Star Wars : Chapter 39: Seams II

AN :

Thanks for the power stones, you guys deserve this bonus chapter.

Keep up the good work guys, for the next goal is going to be 250 power stones.

...

His constant drinking could easily have ended up with someone being murdered. It was a sobering realization, even in a literal sense.

Not letting himself think too much, not giving himself a chance to procrastinate, Sifo acted. On his way back to the faculty office he dropped his hip flask in a dust bin and didn't look back.

At least not at first.

...

Shortly before classes were due to begin, the Count arrived along with Tan'ya. Being a diligent and hardworking student, she had completed all the work he'd assigned her over the weekend and didn't complain at all when he immediately gave her more. At the rate she was growing, it would only be a few years before she was ready to formally be his padawan.

He was very proud of her, even as his conscience pricked him.

As the morning wore on, his mind kept returning to that dust bin. That was a perfectly nice hip flask, there was no need to throw it away. Besides, what if some child found it?

He had to fight the urge to tap his foot. Thinking about that flask just being left there was making him nervous, he had to go get it. At lunch, he would wait until lunch then he would retrieve it.

The morning passed at a crawl, Sifo worrying the entire time. Even Tan'ya noticed he was acting strange, shooting him confused looks when she thought he couldn't see.

Finally it was time for their lunch break, and Sifo quickly told her she was doing well and that he just needed to use the bathroom before hurrying as quickly as his dignity as a master could allow. That dignity quickly disappeared once he found the dust bin and started rummaging through it.

It wasn't there.

He felt a small bubble of panic rise up in him that he breathed out slowly to keep under control. Reaching out with the force, he tipped the bin over and arrayed its contents across the floor to make sure he hadn't missed it, and all he found was waste. He returned the contents to the bin and left it upright where he found it, before turning around to find Dooku watching him.

The Count had a sad look on his face as the two old friends made eye contact, before pulling back his robe to reveal the missing hip flask hidden behind his lightsaber.

"Dooku, this isn't what it looks like, I wasn't… I'm not a…" The excuses died on his tongue, and Sifo hung his head shame faced.

"I think we need to talk." Dooku said. "Come, my old friend."

He led them to the elevators and took them to the temple garden where they could find some privacy.

Built atop a granite mesa that rose from barren plains of mud and boulders that covered the world's surface, the New Temple had a traditional shape in most ways with sloping walls that were cut off before they came to a peak.

A large, verdant garden was at the top of the building, filled with hardy Serennoan wildflowers and tough grasses; Dooku had envisioned it as a place where the Younglings could play. There was a gazebo with a bench inside for people to sit on and relax, and a single Uneti tree sapling planted in the center. It was small, and would take almost a thousand years to reach maturity, but Sifo knew Dooku had a soft spot for them ever since he was a child.

There were four towers around the exterior of the main Temple building, with small walls of locally sourced stones running between each of them. The New Temple was a small oasis of green, raised up above an endless sea of gray and brown. The view was commanding, even if there wasn't anything there yet.

Wait, what was that? Sifo squinted down at the base of the Mesa, where it looked like someone had built a small structure on the plains below, and tilled a small field around it. Distant tiny figures moved about a little pen with some kind of creatures inside it. Were those grunters?

"Is that a farm?" Sifo pointed.

Dooku nodded. "They're Barabels, their child is attending here. One day this Temple will burrow through the entire mesa, and a child living on a farm down there would only need to walk to the lowest levels and catch the lift up to attend."

"Only if the New Temple grows as large as you imagine. To use up that much space, you'd need numbers of Jedi to rival Coruscant."

"Coruscant itself was originally only an outpost of the Jedi, one that came to outgrow the First Temple on Tython. Such things have happened before, there's no reason they can't happen again." Dooku turned to look at Sifo and considered him for a moment. "You're not looking very good, my friend."

"I'm fine, I promise."

Dooku raised an eyebrow before he took Sifo's flask and casually tossed it over the Temple's edge.

