Over the course of the next couple days, Sienna taught Anakin the ins and outs of a starship. The hours slipped by unnoticed while the pair poured over schematics and other technical drawings and diagrams. This particular vessel was not equipped with a holotable for projecting them, but it didn't seem to matter - Sienna sketched up diagram after diagram on a datapad from memory alone, and even scrounged up some spare wires and pieces of disposal flimsi to make little models, much to Anakin's delight.
By the third day of travel (the second full day on the ship, seeing as they had departed in the early evening), she was having Anakin try to design ships of his own. She gave him pointers, and sometimes gave him puzzles to solve.
"How's this?" Anakin asked, holding up a sheet of flimsi.
Sienna studied it for a moment. "Looks good. Now make it twice as fast."
The boy's eyes lit up at the challenge, and he bent over the flimsi again, scratching out lines and scribbling alternate parts he could use.
Obi-Wan was quite frankly amazed by the way the two could focus on ships for days on end without getting bored. He had done well in his engineering classes, and he was a solid pilot, but he just didn't have the zeal for it. If the creche-masters had made him spend two whole days designing ships at nine years old, he would have lost his mind.
He sipped a mug of tea and read a novel on the datapad while Sienna and Anakin sat on the floor surrounded by flimsi and scraps. He was reading one of those dramatic novels that Qui-Gon thought were a waste of time, but Obi-Wan found them entertaining, and Qui-Gon wasn't here to make fun of him for it.
"Hey Obi-Wan, wanna see the ship I made?" Anakin asked a short time later.
"Sure." He set down his datapad and accepted the sheet of flimsi that Anakin held out. The ship was a classic starfighter. It looked pretty good actually, and Obi-Wan was impressed by the precision of the drawing, except-
"The deflectors are a bit off," he commented. "If you do them like this, you'll drain too much power, and stall out mid-flight."
"What?" Sienna said. "Let me see that again."
Obi-Wan passed the flimsi back to Anakin, who passed it to Sienna.
"No, he did it right. See? The power is routed like this."
Obi-Wan slid out of his seat and onto the floor, coming to crouch beside Sienna and Anakin. "It still draws too much power," he said, tracing the line with his finger. "The converters can't handle that."
"Sure they can, you just have to recycle it here."
"But you can't do that," Obi-Wan said. "The technology required for something like that doesn't exist."
Sienna stared at the page for another minute, then called Obi-Wan's datapad to her with the Force and did a quick search on the holonet. "Dang, you're right. Huh."
Anakin took his flimsi back. "Well, maybe you can send me some parts from your galaxy, and then I can make my ship work."
She laughed. "I'm sure you guys will catch up eventually. You just might have to wait a couple decades."
Obi-Wan's lips quirked up at the corner. He had almost forgotten that Sienna was from another galaxy. "Are we really that far behind?"
"Given the rate of invention, I'd say you'll be where I'm used to in," she paused, doing some mental calculations, "28 years."
Obi-Wan blinked. "That's a very specific number."
She shrugged. "Give or take."
"Hmm." Obi-Wan decided to file that comment away under 'things that are just slightly off about Sienna Retrograde' to mull over later.
"Can you show me the ships you built?" Anakin asked.
Sienna hesitated. With Obi-Wan's reminder that some of the tech she was used to didn't exist yet, she wondered if showing that tech to Anakin would mess up the timeline. Yeah, it definitely could. She could see it now - 'Child Prodigy Anakin Skywalker Invents New Power Converters, Paving the Way for a New Era of Space Travel.'
"Sorry kiddo. I think we'll hold off on that."
"Awwww. Please?"
"Nope."
He pouted. "Pretty please?"
"Ani."
"Hpmh." He pouted for another minute or so, but soon enough was back to drawing ships of his own.
Obi-Wan went back to the table and picked up his novel again. He really ought to do something more productive, like meditate or stretch or go through basic katas. It's what the Masters would expect of a Senior Padawan.
