Marking Time, Making Peace

by MrsHamill (mrshamill@gmail.com)

Archive: MA and my site, Mom's Kitchen (www.hawksong.com/~momskitchen)
Category: Oh hell. I dunno. Drama.
Pairing: Q/O
Rating: G
Summary: Obi-Wan needs to come to terms with his past before he can move on.
Disclaimer: What, you think I own these guys? Do I even look like George Lucas? If this is not what you expected, please alter your expectations. No such thing as random coincidence. No such thing as too much lubricant.
Warning: Never say 'bite me' to a cat.
Series: The post-Wheel series. For information and a directory on this series, go here: http://www.hawksong.com/~momskitchen/Wheel_stories/cast_of_wheel.htm or here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/mrshamill/41682.html#cutid1). This story follows directly on the heels of Prologues and Afterwords.
Notes: This took far longer than it should have, dammit, especially given its size. It's a little piece of the puzzle that will eventually grow up into a real story. Thank you, Claude, for the beta. This is me wishing several metaphysical boulders would land on MuseBoy.

"Yes, intellectually, I am well aware of the fact that he's not the Bruck Chun I grew up with. But that has little to do with how I feel!"

Obi-Wan shut his mouth in order to grind his teeth together. Beside him, his friend Maul frowned. They were nearly at the underground launch bay that was their final destination, and Obi-Wan wished Maul would simply let it go already.

"But it does, Obi-Wan," Maul said, struggling to keep up -- in two ways. Obi-Wan became aware that he was nearly running and consciously slowed down. After all, he didn't want to go in the first place, the longer it took to get there... "Your emotions are ruling your intellect. You must be able to separate them, or you'll never find peace."

"Maul..." The bay door loomed before them, and Obi-Wan came to a stop before it, turning and looking at his friend. "I know you think you're helping..."

"I am, Obi-Wan!" Maul put his hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder. His eyes were filled with sympathy, which only made Obi-Wan more frustrated. "You have an incredible burden to bear, but you're making it harder on yourself than it needs to be. You came to terms with my existence, didn't you? The Maul you knew killed your master -- this Chun person wasn't nearly that bad. Was he?"

"Force, you sound like Dotrick," Obi-Wan muttered. "Please let it go. I'll deal with this situation as I can."

"If you'd tell them--"

"Let it go. Please." It was an effort, but Obi-Wan managed to keep his voice gently controlled, and even managed to say 'please.' It still bothered him no end that Maul knew about his... his... travels. Intellectually (again), he understood that others in the Temple knew about him and what he'd been through, but emotionally, he hoarded it to himself. It was his own struggle to deal with and he'd had ample practice at it. No one else need know. No one else should know.

When it looked like Maul was ready to speak again, he turned and smacked the door sensor. The bay door irised open before them. He strode in, prepared to keep moving and avoiding, but the sight of the ship inside made him stop and blink in awe.

She was beautiful.

She was matte black, a black hole that almost obscured her beautiful lines. But the lighting of the bay was merciless and offered up her every grace to Obi-Wan's delighted appreciation. It looked as though the prototype had been a Nubian corvette, but the resemblance ended about a third of the way down from her nose. For one, she was obviously larger, at least double the size of a standard Nubian. The engines were huge and there were at least two extra thrusters, along with odd bumps along her skin which Obi-Wan figured to be weaponry. Armed to the teeth, then, and all the more lovely for her deadliness.

Maul came up to stand beside him, and a quick glance at his friend confirmed Maul was as taken by the ship as he was. "This is going to be sweet," Obi-Wan murmured, and Maul nodded silently.

The main hatch was open and waiting for them, but they lingered before entering, and Obi-Wan did a slow circuit to her rear, admiring the clever way the rear cannons were placed, before finally going aboard. He heard voices as he climbed the ramp, Maul's and Siri's, and then Chun's deep voice responding. Taking a deep breath, he shoved his trepidation down and followed the sound aboard.

