10 BBY. Aldera Palace, Aldera, Alderaan
Bail Organa stared in open-mouthed horror at the text in front of him, unable to think past the wall of panic in his mind.
They have a passenger from the Jewel of Alderaan. Identities of all onboard compromised.
Bail sat frozen for five more seconds, then snatched up the hidden commlink in his belt, and punched in 441-004. The call was answered almost immediately by a tall woman in white and gold.
"Mon," he said, not waiting for her greeting. "I need a safe place. We've just been severely compromised."
The Same Day, Coruscant
Senator Padmé Amidala sank onto her sofa, cup of Nubian Jinra tea in hand. Across the sitting room, her oldest friend looked up from her datapad.
"Isn't Luke due home about now?" asked Sabé. Padmé smiled over at the other woman.
"Yes, any minute now. You know, Sabé, you're not my handmaiden anymore. I'm happy to have you visit, but you didn't have to come all the way to Coruscant just to escort me to dinner." Sabé laughed.
"Of course not, but somebody has to watch your back. Besides, it's been ages since the last time I saw Coruscant. Or you and Luke," she added, with a mock reproving look.
"I know," Padmé sighed. "It's been too long since my last vacation, but Luke's been so excited about school lately, I hate to pull him away from it." As she finished speaking, the apartment door slid open, revealing the subject of their conversation.
Luke Amidala came into the room, spotted Sabé, and sprinted over to fling his arms around her waist.
"Aunt Sabé! I missed you!" The small woman smiled, swinging Luke around in a circle.
"Your Auntie missed you too, little Luke!" she said as she set him back on his feet.
"How was school, love?" asked Padmé, as Luke came over to hug her as well. His face lit up, were it possible, even more.
"We're learning about the Clone Wars!" he said excitedly to Sabé. Turning back to his mother, Luke started narrating his day. Padmé listened with one ear, until she caught out a familiar word.
"-and she said the Jedi Generals used to-"
"Did you say Jedi?" interrupted Padmé, tone harsher than she'd meant it. Luke, with his eight-year-old innocence, didn't notice. His class had been studying the Clone Wars for the past week, but she'd assumed they wouldn't talk about the Jedi.
"Yeah!" he exclaimed. "The Jedi were the leaders of all the Clones, Mom! We got to watch some wizard holos of them! Too bad they were traitors in the end, huh? I thought they seemed totally wizard. There was even this one who was supposed to be an astral pilot! Just like I want to be!"
Padmé wasn't surprised he'd picked that detail out. Ever since she'd told him that his father had been a pilot in the Clone Wars, Luke had been adamant about becoming one as well. What was surprising was that the school had access to old holoreels from the Clone Wars. Of course, it made some sense as well. Make the Jedi, and their supposed betrayal of the Republic, common knowledge to the next generation, and they would never become legends. It was a political masterstroke, now that she thought about it, perfectly in character for Palpatine.
Luke, meanwhile was still chattering.
"-and the reporters had these astral nicknames for all the Jedi and their troops, like The Negotiator and the Hero With No Fear!" Padmé couldn't help but flinch at the last bit. Unfortunately, Luke did catch that. "Is something wrong, Mom?"
"Ah, no, sweetheart, it's just-the end of the war was a hard time." Although she knew the answer would hurt, she couldn't help but ask, "What sort of holoreels did you get to watch?" Luke, relieved that she was alright, happily answered.
"It was a segment from the Second Battle of Geonosis! There were four Jedi there, Mom! Luminara Unduli, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi! Anakin Skywalker was the one called the Hero With No Fear," he added informatively. Padmé had to press her lips together to keep from bursting into hysterical laughter at the sheer irony.
"Luke, sweetheart, you do remember the Jedi were traitors to the Republic, right?" Padmé thanked the gods for Sabé. She wasn't sure she'd have been able to keep it together for that particular lie. Luke shrugged.
"Yeah, Aunt Sabé, I know," he said. "I still think they were astral, though. Especially the pilot one." He turned back towards Padmé then. "Mom, you knew some of them, right? Were they astral?"
Padmé was saved from having to answer him by her comm going off. Not her Senate comm, either, but the one she kept in her stocking. The one that only connected to three other commlinks in the Galaxy. Hands shaking with trepidation, she pulled it out.
"This is Senator Amidala." she said, some of her wariness bleeding into her voice. The message consisted of three short bursts of static. It was part of a coded system she'd memorized more than eight years ago.
Positions compromised. Get out.
Bail slammed his fist down onto his desk in anger, nearly four hours after he'd received the message from his informant with the Imperial Fleet. He'd gotten through to Padmé, who was in the most immediate danger, but the neither of the other two messages had gone through. There were only two possibilities as to why: either both Jedi's comms had been destroyed, which seemed unlikely, or the Empire had begun jamming his communications between his message to Padmé and his attempted transmission to Master Skywalker.
He really, really didn't want to think about what that meant.
At least his order to Mon had been received. With any luck, Taryk had already pulled out. There was nothing on Master Tano and her cell that the Empire didn't already know. And Padmé had been warned. He could only trust that Kenobi and Skywalker would handle themselves.
It was too soon, dammit! Two more years, and he'd have had the whole Alliance set up. As it was, they had several unconnected cells in the Outer Rim, an informal network of spies, and one general with actual combat experience. Well, provided the Jedi got out alive, they'd have three generals, but still.