Instead, said Senior Padawan settled more comfortably in the chair and started the next chapter, relishing in this little bit of rebellion. Perhaps, when Qui-Gon asked how he had spent the days of hyperspace travel, Obi-Wan would say 'absolutely nothing' just to bask in the other man's annoyance.
"Are you a Jedi, or a sluggard?" Qui-Gon would ask, as he often did when Obi-Wan tried to sleep in.
Obi-Wan would look him in the eye and say, "I am whatever the Force requires of me."
The peace could only last so long though. The past few days had been a whirlwind of taxing adventures, especially so for a boy who had never left his own city, so it came as no real surprise to anyone that the group finally reached a breaking point. Later that evening, Obi-Wan was in the kitchen making a pot of tea and munching on a ration bar when he heard raised voices from somewhere else in the ship. Anakin shouted something in Huttese, and Sienna snapped a response, and then Anakin said something that was almost definitely a Huttese curse word. Obi-Wan heard the hiss of a door sliding shut, then angry bootsteps retreating down the hall and some more muttering.
Obi-Wan winced, and got another mug out of the cabinet.
He found Sienna sitting in the cockpit, eyes closed, elbows resting on her knees and forehead pressed against steepled fingers.
"Everything alright?" He asked as he entered.
She sighed heavily and sat up, pushing her hair out of her face. "Yeah. It's just, ugh." She tugged her hair back into a nerf-tail, then ran her palms over the shorn sides of her head. "I love him, I really do, but sometimes he's a pain in the shebs."
Obi-Wan hummed, and held out the second mug of tea. She took it with a mumbled thanks.
"You speak Mando'a?" he asked, settling into the co-pilot's chair.
"Yeah. Do you?"
"I do. I learned it on a mission a few years ago."
Sienna blew gently on her tea, then took a sip. "It's my fourth language. I'm technically a Mandalorian by creed- I was a Foundling."
Obi-Wan furrowed his brow in confusion. "But you're also a Jedi?"
She sighed again. "I have a feeling your Order and mine are very different."
"Well, seeing as we are so dreadfully busy, I suppose you wouldn't want to spare a minute to tell me about it."
Sienna snorted. "Mir'sheb."
Obi-Wan simply smirked around the rim of his mug.
Sienna took another sip of her own tea, letting the warmth soothe away her frustration from the argument with Anakin. "Hmm. I'm not even sure where to start."
"The beginning is usually a good place," Obi-Wan suggested.
"You don't say," she replied drily. The banter was as soothing as the tea though, and she settled more comfortably into her chair, tucking one leg up underneath her.
"I was born on Nar Shaddaa," she began, and Obi-Wan choked on his tea.
Sienna smirked. "Yup, I know. About the worst place in the entire galaxy."
Obi-Wan tried to get his coughing under control, face turning red. Sienna just sat there and smirked at him, lifting an eyebrow and waiting patiently for him to figure out how to breathe again. He coughed a few more times, then waved for her to continue her story.
"My parents owned a shop, so I learned Huttese, Binary, and Basic from birth, and I could handle tools before I could walk. They disappeared when I was around five or six. Got shot, probably. I was a street kid for a couple months, made my way finding scrap and fixing things in exchange for food. One time, I fixed some speeder parts for a guy and he didn't pay me. Being the stubborn child I was, I confronted him about it. Almost got myself killed, but a Mando happened to walk by. He shot the Trandoshan, and took me under his wing.
"We stayed on Nar Shaddaa. He was either hiding from something or hunting something, I never found out which or what, but he was a good father to me. He taught me Mando'a, and about Mandalorian culture. He took up bounty hunting to take care of us, and I kept honing my tinkering skills. He taught me how to fly, and I started field racing when I was ten. Boy, I loved it." She smiled wistfully, looking off into space through the viewscreen. "There's no flying like field racing."
"Field racing?" Obi-Wan asked.
Sienna explained what it was, and when Obi-Wan nodded in understanding, she continued. "That's where I got my last name. I don't remember what my birth surname was, but in the races I did this trick where I'd fly backwards, like a planet in retrograde." She motioned with her hands, moving one over the other. "The name stuck.
