Act I
Chapter 1
A Great Disturbance...
Space, as elegant as it is deadly, neither term held much meaning traveling through hyperspace. Just as such Padme couldn't comprehend the unavailing circumstances of the galaxy. All that mattered at this moment was saving her husband. As she sat there in the cockpit, her eyes never wavered from the endless void of sub-space. Nothing should require her attention until she reached Mustafar. Or so she thought...
"Mistress Padme, I'm not quite sure how to interpret these readings." Threepio stated. "Of course I've never been programmed for piloting."
Padme glanced lazily at the main navigational display. After Threepio's first ten minutes of concerned questioning, followed by the uncounted hours of silence, she had no desire for him to find more reasons to start chatting again.
"I don't see anything unusual Threepio. Please, leave me be."
Padme began to unstrap her seat harness when he pointed a slightly rusted golden finger at the display.
"Please mistress, I must insist. This notification is coming up in the interstellar standard for 'emergency'."
A moment later the display holographic-ally enhanced to a heads up display across the main viewer. There the planets Coruscant and Mustafar were clearly visible at either end with a line connecting both showing the path of their ship...and just ahead of the indicator for the ship was a thin red bleep.
Padme leaned in a bit and re-buckled her strap. She couldn't recall anytime a similar indication had appeared while in hyperspace, but no emergency in hyperspace could possibly be good.
"Magnify the area between our current position and that indication." She requested while pointing at the blinking red spot.
"At once, your majesty."
A moment later the view zoomed in three hundred percent, showing a far more intricately detailed display. The ship could be seen heading directly towards what appeared to be a solid flashing wall of red. At the top of the display was now flashing a message in Aurebesh 'Danger! Contact Unknown/Error Class: Type III Sub-space Anomaly. As disturbing as that message was, what was even more so was how quickly it appeared the ship was approaching.
"Threepio, how long before we come into contact with that...disturbance?" Padme asked with the slightest bit of urgency.
"The anomaly is currently two point three one light-years away. At our current speed, we will reach the edge in one minute, fifty-three point eight nine seconds."
"Can you navigate us around?"
"That's where my programming seems to fail me mistress. I'm reading that the anomaly exists no more than five nanometers in depth, but has no measurable height nor width restrictions. I'm sure it's some kind of error in my..."
"Stop the ship immediately!" Yelled a new voice from behind them. Padme and Threepio both turned at the same time to see Jedi Master Obi-wan Kenobi standing barely a meter away. A sense of urgency was clear across his face.
"Master Kenobi! So good to see you!" Threepio exclaimed.
"Obi-wan...what are you doing here?!" Padme asked, almost with a bit of abhorrence behind her voice.
"We have to get out of here now!" Kenobi yelled, his voice easily matching his expression of consternation. "Threepio, drop us out of hyperspace."
"I would have already sir, but it would seem we are already close enough for the anomaly to affect us. I am unable to deactivate the hyper-drive"
Padme turned back around to look out the main view-screen, but the view was unlike anything she had seen while traveling before. The blue-white distorted star field was there, but at the center and growing quickly was...nothing. It was as though they were one of trillions of photons falling towards the horizon of a black hole. Padme hastily moved a hand towards the hyper-drive controls and found the lever marked 'disengage'. Despite Threepio's own allocution, she was still stunned when she pulled down with no effect.
"He's right." Padme stated with far less disdain in her voice, and far more worry. "The controls are functioning, but there's no effect."
"We will come in contact with the anomaly in approximately thirty seconds!" Threepio announced with his own expression of worry now. "Oh dear...I didn't think it would end like this..."
"Shut down the main reactor, we might can force the ship to drop out of hyperspace." Obi-wan commanded.
"Yes Master Kenobi, I must admit though I am not as good at these things as Artoo."
"It's alright, I have the utmost of confidence in you." Obi-wan said, carefully masking his sarcasm. Obi-wan leaned in towards Padme, still remaining eye locked on the view-screen where the maw seemed to be eating away at the light from the very edges of the screen now.
"I understand I must explain myself, but for now we have to worry about that disturbance. It is powerful with the dark side of..."
"Master Kenobi, Mistress Padme," Threepio interrupted. "I do apologize, but there's a power regulation imbalance. I can't shut down the reactor!"
All three of the trapped passengers looked on into the abyss as they crossed the barrier and in to nothingness...
xXx
As quickly as it had seemed to come over them, the disturbance passed and the ship was dropped into real space. There was silence for but a moment before Threepio threw up both hands.
"Thank the maker! It missed us at the last second!"
"I don't think so Threepio." Obi-wan said with far more reluctance while reaching towards the controls.
"What are you looking for?" Padme asked.
"I'm trying to see if the scanners picked up anything at the last moment...there!"
A great deal of information began to scroll, overlayed above the now calm star field ahead. Obi-wan tapped a select view spots that magnified and moved towards the side of the screen, allowing for a clearer read.
"These are unlike anything I've ever heard of." Obi-wan started. "The scanners identified the anomaly as 'quantum ripple', a very localized space-time disruption that is undetectable until you're almost on top of it.
It appeared to be endless because once you get close to it, it exists in all points of space and time relative to your position until you pass through. That is the part that worries me though...it seems the event was localized to just us, but we are over three thousand light-years away from our last position. The ship's clock is also stating that we're..."
Obi-wan had to pause for a moment to make sure what he was reading was correct.
"I can't believe this..."
"What?" Padme asked frantically.
"It would seem we've also traveled approximately two days into the future."
"What?" Padme asked again, however clearly of disbelief this time.
