Post 8

Two hours later, Kyp followed Iella down a hall in the senate building and wondered again what he had gotten himself into. The force was telling him he had done the right thing in taking on this task. That wasn't the issue. He actually wasn't sure what the issue was, but something made him uneasy about the situation.

They turned the corner and he realized he had never been in this area of the building before. It had taken a year to build the new Senate Building on Coruscant and while it wasn't as ornate as the previous one, it was still impressive. Most of the building in the surrounding area had been knocked down and not rebuilt. They had wanted the building to be the center of attention in the city. Its smooth, white stone shone brilliantly in the sunlight and glowed even at night as the lights of the buildings bounced off of it. It was only about 10 stories high but ran about five stories underground. Of course the center of the building held the enormous senate chamber with offices found on one side of the building and meeting rooms on the other.

Iella slowed as she approached one of the lifts that serviced the building and he saw a trio of people in their path. The two men were very similar in appearance and Kyp thought they could easily be mistaken for duracrete walls. They wore black pants and black jackets with a black shirt on their obviously muscular frames. Each of them wore a pair of dark glasses and he could see a bulge in their jackets where their blasters hung. Even though he couldn't see their
eyes, he could feel them watching as he and Iella approach.

They stopped a foot or so away and Kyp took the opportunity to study the ambassador. He had seen her on the holonet of course. Her husband got plenty of screen time. Before she had become ambassador four years ago she had traveled with her husband quite a bit. Seeing her up close, he thought that the holonet didn't do her justice.

She was rather tall for a woman, the top of her head coming up a bit past his shoulder. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a single braid, as it had been most of the times he had seen her before. She had full, pink tinted lips that were currently pulled up into a smile. A small trail of freckles also dotted her nose and when he finally looked into her eyes he swore he had never seen that color before. At least not in someone's eyes and he could easily imagine getting lost in her aquamarine tinted gaze.

Where in the sith did that thought come from?! He said to himself.

"Jade," Iella started, pulling him out of his rare daydream. "I'd like you to meet…"

"Master Durron. It's a pleasure to meet you." She interrupted as she held her hand out to Kyp. He took her hand and was surprised at how strong her grip was. Of course he had a feeling that the ambassador was going to be full of surprises, which could be good or bad.

"I'm flattered you recognized me." He told her.

"I may be a busy woman Master Durron, but I assure you I like to know what is going on around me." She joked.

"Grand Master Skywalker has assigned Kyp to be your guard Jade." Iella informed her.

"Ah. Nothing better to do, huh?"

Kyp chuckled and he felt Iella and the guards' agitation at her comment. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Not waiting for his response, the ambassador turned to her two guards.

"Gentlemen, I believe that Master Durron can handle things from here. You can return to the house and I will call for the speeder later."

Both men nodded then transferred their gazes to Kyp. He nodded to them also and tried not to roll his eyes as they disappeared down the hall. He could feel their relief at being dismissed. Was that because they were just apathetic in general or were they just glad to be away from her?

"Jade, please promise me that you won't do anything stupid." He heard Iella say as he turned back around to them. The younger woman smiled.

"I can't promise that, but I will try to behave and listen to Master Durron." She replied as she hugged her friend.

Iella turned to walk down the hall and gave Kyp a "She better stay safe" look.

"I love Iella to death, but she's so over protective sometimes." Jade told him as she started towards the lift. Kyp followed wordlessly and wondered where they were going.

"I have a meeting with a senator about supporting his wish to decrease the military budget." She said suddenly.

He looked at her surprised, and she laughed. She was force sensitive!

"Well, either that or you're having a conversation with yourself." Came the ambassador's reply as he felt her amusement through the force.

Kyp snorted. "Wouldn't be the first time." He replied.

She laughed again and he felt it rush past him like the wind. So much so that he actually shivered. Maybe he'd been alone for so long that he was starting to imagine things. He just shook his head slightly and chalked it up to being swept up into this whole situation so quickly. After he had been called to Luke's office, things had happened rather quickly.

"Hopefully this meeting won't take very long. I don't plan on supporting the senator's plan, Master Durron." Jade interrupted, breaking into his thoughts.

"Kyp."

She looked at him with a question in her eyes.

