THIS OLD TEMPLE: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
by ardavenport
Lando Calrissian entered the busy Senate offices.
An aide took his velvety blue cape and another one ushered him into the outer office past a couple of fidgety petitioners waiting in the cushy chairs of the reception area. There were perks to knowing the right people; Lando liked it that way.
"Oooummmoss hhhuuffff huuuff ooossss ssssooossfffufff," a tall Tramakis complained about the slow pace of her people's settlement on a core world moon. She and Leia stood at opposite sides of a round spotlessly white holo-table, a green, transparent image of the moon in question floating above its glowing surface.
"I understand, Delegate Ssfooos. But we cannot expand the settlements until the farming sectors are fully established. The New Republic cannot afford to support your settlements indefinitely. We need to concentrate on making them self-sufficient," Senator Leia, dressed in a shimmering white gown, her thick brown hair tied in a long braid down her back, answered in a tone that made Lando think that she had already explained this point, many times.
Ssfooos pointed out that the New Republic seemed to have no trouble supporting them in the slums of the former Imperial governates that they had been driven into by the Emperor.
"All of that support is being allocated from the former Imperial treasury for all dislocated persons. It ends as soon as your people are no longer displaced, that's why we have to focus the resources we have on self-sufficiency." Leia's eye flicked toward Lando, her lips quirking in a flicker of a smile. Ssfooos's eye-stalks glanced his way as well.
"I'm sorry Delegate Ssfooos, but I must excuse myself for my next appointment. I will bring up your concerns to the Disposition of Displaced Beings Committee tomorrow."
Curtly bobbing her head, Ssfooos promised to be in the gallery to note that she did. The Tramakis delegate lowered her fore body and slithered out, the tough skin of her belly softly swishing on the carpeted floor. She glared at Lando as she passed, but vocalized nothing.
As soon as the door closed Leia sighed heavily, rolling her eyes.
"Sounds like that was a timely rescue," Lando said, stepping forward, taking Leia's hand.
"Yes. Very timely." Leia hugged him in return.
"What did you need to talk to me about? It sounded important."
Leia sighed again and turned back to the holo-table.
"I'm hoping you'll be able to help Luke out." She tapped a last control. A large yellowish image of the Jedi Temple and the cityscape below it appeared. "With this."
Lando shrugged. "That Temple's been there for a long time. If Palpatine couldn't get rid of it, I don't think I can do anything about it."
"It's not the Temple, it's Luke who needs help."
"Luke thinks that thing looks like a Hutt palace. But I don't think I can help with that either. It's too big."
"It does look like a Hutt palace, doesn't it?" Leia looked momentarily concerned at the transparent pyramidal base and spires before moving on. "But that's not the problem, either. Luke is supposed to appear before the Sector Ecology Sub-Committee about opening it up."
"Aaaaah," Lando said, finally understanding. "Luke's going by himself, to convince them to let him open it?"
"That's what he says." Leia put a hand on her hip.
"And you think he's going to get eaten alive by them," Lando concluded.
"If he's lucky," she said nodding.
"If he's not?"
"Well, if he's not, they actually have the right to take it away from him. If they think he can't handle it."
Lando whistled. "Would they do that? Luke's still a hero of the Rebellion. Not to mention the only surviving Jedi Knight."
"They might," Leia said, her tone hard and serious. "There are still a few Imperial holdovers who managed to keep their places on that committee. And real estate on Coruscant is pretty valuable now. Especially where that Temple is."
"Location is everything when it comes to real estate," Lando noted. "And I hear that the Judiciary is working overtime going after all the fraudulent claims of people who say the Emprie confiscated 'their property'."
Leia nodded, clearly not happy to acknowledge this problem. "They're investigating the Committee among others. But it's going to take time.
"In the meantime, I don't want to have to deal with Luke getting himself into trouble with that Temple. There are plenty of groups who might like an option on that space if they smell a weak target. You've done pretty well fielding the holo-nets for Luke. Can you help him out with this?"
"No."
"No?" she answered, her tone rising in surprise and disappointment, her brown eyes widening.
Lando shook his head. "No. Even in the outer rim, the Coruscant Ecology Committees are legendary for their dirty politics and back biting. I don't know how even Palpatine kept them in line."
