They're greeted by a Kaminoan diplomat, Taun We. "Master Jedi," she says. "The Prime Minister is expecting you!"

Kina, fresh from Naboo and holding a Force barrier up to keep the rain off because being soaked got old after a few minutes the last time she tried, blinks.

"He is?"  How'd he know we were even coming, she doesn't ask.

"Oh, yes. We have been awaiting your arrival for some time. This way, please." She gestures towards a hallway and begins to guide them.

"She doesn't appear to be deliberately trying to steal our money," Windu mutters as he walks. "Of course, that doesn't mean the Prime Minister is innocent."

"The charge looks to legitimately have a Master Sifo-Dyas's authentication code on it.  They might not know who they've really been working for, let alone the actual effects of whatever they're working on," Kina mutters back.  "I don't know how they got his code, though, or if they even did; Palpatine was a very good manipulator even without the Sith powers, and Dooku was and is important enough to listen to if he thinks something dangerous is coming.  Even if it's him that's the danger."

They make their way to the Prime Minister, who is introduced as Lama Su. "I trust you're going to enjoy your stay. You will be delighted to hear that we are on schedule. An initial thousand units have been tested and are forecasted to perform exceptionally, and two hundred thousand are being developed as we speak."

Units of what. Are they making two hundred thousand clones? Why would someone clone themselves so many times? Windu had thought that this was the Sith Lord trying to make contingency plans for if he had died, that somehow he had figured out how to transfer memories - but two hundred thousand seemed excessive. Then what was this about?

Windu says none of this. "I see. I admit that I'm not familiar with all of the details of the project."

"Has Master Sifo-Dyas not explained this to you?"

"Master Sifo-Dyas was killed on a mission several weeks ago, I'm afraid." By the Pyke Syndicate, a crime group that had no visible connections to the Sith. It seemed unlikely that Dooku could have arranged this - the Pykes worked for the Hutts, and the Confederacy of Independent Systems was quite opposed to the Hutts - but the other Sith Lord, maybe.

"...So, what are you...developing?"

"Clones, of course," says Su. "An army for the Republic."

"...hold on, let me get this straight, someone appropriated Jedi funds for a Republic military buildup?  Even leaving aside the implications of making people built to order for war, that's...something's very not right, there.  I mean the person who ultimately arranged for this was a Sith Lord so of course it wouldn't be, but - even under the Republic's norms on its face, that's weird.  They surely wouldn't trust the Jedi with an army; that's what the Ruusan Reforms were about in the first place!  So what...Oh, the droids.  That would definitely cause an emergency.  Have you been following galactic news lately, Prime Minister?"

"Excuse me?!" says Su. The child has the standard ridiculous objections about the ethics of cloning, of course, but... what was this about the Jedi and the Republic, and a Sith Lord behind this? Su responds in the standard Kaminoan way, of course. "I've never been so - I will not stand for - Master Jedi, can you control this child?!"

Due to the lack of records on Kamino, the Jedi may not have noticed the culture's very, very strong emphasis on courtesy. Which means no one is allowed to speak out of turn, and that last impertinent question about following the news was far too much. Children - and for that matter everyone - should know better than to question the Prime Minister so!

Windu doesn't really think Kina said anything wrong, but he does motion to her to be quiet.

"He really can't, Prime Minister, I'm absolutely incorrigible, but I'll shush.  I do want to clarify that I legitimately don't know if you've been paying attention to galactic politics, Prime Minister; someone destroyed all the Order's records of Kamino, including any diplomacy guides they may have had, but given the impression of isolationism and your not having a Senator, I could not rule out that you haven't even heard that Sheev Palpatine became Chancellor, was revealed to be a Sith Lord, and is now dead."

Several of the other Jedi are now giving her stares.

Su bites back several comments, and deliberately looks only at Windu. "Perhaps you'd like to explore our facilities further, Master Jedi. Secretary We, could you escort our... other guests to our dining center?"

Windu nods, and follows Su.

"My apologies, Prime Minister. Miss Skywalker is still adjusting to certain aspects of politeness." If by still adjusting he means will never adjust. "I believe what she was trying to say was that the Jedi Order as a whole was unaware that this clone army existed. We suspect that Master Sifo-Dyas was under the influence of a Sith Lord."

"Ah. I am sorry to hear of this, but I do hope you'll come to realize that this army could be essential to the safety of the Republic. If I understand correctly, you do face several difficulties in controlling the galaxy, after the recent formation of the Confederacy - who have a strong mechanical army. Clones, however, are superior over droids in a wide variety of fields, and I expect you'll recognize this when you see their performance."

They're absolutely not putting up with this. But he'll take a look anyway.

The clones were only ordered a few months ago, but accelerated growth has already gotten them through two years' worth of development. Su shows their very high levels of strength and health compared to typical two-year-olds, but there isn't much they can really demonstrate when it comes to fighting, so Su instead shows Windu footage of previous Kaminoan clones from many years ago - never anywhere near as many clones as this project had, but always very skilled in combat. They'd be impressive, if Windu was interested in any of this.

Meanwhile, Kina is being sneaky.

Well, unless Secretary We wants to tell her, or the other Jedi, about anything they want the Jedi to know?  They won't tell Prime Minister Su about it, she promises.

