It is a time of turmoil in the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying systems is under dispute.
The powerful Trade Federation uses their private armies to enforce their extortionate tariffs, placing systems that do not submit under military blockade. Deep in the Core, the Senate endlessly debates the legality of such measures, though this is cold comfort to the suffering people of the Outer Rim.
In secret, the Supreme Chancellor dispatches teams of Jedi Knights, guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to troubled areas in order to settle the matter directly. In many of these places, this is the first time a Jedi has been seen in generations. Following their negotiations, some choose to remain on assignment for a time, dealing with other problems that have come to their attention...
Anakin Skywalker is quite the problem child, no matter who you ask. She doesn't obey, lashing out at the slavers instead of being properly cowed. She steals. She tells the truth incessantly, wickedly. She takes the lessons of violence the slavers teach and turns them back on her owners with an unholy glee.
A normal slave would've been killed by now, the damage she causes outweighing the profits her brilliant mind could bring in.
But Anakin -
She claims she has a friend who whispers to her when she closes her eyes. She says this friend is everywhere, wrapping around her, watching, nudging.
It's a bizarre claim, almost as bizarre as her mother's insistence that Anakin lacks a father entirely.
But the slaves are a superstitious folk, and Anakin goes beyond lucky.
Angry overseers walk right past her, bellowing out her name as she holds back giggles, face turning red because her invisible friend told her this would only work if she's quiet. And then they start forgetting what they're doing when they go looking - she pushes things over in their sight and they blame the wind - she finds one beating her mother and she says You don't want to do that and the overseer stops, wanders off, confused -
The slaves don't seem impacted by the little demon's curses. (That's what they decide she is, a malevolent spirit of a child killed by the slavers, returned to wreak havoc. They're not sure they'll survive the demon themselves, but their few elders meet one by one, in secret, and then spread the word that the demon should be allowed to do her work. Better, they say, not to interfere.)
(Her mother continues insisting she's a gift. Doesn't mean she's not a demon gift, Shmi's friend says. Shmi laughs.)
Anakin's head starts going floaty, when she's listening the closest to her friend. She does things she shouldn't know how to do. Her friend guides her, there for her always -
When she's twelve years old, she convinces one of the slavers to kill the others - the one with the most hatred in their heart, ripe for a little demon to poke at - and then steals a ship, the biggest and nicest she can find. None of the slaves have ever piloted anything before.
Anakin floats in her head, listening to her friend, and starts turning things on.
The elder slaves organize everyone, saying, This is a choice, every individual one of us must make it - (Anakin won't let them force a single person onto the ship).
Every single slave chooses to flee. A few freemen from the village choose to come, mostly ones just barely above the slaves, who've benefited from the little demon's antics. They take food and medicine and everything of value, and they board the ship where their demon's been working.
Anakin guides the ship away from the planet, everything the dead slavers' allies could use to track it disabled, grinning.
She stops hiding, for the first time in her memory.
Her friend guides her to a planet where slavery is illegal, where her mother and her people can get their tracking implants removed and get a new start in a little quiet valley with the money from the goods they brought...
Everyone can see Anakin, now. She almost draws the eye, even.
The arrival of a shipful of refugees at the tail end of Elesse's time on Transan does not go unnoticed. The governing council asks her to look into it, find out where they come from and what they want. She agrees. She has... a feeling, about it.
She takes a speeder to the landing site, out in the deep country, away from the cities.
There's a large ship, its design the sort of tacky expensive you sometimes find in more backwater areas.
There's a girl sitting on the top, and some weary, bedraggled people unloading, children mostly helping but a few discovering they can run free, here.
The refugees look up, tense and wary, when she arrives. A few children scatter, hiding reflexively.
The girl jumps smoothly off the ship, falling in beside an elderly man coming out to meet her.
The girl tilts her head, slowly mouthing the words 'Jedi Knight', while the man blinks.
"And what have we done to merit such august attention?" he says, remembering vaguely that the Jedi are - some sort of official. Said to be capable of influencing spirits, or spirits themselves. (His gaze flicks briefly to the girl.)
"We escaped from slavery," the girl says, while the man's still considering Elesse's words. "It was exciting. But people need the stuff the slavers could identify them with removed, and maybe some stuff to help us get set up farming. And some people have medical stuff."
The man sighs. "She's quite correct. We're hoping to simply be quiet subjects of Transan. Farmers. But we have very few people trained in medicine, and this place is a rather different climate than where we came from."
"And we landed here 'cause my friend thought it's a good place," the girl continues, cheerfully ignoring the man's briefly tight expression.
She hesitates.
She's the only one who knows how to pilot the ship if something goes wrong. She's the best at going unseen. She knows before bad things happen -
And she feels sure things will be okay if she leaves.
"Alright," she says, slowly. "Seeing the city'd be neat."
It'd be different, too. (Sometimes Anakin feels all wrapped up in being her people's demon - it's important and people like her for doing it but all the other kids know what she is, and that makes not being a demon all the time hard.)
He nods, thanking her again, then glances at the girl.
"I'll be fine," she says. "And so will people here. Let people know I've ducked out, okay?" 'People' mostly meaning her mom.
"Alright," he says, ruffling her hair. She bats at him, laughing, then heads over to stand nearer Elesse.
"...I was pushing him to make him mad. I didn't think he'd kill everyone himself, thought he'd just get into fights and mess up their ability to work together, but I was planning to get a lot of the important slavers dead anyways. Just would've been hard. Instead I only had to tell everyone when they needed to run and hide that morning."
"And I wouldn't have left people where they didn't wanna be."
She hums, thoughtful. "Yeah. I have a lotta trouble getting stuff 'cause of people being scared of me, sometimes. Usually just steal food and all. And most of them only got on the ship 'cause of the elders getting on and 'cause they were more scared of the slavers' friends coming by and finding them near the dead. ...Though it's funny when my enemies are scared."
"A dispute with the Trade Federation about tariffs. The Trade Federation is the organization responsible for most of the shipping to and from this planet, and they wanted to charge the government more money for their services, over and above whatever profit they already make on the individual shipments themselves."
Most of her friends are either generally nerdish, or extremely good at a specific thing.
The city, when they get there, is decently large by Outer Rim standards. The center has buildings consistently ten to fifteen stories tall, with the height dropping off towards the outskirts. The streets have more mechanized transport than animals, and are fairly crowded. Elesse takes them to the city hall, which has a fluted glass front and little durasteel curlicues.
"Do you want to come in with me?"
