Interlude - Stealing Stars

"If I have to kiss another baby for the camera I will punt that goddamn little shit across the venue, I swear!" I joked, picking out another baby hair from my mouth.

Fucking baby hairs. And the even weirder mothers who pushed their children to me.

Why do you want a stranger to kiss your baby's head? Someone not even of your own species!

What if I accidentally gave the baby a disease your people had no immunity to?

Fucking hell! Whats wrong with people?

Offee giggled by my side, handing me a towel.

"It just means they like you, a lot." She assured.

"I know ... I'm sorry." I said, leaning on Offee, as she stroked my head gently.

"I'm just tired. It's been fifteen hours of straight interview after interview. And that parade too! I'm about all petered out for the day." I groaned.

"We still have another three hours till we reach the next stop. Just take a nap. I'll wake you up in time." Offee assured, giving me a lap pillow and began to sing a song to me.

"~I thought that the sun burnt brighter with you by my side~..."

Hmm...She did have a beautiful calming voice.

I began to relax as my mind wandered, sleep evading me. But I still closed my eyes, just enjoying the moment.

Two whole years. It's been two years since I first came here.

And I was still far from done. Though that was more due to my greed than anything. My ship had finished construction a while back.

But the allure of the galaxy's worth of raw materials to use....it was just too much of a temptation.

Besides, I had yet to get Starkiller from mama Mallie.

The past few months she had spent in misery and poverty in the outer rim planet of Nal Hutta, hub of crime and villainy second only to it's moon of Nar Shadda.

Guess when you don't have to budget for your life, you end up not learning the value of money, huh?

Mallie had ended up spending all of her exile funds within the first two months, mostly on spice, to drown away the grief of losing her husband to war.

Partly, my fault too given he died on Ryloth.

Not to the plague, though. No, he got blown up by a tank bolt when he tried to parry it, like an idiot.

Didn't see it coming, with all his thoughts preoccupied on his lady love, and instead of dodging, he reacted via muscle memory. His was a grisly end.

But eh, shit happens.

At least his death left her in a vulnerable spot, and she agreed easily to sell her own child for some more spice, a trade my droids were more than willing to make.

They were enroute to the Naboo now.

All in all, a good outcome for me.

In these past few months I hadn't just sat around either.

With my plague becoming a concern, the war has drawn into a three way stalemate between the Republic, Confederacy and the Mandalore - Hutt Alliance.

I had become a leading senator, leveraging my reputation from the Rylothian revolution to get in the good graces of the conservative faction.

Not without problems or opposition of course.

The fat cats in the senate did not appreciate new faces, especially the fast rising ones. Senator Freeta for one was vehemently against my ascension.

Until of course, I gave him a choice.

He can back me or I can put Cham Syndulla in his place.

And when his little piggy butt came to threat, he folded easily.

The election of a new chancellor was coming soon and while Amedda ruled the galaxy under my charge from his position as the Vice Chair of the senate, soon, I would be put on that throne. Or not.

I don't really care much for the chancellory or the fame.

All I want is to hide my ship building efforts and drain as many resources off of this galaxy as I can carry.

And to that end, I had begun work on a microverse of my own. Not to power my car battery, but rather to store excess supplies in.

A universe sized inventory.

I looked at the setup before me.

In a secure anti-anomaly forcefield, at the center of an internal alcove in the colony ship lay the fish tank sized unbounded vacuum, trapped in a temporal bubble.

Over the course of the past few months the inklings of a small universe were beginning to form within it, with a helping hand of extradimensional charges I had let go into the tank to jumpstart the big bang.

I even had plans for a sanatorium and zoo in it. Another few labs and storage worlds. Maybe even a vacation home.

Beside the forcefield, coming out from it, was a thick, twine of wired mess that extended into a pedestal with a rod bearing a plated crystal on it.

The entry point into the microverse. Anything that is put on the wide pedestal could be transported into the microverse for storage.

That's what I did with the Rakata Starforge I reconstructed.

