The Black Fleet Crisis_ Tyrant's Test Part 19

With more than fifty connected structures and twenty thousand rooms and chambers, the great size and complexity of the Imperial Palace had inspired many stories.

It was said that near the end of construction, eight workers were lost for nearly a month when their com-tracker failed. Rumors persisted about a chamber with no doors, sections with a hundred or more rooms that had never been occupied, and the hidden treasure compartment of "the pirate general," Toleph-Sor.

There were at least eleven offices and nine other rooms with their own true stories of murder, plus the grisly tale of Frona Zeffla, who died at her desk and went undiscovered for more than a year. Longtime staffers recalled how the children of Palpatine's aides, given free rein to roam at will, played three-day-long games of "Hunter" in the lifts and corridors.

Though much of the old palace had been damaged or destroyed by the clone Emperor's Force Storm, what survived or had been rebuilt was still easily large enough to either hide in or get lost in. That was a key reason the first administrator had required everyone above the third rank to carry a comlink and to keep it active.

Nearly everyone above the third rank required those who served below them to carry them as well.

But Engh's edict did not apply to Leia, whose comlink was typically off as much as it was on. So at the outset of the Yevethan crisis, Alole and Tarrick had conspired with the security teams to make certain that someone with an active comlink was constantly in touch with the President whenever she was in the Palace.

Alole had had the duty that afternoon, but in a busy moment, Leia had slipped away unannounced through her office's second exit. The aide did not discover the President's absence until General Rieekan's red-border alert pushed everything else off the comm displays throughout the suite.

Her first call was to The Sniffer, who should have been standing by at the only entrance to the executive level. "Are you with the President?" Alole asked.

"No, ma'am. She has not left the floor."

Next Alole paged Tarrick, who by then had already heard about the alert. "Have you seen the President?"

"No. She's not with you?" he asked.

"She scampered sometime in the last half hour."

"I'll query the spotters," said Tarrick, referring to their private list of nine offices and seven ministry officials it was Leia's habit to visit. "Have you looked in the cave?"

"I'm on my way there now."

Her feet carried her flying down the back corridor toward the little-used private s.p.a.ces in the adjacent tower. Mon Mothma had used them as an extension of the President's office, holding private meetings in the small, intimate lounge, taking air and exercise in the sunny garden courtyard.

Leia rarely went there-when her office walls closed in on her, the Princess usually preferred to escape the executive level entirely.

But that was where Alole found her--dead asleep on the triangular corner bed in the privacy room. Looking down on Leia's peaceful expression, Alole hesitated to wake her. Leia's fatigue had been obvious to everyone that morning, and this was the first time in many days that she had seen Leia's face unmarked by tension and frown lines.

Then, sighing, Alole reached out and took hold of the golden-green metal post at the nearest point of the triangle. Shaking it gently, she said Leia's name twice, then stepped back.

"Tarrick--she's here," she said quietly into her comlink. "We'll be out in a minute or two. Set up the recording for replay. See if General Rieekan wants to come up."

"I'm on it," Tarrick said. "Admiral Ackbar is on his way over from Fleet. "

The distinctively tinny sound of Tarrick's voice as heard through a comlink seemed to be what finally reached through Leia's fatigue and demanded her attention.

She sat up with a wordless cry, unfocused eyes, and balled fists.

"It's all right. It's only me, Alole," the aide said, slipping the comlink back into her pocket. "Come--hurry.

Nil Spaar is on Channel Eighty-one."

Four of the six people at the conference table with Leia were seeing the viceroy's announcement for the second time. Only one of them ventured to try to prepare her for what she would see.

"If this is an answer to Ourn's message," said Admiral Graf, "the message is that we've been worrying about the wrong thing. Han Solo is no longer important."

"Let me hear it for myself," Leia said, reaching for the controller.

The recording began with something they had not seen before--the emblem of the Duskhan League, a double circle of three-pointed stars on a scarlet background.

Then Nil Spaar appeared.

This time, however, he had company. Standing beside him was a human wearing the black uniform of an Imperial Moff.

Graf leaned toward Leia. "Behind them--that's the bridge of a Super-cla.s.s Star Destroyer."

