Now brother and sister had launched into a bewildering and esoteric conversation about this year's harvest, droids, and techniques.
"And then, on top of that, Pop won't let me try CXG98, that newest abscission chemical, until it's been in use for at least two more seasons. He wants to see how it works out for the Dekkars. Then, he says, then he'll think about it." Velk frowned as he steered the craft above the treetops.
"Well, he always was cautious about anything new."
"Cautious!" Velk snorted. "I could go on and on about all the things he's flat out said 'no' to over the last few years. And he's mellowed out a lot, since you've left. What it boils down to is he doesn't want to let me have more control yet. I'm going to be thirty years old this year, damn it."
Valia shrugged noncommittally at this. She didn't care to get into a conversation about Tak's dubious ability to 'mellow out', or his inability to relinquish control. She casually swiveled her seat and leaned her head back against the headrest to catch Qui-Gon's eye. He and Obi-Wan sat placidly in the two seats behind the Traxis siblings. At the mention of the Dekkar family, Valia had wanted to bring up the real reason for their visit. It would have been a good point in time to mention it. Wouldn't it? Qui-Gon shook his head in the negative with just a slight movement of his head that clearly told her 'not yet'. Valia wanted to know why not, but Velk had spoken up again.
"Sorry for leaving you two out of the conversation. I must have missed the part where Valia said what business you're in. What do you do?" Velk spoke over his shoulder.
"We're Jedi Knights," Qui-Gon quietly informed him.
"Ha! Sure. No, really you can tell me, whatever it is. Hey, wait, if you're pollution police from the government, I've got all my inspections up to date, and that's a fact."
"I assure you, we aren't from your government, Mr.Traxis."
"You aren't going to turn out to be agricultural spies, are you?"
"Nothing so adventurous or mysterious, I'm afraid." There was an amused twinkle in Qui-Gon's eyes. "Just Jedi."
Velk's knuckles strained and whitened as he gripped the control stick of the hopper. Jedi? What in the flaming fire rings was Lia doing with a couple of Jedi Knights? He felt the short hairs on the back of his neck stand upright. He had known there was something...different about them. For a moment he said nothing, forgetting what he was going to ask them. What did a person ask Jedi in casual conversation? When they were calmly sitting in the back of your skyhopper on the way to your house? They spent most of their time worshipping something called 'The Force' in their temple on Coruscant and practiced gods knew what else in there. What few things he had heard about them were conflicting. They were soulless assassins. Extreme religious pacifists. Or nothing more than travelling magicians.
"Velk is from the country. He's never seen a Jedi before," Valia tossed over her shoulder. Velk realized no one, including himself, had said a word for at least five minutes. He scowled at Valia. She lightly swatted his upper arm. He still looked a little tongue-tied and nervous. "It's all right, Velk. You can talk to them just like you would anyone else." But she remembered how she had felt the first time she had met them and been faced with Qui-Gon.
You can? Velk wondered.
"Remember that story you loved, the one you were just crazy about when you were five years old? The one about the Jedi Knight, Daru Insai I think his name was, and the pirate he persuades to give up looting and pillaging space liners? Well... that's really not so different from what they're like."
Velk glowered at his sister again, not really wanting to get into a discussion about his early childhood in front of two strangers, and not quite remembering which little bedtime story she was talking about.
"It was so cute, the way you wanted me to read it to you all the time, and the way you would jump around with a stick for your saber--"
"All right, Lia, I remember!"
Maybe, he thought, that's the way they were if they wanted you to believe that's how they were. Who knew, maybe that story had been propaganda written by them. Could they have brainwashed her? Could she have gotten mixed up in some kind of religious cult during her years on Coruscant?
Now that he thought about it, there was something between her and the older Jedi, something subtle. Not anything he could put a finger on. Maybe a look, a nonverbal exchange in the eyes between them. Did they have some sort of hold other than friendship on her? Now that he thought about it, there had been something oddly protective about the way the older one had positioned himself near her at the shuttle port. At the time, he had chosen to dismiss it as simple gallantry. Did one really go about casually befriending Jedi? What had his sister gotten herself into?
Well, there were not going to be any swashbuckling adventures around here the next few days. Certainly none worthy of Jedi Insai and his pirate arch-nemesis. No laser-swords or hocus-pocus. Just a lot of fruit and long, hot, exhausting days. Valia would catch up with mama and Prawni, discuss babies, children, and clothes at great length. Her two Jedi friends would hopefully meditate and pray quietly to The Force.
