[Jedi Apprentice] - Special Edition - 01(10)

CHAPTER 6


There was nothing more he could do for Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon reflected as he boarded an air taxi for Centax 2. He had said everything that needed to be said. One of the hardest tasks of a Master was the decision to step back. His Padawan needed to deal with his feelings on his own.

And Tahl needed his help, whether she wanted it or not.

He landed on Centax 2 and took the moving walkway to the Jedi base. He found Tahl in the tech dome, going over starship specifications. By now she could recognize his step moments after he entered a room.

“I thought I needed to know some details of a starship engine,” she said without preliminaries. She pushed away the voice recorder that read specifications aloud to her and turned to him. “How was the hearing?”

“Hard to say.”Qui-Gon sat next to her. “It was very hard on Bant.”

“Bant? Why?” Tahl’s tone was sharp. Qui-Gon noted how she instinctively jumped to Bant’s defense.

“Sano Sauro grilled her about how long a Mon Calamari can stay underwater. Bant was forced to say that she could not be sure how close to death she was.”

Tahl groaned. “And Bant would see that as a betrayal of Obi-Wan.”

“I’m afraid so. I’m hoping Obi-Wan will talk to her at the Temple. Even in the midst of his own pain, he will reach out to Bant. Obi-Wanhimself cannot find composure.”

She sighed. “They do so much and have come so far. We can’t forget they are still young.”

“I know he’ll be fine in the end,” Qui-Gon said. “But it’s hard to stand by and watch him go through this.” He looked at Tahl searchingly. “Yet it is satisfying just the same to be able to stand by him.”

Tahl turned and ran her fingers over a blueprint. The lines were raised so that her fingers could read the shapes, and the voice recorder told her what she was examining. “I didn’t realize that the thrust dampers were located so far to the rear,” she said coolly.

Obviously, even a gentle hint that Tahl could benefit from a Master/Padawan relationship would be ignored. Qui-Gon decided to follow her lead. Primarily because he knew he had no choice. “Have you interviewed the two workers yet?” he asked.

“No, I was just about to. They know an investigator is here. I wanted them to be nervous. Do you want to come?”

“If you don’t mind-“

“Of course I mind,” Tahl said, rising smoothly. “But since when does that stop you?”

At least there was amusement in her tone. Qui-Gon walked beside her to the adjoining hangar, where the starfighters were refitted.

Once they got into the hangar itself, Qui-Gon had to restrain himself from taking Tahl’s arm. The ground was cluttered with tools and stacks of parts, large and small. But using her extraordinary reflexes and special training, Tahl now used a gliding walk that guided her safely around obstacles.

“You do not need TooJay any longer for navigation, I see,” Qui-Gon remarked, referring to Tahl’s endlessly chattering personal navigation droid.

Her lips curved in a smile. “I worked very hard so that I don’t. But I brought her here anyway. Unfortunately, I still need her for some things.”

“The mechanics are to the left,” Qui-Gon instructed. He studied them as he and Tahl approached.

One was a Twi’lek, with large head tails wrapped up in cloth to keep out of his way. His skin was light blue. The other mechanic washuman, his body short and compact, the sides of his head shaved so that his close-cropped hair ran down the center of his head.

“We wonder if we could have a few words with you,” Tahl said.

The two mechanics put down their tools and turned to them. “Of course,” the Twi’lek said a bit nervously. “I am Haly Dura and this is Tarrence Chenati. What can we do for you?”

“We are investigating the mechanical failures on the starfighters,” Qui-Gon explained.

“We already have gone through an investigation,” Haly Dura said. “We were cleared.”

“We just want to ask a few questions,” Tahl said. “Clee Rhara has asked for our help.”

“I’m sure we have answered all those questions,” Haly Dura said impatiently.

“Then you will answer them a second time,” Tahl said, a hard edge beneath her calm tone.

Tarrence Chenati glanced at his coworker. “Of course we will cooperate. We do not want a cloud of suspicion over our heads. We are concerned as well. We have gone over every moment of our shifts with Clee Rhara but can’t understand how it could have happened.”

“This is a restricted area,” Haly Dura said. “We’re the only ones allowed here. That means that someone must have broken in after hours.”