[right][h3]Towler - Offices of Senator Towler[/h3][/right][hr] [i]Much has changed across the galaxy since this court last considered the Contemplanys Hermi. The plain meaning of that clause, however, has not. . . .[/i] Towler paged through the holographic display, reading through the cover story for the Coruscant Star-Herald. He was a voracious reader. He read everything, from op-eds and lifestyle pieces to hard news from dozens of publications across as many worlds. He had a keen eye for the news, and would but rarely miss an update. When the first articles reporting on the [i]Corellia v. Galactic Republic[/i] decision were announced, Towler was on them. Then again, who wasn't? It was a landmark decision. Every political reporter, lawyer, and politician in every corner of the galaxy was reading about it. [i]. . . provides the Corellian Sector a means by which it may temporarily dissociate from the Galactic Republic to tend to the sector’s internal affairs. It does not provide to the Corellian Sector an instrumentality of secession. . . . [/i] “Sir, Undersecretary Avala is on the comms,” Roker said, poking his head into Towler’s office, comm to his ear. Roker was Towler’s chief of staff, a sharp, loyal Loronar man. He was one of the very few people Towler trusted, but even then it was only as far as Fosten could throw him. “Is it about the decision?” Towler asked, eyes hardly leaving the screen of his datapad. Just over a month ago, as the Free Corellia movement was gaining traction and threatening to become a revolutionary threat to the Galactic Republic’s sovereign control over the planet, the delegation for Corellia had invoked the privilege of Contemplanys Hermi in an effort to suspend the planet’s membership of the Republic. The Senate, in a surprisingly unified voice, had come together with a strong ad hoc supermajority and vetoed the resolution. Corellia had gone directly to the Supreme Court, and, as of just a few moments ago, had officially lost. [i]. . . Even the most cursory analysis of the totality of these circumstances would lead one to an obvious conclusion; this invocation of the Contemplanys Hermi is not intended to achieve a temporary suspension of the Corellian Sector’s relationship with the Galactic Republic, but rather a permanent dissociation therewith. . . . [/i] “Yes,” Roker said. Towler set the datapad down. “She wants the mining bill done.” Towler breathed deep and exhaled. He’d just had his conversation with Avala only a few hours ago. But the decision did change things. Now that Corellia could not pull out of the Republic, the Supreme Court had, effectively, given the Senate the green light to pass the seizure bill. If the Contemplanys Hermi measure had been approved, and Corellia had left the Republic and become a sovereign state, the Senate would have had no authority over the planet. Alternatively, he supposed, it changed nothing. They had all the time in the world to seize the CEC shipyards, now that Corellia was barred from leaving the Republic. Unless they seceded outright, of course. “Tell Avala we’ll resolve the Outworlds issue today and have that bill to her as soon as we get the final amendments tomorrow. Then get in the boardroom and let’s figure out how to buy off these senators,” he growled. Roker nodded and left the doorframe. The door slid shut, and Towler went back to the datapad, pulling up the profiles on the Outworlds Mineral Resources subcommittee. [center]-[/center] “Toonan Teft,” Roker said, gesturing to the display, “Senator for Alzoc III and Chair for the Outworlds Mineral Resources subcommittee, needs twenty-five votes to send the amendment up to the Committee on Energy, Environment & Natural Resources. We have more than enough votes to get it through Energy and into the bill, but Toonan only has twenty-two. So it's stuck where it is for now.” Towler’s boardroom was a long room dominated by long table, too large for the two people who sat at it. He sat a chair down from Iyla Tyndulla, his Twi’lek deputy chief of staff and third-in-command. Across the table, standing in front of a large holographic display projected from a screen fixed to the wall, stood Roker. The chief of staff had created a quick visual guide to the Outworlds Mineral Resources subcommittee with three columns. Twenty-two names were in the leftmost column, representing those senators that approved of the amendment and were ready to pass it through. Twenty-six were in the rightmost column, representing the holdouts keeping the amendment from moving forward. Fourteen of those were staunch Core Factionists. Another three were Rim Factionists with deeply entrenched mining industries on their worlds. There’d be no moving from any of those. Senator Lyannis for Farstine was the most influential of the Rim Faction holdouts, and from the names Towler found under the rightmost column, he figured at least a few of those were behind her. “We need three votes. Toonan thinks that if we can swing Lyannis she can bring over five of them and it passes,” Roker continued. “The Republic navy is looking into locations for Outer Rim shipyards and starbases. Farstine is on the short list for one,” Iyla offered. “The planet is a perfect location for it, and the money and jobs a military base will bring might bring her over.” With a wave of the hand, Roker brought Lyannis’s name over to the middle column, and then a few more. Towler frowned, shook his head. “Lyannis is too experienced. She’ll want a guarantee we can’t give her unless we burn a lot of goodwill and capital making it happen. Hell, she might not even need our help getting it.” Towler could put Farstine at the top of list, but so could Lyannis, and the favors he’d have to call in would put him deep in debt to the Senators on the Armed Forces committee. “Let’s call it a last resort. Who else do we have here?” “Eyri Pharliis,” Roker said, moving Lyannis and her senators back to the rightmost column and moving Eyri to the center. He followed up by bringing three more over. “She controls three other votes on the subcommittee. If we can swing her we'll have just enough to pass it.” “Who’s Eyri Pharliis?” Iyla asked. “Senator for Pantora, just elected. She’s in her first term,” Towler said. He’d never met the woman, had never met many of the sitting Senators, but he knew who almost all of them were. This was a promising one. Towler flipped to her profile on his datapad. “She wants to almost double the Outer Rim small business exception, now why is that exactly?” “Pharliis and the other senators in her corner represent developing planets with smaller automated workforces and more organic employees,” Roker explained. “Their mining corporations have less droid support than most worlds. A Core Worlds mining company with a hundred employees posts more than twice the profits of a Pantoran mining company with the same number.” “Which means she’s looking at a lot of mining companies that aren’t going to be able to keep up with the regulations,” Towler extrapolated. “Good. What can we give her?” “Maybe a subsidy amendment? We can allocate funds for developing worlds so they can augment their work forces with droids,” Iyla suggested. “I can write something like that in an hour.” “You can write it in an hour but the debates on that will take weeks. Besides that we’ll burn a lot of bridges if we start handing out millions of credits to holdouts and next time we have a bill like this you can bet there’ll be more holdouts looking for handouts. There'll be hell to pay with Avala if we make moves like that.” Towler flipped through the datapad. “Write it up anyway, though, and make sure these Senators’ planets qualify under the language. Roker, Pantora is in the Sujimis Sector?” “Yes,” Roker said. “And, astrographically speaking, the Sujimis Sector is near the Sith Empire’s Sullustan Province?” “That’s correct.” “Tell me, Roker,” Towler said with a smile, “doesn’t that sound like a fine place for a Republic Navy starbase?”