The next morning, they made an early start to the day. Drex wanted Kade to finish all his homework before they left because they might come home late that night. When that was finally out of the way, they made their way to the Temple gates. Since Drex could not drive a speeder, they would have to use public transport, which was all for the better, he thought; it provided more first-hand experience with life in the city.
"You'll need to help me out a bit," Drex told Kade. "I can navigate my way through the streets pretty well, but public transport is hard since I can't read the numbers on shuttles. We are looking for the X307 to Caspen Square."
Although Kade had little to no real experience when it came to traversing a city, he had been taught how to navigate one in theory during classes, so when Drex asked him to find their shuttle he led the man straight to the nearest itinerary display. "X307 to Caspen Square leaves in eleven minutes from platform one," he stated, needlessly underlining the information with a finger and feeling very useful at being able to handle this for his master.
"Thanks," Drex said with a smile, heading towards the other end of the shuttle station. "Platform one is right over there. All shuttles going westward leave from there. Caspen Square is about half an hour's ride from here. It's one of the main traffic hubs. You can get to nearly anywhere on Coruscant from there. It's also very busy, so we'll have to take care not to lose each other. Stick with me closely, even if I'm slower than you. Or just grab my arm."
"...If Caspen Square is very busy I'm scared to ask what you call this," Kade replied, gesturing to the people rushing past them; platform one was far more crowded than he was accustomed to.
When the shuttle arrived nine minutes later, the boy took Drex's arm and, although he probably did not need help, led his master to the far end of the shuttle where it was a little less cramped.
"Here you go, grandpa, have a seat," a kindly human man who looked to be in his late forties, but decidedly out of shape, offered. He had been seated in the disabled section; however, a sign above clearly stated that these seats must be given up for the elderly, disabled or otherwise impaired. It was all Kade could do not to snort at the irony in that offer; at sixty eight years old Drex was in far better shape than this man who had clearly never done a day's exercise in his life.
"Well, what do you say, 'grandpa', would you like a seat?" the boy said, faking a genuinely grateful tone for the man's benefit. Only Drex knew he was laughing on the inside.
"Thank you," Drex said with calm dignity, taking the offered seat. Soon he was wedged in between the window and Kade, who was wedged in between Drex and a rather fishy-smelling Mon Calamari. Drex only hoped that Kade liked fish.
Oh man, Kade thought as he got a good whiff of the Mon Calamari who had just squashed him into Drex, who was subsequently squashed into the window. He glanced at his master briefly, but said nothing.
Humanoids were in rather low supply on this shuttle; fur, tendrils and tentacles were everywhere. The Temple hosted a fair amount of species, but the variety out in the city was much larger. After all, many species were not Force-sensitive, and others, among them humans and Zabrak, were particularly strongly represented among the Jedi. Besides, the Temple simply offered far more space; thus, the general impression was not as overwhelming as this overcrowded shuttle zooming through an overcrowded city.
The half hour seemed, to Kade, to drag on forever. At each stop their traveling companions were refreshed with a different species of alien, and although Kade would not allow himself to stare, there were some species that he was seeing for the first time outside of a datapad.
Drex stood a moment before their shuttle announced that they had reached Caspen, and Kade was quick to follow. "C'mon, Master, it's this way," the boy said quietly, leading the man towards the exit signs that he hoped would lead them from the station.
"Take the exit towards Chaychen Market," Drex told Kade. "They are to our right. If we take the wrong exit, we will have to find pedestrian bridges taking us over to the right side, and that would be a hassle." Chaychen Market was an enormous, covered market on several levels that sold everything, from spices to spaceship parts. It also held eateries geared towards every species imaginable; it even had an aquatic section that looked like a huge fish tank holding market stalls. And it was so crowded that it was a struggle to advance and nearly impossible to talk. The low prices were part of the reason for the market's popularity; the availability of smuggled goods was another one. Kade's crèche master definitely would not have taken him here, Drex was quite sure of that.
Despite being swept along with a flood of beings eager to exit their shuttle, Kade was quick to follow Drex's directions and soon led them off towards Chaychen Markets; after all he did not fancy having to find a pedestrian bridge to backtrack given the amount of people around. No, K'Mi had never brought her creche group here, which was why Kade had a look of awe on his face as he took in the sheer size of the structure and of the crowds filling the aisles.
"Force, this place is insane," Kade said quietly, and inadvertently moved a step closer to his master.
"It is," Drex affirmed. "It is among the largest markets on Coruscant; the very largest for some types of products. The aquatic section is unique; I have been told that Mon Calamari can find the same merchandise here that they would find on their home world. I've been there a few times, but we won't enter it today. We'd need underwater breathing devices and more practical clothing for that. Is there anything that you'd like to see in particular? Or are you hungry? We're going to have lunch here."
