Comrade Jedi V: Part 1

[tallboydave]

John

"Sorry, Mara..." I said, sitting upright again. "We should talk, really..." I nodded, trying not to lose sight of what was going on due to Mara's touch.

[butter]

Mara

I sat down in the seat next to John, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Then tell me what's on your mind," I began, unsure how else to start this conversation.

Mike

"Excuse us," I finally said to Dad and Ailyn, then I grabbed my sister's arm and pulled her a short distance away.

"Alright," I said to her, in a quiet but firm voice, "it seems like we've done nothing but argue today, and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the excuses, and I'm tired of the way both of us have been shuffling the blame. Frankly, we've both been... rather self-centered, you have to admit."

Electra opened her mouth, looking as though she was about to retort, but then she seemed to think better of it, and she closed her mouth again. "Yes," she finally said, shaking her head a little. "Mike, I don't know what's come over me. It's just..."

I pursed my lips, nodding slowly. "I think there's something in the air," I finally said. "We all sense something's coming, something terrible, and maybe it's making us all a little tense. Still," I added, "the least we can do is control ourselves, and try to get along. We're not going to help anything if we keep acting like we're going to rip each other's throats out."

Electra nodded. "I agree, Mike. And... I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, too," I said, reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Seems like everything's just been so crazy over the past few years, especially ever since Mom died, and... Rachel... left."

Electra snorted. "I think things started to get crazy after that lunatic chopped off your lekku," she said, the corners of her mouth quirking upward. "I swear that guy must've really messed with your head. You haven't been the same since--"

I sighed, rolling my eyes. "Electra, why do you keep making everything seem so... minor, or like it should be no big deal? YOU try coping when someone has just sliced off your lekku, put you in a washing machine, and jumped out of the ship with you--"

"Alright!" Electra said, throwing up her hands. "Hey, actually I felt all that stuff happening to you as it happened--you know, the bond we share?" She tapped her temple with her finger. "Anyway look... let's both just shut up before we get into another argument over nothing."

With that, we headed back over to where Dad and Ailyn were. "Alright," I said to both of them, "I think we've both settled our differences."

[tallboydave]

John

"This whole Corellia business makes my teeth ache... And when Han insulted the UNE, a government I literally gave my life to, I just.... snapped." I sighed, shutting my eyes.


Andrew

I smiled. "That's good to hear." I gathered both of them into a hug.

[butter]

Mara

I nodded in understanding. Sometimes Han was just... well, he had a temper, and sometimes, he just didn't seem to know when to keep his mouth shut.

"I think we were all a bit... uptight at dinner," I said slowly. "This entire situation with Corellia has everyone on edge. Perhaps Han didn't mean it like that."

Mike

Dad hugged each of us, and then Electra looked, well, calmer than she had all day. She actually looked... a bit happier as well, somehow.

Then she slowly turned to face Ailyn, and said, "Um... I'm sorry for the things I said to you, and for... losing my temper."

The apology sounded sincere enough, but it still sounded like she had to force herself to say it, almost.

[tallboydave]

John

"I hope so.... I wouldn't want to have to face him on the battlefield..." I remarked softly. "He's crafty..."


Andrew

I smiled happily as Electra apologised to Ailyn. That should sort out any issues we have, for a while at lease.... I thought.

[hk47fan]

After all of the guests were gone, most of them returning to quarters at the Jedi Temple or Avalon Station, and the Solo quarters were dark, Han and Leia lay wrapped in each other's arms in their bedchamber.

The chamber was against an exterior wall of the viewport, just below the pedestrian walkway outside.

"You were pretty hard on Zekk," Leia chided "All evening long. Not to mention your little stab at the UNE and John's reaction."

"You think so?" Han considered "I didn't challenge either of them to a drinking contests or ask them about their failed relationships."

"Good." Leia nodded, against his chest "But you could have been....nicer."

"Nicer to the man who's chasing my daughter around? What kind of example would that set? I'm her father. Besides, he's taking advantage of her. As for John, I was just being blunt. I don't sugar coat things."

