“I do. “
“Then proceed with your presentation. “
When Behn-kihl-nahm’s first warning reached Princess Leia in her office, she headed not for the door but for the darkened display on which she was able to monitor the Senate’s hypercomm feed on Channel 11.
“I’m not rushing down there to put out a fire until I know what’s burning, ” she told Ackbar.
Moments later they were joined by First Administrator Engh, who had been routinely monitoring the Senate on his own and came running to alert Leia.
“Did you hear him? No information forthcoming! “
Engh raged. “The situation’s still developing-what is there to say? Aramadia is still sitting up there ignoring us. Bless Tolik Yar, anyway. Peramis hasn’t even called here-he didn’t try to get our side of it. “
“Shhh, ” Leia said. “I can’t hear what he’s saying. “
They did not have to watch long for Leia to conclude there was little she could accomplish by going to the Senate chamber.
“They know me, ” she said. “They know him. Let him make whatever intimations he wants. The Senate won’t rush to judgment. I’ll get my turn to be heard-but not today, in a shouting match with Peramis. He can have the floor to himself this morning. “
But when Peramis announced his intention to have Nil Spaar address the Senate, Ackbar became livid. “This is absurd. Benny can’t let Peramis do that. “
“He can’t stop him, ” Leia said. “He has to allow it. “
“But he’s not a member of the New Republic, ” Ackbar said. “Nil Spaar has no right to use the diplomatic channels. “
“A technicality, ” said Leia. “The chairman doesn’t dare hold such a feeble reed up in the wind that’s blowing down there. “
“If the viceroy addresses the Senate on Channel Eighty-one, it’s going to go out on the repeaters to every New Republic homeworld, ” Engh said. “Let me call someone I kno w over at Network Operations. He’d be willing to stop this from going offplanet on my word. “
“No, ” said Leia. “I’m not afraid of what he might say. Besides, the newsgrids are sure to have it by now. No, if the viceroy won’t speak to me, let him speak to whomever he wants. At least we’ll find out what this is all about. “
“Then proceed with your presentation, ” Behn-kihl-nahm was saying.
“I told you he’d have to allow it, ” said Leia.
“Quiet, both of you, until he’s done. I don’t want to miss any of this. “
Both the Coruscant Global Newsgrid and the independent New Republic Prime Newsgrid, tipped off by staffers from the offices of Senators Hodidiji and Peramis, had been following the contretemps in the Senate since Peramis had taken the floor.
Port officials hadn’t released any of the images captured by the official visual logs, but Global had an amateur recording of the liftoff ofArarnadia, made by a Belovian envoy who was seeing family off at the Eastport terminal.
That such a recording existed was almost inevitable, given how many lenses had been pointed in the direction of the Yevethan consular ship since its arrival.
But it was just chance that the first moments of the recording included a blurry glimpse of one of the sentries being tumbled along the ground by the downblast like a rag doll.
Prime’s recording of the liftoff had been made from much farther away, by a space hobbyist who kept a bank of automated recorders on the balcony of his dormitory, and included no such graphic detail. But Prime had somehow gotten close-ups of the damage on the ground, including shots of bodies draped in deathrobes lying on the ground and being loaded onto emergency speeders.
Nil Spaar studied both the Global and Prime broadcasts intently as he awaited the outcome of the wrangling between the two vermin. As had been the case ever since the Yevetha mission had begun, what he saw on the grids was instructive. He had been obliged to learn how to think like the vermin in order to exploit their weaknesses, and the grids had brought him all the lessons and opportunities he could have asked for.
But the viceroy could still hardly believe the mad absurdities he had witnessed, not least of all the scene playing out before him.
The idea that the vermin were allowed to speak against their supreme leader, without fear that they would be slain on the spot and their blood used to drown their children-the idea that an anointed body of elders would even listen to an outsider, much less give credence to an outsider’s insults-these were notions no Yevetha could easily accept. If Nil Spaar had not seen for himself the weak hand that now ruled over the vermin, he could not have credited such reports.