~*~In The Presence Of Evil~*~

You are welcome to critique my story, and I will accept any thing that you have to say. Thankyou.

Alcina stood in front of her father on Coruscant, awaiting the criticism that was sure to come. She had just finished showing off her recently learned lightsaber skills. It was hard work. Using a lightsaber required skill and strength, mental and physical. Alcina was able to draw most of her strength from the Force. It was a powerful ally, the Force; yet, it was a complicated thing to understand. But, as her father always reminded her, the Force was not a thing to understand. It was not something to sit around for days contemplating over, like the Jedi did. It was a tool; something to be used.
?Jedi?, the word tasted sour on her lips. Alcina had recently began to wonder if it tasted that way because it was something bad, or because she had always been told to feel that way towards the Jedi. Her father brought her back to reality?
?You have been working hard to improve your skills. That much is clear.?
?Yes, father. I have been training since our last meeting,? Alcina said, standing tall. She was proud of her work.
?But I sense that you are having doubts, my daughter.?
?Doubts, sir?? Alcina licked her dry lips. It was no use hiding her thoughts from her father. He could see everything, hear everything, sense everything, through the Force. The Dark Side of the Force.
?You believe that our dark ways are not right?? he asked.
?I,? she stammered. ?I am led to believe that,? she started, but changed her wording. ?I am uncertain my Lord. That is all.?
?Uncertain of our actions with the rebels?? he spit the word ?rebels? as if it were the word ?Jedi?.
?My Lord, I do not understand the purpose of the new super-weapon, the Death Star. It is merle a show of power. A waste of men and weapons. What will it be used for, Father? I hear that it can destroy a planet. What for? You are merle provoking the rebels to attack. I don?t think?? Her father cut her off.
?That is enough, Alcina,? he said firmly. ?The Death Star is only a small component in a much larger plan.?
Alcina looked down at the cold, gray floor of the throne room, ashamed of her outburst. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the red cloaked figures of the two Royal Guard that stood at the doorway behind her.
Her father turned to sit in the large chair that served as his throne. ?You will go to the Death Star. There you will see for yourself the effect it has over the rebels,? he said as he eased his tired body into the gray, high-backed throne. ?And you will witness the destruction of the enemy. We will win this war, my daughter, and the Dark Side will live on.?
?Father, forgive me for asking, but do you believe that there may still be Jedi remaining in the galaxy?? Alcina asked. ?Perhaps that is why the rebels do not back down. Perhaps the Jedi are fighting with them.?
?The Jedi are cowards,? her father snapped. ?If there were any left they would be cowered in the corners of the known galaxy, hiding from my rule.?
?What if the Jedi are hiding in corners, where they can form an even more powerful resistance then the rebels? I think that they would pose more of a danger then the whole of the Rebellion.? Alcina bit her lip, preparing for the resentment that her father would surly project, but none came.
?Is that why you built the Death Star, father, because you were afraid??
There was no answer.
Alcina began to get an incredible sinking feeling. ?My Lord, please forgive me. I mean not what I say.?
The pain started out as just a dull throb above her eyes, but it rapidly grew to an excruciatingly painful headache. The pain brought tears to her brown eyes. She could use the Dark Side to ward off the pain, but she knew that her father would only disapprove. This was her punishment.
?Never doubt me again, my child. You have much to learn. Darth Vader is awaiting your arrival on the Death Star. You mustn?t keep him waiting.? Emperor Palpatine throne turned so he looked out the large windows at the view of Coruscant's skyscrapers. The pain suddenly stoppe

 

that's cool. So Alcina is instead of Mara?

 

Let me clear something up in response to your question.
Alcina does not know that Mara exists. But she kinda does. I will clear this up later on in the story.
Mara was never the emperors daughter. She was merle a client. Alcina is the emperors daughter in my story....or is she?

 

I simply refuse to allow my fan-fic to rest in the bows of page four!
This story will be on the index soon which is moderated by one very cool Julie.
New post coming soon!

 

up!

 

ooops!

 

*Here is a very short, very boring segment for you to read. If you start to fall asleep by the fith sentence, I don't blame you. It took all of my stregnth just to re-read it for erres. Anyway, I'll try to post something worth reading by this weekend. Enjoy...(if you don't fall asleep first! )*


