Reborn as Anakin

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***

The garden of the palace of the Dukes of Kriz was enormous. It was bigger than the rest of the palace - it was littered with small buildings, like gazebos, that made it a perfect defensive platform, so it was almost impossible to get to the palace unnoticed by climbing over the wall.

It was spring.

The smells of wildflowers growing in the garden mixed into a cacophony, creating even a somewhat stifling atmosphere. Once a day the flowers were watered by irrigation devices, and then and only then in the spring the garden became a paradise - the odour dulled a little, only for twenty minutes, but it was enough to go for a walk in the afternoon. On the white marble pavements walked the Duchess, Satine Kriz. The people accompanying her did not pay much attention to the duchess's pensive state, which had become commonplace recently, especially in the rare moments of silence. The attendants kept a distance of five metres from the Duchess, just far enough away that the smell of her perfume was barely perceptible among the scents of the garden. The Duchess's reverie was understandable - Ben Kenobi had not arrived alone. And, judging by the fact that he clearly feels responsible for his apprentice, quite a bit embarrassed by her. To the Jedi apprentice, the glances the Duchess was throwing at her were as interesting as hyperfield theory or the squabbles in the Hutt sector - that is, somewhere between complete disregard and indifference. The only thing separating her from being able to spend more one-on-one time was the Padawan. And it wasn't even that Ben was paying more attention to the young Jedi than the Duchess - Kenobi was decidedly not in the mood for frank conversations in privacy. It didn't take a duchess to realise that without words, so it was to the padawan that her frown was directed. Not a single thought lingered in the Duchess's mind, however - she couldn't hurt the girl, and she couldn't hide it from Obi-Wan, much less. It was impossible to eliminate her by diplomacy - already the fact that it was Ben who had been sent was nonsense in galactic practice - normally Jedi never participated in missions that involved their friends or relatives. Whether this was paranoia or necessity was unknown, but the already overly accommodating Order would have to realise something if they were to suddenly... yes, understand unequivocally.

The garden began to fill again with the scents of flowers, so rich that it made her dizzy. The Duchess, who had missed this time, hurried to the palace, where she could breathe without fear of suffocation.

In the evening, a worried Obi-Wan Kenobi flew into her chambers and announced from the doorway:

- Satine, my apprentice is missing!

- It can't be," the Duchess rose from the table, "when did this happen?

- Unknown..." Ben Kenobi moved quickly around the office in excitement, "she was seen this morning, and then... it's like she fell through the earth!

Satine sat the agitated Jedi down on the couch:

- Ben, you worry too much. She'll be found, no wonder with her temperament, lost in the palace....

- She's not in the palace! - Ben jumped to his feet again, "She's nowhere! She hasn't left the palace, but they've checked inside! She's not anywhere, not even in the darkest corners.....

Seeing Ben's concern for his apprentice, Satine was also worried - what if the girl was really missing? Satine sat Ben Kenobi down on the couch again, grabbing his hand and then spoke soothingly:

- She couldn't have just disappeared, could she? So she's out there somewhere. That devil is always looking for an adventure, don't worry, I'll send my men out to look for her and alert the police... she'll be found.

Kenobi closed his eyes tiredly and took a deep breath:

- I knew this first solo mission wasn't going to go well..." Ben hung his head, but the Duchess came over and put her arm around his shoulders, reassuring him that everything would be all right. The Duchess was more likely to blame one Jedi too crazy for his youth than a solo escape - the palace's security systems were impossible to overcome without good skills and paranormal abilities.

* Mystery of Darkness cruiser-yacht, Millagro Sector *

A middle-aged man in a white, but not flashy, suit walked to the door to the Emperor's quarters after overcoming the guards. He didn't have to wait long - the door opened and he stepped inside. As a native of a well-fed and contented planet, he expected to see anything but what he saw. There were various parts scattered in the middle of the room, pieces of wires and weapon system windings lying on the floor, expensive carpets rolled up in a tube and standing against the wall, and a huge disassembled turbolaser on a table made of natural Kashyyyk wood, which cost more than a mercenary earns in a year. Above it all sat none other than the Emperor, and was passionately twirling something inside the barrel. The Taim & Buck turbolaser was three and a half metres long, had a thick barrel, a cooling casing, and weighed about three hundred kilograms. It was unrealistic for one man to lift it without the help of a droid, and even more difficult to dismantle.

