At first I want to say a big Thank You to all of you my staunch reviewers who gave me some back wind to go on with my translation of this story. Especially I thank you, Samurai Jamne, not only for your heartily review but also for your song-recommendations. Frozen I did know until now from Madonna only, but you are totally correct: Frozen from Celldweller is a real banger and it has become an absolutely favorite song of mine! Thank you so much for this!
I hope you will enjoy the next chapter, which will answer some questions raised in the last reviews.
And last but not least: A happy New Year 2019 to you all! :)
Before Shaak Ti made up for Felucia, she went to Obi-Wan. The freshly minted Jedi Master sat in his own, newly acquired office and stared forlorn on a file.
"May the force be with you, Master Ti, what can I do for you?", the twenty-four years old Obi-Wan asked the eleven years older woman.
"You still mourn about your killed master, don't you?", she asked compassionately.
"Thanks for the compassion", Obi-Wan said a bit stiffy, to hold back his feelings, "but that's not the reason you did came for, I presume."
"At a certain point indeed", she said. "You have seen the Sith - and that even twice. What is your feeling telling you, Obi-Wan? Was it the master or the apprentice?"
"That haughty, as he behaved at the end, I strongly suppose, he was the apprentice, if not the Sith are recruiting children now", the young Jedi Knight replied. "But why you are interested in that?"
"Because I have the feeling, that this was just the beginning. Dooku and Master Sifo-Dyas are off the record and Hego Damask, the man I was supposed to guard four days ago, has died in the very same night like your master did - and that in a quite mysterious way. I had a vision of death the day, I was with him. And it came true. I felt a disturbance in the force here on Coruscant - a disturbance of the dark kind. But nobody wanted to believe me. Master Yoda did say that the death of Hego Damask is not our business. But I believe, that second Sith – the master – did kill him, because Hego Damask was a friend of the republic and he wanted to help us – the Jedi. That's why, in the night of his death, I felt such a darkness. I had a dream about blue lightning and of an ugly laughter. That time I could not interpret it. Today I know that I've heard laugh Hego Damask's murderer. I feel so guilty, because I could not thwart his death, though it was my task to save him. I hope, you understand, what I mean", she ended her speech.
"I do understand. I also feel guilty for the death of Qui-Gon Jinn. I never should have let it happen, that the Sith will part us, before he killed him. Then it had not had happen. But I still don't know, how I may help you", Obi-Wan said a bit clueless.
"Your Padawan did have that droid with him, when he blew up that droid control-ship of the Trade Federation above Naboo. That Astromech is apparently a very capable one. I would require his services", she started to come to the core of her visit.
"R2D2 is indeed one of the most capable Astromech droids, I have ever met. But how can he help you?"
"At the evening of the chancellor election, Hego Damask went to the Opera house with Palpatine. After that he must have returned to his home at the Kaldani spires, where he was found dead. I want to know, if somebody was with him and went to his apartment even. There must be holo-cams in front and inside the spires, which might have recorded such. Or even some cams, which could reconstruct his way from the Opera until to the Kaldani spires. This way we can find his murderer", she said in resolution.
"Then I will lend R2D2 to you - but for one day only, because Anakin will feel lonely without him."
"Doesn't he has you?", she asked astounded.
"Oh, he is a bit special in these things", Obi-Wan explained with a wry smile. "What I am wondering about is that you had a vision of death of your client after just one night guarding him. Usually such happens only, when you were very close to each other or when that one, about whom you have such a vision, is very strong in the force too."
"I may say very immodestly, that perhaps I am very strong in producing visions only", she said evadingly. "I thank you, Obi-Wan", she said, before he told her about the whereabouts of R2D2.
The Astromech trailed by Shaak Ti's side, when she returned to her office. The issue was easier than she had thought. The blue-silver droid was able indeed, to use the Holo-Net-box in her office to create a connection with the surveillance as well for the Opera House of Coruscant as for the Kaldani Spires. Shaak Ti followed how Hego Damask left the Opera House with the chancellor to be, to fetch a glider, whose way R2D2 was unable to follow. As she went to the holo-cam of the Kaldani spires, she saw how Hego Damask entered the building alone, to vanish in the Repulsor lift alone. Then the transmission ended abruptly. The owner of the house did not allowed any further observation of his ways in his house. It was, as Hego Damask did tell Shaak Ti before: Everything happening in his apartment was strictly confidential. And now Shaak Ti realized that this keeping of his privacy started as soon as somebody did enter the building.
She already thought she had seen it all and there would come nothing new, when R2D2 rang and beeped agitatedly. She looked at the holo-image, which he had projected into the air above him, to spot, how the droid zoomed big a detail from the background. It was a chrono, which was behind Hego Damask, when he was about to enter his building. On that unclear chrono, which R2D2's devices made sharp for her, was a date. And that date showed unequivocally that the scene of this arrival of Hego Damask must have taken place two days before the evening of the chancellor election.
