Magic of the Force

by Vimesenthusiast

Harry's always wondered why the Dursleys hated him. After a nasty beating breaks loose some memories, he starts to experiment only to find he really may be different. After a few a few setbacks he starts to gain control of his powers, only to receive another beating. Pleading with his magic to get him away, he soon discovers he has a great destiny and the family he always wanted.

10. Chapter 10

I'm not named Lucas, or Rowling.

There was a guest reviewer who left two reviews, one full of corrections, the other with thoughts on the last chapter. I used the first and then deleted it, while of course letting the second pass. Thank you for the corrections and your thoughts.

This was the winner of the SW poll astonishingly enough, thanks to Michael, my small mistakes guy, who threw his votes into it at the last minute. That, alas ties into the chapter's length and quality, as does the fact I lost an entire week due to RL issues. Because of this, I didn't start this chapter until Thursday last. So, when you think about it, I suppose it's kind of good that it wasn't even later than it is.

HOWEVER the quality of the chapter is going to be poor in comparison to past chapters. There was obviously no time for Michael to look at this work, and even Kathryn518, my normal HP big idea gal, would not have been able to get it back to me in enough time to post near enough to the end of September to still count towards that month. That's what happens when RL steals an entire week from you.

Further politics and business discussions abound in this chapter. I try my best, but the political side of things, and more importantly making both sides seem realistic and understandable, is very hard. And just a further reminder, the Jedi Order has no idea about the clones at this point, and thus are worried about the cost of the war they can see coming.

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Chapter 10: Opening Moves

The Council of Counts met together in the council room of Carannia for the first time in years at the behest of the Count of the house of Dooku. Although, whether or not they will retain that name from now on is anyone's guess, Count Grimaldi thought as he took his seat at the round table as his fellows slowly entered the room around him. A short, extremely fit man who was now starting to feel his years, Grimaldi had to bite back a smile as his heir, Serena, , arced her neck lightly to look towards the doorway.

Years later, now a married woman and with a baby of her own at home and she still holds a slight torch for Young Potter. Not that I cannot think of a dozen reasons of my own why we have missed him, Young Secura, and Dooku himself. You were never an easy man to like my old colleague, but you have been missed… He bit back a sigh as he looked at the seat of House Dooku, left empty for years but which would soon be filled. For the first time in over two years Grimaldi could both feel anticipation go through his old bones, and welcomed the feeling.

Count Luthor nodded his way, and Grimaldi nodded back, while Luthor's eighteen year old son, Turlo exchanged greetings with the other heirs. This included several youngsters who were younger than even he had been when he first met then Padawan Potter and made his badly timed joke.

Of the Counts who had been acting heads of their Great Houses, only the two of them remained now. Maria Nalju had taken over from her father in a smooth transition of power years in the making, with the old man now serving as her chief financial advisor while she saw to all the House's other interests and her young eight year old boy Stefan was among the heirs present. The same smooth transition was true for Franco Malvern, though his father instead had been allowed to take over the House's agricultural interests. Orom, a young man around Turlo's age, was also present.

House Borgin's new head however, Louisa, had not had as smooth a transition. Married into the family from House Grimaldi, she had been forced into the position when her husband and their son, Rodas, had died in a freak accident. They had been heading out to view one of the newest trade ships they had commissioned from Serenno's own yards, and a faulty connection in the air lock had blown, sending them and several other people out into space. Louisa was quite obviously out of her depth as head of house, but was trying not to make mistakes, which Grimaldi felt was the best thing she could do: try to retain the holdings House Borgin had now, and make certain the child in her womb at present had the best teachers he or she could in order to rebuild what you couldn't keep rather than try to reach and lose it all.

Everyone present looked up as Harry Potter and Aayla entered together. Normally a Count would be expected to bring his heir and no one else, but since Harry didn't have an heir the other counts were more than willing to allow this very slight breach of protocol.

Looking at the two, Grimaldi didn't need his daughter's little gasp of 'oh my' to know the years they had been gone had been kind to them. Harry was only slightly taller than he had been, standing at around six feet two inches, but his shoulders had broadened into that of a young man who most decidedly looked after himself. His waist was thin, and he moved with confidence, those devastating emerald eyes gleaming with barely concealed energy.

Grimaldi however, like practically every man there, could barely tear his eyes away from Aayla Secura. What had been an amazingly beautiful girl had blossomed into a woman who could perhaps be one of the most gorgeous Twi'lek women any of them had ever seen, including a few holo stars. She was dressed formally, in a tight shirt that co vered her from wrist to waist but which could not hide her curves, her lekku were falling down on either side of her chest, her blue skin glowing with good health, her eyes were just as dazzling as her lover's, and the way she moved showed both a dancer's control and a duelist's confidence.

Realizing what he was doing, Grimaldi shook his head, and surreptitiously kicked out at Franco, who was seated next to him. The middle-aged man twitched but came back to himself and did the same to Turlo who was sitting to his other side. "Quite a different effect, those um, eyes, in person." He murmured in an apology.

Lips twitching Grimaldi nodded his head slightly, watching as Harry and Aayla sat down, making no sign that either of them had noticed the effect they'd had on most of those already present. "Gentlemen and ladies, it is good to see those of you I have met before, and meet those I have not," Harry began with a laugh. "I doubt by this point myself or my lady needs an introduction, but could I ask you to please formally introduce us to your heirs?"

Once that was done, Maria took the floor. "We are happy to see you of course Harry, and not just personally. The trade agreement you helped put in place between Serenno and Naboo has been good for all of us here, and we were even able to use your adventure against those slavers years ago to make inroads on an agreement with Kashyyyk. We are even happier that you took up the Head of House position and are serious about it, as shown by your discussions via com with us all. However, there are distinct political questions that need to be answered here."

"What Maria is somewhat delicately hinting at is, are you going to try to force, coerce or convince us to try to renew ties to the kriffing Republic Senate," Luthor stated bluntly. Older than Grimaldi by a few years Luthor had long developed a distaste for niceties and as the major proponent for moving the sector capital to Serenno he had more reason than most to hate the Senate.

"No," Aayla said simply smiling at the elderly man. "We are not. We have had long discussions with all of you on this point, and you have legitimate reasons for your antipathy towards the Republic government." She stressed the last word and went on smoothly. "As Jedi we stand for peace for all rather than the unity of the Republic, and at times, that peace must be defended."

A certain tension that had been underlying even the initial reaction to Harry and Aayla's presence disappeared from the adults in the room, and Serena actually slumped slightly in her seat next to Grimaldi, who made a note to talk to her about not revealing such things so clearly in the future. Before anyone else could speak however, Aayla went on. "But can we all agree that while you have problems with the Senate, you do not have issues with their constituent planets? And further, that certain… elements shall we say, have proven to not have the best interests of the Republic as a whole at heart."

Franco snorted, obviously having decided to continue Luthor's straight talk trend. "I see where you're going with this Aayla, but what exactly are you here to do? If you don't want us to pursue closer ties to the Trade Federation and the Commerce Guild and thereby join the Secessionist Movement formally, then you need to offer us something in turn. The agreement the Guild is pushing would make us all several times richer personally, twit the Senate's nose severely…"

"Not to mention those Frotzes on D'Astan, the arrogant kriffers!" Luthor interrupted a deep scowl on his craggy face.

"And those yes, plus extend our resource base and open up further trade doors." Franco shrugged. "Even the king of Kashyyyk understands why we've been flirting with them, and how the Wookies think about the TF could be better described as simply a long series of bloodthirsty curses than anything else."

"We understand this, and have actually thought about this. You're right, we do have concerns about those groups, and the Secessionists. But no more than we do the Centrists, it has to be said. Frankly we can all too clearly see war coming, and we don't think anyone can truly 'win' if it comes to that." Harry said, leaning forward, his green eyes intent as he took over for Aayla. "But what if we said we could offer Serenno as a whole almost exclusive rights to the trade of an entire sector? One that is rich in Tibanna and other gases, as well as other resources?"

Harry mentioned the gases with malice aforethought. Serenno was already a major producer of gas, which besides the system's trade consortiums was its biggest money maker. But they weren't in the top ten for gas in the Republic.

"You're long absence from all communication?" Turlo said, frowning. "How rich are we talking about here?"

Tapping the controls in the table, Aayla took control of the hologram device set into the center of the table. An instant later, an unknown system popped into existence there, with four planets visible along with the tinier notes of asteroid and moons. Along many were lines of text, which as the hologram enlarged to hover over the entire table, the others could begin to read, bringing many a hiss from them. "This is the Jaderin system, and as you can see it is a major industrial hub. The inhabitants consist of humans, Verpine, and two gas breathing local races called the Crass and the Naptha."

As Aayla went on about the background of the system, the Counts and most of their heirs were reading quickly. When she finished, Turlo looked at his father then back to Aayla. "This, this system's gas output, it's, it's accurate?" he asked hesitantly. Despite their position as Counts Harry and Aayla were still Jedi Knights after all, and accusing them of outright lying was practically impossible. But the numbers he was seeing was amazing.

"They are accurate, but the problem is that Jaderin has no way to actually transport their goods. They lost most of their hyperspace capable ships when the nebulae closed in around the sector, and the system lacks some of the metals necessary for hyperspace engines. That is what Jaderin specifically will want out of any trade agreement, but don't think you won't be able to sell other things." Harry took over at this point, shifting the hologram to show several of the systems Harry and the other crewmembers of the Tyrant's Bane had visited.

Halfway through he had all the counts riveted, by the time he was finished, most of them were enthusiastic. Trading directly with an entire sector's worth of planets would allow their reach to grow as well as their profits: they would be taking in less from each trade deal, but making far more directly, without any middleman taking a cut.

Then Harry added something only Grimaldi had realized, and hadn't brought up. "Of course," the young man finished his background summary blandly, "All of these planets are not part of the Republic any longer, so any trade tariffs or taxes do not apply."

For a moment they were silent, taking that in, then Louisa spoke up. She rarely spoke up in these meetings, but she did so now, her brow furrowing. "You mentioned the nebulae. How exactly are we going to be able to deal with the Ruusan sector if it is still in place, as it surely is? Any movement of such would have been noticed by the Republic's Bureau of Astrogation and Navigation."

"True, the outer shell as it were is still there. However, Jedi are able to pilot through the outer layer, and once inside the sector, hyperspace lanes are being cleared even as we speak." Aayla said. Considering Master Fay said she would be doing just that, we can take it as a given right?

Unless my mother is distracting her yes, Harry replied dryly, taking from Aayla her impression of the emotions of those around them as he tried to use his own skill to read people at the same time. This is going well, but let's see if they jump the way we think…

"Does that mean that we will need to pay the Jedi Order to pilot us in?" Luthor asked.

"Yes and no. Yes you'll be paying Jedi, not so much the Order. Rather you will all be paying us for that, and for making deals with Jaderin personally. The businessmen they sent with us as we left the sector have agreed to an exclusive deal with House Dooku that covers all further trade agreements going forward outside the Ruusan sector."

As the others groaned good-naturedly (in most cases) at that, Grimaldi asked, "So does that mean you'll retain the old House name? Good for you."

"We think of it more as a homage to Count Dooku more than anything else," Aayla said softly. "Harry will be known As Count Potter, but the House will retain the old family name. Besides, there are still other people out there from the family itself, even if none of them were in the direct line of succession even before Count Dooku decided to leave his place to Harry."

For a moment the other counts discussed things among themselves, asking Harry and Aayla questions.

Young Orom asked at one point if they had any physical proof, still somewhat skeptical of the numbers they were seeing from the two gas giants and not having as much personal knowledge of Harry and Aayla. Harry simply nodded. "We can actually start transshipping now once we reach an agreement. The Tyrant's Bane is stuffed full of containers of gas and power cells of all types. Actually, only one of the enlarged cargo holds was so stuffed, but considering it was still the size of a normal Lucre Hulk's entire hold, Harry felt he could get away with the lie.

After that, there was no doubt that the Council of Counts would cease all talks with the Commerce Guild and the Trade Federation, even if it didn't snub Da'astan as Luthor still grumbled about. With the gas they could distribute from Jaderin Serenno could into the top five producers of Tibanna and other gases used in blasters, engines and batteries. The money they could make from that was literally staggering.

They would also be amenable to Harry and Aayla's other questions, once they got to them: that of enlarging the Serenno defense forces, trading goods directly to Harry which would go to the Tyrant's Bane, and more importantly, closer ties to one other, specific system. Eventually as Harry hammered out the exact trade numbers they were looking at, they reached that point in the conversation.

Staring at the numbers as if he was trying to use the Force to change them Grimaldi slowly shook his head. "We can't produce enough hyperspace coils to pay for this. Oh, we could probably match the price they, and you!" He said pointedly, glaring at Harry with a mix humor and some real irritation, "Have demanded we pay for this first shipment. But most of the profit from that would go toward buying the payment for the next shipment of similar size. We might see a slight long term profit, but not much of one."

"Ah, but there is another system who has been having issues with the Senate Centrists and Secessionist both, one which is in desperate need of more Tibanna gas, but is unwilling to pay the Commerce Guilds tariffs for access to their sources." Aayla said with a smile, while she and Harry shared a high five in their mental plane. Yes!

Falco was the first to get it this time and snorted a laugh, looking over at Luthor and Grimaldi. "Oh, you all should be very happy that I am sitting here right now and not my father. He would undoubtedly have vetoed this and done his damndest to sink the whole trade deal."

Luthor nodded. "You're talking about Corellia. Jovan was always angry at them, and just because his firstborn son ran off with a Corellian banker too."

"Seeing as I have some truly adorable nephews out of that deal I'm not complaining, but yes." Falco said with another laugh.

Corellia was one of the Big Five: a system that had more industrial power than some entire sectors in the Outer Rim. They were a major ship builder, and could create anything else anyone wanted. However, they lacked an internal source for Tibanna gas. They had long standing deals with a few small scale distributors in the Corellia sector, but they couldn't match the needs of Corellia's industry, and they had been dealing with the Commerce Guild for more for literally centuries. Indeed, in the latest rounds of talks in the senate the Commerce Guild Senator's hint at new fees to pay for 'more protection' had sent Senator Iblis into a near frothing fury.

"Exactly. Aayla and I will be going to Corellia to make a deal direct with their government on this, and should be able to do so. But continuing from that initial contact, Corellia would of course be dealing with Serenno, both for the gas and for further distribution of any other resources traded out from the Ruusan Sector." Harry said, then smirked. "So, shall we get down to numbers now?"

"Not just yet," Falco interjected, shaking his head. "Why are you are you doing this? While I know you both well enough I think to believe you would be good counts, I think that profit would not matter to you at all. Is this perhaps just to keep us away from the Secessionists? I suppose we should be flattered if so."

Aayla and Harry communed for a brief instant internally but they had been prepared for this. "We wish to try and limit the disaster to come. We want Serenno and Corellia to be three points of a nonaligned, armed neutrality pact. The pact will arm ourselves and spread out the means to do so to other planets in the form of planetary shield generators and system patrol craft, and will attack anyone who attacks them physically, be they Secessionist or Centrist."

"Huh, that's a rather big departure from the Jedi Order's normal stance of 'no one should be armed at all but the Republic'. Luthor grunted. "Still, it's one that I can get behind. But we'll need more details Count Potter."

"Certainly. For now, we want to see if we can convince other systems in this sector to sign up, then Corellia. After that, is somewhat up in the air, but we have a general plan. The idea will be to woo both sides as equally as possible, so as to be seen as a fully separate entity, without forcing things just yet. We want to be ready when the conflict starts, we don't want to be the reason it does."