"Zekk is not taking advantage of Jaina. That's ridiculous." Leia argued

"No, listen. Since she doesn't believe that he's after her, since she's maintaining her we're-just-good-freinds-despite-everything-that-happened-before self delusion, he can stay close and operate with out her being aware if it." Han told her

"He's a good boy." Leia said with a small smirk and a "sweet" tone

"Where my daughter is concerned, no one is a 'good boy'. Besdies, nobody that tall should be called a boy."

"Well if she likes taller men, it's probably a preference she picked up from her upbringing."

"Oh?" Han considered but some confusion in her voice "You think she's more comfortable with taller men because of me?"

"No, because of Chewbacca."

Han looked down at her. That had hit a nerve, not why Jaina would like taller men, but the mention of his old freind. A silver of blue light crossed over the bed and illuminated her eyes, which were open, her expression, somehow both merry and artificially innocent.

Chewbacca, Han's Wookie co-pilot and best freind, had died more than a decade ago, at the onset of the Yuuzhan Vong war. After that, it had been years before Han could hear or speak his name without feeling a stab of pain in his heart. Now, of course, there was still sadness a his lost, but with it were years of more glad memories.

"You," Han said "should not mock Han Solo, hero of the Galaxy."

"I would never." Leia said, holding in a laugh "I was mocking Han Solo, meddling dad and supreme egotist."

"Now you're in trouble."

The laugh finally escaped from Leia's mouth.

***

Two days after the Solo-Skywalker-Redgrave-Poppellwell-Caplin-Fletcher dinner, Han Solo sat on one of the living chamber sofas, a portable terminal in his lap that was similar in the portable area to what many years ago the Earth would call a laptop, scowling at the display screen. Every so often he typed in a series of commands or used the voice interface, but each attempt he made turned out to fail.

Leia suddenly was behind him, leaning over his shoulder, and read aloud the text on the screen. "OPERATION FAILED. YOU MAY BE USING CONNECTION INFORMATION THAT IS OUT OF DATE. Trying to straighten your taxes?"

"Very funny." Han said in a non-amused and serious tone "Do you remember Wildis Jiklip?"

Leia frowned. Jiklip qas a mathematics prodigy Han's age. Well traveled, with a Corellian mother and Coruscanti father, she had been educated in both systems and had been licensed to teach at the university or academy level by the time she was in her early twenties. Then she dissappeared for two decades, and only a few people knew what she'd been doing during that time.

She'd become a smuggler under the name of Red Stepla. She ran unusual routes, carrying unusual cargoes, and had an uncanny ability to get forbidden goods to their markets at a time when they'd become most valuable. Her record for success was un-rivaled.

A few years before the start of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Red Stepla and her crew retired- by the simple expedient of dissappearing. Wildis Jiklip then reappeared, an independently wealthy theoretician who occasionally taught university courses on Coruscant and Lorrd, focusing on interplanety economics, supply-and-demand trade economics, system economic reactions to widespread warfare, and related subjects.

Han knew the secret of her dual identity, and Leia had learned it from Wildis herself, who trusted anyone Han would trust enough to marry.

Leia nodded "Sure. What about her?"

"She's supposed to be on Coruscant, doing one of her lecture series. I tried to get in touch with her to talk abotu Corellia. I thought mabye she could give me a hint about the official GA reaction to what's going on there. But she discontinued her lecture series in the middle, just a few days ago, and all the ways I have tried to get in touch with her are out of operation-reporting she's on leave of absence due to a family emergency." Han said

Leia shrugged "So?"

"Well, she has no family. Yeah, I know, that's not suspicious in and itself. But I still wanted to talk political shop with other Corellians. So I arranged for a holotransmission to Wedge Antillies." Han explained

Leia felt a moment of suprise but kept it from her face. She knew she was spoiled when it came to finance-she'd lived as a planrtary princess, albeit one from a financially responsible family, as a child and young woman; she'd commanded the resources of a rebel government and then a legitimate one. Expenditure hadd seldom been a consideration for her. Han, who had been reared in poverty and had lived with difficult financial circumstances for the first half of his life, was more stingy, and the fact he'd been willing to pay for a live, instantaneous conversation with a freind light-years away was quite a concession for him. It told more about the state of his concern over Corellian politics than anything he'd said over the last few days. He had never been a political type of person, but his concern was growing fast. And his dislike of both the GA and UNE was starting to show, majorly. "And how is Wedge?"

