Star Wars_ The Black Fleet Crisis 02_ Shield of Lies - Michael P. Kube-McDowell [131]
As bright fire enveloped Beauty of Yevetha, Nil Spaar averted his eyes from the sight, then turned and searched the chamber for the proctor of defense for the spawnworld.
“Kol Attan!” he bellowed.
His fighting crests shrunken almost to invisibility, Kol Attan shuffled forward. “Viceroy, I—”
Nil Spaar silenced him with a glare and pointed at the floor. Trembling, the proctor lowered himself to one knee, closed his eyes, and bared his neck. The viceroy circled him slowly, flexing his right hand in a motion that brought the dewclaw curling out to its full length.
“You are a coward as well as incompetent,” Nil Spaar whispered at last. “Your blood is not worth spilling. It would be beneath me to touch you. I declare you to-mara, a shamed one. Go home and beg your darna for death.”
When the proctor did not move, Nil Spaar drew a deep breath that brought a flush to his crests, then sent Kol Attan sprawling with a vicious kick. “You will not provoke me into giving you an honorable exit,” he said through clenched teeth. “Go!”
As the proctor scrambled away on all fours, Nil Spaar turned his back to him. “Tal Fraan,” he said.
The nitakka came forward with strength in his strides and pride in his carriage. “Sir.”
“You anticipated that the vermin would violate the All in an attempt to know us. How is it you come to your prescience?”
“I have spent time with them, in the camps on Pa’aal, and aboard Devotion of Yevetha, where they serve us,” said Tal Fraan. “I have seen how they hunger to debase even the smallest mysteries, instead of embracing the mysteries as they present themselves. The pale ones, especially, seem to me driven this way.”
Nil Spaar nodded slowly. “You failed to anticipate that the vermin who came would choose death over captivity. That failure has cost my fleet a useful vessel, and wasted Yevetha blood.”
Drawing a hard breath, Tal Fraan dropped immediately to one knee. “Yes, darama. I know my error.”
“Rise,” Nil Spaar said, and the younger Yevetha complied. “I shall not hold you to account for the failure of Kol Attan to seize the hostage you brought to him. Nor for the offense of the vermin in killing above their station.”
“You are gracious, Viceroy.”
“There are many kinds of vermin,” Nil Spaar said offhandedly. “Perhaps those that were sent here are more like Commander Paret, who at least had the courage to defy me when I took this ship from him, than they are like those we hold in service. Otherwise, I would have judged them as you do.”
“I do not deserve your mercy, darama.”
“No,” Nil Spaar said. “But you will help me think on how to answer the vermin for their boldness, and to strike at this one called Leia, for commissioning such sacrilege. And perhaps I will forget the other after a while, on such pleasures of revenge as you devise.”
Ackbar stood before the briefing room viewscreen holding one hand behind his back and pointing with the other.
“This seems workable to me,” he said. “If we tap Task Forces Apex and Summer from the Fourth Fleet, Task Forces Bellbright and Token from the Second Fleet, and Task Force Gemstone from the Third, we should be able to maintain our current patrols through the rest of the New Republic while building the force in Farlax to the strength of two battle groups.”
“Meanwhile, the Home Fleet will be left at full strength to defend Coruscant,” Leia said. “Which may not sit well with the border sectors, but seems only prudent.”
“Well—General A’baht will be happy,” Han said, leaning back in his chair. “This is what he’s been saying he needed ever since he got there.”
Turning half away from the viewscreen, Ackbar exchanged glances with Leia. “General A’baht will not be in command of the combined force,” Ackbar said, and turned back.
“No? Well—he might not mind too much,” Han said, folding his hands on his lap. “A combined command like that is kind