Star Wars - Darth Plagueis

favor I’m owed to succeed at Yinchorr.” He compressed his lips and shook his head. “I fear my legacy is on the line here, old friend. I’ve only one year left of my term, but I’m determined to see things though.”
    Palpatine conjured a compassionate tone. “If it’s any solace, I support the use of a paramilitary force—even at the risk of escalating the crisis—if only to silence those who have accused the Republic of being spineless.”
    Valorum clapped Palpatine on the shoulder. “Your support is appreciated.” He looked around the room, then asked even more quietly, “Whom can I count on, Palpatine?”
    Palpatine’s eyes scanned the crowd, alighting briefly on two human males, an Anx who wouldn’t have fit in a room with lower ceilings, an Ithorian, and finally a Tarnab.
    “Antilles. Com Fordox. Horox Ryyder. Tendau Bendon. Perhaps Mot-Not-Rab …”
    Valorum eyed them in turn, then let his gaze settle on a Rodian. “Farr?”
    Palpatine laughed to himself; Onaconda Farr thought of politics the way his Rodian brethren thought of bounty hunting: Shoot first; ask questions later .
    “He’s a militant, but I may be able to persuade him, as he enjoys close ties with House Naberrie, of Naboo.”
    “Tikkes?” Valorum asked, gazing covertly at the Quarren Senator, whose facial tentacles were manipulating snacks into his mouth.
    “Tikkes will want something in return, but yes.”
    Valorum’s pale blue eyes found Wookiee Senator Yarua.
    Palpatine nodded. “Kashyyyk will support you.”
    Valorum drained his drink glass and set it aside. “And my opponents?”
    “Aside from the obvious ones? The entire Ryloth group—Orn Free Taa, Connus Trell, and Chom Frey Kaa. Also Toonbuck Toora, Edcel Bar Gan, Po Nudo … Do you want me to go on?”
    Valorum looked discouraged as they stepped out onto the balcony. A tone sounded, indicating that the noise cancellation feature had been activated. Valorum continued to the railing and stared off into the distance.
    “A rare dark night,” he said after a moment.
    Palpatine joined him at the railing. “Weather control is brewing a storm.” He turned slightly to adjust the noise cancellation system. “Listen: peals of thunder over The Works. And there,” he added, pointing, “lightning.”
    “How unnatural it seems here. If only we might be as easily cleansed as this vast sky and these monumental buildings.”
    Palpatine glanced at him. “The Senate has obstructed you, but you’ve brought no dishonor to the office.”
    Valorum considered it. “I knew when my first term began that I would face opposition; that events had been spiraling out of control since the Stark Conflict. But since then I’ve sensed a darkness approaching from the outer reaches of the galaxy to shake Coruscant to its foundations. You would think, after a thousand years of peace, that the Republic would be unshakable, but that isn’t the case. I’ve always placed my faith in the Force, believing that if I acted in accordance with its guiding principles, the galaxy would act in kind.”
    Palpatine frowned in the dark. “The Republic has grown unwieldy. We are coerced and cajoled into deals that compromise our integrity. We are criticized as much for what we do as what we don’t do. Most beings in the Core couldn’t point to Yinchorr in a star map, and yet the crisis there becomes your problem.”
    Valorum nodded in a distracted way. “We can’t stand by and do nothing. The Jedi express as much in private, and yet even they are divided. If Master Dooku becomes any more vocal in his criticisms of the Senate and the Order, the Council may have to restrict him to the Temple.” He fell silent, then said, “Well, I certainly don’t have to tell you. People tell me you’ve become his confidant.”
    Instead of responding to that comment, Palpatine said, “And Master Yoda?”
    “Inscrutable as ever,” Valorum said. “But troubled, I think.”
    Palpatine turned away from him slightly. “The Jedi have faced down darkness in the past.”
    “True. But a study of history reveals that they have been defeated by it, as well.”
    “Then the outcome is not in our grasp.”
    Valorum raised his gaze to the night sky. “Whose, then?”

23: UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
    Just arrived on the Hunters’ Moon, Sidious studied Plagueis as the Sith Lord and his droid, 11-4D, viewed a holorecording of a black-robed Zabrak assassin making short work of combat automata in his home on Coruscant, some