For all most padawans eagerly anticipated their
trials and subsequent knighting, Anakin Skywalker
was puzzled to find himself ambivalent on the
subject of his own. He would be glad to assume the
rank and responsibility of a knight, of course, and
was confident of his readiness to do so, but at the
same time he realized he was a bit reluctant to leave
the known quantity that was life as Qui-Gon Jinn's
padawan. For the past fifteen years, no matter what
chaos life threw at him -- and it did -- there had
always been his master, wise and strong, and Obi-
Wan Kenobi, solid and brave. Before that,
throughout his tumultuous childhood, he had always
had his mother, patient and sure. Now, faced with
the prospect of complete self-reliance, Anakin was
anxious. It wasn't that he was
dependent on
Master Jinn and Obi-Wan, he reasoned, but that he
was
comfortable with them -- and what person
would choose to leave a comfortable home and life
for one that might be nothing of the sort?
Well, everyone who had any hope of being a Jedi,
for a start. Anakin set the low table on the sofa to
give himself more floor space in the apartment.
Granted, the choice to entrust a child to the Jedi was
made by the parents, before the child could make an
informed choice; but teenagers going as padawans
made such decisions all the time. Anakin
wondered, not for the first time, what the Jedi
would do if an adult Force-sensitive appeared at the
temple and wanted to be trained -- someone who
had never been brought in as a child. There had
been enough question about his own training, at the
age of nine -- what would befall a grown man in
that situation?
Everyone who got married made that choice as well,
Anakin realized, and he had no doubts about his
willingness to do that. The hesitation over the
knighting must just be nerves. He pushed the
dining-table into a corner and stacked half the chairs
upside-down on top of the others. He could
remember the exact day he'd met Amidala. It was
the day before Boonta Eve, and she and Qui-Gon
had come into Watto's shop with Jar Jar and R2-D2.
Watto had called him out of the back to mind the
room while he showed Qui-Gon some parts, but by
that time Anakin hadn't been listening -- he'd been
looking curiously at the prettiest girl he'd ever seen.
He'd known she wasn't local -- they'd said so, and
the fact that they were trying to buy a hyperdrive
would also have tipped him off, but he could have
figured it out just by looking at her. She was
dressed right, but she had a smile in her eyes that,
had she lived on Tatooine, would long ago have
been scoured from her face by the wind and the
sand and the depression. He'd asked her if she was
an angel, and she'd laughed, and the sound of that
laugh had called to him like a song. She'd also
called him a funny little boy, but by then he didn't
care. She
was an angel, and he adored her.
Over the years, whenever he'd needed to summon an
image of Amidala to his mind, he'd always begun
with that sweet laughter. It soothed the ache of
missing her, when they were so often apart for so
long. And now she was going to be his wife. His
bondmate. Either, both, it didn't matter. Anakin
was occasionally incredulous of his own good
fortune. He was a slave child from a desert
wasteland of a Hutt-controlled planet on the far
Outer Rim; she was the queen of a gracious and
triumphant people. "No," Obi-Wan often reminded
him, "you are the extremely capable student of one
of the best Masters in the Jedi Order, and one of
three heirs to his greatness."
"You are a good-looking young man of astonishing
courage and skill," Qui-Gon would add.
"Perhaps it is Amidala who should wonder if she's
worthy of you." The knight's impish grin,
unchanged since he was where Anakin now stood,
always cheered him.
He didn't know what his trials would be. Everyone
had been very tight-lipped on that point. Perhaps
that was part of the challenge. He only knew that it
was a shade more than four cycles until the date that
his master had recommended that he stand them.
He shrugged off his shirt and kicked off his shoes,
tucking his under-shirt into his leggings and rolling
the cuffs up to his knees. He had no idea how soon
after his trials he could expect to be knighted,
presuming he passed. And the only fixed date for
his wedding was the day after his knighting.
Fortunately, there was very little to plan. Amidala
had been voted into the senate by a people who had
loved her as their queen, so she was around the
corner rather than several weeks' travel away. Her
friends, family, and advisors were, with few
exceptions, within a day's flight from Coruscant.
Qui-Gon had agreed to officiate, Obi-Wan and
Sionnach were standing for them, and as many Jedi
as cared to would drop what they were doing and
attend. It was just a matter of when.
