Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Page 6

  “We must keep our faith in the Republic,” Queen Jamillia said firmly. “The day we stop believing democracy can work is the day we lose it.”

  “Let us pray that day never comes,” Padmé murmured.

  “In the meantime, we must consider your own safety,” the Queen went on. Anakin stiffened, wondering whether she intended to discuss arrangements in front of all her attendants, but Sio Bibble nodded and the rest of the court melted away. When only he and the Queen were left, he looked at Anakin and said, “What is your suggestion, Master Jedi?”

  Anakin opened his mouth but Padmé was there before him. “Anakin’s not a Jedi yet, Counselor. He’s still a Padawan learner. I was thinking—”

  “Hey, hold on a minute,” Anakin said, thinking, A Padawan is still a member of the Order, and this is my assignment! Besides, she hadn’t had to make a point of it. His Padawan braid was clearly visible; Sio Bibble must have seen it and known what it meant.

  “Excuse me!” Padmé said stiffly over her shoulder. Turning back to the Queen, she went on, “I was thinking I would stay in the Lake Country. There are some places up there that are very isolated.”

  She has no business dismissing me like that! Anakin thought angrily. “Excuse me,” he said coldly. “I am in charge of security here, M’lady.”

  Padmé turned and said deliberately, “Annie, my life is at risk, and this is my home. I know it very well; that is why we’re here. I think it would be wise for you to take advantage of my knowledge in this instance.”

  That’s not the problem, and you know it! Anakin almost blurted out the words, but he saw the Queen and Sio Bibble exchange amused glances, and restrained himself. Padmé was trying to annoy him; she had called him Annie again, the little-boy name he was growing to hate. But he couldn’t take chances with her safety just because he was annoyed with her. Taking a deep breath, he muttered, “Sorry, M’lady.”

  “Perfect,” the Queen said. “It’s settled, then.” She rose, and looked at Padmé. “I had an audience with your father yesterday. He hopes you will visit your mother before you leave. Your family is very worried.”

  That was unexpected, but it didn’t sound like a security problem. And Padmé’s family—Anakin had never thought about what sort of family she must have. He looked at her, and was surprised to see a faintly apprehensive look on her face. What was she worried about? Maybe she was afraid they’d tell him about her childhood pranks. He grinned suddenly. It would be nice to have some ammunition to use the next time Padmé started calling him Annie. Still grinning, he followed her out of the throne room.

  Yoda looked out over the training floor, watching the class of four-year-olds at their practice. The Force was bright and strong in these children of all species, and it was a pleasure to teach them. Each child held a miniature, low-powered lightsaber and wore a training helmet that could block out sight, so that they had to depend on the Force in order to strike the small droids that danced around them. The intense focus of so many young minds made Yoda almost forget his own centuries of age.

  “Don’t think,” he said, sensing a faltering in one small figure. “Feel. Be as one with the Force. Help you, it will.”

  The child relaxed, and her next swing connected with the training remote. Yoda smiled. Then he saw a different movement on the far side of the room. Obi-Wan Kenobi came through the door, and though he smiled at the practicing children, Yoda sensed that his mind was elsewhere. “Younglings, enough,” Yoda called. “A visitor we have. Welcome him.”

  As the children powered down their lightsabers, Yoda moved slowly forward. “Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, meet the mighty Bear Clan,” he said, nodding at the children.

  “Welcome, Master Obi-Wan!” the children chorused.

  Obi-Wan nodded a greeting, but turned at once to Yoda. “I am sorry to disturb you, Master,” he said.

  “What help to you can I be?” Yoda answered.

  “I’m looking for a planet described to me by an old friend. I trust him. But the system doesn’t show up on the archive maps.”

  The implications were obvious, and serious, but there was no reason to upset the children. And this would make an excellent training problem. Yoda twitched his ears up and said calmly, “Lost a planet, Master Obi-Wan has. How embarrassing.” One of the children smothered a giggle; he pretended not to notice. “Liam, the shades. An interesting puzzle.” He stumped over to Obi-Wan and waved his cane at his class. “Gather, younglings, around the map reader. Clear your minds, and find Obi-Wan’s wayward planet, we will try. Bobby, the lights, please.”

