Icarus Wings

[foxie314.livejournal.com]

Title: Icarus Wings
Author/Artist:  Dylan Fox[Unknown site tag]
Rating: PG
Word count:  1,047
Summary:  Palpatine; Learning about the destruction of the Death Star--"I have good news, and I have bad news."

(Sorry about the title...  I have never, ever been good with them.)

            Lieutenant Marn Harkin stared at the wall of the lift.  He coughed, frowned, and rubbed the toes of his boot against the back of his shin.  He watched the numbers on the display sail by him as the lift sped through the Imperial Palace.
           “Lieutenant Harkin, I have good news... and I have bad news,” he heard the major’s voice echo.
           Harkin coughed again, curling his fingers into a fist and pressing it against his lips.            He remembered the look on the major's face.  That smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
            “The good news,” the major had said, “is that you have been awarded an additional two weeks leave.”

#

           The red-cloaked guards moved out of his way, and the door to the Emperor's chamber hushed open.  Harkin coughed, and polished his shoe on his trousers again.  He walked into the room, and the door closed behind him.
           The Emperor didn't look up.  Harkin stood in front of the desk and waited.  His mind idled as he stared out the windows, watching the cars drifting through the Coruscant skyline.
           “What is it, Lieutenant?” the Emperor asked, leaning back and staring at him.
           Harkin coughed. 
           When he was eighteen, he had been a member of the imperial navy.  Not outstanding, he was competent and in love with the freedom piloting light attack craft gave him.  Skimming the atmosphere of some backwater planet he couldn't even remember the name of, the engine had shorted and exploded, forcing him to eject.  His leg had been caught in the cockpit, and the bones shattered when he bailed out.  That was the end of his career in the navy.
           Falling to the ground, he felt weightless and powerless.  As he'd fallen through the clouds, birds of prey had caught up with him and watched him fall.  They angled and banked and swooped around him like it was a game.  He was just a mass, falling and waiting for the inevitable to happen.
           He caught the Emperor's eyes for a moment, and felt the same sense of helplessness.
           “I have good news, sire,” he found himself saying.  The Emperor waited.
           “We have been able to move the expected completion of the second Death Star forwards by a significant amount,” Harkin went on.  “Not only that, but an extensive re-assessment of the first Death Star revealed several major flaws with the design, and these have been corrected for the new Star.”
             The Emperor stared at him, his face unmoving. 
             There was a long, lazy moment of silence that sat in the chamber like a bloated Hutt.
            “Indeed,” Harkin continued, “the first Star may be regarded as a prototype, sire, an experiment to find the flaws in our theories and correct them.  I am pleased to report that, in this regard, the first Star has proved to be a resounding success.  Redeployment of the workforce to the second Star has already begun, sire, and productivity has quadrupled.”
            Feeling himself eighteen, terrified and falling again, he had flung his arms out in desperation, trying to copy the birds as they spun around him.  Incredibly, the wind was formed cushions underneath him and as he flexed his fingers, he could feel his body begin to bank.
           “Not only that,” Harkin's mouth went on, “but we have been able to gain a new understanding of the size of the rebel's fleet, and of their tactics.  This new information has already yielded results:  a significant number of their light attack craft have been damaged, such that it will be some time before they are a real threat to the stability of the empire.”
          He moved his arms, feeling them cut through the air as he danced with the birds.
           “Is that so, Lieutenant.”  The Emperor's voice was as smooth as a mercury mirror.
           “Yes, sire.  The location of their base has been discovered, and an extensive purge of it has been carried out.  Imperial tacticians are now redrawing their estimates for the extinction of the rebel cause, sire.”
           He swooped and banked and laughed at the wind.
           “The second Death Star—the real Death Star—should be completed in under six years, sire.  By that time, the Rebel Alliance will be nothing more than a memory, and your control of the empire will be unopposed.  The Star will be a project of prestige, only.  A tribute to the might of the Empire, and to your own personal vision of the new galaxy.”
           The Emperor let a long, bloated silence into the room.  It coaxed the first one back and they began to copulate.
           Harkin could only hear the wind rushing past his ears, and see clouds part for him like the lips of a lover.
           He stared at the Emperor, back straight and eyes gleaming.
           “Very good, Lieutenant,” the Emperor said, his voice still smooth.
           “Sire,” Harkin saluted, and headed out.
           Chutzpah could get you a long way in the Empire.  A long, long way.  Harkin smiled to himself.
           “Oh, Lieutenant,” the Emperor said.
           Harking stopped, mid-step.  “Yes sire?”
           “Escort Lord Vader to the Imperial Palace.  I want you to see to it, personally.”
           “Lord... Vader, sire?”
           The clouds suddenly parted and he saw the ground rushing up towards him with inevitability.  The smile fell of his face and smashed on the floor.
           “And do make sure to tell him your good news.”
           There was a twist to the Emperor’s voice.
           A yawning opened inside him and he fell into it.  He wondered how easy it would be for the Emperor to find out about the destruction of the Death Star before he’d been officially told.
           He wondered how many of the stories people whispered about the Emperor were true.
            Harkin swallowed, his throat suddenly dry and his face white.  He felt his body smack into the ground as the birds watched him and laughed.
            “Y... Yes, sire...”
           “I'm sure Lord Vader will be just as pleased as I am to hear the advances we've made.”
           Harkin swallowed again, but found his mouth too dry to speak.
           He nodded, and left.
           Chutzpah could get you a long way in the Empire.  All the way to the grave.  And beyond. 

Comments

[the-little-owl.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, the poor Lieutenant! He showed great promise becoming a diplomat.

[beatrice_otter]

This was awesome. Thank you for writing it!

[sunnyskywalker]

Aw, poor Harkin tried so hard! The Emperor should have hired him to be his spin doctor. See, poor staff management like this is why the Emperor ran into trouble later. (Don't offer the hero the position of trusted lieutenant while the current one is in earshot... Silly Palpatine, ignoring the Overlord list.) So I think it's very in-character :D

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

Ouch!

(That was awesome, btw.)

[foxie314.livejournal.com]

Yeah... poor Harkin. He's an artistic soul, really. The Emperor should have moved him to the PR division.

Thanks for the comments guys. Glad you enjoyed it :)

[pronker]

It's rare to feel so much right away for an OC, but I did. Your metaphor of the carrion birds and the fall, great!

[emavalexis.livejournal.com]

Oooh. Great fic, compelling OC! And that last line - perfect killer. XD

[luminations.livejournal.com]

The poor bloke! I agree, he should have been in PR. Hehehe. Nice work.

[(Anonymous)]

Ooooh, that was nasty. It's hard to be as evil as the Emperor. “And do make sure to tell him your good news.” Poor, poor Harkin. Another valuable spin doctor bites the dust.

[saucysushi.livejournal.com]

Whoops. That was me. Me get real smart one day and press right buttons.

[seal-girl.livejournal.com]

"Evil Villain can be so cruel!"
He he he - trying to get one up on the Emperor is not a good idea.

I liked the freefall, and the birds, it really help carry the fic forward, and it's a great image.

*enjoys, for fish*
Sealgirl