Chapter 11
Despite having lived there for the majority of my life so far, truly beholding the orbital space around Coruscant was still something that never failed to take my breath away. That order could be achieved around the ecumenopolis at all was a miracle given the amount of traffic that was coming and going from the planet, never mind the airborne traffic of flying speeders of thousands of different models and purposes. Coruscant Traffic Control as an organization required tens of thousands of people and even that small a number was only possible due to the astronomical amounts of droids and computers working with them to maintain order.
One very normal looking Republic Navy corvette passing through the various orbital approach lanes did not merit a passing thought or second look. It was on a standard course, having a slightly higher priority in the various queues simply for the fact that it was a military craft. The fact that its engines suddenly cut out and it began drifting off its authorized approach vector was the first clue CTC had that something was wrong. Even then it didn't merit any more extra attention other than the traffic operator adjusting it's projected course and altering others to compensate.
The event that finally rang the emergency alarm bells across the entire system was every escape pod from the corvette launching simultaneously. Operators had barely ten seconds to comprehend this before the entire corvette detonated and sent debris in nearly every direction.
I tapped on the data pad, pausing the visual recording of the event and rewinded, before carefully watching the explosion frame by frame. I had no doubt that Republic Intelligence was doing this with experts way more qualified than I was, but I couldn't help but feel a personal stake in this. That corvette had after all been covertly ferrying Count Dooku to Coruscant and now at the last step before the end, he had been sprung. The events aboard the corvette were still classified to a level that I wouldn't see for a long while, but I could guess well enough what happened.
Anakin and Obi-wan had ferried the Count to a prearranged spot in interstellar space a few lightyears out of Coruscant using the Twilight, met up with the corvette and delivered Dooku for the final journey. Palpatine probably had had a mercenary strike team of double-blind deniable operatives hidden aboard the corvette, along with the codes and equipment needed to swiftly take over. The detonation in orbit of Coruscant was just to create chaos and Dooku had probably been on one of the escape pods, most of which had fallen into one of the large industrial sectors of the planet. A place I knew that Palpatine had a hideout somewhere for performing all his Sith activities.
The whole travesty of events was just another fresh reminder that I was in a figurative chess match, fighting against an opponent who was carrying out a plan that was nearly a thousand years in the making and had been refined by the Sith hundreds of times as the Rule of Two progressed over the generations. Palpatine was adapting his schemes and plans as I threw wrenches in them and it clearly showed he thoroughly deserved the mantle of Sith Master and the rating of 'ultimate villain' from my previous life.
I couldn't help but release a weary sigh as I looked out of the expansive window and over the flat cityscape that surrounded the Jedi Temple complex of Coruscant. For having spent so much of my life here, the view never failed to impress. A door down the hall opened and out from it emerged a young human Jedi Adept and since he was coming from my destination, it seemed that my appointment was due.
I placed the datapad in my small carry bag and stood. The approaching young adept was a curious mix of emotions that I managed to pick out despite the careful yet neophyte control he kept over his emotional aura - slight awe, excitement, and a hint of eagerness.
"Padawan Tano, the Council is ready."
"Thank you, adept," I declared formally. "Would you mind looking after my bag while I'm in there?"
"Not at all," the young Jedi took it from me as we walked down the hall towards the main doors. I was suddenly struck by a sense of familiarity with the adept, as if I had seen him before…
The doors parted immediately at my approach, interrupting my thoughts and allowed me to walk into the large circular room, the walls of which were displaying a soft white light, giving the impression I was walking into an infinite dimension of white. The twelve gray chairs set into the floor placed in equidistant spots around the circular room was the only thing that dispelled the disorientation. This was the Tower of First Knowledge of the Jedi Temple, it was one of the four towers that surrounded the main Temple Spire, on top of which the High Council of the Jedi Order convened. I was now surrounded by the members of the Council of First Knowledge, those most senior councilors of the Jedi who were the curators of all knowledge held within the Temple itself and administered the curriculum of the Jedi Academy.
My eyes were immediately drawn to the fact that Grand Master Yoda was seated among the twelve. The CFK had for the last two decades been chaired by Master Agnook, a Cathar who in temperament reminded me of my old primary school headmaster - grumpy, strict, expected the best out of everyone around him and heavens help you if you failed to live up to his expectations. Agnook was standing next to his customary chair, having surrendered it to let Yoda have the seat.
As always, at Agnook's right hand was the severe Jedi Master Jocasta Nu, the Chief Librarian of the Jedi Archives. As much as I wanted to give everyone in the galaxy a fair shake, now that I was actually living in this universe, my experiences with Master Nu were far from positive. She was a bloody old hag who ruled her library with a ridiculous zeal. Many times she had run me out of the archives for daring to be there over 'scheduled' hours and even when I was there with full rights of access, she was always within earshot or eyeshot, looking over what I accessed. It had been infuriating because at the time, I had found it difficult to study with someone always looking over my shoulder.
The other ten members of the CFK were a diverse but ordinary bunch, with only one other being memorable in that I was sure she was most likely a Jedi Shadow. Master Taria Damsin was a human woman, seated to my left, nearest the door and she had green-blue hair and gold eyes, both of which were oddly natural to her. You could see no hints of a 'natural' color peeking through her hair. The only thing normal about her appearance was the light-brown skin color. Outwardly, she was the picture of attentiveness but I could discern a hint of impatience and boredom from her.
The other thing I could discern from a general read from the room's occupants through the Force… was that they disapproved of my wardrobe choice. I was still in my full custom armor and could step out of the room and walk into a battle with no problems. The only consent I had given to formality was a parted brown Jedi robe that I was wearing over it.
