Corellia's Senatorial Office

Koronov glanced up as the door chime to his office suite rang, muffled by the two closed doors and the waiting room that lay between his office and the outer door. The door was unlocked, if Princess Thul had tried it, but she was being properly polite, and he respected that. His advisers were still huddled over their datapads and reports, finalizing their assessments of the political climate. There had been some conversation in the last 20 minutes, but nothing of substance, yet.

Exchanging glances with Aylee, he stood up, opened the door of his private office, leaving it ajar behind him, and crossed the waiting room to peer through the one-way glass in the door. Standash was alone, but her posture indicated this was probably all business, and not a social call. Opening the door, he smiled. "Good afternoon, Senator. Do come in." He said as he held the door for her. "My staff," he nodded toward his office, "is quite busy, but if you'll follow me, we can talk in private...." His voice trailed off as he led the way to one of the side conference rooms.

Dmitri was wearing one of him plain black suits, and the number of creases in it implied he'd been wearing it for days since it was last pressed. Aside from the absence of his normal Corellian green tie, there was nothing out of the ordinary about his appearance.

"It's not problem at all." Koronov reassured her, cracking his toothy Corellian grin as he closed the door behind her, and adjusted the sound dampeners so that, although anyone passing by in the waiting room outside could see them, their actual conversation would be private. "I always have time for friends of the Corellian people." There was a small table and six rustic chairs inside the conference room, but Dmitri seemed in no hurry to sit down. He laughed fractionally at her last comment, knowing it to be flattery. If anything, he looked decidedly worse.

"Well, thank you, but I sensed the urgency in your message. What's going on, and how can I help?"

Koronov raised an eyebrow. The first part was true, for certain, but he thought he had been discrete about the second part. He quickly realized she wasn't speaking from any precise knowledge from within his inner circle. It was no great leap of reasoning to identify Koronov as one of the most likely Senators to run for the Chancellorship. He had the seniority, and the name recognition, and the Core Worlds connections and finances, and had close non-human friends. He didn't have to say a single word for the rumors to start flying. It was obvious.

"Many Senators feel that such a motion should be made, and will vote to support it, absent a very good explanation from Republic Intelligence." He replied, choosing his words with care. "If such a motion is not made by another member of the Senate within the next few days, I intend to make one myself." He smiled, watching her face and her reaction carefully. He trusted her more than most, in part because she had not been on Coruscant long enough to embed herself too deeply in the corruption, but the state of the Republic dictated caution. "Before I answer your second question, what do you think of our absent leaders? What should be done? Should we replace them now, while we still can, or should we go on pretending that nothing is wrong?"

And what had she meant about guests? He'd been in his office all day, and had not yet heard about the arrivals in orbit, thanks to the ineptitude of the Senate news channels.

Koronov nodded gravely. He was of the same opinion, but he had wanted to hear her true thoughts, rather than biasing her response with his own opinions. The old leadership, if they still lived, and if they had not been forcibly imprisoned, deserved nothing less than censure, and probably a trial for treason.

He cracked another smile. "Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to hear." He sighed. "I have spent most of my adult life building and preparing myself to someday run for the Chancellorship, and if the Force wills, to take on that mantle and lead the Republic as best I am able. I declined to run in the last election cycle, to prevent unnecessary divisions in the Senate, and ever since, I have been planning and working to align my resources and my resume for this election cycle." The troubled Senator cast a quick glance at the floor before continuing. "But with everything that has happened, I am no longer confident that it would be wise. Even if I were to run -- and this must not leave this room -- I fear there are hidden forces within the Republic who would lash out and destroy me. It might be career suicide, or it might be literal suicide. And I'm no good to Corellia or anyone else if I'm dead."

The tension was evident in his voice, and he paused again. "I'm just not sure what to do anymore. I can't sit and do nothing, but I see no safe course of action. I am hoping that calling for an election will force those operating in the shadows of the Republic to tip their hands to the rest of us." He wasn't sure why he was telling her all this. Sighing again, he tilted his head, and examined her face closely, his gaze captured by her radiant silver eyes. "What do you think I should do, Princess Thul? I would greatly value your honest opinion."

Standash was brave, and Dmitri had to give her credit. Most politicians would not have stood still for such a message, even if it was painfully true. And most junior Senators of her stature would not have dared to speak in such a way to a member of the Senate elite. But Dmitri was not like most career politicians, and Standash was already gaining a reputation for knowing when and how to speak her mind to her fellow Senators.

Instead of reacting angrily, Koronov simply frowned, his disappointment obvious, but manifesting itself only in sadness. "I don't put much stock in my attacker, he was one lone man with bad information who made a bad decision for what he thought were noble reasons. That is why I declined to press charges." The middle-aged Corellian countered. "But I fear your overall assessment is correct. I have wondered for weeks whether I had any real chance to separate my own reputation from the death spiral of my former political allies." He nodded respectfully to the beautiful young woman.. "Thank you for sharing the view from your position. It is perspective I badly needed to hear." She had given a very complete answer, he realized -- almost as if she already had a solution in mind.

He paused, his face once more taking on a curious look. "So who would you propose instead? Yourself, perhaps?"

His eyes twinkled as she turned the question back on him. She hadn't denied it, and he had a strong feeling now that this was the true reason she had come to see him, but at the same time, deep down, he was worried. Not because she couldn't do the job, but because he worried she might be jumping too quickly into the deep end of Republic politics. Those were dangerous waters to swim in, no matter who you were.