"Understand this," Chun was saying as Obi-Wan boarded and looked around. "The Marauder is my ship. The only reason I'm training you lot on her ops is that we need backup pilots and Master Windu said you were the best. Well, I know you are, Tachi, and you've flown her before, but you two are going to have to prove it to me, because I don't care what Windu says -- aboard the Marauder you answer to me."

Not the same Chun as he had left a million universes ago? Right, Obi-Wan thought sourly. "Prove ourselves how?" he asked, ignoring both Maul's and Siri's look at his flat tone.

Chun focused on him. "You're Kenobi, right? I don't know anything about your experience in flying in general or on this type of ship in specific... well, I can't even say that, because she's special, she's one of a kind, and I don't entrust her to anyone else unless they know her."

"Bruck, you're the only guy I know who can make a ship sound sexy," Siri said with some amused disgust, hitting him on his arm. "Let's go forward and you can show your new lady-love off."

"More than that, Tachi, more than that. We're going to take her up and I'm going to show you some of what she's capable of, then all three of you can prove your worthiness to fly her."

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes at Maul, who gave him a frown in return, as they followed Chun forward. The control room was far more spacious than Obi-Wan had expected, and, to his surprise, he recognized only about two-thirds of the controls present. Hyperdrive components looked about the same in every ship, but they were larger on the Marauder and the controls looked more complex. Weaponry took up an entire panel on the larboard side, with a seat before them, as did communications, opposite.

Chun took the pilot's seat and waved Siri to the co-pilot's, leaving the comm and weapons stations to Obi-Wan and Maul. "The first thing you've gotta know here is that she's fast. I don't mean just fast, like a fighter is fast, I mean like lightning. I've designed her in such a way that when you engage, she goes scat, something that could save lives if necessary. So don't expect a nice, slow charge-up, you won't get it." He pressed a control and the bay doors opened before them. "We'll go over weapons later, we'll have plenty of time en route to our destination. For now, I'm going to show you a bit of what she can do, and find out just how good you are."

Chun must have gotten prior clearance from the SkyCops because he didn't wait before launching, leaping through the doors. The Marauder accelerated smoothly and quickly under her standard engines, darting through the mess of traffic to low orbit so fast that even Obi-Wan was impressed.

"She can go into hyperspace even in a gravity well with no degradation of performance," Chun said. "I've designed her so that she responds in either field almost as if she were a two man fighter coming in for a kill. The inertial dampers are beefed up as well, so that the passengers shouldn't feel much of anything."

For the next twenty minutes, Chun described the functioning of the Marauder to his audience. Obi-Wan listened with half an ear while internally debating, arguing against himself. He knew that this Bruck Chun was different than the one he had grown up with -- for starters, Chun wasn't a Jedi, he was in service to the Jedi. Siri had told him that Bruck had decided early on, at about seven years of age, that he preferred tinkering with engines and flying fast ships more than he wanted to learn to fight and be a diplomat.

According to Chun's public records, records Obi-Wan had shamelessly looked up, he became a master pilot by age seventeen, and second in command for the Director of Vehicles by age twenty. Ser Showat had obviously seen something in Chun, else she wouldn't have chosen him as the new director when the old one retired. Obi-Wan knew to trust Showat, she'd come through for him several times in the last few years. But that didn't mean he had to show the same level of trust towards Chun she did.

The Chun Obi-Wan remembered was an arrogant bully, a reckless and anger-driven person who had very nearly destroyed Obi-Wan's last chance to become a Jedi. The arrogance Obi-Wan remembered was still there, but it had changed somehow, and Obi-Wan was having difficulty in figuring out how.

"All right, then. Siri, get up, we'll switch. We're going to take her on a intrasystem hop so I can see your level of comfort with her, since this is only your second time at her." They stood and switched, putting Chun in the co-pilot's seat. "Take her to the accretion disk on the gas giant on an h-space burp, bringing her in to the second layer. Remember... her controls are sharp; they're going to respond much faster than the barges you've been flying. I've got override, but you need to learn this, since it's the easiest way I can use to test your familiarity with her."

