Star Wars : New Jedi

( Office of Senator Mon Mothma )

"Senator," the head of her security detachment alerted her, "We have figured out how to open that case."

Mon Mothma looked at the holo. "Thank you, Commander. What is in it?"

"We actually haven't opened it up, Senator. You see, there's a bioscanner built into the hinge, and it seems to be connected to the combination lock at the front. I already have a man slicing the combination out of the system, but if this was meant for you, there's a good chance it needs your bio-signature to open."

Left unsaid was where someone would get that information. There were very few people who could have access to it, and then using a Jedi, even an AgriCorps one to make the delivery spoke more volumes about what was going on that anything else so far.

"Thank you Commander. Alert me when you are ready to open it up. Will I be needed for the bioscanner, or will you be able to slice that too?"

"I'd rather not take the chance, Senator. It's a lot more complicated than a simple combination lock. We will take all possible precautions for your safety, Senator."

"Do you have an estimated time until you're done?"

"No more than an hour, Senator."

"Call me again when you are ready."

"Of course, Senator." the commander of her security detail cut the line, leaving the young Senator alone with her thoughts. "The only thing I need now is for the Jedi or the Chancellor to call for a meeting.

Knowing she had invoked a higher power, she waited for her communications line to signal an incoming call. She wasn't disappointed when it failed to happen before going back to checking on the latest piece of legislature to cross her desk, a refinement to the Military Appropriations Act.

...

( Raven's Claw )

"Temple Air Control, this is Raven's Claw. Requesting permission to depart for orbit, then out of the Coruscant System." Jan sat in her chair, warming up the engines as Kyle finished securing the ship.

"Raven's Claw, this is Temple. Permission denied. We have a VIP convoy moving through the region for the next twenty minutes or so, and only emergency vehicles are allowed into it."

"Well, that explains why no one has taken off or landed lately," Kyle remarked as he took his own seat. With the Force, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Just bad timing."

Jan accepted that. "Thank you Temple Control. Please put us into the cue to launch once our flight path is clear."

"Understood Raven's Claw. We will give you a ten minute warning."

"Damn," Jan muttered as she throttled down the engines. "All that and we're stuck in traffic."

"Can't be helped," Kyle said, reassuringly. "Not surprised either. Given everything that's happened, someone important was bound to be here, and gets a free pass out while the little people get shoved aside."

"You? Little people?"

Kyle put up a warning hand. "Someone's coming." He could feel it in the Force, and Jan tensed up. "Let me greet them." Kyle put a hand on Jan's shoulder to avoid her getting worked up over this. "It's probably nothing."

"Sure, Kyle." Jan flicked a switch to lower the back ramp, Kyle grabbing his saber as he went down there. No sense in not.

"Hello," Kyle said as he looked at the Jedi before him. Young, male. Human. Brown hair. And in the Force...

"Hello," Anakin Skywalker greeted the Jedi who so intrigued Master Kenobi. He shouldn't have been up and about like this himself, but taking a long walk was better than sitting in the healing halls and meditating. "It's a nice ship you have here. I don't recognize the model."

"It's Corellian Engineering Corporation. Hawk Series. A follow-up to the HWK-290 line." Kyle responded carefully. The age was right, the Force.... oh by the Force, this kid was powerful. Skywalker powerful.

Anakin could feel the jolt of wariness from the other Jedi as the two of them felt each other out. "That would explain it." He was careful to stay away from the engines as he looked down the hull of the ship. "This lines are familiar, but the engines are completely different. I first thought that it was two separate ships that had to be salvaged into one."

"Hey Jan, turn off the engines, will you? It's just a kid who wants to check out the new ship!" Kyle felt it was best to play it relaxed. If this was Skywalker, then this would be a good first meeting. If it wasn't, then there was no sense in escalating things either. "I wasn't aware we were so interesting," he said as he watched Skywalker like a hawk. The more he sensed, the more he knew that this was Anakin Skywalker.

"It must be a prototype," Anakin mused. "The Hawk series is still fairly new." He felt Katarn's spike of emotion then, knowing he was now correct. He had to add 'access to prototypes' to what bothered his Master. And what bothered Obi-Wan bothered him. That's why he was out here, even though he shouldn't be.

