Chapter Forty-Five: Jakku
Good intentions and a good heart did not necessarily make a good leader. Vader only had to look as far as the Senate leaders who hadn't been corrupt during the Clone Wars before the fall of the Republic to know that. So keen on following the rules, on maintaining the illusion of democracy, they hadn't been willing to take the drastic measures necessary to end the war and save their precious Republic and the galaxy until it was too late. Until Sidious had cemented his hold on the galaxy and forced them to have to work in the shadows. Even now, the Republic loyalists who remained in the Senate were under the delusion that they could still solve their dispute with Palpatine through peaceful, non-violent measures.
So just because he knew Ahsoka was more concerned with and had given more thought to the state of the galaxy and the future galactic government than he had didn't mean she would be perfect for the role of its next ruler. Just like when she'd first approached him with the idea to depose Sidious and he'd made sure she was back in optimum shape for the dangers she would encounter, Vader had to ensure she had the skill to rule, especially during the volatile initial years of their new galactic order.
The problem was that he knew how to train fighters and create deadly warriors, but he didn't know how to groom a future empress. Perhaps, though, he didn't have to. She seemed to be doing an admirable job of running the rebellion despite all her baseless insecurities. Maybe all he had to do was continue urging her in the right direction, and she'd flourish like she always did in most situations.
His meditations gave him little in the way of dissuading or encouraging his idea. What used to be vague impressions that one day he'd claim the Imperial throne from Sidious were now more concrete. He saw himself in dark robes in the Senate without the suit, saw himself leaving Imperial Center to handle some military matter, saw Luke and Leia sneaking into the barracks, but Ahsoka was nowhere to be seen. Why wasn't she there? Why couldn't he see her?
He knew the Force was capable of showing him something about her. He'd received a vision of her before. Well. Not quite a vision. An image after her exoneration, after he'd convinced her to stay a Jedi, and after she'd finally fallen asleep from pure exhaustion on the couch and he'd put her to bed. He had been contemplating exactly what he was going to say to the Council the next day in a state between sleeping and waking and saw an image of her as an adult, looking exactly as she looked presently. Exuding power, standing in a room with maybe a dozen Jedi. Yoda had been there. And so had Obi-wan. The rest he wasn't familiar with. What he did know was that she had that grim, determined look on her face with her hip cocked and arms crossed, and everyone in the room was apprehensive about something. Except her. She'd been in total control of the room. As though their fate lay in her hands.
If there was one moment in his former life that he hadn't been a coward, it was the next morning and over the next few days (and weeks) when he argued for her knighting, threatened the entire Council, and then threatened Tarkin and his entire prosecuting team because they'd still had questions that unfairly implicated Ahsoka. He'd been ready to threaten the Senate and land himself with a charge of sedition and treason if they hadn't backed off. It was a wonder he hadn't been thrown out the Order for his blatant insolence then.
Getting nothing more from his searching, Vader pulled himself out of his meditation and prepared to get ready to leave his quarters and head to the bridge. He'd just gotten his mask and helmet secure when his comm beeped. He sighed, went over to the larger projector, and hooked his comm to it.
"We've got a problem," Sabé said no sooner than her image appeared on the projector.
"I'm listening."
"Mind if I three-way another agent?"
Vader nodded his permission, and then Diya's hologram appeared. He wasn't surprised, given both worked in intelligence. When Diya only nodded in his direction, Vader knew whatever Sabé was reporting was grave. Diya never missed the opportunity to express her hatred for him.
"Gallius Rax," Sabé said, using the low, passive tone that she'd practiced when she was playing decoy for Padmé when she was queen. It told Vader everything he needed to know about the low esteem she held this particular individual in.
"Who's he?" Vader asked.
"That's what the hell we wanna know," Diya said with a snort.
Sabé continued, "I was looking through the roster of the Naval Intelligence and found him. He appeared out of nowhere and was made a commander at the beginning of the Empire. I thought it was odd for a person with no apparent military history to be promoted to such a high rank."
"It wouldn't be totally out of the norm," Vader stated.
"Maybe. But the last time I thought it was odd for someone with no apparent military history to appear out of nowhere in the Imperial Order, I found you," Sabé stated matter-of-factly.
Though Vader knew Sabé well enough to know she meant no disrespect, he still glared at Diya when she snickered.
"The reports he sends to the Imperial Security Bureau bypass even the highest security clearances. In short, he's up to something. Something the emperor didn't tell you about judging by the fact that you didn't know who the man was. And frankly, I don't think he wanted you to know. I was in the process of finding out, but…" Sabé looked toward Diya.
"The Liberty Resistance has been tracking a pervasive slave trade. They've been kidnapping children by the hundreds, and their net is broad and encompasses dozens of systems and hundreds of planets. I didn't think it was the Empire at first. It was too clandestine to be the Empire. Why be clandestine about something that's a totally legal and legitimate operation? But then I realized it wasn't because it was illegal, but because something's happening there that the Empire doesn't want anyone to know. So I tracked them."
"Tracked them?"
