Covalent Bonds

Chapter 9

Obi-Wan could have sworn that the naynabo flower tattoo on Anakin's right nipple winked at him. He glanced down at his holoemitter and away from temptation. "Siri, when we leave tomorrow, is there anything that we need from the droid facility to take along?"

Siri's face looked haggard even in blue. "I don't think so. The med-techs saved the nanobot remains, such as they are. Maybe the Analysis Room can make something of them. Recon patrols report nothing out of place over there. It was a right fine trap." She looked off-range. "Ferus, any hot water in yet?"

"No. I'm checking under the flooring near the tank, but noth--- " Ferus' voice faded.

"What about your side, Ke--- Obi-Wan?"

Anakin nodded. "Plent--- "

"Padawan, check our firewood supply, please?" Anakin undid his towel from his waist, gave a last dab at his neck and donned fresh undergarments. Obi-Wan looked down, away, anywhere but at what he could no longer have. "We've both bathed. It'll take some minutes before it heats up again."

"I suppose these cabins were constructed for only one nerfherder at a time." Siri brushed cobwebs from Ferus' hair. He could use a warm shower.

"Yes, probably." Don't presume. Anakin needs his rest.

"How about it, then? Can we sneak in before we retire and use yours?"

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Tachi.  Be Jedi-like. Be ... forgiving. "Give us a couple minutes and knock first. Bring your own towels."

"Wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks. See you in a few."

Anakin pulled on his one spare tunic. Obi-Wan never wanted me to wear socks to bed, but I guess it doesn't matter now, since we'll never have s--- "So, you've changed with Master Tachi. And for the better."

"We've reached a new plateau, yes. Time will tell whether it's sustainable." Some things are better off in the past, Padawan.

I don't have to know everything. "Well, that's a good thing. Ferus keeps Siri close to him, sometimes too close, maybe."

"Do you think they haven't yet, um, 'cut the braid,' as the saying goes?" Obi-Wan faced away from Anakin as he undid his own towel and dressed in his cold-planet sleeping outfit of undergarments, socks, leggings and loosened tunics. He looked at his own left nipple. Hello, little flower. It was good while it lasted. He covered his chest quickly and slid in beside Anakin's blanketed form, dragging the over blanket up to bundle them both.

"Yeah, they have, but they've not yet had separate missions since his Knighting. He still looks to her for --- "

Knock-knock-knock.

"I should have asked you first if it was all right that they come, I'm sorry, Anakin, I wasn't thinking --- "

"Don't be silly, Obi-Wan. I'm always up for company." Except for when I'm not.

'Up' for ... oh, my Anakin ... "Come in." Obi-Wan forced himself past neutrality and towards etiquette. He smiled. "Siri, Ferus, it's all yours."

"Ferus, there's no soap tray so don't drop the soap while you're in there. You can't bend down without your head opening the door. Olaneti are really small-boned people. Master Tachi, you won't have any problems." Anakin yawned. "Excuse me."

"Yes, let's do this thing, Ferus. You first." Siri pushed Ferus' back and sat down on the floor to wait. Ferus threw a half-annoyed look over his shoulder, but opened the 'fresher door. Steam from Anakin's shower still lingered. He waved his hand through the condensation and entered.

Obi-Wan felt Anakin's rhythmic breathing through the layers of clothing and blankets and wished for their usual solitude. Talk shop. "Did you notice anything unusual while you were following my trajectory?"

"You weren't looking out well enough for rocks. If you'd hit a snow-covered slab of granite, we wouldn't be talking about it tonight."

"I mean up near the stratosphere."

"We weren't up high enough for the stratosphere. Olanet's stratosphere starts at ---"

Breathe. Breathe. "I mean, Siri, near the apogee of my flight, did you sense anything unusual about the aurora up there?"

"I was focused on you. On saving you." Your 'flight?' You mean your runaway jaunt that nearly launched us prematurely into the Force? 

Breathe. "You did save me, you and Anakin. I'm grateful." Anakin began to snore softly.

"You're welcome. Sorry about your hair."

"It doesn't hurt now."

"Good." The flow of water stopped and Obi-Wan could hear Ferus rustling about in the cramped space, undoubtedly dressing in the warmth. The logs on the andirons glowed a friendly red. Siri leaned her head back against a burl in the rough wood paneling. "What were you asking me those questions for?"

"I'm not sure. Against all odds, I feel energized and simply different. Maybe it's the thrill of surviving my fall, I don't know."

"Next!" Another puff of steam and Ferus reentered in stocking feet. "Thanks, Master Kenobi. Anakin, you awake?" A louder snort, then a hrhrmmguh sound as Anakin turned over, pulling the over blanket from Obi-Wan's side. Obi-Wan pulled his part back and covered Anakin's throat securely.

Siri smiled at their sleeping arrangements. "Ferus and I did that, too, especially last night." She began her shower.

"Anakin and I had a chance to wrestle, Master Kenobi. I don't know who would win if we were ever serious about it." Ferus sat on the floor next to Anakin and spoke in a considerate whisper.

"I'm pleased you are with us on Olanet, Ferus. Apart from your fighting ability, that is. You and Siri are a fine team of warriors."

Ferus' face couldn't be seen in the weak room light. "I look forward to ending the fighting, Master Kenobi. To being not a warrior."

"Yes, it wasn't what we were trained for, at least not completely. Diplomacy will resume at the treaty table, never fear."

Ferus seemed to wilt. "How much longer?"

"I have a bad feeling that it will be months before any peace talks begin."

