On the way to her hover car, Padme was surprised to see Duchess Satine in person, walking towards her. Dressed in her finest regalia and accompanied by the Mandalorian Senator, Satine hurried ahead of her bodyguards with a scowl at the sight of Padme's current state.
...
Padme had to stifle a groan as she realised that Satine was here for her. She liked the woman, genuinely, but right now she just wanted to go lay down somewhere until her stomach settled. The last thing she wanted was to get into an open ended discussion about policy, but she still forced herself to straighten up and be friendly with the head of state. It wouldn't be wise to risk offending her closest ally in the senate right now.
Padme and Satine had spent long hours discussing their beliefs and ideas, and working together to create an interest group in the Senate had been a pleasure, but Padme had no idea how the Duchess could possibly live as such a rank hypocrite. How could the woman claim to be a deep believer in democracy, yet refuse to hold any elections?
Even Dooku, who openly despised democracy, actually held elections on Serenno. True, the Advisory technically had no authority other than to advise the Count, but at the very least it acted as a channel for the Will of the People to find the ear of their ruler. Duke Harad held elections on Raxus for the Parliament of Commons, and though he was a monarch, he was extremely involved in the Parliamentary system that governed his homeworld. He would often boast to the other heads of state, 'I'm never more powerful than when my parliament is in session.' It was an interesting system, one that had tempted Padme sorely, but in the end she had stuck by her principles and implemented a Republican system.
"I see that Dooku didn't forewarn you of his plans either." Satine began. "I know the man doesn't believe in democracy, but he's only going to make our fight in the Senate even more difficult with this!"
How could something that was already impossible possibly become more difficult? Padme didn't want to think like that, she tried to stay positive, but her time as a senator had not been encouraging. Technically, political parties were banned from the senate, but the body was clearly divided by a series of blocs with clear interests. Even if they had no formal political structure, they had clear leaders and met out of hours to collaborate on their goals. In effect, the political parties still existed, they were just obscured from public view.
Then there was the class of unelected officials on Coruscant, the heads of the bureaus and their private intelligence networks, who could easily influence and direct senators to policies that suited their interests. Padme was pretty sure her conversations were being monitored by both Republic Military Intelligence and the Senate Bureau of Intelligence. It was probably why Dooku hadn't seen fit to inform her or Duchess Satine of his plans.
"It will." Padme agreed with Satine. "And it's an issue that we should discuss with him together. If you'd like, we can ride back to my residence and speak privately there after a bug sweep."
"That sounds like a fine idea." Satine harrumphed, though not at Padme. "But we'll take mine. I'm confident we'll be able to talk privately on the way there."
Padme nodded once, consenting.
One of the Duchess's guards pressed a button on his wrist pad, and the vehicle pulled up in front of them, driven only by a droid chauffeur.
Padme took one step towards the vehicle when she felt a hand seize the back of her robes. The world tilted up as she was violently thrown to the ground, and Prialla's diminutive form covered her.
"Stay down!" The Jedi Knight screamed, and yanked the Duchess to the ground with the Force.
There was a deafening crack of an explosion, and Padme threw her hands up to cover her face. Her ears rang as acrid black smoke hung thick in the air that burned her sinuses and made her eyes water. Looking around, she saw a fire burning from a hulk of metal on the Senate departure pad, and it took Padme a moment to realise it was Satine's speeder. She blinked, trying to roll over, but was held in place by Prialla. Turning her head, Padme could see a misshapen heap of smouldering robes on the ground, and it took her a moment to realise that it was Satine. Her ceremonial outfit with its massive sleeves and long hem hid the extent of her injuries, though there was the stink of burning flesh in the air.
"Help her!" Padme gasped, bucking, trying to wriggle out from under her protector. "I'm fine, save Satine!"
Prialla gave her a once over, seeming to confirm she was okay in the Force before finally standing up. The explosion had been massive, and Satine's Mandalorian guards had been standing in the brunt of it. Those closest to the blast were killed instantly, their broken bodies hurled away, but even those standing closest to Satine were either dead or dying.
The Jedi Knight ran over, and threw back the Duchess robes to reveal her face, pale with pain and shock where it wasn't burned, her eyes bloodshot and unseeing, and blood pouring from her ears. Prialla reached down and ripped apart the Duchess's clothes, searching for injury, before finding a set of beskar rings beneath her clothes. Multiple pieces of shrapnel had embedded themselves in her armour, but none had pierced her.
Prialla placed her palm against Satine's forehead then she turned to yell something to Padme, who couldn't hear it. Padme blinked, dabbing at her ears to find blood running down her cheeks.
"I can't hear anything!" Padme gasped, now noticing the stabbing pain in her ears. "I'm deaf!"
Prialla said something else, but whatever it was, Padme was nearly frightened out of her skin by a hand on her shoulder. She spun on the spot to find Senatorial Guards pouring out of an armoured vehicle, blasters raised as they rapidly secured the area. One of them was ushering her away, towards an ambulance. She followed his guiding hand, arriving where a medical droid immediately started running diagnostics on her. It was less than a minute before the droid had her strapped down in the back of the vehicle. Padme raised her head to see the doors being closed, and right before they closed, she glimpsed through the crack Prialla being handcuffed.
...
Anakin didn't like visiting hospitals generally, but this one in particular left him uncomfortable. The countless different needs of the thousands of different species of the Republic left the public health services woefully inadequate and overworked. The medical needs of a Gran had nothing in common with those of a Wookiee, though some near humans could make do with the same medicines in a pinch. Medications that worked on a human usually had a similar effect on Zabraks and Twi'leks, for example, but Coruscant was the most diverse world in the Galaxy. Even the most bizarre and exotic species would make their homes here, and so they often needed specialised hospitals to treat them.
Sentient doctors just couldn't possibly remember and master all the different needs of so many species, not when it took almost a decade of training to be confident in treating even one species. Medical droids with their vast data banks were manufactured cheaply, and so there was plenty of medical knowledge to go around, but access to the millions of different varieties of medicine needed to treat all illnesses was limited. Different species tended to create and patronise their own medical institutions, leaving public hospitals only for the desperate and poor.
Hospitals in the undercity were often filthy, crowded, and poorly maintained, with droids that operated on outdated knowledge, or were in dire need of a memory wipe and beginning to act strangely. Some of them were so bad that it could be argued staying away from them actually improved your chances of recovery. Anakin didn't know if he believed that, but he did know that the Senatorial District Hospital wasn't one of those.
Its halls gleamed. On every floor there were the squeaky beeps of cleaning droids, and even with the countless representatives of a thousand different species, the hospital was never short of the supplies it needed for treatment. On any floor, one could see a wookiee getting shaved in preparation for surgery, a gran bending over to give a smell sample from his glands, or even just a regular human boy getting his temperature checked.
...
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