"Seraph's the offspring of a bio-technology several decades more advanced than anything known to the Republic, Padme. It's hard to say exactly how fast she really is, because I'm understandably reluctant to push her to her absolute limits, but my girl makes Class point-five speed with no trouble at all."
I explained with a satisfied grin. Delighted to be bragging about my blazing angel to an appreciative audience.
...
Recovering from her moment of stunned disbelief, Padme seemed to glean some sense of my love for and pride in Seraph. Her ensuing smile was obviously appreciative, as she replied with genuine feeling.
"That's incredible, Anakin. Thank you for getting us here so quickly. It means a great deal to me, because as worried as I am about what's happening here at home, I am genuinely afraid of what the Senate may do when the Extraordinary Session convenes.
You've given me hope that the situation here might be resolved in time for me to return to Coruscant and help provide a counterbalance to those screaming for blood."
Thankfully, I was spared the discomfort of either pointing out how futile I thought such action would be at this point, or getting into my own fears concerning what expectations the Senate might now have of the Jedi, by the sound of a loud yawn and much lighter tread approaching.
Padme turned in Ahsoka's direction and offered a warm greeting as she plodded into the small rectangular kitchenette, but I merely offered my Padawan a small smile.
Fixing me with a plaintive look that bordered on a glare, my apprentice took a couple minutes to stretch and thoroughly massage each of her limbs, then asked in a discontented tone.
"Intensive stretching exercises, two hours of Moving Meditation, plus tripling my daily calisthenics? How am I supposed to keep up a regimen like this, and, well, learn anything?" "Master" she remembered to offer belatedly. Still bent forward and massaging her legs.
Eyeing the long, translucent adhesive patches covering the major muscle groups of arms left bare by her rust-covered crop-top, I shook my head with a sigh, then replied.
"You're lucky you're my Padawan and not Dark Woman's, little one. She insisted that burning and aching muscles would push me to increase my command of the healing trance, so there wasn't any coddling like bact-aid patches from her.
Master Dark Woman would have also contended 'If you have the energy to complain, you have the energy for a ten-click run.' Which reminds me, I need to get a treadmill installed in your quarters."
Becoming more serious in the face of her disbelieving stare, my tone was gentle yet uncompromising, as I explained "Ahsoka, you need to learn to make your body a conduit for the Living Force, as the Temple had begun training you to make of your mind.
In order to do that, you have to develop the same intimate awareness of your physical form that you've begun working towards mentally via meditation and the various cognitive exercises. That's one reason for all the exercises and Moving Meditation.
Assuming you continue to give the physical regimen your best effort, your endurance will increase significantly. That's the other reason, because I can't teach you more of Form IV until your stamina improves. Ataru is simply a suicide-pact as convoluted as it is protracted, without exceptional physical resources to draw upon."
Ahsoka straightened up, faced me, then asked in a manner that was more curious than challenging this time. "How am I supposed to know when I've improved enough, then?"
"When you can complete the first and second of Master Faalo's Cadences, and you can still maintain proper Form while sparring with me for an hour immediately afterwards" I replied promptly, and without the slightest give.
"I'll be happy to spar with you, and help you polish what you've already learned in the interim, but no new velocities until you've demonstrated you're ready to progress."
Shoulders slumping a little in disappointment, my Padawan next gave me a speculative look, then asked in an intent tone "Is it true what they say, Master?"
"I don't know, what did they say this time, Ahsoka? It's rather difficult to keep up with everything the All-Knowing They chooses to pass on to we mere mortals, after all" I replied in an even tone. Taking a drink of my coffee, as I waited to be entertained by the latest produce from the gossip-farm.
Not encouraged by my sarcastic response, and the best inscrutable demeanor I could conjure on the spot, Ahsoka's answer was delivered in a huff "I knew it had to be a bunch of bantha pudu! They said you were the youngest Jedi to ever complete the Cadences, Master."
I shook my head, sighed, then wryly observed "Throughout the course of your life, Padawan, you'll discover that even when the gossips among us aren't simply making things up, they often distort the truth in dramatic fashion, or omit critical details that generally sets the gossip they're peddling at odds with reality. At least to some extent."
I paused, took in her look of disappointment, then concluded "If you really must know, I am, a few months past my twentieth life-day, merely the youngest Jedi in a generation to successfully complete the First through Fourth of Master Faalo's Cadences in an unbroken sequence.
Master Windu was, however, barely nineteen when he did so as the youngest Jedi of his generation, and he did it without the benefit of Matukai training.
