The Festival of Life Part 2

The next day, the Senate votes on the blueprint. Assorted other votes happen beforehand, such as forbidding archaeological digs on Ree's planet without special permits. They also vote on the name of Ree's planet (which had heretofore been unnamed), and the final decision is...Reeshome! Oola's brother helped with that one, much to Ree's dismay. Heh. They also let the Jedi send a group to see what else might be lying around on Reeshome, and introduce a bill to consider Jedi artifacts as registered items.

The final vote is to not use the Blueprint for the time being and to table the issue, which Han says will essentially tie it up in red tape forever. The Alderaanians are not happy about this.

The Chancellor's address is a state-of-the-union kind of thing, with a parade following. There's a big Senate party later on, open to everyone. It turns out to be kind of tense, with a lot of Alderaanians sulking. Kedrihm talks to different people, gets accosted by Alderaanians who think he'll be sympathetic because of the circumstances on Abindosan. One guy is upset becasue he feels no one is even looking at options. But while Kedrihm'Val feels for them, the fellow doesn't find him cooperative. He tells the Alderaanians the device is too dangerous, and if it were a matter of using it or losing his own planet, he would choose the latter.

There are bad feelings about the Chancellor among the Alderaanians. Some of them feel Leia has betrayed them. The Alderaanian delegates seem convinced that there would be no unpleasant consequences from using the thing. Emotions run high and grow increasingly unpleasant, till Winter ends up breaking an Alderaanian's arm when he gets grabby during an argument. She's really ticked.

Oola and Kedrihm note that Sent is stirring people up. SARR feeds him something that sends him rushing to the bathroom after Oola ponders getting the man out of the way for a while.

Then comes Life Day!

Ree gives Kyp the sweet bread. He asks her if she has the biggest family in the galaxy, which makes her smile, and she thanks him for his sweet present.

Ree helps with family day at the Jedi temple. Kedrihm and Z go to parties. Kedrihm does, in fact, like parties quite a bit, having no argument against food or singing or dancing. Z is mainly interested in booze.

Everyone trades gifts. Onna gives everyone on the crew a speeder. Z gives liquor, Oola hands out Ryloth food, Kedrihm'Val gives out Ithorian foods (he quite likes the Ithorians and his planet is too far away to get anything conveniently).

On the news: "The Republic turns its back on the Alderaanians!" The spiels have no hard facts, but someone has leaked information that the Senate has a way to recreate the planet. Sent gets a lot of interviews. Ooooh, Leia is not happy.

At the temple, Ree notes an extremely brief power flicker and senses that someone just tried to kidnap Dalt from his room. Arriving, she finds the assailant has been sucked into the wall by angry cables and electrocuted. Dalt is not too flustered, but says he did it on reflex. He really wasn't even aware he could still do that sort of thing. The security forces take care of it. Ree goes back to the party to see Lexi's family, where Dalt telepathically points out "You might want to protect the guy who looks just like me." Looking at the security footage a little later, she finds that the kidnapper came in with some other group, and ninja'd his way through the halls. Dalt apparently sensed the man outside his room. The security cameras follow the man's movements, even though they weren't supposed to. Ree suspects Dalt was doing it subconsciously, maybe a kind of technological danger-sense.

The Jedi heighten the temple's security and make sure that Dalt has an escort. Ree is put in charge of finding out who sent the kidnapper. The ID says it's just a lowly secretary, but that's a heck of a clerical skill set.

The man's name was Kren Dor. Oola, working her extra special compu-magic, discovers that the man used to be an Imperial Security Bureau spy and 'Re-education Corp.' ISB and ImpIntel were all labeled war criminals. Oola checks the rest of the delegation he worked for. 40 people, three of whom--one woman, two men, all human--were atttached to VIPs. All three are Alderaanian. One of them, Cho Balu, was a member of the Coalition for Progress (the group in charge of media censorship). One (the woman, Cas Roke) was a member of an ImpIntel assassination squad, and the third, Iako Orn--Oola really pulls out her skills on digging up this one--is implicated as Imperial Guard. They call Zan.

