The Horuz system.
Far from the Core, a lone Jedi starfighter detached from its hyperspace ring and made its way toward a wall of space dust infinitely high, infinitely wide. Its gray clouds reached out like menacing fingers to grip the tiny ship. For a moment the fighter hovered there, yellow against the grasping dark; then it nudged the clouds aside like a velvet curtain and disappeared within.
Anakin Skywalker could not hear the synthesized bleeps of his droid companion, but the words appeared on his viewscreen: I CAN'T SEE A THING.
"I know it's a little unnerving in here," he said. "Don't worry, Artoo. We'll be through the other side of this in a quarter of an hour."
Things had moved quickly since the Chancellor's announcement. The day after, nominations were taken for an election to be held in three weeks. The delegates of the Senate would be choosing among four candidates: Malastarian senator Aks Moe, Eriadan senator Valeria Ryn, Bail Organa, and Anakin's own wife, Padmé Amidala.
Sereine Valorum, whom Palpatine had promptly fired after his speech and replaced once again with Sly Moore, had plenty of time on her hands and no shortage of ideas. Padmé had been adamant that she didn't want to be Chancellor, but Sereine invited Bail to Padmé's, pretending to have brought Finis over with her, and presented them both a game plan they couldn't refuse.
Pacifist senators were in the minority, she said, so if either Bail or Padmé ran separately, they would lose, probably to Moe, whom Palpatine had endorsed. His statement for the record was that he believed that it was "time for a change," and that "I never intended for this office to become a Naboo oligarchy."
Of course, the real reason for the endorsement was that Moe was one of Palpatine's puppets, and Ryn as well, probably. If either of them were elected it would be as bad as having Palpatine still in office, and possibly worse.
Sereine's solution was to have Padmé and Bail join forces and run as a ticket - Padmé for Chancellor and Bail as Vice Chancellor, with herself as their campaign manager. Not only would this displace the troublesome Mas Amedda, but with Padmé's vast appeal as the wife of the valiant Hero with No Fear - enormously popular after such unjust treatment by the Jedi - her victory would give Sereine four years to groom the less popular Organa to succeed her. Padmé would be free after one term to retire to the private family life she craved, and Bail could serve two terms as Chancellor, for a total of twelve long Palpatine-free years.
When she put it like that, it was impossible to refuse, and both Padmé and Bail had reluctantly agreed.
The announcement was still under wraps. Sereine had three weeks to engineer a victory. She smiled mysteriously and told everyone she had a plan, but so far she hadn't disclosed any of it. For now, she had both Bail and Padmé "considering their options" and making laudatory speeches endorsing each other. Phase II involved Bail's wife, the Alderaanian Queen Breha, who was en route to Coruscant right now, to what purpose no one knew. Sereine had made the Skywalkers and the Organas two dinner reservations at Coruscant's two finest and most exclusive restaurants, and ordered that they must get themselves holographed by the society journalists at all costs. The men must look their most dashing and handsome, and the women their most beautiful, while appearing not to want the attention.
Anakin had a bad feeling he might have to make campaign speeches, and he was not looking forward to it. He wasn't looking forward to being without the twins for a month, either. Citing the previous attempts on her life, Padmé had formally requested that her little ones receive sanctuary in the Temple nursery, and the Council had readily agreed. Although Anakin knew it was for their safety and that they could visit whenever they liked, it had been wrenching kissing them goodbye, and Padmé cried into her pillow every night.
Anticipating Palpatine's new strategy had been harder. The logical place to start, Padmé had suggested, was with Palpatine's retirement plans, but although hounded by the press, the outgoing Chancellor had not announced any and the rumor mill was absolutely silent. One night Anakin - the only one privy to Palpatine's offices now - had mentioned that his statues were being shipped out already. Finis had lit up with an idea. Plant a beacon on some of Palpatine's statues, he said, and see where they end up.
Where they had ended up was a large trade vessel orbiting Mustafar - the last vestige of the faltering Trade Federation that had not yet been completely taken over by the Republic judicials. Nute Gunray had been arrested, but his subordinate Rune Haako was still at large. Anakin had tracked him down to a bunker on Mustafar's surface. With his new lightsaber, getting Haako alone had not been difficult. Persuaded by the former Jedi's prowess with the blade, Haako had disclosed Palpatine's retirement plans: He was to become the new Viceroy of the Trade Federation. And, while bargaining for his freedom, Haako had disclosed something else. Something horrible. Something Anakin prayed wasn't true.
