Chapter 31

The Alliance to Destroy the Empire

When the assembled Rebel leaders reached the conference room, Yoda was already there, sitting in a cushioned chair that floated above the floor to allow him to see over the large, round table. There were printed placards at each seat and these had been arranged to break up the blocks that already existed. Luthen and Thrawn were not seated near Anakin, who was supposed to sit directly across from Padme and next to the representative of the neo-Separatists and Senator Vasp Vaspar. Anakin walked confidently into the conference room, Luthen and Thrawn at his side and found his seat. While the other delegates chatted and introduced themselves to those they had not met before, the three of them sat down together, ignoring the placards. The unseated delegates, once they realized that is what they were, looked around plaintively, not sure what to do.

"We chose the seating arrangement with some care Master Skywalker," Mon Mothma, across from Obi-Wan, said. Yoda sat a few seats away from Obi-Wan, and Bail Organa sat a few seats away from Mon Mothma. The intent had clearly been to space the two senior Senators, the two Jedi, Anakin and Padme evenly around the table.

"I am sure you did. I will, however, have my advisors with me," Anakin said without looking at her. "My apologies to the esteemed delegates you intended me to sit with for their…long walk."

It was clear from his tone that he would brook no argument on the point, and no one wanted the conference to start with an argument about chairs, so Mon Mothma nodded. As the two delegates made their way, grumbling, to the seats that had been intended for the Chiss Admiral and the master spy, Padme began to speak.

"My friends, most honored delegates, rebels, we have come here today to step out on the road to victory, final victory against the Empire," she said before being cut off by applause.

"We have all, in our own ways, been carrying on this fight for the last 15 years. We all have successes and failures, sacrifices and triumphs. Friends and loved ones we lost to the enemy, whose memory we still fight for. The moment we have all been working towards is approaching. The Empire is in retreat. Their grasp on the Outer Rim territories is loosening. The Emperor's power within the Empire is cracking up, as his fear of us causes him to retreat deeper and deeper behind a veil of secrecy. We are already winning." More applause followed, though Thrawn, indignant at the use of 'we' did not do so.

"But as I believe has become clear to us all there is a limit to what we can achieve, as separated as we are. When my old friends Mon Mothma and Bail Organa asked me to serve in the capacity as the presiding officer of this council, I worried that I was the wrong choice. I know that many of you have done more for this Rebellion than I have. But they reminded me that what you all need is not someone to lead you. You are all great leaders already, and so I do not propose to lead. My mission here is to help you all find consensus and unity among yourselves, to make collaboration and solidarity between our many rebel groups possible. For it is only by working together that we can hope to defeat the Empire. So let us begin, here, today, by taking the first step on the path to victory. Let this be the day you look back to as the day the tide turned in our favor. Let us come together, putting aside old differences and disagreements, so that we achieve our common goal, the end of tyranny."

The applause began again, louder and more active this time. Only this time none of Anakin's party clapped. Luthen, Anakin and Thrawn kept their hands on their laps or on the table.

Noticing this Bail Organa asked, "Do you not agree, Master Skywalker?"

Anakin looked at Padme for several seconds, completely silent. Then he exhaled slowly, his shoulders slumping slightly, before he said, "No."

"What do you disagree with Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Consensus, solidarity, not leading the…," Anakin paused and smirked slightly before continuing, "...great leaders assembled here. Nonsense."

There was audible and angry grumbling around the table at this remark.

"Quiet!" Anakin yelled.

"Who are you to order us?" said Senator Jebel, a politician present on the council only because of his ability to secure funding for rebel operations.

"The one who freed those Outer Rim territories. The one who built the fleet which will destroy our enemy," Anakin said with a blase attitude.

"You think yours is the only fleet fighting?" yelled Admiral Raddus, representative of the Mon Calamari forces that had yet to align themselves with an existing faction. Part of Luthen's goal in arranging the meeting had been to get their allegiance resolved. He had told Anakin as much, and had suggested, gently to be sure, that he restrain his tendency to attempt to dominate all others he encountered.

