Zero (once again)

[Angedechu]

So, here is my latest attempt at SW fiction. This is basically the Count of Monte Cristo in space ! (Zero refers to the launch by the Sith Empire of the invasion of the Republic-this occurs in the final months before the Great Galactic War)

 

Minus 300/High Orbit, Brentaal IV…

 

The charting of the Hydian Way marks the dawn of a new era for the Republic…

 

The new hyperlane have already boosted significantly trade and business…

 

Traveling to the Tingel Arm will soon be as easy as booking a transport to Coruscant…

 

The savage Trans-Hydian is the new frontier of the Republic….

 

The influence of the Republic will be a stabilizing factor much welcome in the wild-

 

The last one actually made most of the occupants of the shuttle chuckle. The Human female that had been trying various lines for her opening pitch was rather annoyed, and threw a furious look to the half dozens of beings that made her team. «Her» being quite a point of contention, as no one except the female considered her as the leader.

 

People that signed for journalism at the university were probably smart enough to not actually think the profession was like in the holos: discovering galaxy changing on a daily basis, being on a talking basis with the most powerful beings in existence, being listened on thousands of worlds. This said, the aspiring reporters were probably not aware that the job could be that dreary at times, especially when you were employed by a pretty ordinary news outfit on a rather plain Core World. Considering that the price of living on Coruscant made having a correspondant on the real decision center a tough proposition, the title of political reporter that the female had managed to secure did not meant much, since her task often boiled down to listening to press conferences about sewage management in some second rate city. This was why the female was desperate about not missing what could be the opportunity of her lifetime, as she could no longer stand making reports about the annual charity drive for planetwide neutering campaigns for stray cats. So, when she had heard that the boss was looking to send a team to cover up a naval deployment on the relatively nearby Brentaal system and follow the said naval deployment on the Hydian Way, she had called every favor she could think off to be sent there, ready to cater to whatever were the whims of the probable corporate sponsor that had paid for the transport and the brand new holocams. People that screamed about the ethics of journalism had probably not been sent to cover the school boards elections (and see their work shown on the local news networks at the end of the midnight bulletin).

 

On the plus side, the said mysterious corporate sponsor had been remarkably discreet with his requests, at least for the time being. This mercy was probably because the subject the team had been sent to cover was, at least in theory, exciting, enthralling and dream-enticing, at least for the population of a world whose top export was machinery for the dairy industry. Hearing soundbites about how awesome was for the local community such and such manufacturer of milking devices would sort of kill this wanderlust mood.

 

After all, news reports about unknown worlds, unknown species were always interesting, at least when compared to news reports about the latest resolution of the city council concerning garbage pickup (of course, the sponsor was probably interested with reports about species that used exotic and rare cattle beasts with variable number of legs, but that produced some kind of weirdly colored alien milk, milk that nevertheless required the incredible products of an industrial cheese processing machines mogul…)

 

Sarcasm put aside, it was pretty normal for any sensible businessman, even ones in not really exciting fields, to try to seek out new markets. But normally, new markets were limited to a single system, after a revolution or a regime change. The opportunity to expand into several thousands systems was something that could make even the most prudent and conservative businessman willing to try something.

 

And several thousand systems was a conservative estimate. It would have been exaggerated to claim that most of those new markets were actually new markets, as much of those markets had been Republic members for centuries. It was just that thanks to the actions of a couple of spacers, the price of shipping to them and from then had been divided by ten, despite the absolute lack of security.

 

The opening of the Hydian Way was the largest macroeconomic change for the Galaxy since immemorial times. There were truly countless possibilities opening for the worlds of the Republic: new trade lanes, new sectors to chart and to claim, new systems to colonize, whole sectors that could be truly integrated to the Republic...This could be either the opening of a new era of prosperity, or another of those botched occasions that littered the history of the Republic. Conscious both of the challenge and the limits of the Republic, the High command had, perhaps wisely, decided to focus at first at actually clearing the Hydian Way itself from various threats: petty dictators bullying their neighbours, civil wars, pirate, more or less freelance merc gangs, slavers…

 

Even for journalists non-specialized with military matters, this relatively modest objective seemed quite out of proportion with the means of the task force marshalled for it, totalling around twenty capital ships, the flagship being the only ship that was not older than most of its crew. On the rather eyebrow raising presentation given to the press by the PR department of the Navy, the task force was supposed to travel up to the frontier world of Bonadan (and the numerous mining worlds in the area), using local Republican strongholds on or next to the Hydian as bases of operations. There was a list of those strongholds included, and people taking the care of doing a 10 seconds database search could see plainly that a lot of those strongholds were old Pius Dea military colonies/depots, such as Ord Cestus and Ord Radaman. The value of those planets as operational base was likely to be rather abyssal, without considering the probable hostility of the locals to the Republic that had marooned them there.

