Chapter Text
Leia forced herself not to show any fear as the pair of naval guards escorted her through the halls of this monstrous battle station. At least Vader wasn't here, her capturer and torturer was not a man she ever wished to see again, but as she was brought into the control room, the man she saw was no better. Perhaps even worse. Vader was more personally dangerous, a mad dog, but a deadly and nearly unkillable one. Tarkin thought himself a civilized man and had the intellect, allies and influence to match his delusion.
"Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board." She had few choices, and there was no point in concealing her contempt.
"Charming to the last." He reached out and grabbed her chin, in a manner which might have been sexually threatening if she didn't know that his only interest was in power. "You don't know how hard I found it signing the order to terminate your life."
"I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself!" And she was, to sentence a Senator to death was no easy thing, even for a Moff. It would have consequences she was surprised he was willing to take on. She'd expected to die at Vader's hands, or the hands of an 'accident'. Tarkin was no coward, but he hadn't reached his post by taking unnecessary risks. He must be supremely confident in his new command.
"Princess Leia, before your execution I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this," he waved around the control room and she took the opportunity to examine it, not that there was much chance of escape. Three raised platforms were manned by armored, but unarmed naval personnel, Tarkin, Admiral Motti (about whom she knew little) and the two armored and armed naval guards behind her. The fact that they weren't stormtroopers was a little odd, but she didn't give herself good odds of wresting the rifle from one of the men and gunning the others down, "battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now."
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." That was a bluff, but not a bad one. He didn't know what effect the mere news of the Death Star had had upon the alliance she had spent her life building.
"Not after we demonstrate the power of this station. In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that'll be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power... on your home planet of Alderaan."
"No! Alderaan is peaceful. We have no weapons. You can't possibly..."
"You would prefer another target? A military target?" he spun around, advancing on her, bearing down on her, will and words alike crushing all resistance as he made his demand. She tried to back away, despite knowing it only fed into his predilections, but backed directly into one of the naval guards behind her. "Then name the system! I grow tired of asking this. So it'll be the last time. Where is the Rebel base?"
Her eyes locked on the image of her homeworld, swelling in the viewscreen.
The senator's voice broke as she did, and her head dropped, "Dantooine. They're on Dantooine."
"There," Tarkin turned aside to a man Leia hadn't noticed previously, leaning against the wall, his dark overcoat contrasting oddly with the other uniforms she saw. "You see, Commissar, she can be reasonable." Tarkin turned away from both of them, to the naval officer at the controls. "Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready."
"What?!?"
"You're far too trusting. Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don't worry. We will deal with your Rebel friends soon enough."
Leia snapped forward, grabbed by her guards. "No!"
"Indeed. No," the man by the wall said, pushing himself to vertical and stepping forward. He was the tallest man in the room, with a duelist's grace, a blaster on one hip and a long blade on the other. His hair was streaked with grey, while his face was carved from stone. Calloused hands rested casually on the handles of his weapons, not in threat, merely the instinct of a man for whom their use was second nature. "We discussed this, Grand Moff Tarkin. Alderaan was only to be destroyed if they proved traitorous. They have not. We have faced no resistance and no attacks. We will not destroy an Imperial world and murder billions of Imperial citizens in order to provide either a test of this station, or a demonstration of your brutality."
"Commissar, I've heard your arguments and I have indulged them out of respect for your reputation and service, but I am in command here, not you."
"And I am responsible for ensuring that all members of the Imperial military follow orders and regulations, which do not authorize you to destroy this world in the absence of any threat to the Empire."
"They are a threat! She is proof of that. They are traitors who hide in plain sight, poisoning the body of the Empire from within. I will cut them out and cauterize the wound before it can spread!" Tarkin straightened. "Enough of this. After your little argument earlier, I have ensured that all the guards on this floor understand where their loyalty lies and by your own actions your stormtrooper friends are in the launch bays preparing for a raid on Alderaan which will never occur. You have neither the authority, nor the ability to do anything to stop me."
"I cannot dissuade you from this course of action, Grand Moff Tarkin?" the man asked, his voice almost as defeated as Leia's had been a moment before and the hope which had sparked at his rejection of Tarkin's mad plan died.
