Chapter 41: Chapter 41

A Young Girl’s War Between the Stars

Hyperspace, 39 BBY/961 GSC. In transit to Naboo.

“Where did that droid come from?”

I didn’t bother looking up at the question as Revan’s engram looked over my shoulder at the mostly disassembled droid on my workbench. Moving the magnifying glass I was using slightly, I made another solder to connect a replacement wire before answering. “The Battle of Serenno. This one stood out, so I brought it back. A few others were also captured, mostly in pieces, and once things settled down and Serenno was able to start going over things in detail, they discovered that these were leading the other droids. They’re a T-series tactical droid, made by Baktoid Combat Automata—owned by the Techno Union, which is—”

“Working with the Trade Federation,” the Gatekeeper surmised, and I nodded.

“Correct. They’ve already copied the memory core from this one, so I’m going to make some modifications. They’ve already wiped its memory, but they left the base programming for a standard T-series intact. That should enable it to learn from whatever data you feed it, be it live combat data or records of past battles. They’re not restricted to just one type of tactical situation, either—such as naval tactics, squad tactics, or grand army tactics. Theoretically, given enough data—both sample data and information on whatever situation you’re asking about—one of these should be able to plan for just about any situation.”

“I see. So you’re going to use it as a personal advisor?”

I smiled. “Something like that. More like, I’m going to strip out literally every superfluous part, system, and bit of code in this thing. Then, I’m going to give it a holonet connection, a projector, and audio/visual sensors so it can see and hear and interpret questions and commands. I’m going to turn it into a stationary unit, programmed to scrape the holonet for records of every battle fought in the last ten thousand years—from ground warfare, to space combat, politics, finance, espionage, digital warfare, and so on—compile the data, and then have it start analyzing the Trade Federation situation to see if it can predict their next moves and try to piece together who’s working with them behind the scenes.”

“Seems like a waste of time when Republic Intelligence and SIO are likely doing the same thing,” the engram pointed out.

“Possibly,” I agreed. “On the other hand, it serves three other purposes, aside from preparing for the war by gathering intelligence and predicting what may happen next.”

Revan’s engram raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Go on, then.”

I began ticking off points on my fingers. “First, it’s as you said. When it’s finished, I’ll have a system that can provide strategic advice based on a breadth of knowledge that it would take me decades of dedicated study to learn on my own.” The projection nodded and I ticked off another finger. “Secondly, it’s good practice. I’m eventually going to want to either build my own personal droid or customize one I buy. Arthree was a good start, but I’ll take all the hands on experience I can get. I’ve already got some ideas for a few different things.”

“A good droid you can count on to handle problems you can’t deal with yourself, and which may be too risky to send someone living, is invaluable. I’ve got some experience building droids myself.”

“Yes, you’ve told me about the war crime bot you made,” I chuckled. “I was planning to ask for your help with the programming when I started working on something similar.”

“And the third reason?”

Turning back to my project, I answered, “Finance. Trade. Specifically, stocks. Once it’s had time to chew on the data, I’m going to turn it loose on the stock market with the goal of making as much money off of this war as possible, and being as large of a thorn in the side of the Trade Federation as it can be. With the money Master Dyas borrowed from the Temple and put into the market following my directions, we managed to amass quite a sum. However, those were the efforts of two humans.” I considered amending that for a moment, before deciding against it.

“A machine dedicated to running hundreds or thousands of trades a day? To receiving data and reacting to market fluctuations before a biological could? It will out-compete everything but the people using their own dedicated droids to do the same. Of course, in order to do so, I’ll need to put it somewhere with a connection with as little latency as possible—which means it needs to be where all those trades are taking place. Where it can also observe and summarize every move the Senate makes and shoot off a summary and its prediction for their intentions. Also, where it can access as much historical data as possible, including the data that might have been edited for public consumption. Preferably somewhere safe…”

Revan’s engram laughed. “You’re going to put it in the Jedi Temple, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “I’m going to stick it in a dummy server case and sneak it into the secret archive, then give it access to those servers and the ones for the main library. I’ll set up an account, drop some money in, then turn it loose and see what it does.”

Humming, the engram asked, “Aren’t you worried it might commit fraud?”