  Obediently, the children clustered around the shaft of the map reader as the lights dimmed. This class had not seen it in use before, and there were exclamations of surprise when Obi-Wan brought out a small glass ball—the portable map record—and placed it in the hollow top of the reader shaft. The surprise turned to delighted laughs when a three-dimensional hologram of the galaxy sprang up, occupying a large part of the room. Stars of varying brightness seemed to float in the classroom air, and a few of the children tried to catch them.

  Obi-Wan walked into the hologram and stopped. “This is where it ought to be—but it isn’t. Gravity is pulling all the stars in this area inward to this spot. There should be a star here…but there isn’t.”

  “Most interesting,” Yoda said. “Gravity’s silhouette remains, but the star and all of its planets have disappeared. How can this be?” Again, he turned to his class. “Now, younglings, in your mind, what is the first thing you see? An answer? A thought? Anyone?”

  There was a moment of silence. Then a boy raised his hand. Yoda nodded, and the child said, “Master? Because someone erased it from the archive memory.”

  “Yes!” called the other children happily. “That’s what happened. Someone erased it!”

  Obi-Wan was staring at the children. A small, serious girl looked at him and explained, “If the planet blew up, the gravity would go away.”

  Yoda chuckled, as much at the expression on Obi-Wan’s face as out of pleasure at the performance of his students. “Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is. The Padawan is right. Go to the center of gravity’s pull, and find your planet you will.”

  Still looking a little stunned, Obi-Wan retrieved his map. “But Master Yoda,” he asked as he turned to go, “who could have erased information from the archives? That’s impossible. Isn’t it?”

  Strong is the Force with this one. He sees past his own troubles. Yoda frowned, but he could not refuse an answer to one who had asked the proper question. “Dangerous and disturbing this puzzle is,” he admitted. “Only a Jedi could have erased those files.” He felt Obi-Wan’s startled concern, and nodded. “Who, and why, harder to answer are. Meditate on this, I will. May the Force be with you.”

  Obi-Wan repeated the wish with more sincerity in his voice than was usual, even among Jedi. As he walked back to his class, Yoda found himself nodding. May the Force be with us all.

  Obi-Wan gave his starfighter a last inspection. The R4 droid swiveled in its socket in the wing of the small red-and-white spacecraft, and everything seemed to be in order.

  Beside him, Master Windu watched, his dark face solemn. “Be wary,” he said as Obi-Wan finished. “This disturbance in the Force is growing stronger.”

  Obi-Wan nodded. Every Jedi could feel it now, and he’d heard that even some of the students could sense it.

  More than ever, it made him worry about Anakin and Padmé. I don’t care how sure the Council is; we should not have been given this assignment. He’s drawn to her too strongly. Master Windu looked at him, as if asking what was wrong. Obi-Wan sighed. “I’m afraid Anakin won’t be able to protect the Senator,” he said.

  Mace Windu considered. “Why?” he asked calmly.

  “He has a—an emotional connection with her,” Obi-Wan said. “It’s been there since he was a boy. Now he is confused, distracted—”

  “Obi-Wan, you must have faith that he will take the right pa
th,” Master Windu interrupted.

  Obi-Wan nodded. Yet he could not help wondering whether Master Windu really understood what he was trying to say. Perhaps he should leave a message for Master Yoda. No, Master Windu would surely tell him, and in any case, there was nothing any of them could do about it now. Anakin will have to manage on his own. He climbed into the starfighter and punched the button to close the canopy.

  “May the Force be with you,” Mace Windu said as the protective cover slid closed.

  The planet Kamino was exactly where it ought to have been. Obi-Wan frowned and muttered to R4 as he brought his starfighter in toward the planet. In spite of Master Yoda’s words, he hadn’t wanted to admit to himself that someone had tampered with the Jedi archives, but plainly, someone had. Who? And what else have they erased? He shook his head and put the questions out of his mind. That was Master Yoda’s problem now. His job was to track down the mysterious bounty hunter in the silver armor and jetpack.

