New Star Wars Reign of the Empire Book Excerpt Highlights Rebel Character

The beauty of Star Wars is that there is something for everyone. This includes fans of mystical Jedi and Sith as well as those who prefer the spies, soldiers, and mercenaries making up Republic and Imperial ground forces. While plenty of spin-off material covers the former, less content exists for the latter, particularly for older fans seeking texts like Rogue One and Andor.

That is why the Reign of the Empire trilogy feels like a breath of fresh air. The series follows Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera during the years of Imperial occupation leading up to A New Hope.

Edge of the Abyss by Rebecca Roanhorse, published by Random House Worlds, is the second book in the trilogy. Set a year before Andor, the novel follows Mon, Bail, and Saw after they endure thirteen years of Imperial rule. A festival attack goes awry and sets in motion events that none of them can ignore. It also reveals something sinister: the Empire is not content with using violence to oppress its people, as it is also radicalizing the new generation growing up. This includes Mon and Bail’s teenage daughters, Leida and Leia.

This exclusive excerpt from Reign of the Empire: Edge of the Abyss features Saw Gerrera and Bail Organa meeting on Alderaan to discuss the tense events at Inusagi during the Blossom Festival and the people they have lost over the years.

Reign of the Empire: Edge of the Abyss Excerpt

Bail pulled the hood of his green cloak tighter, looking around one more time to see if anyone had followed him. No suspicious individuals, save a man in Crevasse City blue and black who scowled in his direction. Certain that he was not being watched, Bail slipped into the small, dingy store.

Dim lights struggled to illuminate a handful of shelves sparsely lined with Sweetsea regalia. Bail was indeed the only customer. There was a cashier at the far end, a youth with a hulking physique and ridged skull suggesting Houk heritage. He glanced up at Bail and then went back to watching his personal holopad.

Bail prowled the first row, picking up a hat to admire at random. He was not sure what to do next. If this were his operation, he would have provided clear directions, such as a code word to exchange with the cashier or a door to knock on in an audible pattern. The message provided no specifics for the actual meeting. Was he to wait until someone approached him, or should he speak to the cashier at the counter?

Before Bail could make a decision, the cashier cleared his throat and held a finger to his lips for silence once he had Bail’s attention. The youth blinked slowly twice and glanced over his shoulder at a staircase just behind the counter.

So Bail was meant to go up the stairs. He still was not sure who he was meeting, though his best guess was Saw. It could also be a trap. Some enemy might mean to lure him to a high floor and heave him out a window. That was just his paranoia talking, a side effect of this kind of skullduggery. There were much simpler ways to kill him if someone wanted him dead.

The young man cleared his throat. “He’s not got all day.”

And that was that. Adjusting his green cloak, Bail took the stairs one by one with tight nerves. He had not brought a weapon, but as the steps creaked under his feet, he wished he had. He reached the top and faced a door. His hand hovered for a moment over the button to enter, his heart beating faster than normal, before he pressed it. The door slid open to reveal a storage room. It was as grimy and neglected as the store below, with boxes of memorabilia crowding the floor. In the far corner, looking down through a crusted window at the chanting crowd a block over, stood Saw Gerrera.

Saw’s gaze flickered to Bail and then back to the window.

“You’ve aged,” Saw said, the smile on his lips slightly mocking. Was he laughing at himself, at Bail, or at some larger absurdity? It was hard to tell.

“We both have,” Bail observed wryly as he picked his way through sports detritus and piles of boxes as high as his shoulders. It was true he had a few more gray hairs, but he was still in his prime. Saw, on the other hand, looked older than his years. He held himself too stiffly, and lines marked the skin around his eyes and mouth. In the decade since they had last met face-to-face, Saw had seen some terrible things.

Saw grunted as if reading Bail’s mind, perhaps sensing the concern visible on Bail’s face. “I’ll take it as a compliment,” Saw said. “Aging means I’m still alive.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Bail found an empty crate and flipped it onto its short side to make a serviceable seat. He waited for Saw to say more, but Saw had turned toward the window again. The moment stretched.

“All those people on the streets,” Saw finally said. “Going about their lives as if nothing has happened. Screaming and shouting. Green wins! No, blue! Meanwhile, better people than them are fighting and dying to keep them free.”

Bail looked out the window, although from his angle he could not see much. He could hear the singing, though. “Alderaan is a peaceful planet,” he said. “That’s not a crime. In fact, isn’t that the point?”

A tic worked in Saw’s jaw. “For now.” Saw’s eyes were bloodshot and haunted. “It won’t be peaceful forever.”

