Ben Skywalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
momslilassassin) wrote2008-09-20 12:48 am
momslilassassin) wrote2008-09-20 12:48 am
Entry tags:
Coruscant [Galaxy far, far away, and NFB]
By the time Ben had arrived on Coruscant, the GAG officers who devoted their hours to sifting through thousands of days of communication among the highest ranking members of both governments (and somehow Ben had the feeling that the GA Chief of State Omas didn't know they had tagged his stuff, too) had figured out where Gejjen was going to pop up next.
"You won't believe it," Lekauf said as Ben walked into the room. "Gejjen's meeting with Omas."
"To kill him?" Ben asked, horrified.
Lekauf shrugged. "We don't know, but we know when it's going down--tomorrow."
"Why would Omas even agree to a meeting?" Ben asked.
Lekauf rolled his eyes. "From what we picked up on comm chatter, they think they can come to a reasonable way to end the war if Admiral Niathal and the Colonel aren't involved in the negotiations. Even though they're the other two parts of the three running the GA these days."
"I'll bet Jacen loved that," Ben commented. Especially since he could guess how they'd be eliminated if Gejjen kept true to form.
"It wasn't the happiest I'd ever seen him," Lekauf agreed.
They went through the logistics of when and where the assassination would occur: during the meeting with Omas, but after they'd gotten footage to show the Security Council, since secret meetings with enemy leaders were generally frowned upon.
Ben swallowed hard. "Not on Gejjen's way back from the meeting?" They couldn't be going tomorrow. He hadn't even figured out how he'd kill the man.
"We might not get another crack at him away from his home turf," Lekauf replied, handing Ben a fabric holdall that had been leaning against the wall.
Ben unwrapped it slowly and found himself holding a rifle with a folding stock. He assembled it stared down in numb realization.
"We couldn't let you leave lightsaber marks all over Gejjen, now could we?" Lekauf said, chuckling. "Bit of a giveaway. Come on. We have to make you a passable sniper by tomorrow morning."
Ben couldn't hear if Lekauf said anything on the way to the indoor range over the pounding of the blood in his ears. He was really going to do this. "I'm not sure I'm going to be much use with a rifle," he hedged.
"Aw, come on. You're a Jedi. You're not like the rest of us. You've got this visuospatial ability we haven't -- my granddad used to tell my dad amazing things about Lord Vader. Really uncanny accuracy in three dimensions, either flying or with a weapon."
Ben almost told Lekauf that Vader was teaching at his new school, just to see the look on his face. He decided against it.
"Why can't I use a blaster?" he asked. At least that he was familiar with.
"Loads of reasons. We need overkill. We need something that doesn't light the place up like fireworks. And we want something that can be silenced."
Ben kind of hated that those were good reasons. He hoisted the rifle against his shoulder and took his firing position. "You seem to have a good opinion of Vader," he commented.
Lekauf was possibly the only person other than his father he'd ever heard say a nice word about the guy.
"My granddad thought the world of him. When he got badly burned on a mission and had to resign from the Imperial Army, Lord Vader made sure he was taken care of for the rest of his life. Monsters don't look out for lieutenants, whatever other people might say about the guy."
And that tracked a little more closely with the impression Ben had gotten from his brief meeting with his grandfather. He still wasn't going to like the guy, though.
At the end of the range, a shadowy man walked quickly through Ben's field of vision and vanished. Ben immediately called out a warning and moved his weapon down.
Lekauf burst out laughing. "Ben, that's your target."
"That wasn't a hologram!" Ben protested. "That was solid."
"It's a gel-form," Lekauf explained. "It's an adjustable droid made to mimic a real person so you...well, so you get used to a target moving like a real person. This one has been adjusted to match Gejjen."
Ben's jaw dropped. So it would fall just like Gejjen would. That was horrifying. He checked it in the Force--yes, it was a droid--but still.
"That's pretty yucky," he said. "What happens if I shoot it?"
"It gets up and repairs itself."
"Okay," Ben said, blowing out a breath. It's not real. It doesn't think. It's just a dummy. But it moved like Gejjen. Ben let the Force guide his hand, his eye...and squeezed the trigger just as the gel-form sat down in a chair, catching it in the right temple. Gel and fragments spewed into the air and the droid slumped forward.
Lekauf tilted his head and considered the shot as Ben fought back the urge to get sick, especially when the gel-form suddenly sat upright, then stood.
He was sure he couldn't shoot it a second time.
"And again," Lekauf said quietly.
Ben stared out at the figure, remembering what Myn had said about killing one to save many, about how Dean didn't have a problem with the idea of killing a man if it would fix a greater evil. Ben decided he wouldn't think about it as shooting a corrupt politician. He was solving a problem. By lunchtime, he was hitting the five-centimeter zone around the head of the droid 95 percent of the time.
"Time for a break now," Lekauf said.
Ben checked to make sure the other lanes were empty before approaching the gel-form. The more times he'd hit it, the slower it had gotten at repairing itself. It was struggling now to even get up, and Ben found himself increasingly nauseous as he watched the figure struggling to roll onto its chest and get on all fours. He forced himself to turn away. It was worse for not having the the real aftermath of injury he'd seen once too often.
