Welcome to the sixth day of Star Wars Xmas!
A few people have mentioned that I missed a chapter yesterday, please keep in mind my time zone is not the same as yours... I have even been getting the chapters out early in my day, so you may even get a chapter later a few of these days too if for example I post it in the evening.
Still trying to get this added scene for chapter 9 written/edited/betaed before we get there as I really feel it will add to the story. Hopefully I get that done so it won't need to be cut from that chapter. Wish me luck lol! Thank you everyone for your amazing responses and it really reconfirmed my belief it was a good idea to post these chapters.
Chapter 6:
During breakfast the next day the sand storm had finally started winding down. It was then that Harry realized he in all the excitement had totally forgot to mention the Boonta Eve Classic podrace to their guests that was scheduled to happen in the early afternoon today. So he brought it up with them and seeing as their ship would not be ready yet, they all decided to go to the race, or at least they all decided to join Harry, as he certainly didn't want to miss the best podrace of the year.
It didn't hurt that Anakin's excitement was infectious, however Harry could just imagine how upset Shmi would be if Ani got his way and was allowed to actually race in one of the Events. Though secretly he imagined with the help of the force, Anakin would have no issues. It was still extremely dangerous and there was no reason for either of them to risk their lives racing in the event, so regardless neither he nor Ani were allowed to race. Or at least that was what Shmi sternly told him when he had said jokingly that maybe he should give it a go sometime. Oh well, he still enjoyed watching.
Their group made its way up to his private booth, which was right beside Jabba's and even had a door connecting the two. However the atmosphere was infectious, and the massive screen and speakers that Harry had installed in the stadium had everyone pumped up. He could see the racers getting ready down below, and quickly moved over to the terminal to put a bet in. Deciding to get a bit adventurous as he hadn't bet too much lately, he started to look for a good place to put a large bet. There also seemed to be a few heavy bets already placed against his company's podracer, and if the spread on the betting line was anything to go by, the bets were obviously in favour of Sebulba, which he found odd.
Sebulba was a notoriously dirty racer, who sometimes won; but still lost to quite a few others as well. Harry's company pilot, a Sneevel named Boles Roor, had won a few races, and even more recently since he had signed a partnership with Harry. Harry had personally worked on his pod racer a few years back, and since then Boles has won the Boonta Eve Classic twice in a row. Though no sure thing, Boles certainly was a fan and statistical favorite. That was why it didn't sit right to him that the spread against Boles was so good considering. It seemed there was significant money riding on his man losing, and Harry wasn't about to just let that go.
Using his magic he stretched his sense out towards his company's podracer and let the magic seep into the vehicle. Harry knew this thing like the back of his hand, because he designed and built it, so it didn't take even a second for him to find a small detonator in the right engine housing. If that went off at the wrong time it would most likely not only mean a loss for Boles, but his death too, and it would simply look like something failed in the engine causing his podracer to go out of control. It would also not look great on his company or Harry, as it was well known he had worked on the machine.
Using his magic he pulled the device from the podracer towards the ground hidden from sight as it sat there on the start line. He then crushed it with his magic from far away while also 'crushing' any resulting explosion, removing any chances it may do some damage, and to relieve his anger at someone trying to pull that on his company's vehicle and employee. Deciding to look over the bets, he saw that it seemed just two pilots were getting a lot of bets for them against Boles. As a result the odds were skewed so badly that clearly they had let up on betting more on their racers.
So Harry with a smile, placed a massive one million Peggats bet on Boles. He set a limit on the odds spread to keep his bet from depreciating too much, which meant that only about 40% went through right away, waiting, almost baiting those who were clearly conspiring against him to bet their side, and changing the ratios, causing more of his bet to be bought. It only took two minutes before the entirety of his million Peggat bet was accepted.
"What has you so excited?" Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn asked of him, as Qui-Gon had clearly been observing him as he was plotting his enemies financial down fall for trying to fuck with him.
"Oh nothing, just realized someone was trying to cheat and fix the race." he said to the Jedi. "I handled it, and now I am laughing on the inside at the idiots who tried to cheat and are now going to lose a ton of money." he said to the Jedi a bit sinisterly. "The aftershow of this race will almost be as good as the race itself." he said as they turned to watch as the countdown started.
Harry loved the races, even more so now that nearly every concession dude was hawking his products in the stands, and the entire place had gotten a huge overhaul when he had partnered with Jabba to take on the stadium. It seemed the Hutt loved working with him, because every time he did, they both made large amounts of steady credits. The Boonta Eve Classic was now even sold via pay per view style through the holonet making them both a nice bit of extra cash. It used to be only planet wide, with a few recordings going out later on. Now it could be watched live nearly anywhere in the known galaxy, for a fee of course. The same for the betting.
It seemed from glancing over a few times during the race that Padme was not quite as into the carnage of the race, but still was swept up in the atmosphere. The Jedi seemed to actually be enjoying it, and was relaxing a bit more than he had been the day before. The race had gone well for him as expected, and he could feel the disappointment from dozens of sources when his racer had won.
"I meant to ask this morning, but have you heard back from your ship that ran the blockade on Naboo?" Qui-Gon asked of him after he had finished collecting bets from some quite despondent group of aliens who had lost big on the race. Even Sebulba had lost a pretty penny to him, even if he had died during the race. Thankfully any bets a racer placed must always be on their own win, and paid in advance. So Harry still got his money.
Harry looked over to PA for the answers as he had not gotten a report, or gotten around to reading it yet if it had arrived while he was busy.
