Luke returned to the Jedi Office from his meeting with the Kilrathi and turned in his notes to Raol as he entered. Before he got beyond that, Kess got up from what had become her own little research room and dropped a shoulder on the doorjamb with glowing eyes of angry irony.

Luke was afraid to ask, "What?

"They responded to our infrastructure proposal," she said, gritting her teeth with a hint of humor.

He dropped his shoulder on the other doorjab of the same entry. "Which ones?"

"Both of them."

He glanced at her station and back at her. "And?"

Kess stepped and jerked her head for him to go read it himself. She sat down at her terminal to pull up both messages and leaned against the arm of her chair so he could lean in read it over her shoulder.

His eyes danced across the screen and hers followed along, but she had a molar shoved into her lip as if she was ready to strangle someone.

Suddenly coughed hard and shouted. "You've got to be kidding me!?"

"That was more polite than the response that came out of my mouth," Kess swiveled her chair around to watch him. Luke set both hands on his head, cranked his neck back in disbelief and fell against the wall in defeat.

Kess summarized it in a sing song voice. "At'bintar wants us to use wind power. Tyrona wants us to use solar. At'bintar wants wood structures. Tyrona wants it all to be stone. At'bintar wants us to farm our food. And Tyrona insists we ship it all in."

His voice came out in a loud, bright whine. "What do they expect us to do? Slice 20 klicks down the middle and do it both ways simultaneously?"

Kess shrugged that it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities. "We don't need a whole 20 klicks."

"Yet!" He smiled through his shout. "Did you think the academy was going to stop training after a dozen? Or a hundred?" He whipped a hand at the terminal. "The whole idea was to have it up and running so it keeps going when I'm gone! Make sure the next generation had a stable launch pad!" He wiped his whole face with one palm and sighed to calm himself down.

Kess climbed out of her chair and went to him. Her face was a calm grin, her eyes were big and sympathetic. She fell into his front and hugged his sides.

Luke drooped his head and eyed the terminal behind her with frustration, then he sighed and dropped his chin to his chest. "This isn't working."

She quieted with respect. "What do you want to do?"

Luke thought for a moment and shook his head again. "I don't know." He started to push her away so he could get back to work on something else.

But she pinned him there, eyeing up at him with friendly support. "The meetings are done for the day," she reminded. "Let's go home."

He closed his eyes for patience. Should they? Shouldn't they?

And she grinned dirty and lowered her voice more. "And pretend to meditate."

Luke snorted a snicker, opened his eyes to grin at her antics and, seeing the wonton guilt in her eyes. . .

... swiveled on his heels to leave as soon as possible.

Tayla was not wearing her usual glittery tom-boy attire when she sauntered up the Avenue of Core Founders. Instead she wore a pair of fishnet stockings that were bagging at the ankles, a shamrock silk corset wrapped tightly around her prepubescent body, and a pair of red heals that were a little too big for her tiny feet and made her wobble as she tried to saunter.

She'd tried several people so far, but none of them gave her more than a glance. She kept up her slow, swishy walk until she found a new target, opting for a particularly big nice looking older man. His blond-gray hair bounced in his eyes as he walked because his eyes were on the plaza tile in front of his feet. He wore his Senatorial Robes with comfort and carried several folios in one arm. This old guy looked like he was entirely too serious about things.

Tayla walked herself right into his path. "Hey, there big fella." The young girl pressed her little body to his legs, brining her face barely above his crotch, and wrapped her arms around his sides to smile up at him. "Want some company?"

Senator Danje stopped in his tracks so fast his shiny shoes squeaked. His arms retreated from his sides with surprise. Blue-gray eyes narrowed down at her like she was an alien species he'd never seen before. His works barked it, "How old are you?"

Tayla sparkled her smile and warmed her voice. "Does it matter?" She batted her eyelashes up his tall length and pressed her body harder against him. And while she had his complete, undivided attention on that, one hand slipped gently into his pocket-

- and Danje's hand snatched it right back out again.

Senator Danje held her wrist high like he'd just picked up a sack of potatoes, barely allowing her enough reach to the ground so she could stumble on those over-sized red-healed shoes. Tayla squealed and complained. "All ya had t' do was say 'no'!"

