Chapter 19: Chapter 15
714 (24 BBY)
Month 6
Mandalore, Royal Palace, Duchess Office
Satine Kryze
Things in the Mandalore sector have been going rather smoothly as of late, the little pirate invasion of Vorpa'ya had been dealt with by the Journeyman Protectors and Royal Guards rather quickly and there hadn't been any other attempts to seize a planet for criminal behavior.
Besides that, we were having a bit of an economic boom as a new company, Mando Logistics, has purchased several old freight ships and are transporting goods from the Mandalorian Sector directly to markets in the Core. From what I had seen, the initial prices were fair and after Mando Logistics had made a tidy profit, several other smaller companies had sprouted up to do the same. Granted, most of the items being sold were armor sets and most of the items being brought in were materials to build more armor sets but one little thing I had to give to Tanya, armor was meant for protection, and though I generally lean against war, letting this business take off was good for the economy and good for the culture.
Thankfully, the pile of paperwork on my desk was not too terrible today. My Royal Guard is still running background checks and interviews on all of the applicants before submitting those that passed their checks for my perusal. The lack of a head of staff and I not having an assistant to take care of the day-to-day stuff that needed to be filled out, had resulted in a slight pile up over the last several months. Everything important is handled by a member of my Royal Guard, who volunteered to be my temporary assistant until a suitable replacement is hired. I am really considering just buying a droid to help cut down on the backlog immediately. Once I have chosen the new head of staff, the droid could be my assistant, like what Tanya's X4 is currently doing for her, but that would be a problem for another day.
My musings were cut short when there was a knock on my door. A Royal Guard entered the room before standing at attention and giving a bow. "My lady, Governor Vizsla has arrived."
I direct my eyes away from the financial report to face my Royal Guard. "Excellent, send him in please." I set down my datapad before leaning back in my chair. "Good afternoon Governor Vizsla, what brought you to the palace today?" I asked with a smile on my face as the governor of Concordia sat heavily in the chair across from me in my office.
From what I knew, Pre was seeing a general uptick in tax revenue as a large portion of the armorers that made up the ancient class had been dissatisfied with my rule had gone specifically to Concordia during the whole exiling phase of putting the Mandalore system back together after the Clan Wars. So I figured he would be in a splendid mood, however he seemed a bit put off by something, judging by the frown on his face.
"A bit of a developing situation I'm afraid. Remember those Jedi that showed up about a week ago from the Agricorp?"
I nodded my head. Jedi in the Mandalorian Sector was not something normal, frankly it was abnormal. The culture of Mandalorians was too prone to challenging them to a fight or being annoyed when they found a Force sensitive among our people and asked if they could join the Order. Though since they only took those of the youth, in this day and age that was unlikely to ever happen. Family was everything for a Mandalorian and the thought of a family member being taken away by the Order was unthinkable.
"Let me guess," I said, "they found a Force sensitive in Concordia?"
Pre nodded before continuing, "Five of them, actually. That was one of the issues, yes. Most of the Agricorp have stayed away from the general population so I thought this was not going to be an issue and they've been doing their job looking to see if any of the indigenous life forms that keep our planet from developing are still alive but the Jedi Master sent to watch over them and make sure nothing happens to them? Well he apparently likes to travel. I've got reports from nearly the entire planet of him just showing up and either hanging out in the local bar and sharing war stories with the veterans there. In five different reports, they mentioned that he's found Force sensitives within our population and he said they would make fine Jedi if they were given training."
"Hold on, five candidates? They've only been here a month. How did he find five candidates?" I asked, looking a bit perplexed by that.
Pre shrugged before saying, "I don't know for sure, though the Jedi has said something about the untapped potential of Mandalorians. Thankfully he's not pushed for the kids he's found to join the Order, at least not loudly enough that the parents are complaining about that. Many more are just unsettled by the older gentleman and Jedi robes showing up on their doorstep."