- What have you got, Archie? - Without turning round, the Emperor asked, stopping the process of preparing the turbolaser. Closing his eyes, Archer tried to calm down - after all, he was sure that the Emperor didn't know him. It turned out he was wrong.

- Your Majesty, the patient has regained consciousness.

- Excellent," the young emperor turned round, "bring her to me. Shiai? - he called out to his son, 'come here, I'll show you how the tibanna's turbocharger works.

Medic Archer turned round and headed back, hurriedly. The guest, a very rambunctious person, almost escaped, but the guards caught her and escorted her to his majesty. Since Skywalker had turned his own living room into a place to disassemble his turbolaser for lack of another suitable place with access directly to the hangar, the guards were at a loss as to whether to take the guest, or rather the prisoner, to the Emperor's chambers. The point in their thoughts was made by Archer, who once again repeated the Emperor's orders and the guards moved out. The heavily armed soldiers of the personal guard felt a little awkward, as they had to escort a child - she was hardly older than the young prince, and her personality was similar.

Anakin Skywalker sat on the wide couch and watched his son work, who had already spun the turbolaser to the ground. To his surprise, he hadn't been able to refine this part of his favourite fighter toy - the maximum possible with the current level of technology had already been squeezed out of a gun of this size. The gun looked so harmonious that there was no point in changing anything about it - the engineers had already saved neither on materials nor on technology. Skywalker Sr. gave his son the turbolaser as a visual aid. All he had to do was make some of the parts out of transparent metal and its operation would be a fascinating spectacle, even without a charge.

Again the visitors came - this time three. Two guards and a young Jedi girl.

- 'Shiai, stay in your room for now,' Anakin showed his son with his eyes to his quarters. Not that the boy needed much begging - Shiai left quickly and did not interfere with the conversation.

The door opened - the guards remained, but the yacht's guest stepped inside. Anakin didn't know where to begin the conversation - there were too many thoughts in his head.

* Anakin Skywalker, the yacht *

The girl was a surprise to me, no matter how you looked at it. On the one hand, she was a Togruta, and among the many anthropomorphic races I have a special affinity for Togrutas and Miralukes. On the other hand, I didn't expect Ben Kenobi to be given such an apprentice. Especially one like this - either Yoda's crazy or I don't get it. So, a little brute girl with barely less potential than my son. And my son, despite the fact that I'm an architect, is a fucking powerful forceuser, by Jedi standards. It makes sense that the girl would be the apprentice of an equally strong Jedi, the stronger the better. At the very best, Yoda would have taken her in. But Kenobi... he's still too young, and a slight predisposition to darkness under the influence of the maximalist Kenobi can play a cruel trick on a child. And from this I draw one conclusion - either Yoda originally wanted the girl to fall to the dark side, having heard from Kenobi about radical Jediism, or she should have her irrepressible energy and predisposition to emotions, to balance the maximalist Kenobi. There are many other options, but I don't like guessing at the coffee grounds.

- Who are you? - The girl finally noticed me as she entered the living room. Not surprising, considering what chaos is going on here....

- Same question. Who are you?

- I asked you first! - The girl frowned. By the way, she was about the same age as Shiayu, that is, between seven and nine.

- Okay, I give up. I am the Jedi Master who owns this ship. Now it's your turn," I gave the girl a hard stare.

- Ahsoka Tano," she introduced herself reluctantly, "where am I? And what is this ship? Did something happen?

- No, nothing's wrong," I waved my hand, "everything's fine. The ship is my yacht, and we're in the Millagro sector, not far from the outer ring. By the way, there are a couple of planets with wonderful beaches, but alas, visiting them is not in my plans. Now it's my turn to ask questions," I sighed and continued without pause, "what were you doing on Mandalore?

