25 The Epic: The Moon of Endor -The Calm Before

What was she thinking? For her standing there was simply too much protocol in between her, and commandeering a craft down to the moon of Endor. She would require 'escorting.' Then Aloo got wind of her intentions and invited himself. Next thing she knew, he was arranging the whole outing.

Worse, he had had invited Vader's equivalent of himself as well – Vaneé. On indeterminate leave from Fortress Vader, Vaneé was just as cryptic as when they'd briefly interacted (or simply incoherent –she needed more exposure to tell. The toxic gases of Mustafar had obviously got to him). But in front of Aloo, Vaneé had the good sense not to acknowledge they'd met previously.

Eva turned her back to the gruesome twosome and leaned on the railing, absorbed by the view from the elevated landing platform. Bathed in the soft pink tinge of sunset, the lush woods did not disappoint. She inhaled deeply. The air was so very pure.

The modulated voices of stormtroopers on a lower level filtered up to her. "Do you think Ewoks feel pain? "

"Oh I pray to the Maker they do."

The pine scent was all the more intoxicating, as the forest has been freshly slashed and beaten down to make paths for the walkers that lumbered up to platform. The process was much like she witnessed in the Imperial prison camp, where she awaited Rebel rescue. Equally familiar were the rag-tag beings, hand-collecting brush on the forest floor. The group was more or less token, as they weren't nearly productive per operational investment as heavy machinery. But hard labor sentences had to be served somewhere. She noticed their bare hands, which were surely as raw as her sobering recollections, and glanced down to her own gloves in guilt. She'd gladly toss them over, but they were flimsy and only for show. And what a feeble effort it would be anyhow.

Something of a tan blur stirred the ferns beyond. "Look, did you see that?" She caught a clearer sight of the furry, meter high creature that ran upright and wore a leather hood.

"Ewoks," their escort told them. "Give them the chance, and they'll murder you in your sleep. Also, be aware this base is on heightened alert."

Eva groaned in frustration. She so longed to put her feet on the ground and explore. It seemed no good would come of any stroll through the woods she'd undertake…

The natural setting did not serve Aloo well. He fanned small insects away in the heavy, still air and remained completely untuned to the chorus from the forest. "There are no formalities scheduled to officiate the completion of the Death Star," he told Vaneé.

"…Even with the chaos of the construction's completion, typically they would have been arranged. Instead, they are all on perpetual state of readiness up there. It isn't necessary for our Emperor to be present. I've got a bad feeling about this."

"This will all be over soon," Vaneé replied.

With the light beginning to fade, distant threads of smoke drifted upward as Ewoks made their nightly fires for warmth and dinner. The Death Star floated above the darkened tree line - cool blue, ethereal and luminous, just like a real moon. It was at once awe inspiring and dreadful. "Can't we stay here, just a tad longer?"

Aloo and Eva stood in one of the Death Star's wide but empty corridors. Aloo was there to figure out a discrete way to watch the comings and goings to the Throne Room. Next to them were the only turbolifts leading up to the tower. The turbolifts once continued to many stops below, but those had been sealed off for security purposes. Where they stood, there was no complex of dedicated spaces to vet the Emperor's visitors as on Coruscant. There wasn't even a chair to sit on.

Eva leaned up against the wall, eyeing the faceless, frozen Royal Guards flanking the tubolifts — simply present to keep the unoccupied tower secure. There was not as much as a fingerprint on their high gloss, red helmets to mark their humanity. Early on in her tenure, she had sashayed close past them to see if she could draw a response. Courtier Marius then informed her, "Did you know that for their training, they are made to fight one another to the death, so that only the most formidable serve our Emperor?" Eva had thought much of the revelation. She knew she too was expected to lay down her life for the Emperor. And if circumstances required that of her, what would she do? If they were so expert at distilling to the most devoted, what was she doing here?

Marius was gone. He had been approached on a park concourse by an admirer from his own world, who had been perceived as a threat. Marius was taken out by his personal guard. Or so they had told her.

"I need a drink."

Instead of giving her a sharp look, Aloo elected to join in. He scorned the recreation district for the finer spirits in his own quarters. (No matter, as not one cantina had been completed on the massive station). It seemed he had scarcely began to unpack, but he knew which container held what he sought. Aloo matched her pace as they kept one another company, into the stressful waning hours.

"How soon after DS-1 was destroyed, did you see our Emperor?" The question was uncharacteristically indiscrete of Eva. But Aloo wanted to see where she was going with it.

"Very soon after. I was there." And he left it at that, not taking the bait.

"I can't imagine what that was like..."

Silence.

"What was it like?"

Aloo slightly shook his head and smiled to himself. "The grandest piece, working sublimely. Entrusted to his best. But it just had well been placed in the hands of giddy younglings. Tarkin promptly used it to destroy a city with irreplaceable history, our own populated military base and in the annihilation of an entire, inhabited planet. Without so much as having our Emperor weigh in. Twenty years in the making, reduced to fragments and dust, a handful of days after completion. The lost expense, was a blow to the stability of this regime…

"Yes, punishment was disturbed. Some of it personally inflicted." Palpatine had used the executions for recreation, to practice those unnatural abilities so little applied in the long stretch of his unchaotic control. Horrific beyond practical deterrent, Aloo was left to clean up and cover up.

"And Vader? How much of the fall out did he take?"

Aloo saw where she was going. "An excellent example of our Emperor's mercy and calculated restraint."

At times like this she was reminded there was a greater drama which she was only vaguely aware. How many grievances on both sides were smoldering beneath the surface? There was more to blow up than just the battle station on which they were now residing.

A transmission signal interrupted. One Greater Courter short, and Aloo was handling some of Grand Vizier's Pestage's duties as well, by screening contact with the Emperor. Another reason he seemed so frazzled.

"Lord Vader was just here, wishing to see the Emperor." Jerjerrod told Aloo over his commlink.

Telling Vader 'no,' had been exactly the sort of unpleasant experience Jerjerrod would have presumed, and he inadvertently caressed his neck in attempt to sooth the lingering discomfort in his throat.

So Aloo then went to a small display screen and contacted Vader aboard his shuttle, as he was already on his way back to the Executor. "Our Emperor is not available. You may see him after his breakfast, in around six standard hours."

"I have Skywalker," Vader's heavy tone attempted restraint.

"He knows." Aloo leaned in a little too closely to the lens, for an unbecoming close-up on Vader's end. "You may see him after breakfast." With the transmission completed Aloo turned back and watched her.

Eva was lost in her thoughts. Luke was here! Was that what Vader meant? What did I miss?

It was all she could do, to finish her drink and to try to make a natural exit.

But of course, Aloo called her on it. "That's right. Hoth. You know Skywalker." How could he not take into account, the exalted station the young Skywalker inhabited in her mind? Shame on you Eva, in your transparency.

"Our accountant from Arda-2 is not a worthy servant, as yourself," the Emperor had told him. "But for other reasons, I ask that you confide in her. Treat her, as you believe she has our best interests at heart. For the immediate future at least."