The bugs were still pumping things into me.
Even if I was on a lot of painkillers, I was still a lot more susceptible to bright lights.
...
"Good morning, Doctor Godera," I greeted the reason why I had to be very careful not to reveal my face on this little mission. Oh, good, the purple splotches in my vision weren't leaving. Fine. I could cope. "Here for breakfast?"
"I was hoping we could plan how we're going to keep some dangerous superweapons out of imperial hands, Sith," he grunted, taking a seat at the far end of the counter, as far from the other Sith as he could manage.
"We aren't going to be making good decisions on an empty stomach, Doctor Godera," the Jedi Knight said, perfectly at ease. "And from my understanding of things, those superweapons are not likely to be a threat any time soon. Darth Angral is another matter."
"The other way around, I think," I commented. "Darth Angral's danger is tied to the Oppressor. Since the Empire cannot openly support him without harming the narrative they are trying to spin, he lacks easy access to all the support and logistics that allow it to operate smoothly. He needs to take it slowly and use it carefully. Those superweapons, on the other hand, can be stolen and used on any number of worlds."
"Only if his people find them," the Knight pointed out. "And Angral is running out of trusted subordinates and potential leads."
"Your thoughts, Doctor Godera?" I asked.
"All information on the Republic Superweapon Initiative is classified as Top Secret," he said, filling a mug with coffee from a second pot. Wait, a second pot? Looking over my shoulder, I noticed the almost full pot from the coffee machine had been replaced with an empty one, and the look on the Little Jedi's face had become quite smug.
Damn it, I needed that coffee more than the old man did!
"Thank you, Doctor Godera," I said, forcing a note of politeness into my tone. "So we can agree that Darth Angral is a threat, but not on how important of a threat compared to his subordinates, correct?"
"Obviously," the doctor said.
"And we know where his subordinates are likely to strike, yes?"
"Where are you going with this?"
"And though we can narrow down where Darth Angral is, do we have the resources to take him on?"
"Oh, this again," the Little Jedi said. "The part where he makes his ideas appear sane and reasonable."
"He did that to you, too?" Natia asked.
"If it works, it works," I said lightly, turning to the Jedi Knight. Since he was leading the Republic effort, he was the one to convince. Well, his allies, too; It would hardly do to introduce strife in a cooperative venture, after all. "Feel free to argue, Master Jedi. I do appreciate being challenged."
"… no, you're right. We don't have the strength to fight Angral, not head-on," he admitted, looking at the syrup covering his pancake. "But that just means we need to find the strength. Have there been any donations to our cause since we made our announcement?"
"Not enough," Loa said.
"Is that a definitive answer or just a guess?" Bybon asked.
"Darth Angral has a Harrower, we have a frigate-sized freighter," Natia pointed out.
"I prefer 'carrier in need of resupply,' personally," I commented, setting up a third pot of coffee. Surely, this one would be mine. Surely.
"A Harrower carries nearly a hundred fighters at full capacity," she reminded me. "More than that if they replace the shuttles with more fighters. We're carrying the Jedi's corvette. Even if we replace it with fighters of our own, there's enough room for twenty fighters. Thirty if we get creative."
"We would need millions of credits," the Jedi Knight's padawan said. "Just for one squadron. Which would still not be enough to match what Angral has."
"Then we need to get allies," the Knight concluded. "Allies with ships."
"What about the private sector?" I asked. "The mega-corporations and shipping conglomerates have bulk haulers and escorts by the hundreds."
"And you plan on getting them to lend us a fleet?" the Little Jedi asked.
"It's a goal to work towards," I said. "If we prove ourselves by taking down another of his apprentices, we might be able to convince at least one of the mega-corporations that we can win, but only with their support."
"That's a lot of risk for not a lot of return," she pointed out. "Asking them to give us a fleet in exchange for a marketing win."
"Who else has a fleet we can use?" I asked. "That isn't the Republic or the Empire. I don't want to deal with the fallout of hopping the border with enemy warships."
"Independent worlds," she answered almost immediately. "But… convincing them to side with us will take time."
"Time which will slow down our momentum and reduce the flow of credits from wealthy donors," the Knight concluded.