- I was sent with my teacher.... - she was silent and thoughtful, then pounced on me with questions again, coming closer and almost stepping on a couple of turbolaser parts:" how do you know? Why am I here?

- Here, the right questions," I nodded and sat down on the couch, slamming down next to me, but the girl landed on the chair opposite, "you're on my boat because I picked you up from Mandalore. Kenobi can handle this mission alone, but there's no point in you being there.

- I don't understand anything," she shook her head, causing her 'childish' little lekku to bounce funny, "who are you? Why did you take me away? How do you know about the teacher?

- That's a lot of questions, Ahsoka Tano. Let's start with the last one, me and Ben Kenobi have known each other for a number of years now. Of course, we haven't had to socialise long enough, but that doesn't take away from the fact that we know each other. I took you for a reason you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you, and as for who I am... it's a complicated, philosophical question. I am a Jedi. By the way, how's Yoda doing? Is he dead yet?

Ahsoka opened her eyes, which all Togrutas had slightly larger than humans. Specifically hers were light blue, the same colour as the stripes on the montral.

- Do you know the Master?

- I do, he not so much. I joined the Jedi Order a long, long time ago, so we haven't crossed paths.

- But Master Yoda has been in the Order for about a thousand years! - Ahsoka was indignant.

- The last time I was in the temple was even earlier. I raised my hand in a protesting gesture, let's get you out of this," I smiled predatorily, "do you have any more questions?

- Yes," she stood up, "when can I get back to my teacher?

- Soon. I won't tell you exactly when he'll be ready. And if he's not ready, I'll personally fly down and give Ben a counselling session and then you'll be reunited.

Of course, she didn't have much of a choice. No sword, no skills, no escape, and now I'm here. Let her be patient.

- What's your connection to all this? - The girl frowned with all her childlike directness.

- It doesn't matter. Well, you can stay on the yacht for the time being, especially since we'll be travelling through several sectors before returning to Mandalore.

- Do I have a choice?

- No," I shrugged, "don't worry, if there's a real fight, you'll only be in your teacher's way for now," I gave the girl a horrible look of hurt, "and if there isn't, don't worry about it. I mean, it's fine either way.

Ahsoka tried to walk unhappily around the room, but having hit her bare feet a couple of times on the scattered parts of the winding, she considered it best not to move for the time being. There was nothing to do - it would be wrong to bury such talent in the ground, so we had a lot more to do.

* Next day *

- Your Majesty, but we're just underpopulated! - Zerther said, "You're too optimistic.

- Maybe we'll have to deal with that problem too," I nodded to Vectis, "but where are we going to get citizens?

- With the system closed, nowhere," the woman said ironically, "we don't have citizens flocking to us in the hope of finding their calling.

- I don't mean mercenaries, Vectis. You can bring them all you want for money, but we need our own citizens, natives of the Empire. Unless, of course, you've forgotten where children come from, think about how we can get citizens to join our ranks. At least about a couple or three billion, no more is needed.

Certer coughed and looked at me with square eyes:

-Billions? This isn't Coruscant!

- That's right. Our planet is cleaner, richer, closer to the centre. That is, by all parameters, better than Coruscant, which has long been rotten and dark to the core. And anyway," I stood up, "Certer, since when do I get to make my own social policy? I need a baby boom, damn you, so make it happen. You've got enough authority, so get on it. Let's say we default to citizenship for everyone born in the empire, whether the parents are citizens or not. If on a work visa, the parents get citizenship along with their child, and all the privileges that go with it.

- It's possible, but... you'll get such a heterogeneous contingent....

- And to hell with it, - I waved my hand, - the main thing is that they should follow the laws and not get into trouble, and for the rest... I'll turn a blind eye. Besides, draw up a document on my behalf that the work should involve, if possible, specialists of both sexes, maintaining at least an unstable balance of fifty-fifty, the skew is desirable to do in the female side, you know why.

Zerther nodded. Flying in is also good, because it will give us children. And children are very necessary and useful for our small but proud empire. Especially since single mothers will be taken care of by the state. Of course, you will not get fat, but you will not need to work from morning till night to feed your illegitimate child. It's good that we have money - without it, the situation would be a disaster. So far, we've been coping, getting along, getting along.

