Disparate Jedi

by ardavenport

- - Part 4 - -

Tekta continued pulling things out and tossing them aside until she had everything she was looking for. She separated out beige underclothes, a long tan undertunic, a long, dusty-brown outer tunic, slightly darker tabards and obi and a belt with pouches and a clip for the saber. Everything looked authentic, even the contents of the pouches. Qui-Gon took a food capsule and held it up to one from his own belt. They looked identical. He tossed the one from the travel case onto the pile on the table. Tekta held up the long tunic to her own body.

"It's a pity this is evidence," she said. "This looks like it might fit me." She held it out. "Not a bad color, I suppose."

"It's certainly better than that mishmash you've got on." Narimoyak grimaced before casting a withering glare toward Toolay. Qui-Gon's expression was of disgust at finding something rotten under a respectable surface.

Something strange and false had been going on in his presence and Obi-Wan felt stunned that he hadn't known. While Qui-Gon and Dyuda pushed the larger case to the wall with the other things, Obi-Wan looked carefully at Toolay. Her graying-blond head was turned away from them, her face a shadowed reflection on the viewport against the swirls of hyperspace outside the ship. He sensed total loss, a personal devastation in the woman. Her whole life had ended and he felt empty of any sympathy for her.

"So, that was all lies. About working for Judiciary Enforcement," Narimoyak said, folding her arms before her.

"She was well informed about that," Dyuda noted with a touch of appreciation.

"No." Tekta announced. "It wasn't." She folded the tunic and put it back on the pile on the gold tabletop. "This really is the Director of Trademark Enforcement for the Central Government. She has thirty years of service with the Republic." Tekta's skinny arm waved out to the cringing woman. "That's why this is such a big problem."

Surprised, Obi-Wan looked down again at the faked clothes on the table and the appropriated lightsaber. People who assumed other identities almost always did it for criminal purposes, or to illegally appropriate a better life for themselves without earning it. People who already had respectable lives, who still assumed secret identities, did it for fun or adventure or hidden personal reasons. Obi-Wan remembered the fear he had first sensed from the woman now cowering by the viewport. She had known what she had been doing was wrong. She could not possibly say otherwise; she was a lawyer. Yet she had done it anyway.

"And you were sent by the Council to apprehend her," Qui-Gon concluded.

"I wasn't supposed to find her at all!" Tekta snapped back. "Kokom and I were just making inquiries. The Temple's been hearing about 'Master Irma' for years, but nobody could figure out who was doing it." Kokom nodded agreement with her Master. "It wasn't for the usual reasons of fraud or profit, or the Republic investigators might have caught her by now.

"She would just show up on some comfortable planet with nice scenery, make friends, impress the locals and dispense a little Jedi wisdom. She'd always say she wasn't allowed to talk about whatever 'mission' she was supposed to be on. She'd make herself look busy anyway, but whatever she did with her time never connected or amounted to anything. After a few days she'd just move on and awhile later show up on some other planet in a whole other sector of the galaxy. Half a standard year might go by before she'd turn up again.

"I was just making reservations at a boarding house that she stayed at a few years ago when the owner told me that she was back. She's never returned to any place she's appeared at. Until now." Tekta pursed her thin lips. "It must have been that legal problem she was sent on that tempted her. Those islands are nice.

"Kokom and I got rid of our clothes so we could get close to her and sneak a good enough holo for an identification." Kokom's bright blue eyes looked upward as Tekta patted her Padawan's shoulder. "I had to swear out a warrant to get the planetary enforcers to cross-reference it with the most recent passenger manifests for every spaceport in this system, but once we found her, everything fell into place." Tekta picked at the things on the table as she spoke. "She's a good actor, too. She played the part of a wise Jedi Master better than I've seen you do it sometimes." Two of Tekta's eyes squinted at Narimoyak. The Zabrak woman held her hairless, horned head up high, obviously offended.

"She's a fake. And I don't know why you didn't arrest her before now."

