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

Covalent Bonds

Chapter 27

"It'll burn off in the atmosphere ... "

"I suppose." Obi-Wan reinforced his faintly polite expression, aware that the triumvirate that included Eldest observed him from out of earshot with practiced stoicism. The Jedi's ninety-meter craft no longer shone with its original bright plating, and he could not help shooting an indignant look at the culprits as they ambled past the far corral, their bawling receding as they were herded to their usual meadows, Sweetbud leading the way. Here comes the Assemblage of Three. I'll let Siri do the talking again.

" ... freeze off in space. We'll ... make sure it does, delay our entry into hyperspace, hit sublight for an orbit or two ... "

Obi-Wan arched an eyebrow. "It was a good idea, Siri. I'm not complaining."

Siri folded her arms inside her cloak's sleeves as the wind picked up, looking the Master that she was. The spring breeze here in the Valley was not as cool as it was in their first foothill encampment near the droid factory, yet it was a chilling thing anyway, blowing the usual Olanet grit. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now let's leave these good beings, shall we?" He threw a dazzling smile in the approaching Assemblage's direction. They resembled walking duracrete statues with stone chips protruding from their shoulders, jawlines and foreheads. He was glad he was not their prey.

Siri bowed. "Indubitably. After you."

"On the contrary, after you."

"No, I need to play diplomat with Eldest, so after you."

Obi-Wan pinched his nostrils shut with one hand and extended one finger of the other as he Force-pushed the befouled hatch release button. When the passenger ramp slid down with a slrrpshhh sound and a shudder of unsteady vibration, he minced stickily aboard the Dubious Content, his cloak's hood up, sleeves fully extended. More dislodged ordure and worse plopped down from the hatch coaming onto the ramp as he sidestepped various semi-dessicated piles with alacrity and ducked inside. Their craft's camouflage had been completely successful.

"A quick parting is best, Siri." Obi-Wan's voice came sonorously through the external speakers after a minute. "I'll get things rolling." There was a pssst as he finalized the seal on the cargo ramp where their shuttle and speeder bikes had been loaded minutes before. Various running lights blinked and strobed as he began the pre-flight checks.

Eldest approached Siri with an undue amount of solemnity. "Is he a good hunter?"

"The best."

"Is he as discerning when he fulfills your personal needs?"

"Always," Siri smiled.

"Then you should reinforce his training in negotiating."

Siri kept her face pleasantly frozen. Boasting, it's part of their culture. Keep it up, Siri. "He came to me supremely well-trained in every subject by the absolute best hunter that the Jedi have." There was small hope of explaining their friendship. Eldest straightened with an audible pop to her back. Siri thought of her own spine's creaking lately. But I'm in my prime, at the top of my game. I am.

"As you say, Jedi." A soft sigh fluttered the moist edges of Eldest's top-slitted nose. "I am far beyond such things, but how well-made is your male?"

Still smiling, Siri spread her hands a quarter-meter apart, then touched the thumbs and first fingers of each hand to make one circle. That's pushing it even from the viewport's distorted reflection, but Obi-Wan, this lie is for you.

A longer, more mournful sigh escaped Eldest and the other two members of the Valley's Assemblage of Three each took an elbow in her support, but she shrugged them off. "My own green memories overwhelm me." She speared Siri with a look. "Your hunt was unsuccessful."

Siri's face fell. "It was." Can't fool you.

"Another time, then you will bring home a rich pelt and meat for your table."

Metaphorically, yes. "We leave with our thanks. Ummmhhrrrorrrglllljedimooooonnniiip. May The Force Be With You." Siri kicked backwards until she raised dust and Eldest followed through with the ritual parting head butt as well as the shoving match of farewell. Siri swayed her way gingerly up the ramp.

Obi-Wan switched to manual and the Dubious Content rose and spun under his control, taking to the skies and then the dark comfort of space. It seemed to speak of his home and of Anakin's intensity in it. This was the difference between before Trow and after: flying was merely another pile to step over, an apt comparison to chores or unpleasantnesses such as those he had stepped over on the ramp. "What were you talking about out there?"

Siri rubbed her forehead. "You."

"Favorable, I hope."

"You might say that."

Obi-Wan saw her expression and frowned. "You didn't overdo things to compromise my modesty? I can't live up to anything impossible, you know."

Siri snorted like Eldest. "You have much to be modest about." But how did you gain such power? I'm sensing it's to do with the Chosen One. Eh, I don't need to know. You'll tell me if you want to.

"All right, all right, play around as you see fit. You did well to gather the crystal." It rested in her belt pouch, a small rattling mystery. She patted it from time to time on the way back home, finally giving it to Obi-Wan distractedly upon their arrival.

At the Temple hangar, Anakin greeted Obi-Wan with an embrace of affection and set about immediately unloading the speeder bikes. "Hitched a ride on a gambling ship back here, like I commed you I might. They had room for the shuttle, half-sized as it is."

"How are the Lars?"

"Fine, all of them. They are the most organized bunch, Obi-Wan. They are planning an addition to the family."

