Lightsabers

15

Two days later, the royal matriarch Ta’a Chume looked sternly at her granddaughter as Tenel Ka defiantly tossed aside the embroidered robe of state, as well as the glittering and gaudy tiara.

The former queen was not pleased. “You must dress in a manner befitting your station, child,” she said in an indignant tone. “And you might show a bit more respect for your heritage. Take your tiara. It is an heirloom, known throughout the cluster.” She held up the delicate crown studded with beautiful, iridescent jewels. “These are rainbow gems of Gallinore, worth enough to buy five solar systems.”

“Then buy five solar systems,” Tenel Ka said. “I have no use for such wealth.”

“You can’t avoid your duties by being impertinent. This is not a carefree vacation. There is still work to do. We have an important diplomatic meeting to conduct, and you must prepare yourself.”

“I have no interest in your important meeting, Grandmother.”

Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca stood uncomfortably, not sure what to say as Tenel Ka argued with the matriarch.

“So long as you remain part of the Royal House of Hapes, Tenel Ka, you will continue to receive diplomatic instruction and learn how to become a useful member of our bloodline,” her grandmother snapped.

Tenel Ka glared back, her one hand clenched into a fist. “What makes you think I wish to stay here as part of the Royal House? I am still in training as a Jedi Knight.”

The matriarch laughed. “Spare me your fantasies, child, and face reality. The Mairan ambassador is on his way to us underwater right now, and we must go meet him at the shore. Put on your robe. I promised him that you would be the one to greet him.”

“You didn’t ask me,” Tenel Ka said.

“There was no reason to,” the matriarch answered. “You couldn’t possibly have other plans, so I just told you.”

“I have no need for diplomatic training. I am a fighter, not a politician,” Tenel Ka said, indicating with a sweeping gesture the reptile-skin armor she had changed into to emphasize that her preferred heritage was from Dathomir.

“Hey, um, Tenel Ka?” Jacen said uncertainly, clearing his throat. “Uh, I mean, you’ve got to make up your own mind and everything … but remember what Master Skywalker says? Jedi ought to be open to all learning, to draw strength from knowledge—wherever they might find it? Seems to me that even though you’re a good fighter, you might someday find a use for the skills your grandmother wants to teach you.”

“I disagree with her politics,” Tenel Ka said.

Jacen shrugged. “Nobody said you had to do everything the way she wants you to.”

The matriarch scowled at the insolent young Jedi boy, and that made up Tenel Ka’s mind. “Very well. I will do it,” she said, “but I will do it my way. This is a fact.”

“Oh, excellent!” Em Teedee said from Lowbacca’s waist. “Might I take this opportunity to remind you, Mistress Tenel Ka, that a goodly portion of my programming was adapted from protocol droid subroutines? If I can be of any assistance in your political efforts, I gladly offer my services.”

The old matriarch looked horrified.

Tenel Ka smiled inwardly. “Thank you, Em Teedee. I accept your offer. Lowbacca, I would like you at my side when I meet the Mairan ambassador.”

Tenel Ka picked up the robe and with her one hand attempted to fling it about her shoulders, but the left side slid off, leaving the stump of her arm bare. When the matriarch moved to help her, Tenel Ka pulled away and quickly reached over to tug the garment into place.

“It is good to be an independent thinker, my granddaughter,” the matriarch said. “Just have a care you don’t do it to excess.”

Royal guards had set out a plush chair on the outer edge of the reef, where curling whitecaps chewed against the rock. The damp air smelled of salt and freshness. The old matriarch stood back, observing.

Tenel Ka, in her rippling robe, marched to the chair without waiting for her grandmother to issue instructions. Adjusting the rainbow-gem tiara on her thick red-gold hair, she looked directly into the brisk wind that blew off the choppy waters.

Lowbacca, the breeze ruffling his ginger fur, stood beside Tenel Ka as she seated herself and looked out across the black rocks and the endless sea. She blinked against the bright sunlight and watched the waves for any motion.

The Mairans, a race of intelligent, tentacled, undersea dwellers, came from the ocean world of Maires, one of the planets in the Hapes Cluster. Their ambassadors had set up a consulate on the ocean floor of the Hapes central world. It seemed that, even from their undersea consulate, the Mairan ambassadors had managed to raise a political dispute with their traditional rivals from the planet Vergill.

