[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Covalent Bonds

Chapter 18

"Knight Olin here."

"Ferus, congratulations on your first solo mission!" Anakin couldn't hear his or Ferus' sublight engines clearly, but they rumbled in the background of their shipboard comm stations, a reminder that his friend was a full Knight and going out completely on his own for the first time. Come back safely, teammate. We'll go to the Outlander one night and being-watch. It'll be interesting to know what your 'type' is.

"Anakin, thanks, but how did you find out?"

"Darra and Tru told me you had to head out in a hurry. They just left again, too. So did Obi-Wan and I. And Master Tachi." Knights both, Darra and Tru had had numerous missions as partners on Core worlds, as if the Order wanted to keep fledgling Knights close in to Coruscant before loosing them to Mid-Rim planets, much less Outer Rim tinderboxes. It made Anakin feel like any young citizen would whose friends were joining one of the Republic's service corps or branching out as entrepreneurs or in general trying their wings. I can't help feeling stuck in mid-gear.

"Yeah, I saw them at lunch. Where were you?"

"In the Archives."

"No, really."

"I like reading. It doesn't like me, but I like it." Still taking classes, Anakin often studied alone in a carrel, feeling somewhat intimidating to his younger classmates because of his title and his age. They hadn't invited him to any of their study sessions. He didn't feel comfortable pushing himself into their company. The classwork for Advanced Astronavigation With Aspects Of Force-Enhancement intensified this last quarter before break and he earnestly desired a better grade than last time. Using the Force came easily as always, but bending the Force-currents around himself to simulate navigating all the trade routes, all the while virtual-piloting a SoroSuub V-35 Courier, ensured that he study the holocharts thoroughly first. It would have been easier with another student to quiz him, even though he did have Artoo's genius every fifth week in between missions. This week had been Padmé's week.

"You'll do it. If I can finish all the courses, the Chosen One can."

Ferus had meant to be uplifting, Anakin knew that. "Thanks. Where are you?"

"Secret, sorry. In fact, I'm about to flake out for hyperspace, sooooo ... May The Force Be With You, Advance Middy."

Something he'd overheard Siri whisper to Obi-Wan on Olanet the morning after the night they'd all bunked together came back to him. Ferus had still been all the way out just as daylight brightened the cabin, head flung back, mouth open with a little stream of drool dampening Anakin's tunic sleeve. The pins and needles sensation of his awakening left arm which Ferus had used as a pillow had roused Anakin enough to become aware that Obi-Wan and Siri stood at the cabin's small window, their faces in shadow as the Masters observed a sleeping Padawan and Knight. "If the Jedi had royalty, they would be our Crown Princes," Siri had said, and Anakin saw Obi-Wan's slight nod before resettling himself and going back to sleep. He knew which fairy tale Prince that Ferus would be. The one who would come the closest to attaining perfection. The one least able to protect himself from betrayal. Take care, Flank Middy. "May The Force Be With You, Ferus."

"We're coming up on the jump to hyperspace, Padawan." Obi-Wan took the co-pilot seat. Anakin looked back to the cargo space behind the two pilot seats and saw Siri curled up on one of their duffel bags. Obi-Wan followed his glance. "She seems upset about something, so I think she'll do herself good with a nap."

Four hours later, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Siri practiced their Jedi patience in line at Theed Spaceport Customs. "Your name has been flagged, Padawan Skywalker, I'm sorry. Please have a complimentary Altorian milk-ale for the adults in your group while you wait for an organic supervisor and an Aitha protein drink for yourself." The droid might have been a high-functioning female simulacrum, but the condescending tone coming from its vocabulator grated on Anakin's last nerve.

"I'm of age," he snapped. He might have gotten belligerent, but a sudden stir in the mostly-Theed-native crowd turned all heads. A Gungan preceded two women who peered almost comically from behind his arm-swinging bulk. "Dormé?" And Ommané. Oh, better and better. Jar-Jar, too? Ahhhh ..."Padawan Skywalker, Master Kenobi, Master Jedi. We'd hoped to avoid all this." Junior Representative to the Galactic Senate Ommané Retbax had had in enough hours of imitating her former employer, Padmé Amidala Naberrie Skywalker, to project a more mature air than her nineteen years. Dormé forged along at the the side of both her bosses through the last of the crowd, who suddenly remembered their reputation for good manners and minded their own affairs. Anakin waited for Padmé to walk in the door to make the situation complete, but after a minute she did not show up. Small favors, he'd take them.

Jar-Jar got right to business. "Meesa Senior Representative Binks. Whatsa bombad problem? Thesen Jedi moole friends." The Gungan did the best he could in each situation, thought Anakin, hoping he would be surprised by Jar-Jar's results. He had been before.

