The Queen's Honor Guard
by Nyohah
II.
Li Wei Yong was disappointed but not surprised when Supreme Chancellor Palpatine sent his regrets that he was unable to attend his scheduled meeting with the Mandalorians. He wasn't disappointed that he wouldn't get to meet the man. He was, in fact, disappointed that he was not surprised that Palpatine was not coming. They had been pushed aside—out of the spotlight—hastily by the Republic leaders once they realized that they were not really a threat, a response that Wei Yong suspected had much more to do with embarrassment than with the existence of other, more threatening things to which to give the spotlight. The diplomats they met with were long-winded to be sure, but they always had a bit of impatience in continuing discussions once they had said their piece, wanting, Wei Yong imagined, to be somewhere else doing something that they considered important. Palpatine's failure to attend the meeting was just final confirmation that the Mandalorians mattered next to nothing to the Republic leaders.
When's Palpatine's replacement stepped in, however, Wei Yong changed his mind. Let Palpatine go where he please and do what he please if Tascilo was going to stand in for him. His support for them would be appreciated, as well as his respect for time and efficiency, the lack of which was the main obstacle in the way of the Mandalorians' finally returning home.
"Good afternoon," Tascilo said as he sat at the head of the table. "I am General Tascilo of the Republic Army, and it is my pleasure to direct this meeting and to meet all of you. I had planned to attend this meeting and give my opinions, but Supreme Chancellor Palpatine found that he had irresolvable conflicts—his aide's fault, he assures me—and asked me to direct the meeting instead."
Wei Yong quickly understood that Tascilo did not want them to acknowledge that they had had an unofficial meeting the night before—his words had both implied that he had never met them before and answered Wei Yong's questions about the situation. He said, "Remember, we haven't met him before," quickly in Mandalorian to ensure the rest of the honor guard understood as well.
"I am happy to tell you that I come with good news, but I am afraid that I also have some bad news," Tascilo said. "The good news is that the Senate has agreed that this entire conflict was a double-sided mistake, and we agree to peace if you agree to peace."
"Of course we agree to peace," Ming said, and Wei Yong understood the irritation behind her tone; he thought they had agreed to peace a long time ago.
"Excellent," Tascilo said, pulling out a small electronic device. "Here is a document bearing the signatures of the Supreme Chancellor, his top advisors, and the Senators for each of the planets involved in a conflict with you. If your leaders would sign it, please?"
He handed the device to Ming who looked at it in confusion. Wei Yong leaned over to her and saw why. There were no signatures on it that he could see—only a glowing circle and a screen with some strange twisting models labeled with different symbols.
"Uh, you only have to press your finger to the sensor and it will record your unique genetic signature," Tascilo said. "Hold it there for a few seconds because it won't begin to record until after three to help prevent mistakes."
Ming held her finger to the device. It beeped, and an unlabeled twisting model appeared along with some sort of a prompt. Wei Yong couldn't see any way to enter any information, though.
"Speak your name into the sensor, now," Tascilo said.
Ming looked at him warily for a moment, then leaned close to it and said, "Li Yuen Ming." Strange Basic symbols appeared next to her twisty thing, and the device beeped again. Ming handed it to Wei Yong, who recorded his 'signature' and handed it to Kei Sa, who also did and passed it back to Tascilo.
"Very well," Tascilo said. "The supreme chancellor told me that he feels it would be best for you to hold some sort of assembly before you leave—a peace announcement both for your people to celebrate and to show the people of our galaxy a bit of your culture and that you hold us no ill will."
"We should have a parade," Rah Cai Yue said. When Tascilo looked at him, Cai Yue added seriously, "We like parades."
Tascilo laughed, as did most of the rest of the honor guard, but the honor guard nodded also.
"I think there is plenty of space for you to have a parade leading into the Grand Courtyard," Tascilo said.
"When?" asked Ming.
Tascilo was suddenly somber again. "Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Ming sounded outraged—Wei Yong hoped it was more because it made Tascilo seem that he didn't want them around than because it would hamper her plans for a parade, but he couldn't really tell.
"Yes, that is my bad news," Tascilo said. "Late last night, my sources discovered that there is a group on Coruscant who haven't forgotten about you or forgiven you for the war. They're quite opposed to us letting you leave in peace, and both myself and my sources agree that they could pose a threat."
"Then why don't we leave tonight?" asked Tempest.
