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

Covalent Bonds

Chapter 28

"No live butler? No live seneschal?" It was an awkward opening remark, but then Anakin felt awkward standing for the first time at at the entryway of Padmé's elegant estate in the Ambassadorial District near Loijin Plaza. Padmé was no longer intoxicating, simply a part of his past that he had to revisit occasionally. If it hadn't been for the droids, he might not have ever seen her regularly again, except in her capacity as Vice-Chancellor and his as her Knight -- ah, Padawan -- protector. He compared this feeling to his usual cheerfulness around Obi-Wan, and decided that he had made the right choice in divorcing her. It didn't mean they lacked a common ground for discussion, however strained it might be. Some days went smoother with her than others. He sensed today was one of the others.

"Come in, Padawan Skywalker. I'm having company today. My butler is out getting aurodium-tasseled cozies for my aurodium-plated tea set. I've moved up in the galaxy, you see." It's going to be one of those meetings. How could I have stood it, living with him as we got older and were in each others' pockets? Padmé dropped the sarcasm and put on her politician face. "There is some refreshment in the sunroom," she droned.

She looked serious and little frazzled, Anakin thought as he followed her. "Are the droids ready?" It was his term of custody.

"I'm having them download something for Cousin Enri."

"Which cousin is that?" Padmé had cousins all over Naboo, mostly in or near Theed.

Padmé handed him a goblet of water and took a tumbler for herself. Would he like a drink? It's early, perhaps a Namana Neuronumb pick-me-up. Alcohol was a source of contention between Yoda and herself, Yoda urging her to 'feel the Force' and so cut back on stimulation of the chemical kind. It wasn't happening. She had an occasional serving of Naboo wine these days. "He's a distant cousin from the Lake Country. You never met him." She looked him up and down. "How is Obi-Wan?"

"Fine. We're fine, he's fine." Master Tachi and Obi-Wan, I don't think I need worry about anymore. Or do I?

Something's going on between them. Or has gone on. I don't need to be Force-sensitive to know that. Padmé seated herself on the wicker settee's yellow cushions, folding her hands in her light blue morning robes. "I have some time, Anakin."

"You know, Padmé, I am capable of handling my own problems." Anakin sat beside her.

"Of course I know. What problems?" Yours first.

Might as well. "Obi-Wan was sick and it left some residual effects. For two years. He's better now." And more powerful, but I can't explain these things to you. "Before we were able to become intimate again, he seemed interested in someone else. I, I didn't handle it well. I still can't."

Two ... years? "Who was it?" Of all people, Obi-Wan. I haven't seen him in person for so long, but he seems the same handsome Jedi on the HoloNews as before.

"Master Siri Tachi. She's all right, she's his friend, but I was imagining things -- " Crack! Anakin removed the goblet from his mechno-hand. The crystal bowl had detached from its thin stem and base. "Sorry," he muttered. Her half of our first and only anniversary gift. Kriff.

"They're both broken now. Mama would be sad if she knew." Padmé discarded the pieces. "So, Siri's becoming a problem?" Ommané and me. Anakin and Obi-Wan. We're all broken, while Yoda, ah, my Yoda ... Is there any stability anywhere? Yoda's words remained as a backdrop to her thoughts. "Lovers unaware, all Jedi are now. Jumped into the river of love without life preservers, we did, and our feelings too raw to be borne." Yoda's nine hundred years hadn't blunted his perceptions of interpersonal relations or made him callous to tender feelings. Padmé recalled his first advances to her with a small blush as she shifted her attention back to her ex-husband. "So, Anakin, I asked if Siri is a problem. She's a little, um, rough-hewn for Obi-Wan to be interested in her, isn't she? I'd have thought someone more fragile, a non-Jedi, might catch his attention, if you and he were to split the blanket."

"We're not splitting up, Padmé. We were going through a rough patch for certain reasons, but we were not splitting up." Let that be the truth, Unifying Force. Let me at least know that much about us. "I don't know what we're doing, other than not splitting up," he mumbled. It humbled him to speak like this with his ex-wife. He'd not wanted to confide in her after their breakup at all. Now he looked down at her from his greater height and thought she might help. She had much more experience in this than he did, particularly after two years of dancing, swimming, dating, living with, cavorting with ... others. Master Tholme would have said she was the perfect spy for his network. She was bright, social, never attached that the public knew about, and stylish in her clothing and way of life. She attracted people. She had attracted him, once.

