"The chair recognizes Senator Amidala of Naboo…" The commanding voice of Mas Amedda echoed out into the vast Grand Convocation Chamber of the Senate Building's rotunda, the Speaker's Staff firmly in his hand.
Padme took in a quiet, deep breath and guided her repulsorpod forward. The only other body in the pod with her was Jar Jar Binks, whose head was wobbling to and fro with confusion. For his own sake, and perhaps especially her own, she didn't tell the Gungan what she planned to do today. After all these years of attending political events together, the well-meaning but not-so-sharp Gungan had learned to be quiet and sit still.
Spy droids hovered around her to record every moment.
"Before I address my purpose to the Senate, I would like to preface that my associate, Representative Binks, has not been informed of this prior…" There as a stirring of curiosity among the hive of senators, but they were quiet. The sleepiest politicians were now awake. "Two days ago, an anonymous delivery was made to my personal living quarters here on Coruscant… It was a data disk that had been salvaged from an astromech droid that was present at the recent campaign to Renoss. What I found in its memory drive was alarming. It contained recordings and military reports."
The senators were quiet, clearly not yet aware of what the relevance of this was just yet.
"As you know…" she continued strongly. "… there was a great controversy surrounding the Republic's victory over the Separatist base located there, due to the discharge and arrest of our own General Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"If you had military information, you should have surrendered it to the Republican Army…" Mas Amedda said.
"Senator," Palpatine's croaky voice easily carried to her, calm and patient. "What is your concern regarding Renoss?"
"My concern does not need much more elaboration, Chancellor… I only ask my noble colleagues to please look to their viewscreens as I transmit to you what I had found on that disk…"
All manner of eyes and faces looked to their screens. Playing before them were the hologram recordings of General Kenobi and his reconnaissance of the planet, proof of the absence of any Separatist base. Padme had only watched this once the night before, and she felt a sudden new terror in showing them here in front of thousands of diplomats. Though it was only a small projection of Obi-Wan's image on every senator's repulsorpod, she felt a fear that she was handing him over to their judgment. But even in that small recording of him giving his report of the peaceful Renossians, or the recording of his negotiations with the Renossian Queen, his calm demeanor and surety gave her confidence now, in the harsh environment of the senate.
There was a scramble in the Chancellor's podium, of Mas Amedda leaning his blue head in close with Chancellor Palpatine, the old man looking concerned, but not frightened or angry. Padme was watching them now as they quietly conversed. There was growing noise through the rotunda, and Mas Amedda finally clanged the Speaker's staff on the platform.
"Order!" he bellowed out. When enough of the senators were quiet he continued sternly. "Senator Amidala, you did not present this data to the committee before bringing it here! What are your intentions in doing so?"
"If the Chancellor and his council are as surprised by this new information as I was upon receiving it, then say it now," Padme felt herself growing more bold with the resonance of the alarm and indignation that was filling the senate.
"The council will not recognize this treasonous information that could easily be falsified!"
There was an indecipherable roar of voices at the word 'treasonous', but they hushed enough for Padme to speak.
"I have put before you objective truth, Senators! A peaceful planet has been decimated because of false reports of an enemy outpost! The Renossians have no representative in this senate, they were forced into a war they wanted nothing to do with. General Kenobi knew that there was no Separatist outpost and attempted peaceful negotiations with Queen Piv Trogante. By his own report, he was only serving the Republic by trying to prevent a tragic mistake and upholding the peace that we have so desperately been striving for!"
"Shouldn't we expect our generals to follow orders?" a loyalist Senator called out.
"Especially a Jedi!" another senator added.
"Senators!" Bail Organa was speaking now. "Because General Kenobi was once a Jedi, isn't that all the more reason to believe that he would not betray the Republic?"
"Ah! Former Jedi!" a Nemoidian pointed accusingly across the chamber.
"Was Count Dooku not a Jedi once?" shouted another.
Padme felt sick. Bail should not have mentioned the Jedi aspect of it, there was already enough suspicion against the Jedi Order.
"But he was vying for peace!" she heard her friend Fang Zar add somewhere, though she could not make out his pod in the sea of lights.
"If Renoss was innocent, then why were there Separatists there at all? We lost countless clones in that battle against the droid army!"
"Did you not listen to the report? There were Separatist refugees there! That would be enough to draw Grievous there!"
"They were Nemoidians! Did the Trade Federation know that some of their own were on that moon?"
The Nemoidians were jabbering amongst themselves. "We demand an investigation!"
"Vote for an investigative committee!"
"Vote! Vote! Vote!" They were chanting now, fists, paws, tentacles raised.
