Darsant Avat

Scandal Beyond Telos

Talking to companies was really just for show. Qui-Gon jotted notes down because he should, but he knew he would not get anywhere. After all, the Telosian investigators did the same things and got nowhere. Even with the Force, Qui-Gon could only be so audacious.

There were some possible leads, however, though Qui-Gon knew better than to pursue them directly. Since the governor was the real suspect, he did not bother chasing after the space traffic controls, or the taxing departments, the satellite managers or the security companies. After spending about four hours talking to four different corporations, Qui-Gon stationed his R2 unit in a random park. He stretched out his senses to trace any spies that might be following him and was unsurprised to sense an affirmation from the Force, though it could not indicate where or whom. Most likely droids then.

Sign language was something else Qui-Gon planned on teaching Obi-Wan. With a few silent gestures, he had his own droid begin hacking into the networks again, this time to disable the spies. While the R2 unit was busy frying the droids around them, Qui-Gon resliced into the government servers and set up slightly different protocols.

He was far better at hacking than warranted, really, since computers was not really something he enjoyed. Slicing was only interesting because of how unexpected it was, and therefore useful as a tactic.

The R2 unit finished with the spies and gave a confirming warble.

"Very good. I want you to execute these protocols and check all the files again," He said, "Monitor this one carefully, and do a comparison with the data you copied. List everything that has changed."

While the R2 unit did this, Qui-Gon commed the Telosian governor.

"Any reason I'm being stalked by spies?" He asked Xanatos.

"Pardon?"

"My droid just fried a bunch of yours. Or secret services, if they happen to be discrete from your department."

Xanatos raised his eyebrows, the hologram somehow accentuating his sinister look. He seemed older, somehow, and though holograms tend to be a bit blurry, he seemed wrinkled and decayed. "I had no knowledge of any droids stalking you, Master Jedi, though it sounds like you already took care of it."

"I'm not entirely sure how to take this, you realize," Qui-Gon said neutrally while the R2 unit continued to read data, "You invited me, you see; I never imposed my presence here. If I have done something that you feel threatens your planet, I can pack my things and leave the pirates to your capable hands." Passive-aggressive tactics often damage good-will, but they were too good at accomplishing immediate tasks for him not to use.

"I assure you, Master Jinn, it was never our intention for you to feel unwelcome." The smile on the governor's face would have looked genuine if Qui-Gon had not known what to look for. "I will see to the bottom of the matter."

"Thank you, Governor. I assure you I will see to the bottom of the pirating. I already have several leads I intend to pursue."

"Many thanks, Master Jinn." Xanatos perked up at this. "If I may, what kind of leads have you found? If possible, I would like to render assistance."

Qui-Gon brought up the "leads", since they were as good as anything else to talk about at the moment while his R2 unit continued to browse through the files. He was able to kill about an hour by exchanging thoughts. By the time he closed the connection, the R2 unit was close to finished.

He patted the dome. Droids were fabulous this way.

Ten minutes later, the unit was done.

"Any results?"

An affirmative beep.

"Very good." It was time to head back. He could look over the data there, though he figured after that talk with Xanatos, someone might plant bugs in his room. If that happened, he would act as the situation demanded.

OoO

As Qui-Gon suspected, the secure servers had altered their data from before Qui-Gon interviewed the companies. Either someone hacked from outside, or this was an inside job. There was also some new information added to unrelated matters, but the telling part was the old data—the ones that the public was allowed to view but not edit. Space traffic statistics and certain shuttle carriers had been switched around, and most condemning of all: money from the government budget.

Xanatos, Xanatos, what have you been doing? Credit fraud was admittedly minor from Qui-Gon's point of view, however, so he tucked away that information for later. The point was to find out the root of it all; what purpose were the pirates serving here?

There were instances when planets employed terrorists and pirates in clandestine. Violence was affective at disrupting certain political movements. Was there anything in the system that Telos might want to either delay or cancel? Or perhaps there is something going on with the Jedi…if Xanatos was actually a Sith, a mere system in the galaxy would be beneath his concerns.

I must meditate on this.

He planted the R2 unit on guard as he folded his legs and slid into a trance. The currents of the Force washed through him as he sought its directions. Obscure feelings swept across his mind, but did not call to his attention.

Unbidden, thoughts of Obi-Wan entered his mind, as they usually did when he was away from his padawan. What was the little one up to right now? He hoped the child did not find the stash of snacks. Feemor was apparently back, so at least his former padawan could keep the boy in line. Was the youngster feeling alright? He hoped he was not still worried about his master. It had not been easy, leaving the tearful boy like that; he had run out of time and was scheduled to leave the atmosphere, or else he would have made more effort for their parting to be on better terms. He was not completely certain he would ever see him again, after all; the Sith were not foes to be taken lightly.

