“The Devaronian did nothing deserving of death,” Gavrisom said quietly. “And there has been far too much killing throughout the galaxy already.”
“With more yet to come,” Fey’lya countered darkly. Would sacrificing one life to prevent it have been such a bad bargain?”
“That is a question all beings eventually ask themselves,” Gavrisom said. “For those who wish to remain civilized, there can be only one answer.” He settled his wings back into resting position across his withers and back. “Thank you both for coming, Councilors. I will speak with you again later.”
Moff Disra laid down his datapad. “Very satisfactory,” he said, looking at the others. “It all seems to be going quite well.”
“It all seems to be going quite slowly,” Flim countered sourly, leaning back in his seat with his feet hoisted up on a corner of Disra’s ivrooy desk. We have, what, a few pirate raids and maybe a hundred riots to our credit?”
“Patience is a virtue,” Tierce reminded him. “Even for soldiers. Especially for soldiers.”
“Ah, well, that must be the problem,” Flim countered. “I’m a con artist, not a soldier. But I can tell you that in my world, you can’t afford to string things out too long. You have to hook the target, taut the line, and then boat him-zip, zip, zip. You give him too much time to think, and you’ll lose him.”
“We’re not going to lose them,” Tierce soothed. “Trust me. This is a delicate stew we’re creating. It merely needs to simmer a bit longer.”
“Then maybe you should turn up the heat a little,” Flim said. “This is my greatest role ever; and so far the only people who’ve seen it have been the two of you and four Star Destroyer captains. When do I get to really show it off?”
“Keep it up and you may not get to show it off at all,” Disra told him, trying hard to hold on to his temper. Flim was starting to show all the eccentricities and quirks of a self-important stage entertainer, a personality type Disra had always despised.
“Don’t worry,” Tierce soothed. “You’ll get your chance for at least a private performance for the Rebels. But not until we know where it will do the most good. We need to know which alien governments are for heavy sanctions against the Bothans and which are for forgiveness and peaceful conciliation.”
“Which means you’ll probably be showing off for a Mon Calamari or a Duros,” Disra growled, glaring under his eyebrows at Tierce. This particular scheme was one of the Guardsman’s latest brain twists, and Disra still wasn’t at all sure he approved of it. The whole idea here was to use Flim to quietly inspire their Imperial forces, not scare the New Republic into coming down on their heads.
“Actually, the time is much closer than it looks,” Tierce went on, ignoring Disra’s comment. “Our spies on Coruscant have heard rumors of some petition that’s been filed with the President. If they can get hold of a copy and circulate it publicly, that should speed up the process. A few more days, I think, and we’ll be able to move on to the next phase.”
“I hope so,” Flim said. “Incidentally, I presume it’s occurred to you that there’s a very simple way the New Republic could resolve this whole crisis and cut the ground out from under us.”
“Of course it has,” Disra said with strained patience. “All they need to do is find out which specific Bothans were involved with Palpatine’s agents on Caamas.”
“And you’ve taken steps to prevent this from happening?”
“What do you take me for, a fool?” Disra snapped. “Of course I have. The only intact set of records is here on Bastion, and I’ve already dealt with them.”
“Actually, that’s not entirely accurate,” Tierce said thoughtfully. “The records at the Ubiqtorate base on Yaga Minor may also contain a copy.”
Disra frowned at him. “Why haven’t you said anything about this before?”
“The subject of enemy information raids hadn’t come up before,” Tierce said. “I knew you’d been into the Bastion records; I suppose I was assuming you’d taken care of the Yaga Minor copies as well.”
“I haven’t, but I can,” Disra said. “I’ll head out for Yaga Minor tonight.”
“That might not be a good idea,” Tierce said. “You going personally, I mean. The general in charge of the base knows Admiral Pellaeon fairly well and with the Bastion library right here at hand, you really don’t have a good excuse to examine his records.”