Bail bristled at the veiled threat. “If you mean to ask me for a favor, this is the wrong way to go about it.”

Saw snorted.

“Why did you reach out?” Bail asked, exasperated. “You’ve kept me at arm’s length for years, and now you insist on meeting on Alderaan, of all places. I thought I was meant to—what was it you said—stay out of your business.”

“Your operatives were clumsy. Easily revealed. A liability. If you want to know what I’m doing, you should ask.”

Annoyance forced a sigh from Bail’s lips. “I’m here, am I not?”

Saw nodded once, a brief acknowledgment that Bail had come when he did not have to. “You’ve seen the news?”

“Inusagi.” It had to be.

Something like pain passed across Saw’s rough features before they hardened again.

“You were there.” It was more a statement than a question. “I saw the woman they captured. Recognized her from—”

“It shouldn’t have happened,” Saw said. “It was a simple mission, to remind the Empire that it can’t operate with impunity. There are consequences. A price owed in blood when you replace a planet’s leadership with some handpicked Imperial governor just because someone doesn’t approve of something someone said or they covet a natural resource the planet possesses. Imagine…” He turned to Bail. “Imagine if that happened here. If they reduced your queen to a figurehead and replaced her with a governor because they decided her husband was causing too much trouble in the Senate. It is not impossible. Look what happened on Naboo.”

Bail suppressed a shudder. A brief flash of the Mountain Palace’s corridors overrun with stormtroopers filled his mind, followed by an image of some Imperial bootlicker installed in the sunroom where he had been chatting with Leia earlier.

“We would fight,” Bail vowed, his voice rough with emotion as he rose and began to pace. There was not much room between the boxes crowding the floor, so he found himself traversing the same small path back and forth while thinking through what he could do to help. Because he would help. What Saw had said about Alderaan disturbed him. If he did not want his people living under the thumb of an Imperial governor, he would be a hypocrite to think it was acceptable for Inusagi.

“As did the Inusagi.” Saw paused, looking long and hard at Bail. “They asked us to fight with them, and we did. Common cause.”

Bail did not hide his surprise. Saw had always argued that there was no common cause among the various factions opposing Imperial rule. In the past, he had called Bail delusional for not being ready to give up on the Senate. Hearing him say that he had willingly allied with any movement other than his own, even if only briefly, felt like a positive sign. Bail would have preferred a diplomatic solution, but for Saw, this was progress.

“We were willing to lay down our lives to help Inusagi be free,” Saw continued, “and some of us did.”

Again, Bail saw a flash of pain on Saw’s face, and he wondered if Saw had lost someone besides the woman on the news during the attack.

“But Inusagi isn’t free,” Bail countered gently, highlighting the snag in Saw’s declaration while thinking of what the news commentator had said. “In fact, you’ve arguably made things worse. They’re raiding neighborhoods looking for subversives. Kicking foreign students out of universities. Banning peaceful protest. They’ve declared martial law in the capital city.”

“Inusagi is lost.” Saw waved Bail’s list of issues away. “We did what we could.”

Bail’s fists flexed in frustration. “It’s so easy for you, isn’t it? Come in, whip the community into a frenzy, and then leave when it gets hot. But most people can’t leave, and they’re left behind to face the consequences of what you’ve done.”

Saw stood to loom over Bail, wincing as he put weight on what appeared to be an injured leg. “You don’t think I suffer consequences? I have no home, no place of safety. I’m wanted everywhere, considered a pariah and a criminal, even on worlds I’ve never set foot on. I am reduced to this!” He gestured to indicate their ignoble meeting place. “Hiding. Always hiding. No, Bail Organa, my entire life is consequences.” Saw dropped back to lean against the window frame.

Bail swallowed what he had intended to say next and instead said, “I know.”

Saw laughed. “You don’t know. You don’t know anything!”

Bail had pushed too hard, and he could see that clearly now. Saw was not as steady as he proclaimed. Bail switched tactics. “The comrades you lost?”

After a deep breath, Saw said, “Maia, dead. Nankry, captured.”

Nankry. That was her name. “What will you do?”

“She knows too much.” Saw’s voice was strained. “Everything about Inusagi’s resistance movement, most things about the Partisans, more things about others. Supply dumps, safe houses, sympathetic donors.” He looked at Bail. “The Library.”

“Damn,” Bail muttered.

“And now, the Empire will know those things, too.”

Reign of the Empire: Edge of the Abyss by Rebecca Roanhorse will be released on Sept. 11.

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Source: Polygon