"Because I knew this would happen," Tekta bit back. "She wasn't trying to hurt anyone and she wasn't doing it for profit. Unmasking her was going to destroy her whole life. And I don't care to see that kind of thing for any reason and I wanted to put it off until we got back to Coruscant. She wasn't going to get away in the meantime."

"You feel sorry for her," Narimoyak said critically to her friend.

"Of course I do!" Tekta put her hands on her hips, her three eyes raised, her ears back. "I had to spend a little time with her and get close enough to search her rooms. She's very pleasant company. She's got her Jedi history down better than I do and she must have studied those holos of the Temple, and she already knows Coruscant." Tekta pressed her thin lips together and made a face. "And she isn't any more sensitive to the Force than a droid is, but she can make a pretty good pretense about it with a reversible repulsor unit up her sleeve."

"She used trickery, too?" the Zabrak Master's expression darkened further.

"That's how the Council reacted," Tekta scoffed. "When they found out I had her, they wanted to send a whole strike team to go after one sad woman who wanted to pretend she was something she wasn't. Now we're stuck with her as our prisoner for the rest of the trip. I was hoping that you would all be the silent, stoic Jedi for the ride back."

They all looked at each other. Kokom took the seat furthest away from Toolay and sat down.

"This ship must have a holding area," Narimoyak suggested.

"Oh, and which one of us is going to stay with her? Are you volunteering?" Tekta demanded. "We can't leave her alone now." Tekta went to the door of the compartment and slapped the service panel. "The Council wanted me to have help, and you've already 'helped' me as much as I can stand, so I think that sitting here for the rest of the trip should be enough for all of us."

"What are you doing?" Narimoyak asked.

The door chime sounded. The silver droid stood in the doorway when the panel slid aside.

"I'm hungry. I don't have to hide in my robe now while you people fill your stomachs." Tekta asked for nearly the same meal that Dyuda had. "Kokom, what would like?" The young girl hesitated.

"Come on. We're traveling on first class tickets, so you can have anything you like. A Jedi doesn't let a chance like that go by." Kokom shyly grinned back at her Master and asked for an extra large bowl of spicy eket, poth leaves, moolutee custard and water. The droid left to get the food.

Dyuda Plum let out a sigh and silently went back to the table. Kokom pulled back into her seat as his broad body edged past to the other seat by the viewport, across from Toolay. After seating himself, he carefully slid some of the dishes that had been pushed aside toward him and began reassembling his place setting. At one point he stopped and bent over. He came up with a handful of Tekta's discarded robe. Toolay started when he tugged it out from under her. He passed the large wad of brown fabric to Kokom, who held it up for her Master.

While Master Tekta shook her robe out, Qui-Gon slid in past Kokom to sit next to Dyuda. He reached for his teapot. Tekta finished with her robe, put it on and took the seat between Qui-Gon and Kokom.

Narimoyak glared at the casual resumption of lunch. Then she took a seat and sat rigidly staring forward. Across from her, Kokom's eye stalks ducked lower, as if to get under and away from that harsh, pale glare.

The only seat left was the one next to Toolay. Obi-Wan stared at it. Qui-Gon's dark blue eyes flicked up toward him. He looked a little regretful, as if he were offering to change seats. Obi-Wan didn't think he could ask his Master to do that.

He felt as if all the emotion had bled out of the room; all the color was gone. Even Toolay felt numb through the Force. Dyuda and Qui-Gon made little clinking sounds with the eating scoops and cups. The hot food had gone cold and the cold food was lukewarm. All the savory aromas had dissipated. With a little nod to his Master, Obi-Wan silently edged past Narimoyak and took the last seat.

Jedi were supposed to adapt to any situation with calm, unemotional detachment. Obi-Wan knew what that felt like. This was not it. He silently drew his own dishes to himself and nibbled at his bread and meils. He wasn't very hungry anymore, but it gave him something to do with his hands, something that he could fill the silence with.