From there the talk continued, but in the end, all six Great Houses were in accord with the deal they reached and the idea of a mutual defense tready with Corellia and the other planets that already looked to Serenno for patronage. The trade deal would take a lot of money to start up, but the payoff in the long term might make Serenno join the Big Five in terms of wealth and resources. That payoff would be only a few months in the future in some ways, years in others since many of the worlds in the Ruusan sector would need help to get to the point where they could make use of most of their internal resources. However, Serenno's Counts had that money, and those industrial resources.

The only sticking point was that Tyrant's Bane would remain the only ship able to make that trip for at least unitl they came back from Corellia, about three weeks or more in the future. "There's no clear route in, it's all up here, not even on the astromechs we have." Harry said at that point tapping his forehead. "Consider the Ruusan sector like the Hapes Cluster, but only Jedi will be able to get in, and we would be able to do so from any position where it connects to the Republic rather than a single point." Although, that is an idea for the future.

"Jedi," Luthor muttered, but there was amused respect as well as irritation in his voice. It looked as if Harry hadn't lost any of his fire over the years, and for that he, and all of the others, were grateful for now. Serenno could now remove itself from the politics of the Senate, either side of the great debate, and be better off for it. And if anyone comes calling with a complaint, well, we have the military power here to tell them to kriff off, he thought complacently.

We're going to need to do something about letting other ships come and go Harry," Aayla sent later as the two of them boarded the shuttle which would take them back to the training center. "That kind of trade needs to be a continual thing, especially the aid packages and industrial nodes."

"I think between them Master Ti and Master Gallia can figure out a few Knights to assign to that job. Knights who don't want to fight, and can be spared from diplomatic duties perhaps," Harry replied, taking Aayla's hand in his. "But you're right, we're going to be busy with a lot of other things."

Feeling her lover's internal anxiety about being at the forefront of the discussions they had just finished now coming out more clearly once they could calm down, Aayla started to sooth him both mentally and physically rolling her eyes. Harry was actually a decent orator and diplomat, but for some reason speaking in front of others stressed him far more than being in combat did. It was odd, and she let him know that in no uncertain terms, but that she also loved him regardless of the fact he was a bit of a goofball in that area.

Moments later they landed at the training center to be met by Zule and Master Ti, who was standing in for her former master. Zule had started fasting as part of the Trial of Flesh days ago, while Harry and Aayla had begun talks with the Jaderin businessmen.

Those men would be going home very, very rich, but without quite the vast amount of connections they had hoped to make. Still, the Jaderin government would be well pleased by the trade agreements that had been reached and the rest of the Ruusan sector would be slowly brought back from the precipice towards barbarity.

"How did it go?" Zule asked, smiling at her friends and moving into step on Aayla's other side. She knew their long terms plans, and had been involved in most of those discussions along with Alecto, Gallia, and Ti. The rest of the council had left the day after Aayla, Alecto and Harry's Knighthood ceremony. They couldn't be gone from Coruscant for very long alas, but had remained long enough to get an idea of what Potter's long term plans were.

Before that however, they had conducted experiments with mediating on the future in Harry and Aayla's presence, trying to use the band of Light Side energy between them to burn their way through the Veil. In the main it hadn't worked, but they had seen enough to reluctantly agree that the idea of creating a third option somewhere to the side of the Secessionist and Centrist parties seemed the only way forward.

It would not be so much a political movement as an anti-movement coupled with defense treaties, and creating a military that the Jedi would if not control, then be allied to which didn't have to answer to the Senate. This would in turn hopefully free the Jedi Order in the main to take a pro-peace stance. The movement would back up that peace with firepower after they had gotten organized of course.

"Very well actually. The trade agreements are in place, and we will be going on to Corellia soon. Or rather, we will be after your trial, young Padawan," Aayla teased lightly, one arm around her friend and a hug offsetting whatever sting might have been in her words.

"I am. The Force is telling me I have to go with you two, more clearly than anything I've felt for more than the years you've been gone." Zule replied firmly, while also hugging the other girl back. "It isn't telling me why I have to, but that is enough."

The three of them found Master Ti and Alecto practicing outside and after gathering Gallia told them all about the meeting. Gallia nodded at that then began to go over some other long term plans to weaken the Centrist and Secessionist factions by dealing with the planets involved directly. She finished with a dry smile. "And one of the more important planets we might wish to deal with is Naboo. Their Senator has become one of the voices of the antimilitary faction in the senate, not quite a Centrist, but certainly leaning that way. I trust I can leave speaking with her and her queen to you two?"

Aayla and Harry both laughed, but later that day they did indeed call Padme. Though they had talked numerous times since the Jedi had returned from the great beyond, the trio had been dodging around the political question, talking about anything and everything else they could to reconnect. Now however, with Harry's plans for the future starting up now, they could no longer do so.

It… did not go well.

"I do not understand this at all," Padme said, scowling into the pickup at her friends. "You are literally going behind the Senate's back, undermining the very unity between the Senate and the Jedi that makes the Republic the unifying edifice it is. I do not doubt your intentions, but this is surely the wrong way to go about aiding the Republic, allowing the proliferation of militaries the Republic over, none of them under centralized authority. We need more oversight of such things, not less!"

"Padme, we're not talking about the Senate here, we are talking about the people of the Republic. There are leaders out there with real, legitimate reasons to hate the Republic as it's being run now." Aayla said soothingly. "Oh dear, this seems to be a bit of a sore point. Darn it, I wish we were doing this in person so I could use my empathic powers."

"You think they have a point? The Republic has been a stabilizing influence for a thousand years, for more than that! Without it, chaos and anarchy are all that we will see. I do not need to tell any Jedi about what it was like during the New Sith Wars or during the any of the wars previous. We cannot allow local militaries to flourish further than they already are any more than the Republic can start to militarize without pushing us further to war." Padme said, her words ringing with conviction.

Despite her own planet having a defense force, she had always been against the idea of such spreading. And right now, she was hurt, deeply hurt at what her friends were saying. It sounded far too much like a betrayal of the peace first program she had been part of for years now. "As for the budgetary concerns, those are based off population, nothing more."

"I agree that corporations and guilds should not have militaries, but then, they already do, don't they? Because the Senate allowed it. The Senate has made far too many horrible decisions of late, starting with the one to let the Trade Federation arm itself in the first place. To far too many planets out here in the Outer Rim and the Expansion Region the Senate has done nothing worth the amount of tax they pay, which seems to go straight into far too much corrupt elements in the Senate," Harry shot back.

"I don't know if that would have helped. I think Padme's become a staunch supporter of the Senate, and through it the Republic. Sad, I would have thought it would have been the other way around." Harry replied internally.

Padme winced. "I understand that, but then surely the solution is not to arm ourselves, but to disarm them, as I've been saying since the moment I became a Senator. And the issues with graft and corruption are being solved."

"By more central authority to those who have already proven that the system they serve cannot be trusted? I'll admit Chancellor Palpatine seems good at his job, but he hasn't done enough with the power he and the Senate already have. Besides, the greatest amount of corruption is not even as obvious as bought votes or letting guilds have their own senators when entire planets in the Outer Rim don't have their own voice. No, it is how the taxes are distributed beyond the Senate, a fact you tried to set aside just now. All too much of that money goes straight into the Core Worlds, bolstering their own corrupt, moribund systems rather than to programs that could help the Outer Rim planets become more industrious, educated and strong."

"Those problems can be solved within the system of the Senate!" Padme defended hotly. "And if not for the Senate and those like Senator Organa and myself, how many of those planets would have any programs like that at all? How many of them would be ruled by petty tyrants and despots rather than their, admittedly, distant senators." She scowled. "At least on that point I'll agree with you."

"Can those problems truly be solved in the Senate, when the Senate itself is the seat of many of them? If so why have they not been solved yet? The Chancellor was doing a good job that's true, but there is a limit to what he can accomplish." Aayla said taking over for Harry so he could calm himself down.

Since he'd spent his entire life after leaving with Master Fay in the Outer Rim, the plights of those systems was one that hit close to him. "Just look at what happened to the Financial Reform Act. Even though the Jedi protected most of the Senators targeted for assassination, the terrorists still won, the reform died and the corruption has continued." Aayla said with a sad sigh.

While Padme winced as that hit went home, Harry, now calmer, took up the argument. "As Jedi we act as the Force wills it, and when it is silent, we must act as our own consciences dictate. We must choose the course forward which will serve the good of all rather than the few in power."

"Those few in power are not perfect, I know that all too wel! But to, to abandon the Senate as you want the Order to do eventually, to throw the whole system into doubt, and to further arm planets at such a delicate time? That is just as much giving the terrorists what they want on the other side of the debate as the Senate's cowardice about the Financial Reform Act did. And just look at what would happen to the galaxy if the Republic split apart! What would happen to communication, to the hyperspace lanes, to peace in general!"

"If a system is broken on a starship or even in a government, you pull it out and replace it. If the Republic's Senatorial style of government is not working, not serving the good of its constituents, then it falls on those who make it up to act as they need to. I do not trust the Trade Federation…" Harry began.

"But you're doing a good job of trying to sell their party line!" Padme interrupted angrily.

"But that does not mean that the other sectors and planets who have joined their voices to the Secessionist movement do not have legitimate reasons. The local leaders cannot look at the Republic-wide big picture, they must look to their own people first and foremost and it is wrong to then brush their concerns aside as you seem to want to. Or are you being blinded because too many planets beyond the Expansion region can't speak for themselves as loudly as those of the Core Worlds?"

Padme simmered, and Aayla cut in then. "Love, Padme, I think we need to cut this discussion off before either of you say something I know you will regret when your tempers cool."

Breathing in deeply, Padme nodded. "I, you're right, this is a sore point for me because so often it seems as if a person admits one point of the Secessionist platform makes sense, the next second they are pushing for the entire thing. And the Militarization, that is will be seen as a provocation, I cannot condone it."

"Aayla's right, we're both becoming too hot on this issue. But Padme, don't misunderstand me, I fully understand the level of chaos attempting this course will create within the Republic and I don't want that to happen. But the Senate as it stands is far too much part of the problem and too moribund. It needs to be replaced entirely. And you, I think, need to choose who you serve: your constituents or the Senate and remember you lived through one example of that august body's mistakes."

With that, Harry cut the connection just as Padme reached to one side and picked up something hurling it into the hologram.

On Coruscant once more, Padme breathed in deeply, staring at the remains of the vase she had just hurled through the hologram screen. "That, that man! GRAH!"

A few days after the debacle with Padme, Zule finished her Knighthood trial. As she stood before the remaining Masters on Serenno Harry sat playing a game with Alecto, while Aayla in tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for a friend to finish in one of the sitting rooms, the same one where they had sat while being questioned by the Masters about their time in the Ruusan Sector.

Alecto looked up from where Harry had just taken one of his pieces, hiding a wince and shaking his head at the blue skinned woman. "Why are you so worried? You know she's going to pass."

"I don't know that, and neither do you," Aayla said. "The Force works in mysterious ways after all. What if Master Gallia and Master Yaddle find Zule wanting?"

"If there was anything wrong, Master Yoda would've spotted it, and would've said she wasn't ready. Alecto's right love," Harry said aloud, while sending feelings of amusement and love, as well as understanding down their link. He knew what was causing Aayla's anxiety and it had little to do with Zule's Knighthood.

That morning they had found out that two other friends, Mak and Kass had indeed almost dropped out of the Order once their relationship was found. It was only the fact that they had agreed to be watched for several extra years that had kept them within the Order. Physical relationships were now allowed within the Order but love, emotional attachment, was still seen as a gateway to other more negative emotions especially jealousy, which could lead to fear, hate, and anger of course, which led to the Dark Side.

Aayla was all for trying to find the two immediately, to try and teach Mak and Kass how to forge the same mental bond that Harry and Aayla had. But the Order would be little help in that, considering that even close friendship was often still discouraged by te majority of the Order. They also had more important, if not more personally, important things to do right now: Following up on the idea to create an armed neutrality party within the Republic, as they had talked about with the Order, the Council of Counts and Padme.

"And for that, we need to go to Corellia as soon as possible. You know that love. Don't let your concern for Mak and Kass blind you to what the right thing to do is." His mental tone turned teasing then. "Besides, have you actually figured out how to teach someone else to have the kind of bond we do?"

"No," Aayla replied. "if I did you'd know about it, of course."

"There you go then," Harry sent before turning his attention back to the game as Alecto had just started a impressive little gambit to catch a few of his more powerful pieces separated from their fellows.

With a sigh, Aayla sat down next to her lover, leaning against his shoulder. "You're right I know." Then she smirked. "However, that doesn't mean I'm going to let you beat me when I it's my turn to play."

Harry winced, but nodded. Harry didn't do very well with chess games like this. They were a little too limited, not allowing him to play any real tactical tricks. He did decently well with more realistic strategic simulators however. In those Aayla had yet to beat him without cheating and reading his mind, which of course he always felt the moment she did it, and respondedto appropriately by tickling her or otherwise forcing her to concede. Those games would always develop into… other kinds of games.

But, he thought was a faint side I know that that doesn't exactly equate to me being a good military commander. Certainly not a strategist of any type. For that, we need someone else…

Hours later the two of them looked up moments before the door opened and Alecto too turned to stare in the same direction. They had just sat down to dinner and had been waiting for Zule for at least half a day, by that point. Now the door opened, and Zule came in, looking a little drawn, but also triumphant. "Greetings fellow Jedi Knights," she said, grinning at them all, then at the food. "Oh good, I am so hungry right now."

They all laughed, stood up and gave her congratulation shakes for the boys and a tight hug for Aayla, before the Twi'lek girl pulled her half-Falleen friend in the direction of the food. She wobbled on her feet a little, leaning into Aayla as the two moved after the boys back to the table. "Hunger affects my species a little more than most sentients," she said with a faint scowl, accompanied by a loud growl from her stomach.

"That and Master Yaddle and Master Gallia insisted I go through lightsaber duels with both of them, and then all the other trials beyond the trial of Flesh." She went on as Aayla ushered her into a seat on the sofa. "They might have been willing to take Yoda's word about removing me from Master Glaive, but that just made them want to test me even harder to make sure I shouldn't just be assigned someone else. But at least this way no one else can say I was raised through favoritism or pity rather than ability."

"Then we'll have to do something about that hunger of yours," Harry said with a chuckle, while musing that would probably have been a bad idea in many ways. Zule's mastery of the Clan Saa techniques was well above what most Masters in the Order had, which might have just restarted one of the three main problems between her and Glaive.

On impulse Harry picked up a bowl of the local rice equivalent, digging out a spoonful and holding it out towards her. "Say ahh…"

Zule blushed rosily, but then hesitantly leaned forward and bit down around the spoon, before pulling back, licking it clean as she did. Her blush deepened when Aayla joined in and Alecto started to chuckle. But she still sighed and took a bite from fish Aayla held out, before waving them off. "Enough! Let me eat." Still, the little game had bolstered her spirits further, which she knew had been the point.

Over the next week and a half Harry, Aayla, the Jaderin businessmen and the other counts hammered out the particulars of the trade agreements, as well as making broad outlines of similar agreements for the rest of the planets in the Ruusan Sector that the Jedi had joined. Jaderin however would be the only one at this point with a set, finalized agreement, and would be the center of distribution within the sector just as Serenno would be between them and the rest of the Republic. This would obviously enrich Jaderin and set it up as the natural sector capital but that was a good thing in their opinion.

