The Sith Empress
by AJ Marks
Part 23
The senator sat down at his desk, the meeting had been more intense than he expected and a lot of arguing and disagreements. He looked over his messages to see what was going on. He noticed one in particular which normally one wouldn’t even look at but he knew who had sent it.
He was scared of the message considering the person who sent it was not happy with the way things were going. There were only so many thing he could control in a large congress.
He took a calming breath and deleted the message hoping he could see the President and perhaps force the issue. If not, he might be forfeiting his life.
*****
Leia sat at her desk wondering if things could get any worse. The latest intelligence had been the attack on the rim had included a destroyed city. She had sent that information off to Luke but hadn’t heard anything back. A knock indicated a visitor and she looked up to see a senator walk in.
“Madam President may I have a word with you,” he asked even as she sat down.
“Make it quick, there are a lot of pressing concerns to attend to,” Leia replied back to him.
“Has the committee agreed to meet with the Rizonians yet?” he asked.
“They’ve been meeting since we got out of the meeting, I hope they’ll have a decision soon. Why?” Leia asked looking up at the man.
“It’s just I’m not sure how long they will be interesting in meeting with us. There is a rumor that they are also interested in meeting with the Imperial forces as well, and if they meet them first, it could damage anything we say,” he said to her.
Leia could feel something had happened to the man due to how he was acting, but appeared to be thinking about the question for a few seconds before giving her reply.
“I can’t rush the committee too fast, it would make it look like I’m pushing my policies on them and they are just now starting to trust my decisions,” Leia said to him honestly. “We’ll have to trust them to make the right decision and quickly.”
“I hope they do,” he finally said, standing and leaving the room in a hurry.
“This is getting strange,” Leia said to herself wondering what was going on. She hoped she could gain some information, and the quicker the better.
*****
Gaia was pondering the visions she had trying to understand what they mean. They told her she had the power, but what power were they thinking of that she might have that a Sith Lord would not have? She felt sure that the other woman was more powerful than she was, so there had to be something she was missing.
The door opened to reveal Rizon walking into the room after a prolonged absence this time. There was the same wave of power which came with her and was unlike anyone she had ever seen before. She also felt something else, which she instinctively clamped down upon, an attraction to the tall powerful woman she couldn’t understand.
“And how are you today?” Rizon asked looking at Gaia, as if daring her to say something.
“Still a prisoner, if that’s what you mean,” Gaia replied.
“And you know you don’t have to be,” Rizon replied back, closing the distance between the two and pushing a lock of blonde hair behind an ear.
Gaia had to fight the urge to lean into the touch and repeated her mantra that this woman was evil and had done evil things even forcing her to do something.
“I will never be with you,” Gaia managed to spit out. Her mind firmly believed this but something deeper inside her soul laughed at her. It was dancing around at the fact the tall woman was touching her and craved even more contact. This attraction only seemed to be growing in strength.
“Never say never,” Rizon said her voice a low timbre, her face merely inches from Gaia’s. She realized it wouldn’t take much to kiss her, and had to resist that urge.
“Lord Rizon, there is a message for you,” the intercom buzzed, causing her to straighten and move away from Gaia.
“Well, it appears our time together this time has been cut short little one,” Rizon said turning and informing them she would be right there. With one last look she left the room leaving Gaia alone again never seeing the confused look in her eyes.
*****
Jessica entered the bridge and waited a second until the communications officer brought up the image and the image of a man appeared. She waited with what appeared patience for him to speak but she was waiting to see if she would kill the man or not.
“Darth Rizon,” he said respectively, a point in his favor for now.
“Report,” Jessica said.
“I hope to have the results in a few hours. The council is most difficult, add in some concerns over Frasis, and some are not eager to meet with you. Others are working in my favor,” the man replied.
“And what do you think their decision will be?” Jessica asked wanting to get to the point of the conversation. Personally she didn’t care if they agreed to meet with her, as long as it kept them busy.
“I think the advantages to meet with you outweigh the concerns,” the man replied.
“Excellent, make sure that is the direction the council goes,” Rizon said disconnecting the conversation before he could say anything else. She still needed the man for now and didn’t want to kill him yet. If she continued the conversation he might anger her, but he would have to be dealt with eventually. She turned to Tyi.
“Tyi, tell our operative on Coruscant to make sure everything is in position. I will be making another visit to our friend there,” Jessica said to Tyi watching as he went to carry out the order.
