A/N: lots of repetitive recap in this chapter, sorry. Had to get everyone on the same page, though.
And since somebody asked: I picture Ed Harris as Gen. Ashen, he does a great general in The Rock.
Of course, if Luke had hoped to get a chance to sleep peacefully any time soon, he would have been sorely disappointed. Used to the Force's idea of humor by now, he had held no such hopes, though.
Unfolding from where he had occupied himself in the shadow of a MC-20, a huge shaggy form had rumbled a greeting at the young Jedi before Chewie followed Han and Leia in silent vigilance; Luke, on the other hand, had barely managed three steps when a heavy arm was draped across his shoulder, clearly meant to lead – well, push, to be honest – him somewhere off the shortest route towards his bed. He could have sworn that he'd spotted Zev and Wedge among the loitering crew, too, but wasn't too surprised to see neither of them at that point, the former was probably distracting the latter right now. Another friend cut out by the need for secrecy ....
A darkened doorway opened into an empty equipment room and Jix let go of the smaller man to properly round on him.
"What is this I hear about my favorite uncle and assassination attempts – plural! – in a handful of hours?" a very soft but rather cutting voice asked, "What in nine hells has that so-called Palace security been doing?!"
Before Luke could figure out the right way to answer that, a metallic clunk and an offended twitter followed by the sound of a half-closed door reopening before closing properly, signaled another friend joining the clandestine meeting. At least I won't have to guard my tongue, then.
"You know what a Hand is, Jix?" the young Jedi ventured.
That gained him a sharp look and a sharper nod.
That's a start; but now for the difficult part ... "You know they can ... influence your mind through the Force?"
The Corellian went from habitual slouch to coiled spring with barely any movement in-between but Luke almost made an instinctive step back, nonetheless.
"Yes," Jix growled, then forcefully uncoiled himself a little and said slowly, "but the way I was told it, it only works on the weak-minded. I've met Ashen once, you know? He's not what I'd call easily swayed."
No kidding. "No. But the Palace is a bit too large to be watched over by just one man and most people are … more pliable."
The young Jedi paused, considering. "Actually, I think they didn't have Ashen in the cards at all because they were just as convinced as the man himself that losing one emperor would get him torn apart by the next one." Else they would have done something about him and that could have really complicated things ….
The Corellian hummed in a way that might have signified agreement, skepticism or something else entirely and promptly jumped to another topic.
"So he really sacked Iceheart, first order of the day? Wish I could have seen her face." A smirk full of dragon teeth. "If he didn't have the military behind him beforehand, that should make most of the undecided ones declare for him!"
A detail that had been rattling around at the edge of Luke's awareness rose back to the forefront of his mind. "Isard. Jix, do you know what she did in the Manarai Mountains?"
Another sharp look. "Should I?"
"She got really scared when m… Uncle D mentioned them, but all he would say afterwards is that there was a gravitational anomaly. Which means nothing to me …."
"Weeell, unless someone is playing around with gravity generators – can't see why, inside a mountain – it means that the density of the material in a certain area doesn't match with the surrounding stuff. Prospectors use that to localize ore deposits but somehow I don't think Iceheart is operating an off-the-books mining company …"
The young Jedi snorted. "Not really her style, no, from what I hear. Oh well, Father said the situation would keep another day, anyway."
Subtle hints weren't something Corellians had much use for but they still could decipher them if they wanted to and so Luke was on his way towards his bed soon after.
Oo oo oo oo oo oO
The young rebel had made it about half the distance, far enough to become semi-hopeful to reach his room this time, when he nearly walked into a tall blond figure stepping into his path. Artoo's shrill string of beeps and hisses summed up Luke's feelings on the matter pretty well.
"Five minutes," he said with all the calm he could muster, "five minutes and then I'll head for bed, regardless of who or what stands in my way."
The corners of Gen. Madine's mouth twitched. All traces of amusement had vanished, however, when he said, "Overrides?"
For a split-second, the young Jedi hesitated, but there was a Hand that might still be around and forewarned was forearmed, no matter what nasty follow-up questions would inevitably turn up. "A Hand, a Force-sensitive servant of the late Emperor, used his or her talent to convince people they had a right to access the command center of Palace security, to get some genuine, really high-level override codes into the system that broke up the surveillance grid from the inside. That particular Hand is dead now, but there is one – red-head named Jade, used to pose as a dancer – that might still be around."
The intelligence chief nodded slowly, clearly already planning security updates. Then he turned back at the younger man before him, eyes glittering eerily in the semi-darkness of the night-time dimmed corridors. "And can you do that, too, use your talent as the ultimate access code to people's minds, Skywalker?"
"I could," Luke said flatly. "But as tempting as the thought is, to simply tell you to 'go bother someone else!', it doesn't work like that. Unless I caught someone unaware and not particularly strong-willed, the force needed to change their minds would be noticeable and once you noticed the influence, you'd shake me off."
"You could use more force," the ex-commando suggested mildly.
"If you want someone to play with meat-puppets for you – the nearest sun is that way. Take. A. Hike!" the young Jedi hissed, before something occurred to him and he added, "And I would hurry if I were you – if Leia ever hears that you want to use mind control, she'll have your guts for garters and then she'll toss you into a sun."
