Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [321]
Mon Mothma lowered her head in sadness as they continued to walk.
Coruscant was already beginning to adapt to its new title of Imperial Center. Red-patched stormtroopers were more present than they had been at the height of the war, and unfamiliar faces and uniformed personnel crowded the corridors of the building. Military officers, regional governors, security agents … the Emperor’s new minions.
“When I look at that hideous face or survey the damage done to the Rotunda, I can’t help thinking, this is what’s become of the Republic and the Constitution,” Mon Mothma said.
“He maintains he has no plans for disbanding the Senate or punishing the various hive species that supported the Confederacy—” Bail started.
“For the moment,” Mon Mothma interruped. “Besides, the homeworlds of those species have already been punished. They are disaster areas.”
“He can’t afford to move against anyone just now,” Bail went on. “Too many worlds are still too well armed. Yes, new clone troopers are being grown and new capital ships are coming off the line, but not fast enough for him to risk becoming enmeshed in another war.”
She looked at him skeptically. “You’re very confident all of a sudden, Bail. Or is that circumspection I hear?”
Bail asked himself the same question.
In the throne room, he had tried to puzzle out which among the Emperor’s cabal of advisers, human or otherwise, were aware that Palpatine was a Sith Lord who had manipulated the entire war and eradicated his sworn enemies, the Jedi, as part of a plan to assume absolute power over the galaxy.
Certainly Mas Amedda knew, along with Sate Pestage, and possibly Sly Moore. Bail doubted that Armand Isard or any of Palpatine’s military advisers knew. How would their knowing change things, in any case? To the few beings who knew or cared, the Sith were nothing more than a quasi-religious sect that had disappeared a millennium ago. What mattered was that Palpatine was now Emperor Palpatine, and that he enjoyed the staunch support of most of the Senate and the unwavering allegiance of the Grand Army.
Only Palpatine knew the full story of the war and its abrupt conclusion. But Bail knew a few things that Palpatine didn’t; primarily, that Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala’s twin children had not died with her on the asteroid known as Polis Massa; and that in the twins Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda were placing their trust for the eventual defeat of the dark side. Even now infant Luke was on Tatooine, in the care of his aunt and uncle, and being watched over by Obi-Wan. And infant Leia—Bail grinned just thinking about her—infant Leia was on Alderaan, probably in the arms of Bail’s wife, Breha.
During Palpatine’s brief abduction by General Grievous, Bail had promised Padmé that should anything untoward happen to her, he would do all he could to protect those close to her. The fact that Padmé was pregnant had been something of an open secret, but at the time Bail had been referring to Anakin, never realizing that events would draw him into a conspiracy with Obi-Wan and Yoda that would end with his assuming custody of Leia.
It had taken only days for Bail and Breha to come to love the child, though initially Bail had worried that they may have been entrusted with too great a challenge. Given their parentage, chances were high that the Skywalker twins would be powerful in the Force. What if Leia should show early signs of following in the dark footsteps of her father? Bail had wondered.
Yoda had eased his mind.
Anakin hadn’t been born to the dark side, but had arrived there because of what he had experienced in his short life, instances of suffering, fear, anger, and hatred. Had Anakin been discovered early enough by the Jedi, those emotional states would never have surfaced. More important, Yoda appeared to have had a change of heart regarding the Temple as providing the best crucible for Force-sensitive beings. The steadfast embrace