"I can't believe they let you teach."

It wasn't that Vader thought that Aeryn's suggestion of taking out the Emperor's clones had a shot in hell of working--or even that he was remotely considering the possibility--it was just that Byss was...in the Deep Core.

Nowhere on his way home from Endor.

Shut up.

Dark Lords don't have to explain themselves.

Sly Moore, the administrator of the cloning facility, met Vader at the landing platform. "My Lord," she said, inclining her head. "We had not been told to expect you."

"I prefer to be unexpected," Vader growled, swooping towards the lab.

"How are the experiments progressing?" he asked.

Sly fell into step. "Same as always," she said. "Tell the Emperor that our percentage of successful conversations of prior Jedi to...more malleable officer material continues to be stable. He will have his officer corps on schedule."

Vader hated this plan of Palpatine's--a Force-sensitive officer corps. Palpatine argued that it would make for an easier to control and tactically more efficient military. Vader privately believed that the Force wasn't something that you could just plug into and control quite that easily.

"The schedule has been moved up," he said. "The Emperor has...plans for these new clones. The coordinates will be transmitted to you for their final destination in the next few days."

Sly raised an eyebrow. "New project?"

Vader, busy examining the Spaarti cloning devices, made no reply.

After it was clear she wouldn't be receiving an answer, Sly rolled her eyes. "Fine. Are you satisfied with the way the facility is running?" Her tone made it obvious how little his opinion would matter to her. Sly had been with Palpatine from his time as Senator. She knew precisely how valuable she was.

After a long pause--Vader wouldn't be pushed into a petty battle of wills on this, not when he wasn't technically supposed to be on Byss in the first place--he nodded. "I find it satisfactory," he said. "I will pass along my thoughts to the Emperor."

It wouldn't be wise to tell a Sith Lord to make certain the door didn't hit him in the ass on his way out, but Sly Moore came close to saying it anyway. Instead she bit her tongue, bowed, and watched Vader's TIE fighter take off again.

Only then did she blow out a breath. "What was that about?" she muttered.