STAR WARS
THE COURTS OF EVERDAWN
In the wake of the battle over Coruscant, the Galactic Republic is locked in a state of total war against the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Battles rage in dozens of systems across the Galaxy and the Jedi order is stretched to the breaking point.
Meanwhile, Separatist agents have been waging a war on a second front. By turning the neutral worlds on the Rim against the Senate, they have been arranging for new enemies to emerge on the Republic's vulnerable flank, spreading the resources of the ailing Jedi order even thinner. If this is allowed to go on, the Separatists may very well win the war by attrition alone.
In response to new reports of Separatist operatives on the planet of Ranos, a Jedi Knight and her padawan are sent to investigate and ensure that the planet remains neutral. If they succeed, they could stop a threat to the Republic before it even emerges...
Kayil sat silently in her room, head bowed, eyes closed, feeling the ebb and flow of the force around her. Far away, like distant echoes of screams in a deep cave, she could sense the clone wars raging on. Thousands of lives lost with every passing minute. Millions of voices crying out in fear. It all seemed far away now, but she could remember all too easily when she had been up there on the front lines with the troops, how deafening that roar of pain and death had been then. Even when she wasn't actively listening as she was now, it had always been there, pressing at the edges of her consciousness. She could see how so many Jedi had lost their way in that maelstrom of destruction. Day after day, it had clawed at her, dragging her inexorably toward the dark side. She had felt the anger and fear of the clones around her every night as she lay down to sleep, and it had been only her training that held her back from becoming lost in that haze of negative emotions.
She turned her attention away from those distant screams and searched instead for a spot of calm. Hyperspace quietly slipped past outside the ship, a corridor of ice-cold silk, and behind her loomed the constant presence of Coruscant, hundreds of billions of voices clamouring, whispering, vying for attention, wanting to make themselves heard. Again, she turned away, and her mind swept the stars around the tunnel of warped space. Worlds whipped by, orbiting many a strange star, but out here on the rim, most of them were uninhabited or at least had no sentient inhabitants. A few specks of consciousness stood out here or there but compared to the core worlds it seemed nearly empty. The ship that carried her was a single speck of life against a vast sea of nothingness.
Finally, her mind's eye turned forward, down the hyperspace tunnel toward their destination. There was the feeling of a planet there. Not a vision, not really, but the Force gave her enough to get a feel for the place. It felt... dry. Empty, like so many of the other worlds that surrounded it. Almost like something dead. But one spot on the world's surface stood out to her, a bright, shining beacon, magnified thousands of times by the hyperspace stream. Because of the stream, it seemed to Kayil that she was only just above the surface, and she looked down to see the glint of mirrors and chrome towers, heard the talk of the inhabitants muffled by the distance, all blending together into a single noise, the sound of a tiny city enveloped and surrounded by a vast wasteland...
And, in amongst all that life, there were a few grains of darkness. Her mind wandered for a moment, brushed up against one of those darker minds, and she recoiled at the hot sensation, the unbridled emotion that coursed through her mind with the contact.
At that moment, the door of her chamber slid open, and she opened her eyes. The chamber she sat in was barely larger than a walk-in closet, with just enough space for a bed, a cabinet, and the small patch of floor that she sat on. The room had been dim, lit only by a single glow panel turned down to minimum brightness, but now light streamed in from outside, framing the silhouette of the young woman in the doorway.
"Yes, Nakiri? What is it?" Kayil asked her padawan, standing up and brushing off her brown robes.
"Master," Nakiri said, bowing, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but the captain said she would like to have you on the command deck when we drop out of hyperspace. As the head representative of the Republic, the natives of Everdawn will be expecting you to be one of the first faces they see, and she expects the Ranos Defence Force to contact us the moment we exit hyperspace."
"Very well. How long until we arrive?"
"At this point... five minutes or so."
Kayil nodded and stepped to the door, gesturing for Nakiri to go ahead. "Very well. I will be right behind you."
It was a short walk to the command deck: they went down the red-carpeted hallway, walked up a short flight of stairs, through a set of sliding doors, and out onto the control deck of the Consular cruiser Invulnerable.
When those doors slid open, the mottled blue tunnel of hyperspace was still slipping past outside the large forward viewport. The command deck was cramped, with only three control stations clustered together at the centre of the room, belonging to the captain, the pilot, and the communications officer. The space around these stations bustled with quiet activity. A Consular-class cruiser had a remarkably small crew for its size class, but it seemed that most of that crew was currently on the bridge. The astrogator and astrogator's mate stood by the door, quietly looking over a set of documents detailing the locations of known Separatist fleets so they could be easily avoided. Three armoured clone troopers stood in corners, blasters holstered by their sides, looking quietly intimidating. The lead gunner and one of the ship's technicians were both engaged in a quiet conversation with the captain, speaking in hushed voices but gesturing emphatically. The captain looked displeased with something, but upon seeing Kayil and her padawan enter the bridge, she raised a hand for silence, and both of the men talking to her immediately stopped, then took a respectful step backwards. The captain swivelled to fully face the two Jedi, rose from her seat, and strode towards them. "Master Kayil. We will be exiting hyperspace in only a few minutes." Her rough accent reflected her border world upbringing, in sharp contrast with the polished Upper Coruscant accent of Kayil, and the carefully refined tones that Nakiri used to conceal the telltale traces of her childhood on the notorious level 1313, kilometres below Coruscant's surface. "I assumed you would wish to be on the bridge when we begin our final approach to Ranos?" the captain continued, raising an eyebrow at Kayil.
