46 ABY, Hapes
"Jaina, we don't have to use the boat's full engine power the whole way to Reef Fortress," Jagged Fel said. The salt water formed large wakes behind them as the boat sliced through the choppy water. The sun beat down brightly on the couple, but felt cold as the ocean air slid over their faces and exposed arms.
"We don't have to," Jaina Solo Fel replied, "but I don't know why I wouldn't."
"Maybe because this is supposed to be a vacation?" Jag prodded, as he slid his arm around her waist. "And this may be the only alone time we get. You know Allana will be so excited to see you that I doubt we'll get a word in edgewise until dinner time."
Jaina toned down the throttle just for a moment, enough time to lean over and plant a kiss on Jag's lips, then pushed the throttle forward as hard as it would go.
"Then we better not keep her waiting," she said, smiling.
An hour later, her long brown hair whipped about in the wind as her brown eyes narrowed in focus. "I see reefs up ahead; we're almost there!" she said.
She slowed down and carefully maneuvered through the maze of coral surrounding the Queen Mother's private island sanctuary. Eventually the fortress itself loomed up ahead, its tall, stone walls foreboding, even in the bright sunshine. From this angle Jaina could barely see the tower previously used as the Queen's bedchamber. She wondered if Tenel Ka kept the chamber as her own when she became monarch. Knowing Tenel Ka, the answer was likely to be yes. She wouldn't show weakness to her rivals by admitting that the assassination attempt she'd suffered there as a teenager had affected her in any way. Even after everything Jaina and her twin brother had been through, she often thought that Tenel Ka had suffered the worst of her Jedi classmates.
They pulled up to a small stone cove and docked the boat next to the large yacht, the only other vehicle in sight. "For a vacation home this is rather dismal," Jag said, looking around the craggy coastline.
"This coming from someone who grew up with the Chiss?" Jaina teased. "Don't worry, you'll have all of the glamour of Hapan luxury inside. I doubt Tenel Ka has bothered with redecorating."
They walked up the steep stone path, protected from ocean view by a high stone wall winding all around. Eventually they reached a thick door, reinforced with durasteel, Jaina knew, but to all appearances made up of beautiful carved coral and sleek black stone.
A cam mounted on the sidewall swiveled towards them. Moments later Allana's voice sounded from the comm unit below. "I'm on my way down! Be ready for Anji to jump you, Jag!" Jag looked over at Jaina, the slightest concern visible on his normally impassive face.
Moments later the door opened, but it was Tenel Ka Djo who greeted them, not her ten-year-old daughter. Her long, red braids hung loosely around her face, a small tiara nestled in on top. She wore a loose green gown with gold hems; her rancor tooth lightsaber hanging on a loose gold baldric was the only visible concession made to her Jedi past.
"Jaina, Jag, it is good to see you," Tenel Ka said.
Suddenly a large, feline creature, with four eyes and a wide, sharp grin, bounded down the stairs and dropped into a crouch, staring at the two visitors waiting in the doorway.
Tenel Ka sighed, and spoke calmly, but clearly enough to echo through the chamber. "Allana, where is Anji right now?"
"Oops, sorry!" a small voice yelled from the top of the grand stone stairs. "I just have one more thing …"
Anji started to growl. Jaina noticed Jag place his hand on his blaster and felt the first glimmering of concern. Maybe a child having a pet only she could control wasn't such a great idea.
Then a blur of turquoise fabric and red hair bounded down the stairs, running towards Jaina, oblivious to the tension in the room. Jaina's niece hugged her tightly around her waist, then pulled away when she noticed her aunt's stiffness. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Allana, tell Anji to calm down please." Jaina said, nodding towards the nexu, who was now pacing and growling in concern and confusion, just two meters away.
"Oh! Right." Allana reached out to Anji in the Force and reminded her pet that her aunt and uncle were family … or at the very least, not foes.
Slowly Anji settled her spines and walked to the corner to curl up on a large pillow and watch patiently.
"I have something to show you! I've been working on it forever," Allana said to Jaina, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the stairs.
"Allana, Jaina and Jag have been traveling for a good portion of the day," Tenel Ka said. "Perhaps we should show them their room and give them some time to freshen up before dinner."
Allana paused, looking carefully between her mother and her aunt. She reminded Jaina so much of her brother Jacen at that age that it hurt sometimes.
"It's alright, we can clean up after dinner," Jaina said. "Now, what did you want to show me?" she asked Allana as she allowed herself to be led up to the princess' playroom.
Allana's playroom looked more like Jaina and Jacen's childhood room on Coruscant than Jaina would have believed possible. Electrical components were scattered everywhere, mixed in between shredded pet toys and insect cages. Various animal holos covered the stone walls, taken from systems all over the galaxy.
Allana proudly pulled Jaina to her workbench. "Mom said that you used to make things for dad to take care of his pets, so I thought I would try my hand at it. I needed a project. It was boring here," she said.
"And mom has been getting more worried about Anji since our camping trip a few months ago." Allana added, as an afterthought.
Jaina looked down at the cloth ring that Allana held up to her. It was red, with a thick ridge in the center that held a wiring core. Dangling from the ring was a golden sphere with two colored diodes in the center. "Is it a collar?" she asked.
"More than that!" Allana exclaimed. "It's a training collar. I've been reading all about animal training. Mom says we can even take a trip to Dathomir to see the tamed Rancors there soon."
Jaina raised an eyebrow. She doubted "soon" meant the same thing to Allana as it had to Tenel Ka.
Seeing the skepticism in her aunt's face, Allana picked up a remote and clicked a green button. The golden sphere on the collar made a clicking noise.
"It clicks when Anji does something good. Then I'll give her a treat."
"And what does the red button do?" Jaina asked.