Reacting quickly, Sifo reached out in the force and caught it, just before it disappeared from view. It was only when he heard the disappointed sigh behind him that Sifo realized what he'd done.

"Dooku I-"

"You don't need to give me excuses."

Sifo closed his mouth, shamefaced.

"Alcohol, despites its commonality, is a very dangerous addiction to try and break. It will ravage your body. You may die."

Sifo wanted to say he wasn't that far gone, but he couldn't find a word to defend himself. Anything would just sound like denials, to himself and to his oldest friend.

"You're seventy years old, no one will question it if you retire." Dooku told him.

"I can't retire."

"If the pressure wears you, it may be for the best."

"Dooku, I'm the only one who can build the army."

"I can-"

"No, you can't, Dooku, you have no time left in your day as it is. We need to be ready for the return of the Sith, and I'm the one with the Mandalorian contacts, the Kaminoans trust me, and I've spent my life studying armies and how they're made. No one can replace me."

"Nevertheless, you must be replaced."

Sifo looked away from his old friend.

"I'm sure I can find someone else-"

"No!" Sifo cut across him. "I'm not retiring."

"Sifo, you're old. Even setting aside your problems, we will need someone to replace you soon, anyway."

"I could live to be a hundred. I could outlive you."

"...So then you will continue as you are?"

Determined, Sifo nodded. The army wasn't ready, Tan'ya wasn't ready. There was so much more he had to do to prepare the Republic.

"Very well." Dooku sighed, looking away. "I have a task for you, if you can still handle it."

"What is it?"

"I have lost faith in Serenno's current security arrangements. I want to restore the Serenno Defence Force, and reform the Royal Guard at the same time, and I know no man better to do it than you."

Sifo nodded his head, already familiar with Serenno's current defenders. "To be honest with you, you might be better off remaining with the Trade Federation than trying to strike out on your own."

"How so?"

"Say what you will about the quality of their fleet, Federation rates are still going to be cheaper than building one yourself. Not to mention without the Senate classifying Serenno as a Key Defense Partner there's a hard limit on how large you're allowed to build a Self Defence Force and what kind of tonnage you can add to your navy. I'm not as familiar with the restrictions on Royal Guards, but I'm sure they'll be similar."

"Money is not an issue. Promoting Serenno in the senate can be done."

Despite Dooku's reassurances, Sifo felt a bit dubious of the idea. Serenno had a decent population and rich natural resources, but its economy was tiny and its median income was well below the poverty line. It was very difficult to build and maintain a large army or fleet without a lot of pre-existing wealth to draw from.

Not to mention Serenno hardly had the manufacturing capacity to become a true military powerhouse. All the natural resources in the world would be worthless without factories to convert them into starship parts. Without that, Serenno's military would be dependent on materials purchased elsewhere in the galaxy and subject to the Republic's dizzying array of trade regulations and corporate monopolies. Costs would mount, and Dooku would soon discover that money would absolutely become an issue.

But then Sifo thought of Tan'ya. Real, practical hands-on experience in building and maintaining an army would be invaluable to her in the future. Even if Serenno didn't have the materials to become a key Republic security interest, that didn't mean it couldn't have an effective Self Defence Force. When the Sith did finally return, giving Tan'ya her own fief to draw from would only give her more influence and power.

"Actually, now that I think about it a little more it may be doable." Sifo said. "You probably can't go straight into building your own large war machine, but at the very least you can build up an elite core that can be expanded on later. I'll have a look at the regulations on honor guards and see what those are like."

"Very well." Dooku stood up. "I'll talk to Jenza, and have you made an official consultant." He paused, then looked at Sifo. "And this won't interfere with Tan'ya's training, will it?"

"Oh, no. Not at all." Sifo promised him. "You can trust me old friend, your daughter will be a finer Jedi than you, one day. Mark my words."

"Now, don't set the bar too low." Dooku smiled, before turning to leave. "A greater jedi than I would have cut down the whole Council already."

...

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