Star Wars, A Reincarnation Story.

Chapter 26

A lot of things happened in a short time. First, I found out who had put me up for a bounty. The way bounty hunters work is they are independent contractors paid a commission for the capture of their target.

This is where it gets complicated. If the target has broken the law and offered bail to gain freedom and then skipped on the bail, then a small percentage of the bail is paid to a successful bounty hunter. That couldn't apply to me.

Then there was the type of bounty that was issued by a private corporation that has filed litigation, won and is now claiming damages. They could send in bailiffs to claim property or if they were feeling lucky a bounty hunter to claim a person.

However, both of those didn't apply to me. I found out using investigation and cold hard cash that something unexpected was coming my way.

The second big thing was I was being offered a seat on the Galactic Senate. Owning a chunk of the galaxy and being a leader of many glassed worlds and successful corporations has led to a seat. It turned out that the Supreme Chancellor or someone high up tried a little scare tactic. They wanted me to be afraid of constant attacks from bounty hunters and look for safety in the Galactic Senate.

That was why the Gen'Dai bounty hunter was sent, probably not to kill me but to capture me and with a little torture just to push me in the direction of a senate seat. It was a government plan, they made a problem in the form of a bounty and then tried to offer a solution in the form of a seat.

It was a terrible plan. They were so lazy that the offending party didn't even outsource and cover their tracks. If it was me I would bounce at least three different government agencies from across the galaxy and corporations just so the water was well and truly muddied.

They issued the bounty, paid for it using funds held by the appropriate accounts, and signed the right paperwork with the right seals. It was set up for me to desperately join the Senate. I was beginning to think that someone was setting me up so I would attack the government and be declared public enemy number one. It was only after I got a visit from an official that I realised that the Galactic Senate was just lazy.

The visit was what I expected. A Jedi Consular with her apprentice and an official of the senate followed by a parade of droids. The Jedi Consular had an unmoving face that reminded me of a well-made marble statue. A no-nonsense kind of Jedi and judging by the emotions rolling off of her she was in control. Even the padawan had good control over his emotions.

The official from the senate was different, he had the facial control of a well-established politician but his mind was swamped with fear, curiosity, greed, sadness and all kinds of micro emotions.

After the introductions and the pleasantries, a vast amount of paperwork in the form of treaties, laws and straight-up political bollocks was handed over to my droids. There was no way in hell I was going to deal with that, and so my droids met their droids to argue the details.

The official curiosity soon outweighed his fear of me and he started to ask questions about my Eden ship on why it had a ship embedded on its side.

I could feel the thoughts rolling off his mind. He knew exactly what had happened. His emotions also had a hint of mirth and smugness, something that was quickly wiped from his mind when I showed him my new prize. A fresh new carbon-frozen statue of a Gen'Dai bounty hunter.

The fear from the official was shared by the apprentices but not the Jedi Consular. Instead, she pointed at the slab of metal and spoke for the first time.

"Is that an alive Gen'Dai?" she said in a dull voice.

"No" I answered back "that's my newest statue" it cost me a lot of wealth"

"Gen'Dai are a protected nomad species under subsection of..." I interpreted the Jedi Consular before she could waste any more of my time"

"The Gen'Dai don't need any protection from the galactic senate, and this is the Gove where the law is me, not the galactic senate" I laid down the law and the law is me.

The Jedi Consular seemed to know better than to question me. The Jedi were meant to follow the law and that was me but for the first time an emotion rolled out of the Jedi's mind, annoyance.

I was getting increasingly suspicious. The Jedi I knew wouldn't control themself like they were doing. Might make's right and even tho the Jedi wouldn't emit it they too followed this rule

I looked over the official mind. Emotions and thoughts passed through his mind like water through a sieve, unfortunately, a troubled mind wouldn't focus on the things I wanted, not without going in further. I bring my attention to the young and inexperienced padawan. His mind was well maintained and orderly, strong with a youthful flexibility but it wasn't complex.

I could sense a slight flutter of emotions, nothing I would take notice of usually but my gut and the force were edging me to push further.

I tested the padawan by calling one of my droids over and asking for an update on the contract. A small flicker of doubt rushed through the padawan's mind. If I wasn't looking for it I would have missed it.

A further test was needed. I tapped the digital copy of the contract in my palms and tutted to myself.

"There's a big problem, a massive inconsistency..." I vaguely shoved the contract in the air and watched as three pairs of eyes focused on it

The Jedi mind was like a steel trap, nothing was coming from it but the official mind had focused on the contract. He was worried, something in the contract had him on the edge. This confused me, how the hell did they hide anything in the contract that my droids wouldn't find?

I sighed to myself, this was politics. Not the politics I knew, where I had to balance the needs and wants of my people against the criminal galaxy, that was easy. No, this was the worst kind of backstabbing and double dealings where it wasn't guaranteed to even work, it was governmental politics. The worst thing was, that it was all legal. If some kind of two-bit criminal backstabbed me and stole from me, I could send killers to sort out the mess but the contract was legalese and needed to be fought in court. It would take years and even more money than a simple assassin to take care of it. Working with the government legally was slow and painful. The rewards would be insane but inefficient.

I rubbed the brig of my eyes and tried something.

"I get the feeling that something isn't quite right, something that might hurt me. I'm going to go over this contract personally and if I find what I hope isn't there, then a lot of people are going to suffer"

It was at this point the padawan and the official both had a brain stumble. I could feel that they wanted to say something but their mind had gone blank in shock.

Something was off and I would get to the bottom of it.