Lament Page 5

"Sir Tahl!" The singsong voice of Tahl's personal navigation droid, TooJay, echoed through the hangar. "You left without me this morning!

  Look at all the obstacles in this hangar. There is a fusion cutter by your left foot."

  Tahl closed her eyes in exasperation. Usually, TooJay's fussing amused Qui-Gon. But he saw that Tahl was close to the edge now. She had had enough protection for one day.

  "Tahl is fine, TooJay," he said quickly.

  "Qui-Gon Jinn, hello," TooJay said. "I haven't seen you since I was reprogrammed. Lucky for me they left my memory cells intact."

  Qui-Gon stopped. For a moment, he screened out his friends and the chattering droid. He was missing something. What was it that TooJay said to trigger it?

  First Tahl and Clee talked of mistrust. Then TooJay had mentioned her reprogramming...

  Xanatos had placed a surveillance device in TooJay. They had not known that the droid was busy transmitting their conversations to their enemy. They knew a spy was in the Temple, and Obi-Wan had suggested that Tahl could have been the one. But even though it made logical sense, Qui-Gon had never mistrusted her.

  Xanatos had never been able to trust anyone. That was his downfall.

  So why would he have trusted Bruck? He remembered the feel of Bruck's lightsaber hilt, the worn quality of the carving, the small nick he had felt in the handle. It had touched him at the time, remembering the boy who had spent long hours carving it.

  Everything came together then, and he knew how he could turn the tide in Obi-Wan's favor.

  He hated to leave Tahl with things unsettled between them. But his Padawan needed him now.

  CHAPTER 9

  Obi-Wan had thought he was prepared for this. He had gone over what had happened with Bruck so many times he felt certain he could give the account smoothly. He even hoped that Vox and Kad Chun would be swayed.

  They would realize that the painful truth was that Bruck had chosen a dark path.

  But it had not turned out that way.

  From the moment he sat facing the Senators and tried to tell his story, Sano Sauro had battered him with questions. He had twisted his words. He had made him repeat himself, and if Obi-Wan made the slightest change, he pounced.

  Somewhere Sano Sauro had heard that Obi-Wan and Bruck were rivals.

  Or perhaps he just asked the question, hoping to get an affirmative answer.

  "We do not think of rivals at theTemple," Obi-Wan said. "There are certain activities that a few are especially good at. We honor that.

  Everyone has a special skill. Cooperation is the basis of our order."

  "Isn't it true that once you fought a match that was not sanctioned by your teachers? That Bruck beat you badly and you had to hide your wounds?"

  Obi-Wan looked at him, startled. How did Sano Sauro know that? The only thing he could think of was that Bruck had told Xanatos, and Xanatos had told Vox Chun. "Bruck did not beat me," he said, his eyes flashing.

  "The fight was a draw."

  "So you say." Sano Sauro gave a chilling smile. "But you did fight."

  "Bruck wanted to be Qui-Gon Jinn's Padawan. He tried to prevent me from that honor," Obi-Wan said.

  Sano Sauro attacked. "So you resented him for that."

  Obi-Wan had to tell the truth. "Yes," he said reluctantly. "At the time, I did."

  "So Bruck Chun confessed to his Jedi leaders that he'd fought, and you tried to hide it."

  Obi-Wan struggled for a moment to come up with the right answer to that question. It was true that a wounded Bruck had gone straight to the med center, but it was only to get Obi-Wan in trouble. Obi-Wan had treated his own wounds himself.

  "Is that true or not?" Sano Sauro pressed.

  "It is true," Obi-Wan said. "But--"

  Sano Sauro twirled around and walked back to his table. "And this was the boy you say was not a rival." He threw a glance at the Senators.

  Senator Bicon Ransa gave a small nod.

  "I did not say that, exactly," Obi-Wan said in a low tone.

  "Yes, you tried very hard not to," Sano Sauro replied lightly, with another eloquent glance at the Senators. "But let us move on before we get further snared in Jedi logic. Is it true that you once left the Jedi order?"

  Bant threw Obi-Wan a shocked look. Obi-Wanwas just as stunned. But why should he be? Obviously Xanatos had pumped Bruck for information, gathering all he could about Qui-Gon and his Padawan. And Xanatos had told Vox.

  "Yes," he said in a clear voice.

  "And you were not reinstated into the Jedi order at the time of Bruck's death?"

  "That is correct," Obi-Wan said.

  Obi-Wan expected more questioning about his leaving the order, but Pi T'Egal interrupted. "Is this relevant to Bruck Chun's death, Sano Sauro?" he asked sternly. "Let us proceed."

  "As your honor wishes," Sano Sauro said with a slight bow.

  Pi T'Egal turned to Obi-Wan. "Please tell us what happened on that day."

