Chapter Thirteen
The Art of Deception
Arriving at the LiMerge Building, his black cloak keeping the acid-laden rain off his head and shoulders, Sidious allowed his presence to send ripples through the Force, making Sly Moore aware of his presence. Sure enough, when Sidious reached her dark sanctum, his Umbaran acolyte was waiting for him, one knee touching the permacrete floor, her head bowed in supplication.
"My lord," she said in greeting. "Welcome. To what do I owe the honour of your presence?"
"Your greatest task yet in my service, Sly," Sidious replied. "The mission that will determine whether you are worthy to lead my Dark Acolytes and further the Sith Grand Plan."
Moore smiled as she stood. Her black robes and cloak, imitations of the ones Sidious wore, hung loosely around her, and her pale face glistened slightly with sweat. Sidious looked past her and saw a vibroblade lying on the floor, and guessed that she had been training with the weapon before he had arrived. That was good, he reflected, for she would need every bit of martial skill at her disposal in order to accomplish the task that she was to be set.
"Your mission will call upon all your talents of guile, stealth, violence and power in the Force," he told her seriously. "You may well die, for I am not convinced that you are up to the task. But I have no other choice. This is the only way to discover if you are worthy of the great responsibility that I have singled you out for."
At the suggestion that she might fail her master, Moore bristled. Sidious probed her mind with the Force and found it in turmoil, sensing her anger and hurt at his words.
"You have done much in my service, Sly, I know," he said. "You survived Ziost, and then Vjun. You killed Hadiss and all of his comrades in arms. You have successfully infiltrated the Senate and fooled the Jedi Order into believing that you are simple political aide. In all of this you have succeeded."
"And I will succeed again, Lord Sidious," she said fervently, placing a hand on her breastbone and inclining her bald head. "Tell me the task, and I will see it done."
"Very well," said Sidious. "Firstly, you are to infiltrate the Jedi Temple itself and steal from within its archives the Holocron of Darth Ruin." He regarded Moore in silence for a moment. "What do you know of Darth Ruin?"
"We still speak of him on Umbara," Moore replied, her tone rapturous, almost worshipful. "A Master of the Jedi, and a Dark Lord of the Sith."
"He was more than that," Sidious said. "He was a member of the Jedi High Council, and when they could no longer tolerate his solipsistic philosophical divergence, he left the Order. He discovered the Dark Side, and the ancient Sith teachings, and with fifty former Jedi followers he began a war against their self-righteous Order that lasted for a thousand years. He founded an empire the like of which the Galaxy had not seen since the time of Darth Acina, and waged such ferocious war on the Republic and the Jedi that he almost brought them to their knees." He paused, allowing the weight of his words to impress themselves on Moore. "You understand, I think, why I seek his holocron."
Moore nodded. "Yes, master. But to infiltrate the Jedi Temple …"
"It has been done before," Sidious replied shortly. "Darth Zannah accomplished it, and millennia before her the Empire of Vitiate spent centuries infiltrating the Order, and even succeeded in placing Sith Lords upon its High Council. Cloak yourself in the Dark Side, and you shall walk even into the heart of our enemy as though you were a phantom. Do not fear, Sly. The Dark Side gives you power they can scarcely imagine."
Moore nodded, though she still looked uncertain as she said, "And when I have the holocron, my lord?"
"Then you will take it to your old home on Vjun and wait there. The Jedi will sense its location and come to find it." Sidious smiled malevolently. "And then you will prove your worth to me and to the Dark Side by slaughtering them." Sidious gestured to the vibroblade that lay on the floor behind them. "You will need that."
Moore turned and retrieved the blade.
"And when the Jedi are dead?"
Sidious smiled again.
"Then you will return here, to this place, where a reward shall be waiting for you."
As a Mirialan makeup artist finished dabbing at his cheek with a fine-haired brush, Dooku reflected on the words he was about to say, on the events he was about to set in motion. He scrolled through the datapad in his hand again, reading over the speech that he, and unknown to anyone else Supreme Chancellors Palpatine and Damask, had spent the last two weeks writing, revising, refining and polishing.
This would be it. The catalyst of the Republic's disintegration, the fall of the Jedi, and the ascendancy in their place of a New Order which would deliver true justice, peace and the rule of law that the Galaxy so desperately needed. The three of them, the three Sith Lords, would save the trillions of beings from themselves.
