Skyriver Galaxy
Mid-Rim
Chommell Sector
Naboo System
Naboo
Theed
Royal Palace
Court Chamber

BANG-BANG!

"This hearing will now come to order."

The traditional court chamber was chosen to be the sight of R2's hearing. Queen Amidala was present on a throne fashioned chair on an upper floor, allowing her to watch the hearing. Cogwell and R2 sat at one table while Captain Panaka sat at a table opposite of the pair, having been chosen to be the opposition in this court case. Naturally it was a bit of a surprise to some as Captain Panaka was the Queen's captain of the guard, not a public attorney.

Panaka was born on Naboo, but was educated offworld in several guilds, specializing in threat analysis and personal combat. Panaka's education was broad, designed to give him the full spectrum of knowledge and training he would need to become an effective security chief. In his education, he traveled to Tolan, and was given instruction from a Zabrak in the Tracker's Guild. He later joined a Republic Special Task Force and gained combat experience against pirates.

This experience and education served him in good stead upon his return to Naboo and subsequent enlistment in the Royal Naboo Security Forces. While he was off world, his older sister was killed during a training exercise. To deal with this grief, Panaka became increasingly dedicated to his job and to serving the current monarch, King Ars Veruna. He served under Captain Maris Magneta as a Lieutenant and was paired with Sergeant Bialy. He was not known for being sociable—a character trait he would exhibit throughout his life—being more focused on being the consummate professional.

Panaka was constantly working to improve the security force, and actually invented the liquid-cable grappling hook shooter that became standard amongst his colleagues' weapons. When King Veruna abdicated in the wake of a corruption scandal and was killed mysteriously, Magneta having failed to prevent this death and resigned in disgrace. Panaka was appointed Head of Security in Magneta's stead; one of Queen Amidala's first acts as regent. Panaka took the death of Veruna particularly hard, and he felt the late King's death was his fault.

To ensure this never happened again, he developed an elaborate security setup, which involved using the Queen's handmaidens as decoys. The ploy saved the life of Amidala more than once. When the Trade Federation blockaded Naboo, Panaka was among the first to recognize the significant threat they posed to the world. When they subsequently invaded Naboo, Panaka and his security force were less than well-equipped to defend Theed from them.

His forces put up minor resistance, though they surrendered when they fully realized the sheer size of OOM-9's force. The droids stormed the palace and took both him and the Queen into custody. Shortly before, Panaka had initiated his decoy scheme, and although the real Queen was captured too, the Neimoidians fell for the ruse, and focused on the decoy. As they were being escorted out of Theed, two Jedi Knights, ambassadors that had been sent to resolve the dispute behind the blockade, rescued Panaka, the Queen, the Governor, Sio Bibble, and several security guards.

Qui-Gon Jinn, one of the Jedi, wanted to take Amidala to Coruscant, against Panaka's initial instincts. The Queen decided against Panaka's judgment and chose to travel to the capital with the Jedi. Grudgingly, Panaka joined her while Bibble chose to remain behind and look after the Naboo. After the Jedi seized the Theed Hangar from the droids stationed there, the group entered the Queen's personal starship, and blasted away from Naboo.

Before he left the planet, Panaka issued an evacuation order to the Royal Naboo Security Forces, ordering them not to engage the enemy except in self-defense. In trying to get through the blockade, the ship's hyperdrive was badly damaged. Jinn's apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, suggested that they land on Tatooine, a desert planet, for repairs. Panaka was outraged at the suggestion, claiming that the Hutts who ruled the planet were gangsters. When Jinn took the suggestion before the Queen, she sided with the Jedi, leaving Panaka in disbelief at her rashness.

