“Oh, yes, Ackbar, I know this name, too. He, too, was a great warrior in the Rebellion. But you are mistaken. I have not had the honor of the counsel of the Ackbar, ” said Jobath.
“No? “
“I have come here directly from your Eastport, and before that from Galantos, to speak with you in a matter of great urgency. A terrible evil prowls The Multitude. Many have died already. My people fear for their future. “
As he was speaking, Leia was slowly drawn back to the fence. She curled her fingers around the wrought work and closed them into fists.
“How do you know what’s happened? “
“There was a warning sent to us from a ship which came out of The Multitude, ” said Jobath. “A freighter bound for Woqua intercepted the beam of this signal, or we would not have heard the warning for a very long time-if ever. We sent our own vessel out to find this ship. It, too, found the signal, but the ship itself has vanished. “
Leia realized that Plat Mallar, facing unconsciousness, must have used the interceptor’s combat comm to transmit his recordings toward his destination. Doing so would make him, and even his ship, expendable, since no force in the galaxy could gather up or destroy his comm signal.
“We have the ship, ” she said, resting her forehead against the fence. “And the pilot. “
“I am glad to know this. I would like to offer him refuge on Galantos, and, if he wishes it, citizenship in the Fia. “
“That will have to wait, I’m afraid, ” said Leia. “What do you want from me? “
“I’ve come to ask the protection of the New Republic and the great Princess Leia for my planet and my people, ” said Jobath, clasping the fence with long fingered hands just below where Leia clung to it. “I be seech you to accept a petition for membership, and fortify us against these murderers. “
Leia pulled her hands back as though fearing contact with Jobath.
“I’ll consider your petition, ” she said uncomfortably, and started to back away.
“Please hurry, ” said Jobath. “There is little time. If they who fell on Polneye choose to leave The Multitude, we could be the next to suffer their predation. Our entire navy has only two patrol corvettes, and the cutter which brought me here. Half a million lives are at risk on Galantos alone. “
**** (diplomatic) hostel. They’ll provide you with quarters. I’ll send word to you there. “
Then she turned and fled into the house. But the walls did not offer the same sanctuary they had recently promised, and sleep was no longer possible.
Within an hour of Jobath’s arrival at the diplomatic hostel, three other worlds with legations quartered there submitted emergency petitions for membership. Two of the three were located in sectors far from Koornacht, the third in Hatawa, but still many light-years from the trouble.
All three, along with the Fia, received only silence in reply.
For the moment there was silence, too, on the newsgrids. So far the Polneye tragedy had escaped their attention. Coruscant Global Newsgrid was still dissecting the fallout from the explosive Senate session earlier in the week.
But in its midday refresh, Global added a new item to the feature queue-a speculative report that Princess Leia had already resigned as president. According to the rumor (treated as fact), an announcement would be made as soon as the top military leaders and the Senate agreed on a replacement.
Sitting in his Fleet office, Admiral Ackbar viewed that news with mixed contempt and bemusement. Even if Leia had resigned, the idea that the Fleet would have any part in selecting a new Chief of State was absurd.
The idea that any such negotiations would take place without him was equally absurd.
But Ackbar pondered long and hard whether he should pick up his comlink and start a rumor of his own. “We ought to get out in front this time, ” he said aloud to himself. “Put Plat Mallar’s face and story on the grids. Show everyone what happened on Polneye, and bring them over to Leia’s side. That’s what I would do. If she could just bring herself to admit that the viceroy never was a friend-” He shook his head. It wasn’t time yet. He would watch the news from Farlax, where the Fifth Fleet’s prowlers were now all on station outside Koornacht Cluster, sweeping hyperspace with their sensitive ripple filters, and the news from the Senate and administrative complex, where every analyst and commentator in Imperial City was on duty, sifting the corridor gossip with their hypersensitive news antennae. And he would wait to see which situation changed first.
Absurd or not, the Global report on Leia’s resignation ran through the diplomatic hostel like a virulent infection. It puzzled many, and worried Jobath, who began to fear he had brought his appeal to the wrong ears. That fear carried him, in the company of the seneschal of the Marais, to the office of Chairman Behn-kihl-nahm.