Work Text:
The 10:30 Special Audience with the High Council of the Jedi Order was one that Yaddle was looking forward to. It was scheduled by the Head Priestess of the Temple of Kyber on behalf of one of her adherents, an Alderaani professional, and the High Priestess would be attending, herself. It was scheduled for fully an hour, which meant there would likely be a presentation and a question and answer period, and the general consensus was that it must be about the health benefits of Jedha Retreats.
Yaddle was not so sure.
The Force was brewing something, something that she could feel, even through the Temple’s protections, even through the Cesspool’s obfuscation. And Yaddle was absolutely certain it had zero to do with Light Nexus retreats and the benefits thereof.
The council padawan escorted the guests in, and the Temple Guards thought it best to remain within the room. It would not do.
“Dismissed, you are, Guards, with our thanks. No escort out will our guests require. Take responsibility for their hospitality from here, I shall. Return to your duties, you shall,” Yaddle immediately spoke, before anyone else could ruin the Force’s plans.
The council padawan today happened to be her own.
‘Dear one. Check and see if they have a guest suite assigned, and if they do not, assign one and have it fully outfitted. Don’t forget the armor stands.’
‘Yes, Master. Do you know them, Master?’ Empatojayos asked.
‘No, but I feel I will. Turn off Senate Recording. It is not mandated for Special Audiences, and we will not want it to be known.’
‘Yes, Master. Done. I’ve scrubbed their entrance and put in the Special Audience overlay.’
The High Priestess nodded graciously at Yaddle and Yaddle nodded back.
“Welcome you are to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, High Priestess Shalan, Dr. Skirata, honored guests. I am Master Yaddle, and I will see to your comfort after this presentation, and we will have further dialogue in private.” Then, contrary to tradition, Yaddle proceeded to introduce all the Council Members, and invited the High Priestess to introduce those with her.
“Thank you for your kindness, Master Yaddle. We look forward to your hospitality. With me I bring greetings from the Temple of Kyber on Jedha, and Dr. Skirata, of whom I will speak more in just a moment. Accompanying us is Commander Skirata,” here she indicated the fully armored Mandalorian warrior who stood just behind the cloaked Alderaani medical professional with the same name, “Duke Ordo,” here she indicated another fully armored Mandalorian, slighter in stature and with more grey on their armor, “and Duke Rook,” this was the final fully armored Mandalorian who seemed to be Togrutan underneath the grey and black beskar.
“And now, to the purpose of our audience. I would like to introduce to you Dr. Illipi Skirata. Dr. Skirata is an eighteenth generation devotee of the Daughter. She grew up on Alderaan and made pilgrimage to Tython before attending the University of Trinmarque, the premiere Alderaani medical school for immunology, where she graduated with honors. She worked for nineteen years with the Jedi Medical Corps on various Outposts and was cited for compassion, honesty, and integrity no fewer than twenty-three times in her work there. After a grievous pirate attack during a field mission to render emergency aid, Dr. Skirata resigned her post to follow her and her coworker’s savior from that attack, her future husband, Commander Kal Skirata, who became Second-In-Command to the moderate, reform faction of Mandalorians who followed the SuperCommando Codex, a code of honor enshrining, among many other galaxy-wide held values, care and safety of non-combatants, children, and the infirm. Dr. Skirata currently holds a dual citizenship between Alderaan and Mandalore, a special dispensation given by Queen Organa herself in honor of her services rendered to the Galaxy.
“Dr. Skirata has prepared a presentation for you all, and the contents of the presentation, complete with the full text of all references made, will be available to each Council Member at the end.
“Please know that I have heard this presentation, myself. I have read through every single reference. My staff have checked those references, which I encourage you, also, to do. And I have meditated on the best course of action, which I deemed this Special Audience to be. I beg of you now, in the name of the Force which we all serve, do not harden your hearts because these warriors bear the marks of your traditional enemy. Do not harden your hearts against the recommendations that I will offer you once the presentation draws to a close. I beg of you without presumption or pretense, to give your resistance to the Force as we so instruct all of our students to do. What you hear will shock you. It will pain you. Some of it you may have already discovered. But here will be the proof, and you will not be alone in discerning your next steps.
“Without further ado, I present to you, the honored Dr. Skirata.”
The High Priestess bowed and moved back to settle between Duke Ordo and Commander Skirata.
Dr. Skirata, still obscured either by her own shielding, or that of the High Priestess, as well as an enveloping light grey cloak and hood, came forward to the center of the circle, knelt down to place a palm-sized comm-presentation style puck on the floor, then retreated. At the opening edge of the circle, she bowed deeply in the Alderaani fashion.
She did not remove her hood.
