Whisper chuckled as the president seemingly dragged him onto the dance floor with a flourish. He had obviously meant, chat it up with the local generals, etc, to gain more intelligence on the current situation.

He grabbed the Presidents waist, and grinned as he dipped her slowly during the right part of the music, and kept in turn.

His eye caught something that was familiar to him, and he froze for just a moment, but unfortunately, it was just far enough, that she noticed.

"Dear, what is the matter, do i bore you?" She said, with a sigh, her pretty eyes batting at him.

"No my love, I merely thought I saw...for lack of a better word, a ghost. Made my hair stand up for a minute, but i'm sure it was nothing. Lets enjoy ourselves."

One Week later…

Recusant-class Destroyer Iron Hand, Deep Space

Sturm strolled through the hallways of the Iron Hand, a rather recent acquisition for the Alliance Navy. A rather crappy ship…to use as a passenger liner…how did I let Crafty drag me along? Ah, that’s right…he was afraid that he would need protection in case he accidentally activated the battle droids while he was reprogramming them along with half of the ship…The former security guard passed by a quartet of B1 battle droids now sporting newly painted Alliance crests on their torsos. Best security force ever…by trying to walk, they’ll stumble all over themselves and impede anyone from being able to walk through a hallway without tripping…The former security expert ducked in through a hatch to see Crafty taking a break from his programming to watch the latest holo-news from Foerost.

“…while former President Harloch has steadfastly denied election fraud, an inside source supposedly close to her has turned over correspondences and audio recordings between her and General Malheur discussing the possibility of election fraud and its consequences. Perhaps more damningly, several independent election watchdogs, both domestic and foreign, had been alerted to a scheme in which dead people voted for Harloch. Initial investigation shows that these fraudulent votes were all routed at one point through Revolutionary Guard headquarters. President del Styx has ordered an official government inquiry for the new FIS to investigate the fraud further. Bob Miller, our senior politics comment joins us now. Bob, do you think he will find anything?”

“A month ago, I would have said no, but in light of the overthrow of Harloch’s government, I would say anything is popular. The Revolutionary Guard was thrown in disarray by the destruction of several of its headquarters in events immediately before the riots, which means that further evidence from those places is unlikely. That being said, with the subsequent mutinies within the Guard itself, sympathetic Guardsmen may have been able to obtain additional information or provide more testimonies regarding the fraud. Given Malheur’s alleged assassination attempt on Major Stolfus, I would guess that she has some damning information about Malheur’s involvement in the fraud…”

“…which is a miracle in and of itself,” commented Kenneth, “we have seen many of the opposition leaders survive attempts made upon them by Revolutionary Guards loyal to Harloch and Malheur. How do you think it is that the military was unable to placate them?”

Bob shrugged, “It does seem as if they all have guardian angels watching over them. In del Styx’s case, the rumor is that there was a Jedi involved in his security detail. But I don’t think it’s likely as not only are Jedi very rare these days, but there is no-one that we’ve seen in his retinue who could possibly be a Jedi, or at least none that look like they could be. If you look at the people who surrounded him around the protest, they are just common people, just like anyone else. Frankly, I think it was their determination along with the support of millions of other every day citizens that prevented the Harloch’s military from being able to do much. When she finally tried to stop Stolfus with the military, we saw a massive backlash that ended up with the military and elements of the Revolutionary Guard turning against her….the general rule of thumb is that physical force does not have the effect or lasting power over the popular support of the people. Even with the planet now firmly back in democratic control under del Styx, we have seen that Harloch still retains a loyal supporters, or perhaps people who would rather leave Foerost than support del Styx.”

“Are you referring to the stand-off and subsequent disappearance of elements of the Foerost Defence Fleet?”

“I am. I think the elements who supported Harloch have simply left, perhaps to return another day...”

“Yeah right,” swore Crafty, “these ships are ours now, never going back to Foerost…”

Sturm spared a glance at the hacker, “You know that how?”

“The Alliance has too few of ships to spare when the planet already has a substantial navy of its own…”

“Del Styx gave them to us under terms of an “indefinite loan”, not forever…they still belong to Foerost,” said the soldier.

“Yeah, I bet we’ll just give them back…I think it’s a pretty good payment for a liberation…”

“We’re paying ourselves now?” laughed Sturm, “no, Foerost is not an outside party. It’s just a secret member government of the Alliance. Don’t get me wrong, Del Styx is grateful for us, and I bet he and his predecessors will continue to be so.”

“And so will Miss Harloch,” said Crafty, “now she doesn’t have to wear ridiculous outfits or lie to everyone any more.”

“No,” replied Alexander quietly, “she won’t. She’ll be ten feet under in a week.”

Crafty frowned, “They’re going to execute her so soon. For what? Election fraud?”

“Murder…haven’t you been listening to the news? It seems like she killed her most recent lover…he just disappeared before she was overthrown. From what evidence they’ve gathered, they got into a bit of fight and she shot him. Of course, Harloch has adamantly denied it all. She claims del Styx had him murdered to try and intimidate her. She says its all false accusations and heresay. But combined with the fraud, I doubt anyone will trust her word over del Styx’s and the evidence.”

I wonder...I wonder if that's where Ghost got all of his extra money for the Alliance...right off of Harloch...I'll have to talk to him later about that...