Whispers of Menace
A Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Alternate Universe
Chapter Thirteen:
Arrival on Coruscant and Unpleasant News
The moment Anakin felt the cruiser shift back into normal space, he jumped, a puzzled frown forming. I explained the sensation, and then he couldn't wait to get to the cockpit, wanting to watch everything as it happened. The pilot, Ric Olie, was quite happy to have an appreciative and inquisitive audience.
"It's the capital of the Republic," he was telling my Padawan. "The whole planet is one big city." We'd begun our final approach, with clearance to land on a high-security Senate platform. The light from the distant sun glistened, reflecting off the myriad buildings below.
"Wow! It's so huge!"
"That it is," I agreed. "And yet there are neighborhoods that are as closely knit as any in Mos Espa."
The Jedi Temple was just visible on the horizon when we set down, its five towers soaring into the sky. I pointed it out to the small blond as Olie initiated a systems shutdown.
"Are you coming or not?" Obi-Wan asked, leaning around the edge of the hatch.
"And to think, just a week ago I thought you were patient," I retorted, shaking a finger at him and grinning. Still, when he turned around, Ani and I were right behind him. The Queen—and it really was Padmé under the elaborate veneer this time—insisted that the Jedi disembark first.
Senator Palpatine, Naboo's own representative to the galactic government, had shown up to receive the Queen and her retinue, and to my surprise, the Chancellor was with him. The boy was careful to copy my bow of respect to the politicians, and then all but hid behind me when we stepped aside.
"It is a great relief to see you alive, Your Majesty," the Senator said when his monarch emerged, a pleased smile on his face that somehow didn't seem to reach his eyes. He waved a hand toward his political superior. "May I present Supreme Chancellor Valorum."
"Welcome, Your Highness." How peculiar that his greeting sounded so much more sincere than Palpatine's. I'd expected it to be the other way around. "It is an honor to finally meet you in person. I must relay to you how distressed everyone is over the current situation. I've called for a special session of the Senate to hear your position."
"I am grateful for your concern, Chancellor." Padmé's voice had acquired a resonant and clipped tone that likely helped disguise precisely who was underneath the makeup. But now that I was more familiar with her specific Force-signature, I could clearly tell that there was no shell game in play at the moment. She chanced a quick glance at me, and my eyes-only nod was meant to assure her that I would be taking good care of the youngling she was growing so very fond of. Moments later, the Senator began guiding her to a luxurious air taxi.
Jar Jar started to follow them, but then hesitated, only to be encouraged by both Qui-Gon and the Queen. He looked terribly nervous as the vehicle pulled away from the platform. Now, only the four of us, the Chancellor, and his ceremonial guards remained.
"Is the situation as bad as I feared, Master Jinn?" Interesting that the humans had been hand-picked for this job.
"It may be worse, Your Honor. We must speak with the High Council as soon as possible. The situation has become… much more complicated." A shuttle with Temple markings showed up then, as promptly as I could have ever asked. To my surprise, though, it already had a passenger.
"Serra! Thank the Force you're all right." Aunt Shaak wrapped me in an uncharacteristic hug as soon as the doors had closed. "I've been worried sick, especially the last two days."
"What's happened?" I asked, puzzled by her odd behavior. "Was Danni hurt?" My cousin—once removed—had been at the Temple for two years now, and she was rapidly gaining a reputation for taking even more risks than I had at her age… and I'd been considered a very troublesome Initiate indeed.
"No, no, she's fine." The Togruta Master took a deep breath before meeting my gaze with sorrow. "You were right to be troubled by your Master's absence these last few months. His… his remains were found on Nar Shaddaa earlier this week, and arrived just an hour ago."
"Oh, no…" Jedi or not, the news brought me close to tears. "Oh, Master, why?" I whispered. "Why now, when I could use your advice so much?"
"The strangest thing is that the surrounding evidence indicates that he was murdered about two months ago, but he… He appears to have been dead less than twenty-four hours. He's still locked in rigor, with no decay at all. The healers have tried, but they can't move so much as a finger."
Okay, that was bizarre beyond words.
"Master?" Ani touched the back of my hand, and I put my arm around him, so very glad to have our bond now.
"Aunt, this is my new Padawan," I said with a sheepish smile, "Anakin Skywalker. Ani, my aunt, Master Shaak Ti. You may certainly call me Serra in front of her." At her perplexed glare, I shrugged. "I didn't deliberately start the bond, and it's thanks to him that we even made it back. He won both the parts we needed and his freedom." Her eyes widened and she subtly mouthed the word 'slave.' I nodded.
