Chapter 7

Piett stood the usual step and a half behind and to the left of his captain as they watched the shuttle carrying the Rebel delegation approach the Chiss dreadnought that was to be used for what would probably be the entire stay of all the off-worlders in the system. Their hosts had taken great pains to ensure that both sides of the Galactic Civil War only met under highly controlled circumstances.

Both ships were parked on opposite sides of the planets, with their orbits regulated so that they would never have line of sight with one another and both were also surrounded by an appropriate group of Chiss warships. The [I]Chimaera[/I] had gotten a good look at them though as they had dropped out of lightspeed. The distance had been immense and in fact at the very edge of the range at which the on-board systems could provide a decent picture, but it had been good enough to identify the ship, by shape alone since it clearly was not a Victory-Class Star Destroyer. Why the Rebels had chosen not to send their flagship for something as potentially important as this led to much speculation among the officers viewing the footage, but in Piett's opinion it was probably either because they didn't want to risk their strongest ship far from home on a mission that for them had to have every chance to turn deadly or because they were going for an understated, restrained and low-level approach.

That notion went right out the window when the shuttle settled and the access ramp lowered itself. He didn't see it as a good sign that the Chiss had provided something of an honour guard for the Rebels, but there was little they could do as when Captain Pellaeon and himself had disembarked the same had happened for them. Tegan Kaylak, diplomatic representative of the Emperor on this mission and apparently hand-picked by someone very high up the ladder, had taken it as a matter of course and was now souring visibly at the Rebels being given this same honour.

Yet it was him who first spoke when they could see who the Republic had sent.

"So much for low-level, Captain."

"Well, it was a probably choice, Ambassador, not the only one they could make."

Piett tended to agree. The faces of the people leading the other Rebels as they approached the 'protocol officer' the Chiss had provided were recognizable by anyone who served both in the Navy and was in possession of a set of functional eyes, the wanted posters were everywhere.

Skywalker was wearing his hair shorter these days and he stood back near the shuttle with the only other Jedi whom Piett thought to be Obi-Wan Kenobi. He studied both Jedi as far as he could at a distance as the diplomats did their work. Even though he was too junior to have seen action during the war, he was realist enough to know that at the very least three quarters of what Imperial officialdom said about the Jedi was flawed at the very least, and he knew that his Clone Wars veteran comrades had at the very least a professional respect for the Jedi. Between all this he was actually looking forward to forming a picture of his own.

The former Senator of Naboo was equally interesting. Not only was she visibly pregnant, but as hard to hear as it was at this distance, she insisted on being addressed as 'Senator Skywalker' told him many things.

As it did to the others.

Captain Pellaeon looked at the others. "Well that was interesting, wasn't it, Commander?"

Knowing that the Captain saw this as a part of his continuing education, the young for his rank Piett replied quickly. "Indeed, Sir. It seems that we really are dealing with a different Jedi Order now."

"Andy why is that?"

"Back on the days of the Old Republic the Jedi weren't allowed to.,. have families. She openly calls herself a Skywalker, so she isn't having a secret marriage like something from a bad romance novel."

Piett smiled thinly before continuing. "We know that she has at least one other child with Skywalker, but this is the first confirmation we really have, before all of it were mere rumours. What's more, for all we know this is the first time she's been seen by anyone from our side since the Pacification of Coruscant, so this could be seen as a message as much to us as her presence is meant to send one to the Chiss."

The Ambassador glanced at Piett before apparently deciding to be candid. "Indeed it is. You know as well as I do that the press has insinuation down to an art form."

Without waiting for Piett to indicate if he had understood what had been left unsaid, he continued. "Our dear former Senator Ami... Skywalker more like, has in the past been a very public figure, one impersonating the so-called values and virtues of the Old Republic."

It took Kaylak a moment to decide how far he could go with these two men. In the end he apparently decided to risk it. Piett had no intentions of revealing anything that was said today, mostly because he knew that whatever various people said, perfection was a goal to be striven for that yet could never be reached, and if he'd been a betting man, he would have gladly risked a hefty number of credits on the Captain having a very similar point of view.

