Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance (60 page)

He
nodded.

They
left the Cenotaph of the Innocents by separate paths. She didn't look
back.

CHAPTER
47

"Hello,
Mother. Sorry I've been out of touch for so long. Work has kept me
very busy, but I'll tell you all about that another time. Call me on
Coruscant when you have the chance. "

Ula
closed the line and settled back to wait. He didn't think it would be
long. After the loss of Darth Chratis, the failure of the Cinzia to
amount to anything, and the erasure of the fleet's data banks, he was
sure someone would want to hear his side of the story.

What
that would be he had given a great deal of thought.

His
comlink bleeped, warning him the call was imminent. That was
impressively fast-so fast, in fact, that it made him wonder.
Ordinarily someone on Panatha would note the message, then relay the
coded request up through the lines of command to Watcher Three, who
would then issue orders that would filter back down the lines of
command, resulting in that simple ping. Ordinarily, this process
could take hours. Occasionally tens of minutes. Never seconds.

Ula
looked around his apartment. It seemed smaller than he remembered,
and now had a hostile cast to it as well. He would conduct a sweep
later that evening in the hope of finding the bug he was now sure was
there. Whether he would destroy the bug or not remained an open
question.

The
holoprojector flickered. He stood in front of it and blanked his
face. One of the first things he had learned about espionage was that
an apparent lack of emotion enhanced both the credibility of one's
reports and the illusion of authority. That, he suspected, was why he
had never seen Watcher Three's face in more than shadowy outline.

That
outline appeared before him now, flickering and straining, as though
coming from the other side of the universe. For all Ula knew, though,
Watcher Three was on Coruscant as well, perhaps just up the road.
Anything was possible. He knew of at least two other intelligence
operatives who lived on his block, seeking a similar balance between
easy access to the Senate and a ready escape route.

"Report,
" said Watcher Three.

Ula
needed to go back as far as his arrival on Hutta in order to tell the
story properly. He didn't lie once, but he told for less than the
whole truth. As with all intelligence work, much was told by
implication. He left Watcher Three to deduce that his rapid
advancement from envoy to commander of the joint fleet had less to do
with his own abilities than the need for a puppet in both positions.
He also let Watcher Three decide that Darth Chratis was the person
behind the second placement. Who better, after all, to place the
blame on than someone who couldn't defend himself?

"The
last report Stantorrs received that I saw before being transferred, "
Ula concluded, "suggested that Sebaddon's orbit had been
disturbed, leading to its imminent destruction by the black hole.
Some small amounts of rare metals have been scavenged by the
Republic, but Imperial attacks have kept that to a minimum. No
wreckage has been recovered from any of the sites established by Lema
Xandret and her fellow fugitives. "

Watcher
Three didn't divulge whether or not that accorded with reports made
by Colonel Kalisch. He also didn't mention the mysterious takeover of
Kalisch's ships or the matter of the data banks' erasure. A computer
virus propagated by the infected ships was sufficient to explain away
the latter, and the colonel's natural disinclination to admit that
his ships had ever been out of his control fixed the former. Better
to have a slightly botched mission on one's record than a complete
failure of command.

That
didn't surprise Ula at all. Jet Nebula had anticipated exactly this
outcome. He had made the fleet do what it needed to do, knowing full
well that his role in events would never be recorded. The only weak
link in his wild plan had been Ula himself. Anyone less confident,
less sure of himself, would have killed Ula out of hand, for fear of
his secret getting out. But Jet had let him live. And now Ula would
repay that favor the only way he could, by making sure that both
sides believed the fake version of how things had played out over
Sebaddon.

It
wasn't a complete whitewash, of course. Troopers would be telling
wild stories about Sebaddon for years, as troopers always did, when
wild stories were demanded. No one would believe them, though. And
there the matter would finally rest.

"What
of the Mandalorian?" Watcher Three asked.

"Gone.
He left long before reinforcements arrived. Once the hexes were on
the run, he presumably had no interest in the outcome of the battle.
"

"Why
invest so much in tracking the Cinzia to its source and then play no
role in what happens? That doesn't make sense. "

"He
was just one Mandalorian who happened to be personally involved,
remember. A raider operating on little more than his own initiative.
Xandret might have hoped for some kind of alliance with the
Mandalore, but it's clear he was no more than idly interested. Had he
believed the hexes truly remarkable, he would've sent more than
Stryver to deal with them. "

"And
they weren't remarkable?"

"I
leave that for more qualified people than me to decide, " Ula
said, safe in the knowledge that Watcher Three would have a markedly
vague intelligence on that score. Again, Colonel Kalisch wouldn't
want to be remembered for being routed by a gaggle of droids. Better
instead to paint his early losses as the result of a Republic ambush,
and minimize all involvement by the hexes, as Captain Pipalidi had.
None of the surviving records would contradict either story, thanks
to Jet.

Sometimes
the smuggler's brilliance overwhelmed Ula, along with his utter gall.
Where was he now? Ula would've given his left hand to know.

"The
minister is displeased by your demotion, " Watcher Three said.
"You are to make every effort to regain your former post. "

Now,
that was interesting. Not only was it a completely unreasonable
demand, that Ula should have betrayed the Republic while at the same
time keeping his position under the Supreme Commander, but the
urgency with which they expected him to get back into Stantorrs's
good books suggested that there were no other operatives in that
department. Ula would bear that in mind in his future dealings with
both sides.

