Karen Kenobi
Beginning to Learn
Karen dodged the questions that the Alliance leadership had for her. They didn't call themselves the same things that the Imperials did: rebels. They were the Alliance, and Karen did her best to call it that too.
Yes, she was raised by high-ranking officials. No, she wasn't lying when she said she no longer wanted to live that way. Yes, she wanted to help any way she could.
Perhaps she'd be allowed to work 'diplomacy' missions. They would be spying on the Empire now, instead of hiding from it or dodging their attacks. The Alliance were a stronger force than the Empire really wanted to deal with.
Especially now that their main weapon had been destroyed. That had been a crushing blow to their collective ego - and Karen knew that certain people would be more annoyed than afraid because of it.
Certain people, meaning the Emperor. He'd be angry, but never furious - he always managed to keep his head when anyone else with that much power on their hands would have exploded with it.
Karen had only brief encounters with the heroes of the rebellion's forces: Luke Skywalker breezed past her and her ship and didn't even give it a second glance. Half the ships in the Yavin Four base had been stolen or pieced together from existing Imperial craft, so her intact personal runner didn't raise as much suspition as she thought it would have.
It would become a valuable tool, in any case. Since she had reason to have been aboard the Death Star, and was known as a 'civillian' on board it, she would have been allowed to evacuate or leave whenever she desired. Of course, no one would ever be able to catalog just which ships did and did not make it out of the station before it was destroyed - there were too many in the battle, and there had been so many lost in the gravity well on Yavin that no one really cared.
It was a gigantic loss, but one which the Empire was determined to recover from.
Karen relayed this feeling to the Alliance leadership, and felt for the first time uncomfortable among socialites and high-ranking people. For all her life's work among the Senators, she was now outright mistrusted, if not immediately suspected of treason for the slightest mistake.
"It is the beginning of a new era in peace," said one of the ex-senators who represented a free Alliance world. "But it is a peace we must temper with good sense and caution."
The others seemed to agree, and Karen cleared her throat. Eyes slowly, almost grudgingly, turned to her.
"The Empire has much at its disposal. It has worlds of nothing but fuel - gas planets that are syphoned off for transport fuels. It has food producers and machinists coming from every sector. It even - still - has entertainment of all kinds flowering on every world." She gazed at the elders around her, "that is where they are weakest. I have always been able to sneak information about things, about my heritage, about the rebellion, about the whole of sociey that I wasn't able to get by being forward. Most of the time, I got it from entertainers or travellers. Those whose job it is to appear at social functions and be pleasant to look at or listen to - until they leave. They're not meant to be listening in on conversations between council members, they're meant to be juggling."
The others nodded, some voiced a grunting agreement, while others remained silent.
"While I will never presume to have the same exact take on what needs to be done among the new Council, I do know people in it, very well some of them, and I do have contacts there. If any of them can be of use, I am sure that I'd be able to bring them in."
"There are sympathizers that close to the Emperor?" Someone asked, and Karen tilted her head at him.
"Perhaps that's too strong a word... Neutrality is very important when you're not actually representing a specific interest."
"Ah," said someone else. "As one wouldn't kill the messenger for the letter they carry -"
"Exactly," Karen completed, "you don't want to shoot the entertainment if they are enjoyable enough to be brought back. And, of course," she added, "if you're the entertainment, you don't want to step on too many toes - you might wind up getting shot."
The general mood at this meeting began to lighten. If Karen was willing to change sides and sway sympathies among higher ranking planetary leadership, she was worth keeping on.
There were still a number of people who disagreed entirely that she ought to be trusted, but they were just as hard to convince that she was a Jedi waiting for a master. She didn't much comment on that, save for one incident.
Months after being accepted and showing off what good she might be able to bring to the Alliance, Karen met up quite unexpectedly with the princess, representitive from the ex-world Alderaan, Leia.
The young women regarded each other with distrust - but only for a moment.
"You were the prisoner I felt," Karen said simply, "I'm very glad you got out."
"You... seem so familiar," Leia spoke as if in a daze. She was on her way somewhere, with a number of non-human and human Alliance speakers. But she stood dead still and looked over Karen while the others watched.