- Any questions?

- No, Your Majesty.

Erdva switched off the holoprojector above his head. I stood up and thought hard. It's only a matter of time before we get citizens, with these population stimulus measures. But what kind of population would it be? Peaceful, very peaceful, and living in hothouse conditions. This should not be allowed, and measures to help single mothers will not benefit their children. A woman is already an imperfect educator, a man cannot be educated by a woman in principle. Nature is such a thing, you can't go against it. I would like to see billions of mama's boys the least. I'm an exception to that rule, the streets and Tatooine were the toughest survival school for me. I still have some habits from that far back. The conditions in the Koros Empire are diametrically opposite - poverty is rare, prospects are plentiful, and security is provided by a huge staff of police and police droids. It is impossible to raise a warrior in such hothouse conditions, so we have to make the best of it. For example, open several military academies with compulsory training of every last private and Koko in military wisdom. And at the same time participation in "peacekeeping" operations. That is, sending their soldiers to other sectors, to gain combat experience under a plausible pretext. Of course, it will require money, but participation in mass military operations is not planned, and chasing pirates and slave traders across the galaxy is not a cheap business. Especially after a close encounter with a full space squadron, with SPRs, even experienced admirals of local wars can have a sharp liquefaction of the stool. What to speak about dashing people and non-humans... And in case if I hurt the interests of some criminal baron I always have more squadrons and ground forces, which will blow up the local "pahan" together with their planets.

Giving up on this case, I went to the training room. It was time to stretch and chase Shiai. He was getting lazy.

After sending him a message on his comlink, I started warming up alone, repeating all the basic juyo stances with increasing speeds, with one sword and two....

Oddly enough, the first one to come running in to watch was Tano. The girl was apparently looking for me to once again peck my brain with endless questions. Her arrival didn't stop the training - I continued the saber dance, increasing my speeds to speeds that most Jedi can't match. By the way, from the point of view of Jedi, especially ordinary ones, not masters like Windu or Yoda, the architect's training looks spectacular. The speed at which we swing our sabres is enough to make most eyes in the galaxy see a huge glowing plane instead of a sword. And it's not even worth talking about movement - thanks to the reinforcement the speed was doubled, but the law of inertia was not cancelled, so it was problematic to accelerate to too high speeds. Another thing is the parts of your own body, legs and arms, their movements can be balanced. When I finished my saber dance, which was more like a hurricane of blows and jabs moving chaotically across the imaginary battlefield, I stopped and switched off my sword, looking at Tano, who had lost her jaw. By the way, unsurprisingly, that was what I was counting on. Thank the Force, my skills had never been used in action before, but she didn't need to know that. While the girl was in prostration, I stretched out one last time and searched the Force for Shiai. He was observed a couple of hundred metres away, walking down a long chordal corridor, and would be approaching us in a couple of minutes. Today was just a day of surprises for Tano - I hadn't had time to introduce her to Shiai yesterday, and they hadn't crossed paths yet. Given that half-togrutas are rare in the galaxy, I doubt Tano has even heard that they exist. It didn't take Tano long to realise:

- Um...

- Skywalker. My name is Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Master and part-time politician.

- Master Skywalker, what is this style called?

- It doesn't have a definite name yet," I shrugged, "It's mostly Juyo, but given how chaotic and individual this style is, it's different for each adept.

As Tano fell back into a reverie that didn't go well with her character and her little splinter appearance, I managed to stand up, shake myself off, and look towards the door:

- You're late! - I announced unhappily in Togrutian.

- Sorry, Dad! - Shiai replied sincerely, "I...

- Forget it," I dismissed his excuses and tossed him one of my training swords, "let's go, let's fight.

Shiai grabbed the sword with his strength and the usual training match began. Tano stared at the boy of his age, with his Togrutian pigments and quite human hair, staring at him as if he were the eighth wonder of the world. Without taking my eyes off him.