His fighter broke through the nebula cloud south of Despayre.
It was true.
Anakin's whole body went cold; his scalp tingled. His breath hurt in his lungs.
Artoo Detoo's comment scrolled across his data screen. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING.
"Artoo," said Anakin slowly, "I'm going to orbit, and you take holos. Lots of them."
Sereine held the evidence in her hand. Holo after holo of the massive battlestation shone from a datapad and reflected in her eyes.
She shook her head slowly and looked up at her husband. "I wonder what Palpatine's plan is? Is he going to mold Aks Moe into the kind of dictator he was starting to be, so he can show up with this superweapon and play the good guy again?"
Padmé sat next to Finis on her sofa, looking bereft without a baby to hold. "Or was he just going to drop all pretense and hold us all up like a terrorist?" she said. "'I'll kill all of you planet by planet until you accept my rule.'"
Sereine sighed, closed down the datapad, and started to stuff it into her bag.
"Hey!" Anakin said, holding out his hand.
"I think that needs to be presented on the Senate floor!" said Padmé.
"Well, I don't," said Sereine. "The court of public opinion is the best place to try a crime that hasn't been committed yet. One simply has to master the fine art of knowing which journalists to tell when." She looked up at Anakin. "You said you recorded Rune Haako?"
"Yes."
"I'm going to need that, too."
"I've got it," said Anakin. "I've got it right here." He produced a playback device from his pocket and held it out to her.
"Thanks," said Sereine. She got up to take it from him.
"But, Anakin. You realize how this is going to look to Palpatine. He'll have plausible deniability, but he'll never forgive me for this. You know why I'm doing this, and I know why I'm doing it. But to him, it's going to look like the same thing I did after the Doriana affair. It's going to look like I've broken a very old promise.
"You're going to be on your own with Palpatine after this comes out. You will be the only person left he has even a shred of trust in. I'll be able to advise you, but you will be the only person with any chance at all to save him."
For the next few days, virtually every news headline that mattered was planted or stage-managed by Sereine Valorum. First, in response to the secretive dinners in the society pages, a number of editorials popped up. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the popular Naboo senator and the pacifist and principled Organa were thinking of joining forces somehow? Feverish speculation heated the society pages like wildfire, and crept insidiously onto the most respected newsmagazine shows. Organa and Padmé were deluged with mail begging them to run.
In the middle of all this, Chancellor Palpatine's retirement plans were leaked, without his permission, to a public who adored him and was sorry to see him go. He was forced to confirm that, yes, he had accepted an offer to take over as CEO of what was left of the Trade Federation, and that he hoped he could reform it into a model of what big business was supposed to be. Pundits from Coruscant to Corellia declared that if anyone could accomplish that, it would have to be this Supreme Chancellor, who had suffered as much as any citizen in a war no one else could have won, and the general tone was amused and approving.
Then Sereine scheduled a joint news conference by Padmé and Bail, who, accompanied by their attractive and proud spouses, officially announced their candidacy for Supreme Chancellor and Vice Chancellor. Owing to the previous buildup, the idea seemed to have arisen as much from the people as from the candidates - a fact Sereine was counting on to influence the Senate's vote. "What everyone's forgotten is that the people elect the senators, and they are, in fact, their bosses," she told them with a wink and a smile. "I can't think of a happier way to remind them. Can you?"
At Padmé's, there was Hair, Makeup, and Wardrobe Day, designed to present the senator as her most understated, dignified, and mature self. Sereine insisted she take voice lessons to deepen her pitch and boost her projection. She rewrote the speeches of the hapless Bail Organa and rehearsed him without mercy.
Anakin, thank the Force, was only to give one campaign speech, but it was to arise at the whim of an appropriate crowd, and Sereine said they'd do it at the spur of the moment, whenever the time seemed right. To that end, she had Anakin write his own remarks, which she then polished. Queen Breha had a speaking schedule, and Sereine put the two spouses through informal rehearsals together so that the funny and friendly Breha, an accomplished public speaker, could help Anakin over his nerves.
