Chapter Thirteen: A Profusion of Wisdom

When Qui-Gon arrived in the Jedi Archives, he found Owen Lars sitting at a computer, typing through files as Shmi stood over his shoulder, her arms crossed and a deep frown on her face. She looked up as Qui-Gon approached, then immediately back down at the screen, trying to pretend she hadn't seen him. He stopped across from them and folded his arms across his chest, folding his hands into his robe. "Have you found anything?"

Owen looked stricken as he looked up. "I'm sorry, Master Jedi. I don't know if we're supposed to be in here."

"The building is public and this is the most extensive historical library in the Republic. Anyone can use it, though I don't think everyone does. Some are not as interested in research and history as others."

Owen pulled a holosphere from the small indentation beside his computer monitor and reached to place it in a projector in the center of the table. A holographic map of the galaxy popped up, slowly rotating and filling much of the open area of this lower floor of the Archives. This was a map of the galaxy, all of it tens of billions of stars just a pinprick of light or a blur. Owen manipulated the controls and it spun and zoomed in on a small satellite galaxy orbiting the main one. "This is the Rishi Maze. According to the information Anakin gave us –" The map zoomed and drifted downward, to an empty sector of space. "This is exactly where Kamino should be. It's not there."

"We've searched all sources within the Archives," said Shmi. "There is no mention of this planet anywhere."

"The bounty hunter lied to you, Master Jedi."

Qui-Gon's intuition told him otherwise. "If he didn't, then it was deleted from the Archive."

"We thought so, too," answered Owen. "But Master Jocasta insists that such a feat is impossible. Frankly, I'm inclined to agree with her."

"It would be, if you weren't a Jedi. If a Jedi wished to hide something within the Archives, he could do so, whatever Master Jocasta believes."

Shmi stared at him. "Why would a Jedi do this? What could they have to gain by deleting all records of a world run by pirates?"

"A Jedi wouldn't, but a Sith would." Especially if said Sith was trying to undermine the Republic by causing a split from within. Qui-Gon was sure of it now. Fett hadn't been working for the pirates; he'd just been using them to his advantage. Kamino was run by the Sith, and at least one of these returned Sith had been a Jedi at one point.

"The Sith? I don't . . . who are the Sith?" Owen asked.

"Never mind that now. You have the coordinates?" Owen removed the holosphere from the projector and tossed it to Qui-Gon. "Thank you for your help, both of you. You have shed quite a bit of light on this dark subject. But now I must ask you not to speak of this to anyone. There is too much at stake." He turned to leave, but turned back with one final favor to ask. "And I must ask you to stay here, on Coruscant, for the time being. I must make use of the Phenom to discover what really lies at these coordinates."

"Is Anakin to go with you?" Shmi asked.

Qui-Gon gave a single nod. "He is my Padawan."

"Keep him safe."

"I will do what I can."

Shmi inclined her head. "I suppose that's all I can ask now. My son is a Jedi."

"Indeed. And he will make a great one, one day. We only need to have faith."

A'Sharad was tasked with protecting Padmé that night. The Council was afraid for her safety, after the attack on Valorum and Palpatine, and Fett's attempt on her life on the way to Naboo. She was familiar with A'Sharad and he was more capable a Jedi than Anakin, and so he was stationed in the living area of her temporary quarters.

After Padmé had retired for some reading before bed, A'Sharad was left with Sabé in the living area. Dormé and the other handmaidens had gone to their own, adjacent quarters, ready at a moment's notice, should their queen need them.

"Don't you sleep?" he asked Sabé, more to stimulate conversation than anything. He sat on a stool by the window, watching out over the Coruscant landscape. He didn't even look at her as he spoke.

Still, he could sense her smiling. "All of us handmaidens are actually droids. We don't need sleep. We can be plugged in once in a while and keep on going."

"You have far too much life to be a droid," he said.

"And you have far too little humor to be anything else."