"No, my fleet is not the only one fighting, mine is just the only one winning," Anakin said. This began a fresh round of acrimonious shouting, mostly directed at the seemingly unperturbed former Jedi. Thrawn joined his commander in his apparent lack of interest in the vitriol he was producing. Only Luthen looked worried.

Bail Organa stood and addressed Anakin. "In the interests…," he paused as the cross table arguments drowned him out, forcing him to yell. "In the interests of maintaining a civil and constructive dialogue, perhaps we should hear Master Skywalker's alternative proposal!"

"We know what he will propose!" Commander Jun Sato rose to say. "It will be savage butchery!"

In response Anakin only smiled.

"Please! Please!" Padme shouted. "Delegates, please! There is a motion on the table. Senator Organa has asked to know General Skywalker's position." The delegates quieted down, though not quickly. When the last of them had fallen silent Padme turned to Anakin and set a look on him equal parts sadness and frustration.

Anakin stood, allowing his black cloak to fall around his shoulders and pulling it closed in front of him so that it covered his armor. All anyone could see of him was the pale face, the brown hair gone dark from too little sunlight and the faintly yellowed eyes. "You want my suggestion?" he asked. "Fine. It is submission. Look at what the slightest disagreement causes among you. As soon as anyone voices an objection, you all fall into conflict, and disorder. There is among you no discipline, there is only contention. And how can an army function without discipline, divided amongst itself?"

"We are not here to create an army," Senator Palmo interrupted. "We are here to create a political movement to restore the Republic."

"And how will this…movement do that, if not by force of arms?" Anakin asked. "You need not answer, for we can all see the plain truth. In the long term we will need a structure in place, ready to take the reins of galactic governance. But until that time, we are an insurgent military force. And what will happen if this force is ruled by a council?"

Anakin said the last word with such disdain that Obi-Wan winced and Yoda grimaced. Anakin continued, "What happens when the call goes out for a rapid strike on a vulnerable, but strategically vital point? What happens when a cell under attack asks for relief? Debate? Negotiation between rival groups held together by nothing but their shared interests? Begging? We have inferior firepower, inferior manpower and an inferior resource base. If we fight this war through consensus and discussion we will lose. We need all our forces directed by one will. We need to respond as a single fighting force, moving our assets where they are needed without delays, without hesitation. We must move decisively when advantages and opportunities present themselves. And for that we need submission, to one leader, one will. Around this table there are two dozen leaders, two dozen agendas, and a far greater number of ways for this alliance to break down. If we are to win, that number of leaders and agendas must be reduced, to one. That is how we win, and winning is the only thing that interests me."

With that he sat down, and this time the table was silent for a time. Then Senator Vaspar, still smarting over having his seat taken, said, "I suppose you think you are this leader?"

"Not necessarily, but I know you are not," Anakin said.

"I will not serve under a man like you," General Dodonna said from across the table. "I left the Empire to get away from men like you."

"Please, delegates, try to remember why we are here," Padme said. "It is not to wallow in acrimony and drive ourselves further apart. I believe that everyone here is committed, fully committed, to the struggle against the Empire and I would ask you all to keep that fact in mind."

Anakin nodded at his wife and General Dodonna apologized. Vasp Vaspar still seemed upset but no one seemed terribly interested in that fact.

"General Skywalker," Mon Mothma said, "would it be fair to characterize your objections as having to do with the governing structure of this Alliance?"

Anakin's eyes narrowed as he looked at Mothma, aware that she was too clever to take lightly but not sure what she was trying to do, and eventually said, "Yes."

"Then might you consider tabling your objection and proposal for later in the conference? That will allow us to address the other issues on the agenda, some of which, such as intelligence sharing, will benefit all of us even if we cannot come to an adequate agreement as to governance," Mothma said. This drew nods and even some clapping from the assembled delegates.

Anakin thought about refusing to go along, but when he looked at Padme he saw the hope in her weary eyes. It struck him how worried and harried she looked. He thought back to how, even in the objectively more dangerous situation she was in on Tatooine when they had first met, she had seemed so much more joyful.

" She was your angel, " a voice in his mind said. It had been so long since he had heard the voice that he did not recognize it at first. As it dawned on him that the Force was speaking to him again as it had that day on Coruscant, the shock overpowered his self-control and his jaw slowly dropped. The other delegates looked on confused as Skywalker stared into the distance, saying nothing at all.

