The Separatist Secessions Begin
Kaki Olsen's Wife of Deceit
“... primary concern is the instability of the Republic,” Sheev stated. “Now is not a time for division and partisan politics. With the economies of many member worlds in crisis, we must unite.”
“Milady?”
Amne turned to find Nena standing at her elbow with a datapad. “This just came in. I think you might want to take a look.”
She took the pad and read the brief report Nena had pulled up. Before she had finished reading, her hands trembled, and she closed her eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath.
“Does he know?”
“He will soon,” her assistant answered.
She slipped past the rest of the staff who were watching the press conference and stood next to Trober Baley. Sheev's Chief of Staff glanced at her with a slight smile by way of greeting and she returned it before handing over the datapad. His expression went suddenly stony and he glanced from the pad to Sheev.
“He's almost done here,” he murmured. “I'll gather the necessary people.”
“There is no doubt that there are secessionist member systems of the Republic,” a reporter from the Corusca called out. “How do you intend to deal with the dissenters?”
“It is my intention to seek a diplomatic solution,” Sheev responded. “We must extend a hand of friendship and reconciliation to those who are threatening to secede. No system is dispensable, and I will not stand idle in response to their actions.”
“Thank you,” the press secretary called out before any more questions could be posed. “That is all we have time for today. Members of the Legislative Oversight Committee will be briefing from this podium at 1800 in regards to the upcoming bill ...”
Amne circled around to meet Sheev as he left the room and immediately handed over the datapad. He read it in a few seconds and she could see his mouth tighten.
“Is there any indication of whether they left the President alive?”
“No,” Trober replied. “According to our sources, it was difficult enough to confirm that they had overtaken the government. They seem to have executed a coup and hoped that no one would notice.”
“Let's hope that the coup is the only thing that they executed,” Amne said in a low voice.
“How many casualties?” Sheev asked.
“We don't have those numbers yet,” Trober responded. “I've asked the senior staff to join us at the mansion in half an hour. We should have more answers by then.”
“Thank you,” Sheev sighed, his expression softening slightly.
Amne squeezed his hand briefly. “What can I do?”
“Go about your business as usual,” he requested. “Until we have gathered more information, we cannot afford to look reactionary on the day after the election. By the time you return from lunch, we should have decided on a proportional response.”
“I understand,” she assured him. “Good luck.”
He kissed her quickly and she turned down the right-hand corridor to reach the visitors' entrance at Gate 419. Delani was waiting at the door and must have noticed something in her expression because her brow furrowed. Amne immediately forced her mouth into a smile that did not quite reach her eyes.
“Ready?”
“If you are,” Delani replied. “Everything all right?”
“It's going to be a long day,” she explained. “I'll tell you about it in the speeder.”
Usually, Delani didn't press for information, but the moment they got under way, she turned a stern look on Amne. “What's happened?”
“We just got word that the military forces on Aargonar have taken over the standing government in a coup,” Amne stated. “We don't know whether the President and his counselors are still alive, but the planet immediately seceded from the Republic by governmental consensus.”
Delani blanched. “That's a new one,” she admitted. “If you need to stay here ...”
Amne shook her head. “Sheev doesn't want us to seem reactionary. Until we have more information, the plan is to act as if we haven't heard the news just yet.
Her friend rolled her eyes at the idea that it would do any good to feign ignorance. “So, you're here and with a Republic system having just seceded, you're expected to do what?”
The order hadn't been there, but the meaning of Sheev’s request was clear. “Act casual.”
Delani spared the Senate building a last look with a slightly sour expression and then rested an arm around Amne's shoulders. “Easy for him to say.”
*****
Chapter 2
Amne returned to the mansion early in the evening, having gone about business as usual at Sheev’s request. Even having taken an hour to spend time with her friends, the rest of her day had been spent meeting with various lobbyists and special interest groups. Some of the gatherings had been completely ineffectual, but she had made it her practice to take these sorts of appointments if it meant Sheev would never have to deal personally with them.