"I am sorry Master Jedi, but it would seem that they did not either manage to gain access to the planet or were unable to leave, as communication to Naboo is still being jammed." replied PA to their group having gotten the attention of Padme. "However I believe with a 96% certainty that they made it to the planet intact, and a 99.6% chance of them getting a message to our HQ. So your majesty, your people should be now getting aid from our droids thanks to your actions." PA said to Padme who seemed to perk up a bit, but Harry could also sense she felt she had done nothing, even if that was not true. Her presence did certainly play a role in Harry sending the ship.
"Well we can only hope they made it through." he said to everyone who's excitement from the race had been dampened a bit. "However your ship will be ready sometime this evening, and then tomorrow morning you can depart for Coruscant." Harry said to the Queen. "If you have a plan to try and take back your planet, let me know. As I still owe the Trade Federation a bloody nose for the loss of a few of my ships a few years back, and now this one too." he said seriously to the queen, handing her over a datachip with his contact information.
"Not to mention the credits they are costing us!" PA grouched, clearly incensed, losing her normally quite soothing motherly voice. "I won't let it stand, you hear me Harry! We are going to do something about this!" PA said pointing her little actuator arm that pops out of her body menacingly at Harry.
"I know, and I already have a few ideas, but they will take some time to work on." he said, trying to placate the little robot that was becoming more and more important to him. The magic in her design had clearly given her true sentience long ago, if you could even argue she or many droids weren't beforehand. She had become almost mercenary when it came to making money, while still somehow maintaining the company's core beliefs and morals.
"I have a few things I need to handle Harry, I will send a PAM droid soon." PA said before zooming off back in the direction of the shop.
"Dis that Droid Okays?" asked, the Gungan Jar-Jar.
"Ya she's good, she just doesn't like losing money or the Trade Federation." he said to the alien who still drove him nuts. "She is also a special droid, one of a kind. More family than anything else."
"I can sense the force in PA, almost as if she was living." Qui-Gon commented adding to the topic at hand. That was quite interesting to Harry, but it may just be the Jedi sensing the runes.
"Yea, I used the force while creating her, to make her the best droid companion possible." he said to them. "I modeled the PAM droids after her, and they also act as her assistants or extensions." he said just as a PAM droid floated up to their group, always to be close by incase Harry needed something.
"Interesting, you have come up with some quality designs." Qui-Gon said as they left the arena to make their way back to his shops. They were joined by a squad of GU droids, fully armed, as he wasn't taking any chances with these guests around.
"I like to tinker with machines, it is my hobby and passion. Though not nearly quite as much as young Anakin. He seems to be a prodigy when it comes to those types of things." he commented to the Jedi as they looked around and saw a bunch of parties celebrating the race.
"It is most likely the force guiding him, giving him the odd leap in intuition, and even knowledge at times." the Jedi answered helpfully, and kind of shocked Harry a bit. He hadn't realized that the force would actually do something like that, giving straight up knowledge. However, now that he thought about his own experiences with it he could see it in many ways, but he also bet his shields on his mind was also preventing him from getting the most out of that effect. Thankfully Anakin didn't seem to be able to quite create shields the same way as Harry could with Occlumency, so his force presence wasn't blunted like Harry's.
Though now that he thought about it, it may even have been the Force guiding Ani in how to create his mental shields to protect him while not cutting off his truly unreal connection with the Force. However if what Shmi said was true, then Anakin was to the Force as Jesus was to God, and so it would make sense that the Force came to his beck and call. The Force also seemed to like Harry as well, but that may be because of how much 'Force' he produced and how often he used it. It was clear to him that the Force loved to be used, just like magic felt to him back home.
They finally made it back to the shop, where Ani took Padme off to look at some of his creations, and the adults retired to the apartment to talk, as Harry wanted to learn more about the Jedi, which he did. He even explained why he believed that force sensitives could not do most of his abilities to Qui-Gon in exchange. He had tried to explain without talking about his core, and explained it in the way that Jedi simply lacked the catalyst, the extra oomph that a core gave a spell to actually start the process of casting. It was a long discussion that Qui-Gon seemed to have a better understanding of than Harry.
It was during their evening cocktails, that both Qui-Gon and he perked up. There was the weirdest feeling in the Force, he could not quite pin it, but it felt like it was warning him of something, and it was clear that Qui-Gon got a warning of some kind as well. They both exchanged knowing looks, before going back to eating. They didn't bother bringing it up, as it didn't feel like there was anything they could do about it.
During the morning Harry, and Shmi had decided to follow the group to their ship to say their final goodbyes to Anakin, who Qui-Gon was taking with them to the Jedi temple to become a Jedi. Not that Harry was going to let the Jedi pressure Anakin into giving up his family, but he also wasn't going to prevent the boy from going. Clearly the force was leading him that way for some reason. Shmi had spent most of the last night hugging her boy, and laying down some ground rules for while he was away. It had been a harrowing sight to see Shmi asleep with tear stains clearly visible on her face curled up around Anakin in the kids bed last night when he had gone in to check on them.
Their fairly large convoy of four speeders, and two specially made droid transport speeders, made their way out to the Nubian Cruiser. They were just finishing their unloading and they all were saying their final goodbyes at the cruiser, while the droids packed up the last few tools they had lent. The repairs and upgrades were done, and all they were waiting on were the passengers.
"When will I see you again?" Anakin asked Shmi and him. He just smiled at the boy, while his mother answered.
