Chapter Thirty Six

"You cannot say the Miner's demands are unreasonable." Master Thun said. A Given, he had taken everything calmly, analyzing both side's grievances mathematically and had created a broad basis for a fair agreement between the two parties before arriving on site. That the miners hadn't made any truly unlawful demand was a point in their favor. "Indeed, paying for said demands will not cut that far into your profit from this planet, I have calculated it the fifty-second percentile. Indeed, it is you who has been in the wrong from the get-go, despite how you have manipulated the letter of the laws in this sector to favor those contracts of yours. Local conditions here fall well out of bounds for what is lawfully required on hostile worlds."

"If I have to send my findings back to the Senate, your corporation will face tremendously large fines for ignoring Republic law Manager Luten. Indeed, I am almost ready to do so. The only reason I am not is that it would not only hurt your corporation, but your workers on other worlds. But you must bend on your demands to return to the status quo as well." The Given finished, his skeletal-seeming mouth turned down slightly, his 'skin', really the outer layer of an exoskeleton, gleaming in the overhead light.

"Never!" The man, a human of middling height and black hair named Luten, said spitting the words. "We will not give in to terrorist demands! That sets a horrible precedent, as any Jedi should know!"

"I do not see them as dissidents, terrorists or rebellious elements, indeed, that equation does not add up at all." Master Thun said calmly as always. "I see them as workers who have been too long treated like robotic menials. I would urge you to see this as a addition, not a subtraction. The equation is simple: you get out what you put in. The better you treat your workers, the better their working environment, the greater the output of the mines. That is as simple an equation as finding the twelth percentile of the Pythagorean Theorem." This was in fact an insult in true Given fashion: Thun was calling the man an idiot, whose intellect was not the equal of even a Given toddler.

"On the other hand, some your demands, such as receiving a large percentage of the profits, are not mathematically or lawfully feasible. " the Jedi said, turning his attention to the other man. He was a human as well, well-muscled, with heavy scars marking his face, and when he spoke he did so with a distinct Thyferran accent.

"Health services for you and increasing the comfort of your living conditions here is feasible. Your demands about free education for your families and health services for them as well is too far. A small profit-based percentage for miners who reach foreman level and stay on after their initial contract is up and yes we will have a separate neutral party look those over, is possible however. I would say a .0025 percentile of the monthly output multiplied by a factor of five every year for six years would be allowable."

"I am willing to bend from the 15% of the profits, but I will not go lower than five, spread out amongst all the miners. You raise several good points, and I'm smart enough not to argue math with a Given. But the company has always acted as if our lives didn't matter, that they could just bring in more people to replace us at need. Heavy Metals cannot be allowed to think of us as mere tools any longer, or else nothing will change. They have to see us as an integral part of its running, and we want a voice in said running!" Silas replied.

"You signed a binding contract, all of you did! The company paid for your training, we bring in your food, we pay for your transportation and your air!" Shouted Luten, standing up abruptly, his thoughts so clouded with anger and disdain for the man across from him they blanketed everything else Thun could sense from the man. "If you no longer want to work fine, we'll even go so far as transporting you and your rebels off-planet… gratis, but we will not bend on any of these points!"

"Gentlemen!" said Master Thun, gesturing them both silent wishing he could simply Force Luten to open up about whatever his company had planned here. But he couldn't, Luten had already protested the Jedi's mere presence. Telling the man Thun had sensed he was planning something would simply set him against the peace process further. Humans, such an annoyingly illogical species.

"For these talks to go forward, you both have to acknowledge that each of you has good points. The company is indeed the only real source for much of the supplies the miners need to live, and the miners are an integral part of the company, not mindless automatons. If you both agree to my outlined plan, the company will continue to show profit and the survivability of the miners will go up by a factor of 62.9456%," Thun said, still calmly. "I assure you my math is sound across the board…"

At that point an explosion went off in the distance, and Master Thun's eye sockets narrowed. Quickly standing up he pulled out his lightsaber, sending His senses out into the Force. He didn't activate his lightsaber yet, he was a Consular, not a Guardian and this wasn't the time to wave a deadly weapon around. "Calm down sirs!" He said to the two men, both of whom had leapt to their feet, his voice rising for the first time in the meeting. "My padawan will handle it."