"Okay. We're going to see the planetary governor and tell him about your people and what they need. He'll probably ask about getting Republic assistance with that and I'll tell him I'll look into it. He'll thank me for my time and I'll thank him for his cooperation and then we can be on our way. It'll all be a little more flowery than that, but that's the gist of it."
Elesse nods, and in they go. The governor meets them inside, wearing a brocaded robe and a hat that resembles a flower in bloom. He takes them up to his office, paneled in dark wood with a full-length window on one side and offers tea, which Elesse accepts. There's a five-minute preparation ritual, after which the meeting unfolds largely as predicted.
Most of the hard work of establishing trust has already been done. She presents what she wants, and then he agrees, after clarification. In the rare instance where he doesn't immediately agree, she circles around and talks back through the issue until he winds up saying the same thing that she did of his own accord. With a few brief pleasantries at the end, they can be on their way again.
Elesse has answers. The academic curriculum is standardized, with options for both group learning and individual guided studies. Mystical and martial arts are taught in group sessions until apprenticeship, at which point the student's teacher customizes their instruction to fit their individual needs.
She nods, and when they arrive hops down to tell the elders that aid's coming.
Her mom approaches before Anakin can run off to find her. She's worn - not that old, objectively, but weathered, like she's been stretched thin for far too long. Her skin's pocked from some long ago disease, and her hair's brittle.
"Mom, this's the Jedi Knight. She's taking me to learn to be a Jedi," Anakin says, excitedly.
The woman smiles. "That's good. You'll be leaving, then?"
Anakin nods. "Yeah. She says I can stop being a demon, too. I wanna know how to do that."
A sadder look enters the woman's eyes. "You've always been my gift, darling." She touches Anakin's cheek, briefly, then turns to Elesse. "You'll look after her?"
"Thank you," the woman says, solemnly. Then, to Anakin: "Darling... Just make sure you're happy, okay?"
Anakin nods, looking serious. "I will."
"And thank you for letting me know where you're going. That is - a gift, to a worried mother." The woman smiles again. "Good luck to you."
"Good luck, mom," Anakin returns.
Elesse tells the captain to set course for Coruscant. One of the techs can give Anakin the tour.
There's the engine room, crew quarters, maintenance room, mess, the bridge, and of course, the salon, currently in a recreation configuration with couches, screens, and tabletop hologame projectors.
And she plays around with the screens until she discovers whatever entertainment program contains the highest quantities of explosions.
Then she gets bored after a while, turns it off, flops on the most comfortable couch, closes her eyes, and starts to drift mentally, listening to her friend - the Force, she guesses - and evening out her breathing.
She'll still be drifting like that by the time anyone comes looking for her.
Then they can find an open area and spread out a bit. Elesse demonstrates a few basic positions and the transitions between them, and explains what muscle groups each is targeted at. The idea is to flow through the set smoothly. Some of the poses are surprisingly difficult to hold for how simple they look, making this challenging.
Then the rest of their trip can be peaceful. And she can work out the rest what she's going to say to the Council.
They dock at a municipal spaceport, and take a shuttle to the Temple. Coruscant is, arguably, best viewed from the air. All the hustle and bustle, the shine and the steel, interwoven in a glittering tapestry that speaks the best values of civilization, without getting close enough to see the grimy underside and the sparks when the cogs don't quite mesh.
The Jedi Temple itself is an enormous edifice, a pyramid cut off partway up the slope with four tall towers capping the top. It dominates the comparatively lower district surrounding it.
Good.
They land at a hanger set into the Temple's side wall. They're met by one of Elesse's friends, a Zabrak named Marin.
"Elesse! You're back! How were negotiations?"
"Hello Marin. They went smoothly."
Marin chuckles. "You do have a talent for discouraging misbehavior. And who's this?" She turns to Anakin.
"This is Anakin Skywalker. We met onworld. Anakin, this is Knight Marin."
"A pleasure to meet you, Anakin. ...Elesse, what are you up to?"
"Nothing suspicious."
Marin squints at her. Elesse regards her blandly. "Mhm. Well, the Council wants to see you."
"That is convenient, as I also wish to see the Council. We'll be up directly." Marin laughs, and departs with a wave.
It's a bit of a long walk to the elevator. The corridors are tall and grand, with patterned floors and decorated walls, and lots of windows to let in natural light. They pass many different Jedi along the way, and Elesse nods greetings to most of them. It seems like just about every species Anakin has ever even heard of is represented, with some she hasn't besides.
Around it all, if Anakin is paying attention to her friend, is a deep and abiding atmosphere of contentment, of happiness, of home.
She's kind of always paying at least a little attention. She looks at all the decorations and all the new types of people, and she basks in the feeling she's getting from her friend, letting its happiness feed and blend with her own giddy excitement, adding a more mellow, grounded undertone.
"The mechanism is hidden behind a panel such that one must use the Force to activate it. The panel can be removed if necessary, but the idea is that if you are not in a state of mind where such manipulation is easy, you are not likely in a state of mind to be ready to speak with the Council."
They reach the top and the lift door opens. The doors to the Council Chamber proper are arched, twice as tall as Elesse, and dark wood. She opens them and steps through.
The room beyond is circular, with twelve chairs in a ring around the center, with a gap at the door. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer an excellent view of the city. The ones facing the sun are auto-tinted to reduce glare. Occupying eight of the twelve chairs are Councilors. The two directly opposite the door are the most noticeable. One is a tall, dark-skinned human male with a severe expression on his face. The other is a wizened little green creature, even shorter than Anakin, with wispy gray hair and long pointy ears.
Elesse goes to the center of the room and bows briefly.
"Good to see you again, it is, Master Vendar," the little green one says. "With success in your mission, did you meet?"
"Yes, Master Yoda." She briefly summarizes the results.
The bald man leans forward and steeples his fingers. "Well and good. But I think we are all more interested in the unexpected guest you have brought us."
"This is Anakin Skywalker. I encountered her at the end of my mission, when she landed a ship full of refugees she rescued from a band of slavers on the planet."
Yoda looks at Anakin. "Mm. And accomplish this feat how did you?"
"There's - a feeling I get, from my friend, who Elesse thinks is maybe the Force, and my friend tells me how to do stuff I wanna do, and gives me good or bad feelings about courses of action. Like, it helped me learn how to make it so people don't notice me, and how far I'm gonna have to fly and where, and how to move things without touching them, and how to pilot a ship by myself. We got the chance to run because I was annoying one of the slavers so he'd get into a fight with some other slavers and get me breathing room for some other stuff I was planning, except then the fight kind of... Spiraled, and he decided to kill everyone around him, so I told all the slaves to get out of the way so they wouldn't get hurt, and we all left afterwards, before anyone could notice what'd happened."
