Chapter Twenty-Six – Affirmation and Acquiescence.
As the two investigators searched through the Archive memory, Obi-Wan asked, "How is Eirtaé and her husband, by the way?"
"They're fine. Why do you ask? I didn't think you knew her that well."
"I don't, only Senator Amidala sent us a holo-vid of her wedding."
Sabé blushed a deep shade of red. "Oh no. With me singing?"
Obi-Wan chuckled. "Oh yes."
"Well, I told you I took music. I'm going to kill Padmé for that."
"I hope not, otherwise I'll have to arrest you." Obi-Wan smiled. "I liked your singing."
She was touched by that. "Thank you."
The computer screen came up with a map of the Rishi Maze area and they studied it. "It's not on there," Obi-Wan stated, his voice a mixture of annoyance and disappointment.
"So it would seem."
"But look, here," he pointed. "All the stars are being pulled towards this area."
Sabé frowned. "Well then it can't have imploded, otherwise that gravity would have disappeared."
Obi-Wan rested his chin on his hand in thought. "No, you're right." He paused. "I'll call Madame Nu, she's in charge here." He pressed a small buzzer and Sabé wandered off a short distance.
"Who's this?" she queried, glancing at a bronze bust that stood on a nearby pillar.
Obi-Wan joined her. "Oh, that's Count Dooku."
"Really?" she eyed it with a frown. "Do you think he's trying to kill Padmé?"
"To be honest, I'm not sure anymore. His likeness is here because he's one of only twenty Jedi who have ever left the Order. Normally I'd say he isn't the one behind it. Jedi, even former ones, don't plan assassinations, but since he's become leader of the Separatists I can't predict his motives."
Sabé gazed into the bronze face of her cousin's potential murderer. It was a noble face, but one Sabé could see striking fear into the hearts of many. Her thoughts were interrupted by a woman's approaching footsteps.
"Did you call for assistance?" the newcomer asked pleasantly.
"Yes. Yes I did."
"Are you having a problem, Master Kenobi?"
"Yes. I'm looking for a planetary system called Kamino," Obi-Wan explained. "It doesn't show up on any of the Archive charts."
The elderly Jocasta Nu took a moment to think. "Kamino…It's not a system I'm familiar with." Her tone would suggest that they should take that as reason enough to give up at once. "Are you sure you have the right coordinates?"
Obi-Wan returned to the screen to show her. "According to my information it should be in this quadrant somewhere, just south of the Rishi Maze."
Jocasta Nu studied the screen, then straightened up with an apologetic smile on her lined face. "I hate to say it, but it looks like the system you're searching for doesn't exist."
Obi-Wan shook his head. "That's impossible. Perhaps the Archives are incomplete."
The Archivist looked as if he had just called her a foul name. "If an item does not appear in our records, then it does not exist." She walked briskly away to help a waiting young Padawan with his studies.
"Stuck a nerve there I think," Sabé observed.
"I think you could be right." He sighed.
Sabé placed a hesitant hand on his shoulder. "What now?"
He turned to look at her. "We go to Master Yoda. There are two people I rely on for accurate information and they've just opposed each other."
He downloaded the map onto a holo-globe and stood. Then he held out a hand to pull Sabé to her feet. Their fingers intertwined and each realised they were hesitant to let go of the other. Obi-Wan at last slipped his hand away and pocketed the holo-globe. "Come on."
Side by side they walked from the Archive Hall towards a small tutor room where Yoda stood teaching twenty or so young Padawans, each only about four or five years old. They wore helmets to obstruct their vision and were concentrating on deflecting harmless laser bolts with tiny practice lightsabres.
As they approached, Yoda stopped the lesson, tapping his gimer stick on the floor. "Younglings, younglings. Visitors we have."
"Hello, Master Obi-Wan," some of them chorused.
"Hello." He smiled briefly at the Padawans before turning to Yoda. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Master."
"What help can I be, Obi-Wan?"
"We're looking for a planet described to me by an old friend. I trust him, but the systems don't show up on the Archive maps."
"Hmm." Yoda considered this. "Lost a planet, Master Obi-Wan has. How embarrassing. How embarrassing."
Sabé laughed at that along with the children. Obi-Wan shot her a cantankerous look but a smile crept about the corners of his mouth.
"Liam, the shades," Yoda ordered. "Gather round the map-reader. Clear your minds and find Obi-Wan's wayward planet we will."