Looking at them both, Thun frowned, feeling the honest concern for himself and his followers from Silas and sudden fear and unease coupled with some kind of jubilation from Luten. "For now however, I think these talks should come to an end. Manager Luten, return to your ship. Foreman Silas, if you would follow me we will get you someplace safe just in case."

"Just in case of what?" Luten shouted, scowling angrily. "It's his own damn people blowing up our equipment and property! Yet you want to defend him instead of me? This is blatant Jedi sophistry at its finest, like the Techno Union warned us to expect! I demand you protect me instead!"

"Why would we do that?" Silas bellowed in reply, on Luten quickly. "With the Jedi here to listen to our grievances we have no reason to go that far! No this is no doubt a plant by you to discredit us and our legitimate position! Even Master Thun has said it, we have true and lawful grievances!"

"The Jedi only speak for the Senate, they do not make the law!" Luten roared back.

"And policy is always open for interpretation, just like String Theory." Master Thun said to himself, moving towards the door quickly. "Manager Luten we do not have time for this, I sense danger closing in on us. Let us be off. I would prefer not to be pinned in this room."

While Luten agreed under protest and left quickly with his two bodyguards, Thun and Silas moved off heading for a nearby railcar. They would take it to another part of the complex, one of the strong points the miners had created rather than this area, which they had cleared of their people in order to create a relative neutral ground for the peace talks.

They reached the train tunnel and even called for a train car before Master Thun's Force senses prove to be correct. The bombs had indeed been a feint. The real attack, as his Forces senses had belatedly informed Thun, was on Silas. Cut off the head, the body dies, an easy equation even a human could do. I had calculated that Luten was contemplating double-dealing, but outright assassination when a Jedi has already arrived on the scene? Hubris, and worse than hubris, a personal arrogance and contempt for the Order is inherent in believing any such calculation can create a positive answer.

So thinking Master Thun twisted to the side, his lightsaber on, beam humming in the narrow corridor as he deflected two blaster bolts that would've taken the manager in the side. Both were astonishingly stun bolts rather than full-powered blasts, but Master Thun's lightsaber absorbed enough of their energy to allow the stun radius to spread to either side of their intended target.

With the instincts of a soldier Silas ducked and rolled into cover by the stopped train car while Master Thun turned that way fully, now having to block a dozen blaster bolts coming at him, grimacing lightly at the exertion. He was a Master of Niman, which was known by more serious combatants as a Jack-of-all-trades yet master of none style. Despite that label it had served him well for years, but the Given found himself sorely pressed by the sheer weight of fire the man stalking towards him was putting out from his two small, heavily modified blaster pistols.

The being racing down the corridor towards Thun and Silas was a Duros like his padawan though at least fifteen, maybe twenty years older. He had light blue skin rather than the normal green and was wearing a long open trench coat, and a wide-brimmed hat. He also wore a mask, and his red eyes gleamed eagerly over the top of it towards the Jedi.

Master Thun recognized him: Cad Bane, one of the better mercenary/bounty hunters out there, certainly one of the top ten operating in the past few years. He was dangerous, deadly, and without scruples for the most part, though this was the first time Master Thun's knew of that he had taken a job that would put him in direct opposition with the Senate or the Jedi Order.

That was all the thinking Thun had time to for. He concentrated fully on his connection to the Force using his precognition instinctively. It wasn't mere speed or skill that allowed a Jedi to deflect blaster bolts, it was the ability to anticipate where the bolts would come from and interpose his lightsaber. Against a single opponent it should have been easy, but Cad Bane randomly changed where he was aiming and had a rate of fire that was simply incredible, forcing Thun to delve deeper into his connection with the Force than he ever had before in a combat situation.

His concentrating on the blaster bolts was why Thun didn't sense Cad Bane had slipped something from one of his ankles. When the object rolled onto the top of his foot, the Duros mercenary kicked it high into the air of the corridor.