"I came home from one of my races one time and our apartment was trashed. Completely torn apart. And in the middle of the wreckage, my buir was dead. I guess whatever it was he stayed on Nar Shaddaa for, it finally caught up to him."
"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan said softly. "That must have been hard."
Sienna shrugged, tracing the rim of her mug with her finger. "Yeah. It is what it is though. In a place like that, your days are numbered. On some level, I think I expected that to happen someday. After that I was alone again. I raced more often, and I started winning. I used the prize money to buy back my parent's old shop, and made it my own. I built a reputation as someone reliable. I earned the nickname 'Five' because I could fix anything in five hours or less. No matter how trashed your ship was, I could fix it. No one else could do that. Heck, I probably could've assembled an entirely new ship in that time if I had the parts.
"I was fifteen when the Jedi came. Two Knights, Calian Verde and Avetis Kaito. Their ship needed fixing, and I fixed it, and they invited me to come learn about the Force. I wasn't all that interested, but I had this feeling, like I was supposed to go. So I did. I figured I'd be back at my shop in a week. But, well, that was six years ago." She smiled as she took a long drink of her tea. "Calian took me on as his Padawan. He's probably the only one who could handle me. I mean, the Masters are great and all, but they're all so calm and proper. Calian is energetic and daring, and he has a good sense of humor. I'd give him attitude, and he'd give it right back, and I respected that."
Obi-Wan smiled. "Sounds like it was a good match."
"Mmm."
They lapsed into silence, drinking their tea.
"I'm a little confused about a couple of things," Obi-Wan began, after a couple of minutes had passed.
Sienna gestured for him to continue.
"You said the Knights found you when you were fifteen?"
"Mm hm."
"And you were allowed to become a Jedi? To start training at that age?"
Sienna gave him a puzzled look. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"Huh. In my Order, younglings are brought to the Temple up to age three or four. After that, they're considered too old."
"Too old?" Sienna echoed. "Too old for what?"
Obi-Wan shrugged. "To learn our ways, I guess? To be honest, I never gave it much thought. It's probably something to do with difficulty learning management of emotions, or attachments."
"Attachments? What does that mean?"
Obi-Wan blinked in surprise. "You don't have the concept of attachments?"
"We might, under a different name."
Obi-Wan nodded. "Attachments are things, places, or people that one grows too 'attached' to. Enough that you would be willing to risk a mission or a larger group to save the one. They are things that distract you when you need to be focused, that pull your attentions away from the here and now. But beyond that, they are things that you wish to possess and control, and that you are afraid to lose. They're born out of selfishness."
Sienna contemplated that, tilting her head slightly. "Hm. I don't think we really have a concept like that. It's more of a given that the greater good comes first. I mean, I'd say I'm pretty attached to Calian, and he's pretty attached to me and to his fianceƩ. But, I think we use the word differently. Possession isn't healthy in any relationship."
"Your Master is engaged?"
"Don't tell me your Order forbids marriage too."
At Obi-Wan's silence, Sienna's jaw dropped. "You're kidding. You guys can't get married?"
"Well, it's not explicitly forbidden," Obi-Wan said slowly, "but most would consider a partner like that to be problematic in that one cannot commit themself fully to the Jedi and also to a partner."
"That's wild," Sienna said. "Two of our highest-ranking Masters are married to one another and have kids in the Order, though they're all grown. There aren't a ton of relationships happening, but there are a handful."
"How strange."
Sienna laughed, leaning back in her chair. "I wonder just how many differences there are between our Orders."
"We'll have to make a list," Obi-Wan said, only half joking. The more Sienna spoke of her Order, the more curious he became about a group that was, in name, the same as his, but in practice seemed to be very different.
"Mm. We should." Sienna drained the last of her tea, then set the mug afloat with the Force, spinning it in lazy circles above her head. "What about you, Kenobi? I've told you my life story, what's yours?"
Obi-Wan huffed a laugh. "Much more boring."
"Hah. I doubt that. You seem like the kind of guy who gets into just as much trouble as Anakin, except you know how to talk your way out of it. Bet you've got the innocent tooka kit expression down pretty good too."