"The Council is not going to be pleased."
"Of course not," was my flippant reply. "When have they ever been pleased with me?" Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan both chuckled.
"Too true," Aunt Shaak conceded. "The healers wanted you to come to the infirmary as soon as you returned." She frowned in thought. "If the report on the mission can wait half an hour or so…?" Master Jinn nodded. "You go appease the healers, and I'll take Anakin to the quartermasters' offices so they can start getting him squared away. Maybe a set of robes will help, ah, decrease the Council's ire a bit when you see them."
"Would that be all right with you, Ani?" He nodded shyly and offered my father's sister a hand as we landed on the Temple's shuttle pad. "You two go do that, then, and if I haven't found you by the time you're done, head for the healers' wing." ~He's from Tatooine,~ I projected, and Aunt Shaak nodded.
"Comm me when you're both ready, would you?" Qui-Gon asked. "That way we can all report to the Council at once. And I'm sure they'll forgive us, at least, for a stop to change into fresh clothes." I was already halfway out the hatch, but gave the older Master a thumbs-up anyway.
The infirmary was only a short jog from the hangars in order to get injured Jedi treated quickly upon arrival, and the Padawan at the receiving desk took one look at me before listing off a room number. My facial markings, and possibly my distinctively-colored robes, had probably been described or shown to him; no two Togruta have quite the same pattern of white on the red skin of our faces. I was just happy that it enabled me to continue on to the proper cubicle without stopping. Inside, a curtain had been drawn around the bed, and the healer trainee who had been waiting stopped me gently before I could pull it back.
"It's not pleasant, Knight Ti," she warned. "We've only been able to clean him up slightly, but I'm hoping you'll be able to help with whatever's keeping him frozen as he is."
"I understand." And she was right, because the sight of my Master's body was disturbing. He'd curled up, halfway into a fetal position, his arms above his head protectively. A terrible rictus of pain marred his ageless features.
I hesitated briefly before reaching out with my left hand to take his own. Left-dominance had been just one of the many traits we'd shared. My skin touched his, rust-red to unmoving pallor, and the physical world seemed to vanish.
For a single, brief, awful moment, I felt what he had at the end: great pain in his side, lesser hurts elsewhere, and the sizzle of high-voltage electricity liberally seasoned with Dark Side energy. The next instant, that was all gone, and a colorless mist surrounded me. My Master stood in front of me, looking much as he had the last time I'd seen him alive.
"Serra." He beamed at me, pride in me easy to recognize. "I'm so sorry that I have to leave you now, of all times, when you will need help to train the Chosen One, the Son of the Suns. Master Dooku, Master Jinn, and young Kenobi are probably the best Jedi you know that you can turn to instead of me, and they will, in turn, help link you to others who may be as family to you both."
"Wait, Chosen One?" Everyone learned about the Prophecy of Balance before they were Knighted. "Ani? He doesn't need a burden like that! He'll have enough to deal with as it is, coming to the Temple at his age!"
"I would not recommend letting the boy know that he is part of a prophecy that has been known for millennia, but you must tell the High Council. Invoking the Confidentiality provision should keep the knowledge contained; he doesn't need an inflated ego to go with his tremendous potential." I started to frown. Oddly, it felt like watching a prerecorded message.
"Knowing this, being forewarned, is a poor substitute for your presence in our lives, Master."
"I am tying as much of my willpower as possible to my body so that I can be sure you will see this. You were right to doubt that the Sith had disappeared quite as completely as the record states. I've encountered and am currently fighting one, and it is to our benefit that he seems to enjoy pontificating. He has informed me that they have stayed out of sight by strictly limiting their numbers to two, a Master and an Apprentice. This one, an older human male, is the Master, and he has a disturbing proficiency at hiding even his ability to use the Force, let alone the Dark Side. Force lightning appears to be one of his favorite weapons, and he wants power, the more the better. I've only gotten a glimpse of his Apprentice, who had yellow-red eyes and black and red stripes, though I don't understand the stripes at all; they may be anything relating to the Apprentice.
"I know that what leads you to your Padawan involves bringing a Queen to Coruscant. She is in the gravest danger, and when she goes home, you and the others who brought her need to be with her. If you can talk the Council into sending additional Jedi with you, do so. But if only one or two go back, there will be a death.
"Remember, Serra, that I love you as though you were my own daughter, and if there is any way for me to watch over you from within the Force, I will."
