Vaessa's existence isn't changing much at this point in the story, but trust me, it will. Let's just say Caleb Dume isn't the only youngling Vaessa meets that has an interesting future...

"Vaessa, wake up!"

"Master, what's up?" I asked sleepily.

"The council just contacted me," Obi-Wan informed me. "We're to report to them immediately."

That woke me up. "Wait, what? Why would they be asking for us this early in the morning?"

"I don't know, just get dressed and come with me."

An hour later, I was fully dressed and waiting outside the council chambers with my master.

"What do you think they want?" I asked.

Before Obi-Wan could answer, they summoned us in.

"Greetings, Masters. What have you called us here for?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Someone attempted to assassinate Senator Amidala a second time last night," Mace Windu stated.

"Wasn't Anakin there to defend her?" Obi-Wan asked. I was thinking along the same lines.

"Yes, he was," Windu continued. "He captured the assassin, but she was shot before she could tell her anything."

"She was shot with this," Master Plo Koon explained, holding up a dart.

"Contacts, you have, that help you find the shooter of the dart, hmm?" Yoda asked.

Obi-Wan nodded. "We shall speak to them," he stated. I took the dart from Master Plo's calloused hand, and we left.

"Why wasn't Anakin there to give us that dart?" Obi-Wan questioned.

I frowned. "I guess he must have been required to continue protecting the Senator. It makes sense."

Obi-Wan nodded slowly. "I wonder if that's the only reason..."

I looked around the diner we were in. It was small, with a single waitress and counter. A number of people were eating - workers, freighter drivers, that kind of stuff. The waitress looked up as Obi-Wan and me came in.

"Can I help ya?" she asked.

"I'm looking for Dexter," Obi-Wan replied.

The waitress' eyes narrowed. "Waddya want him for?"

"He's not in trouble," my master reassured her. "It's personal."

The waitress stared at my master. After a brief pause, she went to the open serving hatch behind the counter. "Someone to see ya, honey," she said. Then she lowered her voice and said something I couldn't hear.

Steam billowed out from the kitchen hatch behind the counter as a huge head poked through. "Obi-Wan!" he exclaimed.

"Hey, Dex," my master replied.

"And who might this be?" he asked, looking at me.

"Vaessa Orin," I said politely. "I'm Master Kenobi's padawan."

"Another one, eh? Well, take a seat, both of ya. Be right with ya!"

We sat in a booth. "Who is this? I asked my master.

"Dexster Jettster," Obi-Wan answered. "He's an expert on this sort of stuff."

"You want a cup of ardees?" the waitress asked.

"Thank you," Obi-Wan answered.

The waitress moved off as the door to the counter opened and Dexter appeared. He is big - bald and sweaty, old and with multiple arms. Not someone to tangle with. He arrived at our table, beaming hugely.

"Hey, ol' buddy!" he said loudly.

"Hey, Dex," my master said.

Dexter eased himself into the seat opposite Obi-Wan. He could just make it. Hermione set three mugs of steaming ardees in from of us. I tasted it and winced. I did not like the taste.

"So, my friend. What can I do for ya?" Dexster asked.

"You can tell me what this is," my master replied. He placed the dart on the table between him and Dexster. Dexster's eyes widened. He put down his mug.

"Well, whattaya know..." he said thoughtfully. He picked up the dart delicately between his puffy fingers and peered at it. "I ain't seen one of these since I was prospecting on Subterrel beyond the Outer Rim!"

Beyond the Outer Rim?

"Do you know where it came from?" my master continued.

Dexster grins. He put the dart down in between us.

"This baby belongs to them cloners," he explained. "What you got here is a Kamino Kyberdart."

"Kamino Kyberdart..." Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. "I wonder why it didn't show up in any analysis archive."

"It's these funny little cuts on the side give it away..." Dexster explained. "Those analysis droids you've got over there only focus on symbols, you know. I should think you Jedi would have more respect for the difference between knowledge and wisdom."

"We do," I insisted. "That's why we came to you, isn't it?"

Dexster nodded. "Good point."

"Well, Dex, if droids could think, we wouldn't be here, would we?" my master said. He and Dexster then laughed, for no reason I was aware of.

"Kamino... doesn't sound familiar. Is it part of the Republic?" I asked.

"No, it's beyond the Outer Rim. I'd say about twelve parsecs outside the Rishi Maze, toward the south. It should be easy to find, even for those droids in your archive. Those Kaminoans keep to themselves. They're cloners. Damned good ones, too."

"Cloners? Are they friendly?" my master asked, picking up the dart.

"It depends," Dexter said.

"On what?" I asked.

Dexter grinned. "On how good your manners are... and how big your pocketbook is..."

A bronze bust of Count Dooku, stood among a line of other busts of Jedi in the Archive Room. Me and my master stood in front of it, studying the striking features of the chiselled face. I didn't much like it, but it's one of those things that even though it causes you pain, you can't turn away.

On the walls, lighted computer panels seemed to stretch into infinity. Farther along the room in the background, five jedi were seated at tables, studying archival material.

Obi-Wan and me studied the bust for a few moments before Madame Jocasta Nu, the Jedi Archivist was standing next to us. She was an elderly, frail-looking Jedi. Tough as old boots and smart as a whip.

