Outer Rim Territories
Karthakk Sector
Karthakk System
Grid-Square Q-17
USS Hathway
Captain's Quarters
Captain's Log, Supplemental:
We've been over the Karthakk System, observing the Lok Revenants and Jedi Master Adi-Gallia battling Trade Federation forces but have found no trace of any dangerous weapon. I feel uneasy, fearing I may have drawn our Federation and possibly by extension the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy into a potential war we have no chance of avoiding or stopping. From what we have learned, the Trade Federation has been operating illegally in this system for a decade and yet the Republic never so much as launched a protest, unofficial or not to dissuade them from this. I am reminded how little the Republic did during the blockade of Naboo and it is only the possible rumor of a weapon being developed here did they send someone.
Well, I am not sure the Jedi officially represent the Republic in the same manner as an ambassador of the Federation would. From what I have learned, the Jedi operate in a manner that separates them from being officially considered a branch of any security or military division of the Republic. They claim to be ambassadors but use their skills and lightsaber weapons when pressed into battle, much like how an officer of Starfleet is expected and yet, they seem to be highly subservient to the Galactic Senate. It is somewhat confusing to note, and I fear that for any reason the Jedi see fit to consider Starfleet along with the United Federation of Planets a threat, I am concerned for the status of power between the two galaxies. It feels like this galaxy is slipping into war and there is nothing that can be done to stop it.
End Log
Captain Pierce ended his recording just in time as a chiming sound from his door sounded. "Come."
The door opened and in walked Commander Lara. "You asked to see me, Captain?"
"Yes." Pierce nodded. "Commander, what is your personal opinion on the Jedi?"
Lara raised an eyebrow but answered. "Well, they seem to be skilled warriors with code similar to many monk religions and yet are ethical. Though their method of suppressing emotions and attachments reminds me much of the Vulcans. Actually, the Vulcans do marry and raise children, the Jedi do not."
"I am concerned by how they seemingly act. They are not official branch of the Republic but are heavily called upon." Pierce presented a PADD. "And then there is this."
Lara looked it over. "The Baby Ludi Case."
Jedi Vs. The Force of a Mother's Love
Ludi's Mom's Sobs on Essence
PHELAR, ERIADU - Four times during last night's transmission of Essence, Jonava Billane broke down into tears, pleading with the Jedi Council for the release of her 14-month old toddler, Ludi.
"Not a day goes by that I don't think of her," she said on the popular Eriadu-based talk show. "When I was lying in that hospital bed, unable to move, the only thing that kept me going, the thing that made me better, was knowing she was out there, somewhere, asking for her mother."
Seven months ago, when groundquakes devastated Domitree, the capital of Ord Thoden, Jonava and Ludi were separated. While Jonava convalesced in an outskirt town, the baby girl was found by Jedi rescue workers and discovered to have Force potential. Assuming her birth mother to be dead, the Jedi took the child to their temple on Coruscant.
When Jonava recovered and learned of her daughter's kidnapping, she used her meager funds to travel to Coruscant and formally petition the Jedi Council to return her child. The Council refused, citing Ludi's beginning of Jedi training as far too late to return the girl, who was now named Aris-Del Wari.
"They said it was dangerous," she said, choking back tears. "I'll never understand, in a million years, how my daughter can be a danger. They're guardians of peace and justice. Well, how is letting me see her again a threat to peace and justice? Who is the monster? Is it me? Is it her? I don't think so."
Since her petition's refusal eight weeks ago, the Baby Ludi case has drawn a lot of public and media attention. The Essence holoprogram recapped notable events, such as the proliferation of trillions of Baby Ludi images on the Coruscant student data network, the Mothers United March on Alsakan and the star-packed fund-raising mediathon held in the Minos Cluster.
"I want to thank everyone who's supported me," said Billane. "Your messages and holos and credit advances have meant so much. It's nice to know that we still do live in a galaxy of compassion."
