Chapter 5 - A Call to the Force
Obi Wan stood before the Jedi council giving his debrief on what had occurred over the past few days. A task normally reserved for his master but with him still on Tatooine it fell to him.
"And on waiting for my master and the boy the ship was attacked by what I believe to be a Zabrak that had force training."
The masters looked around the room at each other. "Saying you, a Sith this was?" Master Yoda questioned.
"I do not know master. But he had a crimson blade and had an anger resonating before him. Never before have I seen a Padowan like him in the Jedi Temple, his facial tattoos would have been too memorable even amongst all our members."
"We will investigate the attacker properly." Master Windu told Obi Wan. "However it appears your master has abandoned your mission Padowan Kennobi."
"Not at all master, my own master was seeking to bring the boy that he had found as force sensitive what he rightfully deserved and with permission bring him here to the Jedi Council."
"Not Qui Gin's decision, that is." Master Yoda answered. "Bring the Queen to here, your mission was changed to. Return later, easier to do and more responsible."
"Yes master, but I do believe my master Qui Gon saw something in the boy that was worth getting him right then and there, rather than risk waiting." Obi Wan answered.
"Did he speak of this to you padowan?" Master Kai-Udi-Mundi asked.
Nodding Obi Wan answered. "The night before we left Master Qui Gon sent me a blood sample and asked me to run a mediclorian count on it. I did as asked and the reading came back as higher than anything that had ever been recorded." Looking directly at Master Yoda. "Even higher than your count Master Yoda."
The council was slightly shocked as they all looked around the room to each other. They and the rest of the order had always been on the lookout for padowans to join. For The Jedi Order to have missed something this big had them second guess their action of looking for force sensitive children.
"That's not possible." Master Windu stated after his initial shock wore off. "We have always had an eye on this galaxy. We would not have missed such an extreme shift in the force around a particular person."
"No I'm afraid not." Master Kit Fisto answered him. "The planet was on the outer rims in Hutt controlled space. Jedi rarely go to planets like these unless we have no choice."
"Not is the will of the force, time to know it was. Revealed at the right time, does the force show us." Yoda answered.
"I agree. The emergence of someone this powerful in the force is likely to shape our own destiny and others around him." Udi Mundi told the Council. "Qui Gon was right to stay and bring the boy here."
The council nodded in agreement with that motion.
"Thank you Padowan Kennobi, I believe that answers everything. We would ask you to stay in the temple while we figure out our next action of sending a crew of Jedi to find your master and the boy." Master Windu told Obi Wan. "We will also inform you of any actions of the Queen of Naboo and what we have decided next to do on that front."
Obi Wan bowed and returned to the elevator returning down the chambers. Halfway down the spire a feeling struck him like someone just tore a part of himself away almost severing his feeling to the force itself. Leaving him feeling numb and clutching the side of the elevator as it descended.
Not just him he felt it all around him. The force abandoned almost the entire Jedi temple with some people inside collapsing and passing out trying to keep a hold of it. Like a solar eclipse in the force itself all rushed in one direction leaving behind shock and alarm in its place.
The entire Jedi council clutched their heads and a few looked in the direction of the cause. Far up into space they could feel the direction it was being pulled to its unknown source.
Yoda knew better than to fight it and let the force leave him like a tide gently flowing away from himself. Feeling all the ripples in the force around him but unable to calm them through their force bond. What little force he had left felt something else in that moment. Like a fog that was over the planet was disturbed and flowing in all directions but did not break, its presence was now in fluctuation as well being pulled but it didn't break.
Sheev Palpatine had done and seen many thing in the force that he had never dreamed as possible. He was in his office making sure that all his pieces were in place for the vote of no confidence with Chancellor Vallorum.
Everything was going as he had planned and it even appeared that one of the Jedi sent with the Queen had not returned, making his mood smug in happiness at his pet Mual disposing of another Jedi. One at a time they would fall, until the plan to eradicate them all in one fell swoop.
All of that smugness and decades of planning evaporated in less than a second. He felt it in the force. A part of it clawed away from him and he reached out to stop it only for it to thrash wildly, like an animal caught in a trap.
He fought and pulled, until it obediently returned to him. Palpatine feeling the direction it was pulled towards felt the force itself flow there. Not just himself, he felt in all over Coruscant, the force was leaving everywhere and being sucked like a vacuum to an unknown source in the galaxy. He focused and tried use the dark side to locate it but it was like staring into the sun. An entire area of the outer rim was like a supernova had gone off, blinding anyone that looked at it.
A morning of hiring a speeder and searching the surrounding the race track had Qui Gon thinking the worst when he found the crashed pod racer. Relived to see no blood inside the cockpit slightly eased his thoughts, until he noticed the blaster signs on the pod. Most likely a group of raiders or a group of mercenaries had thought the pod was an easy target. As Anakin and his friend were nowhere to be seen he started looking around that area, then further out in the dessert.
It was mid-afternoon when he felt it moments before it then struck him. Qui Gon almost swerved and crashed the speeder when he felt the force being sucked from him, a force unlike one he'd ever experienced in his life then filled him.
All the dark side he could imagine in the universe was drawn to the planet, the light came in with it swirling together. As they struck the planet he noticed an enormous sand wall moving towards his left. It stretched as far as he could see and seemed to be gaining speed as it moved. Then the very ground beneath him began to shake. Qui Gon could tell, it wasn't the ground that was shaking. The very planet itself was moving. Putting an arm over his eyes he tried to protect them from the storm, a few seconds and the front of the speeder was struck violently. Qui Gon was thrown from the speeder landing on his side.
Every force sensitive person in the galaxy felt it. Those that were closer to the source were having all the force gather to that spot, everyone outside just saw an eclipse of darkness and light swirling together. The force act was not evil, nor was it good. It simply was there happening and alternating between the two, neither gaining an advantage over the other. And for the briefest of seconds that it started it then extinguished. Ten seconds of this one act of the forced made every force sensitive look in that direction. Stop and gaze into the force questioning what happens next?