Chapter Eighty

Deep into his mediation, Dooku had continued to go through his memories year after year, slotting them into place in his new mental plane, which in his case looked like a library. He had just gotten to an image of a Senate party he had been forced to attend with his old friend Sifo-Dyas, and suddenly gasped as the image of the banking clan chairman filled his mind, the words he had spoken to the two Jedi coming back to him with such clarity that Dooku knew the Force was telling him something.

The Muun, Hego Demask was his name, had attempted to warn the Jedi of the Senate, had talked about the Senate and the Jedi Order both falling into a trap of complacency. He had said that the Senate was collapsing in on itself, and the Order might follow.

There was more to it, but now, now Dooku sensed an undercurrent there, a current of controlled anger and avarice, even a hint of Force power which Dooku had not felt at the time. He knew. Dooku knew with certainty that the Force was telling him he had found the Sith Lord.

After a moment Dooku regained control of himself. I must be cautious. I must be centered in the Force before I undertake this task. I must prepare. I also, Dooku, thought, surprised to find a small smirk crossing his face, need to find the man in question.

With that in mind, Master Dooku absented himself from the training center, devoting his entire time to researching his target. Even now, however, the idea of asking for aid did not occur to him, or if it did, it was waved aside. Dooku might not have fallen to the Dark Side, but the guilt of how close he had come to doing so still haunted him.

OOOOOOO

Darth Sidious gasped, leaning forward in his throne as a trembling hand rose to wipe his face as blood streamed down from his nose and from his eyes. Now he was certain of it: having two masters was greatly dissipating the effect that they could get from the Veil. Yes, it wasn't quite strong enough for him to truly manipulate Jedi minds, if it ever became that powerful, but sending a specific force vision like that should've been easier. Sidious knew that he would have to spend an hour or so in the bacta tank to heal himself before once more donning his public guise. Nonetheless, it is done. Dooku knows about Plagueis and will take action against him.

All the connections between myself and Plagueis have been removed. As much of the superstructure of our Order is no longer connected to him as I can make it, although the Jedi might be able to discover some of his personal dealings with the Hutts and others. But the Hutts never saw my face, and they and others Plagueis have met have no notion of my existence. Dooku will strike, however he does, though I have no idea how he will go about it, and Plagueis will be removed.

I will have to move quickly after that to make certain that he did not try to clone himself and thus live forever via Transfer Mind. I doubt he has; the fool always looked down on that technique for some truly quixotic reason. Still, best to make certain. And I can also remove myself from Coruscant for a time so I am not even around when Dooku attacks him. The timing for that will need to be both exact and seem random, lest Plagueis somehow discern what I have done. Not that he will; the fool trusts me.

Sidious let himself chuckle evilly as he pushed himself back upright in his chair, shaking his head wearily. A Sith who trusts others! Truly, teacher, you were ever a flawed creature. It is time to remove the imperfection from the Sith Order and thus bring the Great Plan closer to fruition.

OOOOOOO

The next day the younger people returned to their daily lives of padawans and queen, meeting up with Master Fay and Lily back in the palace after Chewie and Malla had picked them up with the liner. Harry noticed that something had gone on between the two, but what it was he couldn't quite put his finger on. They seemed to be smiling at something when the quartet of youngsters returned to the capital city, so it must not be anything bad. Setting that to the side, Harry talked with a few of the technicians he had spoken to on Serenno and on the way here, while Aayla and the others talked with Padme and her two maids/friends, who had not joined them yesterday during Padme's day off.

"Then again, we're sensible. We have a day off every week!" Eirtae said tartly. She was slightly shorter than the other maids, with short-cropped blond hair and a tough, no nonsense attitude to her. Padme had mentioned once that she had been in the running for queen just like Padme, but they had become firm friends since. She was very good at organization and politics, but not so good with people or economics.

"Randomly, it must be said, and we normally just use it to go shopping or drop into bed unconscious for a few days," Sabe said, pushing Eirtae lightly in the shoulder.

"Well, at least on this trip you won't have to worry about her killing herself through overwork," Aayla laughed, winking at the two of them. Of the two girls, Eirtae was actually Aayla's age, whereas Sabe had just turned fifteen just like Padme.

By this time the Lucrehulk had been emptied of all the parts destined for Naboo, and hundreds of workers including dozens of Wookies were already working on emplacing the shield generator where the locals had begun work on a station. About half of the Wookies who had been transported to Naboo would be leaving with the Jedi and Padme's small group, taking command of the Lucrehulk that would be sent to Kashyyyk. That ship would remain there, and would probably be overhauled to an insane degree before beginning to ply the space ways between Kashyyyk and their colony world. The idea was to take the Jedi Order's new ship to Kashyyyk and then from there head back to Serenno, while Padme would bring back still more Wookie technicians to Naboo.

