238036032-Star-Wars-A-New-Dawn-by-John-Jackson-Miller

42 John Jackson Miller
to listen to in the past, at least. She unpaused the feed. “That’s that,
then. I’ll close out the— ”
“Incoming message,” Hetto said, speaking abruptly. “The official
channel.”
That doesn’t happen every day, she thought. “Put it through!”
A macabre form appeared holographically in the space before the
brown- clad supervisor. His mechanical voice spoke precisely and clearly.
“This is Count Vidian of the Galactic Empire, speaking to all surveillance
stations under my authority. I am launching inspections of mining
operations both on Cynda and at the processors on Gorse. All such locations
are now under Security Condition One. No exceptions.”
Zaluna gawked at the life- sized figure. “Excuse me. All the mining
operations? Are you aware how many— ”
Count Vidian did not wait to hear her finish. The transmission ended.
Hetto spoke first, as always. “What the hell ?”
“Yeah,” Zaluna said, under her breath. Then she let out a whistle.
The mining trade employed tens of thousands of people.
“Is he serious? Does he even know what he’s asking for?” Hetto
threw up his hands. “Maybe we need to get a red stamp for that guy’s
file. I swear, some of these Impies must be out of their minds! That,
or— ”
“Hetto!” Zaluna snapped.
Except for the low murmur of audio feeds coming from the monitors,
the room fell silent. More quietly this time, she said, “We do what
we’re told.”
Zaluna traced her jowls with her fingertips as she tried to remember
the last time Sec- Con One had been invoked. It hadn’t happened since
the Emperor first drafted Transcept into Imperial service to deal with the
Jedi crisis. It meant escalating every case under watch to the highest
level— and Zaluna had a sense of what that meant.
It was nothing good.
Her eyes had returned to the live feed of Skelly on Cynda, the con-