The Phantom Menace (AU)/Chapter 13

In some ways Anakin reminded him of Obi-Wan when he was younger. Unwilling to sit still even for five minutes, full of questions and regarding new experience with a barely veiled naïveté. Like now, the boy was examining the night sky with an openness and delight that touched him.

“Sit still, Annie,” Qui-Gon said, he was cleaning a cut on Anakin’s arm with some swabs from his medical kit.

“There’s so many!” Anakin said with a wide smile. “Do they all have their own system of planets?”

Qui-Gon gave the star-studded sky a cursory glance. “Most of them,” he replied with a small smile.

“Has anyone ever been to all of them?” Anakin asked.

“Not really,” Qui-Gon chuckled, taking a small tool in the palm of his hand.

“I want to be the first one to see them all—ouch!” Anakin drew back sharply, Qui-Gon quickly palmed what he had in his hand and wiped the smear blood from Anakin’s arm and applied some antiseptic.

“There you are good as new,” Qui-Gon said, patting Anakin on the shoulder.

“Annie!” Shmi called from inside. “Bedtime!”

“What’s that?” Anakin asked, pointing to a comlink Qui-Gon had produced from his pouch.

“I’m checking your blood for infection,” the Jedi Master said, not looking at him.

Anakin leaned closer. “I've never seen—”

“Annie!” Shmi called. “I’m not going to tell you again!”

“You better go, you have a big day tomorrow” Qui-Gon advised. “Good night.”

Anakin trotted off, somewhat disappointed but not protesting.

When he had gone and Qui-Gon was sure he was alone he activated his comlink.

“Yes Master?” Obi-Wan said, despite the lateness of the hour he was alert.

“I want you to process this blood sample I’m sending you,” Qui-Gon said, he gave Obi-Wan time to set up the instruments the added. “Run a midi-chlorian count.”

Qui-Gon waited, it was the first time he had told anyone other than Shmi of his instincts about Anakin. Not that he had told his Padawan much as he was sure Obi-Wan would reject the idea without any hesitation.

But if he was right about this…if he was right…

“Master,” there was concern and confusion in Obi-Wan’s voice, “there must be something wrong with this sample. I’ve run the test a few times and…” His voice trailed off in disbelief.

In the calmest voice he could summon Qui-Gon asked: “What do the readings say, Obi-Wan?”

“The midi-chlorian count is over twenty thousand,” his apprentice said. “No one has a count that high, not even Master Yoda.” Qui-Gon didn’t answer. “Master?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the sample, Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon assured him.

“But what does it mean?” Obi-Wan asked.

“I’m not sure,” Qui-Gon said, not wanting to his put words to his suspicions yet. He sat there for a while longer after he had ended the communication. It seemed impossible, beyond the credible. And yet, Qui-Gon said to himself, everything that I uncover brings me one step closer.

But somehow there needed to be one more test, and the strange thing was that it was there. On the morn Anakin Skywalker would be tested, and if the boy’s hopes were as high as his dreams… Qui-Gon smiled to himself, staring into the sky, yet seeing it not.



Obi-Wan made the routine checks on the ship before turning in for the night. Queen Nalanda and her handmaidens were in their chambers and were not privy to what was happening in regards to the hyperdrive. It wasn’t that Nalanda wouldn’t approve, she seemed to understand that sometimes rather…unconventional measures had to be taken. Her head of security, on the other hand, would no doubt have plenty to say if he discovered that their getting to Coruscant relied on a nine-year-old boy they had never seen win something called a podrace.

While he had his own reservations about this, Obi-Wan knew the difference between when to fight and when to accept a situation—even if it did involve taking what he saw as unnecessary risks which could—and often did—affect others. And it wasn’t the first time Qui-Gon had strayed off the conventional path when it came to a mission.

So it didn’t surprise Obi-Wan in the least that his Master was doing it again. But couldn’t he have picked a better time? Perhaps when not only lives of whom they were protecting but an entire planet was at stake?

He wanted to ask Qui-Gon that, but he knew the answer he would get: Trust the living Force.

I can trust the Force, Obi-Wan mused as he headed back to the cockpit, but I know there’s something out there, hiding in it.