"If he's too much of a nuisance, I could send a message back to the Order. Perhaps they can have him removed and replaced with someone more tactful."
Pre scoffed and said, "To be frank, I think this is the most tactful Jedi we're going to get. I've had a meeting or two with him and he seems very grounded for a Jedi. I just think a little bit of a warning from The Duchess would do him good. With how active he's being, he's likely to run into some of the more, less forgiving elements of the Exiles. Those who blame the Jedi for the Clan Wars, and if that were to happen I'm sure either he would die or they would die and it would be an inter-sector incident that could upset the process to get Concordia off the Protected Planet status so we can start trading with the rest of the sector instead of having to rely on going through Mandalore."
I nodded my head, "I'll put a note out and have the Royal Guard pick him up and meet with him to see if we can't get him to be a little less active as you say. What is this Jedi Master's name?"
"Rahm Kota, last thing I heard about him he was in the northern latitudes. Which is probably the wisest thing he's done since most of the people who would generally blame him for the Clan Wars are in the southern latitudes."
I nodded before asking, "Is there anything else I should know about the goings on with the Jedi and the Agricorp?"
"Well nothing much. They haven't found any of the supposed protected species on our planet yet. They're evaluation of our terraforming work has been interesting though."
"Interesting how?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"They take umbrage with the fact that so much of the plant life that we've introduced over the years is basically the exact same plant life throughout the entire planet. Which is to be expected since we have a very limited amount of plants that we can use, due to the protected planet status. But they have concerns based on this, of what a biosphere with such minimal biodiversity is vulnerable to."
"So they're telling you, you need different plants to try to change the biosphere in a few places for diversity and better longevity right?"
"Exactly, which I would gladly start doing as soon as the Protected Planet status gets removed. I've had a lot of debates about this subject over the last month and I think they're finally getting that the rules placed down on us by the Protected Planets is leading to a worse situation down the line, because we can't do anything to fix the lack of biodiversity with the status of this planet. Sure we'll have plenty of lumber in the next decade and some farmland but we won't be allowed to diversify unless the Protected Planet status is removed. Which, I think, is currently dividing the team on the planet as half of them that seem to get it and understand are already pushing for the report to basically imply that it needs to be removed, while the other half are still not sold on the idea of it that the species we say are extinct are actually extinct and want to continue their search. It's slow going but I hope we'll have them finished and off-world in the next 6 months."
I nodded well six months isn't too bad, that's quicker than Merrik 's and Tanya's efforts to get the Ithorian to sign off on the deal for terraforming planets. With the income we have coming in, because of the recent windfall we've been having, I was really hoping we could get the terraforming started by the end of this year but it's looking more like it'll be sometime in 716 fnm.
"I still can't believe Merrik was able to get a deal through with those terraformers, finally. Took him 10 years to get settled in but at least he's finally doing his job." Pre said, shaking his head and I was forced to nod as well.
Merrik was an old friend from Kalevala, the man had been working hard to build relationships with the Senate for a good long time. But I had to admit the last few months he'd been doing an excellent job. And I had to wonder if perhaps Tanya was somehow involved in that. After all it was her idea for the Silver Codex which was currently creating an economic boom. But if Tanya wanted to be humble and not take credit for it and let Merrick say it was all his idea then she could understand.
She didn't seem to enjoy the spotlight that much so perhaps letting other people take credit for her ideas was a way to cope with some bit of shyness she had.
Although that being said, next time she and Tanya met she should really ask if Tanya had taken any part in the deal besides the minimal part that Merrick was saying.
"Give it enough time you make enough contacts I would assume that he finally found the pieces necessary to get this plan to work." I answered Pre's question.
He nodded before adding, "While I am here, did you see that Silver Codex Volume 2 that was spread all over the local net? I am curious about what your stance is on the matter?"
"No, I have not." I said a bit concerned as my brows furrowed. As far as I knew, Tanya hadn't planned to create a 'volume two' yet, and I would assume she would have run anything like that by me first.
