This was possibly the oddest stalemate Obi-Wan had ever found himself in.
"Perhaps, if we turn the observation window opaque, she may be less alarmed with our presence hidden?" Doctor Nema suggested.
"I doubt she'll suddenly forget that she saw us," Master Pelri replied. "I'm more intrigued by her reaction. The airship crashed on Coruscant, so they obviously must have passed through the numerous space-port checkpoints littered about the Galactic Core, to eventually arrive here. We can't be the first non-human species she's ever encountered."
"I'm still not discounting the possibility that she was trafficked here for some reason," Obi-Wan said, casting a curious eye over the woman. She was still huddled in the corner of the room, her eyes flitting back and forth between the Jedi. She had managed to stay on her feet for an impressive length of time, using the wall to prop herself up, but her exhaustion seemed to be winning against her fear, and the waterglass she'd picked up hung limp in her undamaged hand. "The vessel she was found in was far too small to be a standard transporter for the number of people it carried. Speaking of which, have we heard anything back from the engineers assigned to examine it?"
"That was something I had tasked your apprentice with, Obi-Wan," Master Pelri said. "Though if he's anything like you were as a padawan, he's probably forgotten already, and is currently off eating the Temple kitchens out of food."
"As much as I hate to admit it," Obi-Wan replied, smothering a grin, "you may not be too far off in your assessment, Pei. We should send out a summons for him. If I were to bet, though, I'd wager you'll more likely find him up to his elbows in wires and datachips, than in Surrulean stew."
"I'll send out the summons," Doctor Nema said, exiting the observation room.
"Perhaps I could formulate a sedative?" Master Pelri mused, fiddling with a dial on one of her many complicated contraptions. "The analgesic bandages appear to be a success; with no histamine reaction on application. I'm sure I could create a sedative, using everything I've learned of her biology so far. It would be much more convenient if we could keep her fully unconscious for the duration of my studies."
"If we knock her out just to experiment on her, we may never earn her trust," Obi-Wan replied. "We need to find a way of communicating with her. Once we can establish what planet and system she's from - and how she got here - we can find a way to return her to her people."
In the back corner of the room, the woman drooped a little further down the wall. Obi-Wan winced in sympathy as he watched her punch down on the cut across her leg - groaning out a short, sharp sound - obviously with the hope of using the pain to keep herself alert.
"We've ran every audio sample of her speech through our protocol droids, but they've not managed to match it to any language currently held in our Archives," Master Pelri said. "I've programmed them to search for any linguistical commonalities that may point to a shared root language, but with the limited processing power I have access to, it could take a while."
"Well then, we'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way," Obi-Wan said, drawing himself up onto his feet. They'd been sitting around, passively watching her struggle, for far too long. The woman straightened up immediately when he moved, the waterglass raised in a trembling hand as she eyed him with suspicion.
Obi-Wan took two steps forward, palms out. It was enough to draw her full attention, while still staying out of striking distance. He had seen her right hook, and would rather not find himself on the receiving end of it.
"Obi-Wan," he enunciated, slowly, as he indicated to himself. "Pei Pelri," he added, pointing to the Sullustan Jedi behind the window. Obi-Wan opened his hand out, indicating to the woman that it was her turn. The silence stretched as she glared back at him. Obi-Wan swallowed down a sigh, and repeated his introductions again, giving her - what he hoped was - an encouraging smile. After a few seconds of consideration, she barked something at him, short and sharp, and Obi-Wan had the sneaking suspicion it would burn his ears off, if it was ever translated. This was going to take him forever.
"Master!" he heard Anakin say, and turned just in time to see his padawan nearly topple Pei Pelri over as he rushed into the room. Behind him, Doctor Nema and a medi-droid followed in his wake. Anakin muttered out a quick apology to Master Pelri.
"Definitely like you as a padawan," Pei said, gathering together her scattered datapads.
"What in the blazes kept you so long?" Obi-Wan asked, approaching the observation window to get a better look at his eager-eyed apprentice. "Master Pelri said she'd asked you to fetch a report on the crashed ship.
"I did as Master Pelri asked," Anakin replied, still a little out of breath. "Then I had an idea."
"Oh? And what kind of idea did you have that was important enough to delay a direct request from a Master?"
"Well, the engineers told me that the ship we found wasn't like anything they'd seen before. They said that there was no way it was capable of spaceflight."
"Wait," Obi-Wan interrupted. "That doesn't make any sense. You and I both witnessed it entering the planet's atmosphere."
"I know, Master, but the engineers are certain. There was no oxygen based atmospheric system on board. The combustion engine is at a pre-FTL level of technology. They have no idea how it managed to breach the outer atmosphere."
"So why didn't you come and tell us that?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Well, I figured, if the ship and the Temple Archives can't tell us where she's from, I thought maybe she could?"
