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The Third Sith War: Heart of the Galaxy (Fin)


ForceFusion

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This is the third installment in a sequence I'm calling the Third Sith War. The first was called The Stella Pascal Episode and the second was Hulls and Heroes. I hope to produce many more of these, if y'all keep reading and enjoying.

 

Heart of the Galaxy

 

I had observed him my entire existence. Indeed, he was the purpose of my existence. I had studied his voice, his mannerisms, his policies, his preference in clothing, and anything else my handler saw fit. So intense was my study that I believe I eventually began to think like him. Even my inner-dialogue was infected with his sense of humor. I was a Human replica droid, designed to be the double for Vice Chancellor Liam Erhoff, an exact copy from his wispy blond but graying hair to his shining green eyes to his perfectly white smile. Comedians often joked that the most popular political figure in the galaxy was too perfect to be true, that perhaps he himself was a replica droid. The truth, I suppose, was not so far off.

 

There were two of us, Liam Erhoff Copy 1, called LEC-1, and myself, LEC-2. Our function was simple at first: make speeches and other public appearances when his security team felt it was too dangerous for the real man. Our appearances came much more often after the war started. We rotated, LEC-1 and myself, the other always slightly disguised and watching from nearby in case the unimaginable disaster occurred.

 

Vice Chancellor Erhoff was scheduled to give the eulogy at the memorial service for the fallen members of the recently defeated First Fleet. As LEC-1 neared the end of the speech, his platform erupted into flame.

 

"Sithspit!" cried Colton Hans, our trainer and main programmer. He continued to swear and to otherwise expel his emotion while the crowd who had been watching the speech and the officials behinds the scenes scurried around in similar panic. I, however, was processing the next potential steps, if I was indeed called upon.

 

It was likely that I would need to appear later in the day to assure the public that Vice Chancellor Erhoff had escaped. Unless the decision makers preferred to tell a version closer to the truth: that a body double had been killed. The full truth, of course, would never come out. Though it was common practice for the rich and powerful inhabitants of the galaxy to have replica droids as body doubles, it was considered faux pas. Apparently, the public did not trust the genuineness of droids.

 

If a body double -- droid or otherwise -- was admitted to, there was little prep work that would need to be done. However, if a pure escape was to be the story, perhaps I could begin to craft the tale. While I never deluded myself into thinking that I could create a story as well as or better than a rationally-thinking and creatively-disposed flesh-and-blood, the panic ensuing around me indicated that none of the creatively-disposed flesh-and-bloods would be thinking rationally. It was part of my programming to be as efficient as possible in my work, and therefore I should at least be preparing for the eventuality that I would be relied upon in this manner.

 

While I scanned my memory banks, analyzing the moments before the speech, the dimensions of the platform, the possible positioning of the explosive device, and other elements of the environment for my tale-weaving, Skod Telhouse, Chief of Staff to Vice Chancellor Erhoff, approached Colton and I. He was looking rather pale, but at the moment I dismissed this as another sign of human panic.

 

"The vice chair is dead," he proclaimed in disbelief. I ignored the comment. Living beings can be so irrational at times.

 

"I know!" cried Colton in response. "LEC-1 is dead! That's millions of credits of and hours of work, not to mention all the damage control we'll have to do--"

 

"No!" At this point, Telhouse had my attention. "Liam Erhoff is dead." The man's voice was still full of disbelief.

 

"LEC-1 was standing in--" Telhouse grabbed Colton and whisked him down a set of stairs, signalling for me to follow. Eventually we ended up in a black, covered speeder which dashed away from the scene.

 

We sat for a silent moment while the two humans composed themselves. It seemed as though Colton was beginning comprehend the situation. Though the man was a brilliant programmer and spectacular teacher -- one of the few beings that I might consider a friend, if I was so disposed to make those classifications -- he was not always the quickest of fellows.

 

"Liam Erhoff, Vice Chancellor of the Galactic Government and Speaker for the Galactic Senate, is dead," Telhouse explained slowly. "He was poisoned in his Senate office. It was a completely unrecognized poison and the medical attache to his security team had no antidote. He was declared dead fifteen minutes after the explosion at Monument Plaza."

 

"The Sith?" Colton suggested. I thought that was a forgone conclusion.

 

"We assume."

 

"Sithspit."

 

"Obviously, this means we'll need much more intensive training for LEC-2, and possibly another replica droid. But first things first. Have you worked out a story as to how the Speaker escaped the explosion?"