"A new volume cropped up a few days ago, I think whatever magic that White Silver had is wearing off because the new one puts a lot of power in the hands of corporations. I don't think a lot of people are going to be in favor of that."
"I've not read it yet. I'll have to look into it and see what's going on. Is it as big as the first one?" I asked warily.
"I don't think it'll be that big, sure you'll find supporters but from what I've seen it's likely to bring down the first one more than build that one up.
That was concerning, Silver could actually have been a very useful tool for rebuilding Mandalore and if it was being damaged by some unknown source, I would need to look into this. Little Tanya had worked years on creating that document, and it was paying off. I was not going to let something she worked so hard on be tainted by some fool screwing it up. I would have to have a member of the Royal Guard detached and look into this situation, figure out where this volume two came from if it turned out it was not Tanya's handiwork. Which I am sure she wasn't responsible for, she'd never spoken to me about having a volume two in the works. Although we haven't talked in along time since she's gone to Coruscant I doubted she would dump something like this on me without a proper warning.
Looking at Pre I said, "Keep me apprised about this volume two. That Silver Codex was very good for Mandalore so far and I would hate to see something good be turned into something not."
Pre nodded his head and said, "I'll keep my eyes on it. I didn't trust the first one to begin with so I've been having a few agents looking around for a while now. You know how these codexes turn out after all. One moment it's a theological debate, the next moment is a full on civil war."
I nodded though I hoped it wouldn't get that bad. The whole reason the Silver Codex existed was to try and prevent a civil war from what I understood and if it somehow triggered one, it would make itself no better than the codexes that came before, in the generation leading up to the Mandalorian Civil War.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Anakin Skywalker
I blinked in confusion at the scene before me. Sitting on a bench in one of the garden terraces of the Jedi Temple sat Grand Master Yoda of the Jedi Order having a chat with a person I did not expect to run into inside the walls. Tanya Kryze the representative of Mandalore. The two appear to be having a conversation that was, frankly, a little beyond my mind, and they were so deep into it that I wasn't gaining much context from listening in.
This was not something I had expected to run into today. I had a lot of meditation and training I need to be doing as well as general chores, but I just so happen to come through this direction. I felt what could be best described as a disturbance in the force. Not exactly pain, more of a tightness as if something had been wound up.
And that was not something I normally felt on Temple Grounds. I had experienced something like this while out with Master Obi-Wan but here in the Temple, the closest to something like this was when someone was excited for the start of their training. But even then that had been more of a joy, this tightness was more edged.
So feeling something unusual, I had followed it to its source and it started to dissipate when I entered the Temple Garden terrace.
Where has the presence of tightness gone? I had a pretty good idea. You don't run into a person you didn't expect after feeling something like that without there being a connection. And seeing that Master Yoda was here, I would have to assume he had sensed it as well and come to investigate himself. Though I was a bit perplexed and how easygoing he was with the young woman he was speaking with. Heck, the two were chatting more like old masters in their fields than the Master of the Jedi Order, and some Republic Representative.
Then again she wasn't just some Republic Representative, was she. I was very suspicious about her parentage, of why Obi-Wan had brought me to meet her and I had the sneaking suspicion that he had been looking for an excuse to meet her. The hair color, the age, the wanting to meet her, things kind of added up in a way that made me believe that Tanya very well could be Obi-Wan's daughter and he had been trying to use this meeting as a teachable moment to me. That it was possible to have a family outside the order as long as you kept your distance.
Master Ki-Adi-Mundi had a family but that was a special disposition, since his species had a male to female imbalance that required him to take part in a continuation of their species. Besides that one case, as far as I knew most other Jedi didn't have families, didn't have kids, as attachments outside the order made it harder for the Jedi to do their duties.
There was no doubt in my mind that Obi-Wan knew that Tanya was his child and he had chosen to take a hands off approach. But a person is always curious, which is why he had made time for that meeting with the representative.