"Quite correct, captain Geralda." The Jedi bowed her head ever so slightly, and the gesture was returned by the captain, albeit quickly and with an air of impatience.
"Well then. I suggest the two of you stand behind my chair until they contact us. I'll introduce you, then let you take over communications. Shall we?" She stepped aside, letting the Jedi and apprentice step past him, then followed behind them and sat down in her chair. She offered her two passengers a small, very brief smile over her steepled fingers, then swivelled again to face the main viewport and resumed her conversation with the technician and the gunner without another glance at the passengers.
Kayil and Nakiri exchanged a glance, and Kayil subtly tapped the hem of her robe with a slender-fingered hand. Her padawan glanced down and straightened her own robe, cleared her throat, and stood up straighter. For a moment, the two of them stood side by side, watching the mottled blue tunnel of hyperspace rocket past, letting the chatter of the bridge crew fade into the background. Then the light show vanished, streaks of light appeared like rain running across the windshield of a speeder, and then coalesced into stars. At the same time, a tiny dot of brown and red appeared ahead of them, raced up to meet them, and became a huge orb, filling most of the forward viewport, the planet coming to rest seemingly moments away from colliding with the ship. It was all in shades of brown and umber, and what Kayil could see of the night side was similarly barren in appearance: no city lights gleamed down there. From orbit, it looked almost uninhabited.
The whole crew let out a breath in unison. Then the captain was back into the swing of things. "Sensors, report."
"We have entered Ranos' orbit, captain. Multiple ships and stations detected at extreme ranges. Several fightercraft are on station nearby and have altered course to intercept us. We should have escorts within a minute or two." Provided that the Separatists haven't already gotten here, and these fighters aren't on their way to attack us. Nobody said it, but it was on everyone's minds.
"Comms? Hail the lead fighter. If they respond, give me audio. I doubt that a craft that small has visual comms."
"Aye, sir."
A moment's pause, then "They've returned our hail, sir. Audio link in three... two... one..." A slightly staticky voice sounded over the bridge speakers. "Attention, Republic cruiser. This is Aksur Irwin, callsign Lancer, of the Ranos planetary defence force. We're expecting a diplomatic mission from Coruscant. Do you have the ambassadors we're expecting onboard your vessel?"
The captain thumbed a button on the arm of her chair. "Copy, Lancer. This is captain Geralda of the Republic ship Invulnerable. And yes, we do. We have two Jedi knights aboard. You can speak with them directly if you like."
There was an uncomfortably long pause. Then Aksur Irwin's voice crackled over the comms again. "Copy, Invulnerable. Taking up escort positions around your vessel. We'll guide you to the rendezvous point, where you can offload the... Jedi... onto a Ranos defence force shuttle, which will then transport them down to Suryasta city in the kingdom of Everdawn." The word 'Jedi' was spoken with a biting amount of distaste, and Kayil nearly winced. Nowadays Jedi weren't seen as much more than Republic thugs by much of the galaxy. Still, there was usually a bit more respect in people's voices than she had heard in this pilot's. Kayil could only hope this wouldn't be a sign of things to come.
"Understood, Lancer. Lead the way. Would you like to talk to the Republic representatives?"
"There will be no need, captain. My squadron will simply be escorting you. There will be no need for me to interact with your Jedi." The pilot didn't seem all that disappointed with the fact that he wouldn't be talking with them, Kayil noted with another grimace. She felt Nakiri by her side shift uncomfortably.
"Understood," the captain said again, some tension slipping into her voice now. "Take up escort positions and guide us in."
The comms officer took back over smoothly at a gesture from the captain, switching the audio channel over from the speakers to his own headset and arranging a flight path with the squadron leader, which he then passed along to the man at the helm controls. The captain, meanwhile, swivelled her chair to face the two Jedi standing behind her chair. "Apologies, master Kayil. That was a much more tense interaction than I was expecting. I get the feeling that pilot doesn't approve of your order...?"
Kayil's tone was perfectly neutral as she responded. "I know very little on the matter, captain, barely more than you do, I daresay. Ranos has been off limits to outsiders for the past three centuries, and the Republic was never willing to violate their independence. I'm not certain what their objection to my order is. My hope is that it's simply the personal feelings of this 'Lancer' rather than a cultural bias. Otherwise, this diplomatic mission may turn out to be... problematic."
The captain leaned forward in her chair, putting her elbows on her knees and frowning deeply. "Yeah. I don't like the situation, master Kayil. Will you be safe down there? We already knew they were hostile to outsiders, and now this. And then there are the reports of separatist activity here, and... I don't like it, master Kayil. I think we should send some of the clones with you as a guard compliment."