"I'm always hungry," Kade replied distractedly, looking around at the beings passing by and taking it all in; this was a first for him.
They walked around for a solid hour before Kade found a small out-of-the-way stall that interested him. "I'm gonna look in here," he stated quietly and wandered towards a display of antiquated weapons. He picked up a bastard sword, the weight surprising him. "Now how could anyone fight with that?" he thought aloud as he tried to replace the cumbersome weapon onto the bench, only to fumble it. The Zabrak salesman was on him in a heartbeat as the sword clattered onto the countertop. "Do not touch. If you break it, you pay for it!" he scolded sternly.
Kade nodded and silently withdrew from the stall. The last thing he wanted was to find trouble in a place like this.
"Well, you asked for that," Drex commented.
"Yeah," Kade had to agree, quick to replace his usual silent nod with something verbal. "But you really gotta ask what sort of weapon can't withstand being fumbled, really… how the Force would it stand up in a fight?" the boy grumbled.
"He just might have wanted to avoid accidents," Drex said reasonably. "He can't know you're a Jedi apprentice and used to dealing with weapons. Or he might have thought that fingerprints might put off potential customers."
"Fingerprints?!" Kade guffawed. "The grumpy old git," was muttered quietly, but he did not otherwise comment.
"Come on, let's take a break," Drex said. "There's a bunch of good eateries on the topmost floor. It's a tad quieter up there and the view is good. You can pick what you'd like to have."
They found a glass lift that would take them to the correct level, then chose the place to eat that smelled the best (according to Kaden's nose). They had barely had time to get comfortable when a droid buzzed towards them, menus in hand.
"Welcome to Chaychen creative Cuisine, please enter your selections into the data screen. Enjoy your meal."
Kade glanced from the droid to his master, then back again, but didn't comment.
By the time they had finished with lunch, Kade had spotted quite a few places he wanted to see, and apparently so had Drex, as they ended up spending their last hour identifying stalls where illegal goods and smuggled merchandise were sold and traded.
"I can't believe they get away with selling that stuff out in the open like that, what's stopping Coruscant's underground police from busting them?" he asked, as they made their way back to the shuttle station, this time heading for the Embassy of Malastare.
"Corruption, partly," Drex replied. "And partly the knowledge that this stuff will be traded anyway, so one might give dealers some leeway to trade the less dangerous goods in places where one can keep an eye on them. There are occasional raids, so they know not to overstep their limits. You won't find all kinds of weapons or drugs here, only part of them. Now, speaking of corruption, what do you know of Malastare?"
Although Kade had heard of such corruption in theory, seeing it first hand was entirely another story. He was quick to forget the shock, however, as they stepped onto platform 403, bound for the Embassy, and Drex asked him about their next destination.
"Malastare?" The boy thought back to his lessons but for the life of him couldn't come up with anything other than the basic history. "It's an all-terrain planet, originally inhabited by Zillo and Dugg, and later colonised by Gran. Oh, and of course there is the pod racing. There was some sort of war but..." he paused, thankful for the metallic announcement that cut him off: "Shuttle 27 will be departing from platform 403 in five minutes."
"C'mon, Master, we might be able to guilt someone else out of a seat," he said with a grin.
"Oh, we can stand," Drex said solemnly. "You are not that young any more, are you?
Kade snorted. Apparently Drex had a sense of humour, he liked that.
"What's important about Malastare is that it's among the most influential planets in the Republic," Drex continued as the headed towards the shuttle. "The Malastarian Gran are involved in pretty much everything, and they're also behind a lot of the high-level corruption going on. Events at the Embassy tend to be fancy, but more importantly, they are a great source of information. We will not be the only Jedi there. The Council makes a point of sending representatives every single time. Even the guest list is informative; it shows who the Malastarians currently consider to be important."
Were they on the guest list, too? Kade wondered. Or perhaps the Jedi had some sort of arrangement where they did not require invitation to attend? He wasn't exactly sure. He wanted to get specifics about this corruption Drex was talking about, but given they were jammed into a crowded shuttle he decided to save those questions for later. The city scene rushing past drew his attention. However, he frowned when an alien woman with a bulbous head blocked his view.
"What are you looking at, kid?" The woman said, mistaking his frown for some sort of personal prejudice.
Annoyed at being called a "kid," Kade's frown deepened. "I dunno, I can't figure it out either, I think you're gonna have to tell me," he retorted.