"Is... something wrong?" Karen asked finally.
"Your light sabre," Leia commented. "It just looks a lot older than the ones Luke is helping make. It looks at least as old as his."
Karen glanced down at the device which was slung in its traditional possition at her hip, and touched it with her right hand. "It is at least as old. Possibly older. It was ... my father's."
Apparently, the taste in Leia's mouth went strange, or at least interesting. "I see." She said, curt. Her typical forceful conversational skills seemed to be equalled by Karen's, if only while they were both in a meeting. In person like this, both seemed somewhat uncomfortable.
They were, after all, both children of extremely powerful men. More: their mothers were all but unknown, it was known that Leia had been raised by the royal family, but not properly by her parents. At least Leia had the benefit of a true step-father - neither of the women really knew the truth at the time.
"You are ... ObiWan Kenobi's daughter, then?" Leia finally asked, and the attendants almost froze in their tracks.
Karen duly noted this, but nodded. Her eyes met the rich brown princess' and she replied, "I am. And I intend to do that name justice, if I can."
Abruptly, with the engines of Leia's transport being brought into a howling readiness beyond, the pale-skinned princess smiled and told her, "I'm sure you will do him proud," and hurried along her way.
***
Karen's meditation was interrupted by the sound of a klaxon going off. There was a ship arriving, and everyone was due to help out unloading it.
Everyone else scampered off to get into lines, droids and people alike standing there waiting to offload items or food. Karen stood up and watched this from her treetop platform. She'd managed to get onto a nicely settled planet while the rest of the Alliance were running about trying to fix everyone's problems.
She knew they couldn't possibly do it. No one could. The galaxy was filled to the brim with people - most of them were poor and many of them really didn't want the interference by either the rebellion or the Empire. Karen went down to help, but this would be her last real contact with most of these people for a while.
***
Karen had been called upon to do several diplomatic missions, and had publically announced that though she was still quite the Imperial socialite, the devistating loss of the people who had brought her up had made her wish a bit for the quiet life. This was her excuse to her Imperial groups, so she wasn't pursued actively by anyone. She would appear when and where she wanted to. Essentially a free agent to them, but primarily a planted spy for the Alliance as promised to them.
One group of entertainers made their intentions quite clear when they defected from an Imperial entertainment troupe, after she contacted their boss. Information became a bit less easy after a year or so, things in the Empire were shifting again.
The uncertainty of that once-secure social possition made Karen feel a little useless now. So she decided that in the mean time, while things cooled off, she wanted to learn more about herself and her family - the Jedi, and whatever else she could find.
Her education had been truly strong, but also very stilted toward an unending love of the Empire. None of the creche-children were ever outright told their possition or where they had come from. Most of them didn't care.
When she ran into one of them, on a short mission into a fringe world, Karen almost lost her cover and her composure.
He was a handsome young man, only one year older than she, and she remembered him from the creche. Perhaps he remembered her - by attitude or appearance if not by her distinct Force aura.
They were in a large, domed party house. The place was run by a number of interests, including several Hutts and a rogue Corellian pirate. Their monetary interests obviously didn't much include being taxed by the Empire - nor did they extend to fronting for the Alliance.
Tamblar had gotten himself a good job as a bodyguard for one of the Moffs, perhaps the one for this sector. What they were doing here, was probably none of Karen's business. But clearly, they wondered why she was here at all.
She was after all a bit flakey in terms of where she could be found at any given time, and had that problem of vanishing when things got serious. Or, showing up just before they got out of control.
Tamblar had long before drawn a connection, but his Moff hadn't. Karen tried to maintain a sort of weepy-eyed disposition - and honestly it wasn't hard. When she saw the Moff's sharply cut grey-green uniform it made her think of Tarkin and she got a bit choked up.
"I have to wonder," Tamblar said, "how it is that you're wandering around an illicit house like this?"
Someone else bellowed an offensive remark about that, but everyone ignored him.