"I knew it'd go well, and it did, I just didn't always know why or how. I don't risk my people when I've got a bad feeling - and not doing anything would've definitely hurt us. Lots of people were already slowly starving, or dying of medical issues, or just suffering, and now they won't."
"Wouldn't call it begun there, unless you count the slavers taking slaves as the path's beginning. My part began with redirecting them away from my people, and hiding, and stealing medicine, and I started trying to get us out because no one was coming, and no one'd come for a thousand years, and I knew no one'd keep coming. I'm not always good at keeping things from escalating in ways I haven't predicted, but I'd like to learn how to do that, and the Jedi seem - to be good at getting goals without messing up like that."
"Pretty sure I don't have fears, and I don't think there's anyone I'm attached to right now - I got my people set down somewhere safe, so they're none of my concern anymore. Dunno I have any ambitions I'm actually attached to, more current whims."
This is definitely not someone who's felt a lick of fear since coming to the planet. Interest, fascination, curiosity, excitement, a sort of background hum syncing with the contentment and happiness she feels around her - even when being challenged, she'd remained focused on the puzzle of it, any irritation mild at best, and floating away rather quickly.
The Jedi have been around even longer than the Republic, which is quite a long time indeed. Way back when hyperspace travel was discovered and the galaxy was beginning to be explored for the first, all the different planetary civilizations began to meet each other. In the midst of this unprecedented cultural exchange, Force users also began to find each other. They came together to form the Jedi Order to study the mysteries of the Force and learn to harness their abilities for peace and justice.
There have actually been a succession of Republics, brought down by wars or infighting or pressures of expansion or corruption. The most recent incarnation has stood since the Ruusan Reformation, almost a thousand years ago. At this time, the constitution was rewritten to redistribute power between the Senate, Supreme Chancellor, the courts, and sector governance, and to disband the standing army.
To the apartment. It's plain but neatly kept. A few landscapes break up the monotony of the walls in the living area, with a couch, two chairs, and a low table in the center. Off to the left is a small kitchen and refresher. Straight back are the doors to two bedrooms.
"I've been using the one on the left as a meditation room. You can move your things in and just drop the rug in front of my door."
The lights are auto-set to low; there's a panel by the door where she can change that. The rug is in the middle of the floor taking up the space where the desk chair (currently stacked on top of the bed) should be. As just hinted, there is also a bed and a desk. The bed, in addition to the chair, has a full set of sheets, and the desk has a datapad charging station that will nicely fit the datapad she got from the commissary. There is a wardrobe suitable for storing her new clothes, and a small bedside table suitable for storing the sort of knickknacks or mementos she does not currently have any of.
"There's not really a universal set schedule, apart from the younglings. And you don't really count as one of them. One spends one's time according to one's interests, whether that be research or meditation or saber training. In your case in particular, you and I will work together to determine how you can best learn the material the Order requires of its initiates, whether that be your individual study, one-on-one tutoring, or enrolling you in group lessons, and organize your days from there."
She falls asleep while drifting, and then wakes up to nighttime. It's not properly dark here, and something about that leaves her feeling exposed - dark's always been the best, easiest time to work.
She doesn't bother getting out of bed, reaching out, focusing, so her datapad floats to her hand. She spends the rest of the night figuring out the electronic archives and then reading between intermittent naps, and once the sun comes up turns her mind back to drifting - she has a lot to absorb, and the Jedi Temple feels nice. It isn't her people, isn't the empty vast of the desert or a spaceship - it's friendlier. A good change, for now.
It doesn't really occur to her than she should get breakfast at any specific time.
"The Jedi recognize seven distinct forms of lightsaber combat. Most people choose one or perhaps two to focus on. I will describe them, and you can tell me which you'd like to try.
"The first form is called Shii-Cho. It is the oldest, developed at the same time as the first lightsabers, and many of the later forms build or refine upon its techniques. Shii-Cho is characterized by wide, sweeping motions and deliberate and methodical advances. Its strength and its weakness lies in its simplicity.
"As the early Jedi became more accustomed to fighting with lightsabers, the disadvantages of the style when facing other blades became more apparent. The second form was created to address these shortcomings, and is called Makashi. It is precise and accurate, in contrast with Shii-Cho, focusing on leverage and footwork. It is more elegant than other forms, requiring less physical strength but more mental focus on the overall picture. However, it is less suitable for defending against other weapons, such as blasters.
"The third form is Soresu, and it turns the sweeping of Shii-Cho into a defensive net. Soresu values the guard above all else, and its philosophy states that one should hold their ground and wait for the enemy to make a mistake. It is the most passive of the forms. Some say this makes it the truest Jedi form, in keeping with the principle of nonaggression.
"Ataru is the name of the fourth form. It is characterized as the most acrobatic form. Jumps, leaps, and rolls are all integral pieces. Ataru relies on momentum to keep the opponent off-balance, and quick feet to stay alive, as you are not in one place long enough to form a true defense.
"Form five, Shien, is an extension of Soresu. Rather than wait for the opponent to expose themselves, a practitioner of Shien forces openings. This can be done by reflecting an attack or by brute strength. It can end a fight quickly, but it sacrifices some defensive mastery for the chance to do so.
"The sixth form is Niman, and is my preferred style. Sometimes called the diplomat's style for its fairly light attention to bladework, Niman blends elements of the previous forms, distilling a mixture of techniques that are broadly useful in many situations. True mastery of this form demands one be able to read each unique situation at a deep level, and adapt to the best course of action.
"The final form of lightsaber combat is Juyo. This form is aggression before all else, and combines the momentum of Ataru with the power of Shien. There are very few masters of Juyo in the Jedi Order, and I would not recommend it as the first form you study."
She hums. "Niman sounds very useful. But I think Ataru is the most like how I think? And it sounds fun. I probably also wouldn't be bad at Makashi, but I want a more flexible style... I'd probably be bad at Shii-Cho and Soresu, and I don't think I'd be extremely good at Shien or Juyo."
"So that all comes out to 'I should learn Ataru first.'"
She'll be careful and studious and whatever! (Lightsaber lightsaber lightsaber!!!)
(She actually is those things; it helps that Ataru is fun, and she currently wants to spend at least an hour a day on it, even when they're not doing more extensive exercises, woven in among meditation and studying. Maybe in the mornings to help her wake up? She doesn't learn mental stuff well in the morning, anyways, so morning's a good time for exercise and meditation.)