"Of course not, this is--" the blaster shot came without warning and ripped through Tarkin's chest, dropping him instantly. The guards behind her paused for a moment, too stunned to react. Which was all that was needed. If the Commissar had turned his gun on them, instinct might have taken over, but instead, they both fell to simultaneous stun blasts from behind as a shockingly short Wookie wielding twin blasters stepped into the room. The man turned towards Motti, "Hands up and away from the consoles, boys." He ordered as the Wookie covered the men behind him.
"Jurgen, good. The other Tarkin loyalists?"
There was the odd growling that Wookie speech consisted of, but the Commissar nodded as if he understood.
"Commendable courtesy, as hopefully Tarkin's madness was limited to him." Leia found herself herded into a group with four angry Imperial naval officers, at blaster point as the Commissar reached some control, flipped it and spoke quietly. "Colonel Kasteen? Scenario 4." Then he turned back to them. "I apologize, gentlemen. That," he nodded to the corpse on the floor, though his blaster never wavered, "was an execution for treason. Once this station is secured against any attempt by Tarkin loyalists to resume his illegal and insane plan, we will proceed to Dantooine and destroy the Rebels."
Leia tried to straighten in indignation at that, but between the repeated shocks and shifts and the fact that Dantooine had long been abandoned, all she could muster was a cold look.
The Wookie growled and the Commissar nodded. "Assuming there's anything there. Information extracted under torture is notoriously unreliable."
The Commissar approached her. "My apologies for the discourtesy, by the way, Ms. Organa--"
"Senator Organa."
"I'm afraid not. The Emperor has dissolved the Senate. Otherwise, I would not have permitted your detention."
She blinked at both parts of that statement. Given her position in both the Imperial and Rebel hierarchy, she knew a great deal about the Imperial military. Commissars were responsible for maintaining discipline and morale amongst the troopers. Heavily indoctrinated, even Imperial propaganda didn't try to portray them as anything but harsh disciplinarians. But she happened to know their indoctrination was heavily focused on obedience and mission success, not civilian laws. But, her eyes flicked to his greying hair, most of them were also young, barely older than her, as the indoctrination worked best if it was done as the subject grew...
Her eyes widened, "You're Commissar Cain."
"Indeed. I was about to introduce myself, madam."
Ciaphas Cain was the literal model of an Imperial Commissar, as in the entire program had been modeled after him. Famously a hero of the Clone Wars, his stubborn and brilliant defense of Perlia was taught in Imperial Academies as an example of what can be accomplished by a disciplined, fearless group of soldiers operating as one under the vision of a singular purpose and studied by Rebels as a model campaign by which guerillas defeat a far larger and stronger force. His inconclusive duel with General Grievous was constantly broadcast, along with the suggestion, but never the statement that it was he who had killed the monster. The man was famously incorruptible and competent, but equally famously ruthless with his enemies. The situation hadn't necessarily improved...except for Alderaan, as the very notion of Cain destroying a planet out of some sort of ego trip was patently absurd.
They talked briefly, mostly polite pleasantries, though she did notice he was clearly playing to their audience, emphasizing that Tarkin had cut off everyone except himself and from communication with the Emperor, or High Command after revealing his intentions.
As they finished talking a dozen stormtroopers reached the bridge, escorting a statuesque redheaded officer, wearing a colonel's tabs and half a dozen people in the uniform of naval crew. She nodded to Cain, who nodded back. "Commissar, the 597th has secured all the armories. All command rooms and firing controls are secure. All launch bays are secure. Colonel Beije and his command staff have swapped position with the Alderaanian officers detained earlier. Off-duty Naval Security are locked in their quarters. We're in a standoff with armed Naval Security across half the station. We are stretched thin and massively outnumbered, though no one except the on-duty Naval Security officers are armed. This situation is extremely unstable and we can't keep this up for long."
"We won't need to. It's time to report this matter to the Emperor and get his blessing on our course of action. Colonel, Ms. Organa, Jurgen, with me."
The Colonel nodded, exchanging a glance with the senior NCO, whose men had already fanned out, securing the room, the prisoners and the command consoles, which were being manned by the crew they'd brought along, presumably trusted individuals...but the summoned people obediently followed along to the communication chamber.
