Sacrifice: Star Wars (Legacy of the Force) (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force Book 5) by Traviss Karen

Author:Traviss, Karen [Traviss, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780345510525
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2008-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

SENATE BUILDING, CORUSCANT

Jacen’s official airspeeder brought him up to the main Senate entrance. He could have entered the building by any number of more private platforms, but he had no intention of sneaking in via the back doors; being seen counted for a lot, and he still had his heroic image to protect.

A line of citizens waited outside the doors that admitted members of the public to the viewing galleries. Some just wanted to watch the day’s business, but there was a small group who were clearly protesters. It wasn’t just the FREE OMAS banner that three of them were carrying among them. There was a taste of anger in the Force, vivid despite the permanent background of fear and uncertainty.

“Drop me here,” Jacen said. “I’ll walk.”

“They’ll harass you, sir,” said the Gran chauffeur. “I ought to take you straight up to your floor.”

“They’ve got a right to see who’s governing them.” It wasn’t as if they could cause him any harm. “I find that talking to people generally clears up misunderstandings.”

Jacen had expected at least one mass protest or a riot broken up by water cannon and dispersal gas. GAG intelligence showed that Corellian agents still operating on Coruscant were doing their best to make that happen. But the general willingness of the population to accept the change of regime surprised him. The stock exchange had suspended trading for a few hours, and some shares had bounced around: but the traffic still flowed, the stores were full of food, HoloNet programming was uninterrupted, and everyone was getting paid.

Unless you were Cal Omas or a civil liberties lawyer, the military junta was temporary and benign. There was a war on, after all. It was to be expected.

I ought to write a study on this. How to take over the state: smile, look reluctant, and keep the traffic flowing.

And it was just Coruscant. The rest of the GA worlds went on running their planetary business as they saw fit, unmolested, and that meant there was no need to stretch the fleet and the defense forces by deploying them to keep order on thousands of other worlds—their own, in many cases. All Jacen and Niathal had to worry about was Coruscant, because the political and strategic reality was that Coruscant … was the GA … was Coruscant.

The rest of the Alliance is detail. I have its heart and mind.

“Good morning,” Jacen said. The group of protesters stared at him with a collective, slowly dawning oh-it’s-really-him expression. Even a face that had been on HNE as regularly as his took some recognizing out of context. He extended his hand to them, and one man actually shook it. Most species responded well to placatory courtesy. “I just wanted to reassure you that Master Omas will get a scrupulously fair hearing. We’ve let him go home, too.”

When folks were worked up for yelling and seemed to want to be dragged away by CSF heavyweights, they were totally upended by having the object of their fury listen to them.

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