Chapter Forty Three

Later on that day Harry followed Master Fay through the streets of the capital city towards a small hall where Master Fay had been called in to preside judgment over a few family disputes. They weren't important, but they were somewhat acrimonious and outside local law jurisdiction, being entirely between two civilian parties. They could've lawyered up of course, but that would've taken them years and a lot of money. With so many Jedi on hand, it seemed more natural to ask for a Jedi's opinion on the matter. Master Fay was smiling as they walked. This was the kind of task that she felt was the second best use of Jedi the universe over: to give out neutral well-informed judgments, not fight other people's battles, but to nurture, teach, and deal out justice.

Harry didn't agree with her on that point. He felt the Jedi should be more proactive, in particular against the slave trade which was something he had never really reconciled himself to existing at all in this universe. He understood the economic reasons for it, but that didn't mean he liked it. Fay on the other hand believed the Jedi should simply make certain everyone knew there was a problem, then help the various governments or polities to shut down the slave trade themselves.

He sat with Master Fay watching as she took the various people's statements, feeling her Force senses reach out wrapping around each individual in turn as they spoke. Her words were probing, digging out the truth when they tried to hide it. Eventually in this manner she brought to light that one of the two people in the first case had lied about where he had gotten the product the dispute was about, and how much he paid for it. He had initially wanted to impress the daughter of his client, and had thought to undercut his own prices in order to do so. When he found out that the client's daughter was already engaged, that had turned to anger and feelings of betrayal, which had led to him marking up the next shipment so dramatically. Master Fay diffused things, money was exchanged, and the two went their separate ways. Their business relationship was done, but at least the growing feud meet between them was also finished.

The next two issues were more police-oriented. A young boy, a multiple offender, had been taken in by a policeman after two weeks of theft, vandalism and other small time crimes. . Nothing about his life or education hinted he should have been acting in this way. He came from a very well-to-do family, he didn't need to steal, his parents seemed happy, he had good friends who were not involved in the same acts. There didn't seem to be anything to cause his actions.

Again Master Fay, this time with Lily's help, was able to get to the bottom of things. It turned out that the boy knew his father had been having an affair, and the woman involved knew the boy knew, and had been abusive to him a time or two, as well as threatening him. Somehow the woman had convinced the boy that if he told anyone about the affair, both his father and he would be in big trouble, and as children everywhere were wont to do, he'd bottled it up, until he started to lash out.

The father was brought in, questioned severely by Master Fay, and then his mistress arrested for abuse. Whether or not the father's marriage would survive none of them knew, but none of them were willing to delve into it deeper. Affairs of the heart like that were not a Jedi's concern so long as it did not involve violence.

From there the next two cases had more to do with politics than anything personal, and area Harry was much happier to deal with them. Even if he didn't like politics at all he was better than the alternative.

This had become the normal routine since Fay and her party had settled into life here on Sorenno. The mornings from sunrise to three in the afternoon was taken up by training. The afternoon was devoted to other things. Sometimes the afternoon would be taken up with lessons on politics, healing and navigation taught by Fay or Luminara, with Luminara pitching in because she in turn sat in on Fay's lessons about the Outer Rim systems and of course healing as well. Sometimes the afternoon training would be tactics and strategy with Master Dooku and Vosa, who had found the boy as fast a learner mentally as he was physically. Vosa in turn enjoyed the time with her former Master, using his lessons as an anchor to the life she had before the mission against the Bando Gora. So all in all, this day was normal for everyone in the estate.

That normality died late that night when a ragged cry of pain and fear reverberated through the mansion. "GYAAAAAaaaahhhhhhhh!"

This wasn't the first time such a thing it happened. Early on in Luminara's care Vosa had suffered from horrible nightmares, aided no doubt by the pain giving devices imbedded in her mind. But this time it wasn't Vosa screaming, it was Harry.

"Harry, Harry, wake up please. Whatever it is it's just a dream!" Lily shouted, trying desperately to touch her son, trying to get his attention as he thrashed in his bed, his back spasming painfully as his eyes opened wide but unseeing. Once again she cursed her ghostly status as her hands faded through Harry's body with only a tiny amount of resistance.

Behind her Dooku crashed through the doorway, a Force grab ripping the knob off as Master Fay quickly followed, having been with Luminara at the far end of the mansion with Vosa, giving the girl a checkup. Dooku had actually been closer, having left the ladies and making his way to his own quarters on the other side of the wing.

Dooku quickly held the youth down, as Fay moved towards him. "Lily, with me!" she said crisply. Lily's ethereal hand settled on Fay's as she pressed her fingers against Harry's face, one finger over his scar on his forehead, the other two pressing into his eyes and the last two pressing into his cheekbones. There was a brief susurration of the Force as Fay enveloped Harry in her aura, forcefully calming Harry down. Lily's touch on Fay's hand also added the feel of Lily's presence to the technique. With that aid and Lily's soothing voice, they began to slowly bring Harry back to himself.

It took several minutes, but eventually Harry subsided back onto his bed. Fay backed away, watching him closely as Lily moved to take her son's hands in her own ethereal ones, cursing once more as her hands went through Harry's.

"What was it do you think?" Dooku asked, looking over Fay. Behind them, the door opened and Vosa walked in, her own eyes worried. Before Fay could reply he turned aside, looking at the small serving droid who had scuttled in with the young woman. "Water! No, some brandy for the shock."

