*sighs* My brain has this entire story mapped out...now I have to catch up to it dang it lol.
There might just be a second book!
Thank you for the reviews guys! I'm glad you like this! I didn't expect this one to get so much attention!
Please, continue to review and...
Enjoy!
Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme hesitantly entered the library, the blast of warm air from inside much preferred to the cold of winter. While taking in the spacious floor with wooden shelves all around them, a short woman with black hair pulled up into a bun approached the three.
"Can I help you with anything?" she asked Obi-Wan, who was standing in front. Obi-Wan gave her a pleasant smile.
"Nothing much. We're just killing a few hours until a friend gets off of work," he told her simply. The woman smiled brightly.
"That's no problem, take as long as you want," she said, already turning to leave. However, Obi-Wan decided he did in fact have a question.
"Well, I guess we could use some directions since we've never been here before," he told her half-apologetically. "I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of the history books? And these two would like to go to the teen hangout section our friend mentioned."
The woman nodded, still retaining her cheery smile. "Of course. The history books are all right there on your left, and the young adult section is in the far back, left corner. Magazines, instruction manuals, encyclopedias, do it yourself books, all those are in between the young adult section and the history. Adult fiction and nonfiction is on the right towards the back, and I think you can tell where the children's books are," she said with a small smile, indicating the brightly colored section that was just off to their left.
Obi-Wan nodded. "Thank you, that's all we need."
The librarian turned to sit behind the desk facing the front door. "Tell me if you need anything else."
Obi-Wan drifted over to the history section, surprised to find Padme following him while Anakin went to the back alone, probably deciding whatever was back there would be more interesting than history. At the curious look Obi-Wan gave her, Padme shrugged. "I might as well find out more about this place if we're going to be stuck here for a while."
Obi-Wan chuckled. "It seems we had the same thought."
Obi-Wan browsed through the books, picking out random books with titles like American History, World Wars I and II, Pop Culture: Then and Now, Economics (For Padme), a rather large dictionary, and a complete set of encyclopedias.
"There. This should last us a while," Obi-Wan grunted, holding all of the encyclopedias and the World Wars books while Padme held the other three. Padme chuckled, taking the two World War books off the top for him, easing his burden.
"Yes it should."
Aria sighed in relief, making a beeline towards the laptops in the corner the moment she was done with her assignment. While she waited impatiently for the stupid thing to turn on, she drummed her fingers on the desk in front of her, staring off into space as she tried to think what she needed to be looking up.
Probably some basics, just to give me a refresher. Galactic Standard Time, common phrases and exclamations, maybe look up some animals, study some of the Star Wars alphabet, the Aurebesh…
Aria jerked a little in her seat, earning strange looks and quips from her classmates that she expertly ignored. She hadn't even thought about the Aurebesh! Star Wars Basic might be the same as English in its spoken form, but she had come across the fact that it was completely different in written form: there was hardly any semblance to the English Alphabet. In fact, she had written her name with the Aurebesh out of sheer boredom one day before deciding to learn it.
So how had Anakin read the back of that action figure?
How the heck were they going to entertain themselves at a library?
The computer finished loading, and she immediately got on Google Chrome, pulling up Wookieepedia. Judgmental grumbles of 'Stupid Star Wars again' came from some of the classmates that could see her screen but, yet again, she ignored them.
She had some information to find and print off, both for her use and for the use of her three visitors.
As well as this mystery of how the three could read English when they'd never seen it before.
That was probably what had her puzzled the most.
Anakin harrumphed as a stack of books and magazines were rudely dropped on his stomach, interrupting his nap.
"What the kriff—?" he started to ask, shooting Obi-Wan a brief glare. "What was that for?"
Obi-Wan smiled a little and nodded towards the pile of books and magazines that had now slipped to the floor as Anakin sat up on the green couch he had spread out on. "I figured you might be interested in those. It'll give you something to do instead of sleeping for hours."
Anakin scowled, though quickly brightened when he realized the subject of the small collection Obi-Wan had thrown at him. They were all mechanics, flight, and some books on warriors from Earth's past. "Hey, these might actually be good."
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, we have to do something while we wait."
Anakin looked over at Padme, who had a book cracked open labeled Economics. Did she ever give herself a break from politics? Obi-Wan had cracked open a book labeled American History, and he had a huge stack of books all labeled Encyclopedia and one labeled Dictionary between him and Padme, probably to help them with anything they came across that they was partial to this Galaxy. Anakin sighed. He would probably end up having to use them too.
