Luke shook his head. “Impossible.”
Niathal made a wet, rubbery noise, the Mon Calamari equivalent of a snort of derision. “Nothing’s impossible, Skywalker.”
“I’ll explain, with logic, why I believe it’s impossible. For her to know that Jedi would be part of the operation, she’d also have to be privy to more information than that. And the more information would reveal that her son and her daughter, and my son, were part of the operation. Can you imagine her giving the Corellians information that would oblige them to kill her children and her nephew?”
Niathal spread her hands, palms up-an I don’t know gesture. “It depends on the strength of her convictions … and what those convictions are. You haven’t proved that her ideals don’t value Corellian independence above family survival.”
“Enough,” Chief Omas said. “It’s out of the question.”
“But there is a leak somewhere,” Luke conceded. “In the order, here in the seat of government, I’m not sure which. We have to find it and close it.”
“Another question,” Pellaeon said. “What impression did you have of Admiral Klauskin?”
Luke considered. “Mostly favorable, at least as the operation was coming together. He seemed smart and decisive. When things started to go wrong, though-well, it seems obvious that he chose badly. Improvisation does not appear to be one of his skills.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Omas said. “But really-that’s all you or any of your Jedi could say about him?”
“Well … no.” Luke suppressed a sigh. Reluctance to speak ill of someone was out of place here. “Except for me, Jedi dealings with him were very limited. I saw him at several briefings. All the team heads except Corran Horn-Jaina, Tahiri, Jacen, and I-were at one briefing, and all the Jedi met him at one dinner. It was after that dinner that one of my Jedi, Tiu Zax, a recently confirmed Jedi Knight, said that she’d had the oddest impression from him.”
Niathal asked, “Which was what?”
“That he’d blanked at one point during dinner. That, while I was swapping starfighter pilot stories with Jaina, Klauskin had just … gone away, mentally. An absence so strong she felt it through the Force. Just for a few moments.”
Niathal’s eyes edged forward, a gesture perhaps meant to intimidate. “And you didn’t report this?”
“Report what?” Luke shrugged. “The same sort of thing can happen when someone enters a meditative state, or falls into a particularly private memory. Tiu’s young enough that she hadn’t encountered it before. I have, and didn’t think anything of it. Do you believe it could be evidence of a more significant problem?”
“Oh, yes.” Niathal nodded, the motion made exaggerated by the size of her head, longer than that of any human. “He has apparently experienced a complete emotional and mental breakdown. Twelve standard hours after the occupation of Tralus, his aide, Colonel Fenn, found him wandering Dodonna’s corridors in his robe, looking for his wife. His dead wife. He hasn’t responded much to questions or orders since. Dodonna’s officers have been told that he collapsed from exhaustion.”
“Which brings us to the last subject of significance we need you for, Master Skywalker.” Chief Omas rubbed his chin. “The occupation of Tralus and its consequences. Operation Roundabout was supposed to force the Corellians to realize that they can’t just rebuild their giant blaster in space. We were to take the giant blaster away and rap their heads with our knuckles. We failed to rap their heads-the arrival of the Corellian fleet prevented that-but we did take their giant blaster away. And had our task force returned to Coruscant from that point, we still would have been ahead, if only slightly ahead, in the game.”
“But the occupation of Tralus,” Niathal said, “has made them angry. Fighting mad, I believe the expression is.”
“Corellia continues to arm herself,” Pellaeon said. “Other planets are expressing outrage about the way Roundabout was conducted. Commenor. Fondor. Bespin. Coalitions within the Corporate Sector. More every hour. Some of them are simply playing political games, of course, but others could conceivably join Corellia in a military alliance.”
“I know.” Luke’s voice was rueful. “Maybe those other planets would ease off if we showed them the evidence you’ve gathered about Corellia’s secret assault fleet.”
“We can’t,” Omas said. “Our evidence isn’t incontrovertible, and some of those worlds would ally with Corellia even if it were. We’d be tipping our hand for nothing.”