"Naboo Tax Board reports Skywalker, Anakin as two years delinquent in filing joint income taxes with his spouse and the Board would like him to sign an Injured Spouse Form 617 if his spouse has filed as single in order to receive more deductions than normal. Naboo Income Tax Law is quite specific that singles receive priority over marrieds --- "

"Meesa think yousa have berry, berry humongous breakdown in yousa noggin, Droid, erm, erm, Ate-a Zero Zero. Meesa take moole friends to private room to disambiguate, isa okeeday with yousa?" Jar-Jar's eyestalks tilted forward as he loomed over the seated droid. He looked as warrior-like as Obi-Wan imagined he did at the Battle of Grassy Plains.

The droid made a show of clicking and tapping on its terminal screen while holodata coalesced in the air before it, rrrrrring noisily. "Conference Room Waterfall Vista is behind me, Representative Binks. You are cleared to use it," it sulked. The three Jedi grabbed their duffels and followed their benefactors gratefully. The room had indeed a panoramic view of a plunging waterfall that graced the environs of the spaceport. Anakin used the muted sound of it piped into the room for stability in his centering process while Dormé called up a file on a holoscreen.

"Ready," Dormé said, then wisely left the speaking to Ommané. The younger woman was a savvy boss, and Dormé intended to rise with her, Ommané's ambitions tied to Dormé's own.

"Padawan Skywalker, my deepest apologies to you and your Master and the entire Order. This came about because of the situation between you and Amidala after Geonosis." Ommané's voice was level and she seemed to have cured herself of that disconcerting habit of looking at someone from under her lashes and then away, as if the entire conversation were too intense to bear. This must be something to do with the marriage or the holyman, Anakin guessed. They had thumbed some datapad for the old gentleman but were too much enraptured with being actually married to read it. I'd never make a barrister.Okay, so Jar-Jar and Master Tachi don't know about the marriage, Dormé and you do, and of course Obi-Wan. Juggling I can do.

"Yes, we became friends" --- and so much more --- "then spent some time recovering from the Petranaki arena ordeal together." Anakin wanted this to be over fast. It was history, a history of lies from himself to Obi-Wan.

"You registered as spouses in the Theed Pleasure-rama Palace. The special room with the Vibrating Fingers of --- "

"I said, 'Yes, we were together.' It was all my idea." She's making it sound like a fling, like we didn't actually thumb that marriage datapad. But ... taxes?

Ommané's blue eyes remained steady, though Anakin perceived a trickle of amusement in her aura and the very slightest tremor of her square jaw. "The registration wrote to the Naboo Tax Board's database and when Amidala's taxes came through year after year as 'single, no dependents,' the Board red-flagged your name as a possible Injured Spouse. Amidala had confided in me about the Theed Pleasure-rama Palace stay during my employment with her and when Dormé showed me this, eh, glitch last week I made a note to erase the entry. It is entirely my fault that the Board's errantprocedures led to your delay today. I could have taken care of it the moment I saw it. I apologize." She pulled her hands inside her overhanging sleeves and did a small obeisance, a grace she had learned from the same Legislative Youth Program handbook that Padmé had read, Anakin supposed. "I will correct my error now. Dormé, if you will?"

Dormé highlighted the offending records and with a tap, all official documentation of Anakin's marriage disappeared to fading pixels. He felt a little sad.

"It's all right, it's over with." You misdirect well, but I do not, repeat do not believe you about forgetting. You've embarrassed me, good going, Retbax. The lie sounded plausible, just enough information to muddy the waters of truth.

"Meesa thinken why yousa here, Jedi." Jar-Jar seemed his old self now. "But meesa glad to see yousa, whyever why." The Gungan wrapped Anakin, Obi-Wan and Siri in a crushing embrace. He smelled like brackish water. "Meesa wantin you to bidiebye with meesa. Wesa be havin bombad good times, oie boie!"

"Kind of you, Jar-Jar, but we've made arrangements with another party. We couldn't bow out now. They're, they're rather sensitive." Obi-Wan looked to Siri, who nodded vigorously. "And we couldn't offend them." He smiled the way that Anakin hated. My Negotiator smile.

Dormé knew when to step in gracefully. "Representative Binks, your last appointment of the day will be arriving at your office, and Representative Retbax, your manicurist is waiting there already. I'll have the transport brought around. Master Jedi, Customs will check your baggage and that should be all." She went to the corner of the room to comm. I like Anakin. He made Milady happy for months and months and he was always nice to me. I'm glad to be out of the dating game, though.Meesa always thinken when teen Ani grow up to be biggen Ani, hesa and Obi-Wan mui mui mui palos, but meesa wrongo before. "Thankee. Wesa goen." Anakin, Obi-Wan and Siri endured another embrace. "Meesa yous humbule servant."