As Anakin's other lessons progress, Elesse begins to weave in more Jedi philosophy, starting with the Jedi Code. The Code is lengthy, and often oblique, but at its heart are five lines. As transcribed by Master Odan-Urr, they run thus:
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.
"While each line has much to unpack, the effect of the whole is also important. Do you have any immediate thoughts you would like to share?"
"'Peace' here refers not to a physical lack of war, but to a mental state. A Jedi acknowledges her emotions, but does not let them drive her. Things like anger, worry, jealousy, fear, can all cloud your judgement and inhibit your connection to the Force. A quiet mind, a peaceful mind, is able to listen and think clearly. In a similar way, ignorance is more than a lack of knowledge, but a persistent state of mind. Things are not unknowable, but unknown. You can gain knowledge if you seek it."
"One of those dangerous ideas, possibly the most dangerous, depending on who you ask, is the philosophy of the Sith. The Sith draw their power from what is called the dark side of the Force, in a sort of dark mirror of the Jedi. They feed on passion, on rage and pain and hate and chaos."
She frowns. Slowly: "People said I was evil because I was a demon. And they were scared of me, and didn't trust I wouldn't turn on them. But they wanted me to be a demon, because they wanted the slavers messed with and then dead - but they didn't like that I was what they wanted."
"I don't think 'evil' makes much sense."
And so her studies go on.
After about a month of saber training, Elesse says it would be a good idea for Anakin to sign up for a practice group. (She's thoroughly mastered the basics and is making a solid start on her chosen style, a remarkably quick learner.) Sparring against people other than Elesse will help hone her technique, and it's a good way to meet people her own age.
A practice group sounds good! She looks into her options, finds one that seems interesting, in the early morning when she usually does less with Elesse. She's friendly and cheerful at practice, but not as forthcoming about her opinions, mostly making friends but not best friends. (She's mindful of what Elesse's said about people discovering new things about you, and after a lot of deliberation decides she'd rather have friendly faces around than play a game of roulette with finding people who're more than that.)
She also keeps reading, keeping a separate notes file for her opinions on the Jedi Code. It's not something she feels beholden to, but it's a fun puzzle, picking out the shapes of who made it, who follows it, who defies it. (She kinda wants to read Sith commentaries on the Code, because that seems interesting, but sadly can't find any easily.)
She also reads a bit about the old Sith, decide they sound... Tragic, in a boring way. (She's still stuck on the philosophy. If you're going to use the Force with emotion - rage seems like such a... Almost pitiful way to do that. Why not happiness?)
"It makes more sense to me. You can have both of the things, and sometimes one can come from the other, even if they look contradictory. And everyone has all of the earlier things, so - you're not trying to get rid of them, you're trying to work with them? You can't stop having emotions, and you can't know everything, and passion and chaos and death are all life."
Elesse has answers. Or at least, more context and recommended further reading.
Time passes. Life at the Temple proceeds in much the same way as it always does. Anakin begins learning some practical applications of the Force in addition to her meditative studies. How to jump farther, run faster, hold her breath for an hour at a time, push and pull objects around with her mind.
After she's met with some success with this, Elesse has an announcement. They're going on a field trip.
She'd already known some of that, but roughly, having taught herself how to move objects mentally, how to endure temperature extremes - but she'd had a few bad habits, a few dead ends she accidentally backed herself into. She takes to the new applications - and new methods of older tricks - like a fish meant for the ocean discovering there's something more out there than the little lake she was born in.
And a field trip sounds exciting. Where are they going?
There will be plenty of time to go over everything on the flight.
They take a smaller ship this time, not the full-size Consular-class, since it's just the two of them. This means they can depart directly from the Jedi Temple, without needing to go to the municipal spaceport. The ship has three wings, one on top and three on the side that fold up while it's on the ground. The rear of the ship is a cargo/common area, with a small 'fresher, a microwave to heat up premade meals, and a pair of fold-out beds. The cockpit is at the front, through a hatch, and has four seats.
That's what it was designed for.
After they make the jump to hyperspace, they can get back to lightsabers. There are some components that are standard, power pack, wiring, emitter, switches, but much of the design is custom. The shape and length of the hilt, the grip, the balance, casing material, any extra flourishes. All the little things that will make her saber truly her own.
The Jedi outpost on Ilum has a fully equipped machine shop she'll be able to use after she's collected her crystals.
Speaking of which, she'll need two. One focusing crystal and one resonance crystal. The focusing crystal gives the blade its color, the resonance crystal gives the blade what you might call its character. It's what lets a Jedi connect with their weapon.
The cave is dark and the way is narrow, but her steps are sure and do not fail her. It's almost impossible not to know where she's going, actually, like following the sound of a singing choir or water spiraling down a drain.
She can feel it when she arrives in the main chamber. It's positively glowing, both to her eyes and the Force. Crystalline blossoms stud the walls, floor, and ceiling, each an explosion frozen in time.
Her bones ache.
Anakin chuckles under her breath, sitting on the bench and turning her face up to the sun, feeling every tired wrinkle.
There's a voice, young, calling for her in the distance. Still insisting on formalities... Though 'Master Skywalker' has less sting than it used to.
Her lips curl up, and she hides herself in the Force, like slipping a favored blanket over her shoulders, crouching down with a friend...
She's yelling, trapped, helpless despair and anger pouring through her, strong enough to drown her, strong enough the world should shatter at her command, but that idiot grandchild of hers won't listen, can't even see her, Anakin's twenty years dead and none of them have learned -
She laughs, leaning against her battered X-wing.
"We gave those bastards what-for," she says, as someone else laughs helplessly, congratulating her -
"We couldn't have done it without you, General Skywalker," someone says, a young pilot, and his friend elbows him in the side and they all laugh - they did it they did it they did it, and the dead still scream but there's a curl to the Force now Anakin would almost call satisfied...
She finishes removing the last of the slave implants - carefully, deft fingers guided by the Force and long experience - and closes up the wound. The woman's going to have a long convalescence ahead of her - many of the free will - but they're free, every one, and Anakin's breast glows warmly, thinking of all she's done...
She's looking down at an infant's face.
She doesn't name the children.
She doesn't think she could bear what comes next if she did.
"They need to be hidden," she says, voice far away. "Even from me - I'll know them, if I ever meet them again, but... Looking shouldn't be trivial - "
She's numb.
Her lips move, the harsh, mechanical words escape her. Her limbs move, supported by her suit. Her lungs move, technically, the machine forcing them far past the point where Anakin died.
(Should have died, perhaps, flits across her mind, floating away, swept down a dark river by the emptiness where her heart should be.)
(She wonders, sometimes, if that's a machine now too.)
