CERTAINTY

by ardavenport

- - - Part 3

"I'm no fighter," Chemi announced, hands up, as the Security and Jedi rushed out, leaving them behind. The airlock hatch slid closed.

"What?" Trechmin demanded. "There isn't any fight. Where is everyone?" She half rose from her seat, looking down through the viewport while Topo slunk down lower in hers. She really did not feel like explaining anything to her. Topo was no fighter either and she did not know any more about it than her fellow Engineer did, except when to keep her head low.

"What's that?" Trechmin demanded, pointing, leaning forward over the controls.

"Oooh." Chemi rose as well.

"Maybe we should stay away from the ports?" Topo suggested, scrunched down even lower in her seat.

"That's Impossible!"

Her comrade's outburst jolted Topo.

"Ooooooh!" Chemi rose from his seat, too. "Look at that!"

"They can't do that!" Trechmin turned around, gesturing frantically. "Come look at this! It's impossible!!" Snarling, she dove down on Topo.

"Aaaauuuufffff!!" She resisted, but Trechmin got her by the roll of loose skin and fur at the base of her neck and dragged her up.

"Look!!" Trechmin commanded.

Still cringing, Topo saw flashes of orange blaster fire zipping over the ground between the buildings, the low structures on the ground and their ship.

And two bright lines of plasma light. One blue. One green. Blaster bolts deflecting away from them.

The Jedi, their pale body coverings flapping behind them, swinging their lightsabers, ran into the command center building and disappeared. The beautiful bright plasma light vanished into the dark opening.

The blaster fire stopped.

"That's IMPOSSIBLE!!"

Trechmin released Topo's scruff and shook her fists at the buildings.

"They CAN'T DO THAT! I DRAINED EVERY DROCHET FROM THOSE POWER CELLS! THOSE THINGS WOULDN'T EVEN IGNITE!!!"

The frenzied Engineer turned around, pushing past Topo in the tight space between the seats.

"Aaay!" Chemi complained.

Trechmin stumbled toward the airlock. Horrified, Topo went after her, throwing her arms around her maddened comrade's middle. They both went down, their bodies solidly impacting and rolling on the deck.

"Don't go out there! You'll get shot!"

They were only the technical inspectors. The fighting was for the security people. And there wasn't supposed to be any fighting anyway; this last confirmation was just a formality before the final treaty in-signations. If Trechmin got shot, Topo did not know how she could explain it to their department head.

Trechmin struggled, but Topo had her from behind, arms pressed into her fur and the blubbery flesh at the waist. Neither of them got enough exercise, but near madness and panic gave them both strength. Trechmin tried kicking back, but Topo was heavier and weighed her down close to the deck.

"I'm no fighter!" Chemi said uselessly from his seat in front.

"You can't go out there!" Topo yelled, getting mad at her comrade's single-minded stupidity.

"They are NOT getting away with this! Those Jedi were hiding spare power cells! After I TOLD them that we needed everything they had! WE BARELY HAD ENOUGH TO GET HERE!!"

"The power wasn't that low," Chemi's voice said.

"That's NOT THE POINT!" Trechmin shouted back furiously, her flesh still flexing and struggling in Topo's tight and frantic embrace. "I told them we needed as much power as they had on them and they held back! Those GREEDY SELF-RIGHTEOUS SLIMO!"

"They didn't have any spare power cells!" Topo argued, trying to pull her arms even tighter around the Trechmin's trunk of flesh and fur. "Where would they put them?"

"They were hiding them in those robes! They could have smuggled a whole case of power cells in those things!"

"Those robes are right here! Why don't you check!"

Trechmin stopped thrashing. They were both on their sides, Trechmin partially on top of Topo. Next to them, long folds of brown fabric hung off of the two rear seats of the cabin.

Grunting, Trechmin struggled up and Topo let go. She pushed herself up, supporting herself on her arms and then sat on the patterned metaloid deck. Her fellow Engineer grabbed the darker brown robe belonging to Jedi Qui-Gon, but it was caught somewhere on the chair. Snarling, she struggled with it and after some ripping sounds got it free.

Still panting, Topo watched Trechmin pull and stretch every part of the robe, the head covering flap, the enormous arm coverings, the long body of dark brown cloth. It was large enough for either her or Topo to wear. Trechmin had no idea why they would wear anything so oversized. Perhaps they did smuggle things in them. But not this time.

After finally getting to the ends of the robe and finding nothing Trechmin threw it aside and went for Jedi Obi-Wan's robe. Even though he was a head smaller than his boss, Jedi Obi-Wan's robe seemed just as big and wider, too. And frustrating for Trechmin. She angrily threw it down after grasping and tugging on every rough surface of it.

"They must have hidden them somewhere else!"

"I was with Jedi Obi-Wan the whole time. Except when he was with you. And Jedi Qui-Gon was outside with Maedae. They didn't have any time to hide anything." Topo climbed up on to her feet off the deck.

"Then they're carrying them with them!"

They stood too close to each other, their heads rounded and large from their hair standing on end, their eyes only indentations on their faces. Blue shadow ringed Topo's vision; she saw everything through a tunnel of emotion. She whirled around, went to the equipment compartment and pulled out a spare blaster.

If there was a safety lock on the weapon, Topo did not know how to disengage it. She really only knew which end to point. If it went off by accident, Trechmin realized that would be very easy to explain to her department head. How could anyone who had ever met Trechmin be surprised that someone might shoot her?

"Trechmin, if you go near that airlock again before we get some kind off all clear from outside, I'll shoot you right here." She pointed the blaster at Trechmin's middle.

Trechmin's black eyes seemed to pop out from her face fur, her anger turning to shock.

"We're going to have words with those Jedi," Trechmin warned, but she stayed in her place.

"When they get back."

