The only reason Anakin had been assigned this mission was because the Chancellor thought it was a good idea. The Order had better diplomats and he had no connections to Rhoulag of his own. Masters Yoda and Windu must've been really desperate when they went along with the suggestion.
Now, one thing to note about Anakin's absurd amount of midichlorians was that he was very connected to the surrounding population. He could feel it when people died in the blocks nearest to the Temple on Coruscant. So he didn't think much of it when he noticed many lives snuff out at once. He only sighed internally – the war had inured him to a great many things – and went back to trying not to fall to the Dark Side as the planetary premier complained about their tax credits being spent on cloning violence and other bullshit buzzphrases.
The lunch break came not a moment too soon and ended before Anakin was ready to return to the premier and his cadre of assholes. He would've caused a scene earlier, except that he was trying to prove that he could too be diplomatic. Even if he was alone on Rhoulag. Obi-Wan was tangling with Grievous, and Ahsoka was on a mission with Barriss. Anakin had drawn the short straw.
"But really, wouldn't the Jedi prefer to work with sentient beings?" one of the premier's cronies – some sort of blonde woman with a perpetual sneer on her face – said. "Not these flesh droids you've been saddled with."
"The clone troopers are just as sentient as any Human," Anakin said for the fifteenth time since lunch break. "They are loyal, dutiful, and creative, and I would not replace them with anyone."
The premier looked at him sadly. Anakin considered that perhaps this assignment was a punishment for something.
"I suppose after spending so long with them, your standards would've gone down," the premier began before being interrupted by the hall's wide doors swinging open.
A woman of unremarkable height strode in. She had skin perhaps slightly paler than Master Windu's, and her mostly-grayed curly hair had been pulled into an economical-looking bun. Anakin had the distinct feeling he'd seen her somewhere before.
The newcomer marched to the meeting table. Anakin rose on instinct. "Premier Vxerys," she began, "I apologize for interrupting your talks. The Bureau for Atmospheric Flight Incident Investigation has urgent need for Knight Skywalker."
Anakin gasped. Yes, he knew her! The holos had been from Senate addresses with official dress rather than a practical jumpsuit, but that was definitely Veta Siduri, head of the BAFII. "Of course, Doctor Siduri," he said with a bow. He then bowed to Premier Vxerys and made very insincere apologies about having to leave.
The Republic had several organs devoted to transit safety. The speeder and sailing ones tended to be planetary, but two were Republic-wide: the Interplanetary Transit Safety Board, which investigated all spacecraft incidents happening in vacuum, and the Bureau for Atmospheric Flight Incident Investigation, which was responsible for all incidents that happened in atmospheres that did not belong to Coruscant, which was its own mess of regulatory apparati. While the ITSB was famous and the top echelons considered a plum posting for political apparatchiks, the BAFII investigated significantly less sexy matters and had been mostly left alone by the political machine. As a result, Veta Siduri, Doctor of Metallurgical Fault Analysis, had been the head of the BAFII for longer than Anakin had been alive.
"I usually have to introduce myself," she said as they made their way out of the Premier's complex.
"I watched you address the Senate about the Utapauan black hole of a transit corp about ... eight years ago?" Anakin smiled in a manner he hoped was non-creepy and lengthened his stride to match Siduri's relentless pace. "I read a bunch of your incident reports in my teens. I'm a pilot, too, atmo and hyper rated."
Siduri smiled. "Ah. Good." They reached the door. There was an empty speeder outside; Siduri shooed away a few curious attendants and got into the driver's seat.
Anakin joined her in the speeder. She pulled out into the traffic.
Now that the initial shock of Veta Siduri seeking him out had worn off, he was left with wanting to know why she'd sought him out. Anakin thought about things he might've been witness to in the past few weeks. No civil aviation or maintenance oversight, but- "Was there perhaps an aircraft crash with multiple fatalities early this morning?"
Siduri looked at him sharply. "You felt it?" She turned her eyes back to the road. "I must admit I know little of Jedi, beyond the fact that you can lift things with your mind and have your own color-coded plasma cutters."
