Star Wars : Tanya

Apparently Father was once a… Jed-ee? "Jed… Eye. Jedi." Tan'ya continued reading. "Originally an independent order of warrior monks whose primary belief was in the Living Force, the Jedi now serve as an official institution of the Republic in a variety of areas, but are mainly focussed on settling diplomatic disputes and law enforcement.

…If the Jedi are supposed to be law enforcement for the entire Galactic Republic, where were they during the Serennoan Civil War?

Well it turned out the Jedi only involved themselves in a conflict if invited to by the Senate, or an official representative of the world or system where the conflict was taking place. Father had defied the Jedi Order by returning home to put an end to the conflict, then quit the Order shortly afterwards.

Tan'ya was begrudgingly impressed by the evidence of her father's convictions. It spoke to a high degree of inner strength to go against the will of such a powerful institution, and a lot of talent that he was successful in doing so. That said, she didn't approve of renegade action unless there was no way to avoid it. In this situation though, it seemed her father had done the right thing.

As the new head of state for Serenno, Father had done a lot that made him popular with the people. He reformed the bureaucracy of Serenno, doing away with the often corrupt appointees of Uncle Ramil and replacing them with competent and reliable men.

He reformed the law enforcement system, so locally appointed deputies were required to receive proper training at an academy that Father paid for, staffed by Coruscant Security Force officers he trusted from his days on Coruscant. Ah, meritocracy. It was good to see Father understood and appreciated its importance, despite his aristocratic lineage.

Most importantly, Father had invested heavily in local defenses to make sure there were no more pirate raids. Serenno now had a small fleet of its own, rented from the Trade Federation, crewed by battle droids.

Oh, they had battle droids? Interesting. Back on Earth, Tan'ya had always listened to speculations that drones would one day replace even infantry as the bedrock of modern warfare with mixed interest and skepticism.

On the one hand it sounded nice to spare men and women the horror and misery of warfare, and much faster to manufacture machines on an assembly line than to train new soldiers, but on the other it gave absolute power to whoever controlled the machines. The other factor to consider was that in many ways machines were a lot less rugged than people were, being incapable of self repair.

Either way, this droid army was something that Tan'ya was interested to see for herself. As the heir to Serenno it was only right that she should inspect her future holdings, wasn't it? It was important that they were able to defend themselves.

...

Captain Suib Sugreth quietly fumed. Behind his mask of professionalism he had to fight to keep the scowl off his face. The Nemoidian had worked hard, schmoozing his way up the chain of command to become captain of his own Munificent Class Frigate, the Hearty Margin.

He'd complemented ugly wives, enthusiastically agreed to ideas he knew were terrible, screwed good men beneath him out of promotions, and faked sexual climax at one point just to get to where he was. He knew how it worked in the Fed. What you knew was hardly as important as who you knew.

Then Count Dooku, the client his small fleet was being rented out to for protection against pirate raids, had wanted to inspect his ship at its mooring. Well, fair enough. Suib had arranged a date with the protocol droid that was liaising on behalf of the Count. He'd had the ship scrubbed from top to bottom, had the command crew dressed in their parade uniforms and arranged to have them all ready to receive the Count.

The Count's expensive droid driven speeder had arrived and out of it emerged a protocol droid, and a literal child! Not the client himself, but his bratty toddler. Where was the Count? Was Suib seriously expected to entertain a child for the next few hours?! This was a warship, not a toy!

The little rodent was dressed in a tiny set of formal robes that Suib was sure her parents thought were just the absolute cutest, but taught him a new meaning of hatred and humiliation. Suib led Daddy's Little Princess on a tour of the ship at its moorings, while she looked about the place with a haughty little scowl, occasionally tugging on her protocol droid's sleeve to murmur a question that the machine would then repeat in Neimoidian.

In the end he ended up showing her basically everything except Crew Quarters. The engine crew had all but came to a complete stop when they saw their captain walk on deck escorting a human toddler around. Suib's glands had all but burned with humiliation, even knowing that most of them were just droids.

Speaking of which, Daddy's Little Princess had even had the nerve to ask for the B1's to give her a demonstration! It took almost an hour to set up a small combat arena in one of the open hangers, using empty crates for cover and with all rounds set to stun.

Two teams of B1's had entered the arena from opposite sides and thrown stunning rounds at each other until just a pair were standing. Some part of him expected Daddy's Little Princess to show any level of appreciation for how out of his way he was going to impress her, but instead she watched the whole thing with an unimpressed little scowl.

Well, he was sorry to have bored her! Was Suib the one wasting her precious time? He'd be sure to stock up on jawa juice and animated holovids for his next damned VIP!

Suib couldn't be happier to see the back of Daddy's Little Princess. The little rodent didn't even say thank you on her way out, just told her bloody protocol droid to do it for her.

He was a captain, a hard working one. He wouldn't stand for this. It was time for him to talk to his supervisor.

...

"Wife, have you seen my datapad?" Dooku asked, searching his bedside drawer.

"I saw you with it on the ship." Athemeene called back from the bathroom.

No, that was his work datapad, they were completely different models. He left his private datapad at home because he didn't want to lose it. Dooku could have sworn he'd left it in his bedside drawer but now it wasn't there. He scowled with irritation.

"Master." M8-ID knocked on the door.

"What is it?"

"There's a call for you from the Trade Federation."

"Is it important?" Dooku slammed his drawer shut, not even waiting for the answer. He waved a hand to dismiss M8. "Tell them I'll be there shortly."

"Yes, Master." The protocol droid left.

The Count of Serenno walked over to his closet, and began to undo the silken belt of his exquisite black pajamas. He quickly changed into his formal outfit, before swinging his cape over his shoulders and fixing it in place with his chain of office.

"Oh, are you going out?" Athemeene asked and she waddled back in from the bathroom. At eight months pregnant, she was almost due. She lowered herself onto their bed and looked to her husband. "Isn't it the weekend?"

"It is." Dooku replied, as he sat on the edge of the bed to pull his boots on one at a time. He was annoyed but not at her. "The Trade Federation has called, and I will not talk to them in my loungewear."

Athemeene watched him for a moment. "We should have servants, human servants. As a Count it's beneath your dignity to dress yourself." She patted her swollen stomach and grimaced. "The force knows there are days when I could use the help."

"I don't want strangers in our bedroom." Dooku replied, tapping his feet on the ground to adjust his boots before standing up. "We can buy a droid."

His wife didn't seem very happy with that compromise. "I miss the servants from home. Having other people around will really bring the palace to life." She paused then added. "And I think it might be good for Tan'ya."

Dooku turned his head. "How so?"

"Other than us, she has no one her own age to talk to. The only company she has are droids, who all simply obey her without question. If she's going to command people one day, she's going to need to learn how to show respect to people above her station and below it."

"What of Kenth?" Dooku had the suspicion that this was going to be one of those issues his wife would keep pushing, but he couldn't bring himself to give in without exhausting other options first. "She can play with her brother, surely."

"He's a boy, dear and two years younger." Athemeene pointed out. "She needs playmates her own age."

"She has cousins. Your side of the family."

"We could constantly fly her to and from Raxus, I thought the easier option would just be to bring in some servants with their own children here on Serenno."

Dooku breathed out a long, frustrated sigh.

"You're upset." Athemeene reached over to take his hand, before shifting across the bed to lean against him. Unlike in the past he didn't flinch away from her touch. It took Dooku a moment to relax, but the tension left his shoulders and he placed his free hand on top of hers. "It's not the datapad, and it's not about the servants. The Council again?"

"What else could it be?" Dooku growled.

...

if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :

p atreon.com/Rimanovi