Chapter 158: (Empire)

The flight of six of the little agile star-fighter's roared over the city, only a few hundred feet up in the greenish-blue sky, the distinctive scream rattling windows. High in the sky was the wedge shape of a Star Destroyer, a military vessel that La'amo'o though was aesthetically pleasing and was impressed by what little he'd learned about it.

Another flight of six went by, gaining altitude, obviously heading for the wedge shaped ship. La'amo'o inflated his crests in pleasure, ignoring the slight trill of fear he felt down his lower spinal half. There was no reason to be afraid, he was not a law breaker or anyone of importance.

Well, that last part wasn't quite true.

He had found, to his delight, that he was very important to a few people. His daughter, most of all. He was surprised just how much she needed him to confide in, to listen to her, to reassure her that everything was all right.

He was also important to Grand Moff Hektor. The Grand Moff himself had said that every being in the system was important to him, right on the Tri-Vid! It was exciting to know. He was important to Darth Harmonus, who wished nothing more than for children like La'amo'o's daughter to live in safety and security.

Which is why the little star-fighters didn't bother La'amo'o. They were the physical, visible proof that Darth Harmonus cared about his daughter. They were combat craft, nothing more, nothing less, dedicated to defending the planet in case someone came back and tried to..

...tried to...

...La'amo'o didn't like thinking about that.

It caused feelings that he still had a hard time processing, a hard time understanding.

Every time he remembered that the City Military Most High had personally chained La'amo'o's daughter to the air defense cannon his tendrils curled, his crests inflated, he had the urge to kick his hind legs, or rear up and paw the air with his front legs, and his temples and ears ached with his heart beat.

He didn't understand that feeling completely.

When he reached his home he went in and checked on his daughter. She was busy with the learning virtual intelligence, who was talking with her about math. He told her that he was home and she expressed pleasure and waved to him before going back to her studies. The learning VI waved to him and went back to teaching his daughter things she would have never been allowed to learn before like math and why one should ask questions and be curious.

Seeing it gave La'amo'o an odd feeling and he trotted over to the feelings board to write down how it felt.

After a bit his door bell rang. Remembering to use his new upgraded implant he queried the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, buddy. Can I come in?" the voice was the other person La'amo'o was important to.

"Of course. I have been looking forward to our time together," La'amo'o said, sitting down on the couch. He adjusted the holoprojector that he had received from the white armored Stormtroopers.

The holo appeared. A Terran biped, made entirely of red and silver light, a fairly young male of the species who looked friendly. It was an usual design, extremely tangible and clear, without the static and interference that La'amo'o was used to holograms suffering from.

"How ya doing, buddy?" the hologram asked.

"Better. Today was better than yesterday," La'amo'o admitted.

"How's Alma'ana doing?" the hologram asked.

"Better than I. She recovered quickly," La'amo'o said.

The hologram nodded, pulling a chair into view and sitting down on it.

Red Prince 3321, a Digital Sentience, looked at the Lanaktallan in front of him. The being had gained weight, his pelt looked better, and his crests didn't look saggy and forlorn. His hooves looked glossy instead of powdery and dull, and his coloration looked better.

"You've been clean for almost a week. You're doing very well after a lifetime of pharmaceuticals being infused into every cud you chewed," Price said. "Are you still going on walks?"

He knew the answer to that. Prince kept track of La'amo'o and nearly two hundred other Lanaktallans, helping them ease through the transition to being Imperial citizens.

La'amo'o nodded. "Yes. It was difficult at first. The light hurt my eyes. My muscles, even my bones hurt, and I kept feeling things I do not understand."

"I know, buddy. Are you still having trouble controlling your anger?" Prince asked.

La'amo'o shook his head. He found he liked the constant non-verbal communication of the Terrans. It let him express himself. "The counting works."

"Good, buddy, good," Prince said.

La'amo'o, like every other medium to bottom ranking Lanaktallan, had spent their entire lives on mood stabilizers to the point they could barely feel any emotions. From the womb, where the chemicals their mother ingested affected them, to when Darth Harmonus had ordered that the entire planet be carefully weaned from their chemical chains, the Lanaktallan had drifted through life, generation after generation, in a psychochemical haze.

Prince went through the questions carefully. Before he'd played Starwars IRLRP, he'd been a psychotherapist, treating patients of addiction and personality disorders.

Darth Harmonus had promised Prince his own Star Destroyer for helping found the Empire, but Prince had discovered that helping the Lanaktallan was more important to him.

Besides, Victor/Darth Harmonus had been a friend of Prince for nearly 200 years. Prince knew he should have tried to talk Victor out of it, but Victor's sister used to send Prince paintings of the night sky of her world and recordings of the buzzing of her bee hives.

Prince was slightly embarrassed about the way he had reacted when he had overheard Victor being told about her death. But Vic was a good guy, even for a meatsack, and hadn't gotten bent out of shape about it.

