Chapter 97 - Interruptions

"And so Master Obi-Wan comes in looking for him. He's carrying his half filled out forms under one arm."

"Bzzzzzzt. Ha-ha ha-ha." Ahsoka burst out laughing.

"But Master wasn't in the room anymore. He was…" Galen continued his tale, unsure of what Ahsoka was finding so humorous. He hadn't even gotten to the crux of his tale yet.

"He was in the shuttle, in orbit, probably. That is so Anakin. He'd do anything to get out of flimsy-work. Ha."

"Yeah, anyways, after a half-cycle the others learned not to put Obi-Wan incharge of the council's flimsy-work." Galen finished. He was tempted to complain about not being able to tell a story if your listener finishes it before you're through, but then he remembered his parents used to warn him about this fact when he complained about wanting a sibling. He was being raised among Wookiees at the time, and they all had big families. He guessed this is what having a Sister was like. That thought made him smile.

"Oh I can imagine… Master Obi-Wan was always a little bit perfectionistic during the war. It's why Cody took the forms," said Ahsoka.

"He was actually quite organized about it. Yeah, you'd filled out your basic form, then depending on how you answered certain questions, you had to fill out addendum forms, and so on. It took quite a while. That was the Council's main complaint." Galen and Ahsoka looked up suddenly to an alarm which hadn't yet begun to ring.

"Something's coming," Ahsoka said.

Before Galen could respond, the station's alarms began to ring and its men were roused violently from their sleep. As obedient soldiers they all ran out to their stations.

"Good morning," Anakin greeted his Master. If you'd ever told him that one day he'd be the first one up and ready to work, especially boring office work, he'd have sent you to the healers.

Obi-Wan raised a hand in thanks, and sipped his thermos, probably full of tea. "Did Bail give us an update on the Akiva System affairs?"

"Not yet. I think we should go ahead and send knight Kestis there. Their messengers could just be getting waylaid, but the rebellion could also be in grave need."

"And how has his first appointment with the healers gone?" Obi-Wan moved on, not needing to specify who he was talking about.

Anakin sighed. "The healers met with Tel-Mac. They joked that he was like 90 percent resistant. Which is average for them, apparently. I had a conversation with Mace-Ti about recording a message for his dad once he arrives here. I don't know if it'll help, but…"

Obi-Wan nodded. "We knew it was going to take a while to get any progress. If it's even possible, which I won't argue with you on." He set down the tea on his desk and spread his arms in a pacifying gesture.

Anakin rolled his eyes. He knew most Jedi had a defeatist mindset over lost, fallen souls, but he had a good feeling about this.

Anakin closed his eyes, something was happening in the Force. He opened them again, and Obi-Wan had grabbed his lightsaber. He was looking around, lost to what was affecting his friend.

"What is it? What do you sense?" he asked.

Anakin stood up and went to open the door to the office. Then he stood back, and a disheveled knight wearing a long cloak stumbled into the office.

Obi-Wan's hand had left his saber when he realized that Anakin was not preparing to fight. But he still apparently couldn't sense who this was. It was understandable, since the Force was currently wrapped around his Force Presence doubly thick. Whatever news he carried must be important. Obi-Wan's eyes scrunched in confusion, and looked to Anakin for answers.

The disheveled man took a moment to breathe and then straightened his cloak, before pulling his hood down so it was no longer covering his face.

"Galen?" Obi-Wan breathed in surprise. His eyes still questioned what was going on.

"I sent him to help Ahsoka in the Gordian Reach. You've rushed back with news?" Anakin filled in everyone's blanks.

"Yesss," Galen panted.

Obi-Wan reached under his desk to pull out a water bottle and handed it to the tired young man.

Galen took a drink. "Thanks." He took another moment to steady his breathing. "There was a spy who almost crashed his escape craft into the waystation. His injuries were severe. He was insistent on giving us his message before they dragged him into surgery though." Galen stopped to take another sip of water from the bottle. "That Sith is doing it again. Rebuilding the Death Star Two-Point-Oh."

"Not again," Obi-Wan muttered.

"It makes sense…" Anakin looked up in thought.

