| It Takes One to Know One By Jemmiah |
| "A problem you have, Master Windu?" Yoda's words, coming as they did right at the end of the afternoon council session, took everybody by surprise. Eleven pairs of eyes fixed themselves directly upon the inwardly uncomfortable figure of Mace Windu, who nonetheless appeared a perfect picture of resolute calm to his fellow jedi. Calm, that was, to all except Yoda - who seemed to be looking through him rather than at him. Just what exactly did he know, wondered Mace, before finally finding his voice. "There has been a slight complication as regards the arrangements made for the temporary care of Jemmiah Gleshan." Mace answered, deciding to stick with telling the bare bones of the story and nothing else. Why bog the discussion down with unnecessary and unasked for detail? He certainly wasn't going to mention the fact that he'd known of the problem prior to Qui-Gon's departure, not that he would deny it if the matter were raised. He wasn't ashamed of the fact that he'd made what he felt in his bones to be the right decision, but still, at the back of his mind G'emela's warning still sounded loud and clear. His friend would not look on the matter with a friendly eye when he and Obi-Wan arrived back… Old, intuitive Samir - in his last few days as a council member - cut straight to the chase with typical feline guile. "A problem? In what way?" The dark furred Togorian rumbled, flexing the claws on his hands out of instinct. "I thought that we had decided that Knight Lothric would be taking care of her until Master Jinn returned?" "Yes." Mace nodded, leaning forward earnestly. "This was the case. However, I received a communication from Knight Lothric, which informed me that she had been injured in the coup that recently took place on Klowda. She's not badly hurt." He added on seeing the concerned expressions around him. "She told you this?" Depa Billaba enquired. "She can still talk." Mace replied dryly out the corner of his mouth. "When she stops talking: then I'll be worried." "You mean she chewed you out once or twice?" Depa grinned back at him. Mace stared levelly back at her. "To continue," he said in a growl, "The situation on Klowda is so unstable that Knight Lothric is unable to return to Coruscant in the immediate future, which means that we will have to search elsewhere to find somebody suitable for Jemmiah to stay with." A series of fruitless glances back and forth amongst the circle of jedi did little to improve the situation. They had already discussed the matter in a previous session - not in great depth it had to be admitted - and had more or less plucked G'emela's name out of thin air because she was the only suitable person who was likely to be available at the time and who, as Qui-Gon's former padawan, might have a reason to perform such a duty. With this option closed to them, the problem loomed every bit as large as before. "This was one of the unfortunate reasons that I hesitated in backing Master Jinn's claim to the child." Samir admitted regretfully. "The situation is not a pleasant one. Must we go through this rigmarole every time we assign Master Jinn and his padawan a new mission? Or are we never to send them anywhere again? And the poor child…how must she feel? Passed back and forth like a discarded tunic amongst the laundry droids!" "A colorful analogy." Mace grunted. "An apt analogy, surely." Age had not blunted the feline's wits in the slightest. "And every bit as dignified." "We should not have agreed to let her stay." Plo Koon submitted, although clearly not happy in saying so. "I regret to admit it, but this is the first in what will surely prove a long sequence of such events." "Agreed we did!" Yaddle's voice seemed unusually harsh. "No regrets we should have. Remind you must I, of the reasons behind our decision?" Plo Koon accepted the mild rebuke without further dissention, yet an air of uncertainty lingered within the chamber, where the distraction of far distant sky cabs travelling amongst the tall buildings, visible through the plexi-glass windows, seemed a very welcome one indeed. There was silence, save for the impatient tap tapping of Yoda's stick against the decoratively tiled floor. "A pity this is." The wizened master remarked, his green, bat-like ears drooping like a wilting flower. "If known about this before we had, recalled Master Jinn we could have, hmm?" The canny eyes alighted once again on Mace Windu - then looked away. "Assigned another to take his place we would have." "It was at rather short notice." Mace felt his uneasiness returning in shovel loads. "It might have been difficult to replace him…" "Sent Master Berlingside, we could have." Yaddle opined. "Agreed;" Depa smiled widely, "a trip through the darkest, farthest regions of space would have done him the power of good!" "I don't think this particular mission would have suited Dex's individual style." Mace's brows closed together like two halves of a drawbridge. "It's not in his area of expertise." "Master Berlingside doesn't have an area of expertise." Samir answered witheringly. "Unless it's a demolition area. And as for style; you can dress a clown in jedi tunics and give him a lightsabre, but he's still every