It was no surprise that the senior staff was still there when she arrived. They had not often fielded this sort of crisis, but every time, they had done so by holding endless conferences and emptying the mansion's pantry within the first five hours. She stopped by the kitchens in the East wing to gauge the severity of the situation and found half of the senior staff there as well.
“Breakout session?” she guessed, reaching for a blumfruit.
“The Chancellor had several private comm calls to make and ordered us to raid the kitchens,” Michel explained, yielding his chair to her and finding one at another table. “He wants us to have energy to wrap this up early so he can make it to the concert tonight.”
It was a relief to know they were still going to the event, since it was Vali's debut, but it was hardly surprising in hindsight. After all, they could not have maintained a normal schedule as Sheev had suggested if they had holed up in the mansion on such a night.
“We'll be sure to let you out early enough to get dressed,” she assured him. “I can't make any promises for the rest of you, but Michel has a more personal interest.”
“I brought my suit with me,” Michel rejoined rather sheepishly. “I anticipated this taking all night and was hoping I could slip away unnoticed for a few hours.”
She nodded approvingly. “How are things going?”
“They could be worse,” Trober assured her, passing over a bowl of pasta and a fork. “We have arranged preliminary meetings for tomorrow morning with representatives of the separatist movement and the Chancellor has formed a new committee dedicated to keeping this under control. It will be made up of Senators and they will act as advisors and mediators in this crisis.”
“Any idea of who will be assigned to the committee?” she asked.
“So far, we have only received responses from Organa of Alderaan and Amidala of Naboo,” Elusha D'an, the press secretary, reported. “Half a dozen others have been contacted.”
Of course. Bail would want to maintain the peace and Padme Amidala was a loyal supporter of the Chancellor. Even if the rest of the committee were hotheaded, they might be able to keep things under control.
“What do we know about the coup on Aargonar?” Amne asked.
“We haven't been able to get much more information, but the President and his senior advisors are under house arrest. Intelligence was able to verify that much.”
“Good,” she said cautiously. “I admire restraint.”
“Which is undoubtedly why you're holding my staff hostage,” Sheev observed from the doorway.
“I am doing nothing of the sort,” Amne responded as the deputy communications director found another chair and Sheev took the seat to her left. “They were briefing me.”
“Mas Amedda contacted me a few minutes ago,” Sheev said without replying. “The CIS would like for their representatives to meet with me tomorrow.”
“Their representatives being ...?”
“Gunray would be leading the delegation,” he sneered. “I have not given him an answer yet.”
Most of the people in the room held the same contempt for Gunray that Sheev did, but there were one or two who were more forgiving.
“Why not?” Michel inquired. “If they are willing to come to an agreement ...”
“If it is the sort of agreement that allowed that stunted slime to nearly destroy my home planet, absolutely not,” Sheev growled, his voice hoarse with anger. “If they are willing to send Dooku, he is at least disgruntled rather than insane.”
“Is that really the message you want to be sending?” Elusha asked. “That fifty-nine percent of your voters were non-human and you won't make peace with an alien opponent?”
“He could always compensate by giving your job to a Bothan,” Michel teased.
Trober silenced them both with a sharp look. “Given Gunray's legal troubles, there would be no sin in demanding another representative,” he pointed out. “Would you have objections to a delegate who was not part of their leadership ten years ago?”
“No,” Sheev sighed, reaching for Amne's hand. “If they are willing to send Dooku and one lieutenant of the Trade Federation, I am willing to meet with them.”
“I'll see what I can do,” Trober conceded. “You have a meeting at 0700 with the delegation from Aargonar, but I can make arrangements for a conference at 0800.”
“I will expect that,” Sheev agreed.
He glanced around the crowded room with a grim smile. “Things seem to have settled down for now,” he observed. “We will continue this tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Chancellor,” the rest of the staff responded.
Amne waited until they had cleared out before speaking, but she kept her hand wrapped around his. When they were finally alone but for the guards stationed outside the door, she spoke in a low tone.
“How bad are things?”
His lips pressed together. “I have reason to believe they will be open to negotiations,” he said. “Though the Trade Federation is heavily involved in their cause, they are led by a former Jedi Master. He will not be as quick to resort to warmongering as his Neimoidian friends.”
