Palpatine was at a huge desk, engrossed with an alien book on the Tyia, an alternate way of viewing the Force. Pestage knew his Master was ranging far and wide in his studies to find new insights into the power of the Force. More alien adepts than ever before had been gathered on Byss, as Palpatine invited them in order to simultaneously teach them and learn their secrets. The former Emperor was oblivious to Pestage's presence.
The old man cleared his throat. "It is unkind to keep your elder waiting, Espaa," suggested Pestage.
Palpatine looked up from his book, frowning. "Perhaps you will recall that I have told you not to call me that."
Pestage shrugged, smiling inwardly. This was a familiar conversation. "Will you not indulge an old man in his doddering sentiment?" Espaa was the name of Pestage's son from long ago, stolen from him by the Sith after his wife's death. Over the years, Pestage had come to believe that Palpatine was that son. He had not spoken of his belief until after the Battle of Endor, when he had told Mara Jade. The Emperor had been residing in her mind, and Pestage had suspected that he could hear him. Regardless of whether that was so, Palpatine's behavior towards the Grand Vizier had changed after that. There was a new level of trust between them. Pestage had saved his master's life, and Palpatine had repaid that debt of gratitude by opening himself to the old man, sharing his fears and ambitions. Endor had humbled him enough to let one person into his life.
Pestage wasn't sure Palpatine considered him to be his father; he wasn't exactly the sort of person who had a father. But the simple fact that Palpatine now treated him as an equal made all that Pestage had gone through to save him absolutely worth it. Palpatine loudly shut his book and came over to sit opposite Sate Pestage. "Old man indeed! I have sometimes thought that you have more of a chance of living forever than I do."
Pestage picked up his utensils and began to eat contentedly. He was old, a bony, wizened figure whose scarecrow-like body was lost in his sparkling cassock. In contrast, Palpatine for once looked the part of Pestage's potential son. His strong-boned face was crowned by a blonde widow's peak and short-cropped hair. His eyes never changed. They were as hard and as penetrating as ever. Pestage was pleased that whenever they fell on him, they softened a fraction. To bring out a tiny part of the deeply buried humanity of his Master was no mean feat. "Let us discuss what is left of the Empire, Old Friend," said Palpatine after a while. "Tell me of the latest reports.”
”The fragmentation continues unabated, Master. The various Grand Moffs and Generals continue to carve out their little pieces, fight each other over them, then lose what they had won. And much of it is still being done in your name. The most important new trend is the growing power of the Warlords. The days of vying for power politically are over for good, I think. Today, only military strength counts. We have followed the progress of one Warlord, Zsinj, in particular. With his Super Star Destroyer, he is causing heavy damage to various New Republic worlds. The man is a criminal, but he is effective. He is likely to be successful in carving out his own mini-Empire.”
”Until I take it from him," Palpatine smiled grimly. "And what of the so called New Republic's gains?”
”Our intelligence estimates that they will have control of Coruscant within two years. Little stands in their way. Systems like Correllia and Kuat have become fortresses, turning completely inward. The Warlords are powerful, but self-interested. In fact, some of them have fought with loyal Imperial forces that defend the Core Worlds. The way is open to Coruscant." Pestage looked crestfallen. "They will take the Palace, Master."
Palpatine shrugged slightly. "But they will not destroy it. Anything that they have taken can be retaken when I am ready. As I have told you before, this chaos is to be expected. While I ruled, I gave power to ruthless and ambitious people. But they feared me, and rightly so! They didn't try to take more than they were given. Now, it is only their natural tendencies taking over. Let them have their petty squabbles, my friend. It will keep them all busy while I prepare my forces. When I go forth with the World Devastators and the Eclipse, nothing that the Warlords or the rebels have done will matter. Specific territories do not matter. I am going to crush the spirit of the galaxy."
Palpatine's gaze turned inwards, perhaps visualizing the conflict to come. Pestage ate quietly for a few minutes, then, raising a skeletal finger, he interrupted his Master's introspection. "There are other players in the game to be accounted for, Master. There is Grand Admiral Thrawn.”