Almost immediately, an image took shape, faint in the Force, but still present. Telos was a good distance away from Coruscant, and the vision was coming from Obi-Wan, trickling through the bond. Qui-Gon saw Xanatos approaching the same hooded figure he had seen before. It was blurry, but Obi-Wan's sensitivity waveringly honed in on what they were saying.

"It will not be easy. He is very well protected."

"By one whose methods many disapprove of…is just one man, and there are many within his order that are already well on their way to our cause. Use whatever methods you find necessary, but be sure to bring him to me."

The image changed, fogging over to portray a vast stretch of plains, covered in mist. The sky was a faint purple and the grasses were blue. It was definitely not Telos, but Xanatos was riding on a mount, a group of escorts behind him. The Force rippled and zoomed in on a boy on his right side with pale hair and a slight scowl—Bruck Chun.

"He'll be coming along," Said Xanatos, pulling his mount to a stop, "You may wait for him here."

"How long will it take?"

Xanatos smiled malevolently, "Not long, young one. Draw the master away, and the one who matters becomes vulnerable. You will come to fully appreciate the art of misdirection."

The words repeated themselves—Draw the master away, and the Force seemed to zoom out from the planet, from the system, to give a full view of the galaxy, spinning slowly around its axis, millions of stars with their planets and moons. The vision flashed, and he was raising his lightsaber to deflect a torrent of blaster bolts, Mace at his side. They were fighting Togrutans and the words Khoonda and Enclave resonated in his mind. The vision than jerked away, dizzyingly fast. Obi-Wan, skinnier—was someone starving him?—looking up from his work, some homework assignment of some sort, Authsola murmuring, "Obi? We're being sent on a mission." The child's eyes looked haunted, and Authsola knelt by him to brush back his hair. She looked very sad. He saw her stand, and Obi-Wan stood with her, abandoning his work. The scene behind them melted from the temple dorms to a battlefield. Authsola shouted at Obi-Wan to run as she whipped out her lightsaber and blocked a red blade. The child was frozen, hesitant to abandon her. She shouted again but was cut down brutally, dropping to the floor with limbs twitching, and Obi-Wan shrieked "Master!" as a dark shadow swept across Qui-Gon's field of vision. When it passed, it unveiled the Jedi Council chamber, Sifo-Dyas was talking to Tahl. "The Sith are not interested in economics," He said, "They are interested in the dynamics of the Force. It is always alternating, like a wave, but sometimes the balance is dependent on particular points. A pivot is an obvious crucial point, but it is not the only one." He turned away and Tahl followed. They exited the chamber and disappeared into a hangar, where Qui-Gon's former master, Dooku, was getting ready to board a ship. Behind him was the body of a young woman with brown hair, clad in a white outfit with a smoking blaster wound in the center of her forehead.

Qui-Gon roused from the vision feeling shaken. Seeing Authsola's death had been nerve-wrecking, and admittedly he was more worried about that than anything else in the dream at the moment. Obi-Wan's fate certainly did not seem optimistic either, but at least he did not die—at least not where he could see.

I truly detest visions, Qui-Gon decided. That meditative trance was fairly saturated with the Unifying Force and was not informative at all. If this was what Obi-Wan saw when he first left Coruscant, no wonder the boy had been inconsolable.

He got up and made himself a pot of tea, his mind running through the events in the vision despite his adamant insistence that it was just delusional and senseless.

Draw the master away…misdirection…did Obi-Wan call Authsola "Master"? He had lost weight, and Authsola had looked sad, and Sifo-Dyas was talking about the dynamics of the Force and how the Sith were not interested in economics. Depa once said that Obi-Wan had to do with Darsant Avat, which just happened to be a dynamic of the Force.

The Sith were not interested in money. Xanatos liked to use misdirection, and had requested Qui-Gon's involvement specifically. The vision indicated that Obi-Wan was no longer his padawan, and the only way that could happen is if Qui-Gon were not there.

"Hm," He said to R2, "I guess the Unifying Force is not that confusing after all."

OoO

There was an ancient Jedi Enclave on Dantooine that use to be a training site for Force-sensitive children, but sometime before the Cold War it had fallen to disuse. Locals around the area claimed that it was haunted or cursed, and that no one who entered ever came out again.

