ED : Chapter 28: You Can't Foresee Everything II
Dac/Mon Cala, Morjanssik (14 Days Later)
Palpatine's dark blue eyes swept across the Quarren leader's office. Taking in every detail in a single glance, before returning to the being sitting in a chair shaped from a large dark bluish gray coral.
Said being was staring at a datapad resting on a rectangular desk of the same material like it was a venomous serpent that might bite him.
Gray-green facial tentacles twitching and writhing as Kanit Wolg struggled to contain an outraged fury his guest could perceive like a fine wine, but who only looked on with a well-practiced sympathetically understanding air.
"I tried to warn you, Manager. For all their talk about peaceful cooperation and mutual gain, whenever the Mon Calamari are asked to choose between the off-worlders they so adore, and the hard-working Quarren who provide them with the very resources to build the ships the Republic so values them for, this will be the result.
This is why, no matter how desperate my personal straits, I tried to refuse your exceptionally gracious and honorable offer of sanctuary from the Jedi. Don't you believe the lie which has cozened trillions as to their being servants of the Republic.
They've grown dissatisfied with ruling from the shadows, and now seek to return the galaxy to it's Pre-Reformation state. I discovered the army of clones they've commissioned to do the job, so as the first Chancellor to slip their control in centuries, I must die.
Along with any and all who might seek to aid me against their nefarious ambitions." The Sith Lord's declamation was delivered in a tone as cultured as it was wounded.
Pale hands artfully clenched into fists as he gave a picture-perfect rendition of shared outrage mixed with great guilt.
"B-, but biological warfare? The Blue Shadow Virus/Legends , no less? I-, I can't believe the Senate would ever approve of genocide.
No matter how much of the government has fallen under Jedi control, there's no way such a thing could be kept from the public!" Kanit sputtered in thickly accented Basic.
Disbelief had joined outrage and anger in the mind of the unfinished city's leader, but Palpatine could feel that disbelief weakening, and the datapad on the desk was the reason.
"I don't mean to be impolitic by bringing up something we all know, yet never ever discuss in polite society, but you know as well as I do that humans, and when pressed, the near-humans stick together.
If there is a racist rot in the Republic, then I am sad to say my own species is responsible for it. Controlling so many Core worlds, heading up so many of the intergalactic corporations, and even credibly contending with the Hutts for control of the criminal element, humanity has grown arrogant beyond all measure.
It doesn't serve the Core agenda to make a point of it, but if it comes down to recordings of dying Quarrens or human Jedi claiming innocence on their Order's behalf, I don't think I have to tell you how many people would rather look the other way than face a truth which won't serve their own interests.
This is just one of the countless crimes committed by the so-called keepers of the peace, and the evidence is sitting right there" Palpatine replied with a sad shake of his head and a flash of self-disgust as he subtly used Force Persuasion to dampen the part of Kanit's mind looking for some other explanation that would fit the facts.
On the still-open datapad played pictures of members of the Jedi Medical Corps as they gave vaccinations to Mon Calamari waiting in line. Ostensibly, they were providing education-entrance vaccination to the children and a series of yearly booster inoculations to all the adults on Dac.
What numerous other video files, cargo invoices, and several other critical recordings made clear however was the critical element missing from the Quarren inoculations. That being a vaccine to the Blue Shadow virus.
Already, the first reports of Quarren being stricken with severe distress of the breathing-sacs were coming in. Placing Kanit and the other Quarren leaders in the difficult position of not knowing who to trust.
The evidence of Blue Shadow vaccine in an acquired Mon Calamari booster was undeniable. Making the prospect of confronting the Medical Corps a dire one. If the Republic, the Jedi, or both were willing to go this far in secret, then what were they capable of if overtly confronted?
Feeling his righteous anger growing on behalf of his sickened and dying people with every beat of his heart, Kanit eventually bowed his head with his clawed hands visibly shaking in his lap, and said.
"I will call the other Quarren leaders together for an emergency conference. Get your protege and the cure his Coalition can provide my people here.
See my people saved from this ancient scourge, and you have my word, I shall speak for secession. The Mon Calamari have finally gone too far!"
...
Geonosis (22 days since Palpatine's flight from Coruscant)
Sora Bulq, AKA Darth Ximshak, was seated at the point of a V-shaped table. Down the right wing of the table sat the representatives of planetary governments such as Geonosis (obviously), Cato Neimodia, Saleucami, Mygeeto, and Colla IV.
While down the left wing were the spokes-beings of the Corporate Alliance, Trade Federation, Commerce Guild, elements of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, and the Techno Union. In between the two table-wings was a large hologram-generation unit.