Her daughter would be vexing, if Darth Vader felt anything at all.
Instead she feels nothing in particular, as her daughter refuses to give up her allies, as she gives the final command and everything her daughter loves dies -
Darth Vader feels nothing.
(Anakin does, somewhere distant, screaming, her heart filling with horror for a woman she - is - isn't - will be - was - )
She's crying, when she comes back to herself.
She hugs herself, feeling - reassuring herself she can feel - she isn't numb, she isn't creating a wound in the Force Anakin can feel decades early just for leverage, just for cold calculation towards a goal she should hate but can't -
"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry - " Anakin repeats, voice cracking and hoarse. (She was screaming.)
(That's almost comforting.)
She takes a deep breath, rubs at her eyes, and dives into the Force, drifting, floating, letting herself be herself in the most intense way she knows how, wrapping herself in every emotion echoing across possibility -
She feels like she's drowning.
It's better than freezing.
(She can see now why someone would cling to hatred and fear and all those horrid, painful emotions - )
(Anakin has never felt nothing before and she would rather be miserable, she would rather be dead, a ghost trapped screaming uselessly at the living, than that.)
Slowly, gently, like an overflown river that's found the ocean, Anakin's horror drains.
It leaves behind...
Something - wrecked, almost, but not.
She uncurls, hesitantly, reaching for this new feeling.
Determination.
She won't become that person.
Anakin stands.
Anakin breathes, for a while.
And she bends down, picks up the resonance crystal that had contained everything she could be - the resonance crystal she knows the empty her didn't use -
And she leaves the caves, and returns to the ship.
Elesse has kept it warm, as promised.
(She felt the turbulence her Padawan experienced in the cave. It was practically impossible not to have. She was concerned, for a time. But forcing herself into the cave would only have made things worse, and you can only gain self-knowledge through yourself.)
In motion the future might be, but Elesse is a solid rock upon which to stand.
"They - were mostly not good."
She details them, in order, voice swerving between shaking and firm.
And then, abruptly: "If I leave now - that's the future where I'm proud of myself. Where I'm - spending my life freeing slaves, a little change at a time. I think. I - have to be a Jedi, first, for the others. At least... I'm pretty sure."
The Jedi base on Ilum is mostly underground, or underice as it were, cut into a glacier. Elesse lands the ship in the hanger. As they disembark, cold-hardened maintenance droids begin to see to the refueling process. One of the attendant Knights can show Anakin to the fabrication stations if she'd like to get started, or to the dining hall or domitories if she'd prefer to get some rest first. (They're not strangers to hosting Padawans disturbed by visions in the crystal caves.)
She drops into a meditative focus as she works, letting the Force help her, listening to its little nudges about this or that modification. It's calming, the last vestiges of worry floating free of her mind, her resolve firming up quietly in the background.
It takes her a while to finish, and she's dried eyed, throat parched and stomach unhappy, when she drifts back out of the blending mindset she'd been in.
When they get to the Council chamber, they're not the only ones. Two men, one older and one younger, are already there.
"Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi," Elesse murmurs to Anakin as they enter. Qui-Gon is finishing up an explanation about how some Queen intends to go back and fight for her planet's freedom.
"Invaded the planet Naboo, the Trade Federation has," Yoda says. "Unsuccessful, Master Jinn's negotiations were."
The man winces, faintly. "We managed to extract the queen of the Naboo and brought her to the Senate to argue her case. The motion became bogged down in procedure, and she called a vote of no confidence in Valorum."
"Droids are inflexible, limited by their programming. Even the most sophisticated cannot learn, grow, or adapt as fast as a living mind. Droid armies have been tried before, and they have always failed. Besides which, a central control is a single point of failure. It would make an individual droid easier and cheaper to manufacture and therefore there might be some volume advantages-"
"Oh is there ever-" mutters Obi-Wan.
"-But there would still be an upper limit to how many the processor can control at once before it becomes too big to be practical."
"They live primarily underwater, and on the outlying eastern islands. The Naboo are concentrated on the main continent in the south and west. The Trade Federation ignored them in the initial landings, and their relations with the Naboo extend mostly to agreements delineating plasmid harvesting regions. They're not formally part of the Republic, and don't much care what happens on the surface."
She closes her eyes.
Drifting won't work here, she doesn't think, not the way she wants.
So she does what she used to do when she had a plan that needed her friend's help: she makes a little space in the whirlwind of her mind where her friend can flow alongside her, and she asks, 'Where is Elesse? How do I get to Elesse?'
She doesn't open her eyes as she stands - it's easier to listen when her own senses aren't arguing with her. Elesse isn't, according to her eyes, in front of her, after all.
But Elesse is before her in the way that counts.
Anakin starts to walk, with slow and measured steps, listening to the feed of knowledge from her friend.
She goes to find Elesse.
She leans against the wall, spends a little bit rocking deeper, listening - Elesse has to be using the Force, the Force is her friend and is flowing beside her, the Force is everywhere and the Force is where Elesse is -
A thought floats by her.
Anakin used to love stories about the trickster demon Sky-Walker, her family's namesake, who had a million billion faces and more names than stars - Anakin became convinced the Sky-Walker had to be in every story, partially because the Sky-Walker was the most interesting character ever, so she'd always ask which one's Sky-Walker until an elder got frustrated and said -
They're all the Sky-Walker.
It was the best story conclusion ever, according to six year old Anakin.
She smiles, remembering it.
She's Skywalker, the demon, and she is everyone and everywhere -
It takes her a while to fully settle into the thought, which she spends breathing, pondering.
Where is Elesse isn't the right question, not entirely.
If Skywalker is every character in the story -
Well, she can be Elesse, too.
Where is she?
She hums. "I should work on getting faster at sensing when I'm being tricked, though that might be something I can start on my own - I figured out a different way of listening that I can practice next time I meditate. Pretending to be somewhere I'm not sounds fun as what to do next."
She laughs and scampers off.
Now -
The story helped, a lot.
The Sky-Walker...
Can be everywhere, everyone.
Can be multiple places and people at once.
Can she double layer Elesse's technique? (Because certainly her teacher will be expecting Anakin to try it - )
She passes by her and Elesse's rooms.
Vividly, she imagines turning, entering the rooms, going into her own room and doing her best to vanish the typical way -
She's everyone and everywhere. One of her faces keeps walking past the room, winds to a nearby meditation room Anakin's familiar with - goes in, nervously, keeps focusing on maintaining the illusion of the her in the room while trying to make herself vanish -
And Anakin keeps walking past the meditation room, thinking, Sky-Walker is a shapechanger -
There's a garden, nearby.
