'They can't get from Coruscant in time to save him!' Padme reiterated, her voice rising. She started flicking the switches on the panel, preparing the engines for firing, but Anakin gently put his hand over hers, stopping her.
'If he's still alive,' the young Jedi answered somberly.
Padme stared at him hard, and he turned away and walked off.
'Anakin, are you just going to sit here and let him die?' she cried, chasing across the bridge to grab him roughly by the arm. 'He's your friend! Your mentor!'
'He's like my father!' Anakin shot back at her. 'But you heard Master Windu. He gave me strict orders to stay here.'
Padme understood what was happening. Anakin was doubting himself. He felt himself a failure because of his inability to save his mother, and, perhaps for the first time in his life, he was truly doubting his inner voice, his instincts. She had to find a way around that now, for Anakin's sake as much as for Obi-Wan's. If they stayed here and did nothing, Padme believed that she would lose two friends: Obi-Wan to the Geonosians, and Anakin to his guilt.
'He gave you strict orders to stay here only so that you could protect me,' Padme corrected with a grin, hoping to remind him clearly that his previous orders, which he had ignored, had demanded that he stay on Naboo. She pulled back away from him, returning to the console, and flicked a few more switches. The engines roared to life.
'Padme!'
'He gave you strict orders to protect me,' she said again. 'And I'm going to save Obi-Wan. So if you plan to protect me, you'll have to come along.' Anakin stared at her for a few moments, and she held his gaze, her head tilted, hair loose and cascading across half her face, but hardly dimming the brightness of her determination.
Anakin knew that they were acting outside the orders of Mace Windu, whatever Padme's justification. He knew that this was not what was expected of him as a Jedi Padawan.
When had that ever stopped him?
Matching Padme's determination, he went to the controls, and a few moments later, the Naboo starship roared up into the Tatooine sky.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The calm beauty of the Republic Executive Building on Coruscant, with its streaming fountains and reflecting pools, ridged columns and flowing statues, masked the turmoil within. The word had passed, from Obi-Wan to Yoda and the Jedi Council, and now from them to the Chancellor and leaders of the Senate, that the Republic was crumbling. The mood inside Chancellor Palpatine's office was both somber and frantic, everyone overwhelmed by a sense of despair and a need to act, frustrated by the apparent lack of options.
Yoda, Mace Windu, and Ki-Adi-Mundi represented the Jedi, lending an air of calm against the nervous energy of Senators Bail Organa and Ask Aak, and Representative Jar Jar Binks. Behind his great desk, Palpatine listened to it all with apparent despair, his aide, Mas Amedda, standing beside him, seeming on the verge of tears.
Silence hung in the room for several long moments after Mace Windu had finished his recounting of the message from Geonosis. Yoda, leaning on his small cane, glanced at Bail Organa, always a reliable and competent man, and gave a slight nod. Catching the cue, the Senator from Alderaan began the discussion. 'The Commerce Guild is preparing for war,' he said. 'Given the report of Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, there can be no doubt of that.'
'If the report is accurate,' the fiery Ask Aak promptly responded.
'It is, Senator,' Mace Windu assured him, and Ask Aak, a Senator of action, accepted that. Indeed, Yoda understood that Ask Aak had only made the remark because he had wanted the Jedi to openly support the report, to impress upon all the others that the situation was on the verge of catastrophe.
'Count Dooku must have made a treaty with them,' Chancellor Palpatine reasoned.
'We must stop them before they're ready,' Bail Organa said.
Jar Jar Binks moved front and center, trembling a bit but keeping his tongue in his mouth, at least. 'Excueeze me, yousa honorable Supreme Chancellor, sir,' the Gungan began. 'Maybe dissen Jedi stoppen the rebel army.'
'Thank you, Jar Jar,' Palpatine politely replied, and turned to Yoda.
'Master Yoda, how many Jedi are available to go to Geonosis?'
'Throughout the galaxy, thousands of Jedi there are,' the diminutive Jedi Master replied. 'To send on a special mission, only two hundred are available.'
'With all due respect to the Jedi Order, that doesn't sound like enough,' Bail Organa said.
'Through negotiation the Jedi maintain peace,' Yoda replied. 'To start a war, we do not intend.'
His continued calm only seemed to push the frantic Ask Aak over the edge.
'The debate is over!' he cried. 'Now we need that clone army.' Yoda closed his eyes slowly, pained by the weight of reason behind the dreaded words.
'Unfortunately, the debate is not over,' Bail Organa said. 'The Senate will never approve the use of the army before the separatists attack. And by then, it will likely be too late.'
'This is a crisis,' Mas Amedda dared interject. 'The Senate must vote the Chancellor emergency powers! He could then approve the use of the clones.'
Palpatine rocked back at the suggestion, seeming profoundly shaken. 'But what Senator would have the courage to propose such a radical amendment?' he asked hesitantly.