The woman bristled, her tentacles twitching in annoyance. "And this is why children should be seen and not heard," she stated pompously to the man sitting beside her, however, got no reaction from him.
Kade rankled but looked away. He wasn't about to enter an argument with, uh, whatever she was; he really did not know and neither did he care to. Instead, he waited for the shuttle to hit a bend, closed his eyes briefly and reached out with the force, upending her cup of green goop onto her lap as the shuttle rocked a little.
Kade looked smug, but was careful to keep his attention fixed on the readout. Apparently, the Embassy was the next stop.
"Honestly, the public transport system has gone downhill in the last decade," the woman muttered to herself while cleaning the goop off her clothes with a handkerchief.
Kade was feeling pretty good about himself, actually. It had been satisfying to cause her discomfort after what she had said about him. That feeling was not going to last, though, because his master was less than pleased. Drex had not at first intervened into Kade's collision with the Taburian female; the boy needed to make his own experiences and he had to learn to interact with others without a master constantly breathing down his neck. However, when Kade took his private little revenge on the woman, he decided to put his foot down. If Kade had hoped that this act was going to go by his master unnoticed, he was in for a rude awakening. Being forced to constantly rely on his Force awareness in order to navigate his world, few acts of Force manipulation were ever going to escape Drex's attention, especially so when they were committed by someone he shared a training bond with!
Outwardly, he remained impassive. There was no point in raising suspicions and getting into arguments while they were on board a crowded shuttle. However, as soon as they had left the shuttle – in a considerably more upscale and less crowded area than before – he took Kade by the arm, led him to the edge of the sidewalk and said in a very calm, but also quite firm voice: "Now listen closely, young man, because I am not going to repeat myself. The next time I sense you using the Force in such a manner and for such a purpose, I am going to take you back home, put you across my knee and paddle you until you are as sorry as you can possibly be. Do you understand?"
There wasn't much the boy could do about this. Drex had his arm in a viselike grip and he wasn't about to start struggling. You did not fight with Jedi masters.
He opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again, looking left and right to make sure that nobody had heard Drex's threat. "Yes, Master," he spoke quickly, swallowing the lump that had risen in his throat. He had not known Drex owned a paddle, let alone knew how to apply one. He glanced at his boots, feeling suitably chastised, and wished he had let the woman be. His small bit of revenge wasn't worth the dreadful feeling he got from disappointing his master.
Drex did not, in fact, own a paddle, but he had a broad-backed hairbrush which was mostly used for disentangling his golden-silvery curls, but could be put to other uses as well. His previous apprentices had tended to be quite vocal about the level of discomfort those uses caused.
"Alright," Drex said quietly. "There will be no sparring for the next three days. Instead, you will put in one hour of meditation every afternoon. I do not encourage vindictiveness in my padawans. Now let's go."
Three days! The padawan was about to protest, then, upon seeing the unyielding expression on Drex's face, thought better of it. Sighing, Kade slumped a little and trampled his displeasure with the imposed sentence, as apparently, it could have been decidedly worse.
Paying the matter no further mind, Drex took them towards a huge and imposing palace-like structure directly opposite. It looked quite deserted; most reception guests would arrive by speeder and enter from the parking lot at the back. Nevertheless, the protocol droid at the front gate admitted them without question. As a general rule, the Jedi had access to all diplomatic functions.
The reception was, for the most part, long and boring! Fortunately, the enormous selection of food on offer made up for that as far as Kade was concerned. He was not bothered by the elaborate setting or the small talk going on around them; in fact, he found some of it entertaining.
The trip home was mercifully uneventful. Since it was getting late, Drex decided to take a cab ride home. This did provide Kade with the opportunity to ask some questions he'd been holding off for another time. By the time they reached their quarters, it was well past his bedtime. "I know," Kade said through a yawn as he headed towards his bedroom to shower and change.
Fifteen minutes later he appeared in the common room, his newly-cut hair still sticking up at all angles from the rough towel-dry as he sat by Drex. "Thanks for taking me into the city," he said gratefully, and although the man couldn't see his grin, his tone conveyed what his lack of sight missed.
"You are very welcome," Drex said kindly. "Helping you gain experience with real life is important to me. You did well during the reception. It was not the most thrilling of events for a twelve-year-old boy, I know, but I hope you at least understood why it's politically useful to go."
A little while later, they had completed their evening meditation and Kade was in bed. Drex sat on the couch for a little while longer and reflected on the relatively smooth start of Kade's padawanhood. He was under no illusion that it was always going to be that easy. Some padawans tested their limits right away; others waited until they felt more secure in their role. Sooner or later, they all did. Especially a boy like Kaden.