Being a bird or a mouse would be too hard, she thinks, even as she tries her best to hide herself as she walks -
But she's very, very familiar with how her mother feels, and Elesse only met Shmi the once.
Skywalker can be anyone, and the face she imagines herself wearing is Shmi's as she settles into a corner of a garden. Still trying to be invisible, of course. Still in the meditation room, too, projecting herself in a chain into her bedroom.
(She doesn't let herself think that this probably won't work, even if it's a clever idea. All tricks are confidence tricks, and Skywalker knows knows knows she can do this, the thought wrapping around her in tune with Shmi's face...)
She giggles and heads off to hide again. This time being physically sneaky, too - juggling hiding from someone who can sense her with telling everyone to not notice her (her usual tactic) is hard enough to drop one of those threads, apparently.
She uses the same double-layered misdirection she tried last time, more smoothly now, and wraps both don't notice me and my face is someone else's around her physical body even while she stays out of anyone's line of sight (which, of course, requires sensing where people are before she runs into them... Without stopping hiding in the Force. This is a kind of hard almost nothing's been since she freed herself and her people from slavery).
(It's fun.)
"Every effect has a cause, and there is always a trail, else the cause would... not. I will say that were I less familiar with you, I would have had some trouble puzzling things out. But I also caution that a simple defense played perfectly often serves better than a complex plan executed imprecisely."
Heeee. "Okay!" And off to sleep (and meditate some; Anakin has nightmares that night, repeating loops of her visions, spiraling out into other shattered thoughts she can't remember - she wakes up frequently, and eventually gives up on sleeping in favor of just drifting in the Force. That still gets her the nightmares, but they're more controllable, something she can drift away from).
And in the morning, the group of Jedi is off to the starport.
The principle attribute of the Queen of Naboo's starship, from the outside, is that it is shiny. Long, sleek, and plated entirely in chrome that has been polished to a mirror finish. It is essentially dagger-shaped, with a high cockpit in the rear, flanked by a long-nacelled engine to either side. Clustered at the base of the ship is a collection of people that must be the Queen's party. The one in a silken black dress with a hood and feather on top is probably the Queen herself. Her face is painted entirely white, except for two black dots beneath either eye, and red across her upper lip and a single stripe in the middle of her lower. Around her are six handmaidens in russet robes and a scattering of security personnel, not in the Republic uniform.
The Queen is speaking to an older man in clothes almost as fine as her own. "...a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one," he is saying as the Jedi land.
"Ah, the Jedi have arrived," the man says.
The Queen turns, and inclines her head toward them. "Master Jinn," she says. "It will be good to have you with us."
Elesse and Qui-Gon both bow briefly in return. "Queen Amidala," Elesse says. "I am Elesse Vendar, and this is my Padawan, Anakin Skywalker. We will be joining Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in accompanying you."
"I did not realize the Jedi Council was sending four Jedi," the man says.
Elesse smiles pleasantly. "Senator Palpatine, is it not? The Council takes the peace of the Republic very seriously."
He laughs. "So I see. My Queen, I assure you I will continue doing everything I can to secure aid for our planet, and beg you once again to delay your departure until a proper task force can be marshaled. I'm sure it will not be much longer."
"Our trust is with you, Senator, but my place is with our people. I cannot remain in comfort while they suffer. Captain Panaka, is the ship ready?" She turns to one of the security team, and he replies in the affirmative. "Then now that the Jedi are here, we shall depart."
She smiles, a little, especially at the Queen. 'Can't remain in comfort while they suffer' is a good way to be a queen, if you're gonna have queens at all.
She also entertains herself while the adults are talking by dipping in and out of a quasi-meditative mindset, practicing sensing.
She doesn't sense anything out of the ordinary. Resolve and quiet anger from the Queen's party, alertness from the guard, calm from the Jedi, quiet amusement and concern from the Senator.
They follow the Queen into the ship. The inside is less literally shiny than the outside, but metaphorically it's about the same. Very luxurious.
The conference is mostly about what the Jedi are and are not willing to do. They're not going to fight a war for the Queen, but they will protect her. Even if, she confirms, she goes into battle personally. The Jedi would prefer a negotiated solution to the Federation, but agree that seems unlikely. Negotiating with the Gungans in the Queen's stead is also beyond their mandate, but they can answer some perceptively 'hypothetical' questions along similar lines.
"The crux of the matter is this. A lightsaber is a lethal weapon. It is also one of the most recognizable symbols of the Jedi. Therefore, every time you ignite your blade, you invoke both the potential of causing death, and the reputation of the entire Order. You do not need to shy from drawing your blade, but you should not do so thoughtlessly."
She hums. "People who're scared don't want to deal with you fairly, and if you demand things from them they're more likely to betray you than if they like you," she says after a pause. "I know that. But - I dunno if you're saying 'don't kill people unless you really have to' or 'don't get caught killing people as a Jedi.' - I also get that threatening to kill or hurt people just to get my way isn't smart, too, but is threatening to kill people I sincerely and consideredly intend to kill also not smart?"
"If you are going to kill a person, I prefer you to have a considered reason for doing so. Jedi are peaceful, which is not the same thing as pacifist. If killing someone is the most appropriate solution, then you should do so. If killing is an inappropriate response, then you should not do so as a Jedi. As to threats, I do not make any I do not fully intend to follow through on, such that you might consider them more in the class of warnings. This can be a tool to head off a problem, but if you are sure that someone will die regardless, it can be better to skip to that step directly."
"Killing someone if they don't know they're at risk of being killed, or that you're one of their potential enemies, seems... Not really rude, but... I guess the closest idea is unaesthetic? So if I'm gonna kill someone I'll probably warn them, unless warning them really works against my goal."
"I also don't think I'll kill anyone for - reasons that're bad to me, but I think my reasons are shaped differently from other people's reasons, and I don't want you getting in trouble if I make a - decision that's considered for me but not reasonable for other people? Like... Some of the philosophy books I was reading said a life's equal to a life. So under that logic it's good to kill one person to save two, and neutral to kill one to save one, and bad to kill two to save one - but I'd kill multiple people to save you if that was needed. And it'd be fully considered and for a reason that's good to me, but people who think a life's a life might think I did something wrong? And people are allowed to think I did something wrong, but..." She shrugs. "There'd probably be consequences?"
"There will always be consequences. What's important is to be able to live with them, and yourself. It's good you're thinking about this in advance, and I won't say the decision you've come to is wrong. Master Yoda would tell you to meditate on your attachment to me. What motivates it, whether it is based in fear, how far you would go, under what circumstances you would break it."