To satisfy his own curiosity, Obi-Wan extended his senses toward Administrator Toolay. He felt no strength at all in the Force from her. Imagining her, an otherwise perfectly ordinary living being, wearing a robe and lightsaber was. . . . disturbing. Obi-Wan's eyes looked toward Qui-Gon, who sighed, but said nothing as he unhappily regarded Toolay as well. Obi-Wan didn't really know what he wanted him to say, at least, not in front of the woman next to him.

An arm reached for the plate of cana sticks. Narimoyak's light brown tunic sleeve dragged over Obi-Wan's bread. He started and she withdrew immediately.

"Uuunngghh," she grunted. Across from them, Tekta's three eyes gleamed with amusement. Obi-Wan pushed Narimoyak's meal and drink to the center of the table where she could reach it, but she didn't.

The door chimed and the droid entered with more food, which Tekta and especially Kokom, eagerly accepted.

Munch-munch-munch-crunch-MUNCH-crunch-munch-MUNCH-munch.

Kokom's meal was a huge bowl of crunchy bugs and nuts, with a side dish of crispy green leaves. It was clearly something that was impossible to eat quietly. Obi-Wan suppressed a grin. It was the first time he had seen the small green Padawan smile as she happily ate. Tekta smiled down at her Padawan before she began eating her own much quieter stew. Kokom must have been hungry while remaining concealed under her robe, but Obi-Wan had not seen her cast one wayward look toward anyone else's food.

Munch-MUNCH-MUNCH-munch-munch-MUNCH-munch-MUNCH-CRUNCH.

The beginnings of a grin had spread to Qui-Gon's lips as he sipped his tea and looked down at the little Padawan eating next to him with such abandon. Dyuda's brow raised and he tilted his head to observe the activity.

Next to him, Master Narimoyak's tension increased and Obi-Wan now suppressed a laugh. He slowly and carefully sipped his juice to hide the impulse. He couldn't explain where the discomfort and stress had gone. It seemed as if Kokom had let it all go and everyone else had been dragged along with her, except for Narimoyak. Inexplicably, Obi-Wan found that funny. A couple of freeze-dried bugs has slipped over the edge of the bowl onto the gold tabletop. Their little yellow legs stuck out in all directions, and in his side-vision, Obi-Wan saw Narimoyak glaring at them.

MUNCH-CRUNCH-crunch-munch-munch-MUNCH-munch-CRUNCH-munch.

"Master, will you be eating your cana sticks?" Dyuda's deep voice inquired. Narimoyak turned her head toward him.

"No."

Dyuda reached over and pulled the plate toward him. He picked up one thick pink stick.

CCCCCRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUNNCCCHHH!!!!

Even Kokom paused in the middle of her industrious eating to peer at the older Padawan. Obi-Wan's juice sprayed out in front of him.

Sipping juice really wasn't a very good method for covering up a laugh.

Master Narimoyak had already proven that one could eat cana sticks quietly, which meant that Dyuda had made that noise on purpose.

Narimoyak slammed her hand down hard on the table.

"Padawan!"

"Hahahahahahahahaha!!" Master Tekta didn't try to cover up her laugh at all. Qui-Gon had lowered his head and he rubbed his beard and mustache, his hand conveniently covering his mouth.

"This is not amusing, Tekta," Narimoyak warned, her tone low. Kokom's eyestalks lowered.

"No it isn't." Tekta's mirth transformed to anger in an instant, her three eyes glaring back at Narimoyak's challenge. "This is why I didn't want you here at all." She pointed an accusing finger at the Zabrak. "I knew you'd react like this."

Narimoyak sat back. "So, this is about me?"

"Of course it is. If my duty to the Order demands that I crush some sad, pathetic woman's life, then I will do it, but I won't do it with your kind of attitude. I've had enough of that from the Council. She wasn't trying to hurt anybody and she wasn't doing it for gain. And you complained about me being cruel to her, too." Tekta jabbed with her finger for emphasis.

