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There had been a time when Dooku and Master Ranicisis had not gotten along. Master Ranicisis had thought young Padawan Dooku arrogant, and youngling Dooku even worse. Indeed, he had found Master Dooku and his quest for knowledge which was beyond that allowed to the Jedi as a sign of arrogance which could all too easily lead him to the Dark Side. But that was in the past, and Dooku had matured quite well in the past few years. "We will talk more later about a project Master Windu said you were working on. But for now I think I need to get on this."
Dooku nodded, and they connection ended.
For a few more moments Ranicisis sat in silent thought, before inputting the command to contact the Chancellor's office and telling the Nabooan native that Ranicisis was on his way over.
OOOOOOO
The Chancellor leaned back, staring into the distance thoughtfully, and for once the thoughtful expression on his face was not feigned. "You're talking about corruption on the greatest level here, or at least that is what you are hinting at. I will want to see a transcript of this Falleen Dorset's interrogation. I trust there was no actual torture involved? I realize I shouldn't have to ask, but it is part of a pro forma after all."
"Of course not, though I understand, of course, why you asked," Ranicisis said, nodding his head equably. "However, we must move on this quickly."
"Yes, we must…" Inside Sidious his mind was awhirl with the possibilities.
Plagueis was not yet on Coruscant, he had stopped over at Waypoint to drop off the cloning cylinders he had bought from the Kaminoans, as well as to check on a few of his projects. Sidious was rather irritated by that; he had hoped to finally do away with the old man, but Sidious knew Plagueis well enough to know that he'd remain there for a time simply tinkering around his precious projects. Yet this left Sidious alone to act on this information, which was all to the good in his mind. As it was, it left Sidious to handle this unexpected windfall.
For the next few hours he and Ranicisis worked together to put the forces, both Jedi and Republic inspectors, in place to watch the names and planets Dorset's interrogation had given them. They did not move on the senators he had named, however, because Palpatine had bluntly told Ranicisis there was no way they could indict them on the evidence they had. Both senators were respected by their peers and came from powerful Core World systems, and there had not been a hint of any wrong doing there.
However Palpatine decided that after all the other contacts had been used as much as possible to find other, as Ranicisis put it, threads, the Chancellor would let loose the information about the two senators to the rest of the Senate through a few back room cutouts. Once they knew someone had the information, the two would either batten down or flee. If they fled that would be enough of a sign of guilt to move against them directly. If they battened down or showed any sign of being prepared for it, then this would allow Palpatine the chance to see what senatorial aides, workers, or others were on their payrolls, and thus help him in cleaning house.
Elsewhere, this information would allow the Chancellor to force the recall of two Ord-system admirals and several Sector Governors. This in turn would allow him to put his own people in their places, thus making the Sith's position even stronger through the Jedi's own actions. He would even be able to do so without Plagueis knowing, which was all to the good.
This, Sidious thought as he leaned back in his chair as Ranicisis left hours later, this is the exaltation! The Jedi are so intent on doing good, so intent on serving the Republic. But every time they do, every time they move against something they perceive as a threat, I can turn it to my advantage so easily! This so a sign that the Force itself, not just the Dark Side but the Force as a whole is turning to me, creating opportunities like that. The Force in its entirety is on my side. My ascension is the future, and the Jedi have none!
Yet even as Sidious thought that, there were other things in motion that would not have pleased him at all if he could but know the long term ramifications...
After about three hours of work, Master Dooku decided that the cleanup here would take days, days which most of their forces could use to be returned home or to be of better use elsewhere. For one thing, thanks to the speed of their attack, the Falleen leading the defense hadn't been able to get out any kind of message. That meant among other things that the rogue privateer fleet didn't know their true employer had been eliminated.
To that end, the moment he was off the Holonet with Master Ranicisis, Dooku sent all three of the Serenno starfighters squadrons to join their fellows, the group of starfighters, system patrol boats, and retrofitted corvettes which had been slotted for the attack on the privateers. With that added firepower, the battle was pretty much certain to go in their favor there, and with the Chancellor himself running political interference, none of the Jedi would need to be on hand for that.
True to his word, Master Dooku also sent Quinlan to Coruscant immediately after the initial interrogation of Dorset was finished, but the other Jedi decided to travel with the Nabooans and the other slaves back to Naboo on the troop transports and other vessels they could commandeer. Here the Lucrehulk Padme had stripped of its weapons and sent along with them proved its worth, allowing the victorious Jedi to transport all of the slaves taken from Naboo and the others who had remained on the station.
This added a further two thousand people, mostly broken, emotionally and physically shattered wrecks, to the over ten thousand Nabooans.
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