"Do you know how many treaties you're breaking?" Malinza barked into the comm at the KDY official who had received the unfortunate duty of speaking to the sharp-tongued Bakuran. Malinza had volunteered to negotiate out of tactical reasons: her Jedi powers were not common knowledge, and KDY personnel expecting Jedi would prepare for Jedi with extra nasties at the site when it came to battle. All four team members knew that even pressed with 'Celebrity' negotiators, KDY would not back down.
These 'negotiations' were a mere formality, a last chance that KDY wouldn't take. The bureaucrat on the screen, as close to toadlike as a human could be, put as much snake-tongue oil as he could into his reply, "But madam, Kuat Drive Yards has broken no treaties in this . . . "
He did not finish his statement, as Malinza interrupted him, "Wrong answer! Try more like seven!" She scowled, darkly, while rattling off each violated treaty like a drumbeat. "If you withdraw from this system by local dawn at Cuipernam, I will forgive these charges.
The desk jockey shot back, "We will not withdraw! This is blackmail!" He trembled in rage, double chin jiggling.
"So be it! We will forcibly evict you if you aren't gone by sunup. And you can probably kiss your corporate charter goodbye!" With that last remark, she turned the comm off.
Valin shrugged, "We knew they weren't going to roll over. cool down." He put his arm around Malinza's shoulders, to sooth her nerves.
Jacen sipped his beverage, it was still too hot to be drinking caf, and too late to boot, and sighed. "That was an adventure in itself. I haven't seen that kind of aggression outside of the Yuuzhan Vong, or the occasional Bothan."
"That bigwig was probably put on because of his temper, my love." Tenel Ka commented.
Jacen almost snorted fruit-flavored soft drink out his nose at Tenel Ka's term for the KDY bureaucrat. "Did you just call Assistant Director Ficus a 'bigwig'?" he teased, lovingly.
"Yes, I called him a 'bigwig' because he is one. He has the temperament of a Piranha Beetle and the intelligence of a potted plant." She was clearly joking - in her deadpan haha-only-serious way - and prepared for Jacen's inevitable response.
He did not disappoint, fruit punch came squirting out his nose, showering the chair she had been in a fraction of a second before with blue fluid. Through his laughter he apologized, "Sorry, I didn't mean to do that. Did I get any on you?"
"It's all right, you missed completely." Indeed not a touch of blue berry-flavored liquid had touched her gray jumpsuit.
"Let's get some dinner at that cafe that smelled so good this afternoon, the one by the antique shop." Valin suggested, his stomach rumbling.
Malinza agreed, kissing her fellow apprentice.
Tenel Ka smiled at Jacen, sharing a private joke, "Are they chaperoning us, or are we chaperoning them?"
Jacen grinned ear-to-ear, "Both." Malinza Thanas and Valin Horn are a couple, who'd have thought? They argued all the time at first, but then, so did Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara, and they've been married ten years with one child and another on the way.
"When I knew your grandfather, he seemed nice enough, once you got past all the cockiness and impatience. It was a shock to me when he fell. I'd thought he'd outgrow the know-it-all attitude in time, and become a model Jedi." Bulgan responded to Jacen's more-than-casual inquiry, voice far away.
"I wonder what made him become that monster everyone knew him as?" Jacen asked, intrigued.
"I don't know, but it must have been sheer hell." The alien's large eyes stared contemplatively towards the western horizon as he responded quietly, thoughts distant.
"Do you have any idea who my grandmother was?" The young knight's eyes shone with unadulterated curiosity.
"I think he said a woman's name in his sleep once or twice. Padme, or something to that effect, it's been so long, I can't remember for sure . . . " The councilman's voice trailed off, then a flicker of uncertainty played across his gaze. "I thought Jedi weren't supposed to marry."
"My uncle threw that rule out the window upon rebuilding the order. It's pretty hard to get members for a celibate order, and he wanted to rebuild quickly. He made many changes that, without them, we would have only made about a quarter of the progress we have in rebuilding." Jacen explained, the topic more than academic for him.
"What about the knights of old who had kids? There were more than a few." The elder was clearly confused.
"Just because people make rules, it doesn't mean everyone will follow them. Some hid their relationships from the galaxy-at-large, others simply flaunted the rules. Most of the latter were the Corellian knights, who were let slide for one reason or another." Jacen laughed, "Picked their battles, I suppose."
"And how many Jedi now are married?"
"Most of them, and most of the ones that aren't will be getting married soon." Jacen thought of Tenel Ka, who was personally organizing and sorting supplies based on priority. She'd sent Jacen to inspect the mounts.
"Are you married, Jedi Solo?"
"Not yet." Jacen laughed; Bulgan had hit on what was running through his head. His train of thought derailed upon reaching the stable where the suubatars were kept. Wow! I thought I'd never see such magnificent creatures!
Bulgan saw Jacen's eyes bug out almost as much as an Ansionian's. "Fastest land animals in the galaxy, they can outrun most low altitude repulsorcraft."
Jacen let out a low whistle. "What are the names of these fine animals? Or don't these mounts have names yet?"
"The one nearest us is Brego, the one near the door is Freya, and the two in the back are Thane and Skrilka."
"How much weight can they carry? I know they're not draft beasts and I'd hate to harm them, but we could use all the supplies we can get."
"The Alwari use suubatars for extended cavalry actions frequently. Typically we say no more than five hundred kilos between rider and supplies as a general rule of thumb."
Amazing Jacen thought, we can carry all of our supplies with forty kilos per mount to spare!