Chapter 31 - Learning to Focus

Zora wanted to be up early the next morning. A lesson she learned fast as a shadow: when you're new, they will always test you. And what was a more fitting test than to catch you groggy and unprepared. Still, when she returned to her room from the refresher, she was surprised to find someone digging through her belongings.

"What is this!" Zora nearly shouts at their back.

They jumped and turned to reveal the face of a young woman, Siri's own age.

"I-I'm sorry ma'am." She ducked her head under her shoulders, as if she was used to being hit in situations like this. "Was just trying to make the bed, milady."

"Umm-hmm," Zora hummed. 'I don't keep bedsheets in my bags,' she almost added, but didn't.

"I'll just be going now. By Leia's light, may your way be light." Her voice was soft now, almost a whisper.

'Leia's Light! Anakin told us that story.' Siri remembered. It was right after she and Obi told him what her job as a Shadow was. What she would be doing on Tatooine.

"Oh, you're like Leia!" He exclaimed. "She was a warrioress of old. She'd come to the market and pretend to be interested in buying slaves, only she wasn't." Siri remembered Anakin becoming very excited when he told this part, "She was learning how to free them!"

Zora realized then that this slave girl was baiting her. Was she a friend of Gintee, that slave being used as a guard, whome she met yesterday. It was no accident that she chose those words to say in front of him. Nothing Zora ever said was careless.

'Still I should probably say something now. Nothing too obvious, but enough to let her know there is hope. What I say has to be subtle. Even now, they might be observing us.' she wished she had asked Anakin more questions. 'What else did he say about the legend?'

"It'd be weeks, maybe more until she would come back. No one would see her. It was thought she had a mini sketto named Lucas that would bite the chains free. When they looked out all they saw was a single lantern leading into the desert. None of them who followed ever returned, but it's said they went over the Jundland Wastes to freedom on the other side." Anakin's face became disappointed when he said the next part, "This was before the slave chips though. It wouldn't work anymore."

Zora turned back to the girl. "And may Lucas crush your bones if you come back here." Zora had heard lots of things used as curses over the years. If anyone heard her, that's all they'd hear, but this woman had a slight upturn at her cheek to let Siri know her message was received. "Get out of here! Go, now!" Zora took a step to chase the slave out of her quarters.

"Where are you? You lazy good for nothings" Stalling shouted into the Comm. "Look. I know I said you could have the day off but the situation's changed. Message me when you get this."

As Zora walked in, he shut down the comm quickly, as one does when they have something to hide, and turned to greet her. 'I don't suppose he'd tell me who he was talking to. It's a good thing I left that camera in this room before I went to bed last night. The others will see it.'

"Zora, What may I do for you today? Have we passed your inspections yet?"

"No. You've quite failed them, actually." She folded her arms. "First, using product to guard and maintain the place is undignified, and very risky."

"Hey, you whip them good enough, they'll get the job done as good as any hired hand." Now Stalling folded his arms.

"When law was systems away, maybe. With the Republic coming to Tatooine, they'll be able to make a report at the local station. Squads, or worse Jedi 'll be at your door before nightfall. Then what'll you do!"

"Maybe on Nar Shaddaa you can afford help Wupiupi for the microgram, but out here good help is harder to find."

Zora gave one of her glares. Really she didn't care about their professionalism or whether or not the slaves reported them. She just wanted to get men like Gintee out of the way when her people raided the place.

"Okay, I can get more help tomorrow. Most of my men have the day off. The Locals have a thing going on."

"You will get them back to work today," Zora ordered, and Stalling waved a hand to one of the men to comply. "Now, when the authorities show up waving a search warrant, they will do a more thorough search than I did. What do you have prepared for that?"

"Yeah, We don't have a server here either. All our records are flimsy," Stalling informed her.

"I could always rig a fire to burn in the storage room." One of his men raised a hand to suggest.

"And risk burning down the rest of the operation. We might as well surrender to the authorities now," Stalling objected.

"Hmm," Zora thought. It wouldn't do the Jedi any favors if they tried to destroy evidence. "I remember one of your lower level store rooms was down a dank, dark hallway. I had a hard time believing anyone went down that way. We will move all of your records there. If you get raided, you will tell them the room is unused, and you don't know where the key is. Without good evidence against you they will not want to break any doors they'd have to pay you for afterwards. In the meantime, we can make fake records for the main office up here."

