Was it such a good idea to let them wander Coruscant alone? Hmm. He walked down the long hallway and reached the turbolift. No, it wasn't. In fact, it was a very bad idea. He pressed the button.
Sci walked up a flight of steps to reach an open office door. He entered and the lieutenant sitting at the desk stood up and saluted. Still, he--at least, Sci thought it was a he; Rodian gender was sometimes difficult to discern--still had what looked like a sneer on his face, although that could merely be a facial characteristic of Rodians that Sci wasn't aware of.
He returned the salute and held it a few beats. "At ease."
The Rodian relaxed slightly. "The Colonel is waiting for you, Major."
Probably the least enjoyable part of Sci's tasks as head of Terra Group was that, as the leader, he was answerable to New Republic Intelligence on behalf of his team. Normally, since General Cracken had taken a very personal, almost micro-managing level, stake in Terra, Sci would answer to him. However, this meeting had been called by another senior officer. Colonel Dion, of the Arap clan of Dressellia, was one of General Cracken's top administrators. His specific responsibilities concerned secrecy--he had practically written the book on the use of subtle force and quiet methods. All of which added up to a major dislike of Terra Group and its methods. And, as such, its CO.
Sci sighed to himself as he entered the inner office door, giving a military-sharp salute. The short Dressellian returned it and gestured for Sci to sit. He did.
"I'm surprised," said Dion in the slight lisp common to Dressellians speaking Basic, "that you still remember what a salute is, Major."
Sci bristled a bit, but kept his voice under control. "It is true that my group does not hold to the standard of military operation, but that is to be expected. Most of them have not had formal military training--they have, simply put, been thrust into this situation--and, to further the point, they learned some of the basics from the Rogues and Wraiths. You know full well what they think of military formality. Lastly, since we are a long-term independent operating group, military formality is not exactly necessary--none of the more senior officers require it, and it is rare that any non-team member visits."
Dion waved Sci down from his speech. "You obviously have your explanations marshalled in logic and reason." Sci inclined his head slightly at the offhanded compliment, and Dion placed both his hands on the desk. "However, I don't know if it will be quite as easy to explain away your team's typical response to situations." Sci sighed. He knew what was coming.
"The child Lamron, being of the Arap clan--" Sci slumped inwardly. I knew it. "--was a serious issue for me personally when his family's scoutship crashed on Terra. I know full well what a difficult time we had with the SACUL organization arranging for a smokescreen. However, you seem to have ignored that precedent of care--in fact, all precedents of care--and gone out of your way to break every rule set up for the Prevention of Cultural Contamination."
"With all due respect, Colonel, we have done only what we deemed necessary in the best interests of the New Republic and Terra."
"I don't doubt that in the slightest, Major. However, if you would amend your ideas of what the best interests of the New Republic and Terra were, we might not be having this discussion. There have been, at this time, four--five if you include your current Operation Arrakis--cases of large-scale interaction between Terra and extraplanetary entities, and the track record of Terrans' responses is not even close to ideal." He ticked them off on his fingers.
"One--a Galactic Republic scoutship crash-lands while investigating recent nuclear weaponry use on Terra. Result: Unmitigated disaster, only tolerated because the unique mindset of the Terran people allows the incident to become a folk tale. Two--Rebels, acting on recently sliced data, make contact with your George Lucas, and he establishes the _Star Wars_ saga as a cover story." That was an extremely simplified version of the Roswell Incident and the meeting between Lucas and what Terrans commonly called the "GFFA," but Sci was not in any position to be correcting a superior officer.
"Several years later," continued Dion, "a scoutship from the Arap clan crashes, and your Lucas convinces a friend to turn that into a fiction. Four and five are Project Boussh and Operation Arrakis. If I were you, Major, I would start working on acting more covertly. You'll run out of smokescreens if you use them so freely like this."
"With all due respect, you don't know Terrans that well. I'm confident that we can distract the public as long as need be. Terra is unique in the universe, as you said."
Dion sat back in his chair. "As you say, Major. I leave this situation, for now, in your allegedly capable hands. For now." He stood up, and Sci stood and saluted.
As he was walking out, Sci shook his head. What else can go wrong today?