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nonelikemesinceAnakin and Jacen arrived at the Governor-General's estate on Drall to find a welcoming committee, of sorts: a very large, very angry crowd that definitely didn't want them there.
No one ever said it had to be a warm welcome.
Jedi warmongers, read one sign. Corellia will live to see Coruscant die. Then there was Servants of the dark side, which struck him as a particular affront.
"Here's one you'll like, Anakin," said Jacen, who kept reading the signs through a pair of electrobinoculars. "'Solos, go home.' Wait'll Dad gets wind of this."
The hostility made it a little bit difficult to enjoy the meal they were being served, but the company was good: Governor-General Marcha and her nephew Ebrihim were friends of theirs from the first time they'd been to Centerpoint. Marcha tried to assure them that the crowd -- members of the Centerpoint Party, which borrowed heavily from the extremist rhetoric of the old Sacorrian Triad -- had actually been around for weeks, and despite the personalized signs it wasn't really about them.
More politics: Anakin tuned out the details more than he probably should have, only half listening until Jacen asked if Marcha couldn't have kept the New Republic from taking control of Centerpoint.
"I'm a political appointee, Jacen," Marcha told him with less scorn than Anakin might have, in her place. "Given that many of my own staff have turned on me for not taking a firmer stand, it probably would have been a wise move to challenge or at least denounce Coruscant's actions. But without your mother to back me, Borsk Fey'lya would have simply removed me from office and the military would have taken possession of Centerpoint regardless."
That didn't make any sense to Anakin. "Any of the repulsors buried on Corellia, Drall, Selonia, or the Double Worlds is capable of fending off an attack by an entire fleet of starships," he protested. "And with Centerpoint reenabled, Corellia will be as well defended as any system in the New Republic -- including Coruscant. So I don't see why everyone's protesting what we're trying to do."
"I fear you haven't been given all the facts, Anakin," Ebrihim cut in delicately. "You're under the impression that you've been summoned to aid in Corellia's defense, when in fact, reenabling Centerpoint Station has more to do with offense than defense."
Sithspawn.
Anakin felt the surge of alarm -- and a little bit of superiority -- in the Force even before Jacen exclaimed, "I knew it would be something like this!"
"Drall's lighter gravity is going to Jacen's head," he declared, determined not to let on that he was starting to panic a bit. "He's convinced that our coming here is going to upset the balance of the Force or something."
"You're not far off, Anakin," Jacen retorted acidly.
"You're the one who's far off," Anakin shot back. "Anything that will stop the Yuuzhan Vong has the Force on its side."
This kind of animosity was normal for them these days, but Marcha's surprise drove home how young they'd been the first time they'd come to Centerpoint. "What's come over you boys? You never used to argue."
Jacen just kept staring at Anakin icily. "We disagree about this mission."
Anakin snorted, muttering, "Among other things."
You heard what he said, Anakin," Jacen pressed, indicating Ebrihim. "This has more to do with offense. And you were the one who described Centerpoint as Corellia's lightsaber."
"Yeah, which means it can be used to parry or thrust. It all depends on who's wielding it," Anakin replied, glaring at him.
"Meaning what? That you'll refuse to help if you find out it's going to be used for attack?"
"Meaning that I'm waiting to hear all sides of the argument." Anakin snapped, then asked Ebrihim, "Is there proof the New Republic plans to use Centerpoint as a weapon instead of a shield?"
He thought that was the problem: Centerpoint could be both, at any given time. Except no, according to Ebrihim it was even worse than that: Admiral Sovv's main concern wasn't Corellia's defense. Centerpoint was capable of generating a systemwide interdiction field, as the Triad had done during the First Corellian Insurrection. The Solo kids had been trapped inside it at the time, held as hostages. Ebrihim and Marcha suspected Admiral Sovv planned to use that field to trap the Yuuzhan Vong inside, and take the fight to them there.
"Oh, brother," Jacen said with a wince that Anakin mirrored. "No wonder Corellia's ready to riot."
"You said 'suspect,'" Anakin said, seizing on that one word for some hope that he hadn't really gotten them in way over their heads (and given Jacen a reason to act superior).
That hope didn't last long. Even without a direct line to the New Republic Defense Force the evidence was damning: there was exactly enough firepower in-system to make Corell and its orbiting planets look like a very, very tempting target.
Anakin frowned, and asked, "How is the Defense Force expecting to get ships through the interdiction field that's holding the Yuuzhan Vong fleet at bay?"
"By outfitting the ships with the same hyperwave inertial momentum sustainers the Bakurans used during the crisis. You must understand, Anakin, this operation has been in the works for some time," Ebrihim replied.
