Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [14]
He called Haako aside while the others were exiting the sterile docking bay. “Do you think there will be a chance to return and reclaim what we had to leave behind?”
“Not a chance,” puckered Haako said flatly. “Our purse worlds now belong to the Republic. Our only hope is to find sanctuary in the Outer Rim. Otherwise, this ship will have to serve as our home—and perhaps our final resting place!”
Sadness crept into Gunray’s red orbs. “But my collections, my keepsakes …”
“Your most cherished items accompany you,” Haako said, gesturing to the containers already piled at the foot of the boarding ramp. “More important, we escaped with our lives. Another instant and the Jedi would have had us.”
Gunray allowed a nod of agreement. “You warned me.”
“I did.”
“Count Dooku will help us find new worlds to settle when the war is won.”
“If the war is won, you mean. The Republic seems keen on driving us from the galaxy.”
Gunray made a dismissive gesture with his fat fingers. “Temporary setbacks. The Republic has yet to see the face of its real enemy.”
Haako hunched slightly at the reference. “But is even he enough, Viceroy?” he asked quietly.
Gunray said nothing, although he had been asking himself the same question for the past several weeks.
One thing was clear: the glory days of the Trade Federation had come to an untimely end. Ironically, the individual most responsible for that bright burning—for the rise of Nute Gunray himself—was the same individual who had repeatedly betrayed him, and to whom Gunray and the other Separatists were now forced to look for salvation.
The Sith Lord, Darth Sidious.
There at Dorvalla and Eriadu, manipulating events to shunt power and influence to the Neimoidians; there at Naboo, ordering a blockade of the planet, the murder of Jedi, assassination of the Queen … a debacle for the Trade Federation. Years of attempts by the Republic to try to convict Gunray and his chief officers, to break the hold the Trade Federation enjoyed on galactic shipping. But not once during that time of public disgrace did Gunray mention the role Sidious had played.
Out of fear?
Certainly.
But also because he had sensed that Sidious had not abandoned him completely. Rather, the Dark Lord was somehow seeing to it that the trials never came to fruition, that no lasting verdicts were rendered or punishments handed down. As the Separatist movement gained strength, threatening the security of ships and shipments in the far sectors, the Trade Federation had actually been able to increase the size of its standing army of battle droids by dealing directly with foundry worlds, such as Geonosis and Hypori. Making the most of the Republic’s sudden instability, lucrative deals had been arranged between the Trade Federation and the Corporate Alliance, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, the Techno Union, the Commerce Guild, and other corporate entities.
It was during the final trial that Gunray had been approached by Count Dooku, who had promised that all would ultimately turn out well for the Trade Federation. In a moment of weakness, Gunray had revealed the truth about his dealings with Darth Sidious. Dooku has listened attentively; had promised to bring the matter to the attention of the Jedi Council, though he himself had left the Order some years earlier. Gunray had mixed feelings about Dooku’s purpose in creating a Separatist movement, chiefly because corruption in the Republic Senate had so often worked to the Trade Federation’s advantage. But if Dooku’s Confederacy of Independent Systems could eliminate even some of the bribes and kickbacks commonplace in galactic trade, then so much the better.
By and by Dooku’s real aims had been made clear: he was less interested in providing an alternative to the Republic than he was in bringing the Republic to its knees—through the use of force if necessary. In much the same way that the Trade Federation had amassed an army right under the