Tan'ya had enjoyed her conversation with Hego Damask, and better still, he seemed open to the idea of investing heavily in Serenno's future development. The funds he could provide would be invaluable from moving her homeworld away from its primitive state, to something prosperous and competitive in the interplanetary market.
After all, she was acting on her father's behalf until he was ready to return to his duties as Count. He had said so himself, just after coming back from Naboo. Her father had delegated to Tan'ya the responsibility to act, rule and make these decisions in his absence, and so of course she had the authority to negotiate and forge deals with other parties for Serenno's benefit.
Hego Damask had left, going to join the small circle of sector leaders who'd gathered around her father. Tan'ya was hopeful that she'd done what she could to make the muun well disposed towards any investments her father might suggest.
Afterwards, Tan'ya had lingered for a few hours. She'd struck up a conversation with some of the Jedi Knights, and even got a chance to speak with Duchess Satine before she left. It took a moment for Tan'ya to realize that despite Satine's role as autocratic ruler of the Mandalore Sector, she was sincerely a pacifist and held to democracy as her highest ideal. A pacifistic, mandalorian democracy. It sounded like the start of a joke, and Tan'ya promised to read up the history of how that came to be. In such a vast Galaxy, there were too many fascinating corners to study.
Finally, after hours had passed and the guests had thinned out, Tan'ya's father had left to his offices with Queen Amidala and Duke Harrad to further develop their plans. With him gone, and the room emptying, Tan'ya finally took her chance to approach Asajj.
Somehow, despite all the attention and chatter she'd been engaged in, Asajj hardly seemed tired at all. Her voice was even more crackly than usual from overuse, but she had clearly thoroughly enjoyed herself.
"Congratulations, Asajj," Tan'ya said, "and well deserved too."
"Thank you, little Tan'ya." Asajj put an affectionate hand on Tan'ya's head. "Were you watching me and waiting all night just to say that?"
Tan'ya shook her head, then took Asajj by the hand to a balcony overlooking the plains of Indinoor. It seemed almost every time Tan'ya was here the view changed. Much of the mud flats had been cultivated, with rows of piff berries planted in the muck stretching past the horizon, even from this high viewpoint. A nice looking large farmhouse could even be seen with a large barn and multiple speeders parked nearby.
Turning to regard her friend, Tan'ya cut right to the chase. "I found Sifo's holocron in my father's office. He made it shortly before he died, and he believes that my father was the one who had him assassinated."
"What? No." Asajj looked shocked. "What reason would he believe that?"
"Because my father and Sifo had commissioned an extremely remote planet called Kamino to create an army of clones for the Jedi Order. They both thought it would be needed to defeat a resurgent Sith Empire, but Sifo's holocron was afraid my father intended it for other purposes and had killed him."
Asajj immediately took out her datapad to look up Kamino, but Tan'ya held up a hand to stop her.
"Kamino has since been deleted from the Jedi Temple's records, and a few years ago, the Senate updated its operating systems for central Republic mapping, and Kamino was deleted from there too. Even most of the Galaxy's megacorps have removed Kamino from their maps. Only old spacer's logs have track of where it is."
Asajj looked shocked. "Only someone with massive control over the bureaucracy on Coruscant could make a change like that."
"Not only that, but we're talking about billions of clones. I sent Colonel Seith to see if Kamino is real, and he confirmed that it was there. There's no way Serenno alone could afford to create such an army. Sifo's holocron told me that my father was working with an anonymous third party, who was providing the funding."
Asajj nodded, accepting the explanation, then considered, "Do you really think Master Dooku killed Sifo Dyas?"
Tan'ya hesitated. "I don't want it to be true, but I can't be certain without further investigation. To get more information from the cloning facility, I need someone to pose as their Jedi client, there to do an inspection."
"You want me to go to Kamino?"
"I don't know who else to ask."
Asajj pursed her lips. "Have you considered telling the Jedi Council?"
Of course Tan'ya had. The main reason she hadn't already was… what if her father really had killed Sifo? Then what would become of her family? Of the New Temple? Of his legacy? Of course, Tan'ya believed firmly in the social contract, and she didn't want to conceal a murder. If it turned out her father had murdered her teacher… Tan'ya still hoped that it wasn't true. She had to find out, she had to be certain.
Finally, after a long enough pause, Asajj spoke gently. "...I do know someone, among the Coruscant Jedi. They're unorthodox, and they may be able to help us. No one would have to know that it was you who informed on your Father."
There was the sound of hissing gas from right beside them, and both girls jumped in fright. They turned to see Hego Damask standing there, holding his breather against his face. How he'd snuck up on them she didn't know, but his tightly bound mind left no trace in the Force at all.
