Author's notes: a fic i decided i had to write in order to make the Twins-on-the-Bridge-in-Endor Scene in RotJ make sense in my own twisted little mind at the very least. what am i talking about? the only post-prequel continuity hiccup that really bothers me: How can Leia remember Padme if she died minutes after Leia was born? now, i've heard all the "she's talking about Queen Organa" arguments and i even use that a little in the fic BUT i want her to be talking about Padme SO i decided to write out my own cockeyed theory as a fic.
the following is based ever so slightly sideways on Yoda's line in AotC: Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is
here's part one - please tell me what you think!
Title: Orbit
Series: Part One of Memories of Water and Sand
Disclaimer: i don't own anything.
Leia watched as the ship came into orbit of the pretty blue and green planet. Though the planet was new to her it was a familiar sight; even at the tender age of five she was used to space travel. Her father's position as a prominent member of the Imperial Senate required a great deal of travel and he seemed reluctant to leave Leia behind, especially in light of his wife's failing health. Instead he was grooming the girl to take his place. Despite her young age Leia seemed preternaturally suited to the life of a senator. She was a bright, thoughtful child and though only just school aged she carried herself with the aplomb of a seasoned veteran. She followed her father everywhere but to the Senate itself, listening quietly and attentively, taking everything in and processing it with her incredible intelligence. Bail was often amazed that Leia's comments were as insightful and relevant as his aides' and fellow senators'. Her grasp of politics was surpassed only by her grasp of justice, and injustice.
Like her father, Leia hated the Empire.
From the time she had been able to speak, Leia accompanied her father on his travels throughout the Imperial galaxy and she had witnessed the Empire's iron grip on civil liberties firsthand. Bail was a member of the Imperial senate and an active one at that, but his true occupation for all of Leia's young life was a founding leader of the rebellion against the Empire. Traveling throughout the galaxy, ostensibly as an agent of the Empire, Bail met with leaders of the many planets within the Galactic Empire and if he found them to be of the same mind as himself they were recruited into the rebellion. Leia, with her amazing attunement to people, was often more capable of determining a person's mettle than the seasoned senators that made up the rebellion's leadership. She was nearly as good at it as Mon Mothma or Bail himself. At times Bail thought she was communing with the Force but he kept the thought to himself and actively discouraged anyone else who brought it up. There were very few Force sensitive people left in the galaxy and Bail wanted Leia connected with none of them, particularly the most visible one, the Emperor's right hand, Darth Vader.
Like most parents Bail kept Leia as far away from Vader as possible. But in his case it was for reasons much more important than keeping the monster from his child's dreams. Bail had no concrete proof but he had always trusted his intuition and he believed Leia's true father had not died on Mustafar as Obi-wan Kenobi had believed. Vader was incredibly powerful when wielding the Force and the way he carried himself was strangely familiar to Bail. It was nothing he could point to, he simply believed Vader to be the man once known as Anakin Skywalker - and this belief terrified him. Bail had never been Force sensitive himself and did not know the particulars of its power. He only knew Anakin had been the most powerful Jedi of his time and there was no reason to believe Vader wouldn't know his daughter on sight. Most knew Leia was not an Organa by birth but only a handful of people knew her true parentage and those who did had no communication amongst each other. It was Bail's most guarded secret, more vital even than the identity of the rebellion. So Bail kept away from Vader, scheduling his own travels off the Executor's and doing his best to keep a galaxy between their ships. In the five years since the rise of the Empire, Vader had traveled across the galaxy in his role as the menacing face of the Empire and he'd visited thousands of star systems. But there were some few planets the dark lord avoided at all costs and the planet Leia watched from her perch on the Observation Deck was one of them.
Naboo.
As the birthplace of the Emperor, Naboo was unique in its place in the Empire. It was all but ignored. There was the ubiquitous presence of storm troopers patrolling the capital but the planet itself had remained under the control of its young Queen; there was no Imperial governor, no star destroyer in permanent orbit, and Darth Vader had never journeyed there to strike fear in the hearts of Naboo's citizens. Yet there was also no senator from Naboo in the Imperial Senate, they were treated almost as if they were an outer rim planet...they had no power whatsoever.
Many of his compatriots in the rebellion felt Naboo was a lost cause, that even if they joined the rebellion they had little to offer as the nubians had no standing army and the gungans had returned to isolation following the rise of the Empire. Without a presence in the Senate the nubians had little recourse for travel outside of their system and were they to suddenly petition to have a senator assigned it would bring undue attention to the cause. But Bail felt some loyalty to the planet's former senator. She had been passionately opposed to the Emperor's rise in power and he felt it only right her planet at the least be approached though her own voice had been silenced. Bail had had some misgivings about bringing his daughter with him on this particular mission but he decided it was highly unlikely she would come in contact with anyone who might recognize her features and he knew it to be one planet where Vader would never come. He watched as his daughter pressed her face against the window and saw the planet of her mother's birth for the first time. Leia's eyes sparkled with something Bail could only assume to be a Force recognition of some sort and she turned to him.
"Where are we Papa?"
"Naboo."
"It's so peaceful. There aren't any starships."
"The Emperor does not think this planet holds much of a threat to him."
"But we know better right, Papa?"
"Yes, Leia, we know better." In his mind he added that this planet had already bourne the greatest threat there was to the Emperor and she stood before him.
End Part One