Chapter Seventy

Master Ranicisis looked up from his meditation. he had not left the High Council's room for several days, preferring to eat and drink what little he needed here for a time as he got used to the workload of becoming Master of the Order. His respect for Master Windu had tripled in that time, as the amount of paperwork and organization that went into this position simply astonished him. He had begun, however, to slowly re-mold the position already, forcing other Council members to take up some of the position's paperwork and oversight of the Councils of First Knowledge, Reassignment, and Reconciliation.

Handling the council of First Knowledge Master Yoda and Yaddle were remarkably well-suited for, though both, of course, also had other jobs. He had also tasked Master Gallia to oversee the Council of Reassignment, so that further missions like the one Padawan Secura had been on would never even be considered without numerous and multiple backups in place.

Ranicisis was meditating on a few other mission requests coming from the Senate directly to him rather than to said Council, when the signal of an incoming Holonet call roused him. When the holographic screen in the center of the room popped into place, he saw Master Dooku on the other end in a very primitive holographic device, showing that it was not a full signal array.

Immediately upon seeing the old human master Ranicisis began to speak. "Master Dooku, I have a report here that you and the Chancellor were working together on some kind of project recently? Is this what this call is about?"

"That particular objective is actually finished, but it landed us a lot of information that I think the Order needs to follow up on. It seems that the Black Sun is not nearly as dead as we could hope, and powerful players within it are trying to reform it under their banner."

Master Ranicisis listened as Master Dooku went into detail on the interrogation of the man they had captured. His name was Dorset, and he was very high up in what was becoming known as the Falleen crime family. As Dooku said, they were trying to take over all of the Black Sun's disparate, splintered groups. As one of their highest members and one who supplied them all with material and slaves, Dorset knew everything about them: every contact they had, everything, including a lot of their illegitimate businesses and the number of senators who were on the take. There were even a few entire governments who were implicated in Dorset's information.

This was without a doubt the largest windfall of knowledge in terms of the criminal underbelly the Jedi Order had seen in the past thirty years. Ranicisis knew it, and knew they would have to act on it quickly. "Very well. And you say Knight Quinlan Vos will be arriving here on Coruscant with a full readout of the report soon?"

"Knight Vos has already left, so he should be there within a day at most."

"Excellent. That gives me time to talk with the Chancellor and free up enough Consulars and Sentinels to move on the planets you have mentioned in groups of three or more."

Dooku's eyebrow visibly rose in the pickup despite the poor quality of the image. "Truly, that large a force?"

"Indeed. When you have pulled one thread, you don't stop until the entire spider web is pulled apart," Ranicisis said solemnly. "The Consulars will grab everyone's attention before we actually arrest the individuals involved. The Sentinels will get to work on figuring out their contacts and hacking into their computer systems to follow that specific threat to more. Indeed, given the number of threads you have given us we might need help on that aspect, hence my need to meet with the Chancellor.

"Well done, Master Dooku," Ranicisis said after falling silent for a moment. "I had concerns about the original concept behind the attack because you allowed so little information out before launching it, but it has definitely served your purpose and ours." He nodded his head at the far younger man, who bowed his head formally, his hands pressed together in front of his chest.

There had been a time when Dooku and Master Ranicisis had not gotten along. Master Ranicisis had thought young Padawan Dooku arrogant, and youngling Dooku even worse. Indeed, he had found Master Dooku and his quest for knowledge which was beyond that allowed to the Jedi as a sign of arrogance which could all too easily lead him to the Dark Side. But that was in the past, and Dooku had matured quite well in the past few years. "We will talk more later about a project Master Windu said you were working on. But for now I think I need to get on this."

Dooku nodded, and they connection ended.

For a few more moments Ranicisis sat in silent thought, before inputting the command to contact the Chancellor's office and telling the Nabooan native that Ranicisis was on his way over.

OOOOOOO

The Chancellor leaned back, staring into the distance thoughtfully, and for once the thoughtful expression on his face was not feigned. "You're talking about corruption on the greatest level here, or at least that is what you are hinting at. I will want to see a transcript of this Falleen Dorset's interrogation. I trust there was no actual torture involved? I realize I shouldn't have to ask, but it is part of a pro forma after all."

"Of course not, though I understand, of course, why you asked," Ranicisis said, nodding his head equably. "However, we must move on this quickly."

"Yes, we must…" Inside Sidious his mind was awhirl with the possibilities.

Plagueis was not yet on Coruscant, he had stopped over at Waypoint to drop off the cloning cylinders he had bought from the Kaminoans, as well as to check on a few of his projects. Sidious was rather irritated by that; he had hoped to finally do away with the old man, but Sidious knew Plagueis well enough to know that he'd remain there for a time simply tinkering around his precious projects. Yet this left Sidious alone to act on this information, which was all to the good in his mind. As it was, it left Sidious to handle this unexpected windfall.

For the next few hours he and Ranicisis worked together to put the forces, both Jedi and Republic inspectors, in place to watch the names and planets Dorset's interrogation had given them. They did not move on the senators he had named, however, because Palpatine had bluntly told Ranicisis there was no way they could indict them on the evidence they had. Both senators were respected by their peers and came from powerful Core World systems, and there had not been a hint of any wrong doing there.

However Palpatine decided that after all the other contacts had been used as much as possible to find other, as Ranicisis put it, threads, the Chancellor would let loose the information about the two senators to the rest of the Senate through a few back room cutouts. Once they knew someone had the information, the two would either batten down or flee. If they fled that would be enough of a sign of guilt to move against them directly. If they battened down or showed any sign of being prepared for it, then this would allow Palpatine the chance to see what senatorial aides, workers, or others were on their payrolls, and thus help him in cleaning house.

Elsewhere, this information would allow the Chancellor to force the recall of two Ord-system admirals and several Sector Governors. This in turn would allow him to put his own people in their places, thus making the Sith's position even stronger through the Jedi's own actions. He would even be able to do so without Plagueis knowing, which was all to the good.

This, Sidious thought as he leaned back in his chair as Ranicisis left hours later, this is the exaltation! The Jedi are so intent on doing good, so intent on serving the Republic. But every time they do, every time they move against something they perceive as a threat, I can turn it to my advantage so easily! This so a sign that the Force itself, not just the Dark Side but the Force as a whole is turning to me, creating opportunities like that. The Force in its entirety is on my side. My ascension is the future, and the Jedi have none!

Yet even as Sidious thought that, there were other things in motion that would not have pleased him at all if he could but know the long term ramifications...