"We won't talk about how I tracked them," Diya said bluntly. Vader imagined it involved a lot of dead informants, both Imperial and otherwise, to cover her tracks. He didn't care, but he supposed she couldn't turn off the habit from dealing with Ahsoka, who did care. "But I found something. On Jakku. It looks like some kind of underground bunker, but there's way too much imperial activity around there for it to be nothing. I couldn't get close, though. Not without Ahsoka or you having to come bail me out," she added dryly. "But the few days I was there, I did get a picture of one Gallius Rax. I thought he looked imperial and pretty important if this was some clandestine secret operation, so I asked Sabé if she knew he was."
"And when she showed me the picture, she confirmed all of my suspicions," Sabé said. "Gallius Rax is not all he seems to be, and he's up to something on Jakku."
"Something that I think we need to know about if your plan to eliminate Palpatine and his allies for good is going to succeed," Diya added.
"What makes you so certain?" Vader asked.
Diya shrugged. "A feeling."
A feeling from a Force user was the equivalent of a confirmation as far as Vader was concerned.
"I thought it would be too dangerous to send a maiden in to investigate given Diya's intel. But given the possibly nefarious nature, I thought it prudent to inform you anyway."
Vader didn't answer right away. For all he knew, this was some benign project that he'd simply overlooked. Goodness knew there were hundreds of different Imperial projects going on at any given time, and Vader didn't have the time to pick through and oversee all of them. That said, Palpatine didn't trust him with all his secrets. Vader was just one valuable piece in Palpatine's cog, replaceable if he became more trouble than he was worth. He already had a possible replacement for Vader. Inquisitor Jerec, a former Jedi that was continually trying to undermine him to gain Palpatine's favor and the status of Sith apprentice. Vader paid the fallen Jedi little attention. His place at Palpatine's side was secure for now, although Jerec also answered directly to the emperor, which only served to infuriate and make the inquisitor hate him more. If he weren't so devoted to Palpatine and hated Vader a little less, Vader might have been able to use Jerec. As it was, he planned on killing the man and all Palpatine's backup apprentices at the last possible moment before facing Palpatine.
But a backup apprentice unquestionably wasn't Palpatine's only contingency plan. Perhaps Jakku had something to do with another. Not only that, but Diya and Sabé, both working on different assignments and missions, had found two separate leads that connected at the same time. If that wasn't a sign from the Force to investigate, Vader didn't know what was.
"Send me all the information you have," Vader ordered. "I'll investigate the matter for myself."
"Yourself?" Diya asked. "You're not exactly inconspicuous enough for this kind of mission."
"An apt observation, Diya," Vader drawled at the girl. "I'm not infiltrating whatever this bunker is. I'm going to walk right up and demand entry."
Vader frankly thought he'd get a little more pushback from the guards when he walked up to the metal bunker in the middle of Jakku's desert. But they saluted him like they had expected he would show up one day and let him inside the bunker. Now he was sure it was a secret plan of the Emperor's doing. It wouldn't be the first time the Emperor hadn't told him about a project but fully prepared for him to stumble upon it.
From the outside, it looked like a typical small outpost or control center, but as Diya had pointed out, the Imperial activity around a wide radius of the bunker gave it away. The lift that Vader spotted before he even crossed the threshold of the entrance confirmed their theories. The lift took him well below the surface of the planet and finally opened to a large dark hall. Sensing no urging one way or another in the Force, Vader pressed forward until the corridor extended out into an expansive crossway that led to a multitude of directions. This time, the Force did urge him in a direction. Straight down the steps and to the large durasteel doors on the opposite side. He used the Force to force the door mechanics open and continued forward down the long hall until he found himself on the other side of a ray shield. While ray shield mechanics were more complicated than door mechanics, Vader had been honing the Force skill needed to interfere with all mechanics and machinery as part of the continual refinement of his talents for years. After a few minutes, the ray shield dissolved, and Vader stepped into the high tech data room.
"What is this place?" he asked himself as he approached the main computer.
It was heavily encrypted, but Vader always was better at working with machines and technology than he was with people. After a few minutes, he overrode the encryption to get into the system. There were dozens of folders on the screen, which Vader opened in no particular order. Some had nothing in them. Others had information that appeared relatively benign without further context. He opened the eleventh one, and more data filled the screen.
Operation Contingency.
He clicked on a holovideo, and the image of Palpatine came up along with one Gallius Rax.
"I trust that you have everything in order and that you know what to do."
"Yes, my lord," the young man said to Palpatine. "Contingency is ready to launch at any time."
That confirmed that this was yet another project of Palpatine's that he was keeping hidden from Vader. His master frequently played games like this. Left clues that could lead to information but in places that Vader was likely to overlook. In the off chance that Vader did manage to stumble upon it, Palpatine would congratulate Vader on a job well done and let Vader in on the operation to his own gain. It was what the man did when Vader discovered the inquisitors.
