Chapter Text
18 year old Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi cursed. “I thought you said you had fixed everything and it was all under control!” He yelled at his fellow padawan, Quinlan Vos.
“I thought I did! Not my fault those scavengers did something to the hyperdrive!”
“Well we're about to crash in an unfamiliar system and our comms are down!” Obi-Wan focused on the steering as Quinlan was trying to salvage what he could. After they had been in hyperspace for just a few hours, the hyperdrive started failing in an unusual way, dropping them out and then taking them back into hyperspace. The comms were just the first to go after that, and everything else started following.
And to think, their mission had gone so well, aside from the scavengers. The council had been pleased. And they at least had been able to get in a report about the failing hyperdrive before the comms went down. Now they were on their own, just two Senior Padawans in space. Technically, Obi-Wan shouldn't have earned that right yet.
“Padawan Kenobi, you will be accompanying Padawan Vos on his mission.”
“I'm not a Senior Padawan yet, I shouldn't be on any missions without-”
“The only thing holding you back from being a Senior Padawan is how far behind you are in your classes thanks to all those accidentally prolonged missions with your master. In the old days, defeating a Sith like the zabrak you defeated on Naboo would have granted a Knight the title of Master. The only reason you were not immediately promoted to Knight is because you have not done any of the regular duties of a Senior Padawan. We are recommending that once you get all the prerequisites out of the way, you do your Trials. We have recently decided that your defeat of the Sith will count as your Trial of Spirit.” Master Mace Windu explained. Then he added, “and we would've explained it to you if you had been patient and waited.”
Obi-Wan was floored. He understood the reasoning. He knew him defeating the Sith was a miracle, a testament to his skill and ability to withstand the dark. Especially with him acting on his anger and grief at thinking his master was dead, though he never did draw on the dark. It was for that reason Master Mace was teaching him Vaapad.
He was still surprised that Master Mace and Master Yan Dooku had chosen to step in for the time being until Master Qui-Gon was out of his coma. Master Yan had never pushed past the boundaries his former padawan had set, but could not sit on the sidelines when Qui-Gon had nearly died.
At least they had decided to put Anakin in the initiate dorms to be with other initiates and to get the chance to build up foundations on how to use the Force. They had decided to make it at trial run, especially after Obi-Wan had passionately defended the poor kid and scolded them for appearing to blame a former slave for having a lot of anger and fear. Apparently Qui-Gon had neglected that fact, and their collective attitudes had done a 180. Speaking of Anakin, he'd have to go say good bye. He started considering how to word it to help the boy's insecurities.
“Do you understand your mission?” The two padawans agreed in unison, and after a flurry of goodbyes, they left early the next morning.
Obi-Wan was still undecided on if he had actually earned being a Senior Padawan, if he had earned the right to take his trials. Sure, he kind of maimed the Sith, Maul, and was able to capture him for the Jedi to interrogate and try to learn if he was the apprentice or the master (Obi-Wan privately thought there was no way a mere padawan could have defeated a Sith master so Maul had to be the apprentice). But right now... he had bigger things to worry about.
He scanned the space around the ship. There hadn't been a hyperspace jump in more than five minutes, so hopefully that glitch was done. He spotted a planet. They were hurtling closer to it. Obi-Wan relied on the Force to guide him to the best place to land, praying it was a habitable planet.
“I see a planet!” he yelled to Quinlan. “I'm trying to steer to it, hopefully there's a place we can safely land. You better give up and get buckled in, looks like it's going to be a bumpy landing!”
The first thing Obi-Wan noticed about the planet was the massive storms. It looked like the planet was covered in storms, very rarely having clear skies. The second thing he noticed, as connected to the Force as he was at the moment, was the odd swirl of Dark Force energy concentrated in one area of the planet. Naturally, that was where the Force was guiding him. He took a steadying breath and listened to the Force further.
It felt like... The Force was saying they could fix the darkness, that there was something they could do about it. The darkness wasn't like the darkness of the Sith. There was a hint of Sith power- maybe the Sith had interacted with one of the people down there or something- but the darkness was more of a feeling of wrongness in the Force. Something bad was going down there, something the Force didn't like. The Dark side felt wrong, too, but it was also just an aspect of the Force, so it wasn't something the Force disliked per se. This was different.
The third thing Obi-Wan noticed was that it was an ocean planet. Though he only could draw that conclusion once they had broken through the storms that had been batting them around with turbulent winds. The winds were still strong, but not nearly as unmanageable when they didn't have to deal with the clouds. He spotted the city island- it didn't look natural. He fought the wind, barely managing to aim it to a landing platform. The ship skidded across the landing platform, barely avoiding a fall into the ocean by getting caught on the wall.
Obi-Wan sat back panting, letting go of the Force. He hadn't realized how much he had be putting into keeping the ship on track until he didn't have to anymore. Quinlan pulled himself into the cockpit and collapsed on a seat.
“Let's not do that again, what the heck was all that back and forth and spinning?”
“Wind... this planet is covered in storms,” Obi-Wan groaned. “And it's an ocean planet so we got really lucky to find a place to land. Even then...” He gestured out the front, showing just how close they came to toppling into the ocean.
