Jaina Solo Fel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
solo_sword) wrote2014-08-28 09:30 am
solo_sword) wrote2014-08-28 09:30 am
The Jedi Temple- Coruscant- Thursday morning
The break-in was the lead story on the holonews today, and Jaina was relieved that they didn't seem to have much of anything to connect it to Darkmeld. They identified Seff, and assumed the objective had been to break Valin out, and they knew that there was a female Jedi who aided Hellin's escape.
It did leave Kenth Hamner in an awkward position, though, and he'd had to hold a press conference on the steps of the Temple earlier to deny any Jedi involvement. He was also paid a visit by Captain Harfard of the Alliance Security-Jedi Order interactions at the main entrance, where anyone nearby- including Jaina- could hear their words as they headed to Kenth's office.
"Where is Jedi Hellin?"
"I do not know, and that is the truth," Kenth replied.
"Why didn't you tell us that Jedi Hellin had gone rogue, that he would stage a rescue attempt?" Harfard pressed.
"We told you he had 'gone rogue," Kenth said patiently. "We told you, when we provided you the list of all the active Jedi, that he was no longer maintaining contact with the Temple and was pursuing his own agendas. Hence, 'gone rogue.' We don't know his plans."
"Who was the female Jedi, the one who rescued him from Dhidal Nyz?"
"We don't know her identity. We don't know that she was a Jedi."
"She was using a lightsaber!"
"So does Zilaash Kuh, who works with you."
"Kuh's whereabouts last night are very well known," Harfard said.
"My point is that not everybody with a lightsaber is a Jedi," Kenth explained. "The recordings I saw cannot even prove that the subject you're looking for was either human or a woman. Take a lean man and pad his clothes properly-"
They stopped at the turbolift to wait for the car, with Harfard angrily shaking his head. Really, he should have waited till they'd gotten to the office if he was going to be like this. "You'll wish you had been more cooperative," he hissed. "The next step is going to be tracking devices. Implanted in every one of you Jedi."
Master Hamner stood straight and spoke very quietly, so that Jaina couldn't hear from where she was standing. She saw Captain Harfard stiffen, and when the turbolift car arrived they stepped inside and disappeared behind its doors.
The closest Jedi to Jaina was Kolir, a female Bothan. "I wonder what the Master said," Jaina stated.
"He said, 'I would be privileged to show you where such a device might be implanted,'" said a voice right behind her.
She turned to find Dab standing there, peering into the screen on his holocam. "Good answer," she said. "Informative, yet insulting."
Dab grinned at her, and dropped his voice so that only she could hear him. "You know, I'm not stupid."
Uh oh. "I never said you were," Jaina told him.
"They're looking for a female mystery Jedi. And there we were last night, not half a klick from the scene of the crime, and you were out of my sight for, well, quite a while… If I had mentioned all that to the captain as he walked by, he'd be pretty sure he knew who the mystery woman was."
Jaina really, really hoped this wasn't going to lead to blackmail. "Then why didn't you?"
"My job is to tell the authorities what I know about the Jedi. Not what I suspect," he said, looking straight at her. "My lifelong job as a documentarian is to show the truth and expose lies. If I conclude that the position of my employers- that the Jedi have to be reined in for the sake of society- is a lie, it sort of puts me in an awkward position." He shrugged. "So I don't speculate. I try to figure out what the right thing to do is, and then do it."
She began to relax a bit. "Very much like a Jedi."
"Maybe."
"Thank you for not speculating, Dab."
Dab nodded, and said, "So tell me about Tahiri Veila. After I left you two last night, did she talk about me?"
Jaina's jaw dropped for a second as her brain struggled to deal with that subject change. "Dab, you need to stay away from Tahiri."
"Why?"
"Because you look- you look like-"
"I look like your brother Anakin, and they were together just before he died, and since then something about him has messed her up," he said. "Not surprising. Young love and tragedy. I've heard the stories. But I'm not Anakin Solo. I don't feel I should have to bear the burden of all that he did."
"No, you shouldn't," Jaina conceded. "But Tahiri-"
"I won't hurt Tahiri."