"So, ahhh, do you have any plans to do any, uhhhh, sightseeing while you're visiting with Lia?" Sightseeing? Velk wanted to sink out of sight down into the pilot's seat. What had made him think of saying that? What sights were there around here that would be interesting? To them?
"Let's just say whatever there is to be seen here, we will be interested in seeing it," said Qui-Gon.
"Well, what there is to see around here now is one big-ass freela harvest. Sorry," Velk said, suddenly feeling a need to clean up his language.
"Well now, that's certainly something Obi-Wan and I have never seen before." Qui-Gon put aside any idea of laying a reassuring hand on Velk's shoulder because of a distinct 'back off' attitude toward any type of male touching he sensed in him. And he was suddenly a bit jumpy, and in the act of piloting a skyhopper.
"Obi-Wan here has done a little farming," Qui-Gon added.
"Very little," said Obi-Wan, smiling. He clearly sensed Qui-Gon's intent to find a common subject to discuss with Velk, not for Obi-Wan to recall being rescued from the terrible fate of becoming a farmer, as he had regarded it when he was thirteen. Had Qui-Gon not decided to take him as his Padawan on Bandomeer, that would have been his fate. That, or being dead.
"Uhh, really?" asked Velk. The man looked very young, but then he'd heard Jedi started their careers quite young. He had heard a rumor they could hypnotize a person just by looking into your eyes when they were only six years old. He wondered if there would be a tactful way of asking if this were true.
"Yes, but not on an operation as large as what Lia tells us you run, I'm sure. She says your holdings are quite extensive," said Obi-Wan.
"You've been looking down at them ever since we left Alcotis," Velk said proudly.
Both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan took turns asking Velk questions about what kinds of fruit the farm produced, when their seasons were, what kind of equipment he favored, and why they decided to grow what they grew. While it was subtle, Valia noticed a change in the two of them. Maybe it was in the way they lounged back a little more comfortably in their seats, or maybe the way they spoke, drawing out their words slightly more. Valia smiled out the window at the way Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan worked her brother over, but in the kindest possible way. If they weren't careful with their newly adopted 'just one of the guys' personas, they were going to get Velk so relaxed he might start regaling them with his collection of horribly crude barnyard animal jokes.
By the time Velk set the skyhopper down, his white-knuckle tension had completely disappeared. The grassy lawn they landed in was part of a large clearing in the rows of fruit trees. The main house and a scattering of outbuildings nestled together cozily in it. The shade of the uncultivated trees near the house was a welcome relief from the mid-day sunshine. Small insects stirred from the clipped turf and caught the light as they made their way from the skyhopper toward the deep and inviting wrap-around porch of the main house. It was a sturdy-looking structure, solid as the ages. The angled peaks of the shingled roof made a pleasing pattern. Walls of mortared stones were laced with heavy timbers and logs. The neatly stacked green leaves of a vine growing up the sides of the house fluttered in the breeze.
Before they could approach any closer to the house, a short, heavy woman bustled out the double front doors and down the flight of stairs to ground level. Nearly as wide as she was tall, she hurried across the lawn to meet them. She was bearing a large round tray that was piled high with brown objects. The hem and sleeves of her long blue-gray gown fluttered behind her in her haste to greet them. Strands of her dark hair were working out of the large bun on the back of her head, and she looked like she'd been working somewhere quite warm.
"Oh my, you're here!" she exclaimed. She thrust the tray at Velk. "Hold this while I hug your sister." Valia found herself enveloped in the warm bosomy embrace of her mother. She returned it self-consciously, but with heartfelt warmth. "Oh, mama," she murmured over her pillowy shoulder as the greeting went on and on. And on. Velk stood awkwardly, holding the tray. He looked like he would rather start eating what was on it immediately, but he needed both hands to hold it. He slid a knowing look to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as if to say, Women! This could take a while.
At last Binny Traxis stopped rocking Valia, and let her go, partially. She held her at arms' length and looked her over. "You look so much better than the last time you were here. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're in love." Startled, Valia's eyes widened, but before she could think of forming a response, Binny had laughed merrily, dismissed her own comment and turned to her guests. She extended her hands to Obi-Wan first and clasped both of his hands together warmly in greeting.
