Stark Industries, Monday

[endsthegame]

Ender was composing a letter to Graff on his laptop between tests. He was of two minds as to whether he was actually going to send it, but it was being written, which was progress of a kind. Banging away at his keyboard meant that he was free to ignore the cherry tomatoes building up in the back end of the store.

Maybe if Tony Stark ever left, someone should use the compound to start a grocery store.

[[ open ]]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben came in at the usual time with coffee, lunch, and ice cream. "Ho, Ender," he said with a little smile.

[endsthegame]

"Making up for last week?" Ender guessed, looking up.

[momslilassassin]

"Maybe," Ben admitted. He put Ender's coffee down. "What are you working on?"

[endsthegame]

"Just the same thing I usually am," Ender admitted, "Scaling down the arc reactor. Stark made a good judgement call - I'll be working on this until I graduate at the rate I'm going."

[momslilassassin]

"At least it's interesting?" Ben commented, taking a sip from his own cup. "It's not like he gave you busywork or anything."

[endsthegame]

"I'm pretty sure that if he had employees who required busywork, he'd have fired them by now," Ender replied, dryly. "That's how Stark works."

[momslilassassin]

"Good point," Ben replied. "This isn't exactly a surf-the-nets, bring a magazine kind of place."

He grinned. "Which reminds me, I need a few parts for the astromech." He handed over a small sheet of paper.

[endsthegame]

"This feels like old times," Ender mused, taking the paper. "Try not to blow up the room."

[momslilassassin]

"That's always the plan," Ben said, "but now that you've warned me, I'll feel really bad if it happens."

[endsthegame]

"I'll make sure they put that on my gravestone," Ender said, solemnly. "So how's life with Tahiri?"

[momslilassassin]

"Complicated," Ben said with a wry little smile, "but that's not exactly news. The war's over for her as well as Jaina now."

[endsthegame]

"A lesser worry," Ender analyzed, lightly. "Well, on this side of the equation. I imagine they're going to be mired in talks for months."

[momslilassassin]

"Once they figure out who might be in charge," Ben said. "Jacen killed the leader. Dad got beat up pretty badly, too."

[endsthegame]

Ender's eyebrows went up. "You have to be careful with a power vacuum," he murmured.

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "The Yuuzhan Vong aren't considered a problem in my time. They mostly died or went home or ended up on the living planet."

Because the living planet thing was nice and normal.

[endsthegame]

"But the political systems they left behind..."

[momslilassassin]

"Didn't last," Ben finished. "They didn't negotiate. They had no interest in anything other than eradication. Their frothing hatred of Jedi apparently spawned a backlash religion among their Shamed Ones who began worshiping us, which is...odd."

[endsthegame]

"I wasn't talking about the Yuuzhan Vong, Skywalker," Ender said, lightly.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's cheeks flushed. "Oh. Well, the government they'll put together is the one Jacen eventually takes over, so...it could stand some improvements."

[endsthegame]

Ender smirked wryly. "Now I wonder if there's a good history of political systems in your world you can point me to. Just in case I want some light reading."

[momslilassassin]

Ben smiled a little wryly. "Oh, sure. It weighs a ton. The Old Republic ruled for a thousand generations, then Palpatine wrecked it completely--with some help from Vader--and established the Empire, which was also supposed to last a thousand generations. It lasted...about twenty years. Then there was the Provisional Government, then the New Republic, and then the Galactic Alliance, complete with their own chiefs of state. Most of them either died, were related to me, or both."

[endsthegame]

"Too bad we can't just read history off your genome, huh, Skywalker?" he teased.

[momslilassassin]

"That would be astral," Ben said, "and save a lot of datachips. After you're finished with Stark's project you should get started on that one."

[endsthegame]

"No, after Stark's project I'm going to be working on how to make your head smaller," Ender said. "So that's a lot of governments you went through in a few decades."

[momslilassassin]

"My head still fits through a door, so it's fine," Ben replied, sticking his tongue out. "And a lot more if you start adding in the Imperial Remnant and all of the people who tried to take over, too."

[endsthegame]

"Which leaves the question: why did the Old Republic last so long where none of the new governments have managed as much as a blip?"

[momslilassassin]

"My theory is that there were more Jedi around to help," Ben said. "Ten thousand to stomp out little fires before they turned into giant, system-wide problems had to do something positive."

[endsthegame]

"But if the environment hadn't been what it was, there wouldn't have been as many Jedi," Ender noted. "I don't think recruiting thousands will help your cause as it stands."

[momslilassassin]

"I don't think as things stand now it would be possible to anyway," Ben said. "We're not exactly hugely popular. The Yuuzhan Vong religion didn't exactly catch on in fifteen years."

[endsthegame]

"So maybe it's the cultural issues that the unpopularity of the Jedi is symptomatic of that are the problem," Ender said, slanting a look at him. "Not to brust your Jedi-centric viewpoint."

[momslilassassin]

"But blaming us for things that go wrong goes back to the Emperor, and he was a Sith," Ben retorted hotly. "People should be smarter than to think that we have anything to do with most of the terrible things that happen."

[endsthegame]

Ender shot him a vaguely amused look. "You're quick to trace back all the good in the universe to the Jedi, too," he said. "Once you raise yourself up as an ultimate moral authority, it shouldn't be weird if people decide to turn against you when things aren't going smoothly anymore. Look at the history of the Catholic church."

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah, but we're right most of the time," Ben declared. "That's what the politicians don't like to hear--we have a power they don't understand and can't touch, and so the ones who are inclined to be a little paranoid to begin with work to undermine us."

Ah, truth from a certain point of view.

[endsthegame]

"How's playing the persecuted working out for you?" Ender asked, sensibly.

[momslilassassin]

Ben took a sip from his coffee to take a moment and think.

"Badly," he admitted. "I don't like being whiny. I wish I had the assurance that Granddad does in being Jedi." He took another sip. "Although a good chunk of that just might be him being him."

[endsthegame]

"Then my advice is to keep your identity issues out of it," Ender said, without any real malice in his voice. "You can't fix a society if you keep thinking them-or-us, Ben. That goes for you as much as the politicians."

[momslilassassin]

Ben sighed and nodded. "And they have a right to be concerned about us. Jacen did a lot of really terrible things, and we didn't see it or try to correct it until it was too late. It makes sense that the new government would want to...rein us in. We don't really react to problems logically or in a way that's politically expedient."

[endsthegame]

"So the trick is to reign yourselves in in a way that's mutually beneficial," Ender said, thoughtfully. "But I'm afraid in this scenario, the first step might have to be yours. If you claim to be that good, you have to be able to back it up. That isn't just being right in the moment."

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded again. "I'm sure Dad's thinking along the same lines. Plus he's got experience working with former Imperials and how their minds work. Daala rose through the military as a woman, which was no easy trick back then. She's not stupid, plus she had to work under Vader, which isn't exactly the best introduction to the Force."

[endsthegame]

"It's going to be a trip and a half to find common ground," Ender guessed.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's lips quirked up. "Oh, we never get the easy jobs. Or at least Dad doesn't. I'm just a Knight."