Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 07_ Conviction - Aaron Allston [110]
Reni shook her head. “At least two Masters and two Jedi Knights. And by Masters, I mean famous ones, Jedi with names that will strike fear into the slaveholders. And what does immediately mean? A hundred years is immediately in geological terms.”
Leia suppressed a sigh. “One Master, and it will be one who’s had plenty of time on the HoloNet. Two Jedi Knights. And immediately means within a week of the general announcement of the planetary declaration of independence. A week, that is, if the Senate’s in session at that time.”
Reni leaned back. She nodded, a slow, thoughtful movement. “That … could work. But we’d want the Jedi in place immediately—immediately as we just defined it, one week from the conclusion of this agreement. Before the declaration.”
“Done.”
“No.” That was Padnel.
Leia looked at him. Reni, too, and the others.
The big Klatooinian male sat shaking his head. “We are guaranteed nothing. The Jedi could leave the moment independence is declared. Our people would lose hope. I would have condemned the actions of my own brother for nothing. This cannot be done.”
Leia and Reni exchanged a look. They did not need to speak, to lay out the situation for each other. Reni, though Klatooinian, did not have enough popular support to sway or compel the Klatooinian Council of Elders, a body with an ancient tradition of collaboration with the Hutts, to undertake an action as irreversible as lending its full support to the planet’s freedom movement. It was questionable whether Reni and Padnel in cooperation could manage it, though Leia thought their chances were good.
And worse, Klatooine, of all the planets simmering with freedom movements, was probably the one closest to being able to achieve freedom from its masters. If Padnel really intended to be uncooperative, if he could not see the opportunity hovering just in front of his snout, this whole operation was doomed.
Leia shrugged. “I have offered all I can, Padnel. Ask for more, by all means. I can’t give it to you.” That was not entirely true. She had some leeway in resources Saba had authorized her to utilize. But not much …
Padnel glowered. “It’s not troops or funds, it’s trust. How can we trust Jedi who rule? I’ve read about the Jedi. They do not rule. When they do rule, they declare themselves—what’s the word? Sith? And they lie and cheat and destroy. Like they violated the Fountain of the Hutt Ancients. Like Palpatine overthrew the Republic. Like Jacen … Solo … brought the galaxy to war.”
Leia clamped down on a heated answer that would do no one any good. She struggled to keep her voice level. “Jedi and Sith are not the same.”
Padnel bared his teeth as he answered. “No, not the same at all. Neither one uses magic or lightsabers or decides the fates of others.”
“Palpatine was never a Jedi. And my son’s … struggles, his failures, have no bearing on this situation. Especially since the Jedi will be leaving the Chief of State’s office to a duly elected politician as soon as it’s feasible.”
“Ha.”
“And other former Jedi have become fine, even-handed rulers. Tenel Ka Chume Ta’ Djo of the Hapes Consortium, for example.”
Padnel waved her argument away. He glanced up at the HoloNews feed as though he’d lost interest in the argument.
Reni raised a shaggy eyebrow. “Get her.”
Leia stared at the woman. “How’s that again?”
“Bring Tenel Ka Djo here. She has reason to like the Jedi; she was one, once. She has reason to mistrust them, too; her consortium has sometimes been at odds with Jedi plans. She is a canny politician with no vested interest in or against our movement. Bring her here.”
Padnel, scowling, returned his attention to the argument, but did not speak. He glanced at his aide, who offered only a microscopic shrug.
Leia shook her head. “Absolutely not.”
Naysay, who had been quiet for most of the exchange,