On board Greymist, in orbit above Scillal

They weren't as stupid as I hoped though. They had a force-sensitive on board.

And a type I hadn't encountered till now.

Twi'lek, but colored deep red. Metal discs on her belt. Possibly telekinetic and certainly telepathic.

Oh well. I was always open to meeting pretty girls.

"White fog Luxum. They have a telepath" I said, doing the same.

"Kriff. I knew something will go wrong, eventually." The maid muttered, a hand going for the lightsaber she didn't have anymore.

"Be back in a few hours" I added, as I entered the transit tube.

On board Centrality cruiser Intractable

I was met by two officers, in red and black uniforms, and a platoon of marines, wearing light armors and carrying blasters. Yeah, that would be really useful against power armor.

"Errr. Emperor Pef is coming too?" One officer asked cautiously, noticing me staying afloat, and the menacing armor.

"I am Pef. Conference room?" I replied politely, and started floating towards the nice room they had for admirals and such. The ship's systems were already under my control, including gravity and the air they breathed.

And they had thousands of droids on board as well, from tiny mouses to repair models and astromechs.

I was basically at home.

The marines ran after us, clutching their pitiful guns with tensed hands.

This might be pretty easy, after all. These people haven't fought a war in a thousand years.

And most of the galaxy hadn't either. Like candy from babies.

Now let's see, Vette likes to drink some sort of ultra sweet juice. Have a droid bring some to my new telepathic friend.

By the time I arrived in the conference room, a protocol droid came in and placed a cup in front of the twi'lek.

She has seen combat before though. Scars and burns, and a wary presence, always conscious of surroundings. The droid surprised her, since it wasn't alive to be felt with telepathy. You kinda need technopathy instead.

Now, decrypt the payment charts. Laasti Vera, Zeison Sha auxiliary, payment grade at Captain levels, triple bonus for high risk mission, paid in advance. Well, at least they did take me seriously.

Huh, I knew a little about the Zeison Sha sect, just that they were strong enough to have resisted assimilation by the Jedi, Palpatine's Empire and the Vong. Pretty much do it yourself type of people.

I offered a short bow, and gestured at the drink.

"My compliments, Miss Laasti Vera. I hear such drinks are highly regarded by beautiful twi'leks" I said, remaining afloat in front of the table. Thin rails on the chairs. Way below the resistance necessary to support power armor weight.

"You could take a seat Emperor. This might take some time"

"Power armor is kinda heavy" I replied amused.

"You could take it off. Make yourself comfortable. I assure you, you aren't in any danger"

"Of course not, Miss Vera. Wearing this version of power armor, I could withstand point-blank nuclear detonations." I explained truthfully. I could indeed survive quite fine.

"Yes, about those horrible detonations. Are you able to recall how they happened Emperor?"

"I fought with some crazy magicians. I think a number of them may have escaped. My bodyguard may have missed some" I answered, being truthful, but not too much.

The twi'lek turned towards her handlers, and gestured up and down with the eye that wasn't facing me.

Cool trick. Only I could see what the droid in the room saw as well.

Hmmm. She was still reading me somehow. Hide in shadows and mind shield. The fog wasn't enough.

The twi'lek took a long pause and sipped her drink. Seems I was spot on. She really liked it.

"It is very good juice. Lowers certain inhibitions in twi'leks. Perhaps even beautiful ones" my interrogator said, amused.

Damn it. What was the crazy girl drinking on my money? Just made a fool of myself.

I gestured a shrug, feigning being innocent. "I wouldn't know. Never been a twi'lek in my life."

She let that go and tried something else. "So, I heard you're the richest Emperor in the galaxy. And presumably Immortal as well. What are your plans regarding the properties you hold in the Centrality. You do represent a foreign power, after all. Planet Gand, I believe?"

"Immortal is just a title. There are beings who have lived longer than me, after all. Croke species for example, can reach 20 millenia in age. I'm barely half that. I guess, we'll have to wait and see." I explained politely, holding a datapad aloft with telekinesis, and turning on the holo news.

Hmmm. Planet Tund was just quarantined, by a large Centrality Navy force. A few Jedi on site.The sorcerers had been declared a nation wide threat, and everyone and everything was looking for them, and droids were sifting through the radioactive ruins.

The girl exchanged a worried look with the intelligence officers. Probably the interview didn't go exactly as they planned.

"Did you intervene to prevent the mass murder of our citizens, Emperor Pef? You're clearly highly able in the force and otherwise" the Zeison Sha wondered, eying my datapad again. Now she noticed I didn't use my hands to turn on the holos. A bit late, but not bad.

