Hospitality
Part 4
Obi-Wan had not seen Betwioh all day, even at dinner, but was not surprised when the older man knocked on his door close to bedtime.�Obi-Wan, we want to talk to Harjis again.�"I�m coming,�he said. Betwioh�s voice sounded different to-night, harder somehow.
"Would you please put your Jedi clothing on?�Betwioh requested.
"All right.�He had the beginnings of a bad feeling about this, a premonition that all was not well, but he dressed quickly and came out into the corridor where Khian was already waiting.
"How are the negotiations going?�Khian asked, her voice bubbling with hope.
"Fine,�said Betwioh, and in that moment, Obi-Wan knew that he was lying. His unease increased as they flew to the government buildings again and were shown to a different room this time, not the communications center. There was a holo transmitter set up there, but it was directed at the far wall, and on the far wall were two sets of manacles. Recognising what was about to happen, Obi-Wan thought he was going to freeze with fear. They were going to torture him again. Him and Khian. Oh, Force, not again. Not now. He didn�t know whether he could take it again so soon after what had happened previously. It took all of his Jedi training to quosh those feelings of panic and desperation, and start building up Force barriers in his mind instead.
"What is this?�asked Khian, her voice shrill with fear.�I thought we were going to speak to my father!�
"You are,�said Betwioh.
The guards pushed her against the wall and closed the manacles around her wrists and ankles. She struggled automatically, but because they were bolted to the wall without chains, she could not move. As the guards shoved Obi-Wan into position, he said,�You don�t have to torture her.�
"Shut up,�one of the guards growled, and Betwioh said,�We need you both.�
"Is this how you treat your honoured guests?�Khian shouted, frightened and angry.�You torture them when they least expect it? Why didn�t you do this at the beginning?�
"Because I thought your father would do what I wanted!�Betwioh retorted.�He said he would give anything for you. Now he�s changed his mind and he hasn�t got the guts to tell me himself. He claims he�s sick and he�s sent that nephew of his to say,�Sorry, Betwioh, but we�ve thought it over and we�d rather have the territory. Never mind about the girl!� We spent the whole day arguing at the negotiations and it got us nowhere!�
"My father never said that! That is not true! Cyning is lying!�
"He thinks he can call my bluff, but I am not bluffing.�Betwioh motioned to the man who had been standing the entire time behind a console on one side of the room. He came forward with a handful of wires, and taped an electrode to the back of Obi-Wan�s neck, just where his hair ended, and one to each of his temples, then did the same to Khian.
"How long?�he asked Betwioh when he�d finished.
"I�ll tell you when,�Betwioh replied.
Khian began to scream even before the man returned to the console and pressed the button, and after a few moments, despite the Force barriers in his mind against the pain, Obi-Wan couldn�t help screaming either. It was like being on fire, only worse. It was like having needles driven into his spine. It was like being shot with a projectile blaster in his thighs and upper arms, one at a time, in a never-ending circle. It was every pain he had ever experienced, all at once. If he kept his eyes closed, it was all too easy to imagine that they were actually torturing him physically, but if he opened his eyes to make sure that it was all just nerve stimulus, it was harder for him to keep his barriers from crashing down under the agony that buffeted him with the sheer power of a tornado.
It had been going on forever. It would never stop. There had never been anything in his life but the pain, and there never would be. There was no escape into unconsciousness. There was no escape at all. He just kept screaming, and listening to Khian�s screams, and then, quite suddenly, the pain drained away and nothing new replaced it.
Obi-Wan was surprised to find that he was still standing. His ears were ringing and everything seemed to be spinning around him. When the guards removed the electrodes and unlocked the manacles, the touch of their fingers against his skin hurt, and he groaned once, and then again as he lost his balance and toppled forward onto his hands and knees. Khian landed on the floor next to him and immediately began to throw up, and the sound made his own stomach reject its contents as well. Then everything went black.
*****
The holotransmission came a few hours later, just after dawn. Qui-Gon joined Counselor Cyning in the Governor�s personal office to receive it, and winced inwardly at the sight. It was not only Teokhian who was being tortured, Obi-Wan was as well. No! Qui-Gon wanted to jump into the transmission, throw himself at Betwioh�s feet, and beg him to spare his apprentice, that he�d make sure Cyning Harjis agreed to the terms. Obi-Wan had only recently been tortured. It wasn�t fair that he should have to go through it again, less than a week later. Qui-Gon had never seen him in such pain before, never heard such tormented screams coming from Obi-Wan�s throat. It seemed to go on for hours, but later, Qui-Gon discovered it was only about forty minutes.
Qui-Gon put up his mental shields, blocking his end of the bond, to keep from screaming along with Obi-Wan, but could not help feeling Teokhian�s distress as well. Reaching out to her with the Force, he tried to convey comfort and support, and help her build up the same walls against the pain that Obi-Wan had. It was slow, uncertain work, maddeningly frustrating in that the walls never stayed up for long, but he tried, again and again, to let her know that she was not alone in her agony. He realised that she was Force-sensitive, and he wondered for a moment why she had not been brought to the Jedi Temple shortly after her birth. But as she was the only child and the heir to Harjis Territory, there had probably never been any question of Jedi training for her. It made Harjis� sudden turnaround all the more difficult for Qui-Gon to understand. Who, he wondered, was next in line for the governorship? Cyning?
