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Sometimes, Leia despaired of ever getting anything done. Sometimes she missed the days of being a rebel and just throwing herself into the fight. Corporate interests were influencing the New Republic Senate, and Leia didn’t know how to fight it. Too much of their maneuvering was perfectly legal, and she couldn’t find the political will to make any of that maneuvering illegal.
That was why Leia had snuck off. She had a bit of free time and, rather than spend it in her lavish Senatorial suite or the halls of power, gossiping or gathering votes, she had decided to descend into Coruscant’s deeper layers. She had found a café, a cleanish, faded sort of place that Han would jokingly call the height of luxury. She had gotten herself a cup of caff and a seat, and immersed herself in the city’s atmosphere. Several people were working on datapads, furiously typing away. One person was using flimsyplast, carefully and thoughtfully writing something they valued. Two people near her were gossiping in low tones about someone’s attempts to catch a romantic interest’s eye.
“Senator Organa?” someone said.
Leia startled. She hadn’t felt anyone approaching. But now that she looked, the speaker was standing near her with her own cup of caff cradled in her hands.
“My apologies for startling you,” the other woman said. “May I join you?”
“Certainly,” Leia said, gesturing to the seat next to her.
Her fellow Senator sat with uncanny grace. Senator Sevander represented the lowest levels of Coruscant, deeper than they were now. As such, she was an outsider to the Senate, despite the fact that they were on her planet. And she didn’t do much to blend in, always wearing a necklace of disturbingly large teeth to remind everyone how little they knew of Coruscant, and cloaks of strange hides none of the other Senators could source.
“How did you find me?” Leia asked. This wasn’t exactly her normal haunt, and she hadn’t sensed anyone following her.
“I am the best hunter of my people,” the other Senator dismissed. “I can follow a blood trail.”
“I think I would noticed leaving a trail of blood,” Leia said dryly.
“Metaphorically,” Senator Sevander clarified. She took a sip of the caff and didn’t even grimace. “I apologize for interrupting you; I suspect you were trying to escape the Senate.”
“I was,” Leia admitted. “But I don’t mind your presence. I have been meaning to talk to you for some time. We keep on voting together.”
“We share the same goal.” Senator Sevander smiled. “The good of the galaxy, and to provide all those who inhabit it with what they need. But that is not actually why I came to you.”
“Oh?” Leia asked.
“You are the sister of the Rebellion’s Jedi, are you not?”
Sevander was known for discovering all sorts of odd tidbits of knowledge and bringing them up at the most important moment as if she didn’t understand exactly what she was doing. Leia was sure Sevander knew for certain that Luke Skywalker was her brother. At least she wasn’t bringing up the fact to hurt Leia, like when she asked after a mistress in front of a Senator’s wife.
“I… have something for the Jedi,” Sevander said.
From out of her cloak, Sevander drew a blue cube that Leia recognized.
“A Jedi Holocron!” Leia gasped.
“Just so,” Sevander agreed. “Your brother will find this one particularly helpful.”
“Thank you. I will get it to him,” Leia promised. She took the Holocron and hid it away in her handbag. “He will appreciate it. As do I. I believe the Republic needs the Jedi, and this will help resurrect the Jedi Order.”
“There are those who would disagree with you,” Sevander said with a tone of warning. “Anti-Jedi sentiment was not invented by the Empire.”
“You aren’t one of those, are you?” Leia asked, confused.
“No,” Sevander said, her nose wrinkling with disgust. “But your brother walks a dangerous path. Few prostested when the old Jedi were slaughtered. How many would protest today?”
“I know I would,” Leia said. “And I’d do my best to ensure it doesn’t happen.”
Sevander smiled slightly.
“And,” Leia continued, “I think you would protest, too.”
Sevander nodded.
“I would, regardless of how much good it would do,” she agreed. “Guard your brother, Senator Organa, so we do not have to.”
“I will,” Leia promised.
“I have a gift for you, too,” Sevander said. “I meant to give it to you later, as it is political. We can meet up later, if you wish.”
“I can accept it now,” Leia said. “You aren’t the sort of Senator I’m escaping.”
Sevander laughed slightly and drew a datapad out of her cloak, passing it over. Leia turned it on and looked at it. The datapad was open to a list of well-named files. As Leia read the names, her eyes widened. She glanced up at Sevander.
“These are real?” she whispered.
“Yes,” Sevander confirmed. “I used the greatest care to uncover this. But I do not know who best to leverage it.”
“I have some ideas,” Leia said, smiling. With this, getting corporate interests out of the Senate was doable. “Thank you, Senator Sevander. Please call me Leia.”
“You are most welcome, Leia. Please call me Reva.”