Chapter 3
Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters.
Chapter 2
After they left Watto’s shop they began to talk amongst themselves as the money Watto wanted wasn’t Republic currency, Padmé sighed, “So what now?”
“Don’t worry,” Qui-Gon said, “The Force shall aid us,” and radioed the ship looking for anything they could sell, like the wardrobe.
Andrew looked down, there wasn’t much he could do and if he could he would give his allowance, he would but the Jedi said that their money wasn’t good, the guy needed something more real.
“This stinks,” Jar Jar muttered, “We shall be robbed and crunched!!”
“Unlikely,” Qui-Gon said, “We have nothing of value, that’s the problem. Let’s head back to the ship and discuss where to go from there.”
As they headed back Jar Jar noticed a tasty looking frog and suddenly used his tongue to get it and suddenly coughed as the shopkeeper wanted him to pay for the frog, causing it to go flying through the sky into some creature’s soup.
Selbulba looked up and suddenly jumped on Jar Jar, ready to tear the Gungan’s head off his body for what happened when Anakin and Faith rushed over and began converse with the Dug. Selbulba growled and muttered something offensive and Anakin laughed, “Yeah, if you killed me then you’d have to pay my master for me.”
Andrew blanched at what the other boy had said; it would be horrible if he got killed and he noticed that Padmé looked awful too. This place was starting to lose its appeal as it was so different from Naboo.
Faith explained how dangerous the Dug was and Jar Jar said, “Mesa not wantin trouble, isa the last thing mesa wanting.”
“Nevertheless,” Qui-Gon said, “They’re right, you were stepping into trouble again. Thank you my young friends,” and they were about to walk off.
Andrew looked back at both of them and felt a wave of sorrow, it wasn’t fair that they were free and they were slaves. He kept remembering his father explaining that to them in length.
Anakin wanted to make friends of both of them, first he had a few friends but most of them looked down at them because they were slaves and more than a few tried to get forceful with Faith, she was getting attractive or so mom said.
Faith sighed, “Your ship far from here?”
“It’s on the outskirts of the city,” Padmé said as she began to walk away from them.
“There’s a sandstorm coming,” Anakin said, “And those are dangerous. You should really come with us for shelter, come on you can come with us,” and dragged them to their parent’s place.
They walked to their place in the slave quarters and Faith swore she heard a woman’s voice whispering comforting things to her.
Anakin looked up at her and said, “They seem nice, right?”
“Well,” Faith said, “They haven’t ripped our throats out yet have they?” Anakin nodded and Faith laughed as they went in.
Shmi smiled at her children and sighed as she saw they brought more guests but it was alright as her children liked helping others, which meant she raised them right and smiled, “I’m Shmi Skywalker, welcome to my home.”
“I’m Padmé Naberrie and that’s Andrew.”
“Mesa being Jar Jar Binks.”
“And I am Qui-Gon Jinn; your children were kind enough to give us shelter.”
Andrew sat down as Shmi offered fruit to them, he felt bad about taking anything they offered as he could tell they had little but dad always said it was rude to refuse food. As he ate the fruit Shmi regarded him kindly and said, “So where are you guys from?”
“Umm,” Padmé said, “Naboo, we’re.”
She couldn’t finish her sentence as Anakin suddenly piped up, “Are you Jedi? I saw your laser sword.”
“Perhaps I killed a Jedi and took his weapon from him,” Qui-Gon said as he suddenly stopped Jar Jar from using his tongue to grab the food.
“No one can kill a Jedi,” Anakin stated as if it were a fact, “That’s impossible.”
“I wish that was true,” Qui-Gon said quietly as he ate a bit of the fruit.
Anakin looked down at his feet and said, “I dreamt I was a Jedi, I came back here and freed the slaves. Are you here to free us?”
Qui-Gon looked at Anakin and smiled sadly, “I’m actually on a critical mission for the Republic. I haven’t come to free slaves, I’m sorry.”
“I think you have,” Anakin said. He decided to change the subject and asked, “Has anyone ever seen a pod race before?”
“They have them on Malastare,” Qui-Gon said, “Very fast and very dangerous, you must have Jedi reflexes to race?”
“Well,” Anakin said proudly, “I’m a racer. They’re having a big race tomorrow on Boonta Eve; you could enter my racer and say it’s your own.”
“No!!” Shmi said, “I die every time Watto makes you race in one of those things and besides, Watto won’t let you race it.”
“He doesn’t know I built it mom, Qui-Gon could say he won it and I could race it for him and if I win he could have enough money to get the parts they want.”
Andrew looked down at his feet and thought, ‘A bit of a risk, especially to Anakin and if Anakin failed then Naboo might never be free.’
“Is there anyone friendly to the Republic who can help us?” Padmé asked, “I mean these junk dealers must have a weakness, right?”
Shmi sighed, “Yes, gambling. Everything revolves around those damned races and Anakin and Faith can help you, they were meant to help you.”
‘Wow,’ Andrew thought, ‘That was a bit weird, her children were meant to help us? How did that work?’ He saw Qui-Gon looking at both of them and nodded with a weird look on his face.
