Distraction: Chapter Three

As I lay wide awake in my own luxurious bed, the rest I had so looked forward to stayed out of my reach. My mind was too busy trying to work out a few things. For one, what was with all the security downstairs? I'd seen nothing valuable except for the thousands of datachips. And what was so remarkable about that? I assumed they were from the Jedi Temple even though it had been initially reported all Jedi archives had been destroyed. It was a question I would carefully ask my Master later.

In the meantime, I had to figure out why Master Sidious had hidden all this Jedi history and who he was hiding it from. Surely not the Stormtroopers. Most of them couldn't tell their left foot from their right. Not his special security. They would never betray Sidious. They were all scared to death of the man. Rightfully so. Which left me and Anakin.

Did Master Sidious not trust Anakin with the Jedi history? Was he worried the boy would turn? It seemed impossible. Anakin was a better Sith than I was!

Frustrated and giving up on sleep, I rose and retrieved the datachip from my utility belt. There was only one way to find the answers to my questions and there was no better time than now.

I inserted the chip into my personal datascreen and waited with impatient anticipation as the iris security program accepted my sign-in.

"Open data from the port," I commanded the unit.

I smiled as a sultry voice replied. I had secretly copied the voice of a Falleen pleasure worker I'd visited a while back and copied it into my comp. Her voice was just…I mean, no man could…

Focus! I cleared my mind and listened to the thing's response.

"The information on this device has been encrypted and you do have not permission to access it."

What?

I tried it again. "This is Sith Lord Malefic. Open the data contained in port A. I insist."

Once again, the sexy-sounds denied my request.

Just before I put my fist through the screen, my datalink chimed.

"What is it?" I barked.

"Get up on the wrong side of the bed?"

It was Anakin, who was much too happy at this unholy hour. "There's trouble on Ryloth. We have a ship waiting for us."

I knew it! "Headed that way," I told him before plucking the chip from the comp. I'd work on this problem later.

I met my younger comrade in the docking station and smiled. I was pleased our transportation was a smaller vessel this time. That meant no unwanted passengers.

"You're suddenly in a good mood," the boy remarked as we stepped aboard.

"Less is more," I reminded him.

"Ah, I see," he teased me. "I've been told I have a charming personality. I just wasn't sure you preferred mine above so many others."

"I'll put it this way," I told him as I dropped my travel bag onto the metallic deck inside. "You are in less danger of certain death as a few others I could name."

"Lucky me," Anakin quipped before heading toward the cockpit.

I released a sigh as the young man sat in the co-pilots chair. I really hated the way the boy flew a ship. Never taking into mind the queasiness of others. No matter how many times I'd been hurtled into space, I never have gotten used to the uneasiness I always feel as soon as the ion engines reach lightspeed. On more than one occasion I'd nearly lost my lunch. In other words, I really hated flying, but it wasn't so bad when I was the one behind the controls.

Once we'd achieved lightspeed, I decided to allow Anakin the opportunity to take over while I got some rest. There wasn't a sleep cabin on board, but the cargo hold would suffice.

I tossed my duffel down into a corner to use as a pillow and then laid myself down upon the cold, hard steel. Dammit. I really wanted to sleep in my own bed tonight!

I focused on resting and was about to achieve slumber when something pricked my mind. That datachip! Surely, I wouldn't be interrupted now. Anakin loved to fly and once I gave up command of a vessel, it was difficult to get it back.

I called forth the object from my belt that was hanging on a hook at the end of the narrow bench I was presently propping my feet on and watched as it leaped into my hand. Now for a comp. There should be one back here somewhere. All these types of starships usually have one for recording cargo data. I finally spied one recessed in the far wall, just beyond the ramp. Which meant I had to get up and walk over there.

Dammit.

I inserted the chip into the port and bypassed all the requests for cargo information input. Finally, reaching a screen with less detailed questions, I typed in my request on the small keyboard. A Read-Only screen popped up to inform me the data on the chip was encrypted.

