Mercy Day - Part 3
At one end of the room a large, rotund, blue-haired woman in an enormous floral dress stood on a table and banged two big metal cups together for silence. As co-mayor of Nebo-Sun she wished everyone a Happy Gyseer. The crowd enthusiastically replied. She gave a short and civic minded speech about how everyone would be inspired to volunteer more time to the city's library and museums after they had unburdened themselves tomorrow. The row of Obi-Wan's admirers at the table opposite theirs briefly directed some unflattering gestures and whispering toward the co-mayor.
As soon as the woman started to climb down from her impromptu podium the droids began moving up and down the tables with plates of salad and cups of water and drinks.
The food was excellent, savory and well prepared, but the meal progressed through soup and entree more swiftly than Qui-Gon preferred to eat. The droids snatched up any empty dishes or utensils as soon as they were laid down. They seemed to be running on their own tight schedule. Both Jedi kept their spoons firmly in hand after the salad course was whisked away. If anyone lingered over their meal the droids would begin to hover in that area politely inquiring if the diner needed anything. Obi-Wan had no trouble keeping up, especially since the men next to him stubbornly refused to notice any of his attempts at conversation.
Qui-Gon had to agree with Azlu and Yude next to him. The table arrangements were not very good for social occasions. She laughed when Qui-Gon suggested that the droids might have designed them since everything was laid out for serving and eating and very little else.
Once the main course was finished people began to get up and leave. After dinner refreshments were to be served in the courtyards and indoor garden areas where the evening entertainments would be. The girls across the table seemed to linger, glancing their way, but they had fleeting patience and went off in a flurry of capes and skirts. The family next to them invited the Jedi to come to the holo-entertainment that their son was looking forward to, but Qui-Gon politely declined, saying that they preferred to stroll about after eating. Their son exchanged a few words with Obi-Wan, apparently about the girls across the table from them. He was a plain, square-faced young man with short hair and heavy, dark eyebrows and not much older than Obi-Wan. The girls hadn't paid him any attention at all, except for a few critical sneers. Whatever he said, Obi-Wan seemed to appreciate it and they waved as they parted.
They entered the public courtyards and corridors with the milling crowd. Night showed through the clear panes above the sparkling lights and decorations. There seemed to be no specific theme to the ornaments other than bright, shiny, cheerful colors and shapes. After-dinner refreshments had been laid out on a cluster of central tables where people gathered. Many were Zonims from the colony with a few Humans, Zolets and other species mixed in. Qui-Gon took some hot, red tea which the serving droid insisted on garnishing with a glittery slice of fruit and a flower. Obi-Wan took tea and a small plate of tiny puff pastries. There were no empty tables in the large courtyard and they wandered through the crowd and recognized no one from the Tilplens Compound. Only pedestrian traffic seemed to be allowed in the enclosed commerce area of the city with an occasional anti-grav lift cart going by.
Obi-Wan enjoyed looking at the activity, the people, but he wondered why Qui-Gon had stayed. His master was not in the least bit interested in parties. Or desserts; Obi-Wan ate another pastry, enjoying the sweet creamy filling. He knew that Qui-Gon intended for him to "do better" at finding his way. Was this part of that lesson? Obi-Wan had paid very close attention to where they were, where they'd come from, the crowds, the exits. He did not intend to falter again, certainly not when he see where he was going. And even without his earlier shortcoming, he knew that he was expected to be aware of his surroundings anyway.
Motion, snatches of conversation, perky pets, laughter, smells, bright clothes – the Force flowed like a noisy brook through a jovial crowd like this. He sensed the life essence through even the indoor plants and some small, burrowing creatures that probably weren't supposed to be with them in their pots. A Jedi master like Qui-Gon Jinn knew these things without effort, but Obi-Wan still had to remind himself to quiet his thoughts and open his mind to it.
A Jedi is, at all times, a Jedi, he reminded himself. And Padawans learned by doing.
They had drunk half their tea and Obi-Wan had eaten all of his pastries before they found a small, high table in a cozy courtyard. A blaring, thumping band played dance music in a darkened club nearby. They put their cups and napkins on the table and Qui-Gon pulled out one of the tall stools to sit down. He sensed tension. He looked at Obi-Wan, and then around them.
"I sense it, too." He stepped away from the stool. They were being watched.