But either way...

She's going to sneak out, possibly through a manufactured excuse to go to the ship they landed with (which would also let her grab espionage-focused equipment therefrom, actually), and then sneak back in.

The clones are hard to tell apart, and that makes them easy to find.

The clones aren't really that talkative yet, at least not in understandable terms! Their language acquisition does go very quickly, but not enough to actually catch up to that of a normal two-year-old.

One of them does approach Kina, however, and informs her that "ba tooga tooga." This is apparently very funny.

"Yes, hello to you too."  She's found the clones, now where are the records?  R2 was kind enough to equip her with some slicing programs...

"Hedo," the clone replies. "Awama gee!" He tries to pull on Kina's hand. He is unable to reach it, and is now looking around, confused. "Gaba gee?" he says, starting to pout.

At this point, one of the Kaminoans arrives, and she scoops him up. Wait a second. He was on the ground. Now he is not on the ground! How did that happen?

"Hello, miss," the Kaminoan says. "What are you doing here?"

"Investigating the conditions of the project you're working on to make sure they're in line with the standards and practices of the Jedi Order, of course!  I'm sure you've been expecting us!", she chirps!  (She even brought the dreaded auditor's datapad, to look the part.  And she'll be using it.  Knowledge is a weapon.)  "Tell me about your program for the younglings, if you would be so kind?  I assume that you are one of their caretakers, but I'm afraid I haven't been fully briefed on the project's details, miss...", she leaves a space for the Kaminoan to fill, and hopes she will continue filling it with the things she wants to know.

She looks at the cloneyoungling, and reaches out her hand towards him, as she also reaches out in the Force.  What is it that he wants, right now?  What does he feel?  "Hello there, kiddo.  You're a curious one, aren't you?  That's very good.  Were you trying to show me something?"  Her years of running herd on the kids back on Tatooine comes in handy, and her voice is calm and soothing.

She can humor him for a little bit; it's not like she's properly raiding the place.  She's just doing an audit!

(She taps out a message to one of the other Jedi that she's found the clones and is investigating.)

"Nala Se," she says. "We're growing clones for the Republic army. Are you supposed to have someone with you?"

"Gee," insists the clone. If Kina's observant, she'll realize that he's thirsty.

"My boss thought it more important that I have an unguided tour of the project; I go where the Force leads me."

"By the way, he's thirsty."

Now what does Nala Se do with that information?

(And is the Force drawing her attention to anything?)

"He's... what?" Oh, right, Jedi can sense things. Se sighs, and brings him over to the rest of the clones, where he does get something to drink. She quickly returns. "Now, if you wish, I can show you through their quarters and other relevant areas. I'm quite sure you will find everything up to the highest possible standards."

"Yes, please do tell me the standards you aim to achieve; some of our documentation was lost recently due to cyberattack and we're still recovering."

She's somewhat happier, now that she's in the field of easily recitable regulations. It appears that certain Kaminoan processes of genetic modification are capable of making the clones healthier in every way than the originals - an average clone would reach at least the 90th percentile in nearly every measure of strength and most measures of intelligence - but still maintain the same genetic makeup in all unmodified fields. And of course, the model they started from this time was already in peak health.

There is a notable lack of emphasis on the clones' emotional state, however.

"And what do you do to protect them from stress due to traumatic events, if they are to be soldiers?  How are you training them to avoid getting bored and joyriding a fuel-laden hovertanker down a residential street?  I'm told that's sometimes a thing that happens, in soldiery."

Old Man Henderson's stories were rather wild, but she'd draw on them for inspiration if it helped.

"What, in short, do you do for the mental and emotional well-being of the potential recruits you're growing?  Do they have potential life-paths available should they be wounded irreparably?  Given that the most likely use of the Republic's armed forces will be in anti-slavery operations, are they going to be capable of handling that burden?"

"Traumatic - I'm quite sure no actual soldier would ride a hovertanker down a..." Clearly she has no idea what she's talking about. "I assure you, defection rates are nothing to be worried about. We have mental implants that ensure loyalty to their commanders in all situations."

"...Ma'am, it is not defection I am worried about, and frankly if defection is a concern something is already horribly wrong.  I'm worried about suicide.  Who is in charge of training?"

She texts Mace: "Clones given Sith-grade 'loyalty implants' to prevent *defection*."

Windu has been receiving Kina's messages with increasing alarm. The clones were clearly supposed to be for Palpatine's Republic army, but if they shut it down now, what would even happen to the clones? And if they don't... honestly, the clones could be useful in a few years, if the Confederacy is posing a strong threat. But the ethics behind all this don't seem too sound.

He'll contact Yoda later, and the Jedi and the Republic can discuss what to do. In the meantime, he'll keep listening to Lama Su's bland speeches.

Bland speeches, bland speeches, bland speeches.

"Suicide?" an incredulous Nala Se is saying to Kina. "I assure you, that would never happen. Besides, I assume that would be covered under disloyalty. As for combat training, that will not begin for several years, but Dr. Ko Sai would most likely be involved in such matters."

"...There is no such thing as 'never', Doctor Nala Se.  Especially when it comes to war.  You assume rather much.