And going by her hair color I suspected that she knew too, as her auburn hair had been dyed blonde at some point since I last saw her. It was already starting to go red near the roots again so she would have had to have done it at least a couple months ago, right about after we had our meeting. I wonder why she did that? Did she know?
But before I could get too deep into that wondering, the blonde representative waved me over. "Padawan Skywalker, how wonderful to see you again." She called to give me no way to back away.
"Representative Kryze,"I said with a bow, then repeated it and said, "Master Yoda."
Sitting in her green dress, Tanya turned to look at Yoda and said, "Master Yoda, that's an impressive title."
The old Master chuckled and said, "No less impressive, representative is, young Tanya. Herh herh herh.."
I looked up at the two and realized they hadn't known each other's positions until I spoke about it, which was rather shocking, how could they have conversations without knowing who each other were?
Yoda looked at me and chuckled before saying, "Best had away from titles, sometimes conversations are, hmm? Titles carry weight, weight that brings expectations into conversations. To speak with more freedom, to speak without a title is. Yes."
Tanya nodded her head as Yoda spoke before adding. "That I can agree with, though I will add that speaking with someone outside your social circle has a very similar effect. People need to be able to express themselves in some way or they just become balls of stress, ready to snap."
I nodded, understanding what the two are saying though not exactly sure why giving up your title would make you freer. I would think having more titles would mean more power which would get you more freedom. Perhaps it was rhetorical freedom they're talking about? I don't know, this kind of goes above my head.
Either way though, I asked out of curiosity, "So why are you here Representative Kryze?"
"Oh, I've just finished having a meeting with the Agricorp Council. I've been working with them to get help with the terraforming process of one of our planets. And then I decided to stop by this little garden here to have a chat with "Master" Yoda. We often have debates about Jedi mindset versus Mandalorian mindset and it's rather intriguing, to say the least."
"The matter of family we talk about today," Master Yoda said. "Other times economic theory, and the best way to obtain peace."
"Personally I'm not sold on the idea of a will in the living Force," Tanya said, rubbing her chin before adding, "but I can acknowledge that the Jedi order seems to have a monopoly for using it for the betterment of a galaxy. Though if that is the 'Will of the Force' or just a well thought out philosophy, it is still up to debate in my mind."
Master Yoda seems to chuckle at that, "Guide us, the Force does, even if we do not believe in it."
"Sounds a bit like fate to me and I'm not a big fan of the idea that people are destined or fated to do things. It removes the bit of agency that sapient life should have in my mind, not to mention it's a bit unsettling of a thought when you really think about it."
"Unsettling?" I asked, curious about her point of view.
"The idea that there is an entity pulling the strings of life behind the curtains is concerning to me. I dislike the thought of such a being since they are just as likely to be as flawed as the rest of us and so, prone to mistakes. However, where a minor mistake on my part would be just that, the same made by an entity of such scale may very well involve the destruction of a quarter of the Galaxy."
"The Force guides us, it doesn't compel us, there are no strings pulling us like puppets." Master said, sounding like he was trying to be assuring.
"I hope so." Tanya said, sounding rather weary as if remembering a particularly bad experience and she looked down at the cobblestone ground. In fact I was definitely feeling an aura of tiredness from her.
Unsure what to say I decided to try and find out why her hair color had changed and asked the simplest question to get that answer. "So why did you change your hair color?"
Tanya looked up and smiled saying, "My handmaiden, Vai, suggested I should change it and I had no other reason not to."
I nodded my head, quickly remembering her from our meeting months ago. She was the slightly older blonde girl that had shared a look with me that said she'd seen the same things I'd seen. Had she pointed out that the similarities were a little too much to Tanya and Tanya had changed her hair color so people wouldn't put two and two together? It made sense so that was probably it then.
"Well it looks good," I said, trying to be polite. And hide why I asked in the first place without going into her hair color in front of the grandmaster of the Jedi Order.