"Aah, good plan. We will get to work on that right away." Stalling nodded.

Mace got up that morning well rested. He'd been in a good mood when he went to sleep the night before. His Master had told him a hilarious story about Masters Piell and Mundi, and Knight Kenobi, before he went to bed.

As Mace passed his desk on the way to the refresher, his eyes caught on a flimsy from one of the senatorial departments back on Coruscant. Particularly on its logo, which looked remarkably like a Dejarik game board, and he started to laugh again. 'Poor Obi-Wan. What a misunderstanding to make.'

Mace went in and did his refresher routine. When he emerged he discovered that his Comm had been ringing. The master was planning on starting Anakin's disciplinary meditations that morning, but then he supposed the call could be important. He answered it right away. "Master Windu here."

It was Master Mundi. The sight of him would have made Mace break out in giggles again, if he were still a Padawan. Instead he moved his hands up to a thinking posture, covering his face, and released his emotions to the force. Ki-Adi did not suspect a thing. "Master. We report our units are ready to enter the compound in several hours. All is going well. Siri was able to get us another six codes they use to communicate. Five of their men who were in town today were summoned again at our agent's request, so we'll be able to arrest them all at once, with just two exceptions."

"Mmm-hmm," Mace hummed.

"There were another two men, I think they were higher ranking than the other ones called on to work in the place. He called them first, before our agent even got up. Only he didn't use their personal comms to contact them. He dialed the nearest comm buoy and left a message on it twice. It might be an odd system they have here. I don't know. But his message for them was alarming. He wanted them to come in so he could control Zora. I think her presence has made him anxious. Anyways, we're sending knights to arrest them separately, which is why I've commed. We need backup. Another three or four knights to fill the place of the ones who've had to leave."

"Ah," Mace exhaled. "I can send a few. Give me a little while to go over the schedules here and I'll send them right over."

"Good, very good. Thank you, Master," Ki-Adi said.

"So…" Mace started. You may call it immature, but the Master couldn't resist. He'd spent too much time with them all listening to them bicker over simple things like the Temple water bill. "I heard you had a little Dejarik game last night."

"Yes, we did. Well, Master Piell and I offered to give Knight Kenobi a few lessons. And as it turns out, it was a good thing we did. His game and strategy really could use a lot of work."

Mace let a polite smile grace his lips as he nodded along.

"Yeah, we almost thought we'd have to call it off though. The knight proved difficult to track down. Apparently Master Yoda wanted him for something," Ki-Adi continued.

"Mmm-hmm," Mace remembered hearing about the knight's relief, followed by disappointment when Yoda finally explained it to him. "I do hope you didn't keep him up too late. I know how long a game with either of you can last."

"Not too long. An hour for basic explanations, then our practice game lasted three hours. Master Piell was nice to him not to use his best moves."

"Oh, four hours. I hope he appreciates your efforts." Mace said. Then he thought, 'Poor Kenobi. Four hours is more than I ever do a disciplinary meditation for. Speaking of which...' And then he said out loud, "I have to go now. I've got work to do here."

"Oh yes. I understand. Mundi out." He shut down the comm connection.

Mace allowed a laugh to escape after the connection closed. Then he turned to his computer to pull up the list of knights onboard. Anakin's disciplinary meditation would have to wait. 'Perhaps this could be a good thing,' he thought.

That day Anakin hung out with his friends. At noon they went to get lunch in the dining hall on their ship. He had quite forgotten about Master Windu and his punishment the previous day. That's why, when the towering man walked in, amid chatting youths, Anakin didn't stop what he was doing until the man sat down right behind him.

Anakin was just finishing his De-ssert. Not a Desert. It was the impractical and illogical part of a meal. Illogical because his age mates all insisted on leaving it until the very end of their meal, despite it being the tastiest bit. But there was a logic to it after all, his friends explained. It all had to do with the last bite, the taste of which would stay in your mouth after you finish the meal. That's why today he was experimenting with finishing his last. This whole concept of eating foods in a specific order was very strange to Anakin. Back home on Tatooine, he was lucky if he got such a deliciously tasty part of a meal at all. No one called it a Dessert, they just said it was Yummy.