 

But of course, stating that such and such backwater planet «was the sentinel of the Republic for milleniums» sounded way better than «this is a planet that was used as a base centuries ago, and that we abandoned repeatedly». In a rather humorous move, Taris was also listed as a Republican bastion, without doubts in another attempt to attract funds for reconstructions schemes. Even on the rather bombastic presentation, the Navy was however forced to concede indirectly that the only real stronghold past the Inner Rim was the ever loyalist Telos system. The numerous mentions of the Telosian navy role in local peacekeeping was a pretty crystal clear sign that the Telosians had lobbied rather hard for keeping control of their defence assets.

 

And this was why most of the informed public was quite sceptical about the task force. Hundreds of systems and corporations had launched their own trade or colonization efforts in the newly minted Trans-Hydian, and all the Republic could do was to send a paltry naval group up and down an hyperlane ? And this was not only some a mere show the flag operation, but a political show the flag operation. Thanks to the latest budget crisis of the Navy (whose naval strength certainly not matched the lavish sums poured into it), the admiralty was openly courting the political circles in Coruscant. The result was that the task force was loaded with a rather embarrassing set of orders, orders that were clearly existing only for the purpose of currying factions and special interest groups.

 

Thus, to appeal to the Core demographic of the Senate (this pun never got old), someone had included a line about finally sending a military force to end the Kanz Disorders, as the whole matter was getting quite embarrassing to the Republic, to say the least, thanks to latest religious fantasies of the local ruler. (Of course, the Outer Rim SIGs and lobbyists were busily clamouring that the Core only cared about Lorrd because there were Human sacrifices there. And there was also the charming case of has-been politicians from the Rim spending their days writing that the whole Disorder affair was yet another ploy from the Humans of the Core to assault an innocent regime….) What a couple of old frigates were supposed to do against a whole sector was not made clear, especially considering that the sector was «close» to the Hydian way only in the most relative of manners. Of course, the objective of the Kanz addendum was not to actually save the Lorrdians from slavery, but to vilify opponents in the Senate.

 

And the list of those addendums was long, several dozen articles longs, with only an handful of them vaguely realist. To get the support of Alderaan, there was an addendum about developing cultural links with the system of Tantive: apparently, both current royals were related in some way, and were desperate to remain the current royals and thus seeking prestige gains in foreign politics. To get the support of the Jedi Order, there was another addendum about boosting the defences of some sort of research station above a random forsaken desert planet. The matter was apparently for the Jedis, since they had deigned to send to the task force several masters and their padawans.

 

As politicians on Coruscant were really worried about the Trans-Hydian being developed chaotically (read: without input from Corsucant, and especially not taxes)the presence of the Order was much desired on the task force, which lead to rather bitter arguments about this very presence. Cynics pointed out that the venerable age of the vessels and the rather aggressive nature of some of the instruction of the task force could lead to a truly explosive confrontation with locals, and that nothing motivated the Jedi to negotiate with local powers like dead members of their Order. Less jaded observers noted that the task force was truly what the Republic could spare with the recent increase in brushfire wars in every quadrant of the Galaxy, and that the Jedi could actually help with the negotiations. Partisans of free trade pointed out with rage that the Jedis, with their position on material wealth, understood nothing about economy, and would end up as usual as backing the positions of the bureaucrats of Coruscant. Their opponents said that only the Jedi could «put in their place» the corporations expanding in the Hydian.

 

What was sure was that the High Command desired deeply the Jedis onboard, and was trying every trick on the book to reach this objective. Nothing expressed it better than the name chosen for the flagship, one of the new Valor-class cruisers, the destination of the shuttle: the occupants of the said shuttle were supposed to film yet another press conference/PR event/orgy of boring speeches and self praise.

 

The task force had departed from Anaxes a few days ago, but the stop at Brentaal IV was likely to be one of the most crucial steps of the journey. The Brentaal system had been transformed, almost overnight, from an somewhat important Core system into a major trade hub, thanks for the incredible fortune of being at the crossroads of the Hydian and the Pern’. As a result, economic boom was not adequate to describe what was happening on Brentaal, economic big-bang would still have been an understatement. Over 10% of all superstructure building specialized resources of the Galaxy were currently in the Brentaal system, being used to set up new orbital docks, warehouses, and similar installations. If the Republic had sent the task force with the hidden goal of intimidating the various noble houses of Brentaal, it was pretty much of a failure as the said task force was completely dwarfed by the swarms of vessels in orbit.