"I love you, too, Master," I whispered as the vision faded, leaving me in the infirmary with my Master's physical shell limp on the bed. I slowly released his hand, tears filling my eyes and spilling down my cheeks.
"Knight Ti?" I turned and saw the young Mon Calamari woman who had been there when I arrived looking at me with concern. "Are you all right? For a moment, you looked like you were caught up in a trance."
I mopped my eyes with the soft sleeve of my cloak, resisting the urge to blow my nose into it. A few tears were one thing, but snot was something else entirely. The trainee quickly handed me a tissue.
"He… he left me a final message," I finally managed to tell her. "I know it's probably a lot to ask, but if the funeral could possibly be arranged for tonight…?" Then I remembered why she seemed familiar: she was one of Obi-Wan's friends, Bant Eerin. She shook her head.
"I highly doubt it. The senior healers will want to do an autopsy, find the cause—"
"He had some severe internal injuries, but what killed him was electrocution." She blinked, startled.
"But there are no contact burns evident."
"Force lightning would leave no contact burns." I sighed. "Anything you can do, Bant, please. Queen Amidala may want to return to Naboo at any moment, and I need to be with her when she goes. If it's not tonight, it may have to wait some time."
"I'll do what I can, Knight Ti, though I don't expect much." With a small smile, I gave her a slight bow of thanks and left.
I didn't encounter Aunt Shaak or Ani in the corridors, but finally found the former in the waiting area at the quartermasters.
"Thanks for the warning," she said immediately. "They did have a hard time getting him clean, even knowing that he was used to desert living. Anakin's in fitting right now, and probably being measured for his full kit." Then she smiled. "You lucked out, Serra. He's been very well-behaved."
"Hah. That will last until he gets used to being free. I'll be dragging him away from under-city swoop races in five months."
"You mean the ones you don't take him to yourself." My aunt shook her head. "I'm guessing that the gear in his braid is mechanics-related. He's earned three decorations in only a few days?"
"Well, winning his freedom piloting a podracer he'd built from parts others had chucked out… He beat Sebulba." I chuckled at the Master's startled expression. "The glassine is for piloting, and the chromium for gaining his freedom. He built a protocol droid, too, to help his mother. Only needed a skin when we left, and it has an impressive memory core with a code-accessed backup." I stopped elaborating, remembering that my relative wouldn't be able to follow the technical jargon very well. "He's as good as or better than I am."
All discussion halted then, because a door whooshed open and Anakin peered around the frame. His eyes lit up when he saw me, and that was apparently all the confidence boost he needed. I was pleased that someone had put some thought into selecting his garments. Instead of the usual bland off-whites, his outer tunic and tabards were a uniform gray, his trews darker like mine, a black belt and adjustable boots, and blue-gray for his inner tunic and obi. We nearly matched.
"Now hang on a moment there, youngling," a soft but definitely male voice said. "Let's not forget your cloak. You'll be glad to have it while you're acclimating." A young Omwati man appeared in the door with a miniature version of my cloak in hand.
"Thank you, sir," Ani said as he drew the fabric around himself. Then he grinned and trotted over to me, leaning against my side.
"It's good to see that you finally have a Padawan, Knight Ti," the young man added. "Anything you've ruined lately?"
"An inner tunic and a pair of trews," I muttered, feeling my face heat. "It wasn't as though they had any coveralls on board." ~How embarrassing.~ Someone must be warning new hires in Procurement about my wardrobe malfunctions, and it was spreading. "If that's all you need from Anakin right now…"
"No, go on. We'll deliver everything to your new quarters as it's ready. His new boots will be ready by morning. And you need more space than the closet you've been in, now that you have someone else to look after."
"Thank you." That was one more thing out of the Council's hands, then. Otherwise, we might have had to try to cram together on my old room's tiny bed; no way would I have asked my pal to sleep on the floor, and there wasn't enough area for me to lay down there, either.
"I'll supervise the move for you," my aunt offered. "You two scat. The sticks-in-the-mud are likely bad enough already. No need for any further delays."
"Not with the news we bring, no," I agreed. It took only a few moments to bring up Qui-Gon's frequency on my seldom-used comm link and let him know that we were ready. Then I offered my hand for Ani to hold. This was a strange and undoubtfully terrifying new place for the young boy. Whatever comfort he needed, I would give.
We headed for the Council Atrium, passing a few groups of Initiates. Especially when we encountered older clans, my hand got squeezed more tightly. But once they were out of sight, Anakin would loosen his grip. Eventually, I knew, he would get used to the other younglings, and they to him. Until then, I'd be happy to have my hand in his.