Chapter Nineteen
"Hello, Obi-Wan. I had hoped I wouldn't be late," Sarali said, walking onto the transit bus.
"Not at all. They just left," Typho assured her, though his face made it clear he was uneasy.
"Is something wrong, Captain?" she asked, turning to face him. She tilted her head to the side and looked at him with a curious expression on her face.
"Nothing. It's just...why aren't you at the Senate?" he asked, clearly puzzled.
"Representative Binks is filling the position at present. The Senator wanted me to help in the investigation," the Cathar said with a sardonic smile.
Clearly, something else was going on, though only Obi-Wan had any inkling to what she truly meant.
"Where to?" she asked, filling the silence.
"An old friend by the name of Dex," he said vaguely. Little did she know this meant going to a less than savoury part of town. She may have grown up amongst gangs and on Tatooine, but she had been among Coruscant's blessed few for ten years. A lot had changed.
The two entered the bustling diner. Obi-Wan stepped forward and said to the droid maitre d' that they were there to see 'Dex', the same man Obi-Wan had mentioned. Upon hearing that, the droid called out to the kitchen, and presumably the cook, "Some people to see ya, Honey! Jedi and Cathar, by the looks of 'em!"
The two turned to the counter in time to see a large, four armed alien look up and smile as he exclaimed happily, "Obi-Wan!"
The Jedi next to her smiled and said fondly, "Hello, Dex."
"You and your-uh- friend take a seat. I'll be right with ya," he said, appraising her for a second before implying far more than was true. Obi-Wan is just a friend. That's all he can be...Right?...
Sarali did not notice that she had been standing stock still until took her hand and guided her to a booth. He touched my hand...No! Don't think like this! We're friends! We can never be more!
"You wanna cup-a Jawa Juice?" the droid asked, thankfully interrupting her thoughts.
"Oh, yes. Thank you," Obi-Wan said, sounding very distracted. Her hand was so soft...
"One for me as well, please," Sarali added with a small, toothless smile.
"Hey! Old Buddy!" the four-armed alien, apparently named Dex, said enthusiastically as he waddled toward them. Obi-Wan stood and hugged him before they both sat down, Obi-Wan next to her and Dex opposite them.
"So, my friend, who's this? I thought you Jedi weren't allowed to be married," Dex said, once again letting on to more.
"No, no. This is my friend, Sarali. Sarali, this is Dex," Obi-Wan said, emphatically correcting the misconception.
Sarali smiled, still toothlessly, and offered her hand to shake. Dex enthusiastically grasped her hand and shook it in greeting, completely engulfing her hand.
"So, what can I do for ya?" Dex asked
"You can tell us what this is," Obi-Wan said, holding up the toxic dart from the bounty hunter.
Dex gaped quietly at the dart and said in recognition, "Wow! Whadayaknow! I ain't seen one a these since I was prospectin' on Subterel beyond the Outer Rim."
Just then, the droid returned with their drinks. As Obi-Wan passed hers over to her, she asked Dex, "Can you tell us where it came from?"
"This baby belongs to them cloners," he said, looking between them and the dart. "What you got here is a Kamino sabre-dart."
"I wonder why it didn't show up in the analysis archives," Obi-Wan said rhetorically.
"Your archives don't hold the answer to everything. It has many gaps in the data, especially concerning matters beyond the Outer Rim," Sarali said instantly, very nearly scoffing that he had such confidence in those archives.
"How could you have ever accessed the archives? Non-Jedi are almost never allowed access," Obi-Wan said, turning to look at her inquiringly.
"Anakin helped me get information for Padme. He sent me a bit of data from the archives, and it was inaccurate. It is as simple as that," she assured the Jedi before turning back to Dex.
"I thought it was the analysis droids, myself. Those droids focus on symbols, not cuts on the side, like these," he said, showing the distinguishing marks to both of them. "I should have thought you Jedi would have more respect for the difference between knowledge and wisdom."
"Well, if droids could think, there'd be none of us here, would there?" Obi-Wan retorted.
"Don't let R2 hear you speak like that," Sarali said under her breath.
Obi-Wan ignored her comment and asked, "Is Kamino in the Republic?"
"Not hardly," Sarali said before Dex could answer. The alien looked at her, surprised that she had heard of it. She merely shrugged and said, "My mother did business with them once."
"It should be easy to find, about twelve parsecs outside the Rishy Maze," he said, glancing to the Cathar for confirmation. She merely nodded.
Dex leaned in and said more quietly, "These Kaminoans keep to themselves."
"They're cloners," Sarali said bluntly.
"Damn good ones, too," Dex said, nodding in appreciation.
"Cloners? Are they friendly?" Obi-Wan asked, glancing between the two.
Sarali snorted while Dex said, "Depends."
"On what?" Obi-Wan asked, prodding again.
"On how good your manners are," Dex said.
"And how much money you have," Sarali said with a full smile on her face, finally showing off her sharp teeth.
Obi-Wan spared another minute for small conversation between him and Dex. Once they had finished their juice, he insisted that they needed to be going. As soon as they were outside the diner, Obi-Wan turned to Sarali and said, "I'm sorry about Dex. He sometimes assumes things he shouldn't."
Sarali shook her head and said dismissively, "It's quite all right. Anyway, I'd rather be mistaken for that than as a corrupt politician."
Obi-Wan snorted in response. Ice broken.
Once they reached the shuttle platform, Sarali stopped Obi-Wan with a hand on his arm. "You go back to the Temple. I'll check up on Jar Jar and meet you in the hangar in about two hours," she said quickly.
"The hangar?" he asked, confused.
"Yes, of course. Aren't we going to go meet these cloners?" she asked.
"Yes, but which hangar?" he asked.
"The Jedi Temple Hangar. I am certainly not going to pay for a senatorial shuttle," she said with a sardonic smile.
Obi-Wan snorted and said, "Okay. I'll meet you there."
She disappeared in the crowd a second later.