"Did you call for assistance?" she asked.

"Yes... yes, I did..." my master said.

"He has a powerful face, doesn't he? He was one of the most brilliant Jedi I have had the privilege of knowing."

It's not a privilege to know Count Dooku.

"I never understood why he quit," my master said quietly. "Only twenty Jedi have ever left the Order."

I kept silent.

Madame Jocosta sighed. "The Lost Twenty... and Count Dooku was the most recent and the most painful. No one likes to talk about it. His leaving was a great loss to the Order.

"What happened?" my master asked. No, don't ask that. I don't wanna know.

"Well, one might say, he was always a bit out of step with the decisions of the Council... much like your old Master, Qui-Gon Jinn."

I was startled at this comparison. How could Count Dooku of Sorenno be anything like the great Qui-Gon Jinn?

"Really?" my master said, surprised.

"Oh, yes. They were alike in many ways. Very individual thinkers... idealists..."

Idealists. What 'ideal' was Count Dooku proposing?

She stared at the bust. "He was always striving to become a more powerful Jedi. He wanted to be the best. With a lightsaber, in the old style of fencing, he had no match. His knowledge of the Force was... unique. In the end, I think he left because he lost faith in the Republic. He believed that politics were corrupt, and he felt the Jedi betrayed themselves by serving the politicians. He always had very high expectations of government. He disappeared for nine or ten years, then he just showed up recently as the head of the separatist movement."

"Interesting... I'm still not sure I understand." Because there's nothing to understand.

"Well, I'm sure you didn't call me over here for a history lesson. Are you having a problem, Master Kenobi?"

Obi-Wan snapped out of his daze. "Yes, I'm trying to find a planet system called Kamino. It doesn't seem to show upon any of the archive charts."

"Kamino? It's not a system I'm familiar with... Let me see..."

She leaned over Obi-Wan's shoulder, looking at the screen.

"Are you sure you have the right co-ordinates?"

"According to my information, it should be in this quadrant somewhere... just south of the Rishi Maze."

Jocasta Nu tapped the keyboard and frowned. "No co-ordinates? It sounds like the kind of directions you'd get from a street tout... some old miner or Furbog trader."

"All three actually," I said.

"Are you sure it exists?" Madame Jocasta asked uncertainly.

"Absolutely," my master said. Well, I'd say absolutely was a bit of a stretch, but close enough.

"Let me do a gravitational scan." Obi-Wan, Madame Jocosta and me studied the star map hologram.

"There are some inconsistencies here. Maybe the planet you're looking for was destroyed," Madame Jocosta suggested.

"Wouldn't that be on record?" my master pointed out.

"It ought to be. Unless it was very recent." She shook her head."I hate to say it, but it looks like the system you're searching for doesn't exist."

"That's impossible... perhaps the archives are incomplete."

"The archives are comprehensive and totally secure, my young Jedi. One thing you may be absolutely sure of - if an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist!

Obi-Wan stared at her, then looked back at the map.

...

Obi-Wan and me came out onto the veranda and stopped, watching twenty or so four year olds doing training exercises, supervised by yoda. They wore helmets over their eyes and tried to strike little training droids with their miniature lightsabers. The droids danced in front of them.

"Don't think... feel... be as one with the Force. Help you, it will." He turned to see me and my master.

"Younglings - enough! Visitors we have. Welcome them."

The children took off their helmets and turned off their lightsabers.

"Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padawan Vaessa Olin, meet the mighty Bear Clan."

"Welcome, Master Obi-Wan, Padawan Vaessa!" They chorused.

"We are sorry to disturb you, Master," I said.

"What help to you and your master, can I be?" he asked.

"We're looking for a planet described to us by an old friend," my master answered. "I trust him. But the system doesn't show up on the archive maps."

"An interesting puzzle. Gather round the map reader, younglings. Master Obi-Wan and Padawan Vaessa have lost a planet. Find it, we will try..."

The map reader is a small shaft with a hollow opening at the top. The children gathered around it. Obi-Wan took out a little glass ball and placed it into the bowl. The window shades closed, darkening the room and the reader lighted up, projecting the star map hologram into the room. The children laughed. Some of them reached up to try and touch the nebulae and stars. I smiled sadly at their youth and innocence. Obi-Wan walked into the display. "This is where it ought to be... but it isn't. Gravity is pulling all the stars in this area inward to this spot. There should be a star here... but there isn't."

"Most interesting. Gravity's silhouette remains, but the star and all its planets have disappeared. How can this be?

There was a brief pause. Then a child put his hand up. Yoda nods.

"Because someone erased it from the archive memory."

"That's right!"

"Yes!"

"That's what happened!"

"Someone erased it!"

"If the planet blew up, the gravity would go away!"

Obi-Wan stared, making me grin. He hasn't really spent any time around children recently, something showing through now.

Yoda chuckled. "Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is. Uncluttered. To the centre of the pull of gravity go, and find your planet you will."

"But Master Yoda, who could have erased information from the archives? That's impossible, isn't it?" A youngling called out.

Master Yoda frowned. "Much harder to answer, that question is. He turned to face me and my master. "To Kamino, you must travel. There, the answers you will find."