Since their trajectory was such that they were already mostly out of the system, all Siri had to do was re-orient them and apply the hyperspace leap -- a fast in, fast out process, one that was extremely dangerous but was also exhilarating. Obi-Wan had only seen it done once, years and years ago, so he braced himself but also watched carefully as Siri skillfully maneuvered the craft.

She brought them out of the burst in what seemed to be perfect placement. There was a clang, aft of the ship they both heard and felt, and Siri gave Chun a wide-eyed stare. "That's gonna cost you, Tachi," he said with a grin. "Don't worry about it. I'll go over her hull specs after we land -- she's got a triple layer. It was just a rock, and I don't even see any evidence that the first was breached."

He turned to face Maul and Obi-Wan. "One of the things I'll need to go over with all three of you is her field generator and how it works. Even if Siri had bounced us into one of the bigger chunks, it wouldn't have hit us, the field would have pushed us and the rock away. It's only smaller stuff that gets through, which is unfortunate, but it's the state of the art at present." He shrugged, then glanced between them. "Who's next?"

Maul was almost vibrating in place and Obi-Wan snorted. "Take Maul, before he ruptures something."

As Maul stood, too excited to even give Obi-Wan an eye-roll, he said, "This ship is beautiful, Sar Chun. I haven't felt this much power in one ship since... well, I can't think of anything off hand at all."

A grinning Chun watched Maul strap in. "She's a beauty. It's almost a shame to use her for anything else but joy riding. Wait until you see her armament. And call me Bruck, please."

"Thank you, Bruck." Maul swapped places with Siri, strapped in and put his hands loosely on the controls.

"Push her around a bit, get a feel for her. She's going to respond on a credit, and you'll need to get used to that."

There was a bit of rocking, felt through the bulkheads, but no more clanging. Maul found his footing easily, asking questions about the extra thrusters and the type of fuel mixture, questions Chun was more than happy to answer. Obi-Wan felt a boot on his shin and glared at Siri. "Ow."

Siri just grinned at him, unrepentant. He frowned back, then turned his attention forward again, which meant she kicked him again. "Siri!"

"Quit it." Her voice was very soft, pitched for his ears alone.

"What?" he asked back, scowling.

"Just quit. He's good. Let him be him."

Obi-Wan took a deep breath and pointedly turned from her, ignoring the next kick she gave him.

Maul was good; Obi-Wan knew that from flying with the man and from what Qui-Gon had told him. Chun had Maul toss the Marauder around the system, skimming the gas giant that lived mid-system and stepping in and out of hyperspace. Maul's reactions were just shy of ecstatic, praising the ship's responsiveness and handling. "She feels and reacts like a much smaller ship," he said as he smoothly brought them back to a broad orbit of Coruscant.

"Good! I wanted her to do that," Chun said with a smile. "That's unexpected, you know? She's big but handles small, so no one will be expecting her to be able to do what she wants. That might come in handy on this mission, I think."

Obi-Wan's mild irritation -- mostly with himself over being irritated -- made him speak at that point. "Just what are you expecting, Chun?"

Chun glanced at him. "I'm trying to expect everything, Kenobi. I have to, since none of us know what will be happening." He glanced back at Siri and Maul. "Her first big trial will be as a barge anyway; I'm helping the setup of the testing field on Yavin Four. I'm assuming that since we're doing this test on a forest planet, that's where this gonof is hiding out?"

"We've been led to believe that, yes," Maul said. He began unstrapping himself. "Obi-Wan, Jay and I were out for almost a month a few weeks ago, running down rumors and chasing ghosts. We think we've got them spotted."

"Good. The sooner we go after these people, the happier I'll be. Kenobi, you're up."

Maul gave him a warning glare as he approached, and Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. Everyone acted as though he were made of broken glass and it was driving him to distraction. With a sigh, he sat back in the pilot's seat and strapped in, putting his hands lightly on the controls.

"Go ahead and get a feel for her, like Maul did." Obi-Wan looked at Bruck out of the corner of his eyes, but did as instructed.

The Marauder did feel like a much smaller ship. Her thrusters were such that even the lightest of taps would take her in a new direction, and Obi-Wan wasn't sure he liked that. "She's a bit touchy, don't you think?"

