The Queen's Honor Guard
by Nyohah
Part 6:
Devastation
Twenty-Two Years Before MK1
I.
The Queen's Honor Guard's days on Coruscant were filled with waiting and diplomatic meetings. There was more waiting than diplomatic meetings—mostly waiting between diplomatic meetings or waiting on diplomats to actually show up to diplomatic meetings. Or waiting for diplomats to consult other diplomats and get back to diplomatic meetings.
To Rah Cai Yue, and, he suspected, to the rest of the honor guard, all the waiting and diplomatic meetings added up to exactly one thing: boredom. Their entire stay on Coruscant had been one of boredom, besides the short-lived chaos that had occurred shortly after their arrival. Judging from the glimpses he had gotten of Coruscant outside conference rooms and senate chambers, his stay on Coruscant should have been anything but.
It was the most populated planet he had ever seen. Skyscrapers covered the planet's entire surface except the tiny tourist spots of its polar icecaps, and the skyscrapers were so tall that the streets on the ground were long since forgotten. Standing on the topmost levels where the diplomatic meetings were located, one looked out the windows down into a vaguely orange haze that, he assumed, continued to rise with the buildings. Looking out the one window they had between the eleven of them in their hotel, below haze level, they looked down to a ground so far away that it was impossible to see at first glance. Whether it was impossible to see at all, Cai Yue didn't know, because he got too dizzy trying.
The planet was a menagerie of metal and lights and people—more people than he knew existed, in a number of races exponentially larger than he had imagined possible—and he had known at his first glance into a downtown area that the planet offered more things to do with a spare moment or a spare hour than he had thought necessary, few of which, of course, were appropriate for a priest.
But that wasn't the point. The point was that arriving on Coruscant and experiencing the galactic government made him appreciate the comparatively quaint I-am-ruler-by-birth-my-word-is-all-mwa-ha approach that was used by all the planets in his home galaxy, except for some places on Earth and all of Viri, which didn't count because the Vyrenchi didn't actually have a government.
And it was his home galaxy, not section of galaxy or whatever else they may have thought. One talk with some of the Republic's scientists had informed them that the Unknown Regions that made up the blank spot of Yen Sa's map had actually been seen by their advanced observation equipment well enough to show that there were no solar systems to match those of home. It was slightly disappointing to Cai Yue for reasons he could not put into coherent thought given his intense desire to leave the place and never come back. When they were fighting, when he had a purpose, he had wanted to go home, of course, but it had been a containable, understandable wish. Somewhere in the midst of all the waiting, it was like a pocket had burst, and the desire, previously contained, had soaked every part of him. He couldn't escape it. He could only wish that the efficiency of the Republic's government could compare to the efficiency of their telescopes-that-were-not-really-telescopes.
It was, after all, two weeks of absolute boredom before they even met Tascilo, or, for that matter, saw Braeden again.
The almighty Tascilo who would fix everything turned out to be a medium-height, middle-aged general of the Republic forces. They met, not in a conference room, but in a restaurant that was several stories from the top of a building and verged on being what one would consider fancy without quite being so. When Cai Yue realized that they weren't being reminded by diplomats every twenty seconds that they had a meeting, he began to suspect that the meeting with Tascilo was not an official one. Noticing the restaurant's relative cheapness and, more importantly, seeing Braeden Leer alone and slouching, seemingly asleep, at one of several tables joined together to make room for the honor guard confirmed his suspicions.
Braeden didn't move as they approached, but he said, "Look who's finally here, general."
A man who had been pacing along a wall, who seemed to be looking at the photographs-which-were-not-photographs on the wall until one noticed that his pace was too quick, turned at Braeden's drawl and nodded at them. He was a man of great energy, judging by his movements, which also proclaimed 'military' not quite loudly enough to burst one's eardrums. His pacing was a pinch too regular, his posture that of someone wearing a back brace, and, if that wasn't enough, his precise turns gave everything away. Even his hair—dark, but long since graying—was cut in a short, flavorless style that made him either military or extremely boring.
Introductions were quick and, after Tascilo introduced himself as a general of the army they had been fighting, awkward on the Mandalorian side. Tascilo was the last to sit, but he began his conversation in a manner that assured Cai Yue he was not another long-winded diplomat.
"I heard of you, of course," he said, "from incident reports about the attacks on your colonies. They were much too far from Coruscant to have raised much attention—you were on the Outer Rim, really, and nobody pays much attention to what goes on out there. There was a tiny little footnote came on one of them, though, that created quite a fuss. It said that you had clones."
"We don't have them, though," Ming said.
"Oh, I know," he answered. "Braeden's told me. I had suspected it at the start, and it was foolish of me to have given up those suspicions. You see, there really was no notation on that first report as to the source of the information about clones. People were outraged, however, and, as I'm sure you'll notice about politics here if you stay long enough, right and wrong never matter so much as what the public likes and what the public dislikes."
