She had gone alone to see Moff d'Ashewl in his office at Intelligence, leaving Tahiri in the hangar with the limousine and Sacker's stormtroopers, and she'd ordered the quartet of DT-4 droids who Tahiri had insisted she take with her to wait as far back as she could without Tahiri noticing. She had thought she might end up drawing her lightsaber. Or doing what she usually did with d'Ashewl.
Either way, she didn't want witnesses.
She had a strange sense that she knew the uniformed aide who escorted her to the Moff's office, but she was sure she'd have remembered a slender, precisely obedient Imperial secretary with a polished accent and perfect legs, and given her formal social circle, she wasn't sure where she'd have met one that her Director of Intelligence trusted.
And then she was face-to-face with d'Ashewl.
"I'm going to have to ask your aide to step outside," she said.
"Zero-Seven," he nodded, gesturing the girl out. Jaina wondered if that was her ID, or a coded instruction.
"Thank you," Jaina said, and waited til the door slid shut.
"So this is about Tahiri," he had said, and then he told her everything.
Jaina listened quietly, not really understanding at first. d'Ashewl was surprisingly delicate and succinct—leaving things unsaid, she realised, for Tahiri to fill in for herself, when Jaina was prepared to ask her.
"Thank you," she nodded, when he was finished. She exhaled.
"I'm glad you came, actually," d'Ashewl said. "There are some matters that we need to discuss. Concerning the succession."
"Jedi babies," she nodded. She'd been putting off thinking about that part.
"We think that if you give the Empire four children, that should be sufficient, Grand Moff," d'Ashewl remarked. There was a casualness to his tone. But Jaina knew that he would not allow her to dissent.
"All at once?" she asked, trying to make a joke of it.
"Why not?" he smiled. "That way we can pretend that they're Fel's."
"No," she said.
"There would be certain advantages. None of that awkward questioning about who the fathers might be. Although considering the best choice of genetic partner to guarantee a strong Force-sensitive daughter, fathers is not perhaps going to be the best word for all of them."
"No," Jaina said. She wasn't having quads. She didn't care if people thought Jag had left her pregnant, but she wasn't going to make any effort to pass her children off as his. "Wait a minute. You're going to force me and Tahiri to have children together?!"
"Yes, Grand Moff," d'Ashewl answered. "Is that a problem?"
"Oh, no," she laughed. "Not at all." She gave him a wry, lopsided look. "Why not one each from you, Tagge and Sacker, too?"
"Grand Moff," d'Ashewl smiled. "That's an excellent idea."