Anabeth: New Beginnings

Chapter 7 - The Intruder

After a lengthy welcome dinner the same evening, the peace negotiations began the next morning. As far as Ana could tell, there had been only minor disagreements over the next few days and things were going smoothly. Everyone seemed invested in the meetings and, much to Ana's delight, the Senators even got along outside of them as they tried to either get to know each other or reconnect after spending time on opposing sides.

During her own free time, Ana either spent time with Satine, Obi-Wan and Grace, or hung out with Talin and Korkie whom she had introduced to each other. Whenever she could she would get a word in with Padmè or Bail, however, it proved to be quiet hard under the irmunstances.

A few days into the negotiations, Aayla finally arrived as well. Ana had had another conversation with Windu that same day, convincing him to keep Talin on Manalore as well against initial plans, seen as she had realized that, incase an incident were to occur, they would probably be understaffed a bit with just three of them. As a precaution, Windu allowed this change of plan.

More good news came from Coruscant barely a few days later when the Council had reached a descision on the topic of Anakin and Obi-Wan, by voting through Windu's motion to get rid of the no attachment rule. While initially Ana perceived mixed reactions in strategy calls with Coruscant, it felt like eventually, most of the Jedi accepted the descision as they realized that initially nothing major really changed for them.

They were finally two weeks into the negotiations with things running smoothly, both on Mandalore and back home. The Senators had long laid the ground foundation defining what space belonged to the Republic and which to the Confederacy and had made great progress in agreements on the usage of hyperspace lanes and the taxation of trade. If she had to guess a time frame until they would complete the contracts and sign the peace agreement, Ana would say about another week.

Today, as always, they had taken an hour for a dinner break during which Ana had visited Grace with Obi-Wan and Satine and sent some files Windu was still waiting for to Coruscant. When she returned to the meeting hall it was already dark. Thankfully, they only had about an hour and a half left on the schedule an the fact that she was greeted by Talin who had already taken his place in the corridor outside of the room lifted her spirits a little. As she entered, she took her spot at the door, scanning he room to make sure Obi-Wan was standing by the Senators.

She quickly checked the tracker on her comlink to make sure Aayla was in position a few corridors down at the main junktion, and that Ursa was in the control room, watching the security feed. Once she was satisfied that everyone was back in place, she gave Satine the okay to continue.

Everything was going smoothly for about half an hour when Ana heard Ursa's voice on the comm. "Aayla, my guards reported an unidentified person heading in your direction. I've got him on the camera, but he's about to enter that blind spot we talked about. You know the drill".

It seemed like nothing out of the ordinary, as they had had a few cases with someone accidentally heading towards them because of getting lost, not being informed properly, or having misunderstood instructions. Aayla always politely stopped such people and explained the situation to them after which they would apologize and turn back around.

"He's entering the blind spot. He should be in your view right about...now" Ursa updated them. "I don't see anything" Aayla said, sounding a little confused. "What do you mean you don't see him?" Ursa asked worriedly. "I mean there is no one coming out of the blind spot. I'll check if he's standing around the corner" Aayla replied.

Ana held her breath as she waited for news from Aayla. "There's no one here" Aayla confirmed. "That's impossible, according to the cameras, he should be righ in that blind spot" Ursa stated. "Does anything look suspicious there Aayla?" Ana whispered into her commlink, finally worrried enough to join the conversation.