Chapter 7
The grizzled freighter captain glanced nervously over
his shoulder at the hooded figure standing behind him. This was his passenger's
first appearance in the cockpit. In fact, it was his passenger's first
foray out of the small cargo hold he was using as a cabin, and it made
the old spacer distinctly uneasy. The traveler appeared to be little more
than a boy, but the sheer size of the kid and his surly demeanor had prompted
the captain to keep his distance.
Anakin smiled grimly beneath the hood of his cloak, his
arms crossed over his chest. He had used the Force to keep the old man
on edge for the entire trip. He didn't want any interaction with anyone;
he just wanted to get to Tatooine. The only reason he was up here now was
because they were getting ready to drop out of hyperspace.
"Coming up on Tatooine," said the captain, reaching for
the hyperdrive controls.
"Take us down to the Mos Espa spaceport," ordered Anakin.
These were the first words he had exchanged with the pilot since Coruscant,
when he had pressed all of his money into the man's fist and demanded passage.
He had only enough credits to get him to Tatooine. He wasn't worried about
getting back. There's nothing to go back to.
He felt a strange tingling in his Force-sense. Something
was wrong. "Drop us to sublight now!" he shouted.
"But--" protested the other man.
"Just do it!" yelled Anakin, stepping toward the pilot.
The captain pulled back on the hyperdrive lever, dropping
them back into normal space. The Force-tingling grew stronger. Anakin peered
through the cockpit window. "I have a bad feeling about this," he murmured.
"I don't see anything," protested the captain.
"There," said Anakin, pointing. A large dark cruiser,
barely visible against the starry backdrop of space, hung over the dirty
brown orb of Tatooine.
"What kind of ship is that?" the captain asked.
Anakin's reply was cut off by two small triangular craft
flashing by the cockpit. A moment later, the ship rocked from the concussion
of several near-misses. Fighters, Anakin thought as he regained
his balance. Then the realization struck him: the Mandalorians were here!
He fought back his rising panic.
The captain swore viciously and clutched the controls.
He punched new coordinates into the navicomputer and started to bring the
freighter about.
"What are you doing?" Anakin demanded.
"What's it look like I'm doin', kid? I'm getting the hell
outta here!" The old pilot continued to turn the ship as a wave of fighters
burst from the cruiser and headed their way.
"Turn this bucket around," Anakin ordered coldly. "I paid
you to take me to Tatooine and that's what you're going to do."
"Are you nuts?!" exclaimed the captain. "I don't have
any weapons! We could be killed going up against those fighters!"
Anakin pushed his hood back and pinned the captain with
an icy blue gaze. "If we face those fighters, you only might be
killed." He ignited his lightsaber and held it inches from the old man's
face. The shimmering green blade cast a sickly glow across his features.
"If you don't turn around, you will be killed."
Quailing in the face of Anakin's fury, the captain turned
back to the controls and swung the ship back toward Tatooine. He mumbled
something about a Jedi and an immovable object under his breath as his
hands danced across the panel.
Anakin straightened up in satisfaction. The feeling was
only momentary, as he quickly realized that the captain was not a skilled
enough pilot to take on the fighters, especially with no weapons. The ship
bucked under the withering fire. Lights flashed and alarms blared as the
laser blasts began to take their toll on the freighter's shields.
Anakin jerked the captain out of the pilot's chair and
tossed him unceremoniously to the floor of the cockpit. Taking over the
controls, he yanked the safety harnesses across his body before throwing
the freighter into a mad spiral, dodging between the fighters. He smiled
in grim satisfaction as several fighters destroyed each other in the crossfire.
Anakin headed for the cruiser, jinking the ship in every
direction to avoid the laser blasts coming from the fighters. The freighter
had not taken any more direct hits since he took over the controls, but
the concussions from the near-misses were taking a toll on the systems.
The shields were completely gone. An engine warning light on the console
flared up, and Anakin let loose a nasty stream of Huttese curses. He was
losing power to the starboard engine.