Kayil smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. "My Padawan and I have diplomatic immunity, captain Geralda. I doubt that these people will be willing to risk a counterattack from the Republic, regardless of their personal feelings towards myself or Nakiri."
The captain looked like she was about to argue the point, her eyes darting to the clone trooper standing by the bridge doors and no doubt thinking how much more comfortable she would be if she could send him and half a dozen of his friends down to the planet's surface as an escort to the two Jedi who had been placed under her protection. Before she could say anything further, though, her comms officer interrupted. "Ranos fighters have assumed escort positions, captain." Geralda looked torn for a moment, then gritted her teeth and turned to face the viewport again, leaving Kayil to direct her own attention in the same direction.
Two of the fighters were visible in the corners of that viewport, and it took Kayil a moment to figure out what she was looking at. The fighters were of a design that she couldn't place, and had been painted a mixture of bright yellow and neon orange. They were very industrial looking designs, with jagged and square edges, outcroppings of metal and machinery, exposed fuel lines and power cables. They appeared to be missing almost half of the armor that should have covered them, and all the pieces that they did have seemed mismatched, of differing sizes and shapes. They were certainly not designed to be streamlined. Kayil doubted they could even fly in an atmosphere. Aesthetically speaking, they were a mess, clunky and misshapen, and painted an ugly orange. They didn't even look especially functional. The engines of one of the fighters seemed minuscule in comparison to its bulk and the heavy layered armor that covered the front end, while the other seemed to be asymmetrical, with the left side covered in ill-fitting hull plating, while the other was totally unarmoured and built in a completely different shape. Who the hell-?
"Caraya's soul," Nakiri muttered, disbelief coating her every word so much that her true accent showed through. "Uglies! They're operating uglies! I knew this place was a backwater, but..."
Suddenly it all fell into place. 'Uglies' were starfighters made up of parts from several different ships of several different models, cobbled together and fused into a contraption that, while technically operational, generally made for at best a bumpy and unwieldy ride, and at worst were uncontrollable disasters just begging to crash into any other object that came too close. The best pilot in the galaxy in the cockpit of most uglies couldn't hope to compete against even a reasonably competent pilot in a good, practical V-wing. For that reason, they were only operated as a last resort, and by fleets and planets that couldn't afford anything better. Nakiri, back in her days salvaging scrapyards on Coruscant, had helped to put together more than a few uglies herself, usually for unsavory customers who had no doubt immediately turned around and sold them to pirates or slavers in the outer rim.
The captain turned her chair slowly back around to face the two Jedi. Kayil smiled down at her. "And you thought we were going to be in danger. Judging from what their space force looks like, I'd be surprised if their ground troops are armed with more than popguns."
The captain grunted. "Don't get too cocky, master Kayil. They've still got multiple capital ships and stations in orbit. Clearly, they do have some military resources. Plus there's the fact that you were sent here in the first place. The Republic wouldn't have sent two Jedi if this planet wasn't a serious threat." Kayil let her smile recede, and nodded begrudgingly. The captain was right. This was a reclusive, militarized kingdom with heavily enforced border policies and a population of millions, though just how many nobody outside the kingdom itself probably knew. Still, they couldn't be that dangerous if they were operating a squadron of uglies!
"Captain, I don't believe we are needed here anymore, and my Padawan and I need to retrieve our luggage and prepare to disembark. Permission to go aft?" "Granted," the captain replied. "But Kayil... I'm gonna be staying in a low orbit throughout your entire stay, and at the first sign of trouble, I am gonna be coming down there to get you. You got that?" "Yes, captain. We'll be careful." The captain stared at her for another moment, then nodded sharply and turned to face the helmsman.
Kayil and Nakiri left the bridge, returning to their quarters to retrieve their bags. A few seconds after the doors to the bridge slid shut behind them, Nakiri audibly sighed.
"Is something wrong?" asked Kayil.
"The captain's right, you know. This whole situation is off. There's something about it that makes me uneasy. You meditated on the way here, right?"
"I did," Kayil replied, careful not to let any extra meaning slip into the simple sentence.
"You must have felt it too, then. There's darkness here. Dark minds, dark places. The whole planet is tainted."
"There wasn't that much, not as far as I could tell."
"A small amount of corruption is all it takes, master, you know that. The dark side is insidious. Once it takes root, it will inevitably grow."
Kayil made a noncommittal noise.
"Master Kayil-"
"Nakiri. This is not the time. We are here to convince these people that joining the Republic would be best for them. Suspicion and accusations are not the best way to go about that."
"You felt what I felt, didn't you? Fury, rage, loss of control. There are force sensitive people down there, and they are living without the guidance and care of the Jedi order. No Jedi has set foot on Ranos in three hundred years, what do you think we're going to find down there? I'm just saying, master, I have a bad feeling about this."