"Thank you, I was a bit concerned about the brand I use but it's working well so far." Tanya responded with a smile.
"Hair color matters not, neither does hair for that matter." Master Yoda said, tapping his cane to his balding head.
Everyone had a little bit of a friendly laugh at that before he continued on. "Though Tanya, much distress I felt in this garden earlier, much more than normal. Is there something wrong?
Tanya seemed taken aback for a moment before she nodded her head and said. "Anakin, remember that Silver Codex we spoke about when we met 6 months ago?"
I nodded my head vaguely remembering the item.
"Well someone has released volume two and I say someone because I don't believe that that is the same person who issued volume one." Tanya said, her presence in the Force feeling more annoyed than what she was portraying outside. "This new volume is going to be a problem if it takes off and I'm not exactly sure what to do about it." She said, while indicating that I could take a seat next to her.
"Why would it be a problem?" I asked, curious whilst taking a seat at Tanya's right side, "The first volume as you said was a code for carving a defensive way of being Mandalorian, wouldn't the second volume just expand on that idea?"
Tanya nodded her head but said, "That's what a second volume should do, this document that appeared last week was not that, though it was very focused on giving power to corporations. Empowering them to the point that they would become governments unto themselves, while also playing to the nationalism of the Mandalorians in a way that is unhealthy for a defensive doctrine. True defensive doctrine tries to hold on to what you have, the doctrine that this document is advocating for could easily be manipulated to see worlds that were never once part of the Mandalorian empire as areas that need to be retaken in a defensive manner."
"Hmm, a Regression then," Yoda said from her left nodding his head. "complex Mandalore is, but even I can see how that can be misused by those of a darker view of the galaxy."
"Exactly and that's what's got me concerned. Because as much as I want to believe that the first Silver Codex will be superior and longer lasting, I can't deny the ability of something like this to take off as well for someone to steal the good that was meant to be made and turn it to as you said a darker path."
Yoda nodded before saying, "A darker path they may attempt to tread, but as long as both the original author and this new author remain unknown it is up to the people to choose which path they would take."
Tanya nodded her head saying, "This is what I believe too but I worry that this is a prelude to something more. As you said, as long as both writers remain anonymous it's up to the people to choose what path they will take. What if one of the writers does not stay anonymous or at least becomes more than anonymous? An icon making appearances in this White Silver's name?"
"Then we must hope that White Silver shares your views, that this darker path is not right for Mandalore and make their own appearance." Yoda commented.
"That could start a civil war though," Tanya said, shaking her head, "every attempt to try and fight over doctrine in the past has created one. If two people try to claim themselves as leaders of a faction, it'll always end in civil war with Mandalorians."
"Then it would seem the best way would be to not declare themselves the leader of a faction and just deal with the writer of the second volume directly." I said matter of factly.
Tanya looked over at me a bit amused saying, "Attack the leadership? That would be a dangerous gamble, a very dangerous gamble."
"Attack they should not, you would have said, in a perfect world at least. Destroying a faction's leadership often leads to the faction just continuing on. If I knew this White Silver, I would suggest they look to their own culture and find a way to depower this, this…" Yoda stopped as if thinking of a correct term to use for the fake codex writer.
"False Silver?" Tanya provided.
"Yes, False Silver, if one wishes to make sure that his ideas are not carried on, it would be best to find a way to defeat the credibility of his ideas."
Tanya nodded her head in understanding before she said, "And let's hope that White Silver can figure out how to do that on his own. Otherwise, my time on Coruscant is going to come to an end rather quickly."
I saw Yoda had to put his hand on Tanya's elbow before he said, "Trust the Force, you must young Tanya. If this White Silver's path is meant to be the one the Mandalorians walk, it will guide them to the right path."
Tanya smiled, "I'll try that Master Yoda." Before the conversation could continue though her vambrace began to chirp drawing her notice causing her to look at it.