“Yes. I’m worried it might not commit enough fraud. I’m going to make sure it knows every current fraud technique and teach it a few more from my first life.” Pausing as I considered it, I murmured, “I wonder if certain scams would do better or worse with an entire galaxy of planets to choose from, all of which have varying levels of holonet connectivity… It would obviously need to sound appealing to someone from the Trade Federation, perhaps even tailored to each individual, but every little bit would help.”

“You know, eventually someone is going to track the source of the transactions to the Temple.”

Grinning, I nodded. “That’s the best part. Because obviously if those transactions appear to be coming from the temple’s network connection, then someone has either done something wrong in tracing where they’re from, or the perpetrator of the crime is just taunting the police now, because everyone knows the Jedi Order is a non-profit organization of monks who eschew wealth and material possessions. The Order being tied into the Republic as they are, are effectively a police force themselves—so I imagine any investigation will be handled internally. And if it’s anything like the allegations of corruption were handled, I imagine they will investigate themselves and find themselves innocent of any wrongdoing. And while we know that the organization is rife with corruption, incompetence, and ineptitude, the outside world does not. The Jedi Order still holds enough political power that making any noise about this would be political suicide.”

“As reliable as it is, you probably shouldn’t rely entirely on government incompetence and corruption for security.”

“Of course not,” I agreed. “That’s why I’ll be including a packet of thermite on a dead man’s switch in the event that it’s discovered.”

“I’m not familiar with the term.”

“It’s a mixture of finely ground aluminum and iron oxide. Simple to find ingredients, incredibly easy to make, one hundred percent stable and non-reactive. We used it several times in the war for sabotage. When ignited, the aluminum burns and melts the iron, which then destroys most things. A simple plasma igniter should be enough to start the reaction. It can’t be put out by water or most conventional means of fire suppression unless they’re expressly made to handle metal fires—you have to smother it. Placed in the top of the false case, it will melt through everything below it when it goes off, including any data drives. The only thing they’ll recover is metal scrap.”

Picking up my multimeter, I tested the new connections I had made and nodded at the results. Changing the subject, I asked, “I recall a conversation we had. You said that whoever approached Master Dooku looking to help with the Serenno situation was likely the one responsible for it, and possibly something more.”

“Yes. Did something happen?”

“I asked about the timing and the events immediately after we wrapped things up on Serenno and returned to the temple. Someone did reach out to Master Dooku, offering to help. We’re going to visit them now,” I supplied, moving on to test another connection.

Revan’s projection hummed quietly, reaching up and stroking his chin as he began to pace back and forth beside me. After a few moments of thought, he finally said, “Be very careful. Keep your eyes and your senses open, but let nothing slip. You’ve already established a habit of keeping your reactions hidden, so hopefully that will throw off any suspicions. It may not be our Sith, but this person might be working for them. If it is… Sith are notoriously paranoid and most of those that I’ve encountered, in life and after, had honed their senses and skills at detecting use of the Force such that they would know if you tried to use any sort of active sensory abilities near them.”

“Mm. No active probing then. If I learn something, I’ll keep it to myself until we leave,” I agreed. “I should also probably hold off on using formulas, just in case.”

“You’ll want to sweep the ship for bugs after, as well. Sith love to leave presents like that, to keep tabs on those they’re dealing with.”

Frowning, I considered my options there. “I’ll have to pick up something to do that.”

Nodding, Revan’s echo leaned against the bulkhead beside the table and grinned, crossing his arms over his chest. “So… how long are you going to try to pretend it’s not there?”

I felt my eye twitch and cast my senses briefly back towards my bed, where I felt the creature curled up there perk up in interest, before going back to ignoring it. “If I don’t acknowledge it, it’ll get bored. I don’t know how it got back on the ship considering I let it off miles away from the capital, but I’m hoping it’ll slip off the ship and get lost when we get to Naboo.”

“That’s not how cats work, you know? The more you ignore it, the more it’s going to want to stick around. Besides, you’ve already fed it. The contract is sealed. It’s going to stick around.”

Sighing, I grumbled, “What was I supposed to do? Let it starve? I’m not a monster.”

“You should at least name it.”

