Consequences

Rating: T+
Summary: All choices have consequences whether they be good or bad
Disclaimer: All cannon characters are owned by the Great Flanneled One, and now Disney. All Enterprise characters are owned by the Great Bird of the Galaxy. All others are mine. I make no money off this.
Note: This is a sequel to Choices

Timeline: 40BBY
Speech: " "
Training Bond communications: /
Internal thoughts: italics

Chapter Four

Qui-Gon lay in the bed, not entirely aware of his surroundings. At least he could still sense Obi-Wan nearby. He had to still be in the bed next to him. Most of his recent memories were hazy at best. What he did remember was putting his Padawan into a much needed healing trance. Compared to when he was poisoned, his deathward spiral this time was obvious, and Obi-Wan either was unable, or didn't even try to stop it. That last thought was more unnerving than anything else. Something had happened either just before or after they landed. The problem is that he had no knowledge, or memory of those events.

Expanding his senses even more Qui-Gon encountered another presence within the room other than Obi-Wan. Knowing that they were not alone, thank the Force, he slowly opened his eyes. What he saw wasn't all that surprising. Infirmaries looked the same wherever he was in the galaxy, but the doctor, at least who he assumed was a doctor, or healer, that was moving around the room was of a species he had never encountered before in his travels, and he had been to a lot of places within the Republic.

The doctor turned and brightened. He said something in an annoyingly cheerful bedside manner that was indicative of healers across the galaxy. That's not what bothered him. The problem was that he could not understand him at all.

The healer's facial expression changed to one of what he would consider worry. Raising a finger he backed away and then went over to a computer wall unit. He spoke into it and was answered with another voice. No holos? That's rather odd. Just audio. Qui-Gon forced himself not to react to the strangeness of the situation, but he did let his eyes track the healer around the room.

Eventually a human man and woman entered the healers ward and came towards the healer. They had a short conversation, and then the said healer indicated him with his hand. The three came towards him, then stopped. The woman held something up in her hand and spoke again. What came out was still unknown to him, but at the same time he realized that what she held was some sort of translator. Qui-Gon shook his head, which made the woman frown. She turned back to the two and they all spoke rapidly for several minutes. When they came to some sort of consensus, the human male came forward and tapped his chest with his hand, "Jon."

Now this he could understand. Placing his hand on his chest and giving a nod, he answered in kind, "Qui-Gon."

Jon pointed to the other bed. It was obvious what he was asking.

"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon also indicated, but with his head.

There was more discussion before the three turned back to Qui-Gon. The woman then came forward and handed him the object she initially spoke into. It took a few moments before he realized what she wanted. "You wish for me to speak into this?" Nothing came out and he frowned. She indicated with her hand that she wanted him to continue speaking. For a moment he hesitated. It did feel rather odd speaking into whatever it was, and have nothing happening. That was until a word came out the other end in their strange language.

The three before him perked up and smiles were all around, including Qui-Gon when he realized that it was working. A few minutes later and even more words started coming out. At that point Jon took the translator back. "Thank you," he smiled.

Instead of answering, Qui-Gon bowed his head.

"Who are you, and where are you from?"

Qui-Gon wasn't all that surprised at the question. With such a different language, and the curiosity radiating out from the three before him he had a feeling that he and Obi-Wan were either once again deep in Wild Space, or somewhere else entirely different. "Coruscant." By their reactions he knew immediately that they had no idea what or where he was talking about.

"Well," the non human started, "You've had a nasty bump on the head. I'm not at all surprised of you being rather confused at where you are." He came forward and began working with the medical computers.

"Healer—"

"You can call me Phlox," the healer smiled.

"Phlox, my cognitive abilities have not been lessened from what you call a 'nasty bump on the head.'"

The healer frowned. "Yet, you had a concussion. Plus, I've never heard of this Coruscant that you speak about."

Jon reached out a hand to the healer as if to stop that particular conversation. "Which reminds me. This Courscant, where is it located?"

"It's the capital world of the Republic and deep in the Core World space." As soon as he spoke, Qui-Gon realized that he wasn't in the Republic anymore. "Where am I…we?" he finally asked.

Jon inclined his head and then looked to the wall. "As of right now your in the Enterprise's sickbay."

"Is that the name of this transport?"

Jon nodded. "Yes, but it's much larger than a basic transport, like what you were in. You and you're companion are on a starship."

Qui-Gon turned his attention back to Obi-Wan. Sitting up, he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"What are you doing?" Phlox came towards him and reached out to stop, but backed up when Qui-Gon turned his gaze back to him. It was obvious the look he gave him made the healer uncomfortable.

"I am checking my Padawan." The last word Qui-Gon used apparently never did translate for the humans and healer gave each other confused looks. "Apprentice. Obi-Wan is my apprentice." He slid off the edge of the bed and slowly reached for the floor. When it was obvious that he had regained his balance he took several careful steps across the short distance to the second bio-bed.

