Chapter Sixty Three

While the two youngsters were talking with their friend, the others went about the various tasks they needed to do to prepare for an operation of this size. Quinlan was procuring a ship for the Jedi, while Komari was contacting the local starfighters, making certain the pilots chosen to form the nucleus of the expanded starfighter corps were ready to leave for Kuat instantly. Now that they had a target, as had been discussed in the meeting earlier that day, instead of returning from Kuat with their starfighters these men and women would instead perform various military exercises before returning for an aerial parade over the capitol city.

Their logbooks would be changed to reflect this, and indeed, even the starfighter pilots themselves were told this was going to occur. What none of them knew was that the Jedi, Vosa in this case, would meet them at their first layover out of Kuat, and then from there they would head to Naboo.

While his former padawan worked on that aspect of the mission, Count Dooku contacted a friend in the Republic to get them some more ship-type backup. A friend who has certainly bettered himself since the last time they had talked. "Congratulations on your recent elevation, Chancellor Palpatine," Dooku said, smiling slightly as the pickup began to record.

The man on the other side of the recording smiled as well. "Thank you. Though if I had known exactly how much paperwork I would have to do as Chancellor I'm not certain I would've acceded to the nomination. I don't think I've left my office since returning from Naboo two nights ago, and I am certain that my bloodstream has been replaced by caffeine by this point."

"Such are the joys of bureaucracy," Dooku said with a slightly wider smile, which disappeared as he got down to business. "We have a lead on an…issue…that may grow into a very large one, one that I have to refuse to discuss on a Holonet relay, because there is evidence to suggest that our target group has somehow suborned people in the relay systems."

"That is a very harsh charge given that neutrality is part of the HRS's charter," the Chancellor said slowly, leaning back in his chair in the pickup, his hands coming up to rest on the table in front of them in a pyramid as he tapped his fingertips together. "Indeed, the very idea would cut at the heart of one of the pillars of the Republic: that information and news, while censored or given spin, will at least be accurate in some fashion. You have evidence, I presume?"

"Not evidence against an individual, but evidence of the fact of duplicity, yes. However, we might also be producing a lead to the source of this pustule, but that will require naval aid to lance. As such I need a force that you can free up with no one the wiser."

"That narrows down the choices tremendously, my friend, and you have no idea about the amount of paperwork or clearances I would need to send even a small flotilla out from one of the Ord system patrol fleets. Still…it is possible," Palpatine mused. "The sector fleet that I called in to deal with Naboo's embargo by the TF has remained in that sector, performing various anti-piracy training exercises. I could redirect a squadron of cruisers, though questions would be asked if we have nothing to show for it."

"That will be perfect in many ways. Again, I don't want to give out too many details, but we will be basing our chase of this group out of Naboo."

"I see." Inside Sidious was thinking hard, wondering what this was about, but the inclusion of Naboo gave him a clue. The slaves, they found a way to trace them, and it's led into a much larger issue. Could it be connected to the various piracy activities out there that are not under my or Plagueis's control?

Sidious and Plagueis had both known that there was some other player in the game out there, but hadn't really cared because their activities had given their own, far more clandestine activities significant cover. Now that the game seemed to be up on whoever it was, Sidious would remove some of his tools from the area, and this action could be used to further cover that exodus. Further, any action launched from Serenno against the privateers who were actually acting as pirates out there could be used to sow discord and bad feeling between the two sectors, something that could be used to good effect down the line.

And on the other side of the scale, working with the Jedi on this will show that I am a friend of the Jedi, allowing me to further worm my way into their confidence and let me keep on acting as a friend to Dooku, even if he is no longer even close to falling into my earlier designs for him. It will also win me both more respect in the Senate for my swift action, and further aid to my my public stance of being an "ethical" individual who isn't afraid to act. Yes, I don't see a downside to this.

Aloud he said, "Very well my friend, I will trust you on this." He typed something in on his desktop computer, his fingers disappearing out of view of the bottom of the pickup, and a series of letters and numbers flashed on the screen over his image. "That is the communication line to the cruiser squad in question. It will prove you have my approval to abscond with them from the rest of the fleet for up to a week's time."

"Thank you my friend. You won't regret it."

"I'm sure I won't, my friend," Palpatine replied, nodding his head. After the connection cut off Sidious smiled evilly, leaning back in his chair as he let his mask fall away for a brief moment. "I'm sure I won't."

OOOOOOO

True to their word, the group of Jedi arrived on Naboo early the next day and were greeted by Obi-Wan and Padme as clandestinely as could be contrived, which unfortunately wasn't very much. "I'm sorry the spaceport controller wouldn't let you down without calling the palace over the official channels, but after the invasion they're all rather jumpy about unscheduled arrivals. I hope that won't be enough to tip off our enemies that you are on the case, as it were, but I can't promise that."

"Connecting our presence to our purpose should be quite impossible," Master Fay said, smiling lightly at the young woman as Lily looked over her shoulders, causing Obi-Wan to start in surprise, not having been around her before. "You're looking much better than you did over the Holonet, my dear. Much less pasty…" she teased.

"Yes, well, that isn't saying much now, is it?" Padme quipped. Unlike when they talked over the Holonet, Padme was not wearing her formal garb. Indeed, she was posing as one of her own handmaids out on an errand at present, with the others running interference for her so she could meet the Jedi. And instead of leading them up to the reception area, she led them into a small unused room where they could talk informally.