Master Thun's eyes flicked to it even as his Force Precognition helped him to block more blaster bolts, grabbing it out of the air with the Force before trying to push it away. But when the flash bang grenade went off he screamed in agony, one hand coming up to cover his eye sockets, his lightsaber form faltering.

In the next instant, blaster bolts burned into Thun's body in multiple places, including one shot right through one of his large, skeletal-like eye sockets. The Given Jedi Master fell back, dead before his body hit the floor of the corridor.

Cad Bane kicked the Jedi's body to the side, one hand pulling out a glue gun, splashing it liberally over his target, who was staring at this Jedi's body in shock, even his soldier's instincts not able to overcome the shock of seeing a Jedi die. Cad was rather amused by that, after all the Jedi were merely mortal. They could be killed just as anyone else. Admittedly this is the first time I've had to kill one, but I've heard stories about Fett. If he could do it with his bare hands, I at least can do it with my blasters.

"Sorry about this," he said almost conversationally to his bounty, "but someone wants you brought in alive. Probably to make an example of you I'm guessing, but that really doesn't matter to me."

"No!" shouted a voice, and suddenly a red blast of some kind passed right where Cad Bane had just been standing. He had tossed himself backwards at the faint sound of a clang behind him and now turned, pulling out both of his handguns again. Behind him Cad saw the little Jedi padawan charging him from a nearby overhead vent, dropping down and igniting his lightsaber in one motion. The blue of the plasma blade added its own color to the dull light of the train tunnel.

Cad Bane scoffed, shaking his head even as he stood up from his crouch. The boy was a Duros like him, and while Cad didn't have any real scruples, he did somewhat dislike killing his own race. "Back off boy, your Masters dead, what do you think you're going to be able to do?"

Alecto glanced sideways at the body of his Master. Banishing his thoughts of anger and the need for vengeance he raised his lightsaber determinedly sliding into one of the beginning stances of Form three, Soresu. Such emotions would not help him here, though wiping that contemptuous sneer off his opponent's face might. The thought actually brought a grim smirk to Alecto's lips, as he held his lightsaber forward with one hand, his other held slightly back fingers outstretched. "What I have to," he said simply.

"Boy, I only need my target alive not you."

"Good to know!" Alecto said then gestured with his hand. His Master's lightsaber sizzled on again, flipping towards the bounty hunter who ducked under it, firing his handguns, one towards Alecto, the other at the lightsaber. Alecto blocked the bolt coming towards him followed by the next three, watching out of the corner of his as the one bolt fired toward his Master's lightsaber impacted the hilt, shattering it.

Undaunted Alecto charged forward, seemingly intent on closing the distance so that Cad Bane couldn't continue to use his blasters as he had so far. But Cad Bane replied quickly, using one blaster to attack Alecto's legs, and the other to attack his upper body. Needing to defend his entire body from this assault made Alecto stop where he was, his lightsaber flashing quickly. "So it's a question of who gets tired first, my blasters, or your body kid. You should've stepped away when you had the chance."

Alecto elected not to reply, his lightsaber flashing this way and that again and again and again, battering the bolts aside, unable to return them directly to the source without opening himself up to the following bolts. He grunted as one of them got through on his shin, and another in the side. His Force Precognition just wasn't up to this level of fire yet. But he had other tricks to play.

Feeling his opponent was becoming overconfident, Alecto decided it was time to play them once more. When his stunners were dodged and letting his defense falter enough to launch them nearly cost him, Alecto had to turn fully on the defensive. However he decided to do so a bit dramatically. A Force Shield suddenly shimmered in place in front of him, and Alecto molded it around half of his body like a tower shield, absorbingthe blaster bolts.

Cad Bane gaped at the strange apparition, a shimmering golden shield of energy conjured by this callow youth, before pulling out a concussion grenade. He tossed it at the boy, but before it could reach Alecto had grabbed it via the Force, hurling it back at Cad Bane. He ducked underneath it, then his eyes widened and he turned, trying to grab the grenade before it could impact the outer wall of the tunnel directly behind. "NO!"