"Well, I couldn't get through to him via HoloNet. They say there's some sort of equipment breakdown causing intermittent connections with the Corellian system."

"So you sent him a message by standard record-and-transmit." Leia said with a slight nod

Han nodded back "Just a heads-up, how're-you-doing sort of message."

"And?" Leia asked, her arms crossed

"And it got there, and I got a reply...but it was delayed by several hours. Long enough for my message and the reply to have been intercepted, decrypted, scanned, and analyzed before being passed on."

Leia held herself back, something she had been doing alot since the large dinner, Now you're being paranoid. They were the first words to leap into her mind, but she didn't say it because a few seconds after she realized Han wasn't being paranoid. The GA Government was probably keeping a close eye on comm traffic to and from Corellia in light of that system's ongoing defiance of government edicts. The UNE, from what Leia knew, had even been notified to monitor the transmissions to Corellia and from Corellia in the Milky Way Galaxy. She wouldn't be suprised if they even passed some messages on to the EDF for double checking. "All right," she said "so communications to Corellia are under close scrutiny."

"So I kept looking around." Han looked troubled as he spoke "Activated some false identites. Bounced message packets to Corellia via Commenor and some other worlds. Checked with some old freinds still in the trade, found that some antismuggling patrols by the GA are intensifying right now...in the vicinity of Corellia and a few worlds that have spoken out in support of Corellia. I'm really beginning to think something's up."

Leia moved around to the front of the couch and settled beside her husband "Something more than just mild harrassment by the GA to inconvience a system that's not playing by the rules, you mean. Think they will eventually get the EDF involved in the madness?"

"First part, yeah. But I don't really know how to confirm it. How to take my hunch and make it into a fact. As for the EDF? I don't know, probably if the situation turns ugly they will team up with them again. But I hope this time those Earthlings or what ever you call them stay out and stay in their own Galaxy. They aren't needed here." Han said

Leia considered. As a Jedi Knight her primari responsibilities were to the Jedi Order and Galactic Alliance. If the Galactic Alliance was indeed planning some sort of action against Corellia, her duty was to support it. And part of her hoped the EDF stayed out of this one, to not anger more people. And she had a feeling they wanted to focus on restoring Earth instead of helping the GA.

But that was only one of her loyalties. She couldn't just ignore her loyalty to Han, even if he was supporting a foolish cause. Suddenly he grinned. Had he ever supported a cause that, from some perspective, wasn't foolish, including the Rebel Alliance?

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking about...other ways to figure out what's going on."

"Such as?"

She began counting off on her fingers. "One. If the GA is planning some sort of action against Corellia, then a number of people in the GA government know it. Particularly self-serving ones with economic interests on Corellia are going to be doing whatever they can to protect those interests. If they're sloppy, it would be possible to spot their activities, their transactions.

"Two. If the actions against Corellia is going to involve the military, determining which military government are called up would be very informative. Different forces would be used for an assault for a blockade, for instance. Now, it's tricky to find out that sort of information-without being spotted as a spy, especially-but it's possible, and we have a slight advantage in that it's been a good while since we've been at war. Security won't be as tight as it was at the height of the Yuuzhan Vong War."

Han nodded "Good, good. You've been learning off me, Princess." he said, managing a slight smirk which gave Leia a good feeling to see her husband still having his usual attitude slightly, as much as it once and at times still does irritate her, but it was partially true she had learned some for Han, but some being in the Alliance all those decades ago

"Three. We could formulate some likely plans for action against Corellia, determine the resources for those plans...and then attempt to determine whether those resources are actually being moved into place. That would give you some sense of what's actually going to happen...assuming your plans are accurate ones."

"Right." Han smiled "I don't care much for data work or number crunching, but it looks like I've just assigned myself a lot of it."

"I'll help you."

"Thanks."

"After breakfast."

Han's smile grew broader "You're not just the same tireless, self-less woman I married, are you?"

"I guess not."

"Another thing you've learned from me, hon. I've been corrutping you."