"Please show me the same part from two days ago", she asked R2D2, who whistled in a confirming manner. He shuffled ahead two days and now Shaak Ti saw the very same scene like before. As when time would repeat itself. Hego Damask's black cloak broomed over the floor in the very same intervals above the polished ground like at the day of the chancellor election. And the time and the date of the unsharp chrono were exactly the same. The murderer must had been entering the building before the very eyes of everyone. Possibly together with the house owner! An icy cold shiver went down her spine. Who was Hego Damask's murderer? And what had he done with him?
"Somebody has manipulated the surveillance Holocams to tear away any traces. Somebody did replace the crucial date of time by a scene from two days ago", she said concerned and with grief in her violet eyes to Obi-Wan, when she handed back to him R2D2.
"What you are going to do now?", Obi-Wan asked.
"I have to tell Master Yoda about it. That's a conspiracy against the Jedi", she said in a somber voice.
She met Master Yoda two hours later in the Cantina of the temple. When she saw, what undefined black-greenish food he had on his plate, she felt very bad and hastened to leave the Cantina, lest to vomit spontaneously because of disgust about the odor, wafting towards her. Outside she leaned against the railing. She felt dwindling too. A certain suspicion grew inside her. She called Master Luminara Unduli.
One hour later she sat with the other master in her room. Relieved she glanced to the little altar, which the greenish Jedi Master had placed on the wall in Mirialan custom. A bowl filled with Penja-fruits was on the low table next to the couch.
"May I have one?", she asked the Mirialan.
"My pleasure. Please help yourself!", Luminara replied friendly.
"I'm thinking of taking a new Padawan", Shaak Ti opened conversation, to bite blissfully into the red ripe fruit, to chew it and to swallow it merrily.
"It's a great honor to pass one's knowledge to the next generation of Jedi", Luminara replied with a smile.
"What do you think? Would Fe Sun be a good choice?"
"That brown haired Human with the blue eyes? I think she would be happy and can't wait to prove herself", the Mirialan replied affirmatively.
"In a certain point she is remembering me on Jedi Knight Tahl", Shaak Ti said and took another Penja-fruit from the bowl.
"Tahl was much darker in skin tone", Luminara Unduli replied.
"Did you know that Tahl was pregnant, when she died on New Absolom in Qui-Gon's arms?", Shaak Ti asserted.
"That is nearly six years ago, but I've never heard of it", Luminara wondered.
"Qui-Gon did tell me about it", Shaak Ti lied in order to test her reaction.
"What does it matter, where she's dead already - and he too. But actually it is horrible … you don't think that Fe Sun eventually could fail like that?", Luminara presumed.
"I must admit, that sometimes I have such thoughts, when I'm watching her training", Shaak Ti replied and took a third Penja-fruit.
"Well, when my Padawan would dare to do so, I would tell it the Council swiftly and the Council should decide about her fate. She would have been my Padawan then for the very last time!", Luminara declared earnestly.
Shaak Ti looked a bit startled at her.
"Don't worry, my dear. Barriss Offee is that proper and prudent, as much as a Mirialan and a Jedi ever could be. She would never betray on our Order", she tried to chase away the fright from her friend's face.
"Of course not. And we all know, what's rightful and proper, don't we?" She took a fourth Penja-fruit while uttering these words.
"That's the way it is", the Mirialan affirmed.
After that talk Shaak Ti said Goodbye to her friend and headed to the departure dock, to prepare her vessel for Felucia.
The blue, feathered beings of the jungle spoke an ancient dialect, but Shaak Ti could understand them that much to learn that the quarrel was about hunting grounds. After she screened the landscape to get an understanding of the nature and the resources and about the size of the striving parties as well, she decided that the group with the more profitable grounds should give something of their hunting prey to the party with the lesser netting area. That group renounced to some of the hunting grounds voluntarily. Shaak Ti was happy she could complete her mission that swift way.
After she returned to the temple, she explained to Master Yoda, that she would take Fe Sun as her new Padawan. The green Grandmaster saw no reason to object.
Then Shaak Ti came to her second issue.
"I have a firm reason to believe, that the death of Hego Damask was not due to a malfunction of his breathing device, like alleged officially, but it was murder!", she explained to the Grandmaster.
"About this already discussed – we had. Not a matter for the Jedi – this is", he repelled.
"But the surveillance cam in front of the house, where his apartment was, was manipulated. R2D2 did discover this. What when the one Sith did kill Qui-Gon on Naboo and his master in the very same night did kill Hego Damask? With such you can't just to the next police station!", she argued.
"Hmmm … to manipulate cams – not Sith powers are required but pure technical skills. Enemies Hego Damask did have - business competitors. Economic quarrels – a matter of the Jedi are not", he objected.
"But I had a vision of his death just one day ago. While dreaming I saw blue lightning and I heard a heinous laughter. This was a vision of death – I know now!", she tried to convince him a very last time.
"Hmmm – strange that is. The hidden second Sith – the master – we all are looking for him. And when true are your words – then nothing we can do about it until we have found – the second Sith", he closed the issue.
