"In other news, Onderon has just announced their decision to leave the Republic. Senator Bonteri claims in an interview that her issues with Palpatine as Chancellor–"
The interviewer was cut off as Padmé closed her datapad, unable to listen to any more news from the holonet. She had been intending to just catch up on the issues relevant to her work on the Outer Rim, but instead she was once more reminded of the hot ticket issue of the day.
Ever since Dooku had pulled Serenno from the Galactic Senate and the Republic, it had been difficult to escape news on the growing movement from the Confederacy of Independent Systems. It was the main topic of conversation on the senate floor as whispers of the latest system to secede and discussion on whether to recognize them as a legitimate governing force in the galaxy had been the topic of far too many meetings. At first, the discussions had been frustrating: there wasn't a lot to be done about one or two Systems leaving the Republic behind, but as time went on it was more and more difficult for Padmé to ignore Dooku's parting words as he'd left them behind.
She agreed with him: corruption was rife in the senate. Naboo was the Chancellor's home planet and there had been nothing she or Palpatine could do to ensure that the Trade Federation received justice for their siege on Naboo during her time as queen. The knowledge of that fact and how it impacted her even now made it more difficult every day to justify staying in the Republic. Dooku's Separatist movement gained traction every day, he was right about nobody doing anything to stop the corporations from gaining control, and now even trusted friends like Senator Bonteri were taking action to join him. If she left, she could have a chance to join a government that she could shape, but she was abandoning those that stayed. It was a situation without an answer.
The sound of the door opening pulled Padmé from her contemplations. She turned around, watching Cordé enter the room with a smile. "Milady." Cordé nodded to her, sitting down on one of the other chairs in the room.
"It's good to see you, Cordé." Padmé smiled, genuine though without much mirth. Even if her own thoughts were fraught with uncertainty, just having a friend with her helped to ease some of her worries.
"Something seems like it's troubling you." Though Cordé picked up on it immediately, she didn't ask Padmé for more information on what was wrong. She would let Padmé choose to avoid the subject if she wanted to.
But she didn't want to. Padmé needed to get her thoughts out of her head, before both her concerns and the state of the galaxy drove her further into her spiral. "I was watching the Holonews." It was enough of an explanation. The galaxy was in a state of turmoil and any reporter was going to great lengths to cover it now that they were on the brink of a civil war. Cordé nodded in response, waiting for further elaboration. "Do you think what we're doing is right?"
"What do you mean?"
Padmé sighed. She couldn't blame Cordé for not having all the answers when Padmé hadn't even explained what she thought she was doing wrong. "Staying here, in the Senate. I want to have faith in Chancellor Palpatine, but since he took office, the Republic has hardly changed. It's still so full of corruption." If it weren't for the fact that she wanted to stay loyal to her mentor, she might have almost mentioned that it felt as though things had gotten worse. "What if Dooku's right? What if the only solution is to leave, and rebuild things from the ground up?"
Cordé leaned onto the arm rest, her chin laying on her hand as she contemplated Padmé's question. "Would leaving fix anything for those who stay, or stop corruption from reaching its hands into the new government that's established as more and more people from the current Republic Senate begin to join?"
"No." Padmé had her answer immediately. Maybe at first, those that joined the Separatist movement may have had nothing but the best intentions, but as time went on, it was unlikely to stay that way. There was nothing that would stop senators like Rush Clovis or Orn Free Taa from joining and making things as bad as they are in the Republic. Even if there was something to stop them, it wouldn't stop corruption from rising within the new government, just like it had in the Republic before, and then there would be two corrupt Senates fighting for power over the state of the galaxy.
Dooku's new government would be a bandage on a wound that would eventually reopen, not a solution that would fix it forever. "I think it might fix things at first, but in the end, it wouldn't prevent corruption from starting all over again."
"Then you have your answer." Cordé smiled, having noticed how sure Padmé now was.
And she was sure of herself, now. No matter how tempting the fresh start seemed, no matter how much she understood their desire to leave the Republic to escape everything that went wrong, it wasn't the solution Padmé could take. She stood up from her chair, only stopped from exiting by Cordé's arm grabbing hers. "Where are you going?"
"To my office. If you came with me, I'd appreciate the help." She had to start going over everything with a new eye. If she spent enough time going over the situation, both by herself and with the help of Bail and Mon, maybe the three of them could come up with a new bill to fix the Senate and resolve these problems before they got out of control.
The three of them could do it. They could stop the coming Separatist crisis and fix the corruption in the Senate.
But before Padmé could do that, she had some calls to make.