Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [348]
But the Empire was attempting to thwart them.
Placards flashed and holoimages sprang from hand- and flipper- and tentacle-held devices as the throng moved past Bail’s lofty perch in the north tower, behind the palace’s high white walls and the arcs of reflecting pools that had long ago served as defensive moats.
PALPATINE’S PUPPET! one of the holoslogans read.
REPEAL THE TAX! read another.
RESIST IMPERIALIZATION! a third.
The first was a reference to the regional governor Emperor Palpatine had installed in that part of the Core, who had decreed that all refugees of former Confederacy worlds were required to submit to rigorous identity checks before being issued documents of transit.
The “tax” referred to the toll that had been levied on anyone seeking travel to outlying systems.
Already a catchphrase, the third slogan was aimed at any who feared the Emperor’s attempts to bind all planetary systems, autonomous or otherwise, to Coruscant’s rule.
While little of the angry chanting was directed at Alderaan’s government or Queen Breha—Bail’s wife—many in the crowd were looking to Bail to intercede with Palpatine on their behalf. Alderaan was merely their gathering place, after the demonstration’s organizers had decided against holding the march on Coruscant, under the watchful gaze of stormtroopers, and with the memory of what had happened at the Jedi Temple fresh in everyone’s mind.
Demonstrations were nothing new, in any case. Alderaanians were known throughout the galaxy for their missions of mercy and their unstinting support of oppressed groups. More important, Alderaan had been a hotbed of political dissent throughout the war, with Aldera University’s Students of Collus—named for a celebrated Alderaanian philosopher—leading the movement.
With his homeworld thoroughly politicized, Bail had been forced to play a careful game in the galactic capital, where he was at once an advocate for refugee populations and a principal member of the Loyalist Committee; that is, loyal to the Constitution, and to the Republic for which it stood.
A reasonable man, one of a handful of rankled delegates who had found themselves caught between support for Palpatine and outright contention, Bail had understood that political wrangling was the only way to introduce change. As a result, he and Palpatine had engaged in numerous disputes, openly in the Rotunda as well as in private, on issues relating to Palpatine’s rapid rise to incontestable power, and the subsequent slow but steady erosion of personal liberties.
Only with the war’s sudden and shocking end had Bail come to understand that what had seemed political maneuvering on Palpatine’s part had been nothing less than inspired machination—the unfolding of a diabolical scheme to prolong the war, and to so frustrate the Jedi that when they finally sought to hold him accountable for refusing to proclaim the war concluded with the deaths of Count Dooku and General Grievous, Palpatine could not only declare them traitors to the Republic, but also pronounce them guilty of having fomented the war to serve their own ends, and therefore deserving of execution.
Ever since, Bail had been forced to play an even more treacherous game on Coruscant—Imperial Center—for he now knew Palpatine to be a more dangerous opponent than anyone suspected; indeed a more dangerous foe than most could even begin to guess. While Senators such as Mon Mothma and Garm Bel Iblis were expecting Bail to join in their attempts to mount a secret rebellion, circumstance compelled him to maintain a low profile, and to demonstrate greater allegiance to Palpatine than he ever had.
That circumstance was Leia. And Bail’s fears for her safety had only increased since his close encounter with Darth Vader on Coruscant.
He had spoken of the encounter only to Raymus Antilles, captain of the consular ship Tantive IV. Antilles had been given custody of Anakin’s protocol