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weetuskenraiderThis, Tahiri reflected as she adjusted her uniform for the fifth time, could be considered absolutely ridiculous. There was a lot that was absurd, actually: that she was in a New Republic military uniform (though insignia-free, since she wasn't actually part of the military) to begin with, that they let her get away without wearing regulation boots, that she was at this meeting in her new capacity as a squadron commander.
The cherry topping on the ice cream sundae of absurdity here was the fact that here she was, sitting in one of the leather armchairs in the Ralroost's conference room waiting for the strategic planning meeting to start, and her feet didn't touch the floor.
Seriously. Under less strict circumstances this would be hilarious.
Tahiri had to revise that opinion fairly quickly, though, when Jacen took the seat next to her and gave her a smile, and she had to remind herself not to freeze up or move away. That would have meant explanations she didn't want to give, so instead she smiled back, hesitantly.
"How are you faring?" he asked.
You have no idea, she thought, and finally ended up saying, "I'm better. The meld is helping a lot." As were other things that, again, she didn't want to have to explain.
Jacen studied her for a few moments, and Tahiri wondered what he was thinking. Even though she'd known he was around since he was, after all, coordinating the Force meld, things at the Knighting ceremony had been insane and this was the first time they'd really seen each other since Myrkr. She knew she'd changed a lot, probably in ways nobody would have expected. She still got stopped in the corridors every now and then and told how good it was that she was doing so much better, usually with surprise. She just didn't tell them about the way she was getting worse, not better (though, she told herself, not as much worse as Jaina's version of her seemed to be). She had no interest in the possibility that someone would decide to make her stay here because of Riina.
Granted, she also got stared at in the corridors every so often too; the new, short haircut tended to make her scars easier to notice.
"I'm glad to know you're doing better," Jacen said.
She wasn't sure how to respond to that at first, so she smiled uncertainly. "I'm glad you're here." For the Solos' sake, if nothing else; Han and Leia were looking much better than the last time Tahiri had been home, and she couldn't remember the last time Jaina had looked that . . . well, close to happy.
The meeting finally got started when Kyp Durron arrived and briefed them on some new intelligence he'd received. Then Admiral Kre'fey began to speak, and from the look Jacen gave Tahiri at Kre'fey's mention of squadron commanders she knew he hadn't realized until now what she was doing here. That look, so completely startled and open, almost made things worse: he was every bit the Jacen she remembered and had grown up with, and it was hard to see how any version of him could become the man Ben had described.
Luckily there was the meeting to focus on. Not for the first time, Tahiri was grateful she'd been putting in time with the Fandom Reserves and had practice following along with this sort of discusson now, not to mention feeling confident enough to speak if she had to. Kre'fey had just finished outlining the plan to hit the Peace Brigade fleet at Ylesia with a sizable fleet of their own; he was really enthusiastic about the idea of obliterating the capital from orbit, and he yelled a lot, so it wasn't much of a surprise that all the Jedi in the room were dubious.
"What about civilian casualties?" Tahiri spoke up before anyone else did. She half expected Kre'fey to just blow her off, and in fact he waved his hand in a dismissive way, but the answer he gave her was a clear and thorough justification of his position: Ylesia's population was scattered over the surface of the planet, and the city they were targeting was full of collaborators, therefore they were guilty.
Kyp chimed in after that with information about slave barracks in the capital city, and Tahiri nodded. "Destruction would be awfully random."
Kre'fey addressed her directly when he spoke. "I esteem the Jedi traditions of compassion for the innocent, and of precise personal combat with an enemy," he said. "But my own people don't have your training. It would be too great a danger to send them to the planet to sort out the innocent from the guilty, and I don't want to lose good troops in a ground fight when I could accomplish the mission from orbit in safety. All that shelter would require is increased firepower, and then we get all of them in one go." He'd looked at Kyp, then turned to each of the other Jedi in turn as he spoke. "Remember who we're dealing with. They destroyed entire worlds by seeding alien life-forms from orbit. Just think what they did to Ithor. What we're doing is merciful by comparison. And those slaves would be dead anyway, within a year or two, just from overwork."