"By design. You'll get used to her."

Obi-Wan kept them in the high orbit while he played with the controls and got a feel for the ship. The touchiness bothered him, though he thought that Chun was probably right, he would get used to it. And he could tell it was something that just might come in handy, if they got into a tight spot on Endor.

He boosted her to a higher orbit and changed her heading, nodding slowly. "Yes, I could get used to it. Why do you have redundant controls for the hyperspace drive here?"

"Obvious reasons. I would always prefer to have a backup pilot to work h-space from the console, but I've been in too many instances where all that was possible was one pilot. You don't want to be mucking about at the station when someone is using you for target practice." Obi-Wan nodded but kept his mouth shut. "Have you ever done an h-space slingshot?"

Surprised, Obi-Wan actually looked over at Chun. "No, I haven't, but I know how it's done... well, at least in theory."

"Give it a try with her. Go for the g-giant and sling her around at an out-system heading."

Obi-Wan felt a little put off by Chun's easy-going offer, he felt like he was being set up to fail, something he felt was a natural extension of the way he expected Chun to behave. Of course, as soon as he realized he was thinking that way, he kicked himself mentally. Maul would have a litter if he knew Obi-Wan was thinking that way.

The idea of a hyperspace slingshot was simple: come out of hyperspace within the gravity well of a large planet and use the momentum left over to fling the craft out, picking up more momentum by the maneuver. It was tricky; you had to emerge at a precise point in relation to the planet you were using. Too close and you would be drawn into the gravity well, too far and you wouldn't pick up any extra momentum. It was almost as much luck as it was skill, and it was something Obi-Wan always wanted to try.

After a couple of minutes' thought, he set their course for a polar skim of the gas giant, to avoid the accretion disk, programmed the very short hyperspace jump and let her go. The result was spectacular: they popped into real space just skimming the outer layer of clouds, whipped around to the opposite pole and slammed out into space at a nice fraction of lightspeed, giving new meaning to the phrase 'gundark out of hell.' They'd avoided the accretion disk altogether.

Maul and Siri gasped then cheered, and Obi-Wan felt pretty damn cocky. He noted that Chun had been right, the inertial dampers were beefed up so well they barely felt pressed back into their seats from the acceleration.

"Not bad, Kenobi. Not bad at all. Especially for a first time." Chun's voice was almost but not quite amused, and it pissed off Obi-Wan completely.

Obi-Wan gave him a glancing frown. "Nice of you to say so," he said flatly, changing their heading with the thrusters.

Chun didn't answer him, but did say, "Put her back in orbit, then slam her down when we pass the Temple. We won't need authorization, which is something else I'll need to go over with all three of you: she's stealth. There's no current technology that is able to see us -- well, all right, eyeballs, maybe -- and with the repulser field, we don't even have to worry about collision."

"Bruck, you gonof, you only did that so you'd be able to sneak past the SkyCops!" Siri laughed as she reached out and slugged Chun on his arm.

"Hey, watch the engineer here, I need that shoulder!" Bruck slapped her hand away and they laughed, while Obi-Wan concentrated on getting them down and ignoring them.

Once they were back in the hangar, Chun signaled the doors to close and showed all three how to lock her down. "Remember, she's always on trickle. You don't want to open the feed all the way, even for an abrupt launch, because it'd be like sitting on a bomb. Doable, but not necessary."

Maul and Siri unstrapped and began walking out as Obi-Wan started clearing his own straps. As he stood to follow them, Chun said, "Kenobi. Wait a bit?"

Sighing to himself, Obi-Wan shook his head as Maul turned back and gave him an interrogatory glance. "Yeah, what?" He motioned for Maul to continue but did not turn back towards Chun.

Chun was silent until Obi-Wan turned to face him. He had his fists on his hips and a frown on his face as he regarded Obi-Wan. "I don't know you, Kenobi. Siri tells me we were all in the creche together, but I don't even remember you at all. And I left at seven, anyway, to go to the Pilot's Guild. So I'd like to know just why the hell you have a fuel rod stuck up your ass over me?"

