Soniee's meeting with the Galactic Chancellor and the Prime Minister of Mandalore. Secrets, Lies and a gift that she could never have expected.
To prepare for her meeting with the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, Soniee simply pulled up her lesson notes from her Government class. As she skimmed through them, looking over the policies and systems and institutions, she started to feel like, just maybe, she could pull this off after all. She knew this stuff.
She would have performed well on her exams, if she'd been allowed to take them. She wished she could have. It was silly but it felt like it was all for naught if she didn't have the certificate to hang up on the wall to prove it. Momma Ordo would have liked to have something like that to frame and show off to the rest of the clan.
Thinking of Momma, Soniee was glad that she had made the comm and cleared the air. She was wary of that voice popping up in her head again and she braced herself for it, but she reached out into the Force anyway to find the people she loved. She needn't have worried. Momma's star shone bright with no interference, and there was Korkie's. Momma was looking for him. Momma would find him.
Lagos's star was still broken. Soniee wondered if it always would be, if her friend would never get over losing Amis. Maybe they had been so close that she now carried a part of him with her. The thought made Soniee smile. Ni partayli, gar darasuum. I remember you, so you are eternal.
"Almost ready?" Padme's voice broke her concentration.
Soniee sighed, "Yeah, I think I am."
"I'm going to be doing some work in my office during your meeting so I'll just be a few floors down if you need anything."
"Thanks." Soniee really did appreciate the veteran Senator taking her under her wing, but she was starting to feel more confident in her own abilities. The only thing that was really bothering her about the prospect of the meeting was having to work with Prime Minister Almec.
She hated the man, everything he stood for. He had betrayed Duchess Satine, stood by while she was murdered, and then stepped up into her place. Soniee wondered if it was possible for her to throttle him through a holo image. If so she might be tempted to do it during their conference.
Even as she thought it sparks danced between her fingertips and she rubbed her hands together trying to calm herself and make it stop. Curiously the voice that had so often whispered to her in moments of anger and passion was silent just now. She hoped it was gone for good.
She needed to control herself. If Almec had captured Korkie she may be able to find out today. If she could ask the right questions or or maybe he would just come right out with it hoping to use Korkie to control her. He would know that they had been friends but would he expect they were more?
Padme was right. It probably would be safer to pretend there was nothing between them. Maybe she could ask Lux if he wouldn't mind being part of a deception. Nothing serious, just holding hands, going places together. That couldn't hurt, could it?
Fox wouldn't like it. She smiled. She had warmed to the idea of how sweet it really was that the Commander had taken a shine to her. She'd take it as a complement and leave it at that.
She insisted on walking alone from the lift down the hall to the Chancellor's office. She knew where it was now and supposed she'd better start getting used to not having a chaperon or a guard with her everywhere she went.
"Come in," called Palpatine's cheerful voice as the door slid open. He was alone and it was quiet in the chamber, even though the sky outside the windows was stormy. And there was a citrus-y smell of...
"Is that shig, Chancellor?" she asked.
"Yes." He smiled. "I wondered if you'd know it. I had the droid brew us up a pot. Thought it might be a nice taste of home for you."
Soniee closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. The hot drink did make her think of home.
"So you're feeling comfortable, ready for our meeting?" He asked.
"Yes, I think so. So far it's not much different from having a cup with my old ba'buir." Her eyes grew wide and she hurried to apologize. "I don't mean to say that you're old like my grandfather, Sir."
He gave her a playful scowl that didn't reach the sparkle in his eyes. "I most certainly am old and don't you forget it." Palpatine winked at her and smiled again. "I wouldn't trade any of the experiences that brought me to this point in my life, my dear. And it's experience that we're about to start building for you, so you can look back one day with pride for all you've accomplished."
She nodded.
He poured the shig himself and handed her a steaming cup, gesturing to a chair where she should sit. Then after pouring a cup for himself, he didn't take the seat behind his desk, but instead sat across from her where they could chat more intimately.
"Now before we place this comm with the Prime Minister," He began, looking concerned. "I didn't fail to notice that when I mentioned Almec's name before it made you rather uncomfortable."
