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The Fight for Truth(22)

By:Jude Watson


Adi agreed quietly. “We will find them. And Lana, too.”

When Adi was finished, they turned toward the exit hallway, but Qui-Gon stopped by a door marked central instruction file records.

“Let’s just look in here a minute,” he said. “We could find a clue.”

The room was lined with holographic file units. They were dated and lined up alphabetically. Qui-Gon accessed a drawer of files, Adi another.

“There’s a file on every citizen of Kegan

here,” Adi Gallia said in disbelief. “Recorded conversations …”

“Whom they meet, whom they dine with …” Qui-Gon said, accessing another file.

“What they use, what they eat…”

“What they write to their children at school…”

Qui-Gon studied a file for a thirteen-year-old named O-Nena. “Didn’t Nen tell us about The Learning Circle?”

Adi Gallia murmured assent as she accessed another file. “Did you find out where it is?”

“No,” Qui-Gon said. “But here’s a reference to a ?e-Learning Circle. What could that be?”p>

“Sounds like something to check out.”

“Let’s look up Lana,” Qui-Gon suggested, flicking past files to get to her name. “There’s nothing here.”

“I’ll try Melie and Nen.” Adi searched through the files, flashing one name after another. “Here. I’ll take Nen, you take Melie.” She read through the files quickly.

Qui-Gon scanned the file. “Plenty of recorded conversations. Records of meetings with other dissidents. And record of all our conversations in their house. But nothing about Lana. Not even the recording of her birth.”

“They’ve erased all the information.” Adi met Qui-Gon’s gaze. “I don’t like this. It’s as though they wiped out any evidence of her existence.”

“Except in her parents’ memories.”

Simultaneously, the two Jedi closed the files.

“There’s no time to lose,” Adi said.

They left the building and hurried to Nen and Melie’s dwelling. Adi quickly explained that the autohoppers would be grounded for about three hours.

“We’ll gather as many dissidents as we can,” Nen said. “We’ll try to find out if anyone has seen your Padawans.”

“We must find out where the Learning Circle is located,” Qui-Gon told them. “I have a feeling the key is there. Have you ever heard of the Re-Learning Circle?”

“I’ve heard it mentioned,” Nen said. “Nobody really knows what it is. Some sort of training facility.”

“The mothers talk,” Melie said. “They say if your child is reassigned they are not allowed to contact you again. Do you think that’s where Lana is?”

O-Yani, the elder caregiver, stood in the doorway. “No,” she whispered.

Melie turned, her gaze suddenly sharp. “O-Yani, your grandson V-Onin was sent to the Re-Learning Circle six years ago.”

“It was not my fault he was ill,” O-Yani said quickly.

“I know,” Melie said gently. “I saw how you cared for him. Why was he taken away?”

“For the General Good,” O-Yani said promptly.

“O-Yani, we have disabled the autohoppers,” Qui-Gon said to her. “You don’t hear them flying, do you? You can speak freely.”

O-Yani paused. She looked out the window, waiting for the sight or sound of the autohoppers. “They gave me this job. I like working with children,” she said wistfully.

“You won’t lose your job,” Nen told her. “We know that what happened to Lana wasn’t your fault.”

“But if you know where she is, please tell us,” Melie said.

“The medics didn’t know how to treat V-Onin. They said they had a place for him to go … a place where research was done. What could we do?” O-Yani’s face was bleak. “I never saw him again.”

“Do you know where they took him?” Melie pressed.

“A trader came one day and knocked on my door,” O-Yani said. “He had seen a boy in the country who was traveling with Guides. The Guides had trouble with their airspeeder and were repairing it. The boy stopped the trader.

He gave him something to bring to me. A goodbye gift.”

“What was it?” Nen asked.

“Wildflowers,” 0-Yani said. “I pressed them in a book. Wait.”

She disappeared and came out a moment later with a leather-bound book. She cracked it open and carefully extracted a delicate, pressed bloom.

“May I see it?” Melie asked respectfully. At 0-Yani’s hesitant nod, she plucked it from her hand and examined it. “I know this bloom. It comes off the calla tree. They only grow on the highest plateau of Kegan. It’s about two hours away by landspeeder.”