"Uuuuuuuhhhh," Chemi said, turning around from the forward ports. "The bare-face one is coming back now."

Topo's aim on Trechmin's middle remained steady.

"Good."

Trechmin's furry face smoothed into a scowl, her only answer.

The three of them stayed frozen in the ship's cabin of gray and white bulkheads and empty seats. Topo glimpsed movement through the forward viewport. Chemi's fluffed up head kept shifting her view between the two Engineers. But Trechmin's hair flattened on the top of her head with vexation.

Hissing, the airlock door rose.

Jedi Obi-Wan took a step and froze, his mouth open, the red inside and the bottom row of his hard white teeth exposed.

Trechmin turned her vexed expression on him.

"I came to tell you that it was safe." His mobile blue-grey eyes scanned the whole cabin. He didn't move his head at all.

"Outside," Jedi Obi-Wan finished, his breather mask still hanging around his neck.

"Just a little disagreement," Topo said cheerfully back to that wide eyed stare. She pointed the blaster away and then put it back into the storage compartment.

"There were Samak saboteurs, but only a few renegades. They had surprised the command team and taken over the Gathering Point. It is possible that the treaty may still be saved," he told them with a rising tone of encouragement.

"I don't care about that!" Trechmin snapped, pushing herself forward, her eyes level with Jedi Obi-Wan. "Where were you hiding those power cells? I TOLD you that I needed ever power cell on the ship to replace the fuel!"

He leaned back from his accuser.

"We gave you our power cores. Those are the only ones we had. We don't carry replacements."

"Then how did you get those plasma swords of yours on? We SAW you from the ship right over there!" Trechmin pointed in the direction of the forward viewport and Chemi.

"We . . . ." Jedi Obi-Wan lifted a hand, palm open. ". . . . we still had a residual charge in the crystal focusing rods. It was too unstable for you to use for your work. The discharge would have damaged the batteries. So, you left it there."

The hair on Trechmin's head lifted, her posture relaxing, her black eyes staring blankly back at him.

"Yes. . . . . a charge like that would last a minute or two before it was exhausted. Enough for you to wave those things around like you do. Impress the hostiles. It wouldn't take much with those superstitious Samaks. . . . ."

"And now you need to speak with Minister Tachnee in the command center about reassembling the technical teams again. Only our ship was sabotaged. The validation of the Samak disarmament should still be possible."

"I need to go speck with Minister Tachnee about reassembling the technical teams so this won't be a complete waste of my time," Trechmin agreed, nodding, her black eyes staring forward at nothing.

Jedi Obi-Wan pointed at the panel next to the airlock which opened immediately. His hand on her shoulder guided her down the ramp.

"There wasn't any capacitance in the focusing chamber. It couldn't have held any kind of charge. Certainly not enough for ignition. I saw the whole power train when I helped Techmin build that energy converter we used to drain those power cells," Topo finally said, taking a step forward.

One boot past the airlock threshold, Jedi Obi-Wan turned his head to look back at her. He lifted his hand. Trechmin kept going down the ramp, leaving them.

"Not that I care!" Trechmin backed up. "But. . . . .I am curious."

He lowered his hand.

"No," he shook his head, his naked lips curling upward.

"So. . . . . I wonder. . . . ." Topo said carefully, looking at the silver and black lightsaber hanging off of his belt. "Do Jedi ever stop to recharge those things? That's a pretty dense power cell you carry around. A whole lot more juice than any blaster. You might have to let it sit overnight, just to get a full charge after it was depleted."

"No." His whole face, even his eyes, smiled. "We don't."

Chemi, who had been watching, came toward them from between the rows of seats. His head tilted to one side, his eyes looked down at the weapon and then up at him.

"And nobody notices?" Topo persisted.

He lifted his shoulders and let them fall again, a wordless gesture with a Human meaning.

"Usually nobody asks," he admitted. "But it seemed to bother your friend. I thought I should give her an explanation that she was more comfortable with."

"Do Jedi care if anyone notices?" she asked cautiously.

Jedi Obi-Wan lifted and dropped his narrow shoulders again. "No. But we care if people yell at us about it."

"Mmmmmmm. I think I would, too. Especially if it's Trechmin doing the yelling.

"Will Trechmin even remember that you suggested that your lightsabers had residual charges in them?"

"Most likely not. She will only recall the things that she is comfortable with. The things that she is certain of."

"Well, I'll be sure not to contradict that to her. I don't like getting yelled at, either."

They smiled together, Jedi Obi-Wan obviously certain of his unexplainable energies and Trechmin certain she wasn't interested in asking any more about them. They looked toward Captain Chemi, watching them.

"I don't care," he declared hastily, his hands up, looking back and forth between them.

"You want to get rid of that? Since you obviously don't need it," Trechmin suggested.

Jedi Obi-Wan seemed baffled for a moment until he looked down at where she pointed.

"Oh yes, please," he agreed enthusiastically, removing Maedae's blaster belt and handing it over. She tossed it back into the weapons compartment.

"So, Jedi Qui-Gon was just humoring Sargent Maedae back there," she commented, turning back to him.

"He does do that sometimes. He believes that cooperation is always better than confrontation."

"You don't think he could teach that to Trechmin, do you?" He lifted and dropped his narrow shoulders back at her, his face scrunching in an odd unreadable way. Topo thought that meant, 'no.'

She and Chemi each took a breather from the rack and put them on, the flexible material along the edges making a tight seal over their faces down to their under fur. Jedi Obi-Wan put his on and activated the airlock hatch. The left the ship together.

^^^ooo^^^ooo^^^ END ^^^ooo^^^ooo^^^

This story was first posted on tf.n: 30-June-2009

Disclaimer: All characters and situations belong to George and Lucasfilm; I'm just playing in their sandbox.