They were steps away from the turbolift. Darth Vader was still standing a hundred meters away, waiting. An Imperial officer stood by the turbolift, ready to activate the sensor. Ferus could see the darkening of his collar as the sweat had rolled down his neck and collected there. Palpatine was making them all wait. He was taking his time.
Palpatine stopped walking and turned to him. Ferus wished he hadn’t. It was when he was staring into that ravaged face that he came closest to losing his nerve.
“You do not like to think so, but you’re drawn to power,” Palpatine told him, inclining his head so that his voice curled around Ferus’s ear. “We are just beginning the new era. Make no judgments yet. The climb to power for any government takes some ruthlessness to ensure a just end. Things before were corrupt and breaking down. You must admit that to be true.”
“Yes.” But how much of that breakdown in stability was due to Palpatine’s own maneuvering? Ferus didn’t know. Palpatine had cleverly used the greed and corruption of the Senators and the blindness of the Jedi to build his power and then make his move.
“I am here to demonstrate that peace and stability in the galaxy are possible only through me.” The Emperor looked over the city of Sath below them, at the artificial fingers of sand that stretched out into the aquamarine sea. “You are standing at a crossroads, Ferus Olin. You should consider where you truly belong. You flourished at the Jedi Temple. You thrived under its rules, its structure. What I am building is much better. A central clearing house in which the politics and stability of the galaxy are acted on by wise minds.”
Ferus didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing. Palpatine was drawing him in. It was a clumsy effort. Yes, he had thrived under the rules of the Temple.
But he wasn’t that person anymore.
He wasn’t crazy about rules anymore. And he definitely didn’t like being told what to do.
He would never join the Empire, but it disturbed him that Palpatine seemed to know him intimately. When he spoke of Ferus’s life as a Jedi student, he put his finger on exactly how Ferus had experienced it. How could that be? They’d barely had contact. Anakin Skywalker had been Palpatine’s favorite, not Ferus.
“Will you do what I have asked?” Palpatine questioned.
“Yes,” Ferus said. At least the job would work with his own interest. He could contact the resistance and see what sort of help they might need.
Ferus started to move away, but Palpatine wasn’t finished.
“One more thing,” the Emperor said. “Contact me directly with your progress reports.”
Ferus nodded, trying to keep the surprise off his face. Nobody reported directly to Palpatine except Darth Vader. Ferus had assumed that Vader would be his contact; after all, Vader was in charge of all the Empire’s operations on the planet, though he came and went often. Was Palpatine hinting to Ferus that Vader was not quite the favorite he appeared to be?
The Emperor moved off toward Darth Vader, who was still waiting and had not moved a muscle. As Ferus walked toward the turbolift, he could feel Vader’s anger like a shove against his back. Ferus hopped onto the turbolift and felt the reassuring movement down toward the planet, away from the heavy Imperial presence.
Another job. He’d never expected that becoming a double agent would happen so fast.
Chapter Three
As soon as Trever reached the secret base, he was ready to leave again. He kicked at the dust the whole asteroid was just dust and rocks and darkness. Because it didn’t orbit a sun, any light came from the upper atmosphere, which was colored by the constantly shifting storm. It made for complete darkness at times, and at others, a dense dark blue or purple haze.
It didn’t matter if there was light or not. There was nothing to see.
The base had started with four beings: Ferus, Trever, and Toma and Raina, two resistance commanders who’d been fighting the Empire on their home planet of Acherin. Toma and Raina had hidden Garen Muln during Order 66 and given Ferus his first lead on a surviving Jedi. When Ferus had asked them to run the secret base, they had agreed without hesitation, despite the fact that they had only rudimentary supplies and no ship that could take them away if trouble arrived. They were foes of the Empire and they would work to build the base for any surviving Jedi the Jedi they all believed in because Ferus believed in them.
Trever was beginning to have his doubts.
They had found two Jedi still alive, so that was something. Solace, who had the most awesome fighting style and the shortest temper Trever had ever seen. Somehow he’d always imagined Jedi as placid and calm, but Solace’s moods ranged from grumpy to testy. Garen Muln was a renowned Jedi as well, once a friend to Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he had been so badly wounded that he was no longer capable of much Jedi action. He had even given his lightsaber to Ferus.