So far today Jaina had gotten to Coruscant, dealt with Jedi stuff, and now she was dealing with politics. It was a productive, frustrating day. She was currently in a conference room with her parents and Lando, waiting for Senator Luewet Wuul to show up.

"We may as well make ourselves comfortable," Leia said, taking a seat at the long table. "For a Senator, ‘just a few minutes late’ usually means an hour.”

“You’ll find Luew an exception to that rule,” Lando said, heading for the bar at one end of the room. “He prides himself on courtesy- and on his Maldovean Burtalle. Anyone else?”

Jaina walked along the wall, checking everywhere for eavesdropping devices. For reasons she was sure everyone would understand, she was more than a little paranoid about those these days. “Uh, Lando, we can’t afford to offend this guy. And I don’t recall the receptionist inviting us to help ourselves.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Lando placed five glasses on the bar counter. “And don’t worry about Luew. He’s already on our side.”

“You’d better be right about that,” Han said, joining Lando at the bar. “Because if this gets out, Daala will hang us with it.”

“No, she won’t,” Leia said. “Because we’re not going to mention that part to Luew.”

"Which part?”

“The part about Jedi working with the Sith,” Lando said. “And Leia’s right. Luew doesn’t need to know about that part- and he wouldn’t want to.”

Leia cast a meaningful glance toward Jaina. "I hope he still doesn't."

"No worries," Lando smiled. "The way Luew talks, he’s the last one who’d allow eavesdroppers. Besides, why do you think he’s leaving us alone in here? He expects you to sweep for listening devices. He wants you to know you can talk freely.”

“Considerate guy,” Jaina said, turning back toward the table. “Or one with really good techs. I can’t find anything.”

“Okay,” Leia said. “So why don’t you have a seat and tell us how it went with Grand Master Hamner?”

Jaina rolled her eyes, then plucked at her flight suit. “He dismissed the Masters three hours ago, and I’m still in the same thing I was wearing when we left the Rockhound," she said dryly. "He spent the entire time accusing me of sabotaging his attempts to reconcile with Daala.”

“Reconcile?” Han said. “With Daala? How’d you keep from laughing in his face?”

“It’s too scary to laugh, Dad,” Jaina said. She hadn't even really tried to argue, which was how anyone would know something was wrong there. “Honestly, I think the pressure is getting to him. Master, er, Grand Master Hamner really seems to believe he can cut a deal with her.”

“He has to try,” Leia said. “We can’t fight Sith if we’re busy fighting Daala.”

“Yeah, well, trying to cut a deal with Daala is a waste of time,” Han said, flipping coasters onto the table more or less in front of them. “The only way to deal with Daala is to deal her out.”

Leia frowned. “Han, what do you mean by that?”

“You know what I mean. And don’t give me any poodoo about it being premature. Daala tried to take us out, and Amelia was there. She’s lucky I haven’t gone after her already.”

“Someone tried to take us out,” she corrected. “We don’t know that Daala sent them. We can’t even be sure we were the targets.”

“You want to give me odds she didn’t, and we weren’t?” Han countered as he took a seat. “She set us up with that whole we can negotiate act.”

“Okay, so let’s say Daala did set us up,” Leia said. “What are you going to do about it? Launch another coup?”

“I wasn’t thinking of us, exactly.”

“I hope you’re not thinking of the Jedi, either. Because the Senate- and the public- would only take that as proof that Daala is right to fear us.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Lando said, bringing over the drinks and passing them out. “Kenth is right about one thing. The Jedi have as many friends in the Senate as Daala does, and you can put a lot of pressure on her by letting them know what’s going on.”

“I’d say that has about a ten percent chance of working,” Jaina said. “What do we do when it backfires and she starts arresting Senators?”

Lando smiled. “That, my dear, is when the Jedi step in to save the Alliance. You just need to be patient- and find a way to bring Kenth around before the Sith make their move.”

“You think we have that much time?” Leia asked.

“With Abeloth dead, yes, I think so,” he said. “If she were still alive, the Jedi wouldn’t have a chance. But as matters stand, her attack on the Shelter students may have been a lucky break for the Jedi.”

“How do you figure that?” Han asked. “By giving Daala a bunch of barvy Jedi Knights she could use as an excuse to go after Luke and the Order?”

“By forcing the Sith to reveal themselves before they were ready," Jaina replied, shrugging. "If Ben and Luke hadn’t been exiled, they would never have gone to Sinkhole Station- and we wouldn’t have known about the Lost Tribe.”

“Exactly,” Lando said. “But now we have a chance to mobilize.”

Leia raised an eyebrow. "We? Are you sure you want to involve yourself in this, Lando?”

Lando looked at the floor for a moment, then said, “To tell the truth, it’s the last thing I want. But with a whole planetful of Sith on the way, I doubt there’s going to be a choice for anyone.”