"Please call me Kyp. Master Durron makes me feel old. I don't need any reminders of my age." He told her with a grin.

"All right. Then you can call me Jade."

"Fair enough." He told her as the doors opened and they walked out.

/____________________________________\

"Senator Iall, I agree that it would be rude to insult the Almanians but I can't, in good conscious, go along with this plan." Jade told the man. She was trying to keep her temper in check, but Kyp could feel it spike every once in a while. The meeting had been going on for an hour so far and, from his vantage point in the corner, Kyp finally understood why he hated politics.

"You claim to be a peaceful planet, ambassador, but you won't agree with the proposal?" The aging senator from Ison shot back at her. Ison was a relatively new planet to join the senate and little was known about it. The humanoids that inhabited the planet were fast becoming known for being instigators. Kyp could see why. The representative from Almania hadn't said a word the entire time. He wouldn't be surprised if he had been coerced into this whole meeting.

The ambassador was handling herself quite well though. She sat with her back straight and her attention fully on the two men across from her. Her hands were folded together in front of her and she appeared calm to a casual onlooker. No fidgeting, no squirming. She was good at this.

"We are a peaceful planet, but I'm not going to ask the governors to cut back on the military budget just so a planet that is half-way across the galaxy from us doesn't feel threatened. Have you asked any of their neighboring planets to do the same?"

"Yes, and they refuse. Your planet has refused to join with the Almanians and they want assurances that you won't attack them in the future."

"Why would we attack them? They have nothing that we need. They have asked for help from the senate and it is being supplied. I don't understand why you are pursuing this Senator. What do you hope to gain from this?" Jade asked calmly.

Point for the ambassador. Kyp thought. He fought to keep the smile from his face as he watched Iall try to find an answer. After a moment of silence, Jade sighed and stood.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot help you with your request. Have a good day gentlemen." Jade nodded to both men, then turned to leave the room. Kyp quietly followed her.

"Are your meetings always that much fun?" He asked as they walked down the hall from the meeting room towards a lift.

Jade sighed. "Some of them are. That one was more painful than most. I feel like I've been banging my head against the wall for the last hour."

Kyp chuckled and pushed the button to call the lift. He was finding himself very comfortable around her and for some reason that bothered him. Jade reached into her pocket and called the speeder to meet them down in front of the building.

They didn't speak as they walked to the rest of the way out of the building or as they climbed into the speeder. The driver shut the door behind them and then climbed into the front, never speaking.

He sat across from her and watched as she rolled her neck to work the kinks out of it. Leaning back into the seat she closed her eyes and sighed. "I've instructed Edward that you need to meet with him when we get back to the house." She said quietly.

"Edward?"

"He's in charge of the guards at the house. They're actually my husband's guards, but they work double duty." Kyp nodded and started to think of what he needed to talk about when he met Edward. There were quite a few things they had to discuss.

"Would it be all right if I sat in while you talked to him?" She asked.

"I don't have a problem with it. Can I ask why though?" He said as he turned his gaze from the view outside back to her.

Jade lifted her head up and looked at him. "I hate not knowing what's going on."

Kyp nodded and she smiled.

"How do you do that?" He asked a few minutes later.

"Do what?" She retorted as she looked over something on a data pad.

"Sit there and actually keep your sanity and a straight face through a meeting like that? That had to be the stupidest reason for a meeting that I think I've ever heard. And believe me, I've heard some bad ones." He mumbled.

"You get used to it. They're not all like that. For every ten you have like that, there's one where you really make a difference, or start a chain reaction that evolves into something good." She smiled lightly, as she started out the window. "That's when I know why I'm doing this."

/____________________________________\

Edward was an older man who, though he was grayed at his temples, still looked to be in shape. If you considered round to be a shape. He might even be able to give Jabba the Hutt a run for his money. Not for the first time, Kyp would wonder why the Senator had chosen the man to run his security.

He forced himself to focus on what the man was saying. He knew that Iella had given him information on all the guards that worked at the mansion, but he hadn't had time to look through all of it yet. He could do that later.

They sat at the kitchen table as Jade poured them some caf and placed a plate of cookies on the table. She sat down next to Kyp and was quiet as the two men talked.

"Is her schedule made public?" Kyp asked.

Edward nodded and Kyp shook his head. "That's going to have to change."

