and Qui-Gon had decided there was no purpose to be served by mentioning that the two of them were friends and much more.
Velk amiably shook hands with them. He watched his own considerably sized right hand disappear into the firm grip of Qui-Gon's. Even as he assessed the large-built, blue-eyed man, he got the keen impression he was being sized up as well, and with far more depth. But the feeling quickly passed, and as he directly met the man's eyes he saw nothing but reserved friendliness there.
These men were good friends of his sister? They looked far too serious, thought Velk. But then he knew little of how she lived on Coruscant. He had never visited her there. The idea of doing so was mentioned every two or three years, but it never happened. Crop seasons overlapped and there never seemed to be a good time for him and Prawni to get away. While he and the children would have been all for the idea of a holiday in the Big City if they had time, he knew it was probably dead last on his wife's list of places she wanted to visit.
Other than during her rare visits, the occasional long letter or even rarer costly direct holocom, he had conversed little with Valia during the years she had lived off world. He imagined she lived a very fast-paced and exciting life in the galactic Core, a life he knew little of. So for now her friends would remain a mystery, until he could engage them in conversation. Neither one of them gave him the impression they were into small talk. Did they know anything about fruit growing? Velk suddenly tried to think of subjects he was conversant in. Besides farming, there wasn't much else. If these men were used to the whirl of activity and nightlife on Coruscant, they were probably going to be bored out of their minds here. But there was an odd contradiction about them he could not quite put his finger on. The two of them carried themselves with priest-like serenity. And somehow they seemed anything but bored.
Seeing Valia again in person made him realize how much catching up they had to do. They always made time for good long talks when she visited home. If only it had not been on the verge of freela harvest. He was going to be spending long hours away from the house. He waved a greeting to another neighbor who was leading a newly arrived gang of workers off to a large hovercraft. He tried to recall if mama had been making recent noises about wanting her only daughter to come home for a visit, and could not. These dinner table lamentations followed a fairly predictable cycle of every two or three years. And they were done mostly when Pop was not there to hear them. Why had Lia decided to visit now?
Velk led them outside to where his skyhopper was parked. The warm sunshine bounced brightly off the stone-crete tarmac. It reminded him daylight was wasting and he still had plenty of work to do before day's end. Without conscious thought, he quickened his pace. Nearly everyone they passed nodded to him or greeted him with a loose, familiar wave.
Valia nearly plowed into Velk when he abruptly stopped to talk with yet another man who had hailed him with a casual wave. He was dressed in an equally filthy coverall. Velk promised to return some borrowed agro-mech droid part the next time he was in his area. Valia was aware that nearly everyone except for the migrant workers they had seen here knew her brother in some capacity. And they had all without exception given her, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan openly curious stares. Nothing ever changes, she thought with a touch of asperity. A stranger here was immediately noticed, and she knew some of the looks were aimed specifically at her. These were neighbors who knew who she was, and worse, some of what had happened when she was sixteen years old. She hoped it would be as easy as Qui-Gon thought it would be for them to avoid much notice while they were here.
She hurried to catch up with Velk as he started off again. It was worse than walking with Qui-Gon. At least he considerately slowed down for her. She plucked at one of Velk's greasy sleeves to snag him out of his lanky stride.
"I see you laid out your finest threads to meet us today," she commented dryly, distastefully rubbing her fingers together.
"Hey, couldn't help it. All my ceremonial outfits for receiving heads of state are at the cleaners." He shot her a sneering grin. "For your information, I was stuck underneath one of the orchard crawlers all flaming morning. Damned hydraulic line on number four keeps popping loose. Can't figure out why." He slowed down and gave her clothing a good long look. His left eyebrow arched in amusement and appreciation. "Nice duds," he commented, picking at the wide, graceful sleeve of her cream colored, layered gown. When had she started wearing clothing this fine? She must be doing quite well for herself. While the gown did not exude great wealth, the fineness of the fabric and the subtle woven pattern in the edging spoke of success and good taste. Still, in his estimation, she deserved to be teased for it. By this time tomorrow she'd have shucked the dress and would be back in the trousers he knew she was far more at ease with. "We've got a harvest to bring in, and you sasshay in here dressed like the Queen of Ranroon."
"Don't start with me, boy." Valia brushed at her sleeve where he had touched it. "I've brought a lot of very nice things to wear, almost none of which are suitable for freela picking."
"Yeah, I see." Velk glanced back at all the luggage following them on an anti-grav sled. "What did you need these two for, your bellhops?" He caught Obi-Wan's eye and immediately regretted his teasing. "Sorry," he quickly amended at what he thought might have been a dirty look from the younger man.
"Listen Lia, I've given it a lot of thought, and I'd be willing to pay you double, yes, double migrant wages if you'll help us out here," Velk said expansively.
"Oooh, let me think about it, I don't want all that sudden wealth giving me a head rush..."
They continued to banter sarcastically as they approached the small skyhopper and boarded. They lifted off and headed toward the homestead. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan observed quietly from the seats in the rear of the cockpit, watching how Valia and Velk eased into what appeared to be a familiar pattern. As they listened, all Obi-Wan could think was that the brother was nearly the smart-mouth the sister was. He slid a small smile at Qui-Gon when Velk used a colorful metaphor involving the closeness of the two halves of his ass that might well have been something Lia would have said around her closest friends.