They call me the Diktat. And it"s a t.i.tle I have ev"ry right to daim."
"How so? How did you earn it?"
Thrackan smiled coldly. "The old-fashioned way," he replied.
"With old-fashioned determination. Determination and ambition."
"With maybe a little backstabbing and skulduggery thrown in for good luck," Han said.
"Watch what you say to me, Han, or I"ll-"
"You"ll what?" Han said, tired of playing nice. "Beat me to a pulp?
Try and kidnap my children? Order a rocket attack on the building my family is in? Don"t tell me a man capable of all that didn"t play a trick or two here and there on his way to the top."
"And suppose I did play the game? There"d be nothing new in that.
Lots of other leaders have to do it on their way up."
"Now there"s a fine moral lesson for you. Eveiyone else does it."
"I should have let the Selonian kill you," Thrackan muttered.
"Yeah. What a pity you seem to need me. But you were telling me about your heroic climb to the top."
"Maybe I will let her kill you," he said, in a sulky tone. "But about me, there"s not that much to tell. Let"s just say that I maneuvered my way into progressively more important posts. By the time your stinking Rebellion won its first battles against the Empire, I was the heir presumptive to the Diktat. Dupas Thomree was the Diktat, Daclif Gallamby was heir apparent, and 1 was third in the line of succession.
"That would be news to a lot of people," Han said. "I remember Thomree, of course, but I"ve never heard of Gallamby-and I never knew you were up there, too."
"Th" fact was not widely known," Thrackan said, once again trying to speak in formal tonend not quite pulling it off. "But the Imperial government of Corellia had a tradition of secrecy. We din"t answer to anyone."
"You"re forgetting your close personal friend the Emperor. You must have answered to him."
"Not really. The Emperor believed in order, and we kept order here.
I can a.s.sure you of that. In exchange for keeping order, which we would"ve done anyway, and for swearing absolute loyalty to the Emperor"s external policies, the Emperor granted Diktat Thomree permission to run the sector any way he pleased. There was no reason for the public to know the arrangements for the succession. Even the most poweif members of the leadership were unknown to the public.
People jus" knew who the Diktat was. Secrecy was a real handy thing for those in power."
"So what happened?"
"When the war against the Rebellion started, Thomree kept his side of the bargain. He provided troops and ships for the Emperor. But not long after, Thomree, ah, well, he-he died unexpectedly."
"I bet it"s a real interesting story how that happened," Han said, noticing his cousin"s hesitation. "There might even be more than one version."
"I had nothin" to do with it," Thrackan said. "But I won"t kid you.
Lots of Diktats died under suspicious circ.u.mstances. 1 think Thomree figured he had protected himself from a.s.sa.s.sination by makiri" a n.o.body his successor. Wouldn"t be the first time someone tried thatr the first time it failed."
"So who did succeed?"
oc, -q-I AS-U "Gallamby took over. He was the last Diktat. II you can call him that. Jus" a figurehead, a puppet on a string-"
"Were you one of the ones pulling the string?" Han asked.
"Nope. I tried, but others got to m first. They managed to control policy. They called for economy. They cut back on Thomree"s support of the war against the Rebellion." Thrackan paused a moment and shook his head. "How close were some of those fights, cousin?"
he asked. "Do you think maybe a few more Corellian ships, a few thousand more Corellian troops, might"ve tipped the balance? Do you think maybe Gallamby and his gang might"ve won the war for you?"
Han did not answer. It was no secret that the Rebel Alliance had won more than once by the skin of its teeth.
"Yeah, don"t talk," Thrackan said. "I say a few fools eager to save a credit or two lost us the war."
"There was more to it than who had the most ships, Thrackan. We had other things going for us."
"Skywalker, you mean."
"Well, yes. Luke Skywalker. And maybe the forces of history."
"I"ve never believed in fate," Thrackan said. "I"ve always made my own fate."
"Except the Rebel Alliance defeated the p,?
Han said. "You weren"t able to do much about that."
"Why do you take such pleasure in baiting me, when I could have you killed or tortured any time I want?"
"Mostly because I don"t like you," Han said. "But I want to hear this story and you want to tell it. What happened in the Corellian Sector when we defeated the Empire?"
"Even up to the end, I was struggling, behind the scenes, to return Corellia to her former policy."
"You were trying to seize power.
"Of course I was, y" fool. Gallamby was letting everything fall apart. Act of patriotism to try and kick m out.
And by the time of the battle of the second Death Star, I was almost ready to get rid of him. We were all set."
Thrackan paused for another swig on his bottle, and his face darkened. "But then we heard about the Emperor"s death, and about the defeat at Endor. That was enough for the alien sc.u.m here, and for their sympathizers.
"Aliens? What aliens?"
"You know d.a.m.n well. The nonhuman sc.u.m here on Corellia."
"The Selonians and the Drall.?
"Right."
"How could they be aliens? They"ve lived here for thousands of years."
"They aren"t human. So they"re aliens." Obviously, as far as Thrackan was concerned, there could be no argument. "And they all figured that without an Emperor, there wasn"t any Empire. There were celebrations here when the Emperor died, if you can believe that."