Shiai had mastered the first form of combat under my watchful eye, and was already moving on to the fourth, but his skills weren't enough to stand up to me. Repeating the same moves, kicks, rolls, and jumps thousands of times was the way to mastery. However, with me, he was learning to improvise in battle, since he could practice his moves with a droid. I had already used up a dozen and a half machines before I gave up and started using them for their intended purpose - practising simple techniques. From the very beginning, Juyo was designed against an improvising opponent, not against a machine - that style is too strong for me - stronger than a droid can withstand. It's my own fault, it's sometimes hard to control my combat excitement, that's why I scraped machines to learn how to control myself against weaker opponents. It's often unnecessary to give your best.

After another attack, I paused the fight and turned to Tano:

- Ahsoka, join me," I pulled a light saber from the wall mount and handed it to her. Ahsoka quickly joined in and now I was already being attacked by two kids. It didn't look like teamwork, but they were still coming at me fiercer and fiercer. Ahsoka, unable to reach me, was getting more and more excited and losing her head. Shiai didn't let that happen, but whether it was good or bad, I have no idea. Excitement in battle was necessary if the fighter was a Juyo adept, but it had to be tempered with caution and expediency. Having fought off both kids once again, I stopped the fight by switching off their swords remotely - I cut their power circuits with force forging. The worst thing for a swordsman is when his sword turns into a useless piece of metal and electronics.

The girl was weaker than I thought, breathing heavily and only just recovering from the excitement. Bounce back. This is out of line - don't they teach them to support themselves by force in the temple? Shiai also looked at her with surprise:

- Pa, ah...

- Ahsoka Tano. Tano, this is Shiai Skywalker, my son. The children exchanged glances, after which they looked at me.

- You didn't say you had a son.

- Does that change anything? - I wondered, "Tano, now let's settle the matter with you. You'll be on our yacht soon, while Ben is having a big fight there..." I grinned.

- Teacher? - Tano was surprised, - what fight?

I chuckled slyly:

- When you grow up, you'll understand. Nothing, there are no fortresses that can't be taken by a woman's charms. Now the question before us is what to do with you?

- Let you go? - Tano suggested.

- Nope. You'll stay by my side. You have wonderful potential, but the Order will never teach you how to use it. Simply because there are no Jedi with a strong enough connection to the Force to do so.

- Teach? - Tano was either frightened or pleased. I don't know who the hell these women are.

- Yeah. Now get in the shower and change, Shiai will lend you clothes, you're the same size as him, and there's room in our master sector.

The reason why I did this to the togruta is clear - it's not good to bury such potential in the ground. I'll teach her something useful, but I'll teach her, it won't cost me anything, especially as I was planning to devote the nearest time to all sorts of nonsense, like visiting a couple of interesting places, talking to some firms that fulfilled our state orders, and just to philosophise. Yesterday's student could not help a team of professionals working in the government of the empire, so I was of no use there.

Tano came to class in the evening, but not in a Jedi robe, but in a relatively fashionable unisex suit that had been found in Shiai's wardrobe. Convenient when the kids are about the same size.

The first lesson, contrary to her expectations, was about the basics of force manipulation, or rather, the basics of using force on oneself. It's a complicated science, so it took a lot of sweat to explain how to strengthen and accelerate your body.

* * *

Three days later

* * *

My boat is conspicuous. So, trusting Cinna and his nanocamera observers, I didn't linger in the sector any longer than necessary. Even such surveillance was dangerous, but it was worth the risk - I didn't want to miss various details of the operation. So, what do we know? Kenobi is depressed about the loss of his apprentice and the impossibility of an active search, as he is busy guarding Satine and has no right to be distracted. Satine tries her best to calm him down and seduce him with varying success - they are more often alone together. The cameras have tactfully stayed away - it's risky to get burned, the Jedi's senses might set off alarms. After reading another report from Cinna, I decided to go in person. To my surprise, he had settled into one of his temporary stakes, far from Coruscant. I wanted to ask him something, not very important, but interesting!

The ship came out in the right sector and began to approach the space station where Cinna's residence was. Isauric was sometimes astonished by his connections - such places even the justice system avoided, not that one could so easily arrange to place any offices here, especially one like Cinna's. It's a good thing that the Empire's navy is behind him, and if the owners of the place try to fool us, we won't leave even a whiff of their enterprise.