"...I can tell you now, however, that those loyalty implants must be taken out, and furthermore without harming the subjects, if you wish to keep a single credit of the money you've been paid, instead of being on trial for crimes against the galaxy; simply discarding these 'units' and starting over is plausibly genocide and certainly mass murder.  To explain the project's error: A good soldier does not obey orders to, for example, massacre civilians.  Yours would.  No Jedi would order that, I'm sure, but there are already non-Jedi in our chain of command, if they're even placed under our commands - and realistically, war-leaders we most emphatically are not, Doctor - let alone the possibility of subversion; for example faking communication to issue orders that appear to be from trusted sources but are actually malicious."

Kina is quietly furious, feeling ice-cold anger at the rampant slavery occurring in front of her.

She will not let it move her to act in ways she does not endorse.

Nonetheless...she feels it.  And Dooku is going to have some explaining to do, when next they meet, if he knew of any of this.

"Crimes against the galaxy? It was the Jedi who asked for this. It is not up to us what orders they receive, but I assure you, they will be quite observant of all relevant chains of command. I find myself quite insulted by the idea that we would kill the clones - we do follow ethical guidelines - but as it so happens, we have the right to do whatsoever we want with them. We created them, we gave them their lives, and we can choose what happens in those lives. If your Masters find themselves incapable of presenting a unified leadership for their soldiers, then it is their own fault."

"Now, I suggest you return to your Masters, now."

"...That is a fascinating position you've taken, Ms. Se."

Kina's gaze bears down on the cloner, and heavy weight binds her limbs and shuts her mouth.

"It seems you truly do not understand the Order's problem, Ms. Se.

"It's rather simple: Slavery is illegal within the Galactic Republic, Ms. Se.

"Shall we confirm that those slave-chips you've implanted are quite illegal, Ms. Se?  Shall we confirm that involuntary confinement, forced labor, and quite plausibly aiding and abetting treason, are also illegal, Ms. Se?  I'll only need to confirm with my boss before escalating to the Chancellery, Ms. Se."

Of course she'll message Master Windu first, but she fully intends to call Vice-Chancellor Antilles personally, and have him get the Chancellor if he thinks it necessary.  This simply cannot be borne.

"There is nothing illegal about creating clones with such implants, any more than it is illegal to program a droid to follow your orders." She's a little nervous, but there is precedent on this sort of thing. "Now leave."

"Sorry, but I can't leave right now; I'm not done my audit!"  Kina's not smiling, she's baring her teeth.  "But if you insist, I'll consult with the Chancellor's office, as both stakeholder in the project and enforcer of Republic law, shall I?"

Paging Vice-Chancellor Antilles...

Vice Chancellor Antilles is in a meeting! He's not available to - Kina Skywalker. Oh, shit, what is it this time?

"Miss Skywalker. To what do I owe the... well, I doubt it'll be pleasure. What's going on?"

"Unfortunately, pleasure it is not, no, Vice-Chancellor.  We found a Ruusan-illegal appropriation of Jedi emergency funds, under possibly stolen authorizatiom codes, on a planet that was sliced out of Jedi records - Kamino," and she rattles off the coordinates, "by the way - being used to finance the creation of an army of living, breathing, thinking beings enslaved via chips in their brain for, presumably, the Palpatine administration's sinister - I don't even know what he would've done with them.  Probably yet another Jedi-killing plot, the way the chips' effects are being described.  Absolute obedience to whatever order may come.  Including, for example, unprovoked massacres of civilians.  I presume that the Republic does not want this glaring weakness to subversion in what's supposed to be its army, even if it's somehow not already illegal to put slave chips in what are unquestionably sapient beings?  Oh, right - I forgot to mention that Kamino says this army was commissioned for the Republic, despite the money being appropriated from Jedi funds and furthermore having a seeming of expecting to be under Jedi management and standards-and-practices.  Clearly this is untrue in practice, since they won't actually commit to removing the, again, slave chips, but something's definitely illegal somewhere; the question right now is looking more like what specific crimes we're presently investigating."

What. He had heard the Jedi were missing some money, but... clones? Army?

"An army for the Republic. Yes, that sounds like it was Palpatine's work. The question is how aware Kamino is that a Sith Lord was behind this - the use of Jedi authorization codes seems to at least suggest they weren't willing conspirators, but we'll need to launch an immediate investigation. I'll speak with the Chancellor and the rest of the Order, and we'll - no, actually, we'll need to bring this before the Senate, if it's a serious military matter. To the best of your knowledge, how large is this army, and have they seen combat yet?"

Yes, they have! One of the clones bumped into another and knocked him over! Now he's sad.

"They're -"

Kina shows him.

"That's the 'army'.  They're just children."

Hi!

"Uh, okay, that at least reduces the immediate threat. All right. Either I or the Chancellor will contact whoever's in charge of this in, let's say half an hour. Tell the rest of the Jedi to search for any relevant evidence to the case, and we'll send some legal representatives as well."

"I'll pass that on to Master Windu, Vice-Chancellor; he's already on-site, meeting with the Kaminoan Prime Minister - who is apparently also the biggest boss of the cloning project - that he will undoubtedly be glad to finish."

She does so, via text comm, and attaches the last audio exchange; immediately afterwards, with her orders cued up in case of protests, she sees to securing every single data-bearing device she can sense.