"I don't know Siri well," Padmé speculated. "There was that one mission we were on to Azure, she was efficient, and that was all I needed to know. What is she like, off-mission?"

"She enjoys sparring day and night, but then we all do. She has a not particularly close relationship with her former Master, Adi Gallia. Master Gallia has issues with the new Code and speaks out plainly against it. Siri doesn't seem to care one way or the other. If the Order splinters, I think she'll stay friends with Master Gallia's side, but will remain mainstream. She is remarkably apolitical, even for a Jedi." Anakin considered the large figurine he had picked up from the caf table to give his hands something to do. "Palo of Naboo" was incised in its underside in a small, elegant chop. The figurine's subject was a snowy scene, an isolated home in a Nubian forest, perhaps near Varykino. The snow puffed around the home almost up to the windowsills, while a bright welcoming light spilled out from the windows and made the snowdrifts glow golden. A weary traveler with a satchel full of gifts trudged up the cleared pathway, no doubt homeward bound. This piece made a pleasant contrast to the clown paintings in their former home at 500 Republica. Padmé must have changed decorators, and for the better.

"Siri didn't like Obi-Wan for some reason for years, Padmé. Oh, I don't suppose she disliked him, either, but for agemates, and they even went back to crechemates, they lacked, uh, nostalgia. I've sensed it with other Jedi when they meet up again as adults. Obi-Wan said that she was nice to him when Master Qui-Gon joined the Force, and then she left on her longterm undercover mission and was changed when she returned. Their schedules prevented many meetings as time went on." He replaced the figurine carefully with both hands onto its mark in the dust outline of the caf table. Threepio needs to get back here and clean. It's worse than Tatooine.

"Until recently."

Anakin doodled an Osk and a Krill in the table's dust. "They made up some months ago, on a mission. Then she and he went alone on another mission. Eh, everything's all right now. I think. No, I'm sure. I am. What about you? Still enjoying following that band of yours around at night?"

"Cold Cuts, and no, I haven't done much of that la--" Ding-dong! Dinnnnnggg-dong!

"Cousin Padmé? I just got back. Shall I get it?" A deep, refined voice echoed into the sunroom, loud enough to penetrate the etched glass doors.

Padmé thumbed the room's comm unit. "I'm in the sunroom, Cousin, and I'll get it, thanks." Padmé threw Anakin a nervous smile. "My houseguest. Excuse me. Threepio had quite a bit of work to do before he could leave with you." She gathered the folds of her robes and stood. "I dedicated him and Artoo solely to their tasks. Disabled their auditory circuits," she tossed over her shoulder, her house shoes noiseless on the beige rug.

"Do you know how to do that?" Anakin called after her. He fiddled with the figurine again. "When did you le-- awww, I'll wait." Anakin swiftly used his sleeve to clean the tabletop before tidily replacing Palo's figurine in its usual spot once more. Obi-Wan's habits have gotten into my brain. That's what you get for living with someone you've imprinted with. He smiled at the thought.

Ding-dong-dinnngg-dongggg! There was a chirp-chirp of disabled security, a hiss of great doors opening, muted voices and then shuffling steps accompanied by clacks of a cane on Selonian marble floors approached rhe sunroom. Anakin rose.

"Master Yoda ... uh ... "

"Padawan Skywalker. A neighborly visit for our Vice-Chancellor? More ideas for our Jedi Children's Museum, have you?" Yoda cocked an ear in Anakin's direction, a half-smile curving his seamed lips.

"No, another purpose, Master. I'm borrowing Threepio and Artoo Detoo. It's time for their post-mindwipe ten thousand-hour checkup," Anakin improvised. He doesn't know that I was married, only that I was with Padmé the night Palpatine died. Or did Obi-Wan tell him? The Grandmaster could have divined it somehow, but did it even matter anymore? Anakin sighed. The morning sun's rays painted a yellow ball on the room's flocked wallpaper. Anakin remembered a cheery poem he had composed to Coruscant's one puny sun for Master Tobin's creative writing class when he first came to the Temple. Obi-Wan probably had it stored on his private datapad somewhere. In a technical sense, the poem did not qualify as a possession and the sheer intellectuality of it all skirted the Code neatly. The limited possessions rule was one that the Jedi Code revision had not touched.

Yoda slitted his eyes. "Mmmmm. Yes. Thought, I did, that you missed your friend and devised an excuse about the Museum to procure some of her time. I would consider that, myself." He beamed up at Padmé.

