A Young Girl’s War Between the Stars

  81

  Mandalore. 35 BBY/965 GSC.

  “Xana.”

  “Yes, boss?” the disguised Zeltron woman asked from my side.

  “What did you do to my ship?”

  I felt it was a fair question. A very fair question, given what I could feel—or rather, not feel. I couldn’t sense the ship or its crew at all, even standing in the drydock and looking right at it.

  “Remember when I asked you to make us some songsteel to play around with?” the spy asked, and I nodded. “Well, we’ve been taking scans and readings off of you and the Redoubt…” She gestured at the Corsair-class ship berthed before us. “And we installed some things. It’s good to see it worked. We didn’t have a Force user to test with, outside of you and the girls, and you were busy so this is the first time we’ve been able to actually test it…”

  I turned and stared at the woman. “You took my stealth ship and modified it in such a way as to make it practically invisible in the Force.”

  “…Yes?” the special agent asked hesitantly. “I know we didn’t ask first, but I thought it would be best to keep this one under our hats.”

  I cut her off, shaking my head before turning to head for a passage to board her. “Good work.”

  I felt the woman’s relief and brief sense of pride at the words. “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “What else did you do?” I sent her a suspicious look.

  “Uhh…” Clearing her throat, she reached up and tapped her ear bud. “This is Xana. Start the demonstration.”

  I raised an eyebrow and, a moment later, the ship wavered and vanished before my eyes, until I could no longer see it at all. Not even a distortion was left behind. “You built a cloaking device.”

  “Well, it is a stealth ship,” she chuckled. “During anti-piracy operations, Capt. Taris’s people collected an unmarked box of crystals. They sent one off to the lab on Mandalore for testing to figure out whether they should sell them or not. The test results came back as stygium and that flagged in our systems. The past few months, our scientists have been developing and testing a cloaking device and this is the result. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough to make more stealth ships.”

  “I see,” I murmured, nodding as the ship faded back into view, before hurrying for the entrance with Xana on my heels. “Get me a sample of stygium.”

  The woman grinned. “I thought you’d say that. There’s a sample waiting in your quarters.”

  “Good.” Meeting her eyes, I asked, “Your people on the ground are certain their information is good?”

  She nodded. “Yes, ma’am. The target is currently in transit home.”

  That was as good as I was going to get, without being on the ground myself. “Head back down to Mandalore and keep an eye on things for me. If it looks like there’s going to be trouble, I want names so I can deal with them personally when I come back.”

  “Will do, boss,” she confirmed, before turning and hurrying away.

  I stepped through the hatch, where now lieutenant Dyre met me with a smile and a salute. “Ma’am! It’s good to have you back.”

  “It’s good to be back. Congratulations on the promotion, lieutenant,” I told her.

  “You as well, ma’am,” she sent me an amused look as she fell into step beside me. “Not bringing the little ones for this?”

  I shook my head. “No. They’ll be waiting on the Redoubt. We’ll rendezvous for transfer when I’m done. But I don’t want them anywhere near Coruscant in the meantime. Did you receive the package?”

  “We did,” Lt. Dyre nodded. “Along with the Dagger and an unlabeled shipping crate? We’ve transferred the package to your quarters.”

  “Excellent. Thank you, lieutenant. You’ll have an explanation for the crate once I’ve stowed my gear and had a few moments to speak with Capt. Taris.”

  We stopped by my quarters and I took a moment to put away my bag, before heading for the bridge. As the doors opened, Lt. Dyre called, “Mand’alor on deck!”

  The entire bridge snapped to attention and I nodded, returning the salute. “As you were,” I ordered, and the bridge crew quickly returned to what they were doing. Capt. Taris met me halfway with a smile.

  “Welcome aboard, ma’am. Good to have you back.”

  “Thank you, captain. It’s good to be back, if only for a short time.”

  I moved into the center of the bridge, standing beside the captain’s chair as I tapped at the controls mounted beside the armrest. The holographic fishbowl formed around us and I threw up a formula to keep our conversation private. Lt. Dyre sent me a questioning look and I nodded, motioning for her to join us. Once she had, I began the short briefing.