Normally the utter silence would have bothered him tremendously, but he was actually able to get into the material that Obi-Wan had brought him, intrigued with the level of technology the planet was at. He kept finding himself searching through the military aircrafts, though the book about the warriors of Earth was capturing his attention here and there as well.
"It seems this world has a lot of violent history," Obi-Wan murmured under his breath, scanning through the World War books and the American History book at the same time, possibly comparing something inside.
"I'm sure it's not as bad as some of our wars," Anakin scoffed.
"You'd be surprised," Obi-Wan mused. "This country had a civil war much like the conflict brewing in our galaxy right now, just one hundred and fifty years ago. It was over slavery: the northern part of the country was for abolishing it while the south wanted to keep it. Apparently, it is the highest casualty of Americans in this countries entire history, even counting the World Wars they were involved in."
Anakin had stiffened a little. "Who won?"
"The north. Slavery is illegal in this country."
"What about the others?"
Obi-Wan leaned over and grabbed an encyclopedia. "It is in…some of the poorer countries in this world…and in a few countries in a section of the world they call Asia…" Obi-Wan blanched a little. "They sell their children into slavery for money. Other than that, there's some illegal underground trafficking that the law enforcement battles against, but no slavery."
Anakin scowled darkly before turning back to his material. To him, it seemed even this lone planet in another galaxy seemed to deal with the issue of slavery better than the Republic back home.
Soon, Anakin had breezed through the material Obi-Wan had found for him; Obi-Wan had also finished his, and was currently putting the books back where he had found them. Anakin was stretched out on the couch, levitating one of the teen books in the air out of boredom. The title The Chronicles of Nick: Infinity grew larger and smaller as he brought it closer to his face and then pushed it back up towards the ceiling. Sensing Obi-Wan's return, however, Anakin quickly put the book back so that he wouldn't know that Anakin had been using the Force for entertainment. There was no way he wanted to hear that lecture.
Obi-Wan leaned around the corner, clearing his throat. "The librarian told me it's 11:25. We have to go back and meet Aria now."
Anakin swung off of the couch, brushing himself off. "Good, I think I was about to lose my mind from boredom."
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes as they all headed for the exit. "It was only five minutes."
"A very long five minutes," Anakin quipped with a small smile.
They all shivered as the cold air hit them, having grown accustomed to the warmth inside of the library.
"I forgot we had to eat outside with her," Anakin mumbled as they made their way down the street to the school.
"I hope she managed to smuggle some food, because I'm getting hungry," Padme quipped quietly.
Anakin nodded in agreement. His own stomach was starting to twist, rumbling quietly here and there. Hopefully what Aria found would be enough to sate him.
She was waiting for them under the canopy, huddled over a blue tray piled with food as if trying to stay warm. As they approached, she looked up, leaping to her feet with a smile. "Hey!" she greeted. "I got the food; they had tuna fish today."
Anakin eyed the sandwich she offered him wearily, gingerly taking his as she passed them out. "is it safe?" he asked.
Aria shrugged. "I like them. If you want something else there're pickles, I can break up the banana, there's chips, and fruit-flavored gummies," she rattled off, pointing at each food in turn.
They all took seats at the table, and Aria pulled out a folder, pulling out several papers. Anakin watched her, trying to figure out what she was doing.
"I was looking on Wookieepedia—" she started, but Anakin cut her off.
"Sorry, Wookiee what?" he asked.
Aria blushed. "Wookieepedia. It's an online encyclopedia for Star Wars. Like a database, accessible everywhere, and exclusively about Star Wars."
Anakin nodded slowly. "All right…I think I've got it."
Aria smiled a little, shuffling through her papers. "Anyway, I was scoping through there for just, basics, giving myself a refresher and such, and then I remembered this."
She put down four papers of the same image in front of them, and the three were confused to see that she had just put the Basic Aurebesh in on each paper.
"You have the Aurebesh, but we have the Alphabet. While you have aurek, we have a," she explained, pointing to the small symbol underneath aurek. "Besh is b, cresh is c…"
She continued along, going through the entire English alphabet.
"Obviously, though Basic and English is the same spoken…it's completely different written," she explained.
"Your point?" Anakin asked.
"How have you three been able to read what we have here? It's nothing you've ever came across before, so how have you been reading it flawlessly? I've been trying to figure this out since I came across it."
