Star Wars - 210 - Jedi Prince 01 - The Glove of Darth Vader Read Free Page A

Rebel Alliance."
    As he listened, Threepio whispered to Artoo. "Oh, dear, I certainly don’t like the sound of this. No, I don’t like the sound of this at all."
    "The Central Committee of Grand Moffs has summoned you all here for this meeting to announce our new leader," said Grand Moff Hissa in a bellowing voice. "Even though Emperor Palpatine is dead, his line continues. For many years you have heard rumors that the Emperor had a son. But our departed Emperor and the Central Committee of Grand Moffs always denied those rumors, for reasons of Imperial security. However, today I am authorized to inform you that the Emperor did indeed have a son-a son who shall be our new chosen one!"
    The stadium was filled with gasps of shock and surprise at this revelation.
    "The Emperor’s son has lived among you on Kessel for many years now, keeping his true identity a carefully guarded secret," Grand Moff Hissa continued. "And now at last the time has come for the Emperor’s son to take his rightful place as heir to the Empire."
    "Who is the Emperor’s son?" shouted a grand admiral. There was a suspenseful moment of silence.
    Then a huge, black door suddenly opened, and a tall mutant dressed in black came out to face the gathering.
    "Friends of the Empire," Grand Moff Hissa announced, "I present to you the son of Emperor Palpatine-Trioculus, the Supreme Slavelord of Kessel!"
    But instead of cheering, a frightened hush crept through the crowd at the sight of the new ruler. Trioculus was known to be a ruthless and merciless slavelord, one who had sent many slaves to their deaths.
    Threepio could see that Trioculus looked powerful and threatening. But he was surprised that he wasn’t ugly like Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine had been. In fact, Trioculus was almost handsome. Except for one thing -Two of Trioculus’s eyes were right where Threepio expected them to be, on either side of his nose. However, it was Trioculus’s third eye, right in the middle of his forehead, that made him look rather unusual.
    Threepio bent down to talk quietly to Artoo. "A mutant-part human, part alien," he said.
    "Quite surprising. I’ve certainly never heard any gossip that Emperor Palpatine had a son by a three-eyed alien woman. Have you?"
    From Artoo’s beeps and buzzes, Threepio quickly learned many things he had never known before. For instance, Artoo’s data banks revealed that some old Imperial stormtroopers did believe that the Emperor had had a son with three eyes, a son who lived on Kessel. However, when the Rebel Alliance had investigated that story, no evidence had ever been found. Now, however, the Alliance would have to investigate the situation again. Artoo’s rapid beeps revealed more about Trioculus, information from Mon Mothma’s secret Affiance files on the slavelords of the Kessel spice mines.
    Trioculus had a reputation for being among the most evil and cruel of the Kessel slavelords, personality traits that developed when Trioculus was just a child. As the only mutant in his school on Kessel, he was teased and hit constantly by the other students who made fun of his third eye. Trioculus became obsessed with fighting back and taking revenge. He became the schoolyard bully, and he learned how to make his classmates fear him, by spying on them and reporting those who didn’t follow the rules. As Trioculus grew older, he studied the history of warfare and Imperial military tactics. That was when he had first become devoted to gaining total control over both his enemies and his friends.
    Trioculus had few friends. But it was the quality of his allies that counted, not the quantity. Through his study of warfare he had won friends among important Imperial officers-especially the spike-toothed Grand Moff Hissa, who respected Trioculus’s total loyalty to the Imperial cause.
    And so, as one of Grand Moff Hissa’s pets, Trioculus had come up from the ranks of overseers of the spice mines. Soon afterward, again with Grand Moff