Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [93]
Drawn into the mistakes of the Republic, the Jedi had been. But knowingly, and sometimes with full complicity. Allowed the dark side to take root, the Jedi had. Allowed arrogance to infect the Order, the Jedi had. A priority, holding on to power had become. Inflated by their own conquests, the Jedi became.
Some Jedi believed that Yoda wasn’t aware of these things, or that he hadn’t done enough to stem the tide of the dark side. Some believed that the Council had acted improperly or, worse, ineptly. What they failed to understand was that, once rooted, the growth of the dark side was inexorable, and could only be reversed by the one born to restore balance.
Yoda was not that one.
Aged, experienced, diplomatic, informative, brilliant with a lightsaber … Yes, all of these things. And not unacquainted with the power of the dark side. For that reason he understood just how dangerous this new Sith Lord was. He hadn’t had a sense of that danger until he had fought Dooku on Geonosis.
Then he understood.
In self-exile for a thousand years, the Sith had not merely been waiting for an appropriate time to reemerge and exact revenge, but for the birth of one strong enough to embrace the dark side fully and become its dedicated instrument. This was Sidious: powerful enough to hide in plain sight. Powerful enough to instruct his apprentice, Dooku, to expose him, and still remain hidden from the Jedi.
And as arrogant as the Jedi. Convinced that his way was the one and only way.
Did he know about Skywalker?
Surely he did. What better way to ensure total victory than by killing or corrupting the Chosen One? Even if not that One, someone so strong in midi-chlorians … Someone birthed by the Force itself, Qui-Gon would have said—never a doubt that Anakin’s mother might have been lying.
The boy had no father.
None I choose to remember. None I would honor with that title.
The Sith were aware of Skywalker. How would he react when they tried finally to ensnare him?
Yoda’s eyes snapped open. A disturbance in the Force—of such magnitude that he had been hurled from the current.
At his thought command, the window shutters in his quarters opened, and he gazed out on Coruscant, over the plain of The Works and beyond. Something was wrong with the sky. Behind gathered clouds turned red and gold by noxious smoke: a lightstorm. Pulsing light, brighter than the waning rays of Coruscant’s sun. Movement, as well; outside Coruscant’s busy envelope, not seen but sensed.
An attack.
The Sith Lord’s response to his being chased? Was it possible?
He perceived Mace running down corridors in the Temple; then turned as Mace rushed through the doorway. At the same instant, a flaming Republic ship streaked past the Temple’s crowning spires and crashed violently in the heart of The Works.
“Tiin, Koon, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and some of the others are on their way up the well,” Mace said. “I sent Stass Allie to assist Shaak Ti in guarding Chancellor Palpatine.”
Yoda nodded sagely. “Well trained the Supreme Chancellor’s Red Guards are. But display due concern for his safety, the Jedi must.”
“Reports from naval command are garbled,” Mace continued. “It’s clear that the attack caught the home fleet by surprise. Groups of Separatist ships managed to penetrate the envelope before the fleet had time to engage. Now, by all accounts, our vessels are holding the line.”
Yoda adopted an expression that mixed anger and bafflement. “Monitoring hyperspace reversion points, our commanders weren’t?”
Mace’s eyes narrowed. “The Separatist fleet jumped from the Deep Core.”
“Secret, those routes were. Known to us and few others.” Yoda looked at Mace. “Unrestricted access to the archives, Dooku had. Access enough to erase all mentions of Kamino. Access enough to learn of explorations in the Deep Core.”
Mace