"Yes, you will." Just him being around would hurt her. She'd seen that last night.
"I've liked her ever since I met her on Borleias. She was sixteen and would never have noticed someone four years younger than she was, but I certainly noticed her."
Jaina suppressed the urge to strangle him. "Right. Now that she's recently come out of emotional turmoil involving Anakin, here you are, sniffing around, and things should be just fine. Accident or not, you showed up when she least needed to be reminded of Anakin."
"So, to make sure nobody ever experiences a twinge of pain, I should move to Dantooine and live in a cave."
"You could move to Mustafar and jump into a volcano instead," Jaina retorted, and headed for the turbolift. He couldn't follow her below the Great Hall level, and she heard his exasperated sigh as she left.
While she was trying not to get too steamed up over that, she had other things to check on. She went down to the lower medical level and the chamber housing Seff. She tapped on its door, hoping Tekli was inside to admit her. A moment later, the door opened… revealing Master Cilghal.
Dammit. "Uh… Master."
"Well said." Cilghal stepped inside to allow Jaina room. "Come in. Best for this door not to remain open."
One mission in and they'd already gotten caught, and this was the part where she got into trouble. Cilghal shut the door, letting Jaina look around to note that Seff was strapped to his bed, his monitors were on and working, and everything looked fine. It was just that Tekli was supposed to have been here instead. "How did you, um…"
"Am I supposed to be stupid?"
"People keep asking me that today." Jaina followed Cilghal as she began checking up on Seff's machines. "Of course you're not supposed to be stupid."
"Seff Hellin tries to free Valin Horn. We can correctly gauge his intent and his relationship with the others in the intrusion even if the authorities cannot… Jedi end up in possession of Seff. Where is he going to turn up except the Temple? Civil of you to keep Master Hamner in the dark."
"We were trying to keep all the Masters out of the loop," Jaina explained. Frankly, she hadn't thought any of them would have wanted to be involved, save for Corran, who for obvious reasons shouldn't be, and Kyp, because he was Kyp.
"Also civil, but not wise. You need me for this," Cilghal said. "Both for my medical expertise and because I'm the only Jedi in regular communication with the Grand Master."
Jaina was definitely surprised by that. While they weren't supposed to really have contact with Luke, there was no way that would ever happen. At the very least, her parents would know how to get in touch with him. She hadn't expected that from Cilghal. "You've talked to him recently?"
"Relatively. He's on Dorin, learning the scanner-blanking technique Valin manifested. I haven't heard from him recently."
"You're risking a lot."
"We're often called a militant Order, but do you know one of the principal differences between the military and the Jedi Order? And please, no Solo sarcasm."
"I won't," said Jaina, who'd lost her military command due to some of those differences between the military and the Jedi Order. "There are a lot of differences. I can only guess at which one you mean."
"The military are expected to follow orders even when they feel those orders are not what's right. The Jedi are expected to do what's right, even when that course of action runs contrary to orders."
Yes, that was the one that had earned Jaina a court-martial. "Well, yes."
Cilghal looked back at her. "Finding out what's wrong with Valin and Seff, helping the Grand Master… that's what's right."
Jaina felt a little embarrassed, and maybe like she'd been underestimating Cilghal this whole time. "I'm sorry we didn't include you from the start."
"No harm done," she said. "Include me now. I need to know where your mother is. She and your father were the first ones to contact Seff in his current distorted condition. I may want them to come and see him as he is now, to gauge whether there has been any advancement of his dementia."
"They're on Kessel. I'll get you the direct holocomm data you need to contact the Falcon," Jaina promised.
Cilghal gestured toward the monitor. "Already we have interesting results. Seff does not possess Valin's trick of blanking the electroencephaloscan. The portions of Seff's brain that are active when he dreams have been seeing activity during his waking hours as well, for some considerable time- these stress patterns here so indicate."
Jaina frowned. "Meaning that he's what, sleepwalking?"
She shook her head. "But he is in some small way in a dreamlike state. Which may be the first clue toward determining how to restore him and Valin to normal. So… well done."