She briefly wondered if he was part of the rebellion planned against her at the moment. Of course that was another part of the problem with being Empress, someone was always trying to take her position and power which she had built up.
Then there was the Jedi they had captured. At first she wanted to make her lesson to the rest of the Jedi of what would happen to those who opposed her. Now, she had changed her mind and a new purpose for the blonde had come into her mind. Sure, the Jedi was cut, actually really cute if Jessica thought about it, and it wasn’t often she found herself attracted to anyone.
Jessica turned her attention back to the task at hand, the council of the New Republic. She wanted to meet with them to convince them she and her ‘people’ were peaceful and under attack. Is she could confuse the Republic enough they wouldn’t know where the attacks were coming from until it was too late. By then the Republic would be part of her growing empire followed by the remnants of the Imperial forces and whoever might dare stand in her way.
*****
Jessica made her way to the hangar of the ship to meet with the government leaders who had recently surrendered to her in her conquest of the planet. Once they realized she meant business they had quickly caved into her demands. Of course doing so had begun the training of her Jedi prisoner, doing two things at once.
With the thought of the small blonde Jessica felt a smile start to come onto her face, something she quickly wiped off. It would not be good to have her smiling about such a thing in front of the crew of the ship. She wanted that smile to invoke fear into the crew, make them think something was about to happen.
The shuttle was waiting to along with a couple of fighters which would escort it down. The two shuttle pilots almost jumped as she approached and bowed before heading to the cockpit of the shuttle to warm up the engines. Jessica knew they were proud and nervous to pilot her. Do a good job and she might recommend them for other jobs, do a bad job and she might execute the on the spot.
The shuttle lifted off and joined up with the fighters before heading down to the surface. She felt sure nothing would happen, but the escorts she couldn’t excuse, as several higher ups in her growing Empire recommended it. They were not willing to take the chance.
Jessica knew nothing would, she had beaten the people to submission. They would remain in line though fear of her. The flight was short as the shuttle landed on the planet’s surface rather quickly and landed smoothly.
She walked out of the shuttle and into the wind of the planet’s surface, blowing her blood red cloak in the wind along with her black hair. She knew she made an imposing figure as she looked at the small group in front of her.
The leader of the group was apparent right away, the one standing in the middle who the others seemed to look towards as Jessica approached. He looked back at her with hatred in his eyes. Jessica was unafraid of them or even of what they might do to her. She had guards around her, and she was a Sith Lord. Several of the others were already afraid of her, their fear strengthening her resolve.
In one move she ignited her lightsaber and in a flash of red beheaded the man in the middle. She felt the shock from the other delegates and one even fainted as the headless body fell to the ground. Others stared wide-eyes and a few of her own guards seemed to anticipate the move and remained motionless.
“There, not that I have your undivided attention, here are the terms of surrender, total surrender to me,” Jessica said, her voice as cold as ice.
Several members of the group were still too terrified to even move despite what they heard after what she had done. She continued to stare at them until they began to fidget a bit and they realized she was waiting for an answer.
“Total surrender?” one finally asked watching her shake her head yes. “I-I don’t know.”
“Its simple, either total surrender to me, or I destroy the entire surface of the planet, like Taris.”
The mentioning of the old world which had been completely destroyed by a Sith Lord centuries ago and even to this day was a wasteland seemed to snap the group into agreement. They looked at her and then at each other before slowly agreeing to her terms.
“Very well,” one finally said to her.
Jessica inwardly smiled at the surrender, but knew her first order of business would be to establish a new working government which was loyal to her. Of course that could be easy, the person either worked with her or died. Sometimes being a Sith was so much easier than the bulky system of the New Republic.
“Good, the new governor will be down shortly to take over,” Jessica told them, watching as their eyes went wide. She began heading back to the shuttle and stopped. “If you try to rebel, the next bombardment won’t stop until the planet is a wasteland.”
With that she moved onto the shuttle knowing she had proven her point to them by the fear which radiated off them. She had their complete attention and had a feeling they probably wouldn’t try anything, and they would be the ones to keep the others in-line.
Part of her also realized they probably would try something in the future, but by then she would be too powerful to stop. With a grin she informed the pilots to head back up to the ship. Her next course of action was to consider her next planet and, hopefully, a meeting with the new Republic. A meeting she hoped would keep them off guard until she was ready to engage them in open combat, and then it would be too late to stop her.
Things were moving along just as she planned. All she needed next was to convert a certain blonde-haired Jedi.
End part 23