"Padawan Tano, welcome," Yoda began proceedings.
"Master Yoda," I bowed formally.
"Before continue we do, another is required."
A flicker of blue appeared in mid air next to me, before resolving into the hologram of my own master. Anakin looked around the room briefly before bowing to Yoda. He wasn't here in person because of the urgent mission he and Obi-wan had been ordered to undertake and was across the galaxy on the way to Pantora. Strictly speaking, I didn't need his presence but the moment I became his padawan, it was ingrained in tradition that no Council meeting could happen regarding me without his presence.
I bowed to him at a proper angle in respect and greeting before turning back to face Yoda.
"Padawan Tano," Master Agnook began, "we have summoned you here today to account for a new emergence of technique in the usage of the Force, as described by Master Obi-wan Kenobi and your own master, Knight Skywalker..." His formal tone stopped abruptly and he shook his head with a wry smile, "Since you've been through this before padawan, I doubt we need to walk you through the procedure again?"
Master Nu gave her superior a gimlet eye of annoyance, which he simply ignored.
"No Master Agnook," I nodded. "There is no specific name you can give this technique as it is actually an extension of Force Bonding. It is both achieving a proper state of mind and conquering your own preconceptions of what your lightsaber actually is. Those with a predisposition and talent for developing Force Bonds will find this easier to achieve, but it can be done by any Jedi with a lightsaber holding a kyber crystal that they have achieved sufficient resonance with."
"And how much resonance would be required at a minimum?" Agnook queried with interest.
"I'd say if you taught this to an adept who had just finished their pilgrimage to Ilum to find their first kyber crystal, they'd find the technique quite easy I think."
That first crystal was something that was gifted with the provenance of the Force itself as the adept went through the pilgrimage through those ice caves, as they faced the Trials of the Mirror. With that feeling fresh in their young minds, having just finished construction of their first lightsaber and if they were taught the technique on the journey back...
"Any older Jedi would need to unlearn a thing or two," I couldn't help the twitch of my mouth and meeting the eyes of Yoda for a brief moment.
The other Jedi in the room felt a bit confused as Yoda let out a brief chuckle, his eyes twinkling at me in amusement.
"Very well," Agnook turned to Anakin. "Knight Skywalker, you and Master Kenobi were successfully taught this by Padawan Tano?"
"That is correct," he confirmed.
"Do you agree with her assessment of the ease of instruction of the technique?"
"I do."
"Padawan Tano, we can begin with the demonstration."
I removed one of my lightsabers from my belt intending to hand it over to Master Agnook, but Master Damsin abruptly stood and approached me.
"If you'll allow me, Master Agnook?" Damsin politely asked.
The Cathar Jedi Master nodded and after a moment's consideration and meeting those golden eyes briefly I deposited the lightsaber in her open hand. The odd Jedi nodded at me and walked out of the room promptly with an energy that suggested she had little patience for all the sitting around she did here.
With the patience of Jedi we all waited in silence for over ten minutes before Master Agnook nodded at me.
I submerged my mind in the Force, feeling the thread of my distant lightsaber as it connected to me and following. Given how long I'd had them and how attuned they were to me, the strength of the bond was such that it allowed for a bit more than simply knowing where it was.
"About eighty meters below, towards the north-west by about ten meters," I declared and briefly closed my eyes. "One of the cafeterias reserved for Masters, never been there before… ah Master Damsin is having a snack it seems, a fruit I'm not familiar with and some iced chi'ffa."
"Even an anchor for Farsight, it can be," Yoda mused.
I nodded. It was a little uncomfortable being under the active Force perceptions of so many people.
"Please speak to your motivation."
"As my own master can attest recently, events and circumstances can occur that separate a Jedi from his lightsaber, that are utterly out of his control. This technique will at least allow a Jedi the chance to plan a recovery of the lightsaber. I considered approaching the problem from a technological angle, but any homing transmitter small and light enough to fit into the hilt of a lightsaber has too limited range and strength. It's also very obvious that a signal is transmitting and if the lightsaber is in unsavory hands then they can disable it, jam it or even use it as a lure. I therefore turned to the Force as a solution. With a strong enough Force bond with a lightsaber, you could trace its location anywhere in the galaxy, no natural obstacles would matter."
Yoda and Agnook shared a look and brief burst of communication through the Force.
"Interesting, and well reasoned Padawan Tano," Agnook nodded. "It is a clever solution to the problem."
"Teach me this technique, you will," Yoda declared. "Master Nu, provide a holocron for recording and entering into the archive. If all goes well, amend the adept curriculum to include it we shall. Tomorrow morning, in the Room of Thousand Fountains, find me, Padawan Tano."
"Understood Master Yoda."
"Are there any further questions or concerns?" Agnook looked at all his fellow masters and none were seemingly forthcoming from any of them, which was a nice surprise.
"With the Council's permission, I'd like the use of the chamber to speak to my padawan," Anakin requested.
"Granted, Knight Skywalker," Agnook nodded.
The Council of First Knowledge rose from their seats and steadily filed out of the chamber, Yoda exiting last with his gimer stick's steady tapping. Only when the doors shut themselves did Anakin speak.
"How are you doing, snips?"
I could feel his clear concern and I understood his worry, as from his point of view I had been forced to go into a full fleet battle and groundside action without him by my side. It was rather endearing.
"I'm fine, Master. I won't deny that there were a few rather harrowing moments there, but the Herald survived. Her crew was evacuated from CIS space a few days ago and Resolute is in dry dock for her hyperdrive overhaul. We should get her back better than ever and our engineers can now properly implement our improvements for her."