The next day is Remembrance Day. The Alderaanians milk it. The crew have to decide how to handle these spies on a day when everything is so public and it's such a bad time to go around arresting Alderaanians. Ree tells the Council, Kedrihm and Oola tell Dalt, and while Oola considers setting up a fake interview to catch the censorship guy, Z and SARR are left to their own devices. Luke has just got done warning them they'll have to be subtle when Z returns with Cho Balu. SARR is standing in for him with a holographic projector (which he apparently has built in to himself; Oola says she knew about it).

They interrogate Balu, who is of course angry. "Apparently you can just kidnap people now." "Well," Ree says, "Z is a bounty hunter, and there is a standing reward..." Z: "Holy shit, you're right." Balu is still loyal to the Emperor, and admires Thrawn. "Dalt swore loyalty to the Emperor," he says. "We're just taking back what's ours." This man really believes in the goodness of the Empire, and refuses to tell them anything further. Ree says she can't do this. Z steps up with a painting of star fighters, lets loose his 'stream of justice,' then scribbles on it. Balu is horrified. Turns out, Z robbed his house while he was there. He's got bunches of objets d'art in a sack, which he begins to methodically smash, starting with a bust of the Emperor right after Ree protests that there might be evidence in there. Then he smashes a TIE fighter sculpture, which indeed reveals a datachip hidden in the hollow base. Oola snags it. Balu finally cracks. He tells them he doesn't know of any external orders; he's been honestly working for the Alderaanians since the New Republic formed (hey, a guy's gotta eat). The chip, Oola discovers, is an archive of ship logs--diplomatic shuttles.

Having gotten the hang of this interrogation method, Ree asks Balu, "What's your favorite piece?" Then hands it to Z. (Z: "This is nice. This is 'getting-to-know' nice." Ree takes it back.) Balu, it turns out, works as his cell's secretary. His circle meets in an Undercity bar, and the next meeting is tomorrow night.

They turn him over to New Republic security, make a copy of the chip and turn the original of that over as evidence. The next day, they plot an ambush. After they see two people go into the room, Z kicks the door down. Kedrihm'Val covers the door in case somebody tries to escape, while Z and Ree engage. The Imperial Guard, Iako Orn, dives behind a table while the woman, Cas Roke, goes hand to hand with Z. Ree cuts the table apart with her lightsaber; Orn spits something at her and rolls away. Z tags a piece of the wall with his wrist harpoon and tugs it down onto Roke. Orn fires a blaster at Ree. Z slams Roke off the wall. Ree nails Orn when he tries to leap over her. And they drag the two captives back.

On the way out, the Force users sense an incoming attack. Ree steps into deflect two blaster bolts aimed at the prisoners. she orders Z to chase. It's someone in clone trooper armor--ARC trooper armor, in fact. Kedrihm'Val drains the energy from the man's jetpack and Z catches him. They fight. Ree heads that way to help. The ARC trooper (or whatever he is) grapple-hooks a passing speeder, towing him and Z away from the scene. Ree leaps onto anothe rspeeder, and gets the driver to follow. She cuts the cord, letting Z catch the guy and bring him down to the ground. The ARC throws some smoke bombs and tries to hide. Ree senses for him, noting that there's something strange about him; he's hard to follow. He shoots his hand at her and dives into a bar. Z follows, shouting, "I AM Z. I'm here hunting a fugitive!" *fires blasters* "Hand him over!" The crowd draws back from the guy, who runs. Ree tackles him, then Z nails him in the head with a leg-drop. This puts the man out, breathing a bit rough, but okay. People in the bar take pictures.

The Imperial Guard is taken to the temple, the others get sent to Republic Security.

Z suggests attending some smashball to relax. The tour for new padawans goes well. The smashball game is as violent as SARR hoped: Tatooine's rough and ready desert-dwelling farmers beat the ever-loving crap out of the sleek, posh Chandrilan athletes. After the game, Z points out to Ree, "You're only one day away from your first date." Ree gets a deer-in-headlights look.

On the holo-news, they're still fussing over the Alderaanian 'plight.' The Republic is releasing some information along the lines of "This is one of those freaky things like Luke keeps finding. Want us to mess with it?" The crew relaxes over dinner.