“You hope,” she added.
He nodded, removed his hand from hers, and rested it instead on her thigh before brushing her cheek with a kiss. “I hope a great deal,” he pointed out. “Will you come to that conference with me?”
She turned her face towards him and reciprocated the gesture of affection. “If you believe it will help, I will.”
He smiled. “It can never hurt to have a cool head in attendance,” he pointed out.
It went without saying that she might be the only one. Then again, if Dooku was the sort of idealist that so many had alleged, there might be hope.
“I will be there,” she promised.
*****
Count Dooku was not what she expected. After having been good friends with Zia and Amia for ten years, she had grown accustomed to a more serene Jedi bearing. Instead, the Count of Serenno was a commanding presence with an almost condescending air to him. She barely noticed the Neimoidian who accompanied him and the lieutenant seemed to be perfectly happy to let the other man speak for him.
As it was, the man seemed to have no fear of the Chancellor. Nor did he show any respect. He had, thus far, treated the entire interview as an inconvenience to him. At least, that was Amne’s perception from her seat on the couch next to Sheev’s enigmatic statue of Sistros.
“Do not mistake me, Chancellor,” he said flatly. “I am well aware of your declared intentions. You yourself said you intended to extend a hand of friendship and reconciliation to the dissenting member states.”
“That is correct,” Sheev said in the same genial tone he had maintained throughout the interview. “Insofar as there are no further acts of aggression towards—"
“A hand of friendship such as the one you extended to Ryquin?” the Neimoidian interrupted. “They are the newest allies of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.”
Sheev hesitated, though it was more of a thoughtful pause than a moment of reluctance. Amne immediately knew that Ryquin was not one of the dissenters they had been made aware of. It was hardly a major system, but the announcement was an ambush, nothing more. From the feel of the atmosphere, however, it seemed as if Sheev were trying to highlight the inappropriate audacity of the younger delegate. The Neimoidian went slightly grey at that, demonstrating that it had been an effective move.
“I am grieved to hear that,” Sheev said. “Ryquinian engineers are highly regarded throughout the Republic and no system is dispensable.”
“In that case, you should have been more concerned with their plight,” Dorfay snapped. “Their manufacturing plants are their only commerce because the world is ravaged by natural disasters. They are able to breed livestock and fowl for meat, but the cramped quarters of the animals lead to disease. In the ten years of your Chancellery, they have been denied a governmental loan twice. If you intend to extend a hand of friendship and reconciliation to them, perhaps you should have extended a helping hand in the first place.”
“They believe you will be able to provide for them?” Sheev retorted. “The Confederacy is a handful of systems that have noble ideals, but you do not have the resources to sustain yourselves and your member systems.”
“Come now,” Dooku said with a smirk. “Are you really going to penalize a few worlds because they did not find your campaign promises as convincing as mine?”
“This is no campaign,” Sheev said a little more tensely. “We recognize the right of all delegates to dissent. Where there are innocent lives concerned, however, I would rather not turn this into a partisan struggle.”
“Then we are in agreement on a single thing,” the other man mused without a hint of mirth.
“I do not wish to see the people that this Republic has protected for thousands of years suffer poverty and starvation simply because you had your own interests at heart,” Sheev concluded.
Dooku straightened up with all the bravado of a towering thunderhead. “Chancellor,” he growled, “we will not long be a handful of systems and there is no question it’s the interests of more than a few we have in mind. We established the Confederacy in order to rescue the systems which you and your Republic have so negligently and casually cast aside. You may scoff at our efforts at this moment, but you will soon wish that you had been more mindful of our demands.”
Sheev waited for nearly a minute before speaking again. In that time, that infamous Jedi patience at least restrained him from insulting the Chancellor further. At least the Neimoidian was appropriately silent this time.
Amne, for her part, had agreed to not speak unless she was directly involved in the conversation. It was not that she had nothing to contribute, but this was not her battle to fight. She was simply here so that she could advise him later.