Allana pressed the button and a high pitched screech came out of the sphere. Jaina quickly covered her ears.
"Anji doesn't like that noise," Allana said with a straight face.
"I can imagine," Jaina replied, wryly.
"What do you think? Do you want to try it out in the courtyard with me?" Allana asked.
"I'm game … as long as we don't have to use that red button," Jaina replied.
Jag and Tenel Ka watched as Jaina disappeared up the stairs.
"How are things at the Academy?" Tenel Ka asked.
"Busy," Jag said. "Jaina and I have mainly been working on training new recruits for the past couple months. We're too short on knights and resources. The Alliance is still distancing themselves as far as possible from the Jedi. Somehow they expect the Jedi to have an unlimited ability to show up where needed regardless."
"And when they can't, the Senate uses that as further proof that the Jedi aren't working towards the Alliance's best interests," added Tenel Ka. "I have heard the arguments."
Jag nodded. "How are things here on Hapes? I assume you're not actually on vacation," Jag said waving towards her dress.
Tenel Ka shook her head. "No. I do not think Queen Mothers experience vacations," she said. "Hapes is doing well. It has been a quiet day, actually. I have only had four meetings this morning to sort out differences between the AlGreys and the Galneys."
Jag had never heard Tenel Ka tell a joke, so he was left to assume that four meetings for powerful family squabbles must actually be a slow day.
"I have heard that Vitor Reige is doing well in his rule over Imperial space." Tenel Ka added.
Jag kept frequent correspondence with the man who he had endorsed for Head of State two years prior.
"He is. I'm proud of him. His policies have been well received, and he's somehow managed to keep the Moffs from tearing each other apart long enough to get some things done." Jag replied.
"That is good to hear." Tenel Ka replied. Her comlink beeped right as Jaina and Allana came down. "Excuse me, it seems there is another important matter to go over," she said as she turned towards her office.
After experimenting with Anji's collar for an hour or so, Tenel Ka's meeting ended and everyone met in the dining hall. Anji seemed surprisingly proud of her collar as she padded over to her bed. Jaina wondered if the nexu would still feel that way were the red button to be used.
The heavy stone dining table was much too large for four people, and the room felt empty once the wait staff finished laying out the meal.
Allana talked excitedly about her studies through most of the dinner. Jaina noticed that she never mentioned any other children. At least she was fond of most of her tutors. Tenel Ka seemed preoccupied, writing notes on her datapad and only occasionally bothering to eat.
The staff began to bring out an elaborate dessert when Jaina felt a wave of shock radiate from Tenel Ka. She looked over just as the Queen Mother stood, quickly pushing back her chair.
"There has been an attack in Chume'Dan. An explosion has destroyed Lorell Hall," she explained as she gathered her datapad and headed straight to her office. The others followed hurriedly behind.
Jaina paused at the office doorway, unsure whether it was acceptable to enter, but Allana pushed right past her and stood by her mother's side, with Anji close behind her. With that display of solidarity, Jaina and Jag slipped in as well, right as the holoprojector finished connecting. A woman appeared, a woman who could nearly be mistaken for Tenel Ka herself if you weren't looking closely enough.
"Queen Mother," greeted Trista Zel, Hapan intelligence operative and cousin to the Queen Mother.
"Trista, what do you know of the attack?"
"We've narrowed the perpetrator down to the cleaning staff. No one else had access. We still don't know motive."
"Then you don't believe this was a typical assassination attempt?" Tenel Ka asked.
"No, everyone was aware that you and your daughter were away. This must have been intended as a warning."
"And a show of power," countered Tenel Ka.
"But from who and for what?" Jaina asked, stepping forward.
Trista's transmission cut out for a moment before she replied. "We're getting interference. One …"
A human woman's face appeared, with silver hair and stern expression. "Rulers of the worlds: We demand your attention. We have requested it nicely before, but it has never been granted. We have learned. We will make no more requests. We speak to you now in the only language you understand: Destruction."
The face changed to a pale blue Twi'lek man. "You are the heroes, the famous, the royalty, of our galaxy. You fight amongst each other, and all that results is the suffering of the people."
The Twi'lek face shifted into the face of a creamy pink, female Mon Calamari. "We are tired of the childish squabblings of a few families wreaking havoc upon all of ours."
A young, white furred Bothan spoke. "Skywalker, Solo, Fel; How many battles have surrounded these names? Jedi, Sith, Imperial, Rebel; These titles are nothing but finger pointing in the civil wars of the powerful."
Jaina began to feel queasy, and placed a hand on Allana's shoulder, pulling her close to her side.
"How many worlds have been destroyed by you, the protectors of the people, and your allies?" said a brown skinned human, with an Imperial insignia on his cap.
"Our children have fought and died under heroes for too long. Our suffering is the legacy of the famous, yet our names will never be heard. Our stories will never be sung as ballads in cantinas. We will not have lavish state funerals. We will not be revered in holodocumentaries," said a deep-jowled Sullustan.
"So, today, we bring you the destruction you and your allies have recklessly delivered to us for so many years. Today, you will suffer for your names the way we have suffered under them," said an Arcona.
"We will not stop until those who help the famous have reconsidered their loyalties. We will not stop until the common people have regained their strength. We will not stop until the power in this galaxy is equalized," said a Zabrax.
"You will not hunt us down," said a Barabal.
"because we are everywhere," said female Chiss.
"We are everyone," said a blue-haired Zeltron.
"We are your servants," said a Gand.
"your soldiers," said a Devaronian.
"your pilots," said a Duros.
"your doctors …" said a Chadra-Fan.
"… And even your droids," said a red protocol droid.
"This is just the beginning," the first woman said as she reappeared. "We are the nameless, and we will suffer under the weight of the famous and the gifted no longer."