Perhaps the highest profile development is the authorization of a feature-length holo of the drama, to be delivered by Kailio Entertainments for the fall season. The currently untitled Baby Ludi feature is estimated to be a deal worth over 100 million credits, though Billane refused to elaborate.
"I've been told not to discuss that here," she said "but a significant portion of that money has gone to charitable ventures and agencies willing to help me in my fight."
At that point, Essence turned the cameras on Thrynka Padaunete, Billane's appearance manager and leader of the populist People's Inquest movement, a Jedi-accountability watch-group.
"Let's look at it this way. Say I were to tell you about a group of mystics on some planet who routinely snatch children away from their mothers, their fathers, tearing apart families. They take these children into their care, strip them of identity, maybe even give them new names. They then cut their hair to all look the same and make them wear the same clothes, and live by an impossibly strict code that only serves to further their order. Sounds like a cult, doesn't it? Well, it's a cult that we as taxpayers subsidize. A cult that we empower to determine who's right and who's wrong in this galaxy. And according to them, a mother's love is wrong," said Padaunete.
The Jonava Billane program is believed to have been watched by over 25 billion viewers. It will be retransmitted on the 18th and is available for permanent storage from Eriadu's HoloNet Node for 24.99, with some of the proceeds benefiting the People's Inquest.
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Jedi Refuse to Hand Over Baby Ludi
JEDI TEMPLE, CORUSCANT - Three weeks after a formal petition, the Jedi Council refused to hand over Baby Ludi to her mother, Jonava Billane.
Breaking the Jedi Council's usual silence on the issue, a representative issued an explanation of the Jedi Code that forbids the return of the child to its birth-parent.
"We have opened the child's mind to the larger world of the Force," explained Jedi Master Coleman Trebor. "The child is awakened, and to return it to the birth-parents at this stage would be far too dangerous. It is in everyone's best interests and safety for the child to remain in Jedi custody."
A visibly distraught Billane continued her determined campaign that saw her spend what meager funds she had to travel from Ord Thoden to Coruscant. "What about my own code?" she said to reporters on the steps of the Jedi Temple. "I believe that a child should be with her mother, and won't stop until I have Ludi back in my arms."
The custody drama began six months ago, when the child was discovered in the ruins of the Ord Thoden capital of Domitree, after a quake devastated the city. Jedi rescue workers found the child to have Force potential and took the baby girl into custody, naming her Aris-Del Wari.
Standard Jedi procedure would have required parental consent prior to adopting the child into the Jedi order, but the parents were missing and presumed dead. A month later, a convalescing Jonava Billane was found in an outskirt town, and her concerted search for her baby, which she named Ludi, has since led her to Coruscant.
With no established procedure to deal with this situation, Republic Judiciary officials are scrambling to find a resolution. Already Billane's pleas have attracted a popular following, and her formal petition to the Jedi Council, delivered by her sector's representative, Senator Boganni Hrul, made headlines throughout the galaxy.
The People's Inquest, a grassroots Jedi watch-group, has helped Billane on her pursuit. "This is just further evidence that the Jedi order needs to be held accountable to the people who subsidize its operations," said Inquest leader Thrynka Padaunete.
"Given that the parent never gave her consent, I don't know what the issue it is, The Jedi say it's dangerous, but how can a six-month old child be dangerous?"
Lomina Argo
Systems Analyst
"I think this has passed beyond a simple custody dispute, and those involved are just using it to push their own agendas, using that poor woman as a political tool."
Hraashi Lool
University Student
"Well, peoples gotta understand that them Jedis gots their rules to live by. It's their rules that have made the galaxy safe. Well, until now, anyways."
Slyther Bushforb
Private Investigator
"Why is this still making news? The [expletive deleted] Republic is tearing itself apart, and we're talking about a snot-nosed brat and his whining mother."