  Obi-Wan began. Once again, he described Qui-Gon's plan to foil Xanatos. His pursuit of Bruck to the Room of a Thousand Fountains.

  Bruck's threat to kill Bant--

  Sano Sauro interrupted. "How exactly did he threaten her life?"

  "He said that Bant would die, and he didn't have to do anything.

  And I would have to watch it." Remembering those words, Obi-Wan felt a chill go through him almost as vivid as the one he had felt then. Bant looked down at her clasped hands.

  "I see," Sano Sauro said in a tone that indicated he thought Obi-Wanwas lying. "And how did you know that this was true? Did you know Bant was dying? Did you know that Bruck would let her die?"

  "The Force was very dark in Bruck," Obi-Wan began to explain.

  "Ah, the Force! I have been waiting for it to appear in testimony!"

  Sano Sauro declared, raising his arms."The famous Force, which tells the Jedi what to do!"

  "It does not tell us what to do," Obi-Wan said. "It binds us and connects us--"

  "This - command tells you that a young boy is willing to kill,"

  Sano Sauro answered witheringly. "So therefore you kill him. Because of your mighty Force."

  "The Force guided me, yes," Obi-Wan said. "But the Force never guides to kill." He threw a glance at the Senators. Jedi believed in feelings. Here at the hearing they wanted logic and facts. How could he explain that his feelings told him that Bruck had fallen so deeply into Xanatos's web of evil that he would even allow a Jedi student to die in front of his eyes?

  Pi T'Egal and most of the Senators seemed to be listening intently to him without any hint that they were moved by Sano Sauro's sarcasm. But one of the Senators looked uncertain, and Bicon Ransa leaned over to whisper in her ear.

  Bant looked at him, alarm in her eyes. She knew he was losing. Obi-Wan felt a sudden sweat drench his tunic. He had lost control of his testimony. Sano Sauro had twisted his words and made him look like a hotheaded fool, or worse, a dangerous liar.

  "Sano Sauro, I must caution you," Pi T'Egal said. "The Jedi connection to the Force is well respected in the Senate."

  Sano Sauro nodded. "I know this, Senator. Yet this Force is something that no one else can see or feel. It is something we take the Jedi's word for."

  "The Jedi word is also something we respect," SenatorVi Callen said severely.

  "And is this Force something that we feel confident we can judge a killing on?" Sano Sauro asked, turning to the Senators. His voice rose in intensity as he spoke. "Something only the Jedi can feel, that is used in the defense of this dangerous boy? He says he felt it. We must trust that, and exonerate him? If so, then what have our laws come to, that we mete out justice according to something that we cannot see, hear, feel, or understand? This ‘Force’--what is it? What have we seen it do?"

  Pi T'Egal looked to the back of the room. "Perhaps Qui-Gon Jinn can help us."

  Obi-Wan looked over. Relief coursed through him at the sight of Qui-Gon standing at the back of the room, near the door. Qui-Gon lifted a hand. Bruck's ligh
tsaber hilt suddenly shot from the table and sailed directly into his waiting fingers.

  "That is one thing the Force can do," Qui-Gon said, striding forward.

  Sano Sauro paled but quickly recovered. "Tricks," he sneered.

  Qui-Gon ignored him. He turned Bruck's hollow lightsaber hilt over in his hands, a look of concentration on his face. Everyone paused, watching him.

  "This delay is also a stunt," Sano Sauro said, his voice turning shrill. "Let us continue ..."

  "I believe I can help put some questions to rest," Qui-Gon said quietly.

  "Ah, now will we hear what the Force told you, Qui-Gon?" Sano Sauro asked.

  "No, you will hear Bruck Chun's own words,"

  Qui-Gon replied calmly. He turned to the Senators. "As I told you, I knew Xanatos well. He did not trust anyone, even those under his power.

  He would not have trusted Bruck. He would have made sure that the boy was under his complete control when he sent him back into theTempleto do his work." Qui-Gon lifted the lightsaber hilt. "He would have access to all of Bruck Chun's conversations because he would plant a listening device in the one thing that a Jedi is never without."

  Obi-Wan's mouth fell open. How did Qui-Gon figure this out? He stared at the lightsaber hilt, hoping his Master was right.

  Vox and Kad Chun looked at each other, startled. Sano Sauro sprang forward. "This is highly irregular! This lightsaber hilt is the property of Vox Chun!"

  "This lightsaber hilt is evidence," Pi T'Egal said sternly. "You did not hesitate to employ it in your own service to gain sympathy for your client."

  Qui-Gon pressed the nick in the handle and extracted a small disc.

  "I'll need a recorder."

  The court technician took the disc and inserted it into one of the recorders on his desk.

  "Let us proceed to the date and time of Bruck's death," Pi T'Egal said.

  The court recorder entered the information. A moment later, Obi-Wan heard Bruck's taunting voice.

