The Hunters and the Hunted 10

I was in the middle of the pre flight check when I watched Lord Vader approach the shuttle. He was carrying a box in his arms the way a new mother would carry her first born child and he was anxious. I could feel the tension coming off him in waves. Whatever it was that was making him uneasy, I didn't want to know, I turned my attention back to the job at hand.

I knew Lord Vader had settled on board when his mind brushed mine with a ripple that said ‘Get on with it, girl.’ He would not be sitting with me in the cockpit because this was his personal shuttle, not just a standard transport shuttle. It was designed to especially for him and it was designed to be private. I also knew that he was not alone back there either. His two Noghri body guards had managed, as they always did, to come on board without detection. I was used to him being terse but ever since the meeting with his son on Cloud City several days ago, he had been closed off and dangerously on edge. When he had assigned me the job of flying him to meet the Emperor I had not dared to disagree, nightmare or no nightmare.

I piloted the shuttle out of the Executor’s docking bay into open space, enjoying the one thing in my life that was uncomplicated. Flying was freedom, especially when I was alone in the cockpit. I added the course data to the ship’s nav computer which I had been given and watched the stars distort as we slid into the hyperspace lane. I had no idea exactly where we were heading, the co ordinates had gone from the datachip to the Nav computer but whereever it was, the Emperor was already there waiting for Lord Vader, waiting for what ever it was in the box that Lord Vader carried. I got the distinct feeling that this was not going to be a happy meeting. Despite the success at Hoth, Lord Vader had failed to capture Luke Skywalker and the Emperor did not look kindly on failure, not even from his second in command or perhaps it would be better to say especially not from his Sith apprentice.

The trip was long and tedious. I was glad when the nav computer peeped that we were coming out of hyperspace. Before long a lush green planet appeared in my window. It was a gorgeous looking place and I wondered what it was about this world that had drawn the Emperor to it. It didn’t seem like the sort of place he would have much use for.

“The docking bay is on the south side of the mountain.” Lord Vader’s voice in my head shattered my small moment of peace.

“Yes, my lord.” I answered.

What he hadn’t told me was that the docking bay was quite literally carved into the mountain.

“Watch the dorsal wing when you bring her in, this docking bay roof is much lower than it looks.”

I silently rolled my eyes but he was right, the mountain docking bay roof was indeed lower than it looked. The shuttle’s wings folded up, and I guided her in carefully. The ship touched down gently and I shut the engines off

“Shall I wait here for you?” I asked mentally as I unbuckled my straps and made my way back into the main body of the shuttle to meet him.

“No, you will accompany me. The Emperor has expressed the desire to see you after my meeting with him.” He said as I almost bumped into him.

“As you wish, my lord.” I said, not liking the sound of that at all. “How long will we be here?” I asked trying not to look at the transport box he held in his hands.

“For as long as my Master requires it.” he replied waspishly. “Come along, child, the Emperor does not like to be kept waiting.”

I glanced at the two shadows lurking in the background and let Lord Vader lead the way out of the ship. My mouth had gone dry and my hands trembled. It had been a good while since I had come face to face with the Emperor and I was scared. I could not imagine what he would want with me but fragments of my nightmare flashed through my mind. I shut them down, choosing instead to concentrate on the image I had memorised of Qui Gon Jinn. My jitters eased a little.

The strange facility, Lord Vader had called Mount Tantiss, was a pretty out of the way place and the labyrinth inside of it was even twistier and difficult to get to. Lord Vader stalked down the shuttle’s ramp and brushed past the small welcoming party that had waited for him nervously. I did not see the Noghri disembark, they had other less conventional means to leave the ship. Unlike Rukh, they did not even bother to acknowledge my presence, let alone speak to me. I could sense them though and I took a certain amount of comfort from their stealth.

It was a gloomy and depressing place filled with great evil and haunted by ghosts I could sense but did not understand. I shuddered as I followed Lord Vader through the dimly lit halls. I wondered briefly what the Emperor did with such a dismal, out of the way place but I wasn’t going to ask. It felt as though we had walked for kilometres but I knew that was not the case. The dark, narrow paths made it impossible for me to know exactly where we were or how deeply into the mountain we had gone. When the corridors finally opened up into what looked like a foyer and became brighter, Lord Vader stopped, turned and looked at me.

“You will wait here and not go wandering off. My master values his privacy.” Lord Vader growled.