"Qui-Gon," Phlox came forward again. "I warn you, the damage to Obi-Wan was quite extensive."

Qui-Gon gave him a look that bordered on annoyance. "I know, healer. I could feel him dying."

"There's more."

This time Qui-Gon stopped. "What do you mean by more?"

Phlox's cheerful manners changed to being somber. "I scanned Obi-Wan's body, along with brain when he first arrived. The damage to his body and mind were fatal. Personally I'm not sure if he will truly recover from the shock, or even wake up."

"What do you mean 'shock'?" Qui-Gon leaned forward, wanting to know what happened while he was unconscious.

"Apparently your apprentice absorbed a fatal dose of electrical current that ran through your transport either before or after the crash."

Oh Force. Why you Obi-Wan? Why does it have to be you when things like this happen? Qui-Gon frowned again, but turned his full attention back to Obi-Wan. At least with their training bond there were some things he could do. Only a trained Mind Healer could fully heal an electrocution of that magnitude. For now at least he could ground him until they made it back to the Temple.

"Qui-Gon, I don't want to order you to stop."

Qui-Gon looked at Jon. "Obi-Wan means more to me than you realize. For now he is under my guardianship. I have to try and help him with what I can."

Phlox actually rolled his eyes. "I see now what I'm going to be dealing with. He's too stubborn."

"Maybe that's a good thing."

Qui-Gon pushed the conversation out of his mind as he focused his full attention back on Obi-Wan. The anchor that Obi-Wan had set in place was still there, thank the Force. It was good, but he still needed a connection to the corporeal world if he was to go searching for his Padawan. With a heavy heart he backed away, "I have done all I can. He is in there, somewhere. But at this point I don't know where."

"We have a Vulcan on board, if that helps," Jon offered.

Qui-Gon looked over his shoulder to Jon. "Is that supposed to mean anything?" He never heard of the species before. Then again, if they were in a place where there was no Republic then there would probably be races and creatures that were completely unknown to him.

"You never heard of the Vulcans?" Jon's eyes widened.

"I have met with and seen many races in my travels, never have I heard of these 'Vulcans'."

"Really? They've been traveling in space for several hundred years now. This is our first big trip outside our home system." He paused, "I don't know if she will agree to me offering her services, but I will ask. Plus she's telepathic."

Could this possibly be Coruscant? Have we gone so far back in time that there are no Jedi or even earlier with the Je'daii? "Tell me Jon. Your home home world. How many races are on it?"

"Terra?" Jon shrugged. "Do you mean by fully sentient and conscious, or all the species that live there?"

"Fully sentient, and conscious."

"Up until recently just humanity. There were other forms of humanity tens of thousands of years ago, but those variations died out. We have fossilized records dating back millions of years proving that humanity came from Terra."

"Interesting." He continued in almost a whisper, "It looks like we're stuck here Padawan, that is until I can find a way to get us back to the Temple, and the Mind Healer's ward."

"Temple? Are the two of you members of a religious order?"

Qui-Gon figured that if they didn't know about Coruscant and the Republic, then they probably wouldn't know about the Jedi in general. "Yes, you could consider it a semi-religious order. We are also the guardians of peace in the Republic."

"Very interesting," Phlox's cheerful bedside manner had come back in full force, "But not that important. Right now I need to see what I can do for Obi-Wan…."

"Kenobi. His name is Obi-Wan Kenobi." Qui-Gon looked over his shoulder again. "And what about our transport? You mentioned it crashed."

"Yes," Jon approached. "We'll do our best to get it flight worthy again, but I'm not sure if it'll work or not. My chief engineer, Commander Tucker will start working on it as soon as he can. Although I don't know how much he'll be able to fix."

Qui-Gon returned his gaze to Obi-Wan. "If it's too much to ask, I would like to have Obi-Wan there. He knows the systems quite well and is mechanically inclined."

"Only if he's recovered. Qui-Gon, you don't know if he will ever truly heal."

"Then I will need someone here so I can go in search for him and bring him back. It's the only way for him to begin the recovery process."

Jon nodded while sighing. It was obvious when he capitulated. "All right, I'll send for T'Pol." He turned to look back at Qui-Gon after he reached the communications console. "Is there anything specific that she needs to know?"

"I will not ask her to go searching for someone she does not know. All I need is an anchor to the corporeal world."

It was obvious Jon had no idea what he meant, but he still turned back to the console and keyed in a code, "Sub-Commander, please report to sickbay." And with that he disconnected the line.

