Chapter Five; "Meeting with Dooku: Failure"
"Failure? What failure?" – demanded Grievous.
Dooku read the report that Nute Gunray had given him.
"Your mission was to conquer the planet, General." – said the Count.
Grievous didn't even blink. He just stood there looking at the report.
"So?" – asked the General.
Dooku showed the cyborg a smile and continued to read the report.
"Did you conquer the planet, General?" – asked Dooku.
Grievous blinked. It would seem that the question had touched a nerve.
"I have, Lord Tyranus." – answered the General. – "In a way…"
The Count sighed and threw the report at a garbage disposal that he had next to his chair.
"Grievous… You destroyed the whole planet!" – said Dooku bluntly.
Grievous started to walk towards the Count. The General was incredibly intimidating, even to Dooku. Oh, he didn't fear him, not as such… But the way the cyborg looked at him. The way he walked. His face in form of a Human skull. Any man with sense would be intimidated by him.
"Therefore it is conquered. The stinky Republic and its Jedi dogs lost." – stated Grievous.
Dooku looked at the General's cloak. Grievous kept four lightsabers within his cloak. He was quite a deadly warrior. He was strong, agile, cunning and treacherous. You should never turn your back at him.
"I understand your reasoning. I really do! But the Neimoidians asked us to take the planet, not to destroy it. There is a slight difference!" – explained the Count.
Grievous could wield those lightsabers as if he was a Jedi. And he wasn't even a Force Sensitive; someone that has a great connection with the Force. His mechanical body helped a lot, of course. The General had incredible reflexes and godly strength. And he possessed a very unusual combat style. It was hard to describe it, really… The only thing that one should expect from Grievous in a duel was pure improvisation.
Dooku wondered sometimes if teaching that vile creature some lightsaber combat techniques had been a good idea.
"I care little for those slugs, Lord Tyranus." – said the General.
Dooku looked at Grievous, directly at the eyes. Those yellow reptilian eyes.
"They are part of the Confederacy, General. Show some respect!" – ordered Dooku.
Truth be told, the Count didn't respect or care for the other members of the Confederacy. But he was a Sith Lord. He had that right. People expected that from a Sith Lord. But Grievous was a tool, a henchman… He had to know his place and who was really in charge around there.
"I apologize, Lord Tyranus. But… What do you want me to do?" – asked the General.
Dooku looked at the garbage disposal and then shrugged.
"What's done is done, General. I just want to make sure that this kind of trouble doesn't happen again in the future. Do I make myself clear, Grievous?" – asked the Count.
Grievous nodded.
"Crystal, Lord Tyranus." – answered the General.
Looking at Grievous one would never figured it out that he was in fact a coward. A deadly thuggish coward, but a coward nonetheless. His look could intimidate the bravest of souls.
Qymaen jai Sheelal was a brave warrior. Some say that he knew no fear and that he laughed at the thought of dieing in combat. But Grievous was different. Grievous wasn't Qymaen jai Sheelal.
But there was of course a reason for this.
It had been San Hill's idea. Grievous had been a huge investment that had involved many costs as well as grave discussions within the Confederacy. Grievous was viewed more as a weapon, a tool, than a live being.
When someone buys a starship, he doesn't want his investment to go down the drain. He wants that investment to give results. And he doesn't want it to come to harm. Lots of credits were invested on it.
If Grievous had Qymaen jai Sheelal´s fearless trait, the cyborg would eventually be destroyed. And no one wanted that to happen.
What to do, then? San Hill's suggestion was to give the General a special program. You could even call it "cowardice", if you will. Every time that the General met someone that was tougher than him, every time that the program thought that the cyborg couldn't survive the odds he was up against… The program would then take control of the cyborg´s actions. And the General would suddenly become a coward and run.
So Grievous was a coward. A deadly thuggish coward, but a coward nonetheless.
The Count looked at the collection of works of Art that he owed. It was a marvellous collection. People would kill just to be in the same room than them. They were all priceless. The most attentive observer would have noted that there were four gracious vases in that collection and thought that something was wrong. It was wrong because there was some space between the second vase and the third vase. Meaning that one of the vases was missing.
And Dooku was looking precisely at that space between the second vase and the third vase. His face seemed to become tenser for a moment, but he recovered his grace rather quickly. He was a gentleman, after all.
"So, General… Would you care to make your report?" – asked the Count, while drinking his wine.