Obi-Wan ran a hand down his beard, pondering what she said, though she didn't give him much of a chance to throw out any ideas before she continued.
"I think…I read a book once where this girl found a hollow that allowed her to talk to a boy from the past, and they both spoke completely different languages, but something in the hollow allowed them to instantly understand each other's language, no interpretation needed. I was thinking perhaps something like that might be happening, but I thought I should tell you three just in case it's only temporary."
"Perhaps the Force is translating for us?" Anakin suggested.
Aria nodded in agreement. "Perhaps…you wouldn't mind staying at the library longer until I get out of school, right?"
Anakin groaned in response and Aria laughed. "Don't worry; it won't be as long this time, I swear."
Anakin nodded towards the other papers in Aria's folder. "And what are those?"
"Oh, right; most of its printed off stuff for me, these three copies of the Aurebesh are for you because they've got the English letter or symbol under each, just in case you find you need it. I went and searched for some stuff on traveling between galaxies. No guarantees, though perhaps you guys might be able to come up with something since you're ahead of technology than us." Aria paused, running a hand through her hair with a sigh. "Have any of you had any ideas how you got here?"
They all shook their head. "No…I just know that we both saw a reflection in the glass that looked like…well, you and your room. And when I reached out to touch it…the next thing I knew we were both in your room," Anakin exclaimed.
"I think…I might have come with him because I was holding his sleeve at the time, maybe," Padme said hesitantly.
"I experienced the same," Obi-Wan said. "There was an image of your room in the glass of my starfighter."
Aria ruffled her hair. "At least we know what happened before you came through…maybe the angle has something to do with it?"
Anakin shrugged. "We can figure it out whenever we're back at your home."
Aria sighed. "Yeah, I guess we can't figure it out until then. Thankfully if we can figure out how you came through, maybe we can find out how to send you back."
Obi-Wan nodded. "That would be much appreciated. I was on the tail of the bounty hunter trying to assassinate Senator Amidala."
Aria nodded. "Jango Fett? Yeah; lucky you got that tracker on the ship."
"In my experience—"
"There's no such thing as luck," Aria finished with a grin. "Yeah, I know, but still."
Obi-Wan shifted uncomfortably. "That's very disconcerting you know."
Aria blushed. "Sorry, I don't mean to make anyone uncomfortable."
Anakin leaned forward. "So are we going to be allowed to watch one of these Star Wars movies?"
Aria picked at her fingers, thinking. Somehow, Anakin was able to retain some patience as he waited for her reply.
"Possibly…when we get home perhaps…I'll have to see about it." She looked up at each of them. "It's directly around the entire Naboo blockade. That entire span of time."
Anakin noticed the way she held Obi-Wan's gaze, and he realized that Qui-Gon's death must be in the movie.
Obi-Wan seemed to realize the same thing, but he nodded. "Okay…we'll watch it when we return to your place."
Anakin sat back, satisfied. "Good. I'd like to see these movies."
"It's the only one you're going to see," Aria said, her voice suddenly terse. Anakin blinked at her tone, a little thrown off. What was so bad about these movies?
She sighed, rubbing her eyes as they picked off the rest of her tray. "I hope I can make it through the rest of the school day. The last four hours are always the hardest to stay awake during…"
"When are you out?" Anakin asked. How much more time do I have to sleep in the library?
"Three fifteen," she informed him. "I'll pick you up right away and we'll head right to work. We can talk there until I'm done, then we'll go home."
"Where do you work?"
"I clean at our local clinic. My boss is amazing, you'll be fine don't worry."
The bell rang and Aria jumped, rattling the table as her knee slammed against the bottom of the table. She cursed but kept moving, grabbing the now empty tray. "I've got to go. You three might want to head back to the library before someone sees you and mistakes you for someone else or calls the law enforcement for some reason. I'll pick you up as soon as I'm out, I promise!"
Before they could say anything she turned and rushed inside, and they made their way back to the library, eager to be out of the cold once more.
"Well, I'm going to sleep. You two can keep reading if you want, but I'm sleeping," Anakin grumbled.
"I might just join you," Padme said grimly.
Obi-Wan shook his head. "I'm going to study this English Alphabet and try to memorize it."
Anakin sighed. "Sure Master, you do that while we get some rest."
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "It might do you some good to learn it too."
"I'll learn it some other time. I need the rest; I didn't sleep that well last night."
Obi-Wan sighed. "Fine, fine, if you insist."
Anakin smirked. It was about time he won a dispute between his master and him.
