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By Root 3370 0

from Charros IV, and been made the target of bounty hunters, four of whom Sienar had managed to strand at a black hole known only to him and a handful of other hotshot hyperspace explorers. Sienar had engaged in similar acts of corporate espionage among the Trade Federation, Baktoid Armor, Corellian Engineering, and Incom Corporations, but the Xi Char had a long memory for what they considered sacrilege. Six years before the Battle of Naboo, a second attempt on Raith’s life had resulted in the death of his father, Narro, at Dantooine. But once again the heretic had escaped.

Ten years back, Obi-Wan and Anakin had had their own brush with Sienar at the living world known as Zonama Sekot. Because Sienar had been partly responsible for Zonama Sekot’s disappearance, he was also the reason that the Xi Char no longer accepted human apprentices.

Workshop Xcan was a marvel to behold.

Xi Char artisans worked individually or in groups of three to three hundred, on devices ranging from high-end home appliances to starfighters, adding enhancements or adornments, tweaking, personalizing, customizing in a thousand different ways. Here were all the priceless devices Obi-Wan and Anakin had found crammed into storage rooms in Gunray’s Cato Neimoidia citadel. The environment was the antithesis of the deafening freneticism that characterized a Baktoid Armor foundry, such as the one the Republic had commandeered on Geonosis. Xi Charrians rarely conversed with one another while working, preferring instead to amplify their concentration through the repetition of high-pitched stridulations, analogous to chants. The few who did take notice of the three visitors in their midst showed more interest in TC-16 than in the Jedi.

And yet, for all the fine work that was performed in Workshop Xcan, the cathedral-factory was little more than a stepping-stone for many Xi Charrians, who aspired to work for the Haor Chall Engineering conglomerate which had abandoned Charros IV for other worlds in the Outer Rim.

The same pair of outsized aliens who had escorted Obi-Wan and Anakin to the Prelate’s chancery guided them to t’laalak-s’lalak-t’th’ak’s altar, which was located in the workshop’s western colonnade, the piers of which were decorated with mosaics of engraved tiles. High overhead, resting Xi Charrians hung inverted from the great curving rafters that supported the roof, like configurable droid fighters arrayed inside a Trade Federation carrier.

Obi-Wan could see how the sound of their ceaseless humming could be slightly unnerving.

t’laalak-s’lalak-t’th’ak was engrossed in engraving a corporate logo into a piece of starship console. Dozens of yet-to-be-completed pieces walled him in on one side; completed pieces were on the other. On hearing his name called, he glanced up from his work.

The escorts chittered to him briefly before TC-16 took over.

“t’laalak-s’lalak-t’th’ak, first allow me to say that your work is of such exceptional quality that the deities themselves must be covetous.”

The Xi Charrian accepted the compliment in humility, and chittered a response.

“We appreciate the offer to watch you at work. But in fact, we are not unacquainted with some of your finer pieces, and it is because of one piece in particular that we have journeyed so far to speak with you. An example that recently came to light on Cato Neimoidia.”

The Xi Charrian took a long moment to respond.

“A mechno-chair you adorned for Trade Federation viceroy, Nute Gunray, some fourteen standard years ago.” TC-16 listened, then added: “But surely it was yours, for the inner portion of the rear leg bears your devotional symbol.” Again he listened. “A Baktoid forgery? Are you suggesting that your work could so easily be imitated?”

Anakin nudged Obi-Wan in the upper arm: Xi Charrians working nearby were beginning to take a keen interest in the conversation.

“We understand your reluctance to discuss such matters,” TC-16 was saying quietly. “Why, the very fact that you autographed a piece could be interpreted by the Prelate as a statement of pride.”

t’laalak-s’lalak-t’th’ak