It was during one of these rehearsal sessions that it happened. The three of them cocooned in Padmé's study with two of Padmé's handmaidens and three of Breha's office staff, Anakin nervously rereading his own short speech. Breha and her ladies searched her bags for the pad containing her speech to some one thousand Coruscanti judicials tomorrow. Senator Organa's campaign speech to the Banking and Commerce Committee was on, and Sereine studied it as carefully as she had ever studied one of Palpatine's.
"Do you think I kept him up too late, Breha?" she asked. "He's doing better - but he's too young to come across with the sort of dignity Palpatine does, and he doesn't have the passion of a Padmé, either. Not today, at any rate."
Breha paused to stare at her husband's image. "You're right," she said. "Bail doesn't start to really connect with an audience unless he's upset. That's what made all those Military Creation Act and Enhanced Security and Enforcement Act speeches so powerful."
Sereine sighed. "There's only so much I can do right now. We'll get it out of him eventually. Maybe not for this election, but we'll be ready for the next one. I don't want to overtrain Bail like poor Valeria's handlers are doing with her."
"Overtrain?" said Anakin.
"Picking at her every move," said Sereine. "You can see the hesitance now every time she speaks. She was never like that before." She shook her head. "Sad to say, what that means if we lose is we'll be stuck with Palpatine's good friend Aks Moe. Why is it that the more vile the motivation, the better the speaker usually is?"
"Ego," said Breha.
Bail disappeared, and a tall Ho'Din newscaster announced a special report with the utmost gravity.
Three different news organizations had broken with the Trade Federation battle station story all at once. The holos Artoo had taken beamed into living rooms across the galaxy for almost a quarter of an hour.
The scene shifted suddenly to Republic Plaza, where the outgoing Chancellor was being accosted on his way inside the Senate Building. Sereine grabbed Anakin's hand as Palpatine was surrounded. Beings with holocams and microphones jumped at him like mantises after a fly. The Chancellor, looking much as he had at the beginning of the war, held up both hands and demanded to know what the journalists were talking about.
"We have a breaking story, sir - " To Anakin's untrained eyes, Palpatine was the very picture of surprise and concern as he listened. But Sereine said, "He's angry. Oh, is he angry."
Palpatine excused himself to his holding office to be briefed. "We've really taken him by surprise," said Sereine, "if he's got to go in and think it over. I wonder why this was his first clue?" Her eyes met Anakin's, full of everything she could not say in the presence of an Organa.
"But look at who passed the information," said Anakin. "It was good that it was you. You're below his radar - so to speak."
Queen Breha looked from one to the other, her pretty face a question mark.
Fifteen minutes later Palpatine appeared again, from the top of his pulpit in the Rotunda. Before opening the afternoon session of the Senate, he read a short statement.
"I was greatly distressed to learn of the superweapon apparently under construction by the Separatists. I wish to assure all Republic citizens that this matter will be fully investigated. Until such time as more facts are known, I am sending a battalion to confiscate this structure under the auspices of this office. Due to the timing of this discovery, its fate will most likely be decided by my successor."
When all of the Organa party had gone and Padmé was home for the evening, the Skywalkers and the Valorums opened some wine and held a quiet celebration.
Padmé shook her head. "I never would have believed it was really this easy," she said. "It's all working out perfectly! Our campaign's going very well - and once I'm in office, I will not rest until every copy of the plans for that thing is destroyed and the battlestation itself is nothing but scrap metal!"
"We've got to make sure you live to take office, first," said Anakin seriously. "I'm working on better security plans for you, love. If Palpatine does go after you again, he's not going to succeed."
"Everyone's just got to hang on for a couple more weeks," said Sereine. "Two more weeks and we're there."
Finis Valorum peered darkly over his glass at his wife and cleared his throat. "I would caution the three of you not to get too excited just yet," he said. Three faces turned to meet his gaze.
"Palpatine knows that in two week's time he stands excellent odds of losing his final chance at galactic domination and his place as the crown jewel of the Sith order," said Valorum. "If he has been - and we don't know this, but it would greatly surprise me if not - if he has been eyeing a possible replacement for Anakin as his apprentice, he has two weeks to turn that person. If Palpatine stands any chance of being able to overpower and kill Anakin, we've just given him a very tight time limit.
"We may have just made our worst mistake yet."
