AN: Yes, here comes another chapter. A big thanks to the-writer1988 for the correction of the spelling and grammar mistakes in the older chapters. And also a big thanks to all the people who reviewed. It's always good to get feedback. Enjoy!
Chapter 4
It was cold in the spaceship. Like it was always out in space. The last times he was in space, he did not realize it in the heat of various battles, but now, with Obi-Wan missing, it seemed as if the cold of space and the shivers of fear melted together to a big glacier around his heart.
At least he was not alone on this journey. Ahsoka's presence was comforting. It was as if he concentrated more on his Padawan when he did not want to concentrate too much on his Master. Anakin was distracted by her presence and that helped him more than he would admit. If he had been alone in the shuttle, thinking of what could happen to Obi-Wan, or worse, what could already have happened to him, he would go down the same dark spiral he already had when he thought that Obi-Wan was dead.
He was sure that Yoda, that conspiratorial little troll, had sent Ahsoka with him on full purpose. He had no idea how that gundark managed it, but Yoda seemed to be able to look inside his head with an alarming easiness. Ahsoka was here to distract him, but she was also here as some kind of insurance for the Council. They knew that he would not go head over heels into danger if she was at his side. Damn Jedi Council. They didn't think he was capable of finding Obi-Wan and reporting back? Well, he surely was, he was not a youngling anymore. He was very well capable of doing what he was told.
"Master?" Ahsoka interrupted his thoughts "You`re brooding again. It's only five minutes till we come out of hyperspace."
"Thank you, Snips."
"Obi-Wan will be fine. He gets out of every sort of situation, you said that yourself."
"Yes Snips, I know...it's just that he is alone out there. And after the last encounter with Maul, he was pretty battered. I know that he can normally look out for himself, but this situation is anything but normal, even for his standards."
"I'm sure he will manage. And we will find him. Didn't you say that you had to make the he-saved-your-live you-saved-his-life count even again? That's a good opportunity, isn't it?"
Anakin smirked. He had nearly forgotten that game between him and his Master. Even if they had differing opinions on what counted as life-saving. But that was only once. He decided that when he found Obi-Wan, he would withdraw the incident on Cato Nemoidia from his list.
That moment, they came out of hyperspace. It was a small solar system, there was only one inhabitable planet and many asteroids flying around.
Nevertheless there was a small fuel station in the orbit of the planet. It looked like one of these gyros he played with as a kid. The station had a particle shield. He saw that when an asteroid nearly collided with the station, but disappeared in a hail of fire before it could hit the station.
"We'll try that space station," Anakin said. "You'll contact them for docking clearance."
"Yes, Master."
Anakin flew the shuttle toward the station, avoiding two asteroids on the way. It was almost funny how inert and slow they were. The last times he was in space, he had to avoid much faster and much deadlier things. The asteroids seemed so unimpressed by the war that they could nearly be envied.
Soon, they were docking on the station and Anakin went to leave the shuttle with Ahsoka.
Two green-skinned Rodians greeted them. One of them spoke, stretching the words a little longer than they should be:
"Welcome at our space station, I am Reeno and this is Tar-Ho. We are the owners of this station. What can we do for you?"
"We need some information about your recent customers," Anakin answered.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but we do not interfere in the private business of our customers, I'm afraid we can't help you."
Anakin didn't like that answer, and neither did Ahsoka. He decided to put his cards on the table. He shifted his posture a bit, so that the Rodians could get a glimpse of his lightsaber.
"We are only interested in the business of the Republic, so you better answer our questions."
The Rodians exhanged a probably worried look, it was hard to tell with these big dark eyes of them, but they seemed to agree. Reeno was presumably the speaker of the two, for he spoke again:
"Well, that is something different, I guess. What do you want to know?"
"We are looking for two Zabraks who refueled here," Anakin told them.
"Zabraks? What is - "
"Two tattooed and horned guys," Ahsoka interrupted in her blunt way. "One black and red, the other one black and yellow. And the red one has robot legs."
Tar-Ho's and Reeno's expressions changed and they nodded.
"Yes, they were actually here a standard day ago. They were pretty scary. I was relieved when they departed again," Reeno said, confirming Anakin's suspicion that he was the speaker.
"Did they have somebody with them?"
"Not that I know, but maybe there was somebody on the ship. We have always done well in not meddling with our customers private business, so we don't know if they travelled with somebody."
Yeah, Anakin already knew that. If people were not strong enough to fight against evil, they simply let it happen, trying not to attract attention. But he could not resent their attitude. On Tatooine, nearly all the slaves lived their lives after that mantra. As soon as you stood out, it could get dangerous for you.
The ice around his heart seemed to stretch its fingers further inside. Anakin slowly saw his chances of finding Obi-Wan slide, but he was not ready to give up yet.
"And did they mention anything? Like some place they wanted to go?"
"Well, after the few dismissive words the robot-legged guy said to us, we let the droids do the work and kept a safe distance."
