Darsant Avat

Setting Stages

Upon arriving back at the ship, Qui-Gon was annoyed to find that his R2 unit had died.

There goes my backup plan for sky traffic. He opened some compartments to take a look, but it was a problem with its operating system and he had no means to re-install. Not without hacking into the company that made the R2 unit, anyway, and Qui-Gon had just about enough slicing for the day.

Still, he checked the R2 over to make sure it did not die because of foulplay, and then left the moon while suppressing yawns. Force, he has had a long day, and without food for the most part.

Du Crion was there to greet him when he arrived back to Telos.

"Master Jinn," Said the governor, "We were getting worried when we couldn't find you. I am glad you are safe."

Qui-Gon smiled at this. "Forgive me, Governor. I was checking on some leads. Unfortunately they haven't led me anywhere that I could use yet." There was enough truth to that remark for it to slide.

"Ah," Said Xanatos, while Qui-Gon suppressed a yawn, "Well, the good news is, we did catch one group of pirates. The officers are interrogating them now, we will let you know as soon as there are any results."

"Excellent. Hopefully this will bring us closer to an end to all this," Qui-Gon covered his mouth to stem another yawn. "I'm going to make a quick call."

OoO

Obi-Wan was in the middle of doing homework when the comm. connected. He was sporting a bacta patch over his forehead.

"Are you alright?" Qui-Gon pointed at the patch, "What is that up there?"

"…" Obi-Wan seemed reluctant to divulge, but through the bond came a stream of images. Bruck Chun and Aalto, pushing the boy on the stairs. He seemed to have had other injuries as well, though none of them severe. Even so, Qui-Gon found himself gritting his teeth, suddenly wide awake and very very angry.

Did the adults know?

"Who put that bacta on you?"

"Authsola," Obi-Wan answered. "She's bringing this up to Master Yoda…it's not really a big deal, it's just a small cut that bled a lot. The healers said that headwounds bleed a lot, but she was really upset."

"Did you feel dizzy? Do you feel dizzy now?"

Obi-Wan pouted a little. "I don't feel anything. It's itchy, but I'm fine."

His padawan was telling the truth, so Qui-Gon let it go for now. It seemed like Authsola was handling things adequately enough. Yoda was going to have a fit though. He hoped Aalto will leave the temple soon; no master wants a padawan who bullies others.

"Tell me what happened."

Obi-Wan made a face. "It's no big deal…"

"Authsola seems to disagree with you."

"Yeah…it's just Chun and Alto—well, it sort of came out of the blue—I was actually trying to avoid them, but I ended up running into them at the stairs. Chun was really mad, and I still don't know what he was yelling about, and Aalto was there too. He snatched one of my datapads and I was trying to get it when he pushed me down the stairs. That's all. I wasn't hurt all that bad." He made a face. "I don't know what their problem is; I didn't even talk to them for like, months. We just sort of ignored each other."

Qui-Gon leaned forward. "Next time, Obi-Wan, if someone is attacking you, don't get distracted by material objects. A smashed datapad can be replaced, but you're more important than any electronic, understand? If someone takes away your lightsaber, let them. It's better to lose your lightsaber than your life."

"I thought the lightsaber is our life."

"Yes, well, that is only because it can be used against you, which would not happen if you are paying attention to your opponent. Your foe can have ten thousand lightsabers and he wouldn't be able to hurt even the hair on your head if you pay attention and react to his attacks. On the other hand, your enemy doesn't even need a lightsaber to hurt you if you allow yourself to get distracted."

Obi-Wan still looked incredibly displeased, which was probably natural. From the looks of it, the child was kicking himself over the mistake.

"This isn't your fault," Said Qui-Gon, "You were supposed to be safe within the temple. You weren't supposed to be wary of your peers. Why are you embarrassed?"

Obi-Wan bit his lip.

"Stop chewing on your lip."

His little one obeyed. "No one else gets into these things," He complained, "Is there something wrong with me?"

That was a complicated question to answer, but Qui-Gon opted for simple and sufficient.

"No, there is nothing wrong with you, Obi-Wan. You're young, you were young when you were chosen—that attracts some attention, both good and bad."

"I was dealing with Chun and Aalto before you chose me though." A wave of self-doubt crossed over the bond. "It's not like this started just because of that."

Could he risk boosting Obi-Wan's ego? He could risk it, especially if he did this carefully.

"You think your master would choose just anyone?"

Obi-Wan appeared confused, as if he had originally been thinking that but was suddenly realizing how irrational that had been.

