Brandenburg, Genon
Atlas Hall
Christina lowered her weapon as the young woman said her peace. She could tell that the young Jensaarai was deeply troubled.
She may be a force user but she is also human.
“Take a seat,” the Pro-Consul gestured to one of the chairs facing the desk as she moved over to take the chair next to it.
“What I am about to tell you is classified,” Kitty frowned as the other woman paused, “but not all who are approved legally to know actually know what I am about to tell you. There is a reason for that which I will get into in a little while and I will let you be the judge of our caution and if you think it has been justified.”
A signal beeped from her desk and Thorn acknowledged the signal, “Madam Pro-Consul, there have been more explosions within the civilian warehouse district. Councilor Tier asked that you be informed.”
“Thank you, India. I will be there shortly,” Christine answered and the comm went silent.
“You know, Kitty, I find myself wondering just where to start because I do not have all the answers myself. But I will tell you what I do know….”
She leaned forward facing the younger Jensaarai, “What do you know of the Reavers?”
The question took Kitty by surprise but she paused to collect her thoughts, “They were discovered a few years ago…infecting many worlds within the Coalition, Imperial, Confederation and Republic spheres.. There are rumors of them being found coreward as well as into the Unknown Regions.”
“But what about the Reavers themselves?” The Pro-Consul prodded.
“The term is typically used to describe infected beings, more like dead, walking infecting machines. There is a technical aspect as inanimate objects can manifest infection as well such as vehicles and starships. There is a resemblance to the Phage Virus that struck the Coalition during the Black Dragon Empire’s attack which lead to rumors that the Reaver Virus is simply a mass destruction weapon that the Dragon’s lost control of or released. It is thought that the Dragons were decimated or destroyed by the Reavers.”
The Pro-Consul nodded. “A large part of the Reaver Virus is the Dragon assembler, or in this case, disassembler. Small nano-machines wreaking havoc on both beings and materials and the more there are, the faster they spread. The Confederation’s initial response was the same as any other government in that we moved to secure our border systems as best we could as a stopgap measure while we worked to figure out what the Reavers were. There were investigations and there were incidents before we stumbled across a protocol that helped our own response times to keep our citizens safe from this highly virulent enemy.”
Kitty frowned, “I still do not see…”
Christine smiled and put up a hand forestalling the younger woman’s comments. “I set this up to let you know how we walked into what we are now experiencing.”
“Which is what!?” the Jensaarai snapped back in frustration.
To be young again, mused Christine.
“It was during one of these protocol creations that something odd was found. Several people were found to have certain anomalies situated around the brain area. The people with these anomalies were unaware of them and because these scan anomalies were unexplainable we merely cataloged them and continued with our Reaver research. “
“So you are saying these people were infected by Reavers and we did nothing about it? That is—“
“Stop,” Thorn’s stern voice cut through the Jensaarai. “The anomalies did not register as anything Reaver-like as far as we could tell. I am saying the science we were developing to even begin to research the Reavers started giving us readings and we did not know what they meant and so they were called “anomalies”. Remember, this was ground breaking science to those tasked with researching the Reaver threat and so we turned to the Coalition for help as their studies in the field were more advanced than ours.”
The almost inbred Confederation conceit of self-sufficiency slightly raised Kitty’s ire but it was short-lived as her mind fell upon the truth of the matter. The Coalition after all was the first to research the Phage for treatment protocols and if the Reaver virus mimicked the Phage in any way, they are whose research would be drawn from first. Even the mighty Empire had swallowed their pride and asked for the Coalition’s research into the Phage and their touted cure called Panacea.
“In any event, I am going off topic. Our fight against the Reavers is not pertinent to this. Just remember that we are trying to catalog individuals with this anomaly but that is as far as it goes. After a while, the anomaly is figured to be some as yet unknown genetic marker or function and set aside for future research later. Now leave that for a moment and let’s focus on you. You were a member of the Program were you not? The Genetic Rennovation Program?”
“Yes,” Kitty confirmed warily.
“Do not worry, many of the Jensaarai were created through the program and it has served CSIS and the Confederation to move forward in other types of research that might as well have been alien magic before.”
“The Force. You are talking about the Force,” Kitty concluded and the Pro-Consul nodded.
“Research has to start somewhere and after it was found successful with volunteers, the politicians stepped in. Imagine a politician or those wealthy industrialists, businessmen or just plain wealthy that back the politicians who learn of this and decide that they want this power as well, what do you think they do?”
“Uh… volunteer?” Kitty remarked and Thorn chuckled mirthlessly.
“Those that are considered smart in business and politics always try to hedge their bets. They also perform a Risk Analysis and so clones were created for the purposes of that analysis.”