Wuuden Malnic
Courier
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Baby Ludi Holos Flood UoC Datanet
UNI-COR CAMPUS 12, CORUSCANT - Student activists have overloaded two University of Coruscant datanet hubs with trillions upon trillions of holographic pictures of Baby Ludi, the infant that is the subject of a custody dispute involving the Jedi Temple. Around 0215 this morning, an automated slicer program began duplicating and propagating the holo images at an exponential rate. The images began to fill the public data-space of the University network, overwriting any files students had stored there. By 1330 this afternoon, both public hubs were completely filled. The images, captured from a HoloNet News report, were doctored to include the caption, "I'd rather be with Mom than Mace," in reference to senior Jedi Council member, Mace Windu. The Campus Information Office has no leads but is investigating the matter.
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Baby Ludi's Mother to Appear on Essence
PHELAR, ERIADU - Jonava Billane, mother of Baby Ludi, the infant subject of a heated custody dispute with the Jedi Council, will appear on an upcoming episode of Essence, the popular talk show based out of Eriadu. Eriadu network executives will pay for Billane's transit to the Seswenna sector. "We're doing a full hour with Jonava," said Producer Garox Tronten. "We're not going the microsecond blip route. This is an important story and we want to devote a full hour examining the insides, the outs, the layers, the whole deal. Are the Jedi kidnapping and raising an army of mind-controlled youths? We'll get to the bottom of it." The episode will premiere on the 3rd. The previously scheduled interview with Mas Amedda will be rotated to later this year.
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Baby Ludi Feature Slated for this Fall
CORE NODE - Kailio Entertainments have secured the rights for the Baby Ludi story, and pre-production has already been greenlighted for a feature-length presentation for the fall holo season. The studio beat out three others in its bid to secure the rights, but the final asking price has not been disclosed. According to the trade holo Verisimilitude, studios were prepared to pay upwards of 125 million credits to secure a deal, not counting merchandising rights. While no casting has been announced for what's now known just as "Untitled Baby Ludi Project," industry insiders predict that Kailio contract star Harissa Shoti will likely play the Jonava Billane, the mother of Baby Ludi. Helming the production will be Ch'been, the H'drachi director behind such blockbusters as A Shadow Falls, Tyranny Reborn and Dark Romance. Spiritualist Ch'been has been meditating on the subject of Baby Ludi for weeks, using his so-called "timestream" reading ability to predict the future of the infant's tale.
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Activists Deface Jedi Temple Lobby
JEDI TEMPLE, CORUSCANT - A mob of 20 university students attempted to infiltrate the Jedi Temple yesterday, managing to get as far as the Second Atrium Lobby before being handily contained by Jedi. Unharmed, the students shouted cries of "tyranny and oppression" and "free Baby Ludi" as they were delivered to Judicial holding pens.
At 0700 yesterday morning, a sociology tour group from the University of Coruscant entered the Temple's public lobby. They then unleashed pre-programmed graffiti-bombs with such messages as "Broodsnatchers!", "Baby Ludi Wants Her Mom," "Justice, Peace & Kidnappings" and logos of the People's Inquest movement in the polished interior.
Two younger Jedi Padawans attempted to contain the activists, but were unwilling to injure them with their brandished lightsabers. The unruly mob pushed into the Second Atrium when Jedi Masters Ki-Adi-Mundi and Plo Koon arrived.
"Disperse immediately," commanded Koon. "You are likely to injure yourselves if you continue, and we do not want that to happen."
"We will disperse immediately," repeated the crowd, uniformly, "We are likely to injure ourselves if we continue, and you do not want that to happen."
Jedi Padawans then affixed the students with handbinders, by which time Judicial officials arrived with a transport speeder. The students were loaded into the speeder, by which time the Jedi trance had worn off, and they again became agitated.
The Jedi Council has refused comment on the disturbance.
Jonava Billane, currently reviewing the script of the upcoming holo feature of her story, was unavailable for comment, but her spokeswoman, agent, and leader of the People's Inquest, Thrynka Padaunete, did field a call from HoloNet News.
"I salute those that continue our efforts. Remember, vigilance. Who watches the watchmen, I ask? I have to go. I have another call," said Padaunete.