She did not lower her shielding.
With a remote in her hand, she clicked her presentation on. A full color holo was presented of a grinning Pantoran male in their prime wearing almost no armor and a lot of embroidery.
“Masters of the Force, I would like to introduce you to my son, Myles.”
The presentation was a whirlwind education in the current politics of Mandalore, the contracted treachery and list of felony accusations of the Governor of Galidraan - which finally gave them the proof her Shadows needed for an arrest there, excellent news - and the SuperCommando Codex, which Yaddle would certainly read with interest. It was all told in the context of her son, recently murdered by Jedi.
Further, her presentation was footnoted with full references and in iambic pentameter and in the form of an Alderaani Epic, as, Yaddle knew, all published research on Alderaan was required to be. Dr. Skirata had clearly composed a beautiful Tragedy of Myles Skirata, and then promptly memorized the entire thing. And in the style of public presentation on her homeworld, she as the Bard remained obscured and forgettable, so her story would be remembered all the better.
The Force swirled around her, not with her own undoubted grief, but with its grief.
Yaddle knew at least some on the Council would get it wrong.
But it was time, perhaps, for Yaddle to just get it right for them.
When the High Priestess stopped shielding the entire party of Mandalorians, the air was thick around them with their grief, with the hollowness of their pain, flavored with their just anger. The beskar muffled the Commander and Dukes’ Force Presences, but their grief was pervasive.
Yaddle immediately wrapped them in her own shielding.
She led them to a private meditation chamber and invited them to sit and be comfortable as she floated thick cushions out from the side to form a circle. She made tea, using mostly large cups, except for herself. She floated four small tables out, and placed them together to form a larger one.
“Oversight, the Republic has, on all standard Knight Corps missions. Your Audience, however, was not subject to Senate Scrutiny. No oversight have they, in the other branches of the Order. Master of the Council of First Knowledge, I am. Exploration Corps, it is, not Knight Corps. My missions, my meetings, no oversight does Senate require.”
“My discernment has been clear, that there is deep darkness in the Republic Senate. I do not mean that as a political statement, to be entirely clear. I mean there is at least one trained, ritualistic Darksider working in it and using it. Welding it, even as a lightstaff is wielded," said the High Priestess.
"Sith, you mean?” Yaddle attempted to clarify.
“I presume no such knowledge. But if you, who live here, cannot feel it, then you have become blind to it, like a scent held too long in the nose."
Yaddle nodded. She continued and asked her questions, took in the faces of Dr. and Commander Skirata, and the Dukes Ordo and Rook.
In the end, they refused her offer to stay the night, but they also cancelled their scheduled press conference, which had been scheduled in the rather likely event that the High Council would not see reason. But it was enough, and when Yaddle walked them to the hangar they’d landed their craft in, the grief was still present, but the anger had abated.
She returned just in time for what might have been the strangest meeting of her week, with Padawan Vos, had she not just met with the Mandalorian contingent.
To the High Priestess Shalan, Dr. Illipi Skirata, Commander Skirata, Duke Ordo, and Duke Rook, from Jedi Master Yaddle, greetings.
Our operative has been dispatched, and we anticipate positive mission results within one hundred days. Our operative is the only Jedi Mandalorian currently in the Order, and a rising star beloved of the Force.
To the High Priestess Shalan, Dr. Illipi Skirata, Commander Skirata, Duke Ordo, and Duke Rook, from Jedi Master Yaddle, greetings.
Our operative has arrested the Governor of Galidraan on charges of suspected perjury, sentient trafficking, conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to assassinate a head of government, conspiracy to assassinate a Jedi, and cultural theft. He got a full confession, attached. He also retrieved all of the sacred armor stolen and is in process of repatriating it through the Armorer of Clan Aswad.
Attachment
To the High Priestess Shalan, Dr. Illipi Skirata, Commander Skirata, Duke Ordo, and Duke Rook, from Jedi Master Yaddle, greetings.
Our operative has successfully retrieved Mand’alor Jango Fett, as well as Commander Myles Skirata, his spouse. Both are alive and well and required minimal medical attention. All are enroute to Mandalore, now. Will update again at mission conclusion.
To the High Priestess Shalan, Dr. Illipi Skirata, Commander Skirata, Duke Ordo, and Duke Rook, from Jedi Master Yaddle, greetings.
Our operative has successfully negotiated a Reparations Agreement between the Jedi Order and the Mand’alor, and it has been ratified, and is attached. Attached also is the press conference that the Jedi Order held immediately after we released the Reparations Agreement to the Media, and the Republic Senate.
