[4 BBY]
[Chancellor's Breakfast Conference Room, Command Deck, Republic One (Mandator II(S)-class Star Dreadnought Concordat of the Just and the Free), Republic One Defence Squadron, journeying between Alsakan and Corellia]
Mon Mothma, (Interim) Chancellor of the New Republic gave a still tired sigh as she entered the overly large and luxurious feeling room after her, thankfully brief, twenty-minute morning briefing. Or at least it was only twenty minutes this morning and had not extended into breakfast briefing after some horrible, but easily avoidable, event had occurred that needed her review. The last time she had meant to meet her friend Bail such an event had ensured she'd been woken in the night because of a diplomatic disaster between Alsakan and Corellia caused by the damned degenerates drumming up anti-alien sentiment on Coruscant. Force damned but they were her biggest headache in the last year.
"Chancellor"
She sighed, waving the chairs set up already as the bearded man greeted her as formally as ever "Yes, yes, Bail, now sit down, I am hungry, and every time I try to have a proper breakfast, I get pulled away from it by some disaster, somewhere. And it's Mon for now, I could do with a meal without constant Yes Chancellor, No Chancellor!"
Bail Organa gave a faintly bemused smile, taking his seat across from her after she took hers, scrolling through the menu and quickly picking her dishes and order "Even if it is a working breakfast"
"Every meal is a working meal Bail, we both know that" she answered sadly, hands taking the proffered datafile from her Junior Minister, flipping it open beside her as he did his copy "Till I step down anyway"
'Or rather when I'm forced out' Mon thought unhappily but held back that bitterness. It was a never-ending battle since the Treaty bringing together all three sides after Palpatine's death to create the New Republic, and it often felt like a losing one of late. She had yet to find an acceptable successor for herself, nor had she been able to bring the full extend of her anti-hate legislation into force so that she could drain the swamps of all the predators that lurked about trying to kill the dream of the Galactic Republic. Not with the indifference that was being shown of late from the Big Three worlds now that the worst of the economic damage had been undone…
"Even Corellia is being unhelpful?"
She nodded to Bail, giving a chuckle "When are they not of late? Our biggest backer, and biggest complainer, but they just won't do anything, or lend me enough support to do it"
He raised an eyebrow, and she nodded, tapping and scrolling through his report on social spending projections on the almost finished Senate Districts of Coruscant, and the restored Senate Buildings in particular "As ever, the Navy"
Mon Mothma despised the New Republic Navy, especially Naval Intelligence, as the wretched scum that made up far too many of the lower rankings were impossible to weed out. Even when they were deliberately funding and supporting terrorists against her direct orders "What have they done now?"
"At this moment?" she murmured, her personal staff droids entering and placing their drinks and light 'snack' in that elaborate dance to theirs "Nothing, I hope, but there has been pressure over the last few weeks to further increase the next budgetary allocation for a Fleet expansion, and, worse, on increasing patrol numbers and ranges"
Bail paused, studying his kaf intently "Corellia flipped?"
"And Kuat, perfect lockstep, Santhe Corp and KDY seem to have found support for more loans from their respective systems" she didn't quite grind out, instead keeping calm and demure, Bail frowning "Yes, I am aware it would be better spent on other programmes, but…"
"They won't loan credits for social programmes because those programmes don't fund their shipyards" came the familiar mantra of the last decade. Then shook his head "What are they thinking? Its problematic enough with the NRN as it is, without inducting more troublemakers! I know all of the Big Three are expanding themselves, that will just suck up all the candidates we'd want to try balance out the Fleet!"
'As are you my friend' she didn't say, as while Alderaan was pacifist, and her good friend had remained so, mostly, it wasn't stopping him, and his government, from embarking on a rebuilding of the Royal Alderaanian Fleet not seen since the times of the Sith Wars apparently. In part it was because borrowing for such an expansion was easier than for rebuilding the damage taken in the war, and that damage had taught even Bail's people a lesson they believed. The wrong one in her opinion, but it was one they had taken up nonetheless, and she had to accept her allies' difficulties if she was to maintain control over the ever-shifting sands that was the government of the New Republic.
