Elijah and Jezebel, Mister Asimov knows his Biblical stories well, I see. hehehehe-
*Asimov's ghost appears, frowning*
*chokes her*
Also, there will be hints of ObiAni muuuuucccchhhh later.
I'm confused as to whether Olivaw had blue eyes or bronze eyes. Should I go with bronze? GAH. I need opinions. Maybe the blue eyes are just contacts.
This brings me to a question. I'll be re-editing this story occasionally-do any of you guys get notifications that I've posted a new chapter when I've done my editing?
This entire chapter was typed up while listening to Foxes-In Your Arms. Make what of that you will.
reviews are greatly appreciated! *does a backflip*
Look, Thrawn! My favorite character ever. art/Star-Wars-TCG-Grand-Admiral-Thrawn-493988431
Elijah had left his robe in the rented apartment and now regretted the decision dearly, due to the cold wind whistling through the narrow alleyways. Squinting at the directions he'd scribbled down on his hand, he then came upon a door marked with a crooked three. He knocked twice, and the door slid open, revealing a spotless hallway lit with industrial lighting.
Hand on lightsaber hilt, he entered. The only other door was the one at the end of the hall. It slid open, even as he stared at it. Beyond it, he dimly sensed a gaggle of people, waiting expectantly. There was Jezebel Evergray-and at that, he pinked slightly-and Parlimentarian Yuikon. He walked in, eyes flicking from side to side. A large rounded chamber surrounded him, with people sitting in chairs all around. In the middle was a large podium. He saw Parlimentarian Yuikon standing to the side, whispering in another woman's ear.
"Good evening, Master Baley," said Yuikon. "Welcome to the Biridian Council. Please sit down."
He spotted Jessie serving tea to another one of the Council members, a dark skinned man with a downturned mouth. She saw him looking and winked.
Yuikon stepped onto the dais and uttered a few Collassian words of welcome. The others murmured them back in kind.
"We are here today to discuss the feasibility of having a Republic base, headed by a Jedi on Collassan," she said. "In order to make the negotiations much…fairer, we have brought a Jedi to our headquarters. The Separatists know of this, and in order to prove that they are better at protection than the Republic, have stationed a Subjugator-class heavy cruiser and two Providence-class carriers here. They are now in orbit as of this morning."
"The Separatists need three ships to eliminate a Jedi? I beg your pardon, Master Jedi, but surely you aren't that difficult to kill!"
Elijah shrugged, widening his eyes. In situations like these, he'd learned, it was best to play along and let them put their feet in their mouths. The man who'd spoken was painfully young and clean-shaven; Elijah wondered whether a seat on the Council was passed down through generations. If only he'd looked through the datasheet again before coming here.
"This is merely further proof that siding with the Republic will benefit us greatly," spoke up another woman. Elijah identified her as Kylana Smiri, the one who was pushing for a treaty with the Republic.
"The Separatist presence is greater in the Outer Rim, and the Republic has been unwilling to help many territories here, such as Eriadu-"
"Eriadu has the blessings of the Tarkin family and good commerce-" countered Smiri.
An Aqualish spoke up. "Eriadu is an important trade route and Shayla-Paige Tarkin commands Chancellor Palpatine's respect."
"And the senator of Collassan doesn't? Are you implying that-"
"I implied nothing," said the Aqualish, Ornfuj Gheei hotly. "Perhaps you should learn to differentiate between real and imaginary insults."
"Perhaps I did not make myself clear enough," said Elijah. All eighteen Parlimentarians were giving him a headache again. He possibly couldn't remember their names and keep up with their jibes at the same time. They looked at him, nonplussed.
"Your only obstacle to the Republic is us. The Jedi. Your governments do not trust us, the general public dislikes us. Why not lay it out in terms easier for me to understand? Explain me why you are opposed to the idea of a Jedi heading a base here."
If a blaster fight broke out after this, it would be entirely his fault. Then again, men like him weren't made for diplomatic missions.
His gaze fell on the man with the unhappy mouth. "Parlimentarian Elkan, would you care to tell us?"