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Alcina lay in her bed, staring at the blackness of her ceiling. She laced her long, slender fingers behind her head. In the morning she would be on a shuttle, headed for the mighty Death Star.
It was almost three in the morning; yet, she wasn?t tired. She seldom was. Her training, often late into the late, kept her nerves restless. She turned on her side and opened the shade to the skylight above her bed. The shade opened to reveal the steady stream of lights that belonged to the transport ships flying over head.
Looking at the ships made her wonder what life was like beyond Imperial City. Alcina then realized that she hardly ever even left the palace. In her studies with her tutor she had learned about the people of many different worlds. She had learned of planets and cities and races. Many of who had sided with the emperor; yet, there were still many that hadn?t. Strange, how the textbooks only mentioned the glories of the planets that had sided with the Empire, their accomplishments, discoveries, inventions, and breakthrues. The independent planets had seemed nearer to hell then to a real planet, many of the people illiterate and the government full of arguing morons.
Alcina had never had playmates growing up. The youngest people, other then her self, that she ever saw were the new recruits on Carida. She wondered what ?normal? sixteen year old girls where doing right now in Imperial City. Probably sleeping, she thought.
She felt that the fish in the small pool on the balcony were hungry. She crawled out of her warm bed and out into the cold night air.
The Imperial Palace rose above every other building, giving Alcina a clear view of the metropolis. The balcony off of her room was small, just large enough for a small fishpond and a few ch?hala trees that her father was so fond of. She took the jar of food from the side of the pond and dropped in a few of the leaves. A school of about a dozen little, sliver fish darted this way and that in order to get first pickings of the food.
She wondered if the fish loved her. They probably did. But it was a different kind of love. They loved her because she gave them food. Her father didn?t love her and never would, she knew. Her father didn?t love anyone. But who was she to talk about love? She had never loved anyone and had never been loved.
She shook the thought from her mind and headed back inside. Morning would come soon, and she had to be ready.

 

::drop kicks this thread to the top::
I promise that I will post by this weekend!
Promise!!!

 

The next morning Alcina sat in her personal Imperial shuttle, heading for the Death Star. She was growing impatient. She had finished all of the meditating she could handle and was wondering how close they were getting to the super weapon. Alcina unbuckled the straps holding her into her seat and walked to the front of the shuttle.

?How close are we?? she asked the young, male pilot.

?The Death Star should come into view within a few minutes, ma?am.?

Alcina felt the Death Star before she actually saw it. She could feel Darth Vader?s presence on board. When the battle station did come in view she could not believe her eyes. The closer they flew, the larger it became. A gigantic, perfectly rounded sphere of metal. It was the size of a small moon at least.

Alcina slowly drew in a breath. It was actually beautiful, the Death Star. A perfect show of power, Alcina thought grimly. Such a shame that all of that beauty will be wasted on the Rebels.

A sea of gray filled the shuttle?s view ports as they made their approach. Alcina headed back to her seat and strapped in to prepare for docking.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

?I must say that this battle station is quite an impressive site from space, Lord Vader, but can she really live up to her name, the Death Star?" Alcina asked. The shuttle had docked and Alcina was now walking with the Dark Lord himself.

A towering wall of black. A symbol of the Dark Side of the Force. Years before Alcina was even born Darth Vader, then Anakin Skywalker, dueled his one time teacher, the Jedi Knight Obi-wan Kenobi. The battle was apparently brought on by their different opinions about the Force. During the battle Anakin Skywalker fell into a lava pit and when he climbed out again he was barely a man. He was fitted with a suit of black armor to hold him together and he became Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith.

?The Death Star has already been tested, Your Highness. It functioned flawlessly,? Vader said through his breathing mask. The helmet covering the Dark Lords? face and skull made his breathing sound ragged and strained. Many people claim that it is meant to frighten enemies into submission.

?She may have functioned flawlessly on Despayre. I?m sure her flawless blew everyone on the planet away,? Alcina said with a strait face. ?But that was a test. The Death Star had all of her makers on board to make sure that everything worked without a hitch. You are out in space now, Vader. If something goes wrong,? she warned. ?No one will be able to help you.?

?Moff Tarkin seems to have great faith in the indestructibility of the Death Star,? Vader said slowly.

?The Governor can rant all he wants. The prisoners of Despayre probably thought that their planet was indestructible too, but look what happened to them,? Alcina pointed out matter-of-factly.

 

I do like this, but the title didn't interest me right away. I like the name Alcina. How did you come up with it?

 

I like it, I like it! Try mine, "I Dreamed I Fought Darth Vader". Please?

 

Wow, this is good! I'm sorry I didn't notice this earlier, but I wasn't on the boards until January But I like it -- and this could become very interesting. I love Emperor's Hands (though it doesn't seem that she's a Hand, but close enough)!

 

Thankyou for reading my story everyone. I will make a new post sometime soon.
Aralna, the name Alcina is Greek and it means "strong minded", and it seemed to fit.
JKTRAINING, if you can post a link to your story here on my thread or send it in a private message I will read it.
In response to someones interest in "emperors hands"...In order to keep a little bit of mystery in this story I am not going to revele the true nature of Alcina untill later. Bare with me people. But if you like stories about "emperors hands" you WILL like this one. I promise.

 

Okay, I'm interested! And I like the title.

 

Did you forget about this? I hope not.