inch a clown!" "And you only say this because you're so fond of him." Master Windu shook his head, knowing exactly what it was like to be tried and tested by a demanding, show-off of a padawan. And Nat wasn't even possessed of Dex's buoyant good nature! Sometimes Mace wondered how he had ever coped… "I completed his training, I think that gives me more right than most to comment." Samir's mouth quirked into the feline equivalent of a toothy grin. He waved his hand, dismissing all irrelevant thoughts of his protégé-by-default. "As for this matter of the unfortunate Corellian child, we will simply have to think long and hard as to who we can get to replace Knight Lothric." "Why don't you take her on, Mace?" The fresh-faced Adi Gallia piped up, much amused. "I say if you can survive looking after Nat Kendal and myself, you could cheerfully adopt the galaxy and survive to tell the tale!" For a moment Mace felt extremely alarmed; then he realized that she was not being serious. At least he hoped that was the case! Offering a relieved smile, the master shook his head. He wasn't about to get conned into saying anything that might saddle him with the girl. Certainly, she was nice enough in her own way, but he'd seen the things that she'd done to Qui-Gon in the short amount of time spent under his roof. It was just as well his scalp was hairless: otherwise he'd just never feel safe from attacks with curlers, beads or color crawlers… "That's impossible: we agreed." He replied placidly. "It's not practical for we on the council to devote the time required to look after the child and adequately perform our duties here." One look around him informed Mace that the majority of his fellows appeared fairly relieved with the decision: evidently they relished the idea about as much as he did! "What about Master Ashdal?" Suggested Adi. "She's staying with her for the present - could we maybe cancel her mission?" "That would just cause more disruption." Countered Depa adamantly. "No, we will have to think again…" Mace waited until the chamber had fallen silent once more before risking a tentative opinion: one he wasn't certain would be especially well received. "I think I might have found someone." He ventured, feeling the weight of all those stares once again. Yaddle shuffled around in her chair. "Who?" Tanni peered over the sabaac cards clutched firmly within the grasp of his padded hand and narrowed one glorious green-gold eye, causing the whiskers on his brows to twitch upwards. He wasn't a natural sabaac player: he just didn't have that inbuilt sneakiness he felt must be inherent in all good players, be they professional gamblers or just Corellians with too much time on their hands. His opponent - of this he felt convinced - fell firmly into both categories, which rendered his chance of winning all the less probable. On the face of it a jedi with the force as his ally should be an easy victor over the most hardened of card sharks, but the feline's sense of fair play hampered any chance he had against a player who, inspite of her tender years, had obviously learned how to cheat with the best… "Somethin' wrong?" Jemmiah asked perhaps a touch too smugly for Tanni's liking. "Yes." Tanni let his gaze drop down to the cards once again, hoping by some miracle that they were less useless than they had at first appeared. "Forgive me if I'm wrong in my assertion, but I think you've been cheating." Jemmy's small, pointed face lit up with delight. "You think I've been cheating?" She grinned crookedly. "You mean you don't know? Hey, this is fantastic! I've beaten a jedi who doesn't know that I've been cheating!" Tanni folded his cards before him on the table, admitting defeat. The truth was that Jemmiah wouldn't have needed to cheat: the cards he'd been dealt had been highly unfavorable from the get-go and had continued to get worse with every additional selection. Luck of a Corellian? Tanni began to wonder, or had it been rigged right from the start? His force-prompted suspicions more than suggested the latter... "Why?" He asked, genuinely curious. "Why what?" "Cheat." Paused the Togorian, resting the side of his face against the palm of his hand. "I don't understand what the attraction is. You've not won honestly: you'll never have the satisfaction of knowing if you would have won on your own merits…how can that be pleasing?" "You know what your problem is?" Jemmiah replied, scooping up the sabaac cards in great armfuls and sliding them across the table towards her lest Tanni change his mind and decide to play on. "You're too honest. You wouldn't have lasted five minutes where I come from." She thumbed jerkily at her breastbone, a mixed gesture of indignation and pride - pride that she didn't know it was appropriate to feel. "I learned from the best! Taught me how to win at all costs…" "Taught you how to cheat!" Rejoined the honest feline, much amused. "I'm sorry, I just don't understand why you do it. There's no need!" Jemmy looked at him as if he'd grown another head. "Your male. You’re a jedi. If that's not a good reason to cheat, I don't know what is." The sarcasm-tinged voice answered "Besides, the real reason that I cheat is because I'm good at it. If I can get away with