"Anakin…," Padme said after a few moments.

"I agree to table my proposal," Anakin said quickly. "Might we have a brief recess before the factions make their reports?"

"Yes, yes that seems like a good idea," Padme said. "Let us return here in 15 minutes."

As everyone stood up Luthen turned to Anakin and asked, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, give me a moment," Anakin said before turning around and walking away and out of the room.

Thrawn looked at Luthen and raised an eyebrow. "Your plan appears to be working," Thrawn said.

"What are you talking about?" Luthen responded.

"Her presence has disarmed him, left him unsteady," Thrawn said.

"I wanted her to get him to listen. I didn't want him weak," Luthen said. "If he falters like that much more we have to worry about the fools taking control of this thing."

"Fools such as…," Thrawn said as the two of them walked towards the door.

"Fools who think the Empire can be reformed by petitions, or that we can be protected by running away," Luthen said. "So any of the Senators not named Mothma or Organa." This drew a small smile to Thrawn's lips.

In the hallway Anakin was leaning forward, his hands on a window frame and his head against the window. As puzzling as his behavior was to everyone else, it was more puzzling to him. Or rather, understanding the cause of it was mystifying him. Hearing the voice after so many years of silence was disconcerting all on its own. But in addition to the shock of making contact with whatever being or power was communicating with him, there was an overpowering sense of sadness, of regret, of self-hatred that came along with it. It was this sudden surge of emotions that Anakin did not understand. He had thought for a moment, in the conference room, that he would start to weep.

He looked up at the window and saw, between him and the stars, his own reflection looking back at him. He saw his pale, papery skin and the yellow tint of his eyes. He knew the cause. He had known the price before he started walking down the road he was on. He had thought it was worth paying, that embracing the darkness and the abilities it gave him was what the galaxy needed of him. Now, overcome by a grief he did not understand, and a guilt for he knew not what, he could not see the necessity, only the cost.

His ruminations were interrupted by cries of "Father!" coming from his children. His children who he had not seen in months, and had only spent a handful of days with for the last two years. It was such thoughts he tried to shake out of his head as they approached. When they reached him he pulled them both into a tight embrace, one arm around each of them. Luke and Leia each thought what any teenager would, that they were too old to be hugged like this, but felt too what all children do, that feeling of safety and comfort in the arms of those who love them.

"I am sorry to spoil the moment Anakin," Obi-Wan said from behind him. "But we do need to talk."

Anakin turned his head and saw Obi-Wan and Yoda in the hallway behind him. He nodded slowly but did not let go of his children. It was finally Luke and Leia who gently stepped away.

"What about?" Anakin said, his voice thick and cracked from the emotions swelling inside him.

"About the events on the ship earlier. When you arrived," Obi-Wan said, choosing his words carefully to avoid upsetting Luke and Leia.

"The man was a traitor," Anakin said.

"Yes, and we are glad you discovered him for us," Obi-Wan said. "What concerns us, however, is the method by which you extracted the information from him."

"Perhaps with your children I might walk, Master Skywalker," Yoda suggested. "Talk, you and your former Master can."

Anakin nodded and motioned for Luke and Leia to go. Both could sense the tension in the conversation and looked at him with uncertainty. He smiled weakly and assured them it was fine to leave. When they had gone around a corner and were out of sight Anakin turned towards Obi-Wan. "What do you want to say?"

"You ripped that man's mind apart. That is not something I taught you. That is something no Jedi would teach you. So where did you learn it?" Obi-Wan asked.

"You think I have taken another Master Obi-Wan?" Anakin asked in return.

"I want to know what is going on," Obi-Wan answered.

"You will find out when we present to the Council," Anakin said.

"I mean with you," Obi-Wan said.

"I have…learned things. Palpatine has worlds spread across the galaxy where he hides his secrets. I have been finding them. And to do that there were things I needed to understand, things I needed to be able to do. And yes, some of them are not things a Jedi would do. But I am not a Jedi, as you well know," Anakin said.

