Prank

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***

My screams could be heard throughout the flat.

It happens like this - you try, you try, you do your job, everything goes according to plan, and then the fool bang, and everything collapses like a house of cards. Nobody's safe from a fool.

In this case, the fool was Erdva.

That bastard made a mess of things while we were away from Mandalore. When I arrived on Coruscant as if nothing had happened, I descended over the planet and, after checking in, arrived at my flat.

I wasn't happy about that - the machine was powerful, to say the least - the standard cannons for fighters were class five to nine, and a fighter with more powerful ones could be called an artillery gunboat or a pinnace. These are also types of small ships, usually performing the same functions as yachts, but better armed - a yacht is an unarmed ship, or armed but weakly.

My displeasure didn't last long. By the way, the view in the cockpit is just fantastic - it feels like there is no ship - no instrument panels interfere, all the information is on holomonitors and on the visors of the helmet. Having descended on my miracle-ship to the landing pad, I drove the car into the hangar, and myself with pleasure got out - still travelling in the pilot's seat - not from pleasant. The hyperdrive was good, and the straight line wasn't that long, but I still had to make three stops at planets for everyday necessities.

I was greeted by Lin, who immediately came up to the hangar.

- Good morning, Your Majesty! - he smiled, "what kind of machine is this? - Lin was a curious fellow.

- A Guards fighter. A prototype. A beast of a machine, I tell you," I stepped closer, "MandalMotors did it. If you don't delve into the technology, it's a fighter with maximum configuration and enormous manoeuvrability.

- Oh," Lin looked at the machine, "it's a cool bird. Where do they sell it?

- Where they sell it," I smiled, "it's an exclusive for the Imperial Guard. And it's not the most comfortable machine for flying, I'd even say the most uncomfortable of those I've flown. But it's a monster in combat. By the way, how are you doing," I pulled him into the flat, "how's it going with that girl... Tia, I think?

- Come on," Lin sighed embarrassed, "things are going well, by the way. The engineers are already gone, I'm working on military droids. Shin's thrown me a job.

- That's right," I nodded, "has he done that already?

- I don't know, he doesn't report to me," Lin shrugged, "He flew in last night and asked me to look for suitable models..." Lin went into the flat and, throwing off his cloak, asked a droid to bring us some tea, "This isn't the first time he's done this, by the way. Warner asked me to help him with the droids and communications too.

- Well, that's your job," I nodded, "how's it going? Did you find anything?

- No," he shrugged his shoulders, "it's pretty sad with fighter droids. There are no decent models. The Neimodians left a lot of junk behind, but their Vultures are kind of funny - they're about as useless as the B-1.

- Okay," I sighed, "we're going to need fighter droids, but it's not that urgent, so we can safely order them from scratch.

- That's what I was thinking," Lin nodded, "and by the way, Kevin also asked for police droids. I found some interesting specimens..." Lin reached for the datapad and showed me the droid dossier.

- It's really rare," he commented as I read, "It's almost perfect for its job, and for dealing with a diverse population. Plus it has a phenomenal level of personality development and absolute punctuality.

- Yeah," I set the datapad aside after reading everything about the 501 model that was on the flyer, "unless they're lying, of course.

- They're not. The droid was designed specifically for the Coruscant police and core worlds. And you know how picky the local public is. And, oddly enough, it's the first droid model SoroSub has ever made.

- Well," I pondered the prospect of local robocops, "in that case, order an upgrade.

- What kind of upgrades? - Lin pulled up and picked up the datapad, preparing to write down my remarks.

- It says here that the droid co-operates well with camera droids. In that case, it would be better to put a micro-camera in his body that can fly out of his body and help him with patrolling or inspecting hard-to-reach places. Also equip him with a pistol, with stun mode as the main one. Languages are standard and binary, it's not funny. It's a droid for interaction with sentient beings, so communication skills should be increased, at least - the whole list of basic languages of the galaxy. The rest... I guess there's no complaints. They're designed as if we'd ordered them. They meet the requirements of the patrols, and for Cinnagar... the capital city will need about ten thousand of these droids and a hundred thousand camera droids. I'll talk to Kevin about the rest later.

I had no desire to create a lawless fiefdom. What's more, I had a desire to make this planet as safe as I could make it. Now this has already begun to be realised - not more than a month ago the Department of Social Development proposed to introduce a visa regime. That is, to duplicate the closed system on a legal basis - strangers will be able to come here, but it is up to the Ministry of Justice to decide who will have the right to stay with us and who will not. I, in turn, by my tsarist decree, turned Certer's proposal into a filtering system - we issue visas, if not to everyone in a row, then only on the condition that the citizen is not wanted anywhere and has not committed serious crimes. Automatically issue a visa to military personnel and their families, mining workers and construction workers in Cinnagar. And further... and further everything works according to the filter principle - as a punishment we will deport violators with compensation for the value of immovable property. And let them fly to the Hutts, there to cause outrage, not in the Empire....

Of course, the system is far from new, but the more nourishing and better life on the planet, the more effective it is. In cases like Naboo, it works quite well. Yes, Naboo required visas for residence - otherwise the quiet and peaceful world would quickly turn into a fiefdom of all sorts of doctrines and would require either an army of police, or completely oppressive laws, according to which a step in the direction - shot.

