Jedi Quest_ The False Peace Part 4

"An action that the Senate sanctioned due to the criminal activities of Roy Teda," Obi-Wan pointed out.

"There are some in the Senate who pushed through this initiative, it's true," Bog said, implying that this action was highly suspect. "That initiative is currently under investigation."

"Senator Divinian!" Bail Organa called.

"Senator Organa, you are out of order!" Bog thundered. "I am questioning this witness!" He turned back to Obi-Wan. "Answer the question. Isn't it true that the Jedi a.s.sisted the takeover?"

Obi-Wan hesitated a fraction of a second. It was true that the Jedi did a.s.sist Joylin and his band. But the plans had already been in place.

"Answer, please." Obi-Wan saw a flash of mean triumph in Bog's eyes.

"Yes. We offered them a.s.sistance."

"So you overthrew a legally elected government for your own purposes."

"No. We - "

"The record will note that the question has been answered," Bog snapped.

Bog looked down at his datapad, but Obi-Wan was sure it was for show. Bog knew exactly what his next question was going to be. He wanted Obi- Wan's admission to hang in the air. The chamber was silent now, every face turned toward Obi-Wan. He was in an impossible position, and he knew it. He could not save the Jedi here. He could not save the Jedi with words, with truth.

Obi-Wan rarely felt helpless. He hated the feeling. He felt it burn inside.

"Isn't it also true that the Jedi were involved in a factory implosion on Falleen?"

"We happened to be in the vicinity."

"Oh," sneered Bog, "Jedi Knights are factory workers now?"

"Two of us were," Obi-Wan answered honestly.

"Do you mean to tell me that you got jobs in a factory? That's hard to believe."

"Truth is sometimes hard to believe," Obi-Wan said evenly. "That's why ignorant minds have a difficult time with it."

Bog's face reddened. Obi-Wan realized he had done an ignorant thing himself. He had allowed his temper to get the better of his judgment.

Always a bad idea - and, for a Jedi, a severe lapse.

"So you sabotaged the factory - "

"No." It was Obi-Wan's turn to interrupt. "We were caught there.

The factory was deliberately destroyed by its owner to cover up violations."

"And you were there, after hours, after everyone else had gone home."

"Yes."

"I see. So you were the only ones there during the implosion, but you did not trigger it."

"I don't know if we were the only ones there. How do you?"

Bog flushed again. "What I see before me is arrogance and a complete lack of remorse at the destruction of property - "

"Oh, I feel remorse," Obi-Wan said.

"That is unusual," Bog snapped.

"I never received my paycheck."

Guffaws exploded throughout the chamber. Bog looked helpless and angry. Obi-Wan followed his gaze to a dark corner of the chamber, where a pod hugged the wall. Obi-Wan recognized the slim, dark form of Sano Sauro.

Sauro must have sent Bog a private message on his datapad, for Bog looked down. He nodded vigorously, while the laughter slowly died down.

Obi-Wan had succeeded in something, at least. He knew now that Sano Sauro was controlling Bog like a puppet.

"The witness is dismissed," Bog said. "The hearing is adjourned."

Obi-Wan maneuvered the pod back to the wall. He crossed to sit next to Mace. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, Obi-Wan. You did the best you could."

Mace looked out over the chamber crowded with beings. "Something is here," he murmured. "Some darkness. We feel it growing, but every time we look, we see nothing at all. You spend your time on missions, Obi-Wan.

You are not here, like the Jedi Council is. Lately, I have been wondering..."

"Yes, Master Windu?" Obi-Wan asked respectfully. It wasn't often that Mace revealed what he was thinking.

"We send the Jedi throughout the galaxy. To help. To keep peace. To bring aid to suffering populations. But in the end, I wonder..." Mace's stubborn gaze raked the chamber "... if our real job lies here."

"I hope not," Obi-Wan said, gazing over the room. "Out of all my missions, this is one place where I do not want to stand and fight. It's like shouting into the wind.

