In the Grand Scheme of Things Chapter 15: Vad Alnam VIII, a star wars fanfic

"May I ask you if there is any reason you wanted to see me one-on-one, sir?"

Onoile Ven smiles - against Alnam's expectations.

"Do not worry, Vad," he says still smiling. "I'm not going to put you and Agent Apani face to face."

Ven sits down on his table in one swift, swirling motion. Picks up a hand gripper and gives it a few clenches. The sunset paints his office dark orange.

"You did exceptionally well," Ven says. "Both of you. Got the perps in under a standard month," he snaps his fingers, "now that's what I call being off to a good start."

"Thank you, sir."

"The senator is especially glad, I take it?"

"He sent Mtoro some crazy plant. She had to hire a cargo cab just to get it home."

"Oh yes?" Ven's smile grows even wider. "And what did he send you - if you don't mind telling?"

Alnam chuckles. "Two bottles of Alderaanian brandy."

"Oooh."

"I consider opening one this weekend. Would you like to join me, sir?"

"Oh, no. I don't drink. But thank you."

"Well, let me know if you suddenly have second thoughts."

Ven gives a small laugh.

Small's fine by Alnam - best not to become a clown to your bosses.

"It's well deserved," Ven says, "so enjoy it. Hell, crossing that precipice? How many agents do you think would do the same? Between the two of us, the only reason you're not being given a medal is that guy you stunned."

"As I mentioned in my report, he was reaching for something on his desk, which could've been a self-destruction sensor as well as his cafstim cup."

"I'm not accusing you of anything, Vad. I know how it is. And let me tell you: the Chancellor knows it too."

Now that's a surprise.

"The Chancellor knows about our operation? To be honest, I never though Senator Dibasi was actually that close-"

"Oh, not from the senator. From the RDS."

"In which case, I didn't think the Chancellor has time for such minutiae of our service."

Ven's face shows the surprise of a teacher whose bright student just asked him a really dumb question. "The Chancellor has time for everything. Honestly, it's a bit uncanny just how much he knows about everything. So naturally, he's informed about how your case went."

He falls silent, but his face is mischievous.

Alnam raises his eyebrows.

"Well, you'll have an extra reason to be happy this Fete," Ven finally says. "But there's still a ton of work to be done before that. Is there any news about Fozatta?"

Flashback to the scene of arrest: all the recording equipment kindly provided by Fozatta Records.

"Not much, I'm afraid. We haven't been able to locate him. Not a huge surprise given how much money the man has."

"Please go on."

"His assistant on Skados doesn't really seem to know where Fozatta is."

"That Giles fellow, right?"

"You are correct, sir. I should ask you again to have him transferred to Coruscant, as he acted as a mediator between Fozatta and the secessionists. And he is very much willing to talk."

Ven nods thoughtfully.

"The sooner he is transferred," Alnam presses on, "the better. I've had to question him via holofeed the last two times, and the connection isn't the best. Additionally, I have my doubts where the loyalties of the Skados police lie - which I have voiced in my report."

"I think we'll figure something out. The Skadosi senator has started a push against the local establishment already, so the police probably have other priorities than obstructing our investigation. On the other hand, seeing as Giles is crucial to said investigation on which their careers might depend, it would indeed be wise to arrange a transfer."

"Precisely."

"Do you have anything to add on the Fozatta case?"

"I do, sir. My mother is currently on Coruscant. I was planning to pay her a visit."

Understanding comes to Ven's eyes a millisecond after Alnam finishes the sentence.

"Oh yes," Ven says. "The Baroness might know something."

Alnam shrugs. "I'm not putting too much hope into it, if I'm being honest. But there's going to be this huge function. Art elites. The Observatory Hall in Dittar is rented. I will mingle with said elites and see if there's anyone who's heard a thing or two about Fozatta."

"Good thinking. But tell me, when is this gathering taking place?"

"Next Centaxday, sir."

Ven considers it for a moment. "Very well. Let you then explore any connections at the party. But whatever leads you uncover, your partner may have to follow without you."

Alnam jerks his head quizzically - a good tone in the RDS.

"You have another trip awaiting you. Telos IV."

"Telos IV? I don't think I've heard about it, sir."

"Small wonder. It's a backwater planet. Not even a part of the Republic, just an affiliated world. Six days ago, an attack was carried out on our embassy there."

"Separatists?"

"I doubt that. There was no damage to the personnel, so it doesn't look like the CIS had anything to do with it. However, I don't want to impose my opinion on you."