Anakin had been delighted when Amidala had been
seated in the senate. There were those who had
argued that admitting her would over-represent
Naboo, since the chancellor was originally a senator
from that system, but Amidala had taken the
opposite view: Palpatine, as chancellor, represented
no individual system. His constituency was the
galaxy as a whole, and therefore since his election
Naboo had in fact been under-represented.
Palpatine had, everyone noticed, avoided involving
himself in that argument -- hedging his bets, very
likely, so that he could never appear to have
supported whichever side ended up losing.
Palpatine was nothing if not shrewd. Anakin lay on
his back on the floor, arms over his head, and lifted
his legs and body until he had rolled up into a
shoulder-stand; carefully, he bent his arms, placed
his hands next to his shoulders, and pushed up into
a handstand. The senate had deadlocked on the
issue, and appealed to the courts to settle it, and -- in
a remarkable display of decisiveness -- the High
Court had voted eight to two (with one abstention)
in favor of the idea that a chancellor no longer
represented his home system. The Palpatine
Proposition, as it had come to be called, carried; it
was ordered that no system should be deprived of
representation due to the promotion of one of its
representatives to higher office; Naboo reclaimed its
senate seat; and Amidala was elected, installed, and
confirmed. Only then did Palpatine concede that
that was the outcome he'd been hoping for all along.
(Many people, Anakin included, believed that the
chancellor would have said the same about either
result.)
What Amidala hadn't told the chancellor was that
she'd wanted to be a senator so she could oppose
him on the trade issue. Anakin lifted his right hand
off the floor and tucked it into the small of his
back. Government-regulated -- or, more accurately,
government-monopolized -- trade was causing
everyone trouble these days, trouble of which
Chancellor Palpatine seemed to be entirely unaware.
It was undeniably true that under the new system, all
areas got the same service at the same price. To
accomplish this, the senate had increased taxes
galaxy-wide with one stroke, and instituted a
relatively simple, if ridiculous, schedule of fees and
tariffs. The practical upshot was that everyone got
the same bad service at the same high price, and
citizens who had been accustomed to no service
were glad -- but citizens who had been accustomed
to good service at a low price were, to put it mildly,
not.
In a few notable cases, like Bakura and Malastare,
the Trans-Galactic Shipping Commission was far
superior to what the people had had before. Still
standing on his left hand, Anakin leaned his feet to
the right and slowly rotated his body toward a
horizontal position. Other worlds, though, were
unhappy -- ranging from dissatisfied to outright
furious. Most felt that, as they had voted the service
into existence, they couldn't very well oppose it
now; many, however, felt no such compunction, and
railed daily about the impracticality and injustice of
the chancellor's system.
The chime rang, and Anakin looked to the door and
lost his balance, falling to the floor with a muffled
grunt. "Master Jinn?" he heard a voice call from
behind the door.
"One moment," he said, muttering curses as he got
to his feet and shook out his shoulders. Moving to
the door, he leaned against it for a moment to catch
his breath before opening it to admit the visitor.
"Senator Organa," he said as he bowed.
"Padawan Skywalker," the senator said, also
bowing. "I hope I haven't come at a bad time. Is
your master in?"
"No, not at all," Anakin said. "I mean, no, it's not a
bad time, but I'm sorry, sir, my master isn't in just
now."
The senator was clearly disappointed, and evidently a
little concerned. "I haven't been able to reach him on
the commlink. When do you expect him back?"
"I'm not sure," Anakin replied, retreating to fetch his
shirt. "Please, come in, make yourself comfortable.
Here, let me move the table off the couch. Their
commlinks are probably switched off. I think Master
Jinn and Knight Kenobi have gone to the memorial garden
with Padawan apVess-Norill."
"Ah, I see." Organa, fidgeting, did not take the
offered seat on the couch.
"But they've been gone a while. I don't know when
they'll return, but it could be quite soon. May I get
you something to drink?"
"No, thank you, I don't think so," Organa said. "I
have some business to discuss with Master Jinn, but
I'll come back at a more convenient --"
"Senator," Obi-Wan said, suddenly arriving at the
open door and reaching for Organa's hand. "What
brings you here?"
"I'm sorry to disturb you, Knight Kenobi," the
senator answered. "I'm afraid there's something
going on that I'd like to discuss with the Council, if
Master Jinn thinks it's a good idea. Is he with you?"
"He's right behind me -- be here any minute. Let me
give you something. Tea? Have a seat."
"Thank you, no," Organa said with a smile. "That
is, nothing for me, thank you, but if you're sure this
isn't an inconvenient time --"
"Not a bit inconvenient for us, is it, Anakin?"
