Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. I don't own it, I've never owned it, and I'm not making any money off of this. I really, really wish I were, though.
Chapter 3:
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Moira wasn't exactly sure who it was who said that, but it certainly summed up her feelings as Teer brought the Jezebeth down to an elegant touchdown on a floating landing pad above the endless cityscape.
Her visits to Coruscant during the empire's reign had been few and far between, but during that time, she felt she'd had a fairly good handle on the planet. Her mentor had used the city's dark underbelly as a training ground for her. It had been the perfect place to train. The people there were practically raised to recognize imperials. If she could blend in perfectly there, she could likely blend in just about anywhere. The large stone statue of the Emperor which had stood at the foot of the imperial palace was no longer there; it had been taken down the night of the rebel victory at Endor. There was no longer a stormtrooper at every corner, but the surveillance holos were still active. And to her thinking, the difference between a stormtrooper and a New Republic soldier was only in their wardrobe.
As far as she could tell, the New Republic kept just as tight a grip on the planet as the Empire ever had.
The Imperial palace, arguably the single most magnificent building on the whole planet, towered high above the skyline, its huge pinnacles lancing upwards, slicing into the lines of speeders which crisscrossed the cloudless blue sky.
She took a deep breath as she looked at the gigantic tower. This would not be easy. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Imperial palace, which the New Republic had made into the home of their government, was designed to be impenetrable. Even she wasn't able to find out exactly what security systems were in effect, and what security protocols were written for the gigantic building. This put her in the position of having to improvise. Never a good thing in her line of work.
And there were rumors that the brother of Leia Organa himself lived on site. They said that he was the last of the Jedi since Vader had died at Endor. She'd heard legends of the Jedi from her mentor; but she'd always discounted them as little more than old wives' tales. She strongly doubted that he had the power they associated with him, but was not willing to frivolously make that assumption.
Assume nothing to be false, her mentor had once told her, assume any story, any rumor, any tale could be true, no matter how ridiculous it seems. It was said that the Jedi had the power to reach into her mind and pick out her thoughts, to rip a blaster out of her hands from a distance, or to render it harmless with little more than a thought. They said that the Jedi could see the future, predict your actions. There were stories of Jedi blocking blaster bolts fired at point-blank range with the energy swords they used. Many of these were no doubt legends passed down and exaggerated over the generations, but she wasn't willing to discount some of them as being false. There were, after all, aliens with the power to see into one's mind. Predicting the future, she'd heard Teer say time and time again that it was merely a more advanced form of pattern recognition; much as the Gand findsmen would track their prey through the swirling mists of their homeworld. The Givin routinely predicted the brutal tides of their planet with astonishing accuracy. The best dejarik players in the galaxy can picture the way the board will look six moves in advance, Teer had once told her, if someone can picture the board ten, fifteen, twenty, a hundred moves in advance, what is the difference between that and precognition? She had very little doubt that the Jedi themselves had exaggerated the tales about them to some degree, or at the very least, they had not denied tales which they knew to be exaggerated. Often, what an opponent believes you're capable of is far more valuable than what you can actually do.
His ability to poke around in her head did, however, have her somewhat concerned. She'd had some conditioning to make her thoughts a little more difficult to dig out, but she'd never had to put it to the test before; and wasn't sure just how well it would work. Even if it worked exactly as it was supposed to, it wouldn't stop a really determined invader. She'd heard stories of Vader leaving very little in the way of sanity in a mind from which he wanted to pluck information. She didn't know whether Organa's brother was capable of a similar assault on her psyche, but if he was, there was simply no possible way she would be able to stop him.
On the other hand, if she gave him no reason to be interested in her personally, he would most likely be unaware that she was even there.
Or so she hoped. At any given time, thousands occupied the Imperial Palace. There was simply no way that he could probe the thoughts of each and every one. Besides which, her understanding was that the Jedi's senses were primarily activated by a direct threat to themselves or those around them. If everything went according to plan, her mission would not harm anyone. With a little luck, she might be able to slip in under the sensors.
Teer walked up next to her and looked over at the towering palace.
"I thought they'd tear it down after Endor," he whispered.
Moira shook her head, "No, before it was the Imperial palace, it was the Old Republic's. They want to build their New Republic on the foundations of the old."
"So, how are we going to do this?"
Moira smiled, "I thought I'd walk in through the front door."
"Talk to me, Moira."
"Okay, Teer, I need you to get a few things for me."
The two sat in a the room towards the front of the craft that they'd dubbed the war room. It was the same room they used for their strategy sessions, meals, and just downtime during long hyperspace jumps. Teer was an amazing sabbac player, and Moira had always had the sneaking suspicion that he was counting cards in his head. She certainly wouldn't put it past him.
"Shoot."
"First, I need the absolute best false ID you have ever made. I need something that nobody short of you could penetrate, and ideally, something that even you couldn't penetrate if you didn't know exactly what to look for. Background history, career, everything. I need to have everything documented practically from the day I was born." She paused for a moment, "if you can find some way of having it trace back to an actual person, I'd really love that."
"Okay, I can do that."
"I'm serious about this Teer. Don't leave any gaps in this one. We're not dealing with a local security force. We're trying to penetrate the New Republic's most secure facility, do the job, and get out without anybody being able to trace it back to us." Moira frowned at him.
Teer held his skeletal hands up in supplication, "Easy, Moira, I've got it."
Moira nodded, "Good."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah. I need a New Republic guard's uniform, and one of whatever blaster pistol is standard issue for NR security these days."
"Blastech DL-54. I got one of 'em in the back." Teer nodded. "I see where this is going."
"Third, I need some kind of shaped charge."
"What?"
"Some kind of explosive I can carry under the uniform, and one that doesn't require any kind of mechanical trigger. That'll set off the security sensors for sure."
"Yeah, but what do you…"
"And something that won't make too big a bang. I'm gonna be in the room when I set it off."
"Run that by me again, will ya?"
"Can you do it?"
"Sure, there are a number of things I could get that'll do the trick, and it'll take me maybe a couple of days, but…"
"Just get 'em."
"So, while you're in there performing an elegant sabotage, what am I supposed to do."
Moira smiled, "exactly what you always do, save my ass from certain death, then get both of our asses off the planet before anybody realizes what we've done."