And then, suddenly, it was over. Obi-Wan and Teokhian stopped screaming, looking confused and wary, as though waiting for something else, something worse. Removing the electrodes, the guards undid the manacles, releasing their prisoners. They fell groaning to their hands and knees and started to vomit, then collapsed into unconsciousness only a few moments later.
"I�ll do it again to-morrow night,�said Betwioh, stepping in front of the two motionless figures.�You make sure that Harjis sees this. Make sure he knows what we�re doing to his daughter. And you, Jedi. This is your appentice. If you want to spare him this a second time, you tell Harjis to reconsider his so-called oath. You get one more day. I�ll torture them again to-morrow night for twice as long. If you don�t give in after that, I�ll have them both executed, and then we�ll discuss the terms.�
The transmission was cut off abruptly.
"If the governor saw that, it would kill him,�said Cyning darkly.�He�s slowly coming to terms with the fact that Teokhian doesn�t have much longer to live, but this--this would stop his heart.�
"Is his country really that much more important to him than his daughter?�Qui-Gon asked.
"He swore an oath, Master Jinn. He must uphold his oath. A Jedi should understand this.�
Qui-Gon nodded. It was not always easy to uphold an oath. He understood, and yet there was that niggling feeling at the back of his neck again.
*****
Qui-Gon rested for a few hours in his room, then decided to see if he could talk to Niehstar Gelifd alone and perhaps even find out for whom the young man was covering, and why. He found the dungeons without difficulty, simply by following the stairs down to the cellar, but if he had been expecting cells carved of stone with iron bars, he was mistaken. The entire cellar had been turned into a high security prison, with walls of steel and doors to match, and there were no bars to be seen.
"I would like to speak to Niehstar Gelifd,�he told the first guard.
"Do you have authorisation from Counselor Cyning?� "You don�t need to see my authorisation,�Qui-Gon told him with a little movement of his fingers.
"I don�t need to see your authorisation.�
"You will take me to his cell.�
"I will take you to his cell.�
The guard unlocked the correct door and admitted Qui-Gon. The young man was lying on his side on the metal bench that served as a bed, his head facing the wall, and did not even twitch as Qui-Gon came in. A moment later, the Jedi knew why. Niehstar was dead. It had been some time ago, he was already quite cold. Without disturbing the body, Qui-Gon inspected it closely, hoping to find something that might show him the cause of death, and observed a small square patch in the fingers of the left hand, the bubble now empty of ist lethal contents. There was a corresponding puncture mark in the neck, just where it met the shoulder. It looked exactly like suicide, and yet there was that niggling feeling again. It could have been self-imposed...and it was equally possible that it could have been made to look like suicide. Qui-Gon banged on the door to be let out.
"You will forget that you have seen me,�he told the guard, and made his way upstairs again. All his suspicions were roused now, and he went to his room and sat down on the floor. After spending the afternoon in meditation, feeling the Force, he stood up and came down for dinner as though nothing had happened. It was, he thought, very important to act as though he had discovered nothing, because there was no one here that he could trust. He missed Obi-Wan, missed the comforting feeling of knowing that there was someone there to watch his back, being able to tell him what he had discovered and hear the young man�s ideas.
In the evening, he began a temple exercise called Expanded Awareness Brings Insight. By surrendering his mind to the Force and reaching out beyond his own senses, he could detect movement and sound within several kilometers, and even, along their bond, what was happening close to Obi-Wan. The boy was still asleep, his body recovering from the torture, and Qui-Gon sensed no permanent damage to his nerves. Thank the Force for that. Obi-Wan had gone through too much lately. Satisfied, Qui-Gon returned to where he was and sent his mind out through Harjis Palace. Niehstar�s body was still undiscovered. This bothered Qui-Gon somehow, but he left the cell and moved on. The servants were cleaning up after dinner. The secretaries and other civil servants had finished their work and were relaxing in the common rooms of the palace, or walking in the extensive gardens. And Cyning was marching down the corridor.
Qui-Gon followed him mentally, watching him turn a corner and go past the Governor�s bodyguards into the Governor�s private office, then deeper, into Harjis� own apartment. Governor Harjis was lying on the bed, quite still, and Qui-Gon �saw� that one side of his face seemed distorted. So it had been a stroke after all--but where was the personal physician who was supposed to be attending him?
"Uncle,�he �heard� Counselor Cyning say,�Betwioh has broken his word. He wants even more than we are already willing to give. Look!�
He opened a hand-held holo projector, and Qui-Gon saw the torture scene again, this time in miniature. Harjis tried to sit up, to speak, but the effort was too much for his unresponsive right hand side. His left arm moved briefly and then fell back. He continued to stare, horrified, with his left eye and the side of his mouth worked for a moment, then stopped as his entire body relaxed. His eye closed, and Qui-Gon felt the disturbance in the Force as the man died.
Cyning had killed him as surely as if he had shot him through the head with a blaster. Qui-Gon shifted his attention to observe Cyning�s reaction, but no emotion showed on the counselor�s face as he shut off the projector and stood up. Going out, he slipped the projector back into his pocket, his face as impassive as ever, and Qui-Gon withdrew mentally from the room as well.