"It's also a welding torch," Anakin felt compelled to add. "Uh. So, the Force connects us to the surrounding universe, so we can ... feel life? And death. Not the cause, though, for all I knew someone had crashed their speeder into a hospital's power generator and everyone in intensive care died. The Force also tells us a bit about the future – enough to dodge blaster bolts, sometimes a bit further, though those are usually more vague."
"The precognition gives you the reflexes, I assume." Siduri turned off the city's main throughfare to a more forested outskirt.
"I suppose it does. Are we driving to the crash site?"
"No, we'll need a VAV."
They pulled into a small airport that had a singular vertical ascent vehicle, not vacuum rated, sitting on the apron. The two of them joined a group of BAFII investigators who passed Siduri and Anakin both reflective vests.
"You're bringing him to the crash site?" a Mirialan woman asked.
"He's a pilot," Siduri replied and hopped into the VAV.
"Oh my God, it's Anakin Skywalker," another investigator said.
"Hi?" Anakin waved awkwardly. "Doctor Siduri asked me to help investigate."
"Maybe they'll actually answer our questions now that we have a war hero with us," a third investigator said to the second one.
Anakin got in the VAV. "What do you mean?"
"Seven months ago, an atmospheric long-range hopper flight on Rhoulag crashed because it was flown into a thunderstorm," Siduri replied. "The local authorities and transit certification authority have been stonewalling us and blamed a mechanical fault with the plane."
Given the safety margins required to transport civilians, this was highly improbable. "Did they forget to disengage the autopilot while trying to detour?"
"They seem to have never detoured in the first place."
"Huh."
The VAV rumbled off. Anakin closed his eyes and touched the Force. Doctors made the worst patients, and so did pilots make the worst passengers. The pilot was middle-aged, competent, and the VAV hummed like the well-oiled machine it was. Anakin delved deeper, went over all the components-
"A blade in the number-one jet engine will need replacement within the next twenty take-off/landing cycles," he said.
The BAFII investigators blinked. "Can we keep him?" the Mirialan asked.
A familiar blush of delight hit Anakin at his talents being appreciated. He smiled and ducked his head. "Maybe for a bit?" he hedged. "I don't think the talks were going anywhere."
The rest of the investigators introduced themselves over the flight. There were four in total, not counting Anakin or Doctor Siduri, and all of them were seasoned. It made sense, as did Veta Siduri's personal presence, considering the locals had attempted to stonewall and discredit the previous investigation.
Anakin caught a glimpse of the crash site – a giant hole in the trees, still smoldering – before the VAV set down in a tiny meadow. It was a tight fit; Anakin approved of the pilot's skills.
The search and rescue teams were still kicking about the area. Anakin took a deep breath and sank into the Force to look for survivors.
He didn't know anyone present, rescuer, investigator, or victim, well enough to home in on a Force presence, but he had had lots of practice counting survivors in rubble and doing basic triage on them. The closest presences nearby that were afraid were clearly local animals. Those Anakin could detect belonged to sentients were searching, alert, cataloguing the ground in a search pattern, very clearly SAR personnel or BAFII investigators. The Force reeked of death.
"No survivors," he told Siduri. "Is there anything in particular you want me to do?"
"Help Terza catalog the debris and see if the universe tells you anything is important. If you find either of the black boxes, alert me." She paused. "Have you investigated a crash before?"
"I've dug survivors and classified intel out of the rubble. Not much time for else in a war zone."
Siduri nodded. "I'll be setting up the droids."
Anakin went to find Terza. He and the Mirialan set up a laser grid the droids would use for orientation and then went through the wreckage on foot. Based on the size and shape of the crater, Anakin thought it was a belly flop at high speed.
The Force brought his feet to what he and Terza identified as a Doppler radar, slightly jarred by impact but working before the crash. It hadn't failed, but it was important – either to the crash or something else.
"The Doppler radar worked, but it's important somehow," Anakin told Terza.
They speculated on potential ways it could've caused the crash anyhow – a bit flip giving incorrect crosswind speeds to the autopilot, some sort of mechanical error in the wiring – as they picked around for the black boxes, dodging the documentation droids and trying not to step on the scattered body parts. The various BAFII reports hadn't mentioned the condition of the corpses unless there were survivors, but years fighting a war had shown Anakin just how easy it was to make the human body disintegrate into pieces with a high-velocity impact. Here the bodies were recognizable as bodies and near the fuselage. Nonetheless, Anakin didn't envy the coroners – some of those parts would have to be genetically matched to the rest of the body.
