The Chosen Apprentice/Chapter 18

With the characteristic robes and the cowl of his cloak shading his face, Shinai looked like any other Jedi who didn’t wish to be noticed. This was not only his intention but was part of his instructions.

He emerged from a turbolift into the senator’s office, the red Twi’lek receptionist eyed him nervously.

“Another Jedi?” she spat. “I’m sorry I have to tell you that the senator is not—”

That was as far as she got before she collapsed onto the desk, her eyes wide with surprise. Shinai was satisfied, but he still needed to recognisable, or seem to be…

Shinai ignited his lightsaber, the blue blade glowing as he walked towards the senator’s office, the light and hum attracting the attention of the guards. They formed a line before the door.

“You…Jedi!” the guard in the middle barked. “The senator has said—” The guard started to choke, his hands grappling at his throat. The others either side of him aimed their weapons but Shinai fought them all back with quick blows from his lightsaber. The remaining guard he threw across the room with the Force and then he opened the door.

Senator Stokra turned to stare at him. “You again!” He reached out his sleeve for a small hold-out blaster. “I don’t know how you managed to get past my guards, Skywalker, but this confrontation is unwarranted.”

Shinai didn’t speak, this was another part of his instructions. He simply reached into the Force and plucked the blaster from the senator’s hand. He brought his lightsaber down on the senator’s desk, gouging it into two parts.

Stokra’s eyes grew wide and fearful, he backed away. “You’ll never take me alive!” he barked, grappling at the wall behind him and pressing a hidden button. A loud alarm started to blare, Stokra smiled. “The general alarm,” he said, smiling slightly. “Not even you Jedi can stop that.”

Shinai’s expression seemed to challenge this, he swung his lightsaber towards the senator and threw Stokra against the wall with the Force. Stokra’s skull made a crack as it impacted, his limp body slumped to the floor.

Shinai smiled, it was time to leave.



While he would have preferred to wait until Obi-Wan returned, Anakin felt an odd sense of pleasure in the thought that he might be able to sort out a diplomatic problem without the Jedi Order’s most renowned negotiator. Anakin personally preferred to settle negotiations with his lightsaber; it was fast, clean and left others in no doubt as to where you stood.

Yet as his airspeeder set down on the landing pad he could feel…something…some kind of threat, something that gave him a very bad feeling about this.

His suspicions had proved correct when he entered the building, the Twi’lek receptionist was slumped against her desk and it took but a simple touch to confirm she was dead. Anakin stretched out with his senses, if there was a threat he didn’t detect it but this didn’t mean that it wasn’t there.

With one hand on his lightsaber he walked towards the senator’s office, the guards were lying dead on the ground and the door showed signs of forced entry but he did not stop to examine them. Inside the office Senator Stokra was collapsed against a wall, his head limp on his shoulders.

“No, you can’t be dead,” Anakin said, quickly kneeling at Stokra’s side. He knew that the bulk of this could fall on him as so far he had seen no witnesses. He reached out a hand, the back of Stokra’s scalp was caked with blood, but there was a pulse.

At the sound of running footsteps Anakin looked up, it was security.

“You guys took your time,” he told them, “someone’s already been and gone.”

“Secure the area, check for survivors,” the sergeant ordered, his men dispersed. “Do you know what happened here?”

Anakin started to answer that he had just arrived, but senator Stokra regained consciousness. With a shaking hand he pointed at the Jedi. “You!” he spat, his voice thin but determined. “What are you still doing here?”



In the middle of a meeting with Senators Bel Iblis and Orn Free Taa, Danta’s aide Varné entered.

“Excuse me, senators,” she said in a hushed voice, “but there appears to have been an attack on Senator Stokra.”

There was a long silence.

“When was theess?” Danta asked finally.

“About thirty minutes ago,” Varné replied.

Bel Iblis let out a low whistle. “Bad news has good legs,” he murmured. “Some assassin I assume?”

Varné shook her head. “The reports say the attacker was a Jedi,” she confessed, “but I’m not sure if that’s accurate.”

She quickly excused herself and Danta considered this thoughtfully. “Thesa cannot be possible,” the Gungan said finally.

“Yet it has happened,” Bel Iblis pointed out, “or it has appeared to have happened.”

“Very bombad,” Danta agreed.



“This is injustice!” Stokra shouted.

“My apologies senator, but these are the procedures laid down by law,” the sergeant explained. “I simply follow the law, making them is your job I believe.”

Even Stokra knew better than to argue with this. “I am agreeing with this under protest,” he said, glowering at Anakin who sat in the corner of the room.

Anakin knew better than to look back, he even knew better than to even talk to Stokra. As the sergeant had explained to him, the standard procedure when a Jedi’s actions were brought into question was to contact the Jedi Council. Two Council members would then take custody of the wayward Jedi and then they would be answerable to the Council’s ruling.

Even though the circumstances appeared slightly dubious to the sergeant—and he explained this at length to Anakin—this was the way it had to be.

Anakin wanted to argue with him, or better still run out the door and go somewhere else. Mon Calamari might do nicely with half the galaxy between him and Coruscant. Yet even he could understand how this could be taken as an admission of guilt, something Stokra would not hesitate to throw at him and the Jedi Order.

Eventually the sergeant’s comlink informed that the Jedi’s transport had landed, and soon enough Yoda arrived with Shaak Ti. Yoda looked sternly around the room. Anakin, feeling his composure in tatters, got to his feet.

“Master Yoda this is all a mistake,” he quickly said. “I can explain—”

Yoda cut him off with a gesture. “Explain you can later.” He nodded to the sergeant. “Take young Skywalker we will, trouble us he will not.”

Stokra glared at this. “Are you sure of that Master Yoda?”

Yoda returned the senator’s stare with one of his own, Stokra had the sense not to say anything more. Yet he glowered as Anakin was taken out of the room with Shaak Ti shadowing him.



When they were in the speeder on the way back to the Temple Yoda let out a long sigh. He looked up at Anakin.

“Understand you do what mean this will?” he asked

“But I didn’t—”

Yoda rapped Anakin impatiently on the knee with his gimer stick. “Means nothing that does!” he admonished. “Dissent he will create and more precarious our position will be!”

“Anakin, what were you doing in Senator Stokra’s office in the first place?” Shaak Ti asked kindly.

“He asked me to be there,” Anakin answered.

The Togruta gave Anakin a strange look, Yoda closed his eyes meditatively.

“Tighter the dark side binds us,” he murmured, “yet abound our adversaries are.”