She silenced him with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"I address the strong, proud leaders of the va.s.sal worlds of the New Republic," the viceroy began. "I bring you an announcement, and a warning.

"As I speak, the enormous battle fleet under the command of Princess Leia continues its reckless invasion of Koornacht Cl.u.s.terterritory that has belonged to the Yevethan people for more than ten thousand years.

"Up until this moment, we have shown great restraint, despite having been attacked in our own home.

Against the urging of my military commanders, I have held our own powerful fleet in reserve except where the lives of civilians are in danger. I have done all I can to minimize casualties on both sides. I have given Princess Leia every opportunity to change her course and withdraw her forces.

"I am saddened that she has chosen instead to reinforce them. In recent weeks, she has rejected the wisdom of her advisors and secretly dispatched hundreds more warships to threaten the worlds of the Duskhan League.

"I am saddened, but not surprised. This woman sabotaged a promising negotiation between my people and the New Republic, because peace did not suit her ambitions. She sat across from me and lied about her intentions- -and while she lied, her agents spied on us, looking for weakness, planning a war of conquest.

"I know that the good citizens of the New Republic are even now trying to drive this deceiver from your capital. But she has bought many friends on Coruscant, and others have reason to fear her. It will be a bruising fight, though I hope that honor will ultimately prevail."

"Here comes the good part," Graf whispered to Ackbar.

"But the Yevethan people can no longer await the outcome," said Nil Spaar. "We can no longer risk our future on the hope that Princess Leia will find her conscience and leave us in peace. We must protect ourselves.

By refusing our offer of friendship, by threatening our very existence, Leia has forced us to seek friends where we otherwise would not have."

Nil Spaar raised a hand in the direction of the man beside him. "We have invited the Empire to return to Koornacht Cl.u.s.ter as allies--"

"That's--that's completely unbelievable," Leia sputtered. "They despise the Empire."

"--I have come to you to announce that, the Duskhan League and the Grand Imperial Union have concluded a treaty of mutual a.s.sistance.

Moff Tragg Brathis is commander of the battle fleet now stationed here."

The uniformed man nodded, Nil Spaar paused, and the holo tracked to the right until the view forward out the bridge viewports confirmed that the vessel was Super-cla.s.s. For a few seconds, at least half a dozen other Star Destroyers were visible as well, flying in formation over the limb of a dusty yellow planet.

Then Nil Spaar moved in to block the view. "You have seen enough now to understand. If the NewRepublic does not withdraw from our borders- -if the President, whoever that might be, does not swiftly acknowledge our just claim to these stars--the combined strength of the League and the Union stands ready. Your actions will determine the course of the future."

The display dissolved to a scarlet curtain, with the Duskhan League emblem appearing again before the screen went black.

"Is that the end of it?" Leia asked.

"That's it."

She pressed a b.u.t.ton on the controller and threw it down on the table.

"Does anyone here think this is real?"

"I have a.s.set Tracking working on the recording," said Graf.

"Nylykerka should be able to tell us if we've seen those ships before, during the flash recon."

"Will he be able to tell us when they got there and who controls them?" asked Rieekan. "Perhaps this pact is real, and was concluded months ago, in secret."

"Why reveal it now?"

"Why not? Since we already know about the Imperial ships, he has nothing to lose by telling everyone else.

And it's obvious what he hopes to gain."

"What do you mean, 'telling everyone else'?" Leia demanded of Rieekan.

"Did this go out to the entire system?"

Rieekan raised an eyebrow and looked down the table.

"Yes," admitted the director of the communications agency. "It appeared in the system in a standard diplomatic packet, with the expected coding. There was no reason for the filters to trap it."

"Interesting times are ahead," Ackbar said to himself, shaking his head.

Leia looked disgusted. "Can we at least find out this time where it got into the system?"

"We're working on it," the other woman said defensively.

"There are more than three hundred thousand authorized entry ports for a low-security channel like Eighty-one."

"Black box on an enabled hypercomm," said Rieekan. "That's all it would take. It doesn't even have to be on Coruscant."

"Excuse me," said Nanaod Engh. Only a few heads turned his way, and he cleared his throat and repeated himself. "Excuse me. This is unimportant. Mere de-tails--trivialities.

There is more to this than what happens in this room."