A brief flash of surprise ran over his features, before he stood up and smiled.
"A base here won't be good for our pride if all Jedi have blunt tongues like you, Master Baley," he smiled effusively, prompting laughs from his audience and Elijah understood the inherent message: mind your place, you've no hold here, "And we are not afraid of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Republic offers us many things, and most of us would be more than happy to accept your assistance, because, really, we hate space pirates as much as you do."
"But," he warned, holding up a finger as Elijah opened his mouth to counter him, "you asked us why we fear your kind. Then answer me this: What prevents you from falling to the Dark Side? What stops your ilk from tearing our minds apart for your amusement?"
Ilk? Of all the words in Basic, he found ilk? Jehoshaphat!
"The same qualities that prevent you from betraying the trust put in your public office, Parlimentarian," sighed Baley. "The same sense of duty, justice and honor that demands we uphold the traditions of a just and fair government. We Jedi swore an oath to protect the Republic, thousands of years ago. The CIS may be a better form of the Republic, which is something I doubt highly, but, it is not the Republic. You want to be sure that the Republic won't betray you," he argued, voice rising higher and higher, "then ask a Jedi to protect you! They'll do it until their dying breath!"
"And what if the Republic decides to leave this place? And what if your proposed base brings the battle to us?"
Somehow, Elijah knew that replying with a "then you'll all die" would be a bad idea.
"We'll do our best to protect your planet from them," replied Elijah. "The Republic does care about its constituents."
"Only if the system in question is important enough to protect," said Yuikon suddenly.
"Isn't that true of all of us?" Elijah shot back hotly and immediately regretted it. Nevertheless, he continued. "We only care for those things useful, even valuable for us."
"I agree," spoke the Aqualish, tapping the plastisteel with a hand. "A most notable example would be Stanistia's shared army with Elenistan. Elenistan shares its phrik ores with the larger country, which, incidentally, sells the ore to the CIS."
"You really have it in for us, don't you," snarled Smiri. The man next to her pulled her down, hissing something. The Aqualish let out a noise of derision and turned back to Elijah.
"Your base might be bad for the economy, Jedi. Humans like her will vote against pro-Republic ideology, simply because it won't be good for business. Is this what you meant by your pretty line about caring only for useful things?"
"Phrik has many uses, of which only some is sold as Force repelling droid armor," snapped Smiri, "and that metal is the least of what Stanistia shares with our largest partner."
"Holoflash," stage whispered the Aqualish, "they also exchange STIs in a poor attempt at diplomacy."
Smiri let out an incoherent scream of rage. The whole affair was reminiscent of children pulling hair. He could see Jessie rolling her eyes. They do this all the time she mouthed at him.
"What about the Sith?" asked a Twi'lek. He stepped forward, into the dim lights, and Elijah dimly identified him as Arnols Plini.
You wouldn't have recognized me otherwise, Master Baley, thought Plini amusedly. Baley shot him a glare. It was irritating when strangers presumed to communicate with him mentally.
"What about them?" asked Yuikon, frowning. "They don't exist. They've not been seen for the past thousand years."
"No, Parlimentarian. They do exist. Why shouldn't they? If the Jedi do, so should they. After all, the Sith are the antithesis to the Jedi. The Count of Serenno is one-observe the red lightsaber he wields. If the Jedi are Republic loyalists, then surely the Sith will work against them, namely by supporting the Separatists. Surely we want to be on the side with the forces of good?" He finished persuasively, tilting his head.
Clearly, this man knew how to get what he wanted. Elijah made a mental note to look him up later on the HoloNet. Most of the Council was already under Plini's sway.
"The Republic has its uses for phrik as well, and more systems to sell that ore to. Parlimentarian Smiri, your country could profit even more from the Republic."
"I'm calling this to a vote," said Yuikon hastily, seeing the Aqualish frown and begin to say something. "All in favor of the Republic, raise your hands."
Two-thirds of the hands went up. Most of them had already made up their minds. Arnols Plini's speech had convinced them of the rightness of their decision.