"Enough, Nakiri." A hard edge had crept into Kayil's voice, and the Padawan's mouth snapped shut immediately. Kayil breathed deep, let her feelings settle, reached out with her senses, took hold of the threads of the force, anchored herself against the wave of emotion... "That's enough," she said again, more calmly. "Nakiri, I understand your concerns. But we are here as diplomats, so I don't want you mentioning any of this while we are down on that planet's surface, not to anyone but me, and even talking to me about it should be kept to a minimum. Resentment festers, and it will make it more difficult to deal with these people if in secret we are being actively suspicious of them. I know it's there, and trust me when I say that I will be keeping a careful eye on it. But regardless of what we might sense, we have our mission. Do you understand me, Kayil?"
A moment's pause, then: "I understand, master." Flat; calm; collected. Good. Kayil came to a stop in front of the door to her cabin. "Very well, Nakiri. This is my room. Go get your own bags, and I'll see you on the shuttle." "Yes, master." Nakiri was looking down at Kayil's boots. Perhaps she had been too hard on the girl.
"Nakiri? Nakiri, look at me."
The younger woman's green eyes rose to meet Kayil's. "Good. Nakiri... I do understand your concerns, really I do. But we have a job to do here. Okay?"
"Yes, master." The Padawan nodded, her eyes drifting away from Kayil's again.
"Right. Go. Get ready. I'll meet you at the docking umbilical. And Nakiri-" The younger woman had started to turn away, heading for her own room, but she paused. Kayil's voice lowered. "Keep your lightsaber on your person throughout the whole mission. Even when you sleep, I want it to be within your reach. Set noise traps at windows and doors of your sleeping chambers, and whenever possible use a restorative trance rather than actually sleeping. Understood?"
"Yes, master," Nakiri said again, a much harder edge creeping into her voice. She turned on her heel and strode off down the hallway with purpose.
Nakiri slipped into a comfortable seat on the small shuttlecraft that had latched onto the underside of the Invulnerable, setting one of her light suitcases down in the seat beside her. She didn't own much, and while the trip from Coruscant to the edge of the Unknown Regions was long by hyperspace standards, she hadn't had enough time onboard to unpack everything, so packing had been a simple matter of picking up her suitcases and folding up the cot.
Her master took the seat on her other side, and across from them sat the two clone troopers who captain Geralda had insisted on sending with them, with their helmets on and their blasters resting across their laps.
The pilot glanced back over his shoulder at the passengers. "Alright. Is everyone aboard who's coming aboard? We're passing over Suryasta city now, so if you want to go now's the time."
Master Kayil heaved her own luggage up into the seat beside her, then replied "Yes, we're ready. Go ahead." "Right. Detaching."
With a loud, metallic "clang!" the tiny shuttle detached from the bulk of the cruiser. There was a slight jolt as the onboard gravity generators kicked in and took over from those of the larger ship, and then a rumble as the engines engaged. The Invulnerable dropped away behind them and they rocketed down towards the planet. Kayil watched one of the uglies detach from the main squadron and follow along just above one of the shuttle's wings, but the rest continued to circle the cruiser like huge, poorly constructed, terminally ill birds of prey.
"Alright, Jedi. Strap in tight, and hang onto your luggage. The Ranos atmospheric reentry can be a bit rough on people who've never handled it before but trust me, I know what I'm doing."
Beside Kayil, Nakiri's breathing had changed subtly, and she watched the approaching planet with wide eyes, the muscles in her jaw clenching. After a few moments of silence, she cleared her throat and called out to the pilot in a tone that tried and failed to be nonchalant. "So, uh, sir? Why is reentering this particular atmosphere so much more difficult than others?"
The pilot made an adjustment to his course, then glanced back over his shoulder at her. "Well, miss, that would be because of the fact that Ranos is tidally locked."
"Yes, I'd heard about that..." Nakiri glanced out the viewport at the red wasteland slipping by underneath them. The sun was directly at their back, and it was sinking in the sky as they got lower. By the time they reached the ground it would be dusk, but since the sun didn't move in the sky of Ranos it would remain dusk throughout their entire stay on the planet. The city of Suryasta was built right on the line between the day and night halves of the planet. "I know that it's tidally locked, sir, but, uh, why would that make reentry any more difficult?"
The pilot glanced back again. "Are you sure you want to be thinking too hard about this? You already seem pretty worked up. Do you really want to scare yourself more by-"
Kayil interrupted him. "There are constant hurricane-force winds that blow along the ground from the bright side to the dark side. They have blasted the surface into the waste that you see below you. Meanwhile, high altitude winds flow in the opposite direction at similar speeds."
One might have expected Nakiri to become even more nervous upon receiving this information. Certainly, given the vicious look which he gave Kayil, that was how the pilot was expecting her to react. It was a look that said Stop meddling, I don't need a panicked passenger on my shuttle, this is going to be hard enough already. Surprisingly, though, Nakiri's eyes narrowed in thought, followed by a wide-eyed look of curiosity directed at Kayil. "Fascinating. Why is that, master?"
Kayil smiled. "Do you have your data pad on hand?" Nakiri quickly produced it from the inside of her bag and handed it over. Kayil punched in a series of search terms, then handed it back. "This should have all the answers you're looking for."