"None of us want to be here, Obi-Wan," Mace said. "Perhaps that is our undoing."

He took a step back, then turned and disappeared into the interior hallways. Obi-Wan looked out over the crowded chamber. How, he wondered, had it come to this? Why were so many willing to believe the worst of the Jedi Order?

He glanced over at the shadowy box where Sano Sauro sat, receiving guests. Obi-Wan had first tangled with Sauro as a mere boy, when Sauro had questioned him in a hearing to investigate the accidental death of a student at the Jedi Temple. Sauro had twisted Obi-Wan's words even then, and Obi-Wan suspected that the Senator had crafted Bog's questions today.

Disgusted, Obi-Wan turned and headed out of the box toward the interior reception room, where most of the crowd was now congregating. He saw Bog Divinian hurrying toward him, a wide smile on his face.

"Obi-Wan! So good to see you again!" Bog thumped him on the shoulder. Obi-Wan gazed at him incredulously.

"Oh, you didn't mind my questions, did you? Politics. A rough game, eh? I hope there are no hard feelings. After all, politics is temporary.

Friendship is forever."

Obi-Wan just stared at him. Friendship? With Bog? They had never been friends. Bog's words were completely hollow, as empty as the man before him.

"Oh, excuse me, I forgot." Bog whipped out a small data recorder.

"Hearing ended, great success, now greeting supporters."

Bog indicated the recorder to Obi-Wan. "This is how I keep track of things. And one day it will come in handy when my biography is written.

You'd be shocked and dismayed if you knew how many important leaders neglected to keep notes and records for the biographer to follow."

Obi-Wan said nothing. Whereas once he bowed and sc.r.a.ped to please those in power in order to advance his career, now Bog saw himself as a great leader. He had fulfilled his early promise and become a pompous, scheming bore.

Bog rode over Obi-Wan's silence. "Have you seen my wife? She's here. She is dying to see you." Bog searched above the crowd, then began to wave. "Astri! Astri! I found our friend!"

Obi-Wan saw Astri then. She was dressed in a simple blue robe, but her carriage was regal, and she looked as impressive as the Senators and their entourages who were dressed in opulent cloaks. She had cut her springy curls short, clipped to fall softly around her head. She came toward him slowly through the crowd, not rushing, as Astri always used to do. Her gaze seemed to slide off him in the way that he had come to know from other officials - diplomats, Senators, rulers - those who met beings constantly and never invested in a true exchange of hearts and minds with any of them. His heart fell in disappointment. Astri, he feared, had become a Senator's wife.

"h.e.l.lo, Obi-Wan." Her voice was pitched lower, yet another thing that had changed. "I'm glad to see you looking so well."

"I'm glad to see you, too," Obi-Wan said, even though he realized that Astri hadn't really said she was glad to see him. "And how is Didi?"

"He is back home." At last a small smile appeared on Astri's face, and he saw a flash of the prettiness he'd known. "Entertaining his grandson. Or should I say, they are entertaining each other."

Obi-Wan smiled. "You have a son?"

"A beautiful boy. His name is Lune. He just turned three."

"My son is the light of our lives," Bog said. "Astri, my dear, I fear that Obi-Wan is a little put out with me." Astri's gaze lost its warmth and formality clicked back into place. She looked away, past Obi-Wan's shoulder, into the crowd.

"You must tell him that each of us must follow our convictions,"

Bog continued.

"Obi-Wan knows this, no doubt."

"You must tell him how I've struggled with my decision to throw my support behind this. But I've come to feel that the Jedi Council wields too much influence in the Senate and with the Chancellor. I don't want to make enemies, I'm just looking for a more balanced approach. Is that so strange? "

Obi-Wan didn't answer. It was clear Bog did not expect one, and would not listen if one were given. The words he spoke seemed to have been memorized, crafted by someone far smarter than Bog.

How had Astri fallen for him? Obi-Wan had known Astri since he was a boy. He had watched her brave blaster fire and bounty hunters even while being terrified. All in order to save her father and Qui-Gon. She had turned herself from a cook in a rundown caf into a warrior.