“Great... Well... let's get out and use the Force to better center the ship... And then find out where the heck we ended up.”
“Good plan.” They took a few minutes to scavenge important items, and to make sure the R4 unit that had come with them was still functioning. Then they left the ship, wince a little at the shifting the ship made on occasion. They noticed the welcoming committee right away. Obi-Wan's first impression was 'they got long necks.'
Without a word, both he and Quinlan turned and lifted their ship to the center of the landing platform. Once they did that, they turned to the welcoming party. Obi-Wan snickered a little at the sight of Quinlan; being soaked did not suit him one bit, and it allowed Obi-Wan to ignore how soaked he was. He was pretty sure the rain was falling so hard he was soaked through to the bottommost layer of his robes.
“Welcome to Kamino, Masters Jedi, we have been expecting you to come inspect the product for a while now.” The long neck (Kaminese? Kaminoan?) continued on, though both padawans were only absently listening after shooting each other incredulous looks at being addressed as 'master'. After some mental tug of war they decided to go with it, not wanting to admit to being Padawans until they knew what was going on.
When it came time for introductions, Quinlan took that as the more experienced of the two. “I am Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos, and this is Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Obi-Wan nodded to the long necks before they turned and continued talking. They were really proud of their products. But it gave the two padawans time to compose themselves and make sure they were presentable.
Obi-Wan ran his hands through his soaking hair and pinned up the braid so it looked less like it was a statement. The less questions the better. Quinlan didn't have to do as much to hide his braid, though he still took the effort.
Finally though, they got to the real parts. What the product was- clones. A whole army of them, the oldest batch only having just turned ten, so they wouldn't be ready for another few years, and even then only on a small scale at first.
“Okay, we appreciate your eagerness to show off your products, but we unintentionally landed here when our ship malfunctioned.” Quinlan cut in. “We can, of course perform the inspection while we're here, and I believe there might be some things we can teach them in order to better integrate them into the command structure of the Jedi.” He glanced at Obi-Wan, hoping Obi-Wan would be able to do better than him. He was not good at the diplomacy, not like his friend.
“Oh, I see... if there is anything we can do...?”
Obi-Wan straightened himself to hold more confidence than he felt. “We will need your help in procuring replacement parts for our ship. We can install them ourselves, but we won't be able to leave at all until that is repaired. Our comms will be a priority, as we need to consult with the Council on what they would like us to check on. I have a pretty good idea on what they like, but it never hurts to check.”
“What will you require now, besides that?”
“We'd like some rooms to stay in, please,” Obi-Wan requested. “Today we'll see what we need to repair the ship and salvage what we can. Tomorrow, we will meet with the template, and start our inspection.”
Quinlan jumped in, so they could appear like a team. “We would like to view the best and worst groups of each age group- not batch, age. See what they do in each of their classes. We also need to go over what their course work currently is- the sooner the better. We might even have time tonight, though that depends on the night cycle here?”
“I will make sure someone sees to your needs. Kamino rotates in 27 hours. Dusk to dawn is a total of 10 of those hours, and generally when we have sleeping hours, although the clones will sleep an hour after dusk until an hour before dawn, depending on sleep needs. Some of the oldest batches have shown that they only need six to seven hours to function so they may go to sleep later or get up earlier depending on what is convenient for their training.”
“Understandable.” Obi-Wan nodded. “Now, I suppose you should show us the important parts of the facility, our rooms, and then we can collect our things from our ship?”
“That is acceptable.”
Obi-Wan and Quinlan followed, doing their best to keep up a serene Jedi Master routine (though it was apparent that the natives had no clue of what a Jedi actually was, which just threw up more questions about this whole thing). They both had to stop and calm themselves after seeing all the tubes of growing babies, feeling their Force signatures clearly already. It was eerie seeing all the little cadets marching in unison. The strict environment designed to best help human babies and toddlers develop was disappointing. Babies needed more than just... educational toys and strict schedules on when they did what.
Finally though, they made it through all of the tour, collected their things, and were back in their suite of rooms. Two sleeping chambers, a single refresher, a kitchen that was stocked by the time they got there, and a decent living area. It wouldn't be too bad, at least. The window showed the rocky oceans and the ever-pouring rain.
Once they set down their things in their rooms, each changed and dried off, hanging their clothes to dry. Then they reconvened and started to dry off their R4 unit.
“Any listening devices?” Obi-Wan asked quietly.
“Not a single one, I've done as thorough a sweep as I can, I just need to get through your room. We'll still want to be careful. These people have different technology than we're used to.”
“Right.” Obi-Wan nodded. Then he groaned and tossed the towel aside, the droid as dry as it was going to get. “I'm going to need so much meditation to get through this.”
“You and your meditation,” Quinlan teased. Then he sobered up. “I don't think it's a coincidence that our ship broke and we ended up here.”
“It's the will of the Force,” Obi-Wan agreed. “It wants us to fix the darkness that's here.”
“I'm not surprised there's darkness, not with the way the Kamino people treat the clones.”