They needed a fleet. Mon had been working on that. Her latest round of negotiations, with the Mon Cala this time, had been promising, but were as of yet unfinished, and now doubly important.
Across the palace, he knew Breha was destroying all evidence of the Alliance. If his comms had been jammed, then the Empire knew of his involvement, and there would be Star Destroyers in Alderaan's atmosphere within hours. Breha would not abandon her people and, in order to protect her, he was going to have to run before the Empire arrived. With him gone, she could claim to have had no knowledge of his treason. There was no guarantee that Palpatine would believe it, but even he couldn't kill her without proof of anti-Imperial activities.
Half an hour later, his personal Corvette, Tantive IV rocketed out of the atmosphere. Standing in her cockpit, he watched the blue green surface of his home grow smaller and smaller, until it disappeared into stretched out stars.
He couldn't shake the horrible feeling he'd never see Alderaan again.
Luke Naberrie Amidala was not stupid. He knew something was wrong, and he'd known it since his mother's comm had gone off. He also knew that they were not, no matter what Mom said, going on vacation. Mom was always happy when they went to Naboo, but now, she was scared.
Luke's mom was sad a lot, and she worried a lot, too, but he'd never felt her be scared.
Luke was scared too, but not because his Mom was. No, there was Something in Luke's head telling him to be scared, to run as far away as he could get from Coruscant. Everything felt cold and dark, even though Coruscant didn't have a winter season, and the city's lights were all on. It was just like the time he'd met Lord Malefus. He'd known the man was bad, even though Mom told him not to be afraid.
Luke wasn't sure how he knew things like that, but he believed the Something when it when it told him stuff.
Mom and Aunt Sabé packed while Luke watched, holding his stuffed Nuna, General Jinn (he'd found the name in one of his datapads about Theed) to his chest. When Mom finished throwing things into their bags, which took less time than normal, (she wasn't even folding things like she always told Luke to) she took Luke's had in hers, and they left, locking the door behind them.
Everyone, even C-3PO was really quiet on the way to Mom's ship, which just proved something was wrong. C-3PO was never quiet. Mom jumped every time someone came around the corner, and Aunt Sabé kept her hand on her blaster the whole time. She'd promised to teach Luke how to shoot it when he was old enough. Maybe, since they definitely weren't going on vacation, Mom would let him learn now.
Mom's shiny Nubian transport ship was Luke's favorite ship in the whole world, but even the sight of its silver hull didn't cheer him up.
The Something was getting louder. It was like the time he'd gotten to watch a Star Destroyer take off from the docks, engines roaring as they cycled up. Except, Luke wasn't hearing the roar this time, he was feeling it, and it was making his head hurt.
On board the ship, his Mom strapped him into a seat right behind her in the cockpit. Sabé took the co-pilot's seat, where Luke usually sat. Last time they'd gone to Naboo, she'd let Luke hit the hyperdrive lever when she said it was time. Today, she didn't even look back at him as she switched on all the systems. Aunt Sabé did reach behind her and squeeze his knee, though. The ship rose smoothly. It never shook when Mom took off, because Mom was the ship's favorite person in the whole Galaxy. It always shook when Captain Panaka was flying. Thinking about that, Luke smiled. He almost managed to tell himself everything would be okay as they glided out of the hangar.
That was when the storm started.
His head was splitting open, and he was going to be sick. Distantly, he could hear someone screaming, but all he could think about was how his head hurt and he was going to be sick and there was feardarknessDANGER everywhere and he couldn't see anything but white and then there was nothing at all.
Below, on the planet's surface, Emperor Palpatine, full time Galactic despot and Dark Lord of the Sith, tamped down on his fury. Even Sith Lords did not allow their emotions to control them, after all. In his own defense, he hadn't been this angry since his favorite pet project had thrown 10 years of hard work out the window in a ridiculous show of nobility.
"Gone." he said. The Grand Moff nodded.
"Yes, M'Lord. Her apartment is empty, and her ship is no longer in its hangar. We believe she's already fled the system with the boy."
"Find her, Grand Moff." He didn't add any threats. There was no need.
Tarkin knew what would await him if he failed.
Across the Galaxy, at precisely the same time Luke Naberrie Amidala lost consciousness, Leia Skywalker regained it.
Breathing hard and still hearing the blond boy's screams, Leia sat up. The dream had been awful, but the details were already slipping away, leaving her with only a sense of disquiet that wouldn't let her go.
So, she did what she always did when she had bad dreams, and went to find Dad.
Clutching General Pookums to her stomach, Leia picked her way over the dismantled pit droids and their removed parts that had covered their floor for the past two days. (Dad was doing a side job for a Podracing manager) Dad was asleep on the sofa, snoring softly. Already feeling a little better, Leia tugged on his hand, and he cracked one eye open.
"Leia? 'S'wrong?"
"Had a bad dream." she said. Dad opened his other eye and sat up, patting the sofa. She scrambled up and pressed herself against his side.
"You wanna talk about it?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her. She shook her head.
"Don't remember," she said. "it was just scary." Dad nodded, understanding, then leaned back into the sofa, stretching out his legs. "Can I stay?" she asked, and Dad smiled.
"'Course, Princess." He murmured.
He rubbed gentle circles between her shoulders until she fell asleep again, curled against his side with General Pookums smooshed between them.
By morning, she'd forgotten her dream entirely.
A/N: See, there's plot, I promise! If you're confused, that's alright! Everything will make sense later! Leave me your comments, I like them,
