"This wasn't the jumpsuit I meant," Jaina sighed, as she hastily slipped her high-heeled boots through the leg-holes. At least the stretchy white synthetic and the fact that the garment didn't come down any lower than garter-height made the thing easy to pull on in a hurry in a pair of stiletto boots. But without the associated accessories, the costume wasn't much more than a bodysleeve, the tightly-tailored seams designed to accentuate rather than conceal the physique underneath.
She stood up, wrigling her arms down the tight sleeves, and let Tahiri pull the fastener up her back.
"You look great, Grand Moff," she grinned.
Jaina didn't answer. She checked her reflection in the mirror, frowning at her breasts, visibly naked beneath the tight white material, and the very snug way that the costume fitted to her crotch. The fact that she wearing a chastity belt with the Imperial insignia embossed on the front seemed humiliatingly obvious, and she wasn't sure the jumpsuit was any real improvement on just greeting Major Devis in her boots.
"I'd have probably looked more properly dressed wearing my collar and going topless," she muttered.
"I'll remember that preference next time you're in a hurry, Grand Moff," Tahiri smiled.
She waved away the velvet wraparound scarf/cape that went with the boots—not the right look for an interview with an Imperial Intelligence officer, and she definitely wasn't wearing the silly cake-box hat that topped off the ensemble. Instead, she dashed back into their bedroom, to grab the fancy jacket she'd worn the night before. Even worn unfastened, that looked formal enough to pass muster. The angular wraparound lapels fell across the front in a way that hid her hard nipples and Imperial-badged sex, and the colour was almost the same shade as the velvet boots.
The comm chimed, and she hurried back to the front of the apartment. "Stay out of sight," she snapped to Tahiri—taking charge, at least for a passing moment.
She wondered what she'd do if Tahiri ignored her.
She opened the door, and found herself face-to-face with a girl younger than herself, but considerably taller. She was dressed in an Imperial uniform, which seemed pale grey against the bright daytime lighting and shiny metal bulkheads of the Tower corridor, contrasting with her dark-skinned features—she'd inherited her looks from her mom and grandmother, very different from Pellaeon's fair complexion, and Jaina suspected that if they'd just met by chance, she wouldn't have seen the resemblance; but knowing in advance that she was his granddaughter, Jaina could recognize the old Grand Admiral in her broad features, her confident jawline, her level gaze, and her straight-backed posture.
And her brown eyes, brighter than Jaina's own, were very much like Pellaeon's.
"Grand Moff," said Lena Devis, saluting smartly.
"Major Devis," Jaina answered, stepping back and gesturing her in—an exaggerated sweep of movement, ostentatiously civilian. "Thank you for seeing me."
She walked into the apartment, moving in long strides, then pausing to doff her headgear—a cover for the sort of quiet look-around that special forces soldiers often gave to a place they hadn't been before. Even hatless, in her flat-soled boots, she seemed as tall as Tahiri in high heels, and there was an attractive confidence about her posture and physique—an easy balance of strength and suppleness which seemed entirely appropriate for a female officer of Imperial Intelligence.
"I assume this is about Moff Saretti, ma'am," she answered.
"Yes and no," Jaina answered. "Take a seat."
She settled smartly at one end of the lounger, folding her uniform cap in her hands and looking up at her with a composed expression. Jaina decided to stay standing.
This was a test of how well she could handle lower-ranking officers. One she'd set herself. "I want you to be the new Moff of Braxant," she said. A flicker of surprise showed in Devis's eyes. "I know who your grandfather was. I flew briefly with your father in the Vong war. And I also know that you reported on Moff Saretti's activities to Imperial Intelligence."
"I," she began, then paused, as she thought over everything Jaina had just said, and decided to change whatever she'd been about to say. "I'm sure there are far better candidates, Grand Moff."
Jaina tried to smile. "So why do you think I chose you?"
A moment's pause, while Major Devis thought that over, too. "You see me as loyal, Grand Moff," she concluded. "Whether to the Empire in the abstract or to the new power-structure in the specific. You value the fact that I am the Grand Admiral's granddaughter, you feel a debt of gratitude over my father, and you believe that my record as an officer has been at least adequate to justify the advantages that you perceive as deriving from those facts. How did I do?"
"Pretty good," Jaina nodded. "You're uncomfortable with this. Tell me why?"
"I could hardly be called a supporter of yours," she answered honestly. "To be candid, I expected you to end up in a jail cell with Moff Saretti and the other traitors." Not as Grand Moff of the Empire, her eyes added.
"Moff d'Ashewl and some of his associates on the Council have been... educating me," Jaina exhaled. "In ways I hope you would approve of, Major. I'm trying to be a good Imperial. To make up for past mistakes."
The girl's eyes widened, her brows arching. "And yet you're the one who's overruling Moff d'Ashewl's recommendation of Colonel Axman for Governor of Braxant Sector."
"I don't think a stormtrooper is what the sector needs." Jaina shrugged. "I was very impressed by your reports, your grasp of detail and your ability to tackle the wide range of issues that passes across a Moff's desk."
"Thank you, Grand Moff." She shifted uncomfortably. "The Stormtrooper Corps are underrepresented on the Central Committee, and Axman is a very competent and thorough officer."
"Speak freely," Jaina gestured. She'd commanded a squadron of pilots before. The Empire wasn't that much different. "That's not all this is."