"Of course, sir."

"There are a few more things. It's technically an RI case, so you're going to Telos as an observer. I don't expect you to crack this one."

Alnam's fine with that. He's still high on Skados VI adrenaline. A little rest could do him good - before his organism demands more of the heavy stuff.

But you gotta show ambition, so he shows some.

"With all due respect, sir, I believe I have deserved something better than this assignment."

"I never said you haven't. That's another thing. I have another assignment for you."

There goes the little rest.

"This is why I'm sending you. I have read both your and Agent Apani's reports from Skados. I paid great attention to the details. What strikes me the most about you, Vad, is not even the ease with which you saw the case through. It's how secretive you are. Don't take it as an insult - I mean it in a good way. What way isn't good for our field of work, anyway? You are secretive. You kept what you were doing clandestine even from your partner. The regulations specify you shouldn't do it, but here is where I disagree with the regulations. If you can keep vital things hidden even from somebody you're meant to trust, you can keep them hidden from those you aren't."

Ven almost kicks himself up, so rapidly he leaves his perch and starts strolling his office.

"We have intercepted a very peculiar transmission originating on Telos, and we believe the Republic Intelligence doesn't yet know about it. This transmission seems to be the source of the rumors that have been circulating online for the past week or so."

Alnam remembers his first assignment - the unofficial one - with the RDS. Kram Midduk's tendrils trembling.

Here we go again, it seems.

"Rumors of what nature are we talking about, sir? It appears I'm somewhat out of the loop on the latest gossip."

"Rumors that the Republic brainwashes its soldiers. That kind of rumors."

"Just to clarify-"

"It is true that clone soldiers undergo certain... indoctrination as a part of their training, for the lack of a better word. However, this is done in accordance with the general cloning practices and requirements of the law. Any assumption that there are brain surgeries being conducted on them is preposterous. This is what makes the lies so dangerous: that they almost follow reality."

Alnam nods. "Do we know who exactly is behind these rumors?"

"In the most general sense, we do. They are all over the Shadowfeed, so it's a given. But it's up to you to find the executors. All we know is that the signal came from a relay on Telos's orbit once and then got cut off immediately in less than ten seconds. The discussion page created in that incident was deleted a minute after. Given that's the only such occasion so far, there's a good chance this slip is indicative of where the real base of operations is."

"What am I to do when I do find them, sir? As far as I understood, I must do it in a way the RI doesn't hear a thing. That can prove problematic."

Ven throws his hands up. "How can we decide right now? We know next to nothing about it. Maybe it's one guy who gets paid a thousand credits a week to post that crap. Maybe there's an underground battle droid factory in addition to that one guy. You will have to act based on the situation at hand. Don't hesitate to get in touch with me - but only with me."

Alnam nods. "Do you think this case can be related to the attack on the embassy?"

"I don't really think so." Ven purses his lips. "It would be pretty stupid to attract attention to the planet like that. But it's possible. If the incidents are related, make sure not to intervene with the RI."

"I know better than that, sir."

"We want to one-up them, not to start an inter-department war."

"Of course."

"Your contact with the Republic Intelligence is Rengart Lawrie. He's a good detective, so be careful around him."

"I've heard about Lawrie."

"Oh yes?"

"Some colleagues of mine - former colleagues, I mean, in the CorSec - had to work with him. Said he's got his head up his ass on everything that concerns his ego. As in, remembers every time he shook hands with Isard."

Ven smiles. "Wouldn't surprise me. The Director has a very magnetic presence. At least, to a certain type of people. It's great that you have Lawrie's weakness figured out. Still, don't go overboard with him."

"Duly noted, sir."

"Your other contact - the one you must keep secret from everyone, Lawrie most of all - is a local by the name of Krev Devin. I'm told he is quite streetwise. He's done some work for the Republic. Let's hope he'll be of assistance to you."

Alnam wears his best suit to Dittar. The head waiter of the Observatory Hall still looks unimpressed.

The Observatory Hall takes up the hotel's top floor. You can hardly stargaze from here: speeder lanes go past its two transparent domes. The place's proper fancy, though - even got telescopes. The crème de la crème love this stuff.

The crème de la crème: split in small groups. Sitting at round tables. Dancing to the bandfill music. Good jatz - Sevrona K'Meli's Looking Out. Not as good without Sevrona singing. Take a hint: today's not for the most important people.

Two semicircle sets of stairs go around the scene and up to the second level of the hall. That little platform sits right under the smaller of the domes. If Alnam knows his mother, that's where she should be - overlooking her domain.

