Chapter One

First Day at Work

Jac, last surviving member of the Sith cult The Scholars, stood outside the dreary main building of Imperial Human Resources. The rather boring structure, when compared to the surrounding palace and military center, did not seem inviting in the least, and Jac had to take a deep breath and access the Force to physically push him through the front doors to his first day of work.

When the Scholar's station in the Unknown Regions was destroyed at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his beautiful but ultimately destructive pilot lover Mayli, Jac became the lone survivor and heir to the cult's vast fortune as well as a holocron he'd rescued but couldn't open. Still, while he had a plan on how to proceed, he'd spent most of his life, twenty years in fact, since the time he was five, with the cult. The research facility, which allowed these Sith to remain hidden while they performed experiments with the Dark Side, was all he really knew, and while his Force gift manifested itself through foresight, he needed further training from a master.

Thus, his decision to come to Coruscant and seek out the most powerful Sith in the galaxy, Emperor Palpatine.

But Jac soon found getting to Palpatine nearly impossible, even with millions of credits and the knowledge of the Dark Side at his disposal. He'd glimpsed him from afar, getting into the royal Imperial yacht from his private landing platform off the palace, but making requests with the offices proved futile. In fact one secretary, a gaunt, almost transparent-faced man, laughed at him in a raspy cackle.

So, after securing a luxury apartment and a professional, aristocratic wardrobe, he'd marched into the Imperial recruitment offices to join the ranks. Those closest to the Emperor appeared to be military; he'd begin there.

After an application in which he used one of his false surnames, an intelligence and aptitude test, a physical examination, and finally a series of strength and endurance tests, he felt certain he'd enter the military ranks, perhaps even as an officer. But when he arrived and waited in the grey holding room of the recruitment office, with the other potential candidates, he'd been shocked to see he'd been passed up for any sort of military post. He'd been placed in a data entry position in Imperial Human Resources, to begin in two days time.

Returning to his apartment, downcast and flustered, he'd thrown himself on the couch, pouting. Data entry? Human resources? Stang, how could he ever get to the Emperor?

But the positives began to come up in his mind. The offices were near the palace, and he'd have access to employee records. While he'd been one of the weaker members of his cult, this disadvantage in Force strength led him to be crafty in other survival skills, important when on a space station full of Sith. He'd figure out something, he always did. And in the meantime, he could work on his clairvoyance skills himself, and continue his attempts to open the Scholars' remaining holocron.

Also, he knew something the Emperor didn't know, the existence of a Jedi who escaped the purge, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Within days upon arriving on Coruscant, he sought out a slicer in one of the lower levels, trying to find out the identity of Kenobi, the auburn-haired Force-user who came to Jac several times in visions, who he finally met in the flesh on Tatooine. The slicer he found looked shocked when he asked who Kenobi was.

"General Kenobi? The Jedi Master?" the watery-eyed, greasy-clothed man wheezed. "No need to slice, son. He was a General in the Clone Wars, destroyed along with the other Jedi. Everyone on Coruscant knows from the holonews…"

Jac shrugged, knowing he'd wasted his time and the hundred credits he'd given the man. "Been in the Outer Rim."

The man nodded. "I suppose news and names dissipate the further out one gets. Plus, all records of the Jedi have been destroyed."

Jac nodded and left. He could have guessed Kenobi to be a Jedi. But the man did say Kenobi was thought dead, when Jac knew for a fact he was alive, quite well, and banging that blasted blonde pilot on Tatooine. Hmmm….useful information he'd put away for later.

Entering Imperial Human Resources now, and heading to the lift to take him to the offices on the third floor, he felt his usual upbeat spirit drain. And entering the office itself depleted him further. While the Sith research station had been alive, teeming with the excitement over the seeking of knowledge and discovery, breathing with the Dark Side, the air of this space felt thick with drudgery, monotony, and boredom. The dominate color of gray clashed directly with the deep forest green robes Jac chose for his first day, looking striking with his dark eyes, pale skin, and mess of floppy black hair. Everyone else wore colors complementing the grayness of the office, their faces ashen and lank as they sat at individual desks, quietly entering data into the servers and holoscreens in front of them. Jac wanted to scream and use the Force to obliterate the place, and he'd only been in the room one minute.

