"The New Rebellion (Kristine Rusch)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

survivors. Now you can work with us and help the New Republic." "Or?" He had
stepped forward despite Meido's restraining hand. "Are you threatening me,
Leia Organa Solo?" "That wouldn't be good for unity, now would it?" Leia
asked.
"It certainly wouldn't," Meido said smoothly. "Perhaps it would ease my
colleague's mind if we had a separate investigation going, as well as the
official investigation. With two teams, we might get better results." "Or we
might confuse the issue," Leia said.
"So you're opposed to a separate investigation?" Meido's tone implied
that she had something to hide.
"Of course not," Leia said. "I just don't like expending unnecessary
resources. The New Republic is not wealthy, either in credits or in available
labor." "I think that anything that enables us to trust one another again
would not be a waste," Meido said.
Again? Leia thought, but did not voice it.
"She obviously doesn't like the idea," R'yet said.
They had forced her into this. She should have expected it. She took a
deep breath. "We're a governing body," she said. "Let's vote." "I thought this
was an informal meeting," ChoFi said. It was an admirable ploy to delay the
vote.
"An informal meeting is still a meeting," Meido said.
Leia suppressed a sigh. They had outmaneuvered her. It would be hard to
take a vote without their consoles, without the electronic count, or computer
backup. But a voice vote would work, if someone counted the votes, and tallied
them to the proper senators. It also had the added benefit of making each
voter accountable in front of the others.
She sent one of the pages to get an official tally sheet. When the page
returned, she scanned the sheet, her gaze stopping each time it hit a dead or
seriously wounded senator. She would remember that day in the Hall for the
rest of her life. In its own, less devastating way, it had shaken her as the
destruction of Alderaan had. She had thought the Hall a completely safe place.
Perhaps that was why she fought the introduction of the former Imperials.
Perhaps she wanted to protect one of the few havens left in the galaxy.
It only took a few moments to get the system set up. Time enough for each
senator to think of a response.
"The question we are putting to the vote is this: Should we have an
independent investigation team? Your vocal response must be 'yes,' 'no,' or
'abstain.' " She took a deep breath, then called on the first senator.
Both she and the page recorded the vote as it occurred. A protocol droid
also listened, double-checking the tally. She had expected the vote to go in
her favor. At the least, she expected to break the tie on a close vote. But as
she ran through the list, skipping the missing and the dead, she realized that
her voting block, which had been the majority, was now in the minority. Most
of the uninjured were the junior senators. The senior senators, those with
long ties to the Republic, had somehow received the brunt of the blast.
By the end of the list, Leia's throat was dry and her eyes burned. Her
shoulders were stiff from tension. Fifteen senators voted against the
independent investigation. Fifteen. The rest abstained or voted in favor. The
measure won by an overwhelming majority.
Across the room, she met Kerrithrarr's gaze. The Wookiee senator