Chapter 6: The Search Begins
As the events at the Jedi Temple had enfolded out, half way across the city planet, Obi-Wan Kenobi had awoken after a rather rough night of tossing and turning in the cold cargo hold they had been tossed in a few hours earlier. He sat up, and tried to rub the sleep dust from his eyes. At his side, Siri Tachi stirred and rolled over on her other side to face him, beaming a lop-sided smile at him. He smiled back at her, relieved that he could now see her expression despite the darkness, even though it was starting to slink away now as dawn came about.
The sound of a door opening entered their ears at that moment, and both became instantly aware of a group of people entering the cargo hold. He shuffled away from her just in time as the group of people came around the boxes crates that were piled up nearby to where they were laying. Looking up, both of the Jedi met the sharp, blue eyed gaze of a woman with shocking red hair.
Siri was the first to speak, her tone as cold as a Hoth snowstorm. "Still doing Fett's dirty work?"
The woman called Keisha smiled slightly, and dug her hands into the pockets of her flightsuit, which this time was a dark blue. "Depends if you consider yourselves to be dirty."
When his lover's eyes narrowed to frosty, light blue slits, Obi-Wan spoke up before she had a chance, "Are we going to talk about our situation now?"
She nodded, and stepped aside as two rather burly looking Gamorrean guards started to edge their way towards the two Jedi. "I think that there is a lot that we need to discuss."
Still indignant about being insulted by the bounty hunter's young assistant, Siri raised an eyebrow at the guards. "Why bring these idiots? We're hardly going to resist coming with you, are we?"
The red-haired woman frowned, and glared out at the male Jedi Master with a sour expression behind a curtain of hair. "Well, some Jedi cannot be trusted to contain their powers."
Despite his embarrassment, Obi-Wan rose, and allowed himself to be handcuffed by one of the Gamorrean guards. "Yes, well it does not help if the Jedi are provoked."
He looked at Siri out of the corner of his eye, and reluctantly she permitted the other Gamorrean guard to secure her hands with binders as well. Giving her a small smile, he turned back to Keisha, and gave her an even expression. "Shall we go, then?"
She stepped aside once more, and allowed the Gamorrean guards to drag the two Jedi ahead of her. She followed behind them, and as she spoke to them the Jedi became conscious of their Force senses starting to cloud up, "Jango and I are hoping that you are feeling in a more cooperative mood today."
Siri rolled her eyes, and Obi-Wan found a wry smile sneak onto his face. "The Jedi are always willing to cooperate. For the right reasons of course."
As they moved down more and more corridors of seemingly endless machinery and piping, he found his gaze start to sweep around the area he was now in, and his attention no longer lingering on the bickering that was occurring between Siri and Keisha. It might have been a wise decision earlier on to try and work out where they were right now, but at that very moment, he had been somewhat distracted by the information he was receiving. Of course! A thought suddenly came to him that was such a revelation it shocked him. No wonder the Council had withheld information about the nature of the mission from him; they must certainly have known that it was Jango Fett who they were dealing with, and wanted him to have kept his mind clear so that he could mull over the information in his own way.
He shook his head, and returned back to the present. Strange, how the oddest and most dormant of thought patterns could lead to an eye-opener of a realization. He smiled a little to himself at the new thoughts, and turned his attention back to the squabbling women. Their argument was starting to take a more personal tone, each woman attacking their way of life.
"If you know that you can manipulate the Force, then why waste that ability on a way of life that is so…meaningless." Siri was now glaring at the red haired woman's back. "A talent like yours is needed within our order. We could use a person like you."
"Meaningless? How is my way of life meaningless?" The bounty hunter's assistant had now turned around, and was staring at the female Jedi. "I'd say that a Jedi's life is pointless. At least, I do not have to check my every move with a higher authority before I act! Sort of like some…some…infant child!"
Siri's eyes burned, and Obi-Wan quickly intervened before the situation could get any worse. "Look, we are not here to argue! We need to sort this situation out now, so we can start dealing with the main task at hand, trying to locate Boba."
Keisha groaned, and raised a hand. "Alright...alright." She rolled her eyes. "We'll continue this later."
Siri gave the girl a half smile. "Believe me, we will continue this."
The red haired woman turned a corner, and carried on down the long corridor that followed until she came to a door. It shunted open with a large clunk, and she said something that was slightly inaudible, before stepping aside from the doorway and waiting for the Gamorreans to arrive with their Jedi guests.
Obi-Wan gently tapped into the Force, and washed his unease away with a wave of calming Force energy. The fogginess appeared in his mind again for a brief moment, and he quickly turned a curious and yet rather annoyed glance over at the girl, who was standing with her hands neatly dug deep into her pockets, no hint of any sheepishness on her face that he had noticed from their earlier encounters. Something was going on between her and the bounty hunter, something that was fuelling the confidence within her. He turned a quick gaze to Siri who even without a connection to the Force with him had caught onto his path of thought.