Tahiri could see where he was coming from, but she didn't like it, and she doubted it sat much better with any of the other Jedi than it did with her. She did have to appreciate that he was taking her seriously enough to have this discussion even though she was easily the youngest person in the room, and she was trying to formulate a response that wouldn't come out sounding stupid whe Jacen spoke up.
"Let's capture the government instead."
She wasn't the only one who looked at him in surprise, for which Tahiri was glad; it saved her the trouble of having to come up with an excuse for her reaction. Still, she had to force herself to listen closely to his argument -- which was completely in line with Jedi ideals -- to remind herself that this wasn't Ben's Jacen.
In the end, and unsurprisingly, it was Jaina who won the debate by volunteering to lead the ground forces, and when Kyp let them in on the fact that their cousin Thrackan (if every family had a bad groundapple, he was definitely the Solos') was in charge of the Peace Brigade-collaborating government on Ylesia, Jacen volunteered to go with her.
Tahiri was relieved that Kre'fey agreed to the new plan. She certainly had no love for the Peace Brigade -- it was in their attack on Yavin 4, destroying the Jedi Academy in an attempt to kidnap the students and turn them over to the Yuuzhan Vong, that she'd been captured and tortured. They'd arrested her and Anakin on Eriadu on trumped-up murder charges. They'd happily have given all the Jedi in a gift-wrapped basket if it meant the Yuuzhan Vong would leave them alone. But even with all that, Tahiri couldn't just go along with indiscriminate killing. She was just as relieved that she wasn't asked to accompany the mission by the time the meeting ended.
As soon as they'd been dismissed, Tahiri excused herself and went to go round up her pilots (still a weird thought) for another training session. They were getting better, individually and as a unit, but could still stand to make a lot of progress. There were eleven people whose lives and well-being were her responsibility; that was a sobering thought.
As Tahiri moved noiselessly down the corridor on bare feet, she reflected that now, in light of that, she maybe understood Arthur a little better.
[OOC: NFB, NFI, OOC okay, insert gratuitous acronyms here. Adapted from (and dialogue taken from) the short story Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams, and WTF canon, WHY DO YOU HAVE A SEPARATE SHORT STORY SET BETWEEN TWO CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK?!?]
The cherry topping on the ice cream sundae of absurdity here was the fact that here she was, sitting in one of the leather armchairs in the Ralroost's conference room waiting for the strategic planning meeting to start, and her feet didn't touch the floor.
Seriously. Under less strict circumstances this would be hilarious.
Tahiri had to revise that opinion fairly quickly, though, when Jacen took the seat next to her and gave her a smile, and she had to remind herself not to freeze up or move away. That would have meant explanations she didn't want to give, so instead she smiled back, hesitantly.
"How are you faring?" he asked.
You have no idea, she thought, and finally ended up saying, "I'm better. The meld is helping a lot." As were other things that, again, she didn't want to have to explain.
Jacen studied her for a few moments, and Tahiri wondered what he was thinking. Even though she'd known he was around since he was, after all, coordinating the Force meld, things at the Knighting ceremony had been insane and this was the first time they'd really seen each other since Myrkr. She knew she'd changed a lot, probably in ways nobody would have expected. She still got stopped in the corridors every now and then and told how good it was that she was doing so much better, usually with surprise. She just didn't tell them about the way she was getting worse, not better (though, she told herself, not as much worse as Jaina's version of her seemed to be). She had no interest in the possibility that someone would decide to make her stay here because of Riina.
Granted, she also got stared at in the corridors every so often too; the new, short haircut tended to make her scars easier to notice.
"I'm glad to know you're doing better," Jacen said.
She wasn't sure how to respond to that at first, so she smiled uncertainly. "I'm glad you're here." For the Solos' sake, if nothing else; Han and Leia were looking much better than the last time Tahiri had been home, and she couldn't remember the last time Jaina had looked that . . . well, close to happy.
