"No, please." Caedus extended his arms toward the Moffs and motioned for them to return to their seats -- using the Force to compel obedience. "Don't get up on my account."
The Moffs dropped almost as one. Most landed in the chairs they had been occupying, but a couple missed and landed on the floor. Several of the aides standing behind the Moffs' chairs were pointing holdout blasters in his direction, looking to their superiors for some hint as to whether they should open fire or stand down. Caedus swept his arm up and sent them all flying out of the conference pit onto the surrounding service floor.
"I'm afraid this will be a confidential conversation," he said.
"Leave us."
When the aides did not instantly obey, he gestured at one of those who had been pointing a blaster at him and sent the man tumbling out the hatch.
"Now."
The remainder of the aides scrambled for the door, many without bothering to stand. Caedus watched them go, his attention divided between them and the Moffs, ready to pin motionless anyone who even thought about raising a weapon. Once the aides were gone, a simple glance was all it took to send the Verpine administrators scuttling after them, leaving him and the Moffs alone with a single huge Verpine with age-silvered eyebulbs and a translucent patch on her thorax where the carahide was growing thin. She showed no inclination to rise from her position at the far end of the conference table, where she lay stretched along a heavily cushioned throne pedestal.
"Jacen Solo, where will the hives ever gather the wealth to settle our account?" The Verpine spoke in an ancient, thrumming voice that seemed to resonate from the very bottom of her long abdomen. As the High Coordinator of the Roche system's capital asteroid, she was effectively the hive mother and chief executive officer of her entire civilization, outranking even the Verpine's public face, Speaker Sass Sikili. "First, you rescue us from the Ancient Ones, and now you come with your fleet to send away the whiteshells. Welcome."
"Thank you, Your Maternellence. But the name now is Caedus. Darth Caedus."
The hive mother inclined her head. "We have heard you went through a metamorphosis. It is hard to believe you were just a larva when you saved us before." She unfolded an age-curved arm and gestured at the Moffs. "The hives will be happily rid of these wasps. Proceed."
"I wish it were that simple," Caedus said. He turned his attention to the Moffs, who were studying him with expressions ranging from impatience to annoyance, depending on whether they were brave, astute, or just plain foolhardy. "But you're misinterpreting our presence. My fleet and I aren't here to free the Roche system -- we're here to hold it."
It was difficult to tell who was more outraged, the mandibleclacking hive mother or the grumbling Moffs. Caedus raised his hand and -- when that failed to produce quiet -- used the Force to muffle the clamor.
As soon as he could be sure of making himself heard again, he said, "This will be best for everyone. The conquest of the Roche system has given it a significance far beyond the value of its munitions factories."
The hive mother raised her thorax off her couch and demanded, "What significance? The hives are neutral! We have nothing to do with your war."
"You have been selling munitions to all sides -- and profiting handsomely," interrupted a combat-trim Moff with close-cropped gray hair. "That makes you a legitimate target."
"Moff Lecersen makes a good point," Caedus said. "And I did warn you that the Mandalorians lacked the strength to protect you." Before the hive mother could argue, he turned to Lecersen. "But the Moff Council should have consulted with me before acting. There have been indications in the Force all along that this invasion would be a mistake."
"Because you want the Roche munitions factories for yourself ?" scoffed a youthful Moff.
Caedus recognized him from intelligence holos as Voryam Bhao. With his honey-colored complexion, curly black hair, and a sneering upper lip just begging to be ripped off his face, he looked even younger than the twenty-three standard years listed in his file.
"Spare us your dark prophecies, Colonel Solo," Bhao continued boldly. "Everyone at this table sees what you're trying to do."
The bile began to rise in Caedus's throat, but he reminded himself of his resolution and resisted the urge to snap the young Moff's neck -- as he had Lieutenant Tebut's not so long ago.
Instead, he said in a calm, durasteel voice, "You really should listen more carefully, Moff Bhao." He made a dipping motion with his index finger, and Bhao's head sank toward the table as though he were bowing. "It's Caedus now. Darth Caedus."
If Bhao's older peers were amused, they did not show it--not even in the Force. They simply glared at Caedus, and another of the Moffs -- this one a round-faced man with a roll of red neck-flab hanging over the collar of his buttoned tunic -- shook his head in open disapproval.
"We are all aware that you are very powerful in the Force, Darth Caedus," he said. "But you seem to be forgetting that we are quite powerful in our own right. If not for us, that catastrophe at Fondor would have been the end of you and the Galactic Alliance."
"Nor do we need to consult with you about anything," Moff Lecersen added. "The last I checked, the Empire was an ally of the Galactic Alliance, not its territory. We don't need your permission to conduct our operations . . . and we surely don't need your fleets to hold what we take."Caedus brought his anger under control by reminding himself that he deserved such a rebuke. He had not failed at Fondor because of Niathal's treachery, or his admirals' lack of boldness, or even because of Daala's surprise attack. He had failed because of his own blindness, because he had allowed his anguish over Allana's betrayal to make him arrogant and selfish and vindictive.
And then, once his thinking had cleared, he began to see how the situation must look to someone who did not have the Force. To someone who could not look into the future and see Luke hunting him down, or see Mandalorian maniacs bursting from walls and asteroids burning as bright as stars, Caedus's assertion might be hard to believe. Without such foresight, it might be easy to convince oneself that this lonely cluster of rocks could not be as important as all that--that the balance of an interstellar war could never hinge on what was about to happen here.
After a moment's silence, Caedus said, "You don't believe me."
His tone was more disappointed than angry. "You think this is about spoils."
Lecersen exchanged suspicious glances with several of the other Moffs, then asked, "You don't really expect us to believe you came out here to protect us, do you?"
Caedus had to stifle a laugh. While he hadn't been thinking of it in those terms, he realized that was exactly what he was doing here -- protecting the Moffs and their crucial fleets.
"I suppose that does sound absurd." Realizing that only events themselves would convince the Moffs of his sincerity, Caedus turned and started toward the exit. "The truth so often does."