"What I mean is that being who she was... or rather who she is, she was and in some ways still is a figure to be looked up to and aspired to among certain upper-class and predominantly female sections of human and to an extent non-human society. So why do you think the rumours about her quote-unquote emotional status started out right after that? Because they knew it would undermine and help destroy her image legacy among those self-same admirers, above all those younger girls who aspired to be like her, especially after how her supposed death was spun for the press. Imagine, for years you're told that your great idol died during the pacification of Coruscant, but all of a sudden you see newsreports, read articles and see pictures that prove beyond a doubt that she has sided with the Rebellion, that she gone so far as to... settle down with one of those Jedi that tried to assassinate the Emperor and having a child with him, in defiance of their own rules? All that making it clear that she wasn't unwillingly co-opted in some way? You'd have to go fairly far down the ladder of quality to find a so-called publication that actually said out lout what everybody meant to be sure, but that didn't make it any less damaging. Maker, those glossy high-class rags probably even made it worse by the way they didn't out and out say what they wanted everybody to read between the lines. The whole so-called scandal was a concerted and very effective effort to destroy her personal legacy as well as her political one."

"But what can she hope to salvage by announcing that she is properly married? Effectively we are her entire audience?"

"I never knew her personally," the Ambassador replied, "but from what I am told, it's the principle of the thing, and she would defend her family like a mama-hawkbat."

Piett knew better than to ask how Kaylak knew that and decided that it wasn't worth knowing anyway. He had his own career to protect after all. At any rate, by this time the evening's entertainment was over as the Rebels were led to the quarters they were going to occupy.

"Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?"

The meetings were not supposed to begin until the next day. Why there was a delay or why the Chiss insisted on officially talking to both delegations at the same. Maybe to underscore their neutrality towards both sides? Maybe because they had something to say they wanted both sides to hear? With an internal shrug Piett stepped away.

"I can't say I am surprised that they keep us on this station, given what we knew about the Chiss." Obi Wan opined as the Republic delegation assembled in the small kitchenslashliving room area of the suite of quarters they had been assigned. Expectedly spartan on a space station, it still provided a table large enough to afford everyone a seat. He watched Anakin help a somewhat indignant Padmé into one of the comfortable chairs.

"Which is little enough." Padmé said. Shegave her husband a short, thankfull smile before turning back towards the table, one hand resting on her stomach. "The HoloNet is impressively bare, I have to say. Usually there'd at least be rumours, but it seems that the publicly accessible databanks are [I]impressively[/I] bare."

Anakin couldn't help but speculate. "Palpatine might have his reasons to keep the Chiss out of the limelight."

"But why? It's not as if they involve themselves in our part of the Galaxy at all. If the Empire is courting the Chiss as potential allies... maybe because they 'merely' near-human? That the general public isn't made even more aware of their hypocrisy?"

"Maybe. But Palpatine isn't the sort of man to do that, to really care."

Of all the persons in the room Padmé knew Palpatine best none of the others could disagree.

"I wish we could have someone look into this. It might give us an edge in the negotiations."

Obi Wan shook his head. "I don't think so. Did you recognize the senior Imperial Officer?"

Anakin shook his head.

"Fair enough." Obi Wan replied, "I know him by his reputation, so it took me a while to put a name to the face. We've never met as such, but I looked at his file once. He's a good bit older now but if I'm not mistaken that was Gilad Pellaeon. If what I heard about him is anything to go by then he's not going to fall for the obvious ploys."

Having heard the same name via his own Padawan and subsequently researched the man, was forced to agree.

"You are correct as always, Obi Wan. Still, why is he here?"

Padmé was the one who supplied the next piece. "Maybe to send a message to the Chiss and to us. To the Chiss that the Imperial Military is an entity that needs to be taken seriously, one way or another, and to us that the Empire can easily crush us either way. They don't want neither us nor the Chiss to forget who is the stronger alternative."

When she saw the worried looks of the Jedi in the room, she waved their concerns away.

"I can make this work." she said with far more conviction in her voice than she felt on the inside.

tbc

I still hate Anakin's haircut in Episode III. Could that be any more 90s? Argh. The thing with Padmé's legacy is actually taken from various stories written by the excellent on and a few others, only there that it was applied to Leia, and used with permission. I strongly suggest reading it, though it has some minor adult themes at times, so be warned.

Anyhoo, this was supposed to be a lot longer, but it was an absolute (insert expletive here) to write, so I axed a part of it and posted it as is.