Though at least they could do genetic matching. The clone troopers had to make do with body part identification based on tattoos and armor paint. They burned all the unidentified body parts separately, a pyre for the unknown trooper.
Another shiver in the Force had Anakin stop at a largeish sheet of what had probably been the baggage compartment. He waited for the documentation droid to pass over and lifted. Behind him, Terza swore, surprised at the fact he was manipulating a heavy sheet of metal with only his mind, but that wasn't what caught Anakin's attention.
He walked beneath the sheet and gave an experimental tug at the orange metal. It had been slammed hard between the floor and ceiling of the baggage compartment, but a bit of shimmying released the black box. He carried it to Terza and set the sheet down behind him.
"We have the black box!" Terza called to Siduri. She motioned for Anakin to put it on the ground, then looked it over. Apparently it passed muster, for she nodded at Siduri when she came over.
"Ah, good," Siduri said. She, too, knelt and looked it over. "We didn't even have to turn on the pinger." She rose. "Knight Skywalker. Come. We'll deliver this to an investigator at the spaceport and go knock on some doors."
Anakin would've liked to stay and pick over the wreckage some more, but he knew what he'd been brought here for, and really, this was Veta Siduri. "Of course," he replied.
They went back to the VAV and rode it to the spaceport. Siduri handed over the black box to her colleagues and left the VAV to get maintenance.
The next stop on their itinerary was not the speeder, as Anakin had expected, but the headquarters of Professional Transit Licences Rhoulag. "Tell them you require the full records of Jithri Zurr and Larava Uthzurian," Siduri said. "Urgent Jedi business, whatever works. The airline's records will be elsewhere."
Anakin nodded and straightened his robes. He put on the same sort of aura Obi-Wan so habitually wore when dealing with politicians and walked up the marble steps.
The lobby was even more ostentatious, decorated in gold leaf and black stone. He dismissed his distaste and turned to the receptionist. "Excuse me, but where are the professional pilots' records stored?" he asked with a smile.
The man blinked. "They're on the second floor, uh, Master Jedi?"
"Jedi Anakin Skywalker." Anakin bowed. "Thank you. For whom should I ask?"
"Ular Ett, Master Jedi."
Anakin bowed once more. "May the Force be with you."
The turbolift was slightly more utilitarian, though that wasn't saying much. One wall was covered with a shiny mirror. Anakin and Siduri could've fit half the aircraft's wreckage in there with them.
Ular Ett's office was on the second floor right next to the elevators. The decorative style had changed, more glass and less gold, but it was still expensive enough to buy a starfighter or two.
Anakin knocked. "Ular Ett?"
"Come in," a man gruffly said.
Anakin opened the door and bowed. "I am Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight. I was told you were the one to speak to for professional pilots' records?"
"Master Jedi!" Ett rose and ran toward Anakin to aggressively grasp his hand. "Yes, please, however may I help you? We on Rhoulag have great respect for the Jedi, you know."
But not for those who guarded the Jedi's back, apparently. "I am interested in the records of two pilots, Jithri Zurr and Larava Uthzurian," he said.
"Oh, yes, of course. Here, let me load a data chit with their records. Is there anything else you would like? The rest of the airline's data? Their coursemates from pilot school?"
Behind him, Siduri's cautious interest turned into outright yearning. Anakin put on his best mimicry of Obi-Wan's smile and said, "If that is no bother to you, then yes, I would appreciate both."
Ett beamed in a particularly brown-nosing way. "Of course! Here." He loaded a data chit with what Anakin had requested for and handed it over. "Is there anything else you need?"
"No, this is plenty. Thank you." Anakin bowed. "May the Force be with you."
"And you as well!" Ett said, then did a very good sycophant bootlicker act that Anakin had to extract himself from.
Once they were safely outside the building, Anakin tried handing the data chit to Siduri.
"No, no, you keep it," she said. "We have to do this through the appropriate channels. The BAFII will ask for this exact same information tomorrow. When they stonewall us, we will hear an anonymous tip-off that the Jedi Order has the information we need and we will officially requisition it from them."