Not so far away, the Jedi Temple's first and foremost master tapped slowly down a residential hallway on his stick, lost in thought. So much had happened these past few weeks that was unexpected, and most welcome. The members of the Council had been hesitant to believe the Palpatine who had presented - or, more accurately, prostrated - himself before them after the war, shaken and contrite. But the war was over and Palpatine was leaving, sooner than expected. So much that the Order had been fighting for was coming to fruition.
And yet, what was this darkness in the Force? Still there it was, at a time when it should have been waning.
And what was wrong with Master Kenobi? Darkness there was, from him of late. Yoda had waited patiently for an explanation, knowing that when Obi-Wan was ready, he would come to him. And tonight, he had requested that Yoda visit him in his chambers, for what reason, the High Master knew not.
Yoda reached Obi-Wan's door and tapped. He felt the gentle current of Obi-Wan's thoughts reach out to sense his presence. The door slid open, and Master Kenobi beckoned him inside.
"Master Yoda. You told no one of our meeting, I hope?"
"As requested, said nothing I have," said Yoda.
"I have some Jain tea brewing, if you would care for any."
"Suspect I do, that a while I will be here. Bring me some tea, then, and tell me what there is on your mind, Obi-Wan."
"Please, master, make yourself comfortable."
Yoda levitated himself to Obi-Wan's one couch, and waited.
When tea had been poured, Obi-Wan settled himself at his holovid unit and turned to face Yoda, rubbing thoughtfully at his chin whiskers as he always did when he was troubled.
"Something to tell me, you have."
"Before I do, master...you must swear to me, not to share what I have to say to you with anyone just yet. I have no proof."
"Promise, I do, Master Kenobi. Now, unburden yourself, you should. Much worry, I sense in you."
Yoda watched him take a deep, unsteady breath, and slowly let it out again.
"Master...you know that a friend of mine runs a decidedly...downscale restaurant in the Republic Plaza area."
Yoda crinkled his eyes. "Dexter's Diner, yes," he said. "Considered that most downscale, did Master Dooku, I remember."
"It appears that maintenance workers from the Senate Building and the Senate Office Building have lunch there frequently, and that my friend Dex is privy to a lot of their conversation. This past week he summoned me there for a free lunch, after hearing some rumors that he felt the Jedi Order should be made aware of."
Yoda waited.
"It seems that some of the maintenance workers in the lower levels of the Senate Office Building overheard a fierce battle with lightsabers in a subbasement storage space. And that my former padawan was one of the combatants."
"Hmm," Yoda growled. "Confirmed this, you did."
"I checked it out," said Obi-Wan. "I persuaded Dexter to summon me the next time this group of workers lunched there, so I could interrupt them and speak with them personally. There were no eyewitnesses. Those of them who heard the noise were simply so shaken up that they stayed away from the area during the disturbance. But one of them, who was a little more adventurous, crept in when the noise stopped and identified Anakin carrying someone out."
"Any idea, who that someone might have been?"
"No. But there was a third person there, a woman. The two of them conferred about what to do with him, and my informant heard something about 'needing an audience to wake him up.' They told me that an order from higher up had them working three shifts to clear away evidence of the disturbance.
"I asked...well, rather," Obi-Wan shrugged, "I paid him to take me in and let me see for myself - "
Yoda frowned.
"It was necessary," said Obi-Wan. "They are under strict orders to let no one in. I had to wait a day, and then they smuggled me in in a refuse bin at the third hour of the morning." Obi-Wan shook his head. "Much of the damage had been cleaned and concealed by then, but they hadn't gotten to the walls and ceiling yet. I observed damage to the walls that could only have been done by a lightsaber, and...the ceiling..."
Yoda leaned forward.
"It reminded me very much of that hanger on Geonosis...after we had fought with Count Dooku. The marks the Sith lightning made when it reflected onto the ceiling..."
"The Master..." Yoda breathed. "The Sith lord." He thought his heart would stop.
"Told me, Bail Organa did, that suspected he once did, Senator Amidala knew who it was! Then, told me that mistaken he had been. From what he repeated to me that she had said, concerned too I would have been as well. But...told me he did, that Anakin it was who this to him had denied, when questioned him he did."
He felt himself becoming irate. "Concealing the identity of the Sith lord they are! Why? And fight the Sith master alone Anakin did...and win? But contact us, he did not."