"Well shoot." she said before standing, turning to look at us she said, "I'm afraid I must be going, important meetings and all that I'm afraid. Until next time Padawan Skywalker and Master Yoda." She said, bowing her head.
"Until next time, Miss Kryze."Yoda said, returning the bow from his seated position.
I simply nodded my head and commented, "Until we see each other again, Representative Kryze."
And with that she turned and walked away, heading for one of the elevators that would take her down to the main floor where she could get a ride away from the Temple, I assumed.
Master Yoda chuckled as she turned the corner and was far enough away from hearing him. "Worried I was, that you would blow my cover young Skywalker."
"Master Yoda? "I said, confused.
"She does not know about the Jedi ways or our leadership, she thinks of me as simply an old man who gives guidance to the younglings. I wonder how long it will take her to realize I'm the grandmaster of the Order."
"You're doing that on purpose?" I asked.
"New friends are hard to come by sometimes, might as well make those friendships special with jokes that only two or three may know."
I couldn't help myself, I laughed at the idea that he was keeping the exact nature of his position away from Tanya to simply see her reaction when she finally learned was rather hilarious and in keeping with some of Master Yoda's more mischievous behaviors.
Concordia Training Area
Bo-Katan Kryze
"Stupid piece of junk, work." I muttered as I hit the edge of the panel. Either because I bumped something into place or something I had already done finally started working, the panel lit up. "That's more like it." I said with a smile trying to get the communication panel to connect to the local holo net.
My luck had taken a turn for the worse ever since Tanya had left. Nothing too drastic but at the moment my ship was currently inoperable meaning its communication systems were unpowered. And considering I was a good 30 to 40 miles from civilization, it would be a hell of a walk.
Thankfully it wasn't too terrible a place to be stuck in. I had been stashing supplies at this mine ever since I got the rights to use it. And since Pre is too busy trying to build up Death Watch, I still firmly controlled 30% of its members through alliances I built up over the years so he wasn't exactly looking to run me out. Theoretically I might actually control something closer to 40% now since a good portion of the less radical members have declared themselves more in favor of the Silver Codex, which is becoming more and more a state accepted doctrine, even if it wasn't officially state accepted doctrine.
But that's besides the point. I'd been stuck at the mountain training area alone for the last 2 weeks and even though I had enough supplies to last 3 months I had been working on this kriffing communications system all for the last week ever since Zum did not come back from his last armor run.
I'm sure he was fine, his runs could take him pretty far away from the Mandalore system and he wasn't here all that often since he still maintained a portion of his business out of his ship. But I was getting a bit concerned about my situation since who's to say he wasn't fine, or that he wouldn't be gone for upwards of 3 months. I hadn't known that to happen yet but that didn't mean it couldn't.
So with a bad situation that could get worse I had gone to work trying to dig myself out of the hole I stuck myself in. Watching the old style panel slowly rotate as I tried to connect to the holo-net, I looked around at the upper facility of the mining complex that turned into my home away from home and realized I really needed to improve on the decor of it. The lighting was terrible so that hid most of the issues but it was all too industrial for what I've been using it for the last few years. Well then again I've been treating my ship like my second home so it was understandable I'd never really given a thought to putting down a more permanent residence at this place. Well, that would have to change. I had a nice little nest egg stashed away thanks to Satine giving me a bonus for the completion of Tanya's training as 'her Royal Defense Tutor'. I should probably use that money to pretty this place up a bit. At least get a small droid to clean one of the halls and make sure no rodents or other pests got in.
Looking away from the black metallic panels of, well everything, I wondered how I was going to get myself out of this one. Maybe I could call in one of the local shipwrights to take a look at my ship, see if they couldn't figure out what had jammed up the engine block enough that it was not working. Only real problem with that is if the local shipwright turned out to be a Death Watch sympathizer they would then know exactly where I lived and would report that to Pre.
I doubt he would do anything about it right now but I trusted Pre as far as I could throw him and while I could throw him pretty far, that wasn't far enough.