"You think the governor is missing us yet?" Qui-Gon asked as he stepped onto the path that led to the quiet ruins. The R2 unit did not answer.

"They need to give you droids more personality," He muttered, glancing down at the robot. When it still did not respond, he sighed. "Let's see if our Togrutan pirates are hiding in there."

Thanks to Obi-Wan's vision and Qui-Gon's somewhat dishonorable tendencies, Xanatos had not been able to warn the pirates that he was coming. He surprised the lot of them just as they were getting ready to go out for another raid.

Mace was not at his side, but Qui-Gon's Ataru form was not an elementary force, and he deflected all of their blaster bolts with ease before using the Force to draw the weapons away from their hands.

"Well," Qui-Gon said wryly when silence fell; he had run out of one-liners a long time ago but that did not mean he could just stand there and not speak, "I've had worse welcomes before."

Not really—poor welcomes were poor welcomes, and all of them just tended to be bad, especially if he was getting shot at.

"What do you want, Jedi?" One of the Togrutas growled.

Qui-Gon paused. He could cut to the chase and demand evidence of whoever was paying them to raid ships in the system but…that was not very diverting, and after that distressing vision he had, he really wanted to do something fun for a change.

"I want an antique radio with those antennae that you can stick in your ear. You have one of those?"

OoO

Several hours later, after a few engagements between his lightsaber and Togrutan blasters, Qui-Gon finally managed to singlehandedly collect everyone and yank information from them in a less than orthodox manner. Exhausted and a little battered, he used his R2 unit to send a transmission to Coruscant. By this time, Dantooine had arrived on the scene, and Telos was being notified of the situation.

"Drunk testimonies are no good in court, Qui-Gon," Shaak Ti, who happened to be a Togruta, looked very peeved at the state of affairs.

"They don't know that. I'll just get them to repeat themselves."

"You're making this very difficult for the rest of us, Qui-Gon."

"I'm after something bigger."

"And what, pray tell, is that?"

Qui-Gon glanced at the officials arresting the pirates. "Just send Mace. I need him over here before my culprit has a chance to formulate new plans."

"Qui, you can't keep doing this. Once or twice is already stretching it, and we can't afford it if you are proven wrong—"

"This isn't about economics, Shaak Ti. Get Mace here and I'll keep you updated. Oh, and Shaak Ti, your people are hilariously intolerant of alcohol—"

"Qui-Gon!"

"Going." Qui-Gon cut the connection, before wincing. Blast it, forgot to ask after Obi-Wan. The little one seemed alright though, and he had a feeling Shaak Ti would not be too receptive to any requests on his part after that quip. That woman needs to get a sense of humor.

He went out to talk to the officials, who informed him that the Telosians were on their way. Qui-Gon had no intention of waiting around, so he waved goodbye and hopped on his ship where the R2 unit was waiting. There was a moon where some mischief was happening, and he intended to check it out before the governor figured out his whereabouts.

The R2 unit was a bit languid at takeoff, beeping in low tones and taking a few seconds to process his commands. It must have accumulated too many memory leaks when he told it to process the entire Telosian infrastructure.

"I thought your unit type is supposed to be more robust." It was how the company had marketed their brand of droids. "Didn't they memory-wipe you within this year?" Then again, the droids were not supposed to process such a large bulk of data at once. He might have abused it a little. "I'm going to have to file a report when we get back or else the you might crash on the next Jedi."

The droid did not respond; droids usually did not have much personality unless they were very robust and did not have their memories wiped for a while. The Jedi temple had a med droid that was like that—quirky, to say the least, but very efficient. Most droids, however, get slowed down after a while because of inherent bugs in their programming. He hoped the R2 unit did not crash on him, because there was nothing like a frozen co-pilot to ruin one's day.

"Hang in there," He told the droid, as they left the gravitational field of Dantooine, "Hopefully I can fix you up." He was actually not as familiar with applying robotics skills as he was with slicing. After a moment, he took the R2 unit off the controls and assumed manual supervision of the ship—it was more annoying, but it was safer and would burden the droid less for the duration of their flight.

He pulled the ship to a momentary halt in order to punch in the coordinates. There was a distant flash of light in space…

And then his ship was suddenly rocked with blaster fire.

Qui-Gon pulled the controls without thinking and managed to dodge the remaining onslaught, coordinates only half filled in but his hands already too busy to spare. It was a good thing he took the R2 unit off the controls, or else his ship would have been pulverized. The R2 unit beeped in response to the sudden turbulence, uttering a high whine afterwards.

