Chapter 4
Into the ocean
5 ½ MONTHS BEFORE
When Obi-Wan woke up, he was surprised to find himself in a very well furnished room. Beneath him was the most comfortable bed he had ever been in. Covering him were some of the softest blankets he had ever had the pleasure of touching and on the ornate night stand beside him, laid a tray filled with a large variety of breakfast foods.
One look out the window, told Obi-Wan that he was in space; hyperspace to be precise. Pulling off the covers and sitting on the edge of the bed, soft slippers met his feet. He stood up and walked over to the window.
This was definitely confusing. Who had taken him? And why?
They couldn't be friendly, could they? They had after all chased him down, sent a dart into his neck, and taken him from the Temple. What then? Who had taken him?
"I hope you like the accommodations," came a voice behind him.
Turning around, Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed.
"Xanatos."
"You remember?! Great! That makes it so much easier," Xanatos said, with fake enthusiasm. "I thought I was going to have to remind you of the terrible things your Master has done, and all that horrible business," he walked over to the tray of food and picked up a piece of fruit. "I've always had a thing for muja fruit" he then ate the fruit.
Obi-Wan remained silent.
"What, no words of defiance? No threats of your dear master coming to save you?" Xanatos pulled out a lightsaber from his belt. It was Obi-Wan's. Then using the lightsaber to emphasize his words he continued. "Cause I doubt that will be the case."
Inside Obi-Wan was cringing. How could he have forgotten to check himself for his lightsaber when he woke?
"The silent type," He smiled. "They're always the dangerous ones. I should know being one."
Obi-Wan had to roll his eyes at that. Xanatos was being anything but silent right now.
He took another fruit. "You really should eat this. It's quite good," Xanatos said.
Obi-Wan looked mistrustfully at the food. Noticing this Xanatos sighed dramatically.
"I haven't poisoned it, I'm eating it for force sakes!" Xanatos exclaimed. "As fun as this has been, I really have other things to do, so if you don't mind…"
He paused looking at Obi-Wan for an answer, but got nothing.
"Wonderful, I'll check on you later," he made to leave the room but turned around one last time. "I expect that tray to be empty when I come back. I don't want my investment decreasing his value on me," and then with a cocky smile, he was gone.
PRESENT
"Took you long enough" Tahl remarked, when Qui-Gon finally showed up.
Shock took over Qui-Gon's face only to be replaced with anger seconds later.
"What are you doing here?" He said annoyed. "I told you I was leaving, you can't change my mind."
He made to pass her by on his way to the ship, but, reaching out, she grabbed his arm and stopped him.
"I'm not here about that," Tahl said somberly. "It's about Obi-Wan. You have to come back."
Qui-Gon ignored her and began to prepare his ship for takeoff.
Pushing on, Tahl continued, "He's gone," She stated simply.
Qui-Gon turned his back on her.
At this Tahl crossed her arms angrily.
"Don't you care?!"
Qui-Gon turned around glared at her.
"You didn't have to come here," He said.
"Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan's alive! Don't you want to find him?"
"I already know where he is," Qui-Gon said quietly.
Tahl was speechless, "How?"
Qui-Gon's anger faded away at the concerned look on his friends face.
"He came to me."
Tahl frowned at this revelation, but before she could speak, a low pinging noise caught her attention. Reaching down to her belt, Tahl pulled off her comlink.
Turning away, she answered it.
"Master Yoda?"
"Look to the Holonet you must," he said getting right to business. "Grave news it is."
"Yes Master."
"Found Qui-Gon have you?"
"Yes, he's here with me now."
"Then return quickly you must."
"Yes Master."
"Then Go."
With that, the transmission was over.
"What was that about?" Bant asked.
With the arrival of Qui-Gon, Tahl had almost forgotten Bant was there.
"It was Master Yoda," Tahl said looking from her to Qui-Gon. "He said that we need to get back right away."
"Did he say why?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Well other than the obvious." She said looking right at him, "He said that we should watch the Holonet."
"Where is your ship?"
"It's at the other space port" Bant replied.
"Does it have Holonet capability?"