"What? Me? Get into trouble? Never." He pouted, and Sienna chucked her mug at him with the Force.
"That's exactly the look I'm talking about. You have no business having eyes that wide and sparkly."
Obi-Wan laughed again and dodged the flying mug. "I think Qui-Gon would agree with you on that. Although, the tooka kit eyes never did work on him."
"He seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't buy it," Sienna mused.
Obi-Wan hummed in agreement. "Never stopped me from trying, though. He sent me down to the creche once to 'spend time with the other babies' after I tried the tooka kit eyes. The joke's on him though, because I only learned how to do it better."
Sienna laughed, and Obi-Wan smiled fondly at the memory, before launching into a summary of his childhood.
"I was born on Stewjon, and brought to the Temple as a babe. I had a pretty standard upbringing, for a Jedi youngling. I had my share of friends and enemies among my creche-mates. I studied hard, trained hard, and wanted nothing more than to become a Jedi Knight and save the galaxy. But I was too aggressive, and was not chosen to be a Padawan before aging out. I was sent off to the Agri-corps just before my thirteenth birthday."
"Aging out?" Sienna asked.
Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes. If a youngling is not chosen by a Knight by the time the child reaches 13, they are sent to one of the Corps to serve there. Not everyone is destined to be a Jedi Knight."
"There's no such concept in my Order. If you want to be a Knight, you can be, no matter your age."
"Hmm. I suspected as much, when you said that you first came to your Order at fifteen," Obi-Wan said. "But thirteen is the soft cutoff for humans and other species that age in the same way, though that rule is changing. Anyway, Qui-Gon happened to be going to the same planet on a different mission. I was determined to impress him. He was my last shot at becoming a Padawan. I did eventually manage to do so, after a great deal of embarrassing mishaps that did nothing to help my cause." Obi-Wan smirked at the memory of nearly being choked to death by a Hutt. "And I have been a Padawan ever since. The end." He smirked when Sienna raised an eyebrow. "I told you it wasn't that interesting."
"I'm sure there are plenty of good stories in there," Sienna said. "You've been a Padawan for how long? I've only been one for six years, and I have my share of story-worthy incidents."
"Twelve years."
"Definitely gotta be some stories. Like, how did you finally convince Qui-Gon to take you on?"
"I offered to blow myself up so he could save some miners," Obi-Wan said cheerfully.
Sienna lost her focus on the mug, which fell down and hit her on the head. "You did what?"
"You heard right." Obi-Wan hid his amused look behind his own mug as he drained the last of his tea.
Sienna didn't look amused though. The mug lay forgotten in her lap as she swiveled to face Obi-Wan. "Let me get this straight. Qui-Gon refused to take you as a Padawan because you were 'too aggressive' and only changed his mind after you tried to sacrifice your life for his?"
Obi-Wan's smile faded, and he found that he suddenly felt uncomfortable under her cool gaze. "I mean, he didn't let me, we found another way."
"Obviously," she said drily, "considering you're sitting here in front of me. But is that moment really the thing that made him decide you were worth it?"
OObi-Wan shifted in his seat. This wasn't going the way he had thought it would. "The cards were stacked against me. It took something drastic to overcome his fears about taking a Padawan. He said that my courage was extraordinary, even for a Jedi."
Sienna's lips pressed into a thin line, and she turned back around to look out the viewscreen. Obi-Wan could feel her agitation swirling in the Force around her, a thousand little orange snakes lashing their tails. He wasn't sure what to do about it. They had been having such a good conversation a second ago, how could it have changed so quickly? Why did this upset her?
"Sienna?" Obi-Wan asked hesitantly.
She sighed, and he felt some of the snake slither away. Not all of them though.
"A child should never have to sacrifice themself for an adult," she said. "And doing so shouldn't be what earns them respect."
"It was a complicated situation," Obi-Wan said. "It was almost the only way. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. I didn't do it for Qui-Gon specifically. And a Jedi must always be prepared to do what is right for the many, even at cost to themself."