  “I need you to make best possible speed for Coruscant. Xana had you demonstrate a cloaking device?”

  “Yes, ma’am. It’s a new upgrade,” he confirmed with a nod.

  “Are there any limitations to running it? Time or heat limits? How effective is it against sensors?” I asked. I didn’t want to rely entirely on unproven technology if I didn’t have to. I needed to know its limits if I was going to use it properly.

  Capt. Taris thought about it for a moment before giving me a quick rundown. “Heat limitations are the same as the holographic system. No operational time limit to speak of. As far as we can tell, it works almost perfectly against everything except magnetic field and gravitational sensors, which you have to be close to use anyway so outside of ten thousand klicks we’re effectively invisible. And even if they pick us up, most ships will think it’s a faulty sensor, especially if there are a lot of other ships in the area, or large debris—asteroids and the like.”

  I hummed, considering that for a moment before nodding. “Alright. You’ll drop out in the shipping lane with the rest of the traffic, under camo.”

  “Not the cloak?” Capt. Taris asked, and I shook my head.

  “We’ll keep that trick under our hat for the time being.”

  “Roger that.”

  Picking up where I’d left off, I said, “I’ll take the Dagger down and take care of my business planet-side. At that point, they’re likely going to lock down the local space and potentially start inspecting ships they deem suspicious—those that arrived in the day or so leading up to it. Feign compliance. I’ll take the Dagger back up, which is going to draw the attention of their security forces. I may need you to bring the ship in and meet me, then immediately jump to hyperspace. There may be an interdictor or something with a tractor beam on station, so be prepared to deal with that. We’ll work out the finer details once we’re there.”

  “What about the Jedi? There are likely some still on Coruscant, dealing with the Senate. Do we need to worry about them?” Capt. Taris asked.

  “If they try to interfere, leave them to me.”

  “How long do you expect the ground mission to take, ma’am?” Lt. Dyre asked. “Should we arrange for resupply?”

  Going over my mental list of targets, I eventually nodded. “Keep the option open. I’m not sure how long this is going to take, exactly. Intelligence assets on the ground should be able to direct me once I’m there, but the enemy, security forces, and Jedi on planet will obviously react once I start so things will become more difficult as the mission progresses. And I believe that covers everything. I’ll be making some improvements to the ship in transit if you need me for something, captain.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll get us underway immediately,” he acknowledged and I dropped the privacy field around us, before shutting off the holographic fishbowl and heading for the exit. “Set course for Coruscant and make ready for departure.”

  “Yes, captain. Requesting clearance to disembark—”

  The chatter faded behind me as the elevator took me and Lt. Dyre down and I started for the cargo bay, where the crate was waiting. I loaded it onto a hover cart and hauled it towards my quarters. Once there, I opened the top off and the lieutenant got her first good look at the contents.

  “…Crystals and metal? I didn’t realize you were planning some interior decorating, ma’am.”

  I chuckled. “Kyber crystals and songsteel. You’ll see.”

  With that, I got to work.

  Coruscant. 35 BBY/965 GSC.

  Bail Organa let out a quiet sigh as he settled into his seat in the Senate chamber and the hovering platform advanced into position for the day’s session. As the newly selected representative of Alderaan, he was expected to attend all of these, regardless of how trivial. He didn’t mind terribly much, however—given the necessity.

  Some disturbing rumors had been circulating for the past few years about a potential secession within the Outer Rim and possibly a war, so his wife had quietly retired the former senator and had her husband take his place. The man Bail had replaced hadn’t complained, at least not vocally—after all, it was a request from the queen herself.

  The noise of hundreds of conversations filled the space of the senate and he listened with half an ear to the nearest and the loudest around him. The talk of the day seemed to revolve around the secession, Mandalore, and the Trade Federation.

  Apparently, the Mandalore sector had a new leader—the title apparently taking its name after the planet, system, and sector. Or maybe the people. He wasn’t certain. Regardless of the origin of the title, what he gathered was that it wasn’t good.