Above which in exceptional blue detail hung the reason for the meeting.
Standing suddenly, the tall, well-muscled Weequay pointed an accusatory finger at said holograms and stated with grim finality.
"I give you the Jedi Solution to galactic strife. Ending the Post-Reformation order in favor of a return to Jedi Lords and Ladies ruling entire sectors, with Jedi Chancellors once more and forever after the executive authority.
Oh, I don't doubt they believe they're doing the right thing, but that will be little comfort to those who fall afoul of their zeal for their peace, their order, and their justice! The Republic can spin the ousting of the lawfully elected Chancellor however they like, but the Kaminoans are neutral.
They've no reason to lie about the fact it was a member of the Jedi High Council who commissioned the quarter-billion clones even now maturing and being trained on Kamino, with successive batches planned.
Neither is there any reason for the cloners to lie about the fact those clones were created for a single purpose. Serving as the Grand Crusaders of the Republic, as their Jedi Masters end what they see as a morass of strife in the only manner they can envision."
The fallen Weaponmaster thought he was preaching to the choir by this point. The Representative Council had already heard testimony from the Kaminoan Commission Agent.
They'd seen the holographic footage of what was transpiring on the flooded planet. All of which was little more than a lit match flicked onto a pyre already doused in fuel. Angry murmurs of grudges past and present melded with fearful mutterings concerning the intentions of the Core, Inner Rim, Expansion and Colony worlds.
All of it fed and amplified by the deft touch of Darth Ximshak. Using what his Master had taught him to push events down their natural path, only faster and more aggressively.
Suddenly sensing he might have overestimated the room's unity, the tall, lean, gray-skinned warrior-statesman raised a hand to cover his lipless mouth. Faking a cough while doing so, the Weequay's deep set brown eyes settled on the Techno-Union representatives seated furthest from Wat Tembor.
Amidst reactionary calls like "We must be able to defend ourselves," and "Teach the Core they can no longer exploit us," these men and women whispered urgently among themselves.
Watching the ongoing chaos and clamor among the other representatives not in consensus, their concern that the situation was spiraling out of control grew more obvious with every passing moment.
Now that he knew what to look for, the Sith detected less obvious vibrations of caution and trepidation in the Neimodian representative, and two of the Corporate Sector representatives.
Sandwiched in between those far more fervent than themselves, these holdouts remained watchful and attentive to every development, but otherwise gave away little as to their true feelings concerning the matter under discussion. Suppressing an urge to frown, the Weequay ex-Jedi made a mental note to engage one on one with each such recalcitrant.
They were fearful, as Nerf always were during a storm, so it was his job to keep them together and ready to be made us of as their herder.
When the pandemonium finally subsided a bit, he pressed on in a firm, authoritative tone, asking "You've heard the evidence. What shall our response be?"
Although fear and fury mixed headily with hatred, avarice and bitterness, it would take time and care to wean the more cautious away from hopes of a peaceful separation.
More examples of "surreptitious Jedi and Republic aggression" like the biological disaster facing the Quarrens would undoubtedly facilitate the process of burning the fat and corruption from the galactic order. Change was always painful, and the weak always sought to avoid pain.
This axiom made it the responsibility of those with stronger wills and clearer vision to do what was necessary to overrule such self-destructive cowardice in favor of the greater good.
Stepping from the shadows at the room's far end, a pale skinned young woman with short silver hair and enticingly vulpine features glided up to her Master. Handing him a data-disc, she bowed her head for a moment, then looked out over the arguing representatives and murmured low enough only he could hear.
"Is it truly so easy to control all these powerful beings, Master? You're hardly even drawing on the Dark Side, yet they scramble over each other to do your will."
Glancing over at the adolescent Dathomiri assassin who would be Sith, he murmured back "Show an arsonist an unprotected building, and he'll burn it, Asajj. Always remember that, sooner or later, everyone lives down to their worst self.
The galaxy is simply separated into those willing to admit as much, and those who are not." Glancing left and then right, he added more thoughtfully.
"There are also those who honestly have no idea which category they fall into, or even what they truly want. Beware such conflicted souls, my apprentice.
Daring greatly, the young killer inquired in a tone touched by the combustible feel of the emotions in the room.
"You speak about being conflicted as if from personal experience, Master. Should I include you in that everyone you speak of?"
"Absolutely! The Jedi are past masters of turning those with the greatest potential into conflicted souls desperate for the High Council's approval.
The better to ensure all they train remain the servants of those even weaker and more conflicted than they. Beware them always, for they deceive with honesty more effectively than most liars.
He ignored the way his apprentice stiffened. Knowing she must deal with the weakness of her past on her own, else be destroyed by it.
...
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