"You have our holo frequency, so you can call whenever you want." Shmi said, giving the boy a hug and a big kiss on the forehead much to his embarrassment. Harry could see her eyes were damp with unshed tears, as her little boy was leaving home far earlier than most do. "It is not like Harry would simply allow his little mechanic to disappear for too long." she said happily with a bit of humour in her voice as she pulled both him and Ani into a bone crushing hug. "Be good, and work hard Ani." she said finally as the boy made his way up the loading ramp and into the ship.
"Take care of him for me." Harry said to Qui-Gon. "I will be angry if he gets hurt too badly." he said with a small warning to the man. "Make sure you pass on the warning to anyone who feels the need to mess with him." he told the older man.
"I will..." Qui-Gon was just about to answer when one of Harry's droids interrupted them.
"Sir, the perimeter is being breached please take cover." one GU droids said as they all looked to see an odd single seat speeder bike heading towards them still a few hundred meters out. Thankfully each of his droid transport speeders carried ten GU units, so there was already a group about to try and halt the person coming. In the meantime Harry took Shmi and put her in one of the sand speeders for a bit of extra protection, and then prepared himself, as his magic was warning him to be careful about this approaching person.
However, what puzzled Harry is he could barely feel this man's presence in the Force, but he could easily see with his mage sight that the approaching man was strong in the Force. It was odd, he must be using some ability to nearly entirely mask his force presence, unlike Harry's Occlumency that only blunted and limited the range of his. The man was obviously powerful in the Force to Harry's senses and was certainly dark, but had the alien been a bit better with the method he was using to conceal his presence then he may even have been entirely invisible to Harry's Force senses. This was probably one of those Sith he had read about, but he had been led to believe they were no longer around, though he had his doubts about that and they seemed to have been proven true.
The man tried to avoid the droids but they pulled their weapons and opened fire on him. The Zarbak, which Harry could now see that the man was closer to them, did a few flips during a jump while drawing his lightsaber taking out 3 droids in a matter of seconds. From there it was a shit show, Qui-Gon pulling out his lightsaber, and Harry's other droids raining blaster fire down on the man. It seemed it was hampering his progress quite a bit, and even giving him a bit of trouble, but every once and a while he would deflect a shot back at a droid damaging it or taking it out entirely lessening the pressure on him. It seemed there actually was a downside to equipping his droids with good quality blasters when they could accidentally take themselves out in a single shot.
Qui-Gon moved to engage the Sith, but the Sith clearly felt he was out gunned here, as he started to pull back to his speeder. Harry had pulled out his heavy blaster pistol and was now firing too with uncanny aim as his magic aided him in firing at just the right spot. Not that he had anything against dark side users of this galaxy, yet, but that man had just destroyed a bunch of his expensive property and would pay for it with either money or blood. Oh crap he thought, still in the middle of the battle, he might finally now know where PA had gotten that from.
The man used the force to push sand everywhere creating a billowing cloud, and jumped onto his bike, deactivating his lightsaber at the same time before taking off. As the sand cleared moments later the man was already 50 meters away and his droids blaster fire was being expertly dodge. A smirk came over Harry's face as he came up with an idea, and thrusted his hand out. Rather than trying to summon the man or his bike, which he would most likely counter quickly, Harry decided to summon the man's lightsaber right off his belt.
It did take him a bit of extra push of magic to get his spell to work, but when it did the light saber soared off the man's waist and skyrocketed into Harry's outstretched hand. The Sith looked back with a snarl, but kept making his escape. Harry was awfully pleased with himself now. As soon as he had seen these bad boys in action, he had instantly wanted one for himself. Who knew they could deflect blaster shots too, thankfully he may be able to transfer some of the sword fighting skills he gained from that Mando into using a lightsaber.
However, he was going to have to cleanse this blade before he did, as it just stank with dark magic. The almost corrupting element was mainly radiating out of the middle of the hilt without stop. He had heard Jedi were attached a bit to their blades, sure they could be replaced, but they were almost like wands to some. So Harry felt this was good compensation for destroying his droids and ruining the last bit of his good bye with the Jedi and Anakin. He had some cool parting words all planned out, and now they wouldn't work at all. He pouted a bit at that thought.
Qui-Gon queried his eyebrow at the large lightsaber Harry was holding in his hand. "What! I thought it was good compensation for my droids, and it seems every other Force user in this galaxy is running around with one. So I thought I should get with the times." he said to the Jedi and his amusing disbelief. "Also lightsabers look cool." he told the man.
"You should be careful with that blade, it is very dangerous without proper training." Qui-Gon warned him as Shmi got out of the sand speeder and made her way back over to him. His GU units were already collecting their fallen, and securing them in their speeders for repairs while setting up sentries in case of a return visit.
"You will take care of Anakin?" Shmi asked one more time to be reassured. It was clearly hard on her letting her son out of her sight for the first for more than a day in years, possibly ever. Especially after what just occurred.
"He will be well cared for, and it is clear from Harry's comments, it won't be long till you see him again someday." Qui-Gon said as he was preparing to get onto the ship that had almost taken off when they were attacked.
"Hey Qui-Gon." Harry said, calling out to the man before he could board. "I know your council is going to complain about you not getting enough information on me, and that I may be a darkside user." he said to the man. "While I can see their reason to worry a bit, I thought I would leave you with one last thing to allay any of yours or their worries. Remember to tell them they have no claim or authority over me regardless." Harry had planned to do this anyways, but now was just as good, and may even have the side benefit of pissing off the nearby darkside user.