"And now that we have gotten the moment of levity over with, what do you need from me to retrieve my people?" Padme asked intently as she sat down, the girl disappearing, subsumed by the worried queen.

"I will require the heading of the initial jump of this small flotilla, and then a place to meditate. Master Obi-Wan and Master Dooku may join me in this, but quiet and that first step will be all important," Fay replied, matching Padme's seriousness with her own.

"Meanwhile, we will require food and a ship large enough to rotate a group of starfighter pilots through to rest after their journey to the rally point. We could also use any actual aid you can lend us from your starfighter force and the lift capacity to transport your people home. Are your starfighters hyperspace capable?" Dooku asked.

Padme nodded, but before she could speak Lily broke in, causing all the Jedi to look up to where she hovered beside her son. "Actually, there is one aspect of this operation none of us have talked about yet."

Across from Lily, Padme looked confused for a moment before sighing and doing the same. "This whole not seeing you can get rather old with repetition, Mistress Lily."

"Sorry, dear," Lily said, having seen Padme's expression, which Harry dutifully relayed, causing Padme to roll her eyes, indicating with one hand that they should just get on with things. Lily did so, looking around at the Jedi. "Does this Republic fleet have a ground force as well?"

For a moment the Jedi fell silent, then all of them, even Dooku, groaned. Dooku's hand came up to smack his forehead. "How could we have missed that!? Of course! We Jedi might be assault troops, but we can't be everywhere, and we certainly are not built to hold large swaths of area."

"You will also need a large medical corps ready to follow up whatever breach you make to see to the slaves you find, if nothing else," Lily went. "Back on Tatooine most of the slaves had those obedience chips installed, the ones that would explode if they did anything their master didn't like or traveled too far from him. Won't we want to remove those as quickly as possible?"

"That makes far too much sense for us to ignore," Quinlan muttered ruefully while Harry relayed what Lily had said. "However, doing so while in a combat environment would be impossible."

"I agree on that point, but I think we can actually help there. I have several thousand doctors who are rated for that kind of surgery worldwide, and you said you would need lift capacity to transport the slaves back home?" Padme asked with a faint smile. "I just happen to have four Lucrehulk super-mammoth cargo ships in my possession. One of those should do nicely, don't you think? We might not be able to fight with the ship, we don't have enough trained crew, but getting it to where you want will be simple enough."

"As for a landing force, I think I know where we can go get one of those," Dooku said, stroking the end of his well-manicured beard thoughtfully for a moment. "Even better, I know that at least on their end there won't be any leak…"

The other Jedi looked at him quizzically, and Dooku smiled faintly. "Let me keep it a secret until they actually arrive, please. But for now, could I make use of your Holonet, Padme?"

"Of course. I'll show you to a room where you can connect to it. Master Obi-Wan, I believe you've already collected the data you'll need for the…group meditation or whatever it is you call it. You could also use your room for that meditation."

Obi-Wan nodded and led the way out the door, with Master Fay and Quinlan following him.

OOOOOOO

Despite most Jedi having been taught to reach out to the Force in the same manner, a lot of Jedi developed small, minute differences in the way they interacted with the Force. Master Fay was no exception, though she was a more extreme sort of exception to that rule than most. Her method of asking the Force for guidance was very, very different.

Most Jedi searched the Force for the answers they were looking for, which was somewhat harder than her method, though you didn't run into as many issues with interpreting the information that came your way. Master Fay, however, sent her consciousness out into the Force, like a fisherman using a fishing line. The answer, the fish in this analogy, would come to her. Whereas with most Jedi, they were the fish trying to hunt for a single bit of information sailing past them in the Force.

The Veil was making both methods far harder. Every month that went past Fay could feel the darkness swirling, slowly shutting down even her ability to see the future. She could still look into the future a few months ahead, but everything beyond that was a black morass. Yet there were even hints even now that the darkness could be turned back. She clung to them at times when she was trying to see the future.

But right now Fay wasn't interested in the future. She was interested in the present, and discerning a specific bit, or rather specific bits, of information. This called for a slight change in Fay's methodology. Rather than simply sending her thoughts out like a fishing line, she tried to control where the fishing line went. Fay's normally open mind shut down to all but that particular bit of information.

Slowly Fay found the information she was looking for. Her hands, which had been perched over a clipboard in her lap, began to move of their own volition. She wrote down the information, a series of plotted headings that the flotilla had taken after the initial jump, and then Fay found information about the destination, as much as she could find.

The location of their target was a system with brown dwarf star. Fay could see it clearly in her mind, the image coming closer as her mind journeyed into the star system. It should have been lifeless, but quixotically the system contained a few scattered planetoids. They were tiny things by most standards, but they were there.

As Fay's perception came closer to one of them under the control of the Force rather than herself, she saw several major bio-domes erected on its surface. Above them was a star fortress, a large space station built to defend the installation below. In the distance she could see the glimmering of starships moving around the planet, their forms unseen for now, but there were a lot of them.

Opening her eyes, Master Fay looked at Vos and Obi-Wan, who had come out of their own entrances moments ago and had been looking at her ever since. Obi-Wan shook his head slowly, awed by the other Master's abilities. Master Fay looked down at the image, scowling a little. "I could wish that my ability with the Force lent me an ability with pen and paper, but such is not the case."

"At least your writing is neat," said Quinlan dryly, smiling at the older woman. "We have a target then. I will look through the Jedi archives of this sector, see if I can figure out where this system is located. If we don't have to follow the entire route, we could save quite a bit of time..."