“Or I take these with me to my own offices and deal with them there.
And then I inform Nanaod that he will need to find a new executive aide, since the last one has been dismissed for insubordination.”
Trell let her comlink slip down into her hand. Her fingers twisted the endpiece. “Faylee,” she said evenly.
“Have you located a tablet yet?”
A moment later the door to the staff conference room opened, and a clerk entered bearing an endorsement tablet. Trell nodded toward Leia, and the clerk placed the tablet on the table in front of her, then excused herself.
“Will you sit down?” Leia invited, indicating the chair opposite hers.
When Trell complied, Leia placed the first petition on the tablet and activated its recording system. The prism-shaped bulge at the top of the tablet contained three holo lenses—one to record the document itself, one to record the signer in the act of signing, and one to record the witness sitting opposite.
“President Leia Organa Solo, acting for the New Republic in the matter of the emergency petition of Galantos for membership,” she said, taking up the endorsing stylus.
“Poas Trelt, senior aide to First Administrator Engh, witnessing.”
Leia signed the petition with a flourish. “Approved.
President Leia Organa Solo, acting for the New Republic in the matter of the emergency petition of Wehttam for membership—” When Leia reached the fifth document in the stack, Trell hesitated. “Do you mean to approve all the Farlax petitions?”
“I mean to approve all the petitions, period. Please continue.”
Trell drew a long breath, thought something she decided not to say, and folded her hands on the table.
“Poas Trell, senior aide to the first administrator—” Minister Falanthas arrived just in time for Leia to hand him the stack of approved petitions as she left.
“Good morning, Mokka,” she said. “I’m sorry you were called away from your meeting for nothing. But since you’re here, let me ask you to see that all the governments are notified as soon as possible. No, wait—do you happen to know if Councillor Jobath is still on Coruscant?”
“I believe he is at the diplomatic hostel.”
“Then you can leave Galantos to me—I’d like to inform the councillor myself.”
As she started to leave, Minister Falanthas looked down at the stack of documents in his hands, then up at Leia. “What should I tell Chairman Beruss?”
“Tell him that we’ve done the right thing,” Leia called back to him.
“Tell him we can move on to the hard decisions now.”
“Dr. Yintal called you ‘Admiral,’” said Plat Mallar as he and Ackbar walked slowly through the exercise garden in the courtyard of the Fleet infirmary. “He treated you like more than an old star pilot. He treated you like someone important.”
“Dr. Yintal is unusually respectful for a doctor,” Ackbar said. “How does it feel to be moving?”
“Better than it did to be in that bed,” said Mallar.
“Was I really in that tank for sixteen days?”
“I was there when you were brought in,” said Ackbar. “You were terribly, terribly ill.”
“Is a day here the same as a day on Polneye?”
“Just the same, I suspect—one sunset to the next,” Ackbar said, and chuckled at his own joke. “Does Polneye still use Imperial System measures and the decimal clock?”
“A day here is fourteen hundred standard time parts long,” Ackbar said.
“You can adjust your expectations accordingly.”
“That’s shorter,” said Mallar. “The Polneye day is eighteen hundred ST. Still, sixteen days—” His expression suddenly changed to one of worry. “How am I going to pay for all that?”
“You owe us nothing,” said Ackbar. “Your care is a gift from the New Republic, one we are more than happy to give.” He paused and gestured toward a nearby bench. “Would you like to stop for a while?”
“No,” Mallar said, nodding. “It feels good to be walking.”
“Then we will walk,” said Ackbar, resuming his almost-shuffling pace.
“Dr. Yintal said he didn’t know anything about what’s been happening at Polneye,” Mallar said after a time. “If you are an admiral, does that mean you might know more?”
“I’m afraid the last report we have from Polneye is yours,” Ackbar said. “We have not been able to raise them, or to send a scout in.”
“In sixteen days? Why not?”
“Plat Mallar, you must try to prepare yourself for the idea that you are the only survivor of that horrible attack,” said Ackbar.