Concentrating on his magic he held out his hand in front of himself and yelled "Expecto Patronum!" in his head to ensure he got the spell just right for his demonstration. Out of his hand, and to the surprise of everyone, including Harry, was a two large white corporeal spirits that were a combination of Harry good feelings. He heard a gasp from both Shmi and Qui-Gon as the sure beauty of and the warm feelings that flowed off of the two creatures.
However, Harry himself was engrossed in the sight of not his trusty Stag, as he had been expecting, instead in front of him was a twenty foot long Basilisk, and an oversized phoenix. It seemed that many major changes in his life had occurred since he last had used this spell, and it had changed it in more ways than one. The last thing Harry noticed was that when he said Corporeal he meant it. These were true light guardians, as Harry could feel the phoenix's claws as it landed on his shoulder, and watched as the sand moved as his Basilisk Patronus slithered around the group looking for threats.
"By the force, Harry what are these?" Qui-Gon asked after he had gotten over his shock.
"These are light guardians, my young Jedi friend." Harry said jokingly to the Jedi as he walked up to him and put his arm over his shoulder and turned them to the Basilisk. But Qui-Gon was preoccupied with looking at the Phoenix on Harry's shoulder. "That one there is a Basilisk and this here is a Phoenix, Force creatures from the planet I come from," he said pointing them out to the Jedi and Shmi who was also standing there in awe clearly able to see them, he didn't often perform flashy magic like this, so it was somewhat new for her too.
"They feel like the embodiment of the light side of the force." Qui-Gon said, still in awe over the creatures, and basking in their aura.
"That's because in some ways they are." Harry said as he let the man go to pet his new snake friend who slithered up to him and rubbed against Harry's side. "They are something that someone who has fallen to the darkside could never produce, as they take pure emotions of love, happiness, and even family to create." he said to the Jedi who was now looking at him with more understanding. "I hoped these would help your order understand that I am just different to you Jedi, certainly not a threat to the Jedi at the moment, and while I know you don't think I am, you yourself said you don't always see eye to eye with your council." he said finally finishing his explanation and letting the magical constructs fade, the phoenix giving a piercing cry of happiness before leaving.
"Thank you for this Harry." Qui-Gon said. "I have not felt this at peace with the Force in many a year, even if it was only fleeting. It gives me hope for a brighter future. Farewell and take care." the man said as he departed on the ship that was just about to take off.
"Harry do you think Anakin will be safe?" Shmi asked him as they got into their sand speeder, the droids getting into the extras.
"I am not sure, but I don't think we could have kept Anakin here even if we wanted to. He is far too adventurous for his own good, and I certainly think I would be a worse influence on him than the Jedi would be in curving this drive of his." Harry said to Shmi with a smile, as she hit him on the shoulder lightly with a big smile too. Knowing he was probably right.
"He will become a great Jedi." Shmi said leaning into his side for the rest of their quick ride back to the compound. Harry didn't know if that was true, but Anakin certainly would be good at whatever he puts his mind and heart to. These past few days have really shown him that he had been neglecting a few major threats out there, and he needed to step up his plans, and start on a few of his projects he had been putting off. He had not thought there had been any real major issue out there looming in the darkness so near, but today had just proved that wrong, and the Galaxy was even closer to conflict than he ever had believed.
He needed more information, and needed even more advantages over his enemies than he had now. So he had a lot of work to do and was definitely going to be giving his Time Turner a workout during the next few years. Though there were some things he needed to prepare before he could get started, as he could feel the situation over Naboo was going to boil over in a week or so and come to a crescendo of some kind. He had some stuff he needed to get ready for that grand finale, and he needed to secure his home base here a bit more too, and that all meant he was going to have to take a trip to see Jabba. Not that he actually hated the fact that was necessary, as Jabba and he were becoming more of friends these days. As crazy as that is to believe.
Part of the reasons for their friendship was mostly likely because Jabba felt that there were so few he didn't think were a threat to his criminal enterprises, but he knew Harry's great dislike for most of those businesses, so felt no threat in that direction. Jabba also made tons of money off of him, and they both enjoyed quite a few of the same things. That being said, Harry was one of the few who could listen to Jabba problems, and offer advice that Jabba knew wasn't tainted beyond his personal particularities. For Harry he had someone he could complain to about crap, mostly the annoying stuff with his business or dealing with morons, and have someone that could do something about it or offer good advice. Though there were certainly things they both greatly disliked about each other as well, obviously.
He was brought out of his thoughts on future preparations as he pulled the speeder into his shop, and looked over to see Shmi sitting there clearly already missing Anakin. He reached out and took her hand and brought it up for a kiss. First before anything else, he needed to make sure his girlfriend was alright.
Qui-Gon walked deeper into the ship and found his Padawan coming to meet him. His mind was still on his, dare he say, new friends, and some of the things they had shown him. That and the recent encounter with the darksider. His personal views on the force had been expanded, stretched, and even changed in some small ways during his visit. It had certainly been an interesting few days, however the sudden appearance of another force user, most likely a Sith this time, had nearly ruined his mood till Harry had done his demonstration. By the Force, was that not an astounding ability. The feeling he got from the Force was as if it was a child laughing and dancing around its parents when those two beings of light had appeared.
What was most interesting to him was that even though he knew both entities were entirely made of the light side of the Force, he could still tell one, the snake embodied the dark side of the Force, and the bird, the light side. It was quite the experience and one he will be thinking on for many years to come he expected.
"Master!" Obi-Wan said with a bit of urgency. "What was that? What attacked us, and what were those light side nexuses that I felt?" his Padawan's excitement and curiosity breaking through his otherwise stoic front he usually puts up. Though he could easily feel his Padawan's feelings through their bond.
