Chapter 32 - Son of Tatooine

Siri, still under the guise of Zora, put on her managerial hat and began to monitor the slavers as they emptied the office of its paper records and moved everything into the lower store room. 'It would be very convenient if I could just keep them all this busy.'

When they were done, she sat them all down in a large room. "The most efficient way to legalize our business is in the form of a contract agency that provides temporary workers to other agencies." she explained. "This means we will need to make faked records of our employees, and the agencies we've hired out to." She handed out a stack of empty forms. If there was anything to be thankful for, it was that the Republic required so much flimsy-work for such businesses.

"No, you have to give them an employment history… No, you can't just keep using the same employment history for each one… Yes, they'd notice. They are paid to notice things like this…" By the end of it, Zora was feeling very thankful she was not a real life career advisor. The Jedi did not pay her enough.

Then a siren went off. "Kark!" She swore out loud. The Jedi were supposed to swarm the guards as they approached, preventing them from setting off any alarms.

"Get to the guns. Someone get Gintee and Tracer." Stalling turned to Zora. "It may be undignified, but if it comes down to it, I'd rather have their protection than not."

Zora sighed. This was what she was afraid of. She ran after the men going to fight. The easiest thing for her to do now would be to fake-lose a fight to another Jedi, let them "arrest" her so she can tell them about the slaves being used as guards. Sterling's hand caught her before she'd gone a step. "No. Let the men handle that. If it comes down to it, I want these records finished."

Zora huffed. Normally she would call him out for ordering her around, but if she refused to do what was reasonable, they might get suspicious. 'Why do they always have to be sensible when you'd rather they act like the sleemos they are!' She gave him a disgruntled look, and followed him back to the office.

Obi-Wan used the Force to throw a guard back from the control panel, and he bent forward to read it's display. It wasn't good news. "Oh no! Master, they've activated an internal alarm," he said over the comm attached to his wrist.

"Then we have to make an entry now. Teams Two through Five, go." Master Mundi ordered on the comm.

Obi-Wan, a part of Team One, stepped back and used the Force to try and get a feel of Siri inside. He sighed with relief. She was alive and safe. Annoyed and angry at them for failing to do this quietly, but she was safe.

The plan was for Team One to wait just outside the doors until the other teams were inside, and the rooms were cleared. Then they would enter and handle the cart away of the prisoners the earlier teams were able to capture alive. Obi-Wan knew these plans well. He was there, in the control room, when they made them. Of course it wasn't until a last minute decision that morning that he was even allowed to join one of the teams. Obi-Wan just waited for the code words, bird down, which would mean Siri was "Taken into custody," and confirmed safe.

He waited, and he waited. There was nothing. Until the comms came alive again. "Entrance is clear."

"Clear your head, Kenobi," said Master Plo Koon, who was the leader of Team One.

Obi-Wan tried to focus on the here and now, and got up to follow. The other Jedi had moved on, but there was a man on the floor. His hands were tied behind his back, but nothing was more bruised than his ego. Obi-Wan bent down to pick him up and the man spat at him. "Nothing calls for that," he said in what Anakin called his poshest Coruscanti accent. As he said this, another Knight came up behind him and placed a hood over the man's head. One which would prevent him from spitting on them.

"Alright, bring him to the speeder." Plo ordered.

Obi-Wan and another knight walked him out into the desert where a speeder was parking, and handed him over to the Jedi onboard. Obi-Wan then rushed back inside, desperate to hear if there was any news.

"Four more rooms have been cleared. Prizes are being sent your way," came the message just as he was getting in.

"Pardon, being sent," Plo confirmed. Prizes was their code word for slaves. Anyone suspected of being a slave would be arrested and moved with their other prisoners to the speeder until the medics could confirm their status by removing their chips. The idea was that any slaver might cry and claim they were slaves themselves to get out of their custody, and Siri could only learn so much in the day she was there.

"They're younglings, Master," the Jedi on the other end answered.

Obi-Wan put on a grim face when a youngling Anakin's age walked into their room. Before he met Anakin, he couldn't imagine anyone being so dark they would actually harm a child. But now was not the time to get emotional. He pushed these emotions back, though later, when they resurfaced, they would bring tears to his eyes.

The boy was followed by two other younger ones, and they carried a toddler, who Master Koon bent over and picked up immediately. "Come young ones. I'll take you to the speeder myself." He walked outside with them.

As soon as Plo was out of range, the comm activated again. "In room six here we have more prizes. The room is not clear, but their position is precarious. We can't move on until they are out of the way.

Obi-Wan thought about it for a second. He imagined Anakin being in there, and then he answered, "Understood. On my way."

Zora reluctantly sat down with Stalling to finish the fake flimsy-work to legalize their business. After a few minutes, Gintee and another slave came in. Siri almost laughed at it. In her old placement with Krayn and his men, they would have never thought to arm a slave, yet here these two were given long pikes with a sharp point on the end.