The Governor of Galidraan has been found guilty on all charges and is serving first the mandated penalty for sentient trafficking, five years of hard labor, and subsequent to that, his sentence of thity-five consecutive life sentences in high security, low amenities prison without possibility of parole, and paying a fine to the Jedi Order and the Affected Clans for each sentient conspired against, 100,000 credits for those who have died, and 50,000 to those who have survived, with an additional payment of 2,250,000 credits to the Mand’alor, which equals the payment the Governor of Galidraan received by Death Watch to engage in this villany to begin with. There was also a fine payable to the Republic Senate for perjury, which was equalled the full cost of the Republic investigating, prosecuting, and jailing him, including the mission costs of our operative. Full details of his judgment and sentencing are also attached.
We will be further investigating both the Darkness in the Senate that the High Priestess noticed in her discernment, as well as the Death Watch faction, and would be willing to coordinate future action against Death Watch with the Mand’alor and his War Council.
I thank you for bringing this to our attention, High Priestess, Dr. Skirata, and I look forward to seeing Dr. and Commander Skirata in happier times at our operative’s upcoming Knighting Ceremony.
I also look forward to meeting Rid’alor Skirata.
Attachments
Myl’ika,
I never told you this, and I don’t think Illipi ever intends to. But you should know how much your parent loves you, and what form their grief took in your absence. She worked on the ‘Lay of Skirata’ for fully nine months before she pulled every string she had and I never knew in order to get an audience with the damn Jedi Bosses. I recorded it. I couldn’t not. You’re the only Skirata to end up having an Epic Poem composed to them, even if it is in Basic. I’ve heard it five times now, and I can’t hear it without weeping.
We will remember your name forever.
Kal’buir
Attachment
Ob’ika,
Did you know about this?
Myles
Attachment
My darling Myles,
I’m sobbing like a crecheling! Ill’buir is brilliant and quite amazing. I’m so glad she said something. It’s good someone was listening to the Force. Much of what she revealed and provided in her references was part of my mission packet, yes, but there was no mention of where the Order got the information. I wrongly assumed the Shadows had been doing the research and reconnaissance for it themselves.
No.
‘Said something.’
That’s far too simple and small to describe what she did. She didn’t just write a letter of complaint to the Order. She wrote an Alderaani Tragic Epic and then managed to tie down the entire High Council for an hour in order to recite it to them, after it was drubbed into their heads by a peer that she was honest and full of integrity, and I’m just stunned. And she wrote it in the style of Terendawn, except with Tragic stylings instead of Romantic ones. Myles, even among quite literate circles that poetry would be well received, I think.
Do you think she would write a happier ending? Like an epilogue? I presume Jango’s assistant doesn’t know about this? Are we meant to be keeping this private? I’m dying to give this to one of our Jedi who likes doing Illuminated Manuscripts, like the ones Jas’buir and Ill’buir took as a remembrance from the warehouse.
Please give me permission to talk with Ill’buir about this! Plo’buir was in the room and I’m definitely going to be talking with him about it, and getting a copy of whatever written materials were distributed, providing he still has them. It has been years.
More later, and I sincerely hope that one line comm wasn’t my weekly letter from the two of you. It was beautiful, but I do want to hear from you and Jango, too. You did show it to Jango, of course? It was so very moving. Are you two well, my beautiful darlings? It utterly tore my heart out. I can’t imagine you took it any easier. I can’t imagine that anyone could take it easier. One more reason the Clan Heads kept their helmets on for it.
I’m mid-mission, still, and I’m afraid I can’t teleport to you as I wish I could, because there’s no tether strong enough to get me back to this piece of Mid-Rim forgotten hellscape and I’m not finished here, yet. Also, I have Maul with me, and you know how he feels about teleporting without Jon around, if we’re not just going straight to the Keep from the Temple. I swear he thinks I’m completely inept, just because I dropped my lightsaber that one time. Also, I’d hate to abandon my lovely little gunship. (I would if I had to, of course I would, you know that. Tene’buir did that terribly fancy auto-sequence business with the extra datablock and the astronav maps that I think qualifies as an entire extra navcomputer that would get Getal’ika back and docked to the Mandalore Customs Station, just in case I do need to exit without benefit of starship, and only send a message for it to fly itself home later. And it's not that I don't trust Tene’buir, I'm just a little leary of its first use outside of an emergency. Though I suppose I could test it. Still, I'm not sure this is the mission to do that. I dread explaining that in my expense reports.)
Anyway, please my darlings, just a bit more information. I love you, and I hope you are well. I should be available for War Council, some training spars, and some family and riduure time in another three weeks, my darlings. Do give my love to Sav’ika and Fer’ika. I’ll write each of them separately, tomorrow.
Obi