"It did, Sir." She admitted looking down into her cup.
"Maybe you could explain to me why that is and I could try to help."
Soniee took a deep breath and tried to think how to put her apprehension into words. "Well, Sir, my friends and I were very loyal to the Duchess and she and Prime Minister Almec were not on good terms."
Palpatine nodded. "Had him put in prison for a year for dealing in the black market."
"You," she looked up at him. "knew about that, Sir?"
"Well of course." He smiled. "But you must remember, Soniee that they were also once friends." His smile faded. "Even the best of us can be tempted to corruption. Your Prime Minister fell to that temptation but we must give him the benefit of the doubt that he saw the error of his ways while he was incarcerated and that he is now prepared to lead Mandalore in a manor worthy of our trust."
Soniee couldn't quite believe that. "Do... you think so, Sir?"
The Chancellor looked at her seriously. "If I was not sure of it, I would have allowed you to make your speech to the senate and sponsored the vote to send troops to remove Almec from his post."
She thought about that for a moment and eventually nodded.
"Then we're understood?" He asked and rose from his seat.
"Yes, Chancellor." She took a fortifying sip of her drink, set it on a table, and also stood. She followed him to the holotable where he had shown her the image of the Academy in flames.
Palpatine raised his hand toward the table's controls but then stopped and smiled at her again. "Now we're not going to make this a boring policy meeting today. This is mostly just for introductions and so we all agree on our positions, alright?"
She smiled and said, "Yes, Sir." but inside she was thinking of how she had already been introduced to this aruetii, traitor, and how she'd been considering strangling him.
"Just like afternoon shig with your ba'buir," he added.
Soniee laughed. In truth, the Chancellor couldn't be more different from her grandfather, Veeka's father, the expert marksman in his black beskar armor. But Ba'buir did enjoy is afternoon shig with a bit of tihaar added to give it a kick.
She was still smiling at the comparison when the image of Prime Minister Almec materialized over the holotable.
"Chancellor Palpatine," Almec bowed first toward the person of greater importance and then to Soniee. "Representative Ordo."
She couldn't help but grin, having never heard someone address her by the official title before. It was pretty Kandosii. Then she mastered herself to return the greeting with a nod and curtsy of her own, "Prime Minister." The words tasted sour in her mouth and all memory of her former smile faded.
"You can't imagine how glad I was to hear that you were safely on Coruscant at the time of the unfortunate incident at The Academy," Almec simpered.
She wanted to say, 'No I can't imagine that at all,' but she kept silent and only nodded.
"And just before your graduation was scheduled," he continued shaking his head sadly. "We would of course like to send you an honorary graduation certificate..."
"If you please, Sir." Soniee interrupted him. "I'd rather not receive a certificate I didn't earn. I believe Duchess Satine finished her final exams by holo before she graduated. I would like to follow in her footsteps. If that can be arranged?"
Her heart was hammering. She'd been thinking about this for a while now and had planned out exactly how she would ask. Now she was just happy that the words had come out as she'd rehearsed them.
Almec looked grudgingly impressed. "She did in fact finish her whole final year of classes by holo in just a few months. It was I who arranged it for her."
Soniee couldn't be sure but she thought the old fraud might have been a little nostalgic but then he was all business again. "I'll take a look at the records and send you what you require within the week."
"Thank you, Sir." She nodded.
Palpatine's hand rested on her shoulder. "You see, Prime Minister, you really couldn't have asked for a more appropriate candidate to represent your system."
"I believe you are right, Chancellor. And although she won't accept our honorary degree we would like to bestow upon her another gift that should be arriving shortly. I was under the impression that Miss Ordo had to leave Sundari in rather a rush without time to pack her things. These should make up for that loss." His holoimage gestured to where behind she and the Chancellor, the doors to Palpatine's office were opened and a group of Senate guards carried in three large trunks followed by an agitated LEP unit.
