Part 16 (2/2)
”There must be some reason, then. Anakin, he's your best friend. He loves you.”
”Maybe he does. But I don't think he trusts me.” His eyes went as bleak as the empty night. ”And I'm not sure we can trust him.”
”Anakin!” She clutched at his arm. ”What would make you say that?”
”None of them trust me, Padme. None of them. You know what I feel, when they look at me?”
”Anakin-”
He turned to her, and everything in him ached. He wanted to cry and he wanted to rage and he wanted to make his rage a weapon that would cut himself free forever. ”Fear,” he said. ”I feel their fear. And for nothing?”
He could show them something, though. He could show them a reason for their fear.
He could show them what he'd discovered within himself in the General's Quarters on Invisible Hand.
Something of it must have risen on his face, because he saw a flicker of doubt shadow her eyes, just for a second, just a flash, but still it burned into him like a lightsaber and he shuddered, and his shudder turned into a s.h.i.+ver that became shaking, and he gathered her to his chest and buried his face in her hair, and the strong sweet warmth of her cooled him, just enough.
”Padme,” he murmured, ”oh, Padme, I'm so sorry. Forget I said anything. None of that matters now. I'll be gone from the Order soon-because I will not let you go away to have our baby in some alien place. I will not let you face my dream alone. I will be there for you, Padme. Always. No matter what.”
”I know it, Annie. I know.” She pulled gently away and looked up at him. Tears sparkled like red gems in the firelight.
Red as the synthetic bloods.h.i.+ne of Dooku's lightsaber.
He closed his eyes.
She said, ”Come upstairs, Anakin. The night's getting cold.
Come up to our bed.”
”All right. All right.” He found that he could breathe again, and his shaking had stilled. ”Just-”
He put his arm around her shoulders so that he didn't have to meet her eyes. ”Just don't say anything to Obi-Wan, all right?”
=10=.
Masters Obi-Wan sat beside Mace Windu while they watched Yoda scan the report. Here in Yoda's simple living s.p.a.ce within the Jedi Temple, every softly curving pod chair and knurled organiform table hummed with gentle, comforting power: the same warm strength that Obi-Wan remembered enfolding him even as an infant. These chambers had been Yoda's home for more than eight hundred years. Everything within them echoed with the harmonic resonance of Yoda's calm wisdom, tuned through centuries of his touch. To sit within Yoda's chambers was to inhale serenity; to Obi-Wan, this was a great gift in these troubled times.
But when Yoda looked at them through the translucent s.h.i.+mmer of the holoprojected report on the contents of the latest amendment to the Security Act, his eyes were anything but calm: they had gone narrow and cold, and his ears had flattened back along his skull.
”This report-from where does it come?”
”The Jedi still have friends in the Senate,” Mace Windu replied in his grim monotone, ”for now.”
”When presented this amendment is, pa.s.sed it will be?”
Mace nodded. ”My source expects pa.s.sage by acclamation. Overwhelming pa.s.sage. Perhaps as early as this afternoon.”
”The Chancellor's goal in this-unclear to me it is,” Yoda said slowly.
”Though nominally in command of the Council, the Senate may place him, the Jedi he cannot control. Moral, our authority has always been; much more than merely legal. Simply follow orders, Jedi do not!”
”I don't think he intends to control the Jedi,” Mace said. ”By placing the Jedi Council under the control of the Office of the Supreme Chancellor, this amendment will give him the const.i.tutional authority to disband the Order itself.”
”Surely you cannot believe this is his intention.”
”His intention?” Mace said darkly. ”Perhaps not. But his intentions are irrelevant; all that matters now is the intent of the Sith Lord who has our government in his grip. And the Jedi Order may be all that stands between him and galactic domination. What do you think he will do?”
”Authority to disband the Jedi, the Senate would never grant.”
”The Senate will vote to grant exactly that. This afternoon.”
”The implications of this, they must not comprehend!”
”It no longer matters what they comprehend,” Mace said.
”They know where the power is.”
”But even disbanded, even without legal authority, still Jedi we would be. Jedi Knights served the Force long before there was a Galactic Republic, and serve it we will when this Republic is but dust.”
”Master Yoda, that day may be coming sooner than any of us think. That day may be today.” Mace shot a frustrated look at Obi-Wan, who picked up his cue smoothly.
”We don't know what the Sith Lord's plans may be,” Obi-Wan said, ”but we can be certain that Palpatine is not to be trusted. Not anymore. This draft resolution is not the product of some overzealous Senator; we may be sure Palpatine wrote it himself and pa.s.sed it along to someone he controls-to make it-look like the Senate is once more 'forcing him to reluctantly accept extra powers in the name of security.' We are afraid that they will continue to do so until one day he's 'forced to reluctantly accept' dictators.h.i.+p for life!”
”I am convinced this is the next step in a plot aimed directly at the heart of the Jedi,” Mace said. ”This is a move toward our destruction. The dark side of the Force surrounds the Chancellor.”
Obi-Wan added, ”As it has surrounded and cloaked the Separatists since even before the war began. If the Chancellor is being influenced through the dark side, this whole war may have been, from the beginning, a plot by the Sith to destroy the Jedi Order.”
”Speculation!” Yoda thumped the floor with his gimer stick, making his hoverchair bob gently. ”On theories such as these we cannot rely. Proof' we need. Proof!”
”Proof may be a luxury we cannot afford.” A dangerous light had entered Mace Windu's eyes. ”We must be ready to act!”
”Act?” Obi-Wan asked mildly.
”He cannot be allowed to move against the Order. He cannot be allowed to prolong the war needlessly. Too many Jedi have died already. He is dismantling the Republic itself! I have seen life outside the Republic; so have you, Obi-Wan. Slavery. Torture. Endless war.”
Mace's face darkened with the same distant, haunted shadow Obi-Wan had seen him wear the day before. ”I have seen it in Nar Shaddaa, and I saw it on Haruun Kal. I saw what it did to Depa, and to Sora Bulq. Whatever its flaws, the Republic is our sole hope for justice, and for peace. It is our only defense against the dark. Palpatine may be about to do what the Separatists cannot: bring down the Republic. If he tries, he must be removed from office.”
”Removed?” Obi-Wan said. ”You mean, arrested?”
Yoda shook his head. ”To a dark place, this line of thought will lead us. Great care, we must take.”
”The Republic is civilization. It's the only one we have.” Mace looked deeply into Yoda's eyes, and into Obi-Wan's, and Obi-Wan could feel the heat in the Korun Master's gaze. ”We must be prepared for radical action. It is our duty.”
”But,” Obi-Wan protested numbly, ”you're talking about reason ...”
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