"Master," the table around him whispered.

Anakin turned around awkwardly. Then he remembered. "Uh, Master Windu. I…"

"Initiate Skywalker. I apologize for my tardiness. An important matter came up this morning, and I was busy earlier. I'd like to start our meditations now, if you are finished eating?"

Anakin quickly realized he still had some icing on his lips, and he licked it up. "Yeah, I'm done." He got up and followed the tall man out of the lunch room.

Mace led him to a room filled with quiet stalls that other Jedi were using for meditation. Anakin looked up inquiringly at Mace when a tall Vurk exited one of the stalls. He gave them only a quiet nod as he walked past them. Mace held open the curtain to the chamber he left, and ushered Anakin inside.

The stall was small, and without furniture. There was barely enough room for two men to stand side by side inside, but Anakin, being but a boy, had enough room to turn around.

Hanging from a peg against the wall were two rough brown mats. Mace reached out to grab them.

"Mast…" Anakin tried to ask what he should do, but silenced when Mace held a finger to his lips.

Then in a quiet voice, he answered, "Here we must respect the peace of the others meditating." He passed over one of the mats. "Come, get into position, and we will begin. It will be easier to communicate after that."

Anakin didn't know that Jedi had places like this. All of his earlier meditations were with Master Obi-Wan in their shared quarters. His Master had better pillows for them to use, Anakin could tell that as he sat on the lumpy mat next to Mace.

Anakin was still new to the concept of meditating, especially meditating as a punishment. Obi-Wan would always give him something to start on, a thought to repeat or a trail of the force to focus on. Mace didn't do that. He sat down and sunk into his own meditation beside him. Anakin thought he could think of this as a time out. Back on Tatooine, if he was naughty outside of their home it was mostly Master Watto who would punish him, but his Mom was gentle. She would sit him in a corner and tell him to think about what you did. So that's what he started to do.

'I should have waited to ask Master Windu's permission first. I shouldn't have just left the others. But then what if he said no? Or what if Mr. Lars had left by then?'

A hand came down on his shoulder to stop him. "Focus on one thing. Not on your guilt or anxieties. They will lead you astray," Mace whispered.

'Okay, I've got this. One thing. Okay… What thing? Focus. Why do the Master's say that so often? It is a funny word, isn't it? F-oh-cuss. I wonder if the masters know they're cussing when they say it?'

Mace cleared his throat.

'Got it. Focus. Focus. Focus…'

As Anakin meditated, he was surprised when he could feel those around him. Not just Master Windu beside him, and the other Jedi in that room who were meditating, but all of the Jedi on their ship.

"It's the effect of a collective meditation," Mace's mind told him. The man didn't look up from his position beside him, and his mouth didn't move. Anakin still heard the words, and knew where they were coming from. "This is why I wanted to take you here. Come, I want to try something. A little experiment. Focus on the whole of Tatooine. Every person under her twin suns."

Anakin sighed. He thought he was done with focusing, but he obeyed. A few minutes later, he felt like he was flying up into the air, away from Master Windu and the others beneath. He almost panicked, but then he felt something. A burning energy started to sparkle in the land below him. It was hope, and joy, and he knew what it was. It was the law taking effect to bring Tatooine under the republic. Slaves were being freed by default along with the law, and their emotions brought him higher, until he was literally in orbit, feeling the whole of the planet below.

Hello Everyone.

Happy New Year's Eve. I didn't try this, It's just luck that I'd finish and be ready to publish today. I hope you like this chapter. In the next chapter I plan to specify more about Siri's last hours as Zora and what exactly happens when the Jedi raid the Slaver's camp. I also plan to bring the Jedi out into Tatooine again. There will be some parties to join.

I have read a number of other fanfics out there who use a very clever fan-created culture and legends for the Galaxy's slaves. I know they mentioned a Leia figure in one of their legends too, and it was inspired by this that I wrote the little Legend above. I didn't copy their work exactly, but was inspired by that small element. I also realize that here I was implying Luke was Leia's pet, but (Shrugs) It was the best way I could get to include him.