“Isn’t that immoral?” Kitty asked pointedly.
At Thorn’s raised eyebrow, she looked for another suitable term. “Ethical?” she finally settled on.
“The justification was that if someone was volunteering, then when a clone gets imprinted with the host, the clone would also be volunteering…”
“But the host is not volunteering. Or at least, not volunteering themselves but their clone.”
“It can be argued that an exact clone of oneself is in fact, at the point of waking up, oneself.”
“This is giving me a headache,” Kitty remarked, “but I am familiar with the clones. I have met your ‘sister’.”
The Pro-Consul smiled grimly at the reminder of her own clone, “Here is what you do not know: The Jensaarai numbers are low. Extremely low as Adrian and you and your fellow volunteers became part of CSIS and not exactly an “Order” in your own right. There are Jensaarai at the old Jedi Temple but they are not CSIS and are more academics helping us learn about the “force objects” that come under our control are for. The clone numbers are much higher than the Jensaarai even at only four generations. You have been read in on the Trojan Affair but you should know that there were two outcomes of this Affair. One, the clone leadership was recalled together and were on hand to directly contact the Empire. Two, the Confederation Genetic Renovation Program was canceled and the Jensaarai growth was significantly halted.”
“So you think these clones are evil?” Kitty’s eyes narrowed the Thorn’s features grew sad.
She sighed, “No. At least not all of them. At least, not all of the time.”
“Well, what the heck does that mean?” the Jensaarai blurted out sarcastically.
“The short answer? Influence. The results from the Trojan Affair would have happened no matter the scale of the Affair. My sister, or my clone if you rather, stopped the Paladins from doing more than they did. The clones would have been recalled and the program cancelled even if the damned ship itself was rammed into Ter Abbes itself. The planet would not have joined the Confederation, I can tell you that much and so any benefit derived from Ter Abbes inclusion into the Confederation makes us beholding to my sister. “
“So she stopped the Paladins. But she escorted them up to the bridge in the first place? Did she not know what they were going to do?”
“She does not remember.”
Kitty wanted to snort at this but at looking at the Pro-Consul, she merely asked, “What else do I not know?”
Christine nodded, “The clone of my sister has the same anomaly as those discovered in the Reaver analysis.”
“What about the other clones?” Kitty asked pointedly.
Now it was the Pro-Consul’s turn to feel the frustration. “The discovery of the anomalies in my sister was done indirectly. They do show up when we are scanning for something else but when we tried to perform a direct scan once on one of the known fourth generation clones, he ended up exploding. We are not sure how this occurs but we have had to treat the clones very delicately so we dare not directly use the Reaver or Phage protocols on them.”
Kitty’s eyes narrowed at the problem. “Why did you choose a 4th Gen clone?”
Thorn looked surprised at the question, “They are the weakest.”
Kitty frowned, “Weakest? Physically?”
“In the Force?” the Pro-Consul clarified. “If we tried to do this with any of the 1st or 2nd Gen and maybe the 3rd, we are not sure what sort of blowback we would have unleashed. These are powerful people..”
The Jensaarai frowned, “They are untrained..”
“They were trained in Jensaarai hiding techniques and self-defense measures.”
“How did they swing that?” Kitty asked surprised.
“My clone’s life was placed in danger. She reported that to the others and they forwarded the recommendation to whatever committee that they needed training for how could these people interested in the clone’s take to the program if they could not defend themselves with the program.”
“Clever,” mused Kitty. “But the training would still take time. There are procedures each Jensaarai goes through …”
“Their training was in techniques and abilities only rather than philosophy. Civilians who would have benefited from the program had no interest in joining what amounts to a religious order. They are interested in the ability itself, not joining a church.”
“But that’s…”
“A civilian does not have to go through boot camp just to learn how to own and fire a gun,” Thorn pointed out. “Why should they join a religious order for this new ability?”
“Why offer it to civilians at all?” Kitty retorted.
“You were a CSIS agent when you volunteered for the program but not everyone was. Clinical trials require that a wider volunteer net be cast. Besides, we allow our citizens to purchase assault rifles, even certain military grade hardware. The Jensaarai do not represent an official organization and unofficially, they are not strictly relegated to military purposes as many are also academics. ”
“So you suspect a conspiracy from these clones?”
“I… I do not think it originates with them,” the Pro-Consul remarked as if thinking to herself.
“Because you do not want to believe your sister, or a cloned version of you, is capable of it?” Kitty asked. “Are you capable of it?” she prodded pointedly.