She sighed dramatically "Well, you're the same tireless egotist I married."

[tallboydave]

John

John sat at the terminal in his quarters, typing out something; a report, marked "RESTRICTED, EYES ONLY, PRIVATE" for Admiral Grant, on his views of the Correllian affair.

'In summing up, sir, the situation could go either way; however, I recommend preparing for the worst. As such, at least two warships, of Heavy Cruiser size or above, should be kept on standby to protect UNE interests in the Correllian system, and additionally enough transports to evacuate civilians and non-essential personnel within the minimum established temporal window, should the situation deteriorate.

Finally, to prevent possible interception of communications, the Odin Net should be encrypted, or even have the scuttling charges primed in the satellites, in case certain elements may attempt to capture them.'

[Force_Flow]

The CorSec officer, a little too arrogant for her own good, was in his way. Leveling her blaster, she aimed and fired at Jaing. Missing him, she rapidly pulled the trigger, trying oh-so-hard to hit the Jedi approaching her. But Jaing was trained by the best. He bent his front left leg, diving in low so she had to change her aim. Pushing off with his front foot, he jumped at her, unconsciously keeping his blue blade in his center, blocking the last blaster shot towards the woman. It hit her shoulder, and, two seconds later, his lightsaber came down: her head, along with the rest of her upper torso, fell to the ground. Her knees buckled, and the rest of her fell down, too.

Jaing took a look behind his shoulder, down the corridor in which he came. Ben lay there, a victim of a barrage of blasterfire too heavy for Jaing to compensate for. Ben had taken five shots before he had went down. His eyes were still open, and his hand still gripped his lightsaber in a desperate attempt to defend himself…

Jaing shrugged slightly. It wasn’t time to think of that. The mission came first. Turning to look at the door in front of him, he reached out to the Force, just a regular, casual sweep to detect any lifeforms, and, feeling none, he stepped through the portal.

Here it was… the control section for Centerpoint Station. The room was surprisingly small, considering the incredible power it harnessed—it was large enough for a medium-sized crewof scientists to operate in, but something this grand should have been enormous, with statues commenting all the times it had been used. Instead there were seats, and banks of lights, switches, and levers, and upright joystick control at the main seat—all of it exactly the way it looked years ago…

Shortly before Ben’s birth in fact. He’d seen it last before the boy was born—now he was seeing it right after the boy was cut down.

Irrelevancies. From a pocket within his Jedi Robes, he plucked out a datachip. Unlike a standard data card, which would fit in billions, trillions, of datapads, control panels, terminals, computers, high-end speeders, and comlinks, it had rounded ends and spiky protrusions of gold, allowing it to confirm to exactly one port in the galaxy…

But where the hell was the port?! Jaing ran a quick look over all the switches and other controls. Nothing seemed suited to the datachip. Not even in the exact section of control board he was told to look for. ”Fierfek,” he muttered. He was aware of footsteps coming his way, the tell-tell of CSF coming his way. “Hurry it up, Jaing…” Only seconds left…

Closing his eyes, he probed with senses that could not be so easily fooled. And he found, almost instantly, what he was looking for—a slot shaped in reverse image of the front of his special datachip. Eyes still closed, he stepped foreword, extended the chip, and felt it being gripped by the machine below. He released it and opened his eyes.

The chamber’s thousands of indicator lights went dead and the sounds of shouts and onrushing feet stilled. A female voice announced, “Simulation ended. Success ratio estimated seventy-five percent.”

Jaing grinned sourly. Anything over 51 percent was sufficient enough to the success of the mission—it meant that either one or several techniques had been employed to damage or destroy Centerpoint. Ben even 75 wasn’t good enough: it had meant that either he or Ben had fallen. 51 percent and both were KIA.

Ben moved over, gingerly stepping over the droid Jaing had cut in half. He was leaning over slightly, hunched in pain. “Stun bolts sting.”

Jaing grinned. “More motivation for you not to be hit by them.”

The wall behind the main control slid open, revealing a monitoring station beyond, and a very tense, gray-haired man in a white jacket. He offered them a faint smile. “You’re getting there,” he said, deep voice rumbling.