Nala Se will not object. She has backed out of the room by now. The Vice Chancellor. The Vice Chancellor. Oh no. Oh no.

Windu has about wrapped up his conversation with Lama Su. He does ask to see several rooms that were previously considered private, but he doesn't find anything noteworthy there.

Lama Su will frantically reread all cloning-related court cases... which mostly suggest that what they've been doing is legal? It's plausible? But there really aren't many cases, and nothing of anywhere near this size, so they could be in a bit of trouble. Then she'll respond to the call from the Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, because today hasn't been awful enough already.

Kina wants to know if the design for those loyalty chips was Kaminoan or provided by a third party! Anyone?

It appears to be a Kaminoan design! If she pokes around, she'll notice that one of the many features of the chips is minor memory enhancements - up to a hundred special orders can be easily memorized and assigned code numbers. For example, Order 66 is "return squad to base." (The orders can be reassigned by high-ranking commanders to correspond to different instructions, but it looks like they're still on the defaults for now.)

...She kind of wants to take this technology, strip it of its brainjacking applications, and get one herself.  It seems - useful, to have a teeny little datapad conveniently right next to her brain.  But she's not going to say that out loud. It'd get theological, and that's worse than politics.

It doesn't have that much storage, but in any case, the Kaminoans are not in the mood to give her fancy technology even if she was going to use it.

In other news, the clones are based off of a really cool template! He's really strong, and smart, and resilient, and he's known as one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy!

"The Jedi are interrogating me about what now?" Well, it was only a matter of time until they found out.

She hasn't even told them she's interested, so it's not like they know to refuse her anyway.

"The several thousand clones of you, Mr. Fett, and who was responsible for their creation," Kina says over an encrypted holocomm line to his cell.

Cold smile. "Go to hell."

"I think I'd rather not go back to Tatooine, if it's all the same to you.

"...So what happened?  Because - you have clearly decided to not-cooperate with Jedi for a reason, and - ...honestly, I suspect it's the sort of reason that nothing short of a miracle will change, but...I have to ask.  Not because I think it's going to - get me any information, but because you should be treated with the same compassion I try to extend to everyone, and this is clearly...a deep, festering injury you've been dealt.  I - can't leave that."

"Compassion. Yeah, I'm not really feeling that."

"I could have just killed you, when you were blowing up the Senate.  No law would have barred me, nor censured me afterwards.  Not even the Order would have.  You're alive, and not being accomodated any worse than refugees at the Temple are, modulo external-access privileges.  Take that as evidence."

"Well, I'm very grateful. Bye."

"If you ever feel like figuring out what it is that caused the problem with Jedi you have, I can pull some records.  Because whatever it is, it ought not have happened, and we can't stop it from happening to the next guy if we don't know what it is."

Blank stare.

...Is that a stare of confusion, or stonewalling?

It is very blank.

Kina raises an eyebrow, and texts the Jedi Sentinel watching his cell for an emotion-reading.

Angry, but also a little happy if he's pissing her off.

He really isn't.  She's surprised he's talking at all, really.

She signals the Sentinel to pay close attention.

"Well, if you want to tell us what Sheev Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious, wanted with an army of you marching under the Republic's banner, you know how to contact someone."

How does he feel now?

About the same. It's not like he can get in any more trouble.

"...If you're willing to actually help, you might ever be released from prison, you know."

He's not talking. The Jedi will relay an emotion described as incredulous snort.

Kina shrugs.  "Well.  I tried.  The offer's on the table.  Hard way it is, til then."

And she hangs up.

She'll just have to collect all the Kaminoan records, then pass them to the analysts, as well as the Healers.

Antilles and Chancellor Elbis aren't able to get authorization from the Senate before the day is over, but they're prepared to shut down the program as soon as possible. The two hundred thousand clones in preparation haven't actually made it beyond a few cells, so they're probably just going to abort those. The thousand who are already born... well, they're prepared to go forward with, uh, buying them, and then finding them new homes. They were hoping to be able to invalidate the contract, but it seems like Kamino will be able to claim payment for the costs they've already spent, although of course they'll at least try to get their money back through the courts. But overall, it's early enough in this project that the consequences aren't going to be that serious.

Unless, of course, the Senate votes to form an army.

The thing is, even with this being basically slavery, there's going to be a pretty strong case that an army is necessary. Despite the Republic claiming to be the rulers of the galaxy, they really only control 75% or so, and the remaining quarter are generally those with the strongest armies - the Confederacy, the Hutts, and then a lot of smaller planetary systems experienced in war, such as Mandalore, Oba Diah, Ord Mantell... it all adds up to a lot. Luckily enough, the Republic's enemies aren't actually allied with each other, but if they were... well, no matter what their population, the Republic planets' military presence isn't 75%. It's about 20%.

Could they build up an army, maybe even faster than the eight years or so it'll take these clones to reach adulthood? Yes. But it would be incredibly difficult, primarily just because no individual planet really has much of an incentive to contribute - it'll cost so much, and why should they bother, they won't have much of an impact by themselves. Even with the new reforms, coordination isn't really something the Republic's good at. And if a planet has to contribute somehow... well, ethics aside, it's a lot cheaper to pay a bit in taxes and create an army of formulaic slaves, then to send their own people to die.