After saying goodbye to his acquaintances, Harry moved over to Chewbacca and his wife, eager to ask them questions about Kashyyyk which he hadn't been able to ask yesterday. That discussion drew in several of the other Wookie guards, those who were not on duty, anyway, and Master Fay and Lily, while the others continued to wait for the shuttle to be made ready. "It sounds fascinating," Lily said after a moment, with Harry providing the words for the Wookies. "Six whole different ecosystems! All set up like, like layers on a cake?"

That description had all of the Wookies howling in laughter, and Chewbacca replied through his guffaws, his voice coming from the translator device on his bandoleer and from Harry's Force-based translations. "Yes, perhaps the most poisonous cake in the universe! If you try to cut to the bottom of this cake, you'll die for certain. Very few Wookies have ever been to the planet's actual surface and lived to tell the tale."

"My mate is being far too humble," Malla interjected, chuckling and taking his hand in hers. She was a slightly smaller Wookie, with russet colored fur rather than brown like Chewbacca's, but it was only because of the number of beads she had in her hair and her slightly more dulcet tone of roar that Harry could tell the difference between a male and female Wookie anyway. "He has personally been to the Shadowlands and returned. It was a mark of great bravery," she said, gently touching the bandoleer Chewbacca wore across his chest.

Harry glanced at Chewbacca, then back at Malla before laughing. "Let me guess, it was for a girl? A certain, specific girl?"

Chewie chuffed with laughter, pushing Harry's shoulder playfully, or rather, playfully for a Wookie. Harry staggered backwards a step, but he was still grinning as the Wookie replied. "As if you wouldn't do anything different for that Twi'lek of yours!"

"True enough," Harry said with a laugh, turning as Padme, her two maids, and the other three padawans gestured them to the shuttles which would take them up to the Lucrehulks. Once in space the group split off, with the majority of the Wookies heading to one Lucrehulk, while Padme and the others joined Harry and company on theirs.

The living quarters on the Lucrehulk were just as large as the rest of the ship, redesigned over the past few months for a smaller crew, but with more space for each member of said crew. Each cabin was the size of the original captain's quarters. The group heading to Kashyyyk for the trade meeting had their own rooms, a small interconnected suite with one room entirely devoted to clothing and examples of trade goods. They needed it, because, as Padme said, "I will have to be dolled up in formal garb for my arrival there. Dammit."

Harry and Aayla showed the others around the crew quarters, but did not show even Padme the cargo bay that the two of them and Master Fay had slowly been working on over the past few months. After making sure the trio of Nabooans and the Wookies with them were happy with their quarters, Harry found Lily and Fay once more smiling at something together, Lily hovering over Fay's shoulder as they moved around the bridge.

They turned as he entered, and he smiled at them before gesturing around the bridge then back over his shoulder. "You know, we will eventually need a crew for this ship? Why don't we ask the Wookies for help while we're on Kashyyyk?"

"That's not a bad idea in the long term, Harry, but let's finish our work with that one hangar bay first," Lily said, nodding her head. "We have no idea how many people we will need eventually, after all."

"Indeed, I think that is actually quite an excellent idea long-term. I think we grossly underestimated how much mechanization we would need to operate this ship. The Nabooans thought they were doing us a favor removing all the droids and much of the operating code, but they really weren't. It will take time to change things around, yet it must be done."

"Maybe," Harry said thoughtfully. "Maybe. I have to wonder if maybe there are some ways we can use runic arrays to do the same thing."

"I doubt it, Harry," Lily said with a sigh. "The ship's too large, a lot of the interior bulkheads are already going to be covered with the expansion and durability charms, and there is only so much we can do with runes. Runes, after all, can't think, and a crew can do a lot better than even robots in a lot of ways."

"True enough," Master Fay said with a sigh. "And we will have to build up a crew that we can trust eventually. But not just yet."

"All right. It's not like we're about to be attacked, anyway," Harry said with a chuckle.

Lily's eyes rolled, and her hand came to rest on her face, shaking her head as Master Fay asked, "Why is that important?"

"It's just, the number of people we have aboard could never fight with these ships properly."

"Harry, we've talked about this! Why do you continue to say things to tempt the fates?"

Now it was Master Fay's turn to roll her eyes. "I still say that calling Harry the Force's Lancer is a better concept than simply blaming all his mishaps on such an ephemeral thing as luck, no matter if you stick your last name in front of it, my dear."

Lily laughed, shaking her head, while Harry blinked, thinking he had caught something in the words 'my dear' that hadn't been there before. "Harry might be the Force's Lancer, but that's simply a new style of Potter-like. I've told you his father and his grandfather all had the same kind of luck. Remember when I told you about a few of his adventures!"

Harry looked between them as the two continued to jibe and laugh, the feeling of his mother's laughter rolling over him. A Force Ghost's laughter was like that, almost like being near a Patronus, but not quite as powerful. "I don't get why you find that so funny, and I'm not certain I want to know what stories my mother's been passing on about my father." He winked at his mother, who giggled, before shaking his head. "Still, I actually agree with my mom on this one. I probably shouldn't have said that."