The meeting finally got started when Kyp Durron arrived and briefed them on some new intelligence he'd received. Then Admiral Kre'fey began to speak, and from the look Jacen gave Tahiri at Kre'fey's mention of squadron commanders she knew he hadn't realized until now what she was doing here. That look, so completely startled and open, almost made things worse: he was every bit the Jacen she remembered and had grown up with, and it was hard to see how any version of him could become the man Ben had described.
Luckily there was the meeting to focus on. Not for the first time, Tahiri was grateful she'd been putting in time with the Fandom Reserves and had practice following along with this sort of discusson now, not to mention feeling confident enough to speak if she had to. Kre'fey had just finished outlining the plan to hit the Peace Brigade fleet at Ylesia with a sizable fleet of their own; he was really enthusiastic about the idea of obliterating the capital from orbit, and he yelled a lot, so it wasn't much of a surprise that all the Jedi in the room were dubious.
"What about civilian casualties?" Tahiri spoke up before anyone else did. She half expected Kre'fey to just blow her off, and in fact he waved his hand in a dismissive way, but the answer he gave her was a clear and thorough justification of his position: Ylesia's population was scattered over the surface of the planet, and the city they were targeting was full of collaborators, therefore they were guilty.
Kyp chimed in after that with information about slave barracks in the capital city, and Tahiri nodded. "Destruction would be awfully random."
Kre'fey addressed her directly when he spoke. "I esteem the Jedi traditions of compassion for the innocent, and of precise personal combat with an enemy," he said. "But my own people don't have your training. It would be too great a danger to send them to the planet to sort out the innocent from the guilty, and I don't want to lose good troops in a ground fight when I could accomplish the mission from orbit in safety. All that shelter would require is increased firepower, and then we get all of them in one go." He'd looked at Kyp, then turned to each of the other Jedi in turn as he spoke. "Remember who we're dealing with. They destroyed entire worlds by seeding alien life-forms from orbit. Just think what they did to Ithor. What we're doing is merciful by comparison. And those slaves would be dead anyway, within a year or two, just from overwork."
Tahiri could see where he was coming from, but she didn't like it, and she doubted it sat much better with any of the other Jedi than it did with her. She did have to appreciate that he was taking her seriously enough to have this discussion even though she was easily the youngest person in the room, and she was trying to formulate a response that wouldn't come out sounding stupid whe Jacen spoke up.
"Let's capture the government instead."
She wasn't the only one who looked at him in surprise, for which Tahiri was glad; it saved her the trouble of having to come up with an excuse for her reaction. Still, she had to force herself to listen closely to his argument -- which was completely in line with Jedi ideals -- to remind herself that this wasn't Ben's Jacen.
In the end, and unsurprisingly, it was Jaina who won the debate by volunteering to lead the ground forces, and when Kyp let them in on the fact that their cousin Thrackan (if every family had a bad groundapple, he was definitely the Solos') was in charge of the Peace Brigade-collaborating government on Ylesia, Jacen volunteered to go with her.
Tahiri was relieved that Kre'fey agreed to the new plan. She certainly had no love for the Peace Brigade -- it was in their attack on Yavin 4, destroying the Jedi Academy in an attempt to kidnap the students and turn them over to the Yuuzhan Vong, that she'd been captured and tortured. They'd arrested her and Anakin on Eriadu on trumped-up murder charges. They'd happily have given all the Jedi in a gift-wrapped basket if it meant the Yuuzhan Vong would leave them alone. But even with all that, Tahiri couldn't just go along with indiscriminate killing. She was just as relieved that she wasn't asked to accompany the mission by the time the meeting ended.
As soon as they'd been dismissed, Tahiri excused herself and went to go round up her pilots (still a weird thought) for another training session. They were getting better, individually and as a unit, but could still stand to make a lot of progress. There were eleven people whose lives and well-being were her responsibility; that was a sobering thought.
As Tahiri moved noiselessly down the corridor on bare feet, she reflected that now, in light of that, she maybe understood Arthur a little better.
[OOC: NFB, NFI, OOC okay, insert gratuitous acronyms here. Adapted from (and dialogue taken from) the short story Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams, and WTF canon, WHY DO YOU HAVE A SEPARATE SHORT STORY SET BETWEEN TWO CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK?!?]