This time, it's not even the Senators' corruption that would make them vote for the clone army. The people are going to prefer growing soldiers over joining a fight themselves.

This is bad. This is bad. Why do they even have to have a war looming on the horizon? If the Confederacy would just stop building so many damn droids, they wouldn't have to worry about this, it would be better for everyone. What is Dooku even doing?

Well...

He could, uh...

Have his, uh, ambassador handle this?

The one person on his side who inexplicably seems to have a bit of Dooku's trust?

Why is his life like this.

"Make sure they take out the sunsscorched """loyalty""" chips either way.  Those are Sith-grade horribleness waiting to happen.  They might be Sith horribleness.  ...If it helps, I don't think that it's - inherently wrong to clone someone, or make a sapient droid; it's just inherently wrong to conscript them once you've done that; it's - there's a moral argument around creating people that like to do horrible work, too, but honestly as long as they're in this of their own free informed choice, with no strings attached, I think that the best you can do from your position has been done, no matter what the Senate ends up deciding.  ...That said, if the Confederacy is building droid-based military, why isn't the Republic making their own droid forces?  Surely we have some industry, even without the Trade Federation, and we can make better droids than the poor clankers we saw in the Senate attack, or the droidekas.  I certainly have design thoughts.  And do contact Naboo; the Gungans are almost miracle workers with especially their shield technology."

Kina taps the shield on her back.  "This bounces blaster-bolts."

"...If you're suggesting I visit Serenno, you'll need Master Windu's sign-off. Not that I, too, don't want to ask Dooku what the actual kriff he thinks he's doing, but, the Order's a bit leery of having me around him, and frankly I endorse being leery of him just on general principle.  At best he's constantly walking the edge of a knife; at worst, he's slipped.  Dooku as a Sith in Palpatine's mold, would be...uh...bad."

"I wasn't suggesting any more than a call, but yes, we should speak to the rest of the Order first. Dooku is... I mean, for a Sith, he's not as bad as I would have expected, but yes, he's dangerous. I think one of the main things they're concerned about is that he'll end up tricking you into joining him, which I'm not as worried about, but it's a reasonable concern to bring up. Still, I think our primary goal should be just... getting him to at least treat us as political opponents instead of pure enemies. And while I can tell you and Dooku disagree on a great many things, my impression is that it's less of a you are horrible and must be destroyed sort of thing, and more of I get what you're trying to do, but you're making big mistakes. From both sides. Would that be accurate?"

"As for the droids idea, I think the Confederacy is going to have superior technology no matter what we do - it's not just the Trade Federation, they also have the Techno Union and the Banking Clan and the Corporate Alliance and the Commerce Guild. Most of the really large businesses aren't really in favor of centralized government. But yes, that's one alternative to at least consider."

"Yeah, that sounds about right, as far as I think I understand how he understands me, and it's certainly my position with regards to him.  And yes, that's the Council's thought.  I'm not quite sure why, really; every time I get a closer look at how Sith operate I see more reasons to not be one."

"...Corporations are always, always beholden to their wallets.  The droids they took Naboo with had a centralized server and human rifles they had to carry.  Now, maybe the Trade Federation isn't the driving force behind their buildup anymore, I assume you'd know more than I do, but if it's still a corporate structure in charge, they're going to optimize for cheapness first and care about quality afterwards.

"You're the one that told me to look at what motivates people, a while back; I can tell you what motivates a corporate boss, and it is ultimately greed.  They're optimizing for cheap job lots of droids they can spin out for kilos on the cred, not actual performance - except where it would otherwise be a waste of money.  To beat that with middling industry?  You bring basic quality they lack.  Outweighing them with quantity while maintaining workplace safety is impossible, but you can exploit their shoddy worksmanship all day, with luck.  Don't go too heavy on quality, though.  Ten good workmen now can do a lot more than the promise of a master-craftsman in the future.

"Their other threat is likely to be specialist units; there, you get every single tiny company competing on the number of wizard-sounding features, rather than price or ease of use or effectiveness, because wizardry sells where functionality doesn't.  To beat that sort of tactic, you want simple, reliable, effective tools.

"As far as getting the Republic's member states to spring for an army themselves...  I have a couple thoughts."

She drums her fingers on the floor of the Jedi ship's soundproofed meditation room, and puts stylus to flimsiplast as she thinks.

"The next time taxes go up, you could offset buildup as tax breaks for material contributions to Republic defense; I'm sure there's a market for looking patriotic, and there's undoubtedly room for anti-CIS backlash.  The Senator that replaced Teem, something Aak, is certainly rabidly patriotic - which concerns me, but can probably be tempered for the good.

"You could frame new strictures about system defense, especially in the wake of Naboo, that happen to be militarily beneficial, and later co-opt or exploit the structure those regulations accrete.  I'm not as sure of this one.

"You could probably convince the Senators that the rest of the galaxy should be doing more to support their defenses, specifically, and rely on their own selfish interests to strip out any attempts at individual evasion.

"And you could possibly have the Republic itself look into manufacturing a whole toolchain to build its own stuff, in general, which would start slowly but end up being lastingly effective in both military matters and in disaster relief efforts."