A moral dilemma has suddenly surfaced. I had just thought about the idea of taking Shiaya with me, so that the children in the empire wouldn't grow up to be mumblers. Ahsoka too. In such places, of course, children are not allowed, but it does not apply to this place, here the rules are simple and not from the laws of the Republic.

The cruiser couldn't dock at the station, so we travelled the last part of the way by shuttle. We had to send the guards to rest - only I took my sword, as mine was invisible for identification systems. Along with me went Shiai and Ahsoka. Unlike me, who grew up on Tatooine, these kids hadn't been to the Underworld yet, so it was good for them to sometimes shatter the illusions of purity and purity of the Galactic Republic. The entrance to the place was quite civilised, well-maintained, we were met by three people at once - two guards and a Twi'lek girl. The latter was not surprised at the presence of my companions, but Shiai was just fountaining with curiosity - you bet, his father had taken him with him, and Ahsoka, on the contrary, was getting ready for trouble.

- Mr Skywalker, welcome..." she began her greeting, but I waved my hand, "where is Cinna?

- Mr Isauric is on level six, room six hundred and two.

- Thank you," I turned and walked away from the greeters. The hallway was quite large, so I gave a briefing: "All right, children. For the first and last time, we are at the Wheel Station, the citadel of debauchery, lust, lies, and dirty deeds. It's also an all-galactic brothel, where you can find love priestesses of every sex, age and price. A favourite place of many influential and not so influential gangsters, and so on and so forth. Don't look at the visitors, they don't like that, stay close to me, don't move away and don't ask unnecessary questions, all explanations later. Questions?

Ahsoka had the questions:

- Why are we going to a place like this?

- I want to see my friend. Any more questions?

There were no more questions, so we went.

The place was quite colourful, light but rhythmic music was playing, there were quite a lot of people, and there were enough catwalks where half-naked or even naked dancers were working on their bread, trying to sell themselves for more money. I, accustomed to everything, headed towards the lift, but the way was through a strip club-bordello. So I took my time - a couple of young forsakers were ogling the dancers and the setting in general. Especially Shiai, but Ahsoka got a mental attack too when she saw the togreta kin. She danced well, by the way, especially the pigments from her montral to her hips emphasising her figure. Not a cheap girl, I bet. Then I had to pull my wards out of the place when the lift pulled up. Both were silent and red as boiled crayfish. Especially noticeable because of the pigments that contrasted with the complexion, the heat could be felt from a metre away. We should start educating along these lines sometime, so why not? I have no teaching talent.

The sixth floor was even nastier than the first floor, where the entrance was - it was a symbiosis of a strip club, a bar and a casino. The girls were more active and outspoken, at least without clothes, and the noise from the casino was great. A couple of strippers were sucking on the catwalk between the sabacc tables for the amusement of the audience. This time we were lucky - there was a tweela standing near the lift, wearing rather specific clothes - stockings, shoes, a light leather corset and... that was it. Didn't even bother with knickers.

- Does the gentleman want anything? - she asked at once, in a very nice tone of voice.

- The master wants to know where room 6002 is.

- Down the corridor to the left," she glanced towards the corridor.

- By the way, where can I get a girl? - I raised an eyebrow.

The girl immediately summoned a couple of her companions, and I slipped one of them a credit card with the order to look after the kids, and gave them a credit card each:

- "Here's a hundred grand each. Shiai, just don't beat the customers too much, or you'll ruin people's fun. Ahsoka, don't borrow money, and listen to Shiai, he's an experienced gambler.

Shiai nodded, taking the card and, surprised by this role, the night moth followed them. They headed towards the tables where they were playing sabakk. Knowing Shiai's talent for reading emotions, one could assume that many people would be in the money today.

Cinna sat at the table, and listened to the intelligence report. Judging by the fact that my cruiser hovered outside the window, I had not gone unnoticed.

- Your Majesty," he stood up, bowing as soon as the agent's monologue was over.