“I know...” Obi-Wan sighed. “Let's make a list of priorities. We need to get our comms up and contact the council, preferably from our ship to avoid problems. We need to investigate the origins of these clones, what is being done to them, and how they're being trained. We need to start teaching them Jedi teachings so that if the Jedi do get them, they have a better knowledge base than before. And we probably should make a regular report, written and recorded, and keep them with R4 to be sent from the ship as soon as the comms are fixed.”
“We're going to be taking on a lot... but I think we can do it,” Quinlan grinned. “Let's get that first report done, and then work on what skills we think are necessary for clones to work with Jedi, and then how to translate that to classes divided up between us.”
“Right.”
They took a few minutes to get things set up and to ensure that they gave Arfour the orders they had in mind to make this work, and make their sneaking around easier. They stepped back once Arfour started recording for them.
“Hello oh exalted council members! Padawans Vos and Kenobi sending in a lot of reports at once! Well, this is just our first recording. We don't know when comms will be up, we plan on recording a report a day, and Arfour is under orders to send all reports and data to you as soon as it is possible.” Quinlan grinned, slinging an arm around Obi-Wan.
“Quinlan...” Obi-Wan sighed and rolled his eyes before straightening and ignoring his friend to start off the information. “This may be all over the place. We have received a lot of information at once. Our last official report carried information that we had to chase off scavengers from our ship. We did not see any immediate damage that would affect our return trip. Unfortunately, the hyperdrive started glitching when we were in hyperspace, then several other things started rapidly failing in succession. Our comms will be the fastest and easiest to be fixed and that will still take days if not weeks depending on what these people have available. We made landfall-”
“Crashed,” Quinlan coughed. Obi-Wan glared at him before continuing.
“Made landfall on an ocean planet we had not heard of before called Kamino. They seem to be cloners and deal in other such genetic engineering feats, so I suspect that if we use our less than savory contacts many will have heard of them. Arfour will send along the coordinates once the comms are up so that you can come retrieve us or help us if that is your decision.”
“The fact that they're cloners is very important,” Quinlan added, suddenly serious. “They believe that we are Jedi Knights and we've chosen to let them believe that in order to gather more information. If you do come for us, it could jeopardize what we're working towards- some of which we have yet to even consider to tell them otherwise. We would not impersonate Knights, but this is important.
“We have improvised that we can conduct the inspection of the product that the Jedi Order had ordered. Since this was unplanned due to the crash, they of course are aware that we will be awaiting further orders on what exactly we need to inspect but still have an idea on where to start.” Quinlan grimaced. “I'm still wrapping my head around what is going on here, so if it's confusing, don't worry. We're just as confused.”
Obi-Wan pinched his nose. “I'm sorry about him. We have... several concerns.” Obi-Wan took a deep breath. “Aside from the alarming news that the Jedi Order supposedly placed the order for an army of clones, the Force willed us here, to this city specifically. We could've ended up anywhere when the hyperdrive started glitching, but it was here, on this planet. There's... darkness here. It's more of an echo of the Sith, similar to the signature of the Sith I fought, but no where near the real thing. There's also the general darkness of wrongness and evildoing lingering here. And the Force wants us to fix it. It won't be easy.”
Quinlan picked up the thread to elaborate. “There are millions of clones of varying ages. From those growing in tubes to ten years old- though the clones have been engineered to grow at double the rate of the average human, so the oldest physically appear to be about twenty years old. They each have their own Force signature, and the darkness lingers around the clones, but not in their signatures. It's like... Each person was meant to be, but there are still a lot of things... wrong about their existence so far. The cloners have set things up for the younger ones to give them the minimum amount of affection and other such things to allow them to succeed, but otherwise treat them as if they were droids with flesh suits.
“There is a strict routine, and it is geared around preparing to be soldiers, with the oldest batches teaching the younger, and some clones being specifically in the 'command track' where their lowest rank will be lieutenant once they finish, and some will be as high as commanders. We are unsure as to who would be acting as generals in the scenario of war, but as they are for the Jedi Order in the service of the Republic, I am sure there are a ton of speculations we can all come up with.” Quinlan finished grimly, thinking of the tour and the reality the clones had to deal with.
“Our plan as of now,” Obi-Wan picked up the thread, “is to meet with the template, the one they are cloned from, to see if we can glean more information from him. We will be testing the clone's knowledge and start classes where there are gaps according to how we are taught at the Temple. We expect this to mean languages, basic skills like sewing and cooking, lightsaber drills, politics and negotiations, and cultures. Our hope is that once we have taught a few courses, the oldest clones can teach the younger ones the basics, allowing us to expand what we teach.
“We will also be doing our best to see if we can find out more information about the origin of the clones, who ordered them, why, and if there is any other orders regarding the completed...” Obi-Wan grimaced, “...product. I hope not, but the situation as it is, there could have been ulterior motives and we need to uncover them. We will be recording a report a day to keep you all as up to date as we can, as especially in the first few weeks, we expect to have a lot information to relay. Anything we get out of their systems will be stored with Arfour, who will send all of that on as securely as possible as soon as we get our comms back up.” He glanced at Quinlan. “Is that everything?”
The kiffar shrugged. “If not, we'll just say it tomorrow, I'm sure. That concludes our first report.” The recording stopped.