Leia spun her chair sharply toward him. "Go on."

"We are not the intended audience for the viceroy's message," he said, and gestured expansively with his hands. "They are. That bolt was aimed at the hearts of our citizens."

"But it is a fraud," Ackbar insisted. "There is no pact. There is no Moff Brathis, no Grand Union, no Imperial fleet. I am certain of it."

"And you may well be right," said Engh. "But that is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if what we saw is the truth or a lie. It doesn't matter what we here believe.

General Rieekan, what kind of proof could you offer to refute that image- -a black-shirt commander standing with Nil Spaar on an Imperial Star Destroyer?"

"Why, there are many ways to attack it. We have experts in--" "No, General. You cannot refute that image with words." He looked to Leia.

"It does not matter what species they are; people trust what they see.

Words alone will not make them believe they were fooled. Out there, they are turning to each other and saying, 'Well, what do you think we ought to do about this?" Not 'Do you think it's true?" I don't know what they will decide they feel. I only know that it is true, for them the Yevetha have allied with the Empire."

Engh rocked back in his chair. "I think the President's image a.n.a.lysts should see this as soon as possible.

And I hope you will finally make time to meet with them yourself, Leia.

The days ahead will not be shaped by questions and answers, the lore of experts, the reasoned judgment of earnest beings gathered around tables.

Cherished belief, powerful emotion, and the image that plays in the mind in the moment before sleep comes--they will write the story of the days ahead. "

Tholatin was uninhabited save for the smugglers' hideaway known as Esau's Ridge, nestled in a deep lateral erosion cut at the base of a towering rock face. The cut was a thousand meters long and up to a hundred meters deep, with a maximum of six meters' clearance in the berthing area under the cantilevered granite ceiling.

A warren of smaller artificial tunnels and chambers extended the complex another two hundred meters into the mountain.

It was one of the most private of all the smugglers' sanctuaries, invisible from orbit and well defended against intruders. Even the three landing clearings in the forest that covered the valley floor were concealed, hidden.

by retractable military-grade camouflage nets with infrared screens.

It was also one of the most exclusive sanctuaries, open only to the elite veterans of the trade, to the well-connected rather than the well-heeled. Or, at least, it once had been. When the Millennium Falcon arrived there, Esau's Ridge was more crowded than Chewbacca could remember ever seeing it. Parking clearances in the landing area were down to half a meter, and the floating berth fees were accordingly high.

[Peace did not seem to have hurt the trade,] he growled to the berthing collector as he paid the first day's fee.

"When they are not busy fighting wars, governments amuse themselves by forbidding things," said the collector. "There will always be work for us. Welcome back to the Ridge, Chewbacca. By the way, I threw two of the kids out of here to make room for this trash heap you call a ship."

Chewbacca paid without complaint the expected bribe for that privilege of seniority. [Is Plothis still here?] "Shot four years ago in a squabble with a customer.

Bracha e'Naso took over the business."

[What about Formayj and the brokerage?] "Same old place," said the ollector. "Be sure and look up Armatin the Dread while you're here--he retired and bought the slava bar. He'll be glad to see you if you can catch him sober. "

For their own protection, Chewbacca instructed Lumpawarrump and Jowdrrl to stay inside the ship.

With Shoran and Dryanta standing guard, the Falcon was as safe as it could be in a port of thieves--but Esau's Ridge could be as dangerous as the Shadow Forest for the inexperienced.

Chewbacca had come there for information and for specialized supplies.

The former proved more costly than the latter, and the latter came dear enough. e'Naso treated Chewbacca like a celebrity, then tried to overcharge him by half, as though he were some star-eyed pupling who'd never run a picket line.

"It's almost impossible for me to keep these items in stock,"

e'Naso protested when Chewbacca growled threateningly. "You've seen the berthing line--demand is very high, and replacing my stock will cost me a premium.

You want a better price, you get Maniid and the others who run my shipments to take less for their risk."

Another customer, an old Kiffu male browsing through the catalog of bootleg holos, overheard the conversation and intervened. "Haggling with a Wookiee," the customer said, shaking his head. "That shows courage, e'Nasoeven Plothis wouldn't have dared it. Have you decided who will inherit the shop?"