Life is a journey, a path on itself...

To have a twittering droid around me was a joy I had never imagined. Nerny was a lively personality and seemed to be fond of me. I lived quite up in his presence. Despite I refitted the droid with extra programming, so he could me of help in many situations. I had no idea what I would face along the road of life, and a mechanical companion was not wrong to have. Nerny updated himself with all sort of information he liked or needed. Most my questions were answered along he knew. In the street they knew I had come to live among them, but who I was they didn’t know yet. I was observed from the nearby houses; especially the mothers knew my moves. I made no attempt to get in contact with them. I had no idea how they would response to contact from my side. After two weeks of quiet I felt a presence in the Force suddenly, I knew what it meant; a Jedi had arrived from hyperspace in system and was now on the way toward the spaceport of Theed. It was probably a meeting with the Queen of Naboo, who I had never met. Most of the time it was a meeting of some significance. From my study at the first floor I tapped into the camera systems of the city and did some research around the palace. It was a little strange to peek around in a place like that, but I had done before. Where first the risk was to be blocked out, it wouldn’t happen. My ID code was accepted as it was, because the old code for my great-grandfather’s dark identity was never erased from all core systems. Even with new created systems it was build in. If someone discovered it, they would find the old dark lord alive again. But my ID was protected against tracking.

It took an hour before the Jedi representative was presented before the Queen. It was a formal business and the young Queen spoke with wisdom and diplomacy. The Jedi was a familiar face, but directly one I really knew. A search in my memories called up about an article I had read years back in a newspaper on my datapad. The media weren’t around here, but I doubted that by the end of the day not was known a Jedi visited Naboo. The Jedi had been sent for a clarification in an old case. The case said me nothing, but Naboo’s presence seemed to be necessary in the Senate on Coruscant. And for that the Queen herself had to come, as head of a governmental body, not merely a senator as representative of the planet. I closed the connection soon the meeting was over, more interesting wasn’t there. Yet a long time I thought about the visit. The Jedi wouldn’t send one of them to ask the Queen to come to Coruscant, if the matter of decision in the Senate wasn’t important. Perhaps it would be interesting to take a look on Coruscant, see what this decision was about.

The departure of the Queen and the Jedi was the same day, and I followed a couple of hours later with my own freighter and Nerny aboard. I knew the coordinates to Coruscant. I hid myself in the Force, so the Jedi couldn’t detect me. The ship of the Naboo Queen was easily to follow with its active IFF transponder. I had the equipment aboard to know. Tracking was not that hard in Coruscant’s traffic, and the Senate buildings were in the ruling area. I had only one problem and that was I had no legitimate place to stay in the Ambassadors section. I knew where the Queen stayed, but not where I could have the stay of a few days. But there was still a section to where the code on my ID card automatically responded to. And I took that place, not knowing where elsewhere to camp. The building was deserted, but kept secured over the time it was uninhabited. Inside the Force I could feel the residue of the last occupant, it was strong with anger mostly, someone who hadn’t stayed here with pleasure at all. I grimaced about it, but it felt not wrong. Rather it responded to my own pain, what I had deeply buried away inside myself. The light in my eyes changed variably to a more dense state and more alert. That night I slept troubled, plagued by my memories about my mother. But in the morning when the sunlight fell in my bedroom I remembered myself nothing of it. I felt tired and I had a headache. Nerny who had been present all night, beeped me a good morning. I greeted him back, and went out of bed to get myself a good bath and after that a good breakfast. The rest of the morning I remained on edge. I did meditation exercises to relax myself. I went off to see how large the building really was. A level lower was a medical facility and a training area. The living quarters were on the top floor, the reception quarters were four levels lower, but there was not much around. The personal docking bay was far more interesting with all sorts of vehicles that were stored there. Most was military and once highly advanced, but after many years out of date. It was all designed for a man with the Force at his side. I took an old model air speeder, DC0052, but there were more choices around. It had a good aerial view from the cockpit and had excellent maneuver capabilities in the air. I used to make a reconnaissance round in the Ambassadors and Senate section. The security droids registered me, but did nothing, as the transportation number was familiar to them. There where I came, I was let through. I knew it called up a lot of questions and disturbances, I ignored it.