"It was a dark side Force user who attacked. Who was trained well in the Jedi arts." he said to his Padawan. "Those light side 'nexuses' you felt was a new acquaintance, Hadrian Peverell, who was demonstrating of one of his people's unique Force abilities to me." he said to the ever increasing intrigue and worry he felt from his student.
"Another darkside user?" his Padawan asked, clearly doubting his own question already.
"No, not entirely at least. That was what that demonstration was to show I believe." he said as he walked further into the ship and made his way to the cockpit. "We must prepare, we will have little time once we reach Coruscant, as I imagine we will be kept busy with and by the council." he said to his pupil. The class one hyperdrive Harry has given them would get them there in just under five days, well that was depending on the navi data this ship had. He doubted it was poor though, being a royal vessel and all. However he had lots to think over and meditate on in the Force, as much had shifted over the past few days. He will gladly take all the time he can get, and maybe even see how much the boy, Anakin, picked up from his 'father'.
"Jabba, you won't believe what happened." Harry said as he walked into Jabba's private rooms where the Hutt sat when not entertaining larger parties of guests, or was performing private business. "I was sending my bimonthly shipment to Naboo when all of a sudden my ships got stopped by a blockade put in place by the Trade Federation. Over Naboo of all places! I know they may be upset over the dissolving of the Free Trade Zone, but this is taking it too far." he said angrily, selling his anger over the issue a bit strongly, as he was here to smooth over a few possible issues he will be making in the future here on Tatooine when he starts updating defenses.
"A blockade over Naboo?'' The slow deep voice came from Jabba. "Are those Trade Federation fools giving you trouble again?" the angry growl came from the Hutt, at both them fucking with Harry, and not showing Jabba the proper respect with the last time he warned them off.
"Yea, but this time it seems I got caught up in something bigger with the Republic or something." he said lamenting, while he took a seat across from the big slug, and took a puff of the water pipe full of pot that a 'servant' offered him. Jabba had actually gone as far as replacing nearly all his slaves in his palace with servants he paid as to not offend Harry when he came by, and as a show of respect. If he was honest, it worked. "I had my ship run the blockade, as it apparently has been going on for a month or so now, and I was losing millions of credits, but I suspect it was destroyed in the attempt, or just after landing." he said with a bit of anger, truly a bit mad this time.
"I have told you, you should hire mercenaries Harry." Jabba said in his low rumble. "Just send them to deal with this blockade, and come up with something ingenious like you usually do to make money off of it." the slug said fondly to him, it even gave Harry a few ideas.
"Yeah, but that is not even the worst thing that happened to me in the last two days, and even winning big at the Bantha Eve Special didn't help," he said to his friend. "A day after I tried to have my ship run the illegal blockade, I, my lover Shmi, and our guests got attacked by a powerful enemy I had never encountered before. He took out ten of my droids, all the while under fire from those same droids, twelves more, and myself." he said to Jabba who perked right up at that.
"So skilled? What did he look like?" the Hutt asked, getting serious.
"He was a Zarbek with a black cloak, and used a red lightsaber." Harry said before eying the Hutt. "You must have heard the rumour I have some skill with the Force, well I can tell you this guy stank of the darkside, and was no Jedi." he said to Jabba conveniently underplaying his own powers, and leaving out the fact that there had been two Jedi on the planet at the time. He was basically here to have someone to vent to for a bit, the drive was nice too, but mainly because he was going to tell Jabba that he was going to bring in some heavier weapons and equipment to protect his interests here on Tatooine.
He knew the Hutt trusted him now, to a degree, but this was still pushing it, but this story truly did play it up and the slow increase he had been doing had not seemed to worry the Hutt overmuch, as his guards only did what he had said they would do. They were not out there breaking up Jabba's operations, or getting in the way, except maybe if something spilled over into the public or on the streets. Then his droids may get involved, but Jabba kept that from happening often so there had been no problems. He also didn't have droids in all the cities on the planet, and that today showed him that was a mistake. He needed to greatly increase his area of control if he was to see an attack like today coming before it happened, even without the Force.
"I have heard the rumours, they say you are a rogue Jedi, is this true?" Jabba asked something that had probably been on the Hutts mind for years now, but finally had the opportunity to broach it without possibly offending Harry.
"No, until recently I had never even met a Jedi. No, I can use the 'Force', but developed my skills mostly by myself, and with the aid of some of my ancestors." he said basically telling the truth to his friend, but also twisting it out of shape. "However you haven't even heard the last of the story, the attacker took out ten droids, and then still managed to escape while under fire in the desert with no cover. Jabba, I have kept some larger droids, and weapons off the planet to not insult you, but I think I need to bring some in now that I am getting attacked like this, right here in both of our seats of power." he said showing his non existent remorse and anger to the Hutt.
"They attack you here, again." Jabba said clearly mad now as he broke his glass he was holding. "You think this is the Trade Federation?" the Hutt asked.
"The timing is suspect, but I can't prove anything," he said before continuing. "But that is part of my worry, as you should have some reports on the hardware they carry on some of their battleships." he said to the Hutt, not sure if he did, but he would for sure in a few weeks have reports from his sources now that Harry had mentioned it if he didn't already know. "They could bring a single battleship here to easily deal with us if they wanted, and they are using twenty four just to blockade Naboo." he said to informing the big guy before continuing, "With a single battleship they could lay waste to my business, destroy everything and possibly even kill me and mine." he said angrily to the Hutt, as that was truly a tiny bit of a worry he did have, but he was certain he could take at least a single battleship with his fighters here.