Nakiri had known perfectly well what she was doing when she asked for information about the descent. She was a scientifically curious sort, and would probably be able to distract herself throughout the entire reentry procedure. She licked her lips, took the datapad, and began scrolling through the articles Kayil had called up for her. Beside her, the Jedi master sank back into her seat and breathed deep. She didn't have the advantage of being able to distract herself like that. She would have to handle this the old-fashioned way. She closed her eyes and inhaled even deeper.
It was about another minute before the shuttle arrived in the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere. Their fighter escort broke off and made for orbit in order to rejoin the rest of its squadron. It didn't look like it was capable of handling any atmosphere, let alone the extremes of a Ranos reentry. A couple minutes after that, as the sun continued to sink towards the horizon, a high-pitched howling could he heard and tiny shudders began to run through the shuttle's deck and walls. Then all of a sudden the whole shuttle was buffeted by a tooth-rattling gust, and the whine of over-strained repulsorlifts began to reverberate through the deck. Through it all, Kayil breathed, never letting the signs of danger break her calm. She was safe. The shuttle pilot said he knew what he was doing. The Force had her. She was safe... Over and over again, she repeated those thoughts as the shuttle was flung about like a leaf in a gale and the hot wind roared by just outside the thin walls, the dust it carried hissing against the bulkhead just behind her.
Finally, the rattling died down to a bearable level, and she allowed herself to open her eyes. The first place she looked was the seat beside her, checking on her Padawan. Nakiri stared unblinkingly at the datapad cradled in her lap, eyebrows creased in a look of concentration, apparently completely oblivious to the world around her. Kayil breathed a sigh of relief that turned into a chuckle. Dull red light shone in through the shuttle's viewports. The two clone troopers across the aisle from her had apparently not moved at all since the descent began, and Kayil found herself wondering for the millionth time just what they had been put through on Kamino to give them this level of composure. One of them sensed her stare and glanced over at her, his expression unreadable behind his intimidating visor.
"Alright," the pilot said, sounding just as relieved as Kayil felt, "If you Jedi back there want to look out the viewport now, you should be able to see the city." Kayil craned her head to look through the viewport that was on the other side of Nakiri, who was still engrossed in her study.
The city was built in the shadow of a huge, jagged mountain range. It towered over the city, and from her position inside the shuttle, Kayil couldn't even see the peaks. The dim red light filtered over the mountains, illuminating the thin, tenuous veils of sand and dust that were being whipped off the tops of the mountains. The shuttle itself was flying just below the level of those peaks, using the calm wind shadow behind them to reduce speed, regain composure and give the pilot a break before he came in to make a landing. The repulsorlifts had stopped whining under the strain, and now the shuttle drifted through the dim, dusty sky like a swan gliding across the surface of a pond.
The city stretched out under them. A dozen huge silver towers in the middle of the city reminded her of Coruscant, though even from this far away she could tell they weren't nearly as large as the buildings she had grown up in. Around them, smaller towers stretched away along the main thoroughfares like spokes of a wheel spreading out from that central hub, and beyond that was the main city, a spiderweb of streets, windows, buildings large and small, (though no building in the city seemed to be less than about five storeys tall as far as Kayil could tell, she had been born on Coruscant, and by her standards they were tiny) all marching outwards in remarkably orderly and efficient concentric circles, radiating out from those central spires, all glittering in the indirect light of the eternal sunset that filtered over the mountains.
And then, suddenly, the city ended and farmland began. There were offshoots of the city, arms stretching out into the countryside, but everywhere Kayil looked there was a single dividing line. On one side, city. On the other, a few meters away, crops and orchards, spreading out towards the mountains in the distance, where they rose suddenly into the sky, scraps of farmland still clinging to whatever plateaus they could find on the slopes. More towers glittered there, much like the midsize skyscrapers in the second or third ring of the city, but jutting out from the slopes or perched precariously on outcroppings that seemed far too small for them. Some were perched so high up the cliffs that Kayil suspected that had she been able to see the peaks she would have seen them peaking over the tops of the mountains and gleaming in the direct sunlight.
"Every square inch of usable land, we've put to use," the shuttle pilot said with a note of pride in his voice. "Ice is shipped in from the night side where it gets carried by the wind and falls as snow. Mirror arrays on the tops of the cliffs redirect sunlight down onto the fields to simulate a day-night cycle, which many of these plants still need, even after centuries of living here. The solar arrays on the mountains are always receiving direct sunlight, letting them provide all the electricity we need, so we don't have to mine for nuclear fuel. We've made a good life for ourselves here."
"Yes, I can see that." Kayil was still staring at the surprisingly advanced skyline as the shuttle began to descend further towards the cityscape below and the telltale flashing lights of a landing pad. "I'll be perfectly honest, I'm surprised. Nobody from the Republic has been here in a very long time, so I didn't have much to judge off of, but based on the state of that squadron we saw up in orbit..."
The pilot chuckled. "Noticed that, did you? Yeah, well, we've never had much need to build up a big, expensive military. If I recall correctly, neither did the Republic until a few years ago, right? We're not at war with the Confederacy, so there hasn't been a need for us to build up our fleet in the same way that you have. To let you in on a secret, though, most of those buildings down there are really old. They're mostly just holdovers from the Republic era."