I nodded my understanding and watched as he swept off to his meeting with the Emperor, the box that bothered him so much in his hands and the two Noghri in tow.

“Miss Gabriel, please follow me.” A gravelly voice came from out of the shadows, making me jump with fright.

I looked around me and found myself staring into the pit dark eyes of one of the Emperor’s lesser advisors. The man was almost as creepy as the Emperor himself. He was dressed in the heavy, dark coloured robes of his office and he moved with a silence that was just plain disturbing. I did as he asked and followed him to a suite of rooms that did nothing to ease my growing nervousness. I had to work hard at quelling the sandjiggers in my stomach. I felt claustrophobic, being deep inside of a mountain was not comforting nor did it help to calm me down.

“The guest area is fully equipped and you will find refreshments and beverages in there.” He said gesturing to the small room I supposed was some sort of kitchenette. “I am to request that you do not leave this area unescorted, the rest of the facility is off limits to civilians and guests. You will be executed on sight should you decide to leave these rooms unless it is by the Emperor’s request, is this understood?” He said with the same tone of voice he had used to tell me where the refreshments were.

I knew he was not lying and if I were to even poke my nose outside of the guest suit’s doors I would be shot. While I had not seen them, this place was filled with members of the secretive Royal Guard. I wondered if C.J. had ever been here. I made a mental note to ask him about this place the next time we chatted.

“Miss Gabriel, do you understand what I have said?” He interjected into my thoughts.

“Yes.” I told him and tried not to let the shiver of fear that cascaded up and down my spine show.

He nodded and left silently, the door shutting behind him with a dull thud.

The small suit of rooms was sparsely furnished but it had the Emperor’s distinctive taste, darkly elegant and expensive. I wandered about the main sitting room area and marvelled at the bookshelves and the art work hanging on the walls. The paintings were from a variety of artists including Venthan Chassu. I was stunned to see one painting in particular and as I stood beneath the large work of art, I had to suppress the urge to run and hide. It was Chassu’s grimmest work from his darkest time, the last piece he ever painted and the absolute crown of the collection in the room. Palpatine Triumphant, the painting Thrawn had once told me about, chilled me to the bone. I didn’t think, in my life, that I had ever seen a more frightening work of art. Chassu had captured the evil in the Emperor perfectly.

The painting was of medium size and had been rendered with Chassu’s astounding eye for colour and beautiful technique. You had to lean in closely to see where he had touched brush to canvas and under the right lighting you could see the huge range of colours that he used. It would have been beautiful had it not been for the subject matter.

Chassu had depicted Palpatine seated upon a throne that looked, on first glance, as though it were carved from Nubian alastra stone but on closer inspection I could see that the throne was actually created out of the broken bones and skulls of variety of beings, humans included. It was like watching a bad shuttle wreck, it both repelled and attracted at the same time. It wasn’t the morbid throne that bothered me, however, it was the look that Chassu had painted in Palpatine’s eyes. There was a glitter of unbridled malevolence in them. The smile on his face was not one of a man who loved his subjects or cared about his Empire, it was the smile of a man who knew he had won everything. It was the smile of a man who not only had power but used it in every single way he could. I stood and stared into the darkness that were his eyes and felt my heart stop. Here, in this room staring at this painting, I knew a fear that I had never actually acknowledged before.

This Emperor Palpatine terrified me to the very depth of my soul and this was the first time that I had truly realised it and for a moment I felt sheer panic. Ice cold sweat ran down my back, my heart began to pound so fiercely I was certain the entire mountain could hear it and I had to fight against the sudden nausea that swelled up in my belly. It was like drowning, I couldn’t breathe. I bent over putting my head between my knees until the sensation of dying passed. When my heart had slowed down enough I stood up straight and concentrated on breathing in and out. What ever the reason for my being here, it was not going to be fun. I decided that what I needed the most was a hefty shot of brandy but since that was not an option I went to explore the small kitchenette. I had no appetite but I hoped that a cup of tea might calm me down a little.