And there she is, at the table in the middle of the platform. How very egalitarian of her.

"Vad!" She gets up, her dark-silver dress tasteful enough not to reflect light. "My dear boy!"

Her embrace is both firm and distant. Alnam can't blame her for that. Can for a few other things.

"Mother."

The fragrance of Strenua, the Baroness of Talated: a weird wild forest. Alnam can smell all the impossible creatures killing each other.

"Do join us."

She points at her table. Three men sit at it: a senior Pantoran - Alnam knows he knows him, but cannot put his finger on the name. A Human ten or twelve years older than Alnam, clad in a military tunic. Another Human of no more than twenty, very sharply dressed - his necktie changes its color gradually and mesmerizingly.

"You surely remember the good Baron Papanoida."

The Pantoran bows.

Alnam reciprocates. "Pleasure to see you again, Your Lordship."

"The pleasure is all mine."

"This," his mother takes Alnam by the elbow and turns him ever so slightly to the fop, "is Aewarr Nogolle of the Denon System Civil Alliance. And this," a courteous nod to the officer, "is Captain Wilhuff Tarkin of the Republic Navy. Soon to be Admiral Tarkin," she half-whispers to Alnam - but so that Tarkin can surely hear. "A true hero of the Battle of Podana."

Half the men Alnam knows would have oversold themselves with fake humility at this remark. Tarkin just nods.

"Meet my son Vad Alnam, a member - and a very valuable one - of the RDS."

"Vad, my boy," Baron Papanoida says once Alnam and his mother take a sit, "please tell me there is a meaning behind this acronym other than what I think it is."

Great. A bleeding heart. Now you've got to play a right-wing zealot for him - that part comes with the job - without alienating everybody present.

"I'm not sure what it is you think, Your Lordship."

A droid waiter comes with a small trolley of cocktails.

"The last time we met, you were a detective in the planetary security force, I believe," the Baron says. "Such a noble vocation! And to exchange it for the RDS?"

"It was a noble vocation, but not a well-paid one."

"It's truly a thing of horror how readily the youth abandon what is right for what is easy."

"Come and work for us, Your Lordship, if it's easy for you. We can certainly use your resourcefulness."

The Baron flings his arms up.

"Oh, Vad," the Baroness says, "you're upsetting the poor Baron!"

"It was never my intention. I simply do not understand the hostility towards the Domestic Security. We are keeping the order - same as the police are doing."

"Serving the Republic is nothing to be ashamed of," says Tarkin.

Papanoida doesn't look at him. "For now, perhaps. But are you sure, Vad, that you will be able to say the same in five years? What about ten?"

"And what is going to change in five to ten years, dear Baron?"

This time, the Pantoran meets the captain's gaze. "Oh, we are having this conversation again, I see. As our Republic is heading into dictatorship-"

"Which is something you were saying five years ago as well as ten." Tarkin's smile is quick to come and to go.

"We didn't know each other ten years ago."

"I was following your public appearances, however."

"Nothing I see today convinces me I was wrong ten years ago. Dictatorship is what awaits us. Now it is more apparent than ever."

"I do not think - with all due respect - that this statement is justified, Baron," Alnam says.

"Is that so? What about that awful piece of legislation proposed last year?"

Alnam's not sure which one Papanoida's talking about.

Aewarr Nogolle comes to the rescue. "The one that was meant to grant the Supreme Chancellor dictatorial powers? It didn't come to fruition. The Chancellor rejected it outright."

"It is just a play for the gullible, Aewarr! Do you really think they will not make another attempt?"

"I really don't."

"Is that so?"

"It is. You see, I have my sources in the Senate. My brother Thoris is Mr. Pestage's aide." Nogolle makes a series of short laughs. "He said the Chancellor was furious after the proposition. Like, you wouldn't believe he can be that furious when you look at him."

"Rather when you look at how the press paints him."

"My brother is pretty much on a first-name basis with Mr. Pestage, so I say, he knows a thing or two about how the Chancellor really is."

"It's not that hard to make an impression, especially when the press essentially belongs to you."

"What are you saying, Notluwiski," the Baroness says. "Our mass-media are a cesspool, but to claim they are all in the Chancellor's pocket... That is exactly the outrageous nonsense they are so fond of!"

"This argument is pointless," says the captain. "The Supreme Chancellor was not amused by the proposition. Which means, my dear Baron, that your precious squabbles in the Senate are in no danger."

