A note to my readers-

Many of you may be confused by parts of this story, both those scenes from the movie that are not included and a scene or two near the beginning that wasn't in the movie, or possibly by my calendar references.

As far as scenes go, I'm trying to stick with a first-person limited point of view for this story. Therefore, scenes where my narrator could not have been present or observed from a distance are not included. Also, I used the script for The Phantom Menace that is posted on the BlueHarvest website, which is obviously (to me) not the final version. At least one new scene comes from this source.

The calendar use is not the Christian or Julian calendar that we are all used to. Instead, I use the 'official' Star Wars Calendar that can be found on Wookieepedia - a source that has become indispensable for my Star Wars writing. Said calendar has 24-hour days, grouped into 5-day weeks and 7-week months - ten of them. In addition to these 350 days, there are three week-long festivals and three one-day holidays, of which none count as part of a month, bringing the total to 368 days. I hope that this helps readers to better understand the time spans when I mention weeks and months.

Regarding romantic pairings, I prefer to stick with the canon couples and could-have-been couples. This is not meant as a slight to other sexualities at all - some of my best friends have been attracted to their own gender. It's just that I find some of the alternate pairings uncomfortable. Especially 'Obidala', as I've experienced how wrong that kind of age difference can go. I can enjoy the occasional well-executed 'ObiAni', the best example (in my opinion)_ being Polgarawolf's lovely 'Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith' stories, though they are no longer online, as far as I have been able to find. But putting Qui-Gon with either of the boys is just... *shudders* There's either 33 or 49 years' difference there, for cripes' sake!

Granted, there will be a couple with a sizeable age difference in this series, but there's a maturity and self-awareness factor in it.

I am going to be twisting around the timeline of some events that take place in the comic books, but I promise that I have good reasons.

Thanks for putting up with this note (or skipping it entirely, as I know some will do). Please remember to review; it helps make me a better writer!

Welcome to...

Whispers of Menace

A Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Alternate Universe

Chapter One:

Stowaway

Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, being a Jedi is not all that it's cracked up to be. And it's a far cry from what most non-sensitives think it is. Of course, that's my personal opinion, and I'm a long way from being the typical Jedi.

If such a thing even exists.

For one thing, the Master who chose me as his Padawan ambushed me with it in front of the entire High Council. Then, at my Knighting ceremony, I swore to a much older version of the Jedi Code than is taught in the Temple. That particular bit of 'audacity' put me on the Council's bad side.

So for the next seven years, I received the worst missions they could find, often cooling my heels on Coruscant for months between assignments. And when my Master, the renowned seer and respected Council member Sifo-Dyas, vanished without a word to anyone, my worries were brushed aside and ignored. I'd been concerned for six months, expending my nervous energy by working on the Temple's horde of maintenance and astromech droids.

I was on my way to do just that when my life changed.

Two humans turned into the corridor I'd wandered along, walking toward me. From a distance, I could tell little about the pair except that, given the apparent hair lengths, they were probably Master and Padawan. Then, a dozen meters closer, I recognized the elder as Qui-Gon Jinn, a man I admired despite never being introduced to him. I often sparred with his former Master when we both happened to be on Coruscant.

"The ship will be ready to leave shortly after First Meal tomorrow, so I'd recommend wrapping up anything you're planning on doing with Bant, Reeft, and Garen when you see them this evening."

"Planning, Master? Us?"

"That innocent tone may fool half the Council, Obi-Wan, but it doesn't work on me. I know what you and your friends get up to when you're off by yourselves."

I stifled an immature giggle as they turned again. The most recent incident in which some of the other young Knights suspected the quartet's involvement had turned Master Windu's tabards pink for weeks. Why pink, and why it only affected his tabards, had yet to be figured out. And that was only a little prank, for them.

The premonition hit me like a freight hauler, seeming to make my head ring and fill my montrals with duracrete at the same time. Whatever mission Jinn and Kenobi had just been given, they needed me for backup. With the way the other eleven Council members regarded me, I knew better than to report the instinctive feeling. I would have to stow away on their transport and wait until it had entered hyperspace before revealing myself.

When Knight Fiaran greeted me in the hall that led to both our rooms and the communal 'fresher shared by anywhere between a dozen and twenty junior Knights, I simply nodded at her and tried not to wince. The darkness inside the tiny dormitory I'd lived in for seven years helped. Working from memory, I pulled out a rucksack and began packing.