”Yes." Palpatine rested his chin on his hand. "Thrawn is still in Wild Space, but he will return in three years. I would prefer that he not be wasted in pointless fighting with the rebels, but knowing Thrawn, that is precisely what he will want. When I am ready, he would make an excellent Commander for my forces. We will see. If he returns, and if he survives, we will see. I will not reveal myself until the proper time has come.”
”It is a pity, Master, that the other Grand Admirals are lost.”
”Indeed. There was one in particular, Grand Admiral Saren, who showed much promise. Did you know, that once she argued with me over one of my commands for three days? She dared to defy me." Palpatine glared at the memory.
Pestage raised a white eyebrow. "She was a Zingali, the race with the killing rage, that we exterminated. She never knew that the killing rage was an innate means of tapping into the dark side. With special training, she could have taken her place in the Dark Empire to come." Pestage searched his memory. "She was killed at Endor, was she not?”
”Yes. She died aboard the Executor..." Palpatine fell silent. Whenever he recalled the Battle of Endor, he began to dwell on thoughts of his Enemy. His chief hatred. "And then there is Skywalker. I have followed his progress. His powers have not greatly increased, and his sister remains untrained. No new Jedi have been trained. Skywalker will find it very hard to grow in power. The lore of the Jedi was swept clean from the galaxy during the purge. He cannot hope to become a master.”
”That is, unless you train him." Pestage took every chance he got to promote this idea. Luke Skywalker worried Sate Pestage. Pestage felt certain, deep inside, that he somehow did have the power to be a threat in the future. He was determined not to see his beloved Master lost again, so he tried to convince Palpatine to plan for Skywalker's alliance rather than his destruction.
Palpatine made a noncommittal noise. "And create another Vader, perhaps?" Pestage had no answer to that. They ate in silence. Finally, the table's comlink chirped. Palpatine touched a key, leaning towards it.
The voice of Savuud Thimram grated from the small speaker. "Master, the Eclipse has arrived, and is now in orbit around Byss."
Palpatine and Pestage looked at each other. Both knew what that meant. Pestage felt a pang of anxiety. "Thank you Savuud. Have my shuttle prepared. I shall be there shortly." They both stood. "We will continue our discussion...another time. Until then, Old Friend.”
”Until then, Master", said Pestage, bowing deeply. It was a habit he could not break. Palpatine strode quickly out of the room, leaving Pestage to stare at the empty doorway for a long moment. May the Force be with you, Espaa. And be careful. The risks you take are so that you can regain the power, and with it, the greatness you deserve. You will succeed.
You will because you must.
* * *
"The new technology of destruction is an extremely useful tool for furthering the aims of the dark side. Star Destroyers and Death Stars were viewed by some as tools of political conquest. They missed the point entirely. My vision for the galaxy has always been to fill its uncounted worlds with the emotions that serve the dark side. If a civilization is burned down by the guns of a Star Destroyer, it is gone forever, but if it can be made to fear that destruction, the true power in the galaxy grows ever stronger."
-From The Book of Anger
Alone in his private shuttle, Palpatine rose past the moons of Byss and faced the star-crowded heavens of the Deep Core. He could feel the stellar energies like a warm breeze, laced with the distant chi
ll of the great black hole at the center of the galaxy. For a long time, he simply looked at the galaxy, as he used to when he was Emperor. To rule over every one of those stars...it was a seductive thought. Then he felt an approaching presence, a thing of vast energies contained, threatening. Ahead, the profusion of stars was blotted out by a black shape that slowly expanded.
The ship was majestic. It ate the light and shed darkness. The Eclipse was twice the length of the lost Executor. From its foreboding bridge to the gigantic triangular plain of its upper hull, it was made of a superdense ebony alloy. Instead of coming to a point, the hull flared downwards into a huge frontal spine that held a gaping rectangular mouth of fire. That baleful glow was the firing portal of the weapon that dictated the staggering length of the Eclipse, a superlaser capable of destroying a planet regardless of planetary shields.