Keep the goal in mind, he reminded himself. Palpatine. You're a member of the Empire now. Patience, the Sith's greatest strength. Patience, perseverance, planning.

A tall, unsmiling human male approached. In fact, as Jac gazed around the room, he noticed everyone to be human. So much for diversity in the work place.

"Are you Jac?" the man said with a deadpan tone.

"Yes, I'm…."

"Come this way. I'll show you to your work station," the man said, turning and walking into the maze of desks, not one of the people they passed looking up.

A cold metallic desk and semi-comfortable rolling chair awaited him. He sat down and glanced across from him, a tall pasty-faced human sitting opposite, his greasy brown hair in a bowl-cut, making his bulging blue eyes stand out. Jac would have preferred any other view than this.

The manager set down a small box of data chips on Jac's desk. "You are to enter these into our main system. Double check employee names, their insurance preferences, and retirement accounts. You are working in the new stormtrooper division, so make sure you also enter in information about their specific wishes when they die in the line of duty."

"When?" asked Jac. "Not…um…if?"

The man's expression did not change, and he merely shrugged. "Your direct superior is Callie. Contact her with questions. You get an hour for lunch." The man turned and walked away.

Jac sighed heavily and turned on his data console and holoscreen. When he'd been on the Scholar's base, he'd done data entry before for some of the experiments, especially when he apprenticed with different masters throughout the cult. But as a grown Sith, he found this work to be remedial, almost insulting, especially since he knew his Force gift of clairvoyance.

You're undercover, he reminded himself. And he got to work.

An hour after entering in a couple of new employees, he looked up at his co-worker across the desk.

"I'm Jac, by the way," he said brightly.

The man glanced up. "Dew." He went back to work.

"Um…Dew…how long have you been here?"

"I worked in human resources for the Republic and was absorbed into this department after the Clone Wars. So…ten years."

Jac raised an eyebrow. "And you've been doing this the whole time? How do you handle this?"

Dew's bulbous eyes narrowed. "This is noble work, and if you don't think so why don't you leave now."

The man went back to work, and Jac shook his head, his eyes shifting to the clock. Kriff, had he only been here ninety minutes? And he had three more hours until lunch. How was he going to survive without breaking his cover and destroying all these people in a blaze of Force lightening. Hmmm…that might get Palpatine's attention…

Instead, as he entered new recruits into the system, he daydreamed about that evening, when he'd head to the high end night clubs to pick up some beautiful woman. He'd certainly need a good screw after a day like this. And Coruscant proved ripe with women ready for a good time, which Jac showed them, sometimes using a bit of Force manipulation, but only on a rare occasion. He was rich, handsome, and charming. Also, the large population on the planet ensured he never saw them again after, if he left them alive of course.

He'd only killed once since his arrival on Coruscant, a younger woman who claimed to be from a wealthy aristocratic family close to the Emperor. After they had sex, and he dozed in his bed, exhausted and satisfied, he awoke to discover her attempting to break into his hidden wall vault. He simply snapped her windpipe from across the room, then took the body to the rubbish chute in the apartment complex, which consisted of 3,000 luxury units, for disposal. The death, or the report of a missing woman, never made the holonews. And he didn't feel bad in the least, but enjoyed the experience, having killed many times before during his Sith training. Plus, he probably did the next unassuming rich bloke a favor.

Before lunch, he tried several more times to engage Dew in conversation, pointing out a funny sounding name of an employee he entered, asking where the man had lunch, inquiring about his family. Dew simply gave him short, clipped answers, and Jac felt the urge to crush his windpipe just for fun. How could he survive this?

Then he glanced to his right and spotted her, across the room at a larger desk. Instead of the drab clothes of the other employees, the woman wore robes of royal blue, which complemented her soft, wavy brunette hair and golden skin nicely. She seemed to sense him staring at her, for she looked up suddenly, her hazel eyes meeting his. Jac felt a rush of excitement when she gave him a broad smile. She was simply beautiful, and the scar which went from her chin down her neck did not detract from that in the least.

Scar. He seemed puzzled by this for a moment. The scar looked to be a horrible burn healed, but not too long ago. With the medical technology available on the capital world, he wondered why she didn't get the mix of bacta and laser treatments to make the mark all but disappear.