Kayil looked down at the skyline. Now that she knew to look for it, she did see some signs of wear and tear. Wind-blasted paneling, some windows that had been filled in with cheap materials to replace presumably broken glass, stains and scuffs on the white spires. "So the military isn't a priority for you, then?"
"Not the spaceborne forces, no. I don't think I should say much more, though. I'm sure lady Zu Elaiza will want to discuss all of this with you personally when you meet her."
Kayil filed this away. At the very least she would be able to report back to the Republic that this place wasn't as big of a threat.
"Ah, something you should be aware of, though. I heard from one of his squadmates that Lancer was the one who greeted you?"
"He was."
"Yeah... I imagine that didn't go over especially well."
"Not as bad as it could have."
"Still. You should probably know that anti-Jedi sentiments are pretty strong in certain circles of Everdawn society, particularly among people like Lancer and his... uh... order."
"Order?"
The pilot was silent for a moment, easing the shuttle down onto the landing pad. From what Kayil had seen, though, he was an extremely skilled pilot. Certainly enough of one to talk while doing a mundane maneuver like parking. She got the distinct feeling that he was stalling for time.
With a light bump, the shuttle touched down and the pilot turned in his seat to fully face Kayil. "The Umbral Knights. I'm sure you'll learn about them eventually. Uh, you should probably get the kid to listen to this, too. This concerns her."
Kayil nudged Nakiri with her elbow, and the younger woman bolted upright, looking confused for a moment. "Yeah? What? Umbral knights? What are they?" she said in a rush. As far as Kayil had been able to tell in the three years she had spent training the girl, Nakiri did tend to keep half an ear listening to whatever conversations were going on in the room. The content of that conversation just tended not to filter through to her mind until she had been brought back to reality.
The pilot smirked at this odd response but continued his explanation without commenting on it. "Alright. The umbral knights are force users like you guys. They separated from the Jedi order around the same time Ranos separated from the Republic. Anyone born on Ranos who shows force potential is brought to them to go through testing and enter training if they turn out to be gifted. I don't know many of the specifics, I don't go in for that mysticism stuff, but one thing I do know is they don't really approve of the Jedi teachings, whatever those might be. Lancer is one of them. He's important, he's powerful, he's wealthy, from what I've heard he has a grudge against Jedi that goes beyond most of the Umbral knights... he's bad news for people like you, and I suggest you stay well clear. And if anyone asks, I didn't tell you any of this. I don't want to attract his attention, either."
Kayil's eyes narrowed. Force users operating outside the Jedi order. That was bad enough on its own. But a whole order of them, and an order that openly disliked the Jedi...? What have I gotten myself into? Beside her, Nakiri seemed to be having a similar response.
Kayil broke the silence before it became too painful. "Thank you, mister...?"
"Adorac, ma'am. Adorac Balam."
She nodded deeply, as close to a bow as she could accomplish while seated. "Thank you, mister Vandorac, for the information and the advice. I believe my Padawan and I had best be going now. We have an appointment to keep."
"You're welcome, ma'am. Good luck. Your other bags will be brought to your rooms as soon as they are assigned."
She stood, bowed again, her brown robe sweeping around her, then picked up her bag from the seat and walked towards the door. Adorac touched a button on the arm of his chair and the hatch slid open, letting Kayil step down onto the landing pad and hoist her bag after her, setting it down on the tarmac. Nakiri followed immediately after her, still clutching her datapad, and looked around.
"Whoa. City. Wasn't expecting that."
"Indeed. You should have seen it from the air."
"Well, why didn't you point it out?"
"Mister Adorac did. You were busy."
"Oh." Nakiri sheepishly fiddled with her robe. "I found out some neat things about weather, though."
"Very good, padawan. And I'm sure I'll hear all about it next time we're alone, whether I want to or not. Come on." The jab was lighthearted, and Nakiri's only response was to smile, pick up her bag, and hurry after her master towards the waiting aircar on the far side of the landing pad.
The throne room of the kingdom of Everdawn was absolutely gorgeous. Situated at the top of the highest of the great skyscrapers in the heart of Suryasta city, it took up half of the entire penthouse space of the building. All huge glass windows and elegant plasteel arches, grand sweeping staircases, and broad balconies for observers to stand out of the way of the proceedings. The throne room was lit by natural light streaming in through the huge, tinted windows that ringed the space, combined with light fixtures in hidden alcoves that bounced their dim light off of large, curved mirrors, casting a dull, diffuse red glow over the entire chamber. The main floor was divided into three levels: the debate space was the lowest, placing those who spoke there symbolically beneath the eyes of all who watched them. The next level was where the seats were positioned, where lady Elaiza's court sat and watched the proceedings, offering opinions when they were called for. Finally, at one end of the room, on the highest pedestal in the chamber and behind a low banister was Lady Zhu Elaiza, regally decked out in Everdawn formal wear: sleek, black and red suit clothes with a fold-over front and long skirt, made complete with a forest green cape and the thin silver presence crown of the Zhu dynasty. Her legs were crossed, her back straight, and the fingers of one hand were tapping impatiently on the arm of her throne as she gazed coldly down at the finely dressed man standing on the debate floor.
