“Cadet Tarkin, I’m Senator Palpatine.”
“I know who you are,” Tarkin said, shaking hands with him. “You represent Naboo in the Senate. Your homeworld and mine are practically galactic neighbors.”
“So we are.”
“I want to thank you personally for the position you took in the Senate on the bill that will encourage policing of the free trade zones.”
Palpatine gestured in dismissal. “Our hope is to bring stability to the Outer Rim worlds.” His eyes narrarowed. “The Jedi haven’t provided any support in dealing with the pirates that continue to plague the Seswenna?”
Tarkin shook his head. “They’ve ignored our requests for intervention. Apparently the Seswenna doesn’t rate highly enough on their list of priorities.”
Palpatine sniffed. “Well, I might be able to offer some help in that regard — not with the Jedi, of course. With the Judicials, I mean.”
“Eriadu would be grateful for any help. Stability in the Seswenna could ease tensions all along the Hydian Way.”
Palpatine’s eyebrows lifted in delighted surprise. “A cadet who is not only a very skilled pilot, but who also has an awareness of politics. What are the chances?”
“I might ask the same. What are the chances of a Republic senator knowing me on sight?”
“As a matter of fact, your name came up in a discussion I was having with a group of like-minded friends on Coruscant.”
“My name?” Tarkin said in disbelief as they began to amble toward the pilots’ ready rooms.
“We are always on the lookout for those who demonstrate remarkable skills in science, technology, and other fields.” Palpatine allowed his words to trail off, then said: “Tell me, Cadet Tarkin, what are your plans following graduation from this institution?”
“I still have another two years of training. But I’m hoping to be accepted to the Judicial Academy.”
Palpatine waved in dismissal. “Easily done. I happen to be personal friends with the provost of the academy. I would be glad to advocate on your behalf, if you wish.”
“I’d be honored,” Tarkin managed. “I don’t know what to say, Senator. If there’s anything I can do—”
“There is.” Palpatine came to an abrupt halt on the flight deck and turned to face Tarkin directly. “I want to propose an alternative course for you. Politics.”
Tarkin repressed a laugh. “I’m not sure, Senator …”
“I know what you must be thinking. But politics was a noble enough choice for some of your relatives. Or are you cut from so different a cloth?” Palpatine continued before Tarkin could reply. “If I may speak candidly for a moment, Cadet, we feel — my friends and I — that you’d be wasting your talents in the Judicial Department. With your piloting skills, I’m certain you would be an excellent addition to their forces, but you’re already much more than a mere pilot.”
Tarkin shook his head in bewilderment. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
“And why should you? Politics, however, is my area of expertise.” Palpatine’s relaxed expression became serious. “I understand what it’s like to be a young man of action and obvious ambition who feels that he has been marginalized by the circumstances of his birth. Even here, I can imagine that you’ve been ostracized by the spoiled progeny of the influential. It has little to do with wealth — your family could buy and sell most of the brats here — and everything to do with fortune: the fact that you weren’t born closer to the Core. And so you are forced to defend against their petty prejudices: that you lack refinement, culture, a sense of propriety.” He stopped to allow a smile to take shape. “I’m well aware that you’ve been able to make a name for yourself in spite of this. That alone, young Tarkin, shows that you weren’t born to follow.”
“You’re speaking from personal experience,” Tarkin risked saying after a long moment of silence.
“Of course I am,” Palpatine told him. “Our homeworlds are different in the sense that mine wished no part of galactic politics, while yours has long sought to be included. But I knew from early on that politics could provide me with a path to the center. Even so, I didn’t get to Coruscant fully on my own. I had the help of a … teacher. I was younger than you are now when this person helped me realize what I most wanted in life, and helped me attain it.”
“You …,” Tarkin began.
Palpatine nodded. “Your family is powerful in its own right, but only in the Seswenna. Outland forces will soon have the sector’s pirate pests on the run, and what will you do then?” His eyes narrowed once more. “There are larger fights to wage, Cadet. When you graduate, why not visit me on Coruscant? I will be your guide to the Senate District, and with any luck I’ll be able to change your mind about politics as a career. Unlike Coruscant, Eriadu hasn’t been corrupted by greed and the welter of contradictory voices. It has always been a Tarkin world, and it could become a beacon for other worlds wishing to be recognized by the galactic community. You could be the one to bring that about.”
As it happened Tarkin wouldn’t enter politics for many years, though he did accept Palpatine’s help in gaining admission to the Judicial Academy. There — and precisely as the senator from Naboo had predicted — his fellow cadets had initially viewed him as a kind of noble savage: a principled being with abundant energy and drive who had the misfortune of hailing from an uncivilized world.
In part, Tarkin’s father and the top echelon of the Outland Regions Security Force were to blame. Eager to impress the Core with their achievements and the fact that they were willing to contribute one of their finest strategists to the Republic, Outland’s leaders had personally delivered Tarkin to the academy in one of its finest warships, its glossy hull emblazoned with the symbol of the fanged veermok and Tarkin himself turned out in the full regalia of an Outland commander. His arrival caused such a stir that the academy’s provost marshal had mistaken him for a visiting dignitary — which, while certainly the case on worlds throughout the embattled Seswenna sector, carried no weight in the Core. Were it not for Palpatine’s influence once more, Tarkin might have been dismissed from the academy even before he had been enrolled as a plebe.
Tarkin understood that he had neglected to heed the lessons he had learned at Sullust and had committed a tactical blunder of the worst sort. Both on the Carrion Plateau and in Eriadu space he had grown so accustomed to flying boldly into confrontation and announcing himself with flourish and dash that he hadn’t stopped to consider the staid nature of his new testing ground. Instead of sowing chaos of the sort that had so often served his purposes on land and in deep space, he had succeeded only in rousing the instant scorn of his instructors and the ridicule of his fellow plebes, who took every chance to refer to him as “Commander” or to offer facetious salutes when- and wherever possible.
Early on, the derisive teasing led to brawls, which he mostly won, and also to disciplinary action and demerits that sentenced him to remain at the bottom of the class. That a plebe could be expelled from the Judicials for standing up for himself was something of a revelation, and perhaps he should have seen it as emblematic of the stance the Republic itself would adopt in the coming years, when its authority would be challenged by the Separatists. But he couldn’t keep himself from answering fire with fire. Gradually he came to suffer the mockery of his peers without resorting to retribution, though demerits would continue to accrue owing to mischief making and impulsive outbursts. Even so, he refused to allow himself to be cut down to size, choosing instead to bide his time and wait for an opportunity to show his peers just what he was made of.
Halcyon would prove to be that opportunity.
A Republic member world located in the Colonies region, Halcyon was suffering a crisis of its own. A cold-blooded group of would-be usurpers clamoring for the planet’s right to manage its own affairs had abducted several members of the planetary leadership and was holding them hostage at a remote bastion. After attempts at negotiation had been exhausted, the Republic Senate had granted permission for the Jedi to intervene and, if necessary, to employ “lightsaber diplomacy” to resolve the crisis. Tarkin was chosen to be one of the eighty Judicials the Senate ordered to attend and reinforce the Jedi.