He stared at me in silence for a few moments, "That's good to hear. Your training?"
"Fully adhered to the schedule, Master. As nice as it is to command a ship, sitting in that chair all day is not fun."
"Good, I expect to be pleasantly surprised by your progress in our next spar session," he grinned at me.
"Which you will be," I asserted confidently. "So how are you and Master Kenobi fairing with the Pantoran delegation?"
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually miss the time we spent recently with Dooku," Anakin grimaced. "He was at least quiet in his cell. This Pantoran general just doesn't know when to stop, with the amount of planning meetings we've had already, we could've planned the conquest of an entire sector."
"But this is just a kriffing ice moon you're securing, one that's barely habitable."
"I know, snips, but because it's the security of their home system at stake, it's thrown all sense of proportionality out of the window and he has the full backing of the Senate behind him."
"Politicians," I sneered.
"Indeed," he nodded in agreement. "Speaking of which, I noticed how well you handled yourself in front of the Council and it's not your first appearance in front of them."
"Yes Master, I've appeared before the Council of First Knowledge twice in similar circumstances."
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. What were those for?"
"The first was a method for making the use of Force telekinesis more efficient and the second was a healing technique."
"I trust you'll explain fully when we meet in person?"
"Of course, Master."
"Good, well I have to get back to relieve Obi-wan from minder duty."
"Good luck."
"Thanks, Force be with you, snips."
"And you, Skyguy."
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There were many who said that Coruscant was the entire galaxy condensed into a microcosm, if you considered an entire planet small, which was true if your frame of reference was an entire galaxy. The billions who called all its multitude of levels across the entire planet home was a menagerie of every known species of the galaxy that could survive in the general ranges of gravity, air pressure and composition that favored the humanoid and non-humanoid form. The logistics of the planet was difficult to wrap your head around, even if you had lived here your whole life. Imagine the machinery and technology needed to compensate for the fact that you had no plants or oceans to naturally refresh the carbon dioxide being emitted by every breath of the inhabitants. No amount of food produced in skyscraper greenhouses could possibly feed the multitudes, so it all had to be imported via ship. However, there was only one place I could go to get a meal that could begin to remind me of Earth and my previous life and it was about an hour's journey via public transport from the Jedi Temple.
The general area was called Coco Town, or as it was more formally known, the Collective Commerce District. It was an industrial area that had definitely seen better days in the past and if any place on the planet could be called blue-collar, then this was it. The people who lived and worked here were hard folks and the industries they worked in were the type that still needed an organic touch, despite the presence of droids in the workforce. Droids after all, only got you so far, and even droids eventually needed maintenance.
After landing in Coco Town, you walked through a main thoroughfare and after passing a landing area for shuttles, on the other side of the main square, you could find Dex's Diner. It was a roughly twelve meter long rounded structure with wide expansive windows that allowed for good views of the comings and goings of the area.
Just looking at the place as I approached its main door had my mouth watering in anticipation. Entering the diner, I was assaulted by the smells of a very busy kitchen, the tang of spices, the carbonation of searing meat. The hiss of the grill echoed in my montrals, the bustling background chatter of patrons in the various booths. If I closed my eyes I could imagine I was in any number of diners I frequented back on Earth and was struck with such nostalgia that I nearly felt like I would break down and weep. I quickly opened my eyes and centered myself, focusing on the clientele of various races and the signage in aurebesh.
I pulled down the hood of my thin white robe, and adjusted my dark gray pants and strappy shirt slightly. I was in a new outfit that I had mentally dubbed, civilian incognito with a dash of paranoia - combat boots and the gauntlets from my armor completing the outfit. I had put a bit of weight on in muscle lately and as a result most of my clothing had to be adjusted.
"Ahsoka!"
The boisterous call came from the big guy of the establishment himself as he thumped towards me and soon I was engulfed in the four armed hug of a besalisk.
"Dex, how's business?" I returned the hug as best I could.
"Good as always, little one! Come, come," he said and escorted me to an empty seat at the bar. "You off-duty?"
"You could say that," I grinned. It was a relief to unwind after coming from a six month tour on the front lines of the war and teaching Master Yoda to Force bond with his lightsaber. The latter would normally not be stressful but since it was also being captured for posterity via holocron... ouch.
"Excellent, I'll bring your usual and we can catch up!"
Dex disappeared into the kitchen and after a careful look around I spotted Dex's better and way prettier half. Hermione Bagwa, the main waitress of the diner, waved and nodded at me before returning her attention to an ordering customer.
"Anything to drink?" My interlocutor was the diner's waitress droid Wanda, a WA-7 with a silver chrome body with red highlights and moved around on a single wheel.
"A cup of caff, Wanda."
"Coming right up," the droid zoomed away.
Hardly a few minutes passed and I was digging into a nerf burger and a Togruta salad with extreme relish.
"What slop are they serving you on those cruisers?" Dex queried, seeing my enthusiasm.
"Military food, designed to last as long as possible in storage, with barely any variety. It has everything the body needs but that's about all that can be said for it."
"Republic should be sending those clone cooks to me, I'll teach them to make prime rated dishes out of anything. For many of the clones, those meals will be their last and a good meal is something to look forward to as well. Half the morale of an army is won in the kitchen."
"I'll make sure to send your boundless wisdom to the appropriate ears," I nodded at the big guy with a smile, while thinking about how I could twist the discretionary budget of Resolute in such a way that we could stop at a world and trade for more traditional and perishable foods.
"Good," Dex nodded and slid over a large datapad. I was done with the burger, so after wiping my hands and getting started on the salad with a fork, began reading the datapad. It took a while to read through everything and I had polished the salad and was drinking my caff when I finally read through the last report on the pad.