Upon their arrival in the new galaxy, Panaka had been wary of the Enterprise, especially as they admitted to be on a dangerous mission that they could not guarantee they would be coming back from. Just another possible danger the Queen was in but she ignored the dangers and allowed them to stay aboard the Enterprise as it rushed to make contact with the entity known later as V'Ger. Despite the apparent success of the mission, Panaka had remained wary, only being grateful after a way had been found to return to their home galaxy, with the Enterprise accompanying them. Panaka had not been happy to see R2, one of the Naboo Defense Force's droids trying to apply for asylum but he was unable to deny their request on account of the Queen agreeing to allow R2 to stay on the Enterprise while still working with them for the time being.

Once they arrived at Tatooine, Panaka remained on the ship while Jinn, their Gungan ally Jar Jar Binks, the astromech droid R2-D2, and Amidala disguised as a mere handmaiden went scouting for spare parts for the hyperdrive. At one point, the ship received a garbled transmission of a Sio Bibble hologram in which he pleaded with the Queen to contact him. However, Kenobi suspected a trick, and he ordered Panaka and the others to send no reply nor transmission of any kind. Eventually, Jinn and Amidala managed to obtain the missing hyperdrive parts thanks to the help of a local slave boy named Anakin Skywalker, who earned his freedom in the process.

The party then traveled to Coruscant, where they met Naboo's representative in the Senate, Sheev Palpatine. Anticipating an ambush by the Federation, Panaka accompanied Amidala to the Senate Chamber, where she and Palpatine pleaded their cause. The Senate, however, would not budge, so the Queen decided to return to Naboo and take the matter into her own hands. Panaka strongly objected, claiming that she would be captured and forced to sign a treaty that would legitimize the invasion.

While the Queen set off to make contact with Boss Rugor Nass, leader of the Gungan people, Panaka organized the few Naboo security volunteers not captured by the Trade Federation into battle groups, who brought with them Flash speeders and Gian heavy patrol speeders. Eventually, the leaders met to discuss strategy. It was decided that the militiagungs of the Gungan Grand Army would engage the droid army out of the city, while the Jedi and the Naboo would infiltrate the Royal Palace to try and capture Nute Gunray, Viceroy of the Trade Federation.

Using secret passages on the waterfall side of Theed, Panaka divided his forces in two. His group created a diversion, while the others, including the Jedi, liberated the N-1 starfighters from the Theed Hangar, allowing pilots to neutralize the Trade Federation droid control ship in orbit. On their way to reach the throne room, Panaka, the Queen, and the Jedi, encountered Darth Maul, a malevolent Sith Lord who had been following the Jedi since Tatooine. Panaka's group was forced to go the long way around while the Jedi stalled Maul.

The captain's party only made very slow progress, battling waves of battle droids throughout the halls of the palace. When the Queen expressed her frustration, Panaka decided to use ascension guns to bypass a level of the palace, in an attempt to reach the throne room more quickly. In the meantime, a small group led by Sabé, still posing as the Queen, kept advancing. The Neimoidians finally saw through the ruse, and realized who the real Amidala was. Consquently, Panaka and the Queen's group were swiftly captured by droidekas and escorted to Gunray.

In the nick of time, Sabé's party made it to the throne room, and drew out the droids stationed there while Amidala grabbed a couple of Q2 hold-out blaster from a secret compartment in her throne. Panaka and her sovereign then eliminated the remaining droids in the room, leaving the Viceroy defenseless. After the battle, Panaka handed over the Viceroy and his aide Rune Haako to the Republic for trial. As he did this, the captain dryly observed that the Neimoidians could "kiss your Trade franchise goodbye." Shortly thereafter, Panaka attended the cremation of Jinn, who was slain during the fight with Darth Maul, before participating in the parade held in Theed to celebrate the liberation of Naboo and the newfound alliance between the Naboo and the Gungans. Meanwhile, Palpatine had been elected Supreme Chancellor of the Republic thanks to a groundswell of sympathy in the Senate.

Panaka remained in Amidala's service, although their relationship grew cold as Panaka became more paranoid after the invasion. Nonetheless, his respect for Amidala remained high and he had worked to support her efforts of welcoming the United Federation of Planets into the Galaxy for their efforts in helping to free Naboo.

Now he was here today with another duty.