"That is strange for us," Zhen said, sounding a little melancholy still but trying for humor. "All that matters in our government is what the queen likes and what the queen dislikes."
Ming gave him a slightly mean look, but it was muted by their having company.
"It's a better way of doing this, if you ask me," Tascilo said gruffly. "In our system, however, you were suddenly in the spotlight, although we had sketchy information at best as to what you even looked like, and you were generally reviled. I was troubled by it, and when Braeden's report came to me, I became even more troubled.
"Braeden, you see, had just met you—three of you, I believe—for the first time. He had noticed the differences your powers make in your auras, but nothing else wrong about you. He was as troubled as I was about all the talk the Republic was making about going to war. You may have noticed that the other Jedi don't think very highly of him, but I trust him implicitly—with the things that matter, that is," Tascilo amended with a quick sigh. "He has a tendency to cause trouble just for the sake of causing trouble."
Braeden grinned. Tascilo shook his head and continued.
"So here I was, one of the leaders of the army, and the army I commanded was headed into a war I didn't support. I guess I must admit to a certain degree of anti-patriotism in that I rather—" He stopped abruptly. A human waitress had approached the table.
"Are you ready to order?" she asked cheerfully, cocking her head.
Cai Yue looked down at his forgotten menu. He couldn't read it anyway. And he didn't recognize the food in any of the pictures.
General Tascilo was quick to pick up on the Mandalorians' confusion. "We'll all have the pastin steak with salads."
"Except me," Braeden said.
"And what would you like?" asked the waitress, turning to give him her full attention with insincere wide eyes.
"What sort of fish do you have?"
"Tonight we only have the fish salad."
"And what kind of fish is it?"
"I don't know." She shrugged. "It's just fish."
"Right," said Braeden, closing his eyes, "then I'll have two fish salads without lettuce or any other toppings."
She started to write it down, then stopped and made a little noise in her throat. "So you basically just want two helpings of the fish?"
Braeden smiled at her, all eight of his incisors bared. "You're very perceptive."
She left rather quickly, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Well," Tascilo said, "as I was saying, I used my authority in the army to try to keep you from being attacked, but even my authority only went so far. I do apologize for all the times you were attacked, but there was only so much I could do."
"We understand," Li Wei Yong said.
Tascilo nodded. "I, of course, had no control over the Jedi Council. But when Braeden informed me that the Jedi were sending a team to your base—immediately after the Republic army had attacked it—I easily got volunteers from the army that had attacked you to keep you there."
"You are influential," Vendetta said, his English—Basic—surprisingly good considering the honor guard had only begun to learn it a year ago. "Did you convince them that trapping us there would be the only way to stop us?"
Tascilo sipped from his water glass and nodded. "That was part of it. There were many who saw the logic in capturing one of you to see what was really going on, and Braeden was willing to do it with my support."
"And here we are," said Ming.
"Here we are," Tascilo agreed. "About this clones mess, have you ever thought that there might be a traitor somewhere on your side?"
Their reaction was large, as Cai Yue suspected Tascilo had expected, but it wasn't the exact reaction Cai Yue guessed he thought he'd see. They had suspected a traitor. The marginally suspected traitor was dead, as was his original accuser. They hadn't gotten past that part well enough to look for another.
"We have considered the possibility," Li Wei Yong said evenly.
"I suggest you consider it a great deal," Tascilo responded. "I don't believe there's any way we could have ended up in this sophisticated a mess without help from both sides. Someone on your side knows that one of the things you most revile is clones, and that you believe that anyone who creates them is evil and cannot be trusted. Someone on our side knows that clones are a major public interest issue in the Republic right now. Convince both sides that the other has them and set them against each other, and, as we saw, the fact that both sides have the same complaint with the other muddies up any communication on the subject, making it harder to realize that there are, in fact, no clones."
"We have been over all that in many meetings," said Ming. "And we've decided that no one ever really told us that you had clones. It may have been implied, but we really just assumed that."
"Well," Tascilo said, "be that as it may, that's not the important part. Have you been over how someone in the Republic found out that clones are a sore spot with you when no one in the Republic has ever encountered you before?"
None of them had an answer.
Tascilo seemed partially pleased that he had made his point and partially disconcerted at the reaction he had caused. "I hope you consider the possibility of a traitor," he said.
Cai Yue found himself staring at the table. Even before Lan Yiao Nih had died, he hadn't wanted to believe him a traitor. Now that he was dead...
Cai Yue changed the subject. "Why is it that the Jedi don't like Braeden much?"
Tascilo and Braeden were both startled.
Braeden clicked his tongue, crossed his arms, slouched, and clicked his tongue again.
Tascilo took another sip of his water. "That," he said, "is a long story."
"Oh," Cai Yue answered. "I was just curious, is all."
"Tell them," Braeden said.
Tascilo turned to him. "Really."
"They'll understand," Braeden said.
"Very well. We'll start at the beginning. Bear with me.