"The protestors are reacting to the fact that Coruscant has withheld defense and commandeered Centerpoint without factoring Corellia's citizenry into the equation," Marcha added.
"You make it sound like everything is already set. It doesn't sound like I'm really needed here," Anakin mused after a moment or two.
When Marcha smiled, it seemed almost apologetic. "I wish that were so. But, in fact, the success of the strategy rests very much with you."
It was exactly the kind of big heroic role Anakin had always wanted to play, and it was making him a little queasy.
Defense Force scientists had, it seemed, been working around the clock for months to boost the entire system's power and bring it back online, but no one had ever been able to solve the entire mystery of the ancient space station, and there was no guarantee that it would work without blowing up in their faces, let alone have the kind of range -- to generate interdictor shields or explode stars -- that they'd been hoping to get out of it.
"And this is where you and you alone figure in the scheme, Anakin," Ebrihim concluded, "because many of the scientists are convinced that the system still bears the imprint you imparted to the repulsor here on Drall, and that such a network can be brought into synchronization only by you. Eight years ago you were responsible for disabling Centerpoint. Now you may be the only person who can successfully rehabilitate it."
"Jacen sensed this from the beginning," Anakin had to admit, and it left an unpleasant taste in his mouth to concede that much. "It's not that I don't trust what you're telling me, but I have to go to Centerpoint and see for myself. I might be able to re-enable it as a shield only. That way, Corellia and Drall and the rest can at least protect themselves from attack, no matter what plans the Defense Force or any others devise."
Marcha didn't look very hopeful about that. "Yes, perhaps you'll be able to do just as you say, Anakin. But a word of warning before you go: When it came to reactivating the repulsors and the station, Coruscant had no choice but to call on many of those who were directly involved in fomenting the crisis."
"The Sacorrian Triad, you mean," Anakin guessed.
Ebrihim nodded in confirmation. "Along with several others who played a role in those events."
"It's just this, boys," Marcha told them. "You may not like what you're going to find on Centerpoint. Therefore, you must take care. Think carefully before you agree to anything."
He'd been half his current age the last time they'd been here, but it looked like he wasn't anywhere near outgrowing his penchant for blundering straight into trouble with the best of intentions.
[OOC: NFB/NFI, OOC-okay, TBC. Dialogue continues to be from Agents of Chaos: Jedi Eclipse by James Luceno, from which this whole thing is adapted.]
No one ever said it had to be a warm welcome.
Jedi warmongers, read one sign. Corellia will live to see Coruscant die. Then there was Servants of the dark side, which struck him as a particular affront.
"Here's one you'll like, Anakin," said Jacen, who kept reading the signs through a pair of electrobinoculars. "'Solos, go home.' Wait'll Dad gets wind of this."
The hostility made it a little bit difficult to enjoy the meal they were being served, but the company was good: Governor-General Marcha and her nephew Ebrihim were friends of theirs from the first time they'd been to Centerpoint. Marcha tried to assure them that the crowd -- members of the Centerpoint Party, which borrowed heavily from the extremist rhetoric of the old Sacorrian Triad -- had actually been around for weeks, and despite the personalized signs it wasn't really about them.
More politics: Anakin tuned out the details more than he probably should have, only half listening until Jacen asked if Marcha couldn't have kept the New Republic from taking control of Centerpoint.
"I'm a political appointee, Jacen," Marcha told him with less scorn than Anakin might have, in her place. "Given that many of my own staff have turned on me for not taking a firmer stand, it probably would have been a wise move to challenge or at least denounce Coruscant's actions. But without your mother to back me, Borsk Fey'lya would have simply removed me from office and the military would have taken possession of Centerpoint regardless."
That didn't make any sense to Anakin. "Any of the repulsors buried on Corellia, Drall, Selonia, or the Double Worlds is capable of fending off an attack by an entire fleet of starships," he protested. "And with Centerpoint reenabled, Corellia will be as well defended as any system in the New Republic -- including Coruscant. So I don't see why everyone's protesting what we're trying to do."
"I fear you haven't been given all the facts, Anakin," Ebrihim cut in delicately. "You're under the impression that you've been summoned to aid in Corellia's defense, when in fact, reenabling Centerpoint Station has more to do with offense than defense."
Sithspawn.
Anakin felt the surge of alarm -- and a little bit of superiority -- in the Force even before Jacen exclaimed, "I knew it would be something like this!"
"Drall's lighter gravity is going to Jacen's head," he declared, determined not to let on that he was starting to panic a bit. "He's convinced that our coming here is going to upset the balance of the Force or something."
"You're not far off, Anakin," Jacen retorted acidly.