The bounty hunter couldn't catch the grenade in time, and the grenade exploded on impact with the metal of the tunnels side, which cratered at the explosion. Cad Bane was flung backwards, generally not harmed at first, but even so he had only a moment to scream before the pressure of the planet's atmosphere shattered the weak point in the tunnel. The wind from outside, swirled in and began to tear him apart.

Behind his former opponent Alecto blinked in exhaustion, dropping his lightsaber for a moment as he used both hands to help him direct his shield, enlarging it to cover his entire body and that side of the tunnel as he slowly backed away towards the waiting train car, where Silas had already retreated to, his legs not having been glued together like the rest of him, evidently Cad Bane hadn't wanted to carry him.

Reaching the open door of the train car Alecto fell backwards, and briefly debated trying to summon his lightsaber to him. But he was too exhausted, the strain of keeping up that Force Shield against the massive pressure of the wind on top of his physical battle with Cad Bane having taken its toll. Even as he watched his shield began to shimmer, and he weakly leaned up, pulling his legs in as he did so. Slamming his hand down onto the control of the doorway, he rolled away as it started to shut and his shield failed.

Thankfully as Alecto had known, the train car was rated to handle the same kind of pressure and heat and wind as the tunnel's outer shell in case of decompression. Not that Alecto actually noticed this, too busy slipping into unconsciousness. The last thought going through Alecto's mind as the darkness took him was to thank Harry and Mistress Lily for their lessons. He was still lying there on the floor of the train car when the car pulled into the preprogrammed station and the miners found him and Silas, with his upper body still immobilized.

"…And so Master, after the miners were able to take control of Luten's ship and found some evidence to back up our Force-fed suspicions, I took it upon myself to finish the peace talks." Alecto said later that day, sitting up in a medical bed, his shoulder, side and leg all in casts, visible through the projector apparently as one of the High Council's first question was about his health. An odd thing coming from Jedi, which made Alecto wonder how he looked. He would not have been surprised by the answer: that he looked like death warmed over.

"The miners will get their demands met on local control, better living conditions and the percentage of the profits Master Thun had set out in his outline, as well as safety measures, but they're still tied to HM." Alecto shrugged, wincing as the movement aggravated his injuries. "If they want to make a living here there is no way to get past the fact they still need the parent corporation."

Master Windu bobbed his head in an almost nod. "You went above and beyond what a padawan should have to face young Alecto, well done." He was still a little leery about how many of Clan Saa had already professed that they would be taking the Old Oath rather than the prescribed New Oath, as well as how emotional they all seemed occasionally, but there was no denying the efficacy or their techniques. Indeed, Mace had begun to learn a few of them just like many others. They weren't having much luck, it was a very slow process for the older Jedi, but Master Yoda had learned several of them, so it was possible.

"We will send a ship to pick you up soon," said another Master, staring at Alecto as if she didn't agree with Master Windu's assessment. Master Billaba had spoken up several times as Alecto talked about the agreement he'd basically rammed down HM's throat, which admittedly had very little to do with the laws of the Republic and much more to do with browbeating and blackmailing him with his own mistakes. The evidence that had personally hired Cad Bane for this operation had been telling.

Several other Masters also looked as if they felt Alecto had gone too far, but they were not the ones on the spot, and Master Yoda at least along with surprisingly Master Windu approved if for very different reasons. Master Windu respected the courage Alecto had shown, and was not a fan of large corporations in any event. He believed that the Techno Union, the Trade Federation, and others of that ilk were too powerful already, not considering the fact that seemed to be slowly allying with one another.

Master Yoda's approval on the other hand was for a much simpler reason. He was happy that Alecto was alive, and that the Order wouldn't bury another Jedi today. One was more than enough. "Rest you should," Yoda said nodding his head slowly to the young Duros. "When return, speak further of your training from here on we will. A new Master, we will try to find for you."

"Yes Master Yoda," Alecto said, and watched as the connection ended. Leaning back in his bed he shifted trying to get comfortable, but with his arm in a sling, his leg and side wrapped as they were, that was going to be much more difficult than normal. Closing his eyes, Alecto tried to will himself to sleep, as he thought, 'I wonder how the others are doing?'