- And good luck to you," I sat down in the chair across the table, looking around. Cinna was located in one of the "visitor's" offices, i.e. the place where orgies and other entertainments were held, - I wanted to ask you... why are you so attracted to brothels?

Cinna chuckled:

- Well, there aren't many options. Do you know how difficult it is to find and smuggle, and also secretly install a whole sea of security systems, access control, wiretap protection? Especially since you can't hide them in any way, they are such multi-tonne fools, which you can't build into the wall. And a brothel is stuffed with all kinds of systems by default, and it's normal - nobody wants to be caught visiting such places. Well, except for cheap brothels. So the best way to stay hidden and not draw attention to yourself is to open a brothel. Especially since surveillance equipment and other privacy systems are natural and the best in such places.

- I see," I sighed, "Okay, I'm coming to you on business. What's up with our sheep?

- You mean Kriz and Kenobi?

- Them. I even had to pull Ben's apprentice out from under their noses. She's sitting in the gym right now, beating the locals.

- It's not a good idea to drag her to a place like this.

- I brought Shia with me. It'll be good for them, or I'm afraid they're too hothouse, naive and soft.

Cinna shook his head, but refused to comment.

- Okay, about the sheep. They've failed to make any meaningful progress. Kenobi is keeping his vows, and Kriz is slowly undermining him. It's not a matter of five minutes, but it's just a matter of waiting, if you ask me. And why would you personally be involved in a case like this? - he suddenly exclaimed, "Is it that important?

- What can you do, - I waved my hands, - life consists not only of important things, there are also necessary ones. And family is sacred, especially as I can really help Satine with a man. Why love had chosen to bring a Jedi and a duchess together is a philosophical question.

Cinna shook his head again.

-- "All right," he said abruptly, "that's settled. Next we have the 'change of leadership' report," the nerd handed me a datapad. There were documents, which I read for ten minutes. It looked like we'd bribed several parties, the central one of which was determined to restore the monarchy. The organ's fake dirty business was already being simulated, the media had been vetted - there would be the information noise we needed. It didn't take much money, except for the media, which cost fabulous amounts. Even for a relatively wealthy empire, this is a significant blow to the wallet. However, the temptation to break the core of the old republican political forces, and to form a new one in its place, headed by a man who was not under my or Valorum's control, but who was sensible and not tied to corporations and politicians... The game was worth it. In terms of costs, as well as in terms of influence on politics, the "change of leadership" is comparable only to a major war, the result of which would be a change in the course of the republic. Unfortunately, the masses are rather inert, so they will be able to change from quiet kickbacks, sawing and bribes to teamwork only through the blood of certain groups of elites. Alderaan used to be called a symbol of democracy and liberal values - to show where these values are leading the Republic and who they believe in is the true motive. Maybe this flag dropping will break the spirit of the army that comes after him, maybe it will only sharpen it, but it must be done.

I put the documents on Cinne's desk, then stood up:

- You've done a good job. Continue to keep our rams under surveillance, from now on, send me messages on the terminal. If anything happens, contact me by all means available.

I left Cinna's office. The Wheel was closer to Mandalore, and sometimes it's good to change the stakes. It's the only way to get around all the hot spots in the galaxy - we'll have to give him an office on Koros.

Shiai and Ahsoka, to my surprise, were sitting around playing sabakk. Playing with a forceuser is like playing with the devil. Unlike the Jedi, I hadn't yet explained to these two why you can't use the force when beating your opponents. They could keep quiet, though, especially Shi'ai. There was a large crowd of spectators around them, and the filmed priestess of love stood in the front row, watching the battle. I also went to them and waited for the two devils to once again beat their unfortunate opponent before leading them away. They left the hall reluctantly, but this time they were staring around, especially at the girls, blushing.

In contrast to the first visit we sneaked into the shuttle quickly, immediately returning to the ship.

- How much did you win? - I looked at Shiai.

- Two hundred, on top of the one we had.

- Ahsoka?

- Well... about the same amount..." the girl blushed once again, remembering the place and the stripper togas. Someone's going to have a sleepless night... - I smiled as we flew into the hangar, which had to be cleared of nanofactories for its intended use.