Obi-Wan stepped forward and placed the holo-globe onto the map-reader. It projected stars outwards into the darkened room, creating a three-dimensional map.
"It ought to be here," he said, pointing to a blank space in the intricate pattern, "but it isn't. Gravity is pulling all the stars in this area inward to this spot."
"Hmm…gravity's silhouette remains, but the star and all the planets, disappeared they have," Yoda mused out loud. "How can this be? A thought? Anyone?"
Sabé was intrigued by the way the tiny Jedi Master managed to turn almost anything into a useful lesson.
"Master?" came a young voice. "Because someone erased it from the Archive memory."
Yoda chuckled. "Truly wonderful the mind of a child is. The Padawan is right."
Sabé mentally kicked herself. They had been so wrapped up in the complexity of the situation that they had missed the most obvious answer.
"Go to the centre of gravity's pull and find your planet you will. The data must have been erased."
"But Master Yoda," Obi-Wan frowned, "who could empty information from the Archives, that's impossible isn't it?"
"Dangerous and disturbing this puzzle is. Only a Jedi could have erased those files. But who and why, harder to answer. Meditate on this I will."
Sabé stepped forward. "Master Yoda, do you think it possible that Count Dooku could be behind it?"
"Always quick to blame Dooku, Senator Amidala is. It is a habit I see you getting into too," Yoda told her sternly. "A possibility he is, but not certain."
She nodded and caught Obi-Wan's eye. She couldn't decipher the expression on his face, it was a curious one.
"Master Yoda, could I possibly speak to you in private?" he said finally.
Sabé raised an eyebrow.
"Of course, Obi-Wan. Mind supervising the younglings for a short time would you?" he asked Sabé.
"I would be happy to, Master Yoda."
The two Jedi walked a little way out into the foyer where they would not be heard. Sabé turned to the children.
"Well, my name is Sabé." She smiled. "What have you been doing?"
The Padawans warmed to her at once and crowded around, offering comments.
"We've been doing sabre practice!"
"Liam says I fight like a Hutt, but I think he fights like a space slug."
"Master Yoda says we're coming on well."
"I'm taller than Master Yoda by this much!"
Sabé grinned and held up her hand for quiet. "It all looked very impressive when I walked in with Master Obi-Wan. It makes me wish I was a Jedi."
One dark haired little girl asked shyly, "What do you do?"
"I'm a handmaiden and assistant to a Senator."
"Which Senator?" another asked.
"Padmé Amidala."
A mouthy Togruta spoke up in accented Basic, "I heard Master Yoda talk about her."
"How come you're in the Temple?" a boy enquired.
"I'm helping Master Obi-Wan track down a bounty hunter."
"Where are you from?"
Sabé couldn't help but smile as she answered the volley of questions. "Naboo."
"What's it like?"
"Very different from Coruscant. There are lots of trees and rivers."
"I went to Naboo once!"
"No you didn't!"
"I did too!"
Fearing an argument Sabé hurriedly said, "Would you like me to tell you a Nabooian folk tale?"
A chorus of enthusiastic yes's gave her an answer and she sat down on the floor, the Padawans doing the same. Sabé thought fast. The Naboo had no real folk tales to speak of, they preferred to use art and ballads to tell their stories. She would have to make one up.
"Okay. A long time ago, in a village far, far away there lived a beautiful maiden. Her village was under threat from an evil army of…droids, sent by the people who lived in the Dark Village on the opposite side of the planet. The Light Village was ruled over by a young Queen, who was very brave and very clever. She knew that if she could escape to the mountains she could find the Knights of Wisdom to help her people. To aid her escape, the beautiful maiden and the Queen switched places. The maiden was captured by the Dark Village droids, but the true Queen escaped and fled to the mountains."
Sabé studied the young faces, utterly absorbed in the nonsense tale she was creating. To anyone who had been alive on Naboo ten years ago it was an obvious re-working of the incident with the Trade Federation, but these young ones thankfully did not know the details of that. Sabé took a deep breath before continuing, as equally curious as the children as to how it would end.
Meanwhile, Obi-Wan and Yoda, having walked across the foyer, stopped in a quiet corner to talk. "What bothers you, Obi-Wan?"
"I was wondering, Master, have we ever had any new Padawans who were Jedi offspring?"
