The Dragon in the Dying Star

𝐃𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬

Chapter VII: Duel of the Fates

Aboard the Queen's transport, coming out of hyperspace and approaching the Naboo star system, Dejah Thoris paused on her way to a meeting with the Queen to observe Anakin Skywalker. She stood in the shadows of the entryway, silent as the night.

The boy stood at the pilot's console next to Ric Olie. The Naboo pilot was bent forward over the controls, pointing each one out in turn and explaining its function. Anakin was absorbing the information with astonishing quickness, brow furrowed, eyes intense, concentration total.

"And that one?" The boy pointed.

"The forward stabilizer." Ric Olie glanced up at him expectantly, waiting.

"And those control the pitch?" Anakin indicated a bank of levers by the pilot's right hand.

Ric Olie's weathered face broke into a grin. "You catch on pretty quick."

Quicker than any she had encountered, Dejah Thoris thought. This was the reason Anakin Skywalker was indeed special. It gave evidence of his high midichlorian count. It suggested anew that perhaps Qui-Gon was right in presuming he was the chosen one. But Dejah had learned that midichlorian count was not all that came into deciding one's fate. She worried Qui-Gon's attachment to the boy was blinding his judgement.

Dejah Thoris agreed with the Council's decision, though she had not taken part in its process. It was dangerous that the boy was so old, though perhaps not fatal to his chances. What troubled her was not his age, but the conflict she sensed within him. Anakin was wrestling with his parentage, with his separation from his mother, his friends, and his home. Especially his mother. He was old enough to appreciate what might happen, and the result was an uncertainty that worked within him like a caged animal seeking to break free. The Jedi Council knew that it could not tame that uncertainty from without, that it could be mastered only from within. They believed Anakin Skywalker too old for this, his thinking and his beliefs too settled to be safely reshaped. He was vulnerable to his inner conflict, and the dark side would be quick to take advantage of this.

Dejah had seen it happen many times before.

She blinked her thoughts away, staring over at the boy from the back of the cockpit. Yes, there were risks in Qui-Gon accepting Anakin Skywalker as an apprentice. But few things of worth were accomplished in life without risk. The Jedi Order was founded on strict adherence to established procedures in the raising and educating of young Jedi, but there were exceptions to all things, even this. Perhaps the fact that the Jedi Council was refusing even to consider that this was an instance in which an exception should be made was injust...

They may never know.

She turned away then and walked from the cabin to the passageways beyond and descended one level to the Queen's chambers. The others the Queen had called together for this meeting were already present when she arrived. Qui-Gon gave her a brief, neutral nod of recognition, standing next to a glowering Captain Panaka. Obi-Wan regarded her with what appeared an attempted concealed predilection, failing to hide the delight in his eyes at her presence. Jar Jar Binks hugged the wall to one side, apparently trying to disappear into it. Amidala sat on her shipboard throne on a raised dais set against one wall, two of her handmaidens, Rabe and Eirtae, flanking her. Her white-painted face was composed and her gaze cool as it met Dejah's own, but there was fire in the words she spoke next.

"When we land on Naboo," she advised the Red Jedi after she had bowed and taken up a position next to Panaka, "it is my intention to act on this invasion at once. My people have suffered enough."