"So many?" Jabba said quite surprised, and Harry could even feel a bit of the slug's worry without trying, which was amazing as Hutts were notoriously hard to read in the Force.
"Yes, and that is my worry. They show up in a big battleship like that and in hours have destroyed nearly everything you and I have worked for over the last few years to build here together." Harry said, laying it on a bit thick. "That is why I want to bring in some heavier weapons and defenses to Tatooine to protect my property and self. I also want to ensure there are no surprise attacks like the last one. I simply wanted to talk to you about it before I brought them in, to get your opinion." Harry finished saying, and could feel Jabba hesitate a bit before answering.
"Yes I could see how that would be a worry, I don't see how that would be a problem for you my partner." Jabba said tapping his nonchin with his finger. "However are you able to get this palace a shield generator? As your worries do seem founded in sound logic, and not something I should neglect either." the Hutt asked him, clearly actually worried now about the Trade Federation just coming out of nowhere and attacking them. Naboo certainly set a precedent.
"I can see what I can find, what level of strength were you wanting?" he asked the hutt as those depending on the size would cost a pretty penny.
"As strong as you can get for my palace." the Hutt said, giving Harry a tricky order to fulfill. Very strong shields were really quite hard to get as the Republic doesn't want shields that even they would have a hard time cracking in private hands. For example a planetary shield was not going to happen, and if Harry wanted one he would have to undertake the arduous task of building one himself, not that he wanted to right now. The same went for strong ground based deflector arrays too.
"I will see what I can do, but you know how tied my hands can be by laws. However with these recent laws passed in the senate, and my new business license I will see what I can do. But it will also come with a bit of renovation around here due to the need for a good power facility." he said, explaining to his buddy. Jabba was important for Harry to keep around for now, as he provided quite a bit of protection from other criminals, and was part of the reason for the lack of attacks on Harry's ships from Hutts. So he was honestly going to get the best he could for the slug when it comes to a shield.
"That will be alright, things around here were ready for an update anyways." Jabba said looking around, more to sell himself on it than to convince Harry. They both then discussed less serious things, such as the race, for a few hours before Harry took his speeder home, now escorted by 4 droid transport speeders. That was something else Harry was going to look into improving if he was going to be moving around more and more droids. Especially with the new droid designs that he and Anakin had been developing for a few years now. With those thoughts Harry settled into the calming drive home, even the Tusken raiders didn't bother his convoy anymore. Not after the last time his droids had laid waste to them with their high quality long range blaster rifles. So his trip was once again boring.
Harry had spent the first few days since his and Shmi's guests had left, getting used to a schedule without Anakin being around. He was a bit surprised at how much it affected him, but he just put his nose to the grindstone and got on with a ton of preparations and plans he was doing. He sensed from the Force that Padme was going to do something stupid when it came to trying to free her people on Naboo. The young queen had grown on Harry, so he was even more inclined to help her out.
Therefore he had PA start getting as many of his CR90s and their escorts to their staging point, a small jump out of the Naboo system. He wasn't quite sure how many were going to be there when he personally joined them, however he expected there to be at least a half dozen. That being said, he had at least a few days to prepare as it takes time to travel to the center of the galaxy and back, even with a class 1 hyperdrive.
He had been busy working on a few new designs, and going over some things PA kept sending him as her search for better ships and arms for them by scouring the holonet for anything she deemed worthy that may pique his interest. Or at least that was how it felt as he kept going over many different designs coming across his 'desk' at a high speed. He was using his Time Turner for twelve hours a day to get the best use of the few days he had as there was quite a bit he wanted to get started on.
It had been his opinion for a while that certain things, mainly ships, were alright to rely on others to build them for him, but for other things such as droids, or even some of his products he sold, he needed to produce or source the materials for them himself for security reasons. However that has been changing lately. If something were to ever happen that would interrupt his supply he would be screwed, so he needed to be able to produce everything he wanted and in the numbers he needed. Magic could only do so much, and he was only one person, and the Elves were not much help building technology, enchanting things, or even carving runes. Potions on the other hand they seemed to excel at. Go figure.
However he couldn't think of any good solutions to producing his products safely and without prying eyes other than doing so entirely in secret somewhere. So that's what he was going to do, so he got to work designing a 'small' hyperspace probe droid with some of the time he had while waiting for the ball to drop. It was fun putting together dozens of systems fairly easily, already having a good idea what was needed for the project, and his rate of getting a prototype design together really showed his incredible growth in skill and knowledge over the years. While he was no expert at everything, that was what delegating is for, but he certainly had his fields he more than excelled at.
The finished design wasn't too fancy, but Harry was quite proud. It was designed with his newly finished runic fuel array in mind. It would use a small hyperdrive sled to take to its destination. The sled was slow, and cheap to easily produce, however the droid was far more robustly designed. He wanted something that could both chart new hyperspace routes for him, and if they successfully arrived at their destination, be able to act as a sensor station and communication relay buoy. This did rely on them arriving, as charting new routes was only something rich planetary governments or extremely large corporations could do as a result of the costs and failure rate. Even the Republic government rarely did so, and mainly left it to private entities.
He hoped it wouldn't take more than 20-50 probes per star system to map, as he was installing quite detailed navi computers, and sensors into each probe. Once they arrive they will scan the system, send back the route, and go into standby sentry mode. In that mode, they will scan the surrounding space and hyperspace lanes for traffic and inform 'central' about anything in the surrounding area with periodic reports. That would also include any communications they may pick up or other chatter.
