Chapter 5
Coruscant
It was seven years and three additional visits to the hidden Sith Training facility later when Senator Freey approached a now 34 year old Palpatine one morning after breakfast as he was walking the ornate corridor from the living quarters annex to the embassy proper saying, "Palpatine I have an offer that you might like."
"Go on Senator."
"You are what, A senior clerk first class?"
"Yes Senator."
"As you know tradition is that you will now rotate through various upper level clerical positions, just as I am rotating through a series of offices until retirement. What I propose is that you return to Naboo with me and become a junior administrator in my next assignment. The work will be challenging and you will have an opportunity for further advancement. The drawback is you will start at the bottom without the right diploma or family status. That could work for you or against you, but I will do my best to insure you are treated fairly."
"I'm greatly honored Senator. Do you need an answer now?"
"No, But it will not be long before I do."
"I merely wish to sleep on it overnight. I will give you an answer tomorrow morning.
"That will be sufficient. Until then." The senator said as he turned and headed down the corridor to his office.
Palpatine kept walking to his desk in the record office. The latest of a number of increasingly responsible positions he had held since his arrival. Darth Mard, his Sith Master, had, at Palpatine's last training session, mentioned he foresaw a large change coming. This would certainly qualify. He was planning to spend tonight, an off night in his training regiment, with Sellan, his mistress, at the tavern but this news was going to change that. During lunch he left the embassy and using a public call box placed a coded call to Darth Mard requesting a meeting. After work he went to the tavern. It was a nightly ritual that embassy security knew about but after investigating Sellan they left him alone following only sporadically. Tonight he had no company. Palpatine entered the tavern and proceeded to the rear cubical that he inherited with the tavern after dispatching Darth Mard's previous apprentice, Moric, in a light saber match that was more a slaughter that a duel. Sellan, who had been a dancer in the tavern and was now running it for him, approached as he sat down. "You have a visitor outback," she said.
Palpatine stood and after a quick scan of the room stepped through a concealed door entering a darkened space. A figure stood at the edge of what little light there was a hooded cloak around him absorbing any light falling it's way. The figure lowered the hood as he entered revealing a familiar face. "Darth Mard, I expected a summons to your location. I am honored that you came to see me but it was not necessary."
"Sidious," Darth Mard replied using Palpatine's Sith name. "You have reached a major fork in your path. Do you know which branch the Dark force leads you to."
"Yes Master."
"But still you hesitate."
"Yes Master. To follow that path requires I leave Coruscant. That I need your permission to do."
"Are you sure it's not something else holding you back?" Darth Mard asked motioning towards the concealed door and the tavern beyond as he spoke.
"No Master. I follow the Sith path."
"Good. Always remember that. Enjoy tonight. Tomorrow tell the senator you accept. The Sith council will decide how you will continue your training."
"Thank you Master. I will see you in two nights for training." Palpatine said as Darth Mard raised his hood and disappeared leaving the way he arrived, through the supply and refuse passages that honeycombed the planet. Palpatine also used these passages when traveling as Sidious to training or other meetings. He would eat at the tavern and then enter the passages. They were largely populated by a robotic work force comprised mostly of automated transports for food and refuse along with large autonomous cleaning robots. The occasional living sentience was either dimwitted, working for Black Sun or both. He had never, nor had he heard of anyone dark force capable having problems moving unseen in the tunnels.
"Ah Sellan my red-headed beauty, What are we having tonight." He asked when he emerged from the back room.
"Alderiaan Wine with Brandy simmered Iskalon sea bass."
"Sounds great but why the fancy feast?"
"No special reason unless it's the seventh anniversary of your owning this place."
"Has it been that long? I almost forgot."
"I didn't, your putting me in charge changed my life."
"And brought you into mine. We have a lot to celebrate." Palpatine kept his secret that night returning to the embassy compound in the early morning hours. It was the following evening during dinner when he told Sellan he was returning to Naboo.
"Why after all these years?"
"That is precisely why. It will be the end of my allotted time off Naboo next year. Leaving now allows me a chance to move up. I should be able to return in 5 years or so."
"But what about us?" Sellan asked in a hurt angry voice. Tears welling up in her eyes.
"I hope you will continue to run this tavern." Looking her face as the tears started down her cheeks, her chin however was held definitely up. He felt obliged to continue "I know that's not what you want but I leave in a week for a long absence. You're only twenty seven you could find someone else."
"Not like you."
"I'll tell you what if you or I don't find someone else. When I get back…" He left the rest unsaid as her façade finally crumbled and she fell into his arms sobbing.
The few evening they had left were marked by either very formal conversations or emotional outbursts by Sellan. When he finally left to meet Senator Freey at the Naboo departure platform it was with a sense of relief.