"I wish I could let you do that," Tascilo said, "but Palpatine insists that you must have a public appearance or it will look like we're too embarrassed—" The diplomats sitting around the table begin to argue in protest, but Tascilo ignored them and kept talking. Wei Yong's opinion of him rose a little higher. "—to even acknowledge that we had a conflict with you. By Palpatine's orders, your ships do not have clearance to leave until after you have had a peace assembly."
"He thought we might want to just leave," Wei Yong said.
"Of course," Tascilo said. "You've said repeatedly that all you want is to go home. Meet Palpatine's request, and you can."
"But we're prisoners until then?"
One of the diplomats tried to speak again. "I wouldn't say—"
"Of sorts, yes. But only in the same sense that my sources once were."
Wei Yong thought that was a strange comment, but Tascilo rose to leave before he could fully process it.
"I am afraid that even my security clearance is not high enough to help you. My sources are investigating everything." He finished gathering his things and paused to look Wei Yong in the eyes. "I would recommend you talk to my sources," he said, and quickly left.
And finally Wei Yong caught on to who Tascilo's 'sources' were, or rather, was.
Honor had been near panic when Tascilo had talked about rebels and their not being able to leave before holding a peace assembly, talking so quickly and consistently in Ming's head that she almost couldn't hear what Tascilo said. Usually when he panicked, he refused to leave her side, so when she realized suddenly, when she reached the guest chambers she had been given, that she could neither feel, nor hear, nor see the Vyrenchi, she nearly panicked herself, thinking he had somehow been trapped or killed—she didn't trust that an energy being was safe in a world where all energy was carefully regulated into a system to distribute power and information. He returned, however, almost immediately after she realized he was gone, and he was quiet.
Too quiet. Usually he greeted her. Never before had his projected image simply stood silently in front of her.
"Honor?" she asked. "Are you all right?"
He didn't answer.
"Honor?"
=We have tragedy.= Honor said.
"Tragedy?"
=Shao Kahn.=
Ming sat down. "What's he done?"
=He has attacked home, Yuen Ming.=
"H-home?" Ming managed, barely able to speak, images of a conquered Mandalore rising.
=Our home, Yuen Ming.=
"Oh," she said, ashamed at her relief. "Viri...I'm so—but it couldn't fall. He could never defeat you."
=He has not, Yuen Ming. He is only just attacking now. We are sorry we are not clearer.=
"No, it's not your fault, Honor." She made herself look confident. "Viri won't fall."
=We do not think so, Yuen Ming, but we must go no matter,= Honor mewled.
"You have to go?" Ming's heart began to beat abnormally hard again.
=We do not want to go. We do not want to abandon you, Yuen Ming.=
"No, Honor, I understand. You have to go save your planet."
=We all do not want to go, but we do not all worry so much about abandoning you, Yuen Ming, so much as we do.=
"No, Honor," Ming said. "You have to go. I'll be fine. We'll all be fine."
Honor's image lowered his head. =We have to go now.=
And he was gone. Ming forced herself not to panic.
Soon after Braeden returned to his quarters in the Calyaar District, the Mandalorians came to ask him about the investigations he was conducting for Tascilo. It was the fourth time they had tried to find him in an hour; obviously, they were distressed.
He was in the middle of testing crystals when they came, and he was slightly more irritated that he hadn't discovered anything more than Tascilo had told him than he was irritated that he was interrupted. He had been neither able to find any of the group resisting peace with the Mandalorians or find out who any of them were. The fact that he couldn't find any meant that they weren't just a group of harmless civilians trying to exercise their political rights and voice their political opinions. That he couldn't get any names or get pointed in any direction meant that they weren't just a group of low criminals trying to make trouble or make a name for themselves. The Mandalorian resistance group was really a phantom Mandalorian resistance group, but not in the sense that it didn't exist—rather, in the sense that it was the sort of thing that haunted you but couldn't really be seen, revealed only the last moment before it finally killed you.
He didn't tell the Mandalorians what the results of his search meant because he didn't want to panic them, and also because he didn't have anything else to tell them. He suspected everyone. There were crafty criminals who would create the outlines of such a resistance group to drive security mad, but never actually create the group. There were crime lords who would take their prejudices to such a level and actually organize a group that well hidden. There were diplomats he suspected, and military leaders he suspected, and even Palpatine himself, briefly, although based on history, his not wanting to be embarrassed was reason enough for Palpatine to require public exposure of the Mandalorians.
Braeden knew nothing. He told them that. They left.
