Flood of Insight

by ardavenport

part 4

Qui-Gon looked down at his apprentice and turned him back to the end of the field where the negotiators were still gathered. He walked slowly; Obi-Wan had no trouble keeping up at first, but by the time they arrived, Obi-Wan's energy seemed spent. He sank down next to his Master when he sat down near Otnox. Qui-Gon, now feeling his own, minor bruises from the ground quake, used the bottom of his own robe as an improvised cushion on the hard duracrete and helped Obi-Wan do the same. Then he wrapped his robe and his arm around his Padawan. Very soon, Obi-Wan was dozing next to him.

Either Otnox or recent events had convinced the negotiators to sit and wait for their transport with only subdued mutterings or insults among them. Their aides brought them refreshments, and then chairs and portable tables and sun shades. Qui-Gon put the hood of his robe up to shade himself and periodically checked the indicator on the canister still attached to Obi-Wan's belt. When the indicator light on it went completely green, Qui-Gon carefully removed the mask from Obi-Wan's face and put the apparatus aside. Obi-Wan stirred sleepily, but stayed under the shelter of his robe. Qui-Gon laid his hand on the dark ginger hair nestled next to him; he sensed only healing in the wake of the boy's near-drowning.

Otnox belatedly offered to have his aide fetch Qui-Gon something. He declined anything for himself, but asked for a muja juice for Obi-Wan. When it came, Qui-Gon took the pack and gently nudged Obi-Wan awake.

"You should drink something," he said. Obi-Wan nodded, took the juice pack and began sucking on the drinking tab, but he stayed huddled next to Qui-Gon, who again felt the strange disorientation of his own inactivity in the midst of crisis. More speeders and skimmers landed, depositing newcomers to the areas reserved for the injured and the shaded areas where the people already there lined up to scan the new faces. Qui-Gon sat slightly apart from the waiting negotiators, between them and the rest of the activity on the field, like a sentinel. No one tried to approach them again.

By the time Obi-Wan had finished the juice, he was sitting up, showing some of his usual energy and curiosity as he looked about the field. He silently surveyed the area around them, his expression serious. He scowled back at the negotiators with their chairs, drinks and sun shades, but he said nothing.

The rescue and emergency operations on the rest of the landing field had gained considerably more organization. Someone yelled, "Oooooohhh!!!" loud enough for them to hear even from some distance away. Two people ran towards each other before the crashed into a desperate embrace. Obi-Wan bowed his head.

Qui-Gon sensed the sadness in the boy, and some confusion. This was supposed to have been a short, simple mission. Obi-Wan had been trained to be a Jedi, to handle crises, but this was his first one, at least, the first with many deaths and injuries.

Qui-Gon laid a hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder. Obi-Wan lifted his head and looked up at him.

"Are you feeling better?"

Obi-Wan silently nodded.

"You are disturbed, my young Padawan," Qui-Gon stated.

Obi-Wan lowered his gaze guiltily.

"I didn't sense the second ground quake, Master." Qui-Gon raised his eyebrows.

"Such insights are rare and unpredictable, even among Jedi. If it were otherwise, there would be very much more demand for us," Qui-Gon told him. "You did very well to anticipate the first quake, and you saved many people. You listened to the Force and acted as a Jedi."

A small, shy smile curled the corners of his mouth in response to the praise. His actions had been exemplary; Obi-Wan, being a younger Padawan, was forbidden to draw his weapon without Qui-Gon's order. Yet, he had recognized the emergency and acted. Obi-Wan Kenobi would be a great Jedi someday.

Obi-Wan looked out at the people on the landing field; his pleasure vanished at the sight of the emergency structures and the now large area of wounded. Qui-Gon did not prompt him to speak again; He was still absorbing the impact of the tragedy. There would be time to talk about it later.

Qui-Gon laid a hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder; his arm lay across his back. After a few moments Obi-Wan seemed to shrink a bit, and then he edged closer and leaned against Qui-Gon, who silently acknowledged this need for comfort. He briefly rubbed Obi-Wan's back and then pulled the edge of his robe up, shading his Padawan again.

Qui-Gon looked down at the lighter brown head of hair amidst the folds of his darker robe; he sensed a twinge of embarrassment from his Padawan, as if he were sacrificing a bit of his strived for maturity with a moment of weakness. At this age, Obi-Wan took every minor mission very seriously, with full knowledge that even the most trivial trip was practice for his adulthood as a Jedi Knight. He always scrupulously followed his Master's lead and observed, what he perceived as, the rules of adult behavior. Qui-Gon knew that he would have to explain later to Obi-Wan that taking, and giving, of compassion were as adult as wielding a lightsaber. But there would be time for that later as well.