Padmé was saved from replying by a large male figure at the sunroom's glass doors. "Cousin Enri! Join us, won't you? Enri Etolini, Master Yoda and Padawan Skywalker of the Jedi Order." Enri sketched a courtly bow.

Shapely calves, he has, Yoda thought as he reciprocated the bow and looked sideways.

He looks like her, curls and all, Anakin thought as he straightened.

What sights have they seen in this galaxy, Enri thought as the silence lengthened. I'll never know such sophistication. "Cousin, this seems a high-level meeting. My affairs with you can wait until you are free tonight. Master Jedi, I'm pleased to have met you." He bowed once more, removing his veda-cloth cape in the heat of the room. A powerful back, also, Yoda thought as Enri closed the glass doors behind him.

'Affairs,' Cousin? A misleading term and I can't say anything without calling attention ... ah, kriff. "Iced Kopi tea, anyone?" The sunroom was becoming slightly too warm.

Yoda became all business. "Serious discussion I will have with you, Your Excellency. And Padawan Skywalker, you will stay. Knowledge you also have of this affair." 

"Yoda."  Your sense of humor, like it I do not, sometimes.  I'm caught between. Better stay quiet.  Padme saw Anakin straighten his shoulders, nearly at attention. She couldn't know that he used the Force to subdue his apprehension over Yoda's next words.

"Won the terentatek carpet at JediNow! auction, Count Dooku has." Grim smiles appeared on the two humans' faces. "Moved the items earlier than expected, we did, in light of the mystery of Grievous' crystals."

A mission! I'm coming for you, Dooku! It was all worth it, signing those holocards!

At last! This war can move to the negotiating table, if we capture Dooku! Padmé gazed deeply into Yoda's eyes, satisfaction coursing through her.

A damper on their relief, I must put. "Wants to meet the art dealer in person before final pickup, Honest1 requests." Yoda thwacked his cane against the carpet hard enough to rip out some strands of the expensive shag. "Palo of Naboo, a warrior he is not."

Meanwhile, in the bowels of the Jedi Temple ...

In the fifth low-level laboratory of the Temple, Plo Koon labored on with no lack of momentum. "Sit there, please." The fumes of his latest experiment filtered through his tri-ox mask. He supposed they would be nauseating to any being not Kel-Dor, but he felt no discomfort and neither did the clone trooper standing at attention beside the lab counter.

ARC5231 fumbled with the fold-down seat. Today was a bad day for him, thought he faced it with the equanimity he had been decanted with. "Sir."

Plo adjusted his scope. "Eyes open wide." Pupils normal. I sense his discomfort. "Tell me, any new symptoms?"

"Paresthesia in the left thigh. Numb here but not anywhere else. I can walk fine, sir." Was I formed in a glass dish in a lab like this one? I suppose so.

"That must be distracting." How long will this cure take? Is it even possible?

ARC5231 said grimly, "As you say, sir. But I filter it out as best I can." Send me back to duty, please.

He's frustrated with good cause. I need to find something for the battalion to do, that they can do. "You're ready for duty, along with the rest of your battalion's walking wounded."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Light duty."

"Sir?"

More accessible to commoners, I mean non-Jedi, the new Code says to be. And I do plan on staying Jedi. "I have an assignment for you, Trooper." Plo fixed him with a stern look through his mask. "It will help Jedi."

"Yes, sir!"

"Jedi who have need of help because they gave their entire lives to the Order." You are young, ARC5231. You will invigorate them, Master Porpalam and the rest of the ... the ... rebels. Rebels? Did the word 'rebel' and the word 'Jedi' go together? Yes, Plo decided; Adi and her Rebel Two Hundred Thirteen, so many of them gallant elders, could use the youthful strength of the Olanet Three Hundred. The injured warriors' diminished capacity would not matter and their near-worship of Jedi would smooth the way of any organizational problems. Plo would need to speak with Adi, he would need to consult with the clones' ranking officer ... I'm getting involved. He looked around the lab. But I need to stay here and work. Still so much more to accomplish here, but it was time to leave the laboratory to grow its cultures, bubble its retorts and distill its alembics. He was finished in his sheltering lab for the time being.

"Fall in, ARC5231. We're going to visit my fellow Master."

ARC5231 rubbed his left leg and stood. The leg supported him easily enough as he followed Plo out of the lab.

TBC

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