When I woke from my meditation, I heard sounds coming from the corridor.
Evidently, a large number of people had started moving throughout the ship, most likely preparing for landing.
That could mean only one thing.
We were approaching Coruscant.
I got up and stretched my slightly stiff legs.
As I stepped into the corridor, I was surprised to see Qui-Gon Jinn talking with the Queen’s royal guards.
I decided the time had come, so I walked over to him.
“Master Qui-Gon Jinn?”
“Yes, Anakin?”
“Do you have a moment?
I’d like to ask your advice about something.”
Qui-Gon, clearly surprised by my request, nodded, excused himself to the pilot, and led me aside.
“What is it, Ani?”
“I had a dream similar to the one on Tatooine, before your opponent appeared.”
“Yes, tell me about it.”
It seemed that after the first time, he had begun taking my visions much more seriously.
“It seemed to me that I was standing before the Jedi Council, and they rejected me because I was too old.
Does that mean I came here for nothing?”
Qui-Gon Jinn was speechless for a moment.
I watched surprise flash across his face, followed by understanding, and finally something that resembled bitterness, clearly directed toward the Council, which accepted only small children whose worldview could still be shaped according to its own vision.
He took a deep breath.
“Don’t worry, Anakin.
The future is not set in stone.
What you see are only possible futures.
It is our choices that shape it.”
He gave me a few reassuring pats on the shoulder.
I wasn’t sure whether he was trying to comfort me more or himself.
I tried to tell only the truth so that Qui-Gon Jinn wouldn’t sense that something was wrong and lose faith in me, because for now he was the only option I saw for saving his life.
“Did you have any other visions?”
“Only about the number two, but I don’t know what it means.”
I could tell Qui-Gon Jinn was asking only out of habit.
He didn’t believe I had any other important visions.
So when I mentioned the number two, he suddenly stiffened.
“Two?
Can you be more specific?”
“I think it has something to do with people.
Maybe a master and an apprentice.”
Now I could see the fire in his eyes.
“Does the name Sith mean anything to you?”
I pretended to think for a moment before answering under his expectant gaze.
“No.
I don’t think so.”
The air seemed to leave him like it had escaped from a punctured balloon.
“Good.
Thank you, Anakin.
You’ve already helped me a great deal.”
“You’re welcome, Master Qui-Gon Jinn.
I’m always happy to help if I can.”
I didn’t want to disturb him any longer, because he was clearly lost in his own thoughts.
I decided to take a walk to the cockpit.
After all, it isn’t every day that someone gets to see a city-planet from space.
I couldn’t wait for the view.
To my surprise, I found a pilot kind enough not only to let me into the cockpit, but also eager to tell me various interesting facts about the planet.
I wasn’t sure whether he was simply fascinated by it or whether it was part of his preparation to become one of the Queen’s personal guards.
“Most people think Coruscant is just one enormous city.
The truth is that the city covers the planet’s entire surface.
There are no oceans, deserts, or forests.
Everything you see was built by billions of beings over thousands of years.”
“So there’s no normal, undeveloped ground left anywhere on the planet?”
I asked just to keep the conversation going.
“Exactly.
Only the peak of one of the highest mountains still remains.”
“Coruscant has thousands of levels.
The highest ones are home to senators, the wealthiest businessmen, and the Republic’s most important officials.
The farther down you go, the less sunlight reaches the streets.”
“Most citizens have never even seen the lowest levels.
They’re places the Republic’s police haven’t entered in years.
They’re ruled by gangs, bounty hunters, and criminals.
You could say they’re not the nicest neighborhoods.”
“Have you ever been there yourself?”
“No.
Just like you, this is my first visit here.
But I learned a lot from my father, who served in the protection detail of our previous Queen.”
Seeing how eager he was to keep talking, I decided not to interrupt him.
“The planet is home to more than a trillion inhabitants.
Can you imagine that?
Even if you met a thousand new people every single day, an entire lifetime wouldn’t be enough to get to know even a fraction of its population.”
“Look over there.
Those are the tallest skyscrapers.
Right in the center stands the Galactic Senate Building.
That’s where representatives of thousands of worlds decide the fate of the entire Republic.”
“And over there…”
He pointed toward a place on the planet that wasn’t even visible yet.
“…on that enormous mountain rising above the rest of the city stands the Jedi Temple.”
“Here’s another interesting fact.
Coruscant’s weather is largely controlled artificially.
If it weren’t, the pollution produced by trillions of inhabitants would have turned the planet into a place that would be difficult to live on long ago.”
“Apparently, millions of people are responsible for operating the environmental systems alone, not to mention the billions of droids.”
“Many ordinary people dream of living on the highest levels someday.
But the truth is that most citizens of Coruscant will never even see them.
They are born, live, and die dozens of levels below, never leaving their own district throughout their entire lives.”
When he reached his final fact, I looked at his face.
He also snapped out of his lecture and realized what he had just been explaining to a child.
I ignored his embarrassed expression and continued staring wide-eyed at the planet we were approaching.
It truly was an incredible sight.
Billions of lights illuminated the entire surface.
millions of ships were leaving and entering the planet like tireless worker ants.
If there was any place that could truly be called the center of the galaxy, this was undoubtedly it.
The Star Wars fan inside me was bouncing off every wall inside my head, screaming like a little girl every time I recognized another familiar structure or ship.
We passed incredibly tall skyscrapers that pierced the sky above the planet like giant swords.
They had to be the homes of senators and wealthy businessmen who could afford to maintain them.
