Loyalty/Part 10

When a normal being heard of CorSec, Maik Todden thought, he imagined the Smuggling Interdiction Division and its efforts every day of the week throughout the Five Brothers. If not that, then he was dazzled with visions of the elite Special Operations Division, and its even more selective Tactical Response Team—all the glamor of Republic Special Forces, but wearing Corellian green instead of Republic red. Maybe, if the being's most dangerous weapon was his mind, he might know about CorSec Intelligence and its role in filtering Sith, Black Sun, pirates, and every other kind of scum out of the Corellian sector.

Or, if the lure of shaving time off his delivery schedule coaxed him into deviating from the traffic control lanes coming down the well, he probably knew CorSec best for its Traffic Enforcement Division.

Most people—most Corellians, even—never associated CorSec with the Protective Service. For the minority who had heard of it in the first place, they probably thought of the prestige posting around Diktat Neran Daikros, or of the regular HoloNet pieces on Senator Jendaya Rose's persistent, maddening refusal to accept CSPS guards on Corellia. Only a handful thought of the Protective Service in the context of the Corellian royal family, and even Maik could hardly blame them; the Corellian Imperial Guard, festooned in their flowing green robes and jade-studded armor, carrying vibro-glaives with blades as long as a man's arm, were so associated with Castel Solo that they had become a tourist attraction.

It was a little disappointing, but Maik made it a point of pride not to let it get to her. All the CSPS officers she had ever known—and she'd been on the protection beat the better part of twenty years now—had done their duty with unassuming professionalism. The beings entitled to CSPS protection—the Diktat, the senator, and the members of the House of Solo—embodied the Corellian spirit, and keeping them safe was reward enough.

Still, even within CSPS, there were prestigious postings and…less sought-after ones. As a young CSPS officer, her sergeant's chevrons new on her shoulders and much more of her hair brown than it was now, Maik had gone for all the hot jobs, and she had enjoyed more than a few intense moments of high adventure with Jabe Mossod, Corellia's senator three back. Two marriages, a divorce, two kids, and four surgeries later, she had resisted the promotions that would condemn her to a desk forever, and she'd done only one stint as an instructor at the CorSec Academy before begging off. The brass hadn't known what to do with her—thank the Force for unions and tenure—so they'd shunted her into the royal family's protection unit instead.

Since the Constitution Act had turned the Solos from powerful monarchs into largely ceremonial figureheads, protecting them had required neither much effort nor much in the way of finely-honed skill. The Solos' CSPS guards had all the same training as their counterparts around Diktat Daikros, but Maik was not the only old veteran who spent her days patrolling the stately grounds of Castel Solo, admiring the relics on display while feeling like one of them. Now Master Sergeant Todden, she accepted that her adventuring days were over.

But when the unusual assignment had come up—escorting two royals and a handful of diplomats offworld, one a member of the Corellian Council—Maik had leapt on it. The young guns were desperate for it, of course, but seniority had its benefits, and more than one old bomber pulled rank for the task. But none of the brass would go—even at the lieutenant level, that paygrade would've been controlling the entire security apparatus, and that job had been taken off CorSec's hands—and a master sergeant was the top of the food chain.

A dozen CSPS officers would join the Jedi and whatever private security the corporate bigwigs brought along. Maik found her team waiting in the drawing room outside the king's apartments, along with a pair of Imperial Guards. With their gear already stowed, the CSPS officers wore only what they needed for the job—dark pants and boots, khaki jackets with green cuffs and piping, and equipment belts for their short blaster carbines, stun sticks, stun cuffs, and other supplies. All had their comlinks on bracelets around their left wrists; in a hostile situation, a hand holding a comlink wasn't free to point a blaster or shield a protectee.

"They're inside, Master Sergeant," said Garee Doid, another CSPS museum piece; like most CorSec agents, he condensed the rank into Massarnt. "Last-minute details."

"Roger." Maik looked over her team—a mix of young and old, unseasoned and salty. "Look sharp, now—Commenor's not Corellia. We're not expecting any trouble before we hit the spaceport, but don't drop your guard."

"What about the Jedi, Master Sergeant?" asked one of the younger officers.

Maik grunted. "What about them?"

"Are they meeting us here?"

"Negative—they'll rendezvous with us at Chasin City Spaceport on Commenor."

One of the others crossed her arms. "Why couldn't it be Master Dumiel?"

Master Tyson Dumiel, the self-proclaimed leader of the so-called "Corellian Jedi", was a frequent guest of Castel Solo; Maik had been on duty once or twice in a position to hear him advising the king about the Jedi Order's politics and ongoing operations. In the last year or two, he had brought a couple other Corellians into the ancient Green Jedi Enclave, so he wasn't exactly alone in his mission anymore. Maik hadn't been privy to the discussions that led to Republic Jedi overseeing security for the Corellian mission to Commenor, and the look on Captain Psykin's face when he mentioned it convinced her that asking was more trouble than it was worth. She tried to give the young officer the same look. "Above my paygrade, Fiden. It is what it is.  Besides, our duty's unchanged no matter who's in charge."