 

The pilot of the shuttle, after a final flurry of insults send over the com toward the pilot of a tug directly ahead of them (it was remarkable about how spacers could put in so few worlds allusions about corpulence, intelligence, competence, sexual orientation and faithfulness of significant others) was finally cleared for the approach of the warship.

 

One of the passengers of the shuttle, a Human history major (who, not surprisingly, had ended up being one of the tech guys) was still puzzled by the choice of the name.

 

«I know this is for getting the Jedis onboard, but why, of all the names in the Galaxy, they named this ship the Gav Daragon ? Wasn’t this guy a Sith ?»

 

 

«According to the press kit, he ended up given his life to repel a Sith fleet.»

 

«The fleet he had brought in the first place in Republican space.»

 

«Look, who care ? Jedi loves those kind of sappy stories about redemption. This guy, Revan, the Jedi on Tralus that used Force powers to avoid paying alimonies.-»

 

«You had prepared a piece «boss»? On the Jedis ?» said ironically the Human.

 

In her desperate quest for recognition, the lead was often trying to push op-ed pieces, imitating the style of more reputable and known reporters. The results were usually somewhat comical, as she had a marked tendency to copy other sources, while not being very good at selecting the right ones. A good example was her legendary editorial about the latest tensions between Coruscant and Alsakans, made with using as the key reference a documentary made by the HHS (Holonet Historical Channel). The editorial was thus heavy on «Pius Dea secret routes», «Celestial cults», «Sith sects kidnapping girls from the Core to use them as sexual slaves», the usual fare of the HHS-how this was exactly related to trade disputes was not very clear in the HHS documentary, and even less the editorial. This masterpiece had thankfully fallen in the cracks somewhere between the lead datapad and the network headquarters. The would-be historian had kept preciously this document, just in case the «boss» managed by some miracle (or by bedding a VP) to achieve some carrier progression-as a last Pazzak card.

 

«In the press kit, they mention that one Jedi master is boarding the ship tonight…»

 

«And you hope you will be able to interview him? Well, at least, the Jedis won’t send lawyers for defamation. They will just behead us.»

 

With such attitude, the mood of the half-dozen of Humans was not exactly unified when they finally left the shuttle, only to be ushered to one small booth next to the principal hangar, where the main event was being held. The design and the commission of Valor cruisers had been rather controversial, military pundits often savaging the concept, with catchphrases such as the ship being more appropriate for showing the flag than being a flagship. It was true to a certain point: the Gav Daragon had very lavish facilities for shuttles and transports, but the crew did not look much…martial.

 

The would-be grand reporter had a couple of years ago another of her ideas. She had suggested that she and her crew should enlist in the Planetary Security Forces, to show the public the work of the military-cue to a week of walking in circles in the mud, and five people asking one more time to be transferred somewhere else, even on the weather channels. The point was, even if the local PSF had an abyssal reputation, at least those soldiers looked credible. Which was hardly the case of the crew of the Gav Daragon. The…colorful…appearance of the Republic dress uniform did not help.

 

The whole thing looked more like a social happening than a military meeting, much of the sectorial and planetary elite attending. There was one lone female Human, in her late twenties, standing alone near a flight of stairs, relatively close to the booth. A silver-headed protocol droid was standing at attention next to her. Compared to many of female guests, her jewelry was rather low key (or less gaudy), and she would not have attracted much attention, if not for the whispers that the news teams could pick up with their equipment-that Human was the source of a curious but usual mix of scorn and awe.

 

«…a pirate queen from the Outer Rim, who got her pardon in exchange of star charts»

 

«…she is just the public display for a cartel operating on the Hydian»

 

«….some daddy’s girl, whose father is a local tyrant.»

 

The so-called boss, her curiosity excited, browsed one more time through the list of guests, without finding the name of this female. She did found her answer indirectly, however, when she saw at the end of the list the discreet logo of a certain shipping concern. The Human was most likely Lady Synthara, the darling of many medias from the Core. The future host of the evening bulletin from Coruscant News Network (at least according to her) immediately started to daydream about securing an exclusive interview with her-a piece that would certainly be good for her reputation. As Lady Synthara (obviously a fake name) was an interesting combination between absolutely indecent wealth and no personal history. No one knew where she came from. Everyone knew how rich she was. Obviously, the latter was much important than the former.

