Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 07_ Conviction - Aaron Allston [67]
Octa brought the projector online. An image swam into view, a high holocam perspective on the main Senate chamber. The chamber, shaped roughly like the interior of a giant egg, its walls lined with detachable speakers’ platforms on repulsorlifts, was about half full and bustling with activity. The image, because it was a hologram projected within another hologram, was unusually fuzzy.
Octa waved a hand over it. “This is the Senate chamber this morning in an off-hour, as broadcast by HoloNet News. When conferences are in session, it’s packed. This is an unusual amount of political activity, of attendance. There’s a lot of discussion, formal and informal, on the situation with freedom fighters and slave rebellions, a lot of committee discussion of how these events affect committee duties, and a considerable amount of lobbying by corporations with interests both inside and outside the Alliance, attempting to maintain the status quo—to keep the Galactic Alliance from interfering on behalf of enslaved cultures outside the Alliance. The upshot is that any day we choose in the next few weeks, at least during prime arguing and posturing hours, we’re likely to have a majority of Senators present.”
Kyp tapped his control board. The image flickered and then gave way to a succession of recordings showing GA Navy personnel moving along the high-ceilinged hallways of the Senate Building. “We also have a lot of opportunities involving changes to security measures. Fleet Intelligence is now in charge of the Chief of State’s personal security, and Daala has ordered GA Security to cooperate with Fleet Intelligence on all issues of Senate security, as well. What this means is that a lot of naval personnel who are not well known to existing security forces now have free run of the building. They have access to the security centers. Resentment is running high among the security forces, and we’ve had a lot of luck—a lot—just from Jedi mind-influencing techniques.” He waved a hand, a casual gesture all those watching knew to be a minor distraction, the sort Jedi often used to presage a mind trick. “ ‘You remember me from years ago when I was with security. You remember that I hate those navy pukes almost as much as you do.’ This invariably gets me a few drinks in an office, accompanied by an hour’s worth of venting about Fleet Intelligence interference … which comes with a lot of useful information about new procedures, new regulations, and so on.
“Also …” He tapped a control and the image switched to a still of a group of navy officers standing beside a wall panel, open to reveal a bank of electronics. “The navy is apparently being allowed to install monitoring hardware on many existing security stations and installations all over the building. We’ve been able to get to some of these units before they were activated, piggybacking our own hardware onto them. We now have holocam ‘eyes’ where we used to have none, and a couple of very valuable data conduits that are new to us. We can now forge self-erasing orders for personnel rotation that will allow us to bring two or three Jedi into the building with minimal security checks every shift. Not dressed as Jedi, of course. Dressed as naval personnel and sent straight to our auxiliary Kuat delegation office.” He switched off the image of the naval officers.
Octa gave the viewers a satisfied smile. “If we can get some new data on the main building security center, then Master Horn’s Plan Delta is, we think, viable. I expect that our opportunities to implement it will become poorer and more infrequent within the next week, though, in addition to the increasing likelihood that Kyp or I might be detected.
“So there’s our report for today. May the Force be with you—and especially with us.”
The hologram faded.
Han looked among the others. “Which one is Plan Delta? I only remember discussions of ‘a plan.’ What