The problem of security was one of innumerable and not the most important, so I only expressed my wishes in this area. Lin wrote everything down and raised his eyes to me again:

- 'By the way, about Sin... is he coming here, or...'

- Where will he go," I shrugged my shoulders, "anyway, this flat is the only place I sometimes come abroad. Unless you count one of my acquaintances, so he won't miss it.

Lin nodded in agreement. I left the flat and took Lin's speeder and flew to the shopping district to buy some toys for Shiai, because he has nothing but blasters. And the boy should grow up to be a versatile person.

The shops in galaxy city are really great, despite the prices being overpriced, to say the least. I'm not poor enough to buy at inflated prices - if I have to spend a billion on a fighter jet - please, it will save people's lives if there's a war, but, say, paying five times the price for some trinket, it's already serious. Good thing there were no crooks here either.

The first thing I did was drop into a clothing shop and raid it. Of course, there's a maid who keeps an eye on my appearance, but that's a bit different. The landing operation was a success - after grabbing a couple of bags of clothes and shoes, I went ahead and picked up some of the same stuff for Shiai, only fancier. Next to the clothes I bought a speeder. But I couldn't choose it from the thousands of options offered to me - I didn't like any of them. Some of them were too garish, with unnecessary decorative elements, others were slow, and others were just begging to be taken to Tatooine for the amusement of the local jawas. The design and quality were too far from my sense of beauty. Having failed to find a speeder, I went further - I accidentally stumbled upon a shop... of books. A bookstore, but not just any bookstore, it sold paper books made of natural paper.

Here I had a blast - I picked up a dozen or three copies I was interested in, without looking at the price. Some Shiayu, as textbooks.

After the books, it was the turn of the rest of the little things. I already had everything I needed, but I could use a few things. For example, several sets of delicacies in stasis containers for the cook. As far as I know from my experience - cooking something good, valuable, rather than simple salads, is much more interesting professionally. It's been a long time since I've done any cooking, though. Last were the gadgets. There was nothing but what was here! There were about a thousand models of datapads, terminals, various sensors and scanners, specialised and universal devices for all occasions. I bought a couple of the top datapads for myself and my son - they cost, however, they cost fifty thousand, but the stuffing was more than decent. Later I will try out nanobuilders on them. As an object to practice assemblers I took a lot more electronics - a pile, not really interested in the purpose of this or that device. After half an hour of happiness, the salesmen escorted me out of the shop, having received many new orders.

From there, I went straight to look for specialised computers to control my nanofactory. A specialised electronics shop was also quickly found.

The computers in the galaxy were... ordinary. Just an ordinary black box, just big enough to carry in your hands. Industrial computers were the most unassuming looking - no decorations on them, no design frills, just a plain metal box with sockets for input and output.

The galaxy was ruled by the major electronics corporations, who were the main players in the market. They were Maadrian, Govix Computer from Corellia, Microtrust Processors, and the most expensive and poncy, Palar.

However, there were computers of all sizes, including compute modules like the one inside Erdwas. I walked around the shop for a while and still chose my order - four computers, each with four additional computing modules and all the peripherals, like a programmer, a scanner-diagnostic and a set of universal programs, on top of which become programs for controlling nanodroids.

Four computers cost me a million. A million, to think of it! Although you can understand them - the electronics are delicate and of high quality. I also picked up a few little things, like different models of computing modules of different power and size, small computers, large computers, embedded computers, and so on....

Having stocked up, or rather, having placed my orders, I returned to the flat in the five hundredth building, where, as it turned out, Shin was waiting for me. As soon as I entered the flat, I heard Shin's voice arguing with Lin.

- Hey, I'm back! - I proclaimed," What's the argument, what's wrong? - I walked in, setting the bags against the wall and looking at the arguers.

Shin, as always, was stretched out:

- Good afternoon, your majesty.

- Good day to you, Shin. How was your flight?

- All is well," he nodded, "all problems are within limits.

- Well, then, we don't need to worry," I nodded to him, "what are you arguing about?

Lin answered me:

- About fighter droids.

- That's right," said Shin, "there's no suitable model at the moment.

- That's what I discussed with Shin today. We'll order one, you formulate the requirements. We need a fighter that can be used as cannon fodder for slaughter, so we don't have to send pilots into a frontal assault. Any questions?

- Negative! - Shin stretched out.

- Okay, stop," I stopped him as he was about to leave, "I've ordered some stuff, it'll be here in two hours. We'll need a transporter to get it to Koros. A Corvette will do just fine. Next, why are you looking at me like that? - I raised one eyebrow, I'm not a flowerbed and flowers don't grow on me...

- I apologise, your majesty," Shin looked at Lin with the corner of his eye, "it has to do with a record....

- What is it? - I asked.

- It says that you stayed on Mandalore after we broke up," Shin said evasively.

- I don't get it," I shrugged, "what tape? Was I being spied on?

- I can't know," Shin replied.

- I was really late. I was about to leave, but Satine called me in, and she was still bitching about me not being there...

- Anakin, you'd better watch the tape," Lin chuckled, handing me a datapad....

I took it and after a moment I looked up at Lyn.

- Where's that bastard?

- Erm... - Lin looked around, - he was just here....