The ship was unfinished. It had been under construction for years, ever since the Battle of Hoth had suggested the utility of combining a Star Destroyer with the Death Star's prime weapon. Even after Endor, when many Imperials wanted to cease its unbelievably costly creation, construction implacably continued. Palpatine's dark side adepts saw to that. The axial superlaser was complete, as was the hyperdrive. Still to come were the fighters, gravity well projectors, tractor beams, turbolasers, and ion cannons. But Palpatine did not mean to take the ship into combat. It was Palpatine's means of reclaiming his former might. With it, he meant to tap into the power of the dark side.
Years ago, when the first Death Star had destroyed the rebellious planet Alderaan, Palpatine had discovered to his stunned surprise that the event tremendously strengthened the dark side of the Force while weakening the light side. The terrified death of an entire living world had sent more power than he could possibly contain coursing through him. His plans to take advantage of that had been rudely disrupted by the interference of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his young student, Luke Skywalker.
But the idea was never lost, and now Palpatine had the ability to make it a reality. This time, he would not be fully at one with the dark side, lest the power should overwhelm or even kill him. Instead, he would enter a meditative state, receiving a lesser share of the power. The next time, he would be able to take more. In this manner, planet by planet, he meant to once again become Master of the dark side.
And though the destruction of several worlds might be felt by those sensitive to the light side, distance and the energies of the Deep Core should mask the loss completely. Skywalker would not suspect a thing. It was, of course, his fault that Palpatine faced this dangerous necessity. Skywalker had driven him to seek survival within the mind of Mara Jade. Her tiny node of Force sensitivity had been unable to contain his total energy. He had left most of it behind in order to retain his basic self. And even though his clone was capable of harboring great power, when he entered it he was as weak as he had been decades ago. Unless he found a radical solution, he faced a return climb that was also decades long.
Palpatine hoped this would be it. His shuttle joined a small convoy of ships carrying crew and supplies for the voyage. They were all soon lost against the awesome starship that eclipsed the stars. The shuttle sailed into a docking bay large enough to hold a Victory class Star Destroyer. Immediately he felt the dark aura of the ship surround him. The ship was crewed by many dark side adepts, and everywhere in its enormous volume, the seductive whisper of the dark side could be heard. It was a space going world devoid of light, clotted with rage.
Palpatine immediately felt right at home.
* * *
Urn Zelotes relaxed in his tower in Velarium, the city of adepts, watching one of his favorite segments from Palpatine's Book of Anger. Zelotes was a tall, reedy alien, with four-fingered clawed hands, lizard like skin, and a wedge-shaped head with widely spaced eyes. Zelotes had the disconcerting habit of glaring with one milky eye while leaving the other slitted in suspicion. Rattling his bracelets slightly, Zelotes lifted one claw to place against his pointed chin and smiled grimly. His moment of moments was drawing near, the fruition of all his plans.
Before Zelotes shimmered a life-sized hologram of Palpatine, speaking in that arrogant, pedantic way of his. The Book of Anger was an unfinished hologram recording of Palpatine's teachings that he shared with all of the adepts. Palpatine had admitted that he was unable to create his own Holocron, and so this means of recording was his only similar option. Unlike a Holocron, the Book of Anger was not interactive. It could not be questioned; it would not reply. It simply droned on and on. Zelotes wished he could hold a conversation with the image. He wanted to berate it, accuse it, punish it, and tell it how he planned to kill it forever. The best he could do was to freeze the image periodically and vent his recriminations at it. "The universe is full of power,"
Palpatine was saying. "To release it, you must harness the emotions of hate, anger, fear, and aggression. Release your own anger and the anger of infinity is released. By itself, the dark side is a thing of chaos and irrationality. It has no control, no conscience, no restraint. But domination is its goal. There is a bargain to be made with it. It gives you power and exacts its price. In order to let the power flow through you, you must let the destructive emotions flow through you. But that is not all. It is a great danger to those who cannot control their emotions. Only with a strong will can you control your rage and make the power your servant. When anger is controlled intelligently, there is nothing you cannot do."