Waiting. Waiting was always the hardest thing for Qui-Gon. Now standing over his padawan, he straightened the drastically shortened braid, the end of it was singed. He would trim it when time warranted it. For now he placed a hand on Obi-Wan's forehead. The action was more for his benefit than Obi-Wan's. I'm coming for you. Even after everything you have had to deal with in the past year, you are still my padawan, and will be unless you decide to go back to Vasda, or take your Trials.

Even though he was still focused on Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon never turned around when the door opened to sickbay. A small part of him did reach out to sense the new individual, automatically checking to see if there was any malice, but there was none, so he went back to his silent vigil. But his curiosity eventually got the best of him, and he turned to see who it was that had arrived. Standing beside Jon was a petite woman. They were discussing something quietly. Every once in a while they would glance towards him, but that was it.

"You know, I really don't think you should be doing this," Phlox's voice sounded loud in the room. All eyes turned to look at him. Instead of cringing back, he only gave them a small smile. "For one, it's too soon after you've woken up from your own injuries. Plus Obi-Wan still has the possibility, albeit slim, that he might wake up on his own."

Qui-Gon knew the healer was right. He also wanted to make sure that Obi-Wan was still there to be found. Force forbid if the current had totally chased away his padawan's life force. If that's what happened he would be forced to somehow make his way back to their home. There would be no question about it, he would not take another padawan after Obi-Wan.

Jon glanced from the woman beside him then to Qui-Gon. "We know you're concerned for your apprentice. Still, I think Phlox is right about waiting."

Qui-Gon turned to look at the man who spoke. He then leaned up against the side of the bio-bed Obi-Wan was currently on. "I do understand your reasoning." Turning partly to the side, he reached out a hand and touched Obi-Wan's temple, not trying to probe or anything. What did come across their link was something akin to static, then there was something else. It was almost as if there was a cacophony of sounds and images all jumbled together. There had to be something or someone in there.

"He could be hiding."

Qui-Gon turned his attention to the feminine voice. He studied the woman more out of curiosity than anything else. For a moment Qui-Gon thought she was human until he noticed her upswept eyebrows and the tops of her ears were pointed. She must be the Vulcan Jon was talking about. Reaching out a tendril of thought he found she had shielding set in place, which could be a good thing. "I will keep that in mind when I search for him." He paused, "I will wait until the next rotation."

The woman's nod was almost imperceptible. "Captain Archer," she indicated Jon, "Mentioned that you need an anchor."

So he's the captain of this vessel. "Yes. It is not wise for you to search for someone you have no connection with."

"Correct."

"It might make things worse, and that I do not want." At his words he noticed that the Vulcan had begun to relax in his presence. He chalked it up to her getting used to his presence, which normally happened when he was on a mission from the Temple.

"I'll let you two get to know each other a little more before you do what you need to do." Jon turned to T'Pol, "We'll have two cabins prepared for them. If you have the time I would like for you to escort…," he paused, looking towards Qui-Gon.

"Qui-Gon Jinn."

"Escort Mr. Jinn to his room," Jon finished. Without waiting for any sort of response, he left sickbay.

"I am curious," T'Pol continued, "What exactly are you?"

The side of Qui-Gon's mouth twitched up. "I am a Jedi Master. Obi-Wan" he indicated the bed with his eyes, "Is my Padawan, my apprentice, if you will. We are also bonded together for training purposes."

"Bonded?"

Qui-Gon turned back to Phlox, "Yes, like I mentioned before, it is for training purposes. Obi-Wan is just as dedicated to learning from me the Jedi way as I am to guiding and teaching him. He is a Jedi in the finest sense of the word, though stubborn at times."

The room was quiet for a moment until Phlox continued, "You are good to go. Just take it easy for a while. You had a lot of blood loss, so I suspect you will be light headed sometimes."

"Yes, healer."

As they left, Qui-Gon kept the translator with him. That way he could understand what was being said, and the humans could understand him. He looked down to the petite woman, "You are Sub-Commander T'Pol, correct?"

The Vulcan glanced at him before turning back to where they were going. "What are the regular forms for address?"

"Sub-Commander, if you plan on being formal, then Master Jinn and Padawan Kenobi will do." When they finally stopped at a door, Qui-Gon realized he had to duck slightly because of his height.

"Master Jinn, these are your quarters for the duration of your stay with us. Padawan Kenobi's is to your left."

"Thank you Sub-Commander." Qui-Gon bowed formally with his hands in the sleeves of his opposite arms, then turned to enter the room. For a moment his hand strayed to his lightsaber, but found it not there. He should have know it wasn't there because of its missing weight. This was also the first time he realized that he had been without his weapon for his entire time on the starship. Shielding his uneasiness, he looked around the room hoping to find it. Reaching out to the Force he called to the crystal embedded deep inside the weapon. It responded, but as if from a great distance. The lightsaber was on the ship, he just didn't know where.

TBC…