Chapter 12- Invaders Proposal
They went upstairs and into a square chamber that reminded Talon vaguely of the time when he went to Naboo when he was nine after Padme, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan defeated the Separatist's blockade. Talon placed his hand on his lightsaber and noticed Lena and Luke touching theirs as well. From the connection they all had in the Force, Talon knew they were thinking the same as him; wondering if it was a good thing that the guard had been convinced to let them keep their lightsabers.
Talon then looked at the chamber with his cobalt blue eyes. It was square with a tiled ceiling and a tall, glassy pillar in each corner. Talon had seen rooms like this on Alderaan and other places he had gone to as a Jedi and Senator's aide. Of course the most elaborate had been the Imperial Palace on Coruscant. Talon then noticed all the senators. Talon was also familiar with senators, but these looked different from most of the senators he had met in the Imperial Senate. They were tall individuals with pale skin and a corrugated scalp and hardly any hair. Talon opened himself to the Force and felt Lena doing the same. The babble from the senators was loud through his Force-enhanced hearing, but the sound was a nervous one. They all looked at Talon and his party nervously. It was as if they knew that they were surrounded by Jedi. Talon's Force concentration then went to his niece and he observed the senator's reactions to Leia. He felt feelings of curiosity and hostility, but more of curiosity. There was also another emotion and it was one of fear. Talon could almost understand that one as the planet was under attack.
"Stay here, Threepio. Good morning again, Governor," Leia said as she turned from the protocol droid to Nereus.
"Come in. Come down," the man said, languidly lowering his dark eyebrows. The entered the room and to the central rectangle. Talon felt a wince as he remembered the trapdoor at Jabba the Hutt's palace and how Oola, the dancing girl had died by the Rancor and Luke and Lena had almost died when Jabba had tried to feed them to the same beast. Talon then got a better look at the Bakuran senators. They didn't all look alike. They came in all different sizes, shapes, and sexes.
A healthy looking man with a full head of white hair stood from an inner table below Nereus's dais. He extended his hand to Talon. "Welcome to Bakura, Prince Cail. I am Prime Minister Yeorg Captison. Under normal circumstances, you would have had a protocol briefing, and I apologize with the haste with which this meeting was convened, but certainly you understand," the man said affably.
Talon inclined his head graciously in the ways of the Alderaanian court that Bail had insisted that he learn after the Jedi Purge. Talon shook his hand, briefly reading him through the Force. He was almost like Mon Mothma and full of energy. Talon then wondered if he was a threat why Nereus had killed him, but that was a question for another day. "Please don't apologize. This is a desperate hour," Leia said, coming to stand beside Talon.
Another man stood. He looked to be about Talon's age. "Blaine Harris, defense minister. You have no idea how desperate. All of our outposts on the other planets in the system have been destroyed. Our salvage crews that survived to report back found no bodies and no survivors," Harris said, his fear leaking out through his voice and judging from the looks on Luke's, Lena's, and Cora's faces, they could feel the fear just as well as he could. Talon then felt a mixture of emotions all around the table; fear, hostility, and hope. Talon's eyes went to the end of the table and inward and he felt a jolt through the Force and his eyes snapped directly to a young woman. The only one in the room that was female. She was strong in the Force, that much was obvious, but he wasn't sure how she felt about Jedi knights. Of course it didn't take a Jedi to see that Luke was quite taken with her.
Nereus's voice scraped across Talon's nerves, bring his focus back to the meeting. "Princess Leia, do you and your understand what you are up against?" Nereus asked as if Talon and his niece were younglings without any sense.
Talon laid a hand with his ring, symbolizing the royal house of Alderaan on the tabletop, "No. We came to answer a distress call, to show that the Alliance has no grudges against Imperial-ruled peoples, only the Empire itself," Talon said, projecting as much of the Force into his voice as he could.
Nereus curled his lips in disdain. "I thought not. Ellsworth, run the Sibwarra recording. Your Highnesses, come up here and stand with me. Bring your escorts," Nereus said.
Luke and Lena joined Talon and Leia on the dais. Luke had felt everything his uncle, cousin and sister had felt. He had ven noticed the same young woman in the group of senators. The only women he knew that could be considered beautiful were his sisters and this one was just as beautiful with her light brown hair and pale skin. Sh also was strong in the Force. Granted, not as strong as Uncle Talon or his sisters, but enough.
Luke was brought out of his musings at the sound of engines running and a young man with a muddy cream-colored skin color, short black hair, and a sweet look in his dark eyes filled the room. Lena gave a sharp intake of breath as she looked at him. "Is that who you felt in the middle of battle?" Luke whispered.
"Yes. Even in hologram, I can recognize his signature," Lena said.
"Humans of Bakura, rejoice! I am Dev Sibwarra of G'rho. I bring you warm greeting of the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium, a culture of many worlds that stretches its hand out to you. Our flagship is the mighty Shriwirr, a Ssi-ruuvi word that means 'ripe with eggs.' We are approaching your galaxy at the behest of your own Emperor," the boy said. Luke then looked at the young senator. Her fear and revulsion was clearly felt through the Force.
Luke put his attention back on the hologram. "Bakurans, be glad! The joy we bring goes beyond mere sensory happiness. Yours is the privilege of assisting the Ssi-ruuk to liberate-" the boy made a gesture that looked like grasping instead of liberating. "the other worlds of the galaxy. You are the first, the spearhead! What an honor! As humans you have inestimable value to my masters, From them, you will receive lives without pain, without need, without fear," the boy said happily as if he believed what he was saying.
"Watch this," Nereus muttered.
The hologram changed pictures to reveal dull brown aliens that looked saurian in appearance. They looked to be around a console that Luke instantly recognized and they gave it attention as if it had broken down. Luke then realized he had seen the aliens before. He had the dream that he had told Lena about where he was a droid and these aliens were in it. Luke's mind then went to the presences Lena had said she felt in the battle and the pain they had been in. From the look on his sister's face, she had come to the same realization he had. The droids were humans once who had died and their consciousness had been transferred into a droid. This made what the boy said a complete lie. The people they had placed in droids hadn't been happy or felt peace after what had been done to them.
"To allay your fears, let me show you a bit of the entechment procedure. Then when the time comes, you may greet your destiny with joy," the boy said exuberantly as a scene of a man in what looked like a chair appeared. On closer examination it looked as if the man was bound to the chair with restraints and tubes where in his throat. The boy, Dev, looked to be holding a glowing white paddle over the man. The man froze.
""It is joy. It is peace. It is freedom. it is our gift to you," Dev said, stretching out a hand.
"No. It's not. These are slavers. Or they are worse. They steal people's souls," Cora said in her serious, childlike voice.
"You said it, kid," Han said as Cora went to Talon and gripped his large hand in her small one. The fear reflected in her dark eyes.