In the afternoons, that schedule left Harry and Aayla in the afternoon to pursue other matters. Aayla in of course contacted Mak and Kass through the Order, touching base with them and continued to talk to them every other day, getting a feel for whether or not they were thinking of leaving the Order or not, while also thinking of another possible solution, if the Corellian mission went well. Beyond that, she spoke with Master Yaddle and Master Gallia every night, enhancing her further understanding of what had happened since they had left the Republic, as did Harry and Alecto. These conversations were freewheeling discussions, where Harry and Aayla began to make further concrete plans for Harry's position as count.

Harry talked to his friends too of course, but only once before concentrating on other matters like those talks with the older Masters and more. He began to teach Master Ti more about runes while also setting up a criterion that they would need to use to bring in further Jedi on the expansion array at the very least.

"I don't know if you've really understood how much of a game changer that could be Harry." Master Ti said a few days into her restarted runic education. "Not just in combat," she added calmly, holding up a hand as he made to speak. "Or personally for the Tyrant's Bane, but on a mercantile level. A single ship able to carry three or four times its apparent size in goods could be tremendously huge for the economy. And, the fact that only Jedi would be able to create such ships, could be a source of profit that we Jedi could control ourselves, rather than through the auspices of the Senate."

"That last I had thought of, but it's still a security issue," Harry said with a sigh. "We need to be very careful about who learns about runes at all, let alone the expansion array, which personally I think is the most important use of them." There were others of course, the strengthening and notice me not arrays among other security type runic systems of course. But Harry felt that none of them could change the entire Republic as much as the expansion array. "Even if people just learned that these runes exist could be a major issue."

With the Verpine crew's continued enthusiastic assistance they finished work on the hangar bay assigned areas: two Force-expanded cargo holds, as well as the manufactory, which took up another one. From there they went on to finish the runic work on the last few cargo bays that hadn't been expanded yet. So as the Tibanna gas was offloaded, they brought in the material that the Serennoans were paying for it with: several tons of various metals, parts, and three hundred hyperspace engine nacelles, which would make a fleet of thirty or more, smaller ships, for the planet of Jaderin. That would be an excellent first down payment on what was to come, and would help jumpstart the revival of the sector, though that of course would take centuries.

Harry and Aayla also found and hired the design teams that had been working on this Serenno bomber design. These were six different, competing groups, which had been laid off by the Council in favor of the local starfighter, the Falcon, and the missile frigate design, which was called the Longbow class. Harry and Aayla also purchased two of the nearly finished ships for themselves.

The fact those ships could actually fit within the large Lucre Hulk class Tyrant's Bane was one reason, but they were also impressed by its design in other ways. The ships had the large scale offensive punch the Bane needed, though it's punch wouldn't last for long, and it's defenses, both shielding and armor, were negligible for its size, and the crew compartments were uncomfortable in the main and those shortcomings could be overcome via various runic arrays.

It also had the engines to keep away from anything larger, even if they were 'technically' not supposed to have hyperspace engines. Being well above the size of a starfighter, this design was considered a capital ship by the Republic, and as such Serenno would have had to have a permit to build them for reasons other than system patrol. This hadn't stopped the counts however, and they had several tricks to hide this bit of perfidy already, which Harry and Aayla cheerfully ignored, not even telling their fellow Jedi about them. Why burden them with more worries after all?

The spokesman for the different bomber design teams looked like he had been ridden hard his entire life, a robotic arm, eye and several teeth missing. Despite that, he was somewhat respectful as he spoke, even if he was pointing out the idiocies of other people. "I understand Jedi you probably know about starfighters, but bombers are a different thing. They rely on survivability and hitting power, not maneuverability overmuch. I'll let you in on a big secret: ship-based point defense is awful. larger ships use turbolasers and quad lasers, but not enough of the last to really make a difference. Turbolasers are powerful but very slow, and not very good at targeting fast-moving starfighters and quad lasers are better, but rely on the people manning them and the more of those you have, the less turbolasers you can have. Our computers can't predict for shit on the defensive side of things."

"But you're talking about a rule of were warfare, not an insurmountable concept or a hard and fast law of the universe," Harry replied. "What's to stop someone from creating a forget say that whose job is simply to kill starfighters? Or missiles?"

"Design philosophy," the old man said with a shrug. "If you're a starfighter proponent, you wouldn't think of it because your main job would be to kill large capital ships, and you disdain them entirely because they're big, fat and slow. If you're a capital ship opponent, you scorn anything smaller, and believe that starfighters are death traps, that can't penetrate a prepared ship's defenses. Anything to the contrary is blamed on user error."

"Both of those positions sound downright stupid to me," Aayla said bluntly, concentrating on her empathy, believing the man was making fun of them. "Surely you're not serious?"

"I'm deadly serious ma'am. Kuat Driveyards is run by and feeds the belief of people who always believe bigger is better, with Rendili being at the other end of the spectrum but not as good at selling their concept of speed over strength and size."

"It's why most of us are here," opined one of the others, a male Bothan. "We believe in thinking beyond the tried and true concepts other people work at, and prefer to build small too."

"Assume that we are actually sane and beyond believing in the Force believe in the evidence of our own eyes," Harry said after a few moments of silent communion with Aayla, whereupon she had basically told him that yes the two men were serious. "Why are you bringing this up now?"

"I wanted to make sure you didn't want miracles." The old man said brusquely.

"If we wanted miracles we would've gone about getting them ourselves," Aayla said with a laugh striking a pose and going on mock- arrogantly. "We are Jedi after all." This caused all of the men and women of the design teams to laugh and Aayla gestured the first group forward. "Just show us designs you already have."

Many of these were a little unsuitable, but over the next several hours, Harry and Aayla found a few were pretty decent. One of them caught Harry's eye, and he gestured at it, pulling that hologram up into the main hologram display in front of him, twisting it this way and that as he and Aayla looked at it then back to the trio who had designed. That group was built around two Twi'lek men and a female Sullustan, though how that group had come together was anyone's guess.

"The dimensions of this design aren't from a bomber type starfighter are they? This looks more like a patrol boat."

The difference between a patrol boat in starfighter was normally size and speed. A patrol boat would be able to punch well above its class if it was designed for that, but would have little to no speed, or could be designed to kill starfighters, but would then have another limitation. They were an in-between sort of class, which normally made up the bulk of system defense forces, since leaving out the hyperspace drive let them came in more weapons or shielding.

"It is Master Jedi. We were able to look at the designs of several other patrol boats found throughout the Republic, and we felt there was an odd lack of ambition and most of them. That's what we came up with.

Harry and Aayla looked again at the ship. It was about the same size as two starfighters set nose to tail, with more than half of its length consisting of a prow jutting forward from the rest. Built around what looked like a larger than average cannon of some kind this prow was mainly cylindrical, with a bit of a dagger like segment built above and below at the front. Along the length of the nose it had four quad lasers situated on what looked like rollers, which would rotate them around the ship's 'nose as they twisted and turned. Beyond that the main body rose up slightly from the top while flaring out into two blunted wings, with flared tips and large engine jutting out from the back.

There was another back pointing quad laser, along with shield blisters and a sink for a astromech droid as part of the main body, while there looked to be proton or concussion missile launchers set into the wings. The design was impressive, but it was obvious the ship would never fly in the atmosphere, it had all the aerodynamics of a brick, but that didn't mean it wasn't pretty.

"What are these weapons here?" Harry asked, pointing at the large cannon and the others in turn, though he could read the specs on the quad lasers.

"That main weapon is a large-scale ion cannon, the type that would be housed normally in either a capital ship, or on a planet as part of a battery. The others are quad lasers as you can see. To missile launchers on either side, as well."

"There is always a give and take in starfighter design, just as there is in ship design. What is the problem with this one?" Aayla asked intently.

The designers looked at one another until through some odd communication that even Aayla only caught a faint flicker of one of them was decided on as the sacrifice. He was pushed forward by his fellows, and began to stammer "well there are several issues with it. "First of all, the internal space both for crew and for concussion missiles is very small. The magazines can only hold for missiles each, to make room for the engines you see..."

Harry held up a hand. "We are the ones who asked, and are simply asking out of interest, were not going to bite anyone's head off. Just talk please."

Taking courage from that, the three nodded, and began to elucidate the problems one after another. Not only was internal space issue, the armor for this ship was a little thin. It had decent shielding. "Overlapping shields you see, a design we got from some other species or other, they look like fish do you know them?"

But it radiated like a capital ship, so was easy to lock on for any enemy. The quad laser gunners were subjected to a lot of pressure from the rotation, a system which also projected to be maintenance intensive. And the biggest issue, was the fact that while its normal space engines were quite good, it didn't have hyperdrive engines. There was just no way to fit those in. But of course for system patrol craft, that wasn't necessary.

"And of course then there's the cost of the thing," shouted one of the other designers caustically.

"Harry, I think we need to keep an eye on those three." Aayla sent as the group in front of them fell to bickering, the two Jedi visibly turning their attention back to the design."

"I think we need to keep an eye on all of these people. In fact, I think we should sequester them if we can get away with it. Though that's wishful thinking I suppose."

"Oh, Harry, that will be easy! In fact, I bet I can get them to agree to it right here. You don't really understand how obsessed the scientific mind can become, do you? Watch and learn." Aayla sent back with a burst of affection. "Gentlemen, these designs are prototypes obviously," she said aloud. How far along are they? I mean, are they just the shells, just written designs, or would you be able to lead a team to build them in real life?"

That drew a scoffing growl from every team there. "Master Jedi you're insulting us!" shouted one of them over the hubbub. "Every one of these designs have been fully worked out! They can be built, whether or not they'll work, that is an engineering issue."

"So all of you would be prepared to work on building your designs if we were able to divide provide the funds and the material?" She asked, adding a bit of sarcasm to her tone.

That scared off more than a few of them, and Harry watched Aayla and them both carefully. "Four of them have figured out that maybe their designs aren't as bad as they thought," she reported, I could feel their avarice flaring the instant we showed interest."

"I will have the local security watch them just in case. They're all locals for the most part and blue planet people for the rest. That should be simple enough." Harry replied, before letting out an internal sigh. If not, we can always use Mind techniques to erase a few minutes of this meeting from their minds." Harry didn't like that idea, feeling direct mental Force techniques like that leaned to the Dark Side in their application, but he could not deny their efficacy. And given the fact they wanted to keep as much of what they were doing a secret from everyone they could, it was necessary at this point.

When Aayla reported their avarice spiking and Harry saw those groups talking quietly, the two Jedi dismissed their designs, with Harry walking them out. As he did, he carefully invaded each of their minds, gently removing the segments of the meeting that indicated their designs were interesting. He then cut them all a check for their day's work and sent them on their way relatively happy at how their days had gone, with none of them the wiser of his manipulations.

At the same time Aayla spoke to those who her empathy was telling her were less greedy at the least. The six remaining teams, consisting of twenty people in total, felt through the Force more as artistic types who just wanted to design ships, and who didn't care overmuch about profit or what those ships would be used for. Dangerous in a very different way than the ones they had dismissed, but it was a a kind of danger Harry and Aayla could make work for them.

"At this point ladies and gentlemen we need to start to talk about contracts, living arrangements and secrecy. We have… call it a research station, where, if you agree to work for us, you will all be sequestered for the duration of that employment. If you have family, they can come with you, we don't want to separate you in that manner, but we want to make certain that no information about our own.. engineering techniques, which we will be adding to yours, gets out."

There was some confused looks at that, since Jedi, for all the legends about them, had never been known as engineers, but Aayla continued. "You will also be paid extremely well, but let us face facts gentle beings, the best payment for all of you would be to see physical examples of your designs, wouldn't it?"

There was a rumble of laughter at that, and everyone there slowly nodded, and Aayla continued to explain what the men and women before her would need to agree to. From the feeligns she was getting though, that seemed to be purely academic at this point. It looked as if they had their design team.

OOOOOOO

It'd taken several weeks since they had gotten back to Coruscant for the High Council to gather in its entirety. Only one of them was missing besides Yaddle and Gallia, left behind on Serenno, but Master Windu was more of a part time member now, brought in if he was in the temple at the time. Even with the missing members and Windu elsewhere, they had enough members to form a quorum of the Council.

This was a must considering the main concept that Harry and Aayla had come up with to try and slow down the conflict between the Centrist and Secessionist was a rather radical departure from the Order's previous stance. However, they had convinced Yoda and the others who had gone to Serenno that it was a possibility, and if it muddied the waters in the Senate, or took power from the Secessionists, then Yoda felt they had to try it.

Listening intently, Master Rancisis moved his body this way and that in his people's version of a contemplative head tilt. "I see… This armed neutrality concept would possibly help calm both sides down, while removing many of the bit players from the Secessionists. Without them, their ability to appeal to the general citizenry of the Republic goes away. I do not however believe that is going to prove as important as it might seem to young Harry and Aayla. Further, it will seem as if we are breaking from the Senate's central authority if we go this course. Worse, once shooting actually starts, how is a defensive force supposed to win a war?"

"You haven't seen the interior of the Tyrant's Bane," Master Koon said with a faint smile, the movement of his cheeks visible around his mask. "That ship alone is worth any fleet in existence." He went on to describe in vague terms what had been done to the Lucre Hulk. The implications of it were obvious even to those who hadn't personally seen it.

"Even better is the fillip that young Vos came up with, the idea of using astromech droids for the work speeds it up tremendously." Micah added. "Eventually those runic arrays will start to be used in other ships.

"So, in the Senate this move will be designed to buy time, to make both sides scramble and attempt to justify their positions, while we Jedi build up connections through Knight Potter and create a military alliance, couched in terms of defense, to be sure, but still a military." Rancisis said ruminatively, looking at Yoda thoughtfully. "But we are very close to the point where too many people on both sides are starting to think that they need to force the issue. Regardless of how the Sith are involved in this, there will be conflict in the future, it's come too far now to stop. Further, I still believe this feels too naïve to truly work."

"Actually, it might very well work better than you think," Depa Billaba said before Yoda could speak, bowing her head respectfully towards the old Grandmaster. "I'm sorry, but there is one aspect of interstellar politics that you might have missed: Senators are not the only ones legally allowed to make new agreements for their planets or sectors. If Harry bypasses the Senate like this, it is perfectly legal whatever anyone might think. And while his stance might seem naïve, if he can offer them something physical, many planets will think twice about their choice to back the Secessionists. Master C'boath's leadership has done little to hide the fact that the three most powerful groups in that faction are just as corrupt as the Senate they rail against."

Master Trebor also spoke up. A master of media-based communication and public speaking, He had become the Order's answer to the Sith's anti-Jedi propaganda in the Croe Worlds and elsewhere. "Exactly, Tambor and Gunray are particularly seen as corrupt and self-serving, a opinion that spreads to their guilds. Further, it is the same on the other side of the political divide: many planetary populations are concerned about giving away power to Coruscant, even if that will help the Centrists streamline the government, and others are concerned about the Core First policies they push."

He tapped his long narrow face thoughtfully with an equally green finger. "There will be numerous planets who might be receptive to the idea of more local defenses and therefore control, while still believing that the Republic as a whole is in the right."

He shook his large, heavy head. "But never to the Core Worlds. Every government and media outlet within them would see it as a betrayal for certain. I can even see that reversing all of the work I've been putting in to combating the anti-Jedi sentiment that was already in place." He finished with another shake of his head.

"And yet Master Piell said thoughtfully, tapping, his one good eye closed ruminatively. "Creating a third party like that, it would be a bold strategic move."

"Exactly. This will have far reaching repercussions, consequences that Knight Potter, for all his strength in the Force, cannot foresee." Rancisis said, his calm voice cutting through the room and bringing all attention to him quickly. "We all need to acknowledge that. We will be taking a step beyond our current positions: we will lose friends even as we gain others, take a step back in many ways and forward in others, that even we here cannot truly consider. I think we all need to know if this is truly the way forward. Master Yoda?"