"...My lady, lord Kathka is clearly incapable of truly controlling the Dust Ridge barony. His reckless and dangerous disregard for the safety and well being of his fellow citizens and of the kingdom, in general, makes him unworthy of controlling such an important and vital holding. Whether his most recent failure was a result of simple stupidity or of rampant corruption and pocketing of maintenance funds is beside the point. I can no longer overlook his flagrant violations of the oaths he swore when he first took office and was granted the holding in question."
High Lady Zhu Elaiza, Queen of Everdawn, Duchess of Suryasta and the Wind's Edge Protectorate, Countess of the Orojin Belt, and liege of the House of Lords and the Umbral Knights was not a woman who was prone to frustration. She prided herself on that. In spite of the 'concerns' she knew were still echoed by some members of the House of Lords when she was not in the room, she was actually quite diligent and attentive in her duties as a queen, even the more irritating aspects of acting as the kingdom's highest authority. Her tutors when she was younger had always complimented her on her patience, her ability to maintain composure in stressful situations, her calm and reasonable approach to solving problems.
That being said, she could recognize a waste of her time when she saw one, and she had absolutely no tolerance for it. Her patience was being stretched to its limit by Lord Aksur's most recent round of accusations and attacks against his fellow lords. Today it was Lord Kathka of Dust Ridge, whose barony included the two mirror arrays that had recently broken down and wound up directing sunlight onto a specific area of Lord Aksur's cropland for 34 hours straight, resulting in the soil drying out and the destruction of most of the harvest. It hadn't really been Lord Kathka's fault, though, and he had already offered a public apology and to pay for the damages out of his own pocket. But of course, Aksur, ever the opportunist, had swooped in to depose his long-time rival. There weren't many in the court who weren't Aksur's long-time rivals, even among his so-called "allies".
She gestured for Lord Kathka to step forward. He rose from his seat at the front of the court and descended to the debate floor to face her, Aksur shrinking into the background.
"Lord Kathka, I believe we all know the facts of the case, and I know we have all heard Lord Aksur's views on the matter..." She glanced over at the man, looking smug and insufferable as ever. She kept her expression carefully neutral. Be the painting. Be that stoic portrait of your father.
Kathka really had done nothing wrong as far as she could tell. The maintenance worker whose sloppiness had resulted in the destruction of the farmland had been appropriately disciplined, and Lord Kathka had offered multiple formal apologies since the incident, including one while it was still in progress. This was political posturing, and her patience was running thin. But that would be undiplomatic. Aksur was a powerful man, and she couldn't afford his displeasure or the disapproval of his allies. She wished she could offer her open support for Lord Kathka. Perhaps it would even result in a duel. It was always so satisfying watching Kathka put another lord in his place with a blade.
She shook off her fantasies. Life was not so simple. "So, Lord Kathka. Is there anything you wish to present to this court in the way of explanation, defense or apology?" she continued. Eyes hooded, breath level. Keep it cool.
"Yes, my lady," Kathka replied. "As I have already stated, this was the fault of a single maintenance worker, and arguably the sloppiness of a few of his fellows. I have already applied appropriate punishment to the guilty party and placed his coworkers under review. New policies are being prepared to prevent future incidents like-"
"These are excuses, my lady!" interrupted Aksur. "And besides, a lord is responsible for all those within his domain. His mirrors have caused damages, he should not be trying to pass the blame onto-"
Zhu Elaiza raised one hand, and Aksur suddenly cut himself off. His shoulders slumped, and he bowed his head. "Apologies, my lady." He withdrew a few steps behind his opponent.
"If I may continue, my lady?"
Elaiza was about to gesture for him to resume when an aide rose from a seat near the wall and darted to the side of her throne. The aide whispered briefly into her ear, and her attention snapped away from the proceedings on the floor below her.
"My lady. The Republic representatives have arrived. Jedi. Two, one master, one padawan."
Ah. The Republic representatives. Of course. Reestablishing contact with the rest of the galaxy. The most important thing any sitting monarch of Everdawn had done in a century. And here, in the middle of it, she was dealing with this idiot and his ploy for power. It was a dance. A carefully choreographed, elegant, and totally pointless dance, and she had no time for it. Consequences be damned.
She waved the aide away and fixed her eyes back on Lord Kathka. "No, my lord, I think that will be all we need. We understand the situation, and I believe this court is ready to make its judgment."
Lord Aksur was taken off-guard by this. "M-my lady? My lady, I still have things to say about the case at hand! As the prosecution and a member of the House of Lords, I have the right to-"
"If you have something to say, say it. No doubt you were going to demand that Lord Kathka give up his holding at Dust Ridge, and then when that was inevitably denied you would make your actual demand, so let's just skip the formalities and go straight to what you actually want from this court. I'm sure we all have places to be, and this session is dragging on far longer than any of us had planned on."
"Why... why, my lady, I..." She smirked at his flustered attitude. He clearly knew he was caught, and that she would put up with no more. He drew himself up to his full height, grey mustache bristling, one hand landing on the hilt of his ceremonial sword. "I want nothing more than recognition of the wrong that Lord Kathka has done me, and a personal apology from him. Accompanied by an appropriate monetary incentive for my forgiveness, of course."