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Baby Ludi Moved to Kamparas
JEDI TEMPLE, CORUSCANT - Amidst a flurry of controversy and popular activism, the Jedi Council has transported young Baby Ludi from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to the training academy on distant Kamparas.
The fourteen-month-old child is the subject of a heated custody dispute between her mother, Jonava Billane, and the Jedi Council, who refuse to hand over the child since she has begun her Jedi training.
Sometime last night, a Jedi transport vessel took the child known to the Jedi by her adopted name of Aris-Del Wari as well as a class or 'clan' of 19 other Jedi children off Coruscant.
Upon learning this, members of the People's Inquest, a citizen's Jedi watchgroup that has had members camped outside the Temple for months, launched into an impromptu rally. "What have you to hide?" asked acting leader Firris Palbert through a loudhailer, drawing cheers from the assembled group. "Are the vaunted Masters so afraid of us that they must flee with a child they know they have no claim to?"
Though the Jedi Council refused comment on record regarding the transfer, members of the Judiciary did address the move.
"This transfer is part of standard syllabi," said Judicial Cerisa Vosengoor. "The initiate clan is undergoing specialized learning at Kamparas by Masters of varied techniques. The implication that any external pressure prompted the move is spurious,"
Palbert continued to rouse his audience, loudly suggesting that all supporters of the People's Inquest with the necessary funds should travel to Kamparas to continue the protest there.
The Inquest's founder and president, Thrynka Padaunete was not available for comment. Padaunete and Jonava Billane are currently on Kassido reviewing casting auditions for the as-yet untitled Baby Ludi holofeature.
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"You've downloaded all the files on this case?" Lara couldn't help but ask.
"I had to try and see if I could look at both sides through unbiased eyes. This galaxy is a lot different from ours and there's a lot of things that unsettle me." Pierce rubbed his head. "A lot of supposedly good people are easily swayed by greed with no interest in the common good. For starters, the people who used this case as a platform for a political agenda against the Jedi. The Jedi who took the child without confirming if any of the parents were still alive. I'm reminded of how a few cults worked like that on Earth, taking children at a young age and teaching them the same general belief as the Jedi but in the end they all committed mass suicide."
Lara raised an eyebrow. "You think something similar will happen to the Jedi?"
"It's hard to say at this point in time but I'm worried that it might reach that point with us in the middle of it. And like I said, there is a general selfishness among the majority here. For example, the so-called mother of Baby Ludi." Pierce replied.
"What happened to her?"
"She seemingly stopped trying to get her child back and became more focused on the fame it was giving her, so much so she volunteered to be a consultant on the Baby Ludi holo-movie they based this case on." Pierce shook his head. "Like I said, there is a great difference between our galaxies, and I worry that these bad habits might spill over into our galaxy."
"You give the Milky Way both too much and too little credit." Lara said, prompting a raised eyebrow from Pierce. "I'm Orion, remember? My people founded the slave trade in both the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, and it still remains in practice even after contending with Starfleet. The Klingons are obsessed with battle, the Romulans are obsessed with conquest and that's not even going into other people who would be very happy if Starfleet and the Federation simply disappeared. At the same time, Starfleet and the Federation has been a beacon of hope and for change in both galaxies, specifically for the Milky Way for the past hundred years, you can't say that the views of everyone else here will dramatically shift how we act back home even after a decade of two galaxies living together."
Pierce let out scoffing chuckle. "I suppose not."
"Speaking of which, we're coming up on the next possible location and this one might be it." Lara handed Pierce a PADD of her own.
Planet: Nod Kartha
Class: D
Climate: Cold
Terrain: Barren, some surface water
Points of Interest:
1. Heavily defended by orbital defense cannons and powerful deflector shield systems.
2. Production Facility for unknown substance located on planet surface
"You think this might be what we're looking for?" Pierce asked, putting the PADD down.
"It has all the likely signs of being a facility where you would want to produce a secret weapon, biological or even technological." Lara admitted.
Pierce nodded. "Then we best be underway."