Bound

Borrowing Trouble

Some spoilers from Jedi Apprentice.
No betas, therefore the mistakes are all mine.
See chapter one for disclaimers.

The rest of Qui-Gon's day passed with short moments of consciousness followed by longer periods of sleep. Obi-Wan, on the other hand, had been an alert and anxious presence at his side, alternating between sitting restlessly in his seat, pacing restlessly around the small room, or restlessly fingering the small holo recorder Vresh had given him as a naming day gift without ever actually turning it on to hear the message. Finally, after one restless circuit too many and a very loud stomach growl, Qui-Gon ordered him out of his room to rest and eat.

No sooner than when Obi-Wan had departed that Qui-Gon received his second non-medical guest.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you, Master Jinn."

"Not at all, Administrator Voluk as I seem to be at the mercy of your healing staff," Qui-Gon replied wryly. Ilia smiled as she stepped into the room proper.

"Then you are indeed a brave man. I hear they have all manner of needles, pokers, and sharp objects laying about here."

"Indeed, I believe I have been on the receiving end of some of their more nefarious devices during my stay here," Qui-Gon rejoined. The Administrator sidled up beside the Jedi's bed and looked down on his wrapped and wired body.

"How are you, really?"

"Far better than I was a day or two ago."

"From what the doctors say you are far better than you should be. Do all Jedi heal so quickly?"

Qui-Gon attempted a shrug, but his left shoulder was entirely uncooperative. Ilia pulled the seat that Obi-Wan had claimed closer to the bed.

"I saw Obi-Wan earlier. He looks much better now. When we first found you two in that mine we thought the worst had happened."

"You found us?"

"You don't know?" Ilia asked then she shook her head. "Of course you wouldn't know since you were quite unconscious at the time. Well, anyway, after you went off to find the Ghost we continued our search. When I hadn't heard from you the next day we added looking for you to our search patterns. I remembered your interest in the mines so a few of us started there."

"I thought you didn't have the numbers needed to search the mines."

"We didn't, but I hoped we didn't have to. I figured if you went into the mine to find him you would probably also be able to find your way back out," she answered. Qui-Gon nodded his head in understanding.

"You needed only to position your teams at each entrance and wait for us to emerge," he finished for her.

"What I didn't expect was for the little Ghost... I mean, Obi-Wan to stagger out alone. Apparently, he had been dragging you body through a kilometer of mining tunnels before he thought he heard something and rushed ahead to find help. When we found you, you were clutching this," she said as she reached into her trouser pocket and produced the small, red crystal Obi-Wan discovered earlier.

"What is it?" she asked. Qui-Gon managed to keep his surprise from reaching his face.

"You don't know?" he responded. The administrator shook her head.

"I've never seen this before in my life, but what I do know is that this is what Offworld is after."

That caught the master's attention.