"Anakin please," Obi-Wan said. "This is important. There are reasons why the Jedi did not explore all aspects of the Force, all the abilities it can grant. There are…,"

"Costs," Anakin interrupted. "I know. Believe me, I know."

Anakin spoke with such despair that it caught Obi-Wan off guard. He could not think of anything to say as Anakin walked past him, back towards the conference room. As he walked Anakin put his hand to his head and rubbed his temples. He needed some quiet, a place to think, to focus. He left the deck on which the conference was being held entirely without telling anyone.

A few minutes later the delegates reassembled and no one missed the fact that Anakin was absent. Padme suggested waiting for him to arrive, but several of the Senators present argued against it. They had never been comfortable with inviting someone they considered a warlord, and had tried to pressure Padme to not include Anakin or Saw Gerrera. Saw Gerrera they objected to more out of principle than from actual fear, given that his faction was too small to threaten to overwhelm the others. But Anakin's fleet was more powerful than all the other Rebel cells put together, at least as long as the Mon Calamari remained uncommitted, and he collected protection money from so many planets that he had more resources than all the rest as well. If leadership of the new Alliance came down to contributions everyone knew who would be in control. When Thrawn and Luthen objected to continuing the conference as it would put them at a disadvantage it was pointed out that everyone had ample opportunity to return in time, and that Master Yoda was also not present, so any unfairness was balanced out anyway.

So the conference continued, moving on to the intelligence sharing session. The Senators reported on the political state of the Empire. Corruption was rampant and central control of outlying sectors was slipping. This was all due, they said, to the withdrawal of Palpatine from active political engagement. None of the Senators had seen him in person for more than three years. His political advisors had taken to carving out little fiefdoms for themselves, scheming against each other and only uniting when the military tried to expand its authority at the expense of the political classes. The ISB had become, for all intents and purposes, a rogue agency, on account of the fact that they answered directly to Palpatine and no one saw Palpatine. They had assassinated prominent members even of the military, or so it was rumored. If they truly were following Palpatine's orders then it was clear the Emperor was consumed by paranoia about an internal coup, something that would explain his retreat from public life.

Various of the smaller rebel cells gave reports about the state of things in the sectors in which they were active. These reports were pretty much all the same, except Saw Gerrera's.

When he rose from his seat he started out confrontational. "You are all complacent. Too passive. You Senators paint a picture of our enemy as a scared old man, hiding from the world. Maybe you need to get out of the Senate Hall and watch what is actually happening in the galaxy. I tell you he is planning something, something no one talks about, something hidden from you all."

"What is he hiding, exactly?" came a skeptical response from one of the other rebel cell leaders.

"I can't say…," Saw began to respond before being interrupted by laughter.

"You are as paranoid as Palpatine," someone shouted.

Saw's back stiffened and his eyes flashed. He looked for a moment like he might storm out of the meeting, and certainly there were, among those present, who would have preferred he do so. But instead Saw planted both his fists on the table and leaned forward.

"No. I am not paranoid. I simply know things you do not. Some years ago I helped a scientist escape from the Empire's clutches. He was an expert on the physics of kyber crystals," Saw said. Obi-Wan, who had been lost in thought during most of the reports was startled out of his reverie when he heard Saw mention the crystals that Jedi used in their lightsabers.

"I kept him hidden for several years before they found him again. To have located him where I put him and his family the Empire must have expended tremendous resources. That made me wonder, why. So I started looking into other major scientists across the galaxy, and kept finding that some of our greatest minds had all disappeared around the same time. Experts in fusion engines, lasers, the chemistry of heavy metals, hyperspace engines, all manner of technical fields. All of them disappeared," Saw continued.

"Many people have disappeared over the last 15 years, in case you hadn't noticed," a Senator said.

"These were not insurgents, not revolutionaries. These were scientists, most of them apolitical. And the one I know, Galen Erso, was not killed, he was taken. His wife was killed, but he was not. And there is more. When looking for targets to attack I began to notice something. Luthen Rael, who many of you know, can attest to this. Places that were receiving regular, huge shipments of resources, enough to build whole fleets, but we arrived on missions of sabotage or expropriation to find nothing. Nothing but the signs of a place where large-scale construction once had been done," Saw said.