Christine smiled her first real smile, “I am a politician and have negotiated many things. I can be as devious as the best of them but no, I cannot see myself for any reason, betraying the ideals the Confederation is built upon.”
Kitty smirked, “But you can see yourself betraying the Confederation if they strayed from those...ideals?”
Christine’s smile turned rueful but she did not answer. “I do suspect a conspiracy but I do not believe it originates with the clones. “
“Because?”
“Because of the irregularities with the clone addendum to the GR program to begin with. The reasoning behind the inclusion of the clones is the explanation forwarded to me or any that asked. But it was an explanation
after the fact. And the creation of a clone of me and others were done without my or their knowledge. While I learned of my clone earlier than others, it was still
after the fact. I was too busy dealing with the new reality of my clone’s existence to really focus on the source even as an investigation was initiated. The investigation concluded that the irregularities were the result of over-ambitious scientists hoping to fast-track the program. It is not an unheard-of issue within the scientific community and while disciplinary actions were taken, it seemed the issue was handled and taken care of…”
“Leaving you to still deal with the novelty of your sister’s existence until…”
“Until the Trojan Affair,” Thorn concluded. “And then I had to look at her other actions in a different light and more and more questions kept coming up.”
“But you had the clones recalled back to Metalorn and put under observation. How can a conspiracy run --..”
“Exactly!” Thorn answered, “But audio/visual observation would not really hinder them would it? Remember how you sometimes use the Force to communicate with me?”
Kitty shifted uncomfortably. “Even then, if you could not stop them from communicating, they were hindered in action due to direct observation.”
“Were they?” Christine asked. “You hid yourself in the Force to gain access to the office of the Pro-Consul. What do we really know about them?”
Thorn let the question hang there for a second before continuing, “Until they broke out of their confinement and escaped, we really did not have any idea as to what their capabilities really were.”
The two sat quietly for a minute contemplating the implications. The Pro-Consul sighed again, feeling tired. “You know, I tasked another Jensaarai, Jax, to investigate and to keep tabs on the clone of Corise Lucerne. The clone of Corise lied to Jax about his captivity right up to the point of his escape and I always wondered why he would bother. What was the point?
On the one hand, the escape of the Corise clone and his fellows threatens the Confederation and everyone they come into contact with and, on the other hand, his escape may have potentially saved half the Confederation Navy.”
“Explain,” demanded Kitty.
“The anomalies!” Thorn exclaimed hitting her armrest with her hand. “The forgetfulness, why people do not realize or know what is going on, why they do unexplained things and can’t explain them later... Why do people explode when faced with exposure? It connects somehow and while I have no direct proof as to how these anomalies are transmitted I do know it is not from mere proximity or I would have them, given my time spent with my sister. Not through air or water or contact so they do not spread like the Reavers or Phage. Hell, there would be a saturation of them everywhere!”
“How do you know you are not infected with these anomalies?”
“Because I had myself tested and I did not explode,” the Pro-Consul answered grimly.
The young Jensaarai turned white at the matter-of-fact statement. It showed how seriously the Pro-Consul felt about this.
“In any event, I think I’ve identified the initial contamination of the Confederation personnel or at the very least, one of the first points of contact with this anomaly.”
Thorn walked over to her desk and keyed in an encryption code. The surface of her desk slid open and she removed a datapad.
“Take a look at this,” she said handing the pad to the Jensaarai.
Kitty took the pad and silently scrolled its contents, information surrounding a certain Coalition crewman named Winger. After reading the report she looked uncomfortable. “This is a decorated Shock Trooper Squad.”
“That has suddenly gone missing,” the Pro-Consul replied quietly. “And why the Coalition is highly suspect. This thing seems to have originated from the Coalition. Or, if you want to get more specific, the Cooperative. The Corise clone and his crew escaped from us and where did they go? Straight to the Cooperative! Where did they try to seek refuge and asylum but the Cooperative? Why do that if they did not expect protection from their ranks?
And they received it!
Not once did the Coalition come to us about our escapees! Not even in secret! No, they were sold a load of lies and bought it hook, line and sinker. We did not inform anyone because we thought the escapees had died and we had to learn about not only their survival but that they were living well in the Cooperative on their Talk HoloNet entertainment program! They were turned into Cooperative heroes!”
Thorn rubbed her forehead in exasperation. “It was not until their existence was made public that the Cooperative deigned to send us an envoy to discuss them. And even then, it was to judge us! They presume to dictate to us regarding an situation and incident that may very well have originated with them to begin with!?”
Kitty was silent for a moment. “Our responses have not been forthcoming as well and it seems our own Ambassador has not exactly been helpful in cooling things down. What exactly are we afraid of here? If the Cooperative is holding the clones securely as we were…”
The Pro-Consul’s look of scorn could not be hidden.