He glanced away toward her, finding her sitting on the couch, a datapad in her lap, and her back twisted so she could look at him. She smiled. "Do you ever remove your mask?"

"When sleeping, or showering. Sometimes at other moments. Not usually."

"Why not? Is your face scarred?"

"No. But this is how I was raised, among the Sand People on Tatooine. They have to wear the masks to protect themselves from the sand. It gets everywhere else, but it keeps it out of our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth."

"You're not on Tatooine anymore."

"True, but it is part of my heritage, something my father left me."

"He was a Jedi, wasn't he?"

A'Sharad nodded. "He was, once. But he left the Order and joined the Tuskens, who he believed to be a more honorable people."

"I've heard they're barbarians."

"Even barbarians can have their honor."

"But does this way not honor those who murder innocents as well? Surely you've noticed the way Anakin looks at you. Some part of him fears you."

"Less and less so. He knows I am no more a true Tusken than I am a Wookiee."

"So your face is really hairy, then?"

Despite himself, A'Sharad laughed. "Tattooed, actually."

"Ah, tattooed and from Tatooine. You're also clever. So your face should also remind you of home then."

A'Sharad was beginning to like her. Previously, he'd only seen the handmaidens as cutout flimsies of the queen, little dolls to dress up like and protect her, but with little actual personality—almost like a droid, in fact. He was happy to see that they were actual people. At least this one was. He stood up and crossed over to her and sat on the back of the couch. Then, unceremoniously, he pulled off his mask and tossed it into her lap. She jumped.

A'Sharad was a handsome young man, certainly human, with hair as black as the night sky behind him. The hair was matted some from being under the mask, but was cut very short to minimalize that, save for the long, pinky-narrow Padawan braid hanging out behind. He had a round nose, narrow mouth, defined chin, and deep-set, hazel eyes. Black tattoos ran around his face, strokes and spots, echoing some ancient tribal legend, a creature born of myth.

"The mask is more intimidating to my enemies anyway. These tattoos are scary, but there's nothing like being unable to see your enemy's face to bring fear to him."

"So that's what a Jedi is now, someone to bring fear?"

"Someone to cause his enemies to think twice about facing him. Intimidation can be an effective tactic."

"I'd wager you didn't learn that from Master Yoda."

"My father taught me that, out in the desert." He slid over the back of the couch and settled onto the cushion beside her. "Fear is a tool. You use it—but you can never allow it to use you. That's how you fall to the dark side."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"It can be."

"Then why do you play that game? Why do you take that risk? Why trample so close to the dark side?"

He really had no answer to that. To be honest, he hadn't thought much about it. "Why does the queen hide behind a mask?" he asked. "Under all that pancake makeup and multiple decoys? There is some safety in hiding."

"Even for a Jedi?"

"Even for a Jedi. The galaxy is a dangerous place, Sabé, as I'm sure you've noticed." That had come out more aggressive than he'd intended. "I'm sorry. That . . . that didn't quite –"

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right. It's something you hold close, that means something to you. That's why it matters. And, honestly, that's why you need to look at it. If you're wearing it out of fear, maybe it's something you'll need to get rid of. But if it's only for your father's sake and memory, then maybe it's not so bad."

He smiled. "When did a simple handmaiden become so wise?"

"Simple?" She laughed. "There's about as much simplicity in being a handmaiden as there is in being a Jedi."

"Being a Jedi is supposed to be simple."

"So is life, but a lot of bad people have made it a lot of different things. Simple's not one of them." Sabé moved to hand the mask back to him.

He pushed it away. "Hold onto it for me. I'm leaving on another mission in the morning. I'll go without the mask and let you know how it goes. Maybe I'll learn something about why I wear it."

She gracefully accepted it back and offered him one more clever reply. "And when did a simple Jedi become so wise?"

Qui-Gon found Anakin meditating in one of the Temple gardens. The Jedi Temple here was filled with them, of many styles and with plants from hundreds of worlds, creating different environments for the Jedi to meditate in. This one was a window enclosed room on the south side, getting sun exposure most of the day. The room was warm and humid, smelling of fresh earth and fragrant flowers—so unlike Tatooine. Qui-Gon had a feeling Anakin liked it that way.