I moved deliberately, coming to rigid attention as I stepped onto the holo-platform and requested to speak to the Emperor. This was a cluster-frag of the first order and had obviously been destined to be one from the moment the 597th was assigned to the absurdly named Death Star. Most of the senior officers were all right, but Tarkin was a madman and Vader was worse. Fortunately, despite my fears and the reputation of Force users, the wizard had fallen for my reputation as thoroughly as everyone else, so accepted my insistence that discipline of the troopers was my responsibility. Which meant he kept his magical choking powers reserved for officers. Outside the 597th.
Still, this had gone wrong quickly, even for me. Less than a month on this station and I'd already executed the senior commander and seized control...well, it's not like there'd been any other choice. Even putting aside any moral qualms, the idiots hadn't even planned to detain all Alderaanian officers before, or after blowing up their planet.1 I'd have been surprised if we lasted long enough for the Emperor to order all our executions for blowing up a productive Imperial world!
In fact, in my heart of hearts, I suspected that Tarkin had no intention of remaining 'Grand Moff' any longer. Why should he? He had the 'Death Star' and, as he never tired of telling us, it was the ultimate power in the galaxy. Why should he remain loyal to the Empire, rather than becoming Emperor, on pain of planet-explosion? No, he had to be dealt with, there was no doubt of that, at least once it became clear that Regina and I couldn't talk him out of his insane, genocidal plan.
The best I'd been able to do was...interpret his words. He was saying they were a threat and needed to be destroyed, if that was the case, obviously we had to deploy ready for battle, which meant our best squadron commander (Vader, getting the madman away from Tarkin, necessary for any potential use of force) leading the defensive fighters and the 597th, all suited up and ready to go down and collect prisoners, if Alderaan had surrendered, which Tarkin had agreed to offer. A lie, of course, the man had always been intending to proceed with his plan and didn't want any inconvenient facts getting in the way of his message. If Tarkin had been dumber and allowed the 597th to manage the security, this would have been a lot easier. Instead I had to rely on Jurgen to deal with the security.2
Say this about the Core World officer corps, their continual underestimation of nonhumans,3 though annoying in the extreme, does occasionally work out for us. Well, now, all I had to do was report in, get a pat on the head for saving an Imperial world and proceed with the destruction of the Rebels on Dantooine...unless they weren't there, as Jurgen had suggested. Well, if I say that intel was provided by Tarkin's interrogation of the prisoner, that should be sufficient to protect me. It's even true, not that Tarkin could disagree these days.
It took a shockingly small number of minutes for the Emperor to arrive. A massive floating head, of the wrinkled, twisted visage of the Emperor, wearing not his more elaborate regalia, but a simply black hooded robe glared down at him. Personally, if I looked like that, I'd have gone with a different focus for my holo-projector, but he was the Emperor...
- Given Alderaan's pacifist history, there were relatively few such soldiers, but the large refugee population which lived on the planet during the Clone Wars volunteered in fairly large numbers to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy and would not look kindly on an Empire which destroyed the world which gave them and their families shelter and on which many of their families remained. [ ▲ ]
- Given the timing here, Jurgen had to be launching his assault prior to Cain's failure to convince Tarkin to stop. Indeed, perhaps prior to Tarkin even giving the order, depending on the level of security. Cain probably could have played it off as a test of security if Tarkin had seen reason, but it's a good reminder that Cain is quite willing to take significant risks, even if he always claims such risks are in aid of avoiding even greater ones. [ ▲ ]
- Indeed, as a technical matter, Jurgen was not, and could not be, a member of the Imperial military. He was officially classified by the Commissariat as a 'civilian aide' and is recorded in some official Imperial military records as everything from a piece of equipment, to a pet, to a slave. As the one reliable method to infuriate Cain has always been to insult Jurgen, it is probably good that Jurgen handled all the paperwork and Cain never appears to have realized how Jurgen was categorized. [ ▲ ]
Leia flinched at the sudden weight in the room. She had never been a believer in her father's stories about the Emperor being some sort of magical monster and had never seen any signs of such when he presided over the Senate, but here, even at this distance, she could swear she felt...something.
Cain didn't seem to though, simply saluting sharply. "My Lord Emperor, I must report that Grand Moff Tarkin has been executed for treason."
Rage flared in those dark eyes, but the emperor didn't raise his voice. "What treason?"