"… what if we didn't need to convince them?" I asked, and the room grew very quiet at that, save for the sizzling of pans and the burbling of a coffee machine.
"Somehow, I don't think conquering worlds will be sanctioned by the Republic," the Little Jedi eventually managed to say.
"Why not?" I asked. "They've allowed feudal monarchies to become leading members. That's hardly in line with the values of the Republic. Why not a bit of warlording in the name of galactic peace?"
"That doesn't count," the Jedi Padawan interjected. "Alderaan left the Republic nearly a decade ago."
"So you're saying there is a neutral world used to following a single leader with, I presume, a military force of its own?" I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral.
"Wait. What? No. No! Don't put words in my mouth."
"Loa, didn't one of Darth Angral's apprentices go to Alderaan to recover one of the super weapons?" Natia asked, a very eager grin on her face.
"True," she said.
"Lord Nestor, we are not becoming warlords, greater good or no," the Jedi Knight said, tone brooking no compromise. Almost immediately, the tension in the room became palpable, everyone sitting just a little bit straighter. Hands began to drift slowly toward weapons, and I knew something had to be done.
"Would it be more acceptable to head to Alderaan to just hunt down Darth Angral's apprentice?" I asked the Jedi half of the room.
"Yes. Yes, it… would," the Jedi Knight began to speak, only for his eyes to widen as the coin dropped. In the face of madness, the more reasonable option will usually prevail. He shot a glance over to the Little Jedi. "It really does happen that quickly, huh?"
The Little Jedi just nodded.
"Sounds like we've got a plan," I said with a grin. "How are things on Alderaan these days, anyhow? Anything that would make things easier?"
"Proxy war," the Little Jedi revealed.
Yeah, that tracked.
...
It had taken me all of 20 minutes of scanning the news to realize just how deep in it Alderaan was. A civil war was bad enough. A three-way civil war was worse. On one side you had House Organa, devout believers of the Republic, championing the rights of House Panteer as rightful kings of all of Alderaan. On the other side, you had House Thul, deeply grateful to the Empire that had granted them succor, championing the rights of… a different member of House Panteer. That's right, two puppets were fighting a war to put puppets of their own on a planetary throne.
And then there was the third party that had started the whole mess. Bouris Ulgo and the ducal House Ulgo, who had arranged the murders of Queen Panteer and her heir Gaul Panteer and usurped the throne. A man who was a devout believer in the Republic and avowed enemy of the Empire. He wanted to keep his throne, throw out the imperial puppet, and presumably rejoin the Republic.
Yeah, this was going to be a mess.
"So… who all is going down to Alderaan?" I asked our little coalition. We had all gathered in the surprisingly spacious cockpit to plan out our next move. Really, calling it a cockpit was an understatement. It was more like an aquarium lounge, except that the wall-sized aquarium had been replaced with a field of stars and a slowly rotating orb of green, blue, and white, while the rest of the room had been given over workstations and holographic displays.
Needless to say, I rather liked it. The planet even looked a little bit like Earth, but thankfully it differed enough to keep it out of the uncanny valley of a poor imitation.
"I was thinking all of us," the Jedi Knight's red-headed Padawan answered. She kept to the edge of our little group, away from the central projector currently displaying a map of the planet and at a smaller workstation. "You know, to cover more ground?"
"So you kept me out of Imperial hands only to dangle me in a system where we know there are people who would very much want to interrogate me?" Doctor Godera asked from the other side of the Jedi Knight. "In the middle of territory held by an imperial puppet state? No. Out of the question!"
"Personally, I was hoping to convince you to stay aboard the ship and scan for the Death Mark satellite," the Jedi Knight offered. "That way, even if Lord Nefarid manages to evade us, we can deny him his objective."
"You would destroy the Death Mark? Do you have any idea how many billions of credits were spent on that installation?"
Probably enough to help revitalize the Republic economy, but I was not so rude as to say that much out loud. No doubt the ten years of continuous decline in Gross Domestic Product were a sore subject to ordinary people in the Republic.
That, and the Little Jedi gave me a warning glare.
No trust here. None at all!
...
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