"I'm telling you the money is irrelevant to these superstitious savages! These primitives locked me in a room, then buried me in a hundred pounds of hard-shelled seeds.
Once I dug myself out from under all the produce, they had the nerve to claim the seeds decided I couldn't commission a vessel.
I did exactly as you instructed in case of trouble. Upped the offered commission, until I was eventually offering the entire five million in aurodium to convince them the seeds dislike of me was a passing thing.
You should have seen the disgusted looks of outrage the offer got me. It was like I'd tortured the big Ferroan's kath hound to death before his eyes.
Took a great deal of fast talking to get out of there without things growing very hostile, after that.
There's nothing else I can do, sir." Ke Daiv's golden nose flaps continually flaring as the Blood Carver assassin's rough, staccato voice reported failure to the dark, curly haired human whose holographic image was displayed by his communicator.
It was clear from his tone he wasn't taking his failure well. Especially given how the man his employer had bid him serve on this mission was reacting.
Face increasingly tight with anger as his agent's account of failure continued, Raith Sienar visibly worked to master his temper as he replied "Return to the Admiral Korvin, so we can discuss a next move. There is more than one way to skin this cat."
His image disappeared from the assassin's communicator before the Blood Carver could reply. Causing the killer to hiss beneath his breath, as he stalked for his shuttle.
Turning back to the tie-in to the Admiral Korvin's main comm array, Raith began to compose a message to his erstwhile partner.
"Tarkin seems to have overestimated the alacrity of his friends in the Senate. Only having gotten approval to set up his anti-piracy base with or without the approval of the Sekotans three days ago.
Forcing him to delay the setting out of his own task-force until the day before yesterday." The tall, whip-thin executive murmured to himself as he typed.
"This will bring the martinet running in short order. Hopefully, he won't have the ships he sent ahead scattered across the entire Gardaji Sector."
He finished his entirely false series of cryptic enticements, sent the entire thing off with a satisfied flourish, then went to make sure he'd confounded the last of the little technical "surprises" Tarkin had shipped him out with.
...
(Three days later)
"Damn all Senators and political equivocating in what should be a military matter" Tarkin growled so softly even someone opposite him couldn't have made out what he'd said.
He'd intended for Sienar to be simply a first probing effort to gain control of Zonama Sekot, and a convenient scapegoat, if one proved to be necessary.
Never for a moment imagining the Senate would actually require proof of substantial illegal activity occurring in and around the Sekotan System as a basis for establishing the base from which he'd seize control of the planet's shipping interests. Small and out of the way shipyards recognized as often becoming hubs of pirate and smuggler activity.
Studying the disposition of Sienar's meager force of ships as his own finally moved into position to enact his contingency plan, Tarkin input the code for the private holo-comm of Kett, Captain of the Admiral Korvin.
Watching impatiently as the middle-aged spacer's blue image appeared.
"Confine Mr. Sienar to his quarters, Captain. Please convey my displeasure concerning his unsolicited reprogramming of the Korvin's droid starfighters, then contact me when said starfighters have been reset to baseline parameters."
He waited only long enough to receive the man's acknowledgement of his orders, then cut the signal.
It had been clever of Raith to predict his being put in the position of providing the necessary pretext for Tarkin's intervention due to his "negligence" allowing elements of his own fleet to be engaged in raiding the planet below without his knowledge, but foolish not to have considered the fact it had been Tarkin himself who provided the crews along with the vessels.
All the executive had accomplished was delaying the inevitable, and for what? It wasn't as if he were going to actually be sacrificed here. Just a bit of his reputation. No one would have any problem believing a reputable businessman could easily have found himself in over his head in a fleet command situation.
Someone might be inclined to inquire why he'd been deputized by Tarkin for such an operation to begin with, but that was what bribes and political influence were for.
If he'd known he himself was under close scrutiny by an agency he couldn't have imagined existing, perhaps the next several hours might have played out much differently.
...
Piloting the Seraph was a dream. She, and Seraph was genuinely a she rather than some bit of naming convention nonsense, was the most responsive craft I could conceive of flying.
Her gleaming blue-green needle teardrop carapace cutting through atmosphere or the cold vacuum of space with equal ease.
It was a little strange flying a ship which began to anticipate me as we went along, but definitely a good sort of strange.
"You're Seraph's guardians now. She can think for herself, after a fashion, but she relies on you to keep her focused" Fitch had told us with a fond smile at the then newly completed craft. He'd accompanied us for her maiden flight, but after that it had just been me, Dark Woman, and Seraph.
Initially, Dark Woman had been equally involved in learning to fly our new creation. The entire first two days had been some of the most enjoyable time I'd spent with my Master, as we helped each other work through little eccentricities on Seraph's part, and exchanged observations on her capabilities.