Fiden made a face, but didn't push it. CorSec as a whole worked alongside Jedi now and then—though usually Corellian Jedi like Master Dumiel, or Mali Darakhan when he was around—but the Protective Service almost never did. The only exception Maik could think of was Darakhan; rumor had it that CSPS's colonel had privately asked him to look out for Senator Rose when her insistence on wandering around unprotected had finally piqued him too much. What Senator Rose—or Darakhan—had thought of that, Maik had never heard, and she hadn't been involved. She had never worked under a Jedi's command, and though Masters Dumiel and Ainar Zylorus visited the palace often, and High Council Master Nawsa Arodion was an old friend of the king's, she had never spoken to them much more than in passing. Maik knew the millennia-old stereotype of the Order as a bunch of pacifist navel-gazers, and though the war had turned that on its head pretty thoroughly, Maik didn't know what to expect any more than her team did. In a straight fight, Jedi might be all but invincible, but how good were they as bodyguards?

The door to the inner room opened, and CorSec and Imperial Guards alike came to attention as the king strode into the room. Short for a Human, nothing like the authoritative, muscular tower that was Diktat Daikros, King Jedossen e Solo had his own sort of presence nonetheless. A little younger than Maik—he had come to the throne after the untimely deaths of his older siblings—he had a short-trimmed beard still more black than gray, but flowing, collar-length locks in the same style Master Dumiel and Mali Darakhan favored.

"Relax, please," he said. "You're ready to go, Master Sergeant Todden?"

He took care to pronounce each word distinctly, and Maik remembered why she prized her assignment to Castel Solo, out to pasture or not. She and the king had spoken many times over the years, both before his ascension to the throne and since, and they always got on well, but she had no doubt he could call every member of her team by name just as easily. His brief service in the Corellian Defense Force had never taken him to battle, but he connected well with servicebeings and remained a passionate voice for their rights to the Corellian Council. Maik had no doubt his stint aboard various Corellian Engineering freighters in the field had been a far cry from the average merchant captain struggling to haul enough cargo to scrape two credits together, and yet somehow the king kept himself abreast of the issues facing every sector of the mercantile class and put his voice behind them, too. He might wield little formal power in government, but even the Diktat and Senator Rose opposed his views only after great consideration and with utmost respect.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Maik replied. She bowed to Galera and Satir Solo. "We're ready when you are."

The children of the king's younger sister, Galera and Satir looked almost nothing like one another or their uncle, save that Satir favored the king's dark eyes. Nor had their careers had much in common; Galera had pursued one political service appointment after another until she landed herself on the Corellian Council, while Satir had followed service in the CDF with trade liaison work offworld and a year on Senator Rose's staff on Coruscant. Once in a while, the pundits speculated the Diktat would name Satir Corellia's new senator.

Only if Senator Rose becomes Chancellor, Maik thought. Or Diktat.

"Then we're ready," said Satir. Unlike his sister, he wore a blaster on his hip, and he hooked a thumb over it as he added, "Are we picking up the CEC people?"

"No, sir, they'll meet us on Commenor." The Solos might be empowered to speak on behalf of the Corellian government, but half the system's wealth came from Corellian Engineering Corporation, and promises of trade deals and security cooperation sounded more convincing when somebody at the negotiating table could transfer millions of credits with a touch of a datapad.

"Got it. Let's go, then."

The king glanced at the CSPS detail. "Sergeant Doid, will you take my niece and nephew down to the ship? I need a word with Master Sergeant Todden."

Garee snapped to attention and bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty."

The king grinned. "Oh, and whatever they tell you, no, they're not allowed to fly her out."

Some of the CSPS officers grinned while Satir rolled his eyes. "That's a low blow, uncle."

The king chuckled and beckoned them both in, kissing their foreheads; he had to pull Satir down. Maik gathered he had given them their official instructions in private, because they both embraced him and departed with their guard detail. They might have said their farewells behind closed doors too, but they were Corellians; against the hardness and brutality of the galaxy, King Jedossen would stand immovable as a rock, but he felt no need to hide his love for his family.

Once she and the king were alone with the Imperial Guards, Maik said, "I know what you're going to say, Your Majesty, and I promise, my team and I will protect them both with our lives."

King Jedossen smirked. "It seems you don't know what I'm going to say, actually. I'm relieved to hear that, of course, but I never doubted it in the first place.  I know the CorSec Protective Service, Maik, and I know you.  Speaking of which, is your son still at the academy?"

Maik nodded proudly. "Graduates next week, sir."

"I told Satir about that. He said he'd try to get Jendaya Rose in to speak at the ceremony."

Imagining how much Rosko would love that, Maik grinned. "Any chance you could put in a good word too, sir?"

"Under other circumstances I might." The king's face grew thoughtful, almost heavy. "But I think Diktat Daikros needs her voice on Coruscant just now."

"You mean Allanteen, sir? Is it true Gasald's dead?"

"If anyone's confirmed that officially, they haven't told me. But her flagship and a sizeable portion of her fleet were definitely destroyed at Allanteen.  If there's going to be a battle fought in Corellian space, I think the Jedi have delayed it by years."

"And Commodore Kalliot."

"Too right you are. But we've strayed a bit from the point I was going to make."

Maik straightened and cleared her face. "Apologies, sir."

The king waved it off. "It's about the Jedi command of the mission."

"Not everyone's thrilled, sir," Maik admitted, "but we'll make it work."

"Not thrilled because they're Republic Jedi? Or because anyone besides CorSec is in charge?"

"…a bit of both, Your Majesty?"

"Well then, I have good news for you."

"We're running the show?" Maik dared to hope.

"Not that good. Sorry."

"So it's some of our Jedi supervising the thing?"

"Well, in a manner of speaking…"