Small, white-trunked trees sprouted out along the stone pathways, and pink and orange flowering shrubs formed a sort-of underbrush, directing the wide and curving pathways as they circled the garden. Soft, yellow lights hovered about, gently bobbing in the air. Anakin sat on the rim of one of the garden's two glass fountains, his blond head bowed in meditation, not as A'Sharad had taught him, but as he'd taught himself, his bare feet planted firmly in the water.

He spoke as Qui-Gon approached, without looking up and with the certainty of his identity coming out in every word. Anakin knew who faced him now. "I can feel them all. All the Jedi here. Every life here burns and burns bright." He looked up at Qui-Gon. "I've never felt anything like it."

"I though A'Sharad had taught you a new way to meditate." Qui-Gon sat beside his Padawan, facing the other direction and keeping his feet out of the water.

"He has. And that's a better way. But I wanted to see what it was like to feel all these Jedi through my old way of doing things, now that I'm so close." He pulled his feet up and tucked them under him. "But it's almost too much. They have so much . . . life in them."

Qui-Gon nodded. That is one of the ways of the Force, the way a Jedi channels it that gives him power. But I haven't come to discuss your training, as much as it might prove useful. We have another mission."

"Did my mother or Owen find Kamino then?"

"No. Someone deleted it from the Archives." Qui-Gon paused then, to see where Anakin ran with this new information.

He went directly where anyone would. "A Jedi?"

"A Sith who used to be a Jedi."

"That makes sense. If the Sith are the counterparts to the Jedi, it would make sense to pull the Sith from our numbers. Then they already have training."

"The Sith are very different from the Jedi. They would have to unlearn much."

"But they would already have a way of handling their power . . . well, if it didn't work, the Council wouldn't be so afraid of us falling to the dark side, right?"

"Very true. You're perceptive."

"So I've been told. So, uh, we're going to a Sith world, then?"

Qui-Gon nodded. "Yes. You, me, A'Sharad, and Master Ki-Adi. We'll leave in the morning."

Anakin smiled, though something worried him, by the way the smile didn't quite go anywhere but his lips. "My first real mission as a Jedi?"

Qui-Gon nodded, not pressing Anakin further. The boy would come forward with his concerns when he was ready. "It will be dangerous, Anakin. So rest well and spend some time in deep meditation. If it turns out Kamino truly does belong to the Sith, what happens on there will be more dangerous than anything you faced on the racetracks or on Tatooine. Many Jedi serve their entire lives without having to face what we might find there."

"You don't think I'm ready." It was not a question. Anakin knew Qui-Gon's thoughts there. Then again, Qui-Gon hadn't tried to hide them.

"No, I don't. It isn't a statement on your capabilities. You have much potential, Anakin. Much more than almost any Jedi I've ever met." He had much more than that—the Force was so strong in him, it overshadowed even Yoda. But the boy didn't need to know that yet. It could be dangerous to have that kind of knowledge. "You don't know much about being a Jedi yet. You haven't had time to learn to block out the influence of the dark side. You could be at risk."

"Then why am I going?"

"Because you will learn and this will test you. But, as with the Fett interrogation, stay close and follow my lead. I said you would rarely be required to follow my orders without question, and this is one of those times. Whatever I ask of you, Anakin, you must do it."

Anakin nodded vigorously. "This is far better than slavery. I can do it. Whatever you need." The level of anxiety in him had shot way up—thoughts of the Sith and their temptations had caused it, but it would make him wary and cautious, and that's what Qui-Gon needed of him.

He nodded. "Be careful that your confidence doesn't get the better of you. Do not become cocky."

Anakin nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I've been there on the racetrack. Even lost a pod because of it. Jabba wasn't happy."

"Much more is at stake here than a podracer."

"Then I hope I remember the lesson."