Queen Amidala is happy to talk to Anakin about her planet and her people. Theed, the capital, is the most beautiful city in the galaxy, according to royal opinion. The roofs are all done in iridescent tile mined locally. The sun setting over the bay and the last rays glinting off the top of the city is a sight like none other.
"That's one of the silly things," she says. "There's no reason not to share all that stuff." She hums, then says: "I think the - big... Easy representational difference? Is in the Jedi code stuff - "
She recites both the poetically phrased ones she's found, noting which one's older and which one's current.
"The current one says you're not supposed to have the first thing, just the second thing - claims that no emotion leads to peace - while the older one is... About, like, peace out of or from emotion, or peace despite emotion, or peace alongside emotion, because you either can't not have emotion or shouldn't try to not have emotion. They're kind of opposite in a way? At least, as opposite as two codes that both think you should seek peace, knowledge, serenity, harmony, and the Force can be."
"It feels to me like it would - just, there's a very different aesthetic there? And different philosophies are appealing to different people. But I'd probably want to look closer at who was arguing which philosophy and what sorts of involvement they were arguing for elsewhere to be sure, especially of which direction any correlation's in."
She hums. "Even with maintaining some level of self-rule - it's silly if there isn't a way to petition for help or no help or something, or to - like, lodge a complaint about an individual Jedi. You could have that without budging the existing level of separation, I think." She hums. "Probably the separation's doing something - I don't think it's good to have one group or person with too much power, so I wouldn't want the Jedi being like an arm of the Senate or Chancellor or anything - but at the very least the Jedi should let in more people who aren't little kids, which I think would help the feeling of - not being integrated?"
It's mostly the same principles as the other ships she's seen, but with pilot and navigation duties broken up among three people. Not that there's much to do in hyperspace, but that quickly changes as the one on the left pulls back a lever and the starlines snap back into their accustomed realspace pinpoints. The planet Naboo is directly in front of them, big, blue, and green. Also in front of them is a pair of Trade Federation battleships, ugly, brown, and round.
The pilots immediately flip into evasive maneuvers as the enemy ships open fire.
The ship shudders as a turbolaser bolt skips off their shields.
"Holding at eighty-three percent," reports one of the crew.
"Fighters launching." "Accelerating to flank speed." "Twelve contacts." "Break to bearing five six niner mark two ten." The ship twists, and they shoot past the first battleship.
"Primary landing site compromised, scanning secondaries." "Shields at fifty-six percent and dropping. Stand by for emitter cycle- cycling." There's another sequence of maneuvers, sharp enough to be felt through the inertial dampers. "Cycle complete."
"Landing zone identified, plotting course." After some maneuvering, they manage to lose the fighters, and eventually set down in what seems to be a swamp. A creature recognizable as a Gungan pokes its head out of the surrounding foliage and begins waving enthusiastically. Obi-Wan sighs heavily. The Queen turns to exit, and the Jedi follow.
Squishy, certainly. Probably best she doesn't do too much skipping, or she might lose a shoe to the gloop.
The Gungan happily tromps over and gives Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon an enthusiastic hug. He's on the verge of doing the same with Queen Amidala, but at the last moment has second thoughts and offers a bow instead. Qui-Gon introduces him to Elesse and Anakin as Jar Jar Binks, their primary contact with the Gungans.
"What can you tell us about the situation here, Jar Jar?"
He lets go of Anakin's hand and straightens up. "Uhhh. There is bein'... bombad troubles. Droidy machines everywheres, even Otoh Gunga. De big boss says all Gungans go to sacred place for meeting."
"He wasn't captured when your capital fell?"
"Oh nosa! Droidy machines, they not swim so well."
The Queen steps forward. "Jar Jar, I must speak with Boss Nadd. Will you take us to your sacred place?"
He looks unsure, eyes bulging out slightly more than usual. "Uhmmm... Meesa not sure that is bein' a good idea. Big boss is not likin' outsiders verra much."
Qui-Gon puts a hand on his shoulder and looks him in the eye, speaking seriously. "If the Queen is not able to make a treaty with your people, the Trade Federation and their droid army will control Naboo completely, and slaughter everyone they do not take as slaves."
"...When yousa is puttin' it like that. Okey. Yousa follow me."
"Thisa way!"
Using a combination of speeder bikes offloaded from the ship and riding lizards Jar Jar whistles up, the party sets out. The sacred place is in a slightly less swampy swamp, dotted here and there with giant stone Gungan heads. Boss Nadd is holding court atop one of these. He is enormously fat, and shakes his jowls when he wants to emphasize a point he just made.
"Whata yousa brought to us, Jar Jar?" he bellows.
"Meesa be bringin' the Queen of the Naboo, boss. She be wantin' to talksies."
"Hoo." Boss Nadd leans forward and narrows his eyes. "Weesa no likin'... de Naboo. Whysa yousa t'inking you can be talking wit' us?"
"Boss Nadd," the Queen says. "I have come to bargain for your aid in freeing this world that we share."
He laughs, then shakes his jowls. "And why should we be helpin' yousa? These droidy machines are yousa fault!"
"Only-" the Queen begins, but one of her handmaids shoulders her aside to take her place in front of the Gungan. "Boss Nadd," she says. "I am Queen Amidala. I apologize for the deception, but I could not risk the Trade Federation knowing they had captured me. That would be a devastating blow to my people's morale. I could not allow it. But we cannot defeat the Federation's army alone. We need your help. I beg you to aid us." She kneels down, and after a moment, the rest of her party does the same. "Please."
"Hoo." He laughs again, for longer this time. He steeples his fingers beneath his chin. "Meesa like this. Weesa can be... talkings."
The Jedi stand apart from the display; they're not part of these negotiations. After a little bit, Boss Nadd tells Jar Jar to show the Jedi around following Queen Amidala's suggestion.
Elesse quietly explains to Anakin that this is a deniable excuse for them to inspect the Gungan army's readiness and offer advice about preparations and tactics. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan will be doing most of that, as they're the ones who have actually fought the droids before.
The Gungans are not heavily mechanized, preferring living animals when they need assisted transport and for cargo hauling. However, this is not say they are low-tech. They have quite sophisticated shields based on the local plasmids. The basic battle order is to form up beneath a huge mobile shield and slowly advance towards the enemy, bombarding them all the while in an effort to take down their shield first.
She asks questions about typical military weapons and strategy, mostly of Elesse but sometimes of other people. She's right about not knowing much concrete yet, but she's very good at identifying when there's assumptions they're making that don't stand up to questioning.