"Two minutes, Count," said an aide from somewhere to his left. Dooku smoothed his clothes down one last time, composed his face into a look of deepest sincerity and meaningfulness, and watched the HoloNet cam directly in front of him as a Rodian crew member behind the machine counted down from ten on his fingers.
Three. Two. One.
The light came on to indicate that the broadcast had begun. Dooku's face now occupied every HoloNet screen in Republic space, and most of those outside it as well.
"Citizens of the Galactic Republic and the wider Galaxy," he began, "allow me to identify myself. I am Count Dooku of Serenno, and like many of you I have become deeply troubled at the state of the Republic, its governance under Supreme Chancellors Palpatine and Damask, and the abandonment of systems in the Outer Rim to depravation, poverty, and rampant crime while the Core worlds flourish at their expense."
"I have tried, through diplomacy and through political means, to bring attention to this shameful negligence and force the elite of Coruscant to open their eyes to what is going on on worlds, like Serenno, where the Senate Rotunda feels a galaxy away. But I have not been listened to, I have not been heeded, and now it is time for Coruscant to feel the consequences. I hereby declare that the Serenno System is seceding from the Republic and seeking a new path, ready to unleash its potential. We will go alone if need be, but I urge all those who feel as I do to re-examine their hearts and minds, and decide whether the Republic is truly working for them."
There, thought Dooku as the holocams were turned off and the broadcast ended. The fires of separatism have been lit.
Entering the Temple had been easy. What Moore was finding difficult was keeping up her veneer of Light Side energy in the presence of so many beings strong in the Force. She was afraid, and she was afraid that they would sense her fear. But she tried to master it. Sidious would not forgive failure – better to be taken by the Jedi than to return to her master without Darth Ruin's holocron.
Dressed in Jedi robes that Sidious had provided, and with the hood raised to keep her face hidden within its cowl, she moved among the Jedi like a ghost. There were so many of them, hundreds and thousands of them, all living together within this one structure, built around a mountain millennia earlier. There were so many that they could not possibly all know one another – and that was Moore's salvation as she moved through the corridors of her enemy, trying to move as though she belonged to the place.
Her presence was not questioned once as she made her way through the Temple, marvelling at the sheer size of the place, and at the number of Jedi who moved about its hallways and open spaces. Sidious had provided her with a holomap of the Temple's layout, and she stopped to consult it every so often. If anyone had challenged her, she would have said that she had previously lived in one of the Jedi's other locations, on Ilum, perhaps, or Jedha. But in the event she went unnoticed as she moved through the halls of her enemy.
The Archive was the realm of Master Jocasta Nu, Sidious had told her, and Moore had no trouble identifying the ageing, grey-haired Human female whom her master had shown her in holoimage. Where she had skulked and hidden from the other Jedi until now, Moore's plan called for a more direct approach with Nu. Straightening herself, composing her face into a look of confident belonging and striding forward as though she had lived in the Temple all her life, she approached the Jedi Master and bowed, as she knew was the custom of the Order.
"Master Nu," she said, "I seek your guidance and assistance."
The archivist looked a little taken aback but nonetheless pleased to be approached in this manner. After a few moments, she nodded and said, "How may I be of assistance, Knight …"
She faltered, realising that she did not know Moore's name, and Moore was quick to answer.
"My name is Taera, Master Nu," she said. It had been her mother's name. "I have not long since joined this Temple. Previously I resided at the Temple on Jedha."
Moore knew that if Nu had ever visited Jedha then her ruse was about to collapse, but the archivist nodded again, satisfied.
"Not one of the more glamourous or prestigious postings of our Order, but of import nonetheless. I have requested leave to visit many times, but alas the High Council insists that I am needed either here on Coruscant or on Ilum." Nu seemed to realise that she was speaking extensively, for she waved her hand as though batting away flies and continued, "But forgive me, Knight Taera, you did not come here to hear of an old woman's dreams. How may I help?"
Moore bowed her head again as she answered, the picture of supplication before a superior in the Order.
"Master, I have been sent by Master Lo Bukk to bring him an ancient Sith holocron."
Lo Bukk's name had also been provided by Sidious, who had assured that the Zabrak Master was well-known in the Order for his interest in the ancient conflicts between the Jedi and the Sith. Moore held her breath as she spoke, and waited to see Nu's reaction. To her relief, the Jedi Master smiled knowingly.
"Yes, Master Lo Bukk is always looking into the history and secrets of the Sith. The better to combat them should they ever return, he has always said, and from what Master Qui-Gon has reported it seems that they have. Which holocron does Master Lo Bukk require?"
