"This doesn't make any sense!" He shook his head, turning from the comms, his train of thought interrupted by the howl of twin ion engines as they burned past his tower.  He cringed, arm instinctively raising against his head and neck as he stagger-stepped back away from the panoramic view afforded to his office.  

He bolted for the office door, mind racing as he skidded to a stop in front of the turbolift, the rug bunching up beneath his feet distracting him as he mashed the button on the console.  "Sir?" 

He mashed the button again, the doppler sound of TIEs making another pass growing in pitch.  He crouched down, as if ducking would make the TIEs miss him, at the top of his tower, in a governor's office.  "Karabast, hurry up!" He swore, mashing the button again.

"Sir?"  He looked at the digital readout above the door, the floor indicator not moving at all.  The realization rocked him almost as loudly as the explosion rocked the building.  There had to be something he could do, someone he could trust to get him out of this fine mess.  Where was his Liaison in all of this?  He had hired Salla for a reason, and it wasn't to be out of reach when he needed...

"Sir?"  The disembodied voice hit him again.

"WHAT?" Blazio snarled, instantly realizing that the voice was the Togruta's, and he had been ignoring it.  

"Defenses are trying to keep up, but we've lost a lot of power already."  

"And?"  He was glad to have her on the commlink, but he wasn't about to let her know that.

"And the turbolifts are locked out."  There was a pause before the voice continued.  "You're going to have to take the stairs down two levels.  I have a speeder coming to pick you up."  

"A speeder?  With Brotherhood fighters burning through everything?"  He made a face, using the wall to stand himself up again, making his way to the access stairwell.  Two floors was less than sixteen, he supposed, but sixteen floors was preferable to getting exploded.  

"The damage is mostly to defense structures.  Everything else seems pretty superficial so far."  

"Well, no sense destroying things that they could use..."  He paused a moment.  Something stuck in his mind a moment.  He could almost hear it knocking.

"Sir?"

"It's not the Brotherhood."  He smiled, letting his face change the sound of his words.  "They've no interest in running this facility.  They're stretched thin as it is, otherwise they would have never bothered sitting down with us."  He let his mind twist for a moment, reaching for the words.

"They sure seem to be..."

He opened the door, standing a bit taller as he made his way down the steps, his words creating the mask he wanted.  "No, listen.  This attack is a lie.  Someone wants us to think it is the Brotherhood.  What do they have to gain in attacking us now, versus before we set up a meeting?"  

There was silence on the other end of the comm as he passed a floor marker.  It was an easy justification, and the only way that he could find his way out on top of this.  Either it wasn't a lie, and someone really was trying to sabotage the talks he had tried to broker, or it was a complete lie and the Brotherhood would be thankful for the out he was working up for them.  Either way, He could make it work.  "Salla?"

"Yes, Governor?"  

"Get Harvey Daley on the comms, please. They need to know this isn't the Brotherhood."  He paused outside the door, peering through the transparisteel insert to see if the speeder had arrived yet.  "No, better yet, get a message to him that I am on my way, to tell them in person."