"Why do you serve the Emperor? You seem to be an honorable man, your subordinates respect you. You inspire genuine loyalty in your men. Not the hallmark of Imperial commanders, yet you occupy one of the highest positions in the Empire's military."
"The Emperor will bring peace and order to the entire galaxy." Thrawn crossed his arms. "While you see him as evil, I perceive the greater good in what he has built."
"Order," Vergere nodded her head, "I thought that would be it."
"What are you talking about?" Thrawn was clearly becoming annoyed with this conversation, he had important things to see to, not least of all the damage done to his flagship.
"How Palpatine got to you." The Jedi explained. "What he promised you. Order and control. Unity. It's your drug, Thrawn, and the Emperor is a master of finding a person's weaknesses and using them to his own advantage. To some he promised power. Others he offered revenge. It all ends the same way, though: you sell your soul for empty promises."
"What do you know of me?" Thrawn took an involuntary step toward Vergere, his cool facade had cracked slightly and a look of pure fury flashed across his face. "How dare you judge me and what I work toward? I have seen the chaos that rages among these stars, the endless, pointless wars? The Emperor is a necessary evil, Jedi, in the end there will be peace."
"The Empire corrupts, Thrawn. Palpatine is a Sith Lord, corruption has ever been their way and there has never been one who embodies the ways of the Sith as completely as the Emperor. How do you think he got where he is? He ate into the heart of the Old Republic and rotted it from within. I have never encountered him, no, but I feel him, like a blight in the Force poisoning everyone and everything he touches. Your Emperor is nothing but a glorified parasite, an exalted cancer."
"You call him a necessary evil, you think you are using him to accomplish your goals. The name of your fleet says it all, Unity." She smiled bitterly. "The starlanes to hell are navigated by good intentions. I don't care how clever you are, the Emperor can see right through you. Literally. You bring order to the worlds of the Unknown Regions, but you take away their freedom. You're telling yourself things will get better over time. The oppression will ease and eventually disappear once things settle down, once the Rebellion is crushed and the warlords are defeated." She held up her hand as Thrawn started to speak.
"No, Admiral, I'm not reading your mind. You may not believe it but your aren't the only one who can see what's obvious, and I'm telling you now that things will never get better. The corruption will only get worse and more tyrannical. More and more atrocities will be committed in the name of this nebulous 'greater good' that is always just out of reach, that will always require just one more life destroyed, one more planet laid to waste, one more freedom crushed."
"The Empire was built by a Sith." She continued. "It was born in the mind of a Sith, and everything the Sith have ever touched brought nothing but pain and fear and hate because the Sith serve the dark side. They draw their power from it and all those emotions are what the dark side feeds on! Do you understand? The stronger the dark side becomes, the stronger they become, and that's all the Emperor has ever really cared about!"
Verger sighed. "Why is it you think Palpatine has always favored humans? It's not because of any prejudice on his part, or even because humans are the most numerous and widespread race in the galaxy. It's because he knows how humans think more intimately than he could know the thought-patterns of any other race, which makes them all the easier for him to corrupt. Why do you think he accepted you? Because you're sufficiently humanlike for him to understand and so to corrupt. He has been manipulating you from the first moment you met, and you never even realized it."
For a long moment the Grand Admiral said not a word. His face was inscrutable, his eyes and mind gave away nothing. Then:
"Another shuttle has been prepared for you. You will be taken to your ship. As I promised, you will have safe passage out of this system. I trust we will not meet again. I have problems enough to deal with." With that, he turned on his heel and strode out the door.