"That of Darth Ruin, Master Nu."
Nu gestured for Moore to follow her, and together the two of them entered into the Archives. Moore found herself in a long corridor lined with artefacts like a museum, and she slowed her pace every now and then to read some of the information next to an object that took her particular interest.
Tho Yor fragment. 35,453 Before Ruusan Reformation
Sith mask. 3,634 Before Ruusan Reformation
Krath War Droid pulse bow. 2,998 Before Ruusan Reformation
Lightsaber of Lord Valenthyne Farfalla. 5 Before Ruusan Reformation
Moore's eyes raked over the artefacts, looking for anything that might resemble the description of the holocron that Sidious had given to her, red and pyramidal. But Nu walked on past the museum collection with scarcely a glance, so familiar was she with these pieces of history, until she came to a door at the far end of the corridor which she rested her hand lightly upon before it slid open. Moore guessed it to be some kind of biological key set to recognise Nu and her fellow archivists.
The first sound to meet her ears was the hissing, almost like a reptile or else the sound of running water. It took Moore several moments to realise that the noise was coming from all sides of the room, and that lined along the walls, and arranged in tiers like the Coruscant Opera, were hundreds and hundreds of crimson pyramids. Any one of them could have been the one that she sought. But Nu seemed to know the collection as she knew her own face, for she strode over to a particular holocron, picked it up from where it sat, and held it out to Moore.
"The holocron of Darth Ruin," she said, her face twisted in something like distaste. "Be very careful with it, Taera. It is soaked in the Dark Side."
Moore took the holocron gingerly from Nu's fingers, and as she touched it she felt a surge of power from its cold surface. It was like standing beneath a hot shower of water, and feeling the droplets move over every part of her body, enveloping her, welcoming her. The Dark Side was strong in her, Sidious had always said so, and in that moment she felt it more acutely than ever before. She heard the Dark Side whisper to her, as though from within the holocron, giving the two-millennia dead Sith Lord who had created it voice for the first time in aeons.
Take me for your own. Use the power within and take your rightful place beside your master.
Nu's body crashed against the opposite wall as she was hurled by a violently powerful Force Push. Moore strode over to the place where the Archivist had fallen and examined her. The old woman was not dead, but she did not respond when Moore first placed a hand on her face then slapped her hard.
Moore smiled, revelling in her Dark power. She lifted Nu from the ground with the Force, and moved her until she was by the door they had come through earlier. Taking Nu's hand, she placed it against the metal of the door, which slid open to let Moore pass. She let Nu fall with a thud to the ground before she closed the door again and strode back up the hallway, stowing the holocron beneath the folds of her Jedi robe.
She cloaked herself once again in Light, and walked from the Temple as easily as she had walked into it. The Jedi would have felt the Dark Side from the Archive, she knew. But that room had been a well of the Dark Side regardless, and she knew it would be some time before they investigated. When they did …
Sidious had told her to go to Vjun and to wait for the Jedi to come there to retrieve the holocron. Moore had never disobeyed her master, and she did not intend to begin now.
Hood protecting his head from the acid-laden rain, Sidious watched as the Scimitar came in to land at Bast Castle, cutting through Vjun's brown skies like the throwing dart it so resembled. He could sense the holocron even at this distance, so powerful was it in the Dark Side, and a smile curled his mouth as he imagined the power he might soon possess. Moore had done exceedingly well, and Sidious intended to reward her appropriately.
Once she had dealt with the Jedi.
They would not be far away, he knew. It was likely that they were on their way already, only a few standard hours behind Moore. She would need to make her preparations swiftly.
Sidious met Moore inside the castle's dark entrance hall, and bade her rise as she sank to one knee in supplication.
"You have the holocron," Sidious said.
Moore reached inside a bag she had strapped about her chest and drew from within its depths the red pyramid that Sidious had sent her to retrieve. He took it eagerly in his fingers, and felt the rush of the Dark Side through his body. He drank it in like a thirsting man plunged into a lake, and he longed to open it and receive the knowledge of Darth Ruin.
"You have served me well, Sly," he said, smiling down at the Umbaran. "Now, slay the Jedi who come looking for the holocron, and you shall finally be ready to take your rightful place as my right-hand."
Moore bowed her bald head deeply and whispered to the floor, "Yes, my master."
Sidious felt her fear, and he took her face in his hand.
"Do not fear, Sly," he said to her. "I shall assist you, if you will open your mind to me."