"Security!" Danje marched her down the lane to the first Purple Guard sentry he found. "Find a legal guardian for this rodent and handcuff her to it."

Yana forced herself to breathe as she returned to her station in the data library. At least, she tried to. She was glad Leia hid her from the vid comm's view. Just to hear Wedge's voice sound so cheery one minute and then so flat the next, falling into discomfort at the simple mention of her name, told Yana everything she needed to know.

She slumped down onto an office chair in defeat, slapped the wedding notes on the desktop, and looked over the tall array of terminals and readouts in front of her that were her life. The wrap over her head was falling off again. At the moment, she no longer cared if anyone saw her bald spot. She pulled the scarf from her head and let her pale brown hair fall free. The air was cold on the naked skin.

She sighed one more time, but this time with maturity. Yana angled her head to pick up the wedding plans, and brought up a mail program.

Wedge checked his mail more often than usual and clenched his jaw every time. Garyn inquired about the comm call from the Lord Chamberlain, and Wedge simply dismissed her by saying it as a confidential matter. This didn't settle Garyn however, and occasionally eyed his screen when he stepped away from it, wondering what message he was so eager to receive.

Towards the end of the afternoon, Wedge checked his mail again and cussed when he didn't get what he was waiting for. Something was up, Garyn concluded, and reported to him in a murmur that she had to go clear up the billet tangle with dispatch. Commander Antilles waved her off without a care. Garyn left, checked over her shoulder, and turned her feet the wrong direction down the walkway.

Bip.

Wedge looked up from his work and his heart skipped a beat. He glanced to verify Garyn was gone and punched the key.

Commander,

Here are the notes of the event.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Lt Yana Dietrich

Senior Data Admin

Office of the Lord Chamberlain

Wedge felt like he'd been stabbed in the stomach. He read the stale message again, then opened the event notes attached. It were hardly more than twenty words. Bullet points of wedding details decided so far. Nothing else.

Wedge deleted the whole thing.

His brown eyes shifted sideways to stare at nothing on the carpet...

I guess I have my answer.

He licked his lips closed, sucked in a breath through his nose, and forced himself to get back to work.

"They're planning something." Garyn said in the gray and black Imperial office. Grand Moff Jakobi sat behind the big black desk, but he had several high ranking command standing by to discuss options and execute orders.

Jakobi wasn't surprised. "Do you have any clues as to what?"

Garyn lower her gaze to the floor. "My apologies, my lord. I've yet to glean the topic of their discussion. But there is a lot of chatter among the rebels of Division One, the Lord Chamberlain's office, and the Jedi."

The Grand Moff considered this and exchanged glances with Admiral Belda.

"A coup?" Belda offered.

"Perhaps. But what power would they try to overturn? They have the majority of the Senate."

"Not by much."

Moff Callen suggested, "They could be planning strategic assassinations of the loyalists so they can retain the majority once we try to flip it."

Jakobi closed his mouth and thought on that. After a moment, he nodded to Garyn. "Thank you for your report. Keep us apprised."

Garyn bowed sharply and marched out of the room.

Raol popped into the meeting room, "Sorry to inturrupt." Clearly he wasn't sure how to deal with this particular matter. His eyes turned to Kess. "The um- Former Emperor on the comm."

Luke nodded her to go and Kess stepped out of the meeting, closing the door behind her. "Thank you."

Raol pointed to her private office. "I'll transfer him over."

Kess went in and sat down, glad to have an update, and hoped it was good news.

When Nik's face flickered on the screen, she grew instantly concerned. His clothes were crumpled. His brown hair suffered from a case of bed-head. The skin around his eyes were swollen and is eyes bloodshot.

"Hey, Nik. How's it going? Are you allright?"

Nik seemed broken, like this was one of tha hardest calls he ever had to make. He didn't even look her in the eye. "You busy?"

His mouth murmured it, and his head wavered a little as if he didn't quite have his balance. Was he drunk?

"Well, that depends. I'm at work, but . . . what's going on?"

He scrunched his eyes and opened them one at a time, still looking down instead of the screen. "I need a favor."

Kess was truly concerned now. "Anything."

Nik paused a long minute, glanced at his surroundings as if he still hadn't made a final decision on this, then finally lifted his face to try to look her in the eye. "I need you to pick me up from the airport."