It was now two weeks after Luke visited his son and ward in the CSF blockhouse where they were being held. They were appearing in the high court on Coruscant, thanks to the machinations of the same aide who had sold seats on the jury to journalists. The same Aide had also worked to prevent them receiving bail from the brief pre-trail hearing.
As a result, the media was swarming like flies around a carcass. Luke had repeatedly attempted to have the jury redrawn at random from the pool of jurors, but so far he had failed to have any effect on the eight journalists who had "found" their way onto the jury bench and who were almost certainly planning a conviction of the two for not providing an interview to them. Officially it would be simply convictions for the charges of dangerous driving, but everyone who knew the allegiance of the jurors knew that it would in reality be a false charge.
For Vestara it was likely to be worse, because she would be seen as a Jacen Solo in the making because she had attacked others using Dark Side powers. Luke suspected she might face a life sentence or even the death penalty unless Nawara Ven could somehow get her off.
The State's lawyer, Luke suspected, was being paid for by the press in the hope of punishing him and the two children he was responsible for by securing a conviction.
Luke had picked a prominent position on the public gallery, and watched from it as Vestara and Ben, bound hand and foot using shock shackles, were led into court, followed by Nawara Ven, who had agreed to take the case.
During an interval, when the journalists were planning their next move, Luke received a call from someone he had been hoping would call. The call was from Ghent. The slicer had definitely come up with the goods this time. He had hacked into Coruscant's traficam databanks and removed the necessary footage of the pursuit of the two young Jedi.
Seconds later a confused seeming mouse droid carrying a data card bumped into his foot. He loaded it into his datapad and smiled, it contained all of the data from Ghent, along with a rather unusual set of uncut camera recordings from the journalists on the jury. He smiled, and knew that the judge could and would discount jurors whose findings were in conflict with the evidence.
When the court reconvened after about three hours Luke was ready. As soon as it was possible he requested access to the witness stand as the bearer of important new evidence.
Once he had been sworn in as a witness, he delivered his evidence.
"Your Honour, as a party who is responsible for the two young defendants, I have been conducting my own information gathering operation related to the case.
Among my sources was a slicer who managed to find some evidence that suggests that the defendants are only guilty of the offences committed at the police station, as the individuals who bought the charges may have been involved in the offences and have committed several of the offences laid down against my son and ward.
The main tape on this datapad shows the individuals in question committing the driving offenses and causing or being involved with the cause of the various collisions and accidents, while my son and ward avoided the collisions.
There is also quite an interesting voice based recording retrieved from a waiting room within this building where eight of today's jurors decided the outcome of the entire case without listening to the evidence."
"You have the names of these false jurors?"
"Yes, your honour."
"Please provide them."
"Javis Tyrr, Tablis Scop, Tor Rie, Bia Sed, Liang Basted, Slim Ebal, Per Juri and Fals Convition."
"Will the named jurors please stand up?"
Luke smiled as he noticed the various looks on the faces of the various members of the jury who were forced by the judge to stand up. They ranged from hatred, from the usually suave Tyrr, to resignation from the others. Suddenly Tyrr started to speak.
"Your Honour, I would impress on you that this "evidence" has not been proven, and was almost certainly attained illegally, and therefore cannot be used in court."
"Mr Tyrr, please return to your seat. Whether the evidence is accurate or not will be decided by myself and two other judges. Master Skywalker, if this evidence proves to have been concocted, it will be you on trial for perjury, and the sentance will be severe, and may increase the sentance for this case also. Do you understand?"
"I understand, Your Honour."
"Good. Warden, take the named jurors into another room; Hold them there until the accuracy or otherwise of this evidence has been confirmed."
"Sir."
As soon as the jurors had been led from the room, the court room began clamouring for more information. The judge dispensed the minimum amount of information, saying there had been an unforeseen delay before adjourning the court.
For Luke, it was a victory of sorts, as he had hopefully managed to remove those who were not interested in the case from the courtroom, purely using the power of evidence, but he did not yet know whether he would ultimately succeed in effecting the removal of bias from the courtroom.
Once he had briefly discussed with the judge, a large Twi'lek male, called Koshak Eyan, how he had acquired his evidence, he decided to visit the cells where his son and ward where being held, pending transfer to the quarters they had shared for the last fortnight.
After surrendering his lightsaber to the court guard, he was allowed inside.
On the narrow, hard bench, the two occupants of the cell where huddled next to each other, Vestara looking and feeling fairly scared, while Ben was holding her close, trying to comfort her. Both of them still had the shock shackles they had worn while in the courtroom proper fastened around their ankles, but their hands had been freed once they were in the cell. Luke briefly extended his presence in the Force, the Jedi equivalent to a polite cough. As they looked up, he sensed surprise radiating from both of them. Ben was the first to speak.
"Dad," he choked out "what are you doing here?"
"Just keeping an eye on the pair of you." Luke answered, smiling
"I could complain about the food and accommodation, but I think you can guess how low quality they are."
"Indeed." Luke fought down the urge to smile, as his son's sense of humour seemed unaffected by the short prison stay. "Vestara may not be holding up well however." Luke continued.
"They abused her several times." Ben told his father. "it was minor stuff, just comments about thumbscrews and racks"
"Those affected her badly?"
"Have they let us go, Master Skywalker? have you come to take us home?" Vestara suddenly asked, sounding strangely subdued
"Vestara, sadly I cannot. You are still on trial for attempted murder, even if the traffic offences are dropped." Luke told her gently
"She needs help. Somehow, being imprisoned like this has affected her." Ben told his father.
"The Prison Psychologist has not been able to help?"
"Someone stopped him from visiting us."
"Look, you just need to hold out, and then the jury should find you Not Guilty." Luke told her, concealing his pessimism with the Force.
"I just hope I'm out soon." she replied
Far above, echoing through the corridors, Luke heard the announcement that the court was back in session. He patted both of them on the shoulder and left the cell.