"Yes. I acted to prevent a genocide. Multiple ones, in fact. I would do my empire no good if billions of refugees start flooding our borders. However, the croke who impersonated that fat guy escaped. Maybe we should act together in this. I do hold many valuable properties in Centrality after all. It would be a pity to have to move them elsewhere." I said, baiting my hooks. One of them should catch something.

"Like most of our shipyards, here in Scillal. 16 billion families depend on those jobs" the older officer spoke, now for the first time. Mister Collin, you'd make a great officer someday. In my navy.

Here it comes. My own offer. "I was thinking to request Centrality citizenship, for tax purposes. Maybe public office too, one day" I mused aloud. The man perked up, his brain lighting up in my senses. Okay then. He's smart enough to see where this is going.

"Do you know the name of the croke, Emperor Pef? We'll need to apprehend that individual as soon as possible. We suspected, but never had a clear line to him." the officer asked, now very polite.

I nodded. "His name is Rokur Gepta. Generally hides in the ankles of his impersonations. Blood samples taken from ears or finger tips should work, if you're doubtful. He was also interested in the Sharu and the Oswalt. And, not for science." I concluded, focusing my senses on the twi'lek woman. She glanced at her boss and nodded. Great!

Having the Centrality intelligence go on a hunt for that croke maniac might train them for what is to come. That Sith monster had killed billions of sentients before. And will do so again, if not for my intervention.

"All right then. The Centrality owes you gratitude for your help, Emperor. I certain that a person of your talents may someday hold office in Centrality as well. One planet may seem too small, even if you did terraform it to class I, in two months no less..." Captain Collin said, shaking my armored hand and gesturing towards the door.

"I'll need a minute with our telepathic auxiliary" I requested politely, printing the codes, all four of them, and gliding the datapad in the twi'lek's hands.

Vera read everything on the screen once, then again, memorizing the verses. Then, looked at me with tears in her eyes and floated the datapad back to me, while nodding slightly. She will come. I wouldn't run around recruiting people, but if I met a new sect, at least I could give them a heads up.

Planet Scillal, Scilla megalopolis, Scillal Designs headquarters.

25BBY

"Have a seat, honored board members. I'll let you know why I visited here in person. First, we're opening a hundred new, smaller shipyards. They will produce a new model of corvette, with a single capital-class turret on top, a medium turret underneath, and ten quad lasers pointdefese turrets. In addition, the ship will have 20 missile launchers, each with an autoloading magazine of 10 concussion missiles. Our company has obtained an exclusive contract with the Pef Navy, for a minimum of 10 thousands units." I explained to the new board, half of whom were foremen and engineers I selected from the workforce, and the rest fresh graduates of business and administration universities. They watched me with surprised faces.

"Emperor Pef. We're very glad you giving us such a prosperous contract. But, we already have our ten shipyards building the larger class of Akorec frigates, and we have ongoing contracts with Centrality Navy for the next generation." A young man, trying to keep himself calm said, with a curious tone.

"And they pay us 5 millions credits for a frigate, and we sell maybe one hundred of them annually, when we can sell the corvettes for 1 million each, and sell at least a thousand every year. That's a billion credits instead of 500 millions. Plus, the contract mentions bonuses for rapid delivery and quality checks, up to 80% increase in salaries for all our workers. If the Centralian Navy can match the Empire's prices we might accommodate them, but otherwise, I'm afraid they'll have to buy ships elsewhere." I replied sternly, pointing at the hologram with the schematics and profit margins.

"This Dakka corvette you have designed, appears to be intended to be used against massed starfighter formations. Who is your new Empire planning to fight, Emperor Pef?" the same man wondered, his eyes focused on the ships' holo schematics, and his mind focused on calculating damage output.

"Hordes of droid starfighters and hordes of fighter class bioships. Ranging from 5 to 15 meters in length. That stays in this room though. If my Empire falls, the Centrality will be next. Now, the next contract. Pef Empire offers to sell us binary explosives for the concussion missiles at a third of price below going rate on galactic market. Safer and cheaper. Anyone against this?" I asked, a little amused.

"N-no. It does seem very safe. And a good deal anyway" A foreman declared, his aura reflecting tiny flashes of terror, since this very conference room has seen the former board resist being fired. And then terminated by the security droids.