“If I name it, that means it’s not just a stowaway that wandered on board and will leave when it gets bored. No, I’d rather not,” I denied, shaking my head.

A smirk pulled at the man’s lips as he asked, “And why is that, I wonder? Because you don’t want a pet, or because you don’t want to get attached and then lose it?”

“…I will shove you out an airlock.”

“I wonder what Obi-Wan would say…”

“If you tell her, I will throw you out an airlock into a black hole.”

Naboo, 39 BBY/961 GSC. Theed, capital of Naboo.

I whistled softly at the vista spread out before me as I brought the Rusted Silver in for landing. The city of Theed was large, sprawling even, but from the air it didn’t have that look that most cities I’d seen had—the industrial, modernist or post-modern, bare metal, glass, and concrete look that made so many places like Coruscant just look ugly from a pure aesthetics standpoint.

The buildings were mostly all light brown stone, with copper rooves that had turned green with age. Domed rooves and round structures were the majority, and many of the buildings seemed to be built more tall than wide. I could make out the streets below, but only just—because more often than not what I saw were the tops of the trees lining those streets. More than one glistening path marked the various waterways winding through the city as well, most of which led back to one of a series of lakes around the city.

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It was like the city planners hadn’t just worked like mindless insects, trying to maximize use of space and adhere to strict grid lines, and had instead worked over the course of who knows how many generations to create a work of art for their citizens to live in and visitors to admire. I had to admit, they had succeeded at that.

Opening my senses up just a bit, I blinked at what I felt and slowly relaxed my grip on my mental walls the rest of the way. The majority of what I felt was contentment. People were, on the whole, happy. Satisfied. And while yes, there were a few dark spots here and there, they were mostly drowned out by the emotional background noise of everyone around them. It felt peaceful—relaxing, even. Like being in a room full of people all having friendly, relaxed conversations.

It’s… practically the opposite of Coruscant, I mused. I put my mental shields back up while keeping a metaphorical ear on the nearby background noise as had become my habit. As nice as it was, I didn’t have the luxury of allowing myself to relax and enjoy it, and potentially lull me into complacency and a false sense of security. We were here on a mission, and as safe as this place felt, there was still potential danger and we were heading right into it if my suspicions were correct.

I passed over the city following the path their ground control had given me and saw that the city stopped at a cliff edge, with multiple waterfalls spilling off of it. And on the other side of the cliff, at the bottom, was the space port—and even that was artistically done. Well, what could be, anyway. There wasn’t much you could do to make long strips of tarmac for running landing and takeoffs look like anything but what they were.

I eased the Rusted Silver down following visual instructions from a ground crew member waving red and green light bars in his hands and, as soon as he signaled the all clear, I powered down and shut off the engine. Standing, I stretched and popped my back, before pushing my chair back and making my way to my locker.

I stripped out of my vac suit and took a quick run through the fresher, then looked through my small collection of clothes. Finding a nice, light cream colored set of robes and a dark brown body stocking, I pulled those and my chest armor on, followed by a new belt Jenza had gotten me made of Serenno silver. I finished it up with a set of light, thin dress style boots the older woman had suggested for those times when I needed to look a bit more presentable rather than ready to walk my way through blaster fire. Since social events were a fairly frequent thing both on Serenno and in the sorts of places I’d be accompanying Master Dooku, I had gone along with it—with my only caveat being that it was something that wouldn’t impede my movement.

Moving to the armor and weapons locker, I pulled out a concealed holster and slipped my A-180 into it, and that into the fold of my robe and under my belt to hold it in place. One of my lightsabers went on one side of the belt and my staff on the other. Checking the mirror, I made a few adjustments to the braid holding everything in place in the back and retied the end of the padawan braid dangling just in front of my right ear.

Arthree beeped nearby and I nodded. “I’m coming.”

I locked everything up and stepped out of the ship, Arthree following behind me. Making sure the ship was sealed, I turned and we started for Master Dooku’s nearby ship—

I spun back around at the twist in the Force I felt behind me. I had just a second to spot a fluffy white shape before it sped off under the ship and away. Narrowing my eyes, I frowned and considered the disappearing animal before eventually shaking my head and starting off across the tarmac again.