"You're the one who's far off," Anakin shot back. "Anything that will stop the Yuuzhan Vong has the Force on its side."
This kind of animosity was normal for them these days, but Marcha's surprise drove home how young they'd been the first time they'd come to Centerpoint. "What's come over you boys? You never used to argue."
Jacen just kept staring at Anakin icily. "We disagree about this mission."
Anakin snorted, muttering, "Among other things."
You heard what he said, Anakin," Jacen pressed, indicating Ebrihim. "This has more to do with offense. And you were the one who described Centerpoint as Corellia's lightsaber."
"Yeah, which means it can be used to parry or thrust. It all depends on who's wielding it," Anakin replied, glaring at him.
"Meaning what? That you'll refuse to help if you find out it's going to be used for attack?"
"Meaning that I'm waiting to hear all sides of the argument." Anakin snapped, then asked Ebrihim, "Is there proof the New Republic plans to use Centerpoint as a weapon instead of a shield?"
He thought that was the problem: Centerpoint could be both, at any given time. Except no, according to Ebrihim it was even worse than that: Admiral Sovv's main concern wasn't Corellia's defense. Centerpoint was capable of generating a systemwide interdiction field, as the Triad had done during the First Corellian Insurrection. The Solo kids had been trapped inside it at the time, held as hostages. Ebrihim and Marcha suspected Admiral Sovv planned to use that field to trap the Yuuzhan Vong inside, and take the fight to them there.
"Oh, brother," Jacen said with a wince that Anakin mirrored. "No wonder Corellia's ready to riot."
"You said 'suspect,'" Anakin said, seizing on that one word for some hope that he hadn't really gotten them in way over their heads (and given Jacen a reason to act superior).
That hope didn't last long. Even without a direct line to the New Republic Defense Force the evidence was damning: there was exactly enough firepower in-system to make Corell and its orbiting planets look like a very, very tempting target.
Anakin frowned, and asked, "How is the Defense Force expecting to get ships through the interdiction field that's holding the Yuuzhan Vong fleet at bay?"
"By outfitting the ships with the same hyperwave inertial momentum sustainers the Bakurans used during the crisis. You must understand, Anakin, this operation has been in the works for some time," Ebrihim replied.
"The protestors are reacting to the fact that Coruscant has withheld defense and commandeered Centerpoint without factoring Corellia's citizenry into the equation," Marcha added.
"You make it sound like everything is already set. It doesn't sound like I'm really needed here," Anakin mused after a moment or two.
When Marcha smiled, it seemed almost apologetic. "I wish that were so. But, in fact, the success of the strategy rests very much with you."
It was exactly the kind of big heroic role Anakin had always wanted to play, and it was making him a little queasy.
Defense Force scientists had, it seemed, been working around the clock for months to boost the entire system's power and bring it back online, but no one had ever been able to solve the entire mystery of the ancient space station, and there was no guarantee that it would work without blowing up in their faces, let alone have the kind of range -- to generate interdictor shields or explode stars -- that they'd been hoping to get out of it.
"And this is where you and you alone figure in the scheme, Anakin," Ebrihim concluded, "because many of the scientists are convinced that the system still bears the imprint you imparted to the repulsor here on Drall, and that such a network can be brought into synchronization only by you. Eight years ago you were responsible for disabling Centerpoint. Now you may be the only person who can successfully rehabilitate it."
"Jacen sensed this from the beginning," Anakin had to admit, and it left an unpleasant taste in his mouth to concede that much. "It's not that I don't trust what you're telling me, but I have to go to Centerpoint and see for myself. I might be able to re-enable it as a shield only. That way, Corellia and Drall and the rest can at least protect themselves from attack, no matter what plans the Defense Force or any others devise."
Marcha didn't look very hopeful about that. "Yes, perhaps you'll be able to do just as you say, Anakin. But a word of warning before you go: When it came to reactivating the repulsors and the station, Coruscant had no choice but to call on many of those who were directly involved in fomenting the crisis."
"The Sacorrian Triad, you mean," Anakin guessed.
Ebrihim nodded in confirmation. "Along with several others who played a role in those events."
"It's just this, boys," Marcha told them. "You may not like what you're going to find on Centerpoint. Therefore, you must take care. Think carefully before you agree to anything."
He'd been half his current age the last time they'd been here, but it looked like he wasn't anywhere near outgrowing his penchant for blundering straight into trouble with the best of intentions.
[OOC: NFB/NFI, OOC-okay, TBC. Dialogue continues to be from Agents of Chaos: Jedi Eclipse by James Luceno, from which this whole thing is adapted.]
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no subject
Date: 2012-09-26 07:18 am (UTC)Ben says, "Um, about Centerpoint..."