The Mairans could leave the sea for short periods, but only if the tentacled creatures were periodically showered with a fine spray from bubbling tanks of filtered water they carried on their backs. By keeping their rubbery skin moist, the Mairans were able to spend hours on dry land, and the ambassadors had insisted on coming personally to the island fortress. They would allow the matter to be resolved by no one but the matriarch herself—or a member of the Royal House who was her designee.

The matriarch had designated Tenel Ka.

The princess sat waiting, watching the waves. She had not brought her chronometer along and wondered if the ambassador was late … or if she was just impatient for this ordeal to be over with.

Lowbacca stood watch at her side, tall and shaggy; Em Teedee gleamed silver in the sunlight. Jacen and Jaina, who hadn’t been briefed, hung back.

“Uh, what are we doing here, exactly?” Jacen asked.

Tenel Ka turned to answer him, but Em Teedee chimed in first. “If I might be permitted to explain, Mistress Tenel Ka? I believe I can provide an appropriate summary.” The little droid made a sound as if it were clearing its voice speaker. “Now, then. The Mairan underwater consulate—a domed structure built on their own planet and transported here to the Hapes homeworld—is perilously close to a subsurface mining project opened by the Vergills just after the Mairan consulate was established.

“Although the Vergill mining business is terribly productive, the Mairans have filed a formal complaint because of the noise and the silt stirred up by the drilling and excavation operations. They contend that, since the Mairans were there first, the Vergills should be required to clean up the muddied waters, cease their disruptive mining, and relocate to a place at least fifty kilometers from their consulate.”

Tenel Ka nodded. “Yes, these are some of the facts. But not all.”

Before she could elaborate, Tenel Ka saw a hulking shape rise out of the water and shamble in her direction, sloshing through the surf. Forty or so black tentacles—which Tenel Ka knew the Mairans let drift free underwater, to grasp any fish that might flit within reach—dangled from its slumped shoulders, and it weaved from side to side on two legs as it walked. The spherical discolored lumps on its sloping head must have been eye membranes. The entire creature looked dark and oily.

Tenel Ka’s initial reaction upon seeing the alien ambassador was one of fear—a giant primeval monster nearly one and a half times her own height rising out of the surf and lumbering toward her—but she pushed the reaction away. Fear could only weaken her judgment right now.

Waves rippled around the Mairan’s legs, which were like tree trunks clinging to the beach. Stopping in the low surf, the ambassador held a heavy convoluted shell, into which a pattern of holes had been drilled.

The Mairan ambassador spoke from a vibrating membrane beneath its tentacles in a resonant and burbling voice that was very difficult to understand. “I am capable of speaking Basic if this is how we must proceed.”

Tenel Ka shook her head. “That will not be necessary. Use your native language.” She cast a glance sideways at the silvery ovoid of Em Teedee at Lowie’s side. “I have brought my own translating droid.”

“Oh, my,” said Em Teedee, who just an hour earlier had downloaded the Mairan language from the fortress databanks. “This is quite exciting!”

The tentacled hulk bowed once, then straightened. Placing the drilled side of the shell against its blowhole, it played a skirling, complicated series of flutelike notes.

“Ah, yes,” Em Teedee said. “This musical language was indeed properly loaded into my memory banks. Thank the Maker! The Mairan ambassador formally greets you, Princess Tenel Ka.”

The tentacled creature blew another series of notes. Em Teedee translated. “And he commends you on your capture of such a magnificent and well-trained pet, with its coat of silky brown seaweed—oh, dear!” the droid chirped. “I do believe he’s referring to Master Lowbacca!”

Lowbacca growled and flashed his fangs. Tenel Ka stood, indignant, letting the robe fall away to reveal her reptile-hide armor and her arm stump. Behind them on the rocks, the matriarch frowned in disapproval at her granddaughter’s performance.

“Wookiees are an intelligent species. They are no one’s pets,” Tenel Ka said. “This is my friend.”

The Mairan appeared flustered, flailed his tentacles in agitation, and played another series of notes. “The ambassador offers his apologies for having misunderstood, Princess Tenel Ka. He grieves for your loss of one … tentacle—I believe he means your arm—and hopes that you exacted tenfold retribution on the fool responsible for your loss.”