"He ordered the destruction of Alderaan for no purpose other than to demonstrate the power of the Death Star."
The Emperor sneered. "That is no treason, merely efficiency, as I would expect from Tarkin. Rid ourselves of a nest of traitors and demonstrate the fate of all who would oppose me."
Cain didn't react to that, but the Colonel standing next to Leia did. Of course, she wasn't on the holo-platform, so wasn't being transmitted across the galaxy to the Emperor, so she didn't bother to hide her horror. "My Lord Emperor, if there were traitors there--"
"There were."
"As you say. Putting aside the weapons of the station, we have ten legions of stormtroopers onboard, we can crush any resistance. Indeed, we can simply threaten to destroy the planet if they do not hand over the traitors. Tarkin wanted to do none of that, he wanted to destroy the planet without even communicating with the--"
"Tarkin was completing his mission. A mission you will now carry out, Commissar. Destroy the planet of Alderaan and bring Princess Leia to me. Alive."
Cain's eyes didn't flicker to her, but both the Colonel and the Wookie were watching her confusion carefully. Any hope she'd had of snatching a weapon had long since faded as she watched this interaction.
"My Lord Emperor, I swore an oath of loyalty and I have never broken my word. I would ask for an explanation though for why we must destroy an Imperial world."
"Fear, Commissar. You understand that fear stiffens the spine of the weak and forces the strong to bend. You've executed deserters before haven't you? Cowards? You kill one so the rest stand firm and loyal. It's the same principle, just on a larger scale. It is...unfortunate that some loyalists will die as well, but when you're working on a galactic scale? Everything has some collateral damage."
"If those are your orders, then my oath leaves me no choice..."
"Good. Tarkin's death is unfortunate, but understandable given your...confusion. We will discuss this matter when you bring Princess Leia to me in the palace on Coruscant."
"Yes, my Lord Emperor," the man stepped off the platform and looked to the Colonel as the call ended.
She nodded slightly, thought for a moment, then began to speak. "Leiter, Broadbank and Shale will be on side. Caleb, Vox and Vreth will be a problem. The rest...could go either way. And I've got no feel at all for the navy boys who outnumber us all twenty times over."
"Get everyone ready. I'll give a little speech and...I assume that was recorded?" he glanced over at Jurgen who poked at a few controls and then pulled out a disc, with a nod. "Good, we'll broadcast that, should make the situation clear to folks."
"What is going on?" Leia finally snapped.
"War, Senator. War is going on," Cain answered her sadly. The sudden return of her title confused her for a moment, but as he opened the door and began speaking to the stormtroopers and naval personnel back in the command center. Apparently, the launch bays were to be locked down until they'd left the system and she was to be escorted to a transport, given a pilot and an escort and dumped after the first jump. They're to obey her orders and keep her alive until she can rendezvous with the Rebel Fleet.
"What?" she looked in confusion at the Wookie and the Colonel.
"The Emperor has betrayed the Empire," the Colonel explained, as Jurgen followed Cain out. "Our oaths are to the Empire. Therefore the Emperor must be removed. Those officers who remain loyal to him will be detained. We will head to Perlia to restaff the Death Star as best we can, but this battle station is only really good for destroying things which attack it, or blowing up planets. We can hardly threaten to blow up Coruscant, so we'll need help. Help like a rebel fleet, though I'm sure when Ciaphas puts out the word and everyone sees that the Emperor has lost it and they can't just wait for him to die of old age, we'll have plenty of loyal Imperial support too. Meet us at Perlia, if you want to be part of what comes after Palpatine."
"Which is why he called me Senator again...he's rejecting the dissolution of the Senate?"
The Colonel shrugged and began to move out, snapping orders into a communicator as she went.
Leia followed the stormtroopers in a fugue state. Everything had changed in an instant. The Empire was at war with itself. The Senate was dissolved. The entire tactical, strategic, and political landscape had changed and she had no earthly idea what to do next. Besides thank the Force, and Ciaphas Cain, that Alderaan was still intact (even if they were abandoning it to the tender mercies of Vader and his fighter squadron, who would not be accompanying them on their trip).
Double f*ck. Everyone outside the 597th was insane. But there was only one route to survival open to me, given that I'd executed Tarkin for following the Emperor's orders. This was gonna suck.