I assumed that the meeting between Lord Vader and his master would have taken many hours, as was so often the case, but it was surprisingly short. I was browsing through the books when the pinch faced man who had escorted me here came to take me to meet with the Emperor. The ride in the turbo lift was short and tense. I had to fight against the desire to run and struggled to maintain my composure. When the lift stopped and the door opened I couldn’t seems to breathe. Rooted to the spot, I didn't move and barely felt the hand on my shoulder that nudged me out of the turbo lift onto the long, wide walkway which led to where the Emperor sat. The audience hall was quiet and oppressive. I tried to quell my rising anxiety because this was exactly what this chamber was designed for. This room was all about instilling terror, all about intimidation and it worked incredibly well.

“Come closer child.” Palpatine’s soft, husky voice rippled through the room like a cold caress.

“Yes Excellency.” I whispered like a frightened child and did as he asked.

He sat on a raised platform, slunk in a chair which seemed to swallow him up. It was not a throne made from shattered skeletons of but a seat made from a dark ore that almost moulded itself to his body. He slouched back against it, his arms draped flaccidly over the armrests. I stopped within that acceptable circle of space and knelt down on the floor.

“Rise girl, and come closer so that I can see you. I will not bite.” He purred.

I swallowed back my panic, tried to calm my pounding heart and came to stand in the light which illuminated the area around throne. The Royal Guards that normally flanked his throne had melted back into the shadows. I was not a threat.

He leaned forward slightly and looked down at me. “I see you have recovered well from the latest incident with the renegade Jyrki Andando.” He smiled as he reached out and caressed the side of my face with fingers that were dry and cold, before I could answer he continued. “Admiral Thrawn was most concerned when he received the message that you had been attacked, you are so very lucky to have such a friend.” His voice sent shivers down my spine. I had to fight not to jerk away from his touch. I just nodded because my mouth was so dry I wasn’t sure that words would come out right.

“I hope the next time you are assaulted by this man you will take care of the problem yourself, you are more than capable. After all, you were able to kill Riori Griff easily enough and you were badly injured when you did it. It would be unfortunate if I had to continue to waste resources on training that was not being used and assign someone else to deal with him.” He told me. I was not sure of the exact nature of the threat behind his words was but I knew I didn’t like it.

“I understand, Excellency.” I said even though I was not so certain I did.

The Emperor sat back in his chair again; the shadows of his hooded cloak mostly shrouded his face. I watched carefully as he smiled slowly, his left hand moving slightly to something which lay on the small table beside him. The transport box looked familiar and with a jolt I realised it was the same box that Lord Vader had carried so carefully with him. The silence in the room was oppressive and when the Emperor spoke it only seemed to add to the weight.

He caressed the box with the backs of his fingers. The action was obscenely familiar to me, only it was Thrawn’s fingers and my skin. I shuddered. “Ah yes, Lord Vader’s gift to me.” When he spoke it was almost a lover’s sigh. “I sense your curiosity...” He said. “Come closer.”

I did as he requested but I didn’t know how to react. I wasn’t sure what he wanted from me. I only knew that I was scared, more scared than I had ever been of anyone in my life. Even though he had never done me any harm, even though he had never hurt me or given me any reason to be afraid of him, he terrified me. He opened the box carefully and drew out something but it was in the shadows so I couldn’t tell what it was.

“Here, child, tell me what you think of this.” He said leaning even closer to hand me what he had taken from the box. I didn’t think to hesitate I took it without considering the consequences. Wrapped in a cloth was a hard cylindrical object, I stepped back and opened it trying not to show my surprise when I uncovered a lightsaber.

“Excellency…?” I swallowed. This was what Lord Vader had carried so carefully, so gingerly? A lightsaber? For a fleeting moment I wondered if it was actually my mother’s and Palpatine had someone how discovered the truth, somehow found out where it was, taken it from my uncle but on closer inspection I understood this was not the case.

“Lord Vader has mentioned that he has begun instructing you on how to use a weapon such as this. Go on, touch it, child, I am most curious to see what you think of its craftsmanship.” He said gently, once again sinking back into the throne, into the shadows.

I did as he asked, picking up the lightsaber in my hand despite the fact that every instinct in my body was shouting at me not to. I should have listened to that little voice but the Emperor’s will was far more powerful. I sucked in air. This lightsaber had a history, a long and terrible story. The instant I held it in my hand it told me its tale with images so crystal clear, so incredibly violent that I wasn’t at all certain I had not actually been swept back in time. I did not even realise that I had dropped to the cold stone floor or that I had screamed. The pain that engulfed me was bewildering. I curled up into the tiniest ball I could and rode out the storm of memories as best I could.