Anakin nodded. "That does sound appropriately political." Obi-Wan would be proud.
Siduri snorted. "Yes. Now, we go to the local corporation regulatory board and see how deeply the airline was in debt."
Anakin's comm rang. "I think I need to take this," he said. Working with the BAFII had been like a vacation; of course it was over much too soon. "Anakin Skywalker."
"Someone on Rhoulag used your credentials at the Professional Transit Licences registry," Obi-Wan Kenobi said over the holocomm. "Should we be concerned about identity theft?"
"No, Master, that was me. The BAFII requisitioned me to help with an investigation."
Obi-Wan sighed with all the weight of someone who had had to listen to a teenage Anakin read aloud every single BAFII report from the past two decades. "Very well. As long as you're having fun. How did the negotiations go?"
Anakin rolled his eyes. "You'd have better luck negotiating with the protesters outside the Temple."
"That's what we feared." Obi-Wan rubbed his temples. "Well. You should have a few days more before you're called anywhere. Enjoy your time with the BAFII!"
"Thanks?" Anakin said to the space in the air where Obi-Wan's head had been.
"If you only have a few more days, we have no time to waste," Siduri said. "Come."
Anakin trotted after her. With the war, it had been a long time since he'd actually felt happy, but here, he felt like he was doing something that meaned something.
The corporation regulatory board was significantly less interested in sucking up to him, but a wave of his Jedi credentials opened all the doors. Anakin would've been a bit worried had he not been helping Dr Siduri and trusted the Jedi's integrity. They hit up the rest of the offices the BAFII was interested in over the afternoon.
"That was remarkably painless," Anakin said as they walked down the atmospheric pilot school regulatory body's steps.
"The real pain will be reading through the files," Siduri replied. "Given the level of obstruction we faced with the previous crash, I doubt the contents will be pretty."
Anakin nodded. "I guess. Should we go back to the crash site?"
"Don't you need to return to the premier?"
"Honestly, I'd just be wasting everyone's time," Anakin sighed. "At the crash site I could eliminate the need for heavy machinery."
Siduri gazed at him assessingly, then nodded. "Very well. Come."
Anakin spent the evening cataloguing wreckage under floodlights before being shuttled off to a nearby village motel to sleep. He chatted with Terza about the local weather and military piloting over the late dinner before falling asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
They ate breakfast and headed out to the site. Not much had changed – the SAR people had removed the accessible corpses before the local predators could get at them – so Anakin returned to lifting objects with the Force.
An hour before lunch, his comm rang. "Anakin Skywalker," he answered.
"Anakin, my boy," Chancellor Palpatine greeted him. "It is good to see you enjoying yourself."
"Thank you, Your Excellency. It is an honor to serve the Republic in any way I can."
"Mmm." The Chancellor sighed. "I regret that I must interrupt your current task. General Grievous has left Felucia to attack the Republic's agrarian worlds-"
"The 501st will be en route," Anakin immediately said. He ran through Felucia's hyperlanes and considered how best to get the troops in position. He'd tell Ahsoka to prepare the troops and meet them halfway.
"I knew you could count on you," the Chancellor said with a smile. Anakin preened. "I'll have the details sent to you." They traded goodbyes.
Terza whistled. "The Supreme Chancellor? Wow."
Anakin shuffled awkwardly. "Uh, yeah. I'm a Jedi and I helped save his homeworld, so sometimes he comms me?"
"Well, good luck saving the Republic, Master Skywalker," Terza said and squeezed his shoulder. "We'll take it from here."
"Thanks," Anakin said, and clamped his mouth shut before he pedantically corrected her on just being a Knight. "I'll say goodbye to Doctor Siduri and get going. I hope your investigation goes well."
Terza nodded solemnly and released him. "Thank you."
Anakin took this as the dismissal it was and went to find Veta Siduri. She was at the edge of the crash site, finishing up her own holocall. Anakin waited for her to be done.
"Something the matter?" she asked.
"The war called," Anakin said. "I have to go."
Siduri nodded. "Thank you for your assistance. We'll contact you for the data."
"Good luck with your investigation," Anakin said and bowed deep. He wanted to thank her for the opportunity to work with her and the BAFII, but he didn't know how to say the words and would just embarrass himself. "May the Force be with you."