I looked up and met the dark beady eyes of the besalisk, "Well, I suppose congratulations are in order."
"'Congratulations' she says," Dex grumbled and shook his head in exasperation. "Ahsoka, you're the reason Hermione and I can decide tomorrow to pack all this up and retire anywhere we want to. The only reason we haven't already, is because we don't know what we'd do with ourselves. We like the diner too much."
"I figured that'd be the case."
Dex leaned in and spoke in a low tone, "You also just found out that you…"
I raised a hand to stop him speaking further, "Don't say it, while there are no listening devices around us, the abilities of the enemy are not to be underestimated. Just as I could give you a bit of friendly advice about where and when to invest, so can the enemy apply a similar method to divine many things we wouldn't want him to know."
Dex took a deep breath and cradled his head in his upper left arm, "Crazy… I've been trying to wrap my head around things for months now, since you opened our eyes and… I still don't understand why you… why us?"
I really empathized with Dex. It wasn't easy to accept being 'red pilled' so to speak but once you were there, why would you ever want to go back when the truth and the lie was so horrible. Of course, I hadn't explained everything. I just pulled back the curtain enough to explain the Clone Wars as a new manifestation of the age old battle against the Sith in their current form and how both the Republic and CIS was entangled in it. It was more than enough to get both him and Hermione on board with my own long term conspiracy.
"I am but a Jedi Padawan of fifteen years old, Dex," I explained. "Burdened with a purpose and knowledge that I dare not share to even other members of the Order because I can see what will happen if I do and it's not something that anyone in their right mind wants to see. I can only do what I can and I will do it. If that means going to unconventional places and helping unconventional people, then so be it. If that means doing unconventional things and becoming myself unconventional, then so be it. There are no easy answers to this. The eyes of the enemy are on anyone who could be a threat."
"And not on a lowly diner owner," Dex nodded, "who is widely traveled, knows this galaxy inside and out and can go where you, for example, can't."
"Exactly and there is your dear partner," I tilted my head in the direction of Hermione. "Her expertise in slicing, coding, underworld contacts, though she is a fully respectable business owner now and owns Corusca Online…"
"Most of which should belong to you," grumbled Dex.
"I'm happy with the anonymous minority share, Dex. You know how the Order frowns on certain things. In any event, CSO is exploding on the Holonet and while it will take a while I'm certain it will find its way beyond the core worlds and then… well, we'll just have to see how the dice falls."
CSO was my giant middle finger to Palpatine's eventual total control of the media. It was a hybrid of a forum message board and a decentralized version of YouTube from my previous life. It sidestepped the crazy and expensive server requirements and infrastructure by using a torrent model. A video was 'hosted' by the uploader initially and anyone who watched it became another 'host' and in this way every datapad and computer who watched it became the 'cloud' for it so to speak. The video would remain for a set period and then delete itself if it wasn't watched again. It earned money via ad revenue and voluntary donations to creators, with CSO taking a percentage cut.
I reached for a pouch on my belt and handed over a smaller datapad.
"What's this?"
"Details for a retrieval I'd like you and Hermione to organize, double blind, a small team and in the process we'll be giving the bad guys a nice setback in their R&D. Everything you need to know is there along with as much contingency planning as I could think of."
Dex tapped the scroll button of the pad a few times a bit awkwardly given the size of his fingers and read attentively for a few minutes.
"Interesting. A lot of trouble to go to for something that you could just buy on the black market."
I shook my head, "It's worth it because of the sheer experience it brings to the table and I want it to do the things that no sane mercenary would ever contemplate doing."
Dex nodded and pocketed the datapad, "We'll begin working on it tonight. You do realize this is going to take a while?"
"There is no deadline for this specifically but the sooner we can recruit it and get it on task, the better."
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It was near late afternoon when I found myself sitting on a public transport shuttle, seated near the aft end and idly reading my datapad to pass the time. It was a habit to always sit in the rear that I carried with me from my previous life, nothing paranoid about it, it had just been a way to pass the time by allowing me to watch people and just guess who they were, what they did and so on with no more clues than their body language, styles of dress and how they chose to pass the time on public transport.
The shuttle wasn't as full as you'd expect on a planet like Coruscant, this was simply due to the sheer amount of transport available and that the shuttles wouldn't take off if they were filled to the brim with people like sardines in a can. A shuttle had a droid-level of intelligence and would only allow people on board within strict safety guidelines. I counted about nineteen beings, eight humans, five Twi'lek, three surly Devronians arguing with each other in their native tongue, two Sullustans and a Hoak. Five of the humans were a family, with three children, two of which were quite young and fighting over sharing toys, while the eldest, a teenage boy played peacemaker with a fond exasperation, while also staring into a datapad and typing into it eagerly. The mother and father were in a rather deep conversation and judging from their body language and the aura I could sense, it was a weighty topic.
It was such an ordinary scene, but to me it was more than that. It was so easy to get caught up in the grand battles and dilemmas, wrestle with the responsibilities of command, the war and everything that went with it. You saw the forest only for the forest, and not the trees that it was made up of, that it was all part of a living, breathing ecosystem where big and small creatures depended on it. It was partly for that reason that I disliked the Jedi Temple - as it was all too easy to forget, walking those serene, beautiful halls that it was an ivory tower, built ostensibly to train and nurture Jedi, but also to protect and if I was feeling particularly cynical, a gilded cage. There were no bars on that cage, but it was such that no Jedi would really even think of leaving the temple. Why would they? When everything you've ever known was just the perfect, orderly world of that Temple.