Karen looked around at the curved walls, the domed ceiling done in black with blue underlighting. The whole place was filled with people - mostly gangsters or smugglers, drug dealers and whores... A smattering of Imperials whose interests in those things made it their job to be here, and another smattering of Imperials whose job it was to have a good time before being sent back to fight the Alliance.
"I'm actually looking for someone," she said. She felt him reaching out with his Force, just a bit - he was totally untrained but still quite strong. Whose child was he, then? Didn't matter. She shrugged off the bit of manipulative energy as though she were brushing away a fly on a summers day.
The Moff waved them both off, wanting to do his business with the nearby Hutt in private. He felt secure enough that without his bodyguard he would fit right in with these lowlifes.
Tamblar wasn't so sure, but he did have more than enough curiosity to lead Karen away onto a balcony overlooking the crowded dance floor. When they got there, he casually leaned a bit onto the railing, but he maintained a tight grip on her elbow. He wasn't letting her go any time soon.
"So, why are you really here," he asked, low and serious.
"I'm really here to meet someone."
"And who might that be?" He demanded with a narrow eye.
"Perhaps you, perhaps her," she nodded toward a dark-green Twi'lek, "maybe someone who hasn't gotten here yet. Why is it you're so concerned suddenly about my welfare? I can take care of myself you know."
She eased her elbow from his grip, and stood straighter, watching the dancing. Karen licked her lips, and then blinked a look at Tamblar.
"He's going to get his butt fried," Karen said.
"The Moff? I know."
That made her worry. "Do you?"
"Of course I do. Everyone in this room knows it."
"So you're worried about me getting in the way?" Karen asked sweetly.
"No. I'm worried about the stories you'll be telling your disreputable friends in the rebellion. I'm not part of your little scheme. Look around you, this place makes more money in a night than most people ever see in a lifetime. Any one of the people here could easily land a deal with either party. But they don't. You know why?"
Karen was intrigued, and asked, "no, I don't. Why?"
Hissing, Tamblar told her, "because it's both sides that will lose in the long run," and he spun on his heel to walk back down to the Moff.
Karen watched him, confused, but then saw something else in the corner of her eye. Up on the wall, halfway across the room and on the Moff's side, there was a dark-suited person placing something on the surface of the wall. With the dancing lights and the loud music, the smoke and all, it was quite difficult to see what it was.
She looked around a little more, and discovered two others doing the same thing at intervals around the ceiling.
Karen stood in wonder and a bit of a sick feeling crossed her gut. Tamblar was watching them too - subtley, but he was looking here, there, up and down. There were others among the crowd. Half the people here knew that the Moff was going to be assassinated.
Perhaps except the Hutt he was talking business with...
So when Tamblar gave a little wave of his long fingers behind his back, and the hidden people began to make their moves, there was a clean line of attack that three beam weapons took to kill the Moff. The explosives on the walls all went off simultaneously, and Karen ducked. She helped get a couple people out, and ran back inside.
It was chaos. The Hutt and the Moff were blasted to death, that much was obvious. But what was also obvious was that Tamblar and one of the Pirates were directing people at the tops of their lungs to get out or go this way or that.
They were being the 'heroes' of this event.
It made a lot of sense, of course, to a logical mind. But to Karen it was disgusting. There was no loyalty anywhere in Tamblar. He'd have made a lousy Jedi.
But then, she thought as she entered the building again, so did she.
The blue-white blade of the lightsabre lit up a small path in the smoky room, and people had the good sense to dodge it as they ran past. The tables all had their little lights or candles on them, but some had been tipped over in the firefight, and a couple actually lay in flames.
"Is everyone out?" Tamblar yelled, and even though he heard the proper response from his cohorts, what he also heard was Karen's voice.
"All but you and me," she said. "And it's a shame that the cross fire hit you on the way out... Or was it while you were throwing yourself over the Moff to protect him? Either way. You died a hero."
With his eyes wide, Tamblar began to raise his laser pistol, but didn't even get it halfway up. A spinning blue blur raced behind him, arcing down, slicing through his spine and barely making a singe mark on his nice suit.
It looked just like a blaster wound.
Karen left the building and the planet, in silence.
