Star Wars : Chapter 40: Clay I

( 32 BBY )

It had been three years since she had completed and submitted her report on alternate security arrangements, and finally, after all that time, Tan'ya's father finally listened to her recommendations! She couldn't be more excited. At last a chance to show off her capabilities.

She didn't know exactly how it happened, but she suspected her father had seen how hard she was working as a student, and decided to finally actually read the report she submitted all those years ago. Seeing that it was carefully researched and well argued, Dooku had decided to begin implementing some of her recommendations.

To get it done, he tapped his old friend Syfo to supervise her as she worked. Obviously Tan'ya didn't approve of nepotism as it stood in the way of meritocracy, but they were an autocratic monarchy after all. It would be silly to expect egalitarianism to prevail in such a system.

In the spirit of which, Tan'ya and Sifo were off to meet her aunt, Jenza. Formally, they had met before, but despite her best efforts Tan'ya had never really gotten a chance to speak with her very much. At last year's Life Day celebration Jenza had gotten Tan'ya an expensive doll set for a gift, and while it was obviously well crafted and given with good intentions, it clearly demonstrated how little attention the woman gave her nieces and nephews.

Tan'ya didn't resent her for it, she just wished for a chance to involve herself in Serenno's governance a little more. It was no surprise that Aunt Jenza was too busy for Tan'ya, when even her own father was the same way. They were busy people. Running a world was a full time job, as was trying to run a burgeoning alliance in the Outer Rim.

On paper, Serenno was ruled by her family from their palace in the mountains overlooking Illentia, the capital, but in reality the government was mainly operated out of a building called the Advisory. Being an absolute monarchy ruled continuously by one dynasty essentially since the end of the Galactic Cold War, the people of Serenno and their rulers occasionally had strained relationships which had resulted in open revolt on some occasions.

The result was the Advisory, a compromise intended to prevent future revolts by giving the people of Serenno a say in how they were governed.

Though still an autocracy, the people of the world had traditionally enjoyed the right to petition by sending a representative of their town or village to advise the Count on the needs and desires of his own people.

Though the membership of the Advisory wasn't democratically elected, the delegations who sat in there were at least able to speak on behalf of their local interests, resulting in a vaguely democratic system. The recommendations of the Advisory weren't technically binding, but when they spoke with one voice it could be difficult for the Count to overrule them.

At least that had been the case until Tan'ya's late grandfather, Count Gora, came to power. Among many other things that he'd done, Gora had shuttered the Advisory, replaced Serenno's military with a droid army purchased from the Trade Federation, and taken over much of the agricultural sector with droid labor as well.

The man had been the very picture of a tyrannical autocrat, who had destroyed much of Serenno's economy in pursuit of his own personal enrichment. The main reason so much of the population worked in the dangerous lumber yards today was because Count Gora left them with almost no other options.

In contrast, Tan'ya didn't think her father had much interest in ruling, but he was strongly concerned with peace and justice. After ending the civil war and reforming the planet's policing to great effect, he delegated much of his leadership duties to Aunt Jenza, who immediately reopened the Advisory, and that had been the de facto seat of government ever since.

It was a very different building compared to the Palace, much older just by appearance alone. Constructed from stone rather than duracrete. The ancient carvings that covered much of its surface had been worn away in time by the planet's many storms, leaving many of them illegible. Moss grew in the cracks, and only the windows looked new with freshly polished hardwood for all the windowsills. Like many of the houses on Serenno, its roof came to a high peak so the rain would run off it, and the stone steps raised it several meters above street level to avoid flooding.

Its humble appearance may have been a deliberate snub by Tan'ya's distant ancestor, or maybe it was a grand sight when it was built more than a millennia ago; it was hard to tell.

Inside, Sifo and Tan'ya found it smelled more like an office building than anything else, with new clean carpets, and the distant sound of a holopad ringing down the hall. Past the reception, Tan'ya and Sifo found themselves in a great open hall that had been converted into office space with a series of cubicles.

Busy bureaucrat's bustled between them with boxes of reports and data that were the real substance of government. Overseeing it all was what had once been the throne which the Count would sit on to look down upon his 'advisors' from above, now replaced with an office desk and a holoterminal placed in front of it. Auntie Jenza was seated there right now, working on her projects while keeping an eye on her staff.

As a firm adherent to the Chicago school of economics, Tan'ya approved of the small number of employees in the planetary government.

Every person here, however hard they worked, however honestly and decently, could very easily become an obstacle to the businessmen and entrepreneurs who would bring real prosperity to Serenno and its people. All the wealth creators really needed to do their important work was security, and Tan'ya's father had provided them with that through his distant, hands off approach to governance, fearsome military reputation, and experience in law enforcement.

Sifo and Tan'ya circled around the edge of the room to approach Jenza, who was close to Dooku in age if a little younger. She had a straight backed posture, a lined face with stern narrow lips, bushy brows, and long dark hair flecked with gray. To represent her connection to the Count she wore a black cape held together at the neck with a silver chain, much like the one Tan'ya wore under her Jedi robes.

"Jedi Master Sifo Dyas, Tan'ya." She gave her younger niece a warm smile that was returned with a polite bow. "There's a lot we'll have to go over, so why don't you two take a seat."

Sifo had already asked Tan'ya to let him do most of the talking when it came to negotiating with others, but once they were alone it would be up to Tan'ya with Sifo's advice to come up with a viable plan for their military. Already Tan'ya had several ideas, and had been thinking about what could be done for a long time. Sitting there, listening to the conversation between Jenza and Sifo, she was careful to take extensive notes.

Currently, the Trade Federation offered a very cost effective protection policy to Serenno. They didn't bring a land army with them, but their rented navy came to three Munificent Class Frigates that carried between them four hundred and fifty thousand B1 battle droids and around one hundred and fifty Fighter Class Vulture droids. Realistically, it represented a decently large and cost effective force, more than capable of protecting Serenno from all but the most determined pirates.

Other regional powers inside the Republic would also struggle to find the political influence they needed to overcome the unofficial corporate party that the Federation was lynchpin of.

If it weren't for the fact that the Federation was an expansionist foreign power with wildly divergent interests from Serenno, and its own internal power structure that was completely opaque to outsiders, Tan'ya might have thought it better to stay with them.

As it was, she reasoned that cost and efficiency were important factors to consider in planetary defense, but not the only factors. It would be better for Serenno in the long run to have and manage its own defense, even if it was a bit more expensive.

Right now though, no one in power quite saw the issue how Tan'ya saw it.

"I think it's an unnecessary expense when the Fed is doing a perfectly fine job as it is." Jenza explained. "But this is the decision my brother has made. Instead of looking to replace our defenses, we're going to try supplementing what we already have with a few light cruisers, a planetary militia, and at the Count's insistence, a reformed Royal Guard."

All in all it was a fairly modest step towards Serenno's independence, but better than nothing. When the time came for Tan'ya to inherit the County, she would have stepping stones already in place.

...

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