Disclaimer: I own a CD or 2, but nothing more of Star Wars. Any new
characters are mine, though.
What would happen if a small, isolated cluster of planets were a little distrustful of the standard Jedi protection as the events of Episode 1 are about to unfold?
The Fist of Uriah
Chapter 1
Evening, Senator Yamashi's Residence, Coruscant
The senior senator representing the cluster known as The Fist of Uriah, sighed as he gazed out his window. If the times were more settled, or he represented a more powerful presence, he wouldn't be stuck with this poor position. As it was, he was from a poor cluster, and the times were becoming more and more unsettled. Cluster. He wasn't from somewhere that was even useful enough to represent a single planet. If he had been lucky enough, he wouldn't have had to pay for his keep on the powerful finance committee.
That's right, he had to pay for it. Oh, not with money, with votes. Whenever something of importance passed through, his sole job was to vote in the affirmative, which he did faithfully. It didn't matter who was in charge, he voted with what they wanted, and they were always clear with their wishes. Still, it allowed him two primary advantages. First, it allowed him to have access to most of the real accounting logs for the huge Republic budget. While it was true that no one person could understand it all, only perhaps 15, probably less, in the entire senate even had access to what he did. Fortunately, what his cluster lacked in raw power, it made up for in shrewdness, and his home government had access to everything he did. The second great advantage he had was that, since the cluster as a whole was poor and very out of the way by Republic standards, it allowed him, as a payment for his loyal support for whatever else needed to be done, to have very inadequate oversight and enforcement. Even so, the actual spending numbers that he had begun seeing lately were cause for concern...
~~~~~~~~~~
Spaceport, Jangura no Kokoro ( The Jungle's Heart), capitol city of Okii Jangura and The Fist of Uriah
Jedi Knight Janca Horza glanced over at his new aide, freshly knighted Jedi Ran O'Tool. He almost laughed. It had taken all his notable powers of persuasion to convince the Jedi Council, Yoda and Mace Windu in particular, to hand pick the young man. Even more difficult, he had somehow convinced them to allow him to watch him spar in the large Jedi dojo. After seeing that and looking at his work on a 'routine' organized crime bust, his mind was made up. The only difficult part had been convincing the others.
In the end, it had come down to the fact that he used his connections with Senators Yamashi and Grimm to convince the Supreme Chancellor that, perhaps, it would please him if the Jedi Council would grant him this insignificant favor. True, it earned him the ire of nearly the entire Council, but he spent most of his time on 'ambassadorial security duty' at The Fist of Uriah, anyway, so he wasn't unduly worried.
It had been worth the effort. The new Jedi was from the Capitol City of some third-tier planet whose name he could never remember. He was the second son of a family of police detectives that stretched back for generations on both sides. The fact that he had become a Jedi had made his family proud, but they still had reservations about the ritualistic organization. Fortunately, he had come to save Ran from the downsides of that tradition.
He snapped back to the present. They were on security duty, after all. Yea, sure they were. If anything were to happen, it would be because the government here had decided they were no longer fit to live, and nothing a couple Jedi could do would change that. Still, it would be good to see how his understudy would handle the situation. Technically, no one was supposed to know there were Jedi coming. In truth, the local security detail knew the projected time of their arrival to the nearest 15 seconds. They would, as a matter of course, greet both Jedi openly, and that just shouldn't happen. Let the test begin.
"Welcome back to Jan Ko, Jan! I see you brought you're new protege with you," Special Security Service commander Col. Hiel said, saluting. "Welcome to you to, Ran. I hope you'll enjoy it here. From what I've heard, Jan Ko has a little of the feel of your old hometown, albeit about 10 degrees C warmer.
Jan and Ran clasped a fisted right hand to their chest and bowed slightly in return. "Good to see you again too, Colonel. It is good to be out of the infernal games the Council and the Senate play all the time. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it. I suppose you heard what it took to convince the Council that Ran was right for the job."
Ran stood there quietly, observing the conversation. It took all his will power not to roll his eyes. Finally, someone admitted they knew when some Jedi were coming. After all, a Jedi couldn't stand out much more if he wore a flashing neon sign that said "Jedi here." Come to think of it, in some districts, that would be less obvious than he usually was.
"Yes, I heard," the Col. replied. "Still, I trust he was more than worth the effort. Ran, I'll have to speak with you more later. For now, Jan has allowed me assign you to work with Lt. Schwarz. You'll be under his command."