"Be careful! Be careful!" the bunny droid bustled around the trunks as they were set down and the guards turned to leave. "These things are now the property of Miss Soniee Ordo." She, because the droid's voice was most certainly female, spun around looking for her new master. "Miss Ordo?" She caught sight of Soniee, took her hand, and led her back to the trunks. "I am LEP-1K0 it will be a pleasure to serve you."
Soniee looked at the Chancellor, confused. He just smiled and gestured for her to continue on and open her gift. She'd never owned her own droid before. That was extravagant enough. She had no idea what to expect from the trunks. When she opened the first one, she gasped. They were clothes, Satine's clothes. She lifted a blue jeweled headband out of the trunk with tears welling in her eyes.
"I can't... I can't accept this." The words came out as hardly a whisper and the men may not have heard her.
"We agreed that she would have wanted you to have them," Almec said benevolently. "And there should be garments there that are appropriate for all of the state functions you will be attending in the future."
She wanted to scream. How did he know what the Duchess wanted? What did he care? She kept her back to the holotable not trusting herself for her actions if she saw his chakaar face just now.
"Appropriate also," he continued. "Since if her nephew had inherited her position and the two of you had married then that would have made you the next Duchess of Mandalore."
Soniee was shaking but she carefully set down the headband before she dropped it or more likely launched it at the holotable. She could feel both men looking at her and knew that they would be gaging every word out of her mouth. They wanted to know what she knew about Korkie. Which meant, that they didn't know anything.
"Korkie and me?" She asked with more control in her voice than she felt. She turned back toward the holotable with her hands clenched tightly behind her back. The building electricity only barely hidden. "No, it was never Korkie and me. It was... Amis." She lied and let her angry tears spill over her cheeks. "Amis Lok was the reason I stayed in Sundari after everyone else had been sent home. Clan Ordo, Clan Lok, we would never have been allowed to see each other again. We were caught up in the battle of Sundari and... and he was killed." The tears were real even if the story was doctored. "I... I just happened on that Kom'rk fighter. I knew how to fly them because my mother worked on them when I was a little girl. And I just wanted to run away." She dashed away the tears with a sleeve and hurriedly put her hand behind her back again. "Not very Mando of me, I know. But imagine my surprise when when that Jedi Kenobi climbed aboard and asked to be taken to Coruscant. I didn't know what else to do."
Chancellor Palpatine placed his hands on both her shoulders. "My dear sweet girl, I had no idea of all that you'd been through." He pulled her into a hug but she didn't hug him back.
She was still trying to hide her hands and she didn't like lying to this grandfatherly man who was being so kind to her.
It was the droid, to her surprise, who retrieved her cup of shig from the table and brought it to her. "Miss Ordo, drink this, it will make you feel better."
Soniee clenched her fists so hard that she could feel her nails cut in to her palms. She hoped the pain was enough to drive the sparks away. Then she reached out with her mercifully unelectrified hands and took the cup from the droid. "Thank you," she told the LEP unit.
"As I said, I am at your service, Miss Ordo."
Then Palpatine spoke, "I think maybe our new Representative has been through enough for today. Perhaps we should continue our meeting at a later date."
Soniee concentrated on her shig but she watched out of the corner of her eye while Almec's image bowed, said a formal farewell, and then dematerialized.
She turned and looked again at the three trunks of clothing and the Chancellor put an arm around her shoulders again.
"It is quite a princely gift. I can understand that you would be overwhelmed by the gesture," he said softly. "But a useful one that I hope you will accept with good grace."
She nodded and took another drink from her cup. Soniee was thinking about Korkie. She was sure now that they didn't know where he was anymore than she did. She wondered what he would think to see her dressed up in one of his mother's fine garments. She would wear them, if she must, and think of him.
"And perhaps," Palpatine went on. "There may be something appropriate for you to wear to our little gathering this evening."
Soniee swallowed a gulp of shig and then tried for a smile. "I'm sure there will be, Chancellor."
The droid, 1K0 was first introduced in The Duchess Diaries chapter: "Leave all this to Yesterday" Both Satine and Soniee receive the gift from rather questionable sources.