  His request for landing instructions was answered by a Kaminoan who introduced herself as Taun We. “You’ll want to land at Tipoca City,” she told him. “There’s an open landing platform on the south side; I’ll transmit the coordinates.”

  Obi-Wan took his time about landing. Kamino’s sun was a hot star, and most of its surface was water; the combination meant that clouds and rain wrapped the planet almost continuously. Good weather here probably means a day when there’s no lightning and the wind isn’t blowing the rain sideways, Obi-Wan thought as he wrestled with his controls. When the ship was down at last, he donned his cloak and ran through the dark, driving rain toward the tower at the far side of the landing platform. As he neared, a door slid open. Gratefully, he went inside.

  The sounds of the storm outside cut off abruptly as the door slid shut behind him. The inner walls of the tower glowed bright white, lighting the hall with cool, shadowless brilliance. The sudden light made Obi-Wan squint, unable to see clearly for a moment.

  “Master Jedi, so good to see you,” said a soft voice.

  Obi-Wan pushed back his soaking hood, wiped the rain from his face, and saw Taun We waiting for him. Their brief discussion over the viewscreen had shown him her huge almond-shaped eyes and paper-white skin, but he had not realized how tall and thin she was. More surprising was the genuine pleasure he sensed in her as she went on, “The Prime Minister expects you.”

  “I’m expected?” Had someone warned these people about him? Why?

  “Of course!” she replied cheerfully. “He is anxious to see you. After all these years, we were beginning to think you weren’t coming. Now please, this way!”

  This is extremely odd, Obi-Wan thought as they made their way through the corridors of the city. But he sensed no fear or dismay, not from his guide and not from any of the other beings they passed. The Kaminoan took him through a maze of corridors directly to a large office. The room had no windows, but it hardly needed any; its walls glowed with the same cool, bright light as the corridors. As they entered, another Kaminoan rose politely from his seat behind a wide glass-and-metal desk. Taun We introduced him as Lama Su, the Prime Minister.

  “I trust you are going to enjoy your stay,” Lama Su told him once the courtesies were out of the way. “We are most happy you have arrived at the best part of the season.”

  They call this good weather? But remembering Dexter’s comment about manners, Obi-Wan smiled and nodded. “You make me feel most welcome.”

  “You will be delighted to hear that we are on schedule,” Lama Su continued. “Two hundred thousand units are ready, with another million well on the way.”

  Two hundred thousand…units? Of what? “That is…good news,” Obi-Wan said cautiously.

  “Please tell your Master Sifo-Dyas that we have every confidence his order will be met on time and in full. He is well, I hope?”

  Obi-Wan blinked. “I’m sorry—Master…?”

  “Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas.” Lama Su tilted his head forward. “He’s still a leading member of the Jedi Council, is he not?”

  “I’m afraid Master Sifo-Dyas was killed almost ten years ago,” Obi-Wan said slowly. More like eleven or twelve years, I think—but I could have the times mixed up. I’ll have to check with Master Yoda later.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” Lama Su sounded sincere, and Obi-Wan sensed no falsehood in his statement. “But I’m sure he would have been proud of the army we’ve built for him.”

  An army? Dexter had said the Kaminoans were cloners. A million units, Obi-Wan thought numbly. An army of a million troops. That’s enough to conquer the Republic. He swallowed hard, then hesitated, trying to think how best to phrase his next question. “Tell me, Prime Minister,” he said at last, “when my Master first contacted you about the army, did he say who it was for?”

  “Of course he did,” Lama Su said in a reassuring tone. “This army is for the Republic.”

  For the Republic? Obi-Wan struggled to make sense of what he was being told. Sifo-Dyas had ordered this army ten years ago—that must have been just after the Naboo war. He had been a powerful Jedi. Had he forseen the need, even then?

  Lama Su rose and went on, “You must be anxious to inspect the units for yourself.”

  He has no idea how true that is, Obi-Wan thought. Aloud, he said, “That’s why I’m here.”