"A Force vision of some kind, though what caused it or what it is about of course I cannot say," Fay replied as she answered Dooku's questions, frowning thoughtfully. "Harry has never had a vision before, indeed I have often despaired about inability to reach out into the currents of the Force outside of combat."

Before Dooku could reply Harry's eyes began to flutter, coming back to the here and now. Dooku waited a moment then pulled Harry upright, helping him lean against the wall behind his bed as the droid moved forward, reaching into a small refrigerator built into its side and pulling out a tiny glass, pouring a generous amount of local brandy into it before handing it to Dooku. Who in turn handed it to Fay. Fay held it underneath Harry's nose whispering, "Harry, drink this, child, you'll feel better."

If Harry was a more experienced Jedi he wouldn't have needed that kind of thing even after a powerful Force vision of course. But he was young, and as Fay had said this was the first Force Vision he ever had. That was always a shock to the system.

Lily whispered into her son's ear. "Calm down Harry, you're safe, you're among friends. Drink this, you'll feel better."

The two women exchanged glances as Harry did so, shuddering as the fiery brandy went down his throat, gasping and shaking his head but when he opened his eyes once more, they were lucid, hard emerald eyes, and his hand clenched around the small decanter. "Aayla is in trouble," he said simply, but those simple words were fraught with meaning.

The vision hadn't been very specific, such things never were of course. Only the most learned Masters could get any specific information out of a sudden Force visions like that, one that came upon them instead of them trying to sift through the Force to see the future. But Harry was able to explain enough to convince all of them that it was a real Force vision. Aayla tied to a table of some kind, with some sinister droid thing moving towards her, her eyes unfocused and almost mindless as hands reached for her from the darkness by the bed.

Listening to Harry describe the vision, and the feeling of dread and fear that came with it Lily wondered where Quinlan was. But then she realized that if something had happened to Aayla it had probably also happened to Quinlan.

It took Harry several hours to recover physically from the trauma, during which Fay and Lily explained to the other three Jedi how Harry and Aayla were bonded. Dooku and the others were not certain what to think about Harry's connection to Aayla. Dooku was leery about the emotions behind it, but was willing to admit that was because of all the things he had thought the Order needed to change, the rules against emotions and connections was not among them.

In contrast Vosa looked somewhat wistful as she heard about it, before shaking her head and saying, "Wait, they can see each other's thoughts? No, um, just no. I would not be comfortable with that at all, I doubt I ever would have been if I was younger and inclined to romanticism."

Luminara was concerned, for much the same reason, and at first stated that in her opinion the connection should have bene forcibly severed. She was deeply concerned about the vulnerability it created in both padawans, and the fact that Yoda had bent the rules to allow the bond to remain in place. She understood Harry's abilities were important to the Order as a whole, but to allow the boy to step so far beyond the bounds of the Order's rules? She and Fay had a very polite argument about it, and in the end she decided to take a wait and see attitude.

When Harry recovered, Lily led him to a room he had not previously entered. This was a circular room set on the fourth floor of the mansion in the dome Harry had initially thought was some kind of observatory. Inside w a massive hologram of known Republic space emanated out of the floor. It was so huge you could actually walk into it, reach up and manipulate things. "This is a jewel of my house," Dooku said simply, shaking his head lightly. "It was our spoil after the Sith occupation 2,300 years ago."

Master Fay smiled wanly at Harry. After her argument with Luminara she had contacted the temple on Coruscant in order to discover where Aayla had been sent to. Unfortunately, the Council didn't know where she was. Master Windu and the other Masters involved in actually sending Aayla on her current mission were all out of contact, taking care of their own parts of the larger operation. Master Yoda knew they should have been the inserted into Ryloth, but that hadn't happened. Quinlan had changed the plan, and no one knew how.

She spent a few moments informing Harry and Lily of this, then gestured to the massive hologram all around them. "Use the Force Harry, meditate and see if you can at least find a direction."

Harry bit his lip but nodded. This kind of thing was an area of the Force he did not perform well in, to put it mildly. Still he was willing to try for Aayla's sake. He knelt down placing his knees together as he closed his eyes, sending his thoughts out into the Force. Lily stood behind him, her ethereal hands on his shoulders, wordlessly encouraging him, and after a moment, one of Harry's hands rose to pat Lily's, passing through her hand in the normal manner.

A moment later she floated backwards as he stood up, and pointed out a single planet. "Here, I'm certain of it."

Tatooine, that is also a logical destination if they are investigating the illegal slave trade," Dooku said with a nod. I believe two Hutts have made their homes there, it would make sense for at least one of them to be involved in the slave ring. The question now is what you do about it?" Dooku frowned thoughtfully then turned to Master Fay. "Does your ship have any offensive weaponry?"

"Very few," Lily said before Master Fay could.

"In that case, I believe I will have to take one of the ships here. One of the small system patrol craft should do nicely for us." Dooku mused.

"We?" Master Fay asked.

Dooku twitched his shoulders in a half shrug, his lips twitching likewise into an almost-smile. "Recall that the Hutts are immune to mind powers, and the fact they might well have been able to hire an army of mercenaries and cutthroats. You could have to cut your way through to save this young Twi'lek padawan."

"It they get between me and Aayla being cut to pieces is going to be the least of their concerns," Harry said grimly. He looked up at his mother and Master Fay almost defiantly, his hand beginning to flare lightly with Force Light, a sight that made Dooku and Luminara's eyes widen.

But Lily and Fay merely laughed. "I believe the time has come to show off a bit Harry." Lily said, smirking evilly. "Let's show whoever has Aayla that taking her captive was a very, very bad idea."