It was late-afternoon before the roar and whine of the ships approaching caused everyone to look up. One of them slowly approached their position and everyone got up and backed away. Villa staff, rushed forward with light wands to guide it to a landing. Among them, Amis Bel's bright orange hair stood out among the green vests.

Glancing over his shoulder, Qui-Gon saw other ships landing at other points in the field. A marked, medical ship set down by the area reserved for the wounded. The authorities were clearly removing everyone they could from the area of the quake.

A moment later, Amis Bel announced that they would be evacuated to another city, out of the danger area of any further quakes, where the authorities had arranged for further transport, coms, lodging or whatever they might need. The large security chief looked harried and he sharply cut off one negotiator's aide with the declaration that he didn't know anything else, didn't want to know anything else, and that they could do more good in a more secure location. And far away from him.

Qui-Gon had no questions at all. Until the negotiators made a decision, his mission was in a holding pattern. At the moment, they weren't even talking to each other. Qui-Gon also expected to be replaced by the Jedi Council (if another team was required) once he informed them about Obi-Wan's injury.

Otnox pushed his way forward to the front of the line and Qui-Gon followed with Obi-Wan since they were nominally part of the Senate representative's team. The ship itself was clearly a commandeered tourist craft, meant to show visitors around the lovely scenery. It had a clear, plastisteel hull with a gold filigree exo-skeleton. Inside were rows of comfortable seats with the pilot's controls at the front, engines in back.

They filed up the entry ramp. Otnox and his aides took the first seats available, but Qui-Gon moved to the front to allow others to board. He and Obi-Wan took seats behind the pilot, but as the ship filled up it became increasingly clear that there weren't enough places for everyone, so smaller people were doubling up. When a large, maroon-suited negotiator stood, looking confused, by their seats, Obi-Wan scrambled over to Qui-Gon's seat. The negotiator thanked them and sat down. Qui-Gon thought that this might be the first kind word he'd heard from any of the native conferees.

Obi-Wan sat forward a bit rigidly, squeezed between the armrest and Qui-Gon, who supported his back with his arm; he was a bit big to be sitting in his Master's lap, but the trip and discomfort would be short. When everyone was finally loaded and the ramp up, the pilot engaged the antigravs and started the engines. They were remarkably quiet, confirming to Qui-Gon that this ship was only meant for, at most, orbital trips.

The ground receded below them. Obi-Wan peered down. The clear floor and hull allowed them a perfect view of the landing field below with it's many clustered dots of people and droids. Then the ship slowly turned and the view changed.

They want them to see, Qui-Gon realized.

The staff at the villa and the rescuers hadn't just picked this ship because it was available; they had chosen it specifically because of the officials and negotiators aboard.

They slowly passed over a brownish lake of polluted water full of debris and wreckage where there had once been a verdant garden valley. On one, large stone balcony of the villa they could clearly see rows of covered bodies of various sizes and shapes, kept away from the sight of the traumatized survivors. Until they needed to be identified. Qui-Gon doubted that the other evacuation ships would take this flight path to their destination. With the transparent hull of the ship, the destruction was impossible not to see, short of shutting one's eyes.

Qui-Gon wondered how many of the conferees behind him would actually do that.

Obi-Wan looked up at him, but Qui-Gon continued to gaze downward, below his feet at the long stretches of drowned hills and valleys, the broken trees and floating bits of buildings. Qui-Gon sensed that his Padawan did not truly understand everything he felt through the Force, but he was trying very hard. His younger, less experienced senses did not clearly see the discord in the Force that such random destruction brought. It was so easy, on a mission, with things to do and lives to save, to let it pass through the mind. It was harder, with nothing to do but contemplate the chaos of interrupted life, but Qui-Gon felt the day's events receding from him. It would leave it's imprint of pain and loss on him, like the debris and bodies that would be left behind when the flood waters below were drained. He would speak with Obi-Wan about it. Later.

The transport passed the area around the newly formed lake and then sped up, rising into the blue sky and hurrying away.

END

(This story was first posted on tf.n: 04-June-2006)

Disclaimer: All characters and situations belong to George and Lucasfilm; I'm just playing in their sandbox.