Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 01_ Betrayal - Aaron Allston [188]
Vader watched him disappear through the great double doors, and waited for the man he knew was watching from behind to show himself.
“He comes highly recommended, but I trust your judgment,” said Emperor Palpatine, stepping out of the shadow of the archway. “I sense your disappointment.”
“No, with respect, you don’t, my Master,” said Vader. They walked now, side by side, Vader shortening his stride to match Palpatine’s. “I’m not disappointed. Merely refining my search. A good man, but not good enough.”
“We have time. There are already clones in production. You know this.”
“Forgive me, but I prefer to oversee a project from inception. The Empire might appear settled, but we need the ability to project power in these early years. And that means maintaining quality as well as restoring numbers.”
“We have sufficient of both to allow you some leeway.”
Vader slowed still further and looked down at Palpatine, almost a caricature of old age whom he neither hated nor feared nor loved. The absence of passion was almost a state of bliss in itself. “I thought you trusted my judgment. Perhaps it’s me you don’t trust, Master.”
“I trust you to do what I know you will do.”
Vader was still wary when they teetered on the brink of what appeared to be a mutual test. He chose not to react. “Peaceful order rests on a strong, well-equipped, satisfied army. I’ve just defined loyalty for you. The ideology doesn’t concern them.”
“Then you must look further.” Palpatine pulled back his hood a little. “And I’m interested that you care about their contentment.”
“I care that none of them are malcontents, and that isn’t the same thing,” said Vader. It wasn’t entirely true: he had more time for the lower ranks than he did for the Moffs and some of the other officers. “And it’s more efficient to inspire respect than to rule by terror.”
Palpatine paused at the doors as if he had been exhausted by the walk across the chamber. His voice was almost a whisper. “I don’t think I understood you correctly. You sound as if you wish to be…liked.”
Vader heard the subtext. Are you weakening so soon? He was purged of anger now, but what would have been an insult between ordinary men still had to be addressed. “Harsh enforcement takes effort. I prefer to avoid the need in the first place. That doesn’t mean that I won’t do whatever is necessary. You know me by now.”
Palpatine paused, a single heartbeat. “A pity we can’t yet clone from other clones.”
“We have a galaxy of potential templates, Master.”
“Then widen your search.” The Emperor managed a pleasant and rare smile. “Let us arrange a trip.”
Vader gave him a deferential nod—a gesture, nothing more—and strode down the hall. A dozen or so stormtroopers were standing at intervals down its length, and they snapped from at ease to attention at precisely the same moment. They saluted.
All of them were exactly the same height, the same build. There were, Vader was almost happy to note, some things you could still count on.
One day I’ll have only myself to rely upon.
He was comfortable with that idea. A year ago, a few months ago, it would have made him unbearably sad.
For once he returned the stormtroopers’ salute. They were almost as dependent on their armor and confined by it as he was. He felt a brief moment of purely professional kinship. Vader had passed beyond the rule of his emotions.
And he knew what it was to be shaped in someone else’s image.
There had been many Emperor’s Hands—under less Imperial titles and even no titles at all—during Palpatine’s time in office, and none of them seemed content with that necessity. It was the nature of assassins, Palpatine decided. They were not team players.
He let the doors close behind him and settled into a carved apocia chair against one wall of his throne room. His current Hand, Sa Cuis, was waiting for him, jaw muscles twitching ever so slightly, clearly impatient even if he thought he was presenting his Emperor with