  According to what he was hearing, the Mandalore was basically the ruler of the entire sector and the title could typically only be claimed by force. There had been many to claim the title before, but this was the first true Mandalore in over three thousand years. The last time they had one of those had been right at the end of the Mandalorian Crusades, when the Mandos had been a scourge across the galaxy worse than any pirates. If he remembered his history correctly, the Jedi had taken care of the problem the last time, and the death of their Mandalore had fractured a united Mandalorian people into the Mando clans they had been for the last three millennia.

  Speculation about this new leader was rampant and no one seemed to know anything for certain. Some of the rumors were more believable than others, of course.

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  One rumor said that the new Mandalore had staged a coup, killed the previous, pacifist leader and taken over in order to join the newly formed Confederacy of Independent Systems under Suzerain Dooku. Another said that the new Mandalore was a Jedi, and the Jedi as a whole were working with Dooku to overthrow the Republic. Still another said that the new leader was just a child; a girl or young woman, who had been raised as a child soldier—which, unless Bail missed his mark, pretty much described every Mando child. Others said the new leader was something truly alien—some hulking brute, an unkillable, unstoppable monstrosity recovered from Wild Space and the lead element of an invasion force, looking to use the Mandalorian people to weaken the rest of the galaxy. Then, of course, there were whispers of Sith involvement—something not seen for almost as long and another threat the rest of the galaxy believed the Jedi had eliminated—another case of history not quite repeating itself, but rhyming.

  Bail didn’t put much stock in rumors. He would rather wait and see the evidence for himself, then make his own decision.

  However, given everything going on, with the recent deaths of several senators in an incident on Nar Shaddaa and whispers of Jedi involvement, not to mention the new CIS being run by a ‘former’ high ranking Jedi, he could understand some of the concerns. Especially given that the Jedi had yet to address Dooku’s involvement in the CIS.

  The old Jedi’s reputation preceded him. Bail had heard tales of Master Dooku since he was a boy. The man was the stuff of legends. He was just, honorable, loyal—a true hero who epitomized what it meant for a Jedi to be a Knight of the Republic. Practically every child who dreamed of one day wielding a lightsaber knew who Master Dooku was.

  And yet, that very hero had turned his back on the Republic and the Jedi Order. He had gathered allies and formed his own faction, in the Outer Rim. A faction that was made up of a number of planets, systems, and sectors which had—based on Bail’s reading of his predecessor’s notes and doing some study of publicly and not so publicly available records of the Senate for the past few decades to give him an idea of what he was dealing with going in—been neglected by the Republic and preyed upon by pirates and left to fend for themselves for centuries at this point. In fact, many of those worlds, systems, and entire sectors had been represented by senators right here in this very room, who had defected since the secession—their seats and floating platforms now glaringly empty.

  What did that say about them, about the Republic, when one of their greatest heroes in living memory turned his back on them and seceded with a bunch of territories the Republic had failed? When anyone with sense could look at the good faith attempts made by every secessionist planet, at the voting records of the Senate, the constant delays, red tape, stonewalling, and outright denials for aid and see that every party involved had a list of unaddressed grievances stretching back centuries and every reason to pull out from the Republic?

  In this instance, the Republic appears to be firmly in the wrong. The Core has exploited the other sectors for entirely too long, and now the bill has come due. If the Confederacy want peaceful separation, then Alderaan should support them. Let’s just hope that the Republic reacts sensibly to this and chooses to keep the peace and allow them to part amicably.

  Of course, many of those worlds were producing food for the Core, in large volumes. Entire agri-worlds dedicated to feeding Coruscant and other ecumenopoli. With the cost of basic foodstuffs shooting through the roof thanks to the Trade Federation and their blockading and ‘tolls’ on several entire trade routes, the new Confederacy cutting us off may lead to starvation and mass death. If they don’t send a representative to make an offer to supply the Core with foodstuffs, then we should look to our own worlds to supply our needs—as, perhaps, the Core should have been doing all along. Perhaps Alderaan can help with that. We have a lot of open land not currently being used for anything. It could be a good source of revenue in the coming years—a nice little bump for our economy.