- I'll kill you! - I ran towards Erdv, who was hiding in the hangar for some reason. You can't run away from me...

When I caught him and pinned him against the wall, I demanded an explanation:

- What's that supposed to mean? - I shook the datapad in front of his visors, - that's espionage!

- I'm sorry! - Erdva tried to take off on the repulsors, but I stopped him by grabbing the landing gear:

- Halt!

Erdva tried to take off and almost succeeded - I hung on the landing gear, immediately releasing him. Erdva, who was not expecting this, hit his head on the ceiling and fell on me, almost killing me.

- Erdva, I'm talking to you...

- Come on," the droid started to defend himself, "why are you so angry?

- Why am I angry? Why the fuck did you put that on the net?

Erdwa didn't answer.

- I ask you again, why the fuck?

- I don't see what the big deal is. Everybody watched it.

- И? - I don't get it.

- Couldn't they?

- No, of course not," I put Erdv upright, "and anyway, do you have any idea what this could lead to? Now the whole galaxy knows who I am and where I am. And someone else might dig up some information and....

- And what? I don't think it's gonna be the news of the day.

- How many hits is it getting? - I asked about my popularity.

- Seventy-two billion.

- Well, on a galactic scale, that's not much.

- In the first day. Now it's fourteen trillion... - Erdwa tried to stay away from me.

- Oh, woe! - I exclaimed, but nobody appreciated it. We went back to the flat. Erdva followed me sluggishly across the floor, though he usually preferred to fly.

- Anakin? - Lin asked excitedly, "Is something wrong?

- Everything's wrong, Lin," I nodded, "I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I don't like it, and now there are trillions wondering who Anakin Skywalker is....

- It's not all bad," he tried to comfort me, "after all, no one died.

- You're right," I nodded, relaxing, "but we'll have to walk with caution now. I've been getting suspicious looks from some passers-by....

I went into the room and called out to Syn:

- Cyn! Shin, where are you?

- Here! - He came out to me immediately.

- That's great. Let's keep talking," I sat down on the couch, "I can tell by the look in your eyes that you're giving me the stink eye. Is something wrong?

- It's just a recording.

- Yes, it was," I agreed, "I got into a fight at the duchess's palace during the ceremony. At first they wanted a dozen guardsmen, but I got carried away. Besides, Satine insisted that I join her family.....

- Ahem," Shin coughed, "are you sure this is the right thing to do? Don't take this the wrong way, but it still means she's your...

- 'Sister,' I enlightened him, 'are you saying that Satine was after her own gain? Shin, I'm young, but I know a thing or two about politics. Yes, I understand, fine..." I got distracted, "Sit down, by the way, I'm not comfortable being the only one wiping my trousers," I know exactly what she wants from me. I have enough influence with the Chancellor and in general. So if she was a naive fool, she wouldn't be leading Mandalore. Brilliant, I would do exactly the same thing if I were her... besides, she's very pretty in armour... just not to anyone," I warned Syn in a whisper. The Minister nodded with importance, "or she'll kill me.

- I understand," Shin nodded, "I'm sorry I hesitated.

- It's okay. Doubt is the first thing that separates the intelligent from the savage. Let's get off the subject of firing irons for a bit, shall we? How do you think the troops will feel about this turn of events?

- I can't know," Shin shook his head, "but I reckon they'll be pleased.

- Yeah. The old ones with the way I am, and the new ones with the fact that I'm from Kriz. Already changed my last name. So all things considered.

- At least you've secured the respect of your army.

I sat for a while, wondering what it would mean. Fame is a good thing... for some, but not for me. What if Amidala hears about me? What if the family? Then the whole "change of leadership" thing would fall apart. I'm a Skywalker, my mother is Riekan now, no one on Naboo has ever seen me, I can't be tied up, and they're not likely to go through the documents of the wife of the future king's bastard grandson. So we're good for now. And if they do, they're unlikely to realise that I'm the Skywalker.

- So," I thought to myself, "the fleet will be ready in two months, right?

- We already have a defensive fleet," Shin nodded, "and once the strike fleet is in place, it'll go partly to the Justice Corps, to Kevin, and partly to the rearguard.

- In that case, we don't have to be afraid," I nodded, "my friend is in trouble in the system, and I'll have a very unusual and delicate combat assignment for you. But we'll talk about that later, when it's clear what we have at our disposal. Lyn? Lyn!

- Yes, yes," he came up to me.

- Lin, do you remember the droideka?

- Yeah, sure," Shin nodded.

- Do you have the blueprints?

- I have ready samples if you're interested," he walked out and a few seconds later two droidekas, the size of car wheels, rolled into the room.

- Here," he nodded, "are the droids themselves. Experimental numbers zero-one and zero-two.

- What's the difference?

- The first has a heavy blaster and the second a lightweight rapid-fire. I put missiles on both. I had the blueprints modified on my order, secretly.

- In that case, I'll take the first one off your hands and leave the second one here to guard our flat.

- Oh, no, a droideka is not a good guard. I'd rather have a specialised droid.

- Suit yourself," I shrugged, "I'm off to Koros again. My orders should be arriving by now, a bunch of electronic junk for lab and production purposes.

- All right, I'll have them loaded onto the corvette.