It has some way of getting on and off of the ship whenever it feels like. That felt like a Force technique.

After a moment of deliberation, I decided that the cat could stay—if only because it sticking around would mean I would probably get more opportunities to observe whatever it was doing and possibly recreate it myself. Either it had phased through solid matter, or it had teleported, and either of those would be something worth adding to my repertoire.

Pushing those thoughts from my mind, I reached out and found Master Dooku was still in his ship, getting ready. I moved into the shade cast by the ship and waited, taking my tablet from Arthree’s storage to read a bit in the meantime. I picked up where I had been studying droid engineering. It was honestly somewhat dull material, but I powered through because I needed to know this stuff if I ever wanted to build my own droid, or modify one beyond the basics or tutorials I found on what amounted to holotube, or spacetube.

It was only a few minutes later that I felt Master Dooku approaching. The hatch to his ship opened and he stepped out, straightening his cape as he did. I slipped my tablet back into Arthree’s storage space and fell in beside him as we started off across the tarmac towards the terminal a short distance away.

As we walked, Master Dooku spoke. “The senator has provided a driver and transportation to his home here in Theed.”

“Is our itinerary unchanged?” I asked, already dreading the long list of things planned for this trip.

Master Dooku chuckled quietly. “Unfortunately, yes. I am afraid we will be very busy.”

“Playing politics,” I muttered, and the older man nodded, a smile pulling at his lips.

“Just so,” he agreed. “You should enjoy at least a few of the tasks I’ve given you.”

I perked up a bit at the thought. “True.”

The prospect of a little breaking and entering, espionage, and perhaps even an assassination or two would at least make sure that the next fortnight wasn’t entirely boring. I was to play the part of the bored young Jedi Padawan, who would prefer being outside to staying indoors doing all of the boring political stuff. That would give me plenty of time to get into places I shouldn’t.

More importantly, the Trade Federation thought we didn’t know, but Senator Palpatine had passed along word to Master Dooku that they were planning to send a negotiation team to Naboo to intercept Master Dooku and press him on working out a trade deal for sacanium now that they believed Serenno had been softened up by having our trade cut off for a year and the ‘pirate’ attacks. With him here on Naboo, separated from his power base in Serenno and far from backup outside of his one young apprentice, if he didn’t accede to their demands then now would be the perfect time to try to eliminate an opponent to their plans.

So, while Master Dooku was occupied, I would be slipping away to see what assets the Trade Federation had on site and do what I could to remove those from play if they made a move. Then, once their delegation arrived, I would be gathering intelligence on their plans, assets, and troop strength. If the worst came to pass and they decided to attack, I would be making a preemptive decapitation strike and removing whoever was in charge—preferably captured alive so we could interrogate them, but that I was allowed to make that decapitation strike quite literal if I decided it was necessary.

“But the social gatherings…”

“Oh yes. That too is part of politicking,” I could hear the amusement in his voice. “I know your disdain for them, but I am sorry to say that it’s simply something you are going to have to accept and endure. Even ‘normal’ Jedi occasionally have to attend such functions in the course of their duties.”

Up ahead, a human man standing in front of a blue speeder waved and we adjusted course to meet him. “Count Dooku and Ms. Mereel?” he asked, as we approached. Anticipation wafted off of the man, along with anxiety. He was nervous for some reason—and not in the usual way of someone meeting some foreign dignitary, or worried about doing their job right.

“We are,” Dooku nodded.

“I’m your driver,” he grinned and opened the door to the car for us.

There was a thrill of danger in the Force and Master Dooku and I froze at the same time. He glanced down at me at the same time I looked up at him, then shifted my eyes to the car and back. He nodded minutely.

I reached out and grabbed the man, holding him in place with the Force, at the same time Master Dooku grabbed the car itself and flung it across the tarmac. It spun through the air, repulsorlift trying and failing to compensate, before landing with a crunch of bending metal some distance away. Fear poured off the man and I saw his jaw flex. Grabbing it, I squeezed and forced his mouth open as I shoved him down to the ground. Reaching in with the Force as he flailed, I found a very small point of danger within the Force and pulled. A false tooth came out, cracked but not broken yet. A bit of pressure opened it up the rest of the way and revealed a gel capsule of some sort that registered as incredibly dangerous to my senses. A quick sweep with a poison detection formula confirmed my suspicions.

