"So the fault was the Emperor's, is that what you're saying?"
"No, Commander. I suppose I'm saying that we all do what we must to remain safe."
"Apparently he was right to place them." Mara sniped, though there was no real heart in it, and they both fell to contemplative silence, watching the new day creep into being. Eventually Mara shook her head, "He shouldn't have given Luke free passage into the Outer Rim."
"No." Hallin agreed quietly. It had advanced all their plans so much; had made them ready where otherwise they may have floundered this soon.
Mara still scowled at the sunrise, "But I watched him so carefully... I know that the incoming officers and personnel on Project Redress weren't particularly known to him."
"He knew you were watching." Hallin said simply. Now, with all the risks and duplicity done and Luke still here, he felt strangely sorry for her, caught between torn loyalties and values, struggling to come to terms with the changes she had at once desperately desired and dreaded. It softened his voice, this comprehension, old enmities forgotten behind the realization that she was as trapped as he was on this rollercoaster ride. And it had been, in the end, her comm that had saved Luke when she could so easily have stood and watched him die, knowing what he'd done to Palpatine. Or simply walked away; safeguarded her own future and been long gone before the truth was out.
But despite all Hallin's reservations she'd come through; called for help from the few whom she knew would be loyal- and he had to respect her for that. So she deserved some kind of explanation.
"But he was still using the project to hide the movement of officers and units of the 701st around between the two Fleets, and to advance those mid-level officers into positions of power when their seniors were required on Project Redress. He was also breaking up perceived hot-spots of entrenched officers loyal to the Emperor, splitting them up and moving them around ostensibly to cover the vacant posts. Everyone was looking at who he brought in, so he always brought the right specialists for the job... but no-one checked who replaced them in the Fleet, or where they were returned to. And it was possible to hide a percentage of loyal mid-level Core Fleet officers in the turnover and have them bled back out into both fleets, Core and Rim. Then he need only supply his father with the names of those who he wished to see advance in the Rim Fleet. The turnover of personnel was expected to be massive in order to complete a project of that size, especially when he was supposedly ramping up construction."
"All the while he was routing loyal personnel into positions of power- building his own private little army." Right under her nose. She'd been charged to watch who he tried to make contact with, where he went, when he spoke to the high-ranking staff he appointed to the station, courting their loyalty- it had never even occurred to her to look too closely at where they came from or who replaced them.
But of course he never showed the slightest interest in the station- never went much further than the management offices when he was there, dividing his time between them and his office on the Patriot. They always seemed a hive of activity based on the figures and the charts, personnel and ordnance streaming through... and he spent so long with the Ops officers when he was there - mid-level officers he'd placed, people he trusted to carry out his orders to the letter - having reams of information sent up to his office on the Patriot, reading through and correcting and reassigning and checking... she'd actually been in the room when he'd done it! Watched him sign off whole groups of personnel, splitting them up to re-integrate them back into the Fleets- using the whole masive project as a glorified staging house to disseminate pre-existing militia.
She'd been watching the shadows and he'd been working in the plain light of day.
"And Project Redress?" she finally asked, sure now that Luke wouldn't have handed it back over to the Emperor as completely as it would seem.
"He had someone in mind." Hallin allowed, "From the Rim fleet. But he'd not set that in motion yet. We... thought we had time - another year at least - this is all rather premature."
An empty laugh came to Mara's lips, "You even had a deadline." She should be angry, outraged, as she had been yesterday morning... was it only yesterday? But the passion was spent, only a numb weariness remaining, relief blunting her guilt... and the realization that if it had to happen, the truth was that this was the outcome she would have wanted.
"Not so much a deadline as a direction. " Hallin admitted, "We have, I think, a very interesting year ahead of us."
Mara turned sharply, "You know what he's going to do?"
Hallin shrugged, "I don't think anybody quite knows what Luke's going to do, as yesterday evidenced. But I have a good idea... and faith."
She turned slowly, watching the dawn light over a new Empire.
"And you Commander- what will you do now?" Hallin asked quietly, his words carrying far greater import than he realized, Mara knew.
"I guess that depends on Luke." she said neutrally, aware that her access to him may be quickly curtailed if they knew the truth. Luke hadn't yet regained consciousness so no-one knew all the facts- that her actions had instigated this; her betrayal.
Only yesterday, he had stood on the landing platform and told her that his fate was in her hands... in the turn of one day, she was intensely aware that the opposite was now true.
She sighed, pushing the thought away, unable to even consider it yet. "What will you do?"
Hallin shrugged, picking at the balustrade again, "I suppose we have a coronation to organise." He laughed disbelievingly, "Is it called a coronation with an Emperor? I have no idea."
"You'd better learn, Hallin." Mara said, wondering if he realized just how much everything was about to change, "Because that man back there is about to step center-stage... and you know as well as I do that it's not where he wants to be. I can guarantee that 'very interesting year' of yours will start the moment he wakes up."
.
.
.
In the event everything went smooth as glass, the carefully-arranged annexing surprising Mara in its orderly execution... and its extent. In a calculated act of assured standing, the military were the first to officially know, emphasis being placed on securing and stabilising the Empire when the news was made public, and of the military's reassuringly significant role in this.
As such, the subtle insinuation of continued status assured that there was the barest ripple in the military, such was his support, and though there was an uneasy murmur through Court and the Royal Houses, those who had supported Skywalker now came quickly to the fore, knowing their day had come and that they had a vested interest in making the turnover as smooth - and as permanent - as possible.
One of the major houses supporting the new Emperor with applied zeal, Reece noted, was the D'Arca's, Lady Kiria's standing bolstered significantly by her whispered association with Reece. They'd already requested a private audience, and based on the quick glance Reece had glimpsed of the notes on Reece's automemo before he'd blanked the screen, it seemed that they were high in line when such things became possible again.
All members of the Red Guard were quietly reassigned in small groups to outlying barracks within ten hours of the Emperor's death, to be replaced by members of the 701st and the 501st shipped down from the orbiting Patriot and the returned Executor, Reece wishing to take no chances though there had pointedly been no allusion that Palpatine's death was anything other than natural when it was finally confirmed.
Regular announcements were released over the HoloNet for the next two weeks, accompanied by three short pre-recorded pieces from the new Emperor assuring that everything was in hand.
No-one knew of course that the images were pre-recorded, and every effort was made to keep it that way; they'd been shot against a plain, dark backdrop with no clue as to where it was, carefully-chosen words always spoken in the present tense, just vague enough to cover any circumstance, referring to the need for calm during this transition; for solidarity. But hinting at more; a new age, an opportunity to be grasped, the potential for reform.