Planet Gand, Pef Empire

Gandia City.

16 BBY, first week.

"What do you think, Senator? Isn't Gandia nice?" I asked the harridan walking proudly with her arm on my elbow. My Avatar's elbow.

"Opulent and wasteful. Skyscrapers plated with gold, this aurodium plaza, paved with real aurodium...you could feed a billion children..." the woman said with a high class snort.

"Very few children would survive a diet of heavy metals. The Emperor is working now to obtain more useful transmutations, like duranium or Impervium. Those metals have real value. Gold and aurodium barely serve any purpose, except as monetary anchors, and some use in electronics. Or jewelry and cutlery, for those who need fancy things" I explained politely.

I did have a whole factory making jewelry for diplomatic purposes. They worked great.

Thousands of rulers and noble houses were swayed by a 10 kilogram scepter or crown stamped from aurodium and inscribed with a few useless power words, like vidi, or levitas or lumen.

Then again, that scepter would detect dangers, be light as a feather and glow in the dark.

"Just like your Emperor, you're twisting my words. The aurodium alone would be worth..."

"You don't understand, Miss Mothma. Transmutation is the procedure to shift electron orbits, and transmutes lead into gold, and iridium into aurodium. It's real, but fake. If Pef transmutes an entire iridium asteroid into aurodium, the anchor of our currency would crash, with a trillion tonnes of aurodium devaluing the worth of this rare metal.

Money without backing has no value. You did learn economics, before you were sent as a Senator, right?" I asked softly, stopping to bump fists with a school of Gands kits, going to the movies.

They were all air breathers too, as I saw no respirators. How quickly things change.

In 9 years, most Gand became air breathers, with only a few old timers still living in the Kiruk Canyons.

By next generation, they will all have vocal cords and 5 fingers, from birth.

"How long till the Pef Empire is ready to support the Imperial Navy in the west, Avatar?" Mon Mothma asked, not exactly diplomatically.

"Well, we are positioning ships and troops on the western parts, north and south of your Empire, esteemed Senator. But as you know, there are very few, if any, routes mapped into the Unknown Regions. For now our Navy groups keep capturing vessels from the polities opposing us, and trying to decipher the language and their maps. Takes time. And you own Navy is doing okay." I replied politely.

"Perhaps if you reduced those huge armada guarding the so called Gamma threats..."

"We wouldn't win anything, Honored Senator. If the Rakata feared the World Eater that much, that they build the Belsavis prison just to hold him, we do not dare risking such a demon escape and eat planets. The droch plague could obliterate all life in the galaxy, or the entire universe. The mad Celestial behind Kessel the same. That thing at Cularin...it alters reality.

Those creatures at Bedlam too. Perhaps in a thousand years we will have learned enough, to try to disarm these dangers. But for now, we quarantine the systems and hope nobody will be insane enough to poke in there, and kill us all. Not to mention whatever is in the Deep Core and feeds off the blackhole in the center of the galaxy. We just cut off the routes and hope for the best. Perhaps no Jedi will go and stir the nest"

"Errr. The Jedi wouldn't do such things, that persecution has to end now..."

"Of course they would, Miss Mothma. All Jedi are always right. They jump head first in any danger, and when they fail, they become dark jedi and hate everyone. That's why they aren't allowed force-weapons anymore. Maybe the few that survived will learn to think. Fat chance, but we try to be fair. Also, of the Humbarine Jedi, which surfaced once Bena became Empress and made them legal again...two or three are mad. Maybe the Empress should keep them far away. We will know if they coerce the Empress with force powers, but for Bena herself, it may be too late. Here, this is a special detector our Paladins use. If the lights turn red or black, you have fury or hate. We just end their suffering." I said softly, and gave her a hate detector.

"You're killing everyone who is furious and hates anything?"

"Pretty much yes. If they are force users, and can feel hate, they are defective, and will eventually try to kill everyone. It doesn't work on normal people, unfortunately. Then again, normal people do not bend the galaxy to their will. Look!" I said, materializing a pair of aurodium earrings in my palm.

"How...they seem real?"

"They are real, and my gift for you. I'm just learning this ability, the matter creation. But imagine a hateful dark jedi, now trying to kill everyone. He would manifest plagues or rakghouls or mind control people or infect others to create Inquisitors. Any force user is dangerous, Miss Mothma. But fanatic force users are much worse. They bend the Force to their will, and make it produce horrors. Sure, the Force has its own Will, and will retaliate eventually, but the damage will be done. More trillions of people dead, more planets destroyed. Now go. We will meet again, in several months" I said gently, lifting the woman towards the dropship hovering some 50 meters above.

"My mission here is not over!" she yelled, a bit upset.

Eh, women. They're never satisfied.

I tried, I really did.