“Now, what would have you so scared that you would rather kill yourself than be questioned?” I murmured.

Master Dooku crossed his arms over his chest, glaring down at the man. Waving his fingers in a minute gesture, I felt him press with the Force as he asked, “Who do you serve?”

The man went glassy-eyed as he answered, “Senator Palpatine. But I was contacted by someone from the Trade Federation. I was given a package and told to put it in the car, then make sure you got in—” Newest update provıded by NovєlFіre.net

An explosion erupted from the direction of the nearby overturned car on the tarmac. Arthree wailed in alarm as sirens sounded across the space port and I felt fear as people nearby panicked. A voice came over a public address system, ordering a calm and orderly evacuation off of the landing area.

Why blow it— Diversion!

I felt another flare of danger approaching and reacted purely off of reflex, reaching out and stopping the glowing red blaster bolt in the air a foot or so away from our captive’s head. I had a formula spun up and calculating the trajectory as I grabbed the man and moved, following Master Dooku as we hurried to find cover, the droid following closely on our heels.

“Padawan?” Dooku asked as we ducked behind a ship.

“Got him!” I pointed. “Take him out, or…?”

The old man’s smile was a bit devious as he spoke. “Oh no. That would be quite wasteful. Our enemies have given us a lovely gift. We should use it to our advantage. I believe a change of plans is in order, however. Follow them home. Don’t let yourself be seen. Learn what you can, then remove the threat. If you find any actionable intelligence, feel free to pursue it as far as you can.”

My own smile in answer felt like it was from ear to ear. “I’ll call if I find anything.”

With that, I slipped away, moving out of sight of the driver and throwing on an optical camouflage formula. From there, I blasted off of the tarmac, flying up towards the top of the cliffs, following the blaster bolt’s trajectory back towards the nest the sniper had used. A detection formula found one human fleeing the scene and I landed nearby, breaking into a run as they cleared the forested area and climbed into a truck. Behind us, I heard what sounded like a small explosion from the direction of the sniper’s nest—most likely the blaster itself.

Before it could get up to speed, I jumped up and caught a hand grip on the back meant to help one getting into the storage area. A little acrobatic flip put me silently on top of the truck and I flattened myself out, moving up to the front and getting a good handhold as the truck slid into traffic and drove away, moving with the flow of traffic despite the slowly ebbing panic I could feel from the cab.

As I rode the truck through traffic, I replayed everything again in my mind, reviewing the entire thing from beginning to end. As I did, I came to a few conclusions.

The driver didn’t know about the backup. He’s relatively innocent in all of this. The sniper knew where we were landing and knew where to set up to have an optimal shot on us all the way across the tarmac, but he didn’t fire until we started interrogating the driver. Then, we he decided to shoot, it was only after blowing the car as a distraction, and at the driver specifically—not either Master Dooku or myself, which could indicate knowledge that most Jedi can sense danger and deflect blaster bolts.

He took one shot, then ditched his rifle, set it to overload, and fled immediately when he saw the shot failed. He had an exit strategy. Wore clothes that would blend in with a crowd. The vehicle also blends in well, and he’s doing everything he can to fade into the background and not draw attention.

It all pointed towards whoever the sniper was being a professional—potentially a hired assassin. I would learn that when we got somewhere I could ask some very pointed questions. Until then, I observed our route and our surroundings, and commit everything to memory.

Unfortunately, I also had plenty of time to think as we passed through the city. As I did, an unsettling feeling of familiarity settled in my gut. The entire situation felt familiar. From the well-planned execution, even if it failed due to Jedi presence, to the attempted suicide of the one committing the crime.

We never did manage to track down exactly who was behind the information blackout and deletion about Serenno on Coruscant. The police dropped it once the investigation led anywhere near the senate, but we suspected they had ties to the Trade Federation. This is… very similar in execution. I don’t like it.

