Star Wars: The Joint Chiefs

She's at it again with almost her shortest expansion yet - this time with the Joint Chiefs meeting on the Death Star, drawing on the Darth Vader comics. One minor dialogue correction. Yes, I'm a pedant. Sue me already.

The Star Destroyer Devastator flew towards the huge, specially built hangar bay on the Death Star. Grand Moff Tarkin had already been appraised.

He had just spoken with the Emperor, to receive some welcome (and, in his private opinion, overdue) news. It would, he smirked, upset his recently-acquired and high-ranking prisoner, who had been intercepted and captured at Tatooine. She would discover she was out of a job.

Announcing that fact, Tarkin had decided, would afford him a rare pleasure.

First, though...the Joint Chiefs. He met Vader and headed for the conference room.


Death Star Conference Room

Cassio Tagge spoke irritably to his fellow Joint Chiefs. "Until this battle station is fully operational, we are vulnerable. The Rebel Alliance is too well equipped. They're more dangerous than you realise," he warned.

Confident in the capabilities of the Emperor's latest and greatest creation, Admiral Conan Antonio Motti denied, "Dangerous to your starfleet, Commander - not to this battle station."

Trying to make Motti and the others see his point, Tagge raised his voice, returning angrily, "The Rebellion will continue to gain a support in the Imperial Senate, as lo -"

"The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us," Wilhuff Tarkin interrupted, entering the conference room with Darth Vader. "I have just received word," he continued, "that the Emperor has dissolved that misguided body permanently, though I understand he has been planning its removal for some considerable time. Now, the last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away." He took a seat at the head of the table.

Motti looked pleased, if not smug, at that welcome news. Tagge, though, had his doubts. "That's impossible! How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?"

"The Regional Governors, such as myself, now have direct control over their territories," Tarkin explained. "At last, the Imperial presence can be brought fully to bear upon the vacillating worlds of the Empire. This in turn will facilitate the full use of the Tarkin Doctrine, which has been approved by the Emperor. Fear will keep the local systems in line - fear of this battle station."

Motti looked even more self-satisfied at that, but Tagge was persistent. "And what of the Rebellion? If the Rebels have obtained a complete technical readout of this station, it is possible, however unlikely, that they might find a weakness...and exploit it."

They all knew what had happened at Scarif, before the Death Star had ravaged the world by destroying the Data Centre there. True, there had been some Imperial losses, but better that than risk the security of the battle station. But still the Rebels had uploaded the plans to the Tantive IV, which fled the scene only to be run down by the Devastator. Darth Vader spoke. "The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands."

"Any attack made by the Rebels against this station would be a useless gesture," Motti declared arrogantly with a sweep of his hand, "no matter what technical data they've obtained! This station," he went on fervently, "is now the ultimate power in the galaxy! I suggest we use it." He snickered. "As per the Tarkin Doctrine, of course."

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed," Vader cautioned. "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."

Not even Tarkin knew (though he suspected) that a fallen Jedi was speaking. The Joint Chiefs were used to such pronouncements. But Motti said scornfully, "Don't try to frighten us with your sorceror's ways, Lord Vader! Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes," he mocked, and didn't register Vader moving slowly towards him, "or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fort -"

Vader brought his fingers together in a choking gesture...and Motti began to choke. He gasped, one hand trying to loosen his collar (for all the good it would do). As the Joint Chiefs looked on in worry - and Tarkin with irritation - Vader mocked, "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

Then, as Motti's neck came perilously close to fracture and a very slight crack sounded from his cartilage, with an increasingly desperate Motti about to lose consciousness - and, indeed, life - Tarkin snapped, "Enough of this! Vader, release him!"

"As you wish," Vader said mildly, and opened his hand - and Motti slumped forward with a gasp. In truth, Tarkin was not in charge of Vader, as he appeared to believe; Vader released Motti only because it suited him to do so. Generally he regarded everyone below himself as expendable at best. But the Joint Chiefs could not be permitted to think of the Force as a "religion" when it was real, even though few adhered to its practices now the Jedi were wiped out. A small demonstration would suffice, and Motti had given him just such an opportunity.

Recovering, Motti glared at Vader in hate and anger. It had no effect on the Dark Lord. He had made his point.

"This bickering is pointless!" Tarkin declared sternly. "Now Lord Vader will provide us with the location of the Rebel fortress by the time this station is operational. He has captured a high-ranking Rebel - ex-Senator Leia Organa. He will interrogate her, after which she will be put to death as a traitor to the Empire. Once we have the location, we will then crush the Rebellion with one swift stroke!"

With a touch of sarcasm, Vader added, "As the Emperor wills it, so shall it be."

If any of the powerful men seated around the table found this disrespectful tone objectionable, a glance at Motti was sufficient to dissuade them from mentioning it. Indeed, a few of them were old enough to remember the Dark Lord's introduction to them by the Emperor, not long after Order 66...on which occasion five Imperial officers were executed by the Dark Lord as little more than an object lesson in Vader's power and authority.

As Vader was not, officially, in the chain of command (more above it), some Imperial Navy officers had doubted his status at first...until five of their fellows suffered and died by his hand - or rather, by his Force choke.

An order from Vader was as an order from the Emperor himself.

That had been made graphically clear.

THE END