Obi-Wan could not meet his gaze. "I have a theory, master...about the reason for the silence."
Yoda waited.
"I asked the maintenance workers what date this occurred. And I discovered it to be the very day that Chancellor Palpatine had his...seizure." He took another deep breath, and wet his lips. "The one worker who identified Anakin, being somewhat of a daredevil in nature, entered the room once the three conspirators had left, and discovered a robe in one of the elevators - which since, I have learned, has been pulled out and replaced altogether. And he kept this robe as a souvenir of sorts. It seems that Mas Amedda has been conducting a quiet and furious hunt for it, and a couple of the janitorial workers in that area of the building have suddenly...disappeared. My informant was considering leaving Coruscant altogether and going to visit family on Corellia."
"But prior to this, sold you the robe, he did."
"Bought his ticket home with the proceeds, I think." Obi-Wan allowed himself a small smile.
"Now, master," he said, "you know how attached Anakin is to the Chancellor. I've spent the last few days going back through old news archives, and..."
Yoda leaned forward. "And?"
Obi-Wan punched a key on his holovid terminal, and a full color scan of Chancellor Palpatine on the steps of the Senate Office Building flickered above his desktop. He moved so that Yoda had an unobstructed view, and then he reached beside it to a pile of something soft and fuzzy that Yoda had not previously noticed.
Obi-Wan held up the robe and shook it out.
Aside from the singed holes and burnt hem, very, very similar, did the two robes look.
Yoda and Obi-Wan sat and stared at one another.
"Frightening, this is. Terrifying, this is."
"Master, what should we do? I don't understand the reason Anakin would conceal this. And the way things have been going with him lately - the Chancellor. Something is afoot here, something at work we don't know about."
Yoda tasted the Force. Tangled and unclear as always. Frustrating! He shook his head with a low growl. "Proceed with caution, we must. Disturb events, we do not wish to do. But understand young Anakin's doings, we must. Under the control of the Supreme Chancellor is this new battlestation, and very dangerous that is."
"But it's far too early to be operational, and the Chancellor is backed into a corner. He can't rescind his resignation now that there's an election planned. He has to leave office now."
"Confusing this is, and worrisome. Careful we must be." Yoda propped his chin on the end of his stick and thought.
"Do this, you shall," he said finally. "Visit Senator Amidala privately, you should. Inform her, you will, that realize she and young Skywalker know the identity of Darth Sidious, we do. My name, you should mention. An explanation, you must request."
"Should we inform the rest of the Council, master?" said Obi-Wan.
"Surprised at you, I am, that you should suggest keeping such knowledge secret."
"I am thinking of Anakin. Whatever he is involved in, it seems to be working in our favor so far. I know there are those on the Council who...who haven't forgiven Anakin for his failings and his deceptions in the past. If more...rancor...should come Anakin's way...I don't want to drive him any farther from the Jedi Council than he already is. He already doesn't trust us, and I don't see how making that situation any worse is going to help us regain his confidence."
Now it was Yoda's turn to rub his chin. "Hmmm..." he rumbled. "See your point in that regard, I do. However, a trap we could be walking into, set by the Master himself. Therefore..." He came to a decision. "This, we shall do. Make a short statement on holochip, I will, regarding what you have discovered, and place copies in safekeeping, known to a few to view in case any of these disappearances should happen to befall one of us. Powerful, Anakin has become, if able to defeat the Master he is. The dark side, we must suspect. But, since know this we do not, Senator Amidala you must approach. Care you must take. Deceptive, I never believed her to be, but suspect, her loyalties are, until know differently we do. Reasonable, does this seem to you, Master Kenobi?"
"Yes, master."
"Agreed, we are, then. And, Obi-Wan..."
"Yes?"
"Distasteful this may sound, and loathe I am to say it. But consider we must, that Senator Amidala's children we do house in this Temple. Alienate her, do not, unless absolutely necessary. But, if necessary it becomes...mention this fact, you shall."
Kenobi nodded. "Understood, master."
It was late afternoon the next day when the call home came from Padmé. Anakin saw his wife's pale face on the monitor, and knew something was up.
"We have to cancel our meeting with the Organas tonight and have...our own meeting, instead." His wife gulped some air, visibly shaken. "Something has happened. It's very bad."