The Weaving Force: Chapter 67 (Patreon)

Chapter 67

Taylor:

“The bloody hell are these supposed to be?”

The whisper that was clearly not meant to be overheard, was of course, overheard.

I didn’t even have to look to know what Trooper 85 was asking about- most of my kids asked it at some point or another when they first saw them too.

“They’re called books.” I answered, adjusting the thermostat near the entrance. Siri always made it too cold.

The troopers straightened a bit, they still weren’t used to the fact that I could hear them regardless of how far I was in the room.

“Sorry ma’am.” One of them said.

“For what?” I shrugged. “Asking a question?” I started marching closer back towards my desk. “Think of them as dataslates. My homeworld wasn’t as advanced as yours, books until… relatively recently, were our way to store information.”

Not a lie. Sure, I was born in the digital age but my parents and definitely my grandparents hadn’t been. A tablet, hell a cell phone wasn’t something they were imagining when they were kids.

I could sense their curiosity so making it to them I pulled one thick hardcover. Mr. Lincoln, by Allen C. Guelzo. “Here.” I said passing it towards the trooper. “History from my homeworld. Fiction. Epic poems. Myths.” I gestured towards my mini-personal library.

Trooper 85 looked down at the book in his hand. “So we might learn more about you and your homeworld through these?”

“Partly.” I shrugged, casting an eye over the books. “My homeworld is… lost.” I answered carefully. “Another person from there, Alexandria has abilities like Vicky and I do, part of it is perfect memory of anything and everything she’s ever seen or experienced and so, wherever possible I’ve asked her to recreate the works of some of my favorite authors and subjects.”

Now some of the other troopers grew more curious, beginning to inch closer towards the bookshelf.

“Go on.” I encouraged with a nod. “We have time. Maybe you’ll find a favorite subject.”

I turned away, making it towards my desk; as the six troopers began leafing through the titles.

Soon enough all six of them had picked out something that interested them.

It occurred to me that; having been stuck on Kamino for the whole of their lives, they might genuinely be starved for outside stimulus beyond the military subjects they were inundated with day in and day out.

Even so, as they spread out through the room, some of them taking seats around the class, I felt a smile tugging at my lip.

They weren’t younglings, but the fact that they were ten and sitting around in a class for younglings reading books tickled my funny bone.

Still; all jokes aside, the discussion had me jot down a mental note to get any books or materials Alexandria had on military history. Given what we were up against back home- she must have a genuine library on that subject stuffed in her head somewhere.

Vicky and I would need to study up soon enough if the discussions around the temple were anything to go by.

Masters that had been on extended missions in the outer and mid rim were being recalled. Knights were being hauled out towards Kashyyyk by the crate load, Anakin and Obi-Wan would be heading out there as soon as possible for intensive drills to be conducted. A crash course on personal combat if you will.

The only thing that so far hadn’t happened, by the sole voice of Master Yaddle’s vehement insistence to the contrary, was the Knighting of Senior Padawans to fill in the ranks that had been lost.

To assuage your own guilt at sending them to fight this is. Not because they are ready. Murder by another name, it is.

That had shut down the conversation pretty firmly. For now anyway.

I suspected it would be brought up again before too long.

I busied myself, catching up to work that had piled up since I’d been away. Listening to the kids, watching over Siri and the other creches. The scratch of my pen over the dataslates in front of me was a soothing routine, familiar… distant from everything that had happened.

When I felt Vicky making her way down here the trance-like calm evaporated and I was almost antsy in my seat before finally seeing her walk through the door.

“How’d it go?” I asked.

Vicky gave me a look that was somewhere between amused and knowingly suspicious.

“Hey guys.” She greeted the clones before catching sight of their books, smirking. “Homework already Miss Teacher?” She snickered; then paused, getting a… creative look on her face.

I rolled my eyes

A ten year old. I mentally bemoaned. I fell for a freaking ten year old.

She must’ve caught sight of my expression and knew that I knew- because she was smiling, insufferably pleased with herself.

She made her way over, floating past the others before reaching the side of my desk.

“How did it go?” I asked again.

She raised a very arched eyebrow.

“Tay.” She answered flatly. “I know you were spying.”

“I didn’t have a single bug on you!” I protested.

“Yeah but I did see the fly on the collar of healer Shao’s very light colored robe today.” She answered archly. “You know. Just sitting there. Completely still as flies do.”

Not for the first time I cursed my inability to see things through my insects.

I turned away. I was not pouting… nor mulish. Nor lying. “I was out of range.”

“Uh-huh.” She took a breath and then plopped herself down on my lap, the full weight of her... everything, interrupting my breathing as the seat rolled back a bit.

“The Surgery process is gonna be a bit more complicated than normal.” She said. “I have to stay awake to concentrate on keeping my force field down. But its doable.” She answered.

“And the risks?” I said, my legs crawling the seat forward, one hand holding onto her, mostly for my own needs rather than hers, Vicky could just fly before she was ever at risk of falling down to the floor.