Tahl nodded.
"Well then, I'll meet you there."
"Right" Tahl replied, then she and Bant left. Time was of the essence and as Qui-Gon's one man ship couldn't carry them all, the two had to walk. Without the distraction of searching for Qui-Gon to slow them down it took just under an hour reach the other spaceport and their waiting ship.
Just as he had said, Qui-Gon was there waiting, standing next to their ship, his own ship parked right next to it.
"How did you know that this was ours?" Tahl asked slightly confused.
"I had a hunch," Qui-Gon said, a small smile on his face.
Taking that as a good sign that Qui-Gon was in a better mood, Tahl gestured for him and Bant to follow her onto the ship.
Seating themselves in the main hold of the ship, Tahl pulled up the Holonet and sat back to watch.
"Well obviously this has to be the work of a Jedi. I mean cauterized wounds? What other weapon can do that? I assure you, no blaster could"
"That was Kai Nyman, head of the Coruscant police force remarking on the terrible deaths of two important political figures in the senate this morning. With the gathered evidence, the Jedi have been implicated in what is now being called an assassination. So far the Jedi have yet to respond to this claim. We now take you to the scene where mass riots have broken out in outrage over the deaths and the Jedi's possible involvement."
The scene shifted. In the streets of Coruscant, angry citizens were yelling and waving their hands in anger. Several signs had been erected and were displaying both, for, and against, messages about the Jedi and the deaths.
"As you can see the streets are in uproar over the situation-" Suddenly the video comlink was taken from the reporter.
"The Jedi did this; we need get rid of them! They're so high and mighty, now they're killers for hire-" Once again the video comlink changed hands as the reporter managed to recover it from the crazed man.
Tahl turned it off, disgusted.
"We should go," Qui-Gon said.
Tahl nodded.
Without saying anything more, the Jedi each went to their respective ships and prepared for takeoff. Something was brewing on Coruscant and the faster they got there the faster they could help to solve it.
"Assign you, we do, to this task" Yoda said, gravely. "Find the assassin you must. Dangerous whoever this is, to the Jedi."
"This must be done quickly before more damage can take place and more deaths," Mace said.
Standing in the center of the council room, surrounded by the members of the Jedi Council, Qui-Gon, Tahl, and Bant stood.
Tahl and Bant looked conflicted. "What about Obi-Wan?"
"After this crisis is averted, then find Obi-Wan you will," Yoda answered. "But not until after, solve this, you do."
Yoda looked at Qui-Gon conveying that there was more to what he was he saying than met the eye.
Showing his understanding, Qui-Gon nodded.
"May the force be with you." Mace said, effectively closing the meeting.
Qui-Gon, Tahl, and Bant nodded, then left the room.
Once they were out in the hall and away from the prying eyes of the council, Tahl turned on Qui-Gon.
"What about Obi-Wan?" she questioned.
Qui-Gon sighed.
"Yoda thinks this is connected."
"Why didn't he say so?" Bant asked.
"Because he is Yoda," Qui-Gon answered walking on.
Tahl shared a look of annoyance with Bant before they too walked on.
"Vidar Taria," Qui-Gon said. "Joint owner of Holowan Laboratories and Senator to Hypori."
"Holowan Laboratories…what do they do?" Tahl asked. "They sound familiar."
The two were currently in the temple archives doing research, at the information terminals, into the murders of the two senators.
"Assassin droid development," Qui-Gon thought out loud.
Tahl slowly nodded her head.
"Creation gone bad?"
He looked to Tahl.
"I don't think so," she replied.
"What have you found?"
She turned to her screen.
"All I've found about Senator Trebor Kalpana was that he represented Katarr," she shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing controversial about him. He wasn't a part of any other organizations or particularly out spoken, however beloved he was."
"Katarr…" Qui-Gon paused, thinking. Then he did a search on it. "I've heard of that planet before..."
A moment later, the requested information appeared on the screen.
"Look at this," he said, "Katarr is especially known for the amount of force sensitive people in its population. Many Jedi have come from there."
