Jedi Voyage #5 - The Academy Of Fright

Chapter One

  Patience was required of every Jedi. No matter what the pressure, a Jedi maintained inner calm. Every Padawan Learner knew the story of Jedi Master Yaddle, who had been imprisoned underground on Koba for several centuries and never lost her serenity.
  Then again, Anakin Skywalker thought, even Master Yaddle might have cracked if she had to deal with Senatorial procedure.
  Anakin hid his smile. Without seeming to move, he tensed and relaxed his muscles. He had been sitting for hours in the Polestar Reception Room off the Grand Hall of the vast Senate complex. The huge room had a soaring vaulted ceiling, which was gilded with sheets of precious metals from various worlds. The seating was low to the ground, wide with adjustable armrests for many-limbed beings. Plush cushions and reclining backs had tempted several beings into slumber. So did the large screens showing a droning speech in the main Senate chamber.
  Anakin's Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, sat quietly, every muscle still. His eyes rested on the gilded wall in front of him. To anyone walking by, he appeared completely composed. But Anakin knew his Master well, and he could sense an impatience that radiated like heat off Obi-Wan's stillness.
  They had been sitting for most of the morning. Anakin could feel every minute of that wait in his coiled muscles. They had been summoned early that morning with the news that a decision on Obi-Wan's petition for an "order to reveal" had been reached. Obi-Wan had filed the petition against an influential Senator, Sano Sauro. When they'd arrived that morning, Obi-Wan had been directed by a Senatorial aide to wait "for just five minutes, please." That was three hours ago. They were still waiting.
  Anakin's boot began to tap a quick rhythm on the stone floor. With one glance from Obi-Wan, Anakin stopped.
  "Can I get you anything, Master? Tea?" Anakin asked. He would love to have something – anything – to do.
  "No, thank you, Padawan. We will wait." Obi-Wan crossed his arms and resumed his intense scrutiny of the wall.
  Nothing but the pursuit of Granta Omega would have brought them here. The galactic criminal had set his sights on the Jedi, and Obi-Wan had twice been his target. Omega was not practiced in the dark side of the Force, but he was fascinated with the Sith and knew that one was at large in the galaxy. He had set out to lure that Sith, and was willing to kill a Jedi in order to do so. He would amass even more wealth using any means he could. Obi-Wan considered him a great enemy of the Jedi.
  Anakin had wanted to hunt him down, to start somewhere in the far-flung reaches of the galaxy and gather information, but Obi-Wan had counseled patience. They could wander the galaxy for months or years without getting any closer to Omega. Instead, Obi-Wan told Anakin they must follow the only lead they had: Years before, Senator Sano Sauro had taken Omega on as his protégé, and was probably still in touch with him.
  Sauro was also an enemy of the Jedi, though he cloaked it behind a silky manner and Senatorial procedure. Obi-Wan would have to force him to cooperate. In order to have access to the information Obi-Wan was sure was buried in his files, they would have to follow Senate procedure. And Senate procedure was the one thing that Anakin knew his Master had no patience for. As a matter of fact, it was the one thing he knew that Obi-Wan was incredibly bad at.
  So Obi-Wan had turned to an expert: a young Senate aide with a brilliant mind, the Svivreni Tyro Caladian. Tyro had made it his business to have at his fingertips the most unnecessarily complicated, ridiculously obscure, and surprisingly silly rules of order.
  Tyro had explained that their only course of action would be to file an order to reveal. This order could be obtained only through a complicated series of steps that included petitions, signatures, approvals, and seals. Obi-Wan had made it through these steps, and at last the order had been served on Sano Sauro.
  Anakin was sure that as soon as they gained access to Sauro's files, they would find the clue that would lead them to Omega.
  Suddenly a Svivreni in a navy tunic burst into the vast room. His black hair flowed down his back, loosely held with a thick ring of dull metal. He was stocky and furred, his small, intense face screwed into an expression of nervous haste. He tried to modify his pace, but he ended up running and skidded to a stop before Obi-Wan and Anakin, his thin-soled boots sliding on the polished floor.
  "I was tied up in a subcommittee hearing –" he said breathlessly.
  Obi-Wan shook his head. "Doesn't matter. No news yet, Tyro."
  Tyro Caladian shook his head rapidly. "How can that be? Something must be wrong."
  Anakin frowned. He wasn't happy to hear Tyro say that.
  "We had him in our grasp and he slipped away," Tyro moaned. "I can feel it."
  "Nothing has happened yet," Obi-Wan said. "Have a seat before you fall down." A faint smile twitched at his mouth. Tyro's excitability amused the Jedi, but Tyro's vibrating nerves hid a political mind as sharp and cunning as a well-honed blade.
  Tyro sat, sunk in gloom. He, too, was no fan of Sano Sauro. The Senator had attempted to take over the rich mines of Svivren for weapons development in a secret deal. The Svivreni were opposed to weaponry of any kind, and the deal was exposed before Sauro could complete his plan. He had covered his tracks well and they could not find proof to make an open accusation. It ate away at Tyro.