Narimoyak's expression hardened.

"She shouldn't be carrying a lightsaber. She could have hurt herself," she stated, her tone flat and devoid of any concern for the danger to Toolay.

"Not likely," Tekta countered. She got up, hustled over to the travel cases and came back with the lightsaber from them. "Look at this." Holding the emitter up and away from her, she clicked the attenuator and flicked the switch on and off. Nothing happened. Tekta turned the saber over and gave the body of it a hard twist, unscrewing the end. The heavy cylindrical power core slid out. Tekta grunted.

"Mine's different. Padawan, give me yours." Eyestalks alert and fearful, Kokom fumbled in the folds of her robe before placing her own lightsaber in her Master's outstretched hand. Tekta swiftly disassembled the end and extracted the power core which was nearly identical to the one that had come out of the other saber, which Tekta reassembled. She held it up again and flicked the switch.

It hummed too loudly and it had awful, high frequency flicker in it, but the blade was bright and straight and green. For the first time, Administrator Toolay turned away from the swirl of hyperspace beyond the viewport and stared at the restored saber, the symbol of the Jedi that she was not.

Tekta nodded. "It's a real one alright. You might be able to mitigate your sentence if you say who your dealer was," the Gran Jedi Master said. Toolay looked away again. Obi-Wan grimaced at the badly tuned saber. He saw similar expressions from Qui-Gon and Dyuda, but Kokom only looked down at the two halves of her own saber, discarded on the tabletop.

Tekta turned off the illicit lightsaber and gave the power core back to her Padawan. While Kokom eagerly reassembled her own weapon, Tekta held up the original core.

"There's nothing wrong with it. It's new. It's just never been charged. She never intended to use it, or even pretend to."

"That only means that she's smart enough to not risk accidentally dismembering herself," Narimoyak sneered. There were plenty of stories about toughs or ruffians looking to boost their reputation with the weapon of the renowned Jedi, only to accidentally cut off a limb with it. Without the Force to guide the hand of the wielder, a lightsaber was more of a danger to the user than any enemy.

"Walking around with a weapon that doesn't work carries it's own risks," Narimoyak finished.

Tekta sighed, accepting that last argument as she reassembled the other saber.

"Why did you do it?"

Obi-Wan turned at the sudden sound of Dyuda's deep voice; the other Jedi at the table looked as well. The Ikto Padawan had Toolay's attention; she stared fearfully back into his dark green eyes. Obi-Wan sensed the subtle influence of the Force, extended toward the woman.

They all waited to hear an answer. Toolay suddenly inhaled, seeming to break the spell.

"Under Republic law I have the right to refuse to make any statements until I have proper representation from counsel. I shall avail myself of that right." She turned away, back to the nameless shapes of hyperspace.

Dyuda looked disappointed that his attempt to influence information from the woman had failed.

Tekta nodded. "She is a lawyer."

Obi-Wan heard movement behind him; Master Narimoyak forced herself past him. Shocked, he pushed back in his seat, away from her.

"Why did you do it?" Narimoyak bent forward, not touching, but her head level with Toolay's, her voice demanding an answer. Paralyzed, Toolay just stared back.

"Why?!" the Zabrak pressed. Obi-Wan winced. Even though it was not directed at him, he still sensed the power of the Jedi Master's pressure on the woman next to him. He saw Qui-Gon rising from his seat.

"Narimoyak, stop that!" Tekta shouted. One skinny arm grabbed Narimoyak's collar and pulled her back. Tekta pushed her fellow Jedi away from the table.

"It doesn't matter why she did it. It's over. She's done!" Narimoyak straightened, tall and slender and proud, her horned head standing out against the gold door, but her pale eyes now looked hurt. "Why do you care?" Tekta demanded.

"I don't know." Her voice was emotionless; the aggression had melted away. Tekta silently stared back, waiting for more of an answer. Waiting. . . .waiting. . . .

- - end Part 4 - -