Life's Trials - Part 7
Part 1 - Distracted
Part 2 - Desperate
Part 3 - Proud
Part 4 - Devoted
Part 5 - Impatience
Part 6 - Contact
Part 7 - Curious
Padmé rubbed her eyes, unwilling to face the new day. The sun’s rays streamed in through her window, and she knew she was already running late. But she didn’t want to move. She didn’t want her beautiful dream to end.
She pulled her messy curls away from her face and sighed. Even though Anakin had been gone barely four standard days, Padmé ached for him. They had been separated for long periods before, but none had been this indefinite. He’d always known precisely how long he would be gone, and she could go through her normal days, anticipating his upcoming return.
But now . . . she wasn’t sure how to wait for him without losing her sanity. At least she knew where he was. If she had actually talked to him through her dream a few nights ago, she knew he was on Corellia, but she wasn’t sure what he was doing there or what dangers he faced. And that thought scared her more than anything else.
She swung her feet off the edge of the bed and sat there for a moment. Her hands came up to her cheeks and she took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure why, but her whole body hurt. It felt like she had been exercising, but she hadn’t done more than walk around the Senate building from office to office, racing from meeting to meeting. It was nothing more than her regular exercise.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried not to cringe when her arms swept by her chest and caused a shooting pain through her body. After a moment, the pain faded to a dull ache and she felt well enough to stand up and start the day.
Of all the days to be sick, today was possibly the worst. She had seven meetings for various committees and her monthly holo-conference with Queen Jamilla. If she had time, she wanted to try to talk to Garm Bel Ibils about the situation on Corellia, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t tell her anything of consequence.
She shook her head and finally stood, just as her door swung open and her handmaidens rushed in to help her get ready for the day.
Cordé exclaimed, “Senator! You haven’t even showered yet?”
Padmé groaned. “I know. I’m going.”
“You’d better hurry.” Dormé handed Padmé a fluffy, white robe.
“I will, I will.” Padmé took the robe and brushed past the handmaidens towards the refresher. She took a deep breath. Today would be another day without Anakin. And she would survive.
“Are you all right?”
Padmé whirled around and stared at Dormé and Cordé, tempted to tell them everything that was bothering her. Instead, she merely gritted her teeth and forced a smile. “Of course. I’m just tired.”
Dormé came up behind Padmé and touched her shoulder. “You look pale. Corde or I could --"
“-- No. Absolutely not.” She had to go to work today. Nothing else would distract her thoughts from Anakin. “I’m fine.”
Padmé strode into the ‘fresher and sighed. Her handmaidens knew her too well. She couldn’t hide her pain from them. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to.
But she had to. Just like she had to carry on without Anakin.
*~~*~~*~~*
“There’s still no sign of these so-called terrorists, Master.” Anakin strode through the heavily wooded area slicing knee-high brush with his lightsaber. “I don’t think we’re going to run into them in the middle of this Force forsaken forest.”
“All right, if you were an terrorist insurgent, where would you hide?”
“I don’t know.” Anakin deactivated the lightsaber and clipped the handle to his belt. “Certainly not in a place where I can’t even walk.”
“Wouldn’t that be exactly where they would hide? A place where no one could find them?”
Anakin grunted, and pushed through more brush. “We’re not getting anything done like this. We should double our search efforts so we can find them and stop them.”
Obi-Wan shook his head in a long-suffering way. “Anakin, what do you think we’re doing?”
“I know we’re looking for them.” Anakin shrugged. “Maybe the intelligence isn’t correct.” He stomped through more knee-high grass and kicked the more fragile stems.
“Maybe you’re right.” Obi-Wan flicked an insect off his shoulder. “This is quite uncivilized.”
“I agree. This is ridiculous. Did we enter the coordinates incorrectly?” He whirled around to see the ship just a few hundred paces behind them.
“We checked already.” Obi-Wan kicked at the dirt covering the end of his boot and sighed.
“We could check again, just to make sure. It would get us away from these . . . insects.” He whipped his arms around his head, knocking away as many of a swarm of flying bugs as he could reach.
“I doubt we made any mistake in entering the coordinates. And since we checked them twice, I know those were the coordinates the Council gave us.” He ran his hand across his beard.
“And how could the Council know for sure?”
Obi-Wan sighed. “Jedi intelligence units have been on Corellia for months.”
“And they are sure this is the last-known terrorist headquarters.”
“Of course, Anakin. You know no one would have sent us here if they were not sure of the location.”
“It seems like a trap.” Anakin turned towards the river flowing on their left side.
“It could be.”
“So you admit it’s a trap?”
“I will not admit that.” Obi-Wan followed Anakin’s path to the water. “I’m worried because --
“-- It’s like no one has ever been here.” Anakin stopped and closed his eyes for a moment. “In fact, I don’t really --"
“-- Sense anything,” Obi-Wan finished.
“And that’s weird.” Anakin cocked his head towards Obi-Wan. “Isn’t it?”
“I fear you might be right.”
“That it’s a trap?”
“Possibly.” Obi-Wan folded his arms across his chest. “What is our next move?”
Anakin sighed. “Spring the trap.” The corners of his lips turned up into a sly smile.
“My thoughts exactly.” Obi-Wan’s grin matched Anakin’s.