They went quiet until the door slid open, and the Sullustan Senator came walking in. They started to rise to greet him, but he waved it off. “We don’t have time for that nonsense,” he said, going straight to the table. “I’ve got a subcommittee hearing to chair in...” He checked his chrono. “...fifteen minutes, and Lando said this was urgent. So let’s get straight to it.”

“Very well, Senator Wuul,” Leia said. “The reason we asked-”

“Not that,” Wuul said, going for the drink Lando had left for him, and downed it in one gulp. “The burtalle. And call me Luew. Only the opposition calls me Senator. You’re not the opposition, are you, Jedi Solo?”

Leia smiled. “Of course not, Luew. Any friend of Lando’s is a friend of ours. And please, call me Leia.”

“Glad to hear it, Leia," Wuul said, taking a seat and looking at Han, then Jaina. "Okay, now that we understand each other, why don’t you tell me what’s so urgent that you had to come over here in a dirty flight suit, young lady?”

Gee, thanks. But Jaina sat up and just said, "Sith."

Wuul slumped in his seat. "Another one? I thought we were finally finished with those azkancs." And then, remembering he was talking to the relatives of Jacen, added, "No offense intended.”

“None taken,” Han assured him. “But if it was just one azkanc, we wouldn’t be here. Luke and Ben have run into a whole planetful.”

Wuul cocked his head in confusion. “A planetful? Of Sith?”

“We don’t actually know that it’s a whole planetful,” Jaina clarified. “But there are a lot. They call themselves the Lost Tribe, and we think they’ve spent the last two years putting together a battle fleet.”

Wuul looked appropriately shocked. “A fleet? Of Sith? But I thought they only came-”

“Yeah, in twos,” Han finished. “So did I. But that’s kind of a recent development. Near as we can tell, these guys have been marooned on some world called Kesh for the last five thousand years.”

“I see.” The Senator collected himself, sitting up straight again. “And they have been responsible for the madness afflicting the young Jedi Knights?”

“Uh, no.” Han looked to Leia for guidance as to how much he should reveal. “Not really.”

“Their illness was caused by an ancient being named Abeloth,” Leia explained. “She made contact with the Jedi Knights while they were still children, when we were hiding our young ones in the Maw during the war against the Yuuzhan Vong.”

“But that’s not really important now,” Jaina said. “Abeloth has been destroyed. What we need to worry about is the Sith.”

Wuul fell quiet, staring into his glass thoughtfully. "The Jedi can't handle the Sith with Daala breathing down their collars," he said finally. "Is that correct?”

Leia nodded. “Exactly.”

“And what do you expect me to do about that? I’m the chair of the subcommittee on mineral taxation. I don’t have that kind of leverage over Daala,” he pointed out.

Lando stood up and slapped a hand on Wuul’s shoulder. “Luew, old buddy, we’re not looking for leverage. And you know it.”

“I do?” He was clearly feigning innocence until he saw the look on Lando's face. “Okay. But after this, we start from even again.”

“Fair enough,” Lando laughed. “What’s a little sabacc debt compared with the possibility of a Sith empire?”

“I’m glad you see it that way. Now drink some of that burtalle while I prepare a little gift for my new friends.”

“Thanks,” Lando said. “Don’t mind if I do.”

Wuul pulled a datapad from inside his tunic and typed out some things, then slide it across the table towards Leia. “That’s a list of everyone in the government and the military who owes me a favor- and who can be counted on to keep it. But I trust you’re not talking about another coup.”

That got a wince out of Han and Jaina, who had been a big part of the last one, and for reasons they'd rather not revisit, but Leia just replied, "It's not a coup."

Wuul nodded. “Now let’s talk about this bill you want me to write. I assume that, basically, you want the Jedi’s current status written into law, with guarantees of financial support and military cooperation.”

“Are we that obvious?” Leia asked.

“Only to me, my dear,” Wuul said. “You need this bill to come from someone you can trust, but someone not normally aligned with the Jedi, because Daala will be on the lookout for that. You also need someone who can bring a lot of votes your way, because you’ll have to override the Chief of State’s veto, and that makes it fairly obvious what you want from me.”

"I really hope Daala isn't this smart," Jaina frowned. “Because if it’s that easy for her to figure this out, the galaxy is in big trouble.”

“Unfortunately, she is that smart,” Wuul said. “And that’s the weak spot in your plan. We can’t make this happen without talking to each other. Sooner or later, Daala is going to catch a whiff of our communications and realize what we’re doing. Once she does, we need to bring the bill to the floor before she can gather enough support to block a vote.”

“Why don’t we just attach it to something she can’t have blocked?” Leia asked.