  Then, there was the other question…

  What did it say about the Jedi, when one of their own, one of the most respected among their number was the one doing it?

  The Jedi were the arbiters of the Republic’s justice across the galaxy. When there was a dispute between planets and they couldn’t resolve the issue within the Senate, it was the Jedi who stepped in.

  The problem, judging by the talk he could hear, was the same one that plagued most government institutions, positions, and people who had been around seemingly forever. The age old question of, ‘what have you done for me lately?’

  The Jedi didn’t boast about the work they did. The majority of it wasn’t flashy and when it did make the news, it was either as a footnote mentioning their involvement, or a few clips of one of them wielding a lightsaber. So of course, some members of the Senate were starting to question the need for the Jedi when not only did they fail to prevent the secession in the first place, but it was one of their own leading it.

  Bail could understand why the likes of Grandmaster Yoda would keep his silence on the issue, if the Jedi were either treating it as an internal matter, or not a problem the Jedi needed to involve themselves in yet. Except, by not openly standing against it, it appeared as though the Jedi were silently supporting the secession. There was also the belief that there were surely those within the Order who felt as Master Dooku did, that the Republic had failed everyone outside of the Core, and this was an attempt at damage control on the part of the Jedi Council in order to prevent a fracture along political lines.

  Some of the Senate were starting to float the idea that perhaps the entire secession was another matter of Jedi overreach. That they actually did support Dooku, either in whole or in large enough numbers that they were dragging their heels doing something to resolve it. That put the Jedi in the unenviable position of being wrong no matter what. Either they had failed to foresee the secession and stop it, or they supported it and weren’t going to stop it.

  The Jedi must be in dire straits, internally. I can’t imagine them allowing it to get this far, otherwise.

  A chime on his platform beeped and he blinked, looking down at the control panel. A video feed popped up, showing a pair of young women waiting at the door to his booth, one of them pressing the button to sound the chime again. Smiling, Bail tapped the control to bring his platform back in as he stood. It moved backwards and locked into place. The door opened, revealing the young future senator of Chandrila and the girl he believed to be the prime candidate to take over Naboo in a few years.

  “Padme, Mon. Welcome,” Bail smiled, waving them in and closing the door behind them. The pair of young women sat and he retook his seat, sending the platform back out to join the others.

  “Thank you for having us, Senator Organa,” the elder of the two sent him a seated bow and Bail chuckled, waving her off.

  “Please, I get enough formalities at home. Now, how have you two been?” He hadn’t seen Mon in a few months now, nor had he heard from Padme in the same period of time—and this was his first time meeting Padme in person. He knew they were both busy with their studies though, so he didn’t hold it against them. Padme was being mentored by Mina Bonteri and a glance towards where she usually sat confirmed that the Senator from Onderon was no longer with them.

  That explains the message I received from her, requesting I take over her duties mentoring Padme, he mused, a small sigh escaping him at the situation.

  As he watched, the pair of young women exchanged looks and Bail raised an eyebrow. “Is something the matter?”

  “There was… an incident, on Nar Shaddaa,” Mon hesitantly began.

  “Yes, I’ve heard something of it, but details are sparse. You were there?” he asked, curious. He knew that most planets used a Republic-approved means of educating their new generations of future politicians and that course included field trips, but allowing the pair to go into Hutt space seemed irresponsible to him. If he had a daughter their age, Bail would never allow it. He knew what went on there and being politically connected would make them more of a target, not less.

  Padme nodded. “We were.” She paused for a moment, visibly thinking it over, before quietly explaining. “Everything started off well enough. We met and spoke with several of the guests before I saw someone I recognized.”

  “Oh?” Bail prompted, and the girls both nodded.

  “A Jedi,” Mon supplied. “A freshly promoted knight. She was a bit… much.”

  Padme rolled her eyes. “Intense. And Tanya’s always like that. Anyway! We hung out with her for the rest of the evening.” Pausing, she considered for a moment before adding, “I think she was looking out for us.” The brunette smiled briefly, before sighing. “And a good thing she was! We almost died.”

