representatives stroll the meandering pathways, had they not been subject to the confiscatory and arbitrary taxes of the Republic.
If all went well, those obstacles to even greater wealth would soon be removed.
The courtyard had been designed as a place of refuge from the noise and activity of the city beyond. Today it provided privacy of a different sort to the gathering of representatives and their aides. The latter were gradually dismissed, until only the senior officials remained, holding their refreshments and questions until all could assemble together beside a translucent fountain spewing scented water.
'It's premature.' This from Garil Volune, one of the human delegates. 'They haven't been gone that long.'
'Be realistic, Volune,' declared one of the male Ansionians. 'They should have been back by now.' He gestured toward the main street outside the courtyard and the house. 'They should have been back days ago.'
'The Jedi wouldn't abandon us,' another delegate insisted. 'It's not their way. Even if their attempt to make the Alwari see reason failed, they would return to tell us so.'
Delegate Fargane, tallest and most educated of the four na tive Ansionians present, waved his tumbler angrily. 'They have comlinks. They should have contacted us by now. Whether to speak of success or failure matters not so much to me. I ask only that those who desire my vote be polite.' An irritated hissing noise emanated from his single nostril. 'I can stand to be proven wrong, but I don't like being ignored.'
Towering over them all, Tolut offered a dissenting opinion. 'Maybe they are having trouble with their comlinks.'
Volune looked up at him in disbelief. The smaller human delegate was not intimidated by the bulky Armalat. 'All four of them?'
Tolut gestured petulantly. He was no happier with the con tinuing lack of contact on the part of the visiting Jedi than were his colleagues. 'We don't know that they each carry one. Maybe they only took two with them. Two could break.'
'Comlinks just don't break down like that.' Kandah took a deep breath. 'If these Jedi are as competent as their kind are rumored to be, one would think they would carry necessary replacement parts, or spares. Yet still we hear nothing from them.'
'Probably because they've failed to do what they intended to do, are too embarrassed to face you and admit it, and have already left Ansion to report their failure to their aged superiors.'
Everyone else turned to look in the speaker's direction. Tun Dameerd, another delegate, responded. 'Unlike the rest of us, you are not a chosen representative of the Ansionian populace, Ogomoor, and are here only as an invited guest. It's not your place to comment on these ongoing negotiations.'
'What negotiations?' Blithely ignoring the admonition, Ogomoor set his drink aside and spread his long, three- fingered hands wide. 'These Jedi came here and asked you to delay your vote on the matter of secession so that they might strike a bargain with the Alwari enabling everyone on Ansion to live within the suffocating strictures of the Republic. You graciously consented to give them this chance.'
He turned a slow circle, presenting himself to each of them in turn. 'What has been the result? More delay, more obfusca- tion, more of what the Republic has given Ansion for decades. If that isn't proof enough that it's time for a real change, I don't know what is.' Feigning indifference, he picked up his glass again. 'Of course, as you say, I'm only here as an observer. But I do know that there are many who eagerly await the outcome of your eventual vote. A positive outcome.'
'Your bossban, for example?' Volune eyed the majordomo sarcastically.
Ogomoor was not upset. 'Naturally, Soergg looks forward to the day when he and his kind can conduct business in this part of the galaxy openly and without being crushed beneath the onerous burden of outdated Republic rules and regulations.'
'I didn't know a Hutt could bend,' Dameerd quipped. Mild laughter rose from the delegates-but not from all of them, Ogomoor noted. He and his bossban had allies here.
'You can joke,' Kandah observed icily, 'but my family's commerce and the businesses of those who supported my elec tion to this position have suffered mightily under the Republic's sluggishness and indifference. I say it's time we moved forward! We've delayed long enough. Call for the vote!'
Fargane raised his own glass. 'Kandah is right. I flatter myself that I might live long enough to see it.'
Volune's lips tightened and he shook his head. 'I agree that the Republic has lost its way. I agree that our pleas for relief from oppressive laws and taxes are too often ignored. But the Senate has responded to our complaints.' He looked around at his fellow delegates. 'Do you not all agree that if the Jedi can make this peace between the Unity of towns and cities and the Alwari that Ansion will be better off under the laws of the Republic than outside them?'
The discussion that followed was heated, and short. Once again it was Kandah who spoke up. 'Of course we are agreed on that.' She ignored the look of surprise on Ogomoor's face. 'If we were not, we would have gone ahead and taken the vote the same day the Jedi arrived. But we have no peace with the Alwari. We have no agreement. And with each day that passes, our assurances of support from the Malarians and the Keitumites that they will follow our lead diminishes. It is critical that this matter be decided.'
Into the silence that followed, Volune offered a compromise. 'We cannot vote today in any case. The proper procedures are not in place. I am willing, albeit reluctantly, as the chosen representative of my constituency, to set a date on which the vote to secede or not to secede shall be taken.' He looked at the Ansion-ian on his right. 'Will this satisfy the venerable Fargane?'
The eldest Ansionian present paused, then gestured affirma tively. 'It will.'
Volune turned back to the others. 'Then let us settle on a date and a time, and not deviate from that. If the Jedi return before then, we will hear them out. If they do not, then we will go ahead and take the vote, and they will have only themselves to blame for their lack of a timely response.'
The proposal was too reasonable for even Tolut to object to, and the Armalat found himself making the suggestion unani mous. For his part, Ogomoor knew that Bossban Soergg and his supporters would be well pleased. The date chosen was not as soon as might have been wished, but neither was it uncon scionably far in the future. Tolut might be a problem, but the Ar-malat's vote could be ignored. Following today's gathering,
