AN: "aaaa" - talking through a holocomunicator or comlink. 'aaaa' - talking through a bond
Thank you all for favoriting and following this story. Today's chapter is pretty short.
Chapter Seven
After Obi-Wan made sure that both Dormè and Captain Typho got back to the 500 Republica building safely, Obi-Wan took the speeder bus back to the Jedi Temple. There, after getting no help from the droids in the analysis room, he had a chat with Qui-Gon about where he should go.
Qui-Gon told him to go seek out Dex, who was a mutual friend of theirs, figuring that if anyone would know where the dart had come from, it would be him.
Obi-Wan thanked his former master and left the Temple, catching another bus that was heading for a dilapidated industrial area called CoCo Town. Once the bus arrived, he got off and made his way to a small eatery that was owned by his friend Dexter Jettster, who was a Besalisk.
As he walked through the door, Obi-Wan realized that he had arrived at lunchtime, if the almost packed diner was any indication. Looking around, he could see that the small eatery hadn't changed very much since he had last been able to leave the Temple to eat out. The material that was used to cover the metal that the seats were made out of was cracked and splitting on the booths, the paint on the walls was chipped and it was rare when the bright neon sign outside wasn't sputtering on and off with some of the letters burned out.
The patrons who frequented the diner didn't care what the place looked like or even the fact that the run-down building seemed like it was out of place, as it had one office tower on its left and another building on its right. The place was immensely popular and during the lunch and dinner rushes, there was never enough room to find a place to sit.
One of the waitresses, who was a robot named FLO, noticed him and called out, "Dex! There's someone here to see you! He looks like a Jedi!"
Dex looked up from where he had just placed two cups under his drink machine that was hidden in the corner between the entrance to the kitchen and the counter window. On the counter in front of him was a plate of food and a coffee jug. Waiting in front of the counter was his other waitress. "Obi-Wan," he said joyfully as he placed his hands on the edge of the counter.
"Hello Dex," Obi-Wan cheerfully said as he saw his friend.
The waitress grabbed both of the drinks that Dex had finished making and walked off to go serve them to the patrons who had ordered them.
"Why don't you go take a seat?" Dex asked. "I'll be right out." He wiped off his hands on a cloth as he walked back into the kitchen and gave his staff some instructions.
FLO came around the bar, looking at Obi-Wan as she asked, "Do you want a cup of Jawa Juice?"
"Yes please," Obi-Wan said. "Thank you." He grinned to himself as he grabbed a seat in one of the empty booths that no one had claimed. He leaned back as he thought about his friend, while waiting for the Besalisk to show up. While not much was known about Dex, Obi-Wan knew that the man was reliable when it came to the information that he gleaned from his patrons who came into his diner every day. He also knew that his friend had been doing odd jobs throughout the galaxy before coming to Coruscant and starting his diner business. Dex was one of the most warm-hearted and caring beings he had ever met. No one who came to the diner went away hungry even if they couldn't pay.
Then Dex came out of the kitchen, having finished with the instructions and ambled his way to the booth. "Hey buddy," he said as Obi-Wan stood up. He gave the Jedi a multi armed hug, with the Knight choosing to ignore the one arm that the Besalisk slipped behind his back to pull up his slipping pants. Then they both sat down. "Well, my friend, what can I do for you?"
"You can tell me what you know about this," Obi-Wan said as he took the dart from his belt pouch and held it up in front of his friend. Then he placed it down on the table.
"Well," Dex said as he took a look at the dart. "What do we have here?" He picked up the dart, placing it in his other hand so he could get a closer look at it. "I haven't seen one of these since I was prospecting on Subterrel, beyond the Outer Rim."
The robot waitress came over to their booth, carrying a tray with two cups of Jawa Juice. She placed them down in front of the two men.
"Do you have any information on where it came from?" Obi-Wan asked. He looked at the waitress who had placed the cup in front of him. "Thank you."
Then FLO rolled away with the empty tray.
"This small dart belongs to them cloners," Dex responded. "What you have here is a Kamino Saber Dart."
Obi-Wan frowned a little as he picked up his cup and took a sip, processing this new bit of information. "I wonder why the droids in the analysis room didn't come up with that?"
Dex softly snorted as he picked up his own cup and did the same, placing it back down where he had picked it up from. "It's these little cuts on the side that give it away," he said as he ran his fingers on his other hand over one side of the dart. He watched as Obi-Wan leaned forward and took a closer look at the dart, noticing the three cuts on the side. "Those droids of yours at the Temple only look for symbols." Then he placed the dart back on the table. "Heh, I would think that you Jedi knew the difference between knowledge and wisdom." He laughed at the face that Obi-Wan shot him as he brought his cup away from his mouth as he had taken another sip of his juice.
"Well, if those droids could think for themselves, there wouldn't be any need for us now, would there?" Obi-Wan teasingly asked his friend. Then he studied the dart after picking it up off the table. "Kamino. I'm afraid I've never heard of it. Is it in the Republic?"