"Braeden is a Calyaar, from the planet Calyaar. He's a bit of a rarity in the galaxy as a whole because Calyaar don't leave their planet very often—they dislike the outside world that much. Calyaar is a planet nearly entirely covered in fresh water, with a lot of rock and cave formations. Calyaar themselves are amphibious, with two entirely separate respiratory systems. That towel Braeden wears isn't for fashion." Tascilo gave a wry smile. "It keeps his gills wet so he doesn't get sick."
"Calyaar are also nearly blind. They see sources of light mostly and some blurs of color. Reading, details, even physical features beyond basic size are beyond their ability to discern. To counteract that, Calyaar have extremely good hearing. Both, really, are characteristics of water-dwellers, especially underwater-cave-dwellers. Calyaar hearing has some extraordinary characteristics, mostly that they are able to filter through individual sources of sounds to do things like count, or to focus in on something to hear it better, since they tend to hear everything. Or to filter out sounds that are unpleasant or annoying." Tascilo gave his smile again. "When people say Braeden only hears what he wants to, they're being quite literal."
Cai Yue laughed.
"When Braeden was thirty-one years old—which is still the equivalent of human teenage years for Calyaar—he was an aspiring playwright."
Cai Yue laughed again, involuntarily, and Braeden cocked his head at him in a none-too-friendly manner.
"You would understand better if you knew anything about Calyaar plays," Tascilo said. "They're the galaxy's most concentrated form of sarcasm, I assure you, and ever since Calyaar was first...'invaded', as the Calyaar would put it, by races from other planets, they have existed mostly to vilify the society and government outside of Calyaar. So, knowing Braeden, that makes much more sense.
"But when Braeden was thirty-one, Jedi came to his planet. They recognized his ability to use the Force, and against his people's wishes, Braeden went with them to learn the Force. He became a Jedi Master at the age of forty-two, which is an unusually quick advancement. Most Jedi are taught from childhood and don't became Jedi Masters until they're older than that. Even more unusual than the time it took for him to reach that level was the age he was at. Forty-two isn't such an atypical age for human Jedi, but you have to remember that by Calyaar standards he was a great deal younger.
"Braeden was also quite famous, and he became famous long before he became a Jedi Master. You see—well, as you probably have realized—despite his lack of visual acuity, he is an astounding fighter. There was a tournament held every year on Coruscant that any Jedi could enter. Braeden won it sixteen times in a row. He was such a celebrity on Coruscant by the third time that they made him change his name. The Calyaar language isn't easily pronounced by other species—humans especially. Calyaar isn't even anything close to the real name of the planet."
"So what is Braeden's real name?" asked Ming.
"It's—ah—Bih-rih-din," Tascilo said. "It's spelled without any vowels, though. They only have the one. I won't even attempt his last name, save to say that it began with Lir."
Braeden said it quietly. Cai Yue wouldn't have attempted it either.
"He was really the only Calyaar celebrity the core planets have ever had. They even sold special eyewear at the tournament that would obscure your vision to the point that it was like his."
"'Look at the obstacle he overcame!'" Braeden said. "Except that he never had good vision so it's not like he ever missed it."
Cai Yue—and some of the others this time—laughed.
"It was Braeden's seventeenth tournament that got him expelled from the Jedi Order," Tascilo said, and the Mandalorians were serious again. "He's said he was bored, and I imagine, winning against the same people plus a few upstarts sixteen times in a row and still in the prime of his life, always improving—anyone would be bored. Whether that justifies what he did his first match of that tournament is what the Jedi would have you believe is the issue in question."
"And what did he do?" asked Hua Quy Ling.
"He didn't hit—or get hit by—his opponent for fifty-eight minutes."
The honor guard looked over at him almost as one, and Braeden gave a little shrug.
"Well, to be technical, he didn't hit or get hit by him at all. They called the match after those fifty-eight minutes and sent Braeden straight to a hearing. The Jedi Council stripped him of all his titles, took his lightsaber, and banished him off Coruscant and several other key Jedi worlds. But that's really only half the story."
"The punishment was far beyond the crime," Tempest said.
"Exactly," Tascilo answered. "Braeden was a radical. He had nonconformist ideas about the separation between the dark side and the light side of the Force—mainly that whether you used the Force in anger was not as important as whether you simply used it too much. And he was, of course, very vocal about his opinions. Malicious as that fight had been, those of us who knew what was going on knew that Braeden was thrown out of the Jedi because of politics."
"So they were really unhappy," Braeden said, "to have to resort to using me to capture you, and then to find that I was right, and they were wrong."
"Which would explain why they've been so unfriendly," Cai Yue said.
"No, they're just always like that," Braeden said.
"Oh." Cai Yue raised his eyebrows. Braeden shrugged.
"Look at the time," Tascilo said. "I've talked about twice as much as I intended to, and I haven't heard a thing from you, although I'd love to. And now it's late, and I'm old and need sleep. I will see you tomorrow when you meet with the Supreme Chancellor."
A meeting, Cai Yue hoped, that would rival this one in the not-boring capacity.