"These squabbles, as you call them, are the foundation of the democratic principles." Papanoida's face slowly turns purple. "Would you rather somebody tell the Republic what to do?"

Tarkin raises his eyebrows. "I do not see how that would be different from the current situation, apart from the increased efficiency."

"Strenua," Papanoida says, "you seem to be deriving some bizarre pleasure from pitting me against the captain. You know full well how our conversations go every time, yet you insist on inviting me whenever he is attending."

The Baroness turns to Alnam. Look what I have to deal with, her eyes are saying.

Alnam finds it hard to gather any sympathy for her.

He takes another sip of his cocktail and keeps watching.

"Trust me, Baron, I regret having you and Captain Tarkin in the same room every time. But then I start missing your," the Baroness pauses and smiles, "squabbles, and the history repeats itself."

Tarkin returns the smile. The Baron doesn't. Nogolle sits with a cocktail in hand and his eyes on the table.

"Mother," Alnam says, "a word, if you would?"

Baroness Strenua gives him a quick glance. Evaluates him. As she always does.

"And there I was thinking you came just to spend time with your mother," she says. "Do forgive us, gentlemen."

She leads him out to a balcony. Music behind them interweaves with the noise of speeders in front of them.

"How is your family doing, Son?"

A question to you, a question to me. Alnam expected nothing else.

"It's fine. Yalgi thanks you for the gift."

"Oh, he thanked me over the holofeed. He is a surprisingly polite young man."

"And Ormi and I thank you for keeping it reasonable."

The Baroness smiles. The lights coming from the Observatory Hall dance on her face.

"I can only imagine what your father gave him. Oh, let me guess: an outstanding donation to his bank account? Followed by an hour-long lecture about being responsible from a social outcast?"

Alnam chuckles. "Right on the money."

His mother gives him a sly smile. "Good to know I still can predict Vygo."

She takes a pause to kiss her cocktail glass.

"Ormi isn't with you tonight," she says afterwards.

Alnam can't help but roll his eyes. "You should come work for the RDS, Mom. You'd make chief investigator in no time."

"Oh, am I not supposed to pry in your personal life now? I'm sorry, Vad, but I don't quite understand what's going on between you. You're still married, right?"

"Technically."

"That's something. But she's not here, so I have to wonder what exactly the matter is."

"The matter is that we're... Must we really talk about it? I have something I need to ask you."

"You met her on one of my galas, didn't you? Yes, that's how it happened. Oh, how you tried to impress her that evening!"

"Yeah, I'm sure it was the suboptimal number of your galas we attended that drew a wedge between us," Alnam says. He puts his glass on the deck railing. "Look, I appreciate your concern, but I don't need it. I'm fine."

The Baroness' face tells him all her thoughts.

"Alright," she says. "Do as you will. What did you want to ask me?"

Alnam sighs. "You still rub elbows with Fozatta?"

"What do you mean, still? I never did. Never liked the man."

"Any reason for that?"

"And here you go questioning your own mother."

"We're just having a chat, aren't we?"

"Oh, Vad. You are very valuable to the RDS, after all."

He waits.

"What are you doing there that you don't know about Fozatta," the Baroness gives up. "It's all over the tabloids."

Alnam remembers Midduk again. "I don't exactly have time for tabloids."

"Well, maybe you should subscribe to a few. It can help you solve you a case or three, by the looks of it. You see, Giburin - as the whole wide Galaxy would tell you - is a creep. That's why I don't rub elbows with him, as you so eloquently put."

Alnam weighs that. "I might have heard something about it. Never gave it too much credence, though."

"Oh yes? And why is that?"

"It was in tabloids?"

The Baroness laughs. "Then let me tell you something not from a tabloid. Nobody with a modicum of self-respect," she makes a wide gesture with her glass towards the hall, "invites him anymore. For seven or eight years already, probably."

"Really?"

"Don't look at official occasions. Look at private parties. Nobody wants Fozatta at their poolside. That's because everybody knows he is a pervert. He doesn't skip anything that wants to make it into the industry, wears a skirt, and is remotely compatible with Human anatomy."

"Is that a fact?"

"You bet it is. Ask anyone here if you don't believe me."

"Are we talking coercion or..?"

She shrugs. "We're talking a man in power and a ton of naïve girls away from their homes. What would you call it, detective?"

"So how come he's not deposed and arrested yet?"

Something like that requires a benefactor. Hasn't Dibasi mentioned Fozatta has friends in the Senate?