 

"Excuse me?" At this point, even I was surprised at what was being suggested.

 

"We'll need a story for his escape."

 

"Are you mad?" Telhouse attempted to speak, but Colton cut him off. "This is a droid, not a human! Not a politician! Not a decision-maker! He's a glorified body-double!"

 

"I know what he is, and now we have to use him to his fullest potential."

 

"No! This is insane!" Colton had apparently shaken off the shock of the dual assassinations, for he had gone from pale to bright red. "It is completely out of the range of possibility. It's ethically unthinkable!"

 

"Colton, think! The galaxy cannot afford the loss of another hero! Liam was the man who gave people hope for Coruscant even before the war! He's a symbol!"

 

"And he's dead, and it's horrible, but we can't replace him with a droid!"

 

"No. He is not dead. He cannot be dead. The galaxy cannot handle it. He must have survived."

 

"Skod, you are--"

 

"Colton, the heart of the galaxy is bleeding. Stella Pascal is in the loony bin in the bottom of the Jedi Temple. Bel Xandu,Terrance Gelicas, and Kev Shim'ar are dead, along with dozens of others of the most beloved military officers in the galaxy. Emerald Dawn and the hulls of the rest of the First Fleet -- The All-Star Fleet, Colton! -- are wrecked and twisted and floating somewhere off the Hydian Way! Quim Semper-Skywalker, one of the two remaining heirs to Luke Skywalker for the love of the Force, is dead! The galaxy's heroes are being killed, Colton! They've hit the military and the Jedi, and now they're going for the politicians, too. We cannot let them win. Liam Erhoff is the heart of the galaxy. We have to keep some of our heroes alive."

 

There was a moment of long silence as the two men locked eyes. "This is madness, Skod," Colton insisted in a low voice. "It's got to be against so many laws, and it's just plain wrong."

 

"We're at war, Colton," Telhouse said without missing a beat. "Right and wrong are blurred. We have to do this."

 

"You don't understand. He wouldn't just be fooling crowds, he'd be fooling co-workers, friends, family. He would have to dupe the man's wife and kids!"

 

Telhouse swallowed and took a moment before he spoke, as if he'd thought the situation out before but hadn't come up with a good enough answer. "What do you think?" he said, turning to me.

 

"Me?" I asked.

 

But Colton had exploded before the full word had left my lips. "He's a droid, Skod! It is a droid! It is not qualified to be making ethical decisions like this. That is my point!"

 

"That's not what I was asking," Telhouse said without looking away from me. "Can you do it?"

 

I processed the question for a full half second before answering, which, for a droid, is a long time. For the humans, though, my answer must have come across as frighteningly prompt. "It is my function."

 

"Good. It'll be fine, Colton. Even you referred to it as him before you corrected yourself. and you know LEC-2 better than anyone else. Now, Colton, we need your cooperation on this. You're the best RD programmer in the galaxy, and I need to be able to trust you. You would be one of the five people in the galaxy to know about this, ok? This is for the sake of everyone. This is an opportunity to show that we can survive the treachery of the Sith. That our heroes aren't all falling on the front lines. We need our hero, Colton. We need to believe."

 

"I--"

 

"Think about it. Get some sleep. This speeder will take you home. Get a few hours sleep, then I'll call you for your decision, all right? Get some rest. It's been a crazy day."

 

Without waiting for a response, Telhouse was exiting the vehicle and signaling for me to follow. "If we do this," Colton called, "Liam will never get a funeral, you know."

 

Telhouse took a moment before he turned. "Yes he will. It will just be a few years delayed."

 

We walked to the Senate Speaker's office where Telhouse began filling me on the story that his team had begun crafting, as well as some other policy details that I hadn't been made privy to previously.

 

"I'll have Colton add these documents to your programming in the morning," Telhouse said.

 

"Actually, I'd prefer to read them," I replied. "It's more human. And I won't need to sleep tonight, like he would have."

 

"Good. Great. That's brilliant. You probably shouldn't go home to his -- your -- family tonight anyway. I'll call Ellie and tell her that you'll have to work."

 

"That won't be an easy call to make," I said and smirked like Liam Erhoff might've. He had often joked about how difficult his wife could be.

 

Telhouse stared for a moment before chuckling. "Good, great. Right. You're good, you are." He walked away shaking his head.