"Can't say much about it. You're Kenobi's apprentice, right?"

"Yes, I am." That simple admission dismissed any of Kyle's lingering doubts as to the possibility of a mistake or mix-up.

"He send you, or something?"

"Actually, no. I keep an ear to those who work on the landing pads, and your ship was unusual enough to come to my attention. I'm something of a mechanic and flyer" he shared with Kyle an honest smile, for he truly did love both. "So I was curious."

Kyle relaxed. Slightly. "Can't argue too much with that. What do you fly?"

"I don't really have a preference," Anakin admitted. "It's the flying itself, more than how I do it that matters." He walked closer to the nose, running a hand over the hull. "You're not much of a flier, are you?"

"Not really." Kyle followed Anakin around, trying to get a feel for the young man. He was extremely powerful in the force, and he could sense the emotions roiling under the surface. He hadn't fallen. Not yet. But all the ingredients were there. "It gets me from place to place. I try not to live in her too much. The air recyclers give up after a while."

"What's wrong with them?" Anakin stopped his survey to look at Katarn directly. "Are the filters getting clogged up?"

"What?" Kyle was taken aback slightly. The thought of Darth Vader doing mechanical work on his ship was so wrong, he was certain that the only person who could object more would be Jan. And Force or no Force, no one touched her ship without her permission. "No, nothing like that. It's just the ship is small, a courier to go from one place to another. Spend too much time in it, and you start to sense things."

"Ah," Anakin understood. "Nothing that needs fixing then."

"Nope." Kyle said. "I heard you were at Geonosis. Fought Dooku." He decided to pry, to see if he could get a feel for how Luke's father reacted to facing a Sith.

"I did. He bested me." There was anger in that statement, which Kyle watched with some concern. "I should have been stronger."

"I hope you're not talking about just being stronger in the Force. Because from where I'm standing, you've got plenty of that."

"As do you, Master Katarn."

"Please, call me Kyle. I ain't your Master, and there's no need to be formal."

"Formal. Yes. I have heard rumors you're not from our Order." Anakin saw Kyle react to that. Truth as well. But the Council had already interviewed him, so there was no reason to make an issue of that. "Have you fought a Sith, Kyle?"

Kyle relaxed, though not to let down his guard, but to avoid tensing up. "Yes. Yes I have. Never something I looked forward too."

Anakin nodded. "It seems there is much more going on in the Galaxy than the Jedi are aware of. So much darkness."

Kyle didn't respond.

"Kyle?" Jan tapped the cockpit window and yelled to be heard. "Ten minutes!" He raised a hand in recognition. "If you'll excuse me, I've got to be going. It was nice meeting you, Skywalker. I think we'll have to sit down and talk."

"I think we do as well." Anakin quickly vacated the platform, watching with curiosity and concern as Kyle boarded the Raven's Claw. There was much to tell his Master and the Council.

On the ship, Kyle took his seat and secured himself. "That was a botch," he complained as Jan checked the ship's systems.

"How so? Who was that?"

"Oh, some farm boy from Tatooine by the name of Anakin Skywalker." The name caused Jan to pause in fear. "Yea. Him. Apparently someone has noticed that the Claw hasn't actually been built yet and he came out to have a look.

"How bad did things get?" Jan asked as she slowly composed herself after being in the presence of the future Dark Lord.

"He's in denial over loosing to Count Dooku, and that anger is going to fester unless someone"

"You mean you," Jan interjected.

"Someone helps him work through it. I may have also admitted to fighting Sith myself."

"KYLE! Why would you do that?" Jan was incredulous at the slip. "You're better than that!"

"Because there was no way to lie about it! And besides, if he knows there's someone out there who can help him, either by teaching how to fight better, or by being someone who has shared in his failures, well then..."

"You're moving 'Plan: Save Darth Vader' into motion early."

"I think so." Kyle didn't like what had happened, and grumpily settled back into his seat. "Have you thought what you're going to do on Alderaan?"

"Have you thought about what you're going to do on Sulon?" Jan asked of him, partly to show how there hadn't been enough time to formulate an answer, and secondly to hope he had an answer.

"I can get to the Homestead from Baron's Head if I have to," Kyle said, thinking out loud. "I know my father came into town on occasion. I'll see what the Force has in store for me."

...

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