I'd been able to sense the often troubled Jedi Master really relax and set aside her omnipresent struggle with the great regret of her life. if only for a little while here and there.
All of that had changed when my Master had excused herself to take a message on her wrist-comm being relayed by the comm-array of her own vessel.
Seraph had been racing in a wide ellipse outward from the yellow dwarf which shone on Zonama Sekot to give us an amazing view of the system's three stellar bodies at the time.
"Fast as a flickering flame, that's my Seraph. No one's built or grown anything that can run you down in eons!" I murmured with supreme satisfaction to the bio-ship.
Whose inertial dampening was so good it was almost impossible to tell even with a Jedi's sensitivity when we were accelerating or braking. You nearly had to be looking at the instruments or out the window.
When my Master returned, her normal unruffled poise was nowhere in evidence. I checked the calendar on my wrist chronometer, did a couple of quick calculations, then somberly remarked.
"That would have been either Master Jinn or Master Antilles. Informing you that Weaponmaster Bulq not only left the Jedi Order, but refused to give a meaningful reason for his departure.
There have been subsequent irregularities on first Sriluur, then Ruul. Irregularities which will result in Sora Bulq claiming sole control of the Bulq family's assets and holdings."
Before the Jedi Master could think to accuse me of eavesdropping, I silently pointed to the readout of the unmarked navigational console.
We were now on final approach to bring Seraph in to land beside Dark Woman's own vessel the Songbird, but the navigational data clearly showed that at the time she'd been receiving her relayed message, I had been piloting the bio-ship at her maximum sub-light velocity between two dangerous gravity wells.
Only a very suicidal pilot would have even looked away from the controls during such a maneuver. Let alone abandoned them to go listen at a closed door.
Apparently at a loss to explain my knowledge, because Far Sight couldn't explain what I knew for numerous reasons, Dark Woman simply asked where I came by such certainty. The intensity in her bright blue eyes could not be mistaken, so I simply sighed fatalistically, then answered as honestly as I dared.
"Normally, I see no reason to mention what I foresee, Master.
First, the vast majority of it is beyond yours and my ability to do anything about.
Second, I remember your lessons on the reasons to distrust precognition quite well.
Finally, you in particular distrust all precognition outside a fight, and we both know why.
I don't even know why I broke my silence to tell you about Sora Bulq, but there it is." Again, the words were all true. Just not all of the truth, because that no one would ever believe.
Opening her mouth to reply, the Jedi Master was saved from doing so by the hologram that had just appeared above the main console. An entire wing of Vulture droids had just entered the atmosphere, but they were being pursued at a much higher altitude by nearly a dozen light cruisers in formation about a larger vessel.
I don't know what I might have said or done about what we were seeing, but this wasn't apparently something for us to do anything about.
"You have less than ten minutes before I depart. I suggest you make good use of your time." Sekot's voice was nearly deafening within our minds. Causing both of us to clutch our heads in significant discomfort, so full of anger, disappointment, frustration and pain had been those two simple statements.
A moment of silent accord passed between us. Dark Woman's voice bordered on the incredulous, as she stated to no one in particular "I can't believe I'm doing this."
Turning to me, she asked in a voice more serious than I had ever heard from her.
"Tell me if you have the tiniest most infinitesimal doubt about piloting Seraph, Anakin. I will sacrifice the Songbird without a moment's thought, if you do."
"I can do this, Master. It's two little hyper-jumps which you'll be plotting. Don't write off a quarter million credit starship because you can't see past my age. Please!" I replied with all the seriousness I could muster.
Looking as if she couldn't believe what she was doing, she raced from the ship as I started raising the ramp begin her and beginning preparations to liftoff.
I kept an eye on the madhouse that orbit was becoming, as what had been a nearly imperceptible vibration continued growing stronger beneath Seraph.
...
"Isn't there something we should be doing about Trade Federation and Republic vessels attacking a sovereign world?" My question was asked over the comm as I followed Songbird's escape trajectory as closely as was feasible.
"Sometimes, the most effective intervention is the one which never takes place. I would not wish to be aboard any of those ships when Sekot departs" Dark Woman's holographic image replied.
I was silent as I considered the possibilities. Wondering about the physics of a planet making the jump to hyper-space. Versus a bunch of offending ships in low orbit.
Then I shrugged, watching as stars turned to streaks. Honestly, whoever the savages aboard those ships were, I'd see them all spaced to keep my Master and Seraph safe.
Sekot seemed to have the safety of all the actual innocents well in hand. Raiders deserved whatever unpleasant fates they found.
...
I'll appreciate if you guys can throw some power stones to keep the story going.
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