Entering the tightly secured Senate building wasn’t difficult either. I accessed myself to the Senate itself and kept quiet waiting in a pod of the Senate Chamber, or at least at its docking place. The berth wasn’t assigned to any system, so empty thus and a good place for me to watch the senate meeting. With the senators and other leaders from planets around the Senate was a real life and buzzing place inside the Force. Although I kept myself from using it, practically it spoke back to me and that was difficult to ignore. The auditory system in the chamber was good and who ever spoke was understandable. All background noises were filtered out. I watched and listened to the President, a man whose face I could not see. I was alone, dressed in dark tunics and cape to hide my features from curious persons. I rather kept invisible. The question was really if the Galactic Alliance had to stay as it was, or become a republic again? It was an interesting fact what happened here. The feelings were spread largely and for the first time I saw things were not as well as it looked on the outside. The Jedi were around and there was peace, but there was much turmoil in the chamber. It overwhelmed me quite and I was distracted for a few moments.
When my head cleared the decision had been taken and the chancellor was speaking to them with soothing words. A frown appeared on my face, because what I felt in the Force was so opposite he spoke. Did the man truly believe what he said? Or did he have some kind of scheme? For a reason unknown to me I was reluctant to acknowledge what he said. Most of the Senators were unsure about the strength of the Republic, the fractions were scattered and none really agreed on the course of the Republic. A governing body had to know what it wanted, keeping debating was not okay. That was how the Old Republic ended, when the Emperor spoke the words of reorganizing the Galactic Empire. And to that body I answered, although the Empire was not anymore what it once was. The Alliance kept being what it was for now.

I had just watched it, the Senate meeting. I kept myself out of the spotlights, while cameras flew over for the latest news on the Holonet. The media were present everywhere. But the people of the Republic had the right to know what was decided here. It was a democracy, other than the Empire. I was not really used to live under democratic laws. And then these laws didn’t apply to me, as I figured, being Imperial. A slight smile crept over my face, but was instantly gone also. The chancellor and his aides vanished into their own private chambers and the doors closed behind them. All the senators left their pods and dispatched to other duties. My neighbours left the identical way. A long time I sat there, thinking about what I knew of the history of the galaxy and what all had happened in the last hundred years and more. My family had been greatly involved in the past. I knew that voices were around that I would become some prominent person in the future, good or evil. Now I lived in pretty anonymity under my own name, but I knew it would not remain always so. It was a reason why my parents never had a real home to live. The media were always hunting my father, but I now knew why. Back in my childhood years I hadn’t known. Not that they had kept their marriage a secret, nor that they had even concealed my existence. I was never really bothered by them, because one encounter with me had resulted into a deadly campaign. In the media I carried the name being ruthless. I had more dead on my name than publicly was known. I felt no remorse when I killed somebody, nor when I wielded my lightsaber. I kept only watching myself that I wouldn’t come to enjoy killing, which would be a step further on the dark path that laid already out for me.

I went off toward the dining facility I had been with the sightseeing tour last time I visited Coruscant. But now I was with a different reason. The waiters served a large company of persons and no tables were left free for a single person. I was not pleased with that and faced the head of the kitchen that I wanted something and I didn’t want to go to another dining place. With some persuasion from the Force I got my dinner and consumed it at the bar. I ignored the few Jedi who were watching me. It was not all that easy to keep an uninterested posture. It felt to me today that the Force wouldn’t let me go when I tried to severe myself from it. There was an under layer of danger and it came from the Jedi, who like to investigate who I really was. I finished my dinner and returned to the docking bay and left the Senate building for my temporary quarters here on Coruscant. On my way back I was followed by a strange speeder, but that veered off when I neared my home and got inside. In the evening I did some training in the training facility at the second level. There was much interesting stuff around and I tried everything out, learning more about the balance between my calm and my anger. The toys had once belonged to a dark lord and were meant for dark side training. I used them in both ways, for the light and dark. Emotions were just a part of me; I couldn’t deny what was supposed to be bad. I was a human being, an own entity. For the outside world I was a danger I noticed when I prepared to go to bed and watched the Holonews. The media had found out I was here and thus thicken the news quite with all possible guesses they could come up with. The article warned also for me, since it was not really known on whose side I was. And that I had found my refuge here was considered as a bad sign. None could stay long here, before becoming corrupted or getting crazy, because of the dark side around here. But it bothered me not much. Living according the dark side was a decision, just like living along the light side was. I made no commitments to some kind of way of live. I wanted to live on my own and have my own life.