The girl's eyes gave a suspicious flicker, betraying a suspicion that Jaina had used the Force to read the subtext of her thoughts—and Jaina wondered if she'd instinctively done just that. But Devis was too professional to show her anger openly. "My father was killed fighting a war that wasn't the Empire's business," she said. "Grand Moff. For a Navy captain, he had a decidedly impolitic admiration for the Rebel Alliance—your father was his hero, in fact—but I think he overestimated how much that Rebel idealism was really embodied in the New Republic. I was fifteen at the time. I do not share his sympathy. My grandfather was killed by a Jedi Knight, who is a personal friend of yours. You'll forgive me if I lack enthusiasm for anyone associated with the Alliance, or the Jedi, or with you."
Jaina nodded. "What you say is hard to disagree with, Major. But I'm interested how Moff Saretti and Moff Reige, fit into this. They were on Pellaeon's side. They betrayed and imprisoned Tahiri. I'd have thought that you'd be loyal to them." Instead, you reported them to Moff d'Ashewl. Which is why I'm here as head of state, and not as Vitor's cock-whore.
"They were pro-Alliance." A simple answer. "The fact that they locked her up used her as a sex-slave doesn't really contradict that to my way of thinking. She still went along for them." The bitch for Fel and Reige, just like she was the bitch for your brother Jacen.
Jaina exhaled. Sometimes, the Force allowed her to catch the sense of a stranger's unguarded thought, but that was one of the strongest, clearest messages she'd ever read. "Telling you that Tahiri went along on orders from my uncle won't make that better for you," she said. "I know, because that didn't make what they did any better for me."
"You were their whore too, Grand Moff."
Jaina blinked. "A fair observation," she conceded. And now I'm not. "Do you understand how Moff d'Ashewl has been able to exploit that to the better advantage of the Empire?"
"I'm starting to, Grand Moff," she nodded, with a smile. "Moff d'Ashewl tells me that he's turning the girl who killed my grandfather into some sort of ultra-loyal assassin, which I suppose I approve of." A flash of vindictive gratification showed in her aura in the Force. "But I'm not quite sure why you're necessary here, if I'm honest. Ma'am?" Why don't you just go back to wherever you came from?
Jaina smiled. "The Empire needed a neutral figurehead with no political thoughts of her own, who was acceptable to the opposition. That's what I agreed to be, at any rate. I thought I'd be the modernising counterweight, or something, to people like Moff Flennic and Moff Sacker. But every decision I'm confronted with, and every file I read, makes me feel more like I'm on their side. I need Moffs like you, who're on that side, who will speak their mind without fear or favour. And help me do this job better."
"To bolster your own position? Or to strengthen the Empire?"
"Major, I am the Empire. In the sense that all I can do is represent the Empire. I'm completely constricted by my position, my lack of any personal powerbase beyond... beyond these private quarters," she said quickly. She'd almost named Tahiri. "And by certain character-qualities that I'm sure you've seen the reports on."
"Seen the reports, seen the holos. Packaged them up for your projector. Grand Moff, ma'am." She was grinning now.
"Well, then." Jaina found herself smiling back. "You'll know how much I enjoy serving as the expression of the combined will of a group of Moffs." That made Devis laugh. "Now, I'm just serving the right Moffs," she exhaled. "In public, too."
"You're Moff d'Ashewl's bitch, in other words."
"Got in one, Major."
"Well, then, I'm not quite sure how I feel about you insisting on me joining the Moff Council, ma'am, because that doesn't really fit the narrative you've just given... but I mean, if you want me to help the Moffs keep you in line, I guess I can agree with that."
She had more of an accent when she relaxed, Jaina noted. Somewhere Rimward, less Imperial—but the smile was very much Pellaeon's.
Then Major Devis smiled again. "I'm just not convinced the Moff's chair of the Braxant sector is the right place for me to do that from."
Jaina blinked, then quickly arched her eyebrows. "You're turning me down?"
"I'm telling you you're making a mistake," she countered. "Grand Moff. Are you big enough to take that sort of advice, or are you just here to play out your private power fantasies of being our Rebel slut?"
She swallowed slightly. "Advice noted."
"If you want a Moff who's not a stormtrooper, annexe the sector to Governor Sacker's command, and appoint Colonel Axman as High Commander of a separate military administration."
"Thank you, Major Devis," she nodded. "I'll consider that. If I do... would you accept a promotion to Chief Administrator to help oversee the new arrangements?"
"I'll follow my orders, ma'am."
Jaina smiled at that. "You know, when I was a kid, my heroes in the holomovies used to be the Imperials."
"We do have a thorough file on you, ma'am. For what it's worth, your grandfather was my hero growing up."
"Well, then." Jaina gave her a smile, as she caught up with her meaning. "You said my dad was one of your father's heroes. Your father and your grandfather are both among mine."
She laughed. "Ma'am, you've not met the rest of my family. Perhaps I can introduce you."
"I'll make sure they get an invite to my inauguration, too," Jaina nodded. Devis had stood up, and she shook hands—firmly, fairly, just like her grandfather. "Thanks for turning down my offer, Major, and thanks for trusting that I can be part of your Empire."
"We just need to keep an eye on you, ma'am," she nodded, with a glint of humour in her eyes.
And that was that. She strode out the door—from the rear, her long marching steps suddenly showed off her tight and sexy ass. And when the door slid shut behind her, Jaina exhaled.
She hurried over to the bar, to get herself a drink. Sexy heels clicking on her sexy Imperial floor. That had been about as much non-submissive behaviour as she could cope with, one-on-one around one of her own officers, and she'd pretty much unravelled by the end.
She was turned on, she realised. Turned on. Just from talking to Major Devis, or from keeping on top of her own submissive instincts, or from the rush of release at the end of the encounter.
"Well," Tahiri said, leaning on the door leading to the back of the apartment, and smiling wryly at her. "That went well."