“How I have dealt with the loss of my ‘tentacle’ is not his concern.” Tenel Ka’s voice was crisp and hard. “If he has a diplomatic matter to raise, he had better do so immediately. If he tries my patience, I will leave. I have other things to do.”

The Mairan ambassador hesitated, its tentacles stirring uncertainly, then raised the shell flute again, drawing forth a long and tangled melody.

“The Mairan ambassador apologizes again and says that he understands the matriarch gave you this decision to make as part of your diplomatic training. Since it is to be your first ruling of major import, you will most assuredly want to give it the utmost time and consideration to choose the best course of action.”

Tenel Ka did not back down. Her voice remained stern. “The ambassador is sorely misinformed. I have made many important decisions in my life. Although this may be the first one that affects him and his kind, he may rest assured that I am no stranger to making tough choices.”

Some of those other choices flashed through her mind—particularly her decision to join Master Skywalker’s Jedi academy, and her insistence on embracing the Dathomir side of her heritage as well as that of the Hapan Royal House.

“Please present your case without further digression,” she said. Her one hand gripped the chair, but she remained standing to minimize the height differential between herself and the towering tentacled ambassador.

“Very well, Princess Tenel Ka Chume Ta’ Djo. The Mairan ambassadorial delegation begs the intervention of the Royal House in a matter that has distressed us greatly.” Em Teedee had a difficult time keeping up as he translated the fluting notes of the tentacled ambassador’s speech.

“Our peaceful undersea settlement is our home on this world, set up by our first delegation no more than six months ago. We have been delighted with the beautiful and tranquil setting of our consulate under the sea. If only you air-breathers could come to see it, I’m certain you would agree that—”

“I’m not a tourist,” Tenel Ka said. “What is your grievance?” She already knew, but she wanted him to spell it out.

“Only a month after we established our consulate,” the ambassador whistled, “a mining crew of oafish, inconsiderate Vergills set up a floating platform and began drilling less than a kilometer from our settlement structures. The currents are now perpetually stirred up and dirty. The noise vibrates through the water, disturbing our concentration and frightening away fish. They have ruined our home.”

The Mairan raised its tentacles beseechingly. “We had established our dwelling there first, most knowledgeable Princess. We beg you to order the despised Vergills to move their pollution away from our home. After all, they have the entire ocean. They need not disturb our peace.”

“I understand,” Tenel Ka said.

The tentacled ambassador bowed deeply in respect, but then Tenel Ka continued sharply, “I also understand that the Vergills conducted a mining survey of the oceans by satellite, well before you established your consulate city. When I consulted the access records, I learned that you Mairans received a copy of this mining report several months before you chose a location for your domed consulate. Finally, I have discovered that you identified the richest vein of ditanium picked up on the survey and chose to place your structure exactly there, knowing full well that the Vergills would eventually commence mining operations in the vicinity.

“Yes, Ambassador, the entire ocean is available,” she said as the wind whipped her hair about like red-gold flames, “but it is you who chose to bring about this dispute. You erected your consulate after you knew for certain that the Vergills would desire to mine that very same spot.”

She waited, but the Mairan said nothing. She continued. “The Vergills have also petitioned for our intervention. And so you may either change the location of your consulate—which is quite easily done, as I understand from the modular construction of your domes—or you may simply choose to tolerate the noise and disturbance.”

After a moment of stung silence, the Mairan ambassador fluted stridently, waving his tentacles. “Don’t even bother translating that,” Tenel Ka said sharply to Em Teedee, then turned to face the hulking black creature. “You came to me asking for a decision, and I have made it. In the future perhaps you will attempt to work out your own problems instead of wasting our time with your petty squabbles. I have spoken.”

She sat back down and shrugged into her robe again. After another moment the Mairan ambassador shuffled backward into the surf and disappeared beneath the waves.

“All right, Tenel Ka!” Jacen cried, running toward her. Lowbacca chuffed with laughter.

Tenel Ka felt her head spinning, exhilarated at what she had done. It surprised her that the speech had come easily after all. She adjusted the rainbow-gem tiara on her head.

She was actually startled, though, when she looked behind her to see her grandmother, the iron-hard and impossible-to-please matriarch, smiling.

“Perhaps your methods are a bit rough yet, child,” her grandmother said, “but your judgment was sound.”