My idle contemplations were smashed in pieces however, when the Force did the physical equivalent of shouting in my ear in a warning.
I shot to my feet in an instant, my senses stretching out more and more. The shuttle was in one of the highest traffic lanes above the cityscape, roughly a kilometer, and I could sense dozens of others in our lane and hundreds of minds but there was nothing that would indicate danger there… no, this was close. This was on the very shuttle I was on, but none of the people with me was a source for this…
It was the shuttle itself.
I moved forward as fast as I could between the seating, using nudges of TK to move people out of the way. Ignoring any protests of complaint I stood at the front of the shuttle, it's forward almost floor to ceiling length windows offering a beautiful view.
My senses were drawn to the left bulkhead.
"Excuse me," the human father huffed in objection, as I was interrupting his discussion with his wife and the nice view.
I didn't have time to argue.
My lightsaber was drawn and ignited. Everyone in the shuttle barely had time to process this before I had stepped forward and with three flicks of wrist, slashed at the bulkhead and used TK to pull away the cut plating.
The good news was that it wasn't an explosive bomb.
The bad news was that it was just as deadly.
I deactivated my lightsaber as everyone in the shuttle either started screaming in fright or alarm. Right, time to head off this train wreck. I ignored it all and plunged my technopathy into the mechanisms of one Republic issue droidpopper, with a rather professionally attached circuitry that was dialed into various sensors and a timer, along with what had to be a small com unit. This was all wired into the systems of the shuttle itself.
The timer had thirteen minutes left on it, but the com unit made it rather irrelevant. The bomber was monitoring the shuttle's position and its systems, but thankfully there were no visual sensors. It didn't mean that the bomber wasn't within visual range of the shuttle itself and chasing us.
I turned to face the bewildered passengers and infused my voice with Force. "Ladies and gentle beings, I need everyone to please move away from the front of the shuttle and into the back."
I could sense the minds of everyone being pulled to attention and focused on my words via the Force. My lightsaber would generally also add to the effect, as I was instantly a Jedi to their minds with the authority that carried in the Republic.
With agonizing slowness they obeyed and I turned my attention back to the bomb. I was instantly tempted to send a distress signal from my gauntlet but stopped myself. Any signal on the frequency reserved for my com system, which was for Jedi and governmental use only, could be monitored and the bomb could be keyed to it. I was also under no illusion of trying to defuse it. Even if I had the tools, you'd need a specialist skill set to even try.
There was just one more thing I had to know. I pulled out my datapad and brought up a local nav program for public transport and given how fast the shuttle was going, where it would be in eleven minutes…
Shit.
I put the pad away, holstered my lightsaber and faced the frightened passengers. I knew the look on my face was not conducive to reassuring them.
"Master Jedi? What is the problem?" the father asked.
"There is a device attached to the shuttle, which will certainly destroy the droid guidance and short out quite a few critical systems, when that happens we will fall out of the sky and it is also on a timer, about ten minutes to go." I was not idle as I spoke, using the Force to project calm into their minds. They deserved to know the truth, but on the other hand going into a panic was not productive. Everyone looked at each with alarm and the fear in the cabin rose abruptly but my influence kept them steady. "It's impossible to disarm with what and who we have here. There is only one way that I can save our lives."
"How… how are you going to manage that?" he asked after swallowing nervously, his arm was now circling around his wife.
"I need you all to remain in your seats, no matter what happens, no matter what I do. If I'm to do this… I can't be distracted."
The passengers looked to each other and one of the Sullustans stepped forward and rapidly spoke in his native tongue, which translated to something like, "Master Jedi, are you sure the device is so unassailable?"
Seeing was believing and I gestured for him to come forward and look. Stereotypes aside, most Sullustans were very technically adept and were the best non-Force sensitive navigators in the galaxy, most of those who became Jedi were fast tracked into the Explorer Corps. This Sullustan took only about ten seconds before he backed away from the device and shook his head, "She's correct, the work of a professional."
"I will also say this, the timer will count down to zero when our shuttle is over a main planetary trench." The trenches were areas where it afforded the use of ships to travel between the vast amounts of levels of the ecumenopolis. "So not only will we fall a mere kilometer, we will fall to the deepest reaches of the planet."
The passenger's gaze turned grave and the teenage boy was furiously wiping tears from his face, while trying to keep his younger siblings calm.
"Do what you must, Master Jedi," declared the wife.
I nodded and sat down cross legged in front of the main window of the shuttle. What I was about to do would probably be felt all the way to the Jedi Temple and I immersed myself into the river and currents of the Force, my awareness blossoming for kilometers in every direction. I needed to find a spot where we could crash land that wouldn't result in mass casualties, which on a densely populated planet like Coruscant, was nearly impossible. There was a sea of sapient life below the shuttle, with the only gaps being the buildings or industrial buildings where it could be just as hazardous to crash into.
It all depended really on how far I was willing to go. In another timeline, Darth Vader was correct when he said that the ability to destroy a planet was insignificant in comparison to the Force, but that was said for the benefit of his audience - a group of Imperial admirals who had very little conception of the Force, with the exception of an old Admiral Yularen. At the moment I was not Starkiller who could wrangle an entire Star Destroyer with the Force. The Force and its use was not a shonen manga power level fantasy.
There… ahead was a small gap. It was a loading area on top of a broad building that a brief look into the future probability lines indicated that the pads were going to be empty after the two cargo shuttles currently on it took off. The building was three kilometers away and about a hundred meters to the left of the shuttle's lane.
I threw away all notion of doubt. It had no place here.
The Force was with me.
The river of it was gathered and redirected to my will.