Yoda remained silent for a few minutes, and when he spoke, his voice was soft, but carried through the council room. "The Force bond between Young Secura and Potter, acts like a band of Light it does, pushing back the Dark around them. Yet the Dark, still there it is, just beyond their presence. Linked to them, to those with me, see much, even I could not. Debilitating the attempt was, exhausting it was mentally and physically. Comatose I was, for days after."

He looked up at them all, his face showing more sadness than anyone had ever seen. "Correct Master Rancisis was. War, inevitable it is. The Sith, too strong they are, even if a Sith, C'boath is not. Terrible, this war will be. Yet…" Yoda sighed. "Yet… plan forward, Potter's plan is. Attempting to simply keep things going have we been save for our own training. Take a chance we must. Stay the course, a disaster it will be."

That was putting it mildly. While Harry's plans going forward might be somewhat naïve, appealing to the goodness and desire for peace (as well, admittedly to the various planet's hope for further independence) it did have the chance of perhaps keeping some systems out of the conflict to come, and giving the Jedi Order a strong, somewhat unified, ally to keep the peace, whatever that might entail. "A chance for the Order to survive, this is."

There were looks of shock at that, but Piell was the only one to speak up. "Surely Master Yoda the Sith are not that strong, to threaten the Order itself?"

"Know, I do not, the weapons used. But visions of the future in them only death I could see, if remain on the Centrist side we do. Change our policies we must, or die the Order will, as a whole." Yoda said still sorrowful but firm now. "Unless, better plan, better vision someone else has?"

Even with that statement from the aged Grandmaster, the debate raged through the counsel for a while, but eventually his position won over the skeptics. Yet despite having spoken up in favor of the shift in their policy in regards to the Secessionist debate, as the discussion drew to a close, Depa asked, "What do we think the Sith will do in response to this?"

For that there was no answer. "We still don't know enough about our enemy to predict that, curse it. But we must be on the lookout for anything. Anything that could possibly be a response to our own change of tactics could lead us back to the Sith. We should also start channeling more trustworthy Consulars, back to the training center on Serenno. Further, we should prepare the younglings for transport. The moment war breaks out, we will want them away from the temple as quickly as possible." Rancisis said. "For now, Master Bilaba, Master Piell, you will be our front men to this shift in the Senate. How should we go about this?"

Depa smiled widely leaning forward, her eyes lit up like that of a predator. "Tomorrow morning in the first session of the Senate there is a funds reallocation debate going on. I propose we can use to as a platform for this purpose, if in a somewhat lateral manner…"

The next day, Master Depa and Master Piell joined the Senate for that debate. Most of the time, the Jedi were not involved directly in debates on the Senate, but they did have a single vote which they could use, and were always given a respectful hearing though most of the time they were simply called to give their impressions on this or that debate or mission that specific Jedi had been sent on. Far too often of late, the Jedi felt that they had been called to account for their actions rather than respected as learned individuals, a feeling that many had come to see as endemic of the Senate's growing desire to control everything in an attempt to blind others to it's own corruption.

Chancellor Palpatine noticed them as they took control of their personal bubble and smiled politely, though he looked a little confused. "Masters Jedi," he said quietly, as the rest of the Senate filed in and took their places in their own separate bubbles, muttered voices beginning to fill the massive amphitheater. "I did not anticipate that you would be taking part this morning."

"We have something we wish to discuss with the Senate as a whole Chancellor," Depa said simply. "The Senate has beeng pushing the Order to a formal position to take on the debate that is facing us, between the secessionists and the centrists, and we have decided to see if we can do so."

"Indeed," the Chancellor said with a smile "That should be interesting if nothing else. Although I would have preferred some heads up before you simply showed up," he quipped.

"Our own debates went late into last night, and when we called your office at the time, we were told you were sleeping," Master Piell said shaking his head.

"Yes, my secretary did say you had called. Very well, let's see what happens."

Internally however, Sidious was feeling a little… not worried, but wary. This was something he had not anticipated, and he wondered if it had something to do with Yoda and the other councilmembers trio to Serenno several weeks ago. Blast it, I wish I had more inteliegence out there, but I have been unable to get any assets into the training center there. Could they have something to do with the Council of Counts decision to pull away from trade talks with the Commerce Guild and the Trade Federation? I had so hoped to weld them to the Secessionists, it was mildly disappointing.

The debates began soon enough. They were slightly more subdued thanks to the two Jedi's presence, sitting in their own personal bubble. The Senators were never quite as quick to start their normal histrionics with the Jedi ther: it was altogether too much like misbehaving in front of a very Stern tutor. However eventually the Senators got over their apprehension, and started to shout at one another as usual these days.

As Depa had told the High Council, this was a simple debate about funds reallocation, one that many Senators hadn't even bothered to show up for. The more vituperative secessionist Senators had come however, thanks to Palpatine's subtle commands in that regard. The money was supposed to go to a few rebuilding projects in the Outer Rim, but the motion was to shift that funding to revamping several Golan 1 type star fortresses scattered throughout the Republic at important trade points. Sidious intended it to pass, but to be close, looking like yet another example of corruption within the Senate as well as a sign the Centrists were preparing for war.

Both Jedi watched this in silence as the arguments started to make less and less actual sense and be more about the senator's known positions in that debate. Master Piell eventually nodded towards Master Depa. "This was well chosen, though I did not realize how… slanderous the Senate's debates had become," he murmured.

"Thank you, and yes, they are often rather nasty. This one isn't as bad as some I've seen. Although, it might just start to get worse now," she replied, before centering herself in the force and then standing up. She waited a moment, then as the debate continued all around them, with only the Chancellor noticing her movement, she sighed. Shee looked at him, and he looked back, gesturing as if to 'say do you want me to silence them'?

Sidious was indeed wondering that, and believed it would be amusing for a Jedi to rely on him for something so simple.

But Depa shook her head, and the used the controls on her bubble to move into the center toward the several Senators already there in their little bubbles, shouting at one another face to face. As Depa neared them, she concentrated, gathering the Force into her throat. She could use a few of the new techniques, but she specialized in a few new and unusual ways of using the Force. One of them though was simply shouting with authority. "Ladies gentlemen and sentients," she shouted, her voice roaring through the auditorium, drowning out every voice and indeed making several of the Senators grab their ears. This is a place for reasoned debate and the exchange of ideas, not for blind aggression, wild denunciations or personal attacks."

As silence reigned in the Senate, Depa spoke normally, yet still carrying to every Senator there. "I believe we all know what is behind today's outbursts. The debate between the concepts of central authority and seceding from the Republic, to attempt to create a new government elsewhere, disconnected from the past. Both sides shout corruption at the other, illegal actions say the Centrists while shouting about how only more power, more authority can solve the corruption of the Republic's bureaucracy."

"We Jedi have watched, we have listened, we have followed the law of the Republic, the lawful requests of the Senate. Yet we have been careful to protect the Senators of both sides of this debat,e have been careful to this point to not choose a side. There is a reason for this of course," she said, allowing a whimsical smile to flash across her face, attempting to seem more human for a moment. "Both sides of the debate have good points to them. We cannot deny the corruption of the Senate, the bloating of its bureaucracy. Yet it is unlawful to secede from the Republic, for very good, hard reasons, not least of which is communication and the needs of the HPG network, and of course the protection of trade routes. And while the Senate has no doubt failed to address the issues of many planets in the Outer Rim and Expansion Regions, the Trade Federation and the Techno Union are at best users, at worst abusers to match any allegation they have sent towards the Senate itself."

The various senators made to speak, no more so than the Neimoidian, but Depa kept speaking, speaking over them with ease. "Of course we Jedi cannot solve these problems, at times we are powerless to even discover them in the first place. But we can point out a way forward perhaps. To start with, we need to look at this very debate. We have come to the point where no one is willing to admit not just that they could be wrong, but that their enemies could possibly have anything intelligent to say. Loud arguments do not always equate to being correct my fellow sentients."

"Yet when you pair them down, the majority of the Secessionists position is based around the corruption inherent in the Senate. So it is that position we must address. I formally call for a resumption of the debate on the Financial Reform Act." Depa finished, then waited for the immediate reaction.

She was not disappointed. Immediately the stasis her speech had evoked ended as various numerous Core World and Banking Clan senators shouted or rather screamed at her in many cases. Since it had been broken up after proof of mismanagement had been found by the Order, the Coreward Banking Clan had always moved with the Centrist position, while the Outer Rim Clan had begun to cautiously back the Secessionist position.

Depa waited until several minutes had passed in silence, yet not giving up her position in the center of the amphitheater. She stared stoically all around her and eventually the voices quieted once more. "Loud arguments do not always equate to being correct. If we cannot even admit that the problem exists, how can we even solve it? Further, how can we, my fellow Jedi, continue to act as a voice for the Senate when it proves itself unwilling to be culpable for it's own shortcomings? We are servants of peace ladies and gentlemen, violence and mindless hate towards those who simply believe differently, serves no one. Nor will the Jedi Order blindly obey this Senate if it believes that violence is a simple solution, to be picked up and used as easily as any other."

"My motion is on the floor. Do I hear it being seconded?" Depa asked into the ensuing silence her last statement had caused.

"I second the motion," Bail Organa said quickly. The Senator of Alderaan and head of the Anticorruption committee had long lamented the fact the Senate had shown how cowardly they had been when they ended the debates on the Financial Reform Act after some of the Senators had been attacked by terrorists. Only one of them had actually died, the Jedi having successfully protected all the others who had been attacked, but it had been enough.

"As do I," Padme Amidala said, staring at the Jedi in surprised calculation. "Further, I motion that any debate on new ongoing expenses be put on hold until the FRA is either carried or dismissed."

Watching as the motion began to be debated once more, even more vituperatively than the small fund allocation resolution they had been talking about, Sidious carefully hid a scowl. I had not foreseen this move by the Jedi. It will help in the long run, by showing the Senate they cannot trust the Jedi to follow their orders, and that they are more willing to stick their nose in where it doesn't belong. But I do not like that last statement: that implies the Jedi will not willingly follow the Centrists if we declare war on the Secessionists. That could be troublesome for the Great Plan, but not overmuch. Still I have to wonder not what they have accomplished here, but what they could be starting…

OOOOOOO

It was several weeks of hard work both on Serenno and transporting goods between Serenno and the Ruusan Sector (and not incidentally reaching out through the Force to Master Fay as best they could) before Harry and Aayla were in a position to at last leave Serenno on their first trade mission. Thankfully, it had also taken that long for them to contact the two individuals in Corellia that they wanted to speak to. Thankfully, since they were going in as Count and lady, they did not need to seek permission from the Green Jedi to be there.

Equally luckily, Garm Bel Iblis had a distinct disdain for what he called-letting noble stupidities and like many Corellians respected Jedi, even those who did not wear the Green or were acting as political and economic figures rather than as messengers from the Order. The mystery of how that came about was possibly fascinating in itself and that was enough of an incentive to get them an audience with Garm and his Dictat.

Leaving behind Master Ti, Zule, and Alecto to deal with a very leery Corellia Space Control the two lovers took a shuttle down to meet with the Senator and Dictat at the Dictat's palace. Though calling it a palace was a bit of a misnomer. It was in fact a simple massive building among dozens of others. The only difference between it and its neighbors was the size of it, the fact that it had a flaring roof, and of course, the numerous anti-air defensive installations situated on the buildings around it and on its own roof.

Someone was waiting for them as they exited their starfighters, and immediately, both of them could tell he was a Jedi. "It's the lightsaber," Harry said sardonically, putting his own on his belt, and resting one hand on the light curve of the hilt as he hopped down from his starfighter, waving away the two landing crew who had been approaching.

Aayla did the same, moving with him to nod politely at the man. "Yes, lightsabers do often hint at someone being a Jedi. Although I believe the robes are also a giveaway." Both of them wore brown robes over simple white and tan undergarments, but the man ahead of them wore a green robe over gray leggings.

The man, a middle-aged human male with a shor cropped beard and dark brown eyes, looked at them without a motion for a moment, before holding his hand up in the traditional Jedi greeting. "You would be the so-called Count Potter? And his lady." At that point there was a flicker of something, amusement perhaps, or understanding and he noticeably thawed as he stared between them. To the Green Jedi, the bond between them was like a hot white band to his senses, sitting there like the most solid thing in the universe in a background of darker colors. It was odd to say the least, but also somehow uplifting to be near it.

The relationship that accompanied that Force Bond was not odd at all. One of the main contentions between the Green Jedi and the rest of the Order was that the Green Jedi believed that love and attachments solidified one to the Light side of the Force. It could open you up to possibly falling as the rest of the Order believed, but only if that love was not returned if something traumatic happened, or you felt guilt about being in love in the first place and had to hide the fact. Since the New Sith Wars, only three Green Jedi had fallen to the Dark Side, which should have proof in their point rather dramatically, considering in that same time frame around thirty Jedi from the regular Order had fallen. But it hadn't and recent events had made the relationship between the Green and 'city' Jedi even more acrimonious.

This was why the Green Jedi set aside his amusement and some happiness at seeing two foreign Jedi having such a relationship to state bluntly, "Why have you and the others come into Corellia without explaining your reason for being here to the Green temple?"

"We are not here as Jedi," Harry replied for both, centering himself in the Force after a brief spurt of confused wariness at the other man's tone. As such did not have anything to say to the Green Jedi at the moment."

"And if we decide to have something to say to you?"

"Then it must wait until after our business here is concluded." Aayla replied in turn.

"Your meeting with the Dictat and the Senator. You requested that it be in private, and against our advice, they decided to allow this. But know that we will be close by, and on the watch for any Force trickery."

"Are relations between you and the rest of the Order so bad that you would think we would use the Force to manipulate such important people?" Aayla asked.

She didn't say that the Jedi wouldn't influence people, many Jedi made use of mind tricks like that, from simply making someone turn their attention turn elsewhere to changing their mind on small matters. The idea however that the two of them were here to do that to Bel Iblis and his Dictat was both rather silly in Aayla's opinion and personally insulting.

"Quite honestly we do not. However, the relations between the Green and with City Jedi are not very good at the moment. And you are Jedi, regardless of this Count business. Although," the man said, thawing even more from his formal stance, "I have to say that I personally find the fact that the Order allowed that a good sign."

"We thought so too," Aayla said with a grin, gesturing the man to start moving. "However, we are only nominally here for Order business, the Order knows what we are up to, and rather reluctantly approves, but beyond that, we are here on our own connivance. With the Force so silent on the future, it is left to Jedi to make our own way."

The Jedi nodded, then asked cautiously, "And is there a reason why the both of you are using Force Cloak at present?" That Cloak wasn't perfect, he could still sense them underneath it, and their strength in the Force somewhat, but he was getting the impression from at least the young man, that he was seeing only the tip of the iceberg.

"We got into the habit at one point," Harry said with a shrug. That, and the more we can keep hidden of our abilities and strengths, the better.

The man nodded, though he still looked a little bemused. "Will you be free after your meeting with the Dictat and the senator? As I said your presence and those with you along with your mode of transportation has caused a bit of a stir among us. And there are certain protocols to follow." His tone made it clear that he didn't particularly care for those protocols, but did think it was a good idea that they meet with the Green Counsel.

"We don't know how long our meeting is going to go, but perhaps we can appear at their temple at around nine tonight? We ourselves are still on Serenno time, so that will be like a little after noon to us" Aayla said apologetically, after communing very briefly with Harry.