[Ah, the series that made me love Cilghal. NFB, NFI, OOC ain't gonna hurt nobody. Dialogue and a couple lines from Outcast by Aaron Allston.]
It did leave Kenth Hamner in an awkward position, though, and he'd had to hold a press conference on the steps of the Temple earlier to deny any Jedi involvement. He was also paid a visit by Captain Harfard of the Alliance Security-Jedi Order interactions at the main entrance, where anyone nearby- including Jaina- could hear their words as they headed to Kenth's office.
"Where is Jedi Hellin?"
"I do not know, and that is the truth," Kenth replied.
"Why didn't you tell us that Jedi Hellin had gone rogue, that he would stage a rescue attempt?" Harfard pressed.
"We told you he had 'gone rogue," Kenth said patiently. "We told you, when we provided you the list of all the active Jedi, that he was no longer maintaining contact with the Temple and was pursuing his own agendas. Hence, 'gone rogue.' We don't know his plans."
"Who was the female Jedi, the one who rescued him from Dhidal Nyz?"
"We don't know her identity. We don't know that she was a Jedi."
"She was using a lightsaber!"
"So does Zilaash Kuh, who works with you."
"Kuh's whereabouts last night are very well known," Harfard said.
"My point is that not everybody with a lightsaber is a Jedi," Kenth explained. "The recordings I saw cannot even prove that the subject you're looking for was either human or a woman. Take a lean man and pad his clothes properly-"
They stopped at the turbolift to wait for the car, with Harfard angrily shaking his head. Really, he should have waited till they'd gotten to the office if he was going to be like this. "You'll wish you had been more cooperative," he hissed. "The next step is going to be tracking devices. Implanted in every one of you Jedi."
Master Hamner stood straight and spoke very quietly, so that Jaina couldn't hear from where she was standing. She saw Captain Harfard stiffen, and when the turbolift car arrived they stepped inside and disappeared behind its doors.
The closest Jedi to Jaina was Kolir, a female Bothan. "I wonder what the Master said," Jaina stated.
"He said, 'I would be privileged to show you where such a device might be implanted,'" said a voice right behind her.
She turned to find Dab standing there, peering into the screen on his holocam. "Good answer," she said. "Informative, yet insulting."
Dab grinned at her, and dropped his voice so that only she could hear him. "You know, I'm not stupid."
Uh oh. "I never said you were," Jaina told him.
"They're looking for a female mystery Jedi. And there we were last night, not half a klick from the scene of the crime, and you were out of my sight for, well, quite a while… If I had mentioned all that to the captain as he walked by, he'd be pretty sure he knew who the mystery woman was."
Jaina really, really hoped this wasn't going to lead to blackmail. "Then why didn't you?"
"My job is to tell the authorities what I know about the Jedi. Not what I suspect," he said, looking straight at her. "My lifelong job as a documentarian is to show the truth and expose lies. If I conclude that the position of my employers- that the Jedi have to be reined in for the sake of society- is a lie, it sort of puts me in an awkward position." He shrugged. "So I don't speculate. I try to figure out what the right thing to do is, and then do it."
She began to relax a bit. "Very much like a Jedi."
"Maybe."
"Thank you for not speculating, Dab."
Dab nodded, and said, "So tell me about Tahiri Veila. After I left you two last night, did she talk about me?"
Jaina's jaw dropped for a second as her brain struggled to deal with that subject change. "Dab, you need to stay away from Tahiri."
"Why?"
"Because you look- you look like-"
"I look like your brother Anakin, and they were together just before he died, and since then something about him has messed her up," he said. "Not surprising. Young love and tragedy. I've heard the stories. But I'm not Anakin Solo. I don't feel I should have to bear the burden of all that he did."
"No, you shouldn't," Jaina conceded. "But Tahiri-"
"I won't hurt Tahiri."
"Yes, you will." Just him being around would hurt her. She'd seen that last night.
"I've liked her ever since I met her on Borleias. She was sixteen and would never have noticed someone four years younger than she was, but I certainly noticed her."