  Blinking, Bail frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Mon answered, “Someone attacked the auction. We didn’t see much.” Around them, conversations went quiet as people glanced their way, watching and listening. “Someone dropped from the ceiling onto the stage. They had a red lightsaber.”

  “A Jedi, then?” Bail asked, and the girls shook their heads.

  “Tanya didn’t believe so. She said it was a Sith,” Padme explained.

  “Mm,” Mon nodded. “Whoever it was killed the announcer and the host. People started shooting, but the Sith just hit the blaster bolts with their lightsaber and started sending those all over. We almost got hit a few times as we evacuated. We fled the planet and had to leave the system because Hutt security didn’t like that we left, but…”

  Padme finished for her, “None of us wanted to stick around and deal with Hutt security. I don’t like to generalize, but Hutts generally aren’t pleasant individuals to begin with. We didn’t want to be on the wrong side of their law enforcement.”

  Bail nodded. “It sounds like your Jedi friend made the right call. That could have ended poorly.”

  A chime sounded and the overhead lights dimmed as the Supreme Chancellor’s platform moved into the middle of the area. The overhead light focused down on Chancellor Finis Valorum and the older human man stood. “I hereby call this meeting of the Senate to order—”

  A snap-hiss and thrum filled the room, drawing eyes up towards the ceiling, where a red bar of light stood out starkly beside the chamber light illuminating the Supreme Chancellor—before that bar of light slashed to the side and the spotlight went out in a bright flash of electrical discharge. The sudden flash left many temporarily blinded.

  Bail himself could only make out that bar of red light falling from the ceiling, arrowing towards one of the platforms. His eyes cleared enough to make out what happened next as a figure clad in dark robes landed and the lightsaber flashed out, striking the obese twi’lek form of Orn Free Taa and parting his head from his shoulders and his dangling lekku from his head in the same stroke.

  All of that, from the enemy appearing above to the sudden execution of one of their number, had happened in the span of seconds. It wasn’t that surprising then that it all happened too fast for the senate guard on duty to truly react in time to do anything about it. The first screams had already sounded before they even began moving, blue cloaked and armored forms moving to draw a bead on the interloper with their blaster rifles.

  A second lightsaber joined the first as, from across the way, a Jedi wielding a blue saber jumped onto a floating platform, before quickly moving to the next, and so on as they rushed for the intruder. The intruder turned as the new Jedi leapt at them, raising a hand. The Jedi froze midair like hitting a brick wall, before they were thrown across the room in a flash of lightning.

  The intruder nearly missed the second Jedi, descending from somewhere above and landing on the same platform. The man swung his lightsaber two-handed, locking green to red blades. They exchanged blows, dancing around the small platform and the corpse between them, lightsabers snapping and popping as they came into contact.

  An explosion rocked the Senate chamber and, in the corner of his eye, Bail saw one of the floating platforms go up in a ball of fire. More screams filled the chamber as another platform went up, followed by another, and another… The Jedi turned to look and that brief distraction was all it took to see his head removed from his neck and the intruder launching off the platform towards the exit and disappearing.

  Recognizing the danger, Bail shook off his shock and lunged forward, slamming a hand on the emergency return for his platform and sending it flying back to the entrance as others did likewise. He stood and rushed the two wide eyed girls out of the Senate chamber as more explosions sounded. Alarms wailed in the hallways as he hurried them away, towards an exit. Digging into his pocket for his communicator, he quickly called his driver.

  “Senator Organa? What’s going on? Emergency services—”

  “There’s been an attack! Bring the car around to the,” he paused, looking around and spotting a sign, “south exit! Hurry!”

  “I’ll be there momentarily, sir!”

  Bail pocketed the communicator as the three of them rushed through the hallway as more people spilled out into it from surrounding offices and joined them in running for the exits. To his surprise, neither Padme nor Mon panicked as both girls simply focused on running. Idly, the thought occurred that it shouldn’t be that surprising given that they had some recent experience with this.