I thought about it a little more, seeing if I'd forgotten anything. I don't think I have. All that's left is to fly for the coruscans and bring back a kit to finance the covert industries of media buying.

Small stock purchases are commonplace, but when the money's really big, it'll attract attention. I'd rather not, which is why I was counting on my stash. I'll also have to fly down for singing steel and freak, take some neuranium from KMK, etc....

The orders were delivered without delay - they brought a bunch of boxes just to the landing pad. The loading droid was with them, so after loading everything I'd bought into the corvette, we took off, leaving Lin bored downstairs. Though if he got something with Tia, he wouldn't be bored, and I could use a close nanoengineer. And given Lin's prospects, the girl doesn't know how fabulously lucky she is. For her, he's just a murky, high-ranking official of some murky monarch, and now he's out of the checkers and into the ladies.

* * *

Setting up nanobot manufacturing took a bit of work. Firstly, we had to set up computers.

I gave my son a datapad, which he was very happy about, and went to set up a workshop for the production of ... everything. Such an invention is already exhilarating in its versatility and significance.

But, there were some difficulties. The first of them is that it is not a good idea to produce counterfeits - you can get sued, so I could only produce individual parts or unique, specially designed for me parts, to be really clean in legal terms. That's why I ordered the second generation of fighters... by the way, I never came up with a name for them. The first generation is based on licensed parts, and the second generation I can duplicate for my own purposes as much as I want. The duplicator turned into a nanofactory - I loaded it with a few kilos of materials to spare and left Erdva to do the electronics.

the best way to hide production is to make it mobile. This principle worked well on the ground, in the form of mobile ballistic missiles and mobile command centres. I needed a small space, so I took the hangar of a yacht. After kicking everyone out of there, ordering to redeploy the shuttles and all equipment to the ground airfield, I sealed the doors, leaving only one, leading to my quarters, and already here I started working.

The stationary computers needed to be installed and configured - it was good that I was familiar with them. I forged large workbenches along the wall with my power, on which I placed the computers, all four of them. Losing the nanodroids could be dangerous, so one of them duplicated the work of the other three, and I connected the other three each to its own assembly line. Judging by the power, these comps would pull about thirty trillion droids each, and such a horde would take less than a day to assemble a fighter. And I'd left some room, of course. The assembly area itself was a circle thirty metres in diameter, occupying a solid part of the hangar, and there were three such circles. Around the circle was a large insulated conductor, which was connected to the general network and sent electromagnetic waves to the droids. Behind the three large circles was a section for medium-sized machinery - the same circle, but smaller. And last were the stands for assembling small parts and devices - I put one of the computers on them, but after thinking about it, I decided to test the first samples.

Running to my lab, I took one of the crystals with nanodroids and having switched on the equipment, entered its own drawings into the computer. Self-replication took about ten minutes, and the new computer repeated its counterpart completely, one-to-one.

I was glad to be done with the firmware, and while the first sample of the replicated computer was being programmed, the nanofactory produced three more.

Stopping the process, I put them to the stands. There will need to assemble any valuable and unique devices quickly, which means the number of workers should be no less than on the general line.

I fiddled with the shop all day, but succeeded - it was set up and ready to go. My little star forge. Production was going fast in the small object shop, so I tested the work of both comps and droids on small objects - a new poncey datapad. It worked great - though it was empty, it was just like the old one and it was assembled... it literally grew out of nowhere before my eyes.

========== 60. Anatomy of a Protest ==========

The value of a nanofactory is directly proportional to the value of the object being created and its uniqueness. After commissioning the factory itself, I got right down to the fighter. I had to change the karless armour plates on the wings to Frick - it is three and a half times lighter and stronger than karless, although it is more expensive. I could have reduced the thickness to reduce the weight of the machine, but I left it the same - with such armouring it is unlikely to kill the fighter even with a direct hit from a queue of enemy fighters or a couple of single volleys from large ships. Cables have changed material to ultrachrome - it is superconducting, so they won't get warm under any loads. Otherwise, I did not need to correct it, what I had done was quite enough. If there will be serious improvements, it will be in the second generation, they have already squeezed everything they could out of this one.

It was time to move on to another topic - the common fighter. Now in use are the Dagger, Dianoga and Morning Star. These fighters are produced and killed in local skirmishes by the thousands, as well as forming the basis of planetary defence for most planets in the galaxy. And somewhere on the planets of the outer ring, that is, in the backwoods, they use old as the world Z95, already obsolete. There are even reports that Naboo fighters, expensive, pretty and rather useless, in some places took out twice the forces of "daggers" and "Z95s". One could argue about pilot skill, but in the case of the Naboo I wouldn't be so sure that it played a decisive role, rather the Nabuan pilots were not superior in training.

At this point in space, it's the fighters that are the superiority, they are the main attacking force, an integral part of the most effective battle tactics. If, say, two cruisers of equal armament, armour and personnel training enter the battle, it is hard to say which of them will be lucky, and if one ship is hit by the fighters' missiles, weakening its shield, then such a cruiser will be doomed, as the next big ship after the fighters - aircraft carrier, heavy cruiser, or even battleship - will hit not the shield, but the armour, damaging the enemy with each shot. After the shields fall, a flock of small fighters can seriously damage the cruiser with pinpoint strikes on its cannons and launchers. Therefore, the main goal in the battle remains to own the space in which the battle is going on, and if any enemy ship is in the zone of our superiority, his chances of survival are rapidly falling. And besides, concentrating fire on a large enemy ship will expose it to fighters, and concentrating fire on fighters will expose it to large ships. Trying to separate the targets will reduce the attack power on both classes of targets.