"Enter the coordinates!" He yelled to it. That, at least, did not require the Jedi reflexes dodging blaster bolts would. Where were the bolts coming from anyway? His shields fluctuated. Seventy-four percent after three hits.

"Not bad," Qui-Gon mused, though the location of the hit mattered when it came to how much shielding was depleted, and only the first bolt actually struck him; the others merely grazed the hull. The R2 unit was puzzled over the half-entered numbers. "Start from the middle!" By the Force that droid needs a wipe as soon as we're done. Assuming he ever finished, but that was a morbid thought too ingrained in the future to matter to the present.

Whoever was attacking him was no match for him, even with the lag in the droid's inputs. Once everything was punched in, Qui-Gon used the Force to push the hyperspace lever. The stars streaked and the ship vibrated as it transitioned past light speed. They were safe, for now.

Qui-Gon let out a sigh, slumping in his seat.

"Well, that was unwelcome," He exclaimed, even if it was not completely unexpected. He had not really sensed the arrival of his attacker, but he was very distracted by his R2 unit, which could explain why he had been startled, if not precisely surprised. He knew that Xanatos would not be too thrilled with his unpredictable movements, in particular his unannounced visit to the Togrutans, and would find ways to retaliate somehow. Everyone had a protocol of sorts, and any villain liked to take advantage of this, believing their foes would be upright and lawful. Qui-Gon might be upright, but he was not above being a bit of a miscreant at times, something that had frustrated the Jedi Council on a number of occasions. If the Telosian governor discovered the servers had been hacked, which was improbable but not impossible, things could get very messy, even if he was not a Sith Lord after all.

The Force vibrated as his pursuers also entered hyperspace.

This was turning out to be quite a chase.

OoO

Qui-Gon ended up wasting about two hours leading his pursuers on a wild flight around space before finally losing them. The unfortunate thing about being a Jedi was that his work often pulled him into shenanigans like that.

"I could have done without that," He announced to the R2 unit once they landed. At this point, he was getting a bit tired and was absolutely starving. He did not suppose the blighters he was about to confront had any spare sandwiches…would be good if they did though…

If they had any food, though, it was inaccessible at the moment; the moon was uninhabited, though it had its own version of wildlife and had breathable air, which normally would have welcomed robust sentients to set up shop somehow. In front of Qui-Gon stretched a vast plain of grass that was only interrupted by a few animals and some rocks. When the wind blew, a tuft of dirt sprinkled across, irritating the birds that were feeding in the area.

Qui-Gon glanced at his R2 unit. Droids could be very annoying things. "I'm going to let you sleep for now," He told it, and opened one side of its dome. After turning it off, he took out its memory and slipped it into his tunic. He then considered the ship, but decided there was not much he could do if someone wanted to steal it other than hope the Force was with him.

The moon was truly lovely, and Qui-Gon regretted that he was unable to fully appreciate it. Odd how the Force worked; the best people to appreciate something are exactly the people who could not afford to.

The grass made for poor cover for the Jedi Master, but it also made it easy to see where he was heading. The ground sloped downward and on instinct he stopped to take note. Ahead lied a ravine streaming with water, and he went low on his stomach, crawling the last few meters to peek over the edge.

Ah.

More pirates, this time with a much more obscure hiding spot than the ones on Dantooine. They were hidden across on the other wall of the ravine in some sort of underground station, the opening obscured by shrubs. The only reason Qui-Gon knew they were there was because at the moment he crawled to the edge, one of the pirates poked his head out, looked around, and then hopped to the surface. Qui-Gon's low height and the angle of the ravine made it impossible for the pirate to see the Jedi, but even so, Qui-Gon remained still, for movement was sure to attract attention and he did not want to cast shadows.

Did he want a sneak attack or a full brute force one like last time? He had the Force, but he was not entirely certain of the layout of the underground network. Sneaking around would be hard even without his rather unique figure. Qui-Gon's tall height and relatively large size made him stand out easily among humans, and of course without proper prosthetics and makeup, he could not pose as other sentients. Sneaking around might be more to Obi-Wan's advantage, he mused. He had no idea how large the boy would grow, but while the child is small, at least, stealth would protect him better…

Here and now, Jinn, He rebuked himself. The task at hand was to weed out Xanatos, not really to get rid of the pirates, though the pirates were, of course, very important. He wanted Xanatos rattled, confused, panicky, even, and the best way to go about it is to be incomprehensible. He could root out the pirates in person and be forced to kill a lot of them…

Or he could just create a mess in the area and bring Xanatos running without really soiling his hands.

With that in mind, Qui-Gon crawled backward and hurried back to his ship.