  Shaking the errant thought off, Bail reached the doors first and held them open, waving the pair through before exiting himself. They made it out into the open and, a moment later, Bail’s driver swooped in and set the speeder down in front of them. Bail opened the door for the girls and ushered them inside, before climbing into the passenger seat.

  “Go, go, go!” he ordered, clicking his seatbelt into place.

  The driver didn’t have to be told twice as he floored it, acceleration slamming them back into their seats as the speeder took off into the traffic that was rapidly clearly out of the airspace around the Senate building. After a few moments of reckless driving, the speeder slowed to a more reasonable pace.

  That seemed to be all the cue the girls needed, as Mon nearly shrieked, “What was that?!”

  Bail took a deep breath before answering, “That was a terrorist attack. Or at least, I’ll bet that’s what they’re calling it on the news vids before the hour is up.”

  Looking to Padme, the redhead demanded, “Was that the same person?!”

  The brunette bit her lip, then nodded once. “I think so. It looked the same.”

  Bail closed his eyes for a moment, turning his mind back to the attack, and the attacker. He tried to fix their appearance in his mind, memorizing and analyzing every detail he could.

  The attacker had a basic humanoid body, that much was relatively certain. Two arms, two legs, one head. They were of average height—under two meters tall, a bit more than a meter and a half. They wore long, loose black robes that made it practically impossible to tell the person’s sex—assuming they belonged to a species with distinct sexes. Likewise, a smooth, round helmet covered their head under their hood, making identifying the race impossible, though it did at least allow them to remove some potential suspects. Theoretically, the shape of it could eliminate species like twi’lek or togruta, with things on their head that would make it difficult to fit into such a helmet, but that could just be part of the ruse.

  “You’re sure it was the same?” Bail asked, glancing over his shoulder at Padme.

  “I’m fairly confident,” the girl confirmed.

  Nodding, Bail asked, “Where are your security teams?”

  The girls winced and Mon said, “We didn’t think we needed them here on Coruscant. Not in the Senate chambers.”

  Bail let out a quiet sigh. “Alright. Driver, let’s get them safely back home first.”

  “Will do, sir,” the driver nodded, before reaching out and tapping the navigation controls on the console. A moment later, he peeled out of traffic and into a different lane.

  “What should we do?” Padme asked.

  Bail considered for a moment before giving his answer. “I doubt that whoever this attacker is was after any of us—at least, not specifically.” Not like Orn. That kill seemed targeted and personal. “The two of you aren’t members of the Senate and I only recently replaced my predecessor. You should be fine. Just to be on the safe side though, you should stay home for a day or two. Keep your security teams nearby. Make yourselves available to police if they come by to question you about the events that occurred and answer honestly.”

  The pair nodded at that. After a moment, Mon sank back into her seat and let out an explosive sigh. “Who does that? What could you possibly gain by attacking the Senate? New Senators will be appointed within the month to replace those who were killed.”

  Shaking his head slowly, Bail explained. “Yes, but in making the attack, in showing that it could be done successfully and that they could get away with it, the attacker has stuck a devastating blow to the very heart of the Republic. He, or she, has shown that we are not safe. Not here on Coruscant, where we thought that couldn’t happen and not in the Senate chambers, where we were protected by the best security in the galaxy. They will rightly call it a terror attack, because that is what it will succeed in doing. It will strike terror in the hearts of the Republic leadership and destroy morale. And that, right before…”

  Blinking, Bail frowned as he trailed off, leaving the thought unvoiced.

  Right as the Republic are preparing to decide what to do about the Separatists.

  It was an ugly thought. Insidious, in the way it crept in. That it was awfully convenient for the Separatists, that the Senate was struck a blow that would unman the majority of them.

  Or that’s what the true enemy wants. It could be a plot by the Trade Federation to stoke conflict between the Republic and the Confederacy, in the hope that it escalates into a full blown war. That would allow them to sit back, build up their forces, and pick off the winner after they’ve weakened themselves fighting the other side. False flag attacks are not unheard of.

  Once again, Bail found himself stuck in the position of needing more information before he could make a decision one way or the other.

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