It wasn't peril. Not an attack. But some serious attention focused on them. Enough to disturb the Force. They stepped away from the table; it was in a line of others like it next to a short wall with planted ferns and flowers running along the top. The crowd moved around them, many of them going toward the club and another refreshment table nearby.
"Aaaaaaeeeeeeeeee!!"
A mob of girls in capes and colored skirts rushed out from out from around a pillar and cluster of plants. Qui-Gon tensed, but he did not reach for his lightsaber. They streamed around him, Humans and Zonims, squealing and giggling, pinching his robe as they went. But they grabbed Obi-Wan's robe, dragging him with them, toward the club. Qui-Gon took a step after them. He recognized one girl from across the table at dinner. She was older, with brassy blond hair and she wore a swirling blue dress. And she cast a victorious glance back at the older Jedi, her hands firmly grasping...an empty robe.
She and her friends stopped, stumbling in surprise. Obi-Wan had vanished.
Qui-Gon caught a glimpse of a boot disappearing behind a column in his peripheral vision, but he did not turn his head to betray where his Padawan had gotten to. He folded his arms into the sleeves of his robe and smugly appraised the girls before him. Even he hadn't realized that Obi-Wan had escaped until he was gone. They were still staring at the empty robe, poking it for signs of life. The brassy blond glared up at him, then jerked the robe away from the others, wadded it up and threw it back at him. Qui-Gon reached out and caught it, though there was no really good way to catch a hurled Jedi robe; most of it flopped in his face and over his shoulder. Some of the girls turned and marched to the club while others suspiciously glanced back at Qui-Gon as they drifted toward the refreshments.
Qui-Gon held the robe out, found the collar and hood and shook it out. He folded it over his arm and put it on the empty stool at his table. Then he took a seat to finish his tea.
Obi-Wan Kenobi sat with his knees folded to his chest between a huge potted tree and a pillar. A couple of older Zonims passed by, glancing at him curiously, but not stopping. Otherwise no one noticed him...except...
A young girl with very short, brown hair, a lot of face make-up and white pants and matching cape with the a pink border pattern silently looked down at him. She was from the group at dinner. But she didn't say anything or wave to her friends where he was. She must have been hiding with them, but for some reason, didn't take part in the ambush.
She turned, craning her neck around the column.
"They're still looking for you," she reported. "But they're not coming here," she quickly added. "Your father's just sitting at that table with his drink."
Obi-Wan refrained from correcting her about his relationship with Qui-Gon. Or saying anything at all. If he simply waited, her friends would lose interest and they could leave. But...
"If we go this way, they won't see us." She pointed toward a wide walkway. "There's another dessert table over there." He didn't see any amidst the strolling party-goers. He wasn't hungry. Mularin Bering, the boy whose mother had sat next to Qui-Gon at dinner, had been quite emphatic that the girls across from them were only interested in their own amusement and no one else's feelings. He hadn't said anything more specific but his tone told Obi-Wan that he had been poorly used by the group.
But he felt silly.
He could wield a lightsaber to defend his own life, leap to great heights and command the Force (well, most of the time at least). This did not feel like a situation for hiding to him.
The girl smiled when he got up and they kept the plants and pillar between them and her friends as they moved away down the broad concourse. Around a corner there was a laden refreshment table that wasn't too crowded and the girl accepted a glass of juice from the attendant droid. Obi-Wan declined her offer.
"I'm Zerma." She held out her hand. He bowed in reply.
"Obi-Wan." She withdrew her hand and then apologized for her friends. They were fun, but sometimes they over-did things, but really they were very nice...
Obi-Wan nodded, drawing the Force in him, focusing it on one idea. He raised his hand.
"You'd really rather go back to them now," he told her.
"But we could go back to them now..." she repeated a little vacantly.
"I'll be fine here," he hastily added.
Her smile returned. "You'll be fine here." She patted his arm, put her juice down and turned to go.
"There's Eeli!" she suddenly gasped. Obi-Wan saw a familiar orange and pink cape from the girls at dinner emerging from the crowd and coming in their direction. Zerma whirled, pushing him away from the table.
"This way!" She led him down the corridor, bumping into some annoyed people on the way. They went into a darkened doorway down a hall where she pressed a panel that opened a door to a spiral staircase. They went up several levels and entered a dark room.
The upper walls and ceiling was a clear dome, bright starlight visible through it. Obi-Wan smelled soil and plants, and the air was cool, but the only light came from blinking, outside lights, the glow from windows in the buildings below and the white reflections of snow on the roofs.
