[Black Fleet Crisis] - 02(86)

“He’s been calling us every morning for a fortnight,” the aide said with a lazy grin. “I think I can get him here.”

Alole had paused at the door. “Princess—” Leia looked up from the device. “Yes, Alole?”

“It’s good to have you back.”

“Run a tally sheet,” Leia said. “I’m betting yours is the minority opinion.”

Entering with a smile, Behn-kihl-nahm embraced Leia, then turned and closed the door to the President’s reception lounge. “How are you, Princess?”

“Better,” she said. “How am I, Bennie?”

Selecting the largest of the chairs, the chairman of the Defense Council made himself comfortable before answering. “You are safe for the moment. You still have the support of five of the seven Council chairs. There is no serious talk of convening the Ruling Council to consider a petition of no confidence.”

“That sounds better than I had reason to hope. Who are the contraries?

Borsk Fey’lya.” The opportunistic Bothan headed the Justice Council and had always been cool to Leia, not least because of her friendship with Ackbar.

“Of course,” Behn-kihl-nahm said. “There’s no possible advantage to him in supporting you—but if the tide turns, he has positioned himself as the leader of the opposition.

Since Justice has no real responsibility for either war or diplomacy, Fey’lya is free to play both the inside game and the outside game.”

“How so?”

“For now, the malcontents of the Senate will gather around him, simply because he stands taller than they do. He need not even promise them anything, though they may end up thinking he has. And when the grids come looking for what they call balance, he can be as provocative as he pleases.”

“You’re saying that I’ll have to get accustomed to the sound of his voice.”

“Whenever you are the subject of the grids’ attention, there he will be. In a month, perhaps two, if it should happen that you were removed, he will have acquired enough power and status to have a chance at becoming acting President.”

Leia nodded, frowning. “Surely you’d be in a stronger position than he would.”

“In this scenario, I would be fatally damaged by having been your champion in a losing cause,” said the chairman. “If you are recalled, whether by the Senate or the Ruling Council, they will not turn to me to replace you.”

“And if I resigned now?”

Behn-kihl-nahm wriggled his shoulders, settling deeper into the chair.

“There is no reason for you to do so—or even to contemplate it.”

“You wouldn’t be tainted,” she pressed. “And he wouldn’t have had a chance to enlarge his power bloc.”

“We are already where we belong, you and I,” said Behn-kihl-nahm.

“There’s no need to speak of change. It is an unnecessary distraction.”

“I’ll try to remember that when Borsk Fey’lya speaks of it from the Senate podium,” Leia said. “Who’s the other chairman to side with Fey’lya?”

“Chairman Rattagagech is the other, but I would not say he has sided with Chairman Fey’lya,” Behn-kihl-nahm said.

On hearing the name, Leia immediately understood the reason for her mentor’s distinction. The scholarly, thoughtful Elomin, who headed the Science and Technology Council, was in most respects the antithesis of the boisterous Bothan. “Do you know anything about his reasons?”

“As you would expect,” Behn-kihl-nahm said. “The Elomin love order.

After the events of the last few weeks, he views you as a font of social and political chaos rather than as a force for stability and order.”

“I suppose I can hardly blame him for that,” Leia said. “Is anyone teetering?”

“Chairman Praget has expressed some ambivalence to me,” said Behn-kihl- nahm, naming the head of the Security and Intelligence body.

“Of course, this is only the present. Much depends on what you do next. There is very little enthusiasm for war. Too aggressive a course could easily swing two, perhaps even three other members of the Council to support a petition of no confidence.

And then there would be no protecting you from a vote by the Senate common.”

“How much enthusiasm is there for justice?”

Behn-kihl-nahm shrugged. “Indifferent.

The

deaths

of

strangers, conveniently out of sight in Koornacht Cluster, do not weigh heavily against the prospect of the deaths of patriotic Republic pilots and fighting on peaceful Republic worlds. There are some who find a cause in these events, but more, perhaps, who see only a political crisis.”