The few times that I'd been part of a group mission, others had initially called me paranoid; any bag I took carried spare robes, extra equipment, parts for repairing my equipment, extra packaged food, and a pouch of precious metal ingots to use in lieu of Republic credits if the need arose. The precise inventory varied from one assignment to another, but I'd always needed at least one of the items I'd included.

It's not paranoia when it happens to be the truth.

I secured the knapsack, then laid on my narrow bed in the dark for hours. Not having a window assured that the sunlight would not bother me while I waited for the headache to subside and activity in the Temple complex to settle for the night.

Eventually, the pain faded to the point where I could think again. Aunt Shaak, my father's younger sister and a Jedi Master, would be very worried if I didn't let her know somehow that I hadn't just gone missing. A quick note would do, though, so I got up and accessed the desk's data terminal to write one.

Master Ti,

I am sorry that I'm doing this to you again, Aunt, but I'm needed as backup on someone else's assignment. There's no need to send an extraction team after me.

I shouldn't be gone too long this time. The Council wouldn't approve of my involvement, but you know how little I care about their opinion of me. You also know how my hunches pan out. I promise I'll be careful.

Serra

A smile tugged at my lips as I instructed the system to deliver the message at noon and logged out. My dark gray cloak came out of the closet, tossed on the bed next to the rucksack as I picked up the holobook I'd been reading off and on for the past three weeks.

Before long, it seemed, the display on my desk chrono flipped over to three in the morning. Of course, that had been the point of burying my nose in a romance, to pass the time. I sighed, putting it away and pulling on my boots. A soft piece of cloth bound my headtails together and out of the way; they weren't nearly as sensitive as a Twi'lek's lekku, despite serving the same purpose, but it was a lot easier to tie them up than risk them getting in the way at the wrong moment. Then I donned the cloak and knapsack and left the room.

The corridors were deserted, save for the occasional maintenance droid doing its scheduled work. The landing bay was, too, with one rust-red cruiser standing among a small, motley collection of snubfighters. I probed the circuits of the main hatch with a thread of the Force. My peculiar talent with electronics allowed me to trigger the hatch release and get aboard.

After checking out the rest of the vessel, I chose an escape pod in which to hide. No one could call it a decent place to sleep or even meditate, and that made it a good spot for me. I sank deep into a trance, shutting down my Force signature and effectively vanishing to other Jedi.

Eight hours later, my eyes opened and flicked to the tiny viewport. The irregular white, blue, and black streaks reassured me that the vessel was in hyperspace— they couldn't turn around and take me back to Coruscant without delaying their trip greatly. And from Master Jinn's comments the evening before, they couldn't afford to lose that time. I stretched out in the Force, feeling the other two Jedi's startlement as they sensed me, and headed for the mess.

"Knight Ti." Master Jinn fixed me with a stern gaze. "What am I supposed to tell your aunt?" I suppressed a grin.

"You won't need to," I replied, deliberately casual. "She should be getting my message in about an hour." Then I shrugged. "It's not like I'm needed at the Temple. But… you will need me on this mission." The older man's eyebrows rose as his ginger-haired Padawan scoffed.

"Another one of your 'hunches'?" Kenobi's voice dripped with scorn.

"Do not discount her instincts, Obi-Wan." The Master transferred his stare to his charge. "She is a former Padawan of Master Sifo-Dyas."

The young man's expression changed to a mixture of surprise and confusion. After a moment, he returned his attention to the datapad in his hands. Curious, I moved to peer over his shoulder. On the screen, a distinctively-shaped ship was depicted with a verdant planet behind it.

"The Trade Federation? Is this about the blockade?" I knew that plasma energy was one of Naboo's primary exports, and the market prices had soared in recent months.

"Yes. They have an exclusive contract with the Naboo, but the workers on the planet went on strike. The Nemoidians aren't saying why, though." It sounded to me like Master Jinn had his own theory.

"So you've been sent to negotiate a settlement, get commerce going again." That got me a terse nod. "How long has this gone on, that they're calling in Jedi?"

"Months," Kenobi replied, biting the word off short. "The Naboo have gone months without any contact with anyone but the Nemoidians."

Well, that explained why this specific pair had been given the assignment. Qui-Gon had a reputation for being reliably calm, sometimes aggravatingly so, in addition to being an excellent swordsman. Young Obi-Wan had the focus of a surgical laser, augmented by a willingness to get in someone's face and intimidate them into agreement, when necessary. Of course, he could clearly use a bit of an attitude adjustment, and I'd heard he had yet to decide which dueling form suited him best.

I estimated that he'd remain a Padawan for another year or two before he would be Knighted.

What unsettled me was the feeling that this assignment would change all three of us in ways we would never have expected.