"As ambassador, she makes her schedule public to show she has nothing to hide." Edward countered.

"Well, she has something to hide now; herself. The last thing I need is to worry about everyone on the planet knowing where she is going to be. Is there a way we can print a fake schedule or no schedule at all?"

Edward took a deep breath and looked to Jade. She nodded.

"I'll get that taken care of." He told the Jedi.

"We also need to decide how the protection should work when the senator is home. I don't want to step on any toes, but I also need to know that she is covered at all times. To make it easier, I would like to be her primary defense."

"That would free my men up. I have no problem with that. You might want to talk to the senator about it though."

Kyp frowned at the man. "The senator doesn't really have a say in it." He responded, trying to keep the harshness out of his voice. "He'll just have to learn how to deal with it."

/____________________________________\

Kyp's things had been sent over earlier in the day so when Jade showed him to his room, it was sitting on his bed waiting. The room was done in creams and beige's and had the basic things that a room needed. He sat down on the full size bed and resisted the urge to fall back on it and sleep.

"The master bedroom is right next door." She told him as he rubbed his face to try and wake up. He noticed that she hadn't called it my room or mine and Bela's room. Interesting. "I can have something made for dinner and brought up to you if you'd like to rest."

He smiled. "That would be nice, if it's not much trouble."

"Not at all. When Bela's not here I don't usually eat a big dinner. I usually just end up in my office working or something." She watched him as he unpacked his bag and put things away. It didn't take him long since as a Jedi he traveled light. He felt she wanted to say something but wasn't sure how to, so he waited.

"I want to thank you." She told him quietly.

Kyp looked over at her and frowned. "I haven't done anything yet." Jade chuckled and shifted on her feet.

"I'm not the kind of person who asks for help. Not even with my family." She told him. He leaned against the dresser and crossed his arms in front of him, eyeing her critically. That surprised him, at least with the opinion he had formed of her so far.

"I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate your help." She told him and smiled.

"You're very welcome." He responded.

"I'll have someone bring you something to eat." Then she was gone. Kyp stood there for a few minutes just staring at the door she had disappeared through. He needed to go over the notes that Iella had given him tonight. It would make things a lot easier at least, even though there wasn't much to go on. He sat on the bed and proceeded to take his boots off. Grabbing a change of clothes, he walked into the fresher and decided that he needed a shower. It seemed like he always thought better there.

Turning the water on to hot, he stripped out of his robes and grabbed a towel from the rack on the back of the door. He threw it over the top of the shower, and stepped in. Standing under the water, Kyp leaned against the tiled wall and felt the stiffness slowly seep out of his muscles. He felt old today and he hated that.

What made a man trade slaves? He knew the basics about Bela Mnaa. Knew the kind of background he came from and what kind of senator he was. Mnaa was universally liked by everyone and seemed extremely sincere. Kyp had heard more people talk good about him than bad. But how did a man who came from humble beginnings suddenly end up keeping down the very kind of people he used to relate with?

Money was powerful, but Mnaa didn't seem like the kind of person to be pushed around easily. He guessed blackmail was one option. Who was crazy or powerful enough to blackmail someone like the senator though? It just didn't make any sense. They needed more information.

"You can't solve the case in one day Durron. Even you're not that good." He joked to himself as he finished in the shower and toweled himself off. Wrapping it around his waist he walked back out into the room and the smell of food hit him. On the dresser was a plate with a sandwich and a drink. The sandwich just happened to be the size of his head. Well, maybe not that big but it wasn't small either. Reaching over he grabbed the sandwich and took a bite as he walked over and pulled out a pair of sleep pants to put on. Apparently, he was hungry because by the time he had put on a shirt he was finished with it. The least he could do was take the plate back downstairs to the kitchen. He drank the glass of water as he walked. As he set the dishes in the sink he heard talking from the living room. Kyp walked over and saw the holovid on, a chuckle escaping him as he realized it was a Wynessa Starflare movie. When he made it over to the couch he started to say something and
he realized she was asleep.

A data pad was resting on her stomach and Kyp had to smile to himself. Pulling the blanket off the back of the couch, he covered her up and set the data pad on a side table, then went back up to his room to fall asleep himself.

/____________________________________\