There's also Master Antana, who at three months shy of her twentieth life-day, accomplished the same feat. If you're looking for a master of the lightsaber to idolize and emulate, I can suggest no better candidate from this millennium than one of them."
Noticing her look of surprise, as well as Padme's expression of curiosity, I took the almost imperceptible jolt of Seraph coming to a sudden stop for the blessing it was. Quickly taking the opportunity to explain.
"It appears that Seraph's had her fill from the asteroid field, so if you ladies will please excuse me, I need to see about getting us back underway."
Sketching a shallow bow, I did my best to play off how uncomfortable I'd become with the recent turn in the conversation, then glided away fore at the best speed I could manage without giving the impression I was fleeing.
...
(Naboo, Theed, The Royal Palace, 90 minutes later)
The meeting with Queen Neeyutnee had happened just as quickly, and was concluded just as swiftly, as I'd anticipated.
No sooner had we touched down in the portion of the Royal Spaceport reserved for vessels with royal or diplomatic credentials, than a pair of RNSF officers had appeared as we were stepping off of Seraph's landing-ramp.
The uniformed pair had been all terse professionalism while conveying the Queen's request that we attend her, but I'd been able to sense the apprehension each man concealed like a mournful whisper echoing with every step each took in leading us through the palace's interior.
The servants and functionaries we'd passed had seemed more uncertain than scared, but I'd taken that more as a product of faith in their monarch, rather than an accurate reading of the situation.
The actual audience consisted of just the three of us, (the RNSF having been very polite yet firm in requesting IG-1 remain outside) the queen, and a tense Captain Panaka.
Once the meeting began, it hadn't taken long at all for Her Majesty to convey what she knew, after thanking Padme sincerely for arriving so quickly.
The Queen's account had amounted to this: Four days earlier, during a weekly holo-comm call with the Naboo ambassador to the Gungan High Council in Gunga City, the Queen had been told about a new advisor of Boss Lyonie's.
An older, purple-skinned Otolla Gungan the ambassador had never seen before, but one that had immediately acquired his attention due to the Gungan's sudden prominence.
After noticing the indecisive manner which had seemed to grip Boss Lyonie at every turn since this advisor's appearance, Ambassador Kirneka had sought a private audience with the Gungan leader.
Only to find his "private" audience attended by the still-unnamed advisor in question. Pressing the point, the Ambassador had asked to speak with Lyonie privately. It was his opinion the Boss had been about to grant the request, when the anonymous advisor had loudly cleared his throat.
A change as sudden as it was profound had then overcome Lyonie. Leading not only to a peremptory refusal of the Ambassador's request, but his angry dismissal of Kirneka, with several harsh words besides.
This had been the point when Kirneka had decided to apprise his own monarch of these developments during their scheduled call.
He hadn't gotten any further than providing this brief outline of the then previous evening's events, however, when Gungan soldiers had burst into his chamber.
The holo-comm call had immediately been terminated, and it had taken more than a day for the Queen to get a straight answer as to what was going on.
Apparently, Ambassador Kirneka had been detained for suspicion of espionage, and it had taken several tense conversations with the Rep Council to convince them to overrule Boss Lyonie, who was insisting Kirneka be tried as a spy, and uphold their diplomatic obligations.
The Ambassador had been subsequently ejected from Gunga City, albeit with more than one unofficial apology from emissaries of the other various Gungan Bosses. When debriefed as soon as he'd arrived in Theed almost a day later, he'd described a Gungan capitol that was in a complete uproar.
Confusion had been obvious among the citizenry, but as the flitter Kirneka had been loaded into made a completely unnecessary circuit of the capitol before beginning it's ascent, he'd seen an extremely obvious mustering of the Gungan Grand Army already well underway.
Afterwards, a day and a half ago. Queen Neeyutnee had requested the presence of Ambassador Binks the moment her meeting with Kirneka concluded.
Only to be informed by an extremely apologetic functionary at the Gungan Embassy that Ambassador Binks was otherwise engaged.
Hints had been dropped very obviously in the language of diplomacy that the Embassy was presently paralyzed by conflicting imperatives arriving continuously from the capitol.
The Queen had thought it as worrying as it was telling, that the veteran diplomats had been willing to even so obliquely express their disapproval of what was transpiring in Otoh Gunga, but the lack of a Gungan point of contact had left her government in the extremely difficult position of wondering just what their militarily powerful neighbors' intentions now were.
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