"Nope," Dex replied. "It's beyond the Outer Rim. I would say about 12 parsecs outside of the Rishi Maze. Should be an easy enough place for even those droids in your Archives to locate." He chuckled as he took a sip of his drink and then watched as Obi-Wan studied the dart once again and placed it back down on the table, reaching for his drink to take another sip. "Listen, uh these Kaminoans tend to keep to themselves as they're cloners. Really good ones too."
Obi-Wan looked at Dex. "Cloners," he said. "Are they friendly?"
"That depends," Dex responded.
"Depends on what Dex?" Obi-Wan asked, a small laugh in his tone of voice.
"On how good your manners are," Dex told him, a small chuckle in his voice. "It also depends on how big your pocketbook is."
Obi-Wan smirked at his old friend and studied the dart once more as he heard Dex quietly chuckle. Slipping the dart off the table and back into his belt pouch with one hand, he reached for his drink and finished it with the other. "Thank you for the drink and the information Dex," he said. "Now, I've got to get back to the Temple and continue my search."
Both he and Dex got up and moved out of the booth. Then Obi-Wan reached into his belt to dig out some credits in order to pay for his drink.
"No Obi-Wan," Dex said, holding up one of his hands. "No need to pay. I was happy to help."
"Are you sure?" The Knight asked.
Dex nodded. "I'm sure," he said.
"Alright," Obi-Wan responded, waving goodbye as he left the diner, and caught a speeder bus.
Dex watched, then picked up both cups and got back to work.
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The information that Dex had given Obi-Wan on the dart had been somewhat helpful to say the least. As soon as he had gotten back to the Temple, he had gone straight to the Archives and claimed one of the many computer terminals to begin his search. He had been sitting at that terminal, searching the archives for the planet of Kamino, only to find no record of it. It was as if the planet wasn't even in the system to begin with.
Instead of growing frustrated and giving up, he released his tension into the force and called for assistance.
While waiting, Obi-Wan got out of his seat, walked over to one of the many busts that had been set up around the room and stared at it. The face on the bust was former Jedi Master Dooku. He couldn't help but crinkle his brow in confusion as he didn't know why the man had left the temple, but he was now known as Count Dooku and considered the final member of the Lost Twenty.
He glanced around at the rest of the Archives and then looked back into the lifeless eyes of Qui-Gon's former master, who had nothing to offer him in terms of help.
A pair of footsteps sounded as they came to a stop to Obi-Wan's right. "Did you call for some help?" The voice startled him just a little and he turned to look at Jocasta Nu, who was the chief librarian of the Archives.
"Yes...Yes, I did," Obi-Wan responded.
"Are you having a problem, Master Kenobi?" Jocasta asked.
"Yes...um...I seem to be having some trouble locating a planetary system called Kamino," Obi-Wan said as he made his way back to the computer terminal that he was using. "It's not showing up on any of the archive charts or star maps." Then he sat in the chair.
"Kamino. It's not a system that I'm familiar with," Jocasta said as she came to stand next to Obi-Wan while he typed on the keyboard in front of him. "Are you sure you have the right coordinates?"
Obi-Wan nodded. "According to the information that I received, it should appear right here," he said as he pointed to a section of the screen, "just south of the Rishi Maze."
Jocasta leaned forward and pressed a few more buttons, causing the screen to zoom in on the section that Obi-Wan had pointed out to her. The screen that appeared had some stars in it, plus a hexagon shape where there should have been a planet, but nothing showed up.
Jocasta softly shook her head as she looked at Obi-Wan. "I'm sorry Master Kenobi, but it looks like the planet and the system that you're searching for simply does not exist," she told him.
"That's impossible," Obi-Wan said, looking at the screen in front of him. "Perhaps the archives are not as complete as we thought they were."
"If an item does not appear in our records, then it simply does not exist," Jocasta told him and turned to go help a padawan who had walked up to where they were and waited for the librarian to finish helping Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan watched as Jocasta spoke to the male. As she led the youngling away to find what he needed, the Knight leaned back in his chair and rested his chin in one of his hands, deep in thought. He knew that Dex's information was never wrong. Even now, he could still see some signs on the star map that pointed to Kamino being there, and that it did exist. Knowing that he was going to need more help with this, he sat up and downloaded the star chart that he had found to a small orb. After making sure that the terminal was the way that he had found it when he had come to the Archives, he got out of his seat, picked up the orb, placed it in a belt pouch and left.
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After the AA-9 Coruscant refugee freighter had safely reached its maximum speed, the pilot gave permission for the passengers to roam about the ship. After Anakin and Padmè had gone to the cafeteria and gathered two bowls of soup as well as something to drink, they settled down at a secluded table that Anakin had fashioned out of some crates.
Then Padmè sent R2 to get them some more food. The blue and white astromech made his way back to the small food area, opened one of his compartments and reached out with one of his thin claw attachments to grab some bread as he was already holding a white bowl with something in it in his claw that had come out from another compartment on his body.
"Hey! No droids allowed back here!" The server droid said as he came forward, carrying a bunch of things on all of his metal arms.
R2 let out a two-tone beep, showing that he didn't really care what the droid thought.
"Get out of here," the server droid told him.
R2 made a noise that sounded really offensive to the droid behind the counter as he rolled away. With ease and care, the astromech rolled back to both Padmè and Anakin.