"That will be perfectly acceptable," the Jedi said, nodding. "I will call and inform the local space control to expect your flight down towards the temple at that time."

"You didn't give us your name by the way Harry said, though you obviously know who we are.

The Green Jedi smiled, "No I did not. My apologies, I am a Master Halcyon."

"Knight and Count Harry Potter, formerly Padawan to Master Fay," Harry said. "I'm still getting used to the 'formerly' part of that statement."

"Aayla Secura, Jedi Knight, and Harry his significant other. Lover is a little too vague a term for what we are. And I was Padawan to Master Quinlan Vos."

Master Halcyon's eyes widened at the mention of Masters Fay, and the nod he had been giving turned into a slight bow. "We have heard of Master Fay and even the Green respect her. I think that bit of name dropping will help soothe some ruffled feathers, at least where the two of you are concerned. If you could keep your fellow Jedi my fellow Masters were able to sense in orbit on your ship, and your ship where it is, that will go further in calming both ourselves and the local space control. The Trade Federation are not well-liked here. Although your paint scheme caused quite a bit of amusement in Corsec when we first got a visual of it."

The Tyrant's Bane was not painted the usual green or gray off most starships, or even if the red of a Republic diplomatic vessel. Rather, it was a light blue color, with shades of dark yellow here and there in random swirls. It looked quite artistic, if one didn't notice the weapons and shield installations that were still very much a part of the vessel's appearance.

Master Halcyon asked a few questions about the Tyrant's Bane and its mission, both its previous mission, and the fact that it was listed as a humanitarian vessel in the Republic's ship registry. Harry and Aayla answered his questions, until they came to an intersection where Master Halcyon bowed once more, somewhat impressed and entirely mollified by his discussion with the two about their arrival here. The Green temple would still be a little leery about them, if for no other reason than the fact that they were meeting with the twol heads of state in Corellia but Master Halcyon decided he rather liked these two young people.

The three Jedi once more exchanged the raised hands of greeting and farewell, before he turned away leaving him alone with the droid, a short cylinder-type of droid that hovered in the air on its own repulsors before moving off down the corridor in a different direction. It soon showed them into a small foyer, where the two people hey were here to speak to waited.

Senator Bel Iblis stood to one side, staring out a window, though why he was doing so was beyond Aayla. "I mean it's not like there's that much of a view!" That was true Harry thought, considering the fact that they were three stories down from the top of the building, and all they could see were the wall of the next building over.

The Dictat was sitting down in a small love seat, ostensibly reading something on a datapad, but she looked up immediately with the two Jedi entered. She was a young woman, possibly only a little bit older then Aayla, with the blackest hair either of them had ever seen, so black it seemed to suck in the light and refined features. Yet for all that, she was otherwise somewhat unremarkable. She was well built but not overmuch, intelligent looking with shrewd eyes but again nothing there to that would attract attention. She was even of medium height.

All of this dovetailed with the description that they had been given both by the Order, and by Padme, who told her that her older friend rather liked to be able to blend into the background and watch everyone's actions before making a decision. It made her a good leader, Harry reflected now, as he bowed formally to her, but not one people would flock to. "Nor I think would she be good in a time of war. Her normal method of leadership is far too passive."

"But then again, that's what she has Bel Iblis for Harry," Aayla sent as she too bowed lightly, looking at them both. "Dictat Shyla, Senator Bel Iblis, thank you for meeting with us."

"This novelty of meeting a Jedi who is acting as a Count and according to your factors have a business opportunity for our government was too interesting to set down," Garm replied said.

Shyla simply nodded, leaning back with a small smirk on her face as she stared first of Aayla, then at Harry. My word, I can now see why Padme is so taken with these two. They are rather striking, and yes, those eyes are a lethal weapon! "Indeed," she said aloud, gesturing the two of them into a chair. She watches they sat down, almost automatically clasping hands as they did and shook her head with a faint smile. Lovers indeed. "What is this business opportunity, why are you offering it, and however did the Order decide to allow you to act as account of Serenno in the first place?"

"I suppose we could take those questions chronologically Madame Dictat. First of all, I was Padawan to Jedi Master Fay, who I imagine you have heard of. She did not believe in lightsaber training, but a few years into my training we both decided that I was leaning more towards being a Guardian than a Consular. As such, I needed training with a lightsaber, and because Master Fay really does not like to journey to Coruscant, we went to Serenno for training under Master Dooku. This was before the training center there was developed, in order to help teach Master Fay's techniques throughout the Order and retrain those who needed such with the lightsaber. I learned from him, and astonishingly he named me his heir in the event of his death."

"It came as a bit as of a shock," Aayla said as an aside, nudging Harry lightly. "But we have decided to run with it as best we are able."

"And what are your goals as a count?" Garm asked, his eyes narrowed.

"To do the best we can for the most people we can," Aayla replied simply. "Not just the people we lead as Count, but perhaps as many other people throughout the Republic, as many other planets throughout the Republic as we can. In that, we have a plan going forward, but we need Corellia's help hence why we are here, and the business deal we have for you."

"We need freighters and we need hyperspace drive coils, lots of them," Harry said bluntly. "Enough to restart an entire sector's worth of inter-system trade."

At their looks he went on, mixing lie and truth with the ease of some practice at this point. "Master Fay led us on a journey into a sector of space that had previously been cut off from the rest of the Republic through the movement of a thick nebulainto the area. Within that territory, hyperspace travel is slowly becoming possible as our friends there continue to map it after we started them on that path, though the border of the sector will remain largely impassable for now. But no planet there has the natural resources needed to make hyperspace drives, which severely limits both trade and exploration."

"They do however have quite a lot of other resources," Aayla said taking over smoothly from Harry. She pulled out a small data chip, and asked politely, "May I?"

With a nod Shyla gestured to a droid in the corner, a large droid with large arms, who picked up a holographic device there and moved it into between the two tables. As Aayla began to fiddle with it Harry went on. "Our first major export, will be Tibanna gas."

"That was chosen with malice aforethought," Garm said, leaning back as Shyla did the same, both of them looking interestedly at the two Jedi. "Obviously you know the issues we have about getting that particular resource. With only the Commerce Guild having the rights to sell it between sectors and owning outright the few planets that make most of the gas throughout the Republic, everyone else has to pay through the roof for it, and even then can face 'late deliveries' or 'missing shipments' if we anger them. You realize of course that if this sector is part of the Republic, they will come under the Commerce Guild's control."

"That sector is not part of the Republic," Harry said simply. "Not a single planet we visited was willing to rejoin the Republic, even if movement between the Republic and that sector could be normalized again. The Republic abandoned them once, and it will take decades of work to firm up many of the planet is there to recover, if they ever can."

"Centuries for others," Aayla said with a sigh. "And we're not talking about simply helping them recover from plague or famine, or other disasters. Many of those planets were not self-sufficient, and could not retain their technological level and so have since fallen back into near barbarity. We were on a few planets where they used rockets of all things to get to orbit, having no ability to make repulsor engines."

"But this system was an exception," Aayla said as she finally finished, and the system of Jaderin appeared, complete with the same information that the two of them had shared with the Council of Counts on Serenno. "And with it, the rest of the sector becomes available for trade."

Shyla took it in at a glance, whistling, while Bel Iblis took a few more moments, staring at it thoughtfully, searching for information that was not there: the kind of information that could have allowed someone else to figure out where this system was if only in a straight line of course, via astrogation. And there was also absolutely nothing there about the defenses of the system. He leaned back and looked at Harry and Aayla thoughtfully. "This is interesting," he said aloud, meaning far more than the actual trade discussion.

Aayla might not have been able to follow his thoughts, but the sudden spark of both interest and then wary respect and amusement came through via her Force empathy easily. "I think we've got their attention Harry." She sent to him, getting the image of his face blossoming into a smile in return.

"Exactly what kind of business arrangement will this be?" Shyla asked, trying not to sound too eager.

The truth was though, that Corellia and many of the other planets in its sphere of influence needed more Tibanna gas than they were getting. That gas was used in generators, batteries, engines, weapons, but it was the engines and batteries part that was most worrisome at the moment. The Commerce Guild had slowly started to slow down the shipment of gas to Corellia and other planets that had begun to make noise about wanting to renegotiate their deals with the Commerce Guild or felt they were too powerful and needed to be regulated further by the Senate. It was so bad for Corellia that only about a third of its industry was at full output at this point, and more than half of the defense forces were down for 'maintenance'. That said nothing to the number of private freighter captains who'd been forced to up anchor and leave Corellia entirely since this began.

"Aayla and myself have exclusive rights to all trade agreements with Jaderin, and between us and the Jedi Order we will lock down any exterior agreements reached with the planets of the sector in question and the Republic. We however will be have already made agreements with Serenno and my fellow Counts to be our distribution point. We are here with their blessing to make an agreement between Serenno and Corellia for the hyperspace coils and for the freighters that Jaderin has requested in exchange."

So saying, Harry pulled out a packet of information from a small bag he had been carrying. "Here are the details, as well as a schedule for shipments, several of them actually, along with details on what we require in terms of special trade goods. Specific planetary needs are also listed."

Seeing it, Garm held back a curse with difficulty and made a note to yell at the palace security for a bit, along with Master Halcyon. After all, while these two seemed on the up and up, that didn't mean they should have gotten a bag into the Dictat's presence without it being searched. Then he realized. Kriffing Jedi and their Force tricks, of course. Still, shouldn't Halcyon have spotted it then?

"All right," Shyla said thoughtfully after remaining silent for several minutes as she thought through all the implications she could of this, breaking Garm out of his thoughts. "I can understand that, but you just mentioned the Jedi Order. Why is the Order involved in this?"

"The Order is deeply concerned about the Secessionist and Centrist crisis," Harry said, "and has decided to take a step back from their position of backing the Senate position and the Centrist faction if obliquely thanks to how violent some Centrist backers have been, as well as the fact that many of the Secessionist's points are understandable."

"They're calling themselves Separatists now not Secessionists," The Senator dryly. "They just changed that in the last few days. Although astonishingly, the new name has already caught on in the media. Why, it's enough to make one wonder about a conspiracy. Would this have anything to do with the fact that it Jedi Master, or rather a former Jedi Master who left the Order is now also known to be the head of the Separatist movement?"

"It is not. Anything to do with Master C'boath is under the purview of the high Council at present," Harry said carefully. "Rather, we have decided on a course of action that the Order, with all of its duties responsibilities and

and regulation," Garm interjected sardonically.

"And ties to the Senate, cannot officially condone," Harry concluded dryly, smirking at the old man who fought to not follow suit.

"And what exactly is that?" Shyla asked tartly. "No Jedi would be involved in simple trade agreement, despite finding the planet in question."

"We feel that the debate between the two parties is becoming too heated. We can see a crisis coming, and hope to offset that by adding another weight to the scales," Aayla said, but before she could go on she was interrupted by Garm.

"The military buildup. Both sides are doing it, the Separatist and the Centrists now. Or rather the Separatist and the Loyalists as they are calling themselves. The Centrists also began to change the name of their movement in the Senate yesterday. Not that it's having much of an effect, either name change. A rancor can't change it's stripes after all. Then again, thanks to the Jedi pushing for the Financial Reform Act both of the parties have lost more than a bit of cohesion in the Senate."

Traveling between Coruscant and Corellia was actually relatively quick, despite the fact they weren't at all close in terms of their positions within the galaxy. That allowed Senator Bel Iblis to head home to Corellia to talk with his Dictat and touch base with his constituents more often most senators could, or even felt the need to. Doing so hadn't won him any friends in the Senate, but the Corellian citizens approved.

"So what are you going to do about that?" he went on, taking control of the meeting with practiced efficiency, despite the fact that Shyla was there while she in turn leaned back further in the sofa as she watched it. This of course proved Harry's earlier impression of her and Padme's information was right. She might really be the one in charge here, but she wasn't acting like it, her instincts telling her to pull back and analyze rather than take action.

"We hope to create a third party, quite like the antimilitary faction is trying in order to desperately to turn the tide of stupidity in this. But instead of simply asking everyone to back away from the violence we will acknowledge the points of the Separatists, while pulling back any aid for them or for the Centrists until those points are addressed and the Separatists are willing to talk things out." Before Garm could bark a laugh at that, Harry went on.

"The Separatists after all are led by the Trade Federation, Commerce Guild and Techno Union, all of whom are among the most obvious when it comes to abuse of power. The Trade Federation in particular of course. They can hardly then turn around and say that they are standing on a moral high ground. But there is no doubt that there is corruption graft and possibly more importantly to the man on the street, misallocation of funds in the Centrist party as well. Why should we give them more power, when they have already patently proven to be unable to use it appropriately?" Harry finished, using some of the same arguments that he had with Padme.

Those at least had worked. Now however came the part where Padme had begun to argue against. "But this neutrality will be backed up in the main by an armed alliance of mutual defense treaties.

At that Garm frowned. "Armed neutrality? You're going to allow, or even help along the spread of military assets? I can't think of anyone offhand that would approve of that in the Senate. In fact it might spark a response even now, or a declaration that you're back the Seps at the very least."

"Exactly, we intend to create an armed neutrality movement, not aggression. Every planet who signs up will be defended by his fellows, but will not in any way take any offensive action beyond protecting it's shipping of course. Most of our assets will be in system patrol craft, with only starfighters as an offensive punch to start with. But if attacked, we will strike back. And if one side or the other starts a war, then we will move to aid the other side, Separatist or Loyalist."

"And as for the Senate, since they are building up already ships and material without the Militarization Act being law just yet, and further do not have nearly enough people to police such buildups, we don't have to even consult them, let alone do anything else." Aayla interjected smoothly.

Corellia had for twenty or so years been chaffing under quite a lot of the Republic's bureaucracy in many different ways. "That makes some sense. So we agreed to this trade agreement, which will be a front for the armed neutrality movement?"

"I actually prefer the term conscientious objectors, but I was overruled." Harry replied with a slight smile. "The planet and systems who join us are still part of the Republic, but we refuse to further prop up the corrupt system in place, and we will defend ourselves against either side. Further, we will defend any planet which wants to remain neutral in that larger conflict."

"That would be why this line is here." Shyla said, having been reading a portion of the package Harry had set own on the table between them. "You want to purchase any planetary shields we have on hand? I presume for distribution to planets which agree to join you. That would be a very nice carrot for most planets Inner Rim and out." Corellia was one of very few systems that could have numerous backup planetary shield generators, and indeed actually constructed them here to sell elsewhere. But the expense of such systems was exorbitant."

Harry smiled slightly. The Tyrant's Bane is a Lucre Hulk class ship, and it is stuffed to the rafters with Tibanna gas containers of all types and stripes. If we were to use the prices set on the open market for that amount of product, we could pay for what we're asking for this shipment and half again as much."

Shyla frowned, and immediately picked up a dataslate and began to look up the information about the various prices before setting it down, slowly nodding. "So you could."

She fell silent, waving Garm to do the same while she thought. Eventually she nodded. "We agree to the trade agreement, we even agree to the mutual defense treaty. That simply makes good hard sense," she said after waving a hand to Garm stifling any response he might have made. Garm subsided, watching her and the two Jedi equally. "But you bring up a good point. If you've brought as much gas as you imply…" she said flipping to one of the back pages of the packet. "Then you could indeed purchase and prepare what you're asking for and then some. Yet you mentioned selling the whole lot for what is here. What else do you expect in return for that largess?"

"We could say we've done it out of the goodness of our hearts, and it would be partially true. We know that at least, what, fifty percent of your defense force is down at any one time due to lack of Tibanna gas for your batteries and generators?" Aayla asked.

