NOVEL NEXT Chapter 95: Chapter 95
---Three Days Later, Coruscant---
"Oh wow!!", Mylene gasped, as we began to descend into Coruscant's atmosphere, "The cities on this world are simply enormous. Some of them make our continent island back home look so small!"
"This may come as a shock to you, dear, but Coruscant both a planet and a city. Spacefarers call it an ecumenopolis, or planet-wide city.", I explained, "What we see is only the top layer of the city, it goes 5127 layers deep."
Unable to imagine how a single city could encompass an entire world, I explained that it was not that uncommon of a sight out in the wider universe. Societies shaped their worlds to fit their needs and desires, even we did the same with our Production Worlds. While it was indeed sad that they erased their natural beauty for the sake of technological advancement, none of us had the right to berate them for their decision, even though it was a stupid one.
"Why are all of those people near our docking bay?", Roxanne inquired, as we came in for our approach, "They are not here to meet us, are they?"
"The Jedi Council and Galactic Senate made our arrival known to the public. Since we have rescued countless numbers of merchant and refugee ships from harm, it appears the people we helped wanted to make our first visit to the capital special.", I stated, as Horizon moored the ship, "Horizon, you have command of the ship while we are away. If any unauthorized entities enter the ship, eliminate them accordingly."
Acknowledging my order with a salute, Horizon's promptly teleported the three of us to the forward hanger where the ramp was. Disembarking the ship together, we were immediately greeted by thousands of cheers and shouts from the people that had gathered. Waving to us with the utmost excitement, it was honestly good to see that many of those we saved were still living decent lives here. Retracting my helmet and waving back, I heard many women in the crowd squeal with delight.
Pushing their way through the sea of people, Anakin and Ashoka rushed over to greet us. Greeting them both with a firm handshake, I thanked them for the warm welcome to their capital world.
"Where is everyone else?", Ahsoka inquired, looking up the ramp with confusion, "There were eight of you last time we met, right?"
"Hehe, they are back home busily making arrangements for our upcoming wedding!", Mylene said, with a joyous smile, "Here, these invitations are for both of you and Obi-Wan. If you can make it, we would love to have you there to celebrate with us."
Graciously accepting the invitations from Mylene, the two of them curiously opened the letters and reviewed where the wedding was being held. Upon discovering that we were hosting the wedding on a resort world in the Algrand Empire, both Jedi swallowed nervously. While every nation in the vicinity had resort worlds for the rich and famous to vacation on, the Algrand Empire's resort worlds were especially luxurious as they spared no expense for their guests.
"If the three of you need transportation to the resort world, I can have a ship take you there.", I offered, as we walked toward the awaiting taxi.
"While it might be a bit over the top for my tastes, I will gladly take a mini vacation after all the work we have put in recently. What about you, Master Anakin?", Ashoka inquired, looking to her mentor for his input.
"I…I will have to confirm if we are scheduled to be out on assignment during these dates.", Anakin said, looking at the dates with a disappoint look.
"I understand, with two bloody wars raging your time is quite valuable. How about we invite a member of the Galactic Senate to attend, and you three come with them as bodyguards? Officially it would be recognized as a diplomatic mission, but we would know the truth.", I suggested, looking at Anakin with a friendly smile, "Do you know anyone who might be willing to play along?"
"I think I might, yes!", Anakin replied, doing his utmost to suppress his excitement, "I will ask Senator Amidala if she could help us out."
Blissfully unaware that her mentor was in love with the senator, Ahsoka agreed that the Amidala would probably agree to help, as she had many times before. Stepping into the taxi, Anakin asked the driver to take us to the Jedi Temple immediately. Waving to the crowd as we left the docks, Mylene and Roxanne looked out over the city while I caught up with the Jedi.
---Ten Minutes Later---
As the Jedi Temple came into view, I noticed a rather heavy presence of guards around the area. Scanning the vicinity for any potential issues, my eyes fell upon a group of senators heading toward where other taxis were parked. Noticing Palpatine at the forefront of the group, I turned to Anakin and Ahsoka for details.
"Uh, are we supposed to meet with Palpatine and other senators?", I inquired.
"No, not that I am aware of.", Anakin answer, turning his head to look for what I was seeing, "Crap, I thought the Galactic Senate decided to skip the official meeting today…"
Believing that this might be a trap, Ahsoka reached for her lightsaber in case we had to fight our way into the temple. Firmly grabbing hold of her wrist, I shook my head and told her to just calm down. Judging by his frustrated look, it appeared to me that his fellow senators had strongarmed him into visiting me personally.