"Well, you would have the advantages of being a relative outsider to the Senate, and so it would be very hard for anyone to accuse you of being complicit in failures that began long before you took office. So you would have that advantage over me. And, like me, you are from a trusted Core World that makes up the backbone of the Republic, and so it would not be so very hard for you to get the other Core Worlds to back you." He smiled. "So on those counts, you would do well. And I have no doubt you could do the job, if it were given to you."

He paused, before delivering the not-so-good part of his assessment. "However, as for how it would play out, I would be just as worried for you as I am for myself. We don't know what is going on behind the shadows, or why the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor have gone missing. How do we know that whomever is responsible for that, would not make you or I their very next victim?" He frowned. "We need to know what is going on, plain and simple."

"I said we need information." Koronov countered with emphasis. "I did not mean that we can afford to wait. We have zero time, but we have to play our cards carefully. One of the reasons I assembled my staff today, aside from the election, was to form a plan to draw out the shadows as quickly as possible." He sighed. "I have appealed to the Jedi for help, and they have long been friends and allies to me, but even they have been unwilling or unable to help this time around." He respected the fire that she was showing now. He was intentionally pushing her to see how she would respond. He knew some of the challenges the candidates would face. She had to be ready.

"I want to make sure that you understand how serious the stakes are in this game. You must be prepared to give your life for the Republic, if that is what it takes to bring a new era of stability to the Republic." He paused for a long moment, staring deeply into her eyes in search of any hesitation. "If you are committed to this, and you can answer my questions, then I will support you. But first, how do you plan to win the support of the non-human populations, especially those on the Rim? The speakers at the Ryloth gala said many nice things about inter-species relations, but the Republic needs a leader who will act, not just talk. Your enemies will paint you as a sheltered rich girl from the Core Worlds who knows nothing of their hardships."

He was not yet convinced, but he was willing to be won over, if she had a plan that was superior to his own. 

"Trade and investment are excellent places to start, but those take time for the benefits to develop. The same is true of immigration. You -- we -- may not be able to afford to wait for those initiatives to win support in the Rim." The ideas were well thought-out, although they were not quite the immediate fix he was hoping to hear. At her comment about bribery, however, Dmitri was taken aback, and worked hard to suppress his reaction. Outwardly, he just shook his head. "Bribery is not the answer, Princess. That is the same mistake that so many of your peers have made when they arrived here. They saw the corruption, and they began to emulate it. And so, with each generation, instead of being better politicians than their predecessors, nothing changes. Buying friendships creates the expectation of future payoffs. As soon as your money stops flowing, the leeches find a new host. If you bribe your way to the top, all of your support will abandon you at the first sign of hardship."

He sighed. "If you are going to buy the Chancellorship, I don't want to know about it, or participate. It hasn't been easy, but I got where I am today, and have stayed in office as long as I have, because I earned trust with the Corellian people. I did it at every economic level, and because my constituents -- and their friends on other worlds -- know that I will help people because I care about them. Yes, I offer many types of aid to people in need, and I have participated in relief efforts more than once, and yes, those people are more likely to vote for me as a result, but I did it because it was the right thing to do. Never lose sight of that. When you forget why you are helping people, and do it only to preserve your own position, the outward results may look the same, but those relationships don't last because they aren't sincere, and that is when a Senator's humanity dies and he becomes another heartless cog in the bureaucracy."

The Corellian stopped, almost surprised at the fervor of his own words, and he shook his head again. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to rant at you. But take it from an old man, corruption always comes back to bite you in the end." He cracked a smile. "Getting back to the experience question, I would recommend that you find someone you trust, someone who can balance your ticket with the necessary experience, and ask them to be your Vice Chancellor. That is what I had planned to do, in order to make up for my own weaknesses. My ideal running mate would have been someone from the Outer Rim, of a non-human species, and who is much younger and less experienced than me, but who had proven themselves in the Coruscanti political scene. Someone like Belf'ima of Ryloth, who filled in so capably in Senator Crom'nen's absence." He mentioned her only as if she were an example, but in reality Belf'ima was his top pick. He was testing the name out, to see what sort of reaction it brought, even though he knew he was unlikely to run for Chancellor this time around.

Koronov slowly nodded, and the pace of his head moments quickened as Standash continued laying out her explanation. Despite his somewhat harsh assessment, he was actually impressed with her thinking, but he wanted her to prove to him that she knew how to handle the money suckers, and where to draw the line. His questions were a test. There was much danger in being a fresh face on Coruscant, and once the leaches got their tentacles into you, then never let go. The Corellian had watched several former friends destroyed by such activities. It always started small, but it rarely stayed small. His nod stopped as the fire came into her eyes, and his stern look melted back into the infamous grin of his homeworld.

"That is all well-reasoned, my friend." He responded kindly. "And I personally am very happy that you brought Alderaan back into the Republic. That has long been one of my chief diplomatic goals. Corellia was never stronger than she was when the Alderaanians were close allies during my childhood." It was becoming obvious where this was all leading, even before she said it, but even so, he was slightly surprised when he realized the conversation had come full circle.

Dmitri took a deep breath at the offer, and his eyes almost twinkled. "From your perspective, viewing the strengths and weaknesses of your candidacy, that is an excellent idea, if I do say so myself." He said. "You might do even better with a man of my experience from the Rim, but Senators from the Rim rarely last long enough to meet that criteria." He paused. "There are two questions this brings to my mind, however. First, you just spend a lot of time telling me that I am toxic, and guilty by association. Doesn't that also apply to the Vice Chancellorship?" He had, after all, held the job previously, albeit under a much more competent Chancellor than any of the recent ones. "And second, how will you respond to people who believe that you are only my puppet? How will you prove to them that you are a leader in your own right, and I am not a predator waiting to steal your title? "

He was ready to accept, but he needed to know that she could sell this to the voters.