"Yes,
sir. I will keep you informed on my progress. "

"Dismissed.
"

The
holoprojector emptied.

Ula
didn't move.

Before
he had counted to ten, a new face appeared before him.

"Hello,
Ula, " said Shullis Khamarr, Minister of Logistics. "It's
been a long time. I was becoming concerned. "

Once,
Ula would have been struck dumb by this unprompted overture. In their
previous dealings, he had invariably been the supplicant. For her to
call him out of the blue bespoke a considerable alteration of their
dynamic.

"My
apologies, Minister, on many accounts. The search for the world I
told you about did not go well, and the resources I had hoped to
provide the Empire went unrealized. I can only assure you that the
enemy did not get the better of us. "

"Well,
that's something. I hope you are not too disappointed. "

"No,
Minister. My role here will be much reduced, but I am sure others
will rise to take my place. "

"There
will be others, yes. None like you, though. " She smiled. "I
have always admired your passion and found our conversations to be
thought provoking. "

"Minister,
on that matter, I fear..."

"Yes,
Ula?"

"I
fear I may have been mistaken in my former opinions. "

Her
smile slipped away. "How so?"

This
was the one lie he allowed himself to tell. "During the course
of my mission, I worked closely with Darth Chratis and his
apprentice, and their actions persuaded me to reconsider the
prejudices I held regarding them. I see now how foolish I was to
dismiss them so readily. They are crucial to the war effort, and
integral to the proper functioning of the Empire. "

The
guarded cast to her face eased. "I'll confess to being relieved,
Ula. It was a dangerous heresy you had embraced. Well meant,
naturally, but not one that can be tolerated at any level of
governance. "

"I
see that now. You were very forgiving, Minister. "

"Nonsense,
Ula. We are friends, and friends forgive much. "

He
wondered if part of her was disappointed. There must have been some
advantage-even if merely psychological-to having a private informant
intent on maintaining her own advancement. If so, she hid it well.

I
am tired of seducing you to my way of thinking, Shullis Khamarr, he
said to himself, thinking of Larin and Shigar, who had both rescued
him from terrible fates, and the calm stoicism of the Grand Master,
Satele Shan. The survivors of Sebaddon would be changed forever by
what had happened to them there, and he was no different. I am
persuaded that there is more to governance than just rules, laws, and
discipline. A culture must have a heart, too. A strong heart that
never falters.

"Thank
you, Minister, " he said, and offered her a respectful bow.

She
concluded their conversation with a hollow platitude, and signed off.
Ula wondered if he would ever speak to her again. Probably not.
Friendships of any kind were difficult to maintain in the
intelligence business, all the more so when one had been demoted.

In
the coming weeks he would consider the benefits of playing both sides
against the other, attempting to juggle the interplay between them as
Jet had. He didn't have access to an army of unstoppable hexes or a
droid that could take over entire fleets, but he was coming to
believe that maybe the end did justify the means, sometimes. If he
could guide the Empire and the Republic away from war, or at least
spare their citizens the worst of their excesses, then that could be
a good thing-and a real thing, not fake like everything he had tried
before. He would be on his own side, at last, as Larin had been when
she had been discharged from special forces-on the side of the
trillions of ordinary people trapped in a warring galaxy.

He
stood in his tiny apartment and considered his next move. Search for
that bug? Draft a coded message for the Ithorian he had spoken to in
Strategic Information Systems? Sleep?

Ula
didn't know just yet, which in itself was a pleasing thing.

The
walls might be closing in around him, but his horizons were broader
now than ever. Even Coruscant didn't seem as cursed as it once had.
Larin was back in the special forces. Satisfaction fairly glowed from
her face when she talked about the future. We can drink Reactor Cores
and talk about old times. No mention of Shigar, or any of the other
survivors of Sebaddon.

That,
at least, gave him something to look forward to.

CHAPTER
48

After
hours of waiting, Shigar's moment had come.

"We
find you ready for the trials, Shigar Konshi, " said Master
Nobil. "You will be unsurprised, I think, to learn that
mastering your psychometric powers was only the smallest part of your
journey. "

Shigar
wasn't surprised, but at the same time he couldn't hide his relief.
He bowed deeply before the holographic images of the High Council
members, many of whom he had yet to meet in person: brooding Wens
Aleusis, brilliant Giffis Fane, young Oric Traless, the newest member
of the Council...

"Thank
you, Masters, " he said. "I'm sure I won't disappoint you.
"

"Tell
me how you resolved your agreement with Tassaa Bareesh, " Master
Nobil said. "That was not mentioned in your debriefing session.
"

"I'm
afraid it remains unresolved, " he said. "The agreement was
expedient at the time, but it was always likely to become a
liability. She used a homing beacon to find the world herself, so I
have no qualms about allowing the Republic there first. She can claim
no disadvantage, since the world itself has fallen to no one. "

"There's
the damage to her palace on Hutta, " said Master Fane, "and
the very public loss of face. Suudaa Nem'ro must be rubbing his hands
with glee. "

"And
there must be ramifications for dishonoring her, no doubt. "