I mulled that over until the truck slowed and pulled to a stop in a large parking lot full of them. The driver got out and walked away calmly, stuffing his hands in his pockets and putting on the look of a man who was very busy and needed to be somewhere else very quickly. I slipped down from the truck and followed as he walked the short distance to a nearby public transit facility, paid, and stepped onto a waiting train.

I hopped the turnstile and followed, moving into a restroom and dropping my optical camo—there was too much of a risk of bumping into someone or being sat on and that would only draw more attention. Instead, I cast an illusion over myself, changing the way my hair, skin, and clothes looked. A moment later, I found myself looking at a very familiar face in the mirror as Tanya von Degurechaff smiled back at me—though she looked a bit out of place wearing the sorts of clothes I had seen Nabooian children in the street wearing as we passed.

Putting on my most bored and childish expression, I slipped out of the restroom and moved to take a seat some distance away from the sniper and on the same side as him as the train doors closed and it began to pick up speed. We flew across the city to the west side and for a few moments I wondered why he had even bothered, before I caught him checking out the other passengers, studying faces.

Oh. He’s making sure he isn’t being followed. Well, I guess I’ll be using more illusions.

The train eventually stopped and I got off as the man remained in his seat. Moving out of sight, I used an illusion to make myself look like Weiss before making my way back onto the train and taking a seat up from the man as more people filed in and he studied more faces.

To my frustration, we spent three solid hours riding the train back and forth as he just sat there, watching and waiting as I cycled through nearly the entire 203rd before he finally gave it up and decided to leave. I was wearing Grantz’s face when we stepped off the train this time. Letting him get a bit ahead, I slipped down an alley, changed my illusion to Visha, and stepped back out.

Finally, he made his way into a small hotel on the far side of town from the space port. I made my way inside like I belonged there after watching and waiting for him to enter an elevator. Taking the stairs, I ignored them and flew straight up the open center, tracking the man’s presence in the Force through the walls. I stopped at his floor and waited until I felt him relax fully—or as close to fully as he likely could, given the anxiety I could still feel.

Slipping out of the stairwell, I floated down the hall and came to a stop outside his door. Leaning against the wall beside it, I closed my eyes and focused my senses, then cast a formula to carry sound from inside the room to me. A moment later, I heard a holo call ring and someone picking up.

“Is it done?” a woman’s voice asked, her tone expectant and a bit annoyed.

“Negative. The Jedi detected the trap somehow. They have the driver and are questioning him now.”

“…You were supposed to take care of the driver!” the anger was obvious in the woman’s tone. “Senator Gunray isn’t going to . Your payment will be withdrawn and—”

“Did you know they could stop Force damned blaster bolts with their minds?” the man hissed, some of his anger and fear leaking through. “Because I didn’t! And that was the small one! I don’t want to know what an old Master like Dooku can do. So no. Unless the Senator wants me to pay him a visit to dispute this claim in person, or unless he would like me to just go visit the Jedi and tell them who it was that paid for my services, you are going to get me my money.”

There was a pause, before the woman finally sighed. “Half. Because no, we didn’t know that was even possible. But you are dismissed and your services will no longer be required.”

“Fine.” The tone signaling the call had disconnected sounded and the man grunted, “Bitch.”

Reaching out with the Force, I felt around and grabbed the physical locking mechanism on the door, before turning it to the open position. The man looked up as I entered the room, closing the door and leaning against it as he drew his pistol.

I let Visha’s image drop and smiled as I pulled my lightsaber, flicking it on and filling the room with a white-silver glow, and the ominous hum of an active blade. He paled, trying and failing to squeeze the trigger as I gripped his hand in the Force and held it very still.

“Good help is hard to find, but I’ve found that finding a good employer is just as difficult.” Moving closer, I leveled the blade at his head. “Now, we can do this the easy way…” I lowered the tip to point at his crotch. “Or the fun way~. Which one is entirely up to you…”

By the time I left his corpse cooling on the bed as I took flight from his balcony, his brains cooked and blasted across the wall from his own blaster, I had enough information to go on to start hunting down his contact on Naboo—the woman acting as liaison to Senator Nute Gunray.

And just our luck, the ‘good’ senator is coming to visit in person! I want to see his face when he realizes we’ve turned the trap he set for us back on him.