"Sounds reasonable! I don't know the exact details of the droids' quality, but that seems like a generally good strategy to pursue. And yes, describing things in terms of the rest of the galaxy should be supporting us and then eliminating hypocrisy... that's actually a really good way to handle this."

He is briefly distressed that Kina's mysterious ability to master everything is already letting her come up with political ideas that he hasn't, before he reminds himself that people being better than him is a good thing from the perspective of getting his job done. Besides, Kina isn't better than him at politics. She had this one good idea that was pretty much what he was already going to do, just framed a little better. She won't be better than him at politics until she's practiced for at least another week.

"I guess I'll call Master Windu right now, then, and if Dooku will be reasonable for once, we hopefully won't even need to raise an army. Oh, and he probably knows about all of this mess with Kamino - or even arranged it - but if you can, try not to mention any details directly unless you can tell that he knows, just in case."

"You don't?  We have plenty spare intact models of at least the line units plus quite a few scrapped droideka from Naboo, and while I bet they've stopped relying on central servers by now, they're probably using the same molds, at least.  It protects their transport investments.

"I certainly didn't plan to tell Dooku about this, no, not unless he brings it up first.

"May the Force be with you, Vice-Chancellor.  Thank you for taking my call."

...Kina's hardly mastered politics, from her perspective; if you asked her to actually make that strategy happen she'd probably fall flat when it came out to the point of talking to thousands of individual Senators and crafting all the compromises to implement things, every single day.  It's just that what she did do is mostly just abstract psychology.  She's good at abstract psychology; she had to learn it the hard way.  Politics, however, includes public speaking.

...Okay maybe she's not bad at that, either, if she's pressed, but still, she'd very rapidly lose track of everything that's happening, or lose all of her remaining patience for niceties-while-horrors-lurk, if she worked in the Senate; Bail Antilles does work she absolutely could not do herself.

After a while, Windu will grudgingly give Kina permission to talk to Dooku, mostly because he doesn't think the permission is actually going to be necessary. But he will be watching. That won't be enough to stop something from going wrong, but it should help.

And here's Dooku! "Kina Skywalker! I assume there is a galactic emergency of some sort? And that you have a way to blame it on the dark side of the Force?"

"Unfortunately, no, the looming galactic crisis is much more pedestrian than a Sith loose in the Senate, this time; the massive military buildup the Confederacy appears to be doing, and its knock-on effects as everyone sees it and freaks out about what the kriff it could possibly be meant for, have quite a few people worried.  Are you organizing the buildup for...any particular reason?"

"Well, most of it is really just overflow from Palpatine. His plan was... well, I'm not going to tell you all of his plan, either because there's part that I need to keep secret or to maintain plausible deniability for other secrets that I legitimately do need to keep. But part of it was using the Confederacy as a straw villain to scare the Republic into uniting behind him and giving him substantially more power. What he did to the queen of Naboo, but on a galactic scale. So he needed to boost up the army."

"I am slowing down rates of military production, but yes, I admit we still are continuing for the most part, because... hmm. Secrets, secrets, secrets."

"Hmm. I really can't tell you any of the details of my plans. There might be some less revealing way to handle this... oh, I can at least tell you that if you did know all of my plans, I predict you would be less concerned about being attacked. Although I suppose if you have enough secrets that I'm off on what you're predicting, that might not be relevant."

"Do you have any ideas for vague, general ways to discuss this? I do want to negotiate cooperation when possible, but there are issues given that we can't be legible to each other."

"Well, if you can tell me a certain secret that I know about Palpatine's military buildup plans, I'd be able to discuss certain things about the Republic more frankly with you.  It does make sense that this is ultimately Palpatine's fault; you've inherited his catspaws."

"Oh, a certain secret you know. Hmm. I can allude to a few of them, in ways that wouldn't make sense unless you knew them. Let's see. The first big one... I don't even know how to allude to that one, it's more of a large conceptual thing. The second big one, that I can allude to. Let's see. You know Yarael Poof? He doesn't know it, but he secretly has a twin brother."

"...to be clear, he doesn't actually, it's a metaphor and Yarael Poof isn't involved."

"Mhm, that one.  We have found the secret clone army, and the slave chips, and would like to not have to seriously consider actually continuing cloning people that are being made to die.  ...Let alone whatever he was planning to do with the slave chips.  I'm guessing it was 'arrange to have Jedi killed somehow'."

"That's the sort of thing I should keep secret."

"But... hmm. I would say... and I am aware that saying this is probably going to give me more villain points, but I don't actually see what makes you consider sending clones into battle so wrong? I mean, reasons that war in general is bad would apply, but what makes it any worse than standard soldiers?"

"Because the outcome is meaningfully somewhat under your control, rather than a choice made by the soldiers.  And certainly the level of control you're exerting in such a hypothetical situation could be no more than any parent's, but who wants to -"

A realization hits her; her face blanches.

"Oh, Force, they're just, will still be only children.  And I might not have even noticed, and I'm already travesty enough!  They would still be children, not even children remotely akin to me - and were I given a button to press that would bring a thousand of me into existence I would not press it, because while I'm sometimes a wonder, I'm equally a travesty of a girl who's twice the age she should be because of the strain of being me - and the Republic would have almost no choice but to ask of those children their lives!