"Do tell," Han said. "Amazing." He was starting to understand something. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Thrackan couldn"t quite believe that Han, his own flesh and blood, could not see the true way.
It must be that Han had never heard the real story, in all its seffevident logic. But once it was all explained, once Han understood what had realy happened, the scales would fall from his eyes. He would be converted to Thrackan"s way of thinking. Han could play along with that, if need be. "Even his enemies mourned the death of a worthy adversary."
That, of course, was a bald-faced lie. News of Emperor Palpatine"s death had been met with dancing in the streets. But telling Thrackan that wouldn"t accomplish much of anything.
"Thanks, Han, for telling me that. Here, they celebrated. Nearly all of em. Even the troopers and the navy crew. Deserted in droves.
No one defeated the empire in Corellia It jus" collapsed." Thrackan stood up a little straighter and made an effort to focus himself. "A regime without authority cannot rule," he said, very grandly. "And the regime here lost all authority."
"The people stopped being afraid of you, is that it?"
"Fear," Thrackan said, "is a great organizing principle. But the end of fear wasn"t the only thing that made it crack. It was us startin"
to fear them. Gallamby made a run for it. Him and his handlers. Took half the credits in the treasury with them. And that was just the start of it.
Scavenger hawks. They came in like scavenger hawks and grabbed everything that wasn"t nailed down. And then people started to get hold of files and started arresting goy"ment officials, trying them for crimes committed in office. Crazy stuff. How could anythin" done in service of the Empire be a crime?"
"Beats me," Han said. "So the Empire collapsed.
What did you do? How did you get here?"
"I started planning. Plotting. Thinking of the long term.
Finding friends one place, favors someplace else.
Started searching out people who"d done all right under the Empire, and wanted the old days back."
"So that"s your goal. Bring back the Empire? Give up F now, Thrackan. It"s dead, dead and gone."
"I know that," Thrackan said. "I don"t like it, but I can see it.
Could see it the day Palpatine and Darth Vader died. All over.
But Palpatine"s New Order, the Imperial system-that we can bring back, at least here.
Jst no Emperor over the Diktat. No one telling the F Corellian Sector what to do. In-de-pen-dent. Just us F here, putting the aliens back in their place."
"I thought you were going to kick them off the planet Corellia,"
Han said. "I heard the announcement. If the New Republic didn"t move all the nonhumans off the planet, you"d blow up another star?"
Thrackan laughed. "Yeah. I bet you heard it. Everybody on this planet did. That"s one of the lies I"ve been telling. No way to do that.
No way. Impossible. But it makes them sweat.
"What"s impossible?" Han asked, a bit too eagerly.
"Moving the nonhumans off, or blowing up another star? Did you realty blow up that first star?"
But Thrackan just laughed. "Oh, no," he said. "I can"t tell you that. That would spoil the surprise." He frowned for a moment. "That reminds me," he said as an extremely nasty smile spread across his face.
"I almost forgot. Another surprise. Reason I came down here.
Got a big treat ready for an alien lover like you."
"What-what do you mean?" Han said. Something in his gut tightened up. Thrackan"s surprises were rarely pleasant.
"You wait right there. I"ll bring it in."
Thrackan stood up, a bit unsteadily, and walked toward the cell door. He pounded on it three flmes, and the door swung inward.
Thrackan turned back to Han.
"Be back in just a secon"," he said.
Han stood up, and discovered just how painful standing could be.
As best he could tell, there was no permanent damage from his fight with Dracmus, but it would be a while before he healed altogether.
Dracmus All of a sudden Han had a very good idea what his cousin"s surprise was going to be.
Thrackan came back into the cell, a trooper at his back. The trooper took up a position watching the door and drew his blaster, aiming it through the doorway.
The Selonian, Dracmus, stepped into the cell, followed by another trooper with his weapon drawn.
Thrackan looked from Han to Dracmus and back again, a wild grin on his face. "Han," he said. "My dear old cousin. My dear old alien-loving traitor cousin. altor to the Empire, traitor to the Emperor, traitor to your race. I think it"s time you said h.e.l.lo to your new cell mate."
The weary travelers came out of the Millennium Fakon.
Being careful not to step on any more nannarians, they walked toward the house, Ebrihim"s Aunt Marcha in the lead, her blaster rifle slung over her shoulder. She led them to the central dome and up the low stairs to the large doors that led inside. Once at the top of the stairs, she turned toward her nephew and looked at him expectantly.
Ebrihim understood, and turned toward the others F "Our tradition requires a brief and simple ceremony of presentation when a guest first enters the home of the host," he explained. "If there are none who know both parties, the visitors are expected to present themselves.
However, if there are people who know both groups, the most junior person knowing both parties is expected to do the honors. In this case, that is myself."
"You"re the only one," Jacen objected.
"But I am also the most junior. That is what decides.
In this way, we honor those who are our seniors." F "You getting this, Anakin?" Jacen asked in a loud whisper.
"Quiet, Jacen," Jaina hissed.
"It is also expected," Ebrihim went on in a more severe tone of voice, "that the elders will behave in a way worthy of honor."
"Sorry," Jacen said.