Vader continued to scroll through the folder to see what his master was up to now, and the more he read, the more he struggled to restrain his power. He gathered the dark side around him in fury, needing something to lash out at, wanting to destroy the computer and then entire data room. But he needed this data. He needed a copy of it. Proof to show to Ahsoka because their plot to take down Palpatine had just gotten a lot more complicated.
Vader started to type in the commands to make the computer begin copying the information but paused halfway through, sensing a presence in the room.
He turned around with his lightsaber drawn, using the blade to illuminate the shadows that not even the night vision in his mask could penetrate.
"Who's there?"
Out stepped two children. Both humans, if Vader had to guess, somewhere between twelve and fifteen standard years.
"We've never seen you here before," the female child said. "Master Rax didn't inform us that anyone was coming."
"What are you doing here?" Vader asked.
"This is our home. We guard it," the girl said.
"Guard," Vader stated, and then the Force gave a warning.
Vader raised his hand up and caught the child that leaped at him from above with the Force. He threw them back and then raised his lightsaber to block the long shock blade that the male child on the ground aimed at him. He forced the blade from the boy's hand and threw him back into the hall while the blonde-haired girl who spoke before lit a red lightsaber.
Perfect. One of Palpatine's adepts.
She jumped at him with her blade, and Vader effortlessly blocked the attack. She elegantly used her much smaller size to slide out the way of his attack and get behind him. Having neither the time nor the desire to toy with her, he whirled around, clearly quicker than she had been expecting, parried the attack, and disarmed the girl. Her saber flew into some corner of the room, and she attempted to launch herself over him. Vader snatched her out the air with a Force choke.
Instantly, she began clawing at her throat for breath, but Vader didn't plan to wait for the time it took her to be strangled and pointed his blade at her.
"Pathetic," he grumbled and got ready to strike her down.
Her fear fed the dark side, and stray thoughts left her mind as she lost control of the Force. Thoughts of her sureness that her friend, who was sneaking up behind him with his shock staff, would save her. How after her friend struck them, she planned to knock him out with a drug and then would wait for their Master, Gallius Rax, to get here in a few days or so to decide what to do with him.
She may have been stupid enough to think he was distracted and at a disadvantage, but Vader suddenly saw opportunity. He needed to know more about this base, about this plan, and if there were other people and planets involved. It was amazing the things people would reveal when they thought they had someone at their mercy.
The shock from the staff was probably going to damage his respirator, and the drugs were going to dampen his awareness and reflexes, but he needed to meet Gallius Rax. And one thing Vader knew about all Palpatine's pawns was that they were always trying to find a way to one-up Vader. This was a one-time opportunity to get information he would sorely need to take down Palpatine for good.
So he pretended not to notice the boy behind him with his shock staff, letting the child stab him in the back with it. He let go of his grip around the girl's throat and fell to one knee. The third child was waiting in the corner, and because she was too slow, Vader pretended to be more affected by the shock than he actually was. He turned too late to where the third child was just managing to stick a thick needle into his upper arm.
Almost instantly, his arm went limp, and his lightsaber clattered to the floor.
"Who's the pathetic one now?" the girl asked, sounding pleased with herself.
If Vader had the energy with the drug coursing through his system, he would have scoffed at her arrogance. Stupid child, was his last thought as he let himself blackout.
When he came to, he was in a dark room with some kind of barely-there shielding in the walls. The first thing he noticed, after the fact that the children had somehow managed to string him up by cuffs and chains, was his dampening Force connection, though he got the sense that he could use the Force with some trouble if and when he wanted to escape.
"Oh, good. You're awake. I wasn't sure if we gave you too much of the drug. Your breathing was sounding strange there for a while," the Force-trained girl he'd dueled before said.
Vader didn't answer her. But he was sure the respirator sounded strange because the shock staff had damaged it. It was more uncomfortable to breathe with the mask on right now than it would be without it for too long a time.
"Master Rax is on his way. He seemed very concerned when we told him we captured you. I don't know why. You can't be that dangerous if we could beat you," the girl sneered.
Though Vader could not wait to disabuse her of the notion that he had ever been defeated, he decided not to answer. This was a waiting game now.
AN: 1) Sorry about the lateness. But it was for a good reason. I hit a block writing a part of this story about a week ago. I knew what needed to happen, but I wasn't sure how to write it. But I finally got past the block... on the day I was supposed to be prepping this chapter to update. Hence, the late chapter.
2) It's not really a spoiler to say that Gallius Rax, canonically, was vital to the formation of the First Order after OT. It's all over the internet and wookieepedia. I actually enjoyed some of the background that other media filled in. My problem with it was that none of this info was in the movies which would have made ST a lot more cohesive and make a lot more sense that the mess of "cool" action scenes they cobbled together to call a movie. But I digress... Anywho, back when I wrote this two and a half months ago, I had been going back and forth on how much if any of the lore that leads to ST I was going to use in this and... well, I kinda liked the idea of Palpatine having these contingency plans, I just didn't like the way it was executed. Thus, I've picked bits and pieces of it to incorporate.
Anywho, hope you enoyed. Review please! I appreciate it! A lot has been going so I haven't been able to keep up with replies, but I'm reading them.