The once legendary, autonomous shipbuilding engine, pinnacle of Rakatan tech that had allowed Darth Revan to triumph over the sith and jedi alike, stand steadfast, alone against the entire galaxy and come out on top, now in the palm of my hand.

Now I can make my own entire starfleet anytime I want, in record time, by fueling it with the dark side of the force once Starkiller is grown up.

Miniaturizing the Starforge and the star it draws material from, I stored them in the microverse too.

Yeah. I literally stole a system's sun.

It was an abandoned system but still, that's an achievement I couldn't have imagined having on my tab just two years ago.

To think so much has changed so fast.

Makes me feel old. I chuckled at the thought.

The last thing I had done was use my nano swarms to construct a hyperspace lane across wild space, connecting the hyperspace anomaly that imprisons the Mngall-Mngall, an ancient gray ooze that infects sentient species like a parasite, and the maw, imprisoning Abeloth, an immortal force entity hellbent on destruction.

Why did I do that?

Because I need leverage. Over the force gods. And what better to hold over their heads than the utter destruction of their life's work, this galaxy at the hands of their worst fears, ones they had imprisoned for the past 100,000 years!

The moment I opened the hyperspace lane I have created, both entities will be freed, leading to the inevitable destruction of the galaxy.

This way I held all the cards in my hand.

Soon, baby Starkiller would be in my hands.

And then, all that will be left is to slay the force gods and use them to empower him, to make him into a self powered force nexus that will work outside the Star Wars universe.

Now sure, I could just increase his midichlorians myself, but that wont give him an internal power source, only a greater ability to control an external source of power.

If he wanted any hope with using the force outside, in the multiverse, Starkiller will need a strong life force to pull power from.

It's not like they will willingly 'donate' their life force to my baby Starkiller, will they?

Of course not. I'll have to twist some arms to get what I want.

And if I end up not needing it, it's not like it was a waste. As they say, better to have and not need it, than need and not have it!

Not like I was going to actually destroy the galaxy just because they refused my offer.

This is after all the galaxy that gave me Offee.

And that is something I'm quite grateful for.

That reminds me!

I opened my eyes and Offee stopped singing.

"Say Offee, remember when we talked about adopting a child?" I asked.

"Yes. And I don't know.... a child is no toy. We can't just adopt one to practice on it." Offee replied.

"I meant that as a figure of speech, Offee. We will love him like our own. I promise." I assured.

"You have already picked up a child haven't you?" She sighed, realising.

"Maybe." I replied looking away.

Offee raised an eyebrow at me.

"His mother is a former jedi. You might know her, jedi knight Mallie." I told her.

"I have heard of her. Why? What happened to her? Can't she raise him?" Offe asked.

"Well....." I said, bringing up the video of her selling baby Starkiller for some spice on the screen.

"That....is pitiable." Offee gasped.

"It is, isn't it? She took the death of her lover, jedi knight Kento Marek hard.

She was all alone, on a foreign world, bearing the burden of a child and fell into a depressive spiral. Got addicted to spice.

And at this stage there isn't much we can do to help her. I tried. She didn't want it. She hates me for the jedi hearing." I explained.

"And when I saw that she had a child, I knew I had to do something.

Nal Hutta is no place for a child to grow up.

That is the whole reason I sent droids to fetch her. But instead she.....sold him to me for some spice."

I took Offee's hand in my own, and comforted her.

"I'm so sorry, Offee. I know I should have talked to you about this. But it slipped my mind with all the campaigning and peace summits."

Offee looked sad but conflicted for a moment before she relented.

"Fine. But you have to help raise him too!"

"Naturally." I replied, kissing her forehead.

"And you'll make a great mother. Don't worry. I trust you."

"I know." Offee smiled, "When is he coming over? And do we have what we need to take care of him? Should we stop by-"

I put a finger to her lips and shushed her.

"Relax, Offee. I have everything covered. I even got a nanny droid for him. You have nothing to worry about." I said.

Offee nodded, satisfied.

"Not with you by my side." She hummed happily.

And so little Starkiller found a new home and a new family.