"Lunch," Lekauf said.
Ben wasn't hungry.
[Some dialogue taken with love from Sacrifice by Karen Traviss]
"You won't believe it," Lekauf said as Ben walked into the room. "Gejjen's meeting with Omas."
"To kill him?" Ben asked, horrified.
Lekauf shrugged. "We don't know, but we know when it's going down--tomorrow."
"Why would Omas even agree to a meeting?" Ben asked.
Lekauf rolled his eyes. "From what we picked up on comm chatter, they think they can come to a reasonable way to end the war if Admiral Niathal and the Colonel aren't involved in the negotiations. Even though they're the other two parts of the three running the GA these days."
"I'll bet Jacen loved that," Ben commented. Especially since he could guess how they'd be eliminated if Gejjen kept true to form.
"It wasn't the happiest I'd ever seen him," Lekauf agreed.
They went through the logistics of when and where the assassination would occur: during the meeting with Omas, but after they'd gotten footage to show the Security Council, since secret meetings with enemy leaders were generally frowned upon.
Ben swallowed hard. "Not on Gejjen's way back from the meeting?" They couldn't be going tomorrow. He hadn't even figured out how he'd kill the man.
"We might not get another crack at him away from his home turf," Lekauf replied, handing Ben a fabric holdall that had been leaning against the wall.
Ben unwrapped it slowly and found himself holding a rifle with a folding stock. He assembled it stared down in numb realization.
"We couldn't let you leave lightsaber marks all over Gejjen, now could we?" Lekauf said, chuckling. "Bit of a giveaway. Come on. We have to make you a passable sniper by tomorrow morning."
Ben couldn't hear if Lekauf said anything on the way to the indoor range over the pounding of the blood in his ears. He was really going to do this. "I'm not sure I'm going to be much use with a rifle," he hedged.
"Aw, come on. You're a Jedi. You're not like the rest of us. You've got this visuospatial ability we haven't -- my granddad used to tell my dad amazing things about Lord Vader. Really uncanny accuracy in three dimensions, either flying or with a weapon."
Ben almost told Lekauf that Vader was teaching at his new school, just to see the look on his face. He decided against it.
"Why can't I use a blaster?" he asked. At least that he was familiar with.
"Loads of reasons. We need overkill. We need something that doesn't light the place up like fireworks. And we want something that can be silenced."
Ben kind of hated that those were good reasons. He hoisted the rifle against his shoulder and took his firing position. "You seem to have a good opinion of Vader," he commented.
Lekauf was possibly the only person other than his father he'd ever heard say a nice word about the guy.
"My granddad thought the world of him. When he got badly burned on a mission and had to resign from the Imperial Army, Lord Vader made sure he was taken care of for the rest of his life. Monsters don't look out for lieutenants, whatever other people might say about the guy."
And that tracked a little more closely with the impression Ben had gotten from his brief meeting with his grandfather. He still wasn't going to like the guy, though.
At the end of the range, a shadowy man walked quickly through Ben's field of vision and vanished. Ben immediately called out a warning and moved his weapon down.
Lekauf burst out laughing. "Ben, that's your target."
"That wasn't a hologram!" Ben protested. "That was solid."
"It's a gel-form," Lekauf explained. "It's an adjustable droid made to mimic a real person so you...well, so you get used to a target moving like a real person. This one has been adjusted to match Gejjen."
Ben's jaw dropped. So it would fall just like Gejjen would. That was horrifying. He checked it in the Force--yes, it was a droid--but still.
"That's pretty yucky," he said. "What happens if I shoot it?"
"It gets up and repairs itself."
"Okay," Ben said, blowing out a breath. It's not real. It doesn't think. It's just a dummy. But it moved like Gejjen. Ben let the Force guide his hand, his eye...and squeezed the trigger just as the gel-form sat down in a chair, catching it in the right temple. Gel and fragments spewed into the air and the droid slumped forward.
Lekauf tilted his head and considered the shot as Ben fought back the urge to get sick, especially when the gel-form suddenly sat upright, then stood.
He was sure he couldn't shoot it a second time.
"And again," Lekauf said quietly.
Ben stared out at the figure, remembering what Myn had said about killing one to save many, about how Dean didn't have a problem with the idea of killing a man if it would fix a greater evil. Ben decided he wouldn't think about it as shooting a corrupt politician. He was solving a problem. By lunchtime, he was hitting the five-centimeter zone around the head of the droid 95 percent of the time.
"Time for a break now," Lekauf said.
Ben checked to make sure the other lanes were empty before approaching the gel-form. The more times he'd hit it, the slower it had gotten at repairing itself. It was struggling now to even get up, and Ben found himself increasingly nauseous as he watched the figure struggling to roll onto its chest and get on all fours. He forced himself to turn away. It was worse for not having the the real aftermath of injury he'd seen once too often.
"Lunch," Lekauf said.
Ben wasn't hungry.
[Some dialogue taken with love from Sacrifice by Karen Traviss]