  After a brief visit with Padmé’s family, Anakin escorted her up to the Lake Country. The lodge Padmé had chosen for them to stay at was beautiful, like everything else on Naboo, and just as isolated as she had promised. The island it stood on was one of several that glowed a rich green in the middle of a shimmering blue lake at the foot of a mountain range. The caretaker drove them out to the lodge in a water speeder, which gave Anakin plenty of time to study it. It only took a few seconds to see that anyone approaching the lodge would be easy to spot long before they arrived, so Anakin relaxed and enjoyed the view.

  The lodge itself seemed large to Anakin, though it was small compared to the palaces that lined the streets of the capital. He paused on a terrace just outside, leaning on a carved marble balustrade that separated the terrace from the flower garden just below. Padmé joined him, and it was no effort at all to turn his attention from the distant mountains to the girl beside him.

  “I love the water,” Padmé said dreamily.

  “I do, too,” Anakin said, looking down at her. “I guess it comes from growing up on a desert planet.”

  Padmé gave him a sidelong look, then dropped her eyes to the lake once more. “We used to lie on the sand and let the sun dry us, and try to guess the names of the birds singing.”

  “I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft…and smooth.” Without thinking, he touched her arm.

  Padmé gave him another nervous glance and waved at the lake, pulling her arm away as if by accident. “There was a very old man who lived on the island,” she said. “He used to make glass out of sand. And vases and necklaces out of the glass.” She smiled, and looked up at him as if to share her memories. “They were magical.”

  “Everything here is magical,” Anakin said, staring down into her eyes. She had the most beautiful brown eyes.…

  “You could look into the glass and see the water. The way it ripples and moves,” Padmé went on. She lowered her eyes. “It looked so real…but it wasn’t.”

  “Sometimes, when you believe something to be real, it becomes real.”

  “I used to think that if you looked too deeply into the glass you would lose yourself,” Padmé said softly. But she didn’t seem to be talking about the glass anymore.

  “I think it’s true,” Anakin said. He felt warm, and he couldn’t look away from Padmé. He didn’t want to look away. He wanted to be here, with her, forever. He bent forward and kissed her.

  At first, she didn’t resist; then suddenly she pulled away. The abrupt movement brought Anakin back to his senses as well, and he let her go.r />
  “No. I shouldn’t have done that,” Padmé said.

  “I’m sorry,” Anakin replied. Well, he wasn’t sorry that he had kissed her; his lips still tingled from the pressure of hers. But he was sorry that she was distressed. “When I’m around you, my mind is no longer my own.”

  “It’s the situation,” Padmé said, carefully not looking at him. “The stress—”

  “The view,” Anakin put in softly, his eyes lingering on the soft curve of her neck. But Padmé’s head was still turned away, and she didn’t see.

  Lama Su and Taun We began Obi-Wan’s tour with the replication area where racks of embryos were growing in fluid-filled glass balls. “Very impressive,” Obi-Wan said.

  “I’d hoped you would be pleased,” Lama Su said, smiling. “Clones can think creatively. You’ll find that they are immensely superior to droids.”

  You may be manufacturing them, but they’re people, not droids. Obi-Wan could feel the living Force in each of the clones, just as it existed in every other living thing. But he kept his face calm as they went on to an ordinary classroom filled with boys about ten years old. Except that these boys had identical faces below the exact same black, curly hair.

  “You mentioned growth acceleration,” Obi-Wan said in a neutral tone.

  “Oh, yes,” Lama Su said earnestly. “It’s essential. Otherwise, a mature clone would take a lifetime to grow. Now we can do it in half the time.”

  Obi-Wan stared at the boys. “These?”

  “Were started about five years ago,” Lama Su replied, obviously pleased by Obi-Wan’s surprise.

  Their next stop was an eating area. Hundreds of identical young men sat at long tables. Again, Obi-Wan saw the same dark hair, the same strong features. Even their expressions were the same.

  “You’ll find they are totally obedient, taking any order without question,” Lama Su said. “We modified their genetic structure to make them less independent than the original host.”