“What?” Kitty interjected.
“These clones escaped from a Confederation High Security area and they not only stole a warship, they prepped it from their damned holding cells! Tell me, Kitty, how secure was our holding of them? Something tells me these clones are exactly where they want to be and have ensured Cooperative steel stands between us and them.”
“So you think the entire Cooperative has these anomalies and are being controlled by person’s unseen?” Kitty asked exasperatedly.
“No,” Thorn answered slowly. “It is not the anomalies that concern me as much as the mind or minds behind them. I have this frustrated feeling that the clones have been running the game for a few years, outmaneuvering us for altruistic motives according to them but with increasingly disastrous effects on the Confederation. My sister was me! Me! And I have long asked myself what would convince me to undertake or go along with the actions she did for the good of the Confederation? And for the life of me, I cannot think of a single thing!”
Kitty heard a ‘but’ in there.
“But?” she prompted.
The Pro-Consul looked at the Jensaarai, “But I am not a force user.”
Kitty frowned uncomfortably, “What are you saying?”
“I think… I
think that we opened a door we do not know how to shut. We experimented with the Force and while we have Adrian, you and the rest of the Jensaarai, we also are now experiencing blowback from our lack of understanding. It was nothing more than a tool for us and we believed, we
believed that if good people had these talents, then we would not experience the tragedies that accompany these force talents.
I believe I am a good person and even though I did not sanction the creation of my clone, she still exists and if our postulation was correct, my clone would not be a party to ..to..”
“So you think the program did not take?” Kitty asked and Christine smiled at the euphemism.
“I think it is more complex than that. I think that all of them are under an influence we do not understand and are not equipped to fight. And of course, it is something we do not equip our program volunteers or clones to fight so they fell quickly, including my sister. Maybe the forgetfulness is a defense mechanism? I don’t know. But I remember seeing my sister take joy in things that delight me and I’ve seen her relish my pain and if that is not in me, then it comes from somewhere else, some other influence that I can neither see nor quantify.”
“I know what you are talking about and I would have felt something..” Kitty started to remark when Thorn cut her off.
“Would you have? Really? What do you know of the darkside of the Force?” Thorn asked pointedly. “The Jensaarai give the CSIS an edge in dealing with conventional enemies but we have never really put our Jensaarai to the test against other Jedi or Sith or any other force group. Palpatine, a powerful darksider worked alongside Jedi Masters who were also powerful in their own right. You force users can not only hide your physical form as you did entering my office but you can also mask your force presence can you not?”
The Pro-Consul gave a self-deprecating smirk, “Why would the darksiders need to attack us, we make our own darksiders, right within our ranks.”
“So you think the Coalition is supporting darksiders?” Kitty asked suddenly seeing a wider issue.
“Of course the Coalition does not support darksiders. It always, from what little I have read, seems to start with a kernel of influence and it grows. The anomalies show up in the Coalition and have been subtly spreading. Their purpose as yet unknown and it is hard to investigate when there is a 50/50 change of someone exploding. The easy road would be to simply scan everyone and whoever explodes just explodes and we cripple whatever this unknown network is. But I am not willing to pay that butcher’s bill. I do not even have solid proof of a conspiracy but is not that the nature of the way the darkside acts? You know evil is taking place but you cannot prove the how or the why until it is too late? In any event, the anomalies seem to start with the Coalition but it is not as if the Coalition or their members are secretly building a force order. Or maybe they are taking a page from the Jedi and indoctrinating children and we just happened to move faster with the clones for a ready-made darkside army? And who did we use as a template for our clones? Not some Mandalorian mercenary but our best and brightest minds, titans of industry, politics and even our military. Do you begin to see the scope of the danger here? Even if the Cooperative were snow white innocent, who is even more ill-prepared to deal with the darkside than we are?”
Confusion pass across the young Jensaarai’s face.
“Droids!” Thorn answered. “A droid is not a force user, has no real concept of emotion, how would they know how to detect let alone handle darkside influence?”
She went back to her chair and leaned back, “So we have darksiders becoming heros of the Cooperative. We have a Cooperative who has hidden their existence from us from the time of the Reaver’s attack at Vahaba until now. In that time, Smarts has apologized for the Guardian’s Avenger protocol use, resigned, disappeared and has come back all the while these darksider clones were being secreted away in the best security the Cooperative could provide. We do not know how far their influence has spread so when negotiating with the Cooperative, we tried a basic legal strategy that even their droid overminds would (or should have) appreciated, the return of escaped prisoners. We were hoping that there was at least one or two droid minds with enough authority to allow the transfer to take place bringing our problem back to the Confederation. I would not have helped us but it would have at the very least removed the Coalition from the firing line. Darksiders cannot influence a droid mind, can they? At least, not easily and that is what I was banking on. Unfortunately, the Cooperative did not budge once.”