"Friends of my daughter. Welcome to our home." She turned and took as much of Qui-Gon's in her own as she could. He bowed to her as Obi-Wan had done. But before he straightened he paused and unintentionally riveted Binny to the spot by looking directly into her eyes. His dark blue, penetrating gaze seemed to be searching her own eyes for something. Whatever it was, he seemed quite pleased by what he saw, and after a fraction of a second, fluidly rose to his full height again. Binny hardly knew what to think of the odd, almost tingly sensation she felt, so in a flurry she sought to escape this man's close but somehow flattering scrutiny. That was the most deeply she had been looked in the eyes by a man since...well, in...not for...oh, for land's sakes! Flustered, she grabbed the heaping tray out of Velk's hands.
A savory-sweet, roasted aroma was rising from it. She offered the contents to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. "Fresh from the oven," she explained unnecessarily. "You surely must be hungry after your trip all the way from Tyannis. Please. Eat." She made it sound like they had made the trek on foot.
The beetles piled on the tray were each the size of one of Valia's fists. Toasted to a caramelized dark brown, they lay in every possible position of rigor mortis as they had succumbed in the oven. They glistened with an oily sheen. While she knew it was custom to let the guests partake first, Valia reached out to assist, just in case. She lifted a beetle from the tray. Several others came along with it, linked by stiffly crooked spiny legs. "Mama, these are beautiful. Where did you find such big ones?"
Binny beamed. Velk answered her. "Sucking on our very own trees."
"This has been a good year for them, there are so many. Or maybe I should say a bad year," she smiled at her son. "Extra big and sweet because the trees are so healthy."
Valia handed the still warm and formidable local delicacies to Qui-Gon and to Obi-Wan. Eat, her eyes told Qui-Gon with a sparkle of amusement. She smiled up into his eyes as she slowly cracked away a wing from her own and nibbled at the base of it. Take seconds, if you know what's good for you.
You have your mother's eyes.
You big flirt.
I'll eat all of them if that's what it takes to keep both of you smiling and happy.
Valia need not have worried. Had the two Jedi just come from a feast, they still would not have thought of refusing the ritualistic hospitality being offered to them. Years of exposure to hundreds of different customs and rituals throughout the galaxy had prepared them for greetings far less benign than this. Velk enthusiastically helped himself. "My favorite form of pest control," he said, deftly removing all the legs from two beetles at once. "The blasted little parasites chew holes through the tree bark and suck the sap," he explained. "By the time they get this fat and happy, they're almost pure sugar. But we get the last laugh on the buggers and remind them who's at the top of the food chain, don't we?" He bit the tail end off a beetle and noisily sucked out the sweet gooey insides. Bits of toasted carapace floated down and landed in the grass.
"The legs are a little tough when you roast them longer. It's easier if you just take them off," Binny said helpfully, directing her words at Qui-Gon. "Lia likes them extra dark, don't you dear?"
"Yes mama, you've done them perfectly as always."
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan ate their beetles in a manner somewhere between Valia's dainty picking and Velk's ravenous munching. Really, they were quite delicious. Meaty, crispy and sweet.
A clang of something large and metal being dropped came from a large outbuilding in a cluster of trees. It was followed by a mighty string of curses.
"I think Pop needs my help," said Velk, and as if on cue, his name was bellowed from the same building. "Gotta run," he said grabbing three more beetles from the tray. He cheerfully saluted Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan with his leggy handful and took off toward the barn at a trot.
"Well then, we need to get you settled. Lia, you can have your old bedroom, and I do hope the guest house will do for you...?" Binny said this as a hopeful question toward Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.
"I'm sure it will more than serve, Mrs. Traxis," said Qui-Gon, having gotten a glimpse of the substantial-looking guest quarters tucked behind the large main house.
"It's so nice that Lia has found friends she wants to bring home. Especially religious, stable sorts of friends. I can tell already you must have had a good influence on her..."
Valia rolled her eyes skyward. "Oh, mama." Binny was leading them toward the house.
"Do you need any prayer mats, or candles or anything like that? I can have extra rugs brought out."
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan exchanged a smile. "Our needs are quite simple, but we will be sure to let you know if we need anything, thank you." Qui-Gon said.
"Oh, and I'll send all these beetles to the guest house with you, in case you get too hungry before dinner." Another sidelong smile was exchanged between master and apprentice. It looked as though Obi-Wan was going to get enough to eat on this mission, unlike most of them. It seemed hunger was regarded as a fatal condition here. One sniff of the air held all sorts of mouthwatering aromas of other cooking going on inside the house.
"The flower garden at the back of the guest house is very nice this time of year, a very good place for meditating, or so I would imagine it would be, because goodness knows I don't have time to do anything like that myself, but Lia told me you do a lot of that..." They followed Binny as she cheerfully kept on and on, up the wide stairs, across the shady porch and into the house.