After Consul Bishop left the floor of the House of Lords, the Lord Speaker called for a recess. Prime Minister Mountbatten went to his office. He sat behind his desk for a moment to collect his thoughts, then flipped a switch on his desk. The voice of his secretary came over the intercom.
"Yes, Your Grace?"
"First, I need you to send a recording of Consol Bishop's statement before the House of Lords directly to my desk. Then, contact whoever is in charge of deciding who appears in front of the House of Lords, and tell them that, in the future, they are to find out what the person is going to say before they say it. If it's anything like Consul Bishop's earlier display, I want it routed directly to my office rather than in front of the entire House of Lords."
"Of course, sir."
"Next, I want you to put me through to Defense Minister Ralston immediately."
"I'll take care of that right away."
"Thank you."
With that, Lord Mountbatten turned off his intercom, and waited for the connection to go through to the Ministry of Defense. Even with war-time protocols in place, it shouldn't take too long. The screen then came on a moment later. On it was the face of James Ralston, Bretonia's Minister of Defense. Ralston was one of the few government officials who were able to call Lord Mountbatten by his first name.
"Good day, George. What can I do for you?"
"I wish it was a good day, James. We have too few of those as it is. I need you to watch this. This occured a few minutes ago on the floor of the House of Lords."
Lord Mountbatten pressed a button on his desk which played back the recording from the House of Lords. He waited while Minister Ralston watched it. The playback didn't take long, and when it was over, Minister Ralston spoke.
"George, you don't really intend to go along with this, do you? Miyagi needs to stand trial for his actions."
"We are going to go along with it, and for two reasons. One, we can't afford to lose the Mandalorian's support. They've done a lot to shore up our defenses when we couldn't always get enough forces in place, and they've helped turn the tide in quite a few fights. Second, I owe Lieutenant Goodman my life. I can't very well let him die on Kyushu when I have the ability to see him safely home, just so we can execute a Kusari officer who was most likely just doing his duty. I want you to make the arrangements with the Mandalorians for the prisoner transfer"
"I can't say I agree with you, George, but I understand your reasons. I'll make the arrangements."
"Thank you, James."
With that, Lord Mountbatten closed the channel. He hoped that he wasn't making a mistake, but his honor would allow him no other course.
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