Coruscant was a world of lights and noise, where every tower gleamed with wealth and every shadow hid a knife. It was here, beneath the Senate Rotunda in a chamber without name or record, that Palpus sat alone before a ring of floating holo-terminals. Numbers flickered like constellations market indexes, guild shipping quotas, plasma trading futures, and Trade Federation bond rates.
And Palpus watched them with the stillness of a predator.
He was not cloaked in Sith robes no theatrics. His garments were simple, elegant, befitting the refined and harmless son of a respected Senator. The galaxy saw him as charming, brilliant, young. A boy of promise.
They did not see the cold precision behind his eyes.
He adjusted a value feed with a single motion, sending a command through encrypted trade droids and proxy accounts spread across ten systems.
A message showed an incoming update from the remote Naboo system.
The Trade Federation blockade had been initiated.
Palpus's lips curved slightly. Right on schedule.
He leaned back in his chair as the market reacted like a living organism struck with fear. Plasma refinery shares plunged. Shipping insurers froze outbound policies. Trade Federation treasury yields collapsed.
The galaxy thought it was watching an isolated political dispute. Palpus watched opportunity.
He began.
He shorted the Trade Federation Transport Securities, knowing the invasion would cripple shipping lanes .He purchased the plasma futures that Naboo's economy revolved around anticipating the inevitable scarcity. He seized controlling interest in Outer Rim Fuel Stockpiles, while panic forced others to sell cheap.
Others wept at rising instability. Palpus smiled.
Fear makes men predictable.
Within 48 standard hours of the blockade becoming public knowledge, he had already converted panic into 800 billion credits.
When whispers of invasion began to spread next, senators, guild-masters, and investors liquidated everything they could in desperation .Palpus bought what they sold at half-value.
By the time Trade Federation troops landed on Naboo soil, Palpus directed all remaining assets into deep-core mining rights, foundry output quotas, weapon component futures, and covert starship yard contracts.
When the galaxy gasped in horror,
he earned four trillion credits.
A sum large enough to purchase worlds, and finish the machine he had designed in secret his Matter Extractor, the great devourer of suns.
He closed the final transaction with a slow exhale, the glow of the terminals reflecting in his eyes like embers.
Power is not given. It is constructed.
And today… he had laid foundation stone.
While Palpus expanded his empire of currency and influence, Naboo bled.
Queen Padmé Amidala watched from the viewport of her battered royal cruiser as droid control ships darkened the sky of her world. Her hands tightened against the shining ivory of her throne, youthful determination cut through with quiet despair.
"You must leave the planet," Captain Panaka urged. "We cannot fight them alone."
Padmé closed her eyes. She tried diplomacy. She trusted the Senate. The Senate ignored her.
She stood.
"We depart for Coruscant."
The cruiser burst through blockade fire, shields screaming under turbo-laser heat. The ship surged into hyperspace only for warning lights to flash red across the console.
"Hyperdrive is damaged!"
Qui-Gon Jinn stepped forward, calm even as smoke drifted from the vents."We will need to land for repairs."
A map shimmered above them.A barren world.Heat. Dust. Silence.
Tatooine.
Sandstorms howled against Mos Espa when they arrived. Padmé, disguised in plain traveler clothing, walked among merchants and scavengers and slaves all of whom ignored her as just one more face beneath a hood.
And then a voice:
"Are you lost?"
She turned.
A boy stood there, small, sunburned, eyes bright as blue desert sky.
There was no fear in him. Only curiosity. And something more an undeniable warmth that the Force itself seemed to lean toward.
"I'm not lost," Padmé answered softly, "but I am… far from home."
The boy smiled.
"My name's Anakin. Anakin Skywalker."
He said it proudly, like a name meant to be remembered.
A sandstorm struck wind and dust lashing like knives.Anakin acted without hesitation.
"Come to my home! Hurry!"
His mother, Shmi Skywalker, welcomed them. Her presence was gentle, grounded, and strong in a way that needed no Force sensitivity to see.
Padmé saw how they lived.Saw the half-built droid C-3PO designed to help, not to serve.
Saw the boy's hands, calloused not from idleness but from creation.
And she felt her heart ache.
Later, Qui-Gon took a blood sample quietly, sending data back to Obi-Wan aboard the ship.
The results returned quickly.
Over 20,000 midichlorians. More than any Jedi, living or dead.
Obi-Wan's voice was hushed."…Master, that's impossible."
Qui-Gon exhaled slowly.
"It is not impossible. Only… unprecedented."
The Force did not whisper around the boy.It sang.
To leave Tatooine, they needed a new hyperpdrive. Watto, the winged junk dealer, would not accept Republic credits.
So Qui-Gon did what the Jedi Order forbade:
He gambled.
Anakin's pod, freshly repaired.Sebulba, vicious and favored to win.
If Anakin triumphed, the hyperdrive was theirs.And the boy would be free.
Padmé watched as Anakin prepared.Every movement focused.Every breath steady.He was only nine.
Yet he had the will of a star.
Engines screamed. The arena roared.
Sandstorms of speed and flame tore across the canyon tracks.
Sebulba tried to kill him twice.Anakin recovered twice.
And then the Force surged through him like a second heartbeat.
The pod shuddered then rocketed forward.
He crossed the finish line first.
Padmé rose to her feet, breath stolen. Shimi staggered with tears. Qui-Gon placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"You are free now.
As they prepared to leave, a dark presence fell upon them.
A figure on a speeder. Cloaked. Horned. Silent.
Darth Maul.
His double-bladed saber ignited in a burning red storm.
Qui-Gon fought fiercely, barely holding the assassin at bay until the ship roared above them. He leapt aboard, the ramp slamming shut as they bolted skyward.
Anakin stared back through the viewport, heart pounding. His future had begun.