"I already know that! You..you blasted..." I silently cursed the inanimate object and took a deep breath. "Uncrypt it then," I suggested, hearing a chuckle coming from the direction of the bridge. Anakin had stepped into the cargo hold.

"The word is decrypt, not uncrypt Old Man."

"You know how I feel about technology," I shot back, annoyed at the near-disrespectful tone in his voice.

The young man smirked. "About the same as you feel about flying, I presume."

I was about to comment on his lack of propriety when I suddenly realized something.

"Speaking of flying. Who's flying the ship?" I tried to keep my voice calm, but panic must've shown in my eyes.

"Don't have a stroke. The autopilot's on."

"Oh yeah." I sheepishly replied. I was trying not to look so helpless and stupid in front of the youth, but I wasn't doing a very good job. "And I'm not that old," I reminded him. Just thirty…something. Hey. How old was I?

"Now then, what is it you're trying to crack open?" Anakin peered at the screen over my shoulder. I was about to move out of his way when a warning burned at the back of my neck. I decided to stay put.

"Just some previous mission specs," I lied. "Not sure why someone encrypted them. It's that trip we made to Karraba last year. Remember it?"

The boy thought for a moment and then a memory lightened his features. "Isn't that the one where you tripped and nearly slid off that mountainside?"

"That was you, my boy," I corrected him.

"Oh yeah," Anakin chuckled. "That's right. I guess I owe you one. Here, allow me." His fingers flew across the keys and I did my best to follow their path and memorize what he'd done.

"Hit Enter and you're good, although I'm not sure why you'd want to read about that mission. It was super boring. We didn't even get to participate in any aggressive negotiations."

I knew what he meant by that remark. He meant we hadn't gotten the chance to go into battle. By the time we'd gotten there, we were too late. The two warring factions had already killed themselves.

"I'm hoping some dry reading will help me sleep," I told him. "Thanks," I said before stepping once more in front of the screen.

"Don't mention it, although that makes us even," he informed me as he headed toward the cockpit.

I ignored his comment and once assured he was out of sight, went back to my task and opened up the files. A barrage of video recordings popped up onto the screen, each one with a different timestamp. I closed them all and instead listed the files separately. Choosing the most recent recording, I stepped back and watched.

Two figures appeared on the screen. Both I recognized right away. It was Anakin and Darth Sidious. I leaned in closer and increased the volume.

The words I heard coming from my Master's mouth made no sense. This was the traditional Sith Oath ceremony when a warrior made their final decision to devote themselves entirely to the Dark Side as well as to Master Sidious. I knew the words and was familiar with the tradition, but the timing was all wrong.

How old was Anakin in this recording? He barely looked a day younger than he did right now.

No. This was completely wrong! Anakin participated in his Oath ceremony when he was fifteen. I witnessed it myself!

Just as I was struggling with what I was seeing on the screen that recording ended and another appeared. This was apparently taken in the Jedi Temple just following the Great Jedi Purge. In the footage were two Jedi; one of medium build and the other much smaller in stature. They were walking down a hallway littered with dead Jedi young and old. I recognized the smaller one immediately. It was Master Yoda, the oldest and most powerful Jedi. The other, I was having trouble with. I zoomed in on the image and thought he looked familiar. Perhaps the ship's computer had facial recognition capability. It was an older vessel, but it wouldn't hurt to try.

I paused the recording and activated the microphone. "Computer," I said quietly. "Identify the two Jedi in this recording."

"One moment please," the metallic voice replied while the two images on the screen were studied; green and red lines appearing and disappearing from their faces and bodies.

"Identification complete," the computer's voice announced. "Jedi Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi."

There was that name again!

"Computer," I addressed it, keeping my voice low. "Can you provide information on these Jedi Masters?"

"Jedi Master Yoda's status is unknown. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi is deceased."

Deceased? I was dreaming about dead Jedi? What the hell?

"Do you require further assistance?"

Annoyed once again, I slammed my hand down on the keyboard and ended the program before removing the chip. Why did they design these stupid things to be so polite?