"She's gotten the hang of it pretty quickly." The Peregrine's immense cargo holds were being put to use. There were plans for barracks and dormitories, firing ranges, even storage for items needed in smaller quantities than the annual demand of an Outer Rim planet's population. Until the lights had been repaired the spaces had been too large to appreciate, now the massive steel caverns were illuminated and active.
Garm had delegated the design of the living accommodations to Commander Alanna Ving, one of the former Separatist officers, and she'd taken to the task with gusto. After years of deprivation in the mining camps the freed prisoners might be expected to be satisfied with the bare minimum, but on the scales of the Trade Federation fabricators relative luxury for thousands were just as easy as the essentials. Equipment for hydroponic gardens was being produced along with uniforms and weapons and the morale improvements were worth the cost. Simply having a goal past surviving the next shift underground had given the prisoners a new life, despite the dramatically greater difficulty of overthrowing the Empire.
They were soldiers though, and the first of many. Ving was creating the foundations for something more than commandos, and far earlier than the Rebellion had coalesced in their galaxy. She had been the one to make an obstacle course, and while she'd meant it for training it had turned into a playground for Mara.
"I don't remember the first time I had to climb a cargo net, but I'm sure she's done it before." Luke and Mara watched the little girl clamber up the wall, an almost blinding smile on her face. "I always wanted to stay and mess around, but the trainers always kept to a tight schedule."
"I guess it's what you're used to, I only encountered these in the Alliance and they were miserable." Even his position as the leader of Rogue Squadron hadn't spared him from the necessities of the basic commando training. His weak grasp of the force had made them simple, he'd set the records, but the icy pools of mud had been awful. Looking back at them they'd been good practice, but at the time he'd been convinced it was just Leia's idea of a joke.
"It sounds like you were terrible at them." Mara seemed inordinately pleased with the idea. "I can't imagine your childhood spent eating womp rats and making sandcastles really helped you there."
"Like learning which fork you should never use on Etti IV made a difference?"
"Indicating your willingness to engage in insider trading is extremely gauche, even for the Corporate Sector." The Coruscanti accent she normally lapsed into became a parody of itself as she lectured. "It's best to leave that until the digestifs come out, the presence of alcohol always the idea to be waved off as a poor joke if needed."
"Thanks, Threepio." That merited a raised eyebrow.
"Please, I've forgotten more about manners than that monstrosity has ever known."
"That's something you really want to brag about?"
"It's not bragging if it's true."
"I'm not convinced it's even worth admitting."
"Why would it be embarrassing to be incredibly well educated and sophisticated?" There was a light in Mara's eyes that Luke wanted to keep seeing. "We can't all be from Outer Rim dustballs where the height of class is asking for water instead of just taking it."
He nodded in agreement with faux solemnity. "It's a constant struggle."
"Luckily I'm polite enough not to mention your occasional brutish and reflexive lunges towards anything remotely damp."
"I am extremely lucky." Luke stepped closer, and her face tilted up towards his.
"How lucky do you think you are?"
"Right now?" His arms were around her loosely, it wasn't the first time, but this was something more than dancing as a cover and they both knew it.
"Unless you think you're going to get luckier." The joke didn't quite land, there was the slightest bit of nervousness in her voice, or maybe he was just projecting.
"It's hard to see how I could."
"Is it really?" She shifted against him, and once again he realized she was beautiful.
A thump and a sharp cry from the obstacle course ended the moment. Mara spun in his arms to look for her younger self and found her clutching her elbow at the base of the climbing wall. He let her go as she went to check on the girl and he couldn't help but wish she was a bit better at bouldering.
The day/night schedule was off on the ships. The Lucrehulks had naturally been set to the Gerson standard which matched that of most of the crew, but Luke preferred the standard day. It wasn't a big deal, if it got too bad Luke would take circadian modifiers to adjust his body's clock, but it was enough to make the daily status meeting feel as if it were far later at night than it was. Twenty one hundred was a civilized time, and it let the night shift get a handle on things, but after something of a confusing day he would have liked to be free to figure things out.
Mara was sitting next to him as she usually did, but she was never quite so distracting, it was almost a relief when Garm arrived and took his seat at the head of the table.
"Ladies and Gentlemen let's get to it. Commander Ving, what's the status of the census?"
The former Separatist had a long face, and the time in the mines had aged her prematurely, sending gray streaking through her dark hair. She had a hint of a smile as she projected her report for the rest of the room to see.