Below the neck, her robes hid what he could tell to be a curvy and strong body. He began to feel aroused as he looked at her, and he gave her a wink. She rolled her eyes playfully and went back to her work.

While the handbook he'd been given forbade office relationships, he couldn't care less and knew he would pursue her until she was underneath him, moaning his name in pleasure.

Fifteen minutes before his own lunch time, he saw her rise, grab her bag from a drawer, and walk out, Jac's eyes following her ass the entire way. When his mealtime arrived, he dashed from the building, entering the busy Imperial center streets below, his eyes quickly combing the neighboring eateries. He found her almost instantly when he reached out in the Force, having already imprinted her into his mind. She sat alone at an outside café table, reading a data pad and eating a bowl of soup. Straightening his robes, he walked over confidently, sliding into the seat across from her.

"Jac," he said, extending his hand, which she took after setting down her data pad.

"Callie," she said, her voice low, a bit husky, very arousing indeed. "Your boss," she finished.

This meant nothing to Jac. He'd pursued Dia, the Twi'lek leader of the Sith Scholars, for years, and although he didn't succeed in bedding her, he never let power deter him. In fact, it made him even more interested. So he merely shrugged and picked up the menu.

"So, what's good here," he asked.

"I usually get the soup," she said. "Vegetable and noodle."

He ordered this when the waiter came, and glanced down at her data pad, seeing some sort of building plans on the screen. He focused his vision. The Imperial Palace?

She saw him looking, quickly turned off the device, and rose.

"I need to run an errand before my hour is done," she said briskly, her low voice making his nerves light up with desire. Yes, he would have her.

"But I just ordered and…" but he never finished as she disappeared into the crowd.

He stood to follow when the waiter re-entered with a tray of drinks for a neighboring table. Jac watched as one glass rose from the tray and came toward him, dumping its contents all along the front of his robes before shattering to the ground.

Jac stood, drenched and befuddled. He looked around. Could another Force user be nearby, as the trajectory of the glass had been nearly impossible in a physics sense? Of course the waiter apologized profusely, thinking it to be his fault, and Jac received free soup and certificates for future meals. But Jac was distracted. Was somebody watching him?

When he returned to work after his lunch hour, having procured new but ill-fitting robes from a nearby shop, carrying his damp ones under his arm, Callie sat at her desk again, not even looking up. Jac sat down and went back to work, his mind slowly numbing to the monotony of the task.

A few blocks away, high in the upper floors of the Imperial Palace, Sheev Palpatine regarded the Coruscant skyline of the elegant Imperial Center with delight. His, all his, after years of hard work and dedication, utilizing the very strengths of the Sith: patience, perseverance, planning.

Ah yes, planning. Careful planning indeed. From his master securing and manipulating the galactic banking system to engineering his own apprentice since conception. Palpatine…no, Darth Sidious, his true identity, played a slow and methodical game over the past several decades and won.

He looked in the direction of the Jedi Temple, damaged and pathetic looking along the skyline, a smile spreading across his face. Yes, yes…the Sith got their revenge after over a thousand years in the shadows. And he kept the Temple up mainly to give him satisfaction every time he stood at a window on this side of the palace.

A door opened behind him and several servants waited at the entry. He nodded, signaling that they may enter, and the group began to clear off the table in the banquet room in which he stood.

The leaders of the galaxy's largest banks, the second generation to the one his master gained loyalty from years ago, had just gathered for a late lunch, and the meal became a rather jovial affair, as these were sentients he'd gotten to know over dozens of years of manipulation. They seemed slightly more relaxed around him than the military leaders and others serving him. Still, Darth Vader seemed to take the brunt of the terror factor of the new regime, leading Sidious to still hold on to the role of kindly elder gentleman, although his disfigurement often got him irritating looks of pity and the delightful occasional fear.

Darth Vader, out on a mission with Grand Moff Tarkin at the moment, scheduled to be back any day to work on further training in the Dark Side. Sidious decided to take the new Sith Lord down to the labs beneath the palace to show him some of the more archaic Dark Side practices. Still, the young man, in his duel with that dolt Obi-Wan Kenobi, retained injuries so severe, he needed to forever be housed in a machine, a cyborg of sorts, keeping him from completely immersing his body in the Dark Side, as Sidious did years before. Alas, he would need to seek out another apprentice, but that seemed like a problem for another time, as Sidious felt quite indestructible at the moment.