"Just act naturally, do not give him cause to think the Jedi Order knows anything about his plans. If you show the Order's hand now, a lot of people are going to die needlessly.", I told her.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Ahsoka apologized for being so jumpy. Now that my information had been verified by the Jedi Order, most of their members now had their heads on a swivel ready to fight to fight for their lives at a moment's notice. Understanding her concerns completely, if this was indeed a trap, I already had options available to protect us.
Pulling up alongside the plaza, the five of us exited the vehicle and began walking toward the senators. Picking up their pace when they saw us, Palpatine and I locked eyes for a moment as we sized each other up. While the old man was wearing a smile outwardly, inwardly he was trying to gauge if I was in league with the Jedi or another Sith trying to play them for fools.
"Greetings Victor von Stark, welcome to our capital city Coruscant. It is a pleasure to finally meet the man who has been doing so much to make things safe for both commerce and refugees.", Palpatine said, playing the role of statesmen flawlessly.
"Thank you for the warm welcome both here and at the docks. It certainly filled our hearts with joy to see the smiling faces of those we helped again.", I replied, offering him my hand, "I look forward to working with you well into the future."
The moment he took hold of my hand, I immediately struck with a focused, heavy mental blow. Keeping the output of my sneak attack to the bear minimum, no one around us noticed but the painful expression on Palpatine's face told me all I needed to know. Stopping just short of crushing his hand into dust, began speaking to him via a Telepathy spell.
"I expected better from the infamous Phantom Menace.", I scoffed, "You have clearly lost your touch due to complacency and old age. Stay out of my way, or your cloned bodies and you will all disappear at the snap of my fingers. Do I make myself crystal clear?"
Mortified that I knew about his cloned bodies, the color faded from his face. Accidentally leaking out a bit of Sith Energy in a moment of weakness, Palpatine quickly suppressed it before looking at Anakin and Ashoka cautiously. Fainting blissful ignorance, the chancellor sighed inwardly and hoped that the High Council thought the Sith Energy came from me.
"What are you here for, boy?", Palpatine replied, across the telepathic link.
"To steal priceless relics from the Jedi Vaults and acquire updated lightsaber technology. Is that going to be a problem?", I inquired.
"No…", Palpatine answered, skeptical of my stated goals.
"I am after Ancient Sith texts and Darth Bane's Lightsaber, hopefully more but I am not sure yet. Unlike you I am completely self-taught so there are many things I do not yet know about my powers. To get the answers I seek I have played the do-gooder and now have been welcomed into the Jedi Temple without needing to sneak in.", I stated.
Having seen my fighting style himself, Palpatine seemed to buy into my story now. Seeing this as a golden opportunity to acquire a powerful new pupil, the Sith Lord offered to train me in the ways of the Sith. Telling him I would think about it, if I was unsuccessful in gaining access to the vaults, we left it at that and let go of each other's hands.
"Well Chancellor Palpatine, I am afraid we are on quite a time crunch right now. If we have time later, we will stop by to speak more with you.", I chuckled.
"I understand, it is lunchtime for us anyways.", he stated, "Good luck with your future endeavors."
Parting ways without another world, our group promptly headed inside the temple and took the lift to the top floor. Watching the Chancellor and other senators leave the plaza, Anakin and Ashoka looked to me with serious expressions.
"Sorry about that, I needed to create a convincing cover to keep him from jumping the gun on the Order. For the moment, he thinks I am a rookie Sith looking to obtain lost secrets hidden in the vaults before the temple. While I doubt he completely believes me, it is too late for him to do anything now.", I chuckled, "Luxion, are the nanites online and active?"
"Wait, so that was not to show us he was really the Phantom Menace?", Anakin remarked.
"Not at all, I wanted a contingency plan in case things go sideways. While I mentally distracted him with our conversation, Jarvis injected nanites into his bloodstream. At this point I could kill him at will, but I do not have enough information on his body transference ability to warrant doing so. It might be an automatic process or something he needs to mentally invoke, I am not sure.", I stated, "For the time being, the nanites will relay everything Palpatine hears, sees, speaks, or thinks. Given enough time, we can figure out where the bodies are and eliminate them all in one fell swoop."
"I am relieved you are on our side and not his.", Ahsoka said, with a happy smile.
Stepping out onto the top floor, the five of us head down to the Council Chamber to meet with the High Council.