Before the Storm - Michael P. Kube-McDowell [60]
Ackbar and A’baht exchanged looks, negotiating who would answer.
“Essentially, that is correct—” said Ackbar, who lost.
“Why doesn’t it sound as silly to you as it does to me? I believe you’re worried about literally nothing.”
Ackbar cleared his throat. “Princess, you know the price of being wrong. It can be a fatal error to underestimate an enemy’s strength, or the seriousness of a threat. Our own success against the Empire owed much to the Emperor’s making exactly that error.”
“Better to take precautions that aren’t needed than to fail to take them when they are,” A’baht said, almost to himself.
“No one is going to attack the New Republic,” Leia said flatly.
Both Ackbar and A’baht were taken aback by her pronouncement. “If you’re so sure of that, then let’s mothball the Fleet and muster out the troops,” A’baht said scornfully. “I’m sure we all have better things we could be doing.”
“General, it’s because of the Fleet that no one’s going to attack us,” said Leia. “Ackbar tells me we can now call on more ships than fought on both sides in the largest battle of the Rebellion. Do I have that right, Admiral?”
Ackbar nodded silently.
“That’s more than enough to bloody the nose of anyone who makes the mistake of taking a swing at us. And everyone out there knows it,” she said. “They have more to gain by joining us than they do by opposing us. Look at the Duskhan League—they clearly represent a first-order civilization, economically and technologically. What are they doing? They’re here negotiating with us.”
The general remained undeterred. “To take your metaphor, Princess, one swing can both start and end a fight if it comes without warning.”
“Are we suddenly more vulnerable to surprise attack than we were a week ago?”
“No, Princess—”
“Then are you telling me that we’ve always been vulnerable to a surprise attack?”
“I’m telling you that there’s more to being ready to defend yourself than posting sentries at the border,” said A’baht, a touch of impatience in his tone. “You must plan, and you must train, for the battle you don’t want to fight, against the enemy you don’t want to face, on the ground you don’t want to defend. Then, and only then, do you have a credible deterrent.”
She turned quickly to face Ackbar. “And haven’t you done that, Admiral? Haven’t you seen to it that our forces are thoroughly trained and thoughtfully deployed? If not, I’m afraid I may have to fire you.”
“Yes, we have done those things, Princess—”
“Then will you explain to General A’baht—”
“—but there is more to consider,” Ackbar said forcefully. “If this Black Fleet exists, and if it is operational, it represents a secret weapon. And it is the nature of secret weapons to upset all the careful planning of one’s adversaries. Indeed, Princess, that is their purpose.”
Leia looked down and studied the list displayed on her datapad, then shook her head. “Do these ships really represent a threat on that scale?”
“Yes,” A’baht said firmly. “The Empire’s standard Sector Group strength was only twenty-four Star Destroyers. They were able to exercise control over an entire system with a single Imperial-class ship. They were able to overwhelm anything up to a Class Four planetary defense with one-third of a Sector Group.”
Closing her datapad, Leia studied A’baht next. “But those were the Empire’s best, and fully equipped with the Empire’s best. When a capital warship is in the yards, does the crew ordinarily stay aboard?”
“No, of course not.”
“What about the troops, the fighters? Are they kept aboard?”
“I suspect the Princess knows better,” said A’baht. “When a ship is laid up for any significant time, its complement would normally be reassigned.”
“So—let’s say that all of these ships fell into other hands when the Empire withdrew. They’d be empty shells. They won’t have six TIE squadrons aboard. They won’t have a division of stormtroopers. They won’t have assault gunboats. They won’t have an army of AT-ATs.”
A’baht was unmoved. “The Princess is grasping at straws,” he said. “The greatest threat