Lady Elaiza almost had to laugh. "If it's a matter of honor, my lord, I believe we all know how it should be resolved. Lord Kathka, is your sword sharp?"
"It is, my lady."
Lord Aksur's eyes went wide. "Wait just a moment, I-"
"Very well. Lord Aksur, you have my official permission to challenge any person of appropriate position in this room to a duel of honor if you so wish it."
Elaiza was pleased to see several other lords and ladies leaning forward in the court, their own smiles of triumph matching hers. "Thank you, my lady." Aksur bowed stiffly, his hand landing on the hilt of his sword, his other hand clasped across his chest. He turned on his heel, hard-soled shoes landing with a snap, facing Kathka. He couldn't very well back down now while still saving face, and she watched with barely-contained amusement as Aksur offered one hand to his opponent. "A duel," he declared, a note of defeat sneaking into his voice.
Kathka grinned and gave Aksur a deep, graceful bow. "Indeed! A duel! As the defender, I choose swords as the weapon." He clasped his opponent's hand and muttered something else to him that Elaiza couldn't hear.
Lady Elaiza stood with a rustle of fine fabric, echoed a moment later by the rest of the courtiers. "Lord Kathka, Lord Aksur, you will meet in twenty-eight hours on the field of honor. Your duel will be fought with swords and will continue until one party is forced to yield or is rendered incapable of yielding. Now, unless there is anything else to be brought to the floor, I should like to dismiss this session and deal with some other affairs of state."
There was silence. No other lords or ladies stepped forward with an issue to declare before the court. She nodded decisively and said, "This session of the Royal Court of Everdawn is adjourned."
There was the sound of scraping chair legs and hushed conversation as various lords and ladies began to file out of the room in a fluttering current of colorful silks. Elaiza watched them go, herself standing stalk-still in front of the throne. Down on the debate floor, Aksur glared up at her until the room was almost empty, then pivoted and stormed out, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly. As much as she had enjoyed calling him out like that, Elaiza knew she would have trouble with him later.
She could deal with it. She turned to her aide and lowered her voice. "Lin. Walk with me." She started towards the small, unassuming door positioned behind the throne, her assistant trailing along in her wake.
As soon as she left the throne room into the narrow, red-carpeted hallway that led to her personal chambers, she removed the thin silver crown and passed it to Lin, who took it reverently. As soon as it left Elaiza's hand, she sighed in relief, as if it was far heavier than it really was. She set off down the hall towards the single door at the far end.
"So. Lin. The Jedi. Where are they staying?"
"The grand tower. Three floors down. The Niriam suite."
"Good. Good. Easy to keep an eye on them, but it also doesn't seem like I'm letting them get too close. Well done, Lin."
"Thank you, my lady."
They passed through the door into Elaiza's personal study, a tight, cozy space filled with shelves of paper books, with her desk and a holoprojector at the centre. As well as the one they had just stepped through, two more doors led off to other parts of the royal suite. The opposite wall was mostly made up of picture windows, just like the throne room, but these were untinted and offered an unobstructed view of the breathtaking landscape outside, the city below and the fields stretching away to the mountains in the distance.
"How many of the other lords know they've arrived?"
"Most of them. And those that don't will very soon. I saw at least seventeen courtiers listening to something in their earpiece during the last portion of the meeting. That leaves at most ten who don't know about their arrival. And those ones will be listening for any word of their arrival as well. You made sure of that when you announced your plan to receive Republic diplomats."
Elaiza nodded absently. She crossed the room to her desk, picking up the tall, thin pitcher of emerald wine she had left there and pouring a glass of the light green liquid. "Well, what's done is done. And it's probably for the best that the decision doesn't surprise them." She took a sip and settled into the chair behind the desk. She put down the glass and leaned forward, interlocking her fingers and frowning over her clasped hands. Lin, well acquainted with her lady's mannerisms, stood expectantly over to one side, pulling out her datapad and preparing to take a note of Elaiza's next command.
"Bring them here," Elaiza said at length.
"My lady?"
"I want to speak with them. Before we're officially introduced. It will be... 19 hours until we officially present them to the court, but I'd like to start my dealings with them now."
"Yes, my lady." Lin dutifully took the note and sent it off to the appropriate people to make it happen. "Will that be all, my lady?"
"Yes, thank you, Lin. I should wind down so that I can get some sleep after meeting with them."
Lin bowed and turned to the windows, tapping some commands into her datapad and causing a reddish tint to creep into them, too, reducing light levels to prepare her lady for bed.
"Oh, there is one more thing, actually."
Lin turned to face her again, one finger poised over the datapad.
"Has there been any word about our other guests?"
"No, my lady. None so far. I'll tell you as soon as I receive word."
Elaiza sighed. "Alright. Don't hesitate to wake me up if I'm sleeping when you get word about them reaching here. I will want to know as soon as possible, understood?"
"Yes, my lady. You'll be informed as soon as the delegation from the Seperatists arrives."