"I'm sure Bruck Chun and his friend Aalto knew you were special from the start," He went on, "Some people are just like that. It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you, it has to do with them. This can happen with anyone. As long as you do not allow yourself to pick up vice from others, you will do well. Think about all the friends you've made, that your fellow Jedi haven't yet. There were a lot of privileges you enjoy as my padawan that your friends don't share yet. What Chun and Aalto did was unforgivable, but it is just something you have to watch out for, and it has nothing to do with any flaws on your part."

"I don't get it," Obi-Wan declared with a slight whine, but he seemed tired of the conversation. "When are you coming back?"

Figuring that dealing with people was something youngsters have to learn at their own pace anyway, Qui-Gon let the matter drop. This was not a conversation to be had over the comm. at any rate. "Probably not for a while, padawan. Patience. I don't like being away any more than you do."

Obi-Wan looked miserably at him. The affair with Chun and Aalto had shaken his padawan's mentality more than the boy was willing to admit. Qui-Gon could sense him longing for his master to be with him.

"Hey," He said softly, "You're a strong lad. You can handle a few days without Master around, hm?"

Obi-Wan made a face. "Uh-huh. It's you I'm worried about."

The Jedi Master chuckled. "Of course. Don't get strung up on that incident, alright, Padawan? How are classes going?"

"They're good!" Obi-Wan launched into a detailed summary of his day, reminding Qui-Gon strongly of their very first day together as master and padawan. His little one was quite the talker.

"Bail called again today," His little one went on, "He's been contacting Master Yoda about letting me attend the wedding as ring bearer. I don't know, Yoda doesn't seem too enthu-enthu…enthusias-tic about that." Satisfied that he pronounced the word correctly, the child continued, "He hasn't given Bail an answer. I think he doesn't want me to go. I kind of hope he would, because I really want to see a wedding."

"Hm." This was an interesting development. "Have you talked to Master Yoda about this?"

"No…I didn't want him to think I want to go too much. He'd say no."

Qui-Gon tilted his head. "Why do you think he would say no, Obi-Wan?"

"Just a feeling. I don't know. I feel like if I'm too excited about it, it would be bad."

There was more insight into that statement than Obi-Wan was able to adequately articulate.

"Master Yoda wants to protect you, my little one. If you go to the wedding as ring bearer you'll draw even more attention, the kinds I told you about."

"Hm." Obi-Wan's eyes were bright with intelligence as he absorbed this. "Well, we'll see what happens."

Qui-Gon chuckled. "Yes we will."

OoO

The first day after Qui-Gon's arrival was spent discussing the results from the interrogations, which led to nowhere Qui-Gon was interested in, but he allowed the Telosian officials to get excited over their "breakthroughs". He also had his R2 unit sent to get repaired; there was no way to avoid doing so because the Telosians noticed the droid was deactivated, and Qui-Gon could not withhold it from them without seeming suspicious. He was rather certain the unit would get bugged, so he was not too eager to begin using it.

"Next time give it some ice packs," Said a woman from the information technology department, "Its cooling system wasn't enough to cool it off. If you're going to tell it to process a lot of data, you have to watch out for overheating."

"It wasn't that much data," Qui-Gon insisted, even though it was, but he did not want anyone knowing that he had hacked into the government servers.

"Well whatever it was, it's broken due to overheating, so there you go. Where's the memory core?"

"It was starting to lag, so I took it out."

"I see. Good precaution, Master Jedi. Probably saved everything in that case."

The next two days involved following Telosians around as they searched various leads. They did manage to root out some pirates, though Qui-Gon never had to activate his lightsaber during any of these encounters. Mace arrived the evening of the last day with Depa to the Coruscanti embassy, neither of whom were dressed as Jedi.

"I didn't know you were coming," Qui-Gon said to Depa when the Jedi were alone. "What's with the disguise?"

"It was Master Yoda's suggestion, actually. Three Jedi for Telos IV would be a bit much, but he seems to believe there is more to this mission." Depa adjusted her skirt.

"Are you a prostitute?"

"I might as well be," She stared down at her cleavage as if she had never seen it before.

"So you are Mace's mistress?"

"I'm his cousin, actually," Said Depa.

"You don't look like him at all."

"By marriage."

"Is this really necessary?" Qui-Gon asked, a bit sympathetic. He had raised Authsola, after all, and as her mentor, he understood the aggravation of such a disguise.

"It's about as far from a Jedi as I could get."

"Fair enough."

Mace actually looked more irritated by the situation than his former padawan did. The work looked for their made-up relationship, however.

"Try to drape over Xanatos," Said Qui-Gon, "He's a handsome bloke so it should work. Plus he's governor so he is a big fish, that should spare you having to seduce too many other people."

