Джуд Уотсон: Jedi Apprentice 14: The Ties That Bind

Cal-i-Vaun quickly touched the screen in front of him. "She is not in her quarters. One moment." He touched another point on the screen. "She is not answering her comlink."

"Thank you." Even the simple courtesy cost him an effort to remember.

"Is she here at the Temple?" he barked.

"Yes, I show no record of departure."

Qui-Gon's fingers drummed on the desk. He did not have the patience to search the Temple. There were only a few places Tahl could be where she would turn off her comlink. She was either meditating or swimming in the lake or…

Or in the Jedi Council Room.

Qui-Gon hurried to the turbolift and took it straight to the Council Room. The doors were closed. The Council was in session. Qui-Gon broke a revered Temple rule and accessed the doors without requesting entrance. He strode in.

Tahl stood in the middle of the circle. She turned at the sound of the opening door. Even without her sight she knew his presence immediately.

Qui-Gon was so glad to see her he did not mind her frown.

Yoda blinked at him impassively, but Mace Windu's eyebrows lowered.

"To what do we owe this… intrusion, Qui-Gon?" Mace Windu asked.

"I apologize to all the Jedi Masters," Qui-Gon said, bowing. "I knew Tahl was here, and I felt I had to be present."

To his surprise, Mace Windu nodded, as though Qui-Gon's reason was logical.

"We will allow you to remain, seeing that you have a connection to this mission," he said. "We would have requested your presence had we known you had returned."

Qui-Gon hid his surprise. Tahl clasped her hands in front of her for a moment. Beneath the folds of her long robe, he saw her long fingers clench and unclench. She was not happy he had interfered, that was clear.

Her voice was calm when she spoke, however. "I will resume the briefing," she said, angling her body slightly so that Qui-Gon was now slightly behind her. It effectively demonstrated to the Masters her desire to remain the focus of the meeting. "I received a distress call this morning from the twin sisters Alani and Eritha from the planet New Apsolon.

" Now Qui-Gon understood Mace Windu's reaction to his presence. Years ago, Tahl and Qui-Gon had been sent on a mission to Apsolon. They had been sent as Jedi observers to ensure a peaceful transition of government.

"Let me review my last mission there," Tahl said. "Apsolon used to have a totalitarian government ruling over a civilization split between a prosperous minority called the Civilized and a majority called the Workers.

The Workers lived in a separate sector of the city in poor housing and had to pass through checkpoints at an energy wall to travel to work. The Civilized kept control through a feared and hated secret police, called the Absolutes. As no doubt members of the Council are aware, Apsolon is a center of the high-tech industry. The Workers tried to achieve what they called a 'bloodless revolution' through a campaign of industrial sabotage.

The civil war was conducted with some violence, but nowhere near as bad as we have seen on other worlds. Mostly the violence came from the Absolutes as they tried to stop the sabotage and demonstrations. But the Workers were not stopped. The economic pressures forced the government to call for free elections and give each Worker a vote. As a result, a Worker leader who had been a hero to the people, Ewane, was elected. Apsolon was renamed New Apsolon to symbolize this new direction."

Qui-Gon remembered Ewane well, as well as his two daughters. Ewane had been imprisoned for many years. The girls' mother had died when they were young, so they had been raised by his supporters. They had been pretty, quiet girls who had looked at Tahl with awe and brought out a tenderness in Tahl he had rarely seen.

"Ewane ruled for five years as Supreme Governor and was reelected,"

Tahl went on. "Shortly after this, he was murdered."

Qui-Gon closed his eyes in a moment of remembrance. Tall, elegant Ewane had been frail from his years of captivity, but his inner strength had given him an aura of nobility. His sense of loyalty and purpose had made him an ideal leader. He had been committed to bringing justice, not punishment, to his former enemies. How sad that he hadn't been given a chance to fulfill his great promise.

"His successor is his close associate, Roan, who was one of the few Civilized who called early on for social change. Roan was admired by most of the population at one time, but now many among the Workers believe he backed Ewane's killers and took the office in a coup. The planet has plunged into instability once again. Ewane's daughters, Alani and Eritha, are now sixteen. They are in hiding and fear for their lives. They have appealed to me for help. They want safe passage to Coruscant. I must go to New Apsolon and escort them."

"A worthy mission," Mace Windu said. "Of course the girls must be rescued."

"Sad it is that the planet is plunged into chaos once more," Yoda said. "Ask for our help the government itself does not, however. Therefore unofficial, your mission is."

"I owe the girls my loyalty," Tahl said. "I must go."

Qui-Gon was not surprised at Tahl's determination. She had formed a close bond with the young twins. They had been the cause of a serious disagreement between the two Jedi. Once the elections were held and Ewane had been elected, Qui-Gon had been ready to leave the planet. Tahl had been concerned about Ewane and his family's safety, and felt the new government was too fragile and new to trust. There were still powerful factions among the rich minority that wanted it to fail, and she suspected that the Absolutes had not disbanded, as had been promised, but were still working in an underground capacity. Qui-Gon had agreed that some of this might be true, but it was not the Jedi's job to remain as an occupation force.

They had argued over whether to remain or go. Privately Qui-Gon had felt that Tahl's connection to Eritha and Alani was influencing her feeling. The motherless girls had come to depend on her. But in the end, Qui-Gon prevailed, and they left the planet.

Was this the source of Tahl's coolness to him now? He could feel it like a presence in the room. Did she remember their quarrel? Did she feel justified now? The girls were in danger. Perhaps if the Jedi had remained to clear out the last nest of Absolutes, Ewane would not have been murdered.

Perhaps. There was no way to know. And lately there had been tension between Tahl and Qui-Gon that did not have to do with missions. It was a tension he did not completely understand. Tahl had taken the Jedi student named Bant as her Padawan, but had not entirely accepted her as a partner, often leaving to go on missions alone. She knew that Qui-Gon disapproved of this. He knew how capable she was and was astonished at how she compensated for her blindness. Still he feared that a situation could arise in which she would overestimate her abilities. Her need to go on missions alone distressed him.

No matter how he chided himself, he could not stop feeling protective toward Tahl. It was not because of her blindness. It was because of her need to prove her blindness did not matter.

"We will arrange for a transport and pilot to be ready," Mace Windu told Tahl. "We request that you keep in touch with us frequently, since you are going alone."

"I am willing to go with Tahl on this mission," Qui-Gon said quickly.

"Since I, too, know the situation well, I can be of help."

"There is no need for Qui-Gon to accompany me," Tahl said. "I have a contact on New Apsolon. I should be able to collect the girls and return in a matter of days."

Qui-Gon nodded in Tahl's direction. "Respectfully, I must point out that the Jedi made enemies on Apsolon. There were some on both sides who did not welcome us. The Civilized blamed us for the election of a Worker.