"Like I said," Anakin grinned. "If you'll excuse me,
though, I'll run and change." He bowed his way out
of the conversation, though he could hear snatches
of it through the door to his room. Obi-Wan was
urging the senator to tell him the trouble he wanted
to bring to the Council, and reluctantly, Organa
began to do so. Anakin couldn't hear whole
sentences, but he caught bits and pieces: losing
ground ... giving in ... disheartening. Obi-Wan
seemed to be encouraging Organa not to abandon
his cause, but the man interrupted: that's just it ...
damnedest ... only a suspicion. Then Master Jinn
returned; Anakin could hear his voice, deeper than
the others', as he joined them. After only a moment,
there was a knock at Anakin's own door.
"Ani, it's Obi-Wan. Let me in for a second?"
Anakin stood aside as the knight came inside. "I
had to --" -- he broke off, looking around the room
slowly, a puzzled expression on his face.
"You okay?"
"It's just always a surprise. I'm never really
prepared for it not to look like it did when I was in
here. No reason for that, really." Obi-Wan looked
around for a moment longer, then shook off the
reverie. "Sorry. I just had to get away from that for
a bit."
"What's going on?"
"Oh, they're talking about the senate again, it's not
that. You know Organa's always running things by
Qui-Gon before taking them to the Council. Saves
everyone's time and energy."
"I wish more senators would do that."
"Don't we all."
"So what's the problem?"
"Did you hear when Qui-Gon came in?" Obi-Wan
was pacing slightly.
"I heard that he had come in, but I haven't been
listening to every word, no."
"The senator called him Qui-Gon." He was
fidgeting as well, tapping his fingertips together
faster than what could be called contemplatively.
"That's his name."
"What did he call you, then, the senator, when he
got here?"
Anakin cast his mind back. He hadn't really been
paying attention. "Padawan Skywalker, I suppose."
"Yes. And he called me Knight Kenobi."
"That doesn't --"
"You're right," Obi-Wan said. "Silly of me." He
rubbed at the bridge of his nose for a moment. "I
must just be on edge. Come on, are you ready? We
should go back out. I don't want to leave those two
alone for too long." He winked and grinned, and
Anakin followed him back into the living room.
Obi-Wan sat next to Qui-Gon and grew more and
more uncomfortable the longer Bail Organa spoke.
The senator had detailed his and his colleagues'
escalating dissatisfaction with the chancellor's
Trans-Galactic Shipping Commission and its
confounded system of fees. Every planet in the
galaxy paid a flat shipping tax, which covered
purchase and maintenance costs on the service's
fleet of cargo vessels. A further tax was levied for
potential fuel and human resource costs, based on
the population of the planet -- in theory, a reliable
predictor of the number of deliveries it would
require in a given time period. The cost of every
shipment was accompanied by a fee calculated as a
percentage of the shipment's weight and volume.
Receiving centers on each planet could only accept
deliveries from the service's own ships and
personnel, for reasons of security, so all shipments
had to come from Coruscant or one of a few other
designated "hubs;" other senders, which was
practically everyone, had to pay special processing
fees to cover the cost of receiving and examining
and re-sending goods that were not previously
certified as safe by an authorized government
inspector. Between the tax, the tariff, the duty, and
the customs fee, the cost of shipping was exorbitant;
and with the customs and inspections and hubs and
spokes and receiving centers, the speed of delivery
was pitiable.
The complaints were numerous. For a start,
assessing the proportional tax based on population
was idiotic, as there were highly-populated and
mostly self-sufficient planets who rarely imported
or exported anything. Determining that tax based
on past records of shipping traffic would have been
far more reasonable, but the chancellor insisted that
past tendencies were not reliable indicators of future
events. Furthermore, the hub-and-spoke system and
the receiving centers and the customs clearance
were a disaster. The idea that had sold the people
on it was that by having all the customs officials in
one place, or at least just a few, there would be a
universal standard of training and they would pay
less by not having to pay as many employees in as
many places. The practical result was that the local
safety inspectors lost their jobs and had to find
others or move elsewhere (and, curiously, the
government hired fair-skinned human males out of
all proportion with their percentage of the galactic
population); people paid the same money, but it all
went into the government coffers rather than back
into their own pockets. So few planets had hub
shipping centers that the government's assurance
that the profits from each center would enrich the
local economies was all but ignored. And
somehow, because the thing was based out of
Coruscant, that world paid only the flat-rate tax and
the weight/volume duty; everything had to go to
Coruscant anyway, the reasoning went, so charging
the receivers on Coruscant the graduated tariff
would have been redundant, and the customs fee
applied only to senders not on a hub world. The
fact that Coruscant was the most densely-populated
world in the galaxy and produced nothing while
importing everything was not lost on the
Commission's detractors. They took great pains to
note that the system was much more expensive for
exporters than for importers. Many worlds did a
fair amount of both, so the damage was
approximately equal, but for every Coruscant,
which exported nothing, there was an Alderaan,
which imported very little. As the public officials
fought the government service in the light of day,
smuggling beneath the surface had become a huge
industry, causing a raft of other problems in the
crime-fighting and human services sectors.
