“Honorable Moffs, the Select Committee, the Advisors of the Imperium, and the Emperor’s Grand Vizier, welcome.” Now, Mara Jade noticed Sate Pestage seated near the podium, looking uncomfortable.
“This is a day of great sorrow. What you have heard is true. Our Emperor is lost to us. The Empire is bereft of its guide and Master. Emperor Palpatine created this mighty galactic government. He built it, he shaped it, he brought it to a level of power and glory that rivals even the Old Republic of legend. Palpatine truly was the Empire. With his great leadership, he forged an awesome future for all of us. But that future is now in question.
“Today, we must ask ourselves, can the Empire that Palpatine created live on without him? Can a new Emperor take up his mantle and lead us onward? Many of you will think, no, he can never be replaced. He should never have needed to be replaced. He was eternal. Well I tell you, no one of us is eternal. This day was inevitable. Nature dictated it. Some of you may believe that the cursed Rebel Alliance greatly hastened the coming of this day, that by their treacherous murder of Palpatine, they stole from the Emperor and from us many decades of his wise rule. I am here to reveal to you that his rule was neither wise nor apt to last.
“This is the Emperor as you knew him.” Dangor produced a hologram of Palpatine as a commanding, middle-aged man, no longer young but still strong. “This is the Emperor as he really was.” The holo was replaced by a very recent image of the Emperor. He was, of course, terribly aged, his flesh deeply ravaged by the toll the dark side had taken on him. Most of those present had never seen him like this. Exclamations of shock and disgust filled the hall. Even those who knew joined in the outrage, for now, their fear of the Emperor was gone. It took quite a while for order to be restored. But eventually, the huge crowd turned to Dangor for an explanation of this revelation.
“He lied to you all about his age and his health,” Dangor’s voice boomed. “He had one foot in the grave already when he died, but he never told you. He wanted his power to be absolute up to the end. But the end…the end was something he brought on himself!
“He was obsessed with the Rebel Alliance. Despite the fact that they could never have defeated the Empire on their own, he was consumed with the desire to wipe them out completely. He created an elaborate trap to lure them to their final destruction at Endor. He also hoped to kill the famed Rebel, Luke Skywalker, another of his obsessions. But Palpatine was the architect of his own failure. He placed himself at risk on board an unfinished battle station. His only protection was a defense shield, and reports from Endor tell us that the Rebels easily destroyed that. He was destroyed along with all those on the Death Star, once his inherently suicidal plan reached its fruition. The Imperial fleet was crippled, and Lord Vader has died as well.” Mara noticed several people looking relieved at that news.
“Did Palpatine know he was going to die? Did he want to take his Empire with him? Did he mean for us all to go down as well? Did he gamble so outrageously because he knew he was going to lose it all anyway?” Dangor paused to let all of this sink in. Mara saw that Sate Pestage was ashen faced at what Dangor was doing. It was all a lie, but it was infinitely more believable than the truth. Palpatine had created a lie himself, to screen his true nature from the galaxy. Dangor was taking brilliant advantage of that. Now Dangor spoke into the complete silence.
“There is a question we have not yet asked. What of an heir? Is there an heir to the Empire? A son or daughter to inherit his power? Even a chosen successor, designated by Palpatine to take over when he was gone? Was there even a procedure set up for choosing a successor? The answer is no! There is no heir! No one to be the successor! Or, if there is, the information is sealed in the Emperor’s Personal Archive. I have tried to look there. It would be of utmost importance to me to see Palpatine’s designated heir placed on the throne according to his wishes. But the archive has been permanently closed! The information in it, which alone could tell us who Palpatine might have envisioned as his heir, is denied to us. We can only conclude that there was never meant to be an heir. Palpatine meant for the Empire to die when he did.
“And who among us, since Palpatine is dead, has closed the archive? Who is assisting the dead, deceitful ruler in dealing this comprehensive death blow to the Empire? It is none other than Palpatine’s Grand Vizier, Sate Pestage! The man who saw Palpatine as he really was, and helped to keep his secret. Who filled the senile Emperor’s ears with encouragement for his fatal obsessions and support for his ruinous policies! Who even now sits guilty among us, ready to finish the job that Palpatine started, to see that the Empire completes the fall to its doom!” Mara looked on with horror. Dangor was totally in command of the assembly. And the old man whom he somehow saw as a rival for the throne was helpless before his poisonous assault.