"Well, it is a space time anomaly after all...I suppose we should be lucky it was days instead of years or even centuries. But...that feeling of the dark side before we crossed over, I still can't shake that. Whatever caused this is shrouded in the dark side."
Padme was unfazed by what Obi-wan had to say though. As reality sank back into her, Anakin immediately returned to be the main priority.
"That's the last thing I'm worried about. I need to get back underway...and you can't be here."
There was a momentary awkward silence before Threepio, feeling completely left out, interjected. "Excuse me mistress, would you like me to continue flying?"
"Yes Threepio, but I think we need to make a quick pit-stop along the way." Padme looked straight at Kenobi and continued. "We need to drop our stowaway off before we arrive at our destination."
"Senator Amidala," Obi-wan started with a calculatedly more formal introduction. "I assure you I am here for yours and Anakin's best interests."
"I don't believe you."
"Senator, I will promise you that I will not interfere unless Anakin threatens to hurt you." Obi-wan stated with relative honesty. With the hatred he had seen in the holo-vids he knew it would be but a matter of time before his rage struck out against her too.
"He would never do such a thing."
"Then you have nothing to worry about."
Padme had a strained look across her face, like she had eaten something unfit for consumption. Her eyes moved to the side for a few seconds before she looked back to him with mixed frustration and reluctance.
"Fine! As a Jedi Master I'll hold you to your word...and since you're here already and we've already been thrown so of course, putting you out would just slow us down too long anyway."
Threepio again chimed in just as the stars stretched out into hyperspace again. "We are two days behind schedule, but the ripple has placed us closer to Mustafar. We should arrive in less than two hours!"
xXx
As the ship touched down on a landing pad near the control room, Padme was already standing by the ramp. Emotions flooded her all at once. Was her husband still alright? What could have possibly caused him to have come out this far? And of course at the back of her mind was the lingering thought could Obi-wan have been right? Could Anakin possibly have committed the atrocities Obi-wan accused him of? She remembered what he had told her of the sand people...but that was years ago, and he had plenty of time to discipline himself against such outbursts now. Or...could his relationship with her have caused him some sort of emotional imbalance. Would it be her fault?
She held her head in her own frustration. I should have dealt with all this on the way here. Perhaps I could have focused if 'he' wasn't here. She thought to herself. As he picked up on her stress and internal struggle, Obi-wan came over and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Focus yourself Padme, if Anakin picks up all this emotion from you it could cause him to react irrationally."
"Can you sense him? How is he?" She asked with barely contained tears behind her eyes.
"No...if I seek him out he may be able to detect my presence." Obi-wan paused for a moment with a look of dread crossing his face. "I can tell you something horrible has happened here...there is a strong taint of the dark side inside that facility."
The ramp began to lower, a wave of heat swept up into the ship like the opening of an oven. Padme looked down towards the ever widening gap and back to Obi-wan.
"Please...you'll remember your promise?"
"Only if your life is in danger will he even know I'm here."
Padme gave a slight nod and headed, hurriedly down the ramp. The heat hit her full force by the time she was at the bottom. It must have been blistering, perhaps over one hundred even behind the heavy shielding. But she didn't care, she was on a mission and she ran straight for the control room ahead. She was almost to the stairs when she heard the familiar beeping of Artoo. She stopped immediately and turned around as the R2 unit rolled towards her.
"Artoo! Where's Ani?"
Artoo beeped fervently while shaking himself back and fourth.
"What do you mean he's not here?!"
"*indistinguishable beeping sounds*"
"Palpatine came for him after he...no, that can't be..."
Padme turned and ran fast as she could straight for the control room, leaving Artoo to continue ranting on the pad. She nearly tripped herself over the steps and ran through the first doorway. There was a smell that almost instantly hit her nose, it was a burning...different then the lava from outside, like a cooked meat smell. She quickly approached the inner door, there was bad lighting but there appeared to be carbon scoring like that from a lightsaber. She shook her head, it just couldn't be true. She finally crossed into the room, but she couldn't bear the sight before her. There were at least a dozen dismembered and burned B1 battle droids scattered around, carbon scoring indicative of blasters and lightsabers were all across the walls and various surfaces, and then there were the bodies. At least twenty dignitaries and leaders were in various states of dismemberment or with a hole through there abdomen.
She had to place a hand to her mouth momentarily. The stench was just far too much, it was as though she was in a slaughterhouse that had been set ablaze. Within moments her eyes began to swell up, and at least she just couldn't hold it in anymore. The tears flowed like the lava that mindless drones continued to collect below. It had all been true, everything that Obi-wan had said. Anakin had murdered the Jedi at the temple, and he had come her to murder the leaders of the Separatists too. The breath seemed to leave her body. She collapsed to her knees and sobbed in her hands as she felt her world collapsing around her. She mustered just enough energy to speak, if only to herself.
"Why Anakin...where have you gone?"
She continued to sob there on the floor, hoping that somehow she had this all wrong, that maybe he would come out like he was hiding and tell her he was just an innocent bystander in all this. The thought didn't last long, as a new feeling exploded in her, pain, the kind of pain that could only come from...
"OBI-WAN!" Padme screamed as her hands moved towards the floor where she could now feel something wet spreading away from her.
Almost too quickly Obi-wan appeared and ran over towards her, leaning down to feel her. "You're contractions have started, we have to get you out of here."
"Anakin..." She almost seemed to whimper as he picked her up and headed towards the ship.
"We will find out what has happened, Artoo is aboard the ship and has already told me everything he knows. For now we have to worry about getting you out of here."
Padme closed her eyes and nodded as he carried her towards the ship. Passing back through the hall towards the exit, she made one last look back towards the room.
"Anakin..." She managed to whimper again before her eyes rolled to the back of her head...