The ice now bore inside his heart, but instead of cold, he felt hot anger spread through his body. Cowards. It were people like them who dragged the war on. People like them he was fighting for every day, but they were not even aware of it and if you asked them, they would say: I did not want anybody to fight a war for me. Fierfek, they were in the Republic and they should be happy about it. They did not have any guess about how life could be. But instead of supporting the Republic, they preferred to stay neutral. And so the war had to go on. He had lost so much during that war. And now he could probably again loose one of the most important person in his life. And these two Rodians were responsible for it.
Ahsoka looked at him, aghast. And then he realized. He had done it again. Instead of releasing his feelings into the Force, he nearly let them take over. Suddenly, all his anger vanished. Realizing that one walked quite too near the dark side of the Force could cool down somebody better than a blizzard on Hoth. He collected himself, gave Ahsoka a reassuring forced smile and continued his questions more composedly.
"Okay. Do you have any means to monitor your customers? Even if you don't meddle in your customer's business, if they double-cross you, you should be able to realize it and recognize them later. So?"
The two Rodians exchanged some words in their language, then Reeno answered:
"Yes, we do have a surveillance system. It records the whole station. But it is only visual. And you are lucky that you came so soon. Tomorrow, the video would have been overwritten by the new recordings. I'll show you."
The two Jedi walked in the dull gray corridors behind the Rodian duo. Anakin didn't want to be too hopeful for he couldn't bear the disappointment should the holograms be of no use. However, he had a spark of hope again.
Ahsoka apparently knew what he was feeling and did not disturb his thoughts with talk. Or she was still concerned of his earlier emotional outburst. It had been nothing visible, but she was connected to him over the Force, and the Force was a much more accurate indicator for emotions than the eye. He would have to talk to her about it later. Or let Obi-Wan do it. Anakin never liked the theoretical lectures about the Force, whereas his Master could barely be stopped when he began lecturing about the different disquisitions some ancient Jedi Masters made about the Force and its connection to emotions. He just had to find him in time.
They were now entering doors with a security code. Inside was what seemed to be all the mechanical stuff of the station. The room was stuffed with control boards for gravity, air-circulation, lighting, the security-system and much more. Tar-Ho went to a console, and after a short time, a holovideo of the station appeared on top of the console.
He fast-forwarded the vid until an old freighter appeared. Anakin saw the two Sith disembark and talk to two smaller versions of the Rodians. Then the Rodians went away and a large fueling-droid went to the ship's filler cap. After short time, the robot went back to the station and the Sith departed.
But Anakin had seen something. The Sith talked to each other. There had to be something useful in their conversation. It was his only hope.
"We need a copy of the whole part with the Zabraks," he said when he saw the ship in the video fly away.
Tar-Ho fiddled a little with his console and put the video on Ahsoka's datapad.
"That would be all, thank you for your help."
After that and some bland regards, the Jedi made a formal bow and left two relieved Rodians.
On board of the shuttle, Anakin quickly took the part of the video that he wanted, enlarged it and put it in a loop.
"So, you know somebody who can lip-read?" Ahsoka asked "I mean, we don't even know if they speak Basic or some Zabrak language."
"I know. Call Padme."
Ahsoka looked unconvinced, but did as he asked. "I didn't know that Padme could lip-read," she cautiously inquired.
"Oh, she can't, but there is somebody else who can," Anakin grinned.
A hologram appeared. Like Anakin assumed, it was not Padme, but C-3PO. Before the robot had any chance to greet him, Anakin spoke:
"Threepio, I need your help. Can you tell me what these two Zabraks are talking about?" He pointed at the hologram playing beside him.
"Master Anakin. What a pleasure to see you," C-3PO could obviously not override his cordiality circuits, but then he watched the video and analyzed:
"There are 364 possibilities of what they say, depending on the language. There are 254 languages that would accord with - "
"Just try Basic and Zabraki," Anakin interrupted before the robot could gain momentum.
"There is a 98 percent possibility that they speak Basic and a 6 percent possibility for Zabraki."
"Good. Tell us what they say in Basic."
"They seem to talk about their next goal. One asks the other where they will go now. The other one tells him that they will go to a planet, where he did a part of his training. He is asked again where exactly they will go and he says Tiiar-32 or TER-32, I am not able to differ. He also tells him that they will continue his training there, and then the other agrees."
Anakin felt as if a whole load of stones and ice fell from his heart. He finally had a location to search for Obi-Wan. Ahsoka looked similarly relieved.
"Thank you, Threepio," she beamed.
"Yeah, thank you, you were a great help. And send Padme my regards," Anakin added.
"I am always glad to be of assistance. Senator Amidala is currently in a Senate meeting, but I will -"
The robot was again interrupted when Anakin simply hang off. As happy as he was about the help, he still had to find Obi-Wan and he was in a pretty hurry. Ahsoka cast him an indignant glance, but she already had gathered information on her datapad.
"I've found the planet TER-32, it's not listed as inhabitable planet. The file says that it will be destroyed in about 500 years, and for that, nobody seems to be interested in it."
"Good. Enter the course and then contact the Council. We will find Obi-Wan."
It felt good to finally have a trace to follow. All the previous uncertainties vanished and he had something to concentrate on. But at the back of his mind, one thought still gnawed at him: The Sith had not lost a single word about Obi-Wan.