"Please don't make the Republic raise children for war, Lord Dooku.  You do not need to stain your hands with their blood, just because of Palpatine's plans.  The Republic doesn't want to fight you.  Has no substantial enmity with the CIS.  Probably a bit of a grudge against the Trade Federation, after Naboo, and the attack on the Senate, but a lot of the blame can be pinned on their now ex-leaders, and Palpatine.  ...Say, how would you like some joint anti-slavery operations, in the spirit of galactic cooperation against the worst of its evils?  The Hutts aren't yours, nor are they Republic, either.  Spin it as good PR for the corporations, divert some of that buildup from being outright military threats, and of course the citizenry of both the Republic and Confederacy will eat it right up...Obviously I'm not capable of making that happen by myself, but the Chancellery actually does care about walking the walk, these days.  I think they might buy in on it.  And a spirit of friendly international competition, in the name of cooperation, never hurt anyone, hm?"

"It is, in fact, a choice that the clones would be making. I don't think it's really valid to prioritize the wants of the imaginary person they would have been without the chips, and say that we should respect those decisions? They're made with a desire to follow orders. The chips are a meaningful part of who they are. Why would you think it any worse to let a person make a decision just because they were designed to make that decision?"

"I don't understand how... well, that's not quite the right phrase, I think I do comprehend your thought processes. I think you have some sort of aversion to the concept of creating a person as a tool, and I think you're uncomfortable because it feels to you like overriding an existing person. But I would say that in the end, someone is going to have to risk their life, and it's strictly better for that person to be one who's specially crafted to have as much attachment to their cause as possible. Ignoring a possibility that will in the end save more lives, just because you can't stand to violate freedoms that really didn't exist in the first place... well, that seems like less about what actually makes things better, and more about matching patterns to some deontological code that doesn't actually represent what happens to people."

But by now Dooku is beginning to realize that this is counterproductive - of all the deep metaethical differences they could be arguing about, he really shouldn't be focusing on this. Not only is he unlikely to change her mind on this, but changing her mind wouldn't be a good thing now - it would only make her open to the possibility of making the Republic stronger, which he doesn't want to encourage!

He just couldn't wait and think strategically, when he finally has the chance to have an actually sane debate with someone who isn't significantly less intelligent than him. Sitting back and pretending not to notice that an argument is built on false premises doesn't come naturally to him, especially when it's an argument that is so fulfilling... but this isn't an argument that he should be having.

For all Dooku's practice in refusing to let his emotional desires take precedence over strategic benefit, this one didn't even occur to him until he had already blurted out a decent portion of what he had to say. Maybe because this situation just isn't one he's found himself in often enough to get practice in it.

So he'll change the topic, and actually, the second thing Kina said is something where he actually has something to gain from this conversation. "On the topic of cooperation, yes, I would be quite in favor of us working together against the Hutts, and other similar groups. There are some issues standing in the way... I don't think the policy would go over well with any of our populations, their animosity towards the other side might have precedence over their desire to end slavery. Also, I am somewhat hesitant to eliminate the only other opposition to the Republic, because it wouldn't really be strategically beneficial, but honestly, they're so much worse than even the Republic that I do agree that it's worth it."

"But yes. Regardless of any of that, there are a great many people who are in trouble, and whatever our disagreements, this is so far from optimal for the goals we do share, that I assume there is clearly some way to save them that will be an improvement for both of us."

"The chips are actually a massive strategic flaw, in my opinion.  Those definitely must go.  But honestly, you're not wrong about the situation, per se.  It's just that pushing through anyway, without greatly considered thought, betrays the counterfactual worlds in which those clones can choose to do and be anything other than soldiers.  So I prefer universes where they have ways to flourish outside of the battlefield, and the best way to avoid those universes is not having them need battle-training at all.  ...I was born a slave.  I won't suffer that for others.  Especially not ones that are born to die."  She takes a slow, calming breath.  "Sometimes, you have to hold a line, even though it costs more in the moment, because of the way that compromising yourself now means that you're more likely to make worse, less needful compromises in the future.

"I think that's probably part of how the - maybe not the Dark Side of the Force as in techniques, but - the force that makes people like Sheev Palpatine exist in the first place, 'gets' people, if you can say it has volition.  You're tired, and hurting, and desperate, and it looks easy to just compromise your lines, and the bright, shining future gets a little bit darker; time after time after time it comes to you, like a gang member drawing you into their protection racket, and you Fall.  Or you find that the pressure you're under is too much, and you turn to the addictive siren song of power like a drug, and your desperate clambering to keep chasing the high drags you to the depths.  Or, perhaps, the pressure on you is simply too much, and you just give into the alluring concept of no longer caring about yourself, others...But now's not the time to talk about Force philosophy, as much as I'm enjoying the opportunity regardless."  She treats him to a soft smile, then brushes the thoughts away.

"I think that we, the Republic and the Confederacy, actually have a stellar opportunity to blame most everything wrong on Sheev Palpatine and his ongoing conspiracy to kriff over both the Republic and the CIS - because if he wasn't setting you up as his patsy, setying you up to fail, I'd be shocked.  He's uncontroversially and incontrovertibly evil.  And I agree that the Republic and the CIS aren't going to be allies very soon - but with good messaging, we can spin the New Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems being amicable rivals.  Competing in being the systems people want to govern them.  Especially set up against the Hutts.  The Hutts kriffing suck, and I'd know; I lived on Tatooine for a decade."