 

The circuits which were dedicated to replicating human thinking told me that it was, indeed, a cruel call. The woman had seen her husband explode on the HoloNet and then had received a call informing her that he was all right just an hour before the official statement was released. A powerful politician in her own right, she was likely being bombarded with media questioners, and she wouldn't even have the luxury of having her husband to sleep next to.

 

They both work long and hard, I'm sure she's used to it.

 

"We work long and hard. I'm sure she's used to it."

 

I read the pile of documents admittedly much quicker than any human ever could. My haste was only because there was other research I wished to do. I pulled up every article I could find on Liam, Ellie, and their family, even tabloids. Unfortunately, I knew that no amount of reading could inform me of what the couple argued about over dinner, which partner disliked their in-laws, which son was the favorite.

 

Perhaps such a tragic incident would wipe the plate clean for a human. Perhaps she and I can start anew.

 

The morning came quickly, but I was reviewing policy documents by the time Telhouse arrived. It did not look as though he had slept much. "I'm afraid I have some bad news," he said. Telhouse's speech patterns, I'd noted, often included the first name of the person he was speaking to at the end of such phrases. He did not have a first name to address me by. This piece of information flitted through my circuits and into my memory bank before he continued speaking. "Colton got in an accident this morning on the way to work. He was killed instantly." He was not pale as he was when he told of Liam Erhoff's death.

 

"Oh," I said with genuine disappointment.

 

"I'll have a new programmer and trainer for you by the end of the week."

 

"Thank you. Skod, one more thing," I called as he walked away. "Do you think this assassination attempt with help or hurt my chances at election to Supreme Chancellor?" It was no secret that Erhoff intended to run at the end of the Chancellor's next term, and he was expected to win. But I needed to know how long I would be in this position, what new things I might need to study.

 

Telhouse gaped for a moment. He apparently hadn't thought that far ahead. "We'll talk about it later, Mr. Speaker. We've got a busy day today."

 

Later that day I made my first public appearance as Liam Erhoff, Vice Chancellor, Speaker for the Senate, and symbol of survival and strength to the Galaxy. I was not convinced that I shouldn't have been hospitalized for a few days after such a blast, but Telhouse thought that a direct recovery was a better show for the public. I was bandaged as though having broken my arm, which I informed the press was healing very well. The miracles of bacta.

 

I finally went home, to my new home, for my final test. Delivering a speech, dealing with my staff and the press, it had all been simple, just an extension of what I had done before. Though it would have stretched any actor's threshold, I could not get fatigued as a human would. Yet convincing the woman that Liam had been intimate with was quite another challenge.

 

She must've heard the repulsor-lift which took me to the top floor of our skyrise property, for as I stepped out Ellie Erhoff burst through the front door, tears streaming out of her eyes, but a smile on her face. The smile was not only in her mouth, it was in her eyes and cheeks, and eyebrows, and forehead. In a very physical way, her entire body was smiling through the tears.

 

She slapped me hard across the cheek, a reaction which I had calculated was possible, though I'll never understand why. Humans are a mysterious people. I was, however, prepared, and winced at the simulated pain.

 

Then she kissed me, an eventuality which I was certain would happen, though I could not prepare for. When she pulled away she was no longer smiling. The tears were no longer streaming.

 

She stared at me for approximately four seconds. Then she nodded, smiled -- but only with her mouth -- and kissed me again. "You're a symbol now, my love." She buried her face in my chest and wept for seventeen minutes.

 

Then we went inside and I tucked my two young sons in for bed.

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Man, these are so good...I love this plot line. I'm totally sucked in now, so you can't stop writing them!

 

I loved how that touched on ethics as well as politics and of course, the war and tragedy that's happening in the galaxy at this point in time. I really see Liam as a Palpatine in a way--in that he was such a key figure, the heart of the Republic.

 

This is so well written that I get sucked in to the story so easily! Great stuff, Fusion. I can't wait for the next part.

amipaint2.jpg

SHE MEANS TO END US ALL!!! DOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!11eleventyone!
There goes Ami's reputation of being a peaceful, nice person.
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Yes, I agree! You've made a very intriquing series of shorts, very appealing and very facinating. It feels so very Star Wars, without being Star Wars... you handle original characters fluidly and produce wonderful pieces of fiction.

 

I can't wait to see where it's going.

spsig.jpg

Just when I thought it was over, I watched Tiana kick Almira in the head, effectively putting her out of her misery. I did not expect that.
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  • 2 weeks later...

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