Shutting down the damaged engine, Anakin rerouted the
power to the remaining two. He was drawing closer to the cruiser and he
wondered why it hadn't started firing on him yet. Maybe it didn't have
any weapons. Acting on this hunch, he bore down full throttle on the large
ship, heading for a tower that he knew had to be the bridge.
"Are they insane?!" the cruiser's captain screamed as
they watched the dilapidated ship grow larger in the viewport. The bridge
crew dove for cover as the freighter flashed past the transparisteel, missing
the cruiser by meters.
"Track them!" ordered the captain.
"It's diving into the planet, sir," reported the sensor
tech. Through the bridge viewport, they could see the old ship falling
toward Tatooine, seemingly out of control. "Engines are dead, sir, and
there are no life signs."
"Hmm, the fighters must have inflicted more damage than
we thought," said the captain. "Let it go. Maybe it will crash close enough
to the Hutt for him to salvage some of the cargo." He smiled grimly. "Or
better yet, perhaps it will land on the Hutt himself."
**********
Padmé ran quickly through the pre-flight checks.
The shuttle she had leased was old, but in good condition. Most importantly,
the hyperdrive was well-kept. It would get her safely to Tatooine, then
back home. She would have to arrange for someone to return it to Coruscant
later. As far as she knew, there was no branch for Crazy Eddie's Superb
Rental Shuttles on Naboo.
As she powered up the shuttle, the vehicle's proximity
alarm went off. Someone was standing too close to the ship for her to bring
the engines to full power. Looking through the cockpit's side window, she
saw a small figure with a large duffel bag standing beside the place where
the ramp would be when it was lowered. Sabé. I should have known.
She opened the side window. "Sabé, move away from
the ship," she ordered. The handmaiden didn't budge. "Sabé, I can't
take off if you don't move," she ground out through clinched teeth. She
was starting to get angry. Sabé crossed her arms and turned to face
her, expressionless. She was obviously determined to get her way.
The handmaiden would not move far enough away to allow
her to lift off, no matter how loudly Padmé yelled at her. Huffing
in frustration, she slapped the ramp control. I ought to override the
alarm and toast her when I take off, she thought sourly. Sabé
appeared in the cockpit a moment later. Padmé silently waved her
into the co-pilot's seat, then powered up the engines and took off.
She guided the shuttle into the air lanes and scanned
the sky. She spotted a large passenger liner lumbering towards space. Accelerating
a bit, Padmé slid in underneath the big ship and matched its speed.
She kept the shuttle in the liner's shadow until they were past Coruscant
Traffic Control, then peeled away and punched Tatooine's coordinates into
the navicomputer. As soon as the computer returned the route, she grabbed
the hyperdrive control arm and turned it. The stars elongated as the shuttle
went to lightspeed.
"Why are we sneaking away?" Sabé's voice broke
the silence. Padmé glanced at her, then busied herself with the
ship's panel. "You didn't announce us to Traffic Control, so there's no
record of our departure."
"Handmaiden, I told you to stay in the apartment and decoy
for me," Padmé said icily, her voice dropping into the tones she
used as the Queen. "You disobeyed."
"I'm sorry, Your Highness," Sabé said acidly,
"but there was no way in hell I was letting you run off to that sandbox
of a planet by yourself. It's too dangerous. I don't care how cleverly
you planned to disguise yourself."
"This is a personal matter, Sabé. I'm acting as
Padmé, not as the Queen."
"You can't separate the two. Padmé is the
Queen," Sabé argued. "And since the Queen couldn't be bothered to
tell her Chief of Security where she is going, her personal bodyguard and
best friend is tagging along." Her eyes bored into Padmé's.
Padmé reached out and squeezed Sabé's arm,
touched by her friend's loyalty. "I appreciate your company, Sabé,
but it was not necessary for you to follow me."
Sabé grinned. "It was as much for my protection
as yours," she said. Padmé cocked an eyebrow questioningly. "You
think I want to be hanging around when Panaka discovers you're gone? I'd
hate to be in Rabé's shoes when he gets back from his meeting."