The conclusion is that you can have not unique and super-powerful cruisers, but the same as the enemy, but defeat him by leading in fighter aviation and having the initiative on the battlefield. Negative aspects - fighter losses are inversely proportional to the superiority of pilots and their machines over those of the enemy. The cost of training a good group is quite high, and creating and maintaining technical superiority is even higher. The basis of this tactic is laid in the unnamed Guard fighter - five or six salvos of powerful missiles will remove the shields even from a dreadnought, and the twelfth-class cannons are designed not to kill enemy fighters, but to fire on the armoured hull of a cruiser or corvette, on its systems, cannons, launchers. We can safely say that this is a tank, the task of which, compared to other fighters in the assault exhausting attack on large enemy ships. Phenomenal agility will avoid hits, and if there are any, they are unlikely to penetrate the powerful shields and armour of the Freak. Good, experienced pilots are hard to find in peacetime, and it would be very hard to lose them. Now I understand why war politicians paid so much attention to aces who are adept at shooting down the enemy - each of them has a unique experience of victories, and they can't be replaced by any number of "greens". Such a pilot in the squadron is not only effective, but also morally supports all the others, helping them not to be afraid of the enemy, and this is the key to victory. Besides, it is not always possible or necessary to use a numerical or technical advantage - where, say, you need a small and quick operation, where there is no time for a long and exhausting confrontation and no possibility to introduce a full-scale fleet. There you will need exactly the aces, who will fulfil the task quickly and with small forces. For example, the canonical attack on Naboo - one fighter destroyed the droid control station, or the same with the Death Star - a larger ship in the attack the Imperials would have destroyed, as it is not manoeuvrable, and a pack of fighters came like mosquitoes on a bull and bit it to death. True, there was a technical error, but the fact is....

What's the greatest fighter in galactic history? With wings for atmospheric manoeuvres, four powerful engines, four laser cannons on the wings, missile launchers and a hyperdrive for flying to Dagobah? A cross wing, of course. It's hard to find a more detailed ship in my memory than the Cross Wing, so that's what I prepared as a gift for Sin. True, I will not open Coruscant here, as in the case of the Guard fighter, because the layout of the Cross Wing is already well known and used - it is the Z95, the grandfather of the Cross Wing. However, this one is also great - I won't have to find a supplier, Incom and SubPro already produce similar. If you use my models, and I've already made a perfectly accurate replica of the crucocryl, you'll get a great fighter that can destroy enemy fighters in direct combat. And not as expensive as the Guard's, and easy enough to learn that you don't have to teach pilots for several years, and the modification resource will remain large. Since MandalMotors did the job faster than I thought, I'll have to hand over the Crucible now. I've given the model to Sin, with detailed descriptions of what the fighter is for and how many of it should be in the fleet. Of course, Sin would have the final say, but I was confident in the concept, so I let myself take the lead. One carrier would have twenty heavy, Guard fighters, two hundred medium fighters, and four hundred small fighters. With this tactic - first a scramble, after which the heavy either break to the big ship through enemy space, or attack similar enemy ships, helping the small fighters. Since the main thing in combat is to keep the commander, the distribution of Guardsmen turns out to be only for squadron commanders, each participating in combat with his squadron, not only leading the fight

The production process had to be very roughly automated. I set up the automation as soon as the first three fighters were assembled - after the fighter was assembled, the R2 series droids took care of it - they flashed the programs I took from the prototype, docked, and drove it to the landing pads, where it was lowered to the second deck and there it was driven to the corner of the hangar. So, gradually, it was planned to fill the entire lower deck with these ships. Of course, there was a lot of work involved in programming the droids and just giving them tasks, but it was more of a pleasant hassle. Each assembled fighter saved me a million and a half, and the more expensive and better quality the machine was, the more efficient the nanofactory would be. Unfortunately, using nanodroids for medical purposes was not yet feasible - it required sophisticated specialised droids, which were being designed on Coruscant. In time, the results should appear and then I will be able if not to work miracles, then at least to break away from the general level of progress in medicine and engage in complex operations.

Separately, we were working with the KMC - three shipments were leaving every four months, and the cost of each had dropped to four hundred billion. Randy had promised to increase the proportion of rare metals in new projects, especially in military projects, but so far there had been no serious progress, as hundreds of new ships were leaving the KMC slipway every day, with durasteel and aluminium steel making up the bulk of my exports.

After finishing with the nanofactory and making sure that it created the fighters I needed according to the algorithm, I was finally able to do the things that had been hanging over me for a long time. Firstly, I packed my bags, visited my son, and inspected the construction. The construction itself had already slowed down a lot - when the buffer zone was being built up, whole neighbourhoods grew up in a day, but now, after a week of work in the hangar, I didn't even notice much change in Cinnagar. From where we were parked, the large temporary spaceport, there were endless rows of two- to three-storey houses stretching to the horizon. In between were parks, alleys, and other amenities. As far as I understood, only water supply was centralised here, and electricity and heating came from domestic reactors.

