“Certainly they have problems,” Pellaeon said. “But if you’re expecting them to collapse into a full-fledged civil war over Caamas or anything else, I think you’re being unrealistic.”
“Begging the Admiral’s pardon, but I respectfully disagree,” Hestiv said. “Particularly if we engaged in a little judicious pushing of our own.”
Pellaeon stifled a sigh. Yet another argument he’d heard over and over again on this trip. “So you’d have us encourage them in their self-destruction,” he said. “Emptying your shipyards if necessary; draining all the manpower and resources from your Ubiqtorate base. Leaving this system totally defenseless.”
“If it’s necessary to go that far, yes,” Hestiv said. “This is a military base, Admiral. That’s how its resources are supposed to be used.”
“Granted,” Pellaeon said with a nod. “And what do you suppose will happen when they find out we’ve been goading them?”
“There’s no reason they need to find out,” Hestiv argued. “We don’t have to use our Star Destroyers or TIE fighters or anything else obviously Imperial.”
“No.” Pellaeon shook his head. “We can keep up such a charade for a while, maybe even a long while. But in the end, they’ll find out. And then they’ll unite again, at least long enough to destroy us.”
Hestiv looked out the window at the blue-green sphere in the distance. “At least that way we’d go down fighting,” he said with obvious difficulty. “Your way … there’s no honor in surrender, Admiral.”
“There’s no honor in wasting lives for nothing, either,” Pellaeon countered.
Hestiv smiled wryly. “I know. But at least if you’re dead you don’t have to live with the shame of it.”
“There are some in the Fleet who would call that a noble warrior attitude,” Pellaeon said. “Personally, I’d call it stupid. II we’re destroyed-if we all die-the concepts and ideals of the New Order die with us. But if we surrender, we can keep those ideals alive. Then, if and when the New Republic self-destructs, we’ll be positioned to rise again. Maybe then the galaxy will finally be ready to accept us.”
Hestiv grimaced. “Perhaps.”
“There’s no disgrace in backing out of a no-win situation General,” Pellaeon said quietly. “I saw Grand Admiral Thrawn do it more than once, forthrightly and without embarrassment, rather than waste his men and ships. That’s no more or less what I’m proposing we do now.”
Hestiv swirled his drink restlessly in his glass. “I presume you’ve already consulted with the Moffs about this.”
“I have,” Pellaeon said. “In the end, they agreed.”
“Reluctantly, I suppose.”
“None of us is exactly enthusiastic about it,” Pellaeon said. “We simply recognize that it has to be done.”
Hestiv took a deep breath, exhaled it. “I suppose you’re right. I wish you weren’t.” He lifted his glass, drained it in a single swallow. “Very well, Admiral. You have my support, which I presume was the real reason you came to Yaga Minor. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“As a matter of fact, there is,” Pellaeon said, pulling out datacard and handing it across the desk. “First of all, I’d like you to run this list of names through the Ubiqtorate base’s computer system.”
“Certainly,” Hestiv said, sliding the datacard into its slot and keying his terminal. “Anything in particular you’re looking for?”
“Unaltered information,” Pellaeon told him. “These are people I suspect of having shady financial ties to Moff Disra, but we haven’t been able to track the connections.”
“And Disra wouldn’t let you look through the Bastion records?” Hestiv suggested with a wry smile.
“I’m sure he would have,” Pellaeon said. “I just don’t happen to think I’d be able to trust what those records said.”
“Well, you can trust these,” Hestiv assured him, keying his board. “No one gets into my records without proper and double-confirmed authorization. That major from the Obliterator -Tierce-certainly found that out when he tried to-“
“Major Tierce?” Pellaeon interrupted him. “Major Grodin Tierce?”
“Yes, that’s the one,” Hestiv said, frowning. “He was here on behalf of Captain Trazzen, only we couldn’t make contact with the Obliterator to confirm the authorization so we wouldn’t let him into the system. Why, is something wrong?”