Part 27 (1/2)
”Irrelevant my feelings are, ” said Yoda. ”Relevant only is what I know. ”
”Truly, Supreme Chancellor, Doctor Netzl is the right scientist for this task, ” Bail added. ”He knows billions of lives are counting on him to succeed. ”
”I am counting on him to succeed, Senator, ” said Palpatine. ”Tell him that when next you see him. ”
”I will, sir. ”
In silence Palpatine considered him and Yoda, so much wearier now than on the day of his election. Wearier, sadder, grimmer. The war was taking an unkind toll.
”You think I've been harsh, ” he said at last. ”You think I don't understand how hard you both work to protect our precious Republic.
You're very wrong. But you misjudged this situation from the outset and now Chandrila has paid the price. I very much doubt any of us can afford another misjudgment.
”Master Yoda?” said Palpatine, s.h.i.+fting his gaze.
Slumped over his gimer stick, looking even older than his nine hundred years, Yoda sighed. ”Put right this will be. On that you have my word as a Jedi. ”
”And I accept your word, ” said Palpatine. ”I don't deny you've disappointed me, Master Yoda-but I am not a man to hold a grudge.
We must put this unfortunate misstep behind us and go forward to victory. For I do believe victory is closer to hand than we might think. Indeed, I have every faith that the future I am working so hard to bring about will come to pa.s.s. ”
”Sadden me it does to know that disappointed you I have. Supreme Chancellor, ” said Yoda, lowering his head.
”I know, ” Palpatine said. ”And I have no fear you'll disappoint me again. In truth, I fear only one thing. Tell me, Master Yoda-can you bring Anakin safely home? I confess the thought of losing him is more than I can bear. ”
113.
”The Force is with him, and with Obi-Wan, ” Yoda said after a long silence. ”If to Coruscant they are meant to return, then return they will. ”
Palpatine sat at his vast, polished desk. ”And that, I suppose, is the best I can hope for. ” Briefly he pressed a hand to his eyes. ”Now, don't let me detain you any longer. You have much work to do, as have I. ”
Returning Yoda to the Temple, guiding his speeder along Coruscant's clogged slipstreams of traffic, Bail risked a personal question.
”Are you all right, Master?”
”This attack on Chandrila, ” Yoda said softly, rubbing his head. ”Created a great disturbance in the Force it has. Much fear and pain and sorrow do I feel. ”
He wasn't the only one. ”I knew Palpatine would be upset, but-I wasn't expecting him to he so aggressive. Were you?”
”The hope of billions has he become, ” said Yoda. ”Now look to him billions will and wonder if misplaced their hope is. ”
Such was the inevitable risk of being a popular leader. ”You didn't challenge him when he blamed us for his decision to rely on Obi-Wan and Anakin. ”
Yoda snorted. ”Neither did you. ”
”Politics?”
”Politics, ” Yoda agreed. And then he snorted again. ”Fond of politics I am not. ”
And on days like this. Master Yoda, neither am I.
Bail hesitated. ”I haven't told Tryn about the attack. Have you?”
”No, ” said Yoda, after a moment. ”But tell him I can, if see him now you cannot. ”
”No, I can see him, ” he said, feeling ill. ”I've made the time. I owe him that much. ”
Small in the pa.s.senger seat beside him, Yoda pursed his lips. ”Responsible for this calamity you are not, Senator. Your best you have done at every turn. Ask more than that no one can. Not Palpatine, not I, not Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi. Expect more of yourself than your best you should not. ”
It was wise advice. He wished it made him feel better about the decisions he'd made, but it didn't. On close approach to the Jedi Temple now, he throttled back and slid them into the almost empty Priority Alpha lane. Security chips beeped as the sensors recorded their positional s.h.i.+ft.
”You know, ” he said, almost to himself, ”not once growing up did I think there'd come a day when I'd hold men's lives in the palm of my hand. When I could tell a Jedi, Go risk your life there, and he'd go because he trusted me. We were at peace for so long. War was unthinkable. And now it's all I ever think about. Master Yoda. I've seen things-done things-that have changed me forever. I'm no longer the man my wife married. The man who walked into our Senate Building for his first session. ” He had to clear his throat. ”I'm afraid. ”
”Of what?” said Yoda, so gently, as they were swallowed by the shadows of the soaring Jedi Temple.
”Of forgetting the man I used to be. Of becoming someone who won't know how not to think of war. ”
Yoda shook his head. ”Fear that you should not, Senator. Lost that man has not been. Put aside, yes, while dark the times are. But lost?
No. Love you and know you do your wife and your friends. Let that man fall by the wayside they will not. ” And then Yoda smiled.
”Let him fall by the wayside I will not. For value that Bail Organa I do. ”
Stunned to grateful silence, Bail guided the speeder up and up until he reached Yoda's private landing platform. Then he and the Jedi Master made their way into the Temple.
”Informed I will keep you. Senator, regarding our a.s.sault on the planet, ” said Yoda.
”I'd appreciate it, Master, ” he said, bowing. ”And of course whatever intel my investigations uncover will be pa.s.sed to you straightaway. ”
114.
Yoda withdrew to take care of his pressing business, and Bail made his way to Tryn's underground lab.
”Bail!”
Tryn practically danced across the lab floor. The scientist was dressed in fluorescent green today, his lucky lab coat slung over a stool.
His long hair was messily confined with a length of string and his eyes were their natural color, a washed-out shade of blue. Clearly he hadn't shaved in several days, and from the jittery wildness in him Bail guessed his friend's diet consisted of not much more than very strong caf. When he'd last slept was anyone's guess.
”Bail, this is perfect timing, ” Tryn said, his voice raspy with fatigue. ”Because I'm there. Well, I'm almost there. I've identified the missing molecular sequence and I've tagged the essential properties required to complete the antidote. Now all I need to do is identify a source for those properties and...” He stepped back. The fervent light in his eyes faded, and with it his excitement. ”Bail, what's wrong?”
”Tryn...” He didn't want to revisit the horror or destroy his friend's fragile, fleeting triumph. He didn't want to be the man who brought Tryn's world cras.h.i.+ng down.
But I am that man. That's what I do now. To make my omelets I break other people's eggs.
”Durd's used the bioweapon on Chandrila. Maybe ten thousand are dead. ”