"He used to have some of the members executed whenever they did something he didn't like. We can't do that."
"Those were the good old days." Lando sighed. "Well, I'm no lawyer and I don't think any Jedi mind tricks will work. If that's what Luke is planning,"
"He says he won't do that," Leia said with a touch of exasperation.
"That's very noble of him. They'll eat him alive." Lando held up a reassuring finger with a grin. "But I think I know just the paragon of justice who will be able to stand up for Luke and his Temple."
"You do?"
"Absolutely. If it's handled right, I think all it will take is someone with the right legal punch delivered at the right time to scare off the real estate carnivores." He shrugged. "Along with a little under-the-table - - but perfectly legal - - dealing on the side."
"Really?" Leia asked, her tone hopeful.
"Yep. Luke's got a lot more influence than he's willing to use - - hero of the Rebel Alliance and all - - we just need to bring in someone who knows how to use it for him."
The lawyer's offices was much less luxurious than the Senate ones, in a more modest office tower several sectors away from the high-rent government districts. Lando noted the worn carpets and unpolished droids as he stepped out of the lift. Everything was clean, but there were no frills. No one rushed to take his cape for him or offer him refreshments. Everyone was much too busy. The receptionist only briefly scanned his ident card before waving him on and going back to the holo-com demanding his attention. Another two people worked at their desk screens and didn't even glance his way.
When Lando came into the office, he found Counsel Sorin Tortle holding his own meeting with three people, all Twi'leks, two blue, one yellow in skin tone, their head lekku decorated with bands and tattoos. They all looked quite young and fresh to Lando. So had the others in the outer office.
Except for Tortle.
He was as battle-scarred as any war veteran.
"Camp out in Thorgot's outer office if you have to. I think Senator Glimick is seeing things our way, finally, and he might be some help with Thorgot's crowd," he said with a predatory scowl. Then his brown eyes flicked toward Lando. The eyes of the youthful staff looked his way as well, as if he'd just walked in on a war meeting with their general.
"Get to it," Tortle finished. The young staff snapped up the data screens and recorders and filed past, leaving Lando alone with their boss.
"Planning a new campaign?" Lando asked.
"Just some of the old ones that need a little reinforcement," the tough old Counsel muttered as he clicked off the inset screens of text on the conference room table. "Some fools in the new Senate think that they can skimp on reparations."
"There are still a few sympathizers to the Empire left over there."
"For now," Tortle snarled. "They'll show their cowardice soon enough when they start to lose power." He finished tidying up after the meeting and stood before Lando. Everything about him was square and solid. A long, dark gray tunic hung off of broad shoulders, still unbowed, even after spending years in one of Palpatine's prisons. One eyebrow ended in a long scar down the side of his face and up his temple nearly to the top of his head under his thinning short white hair.
He looked over Calrissian with disdain, clearly he mistrusted anyone too well groomed, too well dressed.
"So, you need a favor from me? Funny thing, I don't remember owing you anything. This is the first time we've ever met."
"The favor's not for me. Mind if I have a seat?" Lando didn't wait for permission to pull up a basic blue plastoid chair. Tortle remained towering over his visitor for a moment before relenting and grabbing a chair for himself.
"You come highly recommended," Lando started.
"So, who does need a favor?" he demanded, ending the introductions.
"Luke Skywalker," Lando said at once. "Or more generally, the Jedi Order. I hear that you might owe them one or two favors. Or so I've heard," he said conversationally. The hostility immediately lessened in his eyes at the word, 'Jedi' and Lando knew he had come to the right man.
"I earned a few years in prison for my sympathy to the Jedi Order."
"I heard that you were almost executed for it."
Tortle grinned, a fierce survivor's sneer. "I was almost executed for a lot worse than that." Then he sighed, a little bit of the pain and hardship that he had endured leaking out.
"What does this young Skywalker need?"
"He is scheduled to petition the Sector Ecology Sub-Committee to re-open the Jedi Temple. Tomorrow."
Tortle's scarred face grimaced. "Those cut-throat toadies. Does he have any representation?"
"That's what I'm here for."