I was barely cognizant of reaching out with my mind and crushing the droidpopper with TK.
While it would've been nice for the popper to be disabled in that way, the design was military, rugged and reliable, and the bomber had modified it against such a simple tactic. The EM electrical discharge sizzled and burned, conducted through the shuttle.
The port repulsorlifts died and the civilian rated computers were fried utterly.
The shuttle listed instantly and began to lose the fight against gravity.
It fell out of the air lane and thankfully other traffic reacted with the speeds of computer assisted control and avoided the stricken shuttle by taking evasive actions.
The forward propulsive repulsorlifts were still working and our momentum was aiding the forward speed… but our altitude was the problem.
I shaped the TK effect as if I was using it to jump and fall from a great height, only this time I extended the principle to apply to the entire shuttle. From the standpoint of physics, I was part of the mass after all.
The port side began to normalize and the shuttle's yaw corrected.
Our approach seemed to be holding, but the vertical velocity was still too great.
I felt my teeth grinding in frustration, but cast the feeling away.
The Force was with me. I was one with the Force.
The shuttle was nothing. Its weight, immaterial to the Force.
I cast off all preconceptions, biases, judgments and the laws of physics to go cry in a corner.
I began to work with the shuttle, enveloping the entire thing in my telekinetic grip and began throwing out waves of force that took the place of the destroyed repulsorlifts.
I even had to aid the forward motives when it became clear our approach angle and glide slope was short.
The landing pad was coming inexorably closer and now I had to fight against the starboard repulsors that were threatening to overcorrect, pushing the shuttle off to the left of the pad.
Screw it. The starboard repulsors crumbled into mangled wreckage under my will and prevented them from messing up further.
I pulled the shuttle back onto the appropriate approach.
The landing pad was now barely sixty meters away and I pulled the nose up to flare the bulk of the shuttle, causing an awful lot of drag to slow us down. This left me free to focus my efforts to bleed off more of the vertical velocity.
The instant we were over the pad I destroyed the propulsion emitters.
I threw a TK wave from the front of the shuttle.
And just like that we were hovering.
I carefully let the shuttle down and I felt the thump of the landing reverberate through the frame.
A storm of cheers and clapping erupted and suddenly I was being hugged by the mother, her children and everyone clambered forward to try to pat me on the back. The burst of emotion from everyone was like a bomb had gone off and I had to hurriedly pull my senses to a normal level.
It was over, for now, but I had the sudden feeling that this was a small part of a larger scheme and this had not been the only sabotage done.
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Huge wooden doors creaked and groaned ominously as they were parted, which Plo Koon nimbly squeezed through even before they finished their slow journey. He stopped briefly on the platform beyond, reaching out with his senses to decide which of the several paths branching from this point to take and go deeper into the massive Room of a Thousand Fountains.
It was located on the north-western side of the Jedi Temple complex and stood at an imposing seven floors in height. No new visitor to the Room could convince themselves they were in a 'room' at all, since the ceiling and rafters used a combination of specialized light banks and holographic technology to simulate an ever changing sky with artistic streaks of clouds steadily flowing overhead. Combine this with stone and dirt paths that cut across an arrangement of foliage that came from across the galaxy, small waterfalls and streams, it fully completed the illusion that you were in an entirely natural setting, totally at odds with the artificial nature of Coruscant.
The western path seemed the correct one and it took him a further quarter of an hour to find his quarry as it would be rather unseemly for a Jedi Master to disturb the tranquility of the garden by running through it at his top speed.
She was seated in a meditative position near the pool into which one of the waterfalls fell into and he couldn't help but marvel at the little differences he spotted since he saw Ahsoka last. Her posture and bearing showed the benefits of the physical training she was doing with Skywalker. Before she had been picked as a padawan, Plo had been fearing she'd turn herself into a hunchbacked crone poring over ancient texts. He carefully assessed her through the Force passively and determined that while she was meditating, she was also fully in the moment and definitely aware of his presence.
"Master Koon," she acknowledged him in greeting, her posture shifted to begin standing.
"Padawan Tano, no, please keep your seat. May I join you?" She sent her assent through a brief pulse in the Force. He folded his legs underneath himself and took a seat next to her, eventually settling into a meditation of his own.
The peacefulness of the moment settled on him like a pleasant fog and his own anxiousness and worry melted away. The hiss of the waterfall and running water, combined with the coolness of the air, the majesty of creation served to banish it all.
"How many died?"
"1369," Plo answered after a moment, "all with the same type of device."
"Let me guess, with no other commonality except that it targeted passenger transport."
"Correct, all passenger transports are being recalled and scanned as fast as physically possible, but I don't think I've ever seen Coruscant skies as clear as this, ever."
"It was Dooku, wasn't it?"
"Yes, he released a statement onto the Holonet an hour ago, claiming responsibility and that it was in response to his own capture."
She sighed and shook her head, "Any clues as to the bombmaker?"
"Nothing concrete yet, though we are calling in Master Vos to see if he can divine anything with his psychometry on the remains of the device you managed to recover."
She seemed to want to say something but reconsidered and instead, "Are you here on behalf of the Council?"
"I am here as your close friend," he answered truthfully. "In support of you after going through a traumatic experience."
She remained silent for a while then, "I thought Jedi…"
"Ahsoka, when did I ever give you the impression I was a traditionalist?"
"Never, but you are on the High Council."
"Forget that," he waved a dismissive hand. "Many of them, for all that they've on occasion ventured into the front lines of this war, have never truly left that lofty tower. It is one thing to confront danger and death from a position of strength with a lightsaber in hand, it is totally different to face danger as you did yesterday, at the mercy of your attacker, unable to even fight back because he chose to attack with a bomb. Where to merely survive and save the people around you, you had to pull off a feat of might in the Force not seen since the days before the Ruusan Reformation."
