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"You might say that," Padme said, her smile of welcome turning somewhat wan. "The actual cleanup of the occupation is going well. Most of the occupation wasn't actually that arduous for my people. However, hidden underneath that was…there's no other way of putting it, a kidnapping ring of epic proportions. We have discovered that at least 11,000 of my people are missing. We have recordings of them being forced to board ships of both Nabooan and Neimoidian design, and then we have the data of their first hyperspace out-point, but that's about all. We have no other leads. Master Kenobi is trying to use the Force to figure out where they could've been taken, but I don't think he's having much luck. It's, it's making me feel helpless, and I don't like it."
"Perfectly understandable," said Master Dooku, his formal tones oddly soothing as he cut in before either of the youngsters could reply. "And yet that sounds as if you might have the other string of an issue we here on Sorenno are dealing with. You say you have the heading for these ships' initial hyperspace jump?"
"Yes," Padme said quickly, hope rising from within her. "Master Kenobi and my own security forces were able to pull up logs of the flotillas' heading from one of the Lucrehulk classes we captured. Why? What is going on at your end?"
"We think that your mass slavery issue is part and parcel of pirate activity in the Da'Arstan sector and its neighbors. It would take too long to explain all of our evidence to that effect, in particular over the Holonet. But suffice it to say we know what's going on, but need to find the mind behind it. If this convoy of ships you mentioned were involved, and we think they are, it fits in with some of what we've seen. There is a distinct possibility that they might have eventually jumped to the headquarters of whatever is going on. In that case, we might be able to trace them straight there."
"We'll be arriving on Naboo by this time tomorrow. If you could have Obi-Wan prepare a copy of those coordinates and a meditation room, that will be most helpful," Master Fay said.
"We'll do our best to get your people back, Padme," Harry said earnestly, leaning forward, and Padme could imagine his expressive eyes glinting with both concern and determination all too easily.
"But it is imperative that you don't tell anyone," Knight Vos cautioned, cutting in quickly. "We think this group has numerous contacts in the HPC and elsewhere. Their hands might be in a lot of important people's pockets, so to speak."
"That is a very descriptive phrase. Even if I had no idea what it meant beforehand, the meaning certainly comes through," Padme said, chuckling a little.
The older Jedi bowed out of the pickup at that point, having things they had to organize for this operation, which left Aayla and Harry looking into the pickup at Padme. She sighed faintly, leaning back as if a weight had been removed from her shoulders. "Thank you for this," she said sincerely. "Even if this is but a faint hope, a faint hope is better than the depression I've been dealing with on this issue. The feeling of hopelessness is all consuming…"
"You're never hopeless if you have friends," Harry said, looking over at Aayla who grinned and pushed his shoulder lightly.
"Ignore him," she said into the pickup. "He has a saving people thing, especially a saving maiden thing."
"Well, I cannot deny that this princess at least needs some rescuing at the moment. But what else have you been up to?" she asked, eager to talk to someone not connected with the government or her current issues here on Naboo at present, just to have a bit of a break from everything, really.
Realizing this, Aayla immediately took up the conversation, chattering on about their training and lightsabers, and then hinting at what she thought might be going on with her master and Knight Vosa.
Harry interjected a few times, trying to explain to Aayla that just because their relationship/bond had been given a limited okay by the Council didn't mean that anyone else was willing to face their official ire and have an actual relationship. "You don't know that!" Aayla said huffily, pushing his shoulder again.
"No, I kind of do…" Harry said snarkily, and Padme chuckled, feeling her cares and worries slowly disappear as she talked to her friends.
OOOOOOO
While the two youngsters were talking with their friend, the others went about the various tasks they needed to do to prepare for an operation of this size. Quinlan was procuring a ship for the Jedi, while Komari was contacting the local starfighters, making certain the pilots chosen to form the nucleus of the expanded starfighter corps were ready to leave for Kuat instantly. Now that they had a target, as had been discussed in the meeting earlier that day, instead of returning from Kuat with their starfighters these men and women would instead perform various military exercises before returning for an aerial parade over the capitol city.
Their logbooks would be changed to reflect this, and indeed, even the starfighter pilots themselves were told this was going to occur. What none of them knew was that the Jedi, Vosa in this case, would meet them at their first layover out of Kuat, and then from there they would head to Naboo.
While his former padawan worked on that aspect of the mission, Count Dooku contacted a friend in the Republic to get them some more ship-type backup. A friend who has certainly bettered himself since the last time they had talked. "Congratulations on your recent elevation, Chancellor Palpatine," Dooku said, smiling slightly as the pickup began to record.
The man on the other side of the recording smiled as well. "Thank you. Though if I had known exactly how much paperwork I would have to do as Chancellor I'm not certain I would've acceded to the nomination. I don't think I've left my office since returning from Naboo two nights ago, and I am certain that my bloodstream has been replaced by caffeine by this point."
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