"Order!" Mas Amedda was banging his stick again. The shouting between platforms had escalated into sheer noise. "Order!"
It took quite some time for the noise to calm, and Palpatine looked sad but calm as ever.
"Esteemed Senators, please… And Senator Amidala… I assure you that I am deeply disturbed by this information. While an investigation would clear up the matter, there are more pressing issues on our table. The Separatists have an advantage over us in the war and we cannot afford to be distracted or further divided… We must be united now more than ever if we are to win this war and attain peace. Senator Amidala, I must ask again: For what purpose are you presenting this information?"
Though his tone was ever-calm and ever-humble, she detected for the first time something scathing… something that was inciting her to place her head under the axe and say something indisputably treasonous. She glanced to Bail Organa and he was calm, but there was desperation in his eyes. She needed to choose her words carefully. Even if Palpatine wanted to protect her from her own foolishness, she knew he would be powerless if the rest of the senate decided she was a traitor.
"My purpose, Senators, is that this tragic event may be reason to restore democratic power to the senate. The war continues, and we vote more and more emergency powers away. Decisions such as the one to invade Renoss were made by a select few and not the majority. With each bill, more and more powers are taken from us. The Chancellor is right that we must be united now. But the unified voice of the Senate cannot be one individual. It must be a chorus—all of our voices—if we are to be a true democracy…"
The senators that she considered friends, who were against the Chancellor's powers, raised the loudest cheer, calling for democracy, and she thought perhaps there were new voices in there. It was impossible to tell in the din, but there were equally those who wanted more power in the hands of the Supreme Chancellor, for 'real progress' to be made.
"In light of this shocking information…" Chancellor Palpatine addressed the Senate, "we will reconvene for a vote on whether or not to pursue the investigation… Though I must remind the Senate that we still have the amendment on the de-regulation bill to vote on, as well as the issue of the Banking Clan's proposed interest rates, as were discussed earlier… These things are more pressing in the war than an incident that is already resolved… This meeting is adjourned."
And just like that it was swept away like a pile of dust.
The Chancellor had the final word, and they were dismissed. All the pods that were afloat re-docked, and in a massive wave of movement, the thousands of senators and representatives vacated the chamber. Padme stayed in her pod, feeling strangely cold and bewildered.
"Dat was berry nutsen! What do yousa thinken will happenen?"
Padme's throat felt tight. "I don't know. But something has to."
"Yousa comen, Senator?" Jar Jar asked as he stepped off the platform.
"Go ahead, Jar Jar…" she said distractedly, sitting down. "We'll talk later…"
The Gungan nodded and ambled away, leaving Padme alone in her platform, the silence of the empty chamber closing in on her.
What if she made a mistake?
If there was one thing that Obi-Wan excelled at, it was patience. He was good at waiting, even if that didn't necessarily mean he enjoyed it. And he was cooped up here in Padme's apartment, the blinds closed, and only C-3PO to keep him company. Not the most agreeable companionship, even if the droid was programmed to be agreeable.
The HoloNet was quiet. It was often the main source for any information on what happened in the senate meetings and it was strangely uninformative. Perhaps Padme's address was dragging the session later, which was very likely. Or she was arrested and they were coming for him now. Well, he was ready for it.
He was ready for any eventuality, so he chose to meditate. On the open veranda of Padme's apartment, he seated himself in the middle of the painted circles of the floor. It seemed to be as good as place as any to put oneself, it was very structured. The trickling fountain and the majority of the veranda was behind him, the open balcony and the city in front, the sun casting a golden glow on the skyline. The apartment had a security shield around it, preventing any unwanted visitors, but it did not block out the wind, for which Obi-Wan was grateful. The breeze from this altitude was welcoming, it was a physical reminder of the Force.
He was on his knees, eyes closed. He knew he didn't have the perceptions of Mace Windu, or Master Yoda, or Qui-Gon Jinn. But even he could still feel that constant disturbance in the Force. It wasn't quite an itch, or even a thorn in the side. It was akin to that feeling of being watched. Unsettling, constant, threatening, and every time you try to look there is nothing. Wherever the Dark Side slithered, the Force was stirred into erratic eddies, churned out of its natural stream.
He could feel it now more than ever. The Force was reacting to something, like ripples where a pebble was cast. Was it from Padme's speech to the Senate? The Sith Lord was probably in that chamber with her at this moment. His hands tightened into fists, but just for a moment.
He did not feel danger, though the Dark Side did not make intuition very effective. Otherwise they would have caught the Sith Lord years ago. But he could sense the great unease in the capital. The collective reaction of the Senators was strong enough to reach him. It meant there might be some results at last.