"More like sixty percent," Garm grumped. "Forty percent is more the portion down because of that and poor maintenance. But if we have Tibanna gas, the poor maintenance issue can be solved quickly."

"But…" Shyla said, now smiling at Aayla and wondering what else these two young people wanted here.

"But we also wanted to make a good impression on you, because we have a request and a suggestion. As I said, we want to create a real military force that will enforce the defense treaty between the different planets sign up. But it must be a real military force, an extension of the existing defense forces. While Harry and I are very good fighters in terms of our skills we are not generals. We have access to a few Jedi who could possibly act in a manner, but to run an entire military force? No Jedi has done that in centuries and we are concerned any Jedi we put in place would not be able to perform as well as he or she should."

"Jedi should serve as strategic advisors, and possibly tactical commanders," Harry said bluntly, "and assault troops too if it ever comes to that. But for logistical needs, training and strategic oversight, we need someone else."

"You want me," Garm in realization, leaning back. He had run several anti-pirate campaigns when he was younger, and had taken part in a few of what were actually called wars in the history books, the Stark the Kul Huro Unrest being the most prominent one, along with the Andoan War. He'd commanded his own ship in the past and even commanded the whole of the Corellian defense force for years before running for the Sector's senatorial position, streamlining the defense force and creating a series of small logistical bases for it throughout the sector, helping to build further bridges between the planets that looked to Corellia for leadership. "Why would I do this for you rather than just Corellia if I wanted to?" He asked to buy time more than anything.

"Do it for both," Harry said with a shrug. "We want to merge the defense forces of Serenno and Corellia, not entirely but enough to let them work together in the future. We've already started an enlarged recruitment drive on Serenno. How hard would it be for you to do the same thing here?"

"It would be remarkably easy, in point of fact," the older man replied with a faint smile. So long, of course, as we're not too picky about what kind of people we recruit. But I haven't agreed to join this endeavor just yet."

Aayla looked at him and then Shyla, her empathy telling how interested Garm was in this concept. Garm saw the need for a larger military force to keep the peace, but didn't want it to be under the Senate's control, nor did he want Corellian taxpayers to pay for it. This new trade agreement would pay for it by letting Corellia cut ties to the Commerce Guild and it's numerous tariffs and demands. And of course, Palpatine wouldn't control it.

But that wasn't what Aayla's powers of empathy were telling her of course, that all came from public statements she had seen him make. Rather what her senses were telling her was more personal. "Are you even happy as a Senator, Senator Bel Iblis?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Kriffing hells, no!" the senator responded with a humorless bark of laughter. "But it's where things are happening! Everything will revolve around what happens in the Senate, which group is the aggressor, what sparks the upcoming conflict, where it can be stopped if it even can at this point. Where else would I be?"

"No," Shyla said. "Coruscant might be the center the fulcrum as it were, but that doesn't mean things won't be happening elsewhere, nor does it mean that you would've actually been doing a good job there. Garm looked at her in dismay, and she sighed. "Garm, you are a patriot in the finest sense of the term, you see to Corellian interest as well as could be expected of anyone, but you are far too honest to ever really serve as a good senator or diplomatic of any kind. I appreciate the fact that you have been my strong arm there, and your advice about a way forward, but I think you could do Corellia and indeed the entire Republic, much as you think it isn't necessary, more good in this position that they are offering."

"Politics," Garm muttered, looking away. "The only job where honesty isn't a good policy."

"True, though I have Master Fay's teachings to fall back on there," Harry said with a sigh. "I prefer to simply appeal to people's self-interest and desire to better their lives, which seems to work and keep me relatively honest. Business is much simpler."

The two men laughed, while Aayla simply smiled and Shyla rolled her eyes. "We agree of course. The precise numbers on our end will take some time to get right of course, but I think you've done most of them for us. I will have one of my secretary droids look it over, add the pertinent local laws and the rest, and then get it back for our signatures. For now, you make take the down payment of one retired Admiral, not quite up to snuff Senator with you when you leave," she said with a smile advancement to take the sting out of her words. "But I will want a list of people you think to replace you as Senator on my desk in a few hours."

Shyla stood up and looked at Harry and Ted and Aayla. "I must say, Padme's description about the two of you do not do you justice at all. Your political acumen is greater than she gave you credit for, and your ability to think of new solutions to old problems is interesting too. I would not have thought of making agreements between such distance planets and doing so without going through the Senate?" She shook her head. "That alone I think is a bigger deal than you might realize."

"I certainly hope that this agreement between Serenno and Corellia he will be a opener to further interactions, and Padme's description of your intelligence, and beauty were spot on as well," Harry said politely, while wincing internally at the mention of Padme as Aayla did the same in their inner worlds. The three of them hadn't talked since that argument, and the one time they had tried to contact her, their call had gotten an automated message.

Shyla smiled at that, wondering if she should tell Harry that Padme had a crush on her, before deciding that was Padme's problem. She was a grown woman after all, and could be trusted to handle it.

Having been suddenly set adrift by his Dictat, Bel Iblis simply sat there, staring forward for a moment before shaking his head, and leaned forward with a bright it rather grim grin on his face. "All right, what do I have to work with?"

"Probably quite a bit more than you might expect," Harry said with a smile. "However, for now I think we should introduce you to Master Shaak Ti, and Master Adi Gallia."

"Master Ti isn't know to me, though I've met Adi dozens of times," Garm said, smiling slightly at the mention of the Corellian born Tholothian. She had been born on Corellia, but had returned with her parents to their homeworld where her Force talents were discovered. Still, that was enough to make him think of her as a closet Corellian. "She's intelligent and knowledgeable, but she's a Consular. What is she doing involved in a military buildup?"

"Counseling" Aayla said dryly, causing him to smile. "She is involved more to make certain that we don't take things too far I think, but I couldn't tell you the exact reason why. She is here because the Force wants her involved with these missions of ours."

"Makes about as much sense as anything else you Jedi do," Garm and said with a chuckle, standing up. "Lead on."

About thirty minutes later, Garm Bel Iblis, for once in his life, was stunned speechless, though it didn't last. "W, what is this?!" He said, staring around at the massive hanger bay. There is too much space here! An entire droid factory inside a cargo hold!? He tried to count the rows of containers little gantries that had been created for droid starfighters, the Vulture class he thought, and lost count at about two hundred, Now, a Lucre Hulk could carry even more than that, but those were just the ones he could see.

The first hanger bay, the one visitors had access to, had a specific Force trick on it, that allowed its general size to be hidden from people who simply entered that one area. But the moment you stepped beyond it, the fact that there was far more space in the cargo holds than there possibly should've been became readily apparent.

"By the Force and the sacred sun," Bel Iblis muttered, staring around him at the second of the two hangar baya which was filled with starfighters, two frigates which looked vaguely familiar to him, and in the distance was the back end of the droid factory. "There's too much distance," he muttered, pulling at his goatee in shock. "What kind of Force trick is this?"

"Notrick, only a technique," Aayla said, gently taking the older man by the elbow and leading him forward. " This is what we call a… force multiplier."

Garm shook his head, the motion carrying into the rest of his body as he looked at her with a jaundiced eye. "That joke was so horrible it actually snapped me out of my daze. Did you mean to do that?"

"Sure, let's go with that," Aayla muttered, while thinking "I thought it was clever."

"It was," Harry sent back. "It's just that not everyone likes puns."

"I blame Mother Lily and you for getting me interested in them," Aayla sent back, to which Harry simply smiled, sending back the feeling of love and affection as he moved beside her.

They showed Garm around, as well as talking about what they had were hoping to use a similar space expansion charms for and the durability aspect as well, took most of the day. However, when they were done, Garm immediately pointed out a flaw in their strategic planning.

"All right," he said leaning back as he looked at Master Ti, Master Gallia, and then across at the two young knights he had initially been talking to, is flanked by two other young nights. All of them had come in and talked to him as the tour had continued, and he now knew a lot about what this ship could do. He had also just been read in on the secret of the Sith being out there still, which was horrifying.

That decision had been one Harry had decided on after meeting the man, and reading his past military accomplishments. He needed to know that there was more at stake than just the Separatist and Loyalists coming to blows, had to know that someone else was looking to profit from that conflict. A thousand years since the last conflict and Corellia was still picking up some of the pieces of the last Sith wars through their system, let alone their sector. Three planets in the Corellia sector had been made uninhabitable during those wars, and more than one planet was permanently scarred by it.

He instantly agreed to keep that secret for now - no reason to let the Sith somehow discover Harry and his group knew about and were planning to fight him after all - and to further lead whatever military they began to create against the Sith should it come to that. That process wouldn't take as long as most would think, considering that the two primary systems which would provide the bulk of the startup personnel already had quite decent militaries in place. This would simply be an enlargement of those organizations, but coordinating and enlarging that would be a task in itself, and of course making certain that the two groups would both work together and respect the joint command over their own.

Garm took some time talking about those problems then added bluntly. "On top of that, your strategic flexibility is frankly nonexistent at the moment."

"You're going to have to explain that," Harry said with a frown. "Surely what we just showed you is…"

"Is a tactical strength, possibly even a logistical one if you allow this space expansion technique to be used on more ships," Garm replied before Harry could finish speaking, smacking his hand on the holographic table between them all to emphasize his points occasionally. "But, it is not a strategic resource, in the truest sense of the word, in terms of actual warfare. You could crush any one system's military, hells, if you're right about the sheer strength of your ship's shields, you could probably beat any fleet in the republic given time! Even the Trade Federation's or the Republic's new fleet that they have been building in Kuat and other sectors. But you couldn't win a large scale war alone. You could win a battle, but you couldn't do it fast enough for word not to get out about what's happening. Every trick in this ship is only going to be good once before your enemy knows about it and tries to think of ways to counter it. And the easiest way to fight this ship, would be to not fight it at all."

He held up a hand when the Jedi made to protest, though the Togrutan woman was nodding along as if she understood, which was a good sign. "They wouldn't need to know how you are doing it, how your shields are so strong, how you are housing so many starfighters. They would simply see that you are doing it, and that would be enough."

"…That's certainly food for thought," Harry said with a slow nod. "Damn it, we've been so busy trying to keep it a secret from the Sith in terms of how we do it to realize how obvious it would be once we actually get into a fight." He sent to Aayla, who could only offer rueful acknowledgment. "How long would it take an enemy to actually admit that what they are seeing is real rather than trickery?"

"That would depend on the enemy, but you can't rely on that." Garm replied. "That means you need to get off your high horse about not letting more people use these Force techniques of yours elsewhere. I'd recommend the entire missile frigate fleet, and the fourteen freighters we're going to be sending to Serenno as part of our payment."

"We've already begun that work, but bringing in Jedi on that score is going to take time," Harry said, but then he sighed looking over at Shaak Ti. "You were right though Master Ti, we need to hasten that aspect of our operation as fast as possible."

"The moves the Order have started within the Senate may buy us some time. But you Harry and you Aayla needs to think what you too can personally do that others cannot, and do that thing, while others follow up on matters like this." Shaak replied, smiling over at Garm before directing that same smile to Harry and Aayla, who had to smile back.

"That's right," Garm said with a firm nod. "Delegation."

Harry nodded slowly, looking over at Aayla nodded agreement. "Very well, when we begin?"

It was decided that Garm would, in conjunction with Master Yaddle on Serenno, start to put together the military aspect of the new alliance between the two planets, coming with them, as Harry had hoped, to start that project on Serenno. Shaak Ti would join them after they had cleared fifteen other Jedi to help work with her on the expansion arrays. But the work would take place in the Tyrant's Bane until they could purchase a space station, which was impossible at the moment because there were no space stations for sail in Serenno or Corellia.

While he wouldn't control the order of battle for this new fleet, something that was very much limited just now thanks to the need to knot draw attention any more than they had to, Garm would be utterly in charge of training, recruitment, and eventually, dispersal of units. Here despite their gaff of putting security over strategic needs, Garm found all of the present Jedi had a much better idea of the needs of the moment. Though the idea of armed neutrality was intended to appeal on a moral level, Harry knew that the moment a war began, military decisions would take precedence in terms of force allocation. None of the Jedi were happy, but understood.

They even agreed with his ideas on how to use the Tyrant's Bane itself, which was, in his words, "As the biggest single kriffing hammer this galaxy's ever seen. If the TF or Coruscant open up a real shooting war, we move in with the Bane and start attacking their most important planets until they realize they can't stop us. Kuat for the Republic, and their homeworld for those Nemoidian blowhards."

Harry wasn't certain it would be that simple, but for certain they would have the benefit of surprise at least. Still, he was well pleased with the way this special recruitment drive had gone. Aayla was too, informing the others of the real fear and resolution she felt from Garm when they told him about the Sith, which matched the surprise and awe he had felt earlier at their space expanded interior. "That man will die before he lets the Sith come to Corellia again."

But if the meeting with Garm and the Dictat had gone about as well as anyone could expect it to, the meeting with the Green Jedi began in the exact opposite manner. First, they attempted to put Harry and Aayla off their stride, but by meeting them in a room designed by the Green counsel, where they routinely called their own Jedi to answer questions about pertinent missions. The censorious expressions on most of the Master's faces and the fact that they were forced to stand in front of the group rather than join them in seats was a psychological move.

Harry dealt with this by simply ignoring their looks and kneeling down on the floor with Aayla next to him. This drew some looks and a lot of frowns, but evidently not enough to cause them to stop the proceedings. They had heard somehow about the new trade agreement at the least, as well as a rumor of the mutual defense treaty, implying they either had someone working in the palace or Shyla had passed it on, Harry and Aayla could not tell which. After telling the two foreign Jedi this, the Green Council demanded the full truth from them, implying they would block their efforts in Corellia somehow if they did not approve of the answers.

After a few minutes of silent communion Harry nodded and began to explain. "The Order believes that the Sith had somehow survived out there, and are very dangerous. We believe they are somehow involved in this growing schism within the Republic, although we are uncertain if Master C'boath is the center of that. Because of that, the two of us were allowed to use the power base Master Dooku left us to create armed neutrality party."

There are many scoffs at that. "We have heard of this Sith threat from city Jedi before," said the Jedi Master sitting in the center of the half-circle. He was an ancient looking man, easily forty years older or more than Master Dooku had been the last time Harry had seen him and he seemed to have shrunk in his green robes. If that man can move without creaking, or his legs going out from under him it is a minor miracle Aayla thought, keeping that thought in the center of her mind to keep herself upbeat at the amount of negativity she was feeling from her fellow Jedi at the moment.

"And yet, Master Tholme died in the Corellia sector to another Sith assassin, one who could have been the brother of the first one that appeared on Naboo," Harry said. "We have heard of that, surely you have too."

"We believe that Dark Side user was a plant by you city Jedi, to force us to comply with you, to force us back into the fold." said one of the others.

"How would that have worked?" Harry asked honestly curious.

"You would have examined us, and have found our different rules and beliefs to be a danger, to be leading us towards the Dark Side, and forced an amalgamation at lightsaber point," said another master, his tone just as bitter as the first two.

"So you're saying that the Order would have sacrificed a respected Master in order to plant the idea that you and yours were falling in danger of falling to the Dark Side? Which would of course result in conflict which might lead to more deaths," Harry said slowly looking at Aayla. "How exactly is that supposed to make sense?"

"The weight of one life, freely given, for over three hundred Jedi forced to obey their orders? That is an easy choice to make," said another Master.

"A thousand years later, and we have not forgotten how the Order treated us after the New Sith Wars!" The speaker was younger than the others, but sounding just as hidebound and certain in his position. "No, this Sith are gone, if this Maul creature was anything but a plant from the Order then he was an example of some Dathomiri clan that has spread off world. There are no Sith now."

