[Jedi Apprentice] - 12(5)

Which meant he could not use the Force to heal himself.

“Why are you so interested in the Force?” he asked.

“Ah, we are full of questions today,” she murmured.

“There is not much else to do in here,” Qui-Gon pointed out.

“What about your famous Jedi meditation? That should pass the time.”

“Even meditation has its limits,” Qui-Gon said dryly.

He heard a low laugh. “Why shouldn’t I study the Force? Why should the Jedi be the only ones to study it?”

Qui-Gon thought before answering. He needed to keep her talking. He needed to appear to be interested in her studies.

“That is a good point,” he said. “We believe the Force connects us all.”

“That is exactly my point!” Zan Arbor said excitedly. “The Jedi should welcome my interest.”

“How do you know they do not?” Qui-Gon asked. “You haven’t asked us.”

“I don’t need your permission,” she snapped.

He was losing her. “I didn’t mean that,” he said. “You are a brilliant researcher. You might want to share your findings with the galaxy.”

“When I am ready,” she said. “But not until then.”

“And what are you looking for?”

She did not answer for a moment, and he was afraid the conversation was over. Then she said, “My colleagues are fools.”

Qui-Gon waited. He did not want to seem too eager. Something told him that Jenna Zan Arbor wanted to talk.

“You’ve traveled. You must have seen that the galaxy is full of fools.”

“I have seen that many beings do not trust their eyes, their minds, or their hearts,” Qui-Gon said.

“Exactly! So you see what I have to deal with,” Jenna Zan Arbor said, her voice warming. “I have just come from a conference at the Senate. My colleagues are chasing dreams, not ideas. New ways to make starships go faster. New engines, new fuels, new hyperdrives. They try to find ways to make weapons more powerful, more effective. They look for new sources of power. Faster. Bigger. Better. That is what they chase. They ignore the most powerful energy in the galaxy. The Force is far more important than any of these. With the Force, you can move minds. That is much more important than ships!”

“I would agree with that,” Qui-Gon said.

“How ironic,” Zan Arbor said. “Only a Jedi would understand. And yet only the Jedi can be my best subjects. The others… even those who had the Force, who were, as you call them, Force-sensitive… they did not know what they had. They could not control it. It is hard to measure something that will not be controlled. That was the flaw in my experiments.”

Qui-Gon had a sudden notion that chilled him. Was Zan Arbor keeping him in a condition of weakness so that he would use the Force to heal himself?

He could do nothing in this chamber. He would never escape if he didn’t get out, even for a short time.

Perhaps he could form some sort of bond with his captor.

“I will make a deal with you,” he said.

“I hardly think you are in a position to offer deals,” Jenne Zan Arbor said, amused.

“I think I am,” Qui-Gon returned quietly. “I have something you want. That puts me exactly in that position.”

There was a pause. “What do you want?”

“I want to be let out of this chamber for two hours a day,” Qui-Gon said. “If you do this, I will use the Force to heal myself. If you do not, I will not access it.”

“You will die,” she warned.

“Yes,” Qui-Gon replied calmly. “As a Jedi, I am prepared for death. It does not frighten me.”

“I do not make deals!” Zan Arbor cried shrilly. “I am the leader here! I make the decisions!”

He did not answer. He closed his eyes. He was gambling that she would not refuse him. He sensed the fever in her, the compulsion to follow through on her experiments. She would give in.

“All right,” she snapped. “But not two hours. One hour. That’s all. Do we have a deal?”

“We have a deal,” Qui-Gon answered. He had expected her to counter with one hour. It was not a problem. One hour would have to be enough.





CHAPTER 4


Yoda, Tahl, and Obi-Wan were silent for a long moment. The news that Jenna Zan Arbor controlled access to Didi’s antitoxin disturbed them.

“It’s very strange,” Winna continued. “Not only is Arbor Industries closed, but there is no other source we can find anywhere. There must be some mistake, something we haven’t thought to check. This infection is very rare, but still, Arbor Industries should have allowed other labs to stock the antitoxin. This is an astonishing breach of ethics. They left no word when they’ll reopen, or where - “