"Good luck with your mission," Siduri said, slightly less harshly than her usual tone of voice. "Ask our pilot to bring you to the spaceport."
Anakin nodded and walked to the clearing. The war called and he had to go, but-
He looked over his shoulder at the crash site. He'd enjoyed his day with the BAFII, and would like to do this again. Maybe after the war.
Save for a request for the files from the BAFII's secretary to the Jedi Order forwarded to him, that was the sum of Anakin's involvement with the investigation. He spent the next months fighting a war, trying to teach his padawan about the Jedi arts on shelled-out plains and near the ashes of burnt-out funeral pyres.
Then he returned to Coruscant from Cato Neimoidia late in Coruscant's day cycle and woke up to a message. He stared at it for a moment, tried to remember why he'd get the comm, and jumped out of bed into his clothes.
"Ahsoka!" he called out at his padawan's closed door. "We're going to the BAFII offices!"
There was no answer. "Ahsoka?"
He reached out with the Force to find his padawan dead to the world. He called his comm to his hand and checked the time. 5 am. Oops.
He sighed. He'd grown up waking up before the sunrise or the slaveowners; even his teenage years hadn't broken the habit. Obi-Wan had not expected that in the least. Ahsoka's sleep patterns were much more typical of a teenager.
The BAFII invitation had come automatically overnight. He checked the opening time – seven – then made tea and did his best to catch up on meditation and his droid projects.
At quarter to seven, he flicked open Ahsoka's door and hollered, "Wake up, Snips! We have places to be!"
"Nooo," his padawan sleepily groaned.
"Oh yes," he said, then got out of the way as Ahsoka sleepwalked to the refresher. He did consider himself a good master, though, so he cooked up some caf for her.
Less than half an hour later, Anakin was parking their speeder at the BAFII lot. Ahsoka had almost woken up after her second cup of caf and said, "Isn't this a government institution? You'd think they'd be closer to the Senate. And higher up."
Anakin glanced up at where Coruscant's finest were, three hundred levels above and a good chunk of planetary circumference away. "Well, it's not like everything can fit in the Senate District. Come."
Even the BAFII sign was sort of dingy. He knew that this lack of prestige was exactly what let them operate unhindered by the political takeovers that plagued the ITSB and all the Coruscant-specific organs, but it still rankled – the BAFII was doing important work. The legislature it introduced even safeguarded vacuum transit, as it was cheaper to have a pilots certify for atmo rather than have an atmo-certified pilot swap in for landing.
"Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano," he introduced them to a slightly harried-looking Pantoran receptionist.
"Yes... Okay," she said. "Investigator Terza will escort you to Director Siduri. Please wait a moment."
Anakin thanked her and settled down to wait. He tried to keep Ahsoka from falling asleep on him.
"Knight Skywalker," Terza said as she arrived in the lobby, looking almost as dead to the world as Ahsoka. "Would you like some caf?"
"No thank you, but I think my padawan would."
Ahsoka perked up minutely at the concept of caf and pounced on one of the disposable cups Terza was carrying. "Thanks," she said and chugged it.
"I'm glad you could come," Terza said as she sipped caf from the other disposable cup. "Tell me, do you usually wake up this early?"
Anakin frowned. "At five or so?"
"He's a horrible morning person," Ahsoka sighed as they stepped into a lift.
Terza nodded, then yawned. "I usually come in at nine, but we have Rhoulag's Minister for Transport and a few higher-ups from the various regulatory apparati knocking down our doors. They're currently arguing with Doctor Siduri."
"And you needed a Jedi to tell them to shut up?"
"We need a Jedi as a test animal for our simulators. You are atmo rated, correct?"
"Yes." Though- "Well, I was at sixteen, but I think I need to resit some of it once the war's over." He lifted his mechanical arm up for view. "I did receive a major prosthetic at the start of it."
"You probably should. But you've flown with it?"
"For the past year and a half."
Terza nodded. "That should work." The turbolift doors opened to a nondescript corridor. Terza led them to a flight simulator, next to which Veta Siduri was arguing with half a dozen apparatchiks from Rhoulag.
"Knight Skywalker," Siduri said. "Tell me, how do Jedi perform in simulators compared to average folk?"