Tortle slapped his leg, sitting back in his chair, the plastoid creaking.
"He had to wait until now to call for help?" he complained. Lando knew he would help. He would not have looked so put upon if he were just going to send him away empty-handed.
"Well actually. . . . ." Lando continued as Tortle's frown deepened. ". . . . he doesn't think he needs help. He's been planning to make his case by himself, but Senator Organa and I have prevailed upon him to have some . . . . more experienced help come on board."
"Aaauugh!" Tortle stood and began pacing angrily. "Typical Jedi! They think that just knowing about the mysteries of the universe makes them capable of everything! Hah!" Then the irate tone left his voice. "They certainly paid dearly for that. Worse than I did." His eyes went back to Lando. "I'm going to need everything you have on that Temple. And whatever miserable excuse for a petition Skywalker has pasted together." He didn't wait for Lando's affirmative before turning and slapping the com on his conference table.
"Tuomus! Clear my schedule for the rest of the day. And tomorrow. And get me Beesaka!"
Sorin Tortle didn't actually bother meeting Luke Skywalker before he showed up for the Sector Ecology Sub-Committee. Tortle rolled right over the Hero of the Rebel Alliance without a backward glance and took his place at the petitioner's podium.
"Who is this guy?" Luke demanded of Lando and jabbed a thumb up at Tortle's back.
"He's good," Lando stated emphatically. "And he's just the legal warrior you need. Watch."
Looking from Lando back to Tortle, his expression a little bit betrayed, Luke shook his head. "I don't want lawyers," he insisted. "I'm just here to petition them to open the Temple."
"It's a little more complicated than that. Trust me on this. And Leia. Just watch," Lando reassured, laying a restraining hand on Luke's shoulder.
The assembly gong sounded.
"The Sector Ecology Sub-Committee will reconvene! All rise!" the declaration droid boomed. The room rumbled with the sound of bodies moving, then again as the bodies descended after the seven Committee members seated themselves.
"The Committee will hear the Petition of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight, on the matter of reopening the Jedi Temple in Sector Four-Dash-Three-Two-Three-Point-Seven-Nine-Five! The petitioner shall step forward!"
"Present, your Worships!" Tortle shouted back. "Counsel Sorin Tortle representing the Jedi Order in the petition to re-open the Jedi Temple that was so cruelly defaced and shut up by the dictator Palpatine."
"Wait a minute," a portly Quarren at the end of the line of Committee members asked, raising a face tentacle, "I thought this petition was from an individual, not an organization."
"Because of the abuses, the cruel treachery of the Empire that has so recently been overthrown, the Jedi Order has been reduced to one individual," Tortle responded, his voice resounding with outrage. Lando saw Luke cringe.
"This petition," Sorin Tortle went on, "Is not just an application to open some ancient building. It is the first step to rebuild the Jedi Order, a noble and selfless legion of heroes who defended the Old Republic with their lives and who were the first to fall when Palpatine seized power."
"After they tried to seize power themselves," a Twi'lek committee member grumbled, his enormous triple chins wobbling.
"Would any member of this Committee, any member of this audience fault them for anything other than [i]failing[/i] to assassinate Palpatine when they tried?" Tortle called out, his eyes raking over the room, daring anyone to speak. No one did. The members of the Committee hunched in their seats, eyes pointed to the side or downward.
"Now, this petition is to waive all air, water and solids exchange quotas for the period of two years after the reopening of the Temple - - -"
"Two years!" exclaimed a Human woman in a cylindrical hat so white that it practically glowed. "That's outrageous! We couldn't possibly allow exemptions like that for such a large structure. We have a responsibility to - - -"
"The New Republic has a responsibility to rectify the wrongs of the Empire! Was that not one of the first proclamations of the Reformed Senate?
"And did the Senate not call for the compensation for the services of those who fought so valiantly in the fight against the Empire? I would think, gentle-beings of the Committee, that personally bringing about the downfall of Palpatine himself, as Luke Skywalker has done, would count as a 'service' to the galaxy!"
Lando had to admire Tortle's style. He waved his arms, his words pounding down on his audience, spittle spewing from his mouth. Lando thought that Tortle would have made an exceptional Senator, but he had a reputation for being too honest for politics.