"I really don't appreciate this part of the job," Mace complained.

Qui-Gon was glad his padawan was not a girl. Not that young boys were always spared this sort of thing.

"As long as I don't have to sleep with him," Said Depa.

The Sith were not really the most virile lot, but Qui-Gon could not say that without sounding like he was crazy. "Maybe the governor likes men more." He glanced at Mace with an impish grin. "Come to think of it, he does sort of doll himself up. What do you think? Willing to do what it takes, Master Windu?"

"Shut up, Qui." Mace was no more fond of the idea of himself becoming the target than he was the idea of Depa. "The situation is bad enough as it is. Go away."

"Hopefully the issue will be solved," Said Depa, futilely adjusting her breastband and left the two men behind to stalk into the embassy.

"Hey, it could be worse," Said Qui-Gon to his upset companion.

"Oh how could it possibly be worse?"

"Did you really just say that?"

"No, no I didn't." Mace sighed.

Depa and Mace fell into character the instant they reached public eye, with the former every bit the promiscuous young woman and the latter every bit the long-suffering cousin. While Qui-Gon worked with the higher officials in upscale institutions, Mace and Depa were allocated the more interesting if somewhat unpleasant task of working with the same officials in less respectable settings. People tended to be on their best behavior in official environments, so unsurprisingly, Depa and Mace rooted out several conspiracy theories that Qui-Gon had not even come across, even before they encountered Xanatos.

"Are you sure your R2 is bugged?" Mace asked when they decided that some confirmation was necessary.

"I'm pretty sure I don't want to use it for anything important."

"We can transmit the information to Coruscant…"

"Because a slicer from Coruscant would totally slip by their notice," Qui-Gon pointed out dryly, "It's going to take too long to search for a bug in the R2 unit."

"I don't sense anything amiss," Depa stated.

That was that, and Qui-Gon was relieved to hear it. They turned on the droid and had it scanning the files in the memory chip Qui-Gon had whisked away before it broke, careful to keep the search parameters small so it would not break again.

"There's definitely something wrong with the governor," Mace told Qui-Gon, "I'm not surprised if you knew that already."

The Jedi Master simply smirked.

"There is a particular darkness about him," Said Depa, "I am almost certain he is Force-sensitive, though I can only guess how much. There might be a rogue Jedi behind this, if he turns out to have trained under one."

"Getting close to him will be dangerous," Mace noted.

"But only if he suspects his cover is blown," said Qui-Gon, "And that you two are Jedi working with me." He had a certain confidence in Depa's shields—she was good at what she did, so he was not too worried about that. "I would advise, get proof, get details, but don't show that you understand them, even if the opportunity seems prime. We should target the rogue Jedi first. Xanatos is in the public eye, so it would be relatively easy to corner him. It's the master that we want, and I don't think it is wise for any of us to approach him individually."

"Why?" Mace countered, "You think the master is that skilled that it would require three Jedi Masters? Is there some reason you believe that?"

Qui-Gon was very tempted to tell the whole truth, but it would be more effective to withhold information. "I've had nothing definitive, but normal rogue Jedi are very impulsive. Despite his clear darkness, Du Crion is a calculated individual, which speaks the same of his master. This isn't a normal rogue Jedi, if it even is one."

"Why? You think it's a Sith?" Depa asked perceptively.

Dealing with masters could be frustrating in this way—it was very hard to hide anything from them. "There are other Force users than Jedi, after all," was all Qui-Gon said.

"That is certainly true. I, for one, agree with this plan," Depa turned to her former master just as the R2 unit beeped, indicating it had completed its directive. A series of holoimages sprang up from its dome.

"Hm." The three masters glanced at the numbers and letters. One of the names happened to be the moon Qui-Gon had left the pirates on, but there were several interesting transmission sources—Naboo was the strangest, since it was such a random planet to be involved with Telos.

"So you blow up the moon, I'll check out Naboo," Said Qui-Gon. "And Depa can get close to Xanatos and his cronies."

"So let me get this straight, you don't actually care if I blow up people, you just want there to be explosions there?"

"I want people's attention there," Said Qui-Gon, "Once you have everything set up, I want Depa to see what Xanatos' reaction is. Since she's not supposed to be involved with any sort of investigation, he wouldn't try to hide things from her. I want to see what he does, what time he made transmissions, if any, where to, and we can follow up on that. But I also want to check out Naboo."

"Sounds good to me." Mace nodded as he glanced at Depa, who wore a look of slight irritation at her upcoming duties.

"He might prefer men," Qui-Gon insisted, earning himself a smack on the back on the head from Mace.