"Yes, sir," Ran answered, bowing again. Well, this wasn't at all what he was expecting, but it looked like police work. He understood police work, and had been incredulous at the pathetic investigative, forensic, information gathering, and analytical work the Jedi demonstrated. He could do better when he was 12. Of course, his many questions did little more than earn plenty of extra work from what normally were unflappable Jedi instructors. What was even more infuriating to them, he managed the extra work with seemingly little effort as long as it wasn't something involving the Force. Oh, well, he was in Jan Ko now.
"Lt. Hans Schwarz, Special Security Service," the Lt. said, introducing himself. "If you'll follow me. Corporal Groeber will be with us directly with your baggage."
"Yes, sir," Ran answered and followed. At least these people didn't treat Jedi like some form of minor deity.
Schwarz led him to an unmarked but obviously official air car in the secure area of the landing port. I'll drop you off at your quarters at the BOQ (AN---Bachelor Officer Quarters). Lt. Suzuki will be down shortly to let you know what your schedule will look like for the next few days. She's the unit's armorer and outfitter, and you'll be working with her until she tells me you're fully equipped for the work we do. After that, I'll be evaluating you to see where you can best fit in and if there is any training you need. If your masters were as thorough as they make it look, things should go smoothly. Oh, I almost forgot to mention it: you'll be restricted to the compound until Lt. Suzuki says your equipment is ready. It would cause complications if people get wind that we have a Jedi working in the SSS.
"Understood," Ran answered. They continued to chat about various things until they arrived at the compound several minutes later. After passing security, they stopped behind the BOQ where Cpl. Groeber quickly dropped Ran's minimal baggage. He had just started to unpack when, after a quick knock, Lt. Misao Suzuki just appeared...
Author's notes:
This is taking longer to set up than I thought it would. Still, I haven't written something where the main characters and setting are pretty much unknown before, so I should have expected it. Next chapter, Ran will get a few more surprises as Lt. Suzuki gets him outfitted for his new assignment.
In another note, I will be working a fair amount with cultural and language differences. I will have the Republic standard language be equivalent to standard American English. Because there are so many different planets, I will work in, at a minimum, some Japanese, German, and Russian words/names. I will not have any conversations in another language. I can't write it, and you probably wouldn't understand it if I could.
What would happen if a small, isolated cluster of planets were a little distrustful of the standard Jedi protection as the events of Episode 1 are about to unfold?
The Fist of Uriah
Chapter 1
Evening, Senator Yamashi's Residence, Coruscant
The senior senator representing the cluster known as The Fist of Uriah, sighed as he gazed out his window. If the times were more settled, or he represented a more powerful presence, he wouldn't be stuck with this poor position. As it was, he was from a poor cluster, and the times were becoming more and more unsettled. Cluster. He wasn't from somewhere that was even useful enough to represent a single planet. If he had been lucky enough, he wouldn't have had to pay for his keep on the powerful finance committee.
That's right, he had to pay for it. Oh, not with money, with votes. Whenever something of importance passed through, his sole job was to vote in the affirmative, which he did faithfully. It didn't matter who was in charge, he voted with what they wanted, and they were always clear with their wishes. Still, it allowed him two primary advantages. First, it allowed him to have access to most of the real accounting logs for the huge Republic budget. While it was true that no one person could understand it all, only perhaps 15, probably less, in the entire senate even had access to what he did. Fortunately, what his cluster lacked in raw power, it made up for in shrewdness, and his home government had access to everything he did. The second great advantage he had was that, since the cluster as a whole was poor and very out of the way by Republic standards, it allowed him, as a payment for his loyal support for whatever else needed to be done, to have very inadequate oversight and enforcement. Even so, the actual spending numbers that he had begun seeing lately were cause for concern...
~~~~~~~~~~
Spaceport, Jangura no Kokoro ( The Jungle's Heart), capitol city of Okii Jangura and The Fist of Uriah
Jedi Knight Janca Horza glanced over at his new aide, freshly knighted Jedi Ran O'Tool. He almost laughed. It had taken all his notable powers of persuasion to convince the Jedi Council, Yoda and Mace Windu in particular, to hand pick the young man. Even more difficult, he had somehow convinced them to allow him to watch him spar in the large Jedi dojo. After seeing that and looking at his work on a 'routine' organized crime bust, his mind was made up. The only difficult part had been convincing the others.
