Chapter 97: A Stubborn Senator
Summary: In which Padmé proves she's still Padmé.
Chapter 97: A Stubborn Senator
-Knight Errant – 105 Days into the Hutt Crusade-
Much to Izuku’s confusion, for the last several days Padmé and her Handmaidens had avoided himself, Aayla, and most of their inner circle. It wasn’t quite worrying, since it was at least partially explained or excused by their entire group choosing to spend more time asking questions of the crew of the Knight Errant. That much made a degree of sense, and he’d half expected it when the Senator had abruptly decided to tag along into potential danger instead of accepting their offer of faster methods to return her to Coruscant. He was aware, loosely, that something had clicked for Padmé and her people. Something that had made them want to get a deeper feel for the League.
He hadn’t particularly minded them using the pretense they had to tag along, as the League had little to nothing to lose from her getting a better feel for it. He and Aayla had a very solid grasp on the Senator’s moral compass and frankly expected that the longer she was around the League the more trouble she was going to have seeing the Republic in a good light. Something which was purely advantageous for them, as she and her people had put together a remarkably strong faction within the Senate. If they could get her to buy into the concept of the League and fight for it because she believed in it? All the better for the League.
Yet, the abruptness of the switch from spending most of their time clearly trying to build profiles of him an Aayla, to mostly focusing on the regular Navy personnel, had been disconcerting. He was virtually certain that something had triggered the change, but neither he nor Aayla had been able to sus out exactly what it had been. Only that there was some level of embarrassment involved on Sabé and Padmé’s parts. He thought Aayla might have eventually figured something out, but she wasn’t sharing yet, seemingly highly amused by whatever it was.
Well, it wasn’t like he hadn’t been busy anyway.
They had left the no-longer-derelict ancient station in the hands of the archaeology team several days ago and had just re-entered ‘Hutt Space’ via the Outland Transit Station entry point. In response to updates in the battlespace that was the entire sector at this point, he had been in contact with Admiral Lin and a number of others. Lin had successfully taken Ulmatra, by far and away the most critical target of the renewed offensive. It wasn’t the only place she’d attacked however, splitting off fleet elements to capture Zisia and Kafane as well, even as ground forces worked to properly pacify Ulmatra.
The Knight Errant had met up with a new batch of reinforcements at Outland Station, including another of the new Paladin-class ships that had just come online. He would eventually be transferring his flag to that ship, the Sovereign of Tythe. For the moment he’d chosen to retain control of the small taskforce from the Knight Errant, simply because the Sovereign was barely running with two thirds the crew she should have. More would be meeting up with the ship before engaging in the original mission profile they’d intended to follow, doing their own part of the new offensive. Before that, however, an opportunity had come up to remove an annoying thorn, and his new taskforce was the best positioned to take advantage of the intelligence windfall.
The problem, of course, was that they hadn’t exactly intended to go back into serious battle with the Senator still aboard. Which is why he’d stopped letting Padmé and her group avoid him, more or less outright summoning them to a meeting that they couldn’t decline without giving significant offense. Whatever their current issue, this particular matter needed to be dealt with one way or another, quickly.
They’d already passed Ylesia already and were racing to get into position for the chance they’d gained, and the last stop they could reasonably hand off the Senator would be at Rorak. From there, she could easily be taken to Nal Hutta and transferred northward to leave Hutt Space via the passages the League fully controlled. Personally, he thought Padmé was too stubborn to take that option. But it was an offer that had to be made, even outright encouraged, given the risk she’d be taking if she stuck around as they went back into an actual campaign.
Whatever was up with Padmé and Sabé in particular, there was only a brief flash of embarrassment and…arousal? Yeah, he was pretty sure that had been arousal, and it was still present as they all sat down, just under tighter control. Beyond the brief, confusing flash of both emotions from the pair, they seemed to be fine. Trying not to let the odd reaction distract him as the Senator and her handmaidens settled in, Izuku pulled up a map of Hutt Space. It didn’t have any major military information on it, but it did highlight the portions of Hutt Space currently under League Control, as well as their current position.
“Okay, this isn’t a complicated issue, even if it might generate a complicated debate, so I’ll dive right in.”
A single key tap had both their current in-transit position and the system of Rorak highlighted. Their position showed them as traveling between Ylesia and Diyu, closer to the latter than the former, while Rorak was just a single jump farther along that route. Technically, there were a couple of systems between the two, but neither of them were inhabited by more than a small listening post under League control for the moment.
“The original point of you joining us was, at least officially, that we were escorting you through hyperlanes we control to another point you can safely return to Coruscant from. The safest, in most respects, would be to have you escorted up to either Ilos or Junkfort Station. In truth, Ilos is probably safer. Chalacta is one of the very few Republic worlds that directly borders Hutt Space, without being overly corrupted by the Hutts. There isn’t a terribly quick hyperlane from there, but you’d get back to Coruscant eventually, likely unmolested by pirates or other ne'er-do-wells. Junkfort Station would be faster, since it isn’t too far from the Perlimian Trade Route, but the surrounding region of space is lousy with pirates and other raider activity.”