"Rabé is pulling decoy duty? How'd you manage that?"
"I didn't give her a choice," replied Sabé. "Besides,
you know she's not intimidated by Panaka. She won't tell."
"Maybe not," said Padmé, "but what about the others?"
"No problem there. They're more afraid of me than
they are of him." Sabé grinned evilly.
Padmé snickered. Her handmaidens generally got
along well, but Sabé's quick temper and sharp tongue had cut through
all of them at one time or another. She usually got what she wanted.
Sabé sobered. "You didn't answer my question. Why
did we sneak away from Coruscant?"
"I didn't have enough cash, so I had to use a credit chip
to pay for the shuttle. Panaka will trace that easily. But since we didn't
file a flight plan or get a departure clearance, he won't know where we're
going. And neither will the Jedi Council – I hope."
"So why don't you want them to know where we're going?"
Padmé sighed and rubbed her temples. "It's a touchy
situation. The Jedi have forbidden Anakin to see his mother until after
he completes his training. And they would not allow Obi-Wan to go after
him, so I'm sure they wouldn't be pleased with my going. Anakin may be
punished or even expelled – I don't know how they handle these things.
He will most certainly try to free his mother, and probably the other slaves
as well. It's been eating at him ever since Qui-Gon took him away".
She leaned back in the pilot's seat. "If Panaka finds
out, he'll go in with the Royal Starship, a couple of squadrons of fighters,
and a brigade of troops. Politically, we can't afford that. The Senate
has not approved an emancipation mission for Tatooine, and the Naboo government
cannot be officially involved in what would essentially be an illegal operation."
"But the head of the Naboo government is getting herself
involved," Sabé pointed out.
"No, she's not," Padmé insisted. "Padmé
Naberrie, private citizen, is getting herself involved."
Sabé rolled her eyes. "They are one and the same."
She held up her hand to ward off any more argument. "But since you are
determined to do this, I am convinced I made the right decision. Especially
since you can't pack worth a damn."
Padmé frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Show me your weapon," ordered Sabé. The other
woman looked at her in confusion, then pulled out a tiny blaster, the same
kind carried by all the handmaidens. "I thought as much," Sabé said
in disgust. "Come on." Grabbing Padmé by the arm, she led the way
back to the shuttle's small cabin.
The large duffel bag was thrown into a corner of the room.
Grabbing it, Sabé unhooked the catch and dumped the contents on
one of the tiny bunks. An assortment of large blaster rifles, thermal detonators,
laser pistols, and other weaponry fell onto the mattress. There was even
a Gungan electropole.
"Courtesy of General Tarpals," Sabé explained as
Padmé hoisted the electropole in wonder. "He gave it to me after
our last exercise with the Gungan army."
"Ah," Padmé murmured in understanding. She recalled
the grudging respect the old Gungan had developed for Sabé's grasp
of tactics. She looked at the pile of weapons. "Well. Everything a traveling
girl needs."
"Especially in that vacation spot of the Galaxy, Tatooine.
Vast deserts inhabited by gangsters, slavers, smugglers, and Hutts. What
more could you want from a holiday?" Sabé started putting the weapons
back into the bag.
Padmé sat on the other bunk. "What I don't understand,"
she mused, "is why Anakin would choose to do this now. I mean, he's been
worried sick about his mother for years. Why jeopardize his future now,
when he's so close to his dream?"
Sabé rolled her eyes. How can someone so intelligent
be so stupid? She pulled a small data reader from her cloak and tossed
it to Padmé. "Look, I already told you what happened last night.
Maybe this will give you another clue." She stalked out of the cabin.
Padmé watched her go, perplexed. Then she turned
on the data reader. It was that day's edition of The Galactic Inquirer,
the galaxy's largest-selling tabloid news source. There was a holo of her
and Bail Organa arriving at the Senate.
QUEEN OF NABOO SNAGS GALAXY'S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR!
screamed the headline.
"Oh, no." Padmé covered her eyes and flopped back
on the bed.