“I casually cast nothing aside,” Sheev said at last, his voice low and dangerous. “Go back to your ... allies and tell them that we are willing to hear their grievances. As I said before, we are quite interested in welcoming back the dissenters and we are fully committed to reconciling our differences. If you threaten myself or the Republic I lead again, I will extend far more than a hand of friendship.”
Dooku offered no response, but at least the situation did not escalate any further. Amne kept her gaze straight ahead as before, but pressed her hands against her thighs to keep them from trembling.
When neither of the delegates spoke, Sheev raised a hand. “Guardsman, show these men out.”
It was customary to stand when visiting dignitaries departed, but Amne followed Sheev’s example and remained in her seat. When they were finally alone, she let out a quiet breath.
“I did not find him to be as reasonable as I had expected,” she said.
“Nor I,” Sheev said, still above her on the dais. “Then again, I believe my expectations were lower.”
She stood, anxious to move, to climb the few stairs to him. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Yes, thank you,” he murmured.
Amne poured a glass of water for each of them and turned to find Sheev staring darkly at something intangible. The intensity of his gaze did not lessen as he accepted the glass.
“I will be asking for a report on the CIS military strength,” he said.
“Do you think they are planning to attack?” she asked sharply.
“I think we must be prepared,” he countered. “I'm not sure what he meant by his last statement, but one does not make such threats if they are armed with a few slug-throwers and a regiment of antiquated battle droids.”
His gaze finally softened and he glanced up. “Will you ask Trober to come in?”
She crossed to the door and opened it. Trober was holding a quiet conversation with Amedda in the far part of the lobby, but he immediately looked in her direction when the door opened.
“Could you come here, please?” she asked.
He passed by Amne with a tense smile by way of greeting. By the time the door closed behind her, Sheev had stood up behind his desk. “Did either of them speak to you?” he asked immediately.
“No,” Trober replied. “What did they say?”
“They seemed to be most concerned with marking their territory,” Sheev scoffed, “but he all but threatened civil war at the end.”
Trober's expression was not one of surprise, but grim acknowledgment. “Do they have those kinds of resources?”
“I would like to find that out,” Sheev replied. “I reiterated our interest in reconciliation, but I will not be caught off guard. Have the RBI put together whatever data they can find based on local militia and the corporate allies of the CIS.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Have we had any word on the loyalties of Ryquin?” he added.
“No, sir,” Trober replied. “Do we have reason to believe that they have changed sides?”
“Straight from the bantha's mouth as it were,” Sheev confirmed. “If you could have one of your people look into that and compile a list of member systems that are in a similar state, it may enable us to prevent further defections. That will be all.”
“Yes, sir,” Trober answered.
He showed himself out and Amne turned to follow, but Sheev caught her arm. He turned her back towards him and kissed her lightly on the lips before showing his first smile of the day.
“I am glad you took part in that,” he murmured.
She matched his smile. “I would have preferred to be of more help,” she admitted. “Do you want me to stay?”
“Yes,” he said immediately, “but we both have other matters to attend to. I will see you tonight.”
She pulled him into a brief embrace. “You did very well,” she whispered. “I will go into details tonight.”
*****
They had expected a fairly immediate response from the CIS, but none came. By the time they left for the trade summit on Alderaan, ten more systems had left the Republic formally, among them the banking world of Muunilist. None of the defections had been reported as being violent, but it was only a matter of time.
They were met with the usual pomp and circumstance at Aldera, arriving the night before so that they could enjoy a night together before business resumed.
Amne awoke later than she had intended the next morning. Sheev’s side of the bed was cold, but the bedside chrono indicated that it was nearly 1100. He would have left four hours ago and she could barely remember if he had said goodbye.
Mother was in the kitchen when she finally made her way downstairs, glancing over the contents of a datacard with a frown.
“I hoped you would join me for lunch,” she said without looking up. “Are you hungry?”
“Famished,” Amne admitted. “You should have woken me earlier.”
Mother waved a hand, both dismissing the comment and directing her to a chair. “Every time I see you on the news broadcasts, you look exhausted,” she pointed out. “If I had my way, you would spend the next week unconscious.”
Amne hid a smile behind her glass of water. “I wouldn't mind that,” she confessed. “Since I have defied your wishes, what shall we do today?”