Planet Mimban, Gand System

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Temple of Pomojema

Another quick scan of the known galaxy, expanding my senses towards the galactic south to locate the oval ships with tubes jutting out, which deleted a few hours from my Findsman Captain memories. Those must be the Ang-Tii.

My ships were pursuing pirates and slavers, then they found out they won the battle, and a few hours had passed in an instant.

So, either memory wipe, or time alter, and possibly both.

No luck finding the monk's ship, but I did find Exocron, a nice planet inhabited by outback enthusiasts.

Or so they said. It was just a cabal of Devisors , snaring ships and keeping the population prisoner.

Not cool.

And I needed a word with those monks. Using mnemonic modification on my crews was not fine.

Also found an Alien construct . And there, another stasis pod with a young Old Jedi woman inside.

This is gonna be a recurring event then? Miss Halbret could keep Miss Mourne company though.

Kriff, I was never getting rid of Jedi like this, if they kept popping out.

Not to mention, like a dozen or newer Jedi came out, once Empress Bena ended their proscription.

Let's take the Avatar and Miss Mourne on this trip...

'And me' Solana demanded, feeling bored. And wanting to learn new things.

'Me too' Asajj demanded, wanting to shoot people. And smelling fresh abilities on the horizon.

'Me three' Wialu concluded, with an excited tone, at the prospect of new knowledge.

'I'm already in the area' Luxum added amused.

"And your Ray of sunshine wants to see the work of the Old Ones too" the Tsil maid said from her spot next to me, where she was 'investigating' some 2000 different crystals I had obtained till now.

'Okay then, my lovelies. Get ready for adventure. And board Centerpoint in 30 minutes.' I sent on the Voicenet.

"So, I hear you're trying to pollinate Luxum, and make real babies, not just fake mini-Jaybo?" Ray asked curious, with an assorted compendium of telepathic poems, describing the love life of my Avatar in graphic detail, and comparing the new children with the face of Jaybo.

Huh, hitting the nail on the head, as always.

"Not rushing into this Ray. A tiny mistake, and the mother might explode, or the kid get deformed. My crystal self is artificial, after all. I'll have to grow an extension, an organic crystal compatible with silicon biology, but also a part of me. And then..."

"Yes, and then amazing, thundering, celestial mindsex, involving chemical synthesis and electromagnetic senses. Sounds absolutely enticing. I want a baby too" My Tsil maid demanded in a serene vocabulator voice, but carrying a thousand nuances, especially in the mind waves.

"Wait, you actually are a female? You can make me a baby?" I asked a bit confused.

"Eh, I heard what you did, saving the galaxy from the plague. You deserve a reward, and my race deserves compensation, for losing their listeners humans, and being alone and quarantined. I'll shift a few energy levels and become the woman of your dreams, balanced one" Sunshine-seen-through-mist replied coyly.

Huh, a hermaphrodite crystal species...changing their inclinations with a few transmutation of atoms.

Whatever, I've seen stranger things already. Maybe.

"Okay then, let's pack this up. Any prognostics on a cure for the droch?" I wondered, not really hopeful, at all.

"Those Kessel spiders energy webs work, a little. But very slowly, and the spiders themselves are not immune. And a mecha-deru conversion might backfire. Especially if the nano-plague leaves the planet. Beyond our light, they might take over, and obtain an even more potent vector" Ray explained with a frightening depiction of a bio-mechanical sentient plague.

"But they can't infect the Vong tissues?" I asked hopeful.

"Not exactly. They can infect Vong cells, but they soon die. Sadly, the synthetic tissues that Solanus makes are not hurting them. Those biofibers are treated like normal organic matter. We'll test those Lugubrra next. Perhaps their stomach acid can destroy them. And next, that 'fizz' spore you found in the Unknown Regions.

We will try everything, Immortal Pef. But we fear we'll need a new home, once everything fails. You will burn the planet to crust, and then throw it into a blackhole. And then build more factories and refineries around the new blackhole, and call it a bad day" Ray said, in a heartbreaking sob, most likely because she saw that image in my mind.

Yep, I was gonna do exactly that. One planet to save a trillion? Not even a second of debate. And in the next few years. Not gonna wait for the Vong to find it and play with it.

"Maybe you'll find a nice planet, to settle on, this expedition. I'll try to make a crystal corner in the south, for all the sentient crystal races. We found like a dozen sentient crystals, and you might be able to cross-pollinate, like humans can with a dozen species" I said gently, after all my collection of crystals were packed up, some inside me, others in their safe.

"We probably can. This huge diversity of life is not an accident. The Force is experimenting, a bit blindly, to start sentience on every planet or asteroid it can. And then let them combine, and obtain smarter and stronger hybrids. Just like you are, with your grey holocrons, and grey paladins, and research centers and harems. Come on, let's go already. That DarkStryder computer seems a nice find" Ray demanded, hopping up and down excited.

It wasn't nice at all. But perhaps useful.