As they finished Qui-Gon looked at Andrew intently as well, making Andrew more than a little uncomfortable with how he was being stared at. Padmé sat between her brother and Qui-Gon.
Anakin suddenly smiled “Do you want to see the Pod Racer I built?”
Andrew nodded as he got up; Padmé was looking at Qui-Gon who kept looking at the three of them oddly. He looked at Padmé and asked, “Has Andrew ever shown any signs of force sensitivity before?”
“Not that I know of,” she answered honestly, “But we really never tested him for it you know.”
Qui-Gon looked thoughtful, ‘The Force was strong with all three of them that was certain.’ He wanted to have them all tested so he began to formulate a plan to get them all to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to check for certain but he could test them for their Midi-chlorian count right now.
As they worked on the racer Andrew noticed that Anakin’s friends were a bit on the snobby side because they called the Pod Racer a piece of junk, which wasn’t nice, though Anakin’s friend Kitster was nice enough as he was helping with building it.
Qui-Gon watched Faith, Anakin and Andrew work on the Racer; he looked at Shmi and said, “You should be proud of your children, they give without thought for themselves.”
“Yes,” Shmi said, “They’re both very special, they’re.”
“They have special powers,” Qui-Gon stated, “They can both see things before they happen, it’s a Jedi trait. If they were born in the Republic they’d have been identified early on and taken to the Jedi Temple for training, the Force is strong with them that much is obvious. May I ask who their father was?”
Shmi smiled softly, “There was no father for Anakin; I carried him, gave birth to him and that was it but Faith; she appeared out of a massive sandstorm almost ten years ago, I couldn’t leave her alone here so I took her in.
Qui-Gon nodded, he was going test both Faith and Anakin but his gaze turned to Andrew too, he attempted to look at both Faith and Andrew through the Force but found his vision blocked by something else.
Meanwhile a silent dark ship landed on Tatoonine, its sole occupant walked out wearing black robes. He stared at the city of Mos Espa as the two suns set and smiled, ’My quarry is somewhere down there and she will not escape again,’ as he sent three droids to go look for them.
Andrew sighed as he sat alone, watching Padmé and Faith conversing about something that he was sure they were interested in, maybe they were becoming friends? When Anakin came up and said, “Did you want to see the droid I built?”
“Sure,” Andrew smiled, as they went to his room and again Andrew was struck by how much bigger his room on Naboo was, he saw the droid and though, ‘Looks cool, like a protocol droid.’
“His name’s C-3PO, I built him to help mom around the house,” Anakin stated proudly, “Do you like droids?”
Andrew nodded, “I’m saving up for one of the R4 models I think,” when R2-D2 let out a nasty squawk.
“Oh, sorry,” Andrew said, “I mean maybe I could take you with me; I like R2’s as well.”
“You can understand him?” Anakin asked surprised.
“I guess I can,” Andrew said, “I mean I think Droidspeak is easy to understand.”
“Cool, so why do you want a droid?” Anakin asked, “To help with chores?”
“No, mom wouldn’t let me get that lazy,” Andrew laughed, “She doesn’t like droids to much, she thinks people will get too used to having droids working for them and get too lazy.”
“My mom would love to have a droid to help her around our home, it’d make her and Faith’s lives easier, I think.”
Andrew shrugged, “I want a droid because I’ll probably want a companion for when I leave Naboo. I wanna explore the galaxy to look for anything, to see every system I can.”
Anakin nodded, “I want to explore them all too, just to get off this planet. I hate sand so much as it gets everywhere.”
Faith walked in and said, “Umm, Andrew, right?” He nodded and she said, “The Jedi wants to see you for something.”
“Alright,” Andrew said as he ran out to see Qui-Gon who smiled at him.
“Andrew,” he asked, “Could I do a blood test on you? To test for infections, I just want to be safe.”
“Okay,” Andrew said as warily as he could as Qui-Gon took his sample and he walked off.
Qui-Gon looked at Andrew and again felt the ancient presence looking at him regarding him coldly; he also got the feeling from Faith but the presence around her seemed kind, familiar, like he had felt it before.
He got Anakin’s blood and told Obi-Wan to scan their Midi-Chlorian count and waited for the results.
Obi-Wan looked at Anakin’s blood first and nearly collapsed, ‘Over twenty thousand count? No Jedi had a count like that, not even Master Yoda. The girl has one that was nearly as great and so did the other boy, what was going on here?’ He called Qui-Gon and said, “Master, they have very high counts, all of them.”
“Thank you Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon said as he walked in and saw the three of them sitting at the table, all of them had incredible potential, if they and Anakin was, in his mind, possibly the chosen one conceived by the Midi-chlorian’s themselves and how did Andrew avoid being tested? Naboo was in the Republic, he should’ve been taken as soon as he was tested.
He would have to think about the mystery that was Andrew later as they had to get off Tatoonine first and then the Council and he could work out this mystery together.
TBC
Anakin will be doing the pod race by himself, the reason why will be in the next chapter.
What should Qui-Gon tell the council about the three children? What will the Council’s reaction be? Anakin and Faith will be trained as Jedi but who should Faith’s trainer be?
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