As we slowly approached the landing platform, I left our pilot, the enthusiastic historian and obvious Coruscant fanatic, and headed toward the ship’s exit ramp.
The fake Queen was already waiting there in her ridiculous outfit and heavy makeup.
I understood fashion and different clothing styles, but what she was wearing not only looked uncomfortable, it wasn’t even attractive.
She stood there surrounded by her handmaidens, among whom I spotted Padmé.
When our eyes met, she smiled at me slightly.
Even though she was still worried about her people, she no longer looked as if she were on the verge of breaking down like she had aboard the ship.
We began disembarking, and I stayed in the background while the adults pretended to be polite to one another instead of trying to use each other.
Honestly, aside from briefly looking at Palpatine himself, who appeared to be nothing more than a kind old man…
…he still made a cold sweat run down my back.
I ignored everything they were saying.
I tried not to stare at him too much, because that would certainly attract his attention, and that was the very last thing I wanted from such a powerful Dark Lord of the Sith.
I simply decided to follow Padmé.
Either way, I had to wait until Qui-Gon Jinn met with the Council.
Until then, I had to keep myself occupied.
I cast one last glance at Qui-Gon Jinn, but he merely nodded, signaling for me to go with the Queen.
We boarded a larger airspeeder prepared for the Queen’s delegation.
My seat was a little unfair.
Instead of sitting next to the beautiful women serving the Queen, I ended up next to the pilot and Jar Jar.
There was clearly no justice in this world.
I glanced at Palpatine sitting in the back surrounded by girls.
Seriously, this was discrimination against children.
I sighed and began looking at the buildings surrounding us.
The traffic seemed even heavier than the space traffic.
It looked as though tens of millions of speeders were constantly flying from one place to another.
I quickly forgot about where I was sitting and became completely absorbed in everything we passed.
One moment a droid flew by, the next we passed a beautiful building with a cyberpunk aesthetic.
My inner Star Wars fan came back to life.
The journey didn’t last long.
Just a few minutes later, we arrived at the building prepared for the Queen’s stay.
It looked like a luxurious hotel.
Knowing they certainly had important matters to discuss—things I had no influence over for the moment—I decided to look around the apartment they had brought us to.
It looked beautiful while also being practical.
I slowly explored it room by room with genuine childlike fascination.
[POV: JEDI COUNCIL]
The Council meeting was underway, and Qui-Gon was delivering his report.
Qui-Gon: “…He was trained in the Jedi arts.
My only conclusion can be that it was a Sith Lord.”
Ki-Adi-Mundi: “Impossible.
The Sith have been extinct for a millennium.”
Mace Windu: “I do not believe the Sith could have returned without us knowing.”
Yoda: “Ah, hard to see, the dark side is.”
Mace Windu: “We will use all our resources to unravel this mystery.
We will discover the identity of your attacker.
May the Force be with you.”
(The other Council members leave, while Qui-Gon remains.)
Yoda: “Master Qui-Gon.
More to say, have you?”
Qui-Gon: “With your permission, my masters, I have encountered a vergence in the Force.”
Yoda: “A vergence, you say?”
Mace Windu: “Located around a person?”
Qui-Gon: “A boy.
His cells have the highest concentration of midi-chlorians I have ever seen in a life-form.
It is possible he was conceived by the midi-chlorians.”
Mace Windu: “You’re referring to the prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the Force.
You believe it’s this boy?”
Qui-Gon: “I don’t presume…”
Yoda: “But you do.
Revealed, your opinion is.”
Qui-Gon: “I request that the boy be tested, Master.”
Yoda: “Trained as a Jedi, you request for him, hmm?”
Qui-Gon: “Finding him was the will of the Force.
I have no doubt of that.”
Mace Windu: “Then bring him.”
[POV: ANAKIN]
I spent the last half hour exploring the building.
It was surprising how enormous the apartment they had provided for Padmé was.
Even after all that time, there were still rooms I hadn’t visited yet.
At some point long ago, I had lost Jar Jar somewhere, but that didn’t particularly bother me.
As I was examining a very interesting device responsible for dimming the windows and changing the scenery beyond them—as if it were some kind of projection—I was itching to take it apart and figure out how it worked.
In Anakin’s memories, he had never come across technology like this before.
It was in precisely that state that Obi-Wan found me.
“Anakin, you’ve been summoned before the Jedi Council.
Come, Qui-Gon is already waiting downstairs with the airspeeder.”
“Very well, Master Obi-Wan.
I just have one more thing to take care of before our trip.”
I stepped away from the window and sighed.
At last, the moment had come.
Even if I was certain I would be rejected, I still had to go through it.
I decided to say goodbye to Padmé before the meeting.
I quickly made my way through the corridors until I reached the Queen’s chambers.
Along the way, I asked several guards where that handmaiden had gone, but none of them could answer me.
I knocked on the door.
“Hello.
I’ve been looking for Padmé, but I couldn’t find her.
I’m leaving for the Jedi Temple to try to be accepted for training, and I wanted to say goodbye.”
“Unfortunately, Padmé stepped out for something,” the Queen replied in her usual slow, formal voice.
Beneath the makeup, I recognized that Padmé had already become the Queen again.
Not wanting to make things more difficult for her, I decided to play along.
“In that case, if Your Majesty would be so kind, please tell her goodbye for me.”
I bowed in farewell and left.
I walked down the steps leading out of the building, and together with Obi-Wan I boarded the airspeeder piloted by Qui-Gon.
“Are you ready, Anakin, for your first visit to the Jedi Temple?” Qui-Gon asked, clearly optimistic despite my obvious skepticism.