Zelotes paused the recording. "Nothing you can't do! But you never share the most powerful secrets with us, do you? Keeping us below you, always below. Now you are the one brought low. Low enough to step on." He resumed the recording.
"Throughout history, followers of the dark side have never been organized as the Jedi were. I have changed that. I am creating a compendium of knowledge and gathering students. The Jedi are destroyed, and I will replace them with a stable order of Dark Jedi. I will replace the Moffs and Grand Moffs, the Captains, Generals, and Admirals, the Governors and Presidents, all with followers of the dark side. The Empire is just a first step towards the birth of a Dark Empire. All who follow me will take up positions of power in the Final Order. The light side of the Force will be utterly forgotten -" Zelotes angrily froze the image.
He leaned very close to Palpatine's glittering face and spat his hate and frustration at it. "Promises, promises, Master. Where is your Dark Empire now? You called us to you, promised to teach us and give us positions of power. And what did you do? You let your Empire die! You indulged your obsession with the last Jedi until it destroyed you. You're in no position ever to give me what you told me would be mine or even to get back what you once had, but still you make promises! You called us to you, not to teach us, but to get our knowledge to add to your own. Now it's time to pay what you owe, and because you have failed and cannot give us worlds to rule, we will take as payment your life itself. In your own words, you have said it: betrayal and death. You have betrayed us, and earned death."
Palpatine resumed speaking. "- and the dark side will dominate forever. The Empire itself is an excellent tool for paving the way for this transformation. It produces the emotions that strengthen the dark side at every turn. There are threats to survival such as slavery and imprisonment. There is the loss of culture, government, rights, and identity. There is the ever-present whisper of atrocity and injustice. The populace of the galaxy is filled with fear...Where adepts have gathered in the past, there have been battles, betrayal, and death. They mistrust one another and are driven to fight each other for dominance. But in the Dark Empire, among the followers of the dark side, there must be a basic cooperation. Betrayal is capable of provoking an explosive outpouring of anger, but the Final Order cannot tolerate it -"
Zelotes froze the image one last time. "Master of hypocrisy! You speak of a stable, trusting order of Dark Jedi, but you never trusted anyone, and so long as you stood high above all the others, anyone who betrayed another was encouraged. But if they betrayed you... Now you'll feel betrayal for t
he last time. You'll feel the contempt, the humiliation, and then you'll die."
Zelotes made the former Emperor vanish, then went to the window. In the distance, several kilometers away, but still highly visible, the Imperial Citadel penetrated the sky. The betrayer had left that great spire and gone to his new warship. Even now, Zelotes' allies were on the ship with Palpatine, waiting for the moment of justice. Zelotes himself faced the more dangerous mission. The other adepts would personally slay Palpatine without warning, but Zelotes would have to prevent the betrayer from returning to life. He must invade the most closely guarded place on the planet, Palpatine's cloning laboratory.
* * *
"Betrayal is capable of provoking an explosive outpouring of anger, but the Final Order cannot tolerate it, or its consequences. When the Dark Empire is complete, the followers of the dark side will share my power of being able to observe each other. Betrayal will no longer be practical. Only with this basic cooperation can the order of Dark Jedi attempt the next task, the conquering of the entire galaxy, and then, in the distant future, other galaxies..."
-From The Book of Anger
Rollo Mon shuffled through the halls of the Imperial Citadel. He had just finished his scheduled checking on Palpatine's clones with Sate Pestage, and as usual, his thoughts were full of biotechnology. He didn't even notice, as he entered his quarters, that the lights were dimmer than usual. Thus he also failed to see the hulking shape standing in the room's far corner. He began sifting through a stack of files on his desk, and was very startled when he heard someone clear his throat loudly. He spun, dropping papers everywhere, to see one of the Emperor's adepts lounging in his favorite chair. "AAH! Don't do that!" he exclaimed. You shouldn't scare people like that. How did you get in here? Wait, don't I know you? Adept Zemekkis, right?"
Star Wars - FanFiction - Emperor Page 12
