pronker

Part Forty-One

Anakin slicked his glove back on, grateful not to be the center of attention any more.

He had made his mark on the conference and needed time to gather his thoughts while listening to his Master's improved skills. It must have been the Force's doing; the man had taken Master Lingus' training in How To Lay It On Thick and developed it into How To Lay It On With A Trowel, and it was paying off. Anakin, pleased to have helped the Force help his Master change, listened in.

"Well put, Master Jedi. After adjourning, the Cabinet and I will consult with the rest of the Congress, but that's not until this afternoon. For now, let's discuss this 'evidence' against me." They would still be characterized as going at it head to head, Obi-Wan thought, but he still had loads of energy to burn. He began.

"Our source, documented by my Padawan and another Master who left his statement before returning to Coruscant, says that your conscripts will serve for three years without any family contact except speaking drums in case of emergency."

"True. Family ties need to be broken in wartime. I can't have everyone returning home if there is a bad harvest or fishing season. Our government will step in to provide the basics if that occurs. There happens to be a surplus of our good nourishing nutrient paste, enough for five years' needs of half our total population."

I wouldn't wish that purple sludge on anyone. "I see you've thought of many immediate things, Mr. President, but have you thought about long-range repercussions? Your civilian population may become dependent on government support, while the servicemembers could become accustomed to a continuing state of hyper-readiness and look about for means of venting that excess energy. A coup is not unheard-of when military personnel have too much time and too many weapons. Vigor without outlet can make tiny slights into outsized injustices. It's happened before." Back to the Unifying Force, looking ahead, seeing complicating factors ... my specialty. Better.

Strenghis paused for some time. Obi-Wan observed that the Cabinetmembers appeared watchful, absorbing their President's words more than his own. Was Strenghis revealing more in this meeting than he had told anyone close to him? "It's not likely, though naturally you have seen more than I in your many travels. The plan for after the emergency will be implemented in full in three years. That should contain any unrest, provide employment for our urban population, especially. The rurals will want to return to their roots. Qikal in particular will see to that."

Anakin pounced on Qikal's name. Isn't he simply an old friend of Strenghis'? He's not even high up enough to be a Congressmember, much less a Cabinetmember. What's going on? His Master would catch this, but if he didn't, Anakin was ready.

Obi-Wan was caught flat-footed. "Erm, Qikal? He's part of your plan? Our source did not mention him." Smooth response, Negotiator.

Strenghis had the look of finding someone who finally, finally, would understand him. He clapped a hand on Obi-Wan's knee, the same one that Anakin had stimulated last night. Obi-Wan shook off the memory and almost shook off the offending hand. "Master Jedi, your source fears change. I do not. I am not infallible, but the Mother is. I do Her will. Trokas Qikal helps me to see it." Strenghis' voice tightened. "Together we will keep Trow out of this unwinnable war." So pure, in a way. Purely blind. Meh.

"After the wartime emergency, your plan ... uh ... "

"Master, the plan looks to be turning Trow into a theocracy eventually, isn't that right, Mr. President?" Anakin, raised as he was on Tatooine's secular soil, had no love for theocracies, although he realized that some managed to work within the Republic. He'd indicated his distaste for any mission to those worlds to Obi-Wan once or twice. I'm looking ahead! Hello, Unifying Force!

Strenghis placed both his hands in his lap, folding them serenely. "I believe faith and worldly rule not to be incompatible, yes. Trokas and I want the best for Trow. He is more dogmatic than I, however; I will be a check for him."

Obi-Wan put the whole picture together. "Your defensive service will use weapons that the Separatists supplied one year ago against any incursions on your sovereignty, from Republic bases to extra-Galactic invaders to Separatists' landing ships on your spaceport. And be in place after this war ends as, as ... " Bold as bronzium.

Strenghis beamed. "As a trained defense deterrent to further involvement in offworld politics, for one, and if that isn't needed, then maybe as a natural disaster response team, or extra help at harvest, wherever they're needed. I have plans."

Obi-Wan almost heard the door slam shut in Strenghis' mind to granting the Republic's presence on Trow, but still he persevered. You rule secularly and Qikal, uh, 'heeds the Mother's will.' So this accounts for the tinge of deceit. "Mr. President, our concerns are for the present alliance Trow will make, and your post-war schemes really don't come into play --- "

Raffia Belt broke in. "Mr. President, we request a stay in this meeting. We wish to question the Jedi at this point." She fiddled with her belt even more, and Anakin hoped that it would stay fastened. Raffia Belt and the other two Cabinetmembers stared Strenghis down by force of numbers. To his credit, he nodded graciously and stood by the window, withdrawing into silent observation.

The river swirled.

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Part Forty-Two

"Please sit, Master Padawan. You've been standing a good while." Raffia Belt hadn't gotten the titles or names right, but Anakin thought it inconsequential. He smiled a 'thanks' and settled beside Obi-Wan in Strenghis' spot. It was still warm.

