Ironically, the man who was so convinced he could end chaos and conflict with his shock tactics was sowing more of his own. Jacen was making everyone wary and suspicious, even old friends and allies.
She needed to broker a discreet meeting with Luke Skywalker. But first, she had to be true to form and confront Jacen Solo indignantly about his latest lapse of judgment.
She summoned her chauffeur. On the journey through the unconcerned, orderly skylanes of Coruscant to the Senate, she concentrated on being angry and indignant rather than working out her next covert moves. Jedi could sense these things. She thought of Nevil’s dead son, and the outrage came naturally.
Coruscant really was very peaceful. It was hard to square what she saw from the speeder window with what was happening offworld on the battlefield, almost as if there were a portal she had passed through and back again into another dimension. But it hadn’t been that long since the Yuuzhan Vong invasion; that had made the Galactic capital much more nervous than planets that had suffered far worse and far more frequently over the centuries, and so it was willing to embrace Jacen’s extremes. Coruscant was scared and wanted to be protected. Niathal wondered how Jacen would have fared trying to pull his hard-line savior act on more battle-hardened, less innocent worlds.
He was in his office, watching an intelligence holovid, a recording of a fleet engagement. There were so many brush fires breaking out across the galaxy now that she couldn’t say where it was taking place without checking the images carefully to identify ships and terrain.
Just another theater of war. The only positive thing I can see is that we’ve been saved from collapsing through overstretch by systems kind enough to stage their own local wars and excuse our attendance.
“What have I done this time?” Jacen said, not looking away from the screen. “I could feel the little black cloud of reprimand coming…”
Stay angry. Don’t let him sense anything beyond that.
Niathal took a deep breath disguised as an exasperated human sigh. “Jacen, I know you’re very new to the military, but here’s a tip to help you fit into the culture of the wardroom. We don’t kill junior officers on the bridge in front of everyone. It’s bad form. At least try to do it somewhere less public in the future.”
He looked up that time. She wondered if he was feeling the strain, because he looked more different by the day, a little older and less luminously youthful. It was especially noticeable in his eyes. “Ah. Word gets around.”
She didn’t sit down. She couldn’t stay angry sitting down. “Word gets around the fleet, and fast. You’re a fool.”
“Really? I thought I was doing quite well.”
“Morale, Jacen. It’s an asset every bit as much as a Star Destroyer. We ask those we command to be ready to die for us, not because of us, and the moment we lose their confidence, we start to lose the war. We need them.”
“Oh, and they need me.” He let out a snort of contempt. “The pact works both ways. Tebut was careless. It’s not an exercise, Admiral, it’s a real war, and mistakes get you killed. We could have lost the war thanks to Tebut. I think what happened to her brought home to everyone what that means.”
“Did you mean to make an example of her, or did you just lose control and it all got out of hand?”
That got a reaction, all right. She watched his eyes flicker, but not a muscle on his face moved for a second or two. “I think we’ll see an improvement in security procedures after this.”
“Good, “she said. Ah, he’s either worried he’ll burn out. or he’s already snapped and he doesn’t want me to know he’s falling apart. “I’ll spend some of my very limited time repairing the damage you’ve done to morale, then, because if a ship’s company is terrified of getting something wrong, pretty soon they stop using their initiative and don’t do anything at all. Do I need to explain?”
“You care too much about being popular.”
Niathal had to bite back a retort. She knew her reputation on the mess decks as a humorless iceberg. “Yes, I must keep my party-girl image in check.”
“Anyway, Fondor. Time to pick them off.”
“I would prefer to hit their industrial capacity first. Shut down their shipyards.”
“We need those assets in one piece.”
“If we want them as a going concern, then we’ll probably have to occupy the planet to enforce that, because the government isn’t about to capitulate. And we don’t have the resources to do it.”
“We might.”
“Oh, do share.”
“The Imperial Remnant. I’m opening negotiations.”