"Obi-Wan…" Padme's voice was beside him, her hand on his shoulder.
He opened his eyes and it was dark out. He hadn't been asleep, only carried away by his thoughts.
"I didn't want to disturb you, but you have been here for three hours…" she said softly, her knuckles brushing his jaw.
Indeed, she wasn't even wearing her senate gown anymore, she had changed into her night gown.
"I'm so sorry," he almost laughed, a little embarrassed at getting so deep into meditation that he ignored her arrival home. He pulled his legs out from under himself… and flopped onto his butt with a hiss. His legs were completely numb. "Oh, not again…" he groaned, rubbing at his thigh.
Padme's hand went to her mouth, hiding a smile.
He preferred it when people only knew about the spiritual ruminations of Jedi, their placid meditation and the profound thoughts that were born of it. It was better that people didn't know a Jedi had to contend with numb body parts when they forgot to keep the blood circulating.
"The Senate…" he winced as the feeling came clawing back into his leg like tiny spikes of electricity, a hand rubbing along his thigh to wake it up. Though everything was numb, the dull ache of his leg injury was still there. "What happened?"
She gracefully sat on the floor beside him. "They called for a vote to investigate. Then the Senate was adjourned until further notice…"
He nodded pensively. "These things rarely have immediate results… But the seed was planted. The other senators now know, and we can only hope that they find the right thing to do with the knowledge… Ah!"
Now his legs were throbbing with the blood returning to them.
"I haven't done this to myself since…" Now he remembered, and he blushed. "Well…. Since our flight back from Saskiel…" When they shared that tiny cockpit together—when they first kissed.
She smiled again, also blushing. "Couldn't you mediate somewhere more comfortable...?"
He followed her gaze to the multitude of cushioned seats on the veranda. "Oh… I hadn't thought about it."
The way she laughed told him she thought he was joking, and the fact that he wasn't, made him laugh with her. In the face of the tension surrounding them with politics and Sith Lords, her laughter was a healing tonic.
He finally had feeling back in his legs and he carefully got to his feet, putting his weight on his good leg, a hand extending to help her off the floor as well. She pulled him to the curved couch and urged him to sit. She then pulled in her legs and curled up beside him, her head on his shoulder, her arms around him tightly, and his around her. She felt so small at the moment, and she was so quiet with apprehension. He could not blame her. Everything was in the air right now, and when or where it would fall, no one could know.
The longer they sat here, the less anxiety he felt from her. Her shoulders rose and fell heavily with a beautiful sigh and he placed a kiss on her forehead, his lips lingering there. For just this moment, they were content. Everything felt peaceful.
He could feel the weight of her as she began to nod off, her breathing gradually getting deeper with sleep. In her exhaustion, she didn't even stir when he gathered her into his arms. He carried her to her room, his fingers moving subtly under her knees to push the sheets and blankets aside with the Force. He laid her down, and with his own hands pulled the blankets over her, warm and cozy.
He undressed and crawled into the bed with her, wrapping his arms around her. She scooted against him, her body fitting perfectly against his, his nose buried in her soft hair. She was asleep in moments, but he lay awake.
The Force was quaking. Everything felt… misaligned. It made him restless. He tried to sleep, he pinched his eyes closed, focused in on her breathing, her warmth, but the bad feeling continued to grow.
Get up.
The instinct was so powerful that it was a voice as clear as his own in his head. He stopped resisting it and opened his mind to it.
Get up now. Look out.
He quickly, but carefully slipped out of bed again, trying not to disturb her even though his hackles were up. The Force moved his feet to the window and he opened the blinds enough to look out over the city. The city sparkled as it always did in the nighttime. With the streams of buzzing ships and speeders, everything looked as peaceful as it ever did in the never-sleeping city. And yet, he couldn't look away. That feeling was there, holding him. He learned to trust this niggling unease throughout his life, even when his own Master, Qui Gon, had told him not to dwell on these bad feelings.
Something flashed in the sky, like a falling star. It was too far in the distance for him to tell what it was, but its downward trajectory and the bright flashing that winked from it could only be one thing. Obi-Wan had seen enough crashing ships to know what they looked like—crashing or shot down.
Then there was another. There were flashes of what looked like red lightning, and Obi-Wan seen it countless time in his campaigns in the wars, but he never dreamed he would see it in the skies of Coruscant. Those looked like Separatist missiles, and the Force removed any doubt.
"Padme!" he was throwing his clothes back on.
She woke instantly, confusion on her face as it was lit by the flashes outside.
"What's happening…?"
But she saw for herself. For the first time in a thousand years, Coruscant was under attack.
