Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [267]
The Senate roared.
Padmé stared without blinking. “Here it comes,” she said numbly.
Bail shook his head. “Here what comes?”
“You’ll see.”
“Never again will we be divided! Never again will sector turn against sector, planet turn against planet, sibling turn against sibling! We are one nation, indivisible!”
The Senate roared.
“To ensure that we will always stand together, that we will always speak with a single voice and act with a single hand, the Republic must change. We must evolve. We must grow. We have become an empire in fact; let us become an Empire in name as well! We are the first Galactic Empire!”
The Senate went wild.
“What are they doing?” Bail said. “Do they understand what they’re cheering for?”
Padmé shook her head.
“We are an Empire,” Palpatine went on, “that will continue to be ruled by this august body! We are an Empire that will never return to the political maneuvering and corruption that have wounded us so deeply; we are an Empire that will be directed by a single sovereign, chosen for life!”
The Senate went wilder.
“We are an Empire ruled by the majority! An Empire ruled by a new Constitution! An Empire of laws, not of politicians! An Empire devoted to the preservation of a just society. Of a safe and secure society! We are an Empire that will stand ten thousand years!”
The roar of the Senate took on a continuous boiling roll like the inside of a permanent thunderstorm.
“We will celebrate the anniversary of this day as Empire Day. For the sake of our children. For our children’s children! For the next ten thousand years! Safety! Security! Justice and peace!”
The Senate went berserk.
“Say it with me! Safety, Security, Justice, and Peace! Safety, Security, Justice, and Peace!”
The Senate took up the chant, louder and louder until it seemed the whole galaxy roared along.
Bail couldn’t hear Padmé over the din, but he could read her lips.
So this is how liberty dies, she was saying to herself. With cheering, and applause.
“We can’t let this happen!” Bail lurched to his feet. “I have to get to my pod—we can still enter a motion—”
“No.” Her hand seized his arm with astonishing strength, and for the first time since he’d arrived, she looked straight into his eyes. “No, Bail, you can’t enter a motion. You can’t. Fang Zar has already been arrested, and Tundra Dowmeia, and it won’t be long until the entire Delegation of the Two Thousand are declared enemies of the state. You stayed off that list for good reason; don’t add your name by what you do today.”
“But I can’t just stand by and watch—”
“You’re right. You can’t just watch. You have to vote for him.”
“What?”
“Bail, it’s the only way. It’s the only hope you have of remaining in a position to do anyone any good. Vote for Palpatine. Vote for the Empire. Make Mon Mothma vote for him, too. Be good little Senators. Mind your manners and keep your heads down. And keep doing … all those things we can’t talk about. All those things I can’t know. Promise me, Bail.”
“Padmé, what you’re talking about—what we’re not talking about—it could take twenty years! Are you under suspicion? What are you going to do?”
“Don’t worry about me,” she said distantly. “I don’t know I’ll live that long.”
Within the Separatist leadership bunker’s control center were dozens of combat droids. There were armed and armored guards. There were automated defense systems.
There were screams, and tears, and pleas for mercy.
None of them mattered.
The Sith had come to Mustafar.
Poggle the Lesser, Archduke of Geonosis, scrambled like an animal through a litter of severed arms and legs and heads, both metal and flesh, whimpering, fluttering his ancient gauzy wings until a bar of lightning flash-burned his own head free of his neck.
Shu Mai, president and CEO of the Commerce Guild, looked up from her knees, hands clasped before her, tears streaming down her shriveled cheeks. “We were promised a reward,” she gasped. “A h—h—handsome reward—”
“I am your reward,” the Sith Lord said. “You don’t find me handsome?”
“Please!” she screeched