LL6 Ch 45 We did it.
The one thing Leia despised about politics was the media circus, but she recognized it as a necessary evil. While the press largely performed an important duty to the people, and most of them truly served towards that noble effect, Leia recognized the press themselves were not "the people" and sometimes swayed in their real mission of staying focused on the actual news.
The vote today was of monumental importance because the fledgling Alliance Senate finalized the details of the role of Senate Chamberlain: the terms, the powers, the balances, the duties... Much of the detail in the job description was predictable, but the important part was that the Senate - representatives of most planetary systems in the galaxy - decided it instead of the rules being dictated to them.
That was the news that Leia wanted to press: We do this to give you a vote.
But this wasn't Leia's first circus. She knew it was going to be an acrobatics feat of Jedi proportions to keep the press on that topic.
In full black and red senate robe regalia and surrounded by a team of Purple Guards, protocol droids, and senior staff, the provisional Lord Chamberlain stepped up to the public speaking stage above the Avenue of Core Founders for her formal announcement. Hundreds of politicians and lobbyists milled on the marble mosaic expanse below and hundreds of NewsNet Cams buzzed over their heads like a swarm of electronic bees. With a level chin and patient gaze, she paused there for the crowd to hush before turning her eyes to the crowd.
Her announcement was short and stuck to the facts, listing off the basic data, including, but not limited to, the temporary nature of her own office. "The Senate has therefore concluded that elections for the office of Senate Chamberlain will commence in three months-
She didn't bother to add to that because the audience, predictably, roared up like a thunderstorm, all shouting pretty much the same question in a dozen different ways.
"Will you be running?" "Are you running for office?" "Are you going to throw in your hat?" "Are you going up for re-election?" "Are you going to step down if you lose?" "Who are you going to support?"
This is where her chin lowered and her eyes grew intense, but she waited for the crowd to calm down before she answered the question, and this is where she pulled out a few Jedi-level verbal aerobatics.
"The New Alliance…. The Rebellion…. The Separatists…. The Insurrectionists….. Call it what you will, but all must recognize that today they succeeded in their ultimate goal: we voted to decide who our leaders would be. We voted to decide what powers our leaders will and will not have. We gathered our representatives, we debated the finer points, we listened to each other, we compromised where necessary, and we voted to decide how this galaxy is going to operate without tyranny... We voted. And therefore we can finally declare the War is over."
She paused there to let that sink in, and the crowd remained hushed in a humbled quiet.
"I am immensely proud of what we accomplished today." She smiled at them, at first for show, but the emotion swelled up in her as an overwhelming rush of success. All those years of work, all that fighting, all the sacrifices, the uncertainties… it was all suddenly worth it…. Today.
Leia flashed a fuller, teary-eyed beam of a smile, and this part wasn't in her practiced speech, "We did it."
The crowd roared up in applause and shouts of victory and Leia turned her eyes to the sky with a smile, the sky of Coruscant, with its hatchwork of glistening traffic, its knives of skyscrapers, its figure eight balance of Senate District with its flowering white dome and the Temple District with its black pyramid Imperial Palace, its trillions of people representing billions of planets and cultures, now putting down their blasters for good.
Today…
Leia had felt a great deal of trepidation leading up to this speech. The instant she saw the vote tally choose to elect a new Lord Chamberlain right about the time Breha was due to erupt all over her world, Leia's giant stomach tightened into a thousand knots. She knew it deep in her soul the Senate selected a date specifically timed at the end of her pregnancy so that she would have an infant in her arms if she tried to run for re-election, and there was no way in a Baked Tatooine Hell she was going to win that race. They did it that way because they didn't want her to run again. Over 67% of the Senate, many of them brothers and sisters in arms, essentially voted her out of office in that very moment. It made her feel felt shoved aside, disregarded, disposed of… 'thanks Princess, but there's the door!'
Only now, smiling teary-eyed up at the busy Coruscant sky, Leia realized she did it! She accomplished what the entire war had always been about. They voted!
Suddenly, Leia felt a rush of a completely foreign emotion. Relief! Accomplishment! Conclusion!
We did it!
She lowered her gaze back to the crowd, but now with her ear-to-ear smile beaming at that massive pain-in-the-ass circus. She said the words she knew she would have to say, but she had no idea she would be so deliriously happy to say them.
"I am so proud of what we've done today that I feel my service to the galaxy has reached a true pinnacle. Nothing can top ending a war with a full Senate vote for its leaders…. I have full confidence that the Alliance Senate now has firm control of a peaceful government…. and will retire from the office of Lord Chamberlain at the conclusion of the upcoming election."
With a nod, but still smiling wide, Princess Leia, First Lord Chamberlain of the Alliance, turned away and stepped out of public view.