"I see," Harry said sadly. "So you will not aid the armed neutrality party?"

"No. We will protect Corellia, we will protect Corellia Sector. We will even work with the misguided Senator Bel Iblis or his second-in-command to do so if they join this armed neutrality party. And we will do so against all aggressors. But you will get no help here."

Harry frowned. While he was used to being examined under a looking glass from the Order, and had even come to expect that most of the Order would always look upon his bond with Aayla as an aberration, and something to be leery of, this was different. The antipathy here between the Green Jedi and the Order was something that he had been warned about by both Master Ti and Master Gallia, and even the other Masters who knew what they had planned to do, but the reality if it was something else, and something based on perceived wrongs and ancient grudges than anything important in his eyes.

It was time to do something about that Harry decided and stood up with Aayla beside him, equally resolute. The emotions that she could sense below the surrounding Jedi's self-control were unpleasant in some places, and she could also tell that more than a few of them didn't honestly believe what they were saying. They were just towing the party line as it were, and maybe a good shakeup would be enough to convince them they should start thinking for themselves.

"My Master always told me to look at every new problem as a separate entity, to use my past experiences not as a lenses but as a book, wherein I could look up knowledge and experiences to use to solve any new problem that came by, without my past coloring my perception of those problems or their underlying causes. You, all of you here are speaking of ancient wrongs, done to your portion of the Jedi Order by the High Council. I'll not say that you are wrong, you were treated very unfairly at the time. However, you are letting past issues cloud your actions and your perceptions in the here and now. That is perhaps one of the most un-Jedi like things I have ever heard of!" Harry said, his voice rising.

"What is the Force telling you? Are you able to perceive the future? To see your path forward?" Aayla asked, now stepping forward away from Harry and staring around at them all. She had not spoken during the initial discussion about why the two of them were here in Corellia, but she did so now and so did so powerfully. "If you can, then I will bow to your greater knowledge of the Force, as indeed should every other Master in the Order."

She paused for a moment, making eye contact with each Master in turn. "But you cannot, can you?" She said at last. "The veil of the Dark Side we so-called 'city' Jedi call it that, the power that has blinded us to the future through the Force. Could a mere Dathomiri clan create such a thing, and so wide spread as to cover the entire Republic? This Sith are real, saying anything different at this point is simply sticking our heads in the sand."

"Then why haven't the Council told the rest of the Order of their concerns?" asked one of the Masters. He sounded much more calm and considering than the others.

In reply when Harry turned to him, his tone went back to being respectful. "They had hoped not to worry the entire order to hunt the Sith down before whatever plan they have could be put into motion. But at this point the knowledge is going to be in disseminated soon, if it has not already been. We will not share it with anyone outside the Order except under special circumstances however for fear that the Senate and other power brokers in the Republic will see it as an attempts to make them all jump at shadows, to create a bogeyman that we could use to push aside the current issues facing the Senate and the Republic as a whole."

"That makes sense," that Master said with a nod.

Abruptly a lot of the enmity they were feeling faded. Harry and Aayla both realized with a start that at least some of what they had bene feeling had been artificial, a test as much as the physical setting of this meeting.

"We will still not help the rest of the Order," said the ancient Master at the center, his voice still dry and almost bitter, and he glared around him irritably. "But there are a few young ones here that will wish to join you and this armed neutrality party. They will be journeying with you when you leave, if that is acceptable Count Potter?" He asked using the title to make it clear that he was asking Harry as his persona as Count rather than Knight.

Remaining calm in the face of this sudden change with some difficulty, Harry simply nodded his head. "That will be fine."

About ten minutes later, they were joined by Master Ti and Master Gallia, while Zule and Alecto remained up in the Bane. With their help they spoke to the Green Council about what kind of people and skills anyone joining up with them had to have. The Council of course still poked and prodded them, asking Shaak bluntly at one point what she thought about the bond between Aayla and Harry, but she remained calm, simply stating "I have never known them without it. But are you asking out of curiosity, or jealousy?"

Eventually however they had decided on forty new Jedi to join them. Twenty five of those, all Knights, would be transferred to the freighters which would be then sent into the Ruusan sector carrying the next round of hyperspace nacelles. Five more would begin work with Master Yaddle at the training center learning the new techniques and bringing them back to the Green Jedi, who had not taken part in the program there before this. The remaining ten would serve as the Bane's bridge crew, and would learn about runes at the same time from Harry and Shaak Ti along with anymore Aayla and Shaak Ti cleared to learn about runes once back over Serenno. The green also asked for the others to come down and demonstrate the Clan Saa techniques, the next day.

"Well," late that night as they left the temple. "What do you think of that?"

"They don't want to believe Harry but they have to," Aayla said with a sigh. "The Veil has them spooked just as much as most of the Order, but they can't let go of their past either. And they fear amalgamation with reason admittedly. The Order might allow physical relationships now, but most of those Jedi in there were married. With rings and everything," she hinted, nudging him in the side.

Harry laughed, but knew that there was no stinging those words from Aayla. She couldn't care less about such material shows of their bond. He had asked at one point, but she had simply shook her head. She didn't need a marriage, or a bit of paper to say that they were bonded lifemates until they died, to know it was real. And with her knowledge of that fact came Harry's.

With an arm around Aayla's shoulder Harry looked over at Master Ti and Master Gallia. "So, how did that work out for you?"

"Remarkably as we predicted," Gallia said with a shrug. "We have our first group of Jedi to train and we can set them to work on the freighters traveling back into the cut off sector.

"Good," Aayla said with a smile. " In that case, I think I want to go shopping tonight. Surely there are some shops still open."

"Shopping?" Master Ti asked one eyebrow raised, the movement starkly visible in the white around her eyes. From a nearby light as they exited the temple proper. "Whatever for?"

"Ah, I want to keep that a secret for now Master TI," Aayla said, giggling as Harry also looked at her in confusion, wondering why she was trying to hide the thought behind that statement from him until she send him a flash of amusement and love. "Trust me Harry, you'll like it…" She caroled.

That evening, Harry and Aayla were just falling asleep when a ping from the computer set in the wall near the doorway jolted them back awake. The Tyrant's Bane's computer had relayed a Hypercom request to them, the source of which glowed briefly on the computer's screen as Aayla walked over to it, wonderfully naked save for a lacy black T-back panties, their mingled juices still staining portions of them. She felt Harry's eyes on his desire, and smirked. "Why clothing like this gets you all fire up is still a minor mystery to me Harry."

"Not it isn't and you love it anyway." Harry said which was far truer than Aayla's statement. After all, she could feel his desire and vice-versa through their link. It made being truly spontaneous with one another nearly impossible, but they had sometimes attempted it, as Aayla had today with her choice of underwear.

It had worked too. Even before actually seeing it on her physically, the faint image of Aayla having tried it out in the store had Harry so aroused he had Force tossed her on the bed the instant they entered the room. A laughing Aayla barely had time to push off her Jedi robes before Harry was in between her legs to gaze first hand at the wonder she was wearing.

Eyebrow rising Aayla sent back, "Harry its Padme."

Harry hopped out of bed quickly, pulling on his own Jedi robes and tossing her to Aayla. "You think she wants to apologize for our argument?"

"If she does, we'll be doing the same of course," Aayla said, to which Harry just nodded.

He and Padme had been equally at fault for how that argument had devolved, though thankfully they hadn't taken it too far. "And I suppose I stepped out of bounds with that last shot I got in before we cut the connection." He said aloud, the first time in several hours anything more than moans had been heard in their small, Spartan quarters.

"Yes you did, but not by much," Aayla replied in the same manner as they moved the simple com device from the corner into the center of the room while Harry conjured up a large beanbag for them to share in front of it. Neither noticed that though they were technically dressed, it did not hide nearly as much as they might have wished. Harry's robes were open, showing his chest and a few bite marks Aayla had let. Aayla's robe did the same only slightly more so, one of her dark purple nipples peeking out to one side.

The touch of a few buttons later brought up Padme Amidala's image to replace the beeping red words of 'Senator Amidala'. The image, more colorful than a hologram and actually a bit more detailed for all it wasn't a hologram, blinked, blushed and smirked all in under a second after the connection was established. "Ahem, am I interrupting something? If so I can call back later. Or do you two always answer com calls like that?" she asked, her hand appearing briefly in the screen to wave at the two lovers.

Aayla looked down at herself, and eeped, pulling her robe tighter while Harry rolled his eyes as he did the same somewhat slower, enjoying the look in Padme's eyes and the flash of amusement he felt thorough his link with Aayla. "You called on the tail end of our nightly exercise actually. Thirty minutes earlier would have been far worse." Aayla said, trying to sound poised and in control even as her skin darkened noticeably under Padme's eyes. At the same time though, she was watching Padme intently, as was Harry, though not quite for the same reason.

"I see," Padme said, her lips now forming a sardonic smile, while a portion of her mind was busy trying to etch this scene into her brain for reasons it wasn't sharing with the rest of her. "Well, I will still apologize for calling so late. One apology on top of another hardly matters." With that she became serious and sighed. "We did not end our last conversation on the best of terms, and I wanted to apologize for that as soon as I could and this morning was the only free time I've had since."

"I'm also sorry how that conversation went Padme," Harry said gently shaking his head. "I let my thoughts run away from my common courtesy as it were and my knowledge of who I was talking to. I know why you are leery about trying to further fracture the Republic both the Senate and the Republic itself and about further arming separate groups. But I should have kept in mind that your concerns were well-founded and not the thoughts of someone who was simply concerned for her own position."

"And I should not have attempted to convince you that your ideas were not worth considering, let alone a sign of ignorance or warmongering on your part which was feuling my anger, and to be honest, my pain at what I saw as your betrayal." Padme replied with a shake of her own head. "I have to admit that creating a third party, an armed neutrality party, has its own merits. I just fear how this will be seen by the Senate and the public. The Republic as a whole are becoming far more reactionary toward the Secessionists as they too ramp up their rhetoric. The amount of vitriol that is being spewed around the Senate is just horrible." Padme actually shivered visibly in the pickup as she finished.

"The second I think will depend on how the crisis is being seen already. As for the first, I'm sorry to say I don't particularly care." Harry said bluntly. "I was serious when I said that the Senate seems to have lost its way to me. I won't work with the Trade Federation or its ilk, but I cannot deny that their position appeals on many levels."

"I can see why an outsider would think that, but…" Padme began then shook her head for a third time, this time far more violently. "No, let's not start up again, alright? We are friends, the best of friends," she went on, though the look she gave Harry's chest, now hidden under his robe said she was thinking something else entirely. "That doesn't mean we always need to agree."

Harry just smiled gently at her as Aayla agreed verbally. For a moment the three fell silent, then Padme asked, "How do you do it? How do you reconcile the fact you are a Guardian and your present course with Master Fay's nonviolent ways, Harry? I, I cannot honestly see her pushing for type of solution you have been." Harry and Aayla had told her about the different sects within the Order.

"It is hard sometimes, but I'm not my Master." Harry said with a sad sigh, looking down as he spoke. "I don't have her control, her ability to see through people, to get them to agree to her point of view and compromise. And even if I was this is too big a problem for any one person to truly solve like that. I have no doubt she could make the Secessionists and the Centrists come to the table, even get some agreements out of them. But actually solve all the issues between them? 'Fix' the problems facing the Republic? No, no Jedi has that power, the Order as a whole doesn't have that power."

Aayla put a hand on Harry's shoulder and after a moment, Harry looked up, his eyes intense. "All we can do is protect as many people as we can, as many planets as we can. The Force did not call me to be a mediator, but a defender and that is what I am." His lips twitched into a wintry smile. "And if that means trying to convince people to distance themselves from a sinking ship by offering them the means to protect themselves from the fallout, so be it.

Slowly, Padme nodded. "I see. And if I wasn't a Senator with a duty to the Republic was well as my own sector's constituents, I might have agreed with you. As it is, I cannot. I won't help you, but I won't hinder you either." With a shake of her head, she visibly shifted modes, smiling now. "So, what else has been going on since we both had our hissy-fits?"

OOOOOOO

Garm Bel Iblis frowned as he stared at a monstrous holographic display of the entire Republic. This display, deep in the Corellia Defense Forces most well protected command center - there were ten command centers all over the system - was automatically updated every other day with the number of planets and sectors that showed interest in the line of bullkriff the TF and their lackies were selling. Before this, Serenno had been shown by a deep orange color, indicating it was in danger of falling into the Separatist's camp. I wonder why they started to change the name they were going by, it means the same thing after all.

Now as he watched that system change to a new color, a purple that stood out for its very uniqueness. Inputting a few controls, the purple spread to include over a dozen other systems that were tied to Serenno within its sector and would follow its lead regardless of orders to the contrary from the truly defunct old sector capital of Da'astan.

As I thought, the area is widespread, but defensible. Kriff, the Jedi boy might be right. With another few inputted controls, the Corellian Sector as a whole became purple too. And of course the sector will follow my lead on this, Duros, Attawar and all the others have been as leery about the Centrists as we have been here in Corellia, though Attawar's the only one who has hinted about having, snort, Separatist leanings. The other planets are justifiably worried about the TF, but just as worried about the corruption in the Senate. And just like Serenno's holdings, we can, with appropriate time to build up, defend ourselves. And I can leave that buildup to my second in command here. Shyla's right kriff it, I can do more good as head of this, this conscientious objector defense force. Because when the shooting starts, whoever the aggressor is isn't going to take a 'peaceful' stance seriously. And as magnificently deadly as that ship is, it can't win the war on its own. No, we'll need this defense force that Potter has thought up. And with the Jedi's new abilities, that's going to be a far nastier proposition than anyone could predict. Still, once the shooting starts, we're going to want to move quickly and offensively too.

Still, what I need to concentrate on is a plan to get away without looking as if I'm going with the Jedi. Heh, this is going to be fun.

OOOOOOO

The next day, Harry, Zule, Aayla and Alecto sparred in the center of the Green Jedi Temple, watched by practically every Green Jedi present on Coronet. The Green Counsel's request for a show appeared to be working, far more than they might have anticipated in fact. Aayla reported feeling quite a lot more interest and eagerness to learn now that they could see that Harry and Aayla and the others knew things even above and beyond the techniques that had been already bruited around the Order. Seeing the new techniques in person like this was an eye-opener for all of them.

It got even better when Master Ti joined in, given her known skill as a lightsaber duelist.

"I thought you would be meeting with, Admiral Bel Iblis all day Master Ti," Harry said as their lightsabers bounced off one another, the younger man dancing from side to side, a Force shield appearing occasionally in order to bat away the other woman's lightsaber as he tested her defenses with his own, finding her odd variant of Makashi rather hard to figure out. Nearby, Aayla was holding off Alecto and Zule together, but was being pressed hard.

Master Ti sighed faintly. "He had a… business meeting… to go to, but he should be ready to leave with us by the time we have offloaded and loaded everything tomorrow."

Harry nodded at that, although the tone of voice Master Ti used when she said 'business meeting' made him wonder. He didn't have enough mental capacity to ask however as Master Ti suddenly went on the attack, pushing him backwards. But he matched and then exceeded her attack, switching adding more Djem So into his own form in order to push her back. Once her sudden assault was blunted, he rolled to one side and then lashed out with first a fire attack and then a wind one, one after another.

The fireball started out slow, but the win attack went faster, intending to either impact Shaak or the fireball. But she dispelled the first with her own sphere of water and then dodged the air attack, it's trail visible through the sudden steam.