"However, we are aware," Tortle went on after his latest dramatic pause, "of the needs of the planet and the greater good. The two-year exemption is required only for re-establishing the Jedi Temple as a consuming, as well as a contributing, element of Coruscant's ecology. After this time, the Jedi Temple will be fully compliant, if not exceeding, all it's obligations."
"Input and output of the Temple will have to be strictly monitored so we can compensate for the period of exemption. And it will be inspected thoroughly at the end of that time," the head of the Committee, a tawny Bothan, said.
Tortle smiled back and Lando saw the gleam of victory in his eyes.
"Of course, your Worship."
"What about those trooper barracks around it? Will they be in compliance in two years as well?" another Committee member demanded.
"The trooper barracks have been ceded back to government. I believe they are to be dismantled. Their disposition will have to be arranged between yourselves and the Senate."
"When did that happen?" Luke asked, leaning close to Lando.
"This morning. The barracks were only assigned to the Jedi during the Clone Wars anyway," Lando reassured. "You won't have to worry about keeping them compliant with the Ecology Committee, and it gives the property scavengers something to chew on. They'll throw all their claims at the Senate sub-committees for the old barrack space and leave the Temple alone. It's a good deal."
"Yeah," Luke agreed slowly, "now that I know about it." Lando saw his Jedi friend frown in suspicion. Better late than never to learn about these things, he supposed. Lando thought that it was probably a very good thing for the Jedi that he was on Luke's side.
At the podium, Tortle continued to answer questions from the committee. The Quarren on the end and pale purple Twi'lek woman questioned who actually owned the Jedi Temple and who should take possession of it, but the old lawyer answered with a list of reconciliation declarations and laws enacted by the Senate.
". . . . . Compensation for those wronged by the Empire. Restoration of Property. The Obligations to Displaced Persons. Restoration of Historic Landmarks Destroyed and Defaced by the Empire - - -"
"I don't see how Luke Skywalker could be classified as a Displaced Person - - -," the purple Twi'lek started.
"Luke Skywalker's only family were [i]murdered[/i] by the Empire's stormtroopers on Tatooine. And had he been born a few generations earlier, he rightfully would have been raised and trained by the Jedi Order at the Jedi Temple and so, been a legitimate resident of the Temple itself," Tootle countered fiercely.
"I still don't - - - "
"I do not see anything to be gained by picking over minutiae," the Committee chairperson cut in with a wave of his hand. "I call for a vote to accept this petition as is." He looked to either side of him sternly.
"I concur," agreed a Human with a long thick graying beard.
The Chairperson slammed a heavy hemisphere on its matching pedestal. The vote was called. Five to two in Luke's favor. The two voting 'no' were the big Quarren and the fat Twi'lek.
"I think we know who the Imperial supporters are," Lando muttered. Luke eyed them as well but made no comment. At the podium, Tortle thanked them, stepped down and hustled away. A new petitioner immediate stepped up. Luke and Lando had to hurry to catch up through the rows of seats and up the aisle to the exit.
"Now you owe me a favor," Tortle said with a big grin on his scarred face when they were all in the outer hall.
"I have your usual fee - - " Lando reached for a pocket, but Tortle waved a negative.
"A favor from the Jedi is worth more than any credits," he said. "And I'm up to my eyeballs in enough paying work as it is." Then he grasped the edges of his gray over-robe and gave Luke a long look. Luke straightened, staring right back. Then he bowed his head.
"Thank-you for your help."
Tortle looked smug.
"Thank-you for accepting it." Then he slapped Lando's arm. "Calrissian here is a good fixer. I'm glad you've got him to run things for you. You'll need a lot of that. The galaxy would have been a lot better off if the Jedi hadn't thought that they could do everything themselves," he criticized, but his tone was sad and sympathetic.
Luke's expression softened in response. Then his eyes looked toward Lando, who was feeling a little smug himself.
"I know," Luke replied. "I'm just figuring that out."
=== END ===
first posted tf.n: 8-March-2009
Disclaimer: All characters and situations belong to George and Lucasfilm; I'm just playing in their sandbox.