"Looks like these two deaths are anything but connected with each other," Tahl said dismissively.
"But they were killed by the same weapon," Qui-Gon said, "And on the same day. Whoever is behind this, wanted to make a point. There has to some kind of connection."
"We've waited long enough," Tahl said. "Let's go to the scene and do our own investigating".
Qui-Gon nodded.
Tahl reached to her belt and pulled out her comlink. Calling Bant, who she had sent to their apartment to get some sleep, she told her to meet them at the entrance.
"Let's go."
They were in.
It had taken a while, what with the rioting crowds in the streets and their obvious Jedi attire, but they were in. First to be searched was the office of Senator Taria. His office was very ornate and featured an elegant balcony. However, contrary to the beauty was the general disorder that had been left behind the wake of the occupant's murder. From the upturned furniture and the slew of flimsies covering the floor, it looked like the senator had put up quite a fight.
"His main computer was taken," Tahl said searching the desk. "Now what?"
Bant was lurking around the edges of the room, looking through the various objects that had been displaced while Qui-Gon was sifting through the various flimsies on the floor.
"These papers are nothing but future schedules of meetings," Qui-Gon said "Looks like someone knew what they were doing when they killed this man."
"You're sure the security officers said that this room was untouched right?" Tahl asked.
"His mind showed the truth," Qui-Gon reasoned.
"Master," Bant said, standing up triumphantly. "A data pad."
Tahl left the desk and took the small object from her hands. Upon doing a short search, Tahl's eyes slowly got bigger. Looking to Qui-Gon she spoke.
"Qui-Gon, this man had connections to Xanatos."
Qui-Gon stood and took the datapad from Tahl and read through it.
"What would Xanatos want from him?" Tahl asked.
After a few moments of studying, Qui-Gon replied.
"Looks like Xanatos was pushing for a sort of merger between his company and the senator's."
"How could that possibly benefit him?" Tahl asked.
"I don't know, but the senator obviously wasn't going to go through it." Qui-Gon answered. "And whatever his purpose is, it must have been worth killing to achieve."
Tahl looked grim. "Let's go search the other office."
Following Tahl, they wove through the many hallways and levels until they had arrived at the office of Senator Trebor Kalpana. Upon entering, they found a sharp contrast from the previous office. While moderately large, the office lacked the sheer display of money that the other had so blatantly put forth. The furniture was simple, and the room clean. No papers littered the floor, and the desk was devoid of ornamentation.
"This guy was into minimalism wasn't he?" Bant remarked. "Not much to see."
"Just wait," Qui-Gon replied, moving to the desk.
He began to search through the drawers while Tahl moved to exam the opposite side of the room where, judging by the blaster burns on the wall, the fight had taken place.
Bant simply followed her master and observed.
After a few minutes of quiet examination, Qui-Gon broke the silence.
"This is too easy," He said holding a similar datapad to the one they had found previously.
"Hold on," Tahl was taking a sample of blood she had found on the walls. Carefully scrapping the dried up substance, she placed it between two small pieces of glass and then plugged it into her comlink. The Jedi always carried blood sampling kits. Quickly sending off the data to the Temple, she went to Qui-Gon.
"What's on it?" she asked.
"A Proposal," Qui-Gon said reading. "Asking for access to the planet's people."
"That's a bit demanding," Tahl observed. "Who wanted the access?"
Just then her comlink beeped. Qui-Gon looked at her.
"It's just a blood sample I took," She said answering his look and pulling out her comlink. "It's probably too much to hope for that the assassin got hurt in the process and left his blood behind, but I just had to try."
Both of the Jedi Masters went silent, looking at their respective information. After a few moments Qui-Gon spoke.
"It's Xanatos. Another person is mentioned too, but not by name," He turned to Tahl. She had a look of shock on her face.
"Tahl," Qui-Gon said worriedly. "What is it? What did you find?"
"It's Obi-Wan," she said unsurely. "The blood is Obi-Wan's."
Before Qui-Gon could reply, however, someone made an unwelcome entrance. "I Knew I'd find you here."
"Xanatos" Qui-Gon and Tahl growled.