Jaina suppressed the urge to strangle him. "Right. Now that she's recently come out of emotional turmoil involving Anakin, here you are, sniffing around, and things should be just fine. Accident or not, you showed up when she least needed to be reminded of Anakin."
"So, to make sure nobody ever experiences a twinge of pain, I should move to Dantooine and live in a cave."
"You could move to Mustafar and jump into a volcano instead," Jaina retorted, and headed for the turbolift. He couldn't follow her below the Great Hall level, and she heard his exasperated sigh as she left.
While she was trying not to get too steamed up over that, she had other things to check on. She went down to the lower medical level and the chamber housing Seff. She tapped on its door, hoping Tekli was inside to admit her. A moment later, the door opened… revealing Master Cilghal.
Dammit. "Uh… Master."
"Well said." Cilghal stepped inside to allow Jaina room. "Come in. Best for this door not to remain open."
One mission in and they'd already gotten caught, and this was the part where she got into trouble. Cilghal shut the door, letting Jaina look around to note that Seff was strapped to his bed, his monitors were on and working, and everything looked fine. It was just that Tekli was supposed to have been here instead. "How did you, um…"
"Am I supposed to be stupid?"
"People keep asking me that today." Jaina followed Cilghal as she began checking up on Seff's machines. "Of course you're not supposed to be stupid."
"Seff Hellin tries to free Valin Horn. We can correctly gauge his intent and his relationship with the others in the intrusion even if the authorities cannot… Jedi end up in possession of Seff. Where is he going to turn up except the Temple? Civil of you to keep Master Hamner in the dark."
"We were trying to keep all the Masters out of the loop," Jaina explained. Frankly, she hadn't thought any of them would have wanted to be involved, save for Corran, who for obvious reasons shouldn't be, and Kyp, because he was Kyp.
"Also civil, but not wise. You need me for this," Cilghal said. "Both for my medical expertise and because I'm the only Jedi in regular communication with the Grand Master."
Jaina was definitely surprised by that. While they weren't supposed to really have contact with Luke, there was no way that would ever happen. At the very least, her parents would know how to get in touch with him. She hadn't expected that from Cilghal. "You've talked to him recently?"
"Relatively. He's on Dorin, learning the scanner-blanking technique Valin manifested. I haven't heard from him recently."
"You're risking a lot."
"We're often called a militant Order, but do you know one of the principal differences between the military and the Jedi Order? And please, no Solo sarcasm."
"I won't," said Jaina, who'd lost her military command due to some of those differences between the military and the Jedi Order. "There are a lot of differences. I can only guess at which one you mean."
"The military are expected to follow orders even when they feel those orders are not what's right. The Jedi are expected to do what's right, even when that course of action runs contrary to orders."
Yes, that was the one that had earned Jaina a court-martial. "Well, yes."
Cilghal looked back at her. "Finding out what's wrong with Valin and Seff, helping the Grand Master… that's what's right."
Jaina felt a little embarrassed, and maybe like she'd been underestimating Cilghal this whole time. "I'm sorry we didn't include you from the start."
"No harm done," she said. "Include me now. I need to know where your mother is. She and your father were the first ones to contact Seff in his current distorted condition. I may want them to come and see him as he is now, to gauge whether there has been any advancement of his dementia."
"They're on Kessel. I'll get you the direct holocomm data you need to contact the Falcon," Jaina promised.
Cilghal gestured toward the monitor. "Already we have interesting results. Seff does not possess Valin's trick of blanking the electroencephaloscan. The portions of Seff's brain that are active when he dreams have been seeing activity during his waking hours as well, for some considerable time- these stress patterns here so indicate."
Jaina frowned. "Meaning that he's what, sleepwalking?"
She shook her head. "But he is in some small way in a dreamlike state. Which may be the first clue toward determining how to restore him and Valin to normal. So… well done."
[Ah, the series that made me love Cilghal. NFB, NFI, OOC ain't gonna hurt nobody. Dialogue and a couple lines from Outcast by Aaron Allston.]