"Good. Now, something else. Another company of mine is being opened in the Pef Empire exclusion zone, and starting a number of capital class shipyards. And they're willing to hire any experienced workers and engineers with at least 10 years experience, at triple of current salary, plus relocation premiums. Ask around our workers here, some of them might want to live a better life." I added, turning to leave.

The man with many questions hesitated for a second, then rose from his seat and followed me out. Smart man.

"Mister Gramia. I suspect you desire the new job?" I asked amused.

"Yes. And I'll talk with a few of my former colleagues in the engineering department. I really want to work on a real battleship, not the tin-cans we sell to the Centrality. Plus, triple pay! My girl has high maintenance costs." he said, blushing a bit, his aura eager and embarrassed at same time.

I hoped he didn't have a blue twi'lek fiancee. Star destroyers were even higher maintenance.

I checked my partitions, hacking his social media account. Red hair, blue eyes, full lips, and quite pretty human girlfriend. Was Scarlett Johanson in the movies? Lucky bastard.

I checked on my own escort. Luxum was busy emptying a local mall of anything she fancied. We might need a cargo ship just to carry her stuff. Sigh. Buying a cargo ship then.

What else? At the shipdock, a scared red twi'lek was waiting for me, without her Intelligence escort.

I said goodbye to my recruit and went to meet the next. Manpower is also a strong superpower. Just need to hire the right people.

On board HMS Greymist, Planet Scillal

"Have a seat, pretty lady. Sadly, there are no crew onboard who required drinking, so.. I can't offer you anything" I said, faking an apology and kneeling for a breathing exercise. Eh, let's send a droid to buy some drinks, not like it mattered cost-wise. Celebrating life and all that.

"I didn't come for drinks. The second code seemed to be Old Jedi, and the last was the Ruusan Jedi. What were the other two?" Vera asked, choosing to kneel on Luxum's pillow.

Should I tell her it was meant for my Maids? Maybe later.

"Well, the first is a code I put together from Je'daii teachings, the original force sect who vanished about 25 millenia ago. The third is the Dark Jedi code or Sith, as they call themselves. My old order didn't have poetry, they just did things, with experiments and cleverness." I answered, lowering the white fog and the mind-shield.

And then, I felt it. The beginning of a bond, tentative and feeble. Teacher to student. What do you know? Vera trusted me!

"And your order was destroyed, ten millennia ago? What was it called?" the red twi'lek asked, pulsing a strange ability, almost like seeing from shadow, but not quite. She had nice skills. Yummy.

I feigned sadness and regret. "Ordu Aspectu. The Jedi massacred them all."

"But you survived. And here you are, Immortal in the Force. Just like every single code says. And powerful beyond belief. Even when opening yourself, you're still mostly hidden and shrouded, impervious to my mind." Vera argued.

"I was lucky. A series of unlikely accidents, ship crashing, the bioweapons keeping the Jedi away, and the Cosmic Force experiment succeeding after thousands failed. And then, a divine force interfering and restarting my consciousness here, in this age." I said truthfully. Well, not sure about luck...

"Can I see it? How it is supposed to look like, when is not a failed experiment in this Cosmic force?" Vera asked with hope in her aura and voice.

Should I? Nope. But I did have the soulsnare.

"I can show you an almost complete experiment. This is a Sith spirit, living inside a Cosmic force crystal. Comparable to holocrons AI and Force ghosts, but material as well. But not actually a Sith holocron, those use the Living Force" I told her, bringing the soul snare close, for inspection.

The Zeison Sha adept examined the crystal for hours, testing a hundred tricks with the Force, most of those failing to connect.

She didn't know mind drain, so she used a force bond to interrogate the Sith.

"A sorcerer of Tund. She says you killed her brothers..." she started to say, when I cut the connection and took it away. The Sith saw too much perhaps.

"The Sith mix lies with truth all the time. They attacked me first. Not that mental domination would work on me, but whatever. They will learn their lesson" I said, faking a little anger.

Still telling only the truth, if not everything.

"You're still hiding things, even when being open. Why?"

"I have to be cautious. The current Dark Lord of the Sith is now a leader in the Galactic Republic. Another Sith, Count Dooku is forming a Secessionist movement in the Inner Rim. And another Sith, that Gupta is trying to take over the Centrality. There's a huge war coming." I whispered in fake fear.

"They're taking over the galaxy, and trying to start a genocide of the Jedi, and then impose their own teachings. Form another Sith Empire..." Vera mused in low voice, observing me with a strange focus.

Another ability? I gotta learn some of those force abilities, they looked quite useful.