Harry was hoping he could find in his first system a terrestrial planet that he could set up as a factory world on for his company. It didn't need an atmosphere, but just being geologically stable enough to set up factories will do, as he planned to entirely man it with droids. He would have to explore that when the project progressed, for now he needed to first finish the probe. Working with Anakin all the time had only helped to improve his talents with technology as he taught the young tyke, as you learn 90% of what you teach, and it really showed.
"Harry my inquiries at Kuat Drive Yards have bore some fruit." PA said interrupting his thoughts, announcing her presence in the room. "They have sent over a design they just recently finished, and are currently projecting to sell in low numbers in the coming years to the Republic once they finally get a contract, with steady growth in a few decades. I have sent it to your padd." she said, waiting for him to pull it up before continuing. "They were more than happy to see if we were interested in purchasing a few first, as they want to start making some money back on their investment. I felt these fit our future needs for a light cruiser well for now so decided to bring it up. The recent relaxing of regulations, and our new level of business license has really opened some doors for us." PA said as Harry started going over the designs.
He was looking at the first round design of the Arquitens-Class light cruiser. It was 325 m long and came in a small flat wedge shape, and was designed as an armed escort vessel. Stock models already came well armed, and even had room for fighters on board without modifications. It had ample room for anything he may need and all without any changes, and surprisingly it was even cheaper than his modified CR90s coming in at only 4 million credits each. That being said, looking this over Harry found a number of places he would need to make a few changes for security reasons, and a number of general improvements. That would obviously cost him quite a bit, but he was hoping the Kuat Drive Yards would be willing to make changes for them like Corellia was.
"PA will they accept a few modifications to be done first? or will we need to do them ourselves?" he asked his droid assistant while still going over the designs.
"I already asked Harry, anticipating your request, and they have already said that any modifications our company makes will be owned by our company, and they will have to, if they want to, license those changes from us. But they are more than willing to do the modifications for us. " PA said almost smugly about negotiating that deal. He should not have doubted her and her ability to sneak out a few extra credits here and there. Though it did seem KDY was being overly accommodating for some reason.
"Alright I think this will be the perfect ship for us with a few modifications, at least as you say for now." he said to PA already thinking up what he would change, it also seemed Kuat would be able to build them decently quickly in only 2 months each. No major limit to order sizes. He planned to use his fuel arrays on these ships, so his changes he imagined would baffle a few of the builders at Kuat, but that didn't matter to him. If they wanted to think he was stupid for removing most of the fuel tanks and hypermatter storage and redesigning the power system that was fine. "Any luck on something more substantial? Those battleships of the Trade Federation have while lacking in many respects are still formidable." he said to PA asking about their larger search. Finding something bigger was proving to be harder than expected, unless he wanted something in use for decades and showing its age.
"Yes, I have acquired plans for an old vessel from far back in the past of Republic history. However the designs are basic so it will take you some time to fill in the details." PA said warmly somehow knowing that Harry was going to like and enjoy what she showed him. "It's now on your padd." said the droid's voice with a clear smile in it.
Looking at his padd and pulling up the document in question, he saw that it was the basically the layout of a ship without any of the systems actually being detailed, beside being labeled on the designs. However what he saw had huge potential, but would take quite a bit of work for him to get an actual working design. "Where did you get this from?" he asked.
"It was called the Harrower-class dreadnought, and was first used by the Sith Empire, and then by the Old Republic. I found it in some historical archives barely being maintained on the holonet, and it is a semi-well known design type that has fallen out of favour in recent times." PA told him as he looked it over. He could definitely see why she brought this one to his attention, there was a lot of potential, and it gave him the room to put his own touch on it too. It also gave him some inspiration for other things too. However, it would take time to flesh out, lots of it.
"If I finish these designs, you know as well as I do that we can't just give this Kuat to build, there would be too many questions." he said to his assistant. "We would have to produce these ourselves, and that would take quite the investment to get up and running. To say the least." he said while thinking it over.
"I am aware, but it will also take some time for you to get the designs in a place we could even start any sort of construction, and the cost of a shipyard is well within our means." PA countered to him, and she was right, it would take a few years minimum to finish the designs to a point where even just the frame could be started. Let alone the infrastructure they would need to build before they could start building anything. "It may cost quite a bit to fund, however it will allow us in the long run to ensure our profitability, and operational security." PA said assuredly.
"Alright I am an easy sell on this, but before I even start on fleshing out that design I got a short list of projects to finish first, and we still need to deal with this Naboo situation." he said to PA. "I will probably head out to our staging point on the next CR90 that arrives as I feel I need to be there for this operation." he said to the droid who had tried to convince him his presence was not needed, but he knew it was just because she worried about him. "You worry too much PA, I will be fine." he said to reassure her.
"I know sir, I just can't help it." she said quietly, before perking back up. "I will have a trade ship prepared for you, and make sure the droids know to perform at 100%!" she said before flying off leaving Harry to get back to the mountains of paperwork he was doing.
"He was trained in the Jedi arts. My only conclusion can be that it was a Sith lord." Qui-Gon said, giving his honest opinion to the council.
"Impossible. The Sith have been extinct for a millennium." Master Ki-Adi Mundi countered with his opinion, bringing up a decent counterpoint, but nonetheless wrong in this circumstance.
"I do not believe the Sith could have returned without us knowing." Master Windu gave his thoughts on the matter.
"Hmm, hard to see, the dark side is." Yoda was the only one who seemed to be taking what he was saying seriously.