She gave him a small nod, and then flicked a cold, blue eyed glare at the Gamorrean before her as it unfastened her shackles gingerly. She calmly rubbed her wrists, her gaze never leaving the Gamorrean, which was actually beginning to tremble. Obi-Wan barely managed to keep a smile off of his face. Siri had always been able to chill the toughest of beings to the very core of their beings without any effort at all. That was actually a trait that he admired in her, and was slightly envious of. But, intimidation was not his way of doing things.
Obi-Wan entered the room of his own accord, a brief and subtle statement that he was trying to gain some means of dignity and silent power within the situation. The action did not work to his advantage, however, when the Gamorrean guards looked totally unaware of what he was trying to achieve. Sighing at the slight stupidity of the pitiful aliens, the Jedi Master headed over to a rather hard looking chair, which he knew would numb the whole of his buttocks region again. Shuddering, he took a seat, and waited as Siri entered the room after him. She also looked prepared to make a statement at the way that she wanted things to play out, but, she used a far less understated way of doing so.
Taking the chair next to her lover, Siri sat down, and crossed her legs. "We do not appreciate the two of you holding private conversations. Firstly, we are here to share all of the information that we have and collect it together, not to size each other up. Secondly, it is very rude."
Jango Fett laughed with his deep and reasonably gruff accent, before replying, "We will conduct this on any of the terms that we wish, Jedi."
Keisha looked at the bounty hunter, and suddenly, he nodded in agreement, before even a single word was spoken. "I agree, Keisha. Let the Jedi present what information they have, and then we will decide the best course of action to locate my..."He drifted off, and then continued a second later after a silent prompt from his assistant. "...Boba Fett."
The Jedi Master barely quelled his interest as to why Fett did not refer to Boba Fett as his son, but replied with a suggestion as to why he had not referred to the young boy in that manner, "We have already told you everything that we know. We now need to start planning how we are going to locate your son."
The Mandalorian folded his arms across his chest, as his assistant moved to stand behind him, mimicking his pose, almost in a motherly kind of fashion. "As you wish, Jedi."
The bounty hunter sat forward, resting his elbows on his metallically covered thighs, and flicked his gaze between each of the two Jedi. "Keisha and I spent some time last night trying to find some information on the last known location of Aurra Sing via the holonet."
Siri raised an impatient eyebrow. "And?"
Keisha grinned, and barely stifled as laugh, that was silenced instantly by a gaze from her boss that suggested her behaviour had been very inappropriate. She blushed, and wiped the smile off of her face, before digging her hands into her pockets in embarrassment.
With his partner quietened, Jango continued, "Her last known whereabouts were on that planet of Tatooine." No emotion of any kind crossed his scarred face, at the content of what he was saying. "We are unsure though whether Boba went with her when she was seen leaving planet. Perhaps that would be the best place to start a search?"
Obi-Wan nodded in understanding. "And did you find out what sort of things that your son and Aurra Sing have been up to?"
"Collecting bounties, we presume, although we cannot tell for certain." Keisha gripped the back of Jango's chair. "But by your tone of voice, I am thinking that you may have some thoughts onto what they may have been doing?"
The Jedi Master shrugged, bringing his legs up onto the chair and folding them in front of him. "I could only venture a guess..."
He deliberately left the thought hanging, just testing the patience of the bounty hunter and his companion. When both made no move at all, and merely waited patiently, he smiled in brief admiration then continued, "Perhaps, they may have had some dealings with the Hutts?"
Keisha frowned. "I would certainly hope not." She looked over at Jango. "But you do have a point. The Dune Sea would be a good place to start a thorough search."
"It would be reasonable to assume that Jabba the Hutt would be the sort of scum that they would have dealings with," Siri interjected. "But we must also consider that your son may have come into contact with other Hutts in the system, for example Durga."
Jango nodded slightly, absorbing the information silently for a moment before speaking, "Then it would be wise to divide our search into two groups, correct?"
Obi-Wan quelled a sudden sense of unease that rose in his stomach. "If you think that would be best, then Master Tachi and I can-"
The bounty hunter's steely gaze came to rest on him, his dark eyes blazing with authority. "No, Jedi. You will come with me to visit Jabba. Keisha can go with your companion to investigate Durga's."
The Jedi Master smiled; his tone of voice perfectly calm as he answered. "So be it. When do you propose that we leave?"
"Straight away." Fett rose, and Keisha left the room as if on cue as an anticipatory silence fell upon the room, which he caught onto instantly. "You can report to your precious Council as soon as we reach the planet." He began to leave, but paused, and looked back at them, "But there is to be no mention of my presence, understood?"
"One hundred percent," Obi-Wan replied with a grin that he knew caught the bounty hunter slightly of guard, mainly due to his use of a Mandalorian phrasing.
Jango nodded, then turned and left the room, leaving Siri and Obi-Wan in the capable hands of the Gamorrean guards.
