EXCERPTS FROM THE AUDIO JOURNAL OF QUI-GON JINN, JEDI KNIGHT
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, 13:5:15
What I have been dreading for the past several days has become reality.
Following a motion proposed by Jar-Jar Binks, representing Senator Amidala, the Senate granted emergency powers to the Chancellor. Palpatine accepted them, apparently with great reluctance, and sworn to give them back as soon as the crisis has abated. His first act has been to order the creation of a Republican army.
We are now on the brink of a war, and the only chance we have to stop it is to capture Dooku and the other Separatists leaders on Geonosis.
Mace is going to travel there with two hundred Jedi and I will be among them. I know I am no longer as fast as I used to be, but there is no way I can stay behind as Obi-Wan is in danger. And also there is a part of me who wants to see my master again. I want to look at him in the eye. I want to feel by myself how much he has changed.
Republican Cruiser in route to Coruscant, 13:5:19
It is night time on the ship, and the silence in the corridors is broken only by my voice and my steps.
I know I should be in the quarters assigned to me. I know I should be resting to recover from the slight wound I sustained today—but I can't.
It seems insomnia has become my constant companion in these days.
My steps are leading me again toward the sickbay, from where I was pushed away less than an hour ago by a zealous healer. A healer that, I am certain, will threaten to sedate me if he catches me hanging around again. Maybe this time I will let him have the upper hand, and let him put me to sleep.
However I will first check Obi-Wan and Anakin another time. I need to appease that part of me who wish to be reassured they are still alive, in order to forget the moment of absolute horror I experienced when I ran inside that hangar on Geonosis and saw their bodies slumped on the floor.
For just a few, interminable seconds I thought they were dead and a part of myself died with them. But then their pain reached me through the bonds and I realized my son and my Padawan were still alive.
Alive, yes, but seriously wounded.
Anakin…Anakin has lost his right arm, while Obi-Wan had his thigh sliced almost to the bone.
I feel a surge of anger…of hate… rise in me as I muse again I risked losing my son and my Padawan at the hands of my former master and I close my eyes to release those dangerous feelings to the Force.
It works, the anger and the hate are gone, but not the resentment and the hurt.
If I close my eyes, I can see again the superior, almost bored look Dooku threw at me and Mace when we approached him on stands of the arena where Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padmé where fighting for their lives.
"Master Windu, how pleasant of you to join us." He said, before he faced me and added, "Qui-Gon, you are just in time for the moment of truth. I would think these two boys of yours could use a little more training."
For the first time in my life I felt the desire to strangle someone, but then the situation precipitated and I had to let Dooku go, to run down in the sand ring to fight the droid army unleashed against the Jedi.
Despite everything I saw today, a part of me wonders how my former master could have done this to me. He used to claim I was his favourite padawan, that I was like a son for him, and yet he tried to kill my son and my Padawan fully knowing who they were.
The pain I am feeling as a father is amplified by the sorrow I feel as a Jedi.
Today it was a slaughter. I don't know exactly how many Jedi died in that damned arena, but they are too many. And I, Anakin and Obi-Wan would be among them now had not Yoda arrived with the clone soldiers he brought from Kamino.
The troops' arrival also helped us to secure a victory against the Separatists, but it is a bitter one. Dooku and most of the other leaders have escaped and this is not the kind of battle that put an end to a war.
This was only the beginning.
The war has begun and I can feel that somewhere, out there, the Dark Lord is laughing in triumph.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, 13:5:21
We arrived and as soon as we disembarked Obi-Wan and Anakin were rushed into surgery. I instead, walked to my son and Lianne's quarters as fast as I could, wanting to be the one to break the news to her.
Lianne's pregnancy is not common knowledge, and I wanted to avoid her being informed of her husband's injury by someone who was not aware of her condition.
Once arrived, I used the code Obi-Wan has given me to let myself inside the apartment. Lianne was still sleeping and I did my best to wake her up gently and give her the news in a way that would not be too alarming.
She reacted well as she has done when he heard of Obi-Wan's capture. She did not burst into tears or scream to be taken at her husband's bedside at once. Instead she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, as if she was centring herself, like a Jedi or a Sith.
When she opened her eyes, she caught my curious glance and smiled.
"That's right, Qui-Gon, I was trying to find my centre," Lianne explained. "Obi-Wan taught me how to do it many years ago, when I told him how difficult I often found to deal with annoying passengers without ending up strangling them." A smirk. "When I first met him, I was a very short-tempered captain…"
I smiled, somehow surprised to discover even gentle, sweet Lianne has a temper! I have always thought she is one of the calmest non-Jedi persons I have ever met, a perfect counterpoint to Obi-Wan's passionate nature and instead…Oh well, this is the proof that while her love for my son helped him to nurture more his gentler side, his love taught her to control her most impulsive streak. They really complement each other.
Afterward, I prepared breakfast as Lianne dressed, then we ate together before going to the healers wing.
Once there we were informed the surgeries to both Obi-Wan and Anakin were already completed and that the two men had been transferred in the recovery section.
The healers put them in the same room, so to make easier for me to be close to both of them.
It broke my heart to see the remains of Anakin's right arm wrapped in bacta patches. I am worried about how he will take his mutilation, even if the healers assured me that he will be able to lead a normal life with the artificial arm they have given him.
As for Obi-Wan, the healers told Lianne and me his leg should make a full recovery once the bacta finishes healing the damaged muscles and blood vessels they have just reconnected. He will be able to start exercising as soon as his wounds close, because his therapy will require him to swim until his leg is strong enough to bear his weight.
Needless to say I feel relieved for both my son and my Padawan, so much that the insomnia that has haunted me for the past days seems to have disappeared and I am now on the verge of reclining on my bed and sleeping for at least ten hours.