Obi-Wan crossed his arms over his chest and almost laughed. "Yeah, you haven't changed that much," he muttered.

"Well that's nice to know, especially considering you can't know me either!" Chun glared at him. "You know, I don't really give a shit what happened to you way back when, it's no skin off my ass that you were on some sort of top-secret mission that meant you had to appear to die or disappear or whatever the hell it was. I'm not a full Jedi; I serve the Jedi, all right? But you're making it damn hard to--"

"Wait a minute," Obi-Wan said, holding up his hand, cutting Chun off in mid-rant. "Top-secret mission?"

Chun blinked. "Yeah, that's what Siri said everyone's saying... that you were tapped early for some sort of weird mission and had to go undercover or some shit like that. Why?"

"Siri said I was on a top-secret mission?" Oh, this was too much, Obi-Wan thought to himself.

"Yeah, so? She said she didn't know for certain, because you obviously couldn't talk about it." Obi-Wan started to laugh and Chun was obviously taken aback at that. "What?"

Unable to reply, Obi-Wan stumbled back and fell into the weapons console seat, still laughing. 'Top-secret mission?' Oh, yeah, that's right...

After a few moments he was able to get himself under at least partial control. He looked up to find Chun staring at him like he was mad, which, when he thought about it, might have been the case. "Sorry," he said, wiping his eyes. "It's just that... Shit. Top-secret mission. Little gods."

The frown on Chun's face had given way to puzzlement. "So, you want to explain this or should I just chalk it up to you being a lunatic?"

That set Obi-Wan off again, but he managed to control it quickly. "Sorry, Chun, I'm sorry. Really. It's just that... well, that's the farthest thing from what actually happened."

"They don't know? Siri, your other friends? They don't actually know what happened to you?" Chun looked and sounded almost affronted and Obi-Wan shook his head.

His chuckles turned rueful. "No, they don't, mainly through my own stubborn pride. Well, Maul knows, and Qui-Gon, of course. Yoda and Mace, too, and most of the Council, I suppose, and Loral and Sasha..." Obi-Wan trailed off as the Force whomped him on the head with a large, metaphysical boulder. "Well, fuck." He looked up at the still-puzzled Chun. "You have anything to drink on this barge?"

Qui-Gon was in a sub-committee meeting when Maul finally caught up with him. "I've been comming," Maul whispered, as he pulled Qui-Gon away.

"It's off." It was obviously important, so Qui-Gon made his excuses and stepped outside the conference room with Maul. "What is it?"

"It's Obi-Wan," Maul said, running his hands through his hair. "I'm not sure what's happening, but you'd better check up on him. We just had our intro to Bruck Chun's new ship, and she's a beauty, but Obi-Wan was being... well..."

"Like Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said with resignation. Yes, he knew how Obi-Wan was being. "Where is he?"

"Well, he hasn't made it back to your quarters. The last I saw, Bruck was asking him to stay aboard the ship and he didn't look happy."

"Thank you, Maul, I'd better go check, just in case."

"If there's anything left of either of them, let me know if you need help hiding the bodies."

Qui-Gon chuckled as he hurried down the corridor.

The ship was still there, still in one piece, and Qui-Gon was glad for that. She was a beautiful if deadly sight, something he knew his spouse would be drooling over. The ramp was down and he heard raised voices.

He followed the voices aboard to find Obi-Wan and Bruck Chun sitting on the floor of the control room, passing a mostly-empty bottle of something that smelled like paint thinner back and forth and laughing. They hadn't seen him so he paused to listen.

"Pink? He was wearing pink?" Bruck Chun broke out into gales of laughter as Obi-Wan nodded.

As Qui-Gon watched, Obi-Wan took another swig and passed the bottle back. "But it was the bit about Mace Windu in gold lame that really did it for me..."

Silently, Qui-Gon withdrew to head back to his subcommittee meeting. First, however, he'd swing by the Quartermaster's Office for some hangover patches. He had a feeling Obi-Wan was going to need them.

end