Anabeth: New Beginnings

Chapter 6 - New Arrivals And A New Friend

The next morning started off quiet early for everyone, especially the Jedi. Before the sun was even up they had to make a final security check and go over everyone's role once more. While Obi-Wan would mainly run corespondence with Mandalore, Ana gave Talin the easy job of being the liason for the Republic while she herself took the responsibility of working with the Sepratist's delegation and their head of security.

Shortly after breakfast everyone headed down to the landing platform for the first time to welcome the Republic delegation. It proved to be easy enough, especially since Ana knew most of the Senators personally. Organa had brought with him Senator Mothma of Corellia, as well as Senator Chuchi of Pandora, Senator Orn Free Taa of Ryloth and, the person that Ana was most surprised to see on the list she received yesterday, Padmè.

Ana had expected Organa to wish to have Padmè with him on this, seen as the two were some of he best of friends, however, Ana had not expected Padmè to actually leave the twins with Anakin for this. But it seemed, serving the Republic on an occasion like this was still something Pasmè was dedicated to. Ana only hoped Anakin and Ahsoka wouldn't be struggling too much with the babies back on Coruscant.

A further security escort of the Republic included the maximum of seven guards and one chief of security, which to Ana's delight, was no other than Wedge Antiles. She had gotten to know the man a bit when Organa was still a Senator and she had been working with him. She knew he was one to do his job well and not cause trouble in the process. She quickly introduced Talin to him before moving to greet Padmè and Bail.

As they reached the palace, Satine, Ursa, Bo and Talin went to give the new guests a tour of the place and show them to their rooms while Obi-Wan and Ana took a quick break to play with Grace. Bo had been kind enough to provide Obi-Wan and Satine with a babysitter of course, but still the two of them would squeeze in time to spend with their daughter at every opportunity they got.

When the rest of the group finally returned and the Republic delegation was safely in the care of the rest of the palace staff, everyone headed back down to the landing platform once more to welcome the Sepratists.

They had of course brought their new leader of parliament, Ran Corren, the Senator of Raxus. Furthermore, there was the Umbaran Senator Mee Deechi, Senator Syala Vamma from Donovia, Senator Shu Mai from Castell and Senator Mousul from Ansion. Ana couldn't help but note how some of these Senators were probably former colleauges of the Republic delegation as their planets had once been part of the Republic.

As for security, they had also stuck to the seven guard rule and, much to Ana's joy actually didn't bring droids, but rather a wide variety of soldiers from their more rare units consisting of flesh and blood.

After quickly introducing herself to the Senators with the other two Jedi, Ana went over to make acquaintances with the Seperatist's head of security who had so far been keeping an eye on their surroundings just to be careful. Already Ana couldn't help but respect him for obviously taking his job very seriously.

"You can relax you know, if there was someone out to kill the Senators, we would have already sensed it" Ana told him as she approached him, giving him a friendly smile. The man turned to face her, slightly taken aback by her statement.

"Anabeth Velar, it's an honour to make your aquaintance" she introducedd herself wth a respectful bow. "Commander Daruss Orum, the honour is mine Master Jedi" the man said a little shyly, shaking Ana's hand. Ana couldn't help but smile at his behaviour. The Sepratist's list of names had included little information on the head of the guard, but just from his introduction Ana could guess that he had had no prior experience dealing with Republic representatives or even Jedi.

What added to this impression of him was the fact that he still seemed to be pretty young. He looked slightly older than her, but not by too much, four years at most. "The other man in the cloak over there is Master kenobi, but I suspect you alreay know him from the holonet. And the other one is Talin. If you have any questions, we're all available at any time, however, to simplyfy organization I'll be running most of the correspondence between you and the Mandalorian security" Ana explained.