Prologue
Annora whipped out her cloth and wiped it across the newly elected Chancellor's desk. Though the air traffic of Coruscant was heavy, the floor-to-ceiling windows were thick and insulated from the droning noise of the vehicles outside. These were the times that she relished some peace and quiet. It was a rare privilege for someone like her.
Annora glossed the surface of the desk before moving into the next room, cleaning as she went. There were countless silver trinkets to sterilise, titanium door frames to decontaminate, carpeted floors to vacuum; all of which needed to be completed by the time the Chancellor arrived back from the funeral of Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi master who had fallen during the liberation of Naboo.
While it all sounded very interesting, Jedi and planetary unfettering were far beyond her jurisdiction. Annora had one job, a job which she intended to do well.
Annora was cleaning Chancellor's personal chamber, polishing a rather stubborn blemish left on a chrome statue, when she heard the door to the Chancellor's chambers open with a hiss. Startled, she slowly moved back towards the main chamber. But the Chancellor's voice gave her pause before she reached the doorway.
"The plan did not go as predicted," Chancellor Palpatine said. "Both Jedi were marked to die, not just Master Qui-Gon Jinn."
Annora froze, her breath catching in her chest.
"Mesa moved all the pieces into place. It's yousa own apprentice whosa failed in executing the plan properly," said a second voice, sternly.
Annora searched the room for a way out, but it was an enclosed space with little more than a few luxurious comforts. This was not a conversation she wanted to listen to. But with no way of escape - or openly revealing herself - she could do nothing but press her back against the wall and clutch her shaking hands to her chest.
Chancellor Palpatine gave a low grunt.
"My apprentice Darth Maul showed great promise, but his weakness came from his arrogance. He should not have underestimated the Jedi Kenobi. We must not underestimate Jedi Kenobi."
"Kenobi is irrelevant," said the second voice. "Yousa need to turn your attention to Skywalker now. Yousa have allowed him to slip through our fingers and into the Jedi order. This is unacceptable. Yousa need to begin his training immediately."
"Are you sure that he is the one to bring balance to the force? To restore the darkness against the light?"
"Mesa was there when Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn read Skywalker's midiclorians," the second voice stated.
"You and I both know that a midiclorian count is but ignorant conjecture trying to explain the mysteries and power of the force," Chancellor Palpatine retorted.
"Mesa is aware of this. But mesa is also certain of Skywalker."
Annora was shaking badly and she feared discovery by the Chancellor and his companion, who were somehow involved in the late Master Jedi's death. Knowing the senate had just elected the Chancellor, this knowledge and conspiracy could deliver Annora into a similar fate as the Jedi.
She needed to relax. Long ago, her mother had taught her a calming technique. The priests in the village used it, her mother had told her. By way of honouring her mother, Annora often practiced the technique at night, especially when she was afraid and alone.
She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, stilling her mind, letting her worries drift away.
"Mesa feel- "
"Yes. Yes, I feel it too," Chancellor Palpatine said quickly. "There is someone lingering in the next room. It could only be - ah yes. Annora, you can come out now."
Annora's knees almost buckled beneath her, but somehow she found her feet moving. She walked through the doorway and into the main chamber. Chancellor Palpatine was watching her, his hands folded in front of him. Standing next to him was a tall alien she'd never before seen, certainly not with the Chancellor. His long ears drooped below his shoulders; his skin was splotchy and mottled like that of an exotic reptile back on her own world. The eyes that protruded like antennae from the alien's head glowed as he examined Annora with great interest.
The alien turned to the Chancellor and said,
"Yousa been keeping secrets from mesa. Yousa have found another."
The Chancellor only smiled in response.