"And until then, we fight and struggle and put our altruistic feelings aside, our feelings of kinship with others ... any other beings, I mean, Jedi or non-Jedi or gray Jedi or even Sith ... " Anakin's blanket had slipped down once more and Ferus tucked it in again.

Obi-Wan couldn't answer for a moment. "Sith?"

"I'm speaking of them as fellow beings, you know, misguided beings, of course. I hold no Separatist or Sithly leanings, Master Kenobi."

Obi-Wan was sure that Ferus was smiling. "Had me there, Ferus." He's the most idealistic Jedi I've ever come across. Force help him.

"I'm just talking. Anakin and I talked this afternoon. He's a good listener."

And you and he are the same age for all intents and purposes. Hmmm. "He's kind."

"Let's go, Ferus. Thanks again, Obi-Wan, Anakin. Oohhh, he's out for the count." Siri's wet hair dripped and she shook her head. A few drops spilled onto the logs and they spat. "Dawn tomorrow, meet you in the messtent for chow and we'll mount up afterwards." Out into the cold again, not looking forward to it ...

Those terms, 'chow,' 'mount up,' how easily they spring from our lips after three years. "You don't have to leave. Stay. We can all bundle." Obi-Wan gestured. "Body warmth, the fire, the steam from the showers, we'll be snug enough."

Unexpected. "Can we turn on one space heater? That would help."

Ferus was already bedding himself near Anakin's outflung flesh arm. "Generous, thanks, sir. Shove over, Advance Middy."

Anakin said, "Mubblemast--- " and lay flat.

Siri placed the space heater in a far corner. "It's rigged to come on low innnnn ... fifty minutes." She lay down next to Obi-Wan. "You two get the middle, since you're the hosts. Right, Ferus?"

"Yes. Ohhh, yes." Ferus rubbed his stockinged feet together. "I'm warmer already. Good night, Siri, Master Kenobi ... Anakin."

"Rrrrsnortgrumpf."

"Good night, all." It was the Jedi thing to do, it was. Obi-Wan's beard kept his face from getting wet from Siri's hair when Siri flipped herself over to spoon outwards, her back against his front.  It was.

Meanwhile, back on Coruscant ...

"First step of the plan, complete now. Palo, swift worker he is." Yoda picked up a framed two-dimensional representation of himself, slightly larger than life. "Fierce, I look. I like it not."

Padmé smiled at him. "Yoda, you are fierce. And romantic. And wise." She knelt to look at the invoice etched in the box's side by time-sensitive graphics. Once its destination was reached, the box automatically signaled for pickup. NabooExpress had won awards for its service and had recently branched out to other planets. For something like this, I like fast. "These are on a par with the best of the line of, um, art like this. Our next step will take cooperation from many Jedi."

"Handle them, I will. Keep it secret, we must. Will think of a reason for them to cooperate."

Padmé rested her buttocks on her heels and folded her hands. "I'm going to start a museum dedicated to Jedi artifacts, ones that aren't holocrons or anything else holy."

"'Holy?' Holy, our holocrons are not. Useful tools, they are. Force-users record their lives and thoughts and deeds in them, but 'holy?' No." Yoda lay his scaled palm on Padmé's white shoulder, exposed by the scoop neckline of her springtime gown. "The Force, our ally and a powerful one it is. Need to discuss this subject, we do."

Padmé shifted away from his touch. "It makes me nervous, all that power that I can't use. I see you and the other Jedi use it and it frightens, no, it awes me."

"Frightened, were you, when I used the Force to --- "

"No! That was marvelous, the best I've had --- " Padmé, you're not thinking straight. And you're offending him.

Hurts, it does, that she does not understand. Good relations with the Vice-Chancellor, I thought I had. "Speak of this later, we will. Museum, you say?"

"I was fooling, just thinking of a reason to tell them --- didn't my aura say I was insincere?"

"Read non-Jedi that well, sometimes I do not. But returning to the idea itself, good one it is. Many Jedi have become heroes to Republic citizens, not anonymous as we once were." The Hero With No Fear and the Negotiator, prime examples. Deserve their glory they do, but ...

Change the subject. "Oh, look, Yoda! Palo included a figurine of me when I was Queen!" The bisque solid piece had the curving headdress and tassels reproduced perfectly, along with a delicately painted white face complete with the scar of remembrance. A scatter of aurodium dust over all folds of the ornate gown made Padmé smile. "It's exquisite! And here's a note. 'For the Vice-Chancellor. From an ex-politician. Palo.' How sweet. He is a thoughtful person. Dormé is lucky."

"Wistful, you look."

Padmé laughed. "I'm fooling again."

"This time, you are not." Yoda flourished a holopen from somewhere up his sleeve. "Make it special, Padmé of Naboo."

Padmé said, "But this is only for me, as a gift. Why should I sign it?"

"Sign and date such gifts of the heart. Remember this day, you shall, when years later, you cherish your souvenir. Sign." Yoda folded both hands on his gimer stick and looked every bit the inscrutable Jedi Master. "Wait, I will. Do it."

Ordering me? "It's a good idea, so I will." Padmé Naberrie, Queen Amidala, she inscribed on the square base, and dated it. "But I'll not let you get away with ordering me again."

"Partnership, we have, Padmé. Sometimes you order me, sometimes I order you. For months now, this way it has been." Queenly, she looks today, but besotted, I never will be.

"It's worked out, yes. However you made me tingle when you first touched my arm at Dex's, I'm glad you did."

"Not my doing."

"Don't scare me like that! Here, take the holopen and sign your likeness." She thrust the implement at him. Yoda knows Dooku so well. This is a marvelous plan.

TBC

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