"Of the eleven thousand rescued two thirds were enlisted in Confederate forces. The remainder is primarily political prisoners, although there are some actual criminals we're keeping under watch among the population, along with others who let their behavior degenerate to match their surroundings." Her mouth twisted briefly before shifting to a more neutral line. "Thanks to the use of droids as the primary fighting force the majority of the officers served in the rear echelons, staff and logistics postings."
"Are there any with fleet or ship command experience?"
Ving nodded as she answered. "Two Lucrehulk captains, one of which fought over Coruscant." Neither Yoda nor Garm looked happy at the news, they'd of course been on the other side of the battle that was in some ways both the last victory and defeat of the Republic.
"I'll review their files." There was a chime as Ving sent the documents to Garm's station, he only glanced down before continuing. "For the civilians, you've identified those with useful skills?" Ving nodded, "We're going to need to get some sort of organization for them. The military will follow the lead of the officers as long as we seem competent, but four thousand people who were willing enough to argue their way into prison won't be quite as easy to deal with."
"Speak with them, I will." Yoda's chair was elevated, putting him on an even level with the others despite his height. "A council perhaps, with a delegate to this group to voice their concerns."
"They're idealists." Jope Kothari was another of the former prisoners, a tall man with one artificial eye he'd been happy to replace after the ionite killed his old one. "Some were protesting tyranny, others are more concerned with the survival of brain worms and charter lice than anything reasonable. I don't think they'll provide utility."
It was probably a testament that they needed some non-military views, because Luke could feel everyone but Yoda sympathizing with the opinion. He had encountered his share of annoying politicians and activists, but the Rebellion couldn't just be a military organization. They would fight, and fight extremely well he was sure, but at some point, they needed to provide a compelling alternative to Palpatine's New Order. Garm Bel Iblis and a bunch of soldiers claiming to be kinder and better wouldn't be enough.
"Their utility isn't strictly the reason to include them. We need to sway the population to see that what we're offering is worth another bloody struggle." He could feel Yoda's approval, he'd come to understand that the old master valued diplomacy far more than their first meeting and lessons all those years ago had shown. "The Emperor's promises can be seductive, and if we stay as merely a fighting force we'll justify his actions."
"Hearts and minds?" Kothari was skeptical. "From what I saw with you Jedi even you didn't trust logic and reason half as much as your lightsabers. In the end we'll need warships more than words."
"Without words these ships will be end as cold tombs floating in the dark." Garm's voice was firm as he ended the argument. "That moves us easily to the next topic. Captain Solari, have you finished refining the resource projections?"
The Duros nodded, his red eyes blinking slowly. "Indeed Admiral. Without increasing our operational tempo we have consumables appropriate for one hundred and forty standard days." Keeping ten thousand people alive and happy took more supplies than five.
"How much time would we get if we filled our bunkers to the maximum?" The Duros raised an eyebrow, or as close to the gesture as a species without eyebrows could manage, but after a few seconds of adjusting his model he had an answer.
"Using only the designated storage areas four-hundred days. If we filled the hangars to maximum capacity ten times that. Compared to the scale of these ships our demands are slight, keeping the reactors going is our limiting factor."
"Excellent, thank you captain. Acquiring resources in bulk will be our first mission, before the Empire has time to realize and react to our needs. Begin formulating a list of possible targets with the volume we require. As soon as you've identified locations my agents will acquire more intelligence in preparation for a full-scale raid."
"Yes, sir."
"Anyone else have anything?" Around the table the four other Separatists were silent, they tended to defer to Ving. Alanna did have something more to say.
"We need more than just supplies, we don't have the population needed to fight a galactic government. Is there any reason we can't replicate the Gerson raid on other prison camps?"
"It did work well, and it would force the Empire to devote more resources to them." Kothari seemed to like the idea. "It may be self-serving, but anyone from those camps can be counted on to oppose the Empire."
"We chose Gerson for a reason, other planets might not be as susceptible without the necessities imposed on the guards by ionite extraction." Ving and Kothari accepted that, but Luke could tell the idea had taken hold amongst the other Separatists and it seemed Garm could too. "Start picking targets, and remember we can't be seen as simply Separatist or Confederate holdouts when you're making your selections."
Garm didn't say it, but everyone in the room had to be thinking that adding former members of the Republic would also reduce the massive majority that the Separatists currently represented. "We shall shortly be hosting a fighter wing from another faction opposing the Empire. With the right choice we could vastly increase our available striking force by enlisting them." Ideally practicality would sway them more than ideology and factionalism, but until the Rebellion truly coalesced they'd need to balance the different groups. If nothing else what he and Mara had created would probably never be called the Alliance to Restore the Republic.