  I was always better than you. Now I am even stronger.

  It all came back in a rush. How he had to struggle to release his anger, how Bruck's words had seared him, how he knew Bruck was trying to anger him. ... Had he truly pushed his anger aside and fought with justice and calm? Sano Sauro had been right about one thing: Bruck had been his rival. There had been a deep animosity between them. He had not been able to conquer it. Even on that rocky slope.

  It had been a time when he had been anxious to return to the Jedi.

  That longing had been a kind of fever in him. Had he told himself that he had fought without anger that day only to convince himself and Qui-Gon that he truly was a Jedi?

  There was only the sound of the battle now, the ragged breath of the two of them, the slipping, sliding footwork, the buzz of the lightsabers meeting. Then Bruck's voice again, snaking out, full of venom.

  She doesn't look too good, does she?

  Kad Chun's shoulders jerked.

  Obi-Wan heard his voice on the recorder scream Bant's name. It sounded like him but unlike him, too, the sound of someone on the edge of control, full of desperation.

  Bant put her face in her hands.

  And then Bruck's voice sang out, triumphant and cruel.

  That's right, Obi-Wan. Bant is dying.

  I won't have to do a thing. I'll just make you watch it. We would have freed her if we got the treasure. But another person will die because of you.

  Right in front of your eyes.

  Pi T'Egal made a slashing gesture at the court recorder. He switched off the machine. "I do not think we need to subject the family to more of this," Pi T'Egal said. "The Senators will listen to the rest in private, confer, and deliver a ruling."

  A screen descended from the ceiling, obscuring the Senators. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon could hear nothing. Vox and Kad Chun kept their backs to them as they conferred with Sano Sauro.

  "It will be over soon," Qui-Gon said quietly.

  "But how will it end?" Obi-Wan asked.

  "Patience," Qui-Gon replied.

  The minutes dragged by, but at last the Senators reappeared. Pi T'Egal looked at Obi-Wan, then at Vox and Kad Chun.

  "The death of a young being is always tragic," he said. "The need to blame is understandable. Sometimes it is justified. But we do not think so here. We rule that Obi-Wan Kenobi is free of any responsibility in the death of Bruck Chun."

  CHAPTER 10

  Obi-Wan closed his eyes for an instant. Gratitude washed over him, bringing warmth to his cold skin. It felt as though his blood had been frozen and was at last able to move through his veins again.

  Vox Chun spoke to Sano Sauro, but his voice was raised enough to carry throughout the room. "I should have known better than to look for justice here. Once again the Senate bows to the Jedi!"

  "There is no cause for celebration or congratulation," Qui-Gon said gently to Bant and Obi-Wan. "We are glad that justice is done. But we have lost a Jedi."

  Obi-Wan pressed his lips together and nodded. Now that the relief was wearing off, he realized that the guilt had not left. He had thought the verdict would remove the sense of shame he felt. But he felt no different. The burden he carried was still within him.

  "Let us return to theTemple," Qui-Gon said as the Senators filed out. "Come, Obi-Wan."

  "In a moment."Obi-Wan suddenly felt a need to be alone. All he had wanted the past few days was his Master and friends around him. Yet now he could not bear to be with them.

  Bant started to say something, but Qui-Gon signaled her to be quiet.

  "We will wait for you at the Senate entrance," he said.

  Obi-Wan could only nod numbly. He had a sense of Qui-Gon and the others leaving. The table where Sano Sauro and the Chuns had sat was empty. He wondered what he felt. He did not feel much of anything.

  "You must be relieved."

  Kad Chun spoke behind him. Obi-Wan turned. The boy stood in the aisle, fists clenched, eyes burning.

  "Sano Sauro almost got you to reveal the truth," Kad Chun went on.

  "You hated my brother. All your noble Jedi training failed you. You were glad to see him die."

  Obi-Wan shook his head. "No ..."

  Kad shot forward unexpectedly. He swung out with his closed fist.

  The blow hit Obi-Wan on the side of the head near his cheekbone. He staggered back.

  Kad swung again, but this time Obi-Wan was able to duck. The blow grazed his ear.

  "You killed him," Kad grunted. "The one honor our family had. You killed it."

  "I didn't ..." Obi-Wan ducked again and twisted away. He tried to capture Kad Chun's arms.

  With a shove that sent Obi-Wan flying back into the table, Kad Chun leaped away. He dodged behind the long table where the Senators had sat so that it was now between him and Obi-Wan.

  "Kad, I didn't want your brother to die," Obi-Wan said, his breath ragged. "You heard his ownwords, you heard what he was willing to do!"

  "He was angry! He was taunting you. So what?" Kad screamed. "It doesn't mean he would have done it!"

  Obi-Wan shook his head helplessly. Kad worshiped his brother. That was clear. He could not bear to hear the truth about Bruck. He had never known him.