Tolik Yar’s face flushed, and his hand moved toward the ceremonial dagger he wore on his breastplate.
But the hand of the officer standing beside him stayed the impulse.
“Wait, ” General Antilles said softly. “Give him a little more rope. “
Senator Peramis swept his gaze across the room and found that every face was turned toward him. “I am sorry to spoil the festive moment, and waste the expensive pyrotechnics thoughtfully arranged for us by Admiral Ackbar and General A’baht. I am sorry to raise Senator Yar’s blood pressure, and to offend Senator Marook’s well-honed sense of propriety. But I cannot be silent.
“What I’ve learned in the months since I took my Council oath, what I’ve heard and seen today, alarms me profoundly. If I could, I would speak of this in the well of the Senate, before the eyes of the entire Republic. You have not bought security-you have built the machinery of oppression, and are about to hand it over to the progeny of the most brutal oppressor in history’s memory.
“I am deeply, unalterably opposed to arming the New Republic against its own members-“
“You are mistaken-” Admiral Ackbar began.
“That is what you’ve done! ” Senator Peramis said angrily. “The Fifth Fleet is a weapon of conquest and tyranny, nothing less and nothing more. And once a wea’pon is forged, it tantalizes, and tempts, and transfixes, until someone finds a reason to use it. You’ve given the son of Darth Vader a glittering temptation to follow his father’s path. You’ve given the daughter of Darth Vader a gift-wrapped invitation to secure her power by force of arms.
“And yet you sit here smiling and nodding and swallowing the fiction that all of it is for your protection. I am ashamed for you-ashamed. ” Senator Peramis shook his head vigorously, as though to clear it of unwelcome thoughts, then stalked out of the conference room.
Leia quickly turned her head
away, struggling to control
her expression, and to conceal the struggle.
The stunned silence was broken by embarrassed coughing and the squirming, shuffling sounds of officers and Council members shifting uncomfortably in their seats.
“Chairman! Chairman Behn-kihl-nahm! ” Senator Tolik Yar exclaimed, finding his voice at last. “I want him reprimanded! I want him brought before the Review! This is intolerable. The Seventh must send someone else to represent it. Intolerable, do you hear? “
“We all hear, Senator Yar, ” Behn-kihl-nahm said in his most silken, soothing voice as he moved toward Leia. “President Organa, allow me to apologize for Senator Peramis’s regrettable lapse-“
Tolik Yar snorted. “Why not apologize for the Emperor’s regrettable lapses as well? It would mean about as much. “
Behn-kihl-nahm ignored the comment. “You may remember, Princess Leia, that the hand of the Empire fell heavily on Walalla. Tig Peramis remembers all too well. He was only a boy, watching his world conquered, his people’s spirit destroyed. The memories fill him with a passion which inspires his diligence but betrays his good sense. I will speak with him. I am sure he already regrets his intemperate words. “
Behn-kihl-nahm’s exit was the cue for the room to empty. The others nearly fell over each other in their eagerness to excuse themselves, the ritual etiquette of salutes, congratulations, and good wishes so rushed that it took on the flavor of farce. Almost before she knew it, Leia was alone with Admiral Ackbar.
As she lifted a weary face to Ackbar’s sympathetic gaze, she attempted a wry smile. “I thought that went well-didn’t you? “
Just then, an image of General A’baht appeared on the primary display screen. “Etahn A’baht, reporting to Fleet Ops, Coruscant with copy to president of the Senate, ” the image said. “Live-fire exercise Hammerblow satisfactorily concluded. Detailed report on casualties, deficiencies, and the performance of individual commands to follow. Recommend that the Fifth Defense Task Force be considered operational this date. “
Then the display went dark.
Ackbar nodded, and clasped Leia’s shoulder with one large hand in a friendly and comforting gesture.
“Well enough, Madame President, ” he said. “Better to face bitter words than to face more fighting and dying. I think we have all had enough of that for a lifetime. “
She stared out the doorway through which Peramis had exited. “How could he be so foolish? ” she asked plaintively. “After Palpatine, Hethrir, Durga, Daala, Thrawn-one after another, with hardly enough time in between to heal the wounds and patch the hulls-how could he think we love war so much? “
“I have found that most foolishness begins with fear, ” said Ackbar.