Shaak Ti was torn back and forth, after she had left the Council chamber. At least Yoda did believe her, that she did not had have just blurred dreams. She knew that the Jedi still didn't have any clue about that ominous second Sith – just like herself. At one side it did trouble her. On the other side that not-knowledge did console her in a strange way. Because thus she could close that case for now and could prepare fully on her next two big tasks.
Fe Sun found it very hot on Shili, where Shaak Ti had retreated with her. The young Human woman did expect to learn more lightsaber fight like in former times in the temple on the big open training ground. But her master preferred to teach her the use of the living force. Shaak Ti had explained to her, that afterwards, she would be also more capable to wield her blade than without such a pure force-training. But the young woman had the suspicion that her master was rather keen on sparing herself, because under her wide gowns, the lines of her belly did swell more and more.
Fe Sun at a certain time did know by her own cognition, that her master did want to give birth on her home planet. But she never would dare to ask the majestic Togruta about it. What would the council say, when it was revealed, that she did know all the time about the pregnancy of her master and did not try to confront her with her failure or to tell it to the Council? A good Padawan, beside this, would never betray her master like that – and vice versa!
So she delved on Shaak Ti's side into the force, went hunting with her or collected berries. Meanwhile the young Padawan did also figure out that pregnant women had to avoid abrupt movements, lest to endanger the unborn child. So that was the reason, why her master did not train lightsaber-combat with her. But surely she would catch up that later, Fe Sun was sure of.
The laboring and giving birth, thanks to the meditation Shaak Ti did mete out, was a very easy one. After just one hour under heavy labor waves, her child was born. While Fe Sun was hunting outside, on Shaak Ti's side her mother was, with whom after her acceptance in the temple at the tender age of three, she did not had any contact.
The elderly Togruta did hold the alabaster-colored grand-child in her arms and glanced on her Lekkus which was striped white and grey.
"That is a very strange coloring for a Togrutan child. And then the Lekkus – who is her father?"
"I can't tell you. When the temple knows about it …"
"I'm not going to tell the temple anything", the mother did placate her.
"He was a businessman I did guard in a mission from the temple."
"Do your missions do derail that often, my child?"
"I don't want to talk about this now. He's dead and there is nothing to alter about it", Shaak Ti scoffed.
The curtain of the humble hat, Shaak Ti had chosen for giving birth, did glide aside. Both Togruta froze. Master Yoda stepped in.
"Master Shaak Ti – to see you – I'm happy. Offspring you have", Master Yoda greeted friendly.
Hesitatingly the grandmother gave the child back to her daughter, who apparently embarrassed took it.
"You did know it, did feel it, didn't you?", Shaak Ti spoke out her suspicion.
"The Grandmaster of our order - for nothing I'm not", Yoda said cheerfully.
"Hold her – I may?", he asked the freshly minted mother.
Without a world she handed him over her newborn.
"Hmmm … strong in the force – the little one is. With three years into the temple she shall come."
"But what you want to do with the child now?", the mother asked her daughter with sorrow in her black eyes.
"I will nurse her for some months and then she may spent the years here with you, until I will come back to take her", Shaak Ti explained.
"Come to the temple – she will. But after half a year leave her – you will and return to the temple – you must", Master Yoda explained with a stern voice. "Because otherwise – the bond – too strong it will grow. In three years – from Shili somebody else her will take."
"I do understand", Shaak Ti replied stoically.
She would be near her daughter many times. But her daughter would never know anymore that she was her daughter. And she as her mother would stay silent duly and treat the little one just like the other Younglings in the temple. That was the price she had to pay, because she, the Jedi Master Shaak Ti, did brush aside some rules of the Jedi Codex to be just a woman who wanted a man. She remembered her negotiating mission on Felucia. That time she brought justice upon others. Now it was her, who was spoken justice upon. She asked herself, if there were other infants and younglings in the temple, whose fathers or mothers were living in the very same building, and their offspring didn't know about or weren't about to learn about it ever.
"What the little one's name will be?", Yoda asked her with a warm voice.
"Ashla", Shaak Ti said and gave her daughter her breast without any care of the presence of the Grandmaster during this kind of child-nutrition. Ashla with her black eyes looked on her mother and smiled.
Note of the author: Ashla is very real. She has her canonical appearance in the PT "Attack of the Clone Warriors", as one of the Younglings in the background, when Obi-Wan tells Master Yoda, that he can't find the planet of Kamino in the temple archives.
Ashla is also a character in the Lego mini-series "The Yoda-Chronicles". You may spot even her name badge there, when you activate freeze-frame in certain scenes. The look of Ashla in this mini-series is the template for the Ashla in this my story.
Beside this, Darth Plagueis himself in his novel is using the term Ashla as the ancient name for the light side of the force in a talk with his apprentice Sidious. What is nearer then, that Plagueis' daughter with a Jedi is called likewise? ;)