Or most of them left. Braeden had already begun installing a large red crystal he had bought from a closing museum on the Outer Rim when he realized one of the Mandalorians was still standing in his doorway. It was the one in the coat, who had come to rescue the queen.
"What do you want?" Braeden asked.
The Mandalorian was startled. "Sorry," he said, his voice less accented than it had been the first time Braeden had heard it, a year before in a back-water market. "I was just looking at all the crystals," he explained. "You have a lot of them."
"I'm testing them," Braeden said shortly.
The Mandalorian didn't leave. "Testing them for what?"
Braeden sighed. "To see how well they work in lightsabers."
"Those are your light swords, right?"
He waited for Braeden to answer. Braeden didn't, replacing the casing on the lightsaber he was working on and suddenly igniting it.
"We use crystals in ours, as well," the Mandalorian said, looking at the blade, his voice as calm as his heartbeat. "Sunstones."
"There are no stones on anyone's sun," Braeden said. The crystal was fair. The humming of the blade was strong and steady without the variations or glitches that indicated it would someday short out.
"They're not actually from the sun," the Mandalorian said, a hint of a peevish tone entering his voice. "We just call them that. Well, the Mandalorian version of that, anyway. They're just clear, and very common, and we use them—oh, you have one!" He reached down onto Braeden's table and picked up a quartz stone.
Braeden shut his eyes and shook his head. "We call those quartz. They're worthless. Melt immediately, and no one considers them of any value."
"You just don't know how to use them," the Mandalorian said. "Here—you, uh, have to open your eyes to see."
Braeden did and saw nothing out of the ordinary. He raised an eyebrow.
"I haven't done it yet," the Mandalorian protested. The stone began to glow—no, more than glow. It emitted a strong light that was much softer than the artificial light in Braeden's quarters, and much quieter—silent, in fact.
"There. Worthless?"
"No," Braeden said, holding out his hand. The Mandalorian placed the stone in it. "Not to you, anyway. It's still worthless to me."
"You don't think you can do that—with your powers, I mean?"
"I didn't even feel you do anything."
"Oh. You can keep that stone, though, and it'll be useful to you."
Braeden set it on the table. "Until it stops glowing."
"It won't," the Mandalorian said.
"Not ever?" Braeden said skeptically.
"Well, when I die," the Mandalorian answered, his tone hinting that the condition was obvious. "But until then, no, unless I turn it off, which I won't. We Mandalorians do this all the time our entire lives. Technically to turn them off, we just have to let them go—no effort involved there, you'd think, but the fact is that it's so easy to keep them going, that even thinking about them to let them go is more effort than keeping them going."
"Really," Braeden said.
"That's not true about our weapons, though. Those take effort. They're not just light. Yen Sa—the youngest one of our honor guard—was the one who figured out how to utilize them to make weapons. I don't know how. If you want to know, you'll have to ask him."
"Yen Sa," Braeden said. "And who are you?"
"Rah Cai Yue. A priest."
"Thank you for the gift, Rah Cai Yue," Braeden said, "but I need to get to work."
"So do I," he answered, heading for the door, happily adding, "We're planning a parade."
Kei Sa finished writing and placed her pen on the desk in her room. She was alone except for her younger daughter, Ching, who lay quiet but not asleep in her crib, as though she too could sense what Kei Sa did. More likely, she sensed the tension in Kei Sa.
Her husband had gone with the general when most of the honor guard had gone with the queen, planning defenses for the parade and peace assembly rather than the peace assembly itself. Nai Do Xian was the only other one working on defenses; Quy and the lieutenant were the men the general trusted most.
Ming had been anxious when she asked Kei Sa to help her plan, but Kei Sa had been unable to determine why. She decided that her own anxiety was preventing her from being able to help Ming and turned down Ming's request, retreating to her room to try to sort out why she felt the way she did.
An hour later, she was only more troubled, and she gave up trying to determine why, instead deciding to do something to try to relieve her anxiety in some way. She decided to write her husband a letter. She couldn't tell anyone about her feelings because they were all too close to panic anyway. As terrible as it made her feel, she couldn't even tell Quy. He'd tell someone, and then it would be as though she had told.
But she could write him a letter, and it would be almost like talking to him. She could tell him everything she wanted to say to him if she never got a chance to speak to him again, and leave it with her daughter, where he would be sure to find it.
It took her two hours to decide what she wanted to say, how best to say it, and finally write it down. Looking over at Ching as she folded the letter, she realized that she had three more to write.