After checking out the views from the shuttle, together with Warner's deputies, I headed back to the spaceport. Now it was time for me to leave, and after collecting the droid's packet of documents, I got into my lambda and left Koros in the care of Sin and Chris.

First to my personal stash. Tuned to the beacon I needed, I made the five-hour flight to the planet with the coruscans. The process of their extraction is quite routine, if you think about it - fly in, put on a spacesuit, go to the surface and there, sitting in the lotus position, pull out crystals one by one. Under the ground, within a few hundred metres, to which my telekinesis and power vision extended, there was a scattering of crystals of various shapes and sizes. From small ones that were almost grains of sand to large ones the size of quail's eggs. They varied in purity too, but I couldn't see the colour in the force. Two of the fifteen hundred and fifty crystals brought to the surface had a greenish tinge to them. Shrugging, I gathered all this fabulous wealth into a pile. Yes, coruscans were very, very expensive - this set would be enough to realise the "change of leadership". Already on the shuttle there was time to consider my loot. Unfortunately, the deposit of koruski, despite its size, is not infinite, and this batch is about a quarter of the total volume.

I got one hundred and sixty-eight crystals, weighing more than five grams. After separating the defective crystals from the normal ones with Erdva, we packed them together in small bags, which in turn took their place in a sealed safe - a case made of freak, which had no closing mechanism or locks. Sealed by force. Still, such sums are a great responsibility for anyone, in case something happens on the way back.....

The way from Koros to Coruscant was really close - a little wandering in space, and there it was. The planet-city didn't seem to have changed over the millennia.

- Erdva, let's go down to Cinna," I turned to the droid and, grabbing the small case I'd formed a handle for, went to get ready to leave. Erdva was getting pretty good at piloting, and Kevin had already given my shuttle a government number, so I had no trouble landing, bypassing all the cordons and air defences without being inspected by customs.

The brothel during the day looked somehow quiet and dull - there was no night colour, no advertising lights, and the dancers were not twirling around the poles - only two of them were sitting somewhere near the bar and chatting about something. There were no customers.

I went inside, and immediately ran into a security guard. Two burly men in black robes with stun batons at their belts.

- I'm here to see Cinna," I called his attention.

- No master," one of them answered, turning away from me. Yes, Cinna must not have instructed his men. Ah, no, the second one bent down and whispered something in the ear of the first, after which I was allowed to pass.

Cinna really wasn't there, so I had to wait for him for a while. But I had time to look at the documents, another amendment to the legislation that I had to make. I happen to be too disloyal to some crimes. I'm the emperor here, I don't invite anyone who doesn't like my opinion into the empire.

Cinna arrived half an hour later and was surprised to find me in the corridor next to his door:

- Your majesty?

- Cinna," I nodded, "I'm here to see you.

- I'm sorry, your majesty, you didn't warn me....

- That's alright," I waved it off, "I didn't have to wait long.

The dweeb quickly went into the office, inviting me in and escorting his guard who was following him. When it was just the two of us, the botanist immediately asked:

- What can I do for you?

- At the moment, a lot," I grinned, "we have a lot of work to do. For now, I have brought money for the "change of leadership", - I put a briefcase on Cinne's desk, which contained an astronomical amount of money, - can you realise it? - I opened the briefcase, melting the top and watched the change of emotions on the nerd's face for a while. Cinna was speechless for about a minute, after which he sighed and stared at me:

- Your majesty... you can sell it, but such an operation will attract too much attention....

- Of course," I shrugged, "so you can sell on my behalf. Or find an agent to sell it, as long as you don't go public. And let them look at me, I've already got a lot of publicity... And it is desirable that open sources, such as the media, would not know anything.

- It's easy to do that, - nodded Cinna, - anyway, the leading sellers and resellers work on conditions of anonymity. True, I can't vouch for their security systems....

- All right, sell it, but not all of it at once, the most valuable ones should be dumped at once, so that they have enough money, and then we'll sell the little things as needed.

- But this is irrational, - Cinna resented, - selling the most valuable of the stones we will only increase the chance that someone will get to the real seller.

- Maybe," I nodded, "but if we start with the smaller ones, the resellers might not have enough money for the bigger ones.

- That's unlikely, - Cinna disagreed, - after they resell them, or in the form of jewellery, the reseller should have more money than the small ones are worth.

- Well... - I thought, - you can do that, but then you'll have to try to ensure secrecy.

- I'll do my best," Cinna nodded, "can I have it?

- You can," I nodded, "just make sure they don't try to cheat us," I frowned, "there's so much money here that anyone can go broke, and I won't be spared for trying to steal from the treasury...

Cinna nodded and took a couple of dozen crystals, setting them aside, and carefully placed the priceless box in the safe.

- The money has been dealt with," he commented, "I'm no expert in jewellery, but this lot should be enough for us to seize control of several major media outlets.

- I understand about the media, - I nodded, - tell me, how are you doing with the operations?