"You can of course call the Jedi Temple, but before you do you should consider the severe consequences of doing so."
...
( 31 BBY )
Tan'ya and Asajj stood in tense silence, watching as the muun who interrupted them finished taking another drag from his breathing apparatus.
"I am the third party who's been funding the clone army." Hego Damask finally said matter-of-factly. "Perhaps I can answer some of your questions, before you decide to do something… drastic."
Tan'ya searched his face for any hints of dishonesty, yet the banker's features were as unreadable as his mind. But even without evidence, she was inclined to believe him - it made no sense for someone of Hego's status to participate in what to him was little more than a get-together between nobodies held on some backwater.
"Why build such an army?" Asajj asked immediately. "What are you planning to use it for?"
"That is a question with no easy answers I fear." He replied, stepping past them to sit with an audible sigh of relief. "I do apologize, those old bones struggle at times. Back to the matter at hand, when I, Master Sifo Dias, and Count Dooku first discussed the army, we all had very different visions for it. But we all agreed on its necessity." Damask paused, the barest hint of distaste shifting his features as he took another breath from his apparatus. "The Republic is rotting, and its decaying heart, Coruscant, is a hair's breadth away from collapsing under its own weight."
Asajj grimaced as she turned to Tan'ya. "It's true. Back when your father and I visited Coruscant, I felt a terrible Force presence hiding just under the city's surface. The suffering of hundreds of billions… I never witnessed anything like it, even on Dathomir."
"Then you understand just how dire the situation is, Knight Ventress." The muun nodded, face severe. "Coruscant is the microcosm of the Republic. More and more sentients are pushed to the fringes, just to prop up the Core's elite." He turned to Tan'ya, his apparatus whirring as he took another breath.
"In our discussion you've proven yourself economically minded, Lady Serenno. I do not have to explain to you the degree of exploitation and bureaucratic obfuscation the Outer Rim is subjected to… and that it will only get worse, until the system breaks, with catastrophic results."
Tan'ya hummed thoughtfully. "You make a fair point, mister Damask. However, I fail to see how the clone army you commissioned along with my master and father would prevent the Republic's collapse. Do you intend for it to suppress rebellions, on Coruscant and the Outer Rim alike?"
"Not at all." The muun answered with a small chuckle. "Inevitably, like the lifecycle of a star that burns out, when the Republic weakens, the Sith re-emerge… or so I've been told by Master Dias. And he had the historical records to back it, showing that again and again, that has been the case.
The Jedi can never defeat the Sith, because the Sith are a product of the Jedi, and the Sith can never truly defeat the Jedi, because the closer they come to success, the more and more incentive they have to turn on each other. It's a vicious cycle the Galaxy has been trapped in for seven thousand years, at least. Master Sifo believed that with the army backing the Jedi, this cycle will be broken."
Asajj narrowed her eyes. "You put a lot of faith and credits in what many among your kind would consider religious superstition."
"Is that so?" Hego regarded Asajj for a moment. "While not being force sensitive myself, I am a frequent guest of the Coruscant Temple, and spent enough time among the Jedi to not dismiss the Sith as a mere rumor. However, you do have a point. I had more practical reasons for funding the army as well."
"Such as?" Tan'ya asked.
"I am a chair of the InterGalactic Banking Clans, a position allowing me to monitor the flow of credits on a scale very few can," the muun answered.
"A position so high up the meaning of money fundamentally changes. Contrary to popular belief, money isn't power, Lady Serenno. It is but a tool of it. And whenever I open my datapad and take stock of the names dancing among the ever changing graphs, I can't help but notice the name 'Senate' is not among them." He paused to take another breath from the apparatus.
"So when the Republic collapses and the credit loses its worth, what other tools do you imagine the powerful, with their mines and factories tirelessly producing machines of war, will reach for; tools the remainders of the Republic will lack after centuries of demilitarization?"
"The Shogun and the Emperor," Tan'ya exclaimed with a dawning realization.
"Another historical parable, Lady Tan'ya?"
"You could consider it so." She nodded. "Long ago, in a small island on a planet far, far away, the Emperor was the ultimate authority. However, he delegated most of the 'mundane' tasks of ruling, such as managing finances or running the military, to the Shogun and his followers, while he focused on higher pursuits like art or religion.
In doing so, he put himself at the Shogun's mercy, as he ceded all the real power to him. A mercy that the Shogun lacked."
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A/N: We finally caught up to the latest chapter that was posted before the fic was taken down. Sorry about that again, lol!
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Apparently, chapters write themselves faster when Power Stones are involved. Who knew? Feel free to test the theory go ahead, toss a few my way.
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