"It's true," Luthen said. "After our theft of the Star Destroyers at Kuat we became convinced that the Empire would shift their fleet construction activities to secret sites. There had been no obvious uptick in ship production at Correlia, and they did not rebuild the shipyards at Kuat. Mon Cala was obviously not available to them. We decided to track the resources used to build ships to find those sites. I sent Saw to do some light reconnaissance. By the time we found the sites they were already done with them."

"They could have been building anything," General Dodonna said.

"Not anything. They are not building new ships at these sites," Thrawn said. It was the first time anyone at the table had heard him speak. "I am surprised that none of the other military officers here have noticed what is happening, especially those of you who once served the Empire. The Empire controls over 95% of the industrial capacity of the galaxy. We have inflicted losses on them. We have stolen many ships from them, and destroyed even more, as have some of you. They have the capacity to more than replace what they have lost. If the Empire devoted even 10% of their resources to wiping us out, we would see three times as many Imperial fleets as we do. We know from our friends in the Senate that something like that amount is being taken in taxes from Imperial worlds, but they barely replace the ships they have lost to us. They are either spectacularly inefficient, or they are building ships which they are not using, or they are building something other than ships. We do not know what."

"Perhaps that is the answer, they are inefficient," suggested Senator Palmo. "If you met some of the talentless hacks that Palpatine places in positions of influence you would not be surprised that they waste time and money."

"They have created a system of production that is mobile. They change the location of production quickly enough that by the time a pattern forms in their logistical network that could reveal a production site, they have already moved. They leave behind nothing that could reveal what they were doing there. This includes leaving no one capable of telling tales. Sometimes it is because they chose planets which were uninhabited when they arrived. Sometimes they were only uninhabited after the Empire left," Thrawn explained.

"It is becoming increasingly clear there are two Empires," Luthen said. "There is the public one, which is corrupt, inefficient, adrift and without a helmsman. But there is another, an inner Empire. It is kept secret from even the officials of the public Imperial Institutions. Palpatine is not absent from the inner Empire, it is what he spends all his time managing, controlling, building. We see only the places where it intersects with the Empire we know. We see it in the ISB's seemingly rogue actions. We see it in the diversion of resources away from expanding or even maintaining the Imperial fleet. We see it in the off the books facilities the Empire has constructed across the galaxy."
"What facilities?" a worried Bail Organa asked.

"When our Commander returns he will tell you all about them," Thrawn said.

At that moment Thrawn and Luthen's commander was alone in the engine room of the ship. He had stolen this ship years ago, worked on it tirelessly for years after that. He hadn't even realized they had used his old ship for the conference until he got to the engine room and saw the unmistakable signs of his previous repair work. He remembered having taken most of this engine apart and putting it back together with better, newer parts. He could see the welding lines he had made when reassembling it. The thought came to his mind that they were using this ship for the conference as an insult, a way of showing him that what had once been his was now theirs.

But that didn't make sense. Why insult him when they needed him to rejoin them? And besides, Padme would not do that. But thoughts like that would not stop occurring to him. He had to actively work to counteract needlessly aggressive, mistrustful thoughts, but he recognized that over the past few years he had fought against them less and less. Had he forgotten to fight or had he just surrendered?

He tried to calm himself, using Jedi exercises he had not practiced in years. He had come to the engine room because he knew the sound of the engines would soothe his mind. He sat down and crossed his legs, placing a hand on each knee. Closing his eyes, he began to breathe in and out, trying to make each breath longer and slower than the one before it. At the same time he tried to shift his focus increasingly from what was going on outside him to what was happening within. He had to get control of the emotions that were flooding into him, he had to get to the bottom of the voice in his head, and the key to doing so was not out there.

Over the course of several minutes he dove deeper into a meditative state, until even the noise of the engines disappeared. It was then that he heard the voice again.

"Anakin"

Anakin opened his eyes and found the engine room was gone. In its place were stars, an endless expanse of stars all around him. He sat, cross legged just as he had a moment before in this ship, only now he sat upon a translucent pathway that stretched away into the seemingly infinite distance. But just in front of him sat a woman.

" We must talk," she said. " There isn't much time."