Dooku's sinister ship careened noiselessly through hyperspace. The stars streaked by as Dooku contemplated the circumstances that had brought him to this point in his life. How he had warned the Jedi Council that a new menace was rising. How they refused to believe him. How they arrogantly assumed they had destroyed the Sith a millennium ago. How even the death of Darth Maul generated not even an apology to him for the obtuseness of the Jedi.
It became clear to Dooku that the Jedi had outlived their usefulness. Before the Battle of Naboo raged, Dooku sensed a darkness growing on Coruscant. A swirl of dark side energy permeated the governance of the Republic. Many members of the Jedi Order felt its uneasy energies clouding their ability to use the Force, though they insisted that only increased meditation would clarify their minds and push the dark side from them. Dooku became exasperated with this foolishness. He was the most vocal of a minority of Jedi who argued that the darkness must be actively fought against, not passively resisted, to bring it to an end.
Dooku knew that the fastest way to fight the darkness would be to embrace its influence and follow it to its source. However, no one but he was willing to take this drastic step: not his former Padawan, Qui-Gon Jinn; not the other Jedi with whom he had served; not even the Jedi Grand Master Yoda. Instead, he was left to seethe at how the impotence of the Galactic Senate endangered the people of Naboo. The Jedi's Council's insistence at not interfering with "mere politics" further demonstrated to Dooku their obstinate unwillingness to confront the obvious gathering evil.
Before leaving on his fateful mission to resolve the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo, Qui-Gon met with Dooku one last time. Dooku approved of the progress of Qui-Gon's Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and agreed that he would soon be ready to face the trials that would ensure his fitness to become a Jedi Knight. Dooku also urged Qui-Gon to join with him to explore the source of the dark side eddies in the Force once he was free of Obi-Wan. Dooku insisted that they must do so by riding the dark eddies through the Unifying Force, allowing them to predict their flow backward to their source. For Dooku, the present was but the past of the future.
Qui-Gon agreed that the dark source must be located – and quickly – but he believed strongly that they should not "lose" themselves in the dark eddies. Rather, they should embrace the Living Force fully, experiencing each moment and its attendant light or dark energy as it came to them. As the ripples in the Living Force became stronger and darker, they would know that they were moving closer to their source. This path would allow them to stay grounded in their pursuit of the darkness, remaining unclouded by both the active dark currents and the light side placidity they disturbed.
Dooku rebuked Qui-Gon, perhaps a bit too sharply. Once again, he derided Qui-Gon's devotion to the Living Force, which Dooku believed had no power to predict or control future events. Confrontation of and control over the dark energies was what was needed, not casual and ineffectual observation of them. He accused Qui-Gon of succumbing to the antiseptic foolhardiness of the other Jedi, of being unwilling to do what was necessary to stop the darkness. As Qui-Gon turned away in haste to rejoin Obi-Wan, Dooku spitefully hoped that Qui-Gon's Padawan would make a stronger Jedi than Qui-Gon did. Dooku regretted that being his last remark to his former apprentice; it hardly reflected the high esteem in which he held Qui-Gon's devotion to and skill at righting wrongs throughout the galaxy.
Was it guilt over Qui-Gon's death that drove Dooku further down the dark path, then? Or was it his recognition of the ineffectiveness of Qui-Gon's methods of dealing with the Sith's darkness that spurred him to throw himself into the dark Force currents fully? Dooku realized that even now, he did not know precisely why he started tracing the path of the Sith. He only knew when he started down the dark path: when his friend, Sifo-Dyas, refused to join him – to provide him an anchor in the light side of the Force.