"They use this room for the roof gardens." Zerma told him. His eyes adjusting to the gloom, Obi-Wan a closed door with a faintly glowing locking panel next to it. Through the windows he saw larger transparent domes on their roof, dark shapes within protected from the chill outside.
"Its nice up here," Zerma said, taking a step toward him in the darkness. Obi-Wan anticipated her before she moved. He whirled away from her grasp. He heard her stumble, hitting the wall, then the outline of her head looked about before she spotted him against the opposite window. He looked to either side. The stair and the door were the same distance away.
"The door's locked," she told him, obviously seeing where he was looking. "I have the key." Obi-Wan stayed silent. He could have just gone down the stairs when she'd stumbled. But he didn't feel like this was something he should run away from. He didn't know why.
"You're pretty fast," she said, standing, but not moving toward him this time. He still said nothing. Even without the Force, and Mularin Bering's warning, he could see what her intentions were. But he did have the Force with him and he also had a very clear image of them, too.
What he didn't know was what he wanted. If he stayed with her now, what would it be like? He certainly knew what it was supposed to be like, but his body felt the intensity of the void between knowledge and experience. Intimacy, or at least, the kind she was thinking about, was not actually forbidden by the Jedi Code. Attachments were. There were obviously no attachments here.
But he also had a very clear image in his mind of her only a few minutes ago, vacuously repeating the words he had told her to say, to get her to go away. That image formed with hers in his mind into something that repelled him.
"We could just wait here, I suppose." She moved to the side as she talked. Not closer to him, not yet. That was when Obi-Wan sensed a presence on the stair. Someone...more than one someone, were very silently coming up.
He looked from the door that she had the key for, to the stair and then back to the door. She saw the motion and misread the meaning.
"I'm not so bad," she said coyly, from her side of the small room. "I mean, people might talk, but that's just cause they're jealous." She moved her body so her cape swished against the wall. He sensed the others at the top of the stair, listening in the dark. The situation had drastically changed and Obi-Wan wondered if it would be overkill for him to cut through the door with his lightsaber.
"And I saw you kept looking at me at dinner." Obi-Wan was quite certain that he hadn't. She unfastened her cape and took it off, the fabric rustling loudly in the silence.
A bright light flashed on. Three girls, two Human and a Zonim, and a Human boy rushed up into the room.
"You–" The girl holding the lantern up stopped short in mid-accusation. Zerma had not only taken her cape off, she'd loosened the shirt under it, showing a lot of bare shoulder. Obi-Wan was fully clothed and on the opposite end of the room. The boy started to laugh.
"Guess you didn't get this one, Zerma! Not so good after all!" The others joined in. Zerma's expression changed from surprise to stricken horror, which only encouraged them. Offended by the open cruelty, Obi-Wan stepped forward. But the others were already descending the stairs, the light going down with them. He heard a sob from Zerma. She went to the stair but he blocked her way.
"Don't let them laugh at you. That's how they hurt people," he told her. He couldn't see her expression in the fading light from below, but his arms came up automatically to block the blows she aimed at his head. Then he let her push him aside.
"You stupid, little, Jedi gois-maggot!!" she shrieked as she followed the others downward. He heard more sobs, stumbling and banging on the stairs, another screamed curse, then footsteps running away. Obi-Wan stared down at the dim light at the bottom of the stair. Then he went down himself. So, she'd noticed the lightsaber after all, he reflected. She hadn't said anything or even glanced at it; he wasn't even sure that she knew what a Jedi was. But she obviously did. And it was common knowledge that Jedi did not pursue personal relationships. He felt like he'd been in a fight that he should have avoided. He couldn't think of anything that he'd actually done that was wrong, but it was still all wrong.
At the doorway to the brightly lit concourse, people walked by laughing, smiling. There was no sign of Zerma and her 'friends'. The turmoil inside him washed out his earlier sense of the place and he closed his eyes a moment. Then he went back to the courtyard. Qui-Gon was still at the table. He heard peels of female laughter from the direction of the dance club as he approached. He didn't turn his head to look, but Qui-Gon did and that was even worse than facing them himself. There were some fairly specific taunts about "Jedi kid" and "stud", but he didn't acknowledge them. That was how they hurt people. He really didn't care what any of those people said or did, but the public display was beyond embarrassing.
- end Part 3