Leading the opposition to the Commission were the
representatives of Alderaan, Corellia, Bothawui,
Kashyyyk, and Chandrila -- all worlds that had lost
revenue or autonomy enough under the new system,
whether due to humans taking non-humans' jobs or
to the vast differential between the old profit levels
and the new, to anger them into fighting it. Even
Amidala had, as queen, carefully nurtured a cordial
and then friendly relationship with the Gungans of
Naboo, and it was her expressed opinion that she
represented them as well as the humans who
claimed the planet's name as their own; thus, she too
opposed the chancellor's agency.
Many others had supported Organa and his cohorts
in their opposition efforts, but the ranks of those
supporters had been gradually dwindling, and that
was what had Organa concerned enough to float the
idea to Qui-Gon of approaching the Council. As
Qui-Gon had noticed some time ago, a lot of people
seemed to be accepting the Commission rather than
expend the energy to fight it, which the opposition
found distressing. Worse, those who had been
merely ambivalent about the Commission were
beginning to speak out loudly in its favor; the trend
looked alarmingly like those opposed would soon
be in an insignificant minority. This was the way of
politics, of course, but Senator Organa pointed out
that he knew some of those people well who had
been changing their minds, and they had been
unable satisfactorily to explain to him why they had
done so. Finally, today, after a normally even-
tempered representative from Anoat had bitten his
head off -- with little provocation -- for the third
time in as many days, Senator Organa had decided
to consult the Jedi.
"You want to be cautious with this, Bail," Qui-Gon
said. "Remember that in the political arena,
appearance often counts for more than substance.
You don't want to look like you're just being
paranoid."
"I understand that, but what if I'm right? How much
further could this go if it isn't investigated now?"
"But think carefully. It's already public knowledge
that you are opposed to the Shipping Commission
and thus, essentially, to the chancellor himself and
all who agree with him. First of all, to whom could
you appeal, and secondly, how likely would they be
to take you seriously?"
"To
you, dammit!" the senator burst out. "That's
exactly what I'm doing -- I'm appealing to you! Are
you saying
you don't take me seriously?"
"It is an awfully loaded charge, Senator," Obi-Wan
said quietly. "It would be seen as mistrust of
everyone involved, however unwittingly."
"I
don't trust them!"
"Then why should they trust you?" Anakin spoke
up. "If you believe, and say in public, that only
Senator Delvin and Senator Mothma and a few
others are legitimate and therefore worthy of your
trust, what's to stop some other, completely
innocent, senator from presuming that
you're part
of the machine as well?"
"But we're not."
"That's what they'd say, and would you believe
them?" Organa sat back, upset but quiet. Qui-Gon
continued. "That's the trouble with a thing like this.
It's very inflammatory and nearly impossible to
prove. We, the Jedi that is, can occasionally detect
fluctuations in concentration or Force-signatures,
but normally you'd have to look at a tissue sample
under a microscope."
"Do you believe it's possible? Will you help me?"
"I've seen too much ever to believe anything is
impossible, my friend." Qui-Gon smiled sadly.
Obi-Wan felt a prickle on the back of his neck, and
inched closer to Qui-Gon on the sofa. "But
unfortunately, a suspicion is not enough to compel
us to act. I can assure you that the Council will
dismiss your request for assistance. However," he
said -- and Organa stopped and looked up again,
mid-defeated-slump. "However, I can promise you
that I will personally be vigilant, and keep your
suspicion in mind. What we can do, we will."
Bail Organa sighed and got to his feet. All three
Jedi rose. "Thank you, Qui-Gon," the senator said.