it," she shrugged, "why not? It's called ingenuity. I think." She added, pondering if that was infact the correct word. "Besides, if I don't cheat then how will I know that I'll win? You could have wiped the floor with me, and what good would that have done me, huh?" "Sportsmanship." Tanni shook his head in bemused disgust. "Look it up in the temple lexicon. It means to abide by the rules and to accept defeat or victory fairly. Doesn't that sound much more honorable? More worthy? More virtuous?" Jemmiah chewed idly at the end of her braided hair. "No." She said simply. "Not really." Tanni gave up. It wasn't worth the effort of metaphorically banging his head off the table. The poor girl not only had a closed mind when it came to such matters but a decidedly warped one at that, no doubt as a result of the rather unstable background she'd suffered over the past five or more years. What sort of examples would she be set in a brothel of all places, wondered Tanni bleakly. He couldn't imagine she'd have been taught anything of value at all as regarded morals and such like. How could she, considering the people who had raised her? Little wonder if his master had sworn him to secrecy, demanding that he tell nobody of the exploits that she and Master Jinn had undertaken on Nargotria… "That's the cynic in you speaking." Tanni remarked, swishing his silver striped tail around behind him. "Or is it the Corellian?" "Both." Jemmy winked at him, still in the mood to crow after her victory. "You want another go?" "So you can cheat again?" Tanni growled at her. "I think not." "I might not cheat this time." Jemmy countered. "But you still might." "Yeah, maybe…look, do you want to play or not?" Asked Jemmiah, stooping to pick up one of the cards that had fallen onto the floor whilst she'd been diligently gathering them up. "It's not as if I've got anything better to do right now." Her eyes flickered miserably around the room, wanting only to retreat back to Master Jinn's place and curl up on her bed for however long it took until he and Obi-Wan arrived home. Master Ashdal's place was tidy, (save for the occasional clump of Togorian cat dander) clean, bright and airy - the company was good (if a little pompous, in a feline sort of way) - but she just didn't feel comfortable at all. The problem didn't lie with Tanni or Vernice, but firmly with her. She wanted desperately for her mind to be taken off the imminent arrival of G'emela Lothric… "I'll pass, if you don't mind." Tanni scratched at a clump of loose fur, working it to the surface until it caught in his long talon-like nails. He toyed with the idea of eating the strands for a moment, an instinct that had never quite left him from when he was a youngling in the crèche, but then remembered that he had company and so put his feline urges to one side. Jemmiah looked at that instant utterly bored, fed up and totally miserable. "Great," she muttered unenthusiastically, "Just wonderful. How do I kill the next half-day? I don't know how to do anything else except for playing cards. It's the only thing I can think of that takes more than one…" She let her words trail off, and turned indignantly to face the opposite wall. "Obi-Wan says that you like to draw and paint." Tanni suggested hopefully. Jemmiah pulled a reluctant face at his suggestion. "Or that you like to build models." The Togorian added. "No-o-o-o!" Jemmy grimaced, scuffing the carpet with her foot. "I can't do that! I don't want to do anything that I have to do on my own…I just don't want to have to…I just don't!" She finished in an embarrassed flurry of words. Tanni smiled, his expressive face reflecting what appeared to be more than a lifetime's worth of understanding and sympathy. What was it about the jedi, Jemmiah reflected bitterly, that made them look at you as if they could see through your skin, seeing the unpleasantness that hid beneath the surface? Why did they seem to know what was wrong before she herself did? Why were they always correct? There were times when she could easily have cursed the force for being able to reveal so much about her to those with the mind to look; chipping away behind her carefully constructed mask. "You don't want to be by yourself because you don't want to think." Tanni finished her sentence with a conviction borne from the truth. "You don't want to think, because you are afraid of what might happen to Master Jinn and Obi-Wan. And most of all…" He scrunched up his brows, concentrating on the uncomfortable sensation of alarm exuded by the Corellian, "You are afraid of Knight Lothric." He paused, not understanding her reasoning. "Why?" "I wish people would stop saying I'm afraid." Jemmiah reproved him with her patented scowl. "I'm not, okay? I'd just rather be back at home with Quigg…with Master Jinn and Ben, that's all. I don't need a babysitter. Darn sure that G'emela didn't want to baby sit me! So the pair of us will just hate each other from the start!" "Jedi do not hate." Tanni answered sagely. "Besides, I don't think that is the answer." "Well, if you're so smart - you tell me!" Jemmiah refused to look at him, not certain she wanted to hear what he had to say, or his opinion of her. Who was she kidding? She was scared - and