- It's not as bad as I expected," Cinna smiled and nodded, "the script is ready. We left something out last time, too many positive parts for the Antilles house. The Organa are to blame for what the dirt will be about and for trying to get rid of Antilles. The final scenario looks like this: It all starts with a small article in a major publishing house, that Bale Organa, allegedly involved in the rape of a certain girl. Let's go with a younger girl for the full impact. I've already got candidates for the job. After this seemingly harmless paid black PR, the victim herself comes forward, testifying against Bale Organ and hiding her identity. After that of course our media takes great pains to establish both her identity, that Bail Organa was in the same room with her, and even that there was no security footage. No one can prove anything. The victim then asks some government for political asylum and stays on a secondary planet. My specialists will change her appearance and some biometrics, and then she will go to work as my agent in another system. After the news reaches the front pages of the holonet, there will be an assassination attempt on Antilles. But the assassination attempt is foiled and the mercenary, who is even easier to find, will tell us in a few days how he was hired to kill the Antilles family. We'll have all the evidence and the facts, and therefore our media. After the assassination attempt, but before the mercenary opens the cards, there will be an assassination attempt on Bale Organ himself and the Organ family. There will be bloodshed.

- In that case, don't feel sorry for the Alderaanian aristocracy," I nodded, "I studied on Alderaan and I've seen enough of them. Sycophants, snobs, ostentatiously kind and downright disgusting. The current state of affairs in the galaxy is largely due to their society's influence on the ruling circles.....

- I couldn't agree more.

- And also, - I added, - if we eliminate the "old guard" and Lina will be easier, thanks to the lack of resistance among the aristocracy....

- That's right," Cinna nodded, "that's what we'll do. There will be a terrorist attack, say... at a public event. With the money and special means we have, we can pull it off without anyone realising. After that, we use our full media potential and blow the story wide open. After the mercenary, by the way, will draw the attention of the majority to the fact that the case did not start now, after that will follow dozens of articles about the entire chronology of the case and possible background. After the mercenary, bought by our news portals, will give out all the information on Antilles, the next batch of dirt will be thrown in. We won't have to buy weapons production, but a transport company that will smuggle weapons to supporters of the House of Organa and act to intensify civil wars favourable to Organa. After that, there will be some really big and well written articles denouncing both....

- Wait, what about the change in leadership?

- That's another topic. Before the first party even starts, movements against the royal house will start to gather momentum. Movements of all kinds, and we'll be funding some of them.

- Won't they see through it? - I raised an eyebrow.

- What do you mean, - Cinna waved away, - first of all, they won't know anything, and secondly, by that time most of the Alderaanian media will be on our side. So even if someone finds out that the movements are financed from outside, the people won't care about it. You have no idea how strange many intelligent races think - if something, however important, is not covered in the media, they quickly forget about it, but if something small is hyped up on all channels and portals, their attention is drawn to it. People, like nerds, have a tendency to switch attention, and if you don't mention something for more than two or three days, it, even if it's important, will be quickly forgotten.

- Okay, got it. You'll provide for the parties that are gaining momentum, right?

- We will. And the main ones will be those in favour of restoring the monarchy. By the way, my agents have already infiltrated all these parties and they're contributing small sums of money, about 5,000 weekly. The picture of the protest is this: at first the parties do not so much declare themselves as multiply their personnel. Among these personnel there will be about ten of my agents per hundred people - just the right number to control the crowd. After that there will be flash mobs, pickets, marches, for very peaceful purposes. All this is necessary to unite the parties together, to make the participants feel that they are involved in a common cause, to rub off on each other. So, training.

Cinna coughed and I took the opportunity to ask a question:

- How do we use them then? If the party leaders get wind of something, it'll be bad for us....

- Gradually my people will become party leaders - there are no groups with hierarchical relations. Even the monarchists stick to the traditions of elections and constant rotation of leaders. I have selected good people, all of them charismatic, with artistic abilities and a well-hung tongue. They will become leaders, I guarantee it, there is a certain art and leadership qualities. People will follow them and they will go where we tell them to go. It will start when the local media publishes scandalous information - some parties, such as the monarchists, will oppose it, organise a demonstration, and other parties will join in. Secondary political groups will merge into the monarchist party, turning it from a collection of students into a major political force. As events unfold, they will become increasingly dissatisfied with the two families, and will change their rhetoric from peaceful to calling for impeachment. They will be supported by secondary organisations that we will buy into, resulting in a large scale protest. After they have published articles about the dirty machinations of the Authority and Terrorism Antilles, our political forces, together with the media, will start a large-scale campaign to change the state system from a democratic one, which brought these people to power, to a monarchical one. When it will work - I don't know, maybe the Organs will last a day, maybe a month, but hardly more. They'll probably flee Alderaan.

- Great," I nodded, "that's exactly what I need. You said you've already sent men?

- Yes, one hundred and eighty people have already infiltrated, and have begun to support the party groups.

- When will the play be ready?

- It's all about the media," Cinna sighed, "It's when we get controlling stakes in at least two or three major news portals that we can start the game.

- In that case, we are working on it, - I nodded, - once the stronghold of Republican politics gets into our sphere of influence, our ability to influence the Senate will expand significantly. Not absolutely, of course, but at least in the Senate Koros will be represented by a large group, not just one senator....

- Speaking of which, - Cinna changed the record, - we need a representative from the Empire in the Senate.

- That's right," I thought for a moment, "I don't have a senator yet....

