Winter escorted Garm into her quarters and left immediately. Leia had changed into something more regal than her dressing gown and he observed the formality of bowing before approaching. When he had settled into the offered chair, Leia straightened her back and braced herself for battle.
"I must say no."
Garm Bel Iblis was accustomed to being in the public and keeping an impassive face. She saw the mask fall into place that he must have used every day of his senatorial career at this news, but not before she glimpsed a flicker of dismay or disappointment.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Leia," he said quietly.
"I hope you understand," Leia responded as delicately as possible.
The mask slipped for a moment and she waited patiently for him to speak again. The dismay remained in place this time, but he did not have enough evidence to feel a lasting disappointment in her priorities. It was customary for a guest of the court to speak only when spoken to, but Leia did him the unusual courtesy of waiting for him to continue the conversation.
"I hope you understand," Bel Iblis said, "that this will not prevent the Alliance from..."
"No."
"Your Highness..."
"Leia," she corrected. "I am not simply saying 'no' to my sanctioning of this. I must ask you to take this decision to those who issue orders to the Alliance. I want this to be understood from Mon Mothma down to the most recent recruit."
This time, his eyes narrowed. She kept her gaze steady and her jaw set. "Your father has done much for our cause," Bel Iblis stated. "It would be criminal for us not to return the favor."
It was an interesting choice of words for Bel Iblis. While he had not openly joined the Rebellion, he had passed information to its agents that was not his to disclose. One of these treasonous acts had led to the destruction of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Another had allowed the Alliance to lend its aid to an embattled world.
"I must say no," Leia echoed, "for a number of reasons. It would show my hand."
"You would never be mentioned," he protested.
She held up a hand to forestall any further commentary. "If Vader has enough evidence to take my father into custody, he will be watching my moves like a hawkbat. If one soldier in the rescue mission happens to have a third great-grandmother who once vacationed in Aldera, he will see it as collusion between the High Court of Alderaan and the Rebel Alliance."
"And you think that he does not see that already?" Bel Iblis challenged.
"He sees that defiance in my father," Leia pointed out, "but the most that can be said about me is that I have spoken in favor of peace. My father has seen to that."
In six years, while she had been allowed to carry datacards to Rebel sympathizers and bring word of conferences with her on diplomatic missions, she had been fairly innocuous in her public statements. It could not have gained her many fans in the Rebel Alliance, but it had made her few enemies in the Emperor's court.
"You need never know," her father's ally stated.
Leia had tried to avoid the meat of her defense, but there was no avoiding it now and she would not do him the disservice of leaving without an explanation. "Should the Alliance attempt to free my father, the result would be the same for Alderaan. They might succeed and he would go into hiding. His life would be given to the cause, even if he never lost it at the hands of the Empire. Should the Alliance fail in its efforts to liberate him, he would be among those executed while trying to escape.
"In the best-case scenario, where my father lives, you say that I need never know, but I would. I would know the moment that the Devastator and her support fleet arrived in orbit. My father's blood would not be spilled, but I would see stormtroopers in the streets of Antibes. Those of my people who were not killed in the initial occupation of Alderaan would be under a planet-wide house arrest.
"If Vader were feeling lenient, he would be satisfied with imprisoning me. He might execute me privately in my father's place. He might let me swing from a noose in the Grand Audience Chamber or somewhere more public than that. If I were very unlucky, he would take me to his Star Destroyer and allow me to watch from space as the Empire tested the flammability of Alderaan's cities and countryside. There is no scenario in which I would be allowed to remain in power."
She could have illustrated this horror tale with images from places like Falleen or Naboo, but Bel Iblis' dismay had been replaced by grim revulsion. She had made her point without having to rely on the precedent of Imperial brutality.
"You say that I need never know," she concluded. "You might even say that the Alliance would come to the aid of Alderaan. The Empire would not give sufficient warning for that to be an option. The Alliance would do many things in the memory of the slaughtered of Alderaan. People would rally to your banner and I know that is not your reason for offering your assistance, but it would be a natural by-product. My father means everything to Alderaan, but he would say no as well."
The mask was back in place, but this time, it felt as though Bel Iblis could not decide on an emotion. "You are your father's daughter," he murmured.
"So I have been told," Leia said. "You expected anything less?"
He shook his head. "I thought your mother's capitulating ways might have had an influence on you."
He undoubtedly meant the disarming. Breha had agreed to leave her homeworld defenseless instead of letting the Empire take a foothold.
"My mother taught me to protect Alderaan before self," she said. "My father has taught me why that is our philosophy."
Bel Iblis was finally the one to look away first and his hands clenched in his lap. "What do you intend to do?"
"Alderaan has friends in the Imperial judiciary," Leia stated. "I hope that reaching out to one of them will allow us to clarify Lord Vader's intentions before this goes any further."
"It will force a trial," he protested.
"That is the last thing Lord Vader wants," the High Princess asserted. "If that were not the case, he would have made the arrest public by now."
Bel Iblis nodded and withdrew the projector disc from his pocket. "Only the image from within the prison came from an Alliance source," he said. "The other was taken by a holoshill who was arriving for an interview with a prisoner when Senator Organa was brought in. When you were contacted for a comment, you became aware of the situation."
"Thank you," she said.
"If you like, the same holoshill could contact your judge friends to ask what charges are being brought against the Senator," he offered. "It would not be necessary for you to broach the subject."
"No," Leia said firmly. "I appreciate the offer, but this demand must come from me. I will not allow Vader to think that I am permitting justice to slip through the cracks again."