At the same time however, Harry had twisted them around, so that when Master Ti dodged, Alecto was out of position to do anything to block the air attack. Even so he was almost able to dodge out of the way. But this in turn opened him up for an even larger blast of air from Aayla, and Alecto was thrown out of the ring.

An instant later Aayla disarmed Zule, slicing into the open side of her inner arm with one lightsaber which of course had been set to training mode. An instant later she thrust with her other blade an attack straight out of Makashi rather than Jar'kai, and the point of the plasma blade pointed directly at the other girl's throat before Zule could bring her own second lightsaber around to block. "You need to work on that," Aayla said seriously even as she dodged around her now defeated friend. "Watch out when you're defending yourself that you don't extend your arms to the side so much."

Laughing, Zule started healing her arm even as she used Force Grab to pick up her fallen lightsaber, sending it flashing into one hand.

Now faced with both of the lovers, Master Ti backpedaled quickly, lashing out with a Force Push that Harry dissipated then a Force Grab at Aayla and cart wheeled into the air. But Aayla's mastery of air allowed her to push it back, and she returned with her own air blast, which Master Ti dodged once more.

Then Harry was back in her face, their lightsabers smashing together, and Master Ti found herself entirely on the defensive. Eventually the two knights won wearing through her mixed Makashi and Soresu style. Afterward, Master Ti wiped sweat from her forehead, smiling brightly at the two of them. "That was well done!" she praised.

"Teamwork," she said in a louder voice. "Working together, the bond between a Master and Padawan can make them far more dangerous than any two Masters who have not worked previously together." Since Harry and Aayla had restrained themselves she had been able to match them in techniques and Force strength, but their teamwork had overcome her eventually.

"That," Alecto said dryly, "and when these two fight in such close proximity, their Force Precognition reinforces one another. Makes it sometimes unfair I tell you."

There was some laughter at that, although more than a few interested looks and comments from the Green Jedi all around them. Alecto however did not have eyes for any of that, he was looking at a young Selonian. One of the native species of Corellia, the Selonians were tall, sleek looking aliens that Harry, who still remembered some of the animals he had seen in books on earth, likened to a mix between otter and cat. This one was one of only two Selonians in the Green temple at present, the other being a Knight.

This one, a young male, tilted his head to one side, staring back at the green skinned Duros thoughtfully.

After the five of them made way for other Jedi to start practicing, including a small class of four youngling and the young Master in charge of them, Alecto leaned towards the others. "I have felt the pull," he said quietly, "the Force has told me there is a young Padawan here for me."

"Good for you," Zule said, pulling her friend in a hard hugged one-sided hug, which in the Coruscant temple would've drawn stares, but which was ignored here. "Are you going to be taking him along with us?"

"That… I don't know," Alecto said now looking hesitant instead of elated. "I…the Force told me to stay with you all and the Tyrant's Bane before this, but now it's silent."

"We should try to meditate then," Harry said with a sigh. "We might be able to get a better idea what you should do."

Later that day they did just that, with Alecto joining his force consciousness to that of Harry and Aayla. Having done this before during battle, he found it much easier than Yoda had, but reaching out to the future was even harder. As Yoda had described, while Harry and Aayla's Force bond kept the dark at bay, that just meant the darkness built up more around it. the harder you tried to see through it, the more the Veil tried to obscure your sight. That and you had to have an emotional connection to Harry and Aayla to get even that little bit out of it.

Like this, the trio began to search the Force for what path Alecto should follow, to either stay here on Coronet with his new padawan, to join the Green as their new teacher, stay with his friends, or head back to Coruscant with his padawan in tow. That last would of course caused issue with the Green Jedi, but it was a possibility, if the Force showed them it was.

For a long while the Force was silent, but then there came a faint impression through the Veil, a faint impression that Alecto was on the course he should be, staying right where he was.

That was all the others could get, and indeed even that was more than Master Yoda had been able to get when he tried to search for his personal future on Serenno before leaving to go back to Coruscant. He too had gotten the impression that letting Harry and Aayla and her head was the right thing to do, but could not see anything about his own personal future. The other Council members had also tried, but had any been unable to get even that and the attempt had exhausted all of them. But together they had seen visions of the future for the Order, and what would happen if they did not allow Harry his head.

Although Alecto was also exhausted, falling to land on his side as they ended their meditation, simply lying there before slowly pushing himself up right, he had seen more. He saw that his personal future that his choice to stay on Corellia was the correct one. He also saw a brief vision, or rather two brief visions rolled into one.

One of them showed Alecto as the new head of the Green Jedi, overseeing construction of some kind in the temple, a temple that looked larger than it was, but also ravaged by the touch of war. The other saw him facing off against another lightsaber user, his features in shadow, only his arms and cowl visible in the red light cast by his lightsaber. Behind the man, Alecot could tell that much, a planet that Alecto could almost instinctively tell was Duros revolved in a viewscreen. For some reason the first mission gave him a feeling of accomplishment, the second, a feeling of impending doom and sorrow.

So be it, Alecto thought. If those are the choices I will face if I stay here, that I will do so with an open mind and courage.

Coming out of his own meditation, Harry asked dubiously, "So, anything?"

"Didn't you see too?" Alecto asked buying time.

"Beyond that first faint impression that we're doing the right thing now." Aayla said with a sigh. "We haven't seen any real images that we could use to guide our steps, not for a while."

"I think," Harry said thoughtfully "that that might be because the Light Side of the Force doesn't need to send this those kind of images for us. Or perhaps because we are involved in so many different things, that interact with one another the future is always changing for us in such a wide manner, being influenced by us and so many people, that the Light Side can't find a single thread to show us through the Veil."

"Makes sense," Alecto said with a nod, making no comment on the Light Side of the force comment there. "I However, did see a vision." he said mock huagtily, earning a laugh from his friends since his act was kind of spoiled by the fact he could barely sit up at the moment. "I am to stay here and perhaps even join the Green Jedi. I can serve as a bridge between the two portions of the Order I think, and teach them your techniques Harry. That means you won't have to come back here to drop off our new crewmen just as you're getting them broken in."

"Good luck," Harry said sardonically while Aayla burst into giggles at the breaking them in comment. "I think with that old man still in charge, you'll need it."

"Undoubtedly," Alecto said with a sigh.

The Bane stayed in orbit over Coronet City for another day after that, with Harry, Zule and Aayla getting started on teaching the three main Clan Saa techniques to the local Green Jedi. Alecto joined them only briefly, using the rest to get to know his new Padawan, whose name was Zonder, and convince the Green Counsel that yes, he felt a padawan bond for the young Selonian. That took some time, but even these recalcitrant Jedi were not willing to ignore that bond when it appeared.

Master Ti and Gallia were forced to talk politics with the Counsel as well, a task, Shaak later reported, "Rather like having one's teeth pulled ever so slowly by the worst lower hab doctor you could imagine." Since she was a Consular for all her skill in battle, that was a rather damning statement, not that either woman let any of their irritation show.

Garm took most of that time getting his affairs in order, and working with Shyla to choose a new senator to send to Coruscant. He also oversaw the start of the Corellian portion of a local recruitment drive, leaving his Senatorial aid in charge of that aspect. He also signed his name next to his Dictats on the military alliance between Corellia and Serenno, which had already been signed by the council, including Harry. Two Green Jedi, including Master Halcyon, stood as witnesses.

However, when it came the scheduled time for the Lucre Hulk to leave orbit, Garm was nowhere to be found.

Quizzically Harry called his office, and got a young woman, his former secretary. Explaining the problem, she winced a little. "Ah, um, General Bel Iblis is… a man who likes to party just as hard as he likes to work," she said circuitously. Looking at the image of the handsome young Jedi looking at her quizzically she reluctantly elaborated. "I believe he has gone to a local gentleman's club with a few cronies tonight to celebrate his last night on Corellia before heading out to as he put it, less civilized areas."

"Since when was a gentleman's club called civilized?" Aayla asked with a growl, both to the woman and to the other Jedi around them.

Master Ti winced. This wasn't the first time that Garm had decided to do something rather frivolous like this since their arrival and she had not approved the first time.

"You mean to say, were waiting here to leave orbit, I mean we are scheduled in fact to leave orbit in an hour, and he's blowing us off to look at strippers," Harry said. "Are we sure that Garm is the right man for this job?"

As the others all nodded, he sighed. "Should we put off leaving orbit?"

Leaving orbit over Coronet was a very elaborate affair for a ship the size of the Tyrant's Bane considering how much other ships in orbit there were, the number of navigation hazards, and the sheer amount of junk in orbit. It was almost as bad as Coruscant, in terms of ships and worse in terms of the junk. There were even patches of junk, remnants of ancient battles, scattered throughout the entire system.

So it came as no surprise to Harry when they were denied an extension of their leave time. It would take at least twenty-four hours to clear up another lain for their ship to leave if they didn't go in the next two.

"In that case," Gallia said with a faint smile. "It looks as if someone needs to go intact our way word general. And I most certainly am not going to any such establishment."

"Nor I," Master Ti said quickly. They might be Jedi, but there were limits they were willing to suffer. "Besides, I've already had to collect him from one such establishment already."

Aayla's unamused expression told anyone looking at her what she thought of the idea. While proud of the fact that female Twi'lek were seen as beautiful the galaxy over, she loathed the fact that so many of them were enslaved and even that those who had been freed found employment, if it could be called that, in establishments like strip clubs.

Harry didn't even look in her direction, simply sending her a wordless wave of support, and wry irritation. "If not for the Sith your people's ongoing use of slavery as currency would be a fantastic long term mission for us love."

"thank you Harry, but I unfortunately can't argue with your priorities. Although if the Sith can be dealt with in our lifetimes, maybe that would make a nice encore?" Aayla sent back, while smiling happily inside as she basked in Harry's promise of support and love.

"You certainly can't ask any woman to go in that place if there is no alternative, and luckily in this case there is such here." Master Ti said, breaking into Harry and Aayla's communion with a faint smile. "Consider this, your last mission as part of the Bane's crew Alecto."

As the two boys looked at one another Zule began to crack up, cackling like a madwoman at their expressions. Yet despite their protests the two of them were soon taking a shuttle down to the surface, and from there made their way to the gentleman's club where Garm had gone. "Let's just get this over with," Alecto muttered blushing a little. "And I hope to the Force that no one gets my face in a vid feed. The Green would never let me live it down."

"Think of it as just another trial, I know I am," Harry said with a sigh while in orbit Aayla relayed what he had just said to the others, watching through Harry's eyes as she could do. Even the distance between the planet's surface and where the Bane was in orbit could not stop their bond from letting her do this kind of thing. Which was part of why Harry thought of it as a trial.

Thankfully once they entered they quickly found Garm. He was sitting in a private booth in the back, drinking what looked like his own weight in liquor, and talking to a few other locals in a loud voice. Thankfully their table didn't have a stripper as the two young men walked up to them, though Alecto was, despite his Jedi self-control, having issues with what was on display here. It had been many years since he'd had much interaction with women at all, let alone a dalliance. Harry on the other hand kept his eyes on the distinctly inebriated prize.

Getting Garm away from his friends was actually relatively easy, the Jedi robes seemed to do the trick in warning off the locals, or perhaps scaring the alcohol out of them. Garm however simply groaned, stood up and said "alas, the anti-fun force are here. Well gentleman, is it been am amazing time, but I must leave for parts unknown! To glory!"

However, as they walked away his voice became completely and utterly sober. "I've been spending at least three hours every day with groups of friends and confidants, telling them stories and tales about what I'll be doing and where I'll be going on the Dictat's order, all of them contradictory and false though hinting at the trade agreement since that will be public knowledge one way or another soon enough.

He actually had the nerve to wink at Harry. "Not one of them believes that I'll be leaving the planet tonight with you lot. Nor will even the Republic believe it for a time given the canned responses I've left with Shyla, until my replacement arrives on Coruscant. Instead, there will be rumors that I've have caught a disease of some kind, after coming to places like this, and then numerous other rumors anyone interested in the truth will have to follow up on, one after another."

"You could've told us," Harry's shaking his head.

Garm chuckled. "True, but it wouldn't have been as fun."

However, as they left the gentleman's club, an event occurred that Garm would not call fun at all. Exiting the small parking lot of the establishment, lights came on from directly in front of them and a hover-car started to zoom towards them.

Force Precognition however had instantly warned Harry and Alecto what was coming, and they took steps to either side of Garm gaining room to free their lightsabers if need be. Harry gestured, and a large Force shield appeared in front of Garm enclosing him in a globe of energy. At the same time, Alecto had gestured forward with his own hands, and the out-of-the-way hover car coming towards them suddenly just stopped as if it had run into a wall, it's engines resting, but nothing happened as he Force grabbed it.

Almost instantly after the car was stopped though, blaster fire immediately began from around them in the parking lot, the attackers friing from behind cover among the cars. "Get the traitor! Death to the alien lackey!"

Harry lightsaber flicked on and he whipped it up and around settling easily into Shien rebounding the blaster bolts coming towards them. Those bounced back bolts killing two men in quick succession and doing considerable damage to several parked hover cars.

At the same time, Alecto had fallen into Soresu, defending with one hand while he gestured at the ground underneath them with the other barely visible in the dark. Suddenly the ground underneath the men slowly began to shudder and shake causing the attackers to look down in shock. Then Alecto was on them and instead of using his lightsaber however he used the stunning technique, knocking them all out before piling them up one after another against the wall of the gentleman's club.

By the time he was done housekeeping Harry had dealt with the other attackers, with the simple expedient of closing on them through their blaster fire and when they tried to break, grabbing each of them in turn with a Force Grab and slamming their heads together. "Six prisoners," Harry said, turning back to the others and dropping them all onto the groaning pile as one, having held them in the air in one large clump.

Alecto made to answer, but the hover car that had been supposed to be the initial attack suddenly reversed itself, then twisted around and tried to get away.

"Pitiful." Harry shook his head, and grabbed it through the Force once more, holding it still as Alecto raced towards it, slicing up underneath it and cutting away the repulsor before rolling out from underneath it as Harry gently let it drop. Before the men inside could do anything, Alecto's lightsaber had thrust through the front cowling, killing the engine and then swept upwards cutting the car nearly in half before hovering between them, where a flick of his wrist could send it through either of their heads. "I believe gentlemen, this is what is called checkmate."

As they waited for the Sirens of the pleased him closer, Garm knelt down over some of the attackers, rather ruefully thinking that yes, Harry had a point about the Jedi being fantastic shock troops. "I didn't even get to draw my blaster," he muttered somewhat sourly. Then he stood up, shaking his head. "These are part of a pro-human Centrist group," he said aloud, a bunch of idiotic kriffers who believe any line you sell them if it means more power to the humans of Corellia over the Selonians and Drall. Why they're after me I don't know, though they might have heard that my replacement will be a Drall. They've been attacking minor officials occasionally over the past few weeks over kriff like that. I guess they wanted to elevate themselves to the big time."

Harry nodded, and Alecto sighed. "I suppose that will be if one of the things the Green Jedi and I will have to look into solving then, going forward."

"So you're certain you still want to stay," Harry asked sardonically, glancing around them at the blasted landscape of the parking lot and the numerous ruined cars "But think of all the fun you'll miss."

Alecto let out a mocking laugh. "Hahah… You're not as funny as you think you are, Harry."

End Chapter

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Political type world building and talks are not my forte. I hated it. Seriously hated it, but worse they were necessary. Putting those parts in slowed my writing down so much I had to remove segments of romance and a full combat scene in order to concentrate on them. Argh. Still, thankfully there will only be one chapter, mainly of world building rather than politics, violence and character interaction spread out over more than half a year in fic time, before we get to the Clone Wars.

140,000 words total in less than 23 days…