In the end, it had come down to the fact that he used his connections with Senators Yamashi and Grimm to convince the Supreme Chancellor that, perhaps, it would please him if the Jedi Council would grant him this insignificant favor. True, it earned him the ire of nearly the entire Council, but he spent most of his time on 'ambassadorial security duty' at The Fist of Uriah, anyway, so he wasn't unduly worried.
It had been worth the effort. The new Jedi was from the Capitol City of some third-tier planet whose name he could never remember. He was the second son of a family of police detectives that stretched back for generations on both sides. The fact that he had become a Jedi had made his family proud, but they still had reservations about the ritualistic organization. Fortunately, he had come to save Ran from the downsides of that tradition.
He snapped back to the present. They were on security duty, after all. Yea, sure they were. If anything were to happen, it would be because the government here had decided they were no longer fit to live, and nothing a couple Jedi could do would change that. Still, it would be good to see how his understudy would handle the situation. Technically, no one was supposed to know there were Jedi coming. In truth, the local security detail knew the projected time of their arrival to the nearest 15 seconds. They would, as a matter of course, greet both Jedi openly, and that just shouldn't happen. Let the test begin.
"Welcome back to Jan Ko, Jan! I see you brought you're new protege with you," Special Security Service commander Col. Hiel said, saluting. "Welcome to you to, Ran. I hope you'll enjoy it here. From what I've heard, Jan Ko has a little of the feel of your old hometown, albeit about 10 degrees C warmer.
Jan and Ran clasped a fisted right hand to their chest and bowed slightly in return. "Good to see you again too, Colonel. It is good to be out of the infernal games the Council and the Senate play all the time. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it. I suppose you heard what it took to convince the Council that Ran was right for the job."
Ran stood there quietly, observing the conversation. It took all his will power not to roll his eyes. Finally, someone admitted they knew when some Jedi were coming. After all, a Jedi couldn't stand out much more if he wore a flashing neon sign that said "Jedi here." Come to think of it, in some districts, that would be less obvious than he usually was.
"Yes, I heard," the Col. replied. "Still, I trust he was more than worth the effort. Ran, I'll have to speak with you more later. For now, Jan has allowed me assign you to work with Lt. Schwarz. You'll be under his command."
"Yes, sir," Ran answered, bowing again. Well, this wasn't at all what he was expecting, but it looked like police work. He understood police work, and had been incredulous at the pathetic investigative, forensic, information gathering, and analytical work the Jedi demonstrated. He could do better when he was 12. Of course, his many questions did little more than earn plenty of extra work from what normally were unflappable Jedi instructors. What was even more infuriating to them, he managed the extra work with seemingly little effort as long as it wasn't something involving the Force. Oh, well, he was in Jan Ko now.
"Lt. Hans Schwarz, Special Security Service," the Lt. said, introducing himself. "If you'll follow me. Corporal Groeber will be with us directly with your baggage."
"Yes, sir," Ran answered and followed. At least these people didn't treat Jedi like some form of minor deity.
Schwarz led him to an unmarked but obviously official air car in the secure area of the landing port. I'll drop you off at your quarters at the BOQ (AN---Bachelor Officer Quarters). Lt. Suzuki will be down shortly to let you know what your schedule will look like for the next few days. She's the unit's armorer and outfitter, and you'll be working with her until she tells me you're fully equipped for the work we do. After that, I'll be evaluating you to see where you can best fit in and if there is any training you need. If your masters were as thorough as they make it look, things should go smoothly. Oh, I almost forgot to mention it: you'll be restricted to the compound until Lt. Suzuki says your equipment is ready. It would cause complications if people get wind that we have a Jedi working in the SSS.
"Understood," Ran answered. They continued to chat about various things until they arrived at the compound several minutes later. After passing security, they stopped behind the BOQ where Cpl. Groeber quickly dropped Ran's minimal baggage. He had just started to unpack when, after a quick knock, Lt. Misao Suzuki just appeared...
Author's notes:
This is taking longer to set up than I thought it would. Still, I haven't written something where the main characters and setting are pretty much unknown before, so I should have expected it. Next chapter, Ran will get a few more surprises as Lt. Suzuki gets him outfitted for his new assignment.
In another note, I will be working a fair amount with cultural and language differences. I will have the Republic standard language be equivalent to standard American English. Because there are so many different planets, I will work in, at a minimum, some Japanese, German, and Russian words/names. I will not have any conversations in another language. I can't write it, and you probably wouldn't understand it if I could.