Now she was a Senator's wife. He felt sadness deep within him. Did he even know her anymore? Had everything, for Astri, only been about playing a role?

"It was nice to see you again, Obi-Wan," Astri said. "Take care."

She drifted off into the crowd. Bog gazed after her with affection.

"A perfect Senator's wife. She's involved in relief efforts, which is so important for my profile."

Obi-Wan felt he'd had enough. He saw Roy Teda leave a group of supporters and make his way toward the door. Saying a crisp farewell to Bog, Obi-Wan followed him. He had wasted enough time.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

Anakin sat with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in his red-walled office. Red Guards stood outside at attention. He had wanted to see how his Master did at the hearing, but Palpatine had detained him, and he couldn't refuse the Chancellor. How could you refuse someone whose term as Chancellor had expired years ago, but who stayed on to serve because so many saw him as integral to the well-being of the galaxy?

Anakin would have preferred to be searching the galaxy for Granta Omega, but he couldn't do that, either. There were times Anakin felt that wherever he turned, there was yet another order he could not refuse. He was trapped in everybody else's needs but his own.

Palpatine seemed to sense his mood. "You think you are wasting your time here," he observed.

Anakin searched for a way to be honest without being rude. "We were on an important mission."

"I can understand being frustrated by the Senate," Palpatine replied. "Yet here is where the power lies."

"It is not power I'm interested in," Anakin said.

"Really." The former Senator from Naboo smiled. "That is a very Jedi- like response. Yet, can I say this - it is not entirely true. The Jedi do not seek power, yet they have it. Why is that?"

The words sounded oddly familiar to him, as if he'd heard them before, but Anakin could not figure out where. He had a feeling that Palpatine was posing the question just to hear what Anakin had to say.

"Because we have the Force," Anakin said. "It is a source of power, yet we do not seek it. It is simply there."

"And it is a Jedi's choice to use it," Palpatine said. Anakin smiled. "You sound almost like one of our critics."

"Hardly. I am the Jedi Council's biggest supporter. What I am trying to do is discover a way to fight those who seek to take away their power, their influence. I have come to several conclusions, though, and they aren't helpful. Would you care to hear them?"

"Of course." Anakin leaned forward slightly to show his interest.

He felt flattered that Palpatine took him seriously enough to talk to him this way. He had imagined that the Chancellor did not waste his time with mere Padawan learners. He dealt directly with the Jedi Council, with powerful Jedi like Mace Windu and Yoda.

Palpatine looked out his window toward the spires of the Jedi Temple. His gaze was clouded. "One reason that the Jedi Order has become the object of jealousy in the Senate is that the Jedi don't know how to defend themselves. Of course the Jedi are bold warriors, but when it comes to the war of words in the Senate, they simply disengage. This is a grave mistake. "

"Our actions and our results speak for themselves."

"There you are wrong. Results do not speak for themselves, not in the Senate. There must always be someone to explain why the results are good." Palpatine shrugged. "Everything must be interpreted, or someone else will do the interpreting. Facts are not important, only the twist that helps the Senators understand them. It is the way it is. They must be fed their diet of truth."

"You make Senators sound like children," Anakin observed.

"Ah, but they are." Palpatine shook his head. "I did not seek this office, yet I must carry out the burden of carrying on its duties. One of these duties is to recognize that what the Senate needs is a strong hand, just as children do."

"The Jedi don't believe that," Anakin argued. "In the Jedi Order, children are given the freedom to dissent and be independent."

Palpatine smiled. "Unlike the Jedi, Senators are not gifted with the Force. Jedi can afford to give their younglings freedom, because they know they are exceptional. Most beings are not exceptional, Anakin. They need someone to tell them what to do, and sometimes, what to believe."

Anakin struggled to grasp this. It went against what he believed.

Yet he could not deny that Palpatine's strong hand had kept the Senate together during these years of growing strife with the Separatist movement.