"Good, you two guard this door," said Stalling. He then went back over to Zora. "Perhaps, while we work, you can tell me why we haven't heard from the main organization in two weeks."

Zora barely looked up. "Hmm?" This was one of the questions she was prepared for.

"All communication with the main sight stopped suddenly two weeks ago. Then you show up and don't mention a thing. I was curious." His gruff voice drawled as he turned critical eyes on her.

"Well, I can think of no reason communications would've stopped. Perhaps there is a problem with your relay. I will look into it when I leave here."

Stalling nodded. "That is good news. When our communiques stopped I sent a messenger to Krayn with a special gift, to make up for any perceived slights he might have, and I feared it might not have been enough. I am glad I was wrong."

The smoothness in his voice made a warning bell go off in Zora's head.

"You know, I find the timing of this raid surprising. Sure, they are just about to get legal authority here on Tatooine."

As Stalling said this, Zora looked over at a timepiece. Her mind added, 'Ten minutes ago, to be exact.'

"...But without insider information how would they even know to suspect us? Perhaps I should look for a leak amongst the men. Tell me, how do you best deal with leaks, in your experience?"

"Oh, uh…" This question took Zora by surprise. "In Krayn's command, anyone caught speaking to the authorities is shot." She gave the correct answer. His resulting smile made her nervous.

"That's what I'll haveta... Cough… Cough…" Sterling's expression changed as he coughed up blood. Then his head fell forwards onto the table. Behind him stood the slave referred to as Tracer. His pike was stained with blood as he pulled it out of Stalling's back.

Zora turned to face the slaves, now armed and violent. She wished she had a weapon.

"What did you do!" Gintee yelled.

"You heard him. He was getting close to the truth." Tracer replied.

"He had flimsy evidence at best. He was only suspicious," Gintee said.

"This morning he called West and Calvoy," Tracer said.

"And… Sandara rerouted those calls. They didn't even go through," Gintee argued.

"He still called them. Evidence he was getting more than suspicious, If he called them, then…" Tracer argued back.

"Guys, guys. We can argue this later," by now, Zora had heard enough to figure they were not going to hurt her. Her choice words spoken to the slaves earlier must have gotten her message across. Sure, she was not expecting them to rebel for her. She only meant to make it a little easier when the Jedi did come through. Let them see it for what it was and not another Master coming in. That could have caused them to fight back, after all the only thing worse than a Monster you know… But she wasn't going to look a gift Tauntan in the mouth either. "How many men are out there?"

"Three." Gintee responded. "I can call them in, if you two can…"

He stopped to give Zora an odd look. She opened the door and stuck her head out. "Sleep," she said, sending a powerful force suggestion out with her words. The men collapsed and took a nap on the ground. She smiled at the Slave's shocked look. "Carry them inside. We can lock them in here."

After Zora reached down to retrieve the blade on one of their belts, Tracer moved to do as she had said. Gintee kept eyeing her. After a while his lips stuttered, "You're mmm-magic."

"Jedi. I'm a shadow. We're setting you free, all of you." Zora said. "Listen, we have to go, catch up with the others. I'm going to make it look like I'm putting up a fight, then I'll fall to one of the other knights. It'll look like they are arresting me, but it's okay. They're my family. They'll have to do the same for you too, but later on, after they remove your chips, they will free you. I promise."

Gintee nodded. "I trust you."

"How? You don't even know me."

"I know what kind of person you are. To come in here, for us."

When Tracer had the slavers in the office he tied their arms together. Then he and Gintee moved a piece of the furniture to block the door so they couldn't open it easily.

"There, that'll have to do," Zora said. "Are you two set on your parts?"

Tracer looked confused, but Gintee answered, "Yes. We'll follow you."

Zora turned and used the Force to locate the fighting. It was always easy to locate a battle. The Force grew dark, despite the other Jedi presences.

Zora, Gintee and Tracer walked into a large room. It was a dining hall usually used to feed the slaves, only now the tables were turned on their sides and men shot from behind them at Jedi who used their lightsabers to send the blaster shots back at them.

That's when she saw him. Obi-Wan was trying to lead a few of the younger slaves out, who had the bad luck of being assigned kitchen duties today. He saw her too, and this surprised him. Zora glared at him. Then she pulled up her knife and charged at him. Obi-Wan pulled up his lightsaber and caught her blade with a deflecting strike. She was nervous how he would react to her in her element, but he moved his saber to fight her blade through several strikes.

Behind her, Tracer moved to step in and defend her, but Gintee held him back. "She knows what she's doing," he whispered.

After putting on a fight worth a show for the other slavers, Obi-Wan used a move he knew Siri would recognize. If this was a real duel, she would have teased him for expecting her to fall for an Initiate's Pull or so the move was named. But this was not a real duel, and she would have to fall sooner or later. So she took it and struck at the opening on his left side. Obi-Wan took advantage of her move to push her so her back was to him. Then he wrapped his arms around her and held his saber carefully by her throat. She dropped the knife and surrendered.