"Throwing around the weight of an entire shuttle is surely not beyond you, Master Plo."
While it was nice that she thought so well of his own strength, it was again, irrelevant to the situation, "Your modesty is endearing young Ahsoka and it's nice that you think so highly of my abilities, but it is one thing to merely levitate any level of mass and weight from an external frame of reference, it is totally different to apply the same to the frame of reference you yourself occupy."
She turned to stare into the rolling mass of the waterfall, "I was shaking and sobbing my eyes out last night, no matter how much I released it all into the Force or allowed it to soothe…"
He placed a hand on her shoulder, radiating comfort and understanding, "You probably remember Yoda teaching you as a youngling, 'luminous beings are we, not crude matter'. That truth acknowledges many things and in a way leaves a lot open to interpretation. The hidebound traditionalists will say it means we must be above all crude expression of emotions, when in fact it could just as easily mean that we must accept the reality that our emotions are part of that 'luminous being' and to deny it is to deny a part of ourselves."
She chuckled, "What of 'there is no emotion'?"
"That code should've been amended centuries ago," he declared firmly. "It was useful in its time, when we were dealing with Sith armies a millenia ago, but now is a different time and we must adapt. I'm sure you recall what happened to Master Billaba."
Ahsoka eventually nodded, "Yes, she engaged General Grievous on Haruun Kal, one of the first true engagements of the war, her clone battalion was nearly wiped out and she herself was injured to such an extent, she was forced into a coma. That's the last I heard."
"In your extended stint on the front lines, she has since recovered and shared an alternate form of the code that has since been gaining much traction amongst the younglings and initiates; Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force."
Ahsoka gave a soft smile as she heard it, "I can immediately say, that's infinitely better… the original code always felt like it was, almost denying reality in a way."
"Yes, the reality of the last Sith War was by all accounts very bleak and the old code was a standard and rally cry against the evils of the time. But back to you, your emotions are real and demand expression, I say, if you feel you must cry, cry. If you feel anger, get angry, but express it in a beneficial, healthy way, keep your mind firmly on the goal of achieving serenity afterwards."
"Good grief, Master Plo," she laughed, "I'm gone for six months and this temple is in the middle of theological revolution, I can just imagine what the old guard thinks of this."
"They are not happy to say the least." Plo had found it rather sad to see the effects of Billaba's well intentioned revision of the code. Whereas before there had been a united Jedi Order, now there was a quiet, almost unseen line that had been drawn. There had always been 'factions' within the Order, it was almost impossible to have any grouping of sentients and not find the phenomenon, but it seemed as if the Clone War had the effect of creating a starker divide than what was normal. The traditionalists decried that this was far from the time to be making such a change, that it could wait until after the war and time could be given to the debates.
The progressives in turn argued that the new code could be exactly what was needed for the Order to adapt to the new reality of the galaxy, the war and that they couldn't afford to wait for it to be over.
"Well, I will certainly meditate on this revision of the code, Master Plo. Do you have to be somewhere soon?"
"I cleared the entire day for this, young Ahsoka. Whether we spend it all meditating, talking, or even a bit of sparring, it's up to you."
"Wow, the Council must really be worried."
Plo laughed, "I wouldn't say worried, they're cautious and concerned."
A quirky, mischievous smile appeared on her face, "It has been some time since we crossed blades."
"Do go easy on an old Kel Dor."
"Please, Master Plo, I'll be as wrinkled as you on the day I beat you in a sparring match."
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This ride is taking way too long, was my only thought as I tapped my foot impatiently on the immaculately carpeted elevator. The view of the Senate District was very pretty through the floor to ceiling window and clearly the designers of the building wanted to give people who rode the elevator the time to admire the view. The early morning sunrise was casting everything in a healthy shade of bright yellow, with a distant tapestry of extremely high level clouds draped in a slowly shifting pattern. Contrasting this was the organic shaped high rise spires of various skyscrapers jutting into the air and wreathed in an early morning fog.
It had been a further two weeks of uneventful R&R and while it certainly rankled not being involved in the transport bombings investigation, the truth was there was little I could really contribute. I was not a Jedi Sentinel or part of the Judicial Forces or the CPD. My contribution was done and it was in the hands of others to carry the investigation further on who the bomber had been. But now it was time to head back to work.
I consulted the time on my armor's gauntlet and after a bit of mental math, realized that I wouldn't be late thanks to this lazy elevator and relaxed a bit. Of course, even with a stupendously fast speed, there were some buildings where such rides could take ages. That was par for the course when you lived on a planet where a building like the Burj Khalifa from my previous life would be considered small.
"Floor 500, arriving, have a good day," the elevator's computer announced.
The doors opened and I was immediately met by a Royal Naboo Security Force officer in their typical dark beige and blue uniforms. His dark brown skin and the patch over where his left eye made him easy to identify.
"Captain Typho," I nodded in greeting.
"Padawan Tano, welcome."
Typho stepped forward with a scanning wand and waved it over me, looking at the readouts on a datapad in his other hand. A brief scan with the Force and my eyes left me feeling rather impressed. There were three other RNSF officers in the reception room, visibly armed and watching me like hawks. Out of sight though, were a squad of six more in various nooks and crannies, behind statues, pillars and even in a secret room behind a large painting of an ancient Nabooan queen. No doubt these guys were also armed to the teeth. Then there were the concentrations of energy in the ceiling that could only be from concealed turreted repeaters, that could literally bathe the entrance hall in a storm of blaster fire. It made me wonder if Senator Amidala truly even knew the level of firepower present in her entrance hall.