“They outlawed that little maneuver when they chartered the Galactic Alliance,” he said. “To tell the truth, I’m surprised the Jedi decided to take the political route after the attempt on Bwua’tu’s life. With the support you have in Hapes and the Empire, I’m surprised you’re not threatening to just leave Coruscant.”

“Probably because we’re not the ones in charge,” Jaina sighed. “And Grand Master Hamner is afraid to call Daala’s bluff.”

“Actually, he thinks a political solution would be better for everyone, if we can work it out," Leia said, scowling at Jaina. It was a look Jaina had seen a lot when she couldn't keep her mouth shut. “But what does the attack on Bwua’tu have to do with anything? Even Chief Daala doesn’t seem to think the Jedi were involved with that.”

“That’s not quite right,” Wuul said. “The rumors I hear actually have her saying, ‘If the Jedi were that incompetent, I wouldn’t be worried about them.’”

Lando frowned. “Meaning?”

“Meaning she can’t imagine the Jedi failing. So she’s wondering whether it was someone trying to make the attack look like Jedi, or a Jedi plan she just doesn’t understand yet. By all accounts, she was really thrown for a loop when Asokaji accused her of ordering the admiral’s assassination in retaliation for the arrangement with Grand Master Hamner.”

There was a moment of stunned silence from the Solos and Lando.

Finally, Han blurted out, “Arrangement?”

“What arrangement?” Jaina demanded, almost at the same time.

“You don’t know?” Wuul asked. “Apparently, Admiral Bwua’tu was worried that the Order intended to launch its StealthX wing to break Chief Daala’s siege. So he cut a deal with Grand Master Hamner. Hamner agreed to keep the StealthXs in their hangars, and Bwua’tu promised to block any attempt to use the military against the Temple.”

Jaina felt mad enough to march right back into the Temple and punch Kenth in the nose. He'd gone behind the Council's backs to make a deal with Daala without telling them, allowed them to continue with the plan otherwise, had knowingly left Ben and Luke unsupported against a tribe full of Sith, and all to protect the Temple. A Temple that was full of Jedi who had handled an attack just fine the first time, and it had all been for nothing anyway.

Wuul spoke when the angry silence became too uncomfortable to deal with anymore. “Look, my friends, my information is coming to me secondhand, through General Jaxton of Starfighter Command, so it’s quite possible I have some of the details wrong.”

“Maybe,” Han growled. “But the ones you have right explain a lot.”

"I see. It seems the bill is just a stalling tactic- one aimed at you. Shall I pursue it?"

“Yes, absolutely,” Leia answered. “The whole Council agreed to it. I doubt they’ll have a change of heart just because he’s been keeping things from them.”

“Besides, it would be the best solution to the problem- for everyone,” Lando pointed out. “Just because it’s a long shot doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take it.”

Wuul looked at Lando. “Yes, you do have a love for long shots, don’t you? Very well. I’m going need some things from you.”

“Of course,” Leia said. “Whatever we can do to help.”

"First," he said, "I need to know I won’t be endangering Alliance citizens. You’re sure the creature that has been spreading this illness is no longer a threat?”

Lando nodded. “We didn’t see the corpse ourselves, but Luke said over the comm she was dead.”

“They’re going to try to bring the body back for analysis,” Jaina added, still calming herself down. “Plus, well, everybody’s sane again.”

“True. Second, we’re going to need a distraction to keep Daala’s mind on something aside from what we’re doing in the Senate," Wuul said.

“Okay,” Jaina said. “What do you have in mind?”

“The integration of the Empire,” Wuul said.

Jaina's brow furrowed, and she looked to Leia for clarification.

“The assassination attempts have had an upside for Jagged,” Leia explained. “He’s finally backed the Moffs into a corner. It looks like he’ll be able to bring the Empire into the Alliance after all.”

“Which will only strengthen Daala’s hand when it comes to the Jedi,” Wuul added. “So we need those negotiations to start unraveling, and keep unraveling until after the Senate passes my bill. The more time Daala has to spend tossing those beetles back into the pot, the longer it will take her to catch on to what I’m doing.”

“That makes sense,” Jaina said cautiously. She had a bad feeling about this. “And you want me to... what? Steal their charter agreement?”

“I was thinking of something a little more difficult to repair,” he said. “New conditions, greedy holdouts, language quibbles," he said. "Whatever hurdles you can convince Head of State Fel to throw Daala’s way.”

And there it was. Once again, she was expected to use Jag and her connection to him to get what her side wanted, even if it wasn't what he wanted, or whether or not it was best for the Empire. She was getting really sick of being used as everybody's pawn. "I doubt I can convince him to do anything like that."

“Don’t sell yourself short, Jedi Solo," Wuul said, totally oblivious to this. "I’m sure it will be easier than you think to convince Head of State Fel to help us.”

[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Taken from Vortex by Troy Denning. Jaina has the worst time for eight books.]