Star Wars: The New Rebellion Read Online Free PDF Page A

saved by a nanny droid, you know. He might have been simply wishing for the security of his babyhood.”
    “I am not—” Anakin started and then stopped as if his voice caught in his throat. Threepio hurried into the nursery. Anakin’s face had gone white.
    “What is it?” Winter asked.
    Jacen and Jaina had frozen in place. Their eyes widened, and then, in unison, all three children began to scream.

Four

    K ueller strode across the hangar, his boots clanging on the metal. Technicians prostrated themselves before him, their gloved hands extended on the webbing. He walked so close to the group on the left that the hem of his cape brushed their skulls. The death’s-head mask adhered to his skin, giving him comfort, giving him power.
    “I need a ship,” he said, his Force-strengthened voice echoing in the large room. It was empty except for three TIE fighters in various states of repair.
    “Prepared, milord.” His faithful assistant, Femon, rose to her feet. Her long black hair hid her unnaturally pale face. With a flick of her head, she flipped the hair aside, revealing kohl-blackened eyes and blood-red lips. She had made her own face into a death mask that looked less realistic than his.
    Kueller nodded. No one else moved. “Brakiss?”
    “Gone, milord.”
    “He wasted no time.”
    “He said he had your permission.”
    “You didn’t check?”
    Femon smiled. “I always check.”
    “Good.” Kueller caressed the word. Femon straightened beneath his praise, as she always did. If she weren’t so capable, he would …
    He let the thought fade. No distractions, not even of the pleasant sort. “Any reports from Pydyr?”
    “One thousand people are imprisoned in their homes, as per your command,” she said.
    “Destruction?”
    “None.” The word hung between them.
    He allowed himself to smile, knowing that the expression chilled even his hardest followers. “Excellent. Loss of life?”
    She clasped her hands behind her back, taming her silver cape and outlining her willowy form. “One million, six hundred and fifty-one thousand, three hundred and five, milord.”
    “Exactly as planned,” he said.
    “To a person. You’ll be investigating?”
    “I always check,” he said, throwing her words back at her.
    She smiled. The expression softened her face despite her attempts otherwise. “Permission to accompany you?”
    For a moment, he hesitated. She had been with him from the beginning. This part of the plan had been as much hers as his. “Not yet,” he said. “I have need of you here.”
    “I thought we would wait for Phase 2.”
    “Oh, no,” he said, purposely gentling his tone. “The wheels are rolling. Better to maintain momentum than to lose advantage. Remember?”
    “Vividly.” In the shaking of her voice, he heard the residue of each and every nightmare he had sent her, sometimes as many as five a night.
    “Good,” he said, and with his leather-gloved fingers he stroked her face. “Very, very good.”

    The chamberlain pulled open the door to the Senate Hall as the heralds announced Leia. All this pomp and circumstance had seemed unnecessary until Leia’s discussion with Mon Mothma. Now, after the strange event in the dressing chambers, Leia was glad for the ceremonial diversion. It gave her a moment to collect herself, to set aside the terror sent across space on a wave of frigid cold.
    She entered, head held high, two guards at her side. The stepped-up security was obvious: guards at all the doors of the amphitheater, and defense droids scattered among the protocol droids stationed near the non-Basic-speaking senators. Representatives from all species and planets in the New Republic sat in their assigned seats, watching her expectantly. Mon Mothma had been right; Leia’s actions on this day would determine the course of the Senate in the future.
    Reporters from dozens of worlds crowded the visitors’ balcony near the fragmented crystal segments in the ceiling. The segments caught