Tanni had homed in on that fact like a heat-seeking missile! She did resent the intrusion in her life, just when it seemed to be going so well, Sophie excepted. G'emela most certainly hadn't been the cause and yes, she was blaming her unfairly for something that wasn't her fault, yet some twisted part of her logic kept telling her to dislike the woman…that if she figured anywhere in the equation then somehow some of the blame must fall on her… She'd spent a lifetime of hating people. Her anger had helped her through each dreadful, hopeless day…loathing Rufus Merdan and the way he used people to achieve his goals, not caring that they were real, flesh and blood people at all with feelings, who hurt and cried. Hatred - yes, that was not too fine a word for it - for Levinstowe, who both frightened her and made her boil with an uncontrollable rage she couldn't even begin to control. Disgust for mindless, worthless objects like Keleskladt, who liked to torment those weaker than themselves because it made them look big. If she hated Sophie now, was it any wonder? If she chose to dislike G'emela, it was more to do with the irrational side of her behavior, the one she longed to change but could not. Her resentment was due more to the fact that she was there whilst certain, much missed jedi were not, rather than anything she'd heard about the woman… "I think you are envious." Tanni answered seriously. "Of Knight Lothric, I mean." "Did you bang yourself on the head or somethin'?" Jemmy scowled at him. "I've never heard so much rot in my life!" "You are jealous of her place in her former master's affections and have made up your mind to dislike her and anyone else who falls into that category." Continued Tanni, making a study of her rapidly reddening face. "Why, that is so silly! Of course Knight Lothric is special to Master Jinn…how else would you have him treat her? She was his padawan and he respects her as a jedi and as a person. What would you have him do, ignore her?" "Leave me alone!" Jemmy snapped, jumping to her feet. "I don't need this mind-stuff! If I need a S.P.O.O.K I'll go see one without anyone else trying to tell me what's going on in my head!" "What about Obi-Wan?" Pressed Tanni, determined not to lose sight of the point. "When he passes his trials and becomes a knight, would you have Master Jinn never speak to him again? Or remove all traces of his existence? Throw away the holos…cast aside the training vids? Is it just because Knight Lothric's a woman that you've decided she's a threat?" He asked, genuinely curious. Jemmiah's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. She couldn't believe what Tanni was saying - mainly because there was a whole load of truth in it. How was she to defend herself against a jedi-know-all? Okay, perhaps she was a little envious of G'emela. For all that she was apparently blunt and to the point, she'd seen the proud, father-like way that Qui-Gon had looked when he'd mentioned her…or when he'd showed her the holos taken at her knighting ceremony. Why did he never look on her like that? She could never decide if it was the way that she appeared…or sounded. Did she talk too loud? Did she irritate him with her accent, just like she did Sophie? Did he dislike the way that she expressed her opinions so readily? Maybe he hated that she just caused him so much trouble, and the way that she was frequently ill. Surely that must hold back his training of Obi-Wan? He'd got up early on that morning to avoid her. She didn't need the force to tell her that. And he hadn't even said goodbye to her properly. What did that say about the way he regarded her? G'emela must have been a saint next to her! Jemmiah gritted her teeth, perfectly prepared to start disliking the jedi all over again… "There's no need to feel like that." Tanni tried to calm her, reaching out a friendly paw, only to have her shrug it away miserably. "If Master Jinn didn't think fondly of you then he wouldn’t have asked the council for you to stay in the first place." "I'm a nuisance." Jemmy closed her eyes, the words leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. "That's what he thinks of me. She's perfect and I'm useless. She's tall and strong and a jedi who can do anything she likes and I'm just…" She thought instantly of Sophie's particular favorite expression, "a stunted bog-weed who always gets into trouble and makes everyone wish I was out of sight." "You surely don't believe that?" Tanni's whiskers shot rigidly out to the side in surprise. "What's to believe? It's the truth, isn't it? And yes, I am afraid of G'emela. You happy now?" Demanded Jemmiah, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her whole before she expired through the humiliation of such a degrading confession. Tanni gawked at her. "There's no need. Really there isn't…" "How do you know?" Jemmiah hid her face in her hands, trying to stifle the heat in her cheeks. "Have you met her?" "No." The Togorian cast his mind back, trying to think on what he should say that would possibly calm the distraught child down and be of some use. He wasn't used to dealing with people who were just so…emotionally vulnerable. In some ways, when he tried to harness the force and tap into