Of Two Minds - A Star Wars Tale

Of Two Minds

            Of Two Minds tells the story of Vader’s struggle between the growing Dark Side and the remaining humanity within his soul. He begins to be haunted by a voice in his head (later discovered to be Qui Gon Jinn) trying to convince him to turn back to the Jedi ways.

            In a series of incidents, Vader wavers between complete evil and a child-like compassion, especially when it comes to children. Anyone who stands in his way though is ruthlessly crushed.

Snippets:

            Vader is welcomed as a hero on planet X because the Clone Troopers destroy an equally evil government that would not bow to the Emperor. He and his personal guard (named Storm Troopers for their aggressive nature) are festooned with flowers during a triumphal parade in the Capital. Children sing his praises and young women dance in the streets. A very young girl with a passing resemblance to Padme tries to approach Vader and is rifle-butted by a guard. Vader uses the Force to crush the trooper’s armor from head to toe.

            Vader travels to  Y for special modifications to his personal Fighter Craft. Raith Sienar, Head of Sienar Fleet Systems, meets him and introduces a revolutionary design, Twin Ion Engines which produce far greater thrust and maneuverability. Vader quickly sees the implications as to cost and speed of construction. He hatches a plot with Raith. Vader would be given the first and most advanced of any new designs along with SFS’ personal loyalty in case of… unforeseen changes in the power structure of the galaxy. In return, Vader presents the design to Palpatine and convinces him to issue massive orders in the trillions of credits.

The Empire is facing a growing problem. Clone troopers are being killed at too fast a rate and even with growth acceleration they cannot be replaced fast enough by the Kaminoians. Vader is dispatched to “encourage” their efforts but to no avail. He cannot simply kill the residents of Kamino because the Emperor needs troops. Once they recognize their advantage, Kamino Prime Minister Lama Su begins to make greater demands upon the Empire and Vader in particular. Su is completely amoral, caring for nothing but himself, his business and his planet, in that order. His aide, Taun We, begins to see him in a different light which initiates her disenchantment with the new Imperial Order. Vader counsels the Emperor to find a different method of gaining loyal troops and to destroy Kamino. Palpatine, wanting to see how far Vader will go to accomplish his goals, gives Vader full authority to pursue the idea on a small system of three planets Q (Alpha, Beta, Gamma)  inhabited by human colonists from Corellia and located ½ way between Broest and Vuma. Under cover of a massive weather front, Vader and an Assault Battalion (576 men) land on  ALPHA. They systematically kill every male on the planet and bring all the survivors together into camps. Then Vader begins perhaps his most atrocious and little known crime against all Life- He orders his troops to impregnate every female on the planet. This breeding program is designed to raise a new generation of troopers and he can have millions preparing at any one time. His fatal mistake is in not consulting with the Kaminoians about side effects. The K, years before, had tested the possibility of mass replication through pregnancy. The cloners learned that their products should never breed naturally. Unpredictable results would follow with stupidity and clumsiness being the most common although the growth acceleration was found to operate as before. Occasionally though a brilliant but utterly mad clone would be born. He would be uncontrollable by anyone.

            Vader’s plan is working perfectly and he extends it to BETA and Gamma. Imperial Regiments are rotated to the three worlds for rest periods. Within two years there are 400,000 boys ready for the Imperial Youth Corp. The Emperor accepts his apprentices’ success and additional “Recruitment Worlds” are established throughout the Imperial Core, mostly populated by the humanoid females of separatist worlds. Secretly the Imperial Biological Research Center on the planet Najarka begins to test the method on near-humanoid and non-human species. Though the Empire is officially Humanocentric, the Emperor is not above developing new and more powerful species to use for his own ends. There is even a hint of attempts to intermingle with the Amphi-Hydrus of Dac and an unknown species called the Vong, under the name Operation Thrall.

During the course of this project, Vader visits Broest and spends time alone in a vast field of wild grasses. He is visited by Qui Gon Jinn who argues with him about his place in the Galaxy. They discuss why the midichlorians created him and what it means about his destiny. Qui Gon is adamant that Vader (whom he insistently calls Anakin) is not bound to a life of evil. Vader almost whimpers that the Dark Side is too powerful to resist. Qui Gon raises up two stones from the field and sends them hurling at Vader who blocks them with his lightsaber. QG then says, “One of these stones was bound by the Light and the other by the Dark. Tell me which they were.” Vader cannot and grows frustrated by QG’s “games”.