The Gungans are making a lot of those. They haven't fought a serious battle in quite some time. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan can talk about droid tactics in particular, while Elesse and Anakin deal more with the matter of making the Gungans realize that some of them are almost certainly going to die.
Yeah that's the thing about fighting someone with superior weapons. Sometimes you die, and you hope that your dying makes it better for the person standing next to you and worse for your enemy. But if you're a slave the only freedom you get is death, yours or your master's or both, and the Trade Federation will make slaves of anyone who survives losing. (She starts mentally sorting through - not the stuff she's read about war, the Jedi Masters know more about that anyways - but the stuff she knows about dying and about freedom. She knows a lot about those.)
(This isn't really a super thrilling situation, so.)
"You gotta be smarter and more stubborn, until they're dead or they give up, and droids aren't very smart and the Trade Federation's not very stubborn. Winning means your kids won't be slaves, though, and their kids will grow up knowing they can be brave." The stories she knows about fighting back are mostly very metaphorical, and she doesn't really know if the cultural tricks would communicate...
"The Gungans don't have any ships." Elesse says.
"The Naboo do," Obi-Wan says. "The Theed Royal Guard. They were captured when we left."
"Their rescue should be a priority."
"They are few in number," Qui-Gon says. "The Gungans will still be needed to attract the Federation's attention."
"They're likely being held in or near Theed," Qui-Gon says.
"And the Queen will want to make a visit there to deal with the Trade Federation's viceroy in any case."
He chuckles softly. "You know her so well already. That is my own assessment as well. If she does not suggest the detour, we might."
The Queen's entourage returns. "What do you think, Master Jedi?"
"They're as ready as they'll be in the near future. But it would better to not fight the droids at all."
Amidala nods tightly. "I know. We've gotten word from the resistance that my pilots are being held in the palace. We will free them before confronting the Viceroy, and they will attack the control ship. The Gungans have offered us transport to Theed. We will leave when you are ready."
Obi-Wan groans. "Not the bongo again..."
Qui-Gon pats him on the shoulder. "It's faster and more subtle than approaching by air. And you've already seen all the biggest fish, Padawan."
The bongo is a submarine that can navigate the network of caves that honeycomb Naboo's unusually porous crust. These caves are often inhabited by large sea creatures, and they catch glimpses of a few on their trip.
They pop up only slightly the worse for wear at the base of a waterfall near Theed. From here, it's a matter of sneaking up the cliffs and into the city, avoiding the droid patrols. The droids are fairly stupid, so this isn't very difficult. If one is quiet enough, it's entirely possible to walk directly behind a group without them noticing. This greatly simplifies setting up ambushes to create a gap in the patrols that will let them sneak into the palace.
Anakin, it turns out, is a bit of a murder prodigy. Just a bit. She has an excellent sense for how ambushes, patrols, and the like work, is very quiet when she wants to be, and is quite enjoying tricking the droids. (She acknowledges sneaking into the palace probably requires a minimum of murder, though. The droids might be dumb but if some of them don't report in that'll be incredibly suspicious.)
They just have to get the timing right. With Jedi, this isn't as difficult as it might otherwise be. They manage to sneak into the palace near the hangar. Elesse takes a moment to stretch her senses, and indicates the whereabouts of the pilots. They're being guarded by a droid platoon, who are easy enough to dispatch from surprise. Then, pilots in tow, it's off to the ships. They're all still mostly ready, but some of the pilots are going to have to act as ground crew, so they won't all be able to be launched.
Elesse and the others hold off a few waves of droids.
And then, as the wing prepares to launch, a figure in dark robes appears in the doorway. Elesse and Qui-Gon move to the fore, lightsabers glowing green and gold. Obi-Wan starts herding the Queen and the others out the far entrance.
A tangible pulse of hatred bursts from the dark one as he ignites a weapon of his own, a bloody crimson saberstaff.
...Elesse better be okay when Anakin gets back. Or else that dark figure is gonna have a very short future. (This doesn't feel like anger or fear. Just certainty.)
She launches with the other ships, attentive to see if anyone from the ground fires at them. She needs to get this done quickly, she realizes - to get the droids out of the equation and so she can return and maybe help.
It's really not calmness she feels, though. It's a wordless 'help' towards the Force, a vicious certainty her friend won't let her down - or at least that Anakin will be strong enough to protect the people she likes.
There's no ground anti-air fire. Either they weren't expecting this or didn't get anything set up.
Once they get up to orbit, things become a bit more exciting. Swarms of fighters boil out of the Federation's ships. Her droid, which introduced itself as R2-D2, chirrups in alarm. The other pilots start coordinating attack patterns over the comm, searching for the control ship.
Welp.
Splitting her attention between comming people, evasive action, and finding the best path to the control ship is hard - she prioritizes avoiding the missile locks, then only lets people know she's got a feeling but not a confirmation about the control ship's location,and she's going to pursue that lead, when and if she gets clear long enough, and then she's plotting a course for the control ship - she needs to make sure she's not shot down, but she also needs to get it fast - she doesn't focus very strongly on returning fire more than she has to -
There's a lot to keep in mind.
This is fun.
The rest of the Naboo fighters are mired in dogfights and don't have much chance of breaking free cleanly to help her.
If she could get her entire ship inside the shields, she could shoot the ship apart from the inside. The hangars on the ends of the arms would be most straightforward. Or if she's feeling reckless, she could try skimming the edge of the envelope and wait for it to cycle when the turbolasers fire.
They passively observe as Queen Amidala sorts through the business of putting her government back together. This process is greatly simplified by the Federation having relied almost entirely on droids that were taken offline when the command ship was destroyed. The living leaders have all been captured, and there are no messy pockets of lingering resistance to clean up.
At the end of the day, when the hall has mostly cleared out, the Queen calls the Jedi over. "I am sorry about Master Jinn. Though I knew him only briefly, he seemed a good man."
"He was. Thank you, your Highness."
"Were it not for his efforts, as well as your own, I would not be here. If there is anything I can do, anything you need-"
"I have already contacted the Council with news of his death. It was his wish that his funeral be held on the planet where he died. Representatives of the Council will here in a few days to attend that."
"Of course. We- can work out the details later. Thank you once again for your service, Master Vendar. And you, Anakin."
Mace Windu, Yoda, and a few other Jedi show up for the funeral. It's held at dusk, in an open pavilion. Qui-Gon's body is laid out on a pyre in the center, with everyone gathered around. It's not terribly formalized. The Jedi take it in turns to share a memory of the fallen Master. Obi-Wan doesn't say anything, but uses the torch to light the fire after a moment of silence.