It had me looking at Typho with a new level of respect. He clearly didn't understand the notion of overkill, not when it came to protecting his former queen.
"You're clean, nothing unexpected," declared Typho and slotted the wand back into the datapad, "Follow me."
We walked down a small hallway and standing near one of the main doors was the golden shined sheen of the protocol droid C3P0. The droid turned its head and seemed to suddenly stiffen as if it had just been jacked into a power socket.
"Oh, our guest has arrived," the droid commented unnecessarily. "Welcome, I am C3P0. I will announce your arrival to Mistress Padme. Please wait here." The droid waddled off into the room beyond and was back barely a few seconds later. "Padawan Tano, you may proceed."
I nodded and entered into a living room that seemed designed to take my breath away. It's like the architect couldn't decide whether to make a living room or a balcony. The teardrop shaped room was massive, and existed on three levels, bordered with marble like columns stretching up to the ceiling, each hung with soft draperies. Around the front of the room, it opened up to a huge expansive vista of the Senate district, flanked on either side by angel-like bronze statues. It looked like there was nothing to stop you from doing a base jump and it was only my esoteric senses that revealed the hidden force field emitters in the statues that would stop any such foolish notion.
The only imperfection in the neatness of the room came from the owner. Padme Amidala was busy fussing with a large suitcase that had been laid on one of the expansive couches set artfully onto the floor and judging from the clothes in a pile next to it, she was trying to pack for our upcoming urgent trip.
I let the nervousness at the fact that this was our first true meeting pass through me. Bless poor Natalie Portman, she just couldn't convey the sheer charisma, spun with a raw beauty that the true Padme Amidala had in person. Far from being petite, she had more lean muscle on her frame, though sculpted firmly in the feminine form. Perceiving her through the Force, it was like I was looking at a blazing resolute lighthouse that refused to be dampened by anything. Maybe it was because of what I knew, but I also saw the whirling maelstrom of destiny hanging over her like a cloak, how Master Windu didn't get a headache every time he saw her, I don't know.
Anakin was one lucky SOB. It also helped that Naboo clothing for high society, for all its elaboration and ostentatiousness, was also designed to accentuate the form. She was wearing an outfit of blues, with gray skin tight pants and a cut open dress over it that revealed her legs, with white sandals. Her hair was done up elaborately and secured by dark blue headdress. To add more enticement to the outfit was the fact that her top left her belly bare in a triangle.
"Senator Amidala," I bowed my head briefly in greeting.
Padme huffed after getting a particularly stubborn garment properly folded and placed into the suitcase. She returned my bow, "Padawan Tano, a pleasure to meet you in person. Sorry, I'm doing this now, there hasn't been much time to get ready."
"Perfectly understandable, no need to apologize, Senator." I handed over a small datapad that contained my orders and authorizations. "This is an unorthodox arrangement, but I'm assigned to you by the Jedi Council in lieu of Master Skywalker, since he is being delayed on Pantora by the situation there. He and Master Kenobi will travel to Naboo as soon as possible. It's a three day journey normally but the war in the southern part of the galaxy makes that estimate tricky."
"So they might arrive before we do?"
All things being ideal it would take nearly eight days for me and the senator to reach Naboo from Coruscant.
"Yes, it all depends on how quickly the first contact situation with the Talz is resolved." It wasn't truly a first contact, more of a re-contact. The Talz had been known in the Old Republic, during Revan's era, but the various turmoils of the subsequent three thousand years had sundered them from the greater galaxy and by the time of the Ruusan Reformation, no records of the species even existing was left. There might be a sliver of hope that the Talz themselves had a preserved oral history, but even that would've been distorted by time. The current era Talz were at best a hunter-gatherer society that had violently objected to both Republic and Seperatist presence on their ice moon that they considered their homeworld.
"Given first contacts of the past, I'd say we'd be lucky to see them within a month," Padme declared, continuing to pack the remaining outfits.
"In the meantime, I'm to be at your disposal and to investigate the appearance of the CIS droid patrol in the hinterlands of Naboo."
"And do you have any thoughts on that, Padawan?"
"Too sloppy."
She raised an elegant eyebrow archly at me, "Excuse me?"
"If there is a CIS force on Naboo, then it has to be small and covert by nature. Since there are now Golan defense platforms in orbit, the only logical way they could've landed undetected is by using their black ops asteroid ships. These droids were flying on speeder bikes out in the open plains. Sure they were trying to avoid any populated areas, but it's the opposite of covert to go for a patrol like that. One of the droids was also a tactical model, which is now being picked apart by the RNSF. To me this isn't a coincidence, these droids were sent out on purpose to be intercepted by the Naboo, that worries me."
"You're saying whoever's in charge deliberately advertised that the CIS is there and they feel confident enough in whatever their plan is, that there's nothing we could do about it."
"Good deduction, senator," I nodded.
"I sincerely hope you're wrong, Padawan Tano and I would rather explain it as a simple mistake of the droids and whoever their commander is."
"That is also a possibility," I conceded. "But one must always account for the possibility that what the enemy shows you is what they want you to see, to draw your attention away from where the true danger lies. We are no longer fighting against the straightforward stratagems of Grievous, but rather the Illusive General."
Padme nodded in understanding and placed her last item of clothing, before closing the suitcase and pressing a small button on it. A small hum resounded before it lifted off the couch and hovered a few inches in the air.
"Well, my personal yacht is ready and waiting for us, are you ready?"
"Always, senator."