"We do better in real situations, where the Force is telling us what's going on, but the advantages in reaction speed are still there," Anakin said. "You want me to take a ride in the simulator?"
"Exactly. You are to fly the same route Jithri Zurr and Larava Uthzurian took that fateful day and see if you can make it through."
"Okay." Anakin eyed the simulator. It'd been some time since he'd last been in one, but he could deal.
The thing was configured for the type of plane Zurr and Uthzurian had been flying. It was a bit larger than the type of craft Anakin usually flew as a Jedi at war and in peace, but cockpit designs had long since been standardized.
He started the simulator run mid-flight over Rhoulag's ocean. All was stable as he followed the flight's path.
There was a thunderstorm on the coast. Anakin would've detoured or increased altitude, but the pilots had descended instead. Anakin remarked on that.
The Doppler radar beeped. "WIND SHEAR," the mechanical voice called out.
Anakin, like a good atmo-trained pilot, immediately pulled up to put more distance between himself and the ground. The transition from headwind to tailwind ate several hundred meters of altitude as the wings' lift capacity suddenly decreased dramatically.
The simulation shut off. "See?" Siduri said. "That is what all the trained pilots have done. When they hear a wind shear alert somewhere they're not planning to land, they ascend! They do not continue their treetop-brushing sightseeing flight!"
"Was there a reason they were flying so low?" Anakin asked. "I'd have come in much higher."
"It was Zurr and Uthzurian's expert judgement that that was the best route," one of the Rhoulagi apparatchiks said. "They were the very best of us. Blaming them for some mechanical failure is beyond the pale."
"There was no mechanical failure," Siduri replied with a voice dripping in acid. "Skywalker, go do the simulation run again. This time, don't deviate from the flight path until you absolutely have to."
Anakin agreed and was unceremoniously dumped over the same spot of ocean. He followed the path meticulously, low as it was, and did not ascend despite the wind shear warning blaring. Every bone in his body twinged at the wrongness.
Then he hit the downdraft and saw his airspeed going down. He gunned the engines and configured for maximum airspeed and thus lift, but on a plane this size-
He clipped through the trees and hit the ground. A series of numbers came up on the screen. With that impact velocity, no-one would've made it.
"Your professional opinion?" Siduri asked.
"The pilots were idiots who got their licences out of a cereal box," Anakin said. "What the kriff."
"Thank you, Knight Skywalker. You may go now. Expect the final report within the week."
"But we haven't agreed on the crash's cause yet!" one of the Rhoulagi wailed.
"You're bringing in a Jedi?" another whined.
"Knight Skywalker has been a great help in our investigation," Siduri said in a frosty tone of voice. "And you will find that I will release this report with or without your agreement."
Anakin and Ahsoka followed Terza out of the simulator room back to the turbolift. "Are they trying to protect the pilots?" Ahsoka asked.
"They're trying to protect their pilot training industry," Terza said. "The report will not be kind."
"You're ripping them a new one in classic Veta Siduri fashion and they don't like that?" Anakin guessed.
"Exactly." They had arrived back at the lobby. "Good day, Knight Skywalker, Padawan Tano."
"May the Force be with you," Anakin and Ahsoka said in chorus before returning to the speeder – and in Ahsoka's case, returning to bed as well. Anakin chuckled at his adorable padawan.
The report arrived on his datapad three days later. Anakin went through the utter lack of piloting training, both for the original certification and reruns, the lack of oversight at any part of the process, the regulators being in bed with the transit corporations, and a vast multitude of other sins. The only thing that had worked was the maintenance.
Anakin signed off on it and had to share it with someone. Ahsoka was still asleep at this hour of the morning, but Obi-Wan should be awake.
"Master!" he said as he barged into Obi-Wan's room. "The BAFII report on the Rhoulag crash came in. You'll never believe this bullshit from the regulators. You see-"
Obi-Wan sighed over his teacup and if he wasn't listening, he wasn't interrupting, either. Anakin moved on to explaining the concept of microbursts and airspeed, since Obi-Wan had probably forgotten everything from Anakin's youthful reportage. If he hadn't, well, he had said himself that repetition was the mother of learning.
Everything would be fine – if only the rules would be enforced. That was what the Republic needed, more than anything else.