The Galactic Senate [GFFA, Wednesday morning]

[momslilassassin]

Ben pointed with his right hand to the building coming up next to them as he and Ender zipped through traffic in Ben's birthday speeder. "That's where we're heading," he said. "Aunt Leia's going to meet us at the docking bay." He smiled wryly. "We can watch the Senate debate for a while and if you still have an appetite, we can find some lunch after."

[OOC: For the other quiet repressed one. NFB due to distance.]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

"Are there any indications of rebellion?" Leia asked as her eyes flicked reflexively to the seats of the Alderaanian Remnant. "Taking out a planet has a way of galvanizing the survivors."

[endsthegame]

"The Formics were an insectoid species," Ender said, following her gaze for a moment. "Their entire race depended on their Queens, on their homeworld. Without those Queens, the rest of them have become functionally braindead."

He watched the seat she had looked at with a careful expression. "A legacy to build an empire on," he said, laconically.

[momslilassassin]

"Most expansion comes with a cost in blood," Leia replied, turning to look at Ender. "As long as people aren't too eager to keep paying that cost, expansion is tempered with caution."

[endsthegame]

"That's what I'm banking on," he said, affably, tearing his own eyes away with a slight smile. "But you can see where it makes me eager to look not just to our own history, but to everyone else's for lessons to learn."

[momslilassassin]

"I'm happy to offer what help I can," Leia said with a smile. "I've seen the Senate through several different incarnations, though I stopped being a formal part of it a few decades ago."

[endsthegame]

He nodded once with understanding. "So what will the Senate be meeting about today?" he asked.

[momslilassassin]

"Are they still trying to figure out who to blame that isn't them, Aunt Leia?" Ben asked.

She shook her head. "Well, only in speeches. They are working out how to bring Corellia back into the GA without everyone going back to shooting." She smiled. "Not everything is quite as fast as your father telling the Remnant who to put in charge so he doesn't set Tenel Ka on them."

[endsthegame]

So the posturing was left, and nothing more. "Corellia broke with the GA at the start of the war," Ender said, with a pause at the end that pointed to the sentence being a question, if nothing else. "How willing are they to cooperate right now?"

He wasn't interested in rolling his eyes at people throwing the blame around.

[momslilassassin]

"Fairly," Leia said. "They have their pride, of course, but that's almost all they have. Centerpoint Station has been destroyed, so they can no longer use that as leverage."

[endsthegame]

Ender nodded, thoughtfully. "Which would make their own demands what-- more autonomy within the GA? Military assurances?"

[momslilassassin]

"Both," Leia said, nodding, "plus issues of trade."