In truth he had, at the end of the day, achieved all he'd wanted; he was on his way to Bothawuii and a rendezvous with Mothma- and Madine.
But then there was that one point, still whispering... Never leave an enemy at your back.
If he did nothing now... had he learned nothing?
It had occurred to Luke to give Veers temporary command of the Fury during the coming mission, knowing this wasn't the General's forte and therefore Luke may well find an excuse for retribution.
He could easily validate the command; The Fury was set to go after Madine and Veers had worked alongside Madine several times when th eRebel General was still an Imperial officer. He could validate it by claiming that it took a General to catch a General - that Veers would have a better insight than anyone here into Madine's mind. He could offer the command as an opportunity for Veers to show his new Commander what he could do.
It was the ideal situation; if Veers succeeded, which Luke very much doubted considering that his milieu was ground-based battle, then Luke gained Madine. If he failed, then Luke had the perfect excuse to remove Veers- permanently.
It was playing the game, and he knew how to do that so well now- even when it burned him up inside to do so.
Or he could play a different game- could choose not to see Veers at all and simply begin to feed the General a string of ever-more outlandish nuggets of false information until Palpatine realised that his mole had long since been discovered and Luke was now simply playing a game. Load veers up with contradictory, inaccurate, illogical trivia and send him back to the Emperor- force him to deal with the problem he had created.
In a cool, calmer mood that was probably that he would have done. But he wasn't calm and he wasn't in a mood for games, and all of his qualms about more direct action were long since spent.
Once he would have held back because he felt he had something to loose; integrity, the moral high-ground- whatever. The man who had so pitilessly and fastidiously stripped those traits away from him would do well to remember that; to bear in mind the inevitable outcome of creating his precious advocate.
Because that was the trouble with owning a wolf; every now and then without any warning...
it would just turn around and bite.
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The door to Luke's ready-room sounded an entry chime then opened for Veers step inside.
He was hardly in the room before Luke turned on him, the power of the Force-blow sending him flying back against the wall with a resounding 'thud'. He lay on the floor, winded, looking up to see The Commander stalking towards him, eyes ablaze.
Luke crouched down to grab the breathless Veers by the scruff of his uniform, hauling him roughly upright, powering back against the wall again, any consideration of the moderate path already lost in a haze of vehement fury at the sight of the man who had wheedled his way into Luke's staff, lost Luke a valuable senior officer and so nearly obliterated months of groundwork and preparation in his own self-serving ambition.
"I thought I made myself very clear, Veers." Luke growled through clenched jaw.
"Sir, I don't..." an incredible weight crushed against his chest and windpipe, pushing the air from Veer's lungs in a gasp, widening his eyes.
"I don't want to hear - I don't care what worthless little excuse you've spent the last week dreaming up - it won't save your life."
"Nnnn..."
Veers grabbed weakly at the incensed Commanders hands, still grasping the front of his jacket, and Luke narrowed his eyes, unmoved. "I thought I explained very carefully the consequences of informing on me."
Again Veers struggled to speak, weaker now, "Wasssnn't...m..."
Luke kept the pressure for a few seconds more, unwilling to break off the attack... then he turned, the General dropping forward onto his knees, pulling in huge gulps of air.
Luke started toward his desk and the chair before it slid back towards him without visible aid. Veers, still gasping, shouted out in shock as he was suddenly hauled about, his body dragged by the Force towards the chair and thrown into it with enough power to topple the chair backwards, Luke twisting about to catch the back one-handed and haul it back upright before it fell, Veers almost toppling forward out of it, white-knuckled hands clinging to the chair's arms.
"You have just seconds of my time, Veers, so I suggest you make it interesting- I have a very short attention span." He leaned down to the cowering General from behind, "Go."
"I didn't do it..."
"You don't know what I've accused you of yet." Luke countered, standing behind the terrified man.
"I haven't done anything- I'm not active at the..."
"So you were intending to?"
"I..." Veers fell to desperate silence, then, "Spies! There are five active spies onb..."
"There are seven." Luke corrected, hands clamping onto Veers shoulders from behind. "But names would be interesting."
"Uuuh..." Veers struggled to remember, " Sinsa...Ogo...uhhhh..."
"Faster." Luke whispered, leaning in, using the Force to begin a gradual downward pressure on Veers' chest.
"N..uhhh Ni...Ni..."
"Nishima." Luke whispered. "Another?"
"Jiddick!...Jiddick and... Findallen."
Luke rose, though he maintained the Force-pressure against Veers, "Apparently there are eight. Thank-you."
Veers struggled to raise his arms, still pinned to the chair, breaths coming in short gasps now, "Sir..Sir, I didn't.. didn't do it! Whatever it is... it wasn't me..."
Still maintaining the force-pressure, Luke walked slowly to the tall viewport behind his desk, gazing out, his voice calm and cold, "I'd like to believe you, Veers, I really would. But the fact remains that even if you didn't do it this time, you would, eventually. And everything I suspect you of here, you've already done onboard my father's ship."
Veers turned slightly at that, eyes wide, "Father..."
"Lord Vader." Luke said easily, turning just slightly to observe the shocked look in the General's eyes, wondering if he comprehended that this forbidden piece of knowledge had now sealed his fate. "You may not have crossed me yet, but you've crossed mine - so you can understand why I don't like you, Veers. You can understand why I'm hard-pressed to let you walk out of here."
"My.. Lord..." Veers strained to even talk now-
"You know, I was once a tolerant man - very tolerant." Luke's voice was quiet, lost in thought as he turned back to gaze out into the endless darkness. "Perhaps because I believed I was doing the right thing..."
There was a dull 'cr-ack', the wet splinter of bone muffled by flesh, and with a final, broken gasp Veers crumpled forward, falling deadweight from the chair, his final breath driven from his lungs by the impact.
"I don't anymore." Luke said simply, no trace of regret in his voice.
.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
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"Sir, we're coming up to reversion." Admiral Joss stepped close to The Heir before he spoke, the bridge crew hunching studiously over the unfamiliar consoles of the modified freighter, staring intently at readouts with the grim, single-minded concentration of men trying hard not to be noticed.
General Veer's demise several days earlier had caused a buzz of trepidation about the Peerless, all the senior officers feeling the wind blow, so that although Joss was confident in his own immunity, his loyalties to The Heir long-since decided and declared, he too felt a little jittery in the wake of recent... actions.
The Heir had of course, taken the time to explain to those who were loyal that Veers was the Emperor's spy, and indeed Joss remembered having been informed of such by Commander Reece within a few weeks of Veer's arrival, long before the campaign against the Bothans' had even commenced. Still, The Heir's method of removing his spies left one a little... anxious when dealing with him.