Obi-Wan kicked the blade away and pulled a set of cuffs from his waist. Siri could sense he was enjoying this, and she planned on kicking and putting up a fuss to her "arrest" for the show. Before he got there though, one of the slavers, from behind their line, made his move. He turned and fired at the Jedi who had his saber down and his back turned to the fighting. At that moment Gintee jumped out and fell between the shot and it's target. Tracer threw his pike at the man who shot, killing him instantly.

Siri yelled when she saw Gintee get shot. Obi-Wan finished snapping the binds on her wrists and then he too turned to evaluate the man who'd obviously just saved his life. Gintee lay there barely conscious. He was bleeding badly. Obi-Wan ripped a section off his robe and wrapped it around his hand, then used it to stop the bleeding. Siri crawled over to them as well.

"Zzzz-Zooh," Gintee tried to say her code name. It was not the time to correct him. "It's okay. I'm here," she reassured.

Siri tried to make eye contact with Obi-Wan, only to find his eyes unfocused. It meant he was using the Force to help him hold back the blood. At this point a Force Healing would only be first aid. What he really needed was a healer and a surgery ward, but they could try. Siri used the Force to open the binders around her wrists and placed a hand above Obi-Wan's on Gintee's chest.

She entwined her Force presence with Obi-Wan's, then she reached out to the Force around her. Meditating, she pulled on the Force and directed it in it's ever present desire to tie life together. This was the Living Force, it's what it does, only it needs a little help sometimes. Seeking to provide her own help, as Obi-Wan was already doing, she pulled the Force from herself and pushed it into Gintee.

Then she felt it. Another being laid their Force presence on top of hers. Siri wondered who it could be. If someone nearby was meditating in a group meditation style, they could do it, but they'd have to be close. And the room was still in conflict. The remaining Jedi took the opportunity Obi-Wan provided to push the slavers, who pushed back, knowing they only had a few rooms left until they were literally against a wall with nowhere to go. Siri focused on this being, in her own Meditation, and was nearly blinded by it's Force presence. It was so bright, like the Sun's themselves were meditating to help her. Though that was not an idea she would suggest. Such a thing was not possible, not in the real world. It felt young, too. So not the balls of gas that had been burning in the system for… longer than Siri cared to contemplate.

Obi-Wan sighed. "Ani," in barely a whisper, escaped his mouth.

Siri rolled her eyes. Of course, now she recognized the youngling's force presence. The boy was very inexperienced, and likely only acting on instinct, from wherever he was. 'Was he back on the ship. He better be. If they've brought that youngling anywhere near this place I'll break all their bones.'

Whenever one does a Force Healing, knowing when to stop was the hard part. If you used everything in yourself to heal someone, you would die. After a while it crossed her mind that Anakin had not had this lesson yet. She would have to stop him. Pushing him away was like pushing a racing speeder off its track. The blowback pushed her and Obi-Wan onto the ground several feet away from their patient.

Siri lifted her head. The world was in a confusing spin. "Obi," she saw the man beside her sit up. Then she remembered what they were doing before. "Ani!" She looked up for Gintee.

"He's stopped," Obi-Wan told her.

"Oh good." She breathed in relief.

Gintee was still laying down, Tracer had moved to his side after they were blown back. He looked worried at his friend, but then Gintee lifted a hand to his arm, and pulled himself up. They both rubbed hands down where the wound was supposed to be and looked up in shock. Gintee was well. There was no blaster wound in his chest.

"Jedi, you are Magic." Gintee said, as Tracer helped him up.

Siri was so focused on watching this, she didn't see Obi-Wan come up to her and throw the binders back on her wrists.

"Come on, we should get out of here while we can." Obi-Wan said, bringing their attention back to the fight that was still going on in the room, seemingly without a pause. It seemed they hadn't noticed the Force Healing that had just occurred.

Zora turned back to sneer at her Jedi captor. He held her firmly and walked her away from the audience. Tracer and Gintee helped the remaining slaves to follow.

Hello,

I am very excited about this chapter. It was a struggle at first, but then it started to write itself. I hope you find it exciting.

The end with Anakin is supposed to be at the same time as the last chapter, when Mace brought Anakin to the room to Meditate with the other Jedi, and then he told him to reach out and see how far he could reach. Mace was experimenting then. He didn't guess Anakin would reach this far.

None of my death scenes are meant to be medically accurate. I was going for the shock factor here.

And the rerouted comm calls that Gintee and Tracer talk about here. In the last chapter they mentioned messages left on a comm buoy. Mundi assumed this was on purpose and was an odd system they had. I revealed here that it was a slave who dialed the wrong number, on purpose, to prevent him from calling the goons. Wasn't sure if that would be clear.

Thank you for reading. Please comment and review. In the next chapter, the Jedi will have celebrations to attend, and I believe I did foreshadow a slumber party at the Lars ranch.