Mother glanced up from the datapad. “Well, if my other daughter would find her way out of bed, we have quite a lot to do.”
“Vali?” Amne blurted. “I didn't know she was here.”
“She arrived about six hours ago,” Mother explained. “She said something about the injustice of you having a vacation at home while she was surrounded by duracrete.”
“Fair enough,” she said with a laugh. “Would you like me to go drag her out of bed?”
Mother smiled at the familiar question. “As long as you don't strain yourself.”
Amne made her way back up the stairs to the third door on the left. True to form, Vali was still buried beneath the blankets, one arm dangling off the side of the bed and the other thrown over her eyes. When they had been much younger, Amne would grab hold of her feet and pull until her sister would end up awake or on the floor. Today, she simply sat on the edge of the bed.
“Did a Hutt arrive or is that just my sister?” Vali muttered.
“I see you've been practicing your humor,” Amne said with a roll of her eyes. “Are you sure it's safe to go this long without calling Michel?”
“He's stuck in meetings with your husband all day,” Vali griped. “I think it will have to wait.”
That said, she rolled towards the wall and buried her face in the pillow. Amne sighed and stretched out next to her, one hand on the swell of her belly and the other resting against her forehead.
“So, what brings you home?” she asked. “I know you aren't missing a week of classes because you miss us, and Mother said that once you come downstairs, we have a lot to do.”
“Right,” Vali sighed a little more coherently.
The arm that hung off the bed finally slid back onto the mattress, and she brandished a finger. “I didn't want to tell you over the comm.”
Amne inhaled sharply and took a single glance at the Corusca solitaire before wrapping Vali in a firm embrace. “How long have you been keeping this a secret?”
“Since the night of the debut,” she confessed.
“Did Sheev know?” she challenged.
Vali rolled back to face her with a broad grin. “Probably,” she surmised. “These days you have to ask permission to be the Chancellor's brother-in-law. Are you all right with it?”
“Of course,” she insisted. “So, today will be spent looking for a suitable gown?”
“Yes,” Vali agreed, “and looking for a matron of honor tarp for you.”
“Quiet, you,” Amne teased.
“That is, if you'll take the job,” Vali added hastily.
Part of her balked at the idea of her baby sister being old enough to need a matron of honor, but the other part had a ready answer.
“It would be my honor.”
*****
The next they heard of Count Dooku was a much more formal approach to rebellion. Serenno's “Declaration of the Causes of Secession” was distributed to every major news network and touted as the template for the Separatist cause. It accused the Republic of demolishing the basic principles of its own constitution and called individual member states on the carpet for violations of Republic law that had supposedly gone ignored.
Dooku had timed his assault well. The Chancellor and his First Lady were still at the summit on Alderaan when the story broke and there were calls for them to return immediately to deal with the crisis.
Sheev’s response was as calm as the weather that his in-laws' province was enjoying at the time: ”I would do the Republic a great disservice if I rushed headlong into the comfort of my own office every time the sovereign of a member state acted in foolishness or expressed contempt for everything I hold dear. I have met with Dooku and believe him to be an honorable man. As an honorable man, he and his grievances can wait their turn.”.
The unscripted statement came less than one standard day before they were to leave Alderaan, but they stayed obstinately until the exact time of departure that had been marked on their itinerary weeks before. As one holoshill put it, they were not running for cover so much as hastening home.
Between the time the Chancellor's ship went into hyperspace and the moment they emerged in the planetary shadow of Coruscant, ten more star systems rallied behind Dooku's banner.
The immediate effect was that Sheev returned to his office rather than his home and the diplomatic incident became an official crisis. What the long-term effect might be was yet to be seen.
Notes:
The main block of edits for this section was figuring out where it actually takes place and blocking out the seating appropriately. This involved looking up the official drawings of the Chancellor’s office.
The character of Trober Baley does not appear in canon. In canon, Sate Pestage is Palpatine’s Chief of Staff. However, Kaki thought Sheev needed a more genteel public-facing official, at least until he established the Empire, and she named him after my husband! I didn’t catch this for many years and she finally had to clue me in.