“But how?”
Obi-Wan laughed. “I have no idea.”
“Perfect.” Anakin looked across the river and into the vast forest on the other side. “What would make our Force connection so weak here? We’re in the middle of nowhere. No civilization in sight.”
Obi-Wan shrugged. “If Count Dooku really is behind this terrorist organization, he might have taken some sort of Force-shield precaution, knowing we would be on his trail quite quickly.”
“I guess that makes sense. But it obviously isn’t a complete Force shield because I can still sense your presence. The shield seems . . . immature. Surely not Dooku’s work.”
“You’re right. I agree he would be more careful.”
Anakin nodded. “Unless he wanted to throw us off.”
“Also, we aren’t natural to this environment, so we might not be affected by the shield.” Obi-Wan closed his eyes and sighed. He slid down onto one of the many tree stumps near the water’s edge.
“And you think that makes a difference?” Anakin plopped onto a tree stump directly across from Obi-Wan.
“Possibly.” Obi-Wan looked up into the clear, blue sky. “I’ve never experienced a shield quite like this before.”
“Wonderful.” Anakin stared at the flowing river below. After a moment’s contemplation, he said, “Does this river seem strange to you?”
“How so?” Obi-Wan followed Anakin’s gaze and made a puzzled face.
The two looked up from the river and their gazes met. Anakin pointed towards the ship. “Isn’t the ocean that way?”
Obi-Wan stroked his beard and sighed. “How did we miss this when we walked past it before? We’re smarter than this.”
“Apparently not.” Anakin chuckled. “We’re Jedi. We should be more observant than this.
“I refuse to believe we could have missed something so obvious. This river must be flowing --"
“-- In the wrong direction.” Anakin stood and took a few steps to the river’s edge. He stuck his booted toe just into the water and then thought better of it. “But why?”
Obi-Wan followed close behind him. “Perhaps we are closer than we thought.”
Anakin whirled around to face Obi-Wan. “Do you think it’s manmade?”
“Clearly.”
Anakin stared into the river looking for any signs of fish or vegetation. “Does this make sense? How would someone change a river’s direction?”
“You’re the engineer, Anakin.” Obi-Wan clapped his shoulder. “How would you change a river’s flow pattern?”
Anakin shrugged. “I’ve never thought about changing the path of a river.” He took a few steps along the river bank. “And I am not sure why they would want to change the river . . .” He whirled around and faced Obi-Wan. “Unless they’re using the water as some sort of power source.” He squinted as he looked up river. “Maybe for some kind of underground fortress?”
Obi-Wan nodded. “It could be. But why would they do something so obvious?”
Anakin shrugged. “To throw us off course? To lead us astray?” He started to follow the river into the deep forest. “Are you coming, Master?”
Obi-Wan muttered, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” but he followed Anakin’s path.
*~~*~~*~~*
Anakin worked his way through the overgrown brush on the riverbank. He flicked an insect off his shoulder and groaned. He paused and looked around the somewhat more clear area to his left. “Master?” Anakin called when he realized Ob-Wan wasn’t directly behind him.
“Anakin?” Obi-Wan called. “Where are you?”
“Where are you?” Anakin felt Obi-Wan sigh.
“Stay there. I am on my way.”
“Master, I think I found something.” He ran a few paces through the trimmed weeds and came upon a weird metal sheet sticking out of the ground, catching the light so that it glowed.
A few moments later, Obi-Wan appeared from behind a large tree. “There you are, Anakin. How did you get so far in front of me?”
“Youth beats experience?”
Obi-Wan clapped Anakin on the shoulder. “Only in your dreams.”
Anakin shrugged, with a cocky grin spread across his face. “If you say so.” After a moment’s pause, he added, “You certainly look tired.”
“I am not tired.” Obi-Wan pushed his damp hair away from his face. “I’m hot.”
Anakin smiled at Obi-Wan. He was not even breaking a sweat. “I guess it helps to be from a desert planet, while others have spent their entire lives on temperature-controlled Coruscant.”
Obi-Wan scoffed. “That is neither here nor there. Let’s focus.” He ran a hand across his forehead, wiping away a few lines of sweat.
“I’m focused.” Anakin touched the weird piece of metal. “What do you think this is?”
Obi-Wan looked at the metal and then up at Anakin. “Some sort of switch?”
“What do you think it does?”
“I have no idea.”
“Do you think it’s weird that there’s a piece of metal in a secluded forest with no one, man or droid, guarding it.” He ran a hand along the curved metal and squinted, trying to determine just where it led.
“Does anything seem normal about this entire situation?” Obi-Wan sighed. “I suppose it’s another element of the trap.”
“Or else the terrorists are just really stupid.”
“Are terrorists ever this stupid?”
Anakin bit his lower lip before he spoke. “Cocky, yes. Overconfident? Always. Stupid, rarely. I can’t believe this would be a part of their base.”
Obi-Wan shrugged. “Maybe this is exactly what they are hoping will happen. We are spending all of our time debating about the backwards-flowing river and the metal tree in the middle of a vast, Force-forsaken forest that we aren’t focusing on the true problem.”
“I guess you’re right.” Without wasting any more time, Anakin grabbed the piece of metal and jiggled it in every direction he could imagine.
Continued