"Yes, but, as ever, that is our problem as Chancellor and government, not theirs. They are ever so kindly lending the New Republic badly needed funds, at reduced interest rate, to fund our defences after all" she said with an amused air, sipping her drink, then shaking her head "So very generous of them"
"Indeed, so generous" Bail agreed, and he was clearer in his unstated words of reproach that they could not do more and fight more against it…but she'd tried before, and not accepting it meant losing power. And losing power meant allowing more dangerous vermin like the late conniving Sheev Palpatine into power – and that was something she could not allow. Unfortunately her agents in New Republic Intelligence weren't as easily able to gather proof of the hidden plotting and hateful thoughts of those scum, like in the first two to three years of the Treaty of Coruscant, and the Re-education Camps only worked so well to reform the dangerous and wrong thoughts of some citizens.
He sighed unhappily "Do I need to arrange cuts?"
"No" she insisted, waving it off "Just be sure to focus on sectors that are showing reform in opinion and generally standing out of hateful sorts such as the Restorationists or Cortosis Front. I believe we'll have to press forward with more integration and diversification programmes to bring neighbouring districts back in line, and to weed out those rousing them in the shadows"
"Is that wise Mon?" Bail asked after a moment's frowning consideration "If latest polls hold true, then more focus on pressing through such efforts have only served to increase radical support"
"Reactionaries acting up, but it was because they've been propagandising their lies, and that's something I can minimise soon enough. I've finally gotten support to ensure all those war-spouting, hate-filled, so-called docu-holos about the War have been put a stop too and funds diverted to more accurate representations of what happened, and what we did to try stop the madness" she admitted, shaking her head "I'll be mandatory in the funded schools, and the might let us weed out parents of anti-alien and anti-government from the garden should they object. If we can identify the worst sectors then we start trying to get to the root causes rather than fighting the symptoms. Once we weed out the small number of agitators then the ordinary citizens of the Republic won't be led astray as they are now"
"I'd prefer to see more analysis from NRI or one of the vetted Corpos before giving strong support to that Mon" Bail said, giving a helpless shrug "I have trouble enough maintaining support for the Exiled Senators votes, so we'd need to give some strong figures for my constituents to stay behind such efforts"
"Understandable, unfortunate, but it is the constant struggle is it not? Best of the bad at too many times?"
That good a sympathetic nod from Bail, as they'd both suffered having to make such compromises, even when they could see the stronger, better, policy that was just beyond their reach "The patrols you mentioned? Is there anything you do?"
"Direct an expanded range towards Mindor, Taanab, even Corsin" she admitted as the actual breakfast now emerged, waiting till the droids left before continuing "Everything to keep them away from Bilbringi, or towards Andara. I know, opposite sides of the Core, but I am convinced elements of the Navy are trying to cause a confrontation with the renegades in the yards, or with the droid remnant at Fondor. Not something we would want with the Restorationists pushing for their own corrupted electoral process. Elections are vital, but we cannot let troublemakers take advantage of things either"
'Ideally once we can remove the worst of them from the board, like our so-called New Jedi, and the loudest of the protestors for so-called human rights' Mon Mothma thought, as well as convincing someone competent and with conscience, that wasn't herself as this job was dreadful in the years she'd served as Chancellor. Constant compromise. Constant bickering, even amongst, or perhaps most from allies…it was dreadful and exhausting, and part of her simply wanted to return home and rest. Never to see another of these horrible compromise with monsters ever again.
Unfortunately, she had duty to fulfil, to restore and unite the Republic as it had been, and would be once more should she have it within her power. It was why she had to fight so hard to maintain the Old Votes, the Exiled Votes, as with her good friend Padmé Naboo, as someday she prayed they all be reunited under democratic Republican rule once more "Yes, or at least we would need to be careful in what captains are assigned to such potential flashpoints. Funding?"
"Ah, bribing away trouble from our, in theory, allies in the Republic fleets?" she answered with a question she knew the answer too "Funds are less available our larger taxpayers have been happy to inform me last year. I suspect several individuals in the Big Three are no longer adverse to a more aggressive stance in regards resource extraction and tax collection from the nominal regions"
Bail winced "That is unfortunate. But, with time as it is chancellor…"
She nodded "Yes, food and social programmes. Let us see what we can do…"
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