"And exterminate all other force users, while at it. They don't share the force, these Dark Jedi..." I answered, just as my shard maid returned and noticed her pillow being conquered by someone else.

Was that a pout in my shard's aura? Cute.

"We have visitors, I see. I am Luxum, Honored Maid in Pef Empire" she proclaimed, shaking her droid's hand with the bewildered twi'lek.

"Laasti Vera. Neophyte of Zeison Sha. Amazing power armor, by the way." Vera complimented her, and blinked confused trying to read the shard through the force.

"Yes. Emperor Pef built it around me. Better than any money can buy." Luxum preened while showcasing her armor.

"Not from Ordu Aspectu, I think?" Vera probed while glancing from me to Luxum.

"Oh no. I'm not even two thousand years old. Just a teenager, compared to the Emperor. Then again, mostly everyone is." said Luxum, while copying my patented shoulder shrug. She learns the strangest things...

"Yes...a two thousand years maid, makes sense" Vera answered, with a shake of red leku. Mesmerizing in a alien kind of beauty. Great, I like her.

My droid returned with some drinks, and placed a crate with bottles beside Vera.

"Pick whatever, I don't usually travel with organic beings on board." I said softly, gesturing at the crate.

"Are all your Maids this, special, Emperor?" my red guest asked, after digging through the crate and having trouble deciding. I really should learn what the main species drink in this galaxy. My droid picked the first twenty bottles from the top of the menu. Let's hope they're potable.

"Oh not at all. Dora is a green twi'lek, Vette is a blue twi'lek, Lira is a togruta, Celine is human and Wialu is ... human, perhaps?" Luxum said, with a tone of doubt in her droid voice.

"I never asked. She looks human..." I replied with a shrug.

"Corellian Brandy? A bottle costs 10 thousand credits..." Vera wondered, taking a sip from the bottle.

"So? I made a billion credits by my second month. The Emperor is stupidly rich..." Luxum explained, opening a box full of life crystals and nova crystals and a hundred other crystals, picking them one by one and admiring them. Girls, whatever universe or species, glittering things drew them like...huh? Did Luxum do the hook for me?

"The Maids are your wives, or concubines or what?" Vera asked, dangling from the line already.

"Hmmm. Regular maids...somewhere between a lover and an admiral and household guard. The Voices are much more. They speak with my Voice after all. Prime ministers plus wives or such. They get to live forever, too." I answered with a light tone, the hook already sunk too deep to let the beauty escape.

"Very interesting. Got room for one more Voice?" the red twi'lek asked, drinking some courage from her bottle. And sinker!

"Perhaps. We'll see how you do as my adored Maid first, pretty girl" I replied politely, noticing another percent increase in my force connection. The breathing helped, but drawing from emotions helped as well. Maybe just as much.

Emotion and peace eh?

I'll have to look for that pretty zabrak, Ventress. A bit of passion might help as well.

My new Maid was getting drunk fast but she nodded at me, feeling safe and content now.

"Come here and give me a hug Vera. I can heal your scars." I said softly, drawing Vera towards me with telekinesis, till she hung from my armor, like a little girl lost in the woods.

Luxum sat rapidly on her pillow, and watched the twi'lek's scars and traumas slowly being smoothed over and repaired, while the girl slept in my arms.

"You're gonna need a bigger ship, Pef." my Iron Maid said, after the healing was over and Vera was laid to rest and sleep on a pillow.

I was planning just that. A very big ship.

En route to planet Gand, in hyperspace.

Sixth month.

My tour of the Centrality and my numerous holdings came to an end, two weeks after recruiting my newest Maid.

The library I obtained on Oseon from Mutdah, the obese guy with strange tastes, was packed up and sent to my Empire, to form the basis of Sanctuary's Celestial Library.

A hundred large transport vessels and a few hundred luxury yachts and expensive speeders and repulsor craft, were sent as well back to the Empire, to be reverse engineered and add to my ever increasing knowledge of star wars technology.

And I sensed the Findsman who landed on Korriban die, though I couldn't sense what killed him.

I will probably have to go myself, once I felt a little more confident with the force abilities possible in this universe.

And they were pretty much anything you could think of, and thousands more that would never cross you mind.

The Empire expansion has stalled in my absence though, only two new planets signing treaties of mutual defense and port rights for our navy.

Vette and Celine had become minor celebrities instead, for clearing out pirates and slavers, and for selling heartbreaking songs records respectively. I even seen some holo reports about them, in the Centrality media.

My Honored Maid title has become a cultural icon now. Like the Nobel prize.