Sabé and the other Handmaidens were all nodding along, but Padmé was already frowning and looking at the blinking dot of Rorak. She, at least, apparently had good enough instincts to already see where this was going.
“Unfortunately, the Knight Errant and our taskforce can no longer take you the full way. An opportunity to deal with a terrorist organization known as the Death Watch, who has been hired to fight us and are far better equipped than most, had come up. This is going to divert us, and that diversion will likely segue right into a new series of battles. That isn’t exactly the place we should be taking a Senator and Ambassador. As such, the best option would be for you to transfer to another vessel at Rorak, which will jump you to Nal Hutta. The defense fleet there can add you to the next convoy headed to Ilos. You can also, of course, observe for yourself the state of Nal Hutta while waiting.”
He threw that last bit in since it was, theoretically, good ammo if Padmé wanted to attempt to argue that they were also assessing the events in Hutt Space personally. From a purely professional point of view, there wasn’t much of a better chance to assess the way the League operated than to get a good look at the first and most important world they’d seized. Of course, conversely…
“Nal Hutta has already been visited by numerous Observers. Reports of how seamlessly and relatively bloodlessly the League took it have long since been confirmed. As has the way that the League has treated the locals with no direct Hutt affiliation. Staying with your Fleet through battle operations would be far more informative, Sovereign Midoriya. You have yet to allow military observers for active operations.”
Yep. That was the obvious counter argument. So far, the League had been perfectly content to allow the provided Observes to visit worlds that were already at least nominally under League control. Observers had even been allowed near the front lines of various ground campaigns. They hadn’t allowed any of them to witness more than incidental Fleet combat, however, as that was the one place where information leaks could hurt the League the most.
Unfortunately, Padmé and her team were not someone he could realistically cite that as the issue. Unlike the Observers, Padmé had an official position with the League, including the swearing of oaths. So long as what she saw didn’t conflict with her oaths to the Republic, she was duty bound not to leak military information. As such, suggesting information security as the issue would be a very direct insult. One that, given Izuku knew she actually took those oaths seriously, he would never offer her. Still, he had to at least try to make the other point.
“Senator. People die in battles. Particularly people aboard the warships taking part in those battles. My own people would keep me away from them if they could, but I’m one of our best commanders. Dragging you, who are important to both the Senate and the League, into combat? That is a deeply unacceptable risk by almost any measure.”
Izuku wanted to sigh as he saw the stubborn set of Padmé’s jaw, even as he realized from the feel of them in the Force that all of her Handmaidens actually agreed with him. Somehow, he’d known this was going to happen, without the Force needing to be involved at all in the predicting.
“Nonsense. If the head of the entire League will be safe enough, then so will I. Unlike you, after all, I already have successors properly selected. Which is why Eirtaé, Dormé and Cordé will be taking your offer to go at least as far as Nal Hutta. Dormé is my officially chosen temporarily replacement, should anything happen to me, and fully updated on what she would need to do until an emergency election ran its course.”
Dormé looked thoroughly unhappy with that, a bit of panic at that idea leaking from her in the Force. She didn’t seem surprised. Clearly she’d known that she was technically Padmé’s chosen emergency replacement. Equally clearly, she was not at all happy about the idea of trying to replace her boss. Understandable, considering that Padmé had managed to build her senate seat into the leader of a moderately powerful political faction. As for the others, neither Eirtaé nor Cordé seemed anything but exasperated with their boss, though Sabé was a very strange mix of exasperated and excited?
Also aroused.
Just what the fuck was going on with those two? Sighing with a combination of confusion at that little detail and the self-admittance that he’d pretty much know this was a lost cause, he gave up. He could feel Aayla’s own amusement when she sensed it, even if she was also a bit exasperated with the Senator. Clearly, she’d figured at least part of whatever this was out, and he was increasingly tempted to pry it out of her. Possibly with ropes and a very ticklish feather if he had too.
“Very well, Senator. While I will be officially filing a recommendation that you not go through with this, I won’t stop you if you decide to go along for combat operations. Understand, however, that the League cannot guarantee or be held liable for your safety if you do. Nor is it certain exactly when you’ll be able to return to the Republic. While current plans suggest it would likely be no more than a few weeks of delay, those plans are subject to change as our war with the Hutts continues.”
It had needed to be said, for formality’s sake. It would have been nice if the Padmé wasn’t smiling in triumph as she responded ‘formally’ as well.
“That is well understood, Sovereign. I will make sure that the Republic is fully aware what your recommendation was, and that I personally took responsibility for continuing on despite it.”
Sighing aloud this time, he shook his head.
“Very well. I suggest those who are leaving prepare to do so, as we’re less than a day and a half from Rorak. We will be stopping there for only the minimum time possible, so they’ll need to be ready to leave the ship quickly.”
Acknowledgements were given and the Senator and her party filed out, leaving him with just Aayla. Who Izuku was considering the best methods to interrogate…
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A/N 1: Pfft. We all know Padmé has zero self-preservation instincts...this result was inevitable.