 

Lady Synthara was much more discreet with her wealth than most, knowing very well that such discretion attracted even more attention. A key example were her earrings, two quite elegant little pieces that featured some sort of humanoid figure, not much bigger than a small Human inch-it did not looked impressive compared to the extensive jewellery worn by most. But considered how good looking and detailed was the figure, those earrings would have been considered as very fine jewellery even if they had been melted with a mere semi-precious metal. But those earrings were not melted. They had been cut. From a single Corusca gem each (as there was slow new days everywhere, reporters made Human interests pieces about those earrings-and the dozen of similar pairs of slightly different colors owned by Lady Synthara-virtually each time she arrived on a Core planet). As it was extremely difficult to cut Corusca gems into simple facetted jewels thanks to the infamous shatterpoints, the price of those earrings must have been mesmerizing-a pair would have been probably enough to build a modern frigate.

 

Lady Synthara was not a mere socialite, however, and hardly the kind of female to put all her wealth in jewels, even tasteful-what really mattered was her not-so material fortune. If the exact origins of Lady Synthara wealth was nebulous, how she increased it was not.

 

Lady Synthara, thanks a variety of backroom deals and hostile corporate takeovers, was the owner of a solid third of the current docking facilities around Brentaal, and controlled over half of the ones in construction. How she had managed this financial tour de force was quite hard to figure out, but what was sure was that those docks brought in mountains of credits-the declared income of Lady Synthara for her activities in the Brentaal system accounted for a good tenth of the planetary budget. All of this was still a relatively small part of her revenues.

 

With such an income, Lady Synthara could afford to be quite generous, which was an excellent way to neutralized eventual probes. In addition to charities and philanthropy, she had for instance given to the Republic Navy exclusive use of one top-of-the-line orbital facility, explaining this move by the fact she was a mere Republican patriot-considering the kind of facilities that most planetary governments were grudgingly leasing to the Navy, the naval brass was not exactly questioning her, especially considering she was generously paying for the evening.

 

Saying that Lady Synthara was respected for this would have been exaggerate. Loathed, envied, scorned, maybe. Even from rather surprising sources. As the female reporter was still daydreaming about how she would introduce her inclusive interview with the Lady and the surprising revelations she would get thanks to her incredible insight, the tech guy coughed to bring her back to reality.

 

«The Jedis have arrived. The raven-haired Human female is the Padawan, I think» said the sound tech, pointing out at the feed of the secondary cam they had installed in the hallway leading to the reception.

 

Someone chuckled that the Jedi trainees had apparently dropped the robe requirement, considering the surprisingly low cut outfit of the Jedi. The history major launched himself in an explanation about how the Order had slightly militarized itself since the Mandalorian conflict-this explaining the more metallic armor used by some members of the Jedi nowadays, only to be cut quite roughly by her boss.

 

«According to the list, the master is Kao Cen Darach ? I’m pronouncing that right ?»

 

People groaned at the thought of their beloved lead trying to secure an interview with the master considering that it would be them (and not the Jedi) that would have to deal with her mood for days after he courtly refused the offer.

 

«Considering that the guy is able to behead you or choke you to death with his mind…»

 

«Where is he from ?» continued the female reporter, ignoring the intervention.

 

«Coruscant. To be sent here, I would say that he is not much loved in the Temple»

 

«I mean, is this a Zabrak or an Iridonian ? Ah, what the hell, it’s the same thing»

 

«Remember how much the station was sued when someone tongue slipped and called the Neimodian ambassador a Duros ? They certainly bought the it’s almost the same thing excuse. This said, you might want to say your line fast, he is about to pass in front of us.

 

«But do I say he is a Zabrak or an Iridonian ?»

 

«Just go around the issue, if this worry you that much.»

 

Sighing, everyone got ready for the little sentence of the lead, prepping cameras and mikes. Thanks to the position of the booth, the Jedis woud have to pass in front of it to reach the reception floor. But he was walking at a brisk pace, making the interception planned quite difficult. As the tech crew was decently skilled, the female went live just in time, as the Zabrak (or Iridonian) zipped past her. She was fumbling with her line, however. The reporter finally stammered out the name….with adding the word.

 

«and here is Master Dao Ken Carach, an alien Jedi Master-»

 

It took a few seconds for the crew to absorb the shock and a few more for the guy in charge of the feed to invent some kind of technical incident that would justify cutting it brutally. Too late, that sentence with the a-word went live. And that was the kind of stuff that would end up tomorrow on streaming sites. The Jedi master, puzzled by the curses and imprecations launched to the red-cheeked female in front of him, stopped for a second, even asking is she was all right and needed some help. Without any answer short of further stammering, he left after a short nod.

 

The female reporter, seeing the rather hostile looks of her crew inside the booth, almost considered enlisting at once to not face them. Not to mention the direction.

 

«We are deader than teenage girls in bikinis making out with each other on a planet affected by a Rakghoul outbreak» finally said the other female of the team, the accountant/administrator. She was better at her real job than at humor, to say the least.