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Chapter Five
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Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
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"No, Your Majesty," responded Obi-Wan. "We could only see that they seemed to be picking up a shipment of some sort. When we reached out with the Force to get a feel for the situation, we sensed great fear, resignation, and pain from many. Things commensurate with being taken as slaves."
Panaka raised his head, his eyes ablaze. "Are you saying, then, that you are familiar with such things?"
"No, Captain," said Qui-Gon. "Not in the way you mean. Your Majesty," he said, turning to the Queen. "I am perhaps not what you expected. I do not have the ear of the Council; in fact, I am something of an outcast among the Masters of our order."
Panaka didn't quite get to his feet, blaster leveled, but Obi-Wan could feel the desire to do so in the man's sense. "Explain, Jedi," he commanded, the insult of not referring to Qui-Gon by his appropriate title hanging in the air over the table.
Qui-Gon looked over at Panaka, seeming unconcerned. "I am no dark lord of the Sith, Captain. Not even a dark Jedi. What I mean is this - I am not going to be able to sway the Republic Senate with a word, not the way that someone like Master Yoda or Mace Windu might. I am a Master Jedi by training and ability; but there are those who believe I hold a nearly-heretical view of the way that the Force should be used."
"Your words are of little comfort, Master Jedi," observed Sio Bibble.
"They are not meant to be, Governor Bibble. I state only the truth," said Qui-Gon. "I believe that the Force is beyond our comprehension - even the comprehension of those such as myself, who have studied as best we can for our entire lives. I am a Jedi, and proud to be so - but I hold to the idea that the Force is beyond the governance, or even oversight, of any governing body. You will find little love for me in the halls of the Council, but you will find that no Jedi holds more to his word than I. Now, my Queen," he said, turning once again to the young monarch, "I should like to ask you certain questions."
"The answers require but the asking," Amidala said.
"Who or what are these Gungans?" he asked.
Bibble pursed his lips and looked out a window. Panaka sighed, softly. The Queen, to her credit, looked the Master Jedi in the eye and said, "The Gungans are the other sentient species on our world. There are those who would say that we oppress the Gungans."
"Why would they say this, Your Majesty?" asked Obi-Wan.
The Queen turned that level gaze upon the younger Jedi. "The Gungans are, as I say, the other sentients that inhabit Naboo. They have no voice in our society - and to the best of my studies, this is by their own choice. They are an aquatic species who have developed an incredible skill with shield technology. Prodigious, even. They are amphibious, and somewhat nomadic. Their society is to a large extent agrarian and xenophobic. They do not trust Humans."
"Why is that, Your Majesty?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Truthfully, Master Qui-Gon, I don't know." She took a deep breath, and Obi-Wan could sense her pushing away a momentary impulse. "The Gungans are a moody lot. We sometimes make overtures to them, and the interchange at times has even been healthy. Much of what we know about shield technology was developed from them."
"Our histories," began Bibble. "State that at one point, several hundred years ago, the Gungans were trying to expand their surface territories. They come to the surface to lay their eggs, you see... It seems that they encroached too closely on the territories of some of our less-reputable citizens."
"What Master Bibble is trying to say, Master Jedi," Amidala said. "Is that the century before our admittance to the Galactic Republic was a time of civil war for Naboo. There were dozens of petty fiefdoms and warlords on the surface. The Gungans made the mistake of trying to spread into the territories of those warlords. They were slaughtered, or used as conscript warriors."
Neither Jedi spoke for a moment. The sun was lowering in the sky, and its brilliance through the high window behind Amidala cast a gridwork across her face. "Dormé," she called. One of the handmaidens came to her side. "Help me remove this... thing," the Queen said, pulling free one of the long oaken pins that had held her hair up.
The handmaiden hesitated, but only momentarily. Within moments, the young Queen was free of the elaborate headdress she had worn. She looked much more human and approachable afterwards. "Gentlemen," she said, rising to her feet. "The weight of responsibility is never far from a Queen. But the weight of her dress is very close. I will be back in a moment; please, avail yourselves of the kitchen in my absence."
As the Queen stepped out of the room, the eyes of both Jedi followed her. "If you would, Captain Panaka," said Qui-Gon. "Please inform the Queen at some point that her trust in us is greatly appreciated."
The Captain only nodded as he requested a meal from the automated menu in his datapad.
As a very fine meal was being served, the young woman that Obi-Wan assumed was the Queen returned to the table, and sat at its head. She looked quite different in a simple dress. She ordered a salad of local greens.
"It is not a proud portion of our history. The Gungans have never fared well at our hands, I fear," she said, sipping at a glass of wine.
"Conscript soldiers?" asked Qui-Gon.
"Yes, Master Jedi. Slaves sent to war," she admitted.
"Your Majesty," said Obi-Wan. "Your pain over these ancient atrocities is worthless."
The Queen looked up, an expression of surprise spreading across her face. "Excuse me, Jedi Kenobi?"
"I am sorry," he said. "I spoke rashly, and poorly. I am unaccustomed to the speech of politics," he observed with a wry grin. "I simply mean that it is meaningless to torture yourself with guilt over the actions of an ancestor. Certainly you should reach out to these people, and help them to the best of your ability, but it is senseless to beat yourself up over the actions of those long dead."
"It is an axiom among us," said Governor Bibble around a sip of his wine, "That those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it."
"And we will not doubt the truth of that," said Master Qui-Gon. "But those are wisest that learn the truths of the past."
Governor Bibble beamed at the adage.
"One should learn the lessons of the past, not use those lessons as a cudgel to change things," said Obi-Wan. "It is proper for you to be horrified at the treatment of the Gungans by your predecessors, but I doubt that it is necessary for you to berate yourselves constantly."
"It might even be called self-indulgence," observed Master Qui-Gon.
Governor Bibble bridled at this. "That is the statement of one-"
"Who was never a slave?" asked Master Qui-Gon, anticipating the rest of Bibble's statement. "Yes, I am Corellian by birth," he stated. "But my home colony of Arlanna was not so long ago prey to Hutt slavers. A not-so distant ancestor of mine led a rebellion against her master to destroy his slave agency."
Master Qui-Gon's statement sank like a stone. Panaka sipped at his wine, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Qui-Gon gave him a bright, quick glance.
"That ancestor of mine lived about four hundred years ago; less than the time your people have been full members of the Republic. What you speak of was before even that."
Amidala actually laughed. Governor Bibble looked astonished, and there was a dry grin on Panaka's sturdy face. "That isn't funny," sputtered Bibble.
"No, it isn't," Master Qui-Gon observed. "But it is no less true. I have never known the oppression of chains, no; but I have no love of them, either. I feel it best to walk beyond the chains of others, as do many of my countrymen."
"Master Bibble, our Jedi friend has skewered a few hundred years of hereditary guilt. I am sorrry," said Amidala, "If you find my exorcism of that guilt to be in bad taste. Master Qui-Gon, what would you ask of us now?"
"Would you aid your planet-mates against this scourge?" he asked simply.
"If it meant my life," the young woman answered.
The Jedi Master appraised this answer, stood up with a flourish, and said to the Queen, "A grave injustice has been done to you, and to your people. I offer my aid and assistance to your cause, and to the cause of these Gungans and their liberty."