Madine looked more satisfied than threatened at the outbreak. He abruptly let the matter drop, nonetheless. "What did Wrenga want?"
"He's a friend, he's both worried and incurably curious and he's smart enough not to bother Leia at the moment, so he can't go and snark at Han," Luke told him curtly, but found expectant blue eyes still bore into him until he added, "He wanted to know what happened downside that didn't make it into the news."
"And?" the intelligence chief drawled, "Is there anything of relevance the princess forgot to mention?"
The young Jedi shrugged. "Maybe. Right before he arrested the top three of the Council, Vader said something about taking up landscaping in the Manarai Mountains. Made no sense to anyone, but Isard suddenly tried very hard not to look like she had seen a ghost. When Leia asked about it later, all Vader would say, is that there was a gravitational anomaly."
"A gravitational anomaly," Madine repeated thoughtfully, but seemed as stumped by the information as Luke (and Jix) had been, which gave the young Jedi an incongruent feeling of gratification.
Before they could discuss anything further, R2 made a sound like an alarm clock going off, startling both men.
The intelligence chief gave another twitch of a smile. "That's my five minutes deadline, I expect. Very well, see you tomorrow, Skywalker."
Luke had almost reached the next junction when a voice from behind him added, "The Jedi of old never seemed to think much of influencing people's minds as they saw fit. Made the accusation that they'd tried to take over the Republic seem none too unlikely, among other things."
Oo oo oo oo oo oO
At 0500 the next morning, a somewhat bleary group congregated in the mess, found themselves large cups of caf and whatever food looked most appetizing and/or nourishing and made for a table off to the side, to properly rehash the previous day over breakfast. Luke would have thought the seven of them enough of a gathering but they were not quite seated yet when Leia spotted Adm. Ackbar entering the mess hall and went to invite the Mon Calamari to join them.
Han frowned for a moment at the tray that had been unceremoniously pressed into his hands, then set it down beside his own and dropped into the nearest seat. A long gulp of caf later, he finished his retort to something Jix had said to him a minute earlier.
"… we started low, of course. Within the first five minutes, Leia only went to save one Imperial general from an imaginary execution, nearly got sniped and then she almost broke her hand on a dead man's face."
Chewie huffed in exasperation; Jix was wearing his best Corellian Sabbacc face but a quick sidelook told Luke that the agent felt the young Jedi had been holding out on him the previous evening.
"Which dead man?" Zev asked cautiously, almost simultaneous to Wedge's "What's a ... no, come think of it, I don't actually want to know what an imaginary execution would be."
Han smirked. "General Veers."
"Must have been one ugly statue," Jix drawled, got a sharp look from his fellow Corellian and an noncommittal grunt before Han turned and gave the approaching Mon Calamari admiral – and specifically his choice of breakfast food – rather more attention than some sort of dried seaweed merited, Luke thought.
The distraction allowed the young Jedi to notice two things, though: One, neither he nor his sister had announced the mysterious reappearance of the presumed dead Imperial general so far, perhaps because the man didn't register as 'deadly enemy' for either of them anymore (if for slightly different reasons), and therefore other incidents had taken precedent. It could be argued that the information would have some tactical value for the Alliance, though, and there wasn't really any reason for Han not to share it ….
Two, Zev was eyeing the princess' polite thanks for the Mon Calamari admiral pulling out her chair for her with a carefully blank expression, a defensive mask Luke hadn't seen since the very beginning of their acquaintance, before the ex-lieutenant caught himself and put up a good pretense. The young Jedi had the sudden bad feeling that Calrissian's offhand words about a blood price had made the rounds and the younger Veers had no way of knowing that Leia had been more upset thinking the elder one dead than not – Luke hadn't known but for the insights added in the last twenty-four hours!
Resolved to pull the young ex-Imperial – and his sister! – aside at the first opportunity, he returned his attention to the beginning discussion, to find it had thankfully opened with the observations made from the Valiant.
"Has anyone monitored the Imperial Plaza? Was it cleared by force?" was one of Leia's first questions and Luke was unduly relieved to hear that no, the plaza had emptied peacefully.
Their current position relative to the Manarai Mountains was next, an inquiry that lead to the subject of landscaping in a mountain range when one had the largest warship in the known galaxy on hand, but since said warship was momentarily situated between the Valiant and the mountains in question, no one aboard could get an independent look at the area.
"Isard has been rumored to run … off-the-record detainment centers for people who just disappear," a quiet voice spoke up from behind the princess and Leia extended the invitation to join them for breakfast to Gen. Madine without missing a beat. If the intelligence chief would have preferred not to include Chewie, Jix, Wedge or Zev in the debriefing, he had the good sense not to mention it aloud.
By the time they had to relocate to the hangar to catch their ride, the previous day had been recapped almost blow-by-blow; the moment it had been mentioned that Lord Vader had spent the night dirtside, though, Ackbar had concluded that the Sithlord would not be on the shuttle himself and Madine had smoothly added another half dozen people to Leia's entourage, "for additional security."
Three of those were rather obvious choices, even if the intelligence chief had advised, apologetically, that "a Wookiee escort might be too forward for the second day, I fear, Chewbacca" and Chewie had, if grumblingly, agreed.
The triangular shape of the lambda shuttle was just shimmering through the mag-fields when Luke realized that the name 'Veers' had not been mentioned again.
