Star Wars_ Shatterpoint - Matthew Woodring Stover [161]
"Colonel-" The lieutenant's growl was thin with pain. "Maybe you oughta think about it. Y'know? Think about it. I mean, all the guys-we got families here-"
Geptun clutched the edge of the table, livid. "If I don't?"
Mace shrugged. "Then I won't save your city."
"How am I supposed to trust that you will? That you even can?"
"You know who I am."
Geptun trembled, and not from fear. "This is extortion!"
"No," Mace said. "It's war."
The formal surrender had been drafted, witnessed, and signed right there in the Intel station.
"You know this has no legal standing," Geptun said as he affixed his signature and retinal print. "I sign this surrender only under duress-"
"Surrender is always made under duress," Mace observed dryly. "That's why they call it surrender."
Mace set the comm gear to automatically make a number of transmissions the instant signal-jamming abated enough that communications could resume. Many of the transmissions would be simple orders to the various battalions of militia to lay down their arms. More significant would be a HoloNet report to Coruscant with a copy of the surrender agreement, along with an emergency summons for a Republic task force. If the Republic could get here in force before the Confederacy did, their landing would be unopposed. By the time signal-jamming would end, he'd have control of the starfighters; even if the Separatists got here first, Mace would be in a position to make the Al'har system uncomfortably hot for them.
And if they tried to land, the spaceport controlled the planetary defenses as well.
Now all he had to do was control the spaceport.
They had the whole platoon plus the armored groundcar squad for escort through the chaos of Pelek Baw.
Geptun got them through the militia perimeter that stretched in a thick arc among the burning warehouses, then Mace stepped out of the groundcar.
"Nick. You drive."
He shooed away the rest of the militiamen. Geptun started to follow them.
"Not you, Colonel. Get in the car."
"Me?" The ride to the spaceport had given Geptun time to recover his composure; he looked almost his old self again. "You can't be serious!
What do you expect me to do?"
"You'll transmit the deactivation codes. To make sure nothing goes wrong."
"Why should I have to do anything... What will you two be doing?"
Nick stared through the windshield at the spaceport gates. "Killing people."
Geptun looked at him, blinking as though he were expecting a punchline.
Mace said, "Get in the car."
"Really-I mean, please-I don't know what kind of man you think I am-"
"I think," Mace said, "that you are a very brilliant man. I think that you have more courage than you have ever guessed. I think that you truly care about this city, and the people in it. I think your cynicism is a fraud."
"What-what-really, this is astonishing-"
"I think that if you were truly as corrupt and venal as you pretend,"
said Mace Windu, "you would be in the Senate."
Geptun's blank gape hung on for one silent second, then gave way to an abrupt guffaw. Shaking his head, still chuckling, he walked around to the other side of the groundcar. "Here, young man, shove over. I'll drive."
"You will?"
"You might have to shoot people, yes?"
Nick looked at Mace; Mace shrugged, and Nick slid over to the passenger side. Geptun adjusted the pilot's seat to make himself comfortable behind the control yoke. "I suppose," he said with a vast theatrical sigh, "I am as ready as I will ever be."
Mace ignited his lightsaber.
He lifted its blade, and stood for a moment, staring into its blaze as though he could read his future there.
Perhaps he could.
That killing flame might be the only future he had.
He let it drop to his side but held it alight, and walked toward the spaceport gates.
"Follow me."
Geptun engaged the groundcar's drive