This chapter is specially dedicated to Carrie Fisher. She is now one with the Force.

Chapter 4

"Of course, milady, but if I may ask a question?"

Paqua impatiently waved her hand in the classic 'go on' gesture.

Trun on the other hand took a deep breath, prayed to whatever gods that might be listening and asked a question that had been bugging him since the Emperor's second-in-command had explained their orders.

"With all due respect, milady, but why are doing this? That sort of thing could easily be handled by local authorities."

The Dark Lady of the Sith only raised an eyebrow in response at the question. Trun knew that he wasn't exactly skirting the line since it was a perfectly legitimate question and one that the Director had probably wanted to ask himself, though it was probably more forward than what she was used to. Something about moving in the highest circles of the Empire gave one a sense of how far you could go, and Paqua usually was very down-to-the-matter-at-hand in things like this.

Paqua turned to the massive floor to ceiling window that showed the swirl of hyperspace racing by.

"The Emperor believes, and I happen to agree, that the Naberrie family has some connection to the rebels, and since you have shown great aptitude at weeding those out, Director Isard suggested you when he was to send someone to assist me on this mission."

Trun chose to not mention the fact that years of digging had revealed nothing. The closest thing had been that Bail Organa, a friend and colleague of the fugitive Senator Amidala had once dropped by when he had been on the planet for unrelated reasons to pay his respects, back before the Galaxy had learned that she was still alive. There had been some talk about the Senator being part of the Rebels' network on Coruscant, but nothing had been unearthed on that front either. Organa was either very, very good at keeping his head down and act the loyal Imperial Senator or there really was nothing there.

At any rate..

"I see. But with all due respect, there is the chance that we... spook them, or that there is nothing there to find."

Even though he had indirectly doubted the wisdom of the Emperor, he was not instantly chucked out the nearest airlock. Instead Paqua looked at him.

"If it is the former then you will have to move fast." she said, making clear where the blame would fall if that happened. Still, Trun appreciated that she didn't use it as her default strategy. Having the quarry bolt made them go for emergency plans that were a lot harder to pull off successfully, especially when you were a largeish group of people like this, were incredibly risky on both ends, and as someone who prided himself in his work, he also hated the by definition rushed nature of something like this. True, there wasn't always a choice, but he tried to avoid those occasions whenever he could.

"As for the latter..." she continued, "there is a connection. The Emperor has sensed it."

And that was that. Force Powers were something best not to be argued with if you wanted to get ahead in the upper hierarchy of the Empire. He wasn't quite so sure that Palpatine was right, but he knew better than to say that out lout at this point. But then again, some sort of clandestine connection between the Naberries and their daughter almost had to exist. Padmé Skywalker was far too much of a family person for that. Even with her being the enemy, that was one character trait of the second most famous Rebel that he fully understood.

Thing was, he had tried to trace it before. Other than the arrest and eventual execution of some trader for unrelated charges that had accomplished exactly nothing.

"They have almost outlived their usefulness then."

Part of him didn't like how bloodthirsty that sounded.

"They have. Their daughter and her husband are symbols for the Rebellion and what better way is there to send a message?"

"A valid point, Milady."

"I am glad you agree." she said drily and with only a hint of sarcasm and force. "But to get back to the matter at hand, they need to be... subtly encouraged, Agent."

Trun frowned. "With all due respect, I'm not sure that can be done to the desired effect in the time period specified in those orders. Manipulating someone like that is a fairly involved process after all. Yes, there has been some pressure brought to bear on them, just to make it clear that we are interested, but this is a difficult escalation."

Before Paqua could reply, Trun shook his head with a frown.

"Oh it can be done milady, and I will do it. What worries me is the optics. If we are to do this without being noticed, as the Emperor commands, by Nubian society at large or even the rest of the population of Theed, we need might need more time is what I mean."

"A valid point," the Dark Lady of the Sith conceded, "but do not concern yourself with that."

Trun raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing.

"The Emperor has no worries about the reaction of the populace of Naboo." she paused and looked at Trun, "But you are referring to the Core Worlds?"

"In a way. I doubt that this story would travel very far in the press, if at all, considering that our news control is going to be fairly complete and the Naberrie family has next to no public presence at the moment, but a version that is skewed in the retelling is eventually going to make the rounds and increase sympathies for the Rebellion among those who are predisposed towards that sort of thing. Now I know that this could also be used to identify those elements before they become a real problem, but are we willing to risk being caught unaware? And a short-term, brute-force approach makes it next to impossible to control the narrative that leaks out."

"So you are willing and able to carry out the Emperor's orders but would prefer not to?"

He could sense where this line would lead and counter-steered.

"Not at all. As an officer of both the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Intelligence Services it is my first duty to obey my orders without question," he said, paraphrasing the basic credo hammered into every academy recruit, "I merely saying that a quick approach to a simple task might yield results not entirely to the Emperor's liking. By definition measures of dissolution work slowly. The orders are to make them seek out the Rebels in such a way that they are unaware they are being traced, and doing that is not going to be easy if it is to be done "

"Leave it to him to decide what he likes or not. Your concern however is noted, as is your desire to secure the best possible outcome for the Empire."

She even smiled at him.

"However, the orders stand."

"Yes, milady."

"They did what?"

Darred stopped pacing and repeated himself. "They fired me, on the grounds that my family name has been costing them several contracts, chiefly the one for the new complex of the Borleian trade mission."

His wife seemed close to exploding with anger, so he stopped pacing and turned towards her. "Sola, sweetheart, for what it's worth, Janun did it very much against his will and pretty much because he was effectively told to do it by his own bosses."

"But WHY?"

He was tempted to reply that it had something to do with the recent activities of her darling sister, but however true that might be, it wasn't something that his wife needed to hear right now. They had been over all this when the Empire had started tightening the pressure seals a few years ago, and many a time since then. He didn't blame Padmé as such, given that the Empire was quite literally out to get them, but he wished that somehow, in some way she had been more circumspect. Dropping any sort of familial connection back to Naboo fooled exactly no one and certainly not Imperial authorities. And even if it had, it wouldn't have stopped them. Their last name marked them as enemies of the Empire.

And their actual, carefully hidden feelings were another matter entirely. Completely withdrawing from public life had been amazingly easy, given that the only member of the family who had sought public service was on the run from the Empire, but when the Rebels had started getting noticed by the Galaxy at large, that hadn't helped them any more.

Everything had escalated far more quickly than he had expected, and now... now...

"Dee?"

"Yes?"

"What are we going to do?"

That was a very good point. She knew that they had enough in the way of funds stashed away to last them a while if they were careful, but it wouldn't go on forever.

She sighed when he didn't give an answer. Nor did she manage to give one, as at this time someone banged on the door. She knew that the girls were in the back garden, so with trepidation she went to the door and pressed the button that opened them.

Outside was a young trooper from the Theed Police Force, along with three men wearing Imperial uniforms.

That moment destroyed their lives forever.

"Sola Naberrie? We have some questions to ask you. Come with us please."

tbc

Yes, we will soon get back to the actual main characters of this thing. It's just we're starting to reach the point where so much stuff is going on at once... It'll be worse once we reach what would be the OT-era, because we also have a lot more characters that need to be looked at before all coming together for the giant brawl at the end. (Why yes, I have been watching some vintage Godzilla recently.)