- 'For now,' Cinna repeated in my tone, 'it's de facto irrelevant. At least put someone to sit in on the meetings and vote....

- Okay, I'll do it," I nodded, "I don't think Julian will be happy, but he'll have to do some more work.

- Julian? Julian Cleavian? - Cinna wondered, "according to my dossier, he's the laziest man in the galaxy. I mean, he'll fall asleep in meetings...''

- Yeah, you're right. And that means either Julian needs to be retrained or we need to find someone else... - I would certainly put Ju in the senate, but I don't want to attract attention with my friend's negative behaviour. And the senatorial mantle is clearly not for him yet. I've decided to leave that problem for the future, and now I've turned my attention to another topic:

- Cinna, I'll deal with that later. I didn't come here by chance.

- Yeah?" the nerd stepped forward.

- There's something I need to resolve. It's not too urgent, but under the circumstances. You know, of course, about my adventures on Mandalore....

- Something," Cinna nodded, "what exactly is required of me?

- My newfound sister needs help. Of a personal nature, completely in secret. Secretly, she is in love with a man.....

The nerd stepped forward, and with a sigh, I continued: - they need to arrange a meeting. I promised to help Satine with this, but no one but the three of us must know. We need to make sure they meet and spend some time alone together.

- 'It can be done,' Cinna nodded, 'what kind of person?

- That's the problem. The task is complicated by the fact that this man is a Jedi. He's devoted to the ideals of the Order. Not too fanatical, but still, strongly. That's why I'm thinking about it. I have a scenario.

- It complicates things, but not that critical, - Cinna disagreed with me.

- The idea is this," I continued with a nod, "Satin Kriz is attacked. A man in dull armour and carrying a red lightsaber. A video of the attack gets to the Jedi, after which the Chancellor asks for Satine's safety and assigns a bodyguard.

- That sounds pretty organic," Cinna nodded, "but for what reason would that particular person be the bodyguard? Wouldn't that be decided by the Jedi themselves?

- The Chancellor will ask that it be someone already familiar with Satine. She and Ben Kenobi have known each other since childhood, so there should be no suspicion.

- All the better," Cinna nodded, "it's a good option. Why would the Chancellor stand up for the Duchess?

- For his own motives. I don't know what their relationship is, and my sister knows how to keep the Mandalorians in line.

- Well, I see no need for adjustments," Cinna agreed, "but what if the Jedi we need can't? Like, say, on a mission, or taking his apprentice?

- Yes, that could be a problem," I nodded, "but usually assignments don't last long. And an apprentice... we'd have to separate them. The Chancellor's request will help... and Ben was still an apprentice when I last saw him.

- When was that?

- A few years ago.

- That's a long time," the nerd sighed, "and I wouldn't recommend using the Chancellor to separate teacher and student. It might look too suspicious.

- In that case, I'll have to get involved and, in case Ben already has a Padawan, separate them. And then, if Satine's situation goes south, I can take my son and visit my sister, talk to Ben....

- That's an option too," Cinna nodded.

I got up from my chair and walked around the office of my chief special servant - Cinna did not deny himself comfort. There was a snack bar behind a large painting, a good view of the endless city, and the thickness of the windows, made of the same heavy-duty material as the portholes of ships, guaranteed safety from outside intruders. My flat in the Republican building had none of that, so I first thought about moving. Somewhere, in a fenced-in neighbourhood where the house was a fortress, protected by both thick armour and internal security systems.

Turning to Cinna, I looked at the nerd and said with a sigh:

- Well, I'll have to take part in my own intrigue as well. I'll leave you to it, you've got a lot to do as it is - sell the coruscans, buy the media, and there's a few other things you need to do....

- Yeah?

- I need a good banker. Given the rich deposits of valuable metals and minerals, it would be logical to create our own currency, don't you think?

- What's the point? - Cinna doesn't understand.

- The point is that we wouldn't be dependent on the fluctuations of the republican economy. At least the goods produced within the empire would go for our currency.

- This would likely lead to a higher exchange rate. Who needs a currency that can't be paid for outside the Empire?

- And this is a technical question, - I nodded, - if we, say, mint coins from singing steel? It's light, it looks beautiful and has its own value. We'll mint coins of ten grams, that's twenty credits, and if necessary, we'll be able to exchange cash and non-cash money for the same coins. We will limit the issue of non-cash money to the available stock of this steel. The problem with the hard standard is that additional issuance is difficult, and this leads to inflation, but we can avoid this by preventive issuance of large quantities. We can also solve the associated problems - singing steel is a super strong material that is almost immune to wear and tear, so additional emissions will be infrequent.

- Okay," the nerd raised his hands, "that's out of my area. What about our finance minister, Joy Ostrander?

- I was afraid to trust him. It's not that he's not professional enough, but you need a bank that can create a system of interoperability of currencies, issuance, distribution, creation of a whole monetary system. A financier is a bit different, you need a state bank and a specialist familiar with these issues.

- All right, I'll look for the right person," Cinna nodded.

- In that case... - I wondered if I had forgotten something else, - in that case, that's all.

I left Cinna's office, and then headed back to Koros. I had to grab the armour and the red lightsaber, and I also had to make an ostentatious assassination attempt.