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Rumors of a Military Creation Act began to circulate. But Palpatine himself had refused to come out in favor of building an army for the Republic. He left that to others—the Senate’s nominal Sand Panthers. Finally he attempted to arrange a peace summit, but Count Dooku had refused to attend.

Instead came war.

Bail could recall clearly the day he had stood with Palpatine, Mas Amedda, Malastarian Senators, and others on a balcony of the Senate Office Building, watching tens of thousands of clone troopers march into the enormous ships that would take the war to the Separatists. He could recall clearly his utter disconsolation. That after a thousand years of peace, war and evil had returned.

More accurately, been allowed to return.

Regardless, Bail had put his feelings aside and had played his part, endorsing bills he might have previously denounced, supporting Palpatine’s “efficient streamlining of cumbersome bureaucracy.” It wasn’t until passage of the Reflex Amendment, some fourteen months back, that his fears had begun to resurface and intensify. The sudden disappearance of Senator Seti Ashgad after he had argued against installation of surveillance cams in the Senate Building; the suspicious explosion of a star freighter aboard which Finis Valorum was a passenger; the passage of a security bill that granted Palpatine wide-ranging powers over Coruscant …

The behavior of the Supreme Chancellor himself—frequently isolated by his covey of advisers and illegal cadre of red-robed personal bodyguards; his unbending resolve to continue fighting until the war was won. Gone was humble, self-deprecating Palpatine. And with him, tractable Bail Organa. Bail vowed to speak openly of his concerns, and he began to cultivate friendships with Senators who shared those concerns.

Some of them were waiting for him when the air taxi touched down in the broad plaza that fronted the mushroom-shaped Senate Building. Padmé Amidala, of Naboo; Mon Mothma of Chandrila; human Senators Terr Taneel, Bana Breemu, and Fang Zar; and alien Senator Chi Eekway.

Slender, short-haired Mon Mothma hurried to embrace Bail as he approached. “A momentous occasion, Bail,” she said into his left ear. “An audience with Palpatine.”

Bail laughed to himself. They did think alike.

Padmé hugged him, as well, though somewhat stiffly. She looked radiant. A bit more full-faced than Bail remembered, but the very picture of classic beauty in her elegant robes and elaborate coiffure. A golden protocol droid stood behind her. She told him she had just returned from a wonderful week on Naboo, visiting with her family.

“An extraordinary world, Naboo,” Bail said. “I’ll never understand how it spawned someone as stubborn as our Supreme Chancellor.”

Padmé scolded him with a frown. “He’s not stubborn, Bail. You just don’t know him as I do. He’ll take our concerns to heart.”

“For all the good it will do,” Chi Eekway said, displeasure wrinkling her blue face.

“You underestimate Palpatine’s acuity,” Padmé said. “Besides, he appreciates frank speech.”

“We’ve been nothing if not frank, Senator,” darkcomplected, bib-bearded Fang Zar said. “With scant success.”

Padme glanced at everyone. “Surely, faced with all of us …”

“Had we a tenth of the Senate we would prove too few,” Bana said, draped head-to-toe in shimmersilk. “But it is important that we hold to our intention.”

Eekway nodded gravely.

“It can be hoped,” Fang Zar said, “not counted on.”

The conversation turned to personal matters as they entered the vast building. They were an animated group when they finally arrived at the holding office, directly beneath the Great Rotunda, where Palpatine’s human appointments secretary asked them to wait in the receiving area.

After an hour of waiting, their spirits began to flag. But then the door to Palpatine’s office slid open, and Sate Pestage, one of Palpatine’s chief advisers, appeared.

“Senators, what a surprise,” he said.

Bail came to his feet, speaking for everyone when he said: “It shouldn