"We will use all our resources to unravel this mystery." Master Windu said to reassure him, but it didn't work well. "We will discover the identity of your attacker." he finished clearly summing up the council's opinion. "May the force be with you." clearly dismissing them, however Yoda interrupted.
"Master Qui-Gon. More there is, sense this I do." the Grand Master said. He always had respected his master's master more than most in the order, as he always seemed to understand his desire to follow the living force, even if he didn't understand it.
"Yes, master. There are two other occurrences I need to bring to the council's attention." he said mainly looking toward Master Windu and Yoda. "During our stay on Tatooine I encountered a second Force user. In fact it was his droids that helped foil the Sith's attack on us." Qui-Gon said knowing what would be asked next.
"Not Sith, you believe this person be." Master Yoda said as he closed his eyes and sensed in the force for something. "Sense this to be true, I do." the Grand Master said after a few moments.
"Tell us about this Force user Qui-Gon? How skilled were they in manipulating the force?" Master Kit Fisto asked from the side.
"It was a human, or near human, who ran the largest organization on the planet. In fact he is the owner and founder of Hadrian Peverell Incorporated that some of you may have recently heard of? It is named after himself." he informed the council. "While he was skilled in using the force in ways I do not believe anyone in the temple could replicate without study, he was not as I could determine trained or skilled in any of the Jedi arts. He did have his own version of force levitation, but seemed to have more control over it than normal Jedi would have." he said to the masters while thinking over his new friend.
"What kind of abilities did he present that you don't believe we could reproduce?" Master Windu asked, clearly interested.
"He was able to create static fields that would surround an area to change the environment readily to his desires. There was another that even blocked my ability to sense his presence clearly in the force till I passed through it. Other than that some other things I couldn't even start to explain, as he seemed extremely skilled in his version of Force manipulation." he answered honestly to the council.
"It has been some time since we have encountered a proper Force using society. Did he indicate he was part of a larger whole?" asked Master Windu, as he led the council and usually acted as their voice.
"He explained that he is from a species of near humans that naturally have the ability to interact with the Force in their own unique way. Most of their abilities according to him can not be performed without his peoples unique trait." he said to the council, intriguing many, with their attention on him through the Force quite clear to him. "He said his people were too insular, so he took his possessions and left his people for the wider Galaxy, but through his little bit he explained he hinted at a large number of Force users being present at his home, enough to form some kind of ruling council or government." Qui-Gon kept explaining what little he knew of his new friend to the council.
"However he did say they were very backwards, and that was one of his main reasons for leaving. He also alluded that there was no way for him to ever return home. I think his people may live far into the unknown regions or somewhere similarly far, and Hadrian may not actually have his home planet's coordinates. At least that is what I felt I could deduce." he said to the council. "I also believe he may have gotten to the galactic community in an accident of some kind. That is what I sensed, masters." he said giving his honest report on Harry. He had also written up a more detailed report for them, but they would read that later.
"Do you believe this person, or his people to be a risk to the order or the Republic?" asked Master Ki-Adi-Mundi.
"No, I do not believe we will see another of Hadrian's species anytime soon, unless he has a child, and I do not believe him personally to be a risk to us or of being a darksider." he said as a smile came over his face to the rising surprise of the council. "He used a Force ability I had never heard of before to call forth two guardians made of the lightside of the force. I will leave it to my Padawan to explain the effect they had, as even to him inside the ship, a few dozen meters away, they were easily felt." The whole council looked to Obi-Wan much to the detriment of his young Padawan's nerves.
"Masters, it was like no other concentration of the light side of the force I have ever felt. Far exceeding even here at the temple, and the feeling was quite amazing to behold." his Padawan said a bit nervously as emotions were a bit of a taboo topic amongst the Jedi. "It felt as if the Force was happy, and wanted everyone in the area to know. Even the non force sensitives still were strongly affected, it was that powerful." Obi-Wan finished his report.
"More, there is I sense." Yoda said finally again, not having opened his eyes.
"Yes, these two nexus as my Padawan called them, were truly solid animal constructs. I imagine they could be quite deadly to someone if they choose to be." he said thinking back before getting to what he wanted to mention, and what Harry had told him. "Hadrian explained to me that the demonstration was for both myself and the council." he said to their once again piqued interest. "He explained that to create the two great Light Guardians someone had to truly be able to express light side emotions. Something someone steeped in the dark could not." he explained unnecessarily to the council, but wanted to cement the point Harry was trying to make.
It had been during his trip back to Coruscant that he realized that Harry was worried that the Jedi Council would do something that would annoy the powerful Force user and force him to act. Harry wasn't wrong in thinking that way, as some on the council seemed to believe that the use of the Force should be exclusive to the Jedi, ignoring the many small groups that practiced its use around the galaxy.
"Meditate on this in the force, I must." Yoda said after a few moments. "Master Qui-Gon. More to say, have you?" asked his grand-master for a third time.
"I have encountered a vergence in the Force, surrounding a boy. He also gained some very minor training in some of the few abilities that Hadrian was able to guide him in." Qui-Gon started what he knew to be a hard sell on getting the order to accept Anakin. It was a fight he was going to put up as he truly felt the boy was the chosen one spoken of in prophecy. His early training with Harry only proved that even more to him, as there were no coincidences in the force. So he started his long prepared pitch. "His cells have the highest concentration of midi-chlorians I have ever seen..."
A bit shorter of a chapter today and once again I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I would love to hear what you think, so leave a review! May the Force be with you these holidays!