"Perhaps I am being a trifle paranoid. But since the
thought occurred to me, I haven't been able to shake
it -- I'm scared." He looked up at Qui-Gon with a
rueful smile, and Obi-Wan felt the prickle on his
neck again. "I'll be along. Thank you again for your
help -- and you, Knight Kenobi, Padawan
Skywalker. I think I'm fortunate to have you all."
Organa bowed to each host and saw himself out.
"You will personally be vigilant?" Obi-Wan asked
Qui-Gon, when he had gone.
"Of course I will. Bail Organa isn't a frivolous man,
Obi-Wan. If he thinks this is a real possibility, it
merits at least some careful attention. To say
nothing --" he glanced at Anakin, who was
replacing the table and chairs he had moved earlier,
and lowered his voice confidentially -- "to say
nothing of the fact that we
know something is
going to happen here, and soon. Or have you
forgotten? If this is it, and we catch it soon enough,
it might not be as catastrophic as we were
anticipating."
"But why the middle ground? Either it's worth
watching or it isn't -- surely the Council could find
someone better suited to covert surveillance than --"
"Yoda hasn't brought it before the Council yet."
"What?!" Obi-Wan hissed.
"Not yet. I know, we all think he should, but you
know how he is. Mace is going out of his mind.
Shh." Qui-Gon, seeing Anakin approach, resumed
speaking in a normal voice.
"So what can we do to help?" Anakin asked, taking
a seat across from his master. "I mean, if we see
something we think looks suspicious, what can we
do without blowing the whole thing in?"
"I don't know about this 'we' stuff," Qui-Gon began.
"Don't," Obi-Wan interrupted. "Don't even think it.
Nobody takes a job that risky by himself."
"I don't want to put anybody else in danger," Qui-
Gon said.
"Then don't. I'll put myself in danger. We've talked
about this, Qui-Gon," Obi-Wan insisted, strangely
more adamant than he had intended to be. "Look
what happened the last time you went alone with no
backup." Qui-Gon raised an eyebrow. "And you
know how I hate knowing and not doing, besides,"
Obi-Wan added.
"What happened last time he went alone with no
backup?" Anakin asked.
"He came back with you," Obi-Wan said lightly,
tossing a sofa pillow in Anakin's direction -- but he
could feel the tightness behind his voice that he still
felt, would always feel, when remembering the
mission to Naboo. If he had been with Qui-Gon
when the Sith attacked him on Tatooine, the thing
would never have returned. If he had been closer
when the energy doors cycled shut in the reactor
core, it never would have gotten near enough to
wound. How different things would have been if it
hadn't been for Sionnach's infant attachment to them
both.
Qui-Gon heard that note in Obi-Wan's voice; Obi-
Wan could tell by the fractional sympathetic wrinkle
of his brow. "Fair enough," said Qui-Gon. "We,
then, will watch for the specific suspicious
behaviors the senator mentioned, and see if they
suggest to us the same conclusion he has drawn.
And then if so, and if the instances increase,
we
bring it before the Council."
"And if the Council doesn't believe us, or takes no
action? It wouldn't be surprising."
"In that event, we must each do what we think is
right. I have no power over you at all, Obi-Wan,"
Qui-Gon said, "and none over Anakin, in this
instance, to force him to defy the Council. But if I
believe the situation warrants it, I shall spread the
word among the Jedi and take arms myself."
"You know I'd be with you," Obi-Wan said.
"As would I, Master," Anakin agreed.
Qui-Gon nodded. "In the meantime, though, we
watch. We watch everyone carefully, all the
senators and all their staffs. And we don't
do
anything until we're ready and sure. Every one of
these people has a constituency that will be gravely
offended at the mere implication of anything like
this, never mind the actual suggestion."
All three men sat silently for several minutes. The
comm buzzed; Anakin took it, and shortly afterward
went to visit Amidala for dinner. Qui-Gon reached
for Obi-Wan's hand and squeezed it tighter than
Obi-Wan could squeeze back; he had presented a
calm, serene facade to Organa and Anakin, when in
fact he had been frightened nearly out of his wits by
the senator's words. Obi-Wan scooted over and,
without extricating his hand, wrapped his arms
around Qui-Gon's shoulders and held on. "They
could be everywhere," he said finally.
"Yes, they could."
"Will we all be tested for originality?"
"Eventually, perhaps."
They did not speak for several more minutes.
"I hope this isn't it," Obi-Wan said.
"So do I."
More silence.
"But I'm afraid it is."
"So am I."
Comments always
welcome!