"The kidnapper was on the call! If I hung up or stopped to talk, he would have killed Yash."
"...In your absence, an assassin has attacked the Palace."
...
The stomach seemed to fall from Sturn's body. Real horror raised the hairs on the back of his neck. "Oh, Force spare us! Is Tan'ya okay?! Is everyone safe?"
"All of them have been injured." Dooku replied. "Though Tan'ya was barely able to slay the assassin with the help of the House Guard."
Relief washed over Sturn, and he looked up with thoughts of thanks for the Force. "Dooku, I'm so sorry-"
"You abandoned your post." Dooku interrupted.
"I know, but-"
"My entire family is on the verge of death because of you." Dooku's voice was level, but he sounded like if he was standing in front of Sturn they would already be fighting to the death.
Sturn swallowed, looking down at the floor. Finally, he answered. "What else was I supposed to do?" He asked.
"You abandoned your duty!" Dooku thundered.
"I did… But you know as well as I do, Count, that a man's first duty is to his family before anything else." Sturn said, in a quiet voice. "If it was your child in danger, you would have dropped anything to save them as well."
Dooku drew in breath, ready to shout, but stopped himself. His expression changed, going from anger, to reluctant agreement, before finally settling on carefully schooled neutrality. "Is your grandson safe?"
"Yes. He's here with me."
"...Good."
With that, Dooku hung up.
Four hours later, while Yash was sleeping and Sturn was nervously pacing, he received a call from his son again.
"Father, I just thought you should know that CorSec just got an extradition request for you. The Government of Serenno is demanding you return there to face a tribunal. You've been charged with dereliction of duty."
"...Do you know the potential sentence?" Sturn asked after a moment.
"No, but in most places a charge like that would be punishable by death. I can speak with CorSec, we can deny this request."
Putting his head in his hands, Sturn hesitated to answer.
"Dad?"
"Just… let me think about it, son."
"What's there to think about?" He demanded incredulously. "You can't seriously be thinking of going back to that kriffing mudhole! Not when they want to kill you!"
Staring at his feet, Sturn thought of Athemeene, injured and near death, and his stomach churned with guilt. They had been looking to him for protection. Whatever his reasons, even little Madalee had been hurt because of him.
"Dad!"
"A man's first duty is to family, son." Sturn finally answered. "But… there are other things worth dying for as well." He hung up, and went back to check on Yash. He lingered in the doorway, watching the young boy's chest rise and fall, before returning to the bridge.
Opening up the navicomputer, he changed his destination from Corellia to Serenno, and the computer popped up with a window.
Are you sure? It asked him.
He hesitated for just a second, before punching yes.
...
29 BBY
When Silas arrived at Serenno, he gasped at the feeling of the Force that surrounded the planet. He felt his grandson instinctively press closer into his side out of fear, and he put a hand on the boy's head. It was like the planet was suddenly soaked in a cold mist, the usual warmth and life of the Force made quiet with a sinister chill.
Dooku had said that an assassin had attacked, but he failed to mention that it was a powerful darksider. A very powerful one, if they could disrupt the entirety of the nearby Force. He'd never been to a hub of the Dark Side before, but he had visited Coruscant, and the sensation reminded him of that, though less stale. How the Coruscant Jedi could stand it, he didn't know.
The ship's ramp lowered, and waiting for him on the tarmac was a team of House Guards. Jedi Knight Asajj stood behind them, not there to make the arrest herself, but clearly to lend support if it was needed.
"Jedi Master Sturn, we're here to place you under arrest for dereliction of duty." The leader said, and Sturn recognised the voice of Colonel Gon Seith, though he was wearing a helmet.
"Of course, I surrender." He stepped away from Yash, but his grandson clung fearfully to his side. "Yash, you have to let go." But the boy who had just been kidnapped in the middle of the night was completely unwilling to leave his grandfather's side. "What will happen to Yash?" He asked Gon.
"...If you hand over your lightsaber, we can let him ride with you." Gon said. "I'll keep him safe."
The promises were reassuring, Sturn knew Gon to be an honourable man, even if he kept his mind shielded. All the House Guards did, and all of them were carrying scatterguns at their side. They really seemed like they were preparing to fight even the Jedi if they had to.
Sturn handed over his lightsaber, and accepted the sacanium manacles they slapped onto his wrists. Yash remained nervously glued to his side, even as the speeder they were in transported them to the city barracks.
In comparison to the elite, disciplined and highly trained House Guards, Serenno's Armed Regulars were a much less impressive sight. They only had laminated breastplates and helmets that revealed their faces, and otherwise moved about in khaki colored clothes that covered their arms and legs. They were only equipped with blaster rifles and pistols, and none of them knew how to shield their minds. Still, they all seemed focused as they hurried about their various tasks, and shared a burning undercurrent of resentment. The recent assassination attempt was a fresh wound in their minds, and more than one dreamed of going to Coruscant to take revenge. That surprised Sturn. All of them seemed to regard the enemy assassin as an agent of the Republic, who they regarded with fear and distrust.
It wasn't long until the House Guard separated him from Yash, the boy looking over his shoulder fearfully as he was led to the canteen to get a full meal under the watchful eye of a smiling woman in uniform.
Expecting to be taken to his cell, Sturn was surprised when he was instead led straight to the commander's office. Seated behind the desk was Serenno's ranking military commander, Tan'ya, and her father looming behind her shoulder. The two of them presented a unified front, minds closed and regarding him with the same expression of anger thinly restrained only by an aristocratic facade.
On this planet, Dooku's word was law. In most mid-sized towns and villages across Serenno, local nobility and custom decided punishments. In the larger cities, there were courts and judges to litigate cases, but the Count had all the authority needed to declare Sturn guilty and sentence him however he pleased, no judge or jury needed.
Steeling himself, Sturn stood straighter, calling on the Force to resist his own sense of fear. "I'm here to accept any punishment. Do whatever you have to. Shoot me if you must."
"Oh, how very noble of you." Dooku caustically drawled. "It must be comforting to think that you can abandon your duty to my family, and then because we shoot you, that means you've made amends."
"Do you really think for a second that your own life is worth the same as Madalee's? Or Athemeenes?" Tan'ya demanded.
"How about Yash?" Sturn replied. "What's he worth?"
Tan'ya bristled at that. "Even if the assassin was on the call, you could have signalled one of the House Guard. Instead you panicked and ran, abandoning your duty in the middle of a coordinated attack. You have no excuses."
Sturn doubted that he could have made a signal with his hands that the kidnapper wouldn't have seen. However, there really wasn't a point in making that argument right now. "You're right. I have no excuse. Now do whatever you have to."
The two of them looked at each other, and Tan'ya's lip curled in distaste.
Dooku reached to his own belt, and took out a lightsaber with a long handle that he offered to Sturn. The Green Jedi blinked, shocked that they were handing him a weapon. He glanced at the two of them, briefly considering then dismissing the notion that they wanted some excuse to shoot him. Reaching out slowly, Sturn laid his fingers over the hilt, then gasped at the feeling of cold that radiated through the Force.
Closing his hand around the weapon, he drew it back and thumbed the activator. The room was filled with a glow of red light, as a Sith lightsaber ignited before him, and Sturn blinked in shock at the blade, not quite believing what he was seeing.
...
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