"Given how poorly my own attempts at speaking with her have been," Obi-Wan said, scrubbing a hand through his beard, "I'm afraid that we'll all be old and grey before we can get that sort of information from her."
"Yeah, but I thought, if we could get a protocol droid, I'd be able to update it's programming to help us. The only problem is - the Requisitions Master wouldn't let me borrow a droid, since that thing that happened the last time," Anakin said, his expression sheepish.
"What thing was that?" Master Pelri asked.
"Oh, you know, the usual thing that happens when Anakin plays around with droids," Obi-Wan said. "Rampaging mayhem. Fire. Master Mundi left with half a singed eyebrow."
"I take it back Obi-Wan," Pei said, amusement colouring her voice. "He's far more interesting than you were as a padawan."
"When I was in the requisition room," Anakin continued, "I saw that the medi-droid the woman had hit yesterday was still in the decontamination area, waiting to be cleaned. So, I asked if I could clean it up and bring it back here."
"Failing to mention that you were going to do more than just return it to the medical station, I presume?" Obi-Wan asked, already knowing the answer.
"Well, I did bring it back, right?"
"What else did you do?" Obi-Wan said, unable to contain his sigh.
"I upgraded it's programming with the same communication protocols I put into C3PO, when I was a kid. He was way more advanced that the standard models. I also installed a holo projector into its front casing and a map reader into the top cranial panelling," Anakin said. "If she can't tell us where she's from, Master - maybe she can show us."
"That's actually a clever idea," Master Pelri said. "Even if she could only give us a vague indication, it's more than we have to work with now."
"I'm not so sure," Obi-Wan said, eyeing the gleaming silver plates of the medi-droid, as it bobbed at its spot near the door. "She did try to damage it the last time it was in the room."
"That's only because it touched her," Anakin reasoned. "She probably thought it was attacking. It doesn't need to be near her to project a star map."
"I think it could be worth trying," Doctor Nema said. "At the very least, it can't take us any further back than where we are now."
"I agree," Master Pelri said.
"Alright" Obi-Wan conceded, knowing when he was outvoted. "But when you're explaining to the Requisition Master why you've returned with another mangled droid; don't say I didn't warn you."
Obi-Wan stepped back from the observation room door. He saw that the woman was tight with tension, poised like she was ready to run or fight. A fine sheen of sweat covered her skin, soaking into the white coverings on her body. Obi-Wan could only guess at how much effort it took for her to keep on her feet - she must have been exhausted.
The woman may not have known what they were discussing, but she obviously could sense that something was about to happen; she held the waterglass in a white-knuckled grip. The seam in the wall where the door was concealed, split open with a gust of air. A blue contamination field flickered across the threshold, and with a command from Anakin, the medi-droid bobbed through the doorway and into the room. At the sight of the robot, the woman choked on a gasp, scrabbling back against the wall like she was trying to disappear into it. Her whole body was trembling as she stared, wide eyed and pale faced, at the droid.
"Maybe we shouldn't…" Obi-Wan started to say, but the lights in the room were already dimming, and a second later, the panel on the top of the medi-droid's head opened up, revealing the glass globe of a starmap. A burst of light exploded out; as beautiful and wonderous as the first spark of the universe's creation. All the stars of the galaxy swirled through the dim air, the planets dancing in step around them.
The woman stretched out her injured hand, watching the bright points of light trail their path across her skin. Then suddenly, it was like all the knots that tied her together, unravelled, all at once. She slid to the floor, landing with a thud, her body curled over as she wrapped her hands around her legs and buried her face against her bruised knees.
"Turn it off," Obi-Wan barked at the droid. The stars winked out as quickly as they had appeared. The woman was crying. Huge, heaving sobs shuddered through her body. Obi-Wan hunched down, slowly inching his way across the room towards her. As concerned as he was about frightening her further, he just couldn't stand aside and do nothing.
"I'm sorry Master!" Anakin's voice said over the speaker, filled with worry.
"It's alright," Obi-Wan said, his voice low and hushed, as he stopped within an arm's length of the woman. He honestly wasn't sure who he was consoling more; his apprentice or the poor creature in front of him. "You're safe. No-one will hurt you here. I promise you; you are safe."
Obi-Wan gently brushed a hand over her undamaged shoulder - the skin under his fingers was icy cold, even in the warmth of the room. She flinched a little from his touch; another sob wracking through her, tears trailing tracks down the pale line of her cheek, but she didn't resist when he gently eased his arms around her. He sat with her like that, until she finally tucked her body against his chest and her tears had utterly soaked through his tunic.
"Ee-ma-lee" she whispered into the hollow of his shoulder, before he felt the loose slump of her limbs, as her exhaustion gave way to sleep.