His eye suddenly felt drawn to a drab little building a few blocks away. In fact, he felt himself inexplicably pulled to the location.

"What is that building?" he asked one of the servants, pointing into the skyline.

"Imperial Human Resources," said the servant, his voice shaking a little.

Sidious just nodded. He couldn't explain his sudden attraction to the location, but he knew to trust the Force when it called to him. Perhaps he'd need to stop by for a visit soon.

But his busy schedule wouldn't allow that for a few days. Lunch meetings, experiments in the lab, the ridiculous, worthless Senate. He looked down at his meal, which he hadn't touched but for a few bites. He simply wasn't as hungry as he'd been in the past, his being nourished by the Dark Side. Also, the meal hadn't been that good, and he always ordered the wrong thing. He'd need to consult the kitchens on his way to the depths of the palace.

Two hours before the end of the work day, Jac couldn't stand it anymore. He needed a distraction, and even the frequent glances in the direction of Callie, imagining her naked, her long fingers running along his body, did not keep his mind occupied enough to pass the time quicker.

He watched Dew across the desk, working away diligently as if he enjoyed the repetitive labor. And maybe he did. The thought depressed Jac, but then a soft grin met his lips. He could have a little fun with the man.

He waited until Dew absently reached for the next data chip and, using the Force, slid it across the table. Dew, still regarding his screen, reached again, Jac now sliding it off the desk completely.

"What the…" muttered Dew as he bent over to retrieve the chip, Jac taking the opportunity to slide the entire box of chips in the opposite direction, so dozens crashed to the floor. "Damnit!" shouted Dew, jumping up.

"Dew, quiet down," came the voice of the floor manager who sat several desks away. "We do not need any more angry outbursts from you."

Any more? thought Jac with a sense of glee. Ohhh, this could be fun. He'd need to ponder some more ways to get to Dew. The triteness of this thought struck him, but he shrugged it off; he would need those little joys in life to get him through the day.

As Dew struggled with the fallen chips, Jac snuck a glance at Callie. She stared at him with a look of shock. Had she seen him move the chips with the Force? He grinned sheepishly at her, but her look became almost fearful. What in the world?

She turned away from him suddenly and went back to work, but Jac could tell she remained upset. In fact, she seemed to make a point of not looking up from her work until the end of the work day. When the time came, she moved from her desk quickly and disappeared into the crowd of fellow workers trudging towards the exit.

A little while later, after dealing with the horrendous rush-hour traffic, Jac slunk into his apartment, his spirit broken. If this is how a normal member of the galaxy went through life, he didn't want a part of this. He even lost his interest in finding a lover for the evening.

Instead, he went to his wall vault and removed the holocron he'd saved from the Scholars' base. If he could figure out a way to open the artifact and access the Sith master within, perhaps he wouldn't need Palpatine after all.

Setting the holocron down on the caf table in his living room, he muttered ancient Sith incantations. Nothing. They hadn't worked in the past either. After trying several known spells, he groaned, leaping up and grabbing one of the lightsabers from a nearby drawer. They originally came from the Scholars' yacht he'd used in his escape. He now owned five, not remembering the original owners of the other four. He ignited the blade, a yellowish-green, and struck the holocron with all his might; he only succeeded in cutting the caf table in half.

Jac slumped into the chair, grabbed the remote for his holoscreen, and began to watch one of those popular primetime holocomedies. He didn't laugh once and soon dozed off.

Author's Note: Welcome to my new story, a companion tale to my Tatooine Trilogy. If you are new to my Star Wars stories, I suggest reading Tatooine Hideaway, as this tale introduces the character of Jac and the Sith Scholars. This particular story will directly link to the finale of my Obi-Wan exile stories, Tatooine Sunsets.

In the next chapter, Jac endures mind-numbing workplace training, the frustrating chain of command, and erotic teasing from the mysterious Callie.

Thank you for reading! Follows, favorites, and reviews appreciated.