“This one seemed pretty easy, Doctor Seyah.” Jaing gestured behind him. “Only one guard in the final chamber.”

“Easy?” Ben echoed. “They shot about a thousand blasterbolts at us!”

“Jaing is right,” Dr. Seyah said. “This one is easier.” Ben gaped at him. “Eaier than restoring the station’s centrifugal spin and sabotaging the artificial gravity counterspin to tear the station apart, easier than introducing the station’s own coordinates into it’s targeting computations and have it destroy itself, easier than hijacking a Star Destroyer and crashing it into the proper end of the station—“

Ben’s face brightened. “We haven’t done that one yet.”

“Nor are you going to. That’s not a mission for Jedi. It’s for crazy old naval officers.

“Oh.” Ben’s face fell. “I would’ve liked that one.”

Seyah rose from his chair. “The problem is, we don’t know what the main weapons control chamber looks like now. This is how it was three weeks ago, when everyone but a core group of scientists—carefully vetted, very pro-Corellian scientists—was pulled out a reassigned elsewhere. They could have emplaced the entire room with string-cheese, or encased the room in carbonite—we don’t know. But we have no reason to think they did.” He shrugged. “So as long as you keep that datachip intact, and so long to receiving slot is atill in existence on the control board, even if you have a bloody time of finding it, then this approach could work.”

”Could work?” Jaing repeated.

“We think it will. The commands in the datachip should initiate a ten-minute countdown and then activate a complex repulsor pulse that will tear the station apart. Assuming they haven’t reprogrammed their system entirely. Assuming me and my team did the job right over these past few years. Assuming a lot of things.” Seyah sighed. “This is the only thing I can guarantee you: come with me to the mess hall, and I can treat you to lunch.”

Jaing allowed himself to be steered towards the door. “Simple answers are usually best,” he pointed out.

“So what’s it like to be a spy?” Ben asked.

Jaing muttered, “Doctor Seyah isn’t a spy, Ben. Be nice.”

“Oh, of course I’m a spy,” Seyah said, laughing. “Scientist and spy. And it’s very nice. Pays good enough, anyway. I get to do what I love, and then teach Jedi how to do their job. I even get to go on vacation to Naboo sometimes to study aquatic life.”

“Have you ever broken anyone’s neck?”

“Well, yes, but that was before I was technically a spy—“

Seyah’s comlink bleeped. He took it out, irritated. A female voice, the same that had announced their success, could be heard:

“Pardon me for the interruption, but Jedi Master Calvin Redgrave has been added to this assignment. He’s asking for permission to join the simulation.”

Seyah groaned. “I guess lunch will have to wait, boys. Send him down, Jani.”

[hk47fan]

Calvin

After receiving word permission was granted for me to enter the simulation, I stepped in and saw Ben and Jaing. I walked up right beside Jaing, to where we were only several inches away from each other. "Luke sent me to help at the last minute." I muttered to him

Though I was here to focus on the mission, I hoped I would get some kind of chance to speak with Jaing, despite where we were. I wanted this feud between Jaden and Jaing to be resovled. But the problem was if they were ,I should say he was, willing. And it was hard to get them willing if they didn't want to be. I had learned that ever since I first met them.

Centerpoint Station. It was a massive station, as powerful or even more powerful from what certain people said, than the Death Star itself. And both Death Stars were pretty powerful. My late wife Shalin had gone here years ago during th Yuuzhan Vong War, not long before her death. I was either on Earth or in some other part of the Galaxy, I just knew that was when we were seperated. This was my first time to the station, and part of me had always wanted to see it after how much I had heard it about it.

[Force_Flow]

Jaing grinned. "Glad to have you, Dad." He turned to Seyah. "Do you mind running the simulation again? After lunch, though. I'm starved."

"Me, too!" Ben piped up.

Seyah grinned. "Let's see how much money this battleworn spy has in his pockets, first." He reached into a deep pocket, and pulled out a credcard. He shrugged. "Good enough. Master Redgrave, my sincere apologies for not waiting for you. I didn't know you were coming. I'll have Jani reset the thing to allow three people. The stun blasts, do, as Ben said, hurt."

Jaing leaned in close to his dad. "This guy's a genius. I'm telling you."