Chapter Three
Vader walked up to the commander of the shuttle he had boarded.
"Commander, how long is the distance to Scrapater?"
The commander looked terrified at the sight of Vader's boots, which was where his gaze was.
"Uh, it, um, it's about twenty five minutes away sir."
"Is the main gun all charged up?" Vader asked the shivering commander.
"Uh, um, yes sir." he responded shakily.
"Good. Now prepare for take off."
"Y-yes sir." said the commander and he hurried toward the cockpit. Vader started to follow him, but then his comlink buzzed. He took it out and activated it.
"Yes?"
"Lord Vader." said the voice of one of the officers in the palace, "The Emperor has ordered you to a different mission. The two Jedi Knights you're looking for have been spotted heading toward Nagob."
"Tell him I am switching shuttles now." said Vader.
"Yes sir."
Vader put away his comlink and left the shuttle he was just in, heading toward a similar shuttle right next to it. The only person in there was Anga Nicma. Vader sighed despairingly.
"Oh, great." she said with equal despair as she saw him.
Vader just grunted and said "Are we all set for takeoff?"
"Yes." said Nicma coldly.
They went into the cockpit and strapped themselves in.
"Follow the other shuttle. I want to supervise Scrapater's destruction before I go to Nagob." Vader said to Nicma.
"Fine, whatever." she said carelessly.
Then as their shuttle took off, she asked "Why are we destroying a moon anyway?"
Vader sighed again.
"Are you trying to contradict the Emperor's orders?"
"No. I was just asking a question. That's not against the law now, is it?"
Vader muttered something incoherent.
After a while, he activated his comlink again.
"Commander, have all the troops been assembled?"
"Yes sir." said the voice of another officer in the palace.
"Good. Get ready to set them loose on Nagob to find Jonstone and Justina. Once the Scrapater moon has been destroyed, I will join them to finish off the Jedi."
"Yes sir."
Vader put away the comlink, sat back in his chair, and sighed.
"What's with you now?" asked Nicma.
Vader looked around at her.
"It's none of your business. It is between myself and the Emperor."
"Actually, I think it is my business. I'm the one who is trapped in this position with you."
"Unless you can show me more respect, I'll kill you right here." said Vader.
Nicma snorted "I could defeat you easily if I wanted to. I can manage."
Vader grunted and leaned back into his chair. He could not understand what was going on today: First Jinx is elected as emperor for a day, then he is teamed up with Nicma for no reason at all. Palpatine knew of the grudge between them. Why would he team them up? Unless . . . no, there was no way that Palpatine could know. It was impossible. Vader had never shared this particular bit of information with anyone. But then, Palpatine is one of the most powerful and intelligent people in the galaxy. But even if Palpatine did know, Vader was sure he wouldn't be lectured for it. Palpatine surely would have spoken to him about it if he knew. But he decided he would worry about that later. Right now his job was to destroy Scrapater, then find Jonstone and Justina and kill them for good.