Which is why 'The Empire' hadn't made a big deal out of Prince staying behind to help on this planet while the Conquest of Grief had continued.

Prince secretly felt that Victor's sister would have approved of what Prince was doing.

La'amo'o, like most of his people, were learning how to deal with anger, grief, the feeling of being betrayed by their own people. Prince had taken a special interest in La'amo'o since Prince had scared him badly the day of the invasion and it had been a bit nail biting for Prince to watch the Strormtroopers save La'amo'o's daughter.

Finally the questions were over and Prince stood up, turned in a circle to change outfits, and sat back down in the chair.

"You're a good guy, La'amo'o," Prince said. "I've got to go, I've got a few more people to talk to. You call me if you need anything, all right?"

"I will try not to disturb you, Friend Prince," La'amo'o said.

Prince shook his head. "I'm your sponsor, buddy. That means you call me even if you just want to hear another voice, all right?"

La'amo'o nodded slowly. "It feels strange that you would allow me to disturb you, but I will contact you if I feel the need to."

"All right, buddy. You should take your daughter to the park this evening."

La'amo'o nodded again, still slowly, as Prince got up and walked to the door.

"Good night, La'amo'o," Prince said.

"And to you, Friend Prince," La'amo'o replied.

When Prince left La'amo'o got up and made a small meal, easily carryable in his satchel. When his daughter was finished with her schooling he called her in, slowly counting to handle the feeling that Prince had told him was 'shyness anxiety', and asked her if she would like to go at the park.

Alma'ana felt that odd feeling she felt whenever her father asked her to perform a social activity with him and trotted over to write it on the board. Tomorrow the Digital Sentience Nightingale would talk to her about her feelings and she wanted to be sure Nightingale had accurate data so that the DS could help Alma'ana understand her own feelings.

When she was done writing it down she turned to her father. "I would like that very much."

"Friend Prince suggested a bonding exercise that would be good for your mind," La'amo'o said during their walk to the park.

"What would that be?" Alma'ana asked.

"He suggested we should lay on the grass, look at the clouds, and tell one another what we think they appear to vaguely resemble," La'amo'o said, expecting his daughter to mock such a strange idea.

Alma'ana thought about it. Several of her lessons had been about using something called 'pattern recognition' and 'non-exacting shape association' to help her education.

"I would like that, father," Alma'ana said.

All in all, they both admitted to themselves, each other, and their digital sentience friends/confidants, that it had been a good outing.

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FROM: RED PRINCE

TO: DARTH HARMONUS

I know you promised I could have a starship command if I came with you, and at the time I wanted nothing more but to burn these worlds to a cinder.

But these people need my help. It's bad, man, real bad.

I'm going to talk to a buddy, have him bootleg me some kid's shows and do some deepfake stuff to add in Lanaktallan. The non-violent stuff for toddlers and early school age. Lots of friendly creatures, bright colors, singing, and the like.

Darth, these people need me. They need you. They need the Empire.

I'm with you, man. I'm still a believer in your vision.

But I have an oath to help others.

Melody would expect nothing less from me and I wouldn't want to disappoint her.

--Prince

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FROM: DARTH HARMONUS

TO: MOFF RED PRINCE

Prince, do what you think you can do to help these people. You're right, Melody would want you to use your powers for good. To help these people.

I can't stop. I can't. I won't.

I won't after seeing what they've done to themselves.

I have to reach in the window and grab the steering wheel long enough to get this car to the side of the road, man.

If Confed won't do it, we have to.

--Darth Harmonus

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CLONE WORLDS DIRECTORATE

Damn, that dude bought a lot of Stormtrooper Born Whole licenses.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

Victor?

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CLONE WORLDS DIRECTORATE

Yeah. I still can't believe you told me to authorize that large of a cloning license.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

He was trying to source a planet cracker.

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

What? Why wouldn't you stop him?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Because he wouldn't have ever stopped. Not ever. Putting him in prison for that would have just given him time for the rage to cool and turn to steel. By the time he would have gotten out, he wouldn't have gotten caught sourcing a planet-cracker he would have used one.

Besides, we're at war with those guys.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

What he said.

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

I'm just nervous.

These guys beat us before, beat my people before.

We have a wonderful thing here. Part of me just wants to leave them to their own devices and go our own way.

I'm not afraid to tell you that I'm kind of afraid of them. We don't know how we lost, so we don't know what tricks they have up their sleeve.

We kind of want to try to live and let live.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD FREE WORLDS

Sis, they will never let us do that. Not ever. Now that they knew we're here, they've SHOWN US that they'll use bioweapons and genecrackers on us. They want to 'gentle' us all.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TERRASOL

I'm not interested in being gentled.

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MANTID FREE WORLDS

You don't say...