I would have to contact Satine and ask her to send out some of her Royal Guards to help me out. I knew they could at least keep their mouth shut about the goings on in the palace. I was a 40% leader of the Death Watch, I may not get all the intelligence reports but I got enough to know that they had never got a member of the Royal Guard to ever join up with them, at least none that I was aware of which meant if there was one that was probably the only one.
Finally, the panel in front of me beeped signaling it was connected to the network and I leaned over ready to press a few buttons to contact Satine. The moment I logged into my holo-net account I saw something that distracted me from the terrible time I've been having and brought a smile to my face.
Six messages from Tanya, three of them over the last 48 hours. Considering I hadn't heard from her since she left, it was nice to see that she still cared enough to call, she was doing better than Satine as no other calls were on the account.
Well, I could put her along getting my escape out of the situation to see what had got her to call me. With the amount of calls, I suspected she had done something stupid and had some alone time with a partner. Of course there was always the possibility that she was in danger but to be frank after the training she put herself through under my watch, I think anyone trying to put her in danger was in more danger than they realized. Pressing the call button as I sat back in the swivel chair that was probably older than my long past grandfather by how much it squeaked. I really need to spend some time turning this place into a livable habitat, at least oil the damn chair.
Finally, the call connected and there was Tanya standing in front of what I guess was a holographic projector on her side with a smile on her face as she said, "Auntie Bo, good to finally get through to you. I was a bit worried when I didn't hear anything for nearly a week."
"No worries kid," I said with a smile, "just dealing with some technical issues with my ship and some of the equipment around here." I said with a smile leaning back stretching out my arms over my head. "So what brings the honorable Representative Kryze to call on her beautiful warrior Aunt Bo?"
Tanya seemed to smirk at that series of comments before she said, "Many things, but the thing that's drawn my ire of late is a recent variance of the Silver Codex. Someone is proclaiming themselves as White Silver and it's produced a new version, one that is likely to inflame people against the Codex if left alone."
I raised an eyebrow at that before leaning forward on my arms, "Ooh? What's so terrible about this variant of the codex?"
She frowned before she said, "Well it's quite simple, this variant could be used for justifications of rebellion and civil war. Satine has asked me to look into where it comes from. She doesn't want the Royal Guard involved since this variant is still rather new, and people may suspect she's trying to find out the identity of the first Silver Codex creator when we simply want to know who the identity of this second one is."
I took a moment sitting back wondering if Pre was behind the situation then I shrugged it off as very unlikely. The few speeches he had given on the Silver Codex did not speak well of using it for his own purposes. For the most part he found the whole thing offensive at least from his speeches.
"So Satine is using you as a middleman to investigate this Second Codex writer and find out who he is and expose him?"
"Correct." Tanya said with a smile. "We want to keep this in-house as it were, until we're sure if this is actually going to be an issue or not. For all we know this second codex entry will fade away into history and people won't even remember it but on the off chance it doesn't. It would do us all a bit of good to know who's behind it and who to send the Royal Guard after."
"Alright, alright that can be done, though I'm in a bit of an issue here. As I said, my ship is currently not functioning so until I can get that sorted I'm not going to be able to do much to help you on that front."
Tanya nodded and then looked over the camera's shoulder at what I would assume was someone else talking though whatever they were saying was lost in transmission between Coruscant and my little abode.
Whatever it was though seemed to get a nod from Tanya before she looked back at the camera. "I have contacts that can get a ship to your location within a week and they can also haul off your ship for repairs, if that's acceptable of course."
"Contacts?" I said looking at my niece a little bit confused by that particular use of the word. I wonder what she's been up to that she somehow got herself contacts and I hope none of them are illegal in nature. my thoughts wondered before I said out loud. "That's fine by me, kind of stuck here for the next 3 months unless I get help so that's definitely okay though I would prefer that your contact kept a bit silent about the location of my little training area."
Tanya nodded and said, "That can be arranged and that confirms where I thought you were. You'll have a ship there in a week."