The Force did work in mysterious ways. My biggest failures may turn out to be the biggest wins.

And Vette had a lot more of those strange cult around her, encouraging her to act even more audacious. Good grief! Like she needed encouragement to turn the world upside down. Those must have been her special project friends.

Maybe I should trust my Maids more. Every time I picked one, there had been a slight tremor in the Force, like destiny changing or something. Maybe not all of them will be my ambassadors and diplomats.

Everyone had a role in the force, and I might not be the main character in this play.

Huh? There it was again, meditation thought waves, a certain Force resonance, whenever I got lost exploring the Force's will.

Barely lasted a few seconds, but I felt rested and more balanced, for some reason.

Guess I should do these things more...

"It only happens when we're in hyperspace. A few seconds, and you burn like a beacon in the force. What were you thinking about?" Luxum asked, tilting her armor's helmet a little.

"The will of the Force. What is my role to play." I answered softly, resuming the force memory implants I did for my Maids. Their learning speed resumed, a thousand times faster than just normal memorization and comprehension. That's how you're supposed to use mindtricks.

When Obi-wan told those soldiers the thing about the droids, he did the same thing, implanting memories. False memories in his case.

I just projected the texts and images from the datapads directly into the girls' minds. They would learn in a month what normally takes a hundred years to learn.

My maids were both studying on their datapads, entire courses of galactic history and force sects and xenoarchaeology.

There were too few experts on these exotic matters in the galaxy, so many of them dying while researching and exploring dangerous worlds and artifacts. More experts would be helpful.

Guess I'll have to do it myself. Separate another partition, and add dead languages and cults and obscure papers published at one time, then forgotten. My memory capacity was near infinite after all, why not fill it?

If Revan could do it, so could I. And perhaps more efficient and with fewer genocides.

Sadly, no Dark Jedi has offered himself to be my next brain to pick. Yet.

But at least I had a few promising leads for a couple holocrons. The Ordu Aspectu discarded their use early, preferring to connect with the Cosmic Force directly, without intermediation of a force matrix, and thus many of them died or became insane.

Only the final crystal that Rur made, had the matrix of a holocron, the Unifying Force, along with the soul snare with the Cosmic Force and the missing link, the anchoring in the material of the living spirit. Three forces. Or maybe a single one, expressed through different aspects like the electromagnetic force.

The Physical Force was the way to link with technology, and gave way to my technopathy ability.

And with it, my mind and spirit were guided on the organized partitions of an AI, emulating a holocron and still remained sapient and sentient.

All that I was missing to be complete and feel again, was a living body.

The way the Sith holocrons worked. The life drain and the clone transfer. The Living Force.

The Jedi were not exactly wrong when they accused Master Aqinos of being a heretic for teaching the Shards about the Force. Crystal beings were sentient and sapient, but to a Jedi, they would appear devoid of the Living Force, and thus...abhorrent. Heretic.

I couldn't reverse the age of my shard maid for example, even if the process was quite simple for organic beings. Crystals beings lack stem cells. They lack a brain too, as I knew very well.

But they also lacked the force matrix to remain anchored in the material like me and thus immortal. Could they be implanted with one, like cyborg frames in an organic being? Science will tell.

"Luxum, what would your people say, if I took a few old shards, and tried to bring them back to youth?" I wondered aloud.

"The old ones will likely refuse. Or postpone a decision for a thousand years, hoping you'll go away..."

"They would do that, just to test my patience. Guess I'll try on a Tsil crystal first. They have a few amazing abilities as well" I mused, preparing orders for my Explorer Corps to acquire a few individuals. Hmmm. And my new maid's first mission. She was a telepath after all.

The Greymist came out of hyperspace, and the space around Gand looked like a planetary invasion.

A dozen Lucrehulks transport ships, each a ring 3 kilometers in diameter. Hundreds of other ships, both military vessels and minerals and fertilizer haulers. Gand had become important and rich, quite suddenly.

Now, who is building lots of ships and may need gigatonnes of explosives?

"Vera, take a frigate and a Findsman and go to Nam Chorios. Bring back some old tsils and maybe a young female. Luxum you go with her" I ordered as my ship docked with the Celestial Throne.

'Okay' Luxum sent, while Vera stared after me, as I used telekinesis and dragged the Rakata force field emitter after me into the deeps of my space station.

Vette was first to intercept me. Right off the ramp.

"You nuked people! And WORSE! You did it without me!" she yelled, punching my shoulder in greeting.

This felt like home already. Such a friendly home too.