the numerous, turbulent sensations that spilled forth from her, it was like a stun-charge backfiring against his brain, leaving him utterly perplexed. He needed to say something…anything. Otherwise he felt certain she would come to regret her candid remarks, if she wasn't already, and would eventually refuse to speak to him. How could he gain her trust and be useful at the same time in furthering G'emela's cause? "I've never met her." "See? How can you know what she's like?" "My master has though, many times." Tanni replied, affecting a casual tone to his voice. "And she's not lacking in taste, is she? Perhaps she sees Knight Lothric as slightly inquisitive…a little nosy perhaps. But information IS her job, and she's very good at it, too, by all accounts. Perhaps it's difficult for her to switch off?" Jemmiah looked at him, clearly disgruntled but listening all the same. He at least had her attention. Now he had to capitalize on it. "I did hear tell of a story related by Master Jinn to my own master," Tanni lowered his voice so that Jemmiah would automatically have to lean inwards to hear him, which she did, "that might leave you seeing a different side to both Master Jinn and Knight Lothric. It seems that whilst on a mission one time, Master Jinn got caught up in some kind of skirmish with some rather unfriendly types who decided to try and hold him hostage to barter with. They wanted to trade him for weapons, ammunition…the kind of thing that a jedi generally isn't supposed to allow himself to be swapped for. Especially as he was trying to mediate a peaceful settlement between the two warring groups." "Yeah?" Jemmy blinked, seating herself once again. "What happened?" "Knight Lothric, who was safe and unwilling to leave her master in such peril, disobeyed his edicts and tried to effect a rescue. My master says that she'd long had a hankering to fly speeders and swoops. Anything fast and dangerous, really. And so she stole a souped-up speeder and flew off to the rescue." He could see the excitement building in Jemmiah's eyes, almost as if she had put herself in G'emela's place and was in her mind launching an airborne counter attack against Master Jinn's captors. Tanni sighed to see it: the poor girl so wanted Qui-Gon's approval that she would just about have done anything to win his favor, even with some hair brained scheme! And it was hair-brained, just as G'emela had found to her cost… "Go on." Urged Jemmy, huddling in closer. "Well," Tanni's expression soured slightly, "If I remember correctly, my master said that Master Jinn managed to get free all by himself, and did not need rescuing! However, Knight Lothric managed to crash the speeder and very nearly killed herself in the process! I'm afraid that Master Jinn never really approved of Knight Lothric's love of fast transport, especially after that incident. My master said that he all but banned her from sitting on another speeder for the rest of her days, the memory was that unhappy for him!" Jemmiah, Tanni noticed, was smiling widely, even although she was biting down hard on her lower lip. "There, you have more in common with Knight Lothric than you thought, I think." Tanni shook his head disapprovingly. "Obi-Wan told me that you desperately wanted to learn to ride a swoop when you were old enough. I'm sure if you ask her…" "She'll teach me?" Jemmiah's eyes gleamed with impossible brightness. "She'll tell you about the story." Corrected Tanni shortly, knowing now that Jemmiah was visualizing lessons in flying ill-cobbled pieces of scrap metal all around the Coruscant skyline, darting amongst the traffic queues and leaving trails of mayhem wherever she went. "From her own point of view. Maybe you like her a little better now, yes?" "Shoozer, yes!" Jemmy grinned, rubbing her hands together excitedly. "Someone who tried to rescue Master Jinn and nearly got killed in the process! You know, that's kinda romantic! Like some horrid cheap holo flic! But hell's teeth, I like horrid and cheap holo flics! Hey, that explains why Master J turned several shades of grey when I told him I wanted to be a swoop rider when I grew up!" Jemmiah felt delighted with her own logical deductions. "Thanks, Tanni! You've done me ever such a big favor!" "Happy now?" Tanni smirked knowingly. "You bet! In fact I'd better start to get ready…G'emela will be here in the next twelve hours..." The words were no sooner out Jemmiah's mouth when she saw Tanni look round towards the doorway. Whilst still young, Tanni possessed a powerful torso that forced the Corellian to crane her head to see what the felineoid was looking at with such interest. Squinting past his shoulder, Jemmiah could see two figures in the frame of the entrance; the first easily recognizable as Master Ashdal. Well, nothing wrong with that, Jemmy though to herself. It was after all her own apartment. But for some reason the presence of the second, shadowy figure loitering in the corridor made Jemmiah shiver. Was that Master Windu? What could he want? "Er…" Vernice gave a polite little cough, her face rather serious. "Jemmiah, I wonder if Master Windu could have a quick word with you? It's about Knight Lothric…" |
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