"The hell they were." Miles's eyebrows raise. "Emperor Gregor was being puppeted at the time, I'll grant you, but it sure as hell wasn't by my father. In fact, he was being puppeted directly against my father, and it wouldn't have happened at all if he was, as you say, my father's puppet. Gregor had only just reached the age of majority, and he wanted to prove that he didn't need the former Regent's help in running the Empire, that he could make his own decisions as his own man. And so one of my father's greatest political enemies very deftly used that to turn Gregor against him. Convince the young Emperor that my father, who saved his life, helped raise him and stood by him at every turn, was plotting against him. That I was plotting against him. Purely for personal revenge. And his plan hinged on some very foolish mistakes I made without thinking, without seeing."

Miles turns his hand, showing his clone an open palm. "That spectacle in Tau Verde might have given birth to something great, but it almost destroyed my father, and it damn near killed me. Does that sound like something I'd orchestrate for my own benefit?"