My other hand reached out, over and past her legs to keep grading papers

“Minimal.” She assured. “Like, it's surgery, there are always risks, especially with me needing to be conscious. But cybernetic replacements are a well known tech. And I'm not the first to need to stay conscious. Some species can't be sedated like humans anyway. Hmmm-” She paused, thinking for a moment before smiling. “It’ll be cool to have a laser eye!”

Again, I had to roll my eyes. “You can’t get a laser eye”

“Says you!” She stuck her tongue out at me. “Just picture it! Master Mundi being annoying? Zap, someone cuts in line? Zap. Anakin trying to take control of the ship again? Zap!”

“Tempting.” I answered drily. “But last I checked your forcefield won’t exactly be making an exception so, you’ll likely just be zapping your own bubble out of existence from the inside and burning half your face off for the trouble.”

…

…

“... Details.” She dismissed with a careless wave of her hand. “Still, I can make you happy. Backup plan is X ray eye!”

She gave me a very obvious once over.

I groaned, facepalming.

Ten. Years. Old. Forever!

“You know you love me.” Her toothy grin was wide.

Before I could answer appropriately, something slipped into the edge of my range, causing me to pause.

She noticed immediately. Our little game ending early. “What’s up?”

“Speak of the Devil-” I said. “And she shall appear-”

—

“I’d like to begin by assuring you Master Plo- the Mandalorian Government nor are the people it represents at all affiliated with the terrorists that were involved in the attack against your order.”

The Duchess of Mandalore didn’t bow per se, but her head was lowered, hands clasped in front of her.

“I understand.” Master Plo nodded. “Master Fay assured me of such the moment we re-established contact.

The aforementioned Fay sat to one side of the Duchess, a Sephi who had a calm placidity about her that bordered on the eerie, at least to me.

And on the other side-

“If that is the case.” Alexandria cut in. “Might we perhaps discuss mutual cooperation between our two organizations to bring members of this terrorist group to justice.

She was calm, calmer than she’d been the last time we’d met face to face, that in turn made me tense.

We weren’t enemies. We’d both buried the hatchet. But I don’t think I could ever allow myself to feel anything but tense around an Alexandria that felt she was in control.

“A proposal, you have?” Master Yaddle questioned.

Alexandria tossed a look towards the Duchess who nodded, her features tight.

Having seemingly received permission, Alexandria leaned back in her seat. “It seems clear to us that this attack was meant to fracture our newly established cooperation. The Jedi enclave on Mandalore is the most recent of your expansions and the most politically tenuous apart from Zygerria. As such it follows that this attack was meant to divide us irrevocably for at least another generation.”

“I follow your logic.” Master Plo nodded. “Your solution?”

“The Jedi are moving onto a war footing.” Alexandria said. “But you have not been part of a genuine full scale war until long before living memory…”

I connected the dots before she said it, I sensed Master Yaddle had too.

“Mandalore however does have experience of that nature in abundance”

A shocked silence filled the room.

“You would send us soldiers?” Plo Koon asked.

“Officers.” The Duchess corrected, quickly- perhaps too quickly. Like she was ready for it, or had been biting her tongue to keep from bursting. “We would send you officers… Men and women who know how to command, who know tactics of modern battlefields.” They can help lead your clones, and educate Jedi, if they’re willing and receptive, to lead men in a similar way.”

“War has evolved quite a bit since the last time Jedi moved into open warfare.” Alexandria added.

“And what do you think of this Master Fay?” Plo asked, turning towards her.

The Sephi woman startled, pointing towards herself like she wasn’t sure she was being addressed before tittering nervously.

“Well, forgive me Master Plo err-”

“It was her idea.” Alexandria stated rather bluntly.

—

I’m not sure which one of us ‘cornered’ the other in the end. Master Plo and Master Yaddle promised to get in touch with their reply before the Mandalorian delegation returned to Mandalore- but insisted they needed to confer with the rest of the council for this decision. Vicky was escorting Satine towards Obi-Wan who she’d asked after

And that just left us.

We were standing by one of the large window panes of the upper halls, overlooking the city of Coruscant in the distance. As usual, neither of us looked directly at the other. It was… easier- that way, for both of us I think.

“Cook is missing” She began. “And with him, your previous Master and Grandmaster, Yoda and Windu.”

“You looking for them too?” I asked.

“Of course.” She nodded. “Yoda and Windu provide… stability. And if Mandalore finds them it’ll go a long way to repairing damaged relations.”

“No care about Dennis or Rugess at all huh?” I tried not to sneer, but she could likely hear it in my voice.

“I doubt Mr. Cook would care for my concern if he knew it existed.” She answered.

I let out a huff of air through my nostrils. “Are you saying it does?”

“Is that so unbelievable to you?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer that

After a moment, she cut to her original point. “Have you been following the politics at all?”

I decided to be honest. Even if I wanted to lie, she’d likely see through it after a few exchanges. Just because she had difficulty reading me didn’t mean she was stupid. “Not particularly. It’s been… a hectic few days.”

“Hn.” She made an irritated sound. “It won’t surprise you to learn then- that the Confederacy of independent systems- the group that attacked you; have released their spin on the situation.”

“Took them a while-” I said.

She corrected me. “More like it took a while for coverage of Corellia itself to make room on the holo-net.” She crossed her arms. “Long and short of it- they’re claiming the attack as a pre-emptive strike against a clear military build up against their own interests.”