The three Jedi bowed a farewell to Ommané and Dormé, Anakin giving Ommané a measuring look as she departed. She read the nuances and kept Padmé's and my secret well enough. Padmé was right to suggest her as a Junior Senator. "So, Siri, did you have a place in mind to sleep tonight?" he heard Obi-Wan ask.

The Chosen One and Amidala. Go figure. "Nope. Let's think about it after your appointment with this Palo. He might have some ideas." They shouldered their duffels once more, but the officious femdroid bustled in a decorous minute after the politicians had left.

"Privacy for the Jedi, Representatives stated and Representatives shall be obeyed. Open your bags, please, Jedi." The voice managed to sound bored. Obi-Wan undid the ties to his bag and waited patiently. One of the probing droid's metallic fingers snagged his least-worn undertunic, but he said nothing. The meditation on the four-hour trip to Naboo had helped. Beside him, Siri spilled her bag on the table near the comm and made the droid pick up each item and replace it neater than it had been originally packed. Her wink at him over the droid's bent head almost made Obi-Wan laugh.

Anakin dumped his bag, too, and it clinked suspiciously. Ooops. Now I'll need to explain. The femdroid's deft fingers unrolled a cylinder of soft undergarments. Two bottles of Whyren's Reserve Lite rolled together onto the table, a dark suspicious rattle. Obi-Wan's frown made Anakin almost flinch. He wished for their BondSpeak again, to reassure his Master that he wanted the liquor to take to anyplace that he decided to visit, after Obi-Wan and Master Tachi left. It's nothing, it will help me relax when you are away.He's not breathed a word about my going with Siri and not him. He's buried everything. Obi-Wan kept his exasperation out of his voice. "I can vouch for anything. My padawan acts on my instructions ---- "

Anakin didn't hear the rest of Obi-Wan's speech and when the three of them hailed the airtaxi, he was still rehearsing his explanation in his head.

In a Jedi Temple hallway ...

Of all the physical things to miss in her Jedi Temple home, Adi Gallia thought that she would miss Soul Healer Regork's heat lamp the most. A Coruscanti spring was geared to the requisite number of gloomy overcast days, all in the aesthetic of making Coruscant's unnatural surface as natural as possible. Today was such a day, glowering clouds covering a weak sun, reaching a depression in Adi's soul that matched the outside gloom. I'm all right. I am better than yesterday. He said to expect setbacks. The eastern corridor with its banks of windows showed the usual speeder traffic, though it was still too early for any vehicle to have its running lights on. To Adi, the lack of shine on any of the vehicles made them appear as gray slags of metal without color, without individuality. Like how I felt yesterday. I can see that now. When she and Tiin and perhaps Koon and Siri left the Order along with the others, they would need to stay together until the Force smoothed out around them, for surely they would be as uprooted just as Knight Fee did the few weeds in his cherished Temple gardens. And speaking of plants ...

"T'ra Saa, is that you?"

The Neti in the deep shadows seemed to have a blurry outline, but when she turned to face Adi, her familiar wide smile below the Romin nose was the same as ever. "Adi Gallia, it's been a long time." The two knew each other slightly, T'ra's away missions leaving not much time for fraternization with many Jedi except Tholme. Except for the fact that T'ra had trained Mace all those years ago, Adi knew little about her. Maybe I should try to learn about her. If she were to join us, a Jedi with her centuries of experience could only be beneficial.

"Have you heard about what's going on, T'ra? You've been out of loop about Temple gossip." If gossip would appeal to her. I don't know, I just don't know.

"Don't have a moment, perhaps later, Adi? I'm just out of my appointment with Regork and need to meditate." Adi looked around. Without knowing it, her steps had led her to Regork's door. A Neti needing advice from a Soul Healer. The Force shows me remarkable things every day.

"Of course, T'ra." Say something else. Make a connection. "I have trouble with cloudy days, don't you? It's the flattening of the shadows or something, the lack of warmth, uh --- "

"Yes, yes! It's hard to put a tendril on. I feel that way often." T'ra seemed about to expand on this, but caught herself. "Well, Adi, I need to go. Don't want to undo the good that's been done." She pulled her cloak more completely around her and pulled down her cowl as if chilled. "May The Force Be With You."

Dismissing me. "May The Force Be With You." Adi watched T'ra waft away and considered knocking on Regork's door, but didn't.

TBC

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