"The base will be built here," said Yuikon, and then looked at her screen. "The Council has two requests however."
Elijah indicated for her to continue.
"First, the base in question will have both a Jedi and one of our men in command."
"Why?" asked Baley.
"To prevent any miscommunications between you and our governments."
Parlimentarian Elkan raised his hand. "It is also to ensure that the CIS would not rout us. The Jedi are famed for their diplomacy, not military strategy." And you don't look like you're good at either Elkan thought. Elijah heard him, but gave no reaction. He wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
"Is that your military opinion?" asked Ornfuj Gheei, shifting in his seat. "If it is, then no wonder the Grand Alliance Military did such a wonderful job of protecting the Upper Steppes from Caravax."
"The Grand Alliance Military takes orders from High Command-" began Elkan stiffly.
"The GAM takes orders from High Command only when you and your gooks aren't around. Aren't our power politics amusing, Master Baley?" smiled the alien.
"The second request is that, since we no longer have a High Command," and at this, Yuikon glared at the fresh-faced young man, who shrank into his chair, "you must help us remove the CIS starships from our system."
"Singlehandedly? Without any outside help?" inquired Elijah. It wasn't as if his day was going to possibly get any worse.
She looked down at her screen again and then up at him. "Yes, Master Jedi."
Once outside, he shielded his terminal and sent the recording he'd made to the Tol Temple, slipping the datachip into his inner breast pocket.
Now, there was the matter of the missing Jedi. He was determinedly not thinking about the second demand made of him by the Council. While their decision would make the whole planet join the Republic, destroying three warships was entirely out of his depth. But then, he was never particularly good at anything. Elijah scowled at the pavement. Elkan had gotten to him with his taunting. If he ever met that man in a dark alley, he'd punch him first.
He was loath to return to his cramped quarters and instead made his way out into the sunshine, turning up his collar against the blustery wind and taking out a slightly damp cigarra.
On his datapad, he did an idle search for missing persons after looking up the international security website for Pannalan, setting the search engine to look for missing or dead adults who'd disappeared twenty days ago, to account for the time he'd spent coming here. Over five thousand results appeared.
Cedaar Sullist had gone silent while on a trip to a winter resort, to investigate something. It was reasonable to assume she'd disguised herself. Outer Rim worlds did not think highly of Force wielders. Nevertheless, Elijah set the search engine running once more, to look for Bothans, along with the previous filters and stowed the pad in his pocket, raising his hand to catch a bus to the Carameen Gardens, where they'd had that ball the night before. Surrounding himself with peaceful living things that did not talk back seemed like a good idea at this droid was a rustbucket who glanced at Elijah and removed fifteen credits from his card.
He took a window seat, ignoring the other passengers and brought out three holo-newspapers to look for any relevant news. There was nothing much of interest, other than a few editorials on his arrival and what it meant for international politics. There was an interview snippet with the Separatist ambassador, which he marked out to listen to later.
Over and over, his eyes kept flicking to the video clip, until finally he dismissed the pages and tapped the resume button. His ear bud was on, and Daneel's voice was suddenly in his mind.
"The Jedi serve the Republic with honor, and dignity, but there is no honor in serving a corrupted, outdated institution, flawed and crumbling. They are stuck in their laws and blindly follow a code of ethics that do not permit for adaption to changing times. This is their downfall."
"What do you propose the Jedi do?" asked the interviewer, a Togrutan.
"Change with the times, I think. I would never be so presumptuous as to force my opinion on them, but rigidity isn't the answer to all of our problems. The CIS is more than willing to open dialogues with the Republic, again."
"To what end? Would any of the Separatists go back to such a Republic? Would General Grievous even allow it that to happen?"
"I never said that any of us are willing to rejoin the Republic. While it would be too optimistic to expect the Republic to change its ways, we can certainly ask for slight capitulations."
The interviewer began to ask what those capitulations were, and really, Elijah wanted to hear them too, he'd missed their intense debates in earlier meetings, but the breaking news interrupted him and he expanded the window to find a proclamation that Eleva Yuikon had been assassinated and he was the prime suspect.