“Why don’t you tell them?” Kitty asked.
“There are several reasons why. One, I have no real definitive proof. Making unsubstantiated claims may very well compel the Cooperative to keep a tighter rein on the clones keeping themselves within the clone’s influence by choice rather than unwittingly. Two, there are not many of us who are recognizing the slivers of this conspiracy. Making the claim alerts the conspiracy that we are now on to them and that may precipitate more drastic action on their part. Three, I do not know how the droids of the Cooperative will react. They may decide to cut their losses and attempt to scan for the anomalies and take the 50/50 chance of killing their own subjects just to remove the threat. I do not want the deaths of their subjects on my conscious too.”
“Surely, the Cooperative AI’s would not do that,” Kitty remarked halfheartedly remembering the Avenger Protocol.
“I would not have guessed a Paladin would shoot up the bridge of a Confederation starship,” Thorn countered and Kitty forgot about Avenger at once.
“This thing affects droids too?”
“I do not know what this ‘thing’ is yet to make that determination but something or someone altered those droids!”
“Not everyone in the Cooperative is a droid, you know,” Kitty added somewhat dryly.
“Their society is rather unique and while not all are droids, there are enough AI in high enough positions to make the decisions we needed (or hoped) they would make. But our gamble failed and the clones were not returned and now
they know. “
“The Cooperative made it seem like they were mental patients in their care,” Kitty pointed out.
“That was odd,” Thorn agreed. “Remember, these were the escaped crew that did fight a battle so they knew how to operate a warship so they were not exactly incapacitated. So either something happened after the battle to make them that way or they are merely appearing that way, biding their time. Either way there is going to be a counter-move and they will drag both our people to war if it serves their purpose.”
“Which is what?” the Jensaarai asked.
“That depends on who the ultimate architect is.”
The Pro-Consul was lost in thought as she moved her hair around her ear unconsciously. She turned to the younger Jensaarai, “I may know what the transmission method used for the anomaly was.”
“What was it?” Kitty leaned forward in anticipation.
“Our Panacea treatments,” Thorn replied simply. “When we were a part of the Coalition, taking them was commonplace.”
The Jensaarai mulled over this, “But we pulled out of the Coalition and the treatments became voluntary so the number of those with this anomaly would be small. Not every treatment would presumably spread them, right?”
The Pro-Consul nodded. “Correct. But we just subjected the entire Confederation to a new treatment, based off Panacea to combat…”
“…the Reaver threat!” Kitty exclaimed.
“Exactly. So the numbers of those affected with this unknown anomaly now grows. I cannot believe that every treatment center on every planet in the Confederation is suspect as it would require more overt action rather than the subtle string-pulling that has been going on. But who gets the treatment first? The military.”
Kitty’s eyes widened. “Oh my…”
“Now you begin to see? The first military recipients were the defense units since we cannot pull the active fleet from the Reaver borders. The part of the fleet that became a part of Regrad’s Fleet defense fleet that circumnavigated the Reaver borders as well as our active fleet along our own borders were being recalled to receive the Reaver treatment when the Corise-clone escaped and pulled the fleet back to shore up the borders. Indirectly, the Corise-Clone kept that fleet from ever receiving the treatment and with the Reaver events settling down, even the specter of a Reaver plague diminished to the point that the cost/time factor of pulling the untreated units homeword outweighed the value of the treatment itself.”
“So that’s what you meant about the clone of Corise saving half the Confederation Navy,” Kitty murmured.
“But the question is, was it intentional or accidental? Have our clones fallen so far under the influence or are they fighting it?”
“I have to believe that there is a way to remove the anomalies without harming their host. I have to believe that there is a way to get out from under the darkside influence of my people and government without destroying both it and them in the process. And if we can be helped, then so too can the Cooperative and anyone else who may have fallen victim.”
“But we are also on the brink of war!” Kitty blurted out.
If the explosions of the civilian terminals on Genon were attributed to the Coalition or Cooperative in any way…
“There is not a lot of time, I agree. Two galactic powers fighting each other to cover an insidious influence. Hmm… where have I heard that playbook before?”
“Holy Stang! It’s Palpatine 101,” Kitty remarked suddenly feeling very sure of herself. Then she stopped herself, “But what about the attack on Kashan?”
The Pro-Consul stood up rubbing her eyes.
“Sometimes, you just have bad luck…” she answered.