"Why do you say that?" Obi-Wan asked.

"All who gain power are afraid to lose it. One of his first lessons to me. We've threatened him where he hurts most: his power over people, over the universe. Another lesson, scared people will make the same mistakes a hundred times over. We just need to defeat it again.

"There is no confirmation yet that it'll have the same design weaknesses." Obi-Wan pointed out.

"Our spy found the financial records and supply shipments going to Geonosis, which as you know is a dead world. He's probably using slaves to build it there," said Galen.

Anakin nodded. He lowered his head for a moment. No matter what their side was in the war, the Geonosians did not deserve to be sterilized the way that the empire had done it. No one did. He walked back to his desk. "I shall com queen Breha immediately. If he gets the idea to attack Alderaan again, they should be prepared."

"Yes, and com the council as well." Obi-Wan suggested. "Geonosis is very close to Tatooine. We should be able to monitor the activity going in and out of that system quite easily."

Anakin nodded and he felt himself grab his desk as the Force rumbled in a foreboding way.

Mace-Ti ran through the hallway of the ship. When he reached Eli-Jinn he grabbed onto a beam to stop himself. "The others say we're turning around? I thought we were going to Beskarn."

"Yes, we will be. It's just the council sent us a mission to complete first."

"A mission. What sort of mission?" Mace-Ti asked. In his head he was calculating how long this was going to take. Not that he was unsympathetic, just that he really wanted to get to Beskarn as soon as possible. Uncle Anakin said that he'd be able to see a video of his bio-father, and he still considered it a miracle that he was able to come out here in the first place.

"Master Caleb says the council wants us to monitor the Geonosis system. They will be sending another party soon to take over, but we are closer, so they asked us to turn around."

Mace-Ti sighed. "So we'll be back on track in a few hours then."

"Most likely a day or so." Eli-Jinn laughed at Mace-Ti's expression of gall. "Remember, half the council is off-planet. It will be impressive if it takes less than a day to arrange for someone to come out here!" The sixteen year old tilted his head to laugh at his friend.

"But…" Mace-Ti turned to run after the padawan.

"We will be going to Beskarn sooner or later. I promise you that." Eli-Jinn slid a hand behind the eighteen year old's back. "A little mish, then we'll be on our way."

"Just what am I supposed to be doing while you're on your Mish?" Mace-Ti asked, still feeling annoyed. It's not that he was uncomfortable on the ship, it's just that the only feature to watch in its library was a seven hour long documentary on sand-dunes.

"Eli Jinn," a loud voice boomed down the hall. "Get your things prepared. We're going out to place a reconnaissance droid on the next planet."

"Master Caleb, I was just telling Mace-Ti about the mission. He asked what he could do to help."

"Oh, Mace-Ti, you'll be staying here with the crew. Stay out of trouble and don't leave the ship."

"Yes, Master Dume." Mace-Ti respectfully bowed.

"Later on you can help Eli-Jinn monitor the droid's feed reports."

"Oh, Master!" Eli-Jinn whined. He was not a fan of reading the technical reports the droid would send.

Caleb looked his padawan in the eye, and his protests were soon silenced by magic of the Force alone. Mace-Ti held in his laughter at the younger teen's antics. "Go get your things."

Eli-Jinn ran past his Master and disappeared around a turn. Caleb turned to Mace-Ti and nodded before heading the same way. Mace-Ti turned and wandered back to his quarters on the ship. He figured he'd be watching the rest of that documentary on sand-dunes.

Hello All,

I hope you like who I picked for Eli-Jinn's Master. Caleb Dume is Depa Billaba's padawan. In the Canon Universe, he took a different name after order 66. In my story, his Master still died, but he rejoined the others at some point, and became a knight. At this point he'd be about 36.

This Website is currently having a glitch with its stats counter not recording any visits. I was tempted to wait until it resolved itself to publish, but it has been broken since September 15th, and I don't know how much longer it will last. Anyways, until it does get fixed, the only way I will know that you were here and read my story is if you leave a review, so please do. Also this glitch is site-wide, as far as I know, so other fanfics you read this month are probably affected by the same glitch. Please remember to leave them a review too.