CHAPTER XIII
Kylo Ren awoke, realizing he was once more aboard his Star Destroyer. He stroked his mask; it was always unpleasant to sleep with a mask on, yet he had, and his shoulder was killing him. Furthermore, his dreams had been strong and overwhelming; he had sensed her again, and he had felt her emotions at seeing Skywalker.
Darth Cullen entered his quarters.
"Master, we have colonized Hosnian Prime. It belongs to the Sith now."
"Where did you find my body?"
"It the forest area. You were badly wounded, so we took you back."
"Skywalker in on that planet. Or at least he was; don't let anyone fly on or off."
"No, sir."
"And get me a transmission to the senator."
"Yes, sir."
A few minutes later, Ren was in the transmission room. A hologram of Senator Tyk Zyr appeared before him.
"Ren, I grow tired of threats-" Zyr began.
"Relax, senator. I'm not to choke you-this time. I wanted you to know Luke Skywalker has been found. He's in the Hosnian System."
"How did you find him?"
"Our little smear campaign led someone right to him. I guess it worked after all, even if not in the way we intended it."
"Good. Get rid of Skywalker; let the whole world know that their beloved hero was the son of Darth Vader."
"Oh believe me," Ren said, "It will be my pleasure to handle Skywalker."
"Speaking of which, I have a campaign to run. Perhaps you've noticed I've been beating your mother considerably in the polls."
"I know you regret doing business with me," Kylo Ren said flatly, "And what you're thinking right now: that the very moment you win the election, your first act as president will be to have me killed."
Zyr was shocked, amazed at the extent of Ren's clairvoyance.
"Do what you want," Ren said, "The next time we speak, I will have killed Skywalker, and this election will be decided, one way or the other."
Ren abruptly ended the transmission, then walked out, igniting his crossguard lightsaber, swinging it in fury!
In his office on Csilla, the senator turned off the tiny hologram that had been transmitted on his desk. It was a neat and shiny office: the office of an important man. He had had just about enough of these Sith Imperialists; all he wanted was to win this election and not put up with any snot-nosed kid.
Right at that moment, he received word that he had a visitor; his team had found the smuggler who had been making a name for himself.
Polen Orlock was led inside.
"Leave us," Zyr said, and his men left. He was alone with the wormy man.
"Hello, senator," Polen said, "I was an aide for President Organa. I have information that may be useful to you-"
"Let me guess," Zyr began, "It happens to be on a VP-unit?"
"Yes," Polen said, holding up the droid, "And for a fee I'll-"
Zyr simply pulled out his blaster and shot Polen in the head! The wormy little man went flying across the room!
Zyr had put up with enough in his political career and knew he didn't have time for nonsense. Sometimes, murdering in cold blood was so much more effective.
The VP-unit began rolling across the floor, away from Polen's corpse.
"I say, good sir," Veep said, "This whole affair has gotten out of hand. The information on me is not worth all this trouble. Now, you are a senator, correct? I'm sure you can extract the data-"
"You're a talkative little droid," Zyr said, "It's sad to think how many Coalition scum were murdered because of you."
He picked up Veep and headed to the technician's room. He was going to use this data, win the election, and get Kylo Ren out of his life.