Padmè had just finished swallowing her soup as R2 made his way to the table. "Thank you R2," she said as the droid beeped cheerfully, and set the food that he had brought on the table before rolling away. Then she stirred her soup, glanced up at Anakin, who was sitting across from her and then looked back into her bowl. "It must be difficult, being a Jedi. You have an entirely different set of rules than the rest of the galaxy. You can't do the things you'd like, or visit the places that you want to."
"I'm just glad that I'm now allowed to be with the people that I care about." Anakin said, causing her to stop what she was doing and look up at him.
"Really?" She asked, realizing that there was not very much that she knew about the Jedi or the Order. "I thought the Jedi forbade having attachments."
"They did, but after they saw how well I was doing despite my emotional attachment to my mother, they voted to change the rule and allow attachments and families," Anakin told her, the corner of his lips twitching upward into a pleased smile. "And since compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi's life, I would say that we are encouraged to find someone who makes us happy."
"I was right when I said earlier that you really have learned a lot at the Jedi Temple," Padmè quietly told him.
Anakin softly smiled in return. "Thank you for the compliment, Padmè," he responded. "I also see that you haven't changed one bit since I last saw you. You're still as beautiful as ever."
Padmè's eyes widened a bit and she softly blushed before smiling back at him and diverting her eyes to her food.
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Obi-Wan walked through the Jedi Temple, making his way to one of the smaller training rooms where he could see some of the younglings who were soon to graduate and become Padawans practicing their blaster deflection training. As he approached the room, which was set beneath a pair of stairs, he could hear Master Yoda speaking to the younglings.
"Reach out, sense the Force around you. Use your feelings, you must," The Grand Master said. He looked up as he felt another presence join him. It was Obi-Wan. Yoda quickly tapped his cane on the ground. "Younglings! Younglings! A visitor, we have."
As soon as the class of twelve younglings deactivated their lightsabers, their training spheres rose up in the air. Then the younglings raised their blast helmets so they were able to see who the visitor was. "Hello, Master Obi-Wan," the group said.
"Hello," Obi-Wan said as he smiled at them. Then he turned to face Master Yoda. "I'm very sorry to have disturbed your class, Master."
"What help can I be, Obi-Wan?" Yoda asked.
"I'm looking for a planet that was described to me by an old friend," Obi-Wan said. "I trust him and the information that he has given me, but the system is not showing up in the archive maps."
"Hmmm, lost a planet, Master Obi-Wan has. How embarrassing… how embarrassing," Yoda said.
Some of the younglings chuckled and Obi-Wan smiled a little.
"Liam, the shades," Yoda said to one of the young initiates who stood at the back of the room.
The youngling turned to his right, took a step forward and used the force to activate the panel on the wall, which caused the shades to cover the windows, effectively darkening the room.
"Gather around the map reader," Yoda told the younglings as Obi-Wan walked over and placed the small orb that he had taken from his belt into the reader that had come up out of the ground as soon as the shades were in place. "Clear your minds, and find Obi-Wan's wayward planet, we will."
The map-reader activated and a map of the galaxy filled the room.
"It should be right here," Obi-Wan said as he gestured to a blank sector of space just beyond the Outer Rim and south of the Rishi Maze. "But it's not. Gravity is pulling all the stars in the area towards this spot."
"Hmmm," Yoda said as he decided to ask the students to see if they could come up with an answer for Obi-Wan. "Gravity and the silhouette remain in place, but the star and all the planets have disappeared. How can this be? A thought?"
Obi-Wan looked around at the group as all of them were quiet.
"Anyone?" Master Yoda asked.
"Master?" One of the younglings shyly spoke up. "I think that's because someone erased it from the archive's memory."
Yoda chuckled with pride and delight. "Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is," he said. Then he chuckled again before looking up at Obi-Wan. "The youngling is right. Go to the center of gravity's pull and find your planet, you will." The Grand Master turned and slowly made his way over to the door of the small room.
Obi-Wan thanked the young student for his help and then made his way through the small group, following Master Yoda. He summoned the orb with the Force as he drew near to the door. The reader sank back into the floor and the room grew brighter as the shades were raised.
"The data must have been erased," Yoda reiterated.
Obi-Wan turned to face Master Yoda as he finished putting away the orb. "But Master Yoda, who could have done such a thing?" He asked as he crossed his arms. "That's impossible, isn't it?
"Dangerous and disturbing, this puzzle is," Yoda responded, rubbing his chin. "Only a Jedi could have erased those files. But who, and why, harder to answer those questions are. Meditate on this, I will."
Obi-Wan thanked the Grand Master for his help and left the training room. Although he had found the planet that he was looking for, a whole new set of questions popped into his mind. What had possessed a Jedi to erase those files? Who or rather what did they want to hide? How did this fit into the assassination plot against Senator Amidala? Suddenly Obi-Wan knew what he had to do next. Find the planet of Kamino.
AN: Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter!
UP NEXT: Padmè and Anakin arrive on Naboo and meet with the Queen, and Obi-Wan finds his lost planet. The conversation that Padmè has with Anakin when they reach Varykino will definitely be different then what happened in the movie.