Yoda did not need time to think. "Very few. Overlooked by the Council they were. Accepted if the will of the Force it was that made them, otherwise a more serious matter. Why do you ask?"
Obi-Wan inhaled deeply. "I still sense a connection between Sabé and myself through the Force. I asked for some answers and I sensed that she will have a daughter strong in the Force."
"Believe the father will be a Jedi do you?"
He nodded. "Yes, Master. There's no known history of Force-sensitivity in her family, although I can't be sure, as she was adopted. It doesn't feel like the normal situation. I can only come to one conclusion."
Yoda nodded, blinking his sleepy eyes. "Love her, do you?"
Obi-Wan was taken aback. He hadn't expected that question. "…Yes, Master, I do."
"Loved Tahl, Master Qui-Gon did. An ally in him it was not. To the Dark Side he almost turned when she died. A rare case it is for a Jedi to love and focus on his duty." He paused before continuing cautiously. "But a rare case you are, Obi-Wan."
His heart rate increased. Did that mean-?
"Approve of this the Council will not. Never have. But approve of love being a Jedi's ally I do, in the right circumstances. Discreet you must be, Obi-Wan. If arisen the matter is, over-ruled I will be. Then I can be of no help to you. I sense a cloud shielding everything. More Jedi we will need if worse this dark time gets."
"I sense it also, Master Yoda," Obi-Wan said, trying to maintain calm. "Thank you."
Yoda held his gaze and nodded.
"May I just ask, Master, why your attitude is so different from…last time?"
"It is simple. Before Sabé entered the picture a rare case you were not."
"Are you saying that Sabé is some sort of true love? And Siri wasn't?"
"If romantic you want to be, yes."
Obi-Wan briefly wondered if Yoda had ever been in love, but the thought passed him by as they headed back to Sabé and the Padawans.
"–but the true Queen escaped and fled to the mountains," she was saying. "Once there she was introduced to the bravest and most handsome Knight of Wisdom. He took an army of the most skilled knights back to the Light Village and they destroyed the Dark Village's army. The Queen ordered a great celebration and everyone was happy."
"What happened to the maiden?" one girl spoke up.
"Well, the army of the Dark Village were fooled into thinking she was the Queen, so they locked her in a tall tower and set several droids as guards. But the most handsome and brave knight fought them and climbed the tower. He rescued the maiden and took her safely back to the real Queen."
"Did they get married?"
"Who?"
"The knight and the Queen."
"No. The knight would have liked to marry a Queen, but he realised that his heart belonged to the beautiful maiden. He married her instead and his younger brother married the Queen," Sabé explained. She noticed Obi-Wan and Yoda watching with smiles on their faces and faint blush graced her cheeks. She knew Obi-Wan would know exactly who she'd been talking about and the expression on his face said just that.
"Are you ready to go, Miss Naberrie?" he asked.
"Yes, Master Kenobi, of course." She rose to her feet just as the holo-globe flew past her nose, summoned by Obi-Wan.
"Will you come back and tell us more stories?" the Togruta boy asked.
Sabé laughed. "Perhaps."
Yoda walked towards her as she made her way over to the door. "Thank you, Sabé," he said. "A welcome break for them it was."
"It was my pleasure, Master Yoda."
As the two investigators left to prepare for a trip to Kamino, Obi-Wan heard a familiar voice in his head.
'Attachment is forbidden, Obi-Wan, but a bond of love you already share. Strengthen it, and do you credit it will.'
'Thank you, Master Yoda.'
"When do we leave for Kamino?" Sabé asked, hoping he wouldn't say she couldn't go with him.
"In the morning. Are we to stay in Senator Amidala's apartment?"
"If you like. All my things are there. You can have Dormé's room, she's moved to Padmé's now – decoy purposes. Do you need anything from here?"
"No." He was distracted, Sabé knew him well enough to realise that.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned.
He smiled at her. "Not at all. I suggest we use the spare time to rest, we may not get another chance if Kamino proves an effective lead."
"I agree," Sabé said, choosing to ignore the blatant subject change. "I don't think skirts would be a good idea either."
"No, I'm not going to wear mine," Obi-Wan said, somehow managing to keep a straight face.
Sabé swatted him on the arm and he nudged her back. They shared a smile and headed back to Padmé's apartment.
A/N: So Yoda knows everything, which isn't surprising considering the fact that he seems to in the movies. And they have his support. Why? You'll find out later : )