"Sure. That's part of the job. But what bothers me is that's what it took for Jinn to see your worth."
Obi-Wan didn't know what to say to that. He rolled his mug between his palms and stared out at the vast blue tunnel, watching it flow by like an infinite crashing wave. Sienna wasn't the first person to say something along those lines. Satine had been bothered as well, and so had some of his friends at the Temple.
If he was completely honest with himself, it bothered him too, that Qui-Gon had refused to see his worth until that moment. And there were a number of other moments throughout his apprenticeship where they had been in similarly difficult situations and Qui-Gon didn't behave the way a Master should.
But at the same time, though that moment had been what it took, in the moment Qui-Gon had been horrified, almost scared. He had ordered Obi-Wan not to do it. Had been ready to sacrifice the lives of everyone else in the mine rather than let a child die.
Yes, there were moments when Qui-Gon made mistakes. When his stubbornness had caused Obi-Wan to doubt himself. But there were just as many times where Qui-Gon had cared for Obi-Wan. Like when Obi-Wan almost got his mind wiped, and Qui-Gon had been worried sick. There were the tough moments, but there were just as many moments of gentleness and laughter. Qui-Gon loved his Padawan, even if he didn't always show it. And Obi-Wan would gladly follow Qui-Gon into the jaws of death.
And all that was a but too much to explain in one conversation, especially since Sienna seemed to have made up her mind about this. Perhaps another time, if they had the opportunity to get to know one another better, then he would be able to explain. But if they didn't? Well, everyone was entitled to their own opinion.
Sienna cast him a sideways glance. "Geez, man, I didn't mean to bring down the mood. You're gonna brood a hole right through the ship."
Obi-Wan released a breathy laugh. "What can I say, brooding is one of my talents."
"Hm. Keep on like that and I'll have to go get us some refills on the tea."
"And what a shame that would be, forced to drink two mugs of tea in one evening."
Sienna chucked her mug at him again. Obi-Wan caught it this time and smirked, then stood and swept out of the cockpit, both mugs in hand. He heard Sienna stand and follow, and saw her power up the dejarik table from the corner of his eye while he set another pot to heat up.
"Wanna play a round?" She asked, gesturing to the board.
"Sure. What are the stakes?"
"Oooo, a gambler are we?"
Obi-Wan smirked again. "Only sometimes."
Sienna sat down, propping one leg up on the bench. "Well, I still don't have any credits, and yours are an allowance from the Jedi Council, so money's out of the question."
"Hmm. Snacks then?" He reached into one of the cupboards and pulled out a bag of freeze-dried fruit pieces.
"That'll work," Sienna said. "Get ready to lose all your snacks, Kenobi."
"On the contrary, I think it is you that will be snack-less. Prepare to weep for your lost fruit."
Sienna grinned, a competitive glint in her eye. "We'll see about that."
A/N: Celebration time- this is officially the longest (by word count) fic I've ever written! Technically I passed that mark with chapter 8, but I only just noticed now.
Here's to many more chapters, and many more words!
Clarification on Chapter 9, added 11/11/20:
I have received a couple of questions regarding Sienna and Obi-Wan's conversation towards the end of this chapter, so I'd like to take a moment to clarify a few things.
First and easiest, the reference to how Obi-Wan became a Padawan is taken from the Jedi Apprentice books. I know a lot of folks dislike those books, and they are considered legends (so technically not canon) but I like having the base to work with.
Second, this is NOT a "time traveler fixes the Jedi Order by convincing them to allow romance and marriage" story. I feel like that trope is rather disrespectful to the many people who are single, celibate, asexual, and/or aromantic. This story is an exploration of how history changes naturally if you throw in just one different character. What events will go down differently due to the presence of one more individual? We shall find out. I have a whole long explanation for why the comments about marriage are in that conversation, but I won't subject you to that lol. If you're really curious, feel free to send me a message and I'm happy to share. :)
And always feel free to send me questions! I can be reached through the comments or through tumblr, and I am always happy to explain things and chat with readers.