  Tyro had worked together with Obi-Wan, making sure that they plugged every loophole. They had followed every item and sub-item of the procedure. They had a notified, ratified, and petitioned. Obi-Wan had even enlisted the support of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.
  Despite Tyro's nerves, Anakin knew they'd prevail. He didn't understand why Tyro and Obi-Wan looked so worried.
  Tyro blinked his small, bright eyes. "Sauro is pulling something. I wish I knew what it was."
  Obi-Wan stirred. "I have a feeling we're about to find out."
  Anakin quickly stood as the Speaker of the Senate, Mas Ameeda, strode into the room. He carried himself with his usual gravity, his hands clasped in front of him and his lethorns resting against the deep blue of his rich robes.
  "Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has asked me to bring you this news," Mas Ameeda said after bowing to Obi-Wan. "Your order to reveal has been denied."
  Anakin saw a flicker of anger in Obi-Wan's gaze, but it was gone in a moment. "On what grounds?"
  "Senator Sauro has succeeded in utilizing a little-known procedural item called a sitting Senator's right of refusal," Mas Ameeda explained. "This has allowed him to block the order to reveal for an indefinite period. Senator Sauro is on an important committee on redistributing trade routes, and he petitioned the Senate Procedural Committee on that basis."
  Tyro Caladian bristled. His fur stood out in sharp points. "I have never heard of a right of refusal," he said. "This is outrageous!"
  Mas Ameeda stared at Tyro. It was clear he did not appreciate being lectured to by such a young aide. "It is a little-known rule, rarely used. The Committee had to go back three hundred years into the archives to find it."
  "But procedural rules are discounted when they haven't been renewed and ratified within the last hundred years!" Tyro Caladian sputtered. "This is a clear violation!"
  "It is a gray area," Mas Ameeda admitted. "Technically the Committee is in charge of interpreting all rules, so they have the right to enforce them. It is a... surprising decision." He turned to face Obi-Wan squarely. "Senator Sauro must have wanted to block your order very badly."
  "I'm sure that is so," Obi-Wan said.
  Mas Ameeda inclined his head. "The Supreme Chancellor wishes me to tell you that he did everything he could. He regrets the decision of the Committee but cannot overrule it. He hopes that you will be able to track Granta Omega some other way. He realizes that it is in the best interests of the galaxy for you to do so."
  "Please extend my thanks to the Supreme Chancellor," Obi-Wan said.
  Anakin could not believe his Master could keep his composure. To have come so close, and to be defeated by such a petty rule! It was unfair. How could his Master accept this ruling?
  Mas Ameeda bowed gravely, then walked slowly out the door, his heavy robe swinging.
  Tyro's fur was still raised, and his small eyes snapped with fury. "I'll fight this," he told Obi-Wan. "He won't get away with it. I'll draft an appeal."
  "Do what you can, my friend," Obi-Wan said. "Yet I believe you will not succeed. My guess is that Sauro got to someone on that committee. I think that was what Mas Ameeda was insinuating." Obi-Wan put his hand on Tyro's shoulder. "Thank you for all your help. My Padawan and I will find another way."
  Tyro looked crestfallen. "If ever you need me again, Master Kenobi, I am here for you." He raised a furred hand, fingers spread, in the Svivreni gesture of good-bye. Then he hurried from the room.
  "Master, Tyro is right," Anakin said forcefully. "This is outrageous. Can't we break into Sauro's files?"
  Obi-Wan folded his arms in the way that let Anakin know that he had gone too far.
  "If we were discovered, it would undermine the Senators' trust in the Jedi," Obi-Wan said.
  "There's got to be something we can do!" Anakin exploded. "We can't let him win. He's probably laughing at us right now!"
  Obi-Wan gave him a severe look. "You should not be concerned with Senator Sauro's reaction. What does it matter if a corrupt man laughs at us? It should be less than the whisper of a gnatfly's wings to us."
  Anakin stared at him. "He has made fools of us."
  "No, Padawan," Obi-Wan said firmly. "If your path is the right one, no one has that power. Those who seek to make fools of others are fools themselves."
  "I don't understand you," Anakin said, shaking his head. "You are just as upset as I am. I can feel it, Master. I know how much you want to find Granta Omega."
  "Cultivate outward calm and inward calm will come," Obi-Wan said. "This is the time when the Jedi lesson of inner balance can help you. Accept the setback, and move on."
  "How?" Anakin asked. "Where?"
  "That is a question that is easy for me to answer," Obi-Wan said. "The Council has called on us for a new mission."
  Anakin felt his anger drain away. "Do you know what it is?"
  "No," Obi-Wan said. "But I will admit this – wherever it takes us, I will be glad to take a break from Senator politics."