Chapter 9

Klim Gital woke with a start in his cell deep within the Imperial Detention Facility on Coruscant. He feared he would never sleep soundly again; of course, he also feared that soon a torture specialist or executioner would arrive to see that he was permanently escorted to the darkness beyond, to which Essag had given him a temporary visit and to which he hoped never to return.

He wondered whether everyone experienced that – place? state? time? what, indeed, was it? – after death, a state of disembodied consciousness pervaded by a dark presence that he didn't see but felt all around him. If that was the inevitable end of life, he would gladly elect to be frozen in carbonite for all eternity instead, because in his brief foray to the other side, he had been certain that the darkness was eternal, and the monstrous presence – singular, not plural, for he had felt only one presence – was absolutely real. Perhaps this was the Dark Side of the Force, that strange symbiosis of energy and might to which Lord Vader and, now, Emperor Essag ascribed their powers. Rumor had always been that Emperor Palpatine was a Sith as well, but he had not been forthcoming about the source of his power.

If Gital had experienced the Force itself, if it even existed, did he feel the darkness because that was the path he had chosen or because that was all there was? His journey to the upper echelons of Imperial military leadership had not been so much a path of choice as the only way out of a limiting life as the son of a minor functionary on Dalsam Major. He did nothing other than stolidly obey the orders he was given, performing particularly well in the attack on Yavin 4, which earned him his admiralty. Questions of right and wrong were answered well above his pay grade.

With a woosh, the door to Gital's cell opened, and someone clothed in the robes of the Imperial Ruling Council and masked in a Vamati scarf, which revealed only the deep-set eyes of an aging human male, stepped in. This was likely the man sent to escort Gital to his destiny. The terror of the dark presence clawed at Gital's consciousness, but he managed to hide the fear bubbling inside him.

"Are you my executioner or my escort to the torture chambers, sir?" Gital asked, hoping that at least the shadow of a sneer remained in his voice.

A raspy laugh escaped the mask. "I am neither, Admiral, for which you should give some thanks," he replied, sealing the cell door with a locktrip, then waiving a frequencer over the air vents. "Now we can be assured of a few moments of privacy before the trooper in charge notices that detention cell 631 has gone totally silent." The man sat down. "So, tell me, how does it feel to be the Sith Lord's witness?"

"Witness?"

"No need to be coy, Admiral. Rumors travel quickly. He disciplined you, then allowed you to be the only survivor of that room. Clearly, you are his witness. But witness of what, I wonder?"

"Who are you?"

"Who is the second most powerful man in the Empire?" the older man rejoined.

"Who remains living, you mean?" Gital questioned.

Again, the raspy laugh. "Whether Lord Vader lived or not, I believe the answer would have remained the same."

Gital considered that response. "Without the Death Star, our greatest military weapon is the Outer Rim Fleet. So I would say, sir, that as of yesterday, Moff Zakine became the second most powerful man in the Empire."

The man nodded. "Your analysis of military power is apt, and, in fact, the reason I am here. But, perhaps, there is an argument that the Grand Minister of the Treasury is the second most powerful man in the Empire. The power to increase the Empire's wealth, to levy taxes and duties, and to determine how our funds may be spent cannot be underestimated. That man holds great power. And until two timeparts ago, when our new Emperor disbanded the Ruling Council, revoked all executive powers and vested them in himself, that man was Cadaro Pault."

The man slowly removed his Vamati scarf, revealing an aged face with thin lips that looked like they'd been etched by a vibroblade slash across his face and the patrician nose of the Vamati.

"And that would be me." He sat down on Gital's hard comorite bunk, studying Gital with those cold eyes as Gital studied him back. If Gital remembered correctly, Pault had become Grand Minister of the Treasury not many years after the fall of the Republic and served at Palpatine's right hand for nearly fifteen years, an unimaginably long stint, since Ruling Council members tended to meet untimely deaths when their ambition outpaced their caution. But as Council members worked almost entirely behind the scenes, Gital could not be entirely sure this man was who he alleged himself to be, so caution was necessary.

"The Council has been disbanded?" Gital asked.

"What remained of it. Four Councilors were lost on the Death Star."

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from one of Palpatine's closest friends?"

"Friends?" Pault laughed. "You of all people should realize that one is not friends with a Sith. One is exceedingly respectful at all times and attempts to keep some degree of distance."

"So Palpatine was a Sith?"

"My dear Admiral Gital, do you really question that? Didn't everyone know that truth but refuse to acknowledge it so that we could maintain the pleasant fiction that the Empire was built on military and economic power, and not on a mystical power we all liked to believe was destroyed with the fall of the Jedi and left Vader as its last disciple?"

Gital didn't respond. He had considered the possibility of that "pleasant fiction" more than once over the years.

"Unlike you to be silent, when silence in front of a Sith is a lesson you failed to learn."

"When I see the arrogance that has caused us dearly in the past asserting itself yet again, I feel compelled to speak out."

"A lesson you STILL have failed to learn," Pault corrected himself. "Good. I was counting on that."

Gital flushed; he did speak up too much, and he knew it. But for the first time since he'd signed up for the Imperial Academy, Gital stood before someone who seemed to value that.