"Sounds good," I said with a smile, "Good to hear from you again though, Tanya. I kind of worried you had forgotten about me all the way in Coruscant."
"I could never forget about you or Mandalore, Auntie Bo. I'm simply busy doing the best I can to make sure things improve for our people."
It warmed her heart a little bit to see Tanya so driven by the plight of the Mandalorian people and made her proud to have trained the girl. Smiling all I could say was, "I know, that's good to hear but don't forget to take care of yourself too. Mandalore will always be here, if you see an opportunity to make your life a little bit more enjoyable, feel free to do it just be safe and follow Vai's lead-."
The panel exploded right then sending me flying back a few feet on the wheels of the chair trying to avoid the glass shrapnel and fire.
"Kriff kriff kriff" I muttered as I rolled off the chair and ran off to find a fire extinguisher. That was one of the few things I had bought for this little location, mainly because I already had an incident where something exploded on me inside the base.
Quickly, I got to work spraying down the panel with anti-fire foam and soon had it under control though the panel was thoroughly cracked and ruined now which means I was not going to be making any more calls. Not the worst problem in the world. I'd already had that situation settled at least and I just had to wait on my niece's contact to show up with a ship.
Mandalore, Royal Palace, Duchess Office
Fenn Rau
Standing in front of the Duchess's desk I held my helmet under my arm as I stood in parade ground rest. "My lady, I wish to report that the contingent that has returned from Vorpa'ya has arrived without issue. The men are settling back into their normal routines and we await further orders."
"Any casualties Commander Rau?" The Duchess asked as she leaned forward on her desk with a bit of concern playing across her face.
"None, my lady. The band of brigands was easily dealt with by the Journeyman Protectors on the ground and most of my men used the fighters we brought along for air combat to make sure the pirates couldn't attempt an escape without great losses." I said this was some proudness to my speech as a mission you come away from with no casualties was worth celebrating in my mind.
"That's good to hear. I was worried that the operation would be more trouble than I anticipated, considering how it could have ended up being." She said, sounding concerned before laying out a sigh and continuing. "Rau, if you were asked to investigate something for me would you be willing to keep what you find secret if I asked?"
A strange question but one I had no problem answering. "My lady, if the Duchess asks me to keep a secret on behalf of Mandalore that secret will go to the grave with me, I pledge my honor on that."
The duchess nodded her head before saying, "I need someone to investigate the recent document produced by the White Silver, you can read up on the most recent at your own time but let's just cut to the chase and say it's possibly problematic for the Mandalorian people. And I would like any details to be reported directly to me and not through the chain of command."
"Of course my lady, I'll look into the situation on your behalf." I said, feeling a sense of pride knowing my accomplishments on Vorpa'ya had gained me an opportunity to show my worth to the Duchess. "What am I to do once I have the information on who's behind this recent document?"
"Report it to me and depending on what you find, I will give you your answer. Just remember this needs to be off the Royal Guard's book. I will arrange it so you have as much time as you need."
I nodded my head knowing that I would need to clean up my old family armor for this operation then. Some Royal Guards have had their old armors converted into royal guard armor but I had always felt it was better to keep the family set of armor intact and out of the way. It was most likely collecting a lot of dust at the back of the closet at Rau Manner. "I'll get right on it my lady and we'll report as soon as I have anything on this White Silver for you," I said with the certainty that I could do this mission and have it under wraps quickly enough.
Writers note: Alright, here's today's chapter. No Tanya Pov just sorta happened but I'm sure no one is too disappointed since she did show up and showed what misunderstandings are going on. What we got in this chapter is a reaction to a new Silver Codex, some references to events going on around universes, and well a lot of little things buried in there. I don't want to spoil it for you, I want you to dig it out. A person on fanfiction said they felt the other characters felt too much like Tanya so that may be why there's no Tanya Pov, they also mentioned I wasn't doing such great job on setting environments so I have attempted to improve.
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