Etain stood on the deserted landing strip by the troop transporter, up to her ankles in a fresh fall of snow.
The only footprints were hers and the ridged soles of army boots, whose impressions were so much larger than hers that for a moment she felt like an insignificant child.
The farmers weren’t going to show. She hadn’t expected them to; now her duty was unavoidable. She’d given them two extra hours, kidding herself that they might have had difficulty passing blizzard-blocked roads, but the deadline had Passed and Levet was walking toward her from the HQ building, datapad in one gloved hand. She turned and walked back to save him the journey.
“One last try, Commander,” she said. “I’m heading into Imbraani to give them the now-or-never speech.”
Levet handed her his datapad. “Orders just in, ma’am. Direct from Zey. The Gurlanins just gave him a little demonstration of intent.”
Etain swallowed to compose herself before reading.
Zey had a terse message style. She could have spoken to him by comlink, even had a virtual face-to-face meeting, but he’d sent Levet a message-stark, to the point, and leaving no opportunity for discussion or argument.
GURLANINS CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR CLASSIFIED INFORMATION ON TROOP MOVEMENTS AND READINESS STATUS RELEASED TODAY TO CIS COMMANDERS. LEAK HAS RESULTED IN 10,653 CASUALTIES: FLEET AUXILIARY CORE GUARDIAN DESTROYED WITH ALL HANDS WHILE DEFENSIVE CANNON WAS OFFLINE DURING UNSCHEDULED MAINTENANCE. REMOVE QIIL-URA CONTINGENT IMMEDIATELY. CIVILIAN CASUALTIES ACCEPTABLE IF COLONISTS USE LETHAL FORCE.
Etain handed the datapad back to Levet and saw ten thousand dead troopers in her mind’s eye before she saw farmers, dead or otherwise. It hit her hard. Her imagination blanked out and was replaced by a cold hard focus on the next steps to remove the remaining farmers.
“He’s not a happy camper, ma’am.”
“They warned they could be anywhere and pass as any-one.” Etain carried on walking. Why didn’t I feel them dying in the Force? Am I that out of touch? “So there’s a little reminder of the damage they can do whenever they want. It’ll escalate. Let’s get this over with.”
“You could have prevented the deaths,” said a voice be-hind her.
Jinart appeared out of nowhere, loping like an arc of black oil. She could have been a mound of snow, a piece of machinery, or even one of the leafless trees on the strip perimeter before she metamorphosed into her true form. She darted a little ahead Etain and Levet, leaving featureless round paw prints behind her. Gurlanins could leave false tracks, making them impossible to hunt down. They were, as so many had said, perfect spies and saboteurs-as long as they were on your side. If they were the enemy then they seemed very different indeed.
“You didn’t have to kill troopers. Don’t you think they’ve got short enough lives as it is?” Etain tried not to lose her temper, but it was hard. She didn’t want the baby sensing any of this ugliness. “We’re evicting the colonists anyway. You could have waited.”
“You don’t have the stomach for killing unless you’re put in a corner, girl,” Jinart said. “Unlike that soldier of yours. And I know where he is.”
It was a risky thing to say in front of Levet, but he didn’t react. Etain took a moment to realize that Jinart was making a veiled threat. Her pulse began hammering in her throat.
“If anything happens to him,” she said, “you know what Skirata will do to you.”
“So now you know the stakes, and what we both stand to lose…”
Etain’s anger welled in her throat, choking off any coherent response. She stopped dead, hand going straight to her lightsaber without any conscious thought, and a blind urge to kill swept over her. It wasn’t a Jedi’s reaction at all. It was a woman’s-a mother’s, a lover’s. It took all her self-control not to draw the lightsaber.
Her dead Master, Kast Fulier, would have understood. She knew he would.
“They’re leaving today.” She thought of the Separatist collaborators caught by Gurlanins not far from here, throats ripped out as befitted a carnivore kill. “But you can’t deal with them yourselves, can you? Just two thousand humans, and that’s too many for you to take on. Which tells me how very few of you there really are.”
Jinart slowed down and looked back over her shoulder. Two twin-pointed fangs extended almost to her chin. When she spoke, they gave her a strangely comic lisp that almost took the edge off her menace. “If we were many, there would be no farmers left for you to remove. What you need to remember, Jedi, is where we might be, and that like your gallant little clone army, a very small force applied intelligently can cause serious damage…”