Obi-Wan patted his speeder bike as he replaced it in its customary slot and activated the dust repulsor. Would it be too un-Jedi-like to customize its paint, purely to identify me to the clones more easily? "Many families do, I hear." Anakin settled Siri's bike in for her. She had nodded a greeting at him, squeezed Obi-Wan's arm and departed for the Council debriefing with quick steps. "You're looking well, Padawan."

"Ohhhh, yes. I had fun." And I visited Mom. Things feel more settled, like. Anakin studied his Master. "I'm thinking you have something up your sleeve, now why is that?"

"Because I do." Obi-Wan extracted from a bell-shaped sleeve a clear packet with a clearer thing inside. "Grievous left this by mistake."

"Obi-Wan! Grievous was on the platform? And you two are in one piece?" Anakin felt over Obi-Wan's arms and ribs as he had on Olanet after Obi-Wan's plunge to the ground. "I want to be in on your debriefing as well."

"I'll need your input; of course you will be there. Let's go."

xxxxx

"Informed, you would be, if mishap had befallen Knight Olin, Master Tachi. No news is good news, hmmmm?" Yoda was saying as the two entered the chamber. The debriefing lasted two hours and by the end of it, the Council, Siri, Obi-Wan and Anakin had more questions than answers.

"To the Analysis Room, this sample goes. Innocuous, it seems. No sense of its purpose, I have." Yoda applied his Force-sense to the three Jedi in front of his hoverchair. The elders, depleted in strength but happy to be home; the younger, renewed in strength and eager to strike at the Separatists. Youth. Padmé has it and orbit around her, I do. Or are we both in synchronous orbit with the Republic? His last conversation with Padmé had ended with another stalemate on the subject of the Force. The Children's Museum, takes more and more of her time, it does. Fault that, I cannot.

Meanwhile, in Soul Healer Regork's office ...

"Ooooooh. Ahhhhhhh." Regork's head throbbed as he moaned. No one should sssuffer ssso.

"Regork! Are you all right? I let myself in." Adi approached the diagnostic couch; in the darkened office, it was an island whose pink lampglow spotlighted a sprawling Regork who was barely breathing. "Regork!"

"Not ssso loud. It's my speciesss' molting time." Problemsss, problemsss, who listensss to mine?

"I didn't know. Sorry." Adi made no move to leave Regork to his privacy. He sighed as he dropped his tail floorwards to counterbalance sitting up. Lazily, he stretched beneath the lamp's healthy glow.

"Emergency?"

Adi considered. She had not been idle and now two hundred thirteen Jedi expressed interest in leaving the Order with her. To her regret, only one fellow Master, a Council member, fell out on her side: Saesee Tiin. They two would be enough because they had to be. Between them, they had scores of years of Council experience. A small enclave of erstwhile Knights on a suitable planet would not be poorly led. If only we had a Kel-Dor, a Neti, well, perhaps I do have a Neti, one Master for science as Koon would be and one to take the long view, like T'ra. If I could only be certain of T'ra or recruit Plo ... if only ... "Not exactly. I did have some bad days lately, but I've been able to pull myself out of my usual loop of bad nerves."

"I am here for you. Pleassse tell me about it."

Adi seated herself next to Regork on the wide couch. His hide felt as heated as it ever did, though his vibrant colors had turned lackluster with his yearly springtime molt. The lamp warmed them both as Adi did a self-diagnostic of her mental state. "I'm concerned about Siri. I'm concerned about my Grand-Padawan. I'm concerned about leaving the Jedi in the midst of a war. I'm concerned about funding our endeavors, finding a base, establishing a pension plan for our more aged members, and so many other issues, Regork, that it isn't even funny."

"Elderly Jedi, problematical?"

Adi pointed a rigid forefinger at her breastbone. "I blame myself. I didn't foresee that Jedi who could not adapt or did not choose to adapt to the revised Code might be seasoned, erm, that is, beyond middle age into their golden years. We number some younger Jedi, but I should have foreseen this, I should have -- "

Ssshe needsss my help. "Ssshould is ssshit." Qui-Gon used to sssay that a lot. "Nonsenssse. You have thought your plan through; now work your plan."

"Can you come with us?" Adi had asked him before, but today she needed reassurance in nearly everything.

"We've discussed this previously. I choossse to remain here, in-Temple."

"If only Siri will come with me!" Adi, get a grip. You sound needy.

Regork massaged some oil from the gland near the base of his tail onto his talons. Its musk filled Adi's senses, indefinably soothing. Perhaps that was one reason he became a Soul Healer, she mused; it was in his very essence to comfort others. But I don't need comfort. I need answers, many of them organizational. And I won't get them from you. "You have two legsss to ssstand upon, Adi. You don't need her. And you've sssaid before that she leansss against joining you."

Adi was still pondering her choices' consequences when Regork finally finished grooming. He looked a little unkempt, the same as before, but she was deep in her own thoughts and put aside her urge to tell the whole truth, all at once, as was her wont.

TBC

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