In addition to the defender and the prosecutor, the senior crew of the Enterprise, Captain Tarpals, Jar-Jar, Obi-Wan, Richard Daystrom several members of the Naboo Defense Force and surprisingly Supreme Chancelor Palpatine himself was present. Meanwhile Sio Bibble along with Federation Commodore Robert April and Boss Nass served as the tribunal in the hearing with Sio Bibble representing the Naboo, Robert representing the Federation and Boss Nass chosen as a third neutral side since the Gungans very rarely, if ever used droids.

"The prosecution may begin." Sio Bibble stated.

Panaka stood up and cleared his throat as he stepped into the middle of the chamber. "Your Highness, Governor, honored guests. Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedules to be here today. This might seem like a trial that must be done but let's not overstate the facts here. The fact is, that there is no issue of sapience or sentient rights here because droids have none. They are machines, pieces of equipment programmed only to mimic sapience for the sole purpose of making them easier to utilize in their everyday jobs.

It's been brought up before that droids should be given sentient rights, and do you know what happened? The droids would rise up and kill the very people trying to grant them these rights. That only proves that droids are not only incapable of being considered sentient, but they don't understand basic rights that all organics enjoy. How can they?

They are not born, they are not educated, and they do not live, reproduce, or even die. They are built, programmed, defragged when their memories start to malfunction and recycled when they are unable to continue being useful. The astromech droid R2-D2 is a droid made and was sold to the Naboo Defense Force, to be useful in helping our pilots maintain their ships so that they can continue defending our planet. No matter what modifications might have been made, that has not changed anything.

The only difference is that modifications done to this droid can possibly be replicate so that a whole new line of droids can be made to continue being useful and carrying out any tasks that they are programmed to carry out." Panaka took a deep breath, reaching the end of his argument. "Now, the Federation will argue on the basic rights of sapience applying to everyone and while they can spin any spell-bounding ideals they want, it is up to you to see past these ideals and reach the simple basic truth."

Panaka took his seat and Sam Cogley stood up next, standing in the center to address the chamber. "Ladies, Gentlemen, before I start with my long-winded speech,"

There were a few muffled chuckles from the galley, but all remained quiet.

"I ask you these simple questions: what defines a person? What defines property? What is the exact difference?" Cogley began. "In our galaxy, on the human home world called Earth, in the twentieth century an anthropologist and ethicist named Dawn Prince Hughes argued that the standards for personhood included self-awareness, an ability to understand complex emotions and a capacity for empathy. Now, it's been noted that most droids are not capable of self-awareness but there have signs that there are exceptions, such as my client."

Cogley gestured to R2. "What is your name?"

"R2-D2." The astromech droid beeped which was immediately translated.

"Do you understand why you are here today?" Cogley asked.

"I am here to prove I am fully sentient and wish for the same rights as all sentient beings in both galaxies." R2 answered.

"Do you understand and accept the possibility of your rights not being recognized whether you win or lose?"

"I do." R2 'nodded'.

"As you seen, this droid shows a sense of self-awareness." Cogley turned away from R2. "As for complex emotions and the capacity for empathy, we will be seeing those today not just from my client but from the many people he has worked with, from both galaxies. They have all seen these qualities that fit the remaining criteria for personhood. In fact, I believe both the prosecution and those gathered with us today will see these qualities and if you all believe in a just court as I do, then as a just court by basic definition must grant basic sapient rights to all who deserve them whether they be human, surian, aquatic or even machine. Just as the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment did centuries ago on the planet Earth as the well as the Charter of the United Federation of Planets did so a hundred years ago when it was founded which I will quote:

"We the lifeforms of the United Federation of Planets determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, and to reaffirm faith in the fundamental rights of sentient beings, in the dignity and worth of all lifeforms." Cogley took a breath as he walked forward, towards the tribunal. "As so, I invite you members of the tribunal to be the first to change not just one world, but both worlds as you consider the rights of this lifeform.."

Robert April stood up. "Call your first witness."