Dooku nods. "Then I suppose I will speak with the Chancellor, and we can hopefully spin this that way. This truly is quite a good opportunity to change the galaxy for the better."

"But... the Republic doesn't have much of an army yet. I am concerned that if we began an opposition towards the Hutts, and we weren't able to scare them into a surrender immediately, then the majority of the cost of war would fall upon the Confederacy. What does the Republic have to offer in this scenario?"

"That, I can't yet answer, especially as I'm hardly in the know about the Republic's military - you'd want to ask someone who does know about its readiness - but I was not expecting this to be immediate.  Just soon, within the next few years, to give everyone involved time to prepare for such things as resettlement operations, unless there's some sort of surgical strike within everyone's current capacities that'll work.  And I can say that the Republic is working on actually having a military worth mentioning relative to its present size, within, well, the next few years.  With or without the clones.  Plus there are some forces that can be committed by individual Republic planets even in the absence of coordinated Republic response...and honestly, that may well be what you could stand to gain: planets.  You have a lot of industrial powerhouses, but you don't have as many sources of materials, nor do you have markets that compare to your production capacity.  I doubt the corporations have realized this, yet, but with, what, ten percent of the galaxy under your banner, you'll run out of people to buy things, soon enough, at the sheer scale you're producing.  You'll need the Republic's markets.  And you can't have those without some normalization of relations between the Republic and the CIS."

...She looks over at Mace Windu.  "And while I hardly speak for them any more than I speak for the Republic, I imagine that the Jedi Order would be quite willing to support ending the institution of slavery throughout the known galaxy."

"They certainly haven't done it of their own accord," Dooku says bitterly, "but yes, I assume they can be persuaded to help."

"Are there any other pressing issues to discuss?"

"Well, they were being pressured to not meddle by previous administrations, and very certainly won't be this time, especially given that one of the first things the new administration did was make the Hutts officially agree to slavery being illegal even if they weren't compelled to enforce that personally; I'd vouch for the good intentions of at least Vice-Chancellor Antilles myself, and though I haven't actually yet met the present Chancellor, Antilles did back him.  I can't think of anything that needs to go through myself in particular unless Palpatine hid a bomb in the Senate or something, since I'm not actually a professional diplomat, so, is there anything you think needs to be discussed?"

"Nothing beyond deep ideological debates that are unlikely to get resolved any time soon!" Dooku replies. "I don't know of any bombs in the Senate, but it seems like the sort of thing you should at least check."

"Then, goodbye, Kina! And thank you for being... I don't even know. Just sensible. Actually trying to fix things."

Even if he isn't being completely forthcoming about all of his intentions, his gratitude is entirely honest.

"It's what the Force asks of me, and my own morals; I just try my best.  I hope you find success in your world-bettering endeavors as well, and it has been a pleasure talking with you.  Goodbye for now, then."

After a day or two, Dooku and other Confederacy leaders have met with Chancellor Ilbis, who secured the votes of just barely a majority of the Senate in support of a rewritten treaty between the Republic and the Confederacy. Both sides have agreed that the other side isn't quite as bad as slavery, and a deal has been reached in which both of them will support a neutral galactic police force, which will be assigned to planets such as Tatooine regardless of what the Hutts think of it. There's a lot of resentment about combining portions of both militaries into one effort, but everyone hates the Hutts, so it hasn't been too hard to spin.

Both leaders have given similar speeches, in which this is described as a temporary measure to eliminate the remnants of the old era of corruption. In the future, both governments will offer different styles of life, and individual planets and citizens will be able to decide who they want to join. The speeches were both accompanied by undertones of and after seeing what both regimes are like, everyone will obviously support us, not them. But it seems the remaining animosity between the Republic and Confederacy will most likely play out in the form of let's prove we're better than them instead of let's kill them.

As for who benefits the most from all of this... well, that's not quite clear. On the one hand, Dooku was correct when he assumed that the Confederacy would have to pay for most of the police force; their army is already organized, and with the cloning program shutting down, the Republic doesn't have much to offer in the short term beyond a small number of Jedi and a few individual militias. But on the other hand, the charity work is bringing a much better reputation to the Confederacy. The initial Confederacy membership has already risen from 11% to 18%, and is still growing, as quite a few systems start to think the Confederacy might actually give them better opportunities than the Republic.

And the slavery thing. Dooku is fine with taking a bit of a political risk if he can end slavery. This is worth it.

Palpatine said the Confederacy would help the Hutts! Why are they not helping?

Normally he can solve all of his problems by feeding them to large monsters, but he doesn't have enough monsters.

All proceeds according to keikaku.

(And Palpatine's dead, Jabba, haven't you been watching the news?)

...Her work here is done, for the moment.  Now...she should be studying!

Unless there's some other thing the Force wants her eyes on ASAP, she supposes, but that's unlikely!

Not any more than usual!

She can keep studying.

And in a few months, she'll be ready to join in the raid on Jabba's palace!

Wait, the raid? What raid?!