A chime sounded on Pault's chronometer. "My men will arrive in four minutes. We have little time."

"Are you rescuing me, Councilor Pault?" This became more astonishing by the moment.

"Perhaps. Tell me, Klim, your opinion of Emperors past and present."

Gital, again wondering if this was all a ruse designed by a particularly sadistic torture specialist, hesitated.

"This is not the time to keep quiet for the first time in your life, Admiral."

"The Emperors – or, as you claim, the Sith - are arrogant," Gital blurted. "Their powers are astounding but their arrogance overwhelms their sense. Palpatine led us to ruin and he named as his successor one younger and more skilled, perhaps, but even more arrogant. A man who believes he is to bring about the resurrection of the Sith Empiire."

Pault's eyes narrowed. "He said that?"

Gital nodded. "That is his impossible and absurd dream."

"In less than the space of a standard day, our new Emperor has dissolved the Council, assumed direct control and oversight of the treasury, the military –"

Pault stopped as he saw the startled look on Gital's face.

"—yes, Supreme General Adenze has met an unpleasant end – and imprisoned members of the High Judiciary Tribunal. He has commanded the Outer Rim Fleet to the Coruscant system and has informed his officers of his intent to allow the destruction of Coruscant. He has done things on one day that Palpatine – for all his arrogance – did not attempt in twenty years of rule. The Empire, as ruled by Palpatine, was ultimately an orderly bureaucracy, despite your claims that Palpatine has led us to ruin. Palpatine knew what he didn't know and entrusted others to carry out the functions of government as he carried out his plans of conquest. Palpatine used the Force for power."

"They all use the Force for power – Jedi and Sith alike," Gital replied.

"Many do," Pault inclined his head in agreement. "But now, I believe, we are ruled by one who does not."

"What else is there?" Gital asked.

"Darkness itself. Ushered in by anarchy."

Gital felt the skin on his neck prickle. He wished he didn't understand the reference so well. "As anarchy builds the road to ruin…."

"…a ruler will arise to enshroud the galaxy in the darkness of the Sith," Pault finished.

Yes, Gital remembered that statement. It had been made by Conn Wasara, a Romendite in the Imperial Senate, on the day three years ago that Palpatine dissolved the Senate and gave the regional governors power. Gital had thought it an idiot statement, as the vesting of power in the regional governors decreased the chances for anarchy. Many others had thought, given the Romendy sentients' legendary power of foresight, that Wasara's words were a prophecy. Palpatine had ordered Wasara terminated soon after.

"He said…" Gital struggled to remember the words Essag had said to him, "he said I was a witness to history. To the beginning of a greater Empire than that I served…"

"Do you see the situation, Klim?" asked Pault. "Soon, this Empire will be unrecognizable to us. Can I rely on your help?"

If nothing else, Gital thought, supporting Pault would get him out of this cell. "Yes. But what are you asking of me?"

Pault checked his chronometer. There was little time. "There are tripwires in the treasury system which are unknown to all except me. Simply, despite Essag's assumption that he now directly controls, and can destroy, all credits, until those few he trusts can vet the system, I can still manipulate the treasury and prevent him from destroying the notion of credits. I will need to get to an offworld site to assure the continued security of the Imperial Treasury."

Gital saw no role for himself in Pault's description. He was no slicer. He wasn't a systems expert of any kind.

"So you see, for the moment I still control the Empire's financial security. But as you noted earlier, the man who controls the Outer Rim Fleet is the strongest man in the military. I believe you and he have been known to be close."

Gital nodded. He had gone through the Imperial Acadamy and Command Officers Training with Nev Zakine. They had been close then, and still spoke when possible, although their friendship was not nearly as warm as it once had been. Zakine had progressed more rapidly through the ranks, and with the rapid advancement, he grew more and more ambitious. Nothing was ever enough for Nev. Which, Gital thought, may make Zakine and Pault ideal for each other – all the power meeting all the money. Gital still didn't feel quite as if he wanted to be part of this triumvirate, but again: cell versus freedom.

"What's your endgame?" Gital asked.

"I have a battle cruiser waiting for us at Palace East. When the Outer Rim Fleet comes out of hyperspace, you will comm Zakine for permission to come aboard. You will not tell him I am with you."

Gital saw a flaw in this plan, one involving the Alliance blowing them out of the sky, but he was a good pilot. He could outmaneuver the Alliance. Plus, Zakine would be curious enough at the oddity to take him aboard.

"I will tell him what has occurred and propose a deal: with the firepower of the Outer Rim Fleet and the wealth of the Imperial Treasury, we will pledge ourselves to remaking the Empire into what it should have been from the beginning: a military and economic power with no historic equal, ruled not by the whims of a mystic, but by the power of the purse and of the blaster. The Jedi and Sith will both meet their final destruction here on Coruscant."

Gital jumped as he heard the sound of blaster fire in the corridor outside the cell, followed by a strangled shout. Then more blasts hit the door. Pault quickly deprogrammed the locktrip and turned to Gital.

"Those are my men. Do you choose a life of power and freedom or life as a soon-to-be-executed slave of the Sith?"

Gital didn't need to be asked twice. He hurried out after Pault.