“You can’t be serious.” I scoffed.

Alexandria huffed out a laugh. “Can’t I?” Her humor was black as coal. “You know how this works. Lies travel around the planet twice before Truth can even lace up its boots.”

I grit my teeth. “We had no army! There were kids there!” My kids!

“You did.” She countered with a shrug. “Nearly two thousand Jedi, another two thousand clones, the Corellian fleet. Optics wise, its a significant force. Or can two thousand Jedi not take a military target or two?”

I didn’t bother to answer, the question was rhetorical.

She continued. “The fact is, to the outside observer, a Jedi gathering, with a full batallion of clone infantry doesn’t seem like something that would be done for the equivalent of a convention.”

“And the Civilian bombings?” I asked. “They leveled a chunk of Coronet city!”

“Unfortunate Collateral caused by the crashing of the Valorum onto the city itself, the rest, caused by the Jedi and their force powers.”

“This is such bullshit.” I sneered.

“Maybe.” Again, another shrug. “Fact is, with so few of them- less than two percent of the galaxy has ever seen a Jedi in person. Let alone have a grasp of who they are, or what they can do. So for all the Confederacy cares- they can say you fired heat vision from your eyeballs and few people will have the knowledge or the interest to refute it. On the planets they control, they control the media and if you control the media-”

“You control the narrative.” I growled. “Control the narrative and you can run with a lot of bullshit for a long while.”

I felt her nod, a noncommittal ‘Hmm’ in her throat. We both knew where I’d learned this from.

“Other governments?” I asked. “Anyone supporting them?”

“Not many.” She answered. “But not many are exactly rising to support the republic either. Its made many enemies of Mid Rim and Outer Rim worlds over the years and, frankly, seeing one of the silver spoon core founders get taken down a notch or two is something they’re enjoying.”

I shook my head, closing my eyes as I took a breath.

“Don’t be indignant.” She interjected. “You of all people know what it is to want to see others who’ve wronged you get taken down some, even if you yourself didn’t act on it.”

I opened my eyes, turning and finally looking at her. She was still staring out the window.

“Even if you’re right-” I answered- no use getting into an argument over an ultimately pointless comment. “What matters now is 'What can we do about it?'”

“For now- not much.” She shrugged. “Galactic scale issues are a bit beyond the capability of one or two people, even people like us to resolve overnight. This resentment has been boiling under the surface for years and even though the Confederacy is mostly composed of corporations fueled by greed, there is genuine feeling within the ‘true believers’ on the ground level. The Republic, to them is a tyranny.”

I frowned. “I know you.” I said. “You’ve already thought of ways to… deal with this.”

“I have.” She acknowledged. “Lets just say I don’t believe you’d like my answers any more than Satine would if I’d have bothered to voice them.”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“Trying to be a better person is a step by step process I’ve found.” She shrugged. “I’ll let you know when step two isn’t to ‘ignore your reflexive answer’

“Hah!” The comment startled a sharp bark of laughter out of me.

I could relate.

We fell into silence after that.

Finally, after a minute or so, she broke it again.

“Your exploits are on the holo-net you know.” .

I offered a shrug. “Does it matter?”

“It might.” She said. “You know how this works. Escalation. You and Dallon have shown your hand, now they’ll look for ways to beat what they’ve seen and you’ll try to find ways to beat that and on and on until one side is dead.”

She was right but-

“Why lecture about it now?" I asked. “We did what we had to do to survive.”

“You did-” She conceded. “And its not a lecture. Just… a reminder. Wether you believe it or not, I’d rather you not lose everything you’ve built here.”

I still didn’t look at her. “So this is you telling me to be careful?”

“Yes.” She answered bluntly. “I don’t know what you did on Corellia, but I know you didn’t have that much range even on your best day. Enough insects to interfere with orbital targeting…” She shook her head. “You did something to achieve that. And from experience things like that tend to come with a price.”

She was right and still- “I’ll pay it… if I have to.”

We said nothing for a time.

Then, she nodded. “For what it's worth- I do not hope you die”

And she left, after a moment, I left too, back to my creche, my kids.

Tomorrow was another day.

(X)(X)(X)

Ok so as many of you can guess the "Favorite book/author" option won out in the poll for the clones names, and so now here we have a reason that they'll take those names :)I will be comandeering 1 slot for the name Guelzo. Not many of you may know this but I'm a big history buff and a big Lincoln Fanboy and Allen C. Guelzo was my introduction to both these things and so, I will be stealing one name slot for Mr. Guelzo :pI feel like taking a second slot specifically for an "Epic Poem" character, just so we break up a bit the "uniformity" and its not all author names. I'm particular to Siegfried and Cid personally but let me know what you all think would be a good character from those edas and poems to yoink a name from. The other four slots are completely free on authors/characters from their particular books so feel free to leave your ideas/favorite authors down in the comments below, the top 4 based on 'likes' received will likely end up being the names (Tolkien is out)

Also, I feel relatively safe in confirming 2 chapters left for the end of this arc. Might change of course but I'm about 80% confident in that estimate