Raffia Belt and Other Cabinetmember paced in front of the bench, showing more agitation than Obi-Wan had seen in a citizen of Trow before. Third Cabinetmember crossed her arms and waited in the background. Other Cabinetmember blew out his cheeks. "Jedi, getting back to the Festival" --- let's not go back there, let's not, let's not --- "you two, whom we have seen make flowers spring into bloom, joined in without duress?" Obi-Wan wanted Strenghis back.

Anakin couldn't speak. Obi-Wan's boots had gotten scuffed from their Force-enhanced jog, and he looked at them, counting their scratches instead. Sending reassurance touched with dominance through their bond, Obi-Wan answered. "It is not Jedi practice to antagonize unnecessarily any people that we visit, and the Festival's theme was innocent, Madam. If it were duress, we would tell you." Obi-Wan saw Qikal's thumb trace the force pike's barrel once more. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Raffia Belt took things up. "We know about your warrior leanings. Are you telling us you had no thought of refusing to honor the Mother, no inclination to slice your way out of your troubles and steal a raft to come to Nepsa?"

Her violent words spun into a possible sequence of events in Anakin's head: back to back battling through pitiful opposition towards Kuki's raft, slapping Kuki down with a Force-thrust, who knows, maybe even Dormin's mother would have gotten combative, push her down into Gitchy to quiet her screeches, and Dormin, too, if he'd tried to defend her. Anakin laughed at his overly dramatic scenario. "No. That would not have happened, Madam. That's not what Jedi are about. We are keepers of the peace." He turned his mildest gaze upon all four politicians. "You're imagining things."

"Erm, what my Padawan-learner, whose name is Anakin Skywalker, means to say, is: how would those actions have advanced the cause of Peace?" Obi-Wan capitalized the word in his head and voice. "And, logically speaking, wouldn't your speaking drums have alerted everyone to our nefarious doings and made Lower-Cremba-on-Gitchy come after us with all force pikes blazing?"

Other Cabinetmember and Raffia Belt conferred in low voices. "You restrained yourselves for our benefit? Even though you could have kept true to your, ah, 'ascetic' natures?" Other Cabinetmember looked askance at Raffia Belt, twisting to take in Third Cabinetmember behind him and Strenghis over by the window.

'Ascetic.' As good a name for our natures as any. "Yes," Obi-Wan and Anakin chorused. At that point in time, they were closer than ever before. The Force noticed.

Strenghis couldn't let this pass. He added excitedly, "And to think that their offspring will be born next spring! What will this do for our people! Consider the future, my colleagues! Their brief visit may have altered Trow's destiny forever --- it may be the Mother's will, I don't know, I will ask Trokas on this --- "

If he could have gotten away with staying mum, he would have, but Obi-Wan had had enough. "Mr. President, there will be no offspring."

The four hushed. "How do you know?" Raffia Belt blurted. "Are you precognitive, too?" Their regard approached awe.

"No, what my Master means is that he and I are lovers." Anakin found his voice, even though it might doom this mission. He thought of what the Unifying Force would guide him to say, and said it. "As in, we mated with no females, charming though yours are, on Festival Night. It was all right with Qikal, so it should be all right with you." He placed a loving arm around Obi-Wan's shoulders and tilted his head against his.

Prior to the traumatizing events on Haruun Kal involving his fellow Councilmember and dear former Padawan, Depa Billaba, Mace Windu had invited Obi-Wan to accompany him to a high-end pet shop one day. Mace had wanted to show Obi-Wan the nearest thing to an akk-dog on Coruscant. The kind called ebabs came closest in Force-bonding ability, though they were mellower in temperament. The golden-scaled ebabs were thigh-high to a human, smaller than the smallest breed of akk-dog by at least a meter at the shoulder, but Mace envisioned them bigger when he patted one and asked for a demonstration of its abilities. The ebab looked to neither right nor left when herding some chittering Alderaani libregs, deliberately let loose by the indulgent shopowner to cultivate two Jedi. The four libregs scurried troublesomely under an aquarium table, huddling in a quivering ball. The ebab crawled on its scaly belly closer and closer to them, never breaking eye contact. Obi-Wan remembered when it pounced to gather all four libregs gently in its mouth, ushering them to safety as it dropped them back into their cage and looked fawningly up at the beaming shop proprietor. Obi-Wan wanted to shepherd Strenghis and his Cabinet as the ebab had the rodentia as he said, "The Force isn't a deity, so there is no conflict with the Mother. The Force is an energy field that binds the galaxy together. The Force is what we access when we do certain --- unusual --- things. We don't use it frivolously and we train for years to learn its ways." There was more, but not to say. There was more to feel, think, sense ... they wouldn't understand without knowing the Force. Obi-Wan tilted his head likewise against Anakin's. "The last thing I have to say today is to remind you that the Force makes blooms, Dooku and his Separatists make Gungans dissolve. We'll be going now. We're staying at the inn nearest the docks, the one with the double doors. Think as deep as Gitchy on this, good people."

The river pondered.

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