*** Chapter Eighteen ***
Padme took to the senate quickly. She was well spoken; she knew the issues. In a lot of ways of she was more suited as a senator then as Queen. The Senate allowed her to engage in more board and interesting topics. On Naboo, she had been limited to more local politics.
The Life and Times of Amidala, the People's Queen, By: Softa Jiane, Oralist and Historian
"Where have you been Princess." Erickson demanding the second Leia, along with Luke entered the palace late that afternoon, almost two days had passed since Leia had set off to look for Luke. They were standing in the entry way of the wing of the Palace the New Republic contingent had taken up residence.
"The Lake Country," Leia said matter of fact, uninterested in dealing with what felt like the most frustrating officer in the New Republic.
"Lake Country, you were off on some Holiday with your boyfriend here." Erickson flipped his hand at Luke.
Luke rolled his eyes but kept quiet. Before Leia could fire back, ready to take a verbal swing at Erickson Toula Tippion, the New Republic minister of Minister of Economic Development found them.
"Princess, Oh, I was so worried. I said we should send a search party out, but Commander Erickson wouldn't let us. Are you okay, what are you wearing?" Toula looked nervous and tired as if she had not slept in the two days in which Leia had been gone.
"Toula, I'm so glad you're here, we need to go back house of Madden, we've missed something." Leia insisted.
"Princess, what are you talking about?" Toula asked.
"Right, sure, I guess I should explain." Leia then told an abridged version of how of the what transpired in the lake country, redacting details she was not comfortable sharing with the company at hand.
"That is quite a story, but Princess you can't go back to the House of Madden right now." Toula explained slowly.
"Why, this is an emergency, we have to understand what's going on." Leia demanded.
"Princess, the dignitaries, they got in this morning and the garden party the Queen requested to welcome them is set to start in less than an hour. If you don't attend it would be alarming. We've done a fair job of hiding the fact you've been missing from the Queen, especially given the fact you were supposed to be in meetings with her yesterday but if you don't attend she'll know somethings amiss. You know as well as I do she's more concerned with the entertaining than the actual negotiations." Toula had gone against her ingrained honesty, apparently, she had some common sense.
"But, but. I've been there before, I know the way" Leia had come to a loss of words in attempting to argue. It was a rare event, but even the best orators had their off days.
"Look, Princess, you have a part to play here and that part is entertaining dignitaries, maybe your Jedi here can go instead." Toula proposed tentatively.
Leia, defeated, looked over at Luke, "I can go." Luke agreed simply.
"Alright, anything you can find that proves the house is a threat." Leia confirmed.
Luke nodded in confirmation and started off, already on his way to investigate the house of Madden.
"Luke," Leia called out before he had fully vanished from view. Luke turned around. "May the force be with you." Leia called.
"Thanks," Luke said with a nod and then left for the House of Madden.
Once he was out of sight Toula started pestering again, "Princess, Princess, you need to get ready." Toula prodded. Toula was not usually so pushy, but whatever lies she had already told, no matter how minor, were eating away at her and she needed Leia to prevent any further questions.
"Fine, I'm going, I'm going." Leia excused herself, her hands up in mock defense.
Leia returned to her room.
"Princess Leia, I was so worried. Master Solo called while you were out." C-3PO informed.
"Did he? and what did you tell him?" Leia asked.
"Oh, that you were on an errand with Master Luke." C-3PO explained.
"Thanks, Threepio," Leia picked up her Holounit and dialed out to Han, but the call never made it. She got a warning informing her she was not able to connect at the moment.
"Blast," Leia said to herself but did not pay much heed to the communication error, technology always seemed to fail when she wanted it the most. Anyway, Leia needed to start on her beauty routine. Leia would never wish to give up her long hair, it was part of being from Alderaan one of the last things that continued to connect her to home planet.
The first thing was to take down the loose, long, single braid that hung down her back. It could have been down quickly, but instead she gently and carefully took down each knot of the braid. As she finished taking down braid and brushing out her hair for the new braids her mind turned to her mother. Not her newly discovered birth mother, but Breha, her real mother. Often, in the years after Aleraan's destruction Leia often found herself meditating on mom when she was doing her hair. Leia's oldest memory is of her mother plaiting he hair in the morning and subsequently in the evenings when her mom would brush it smooth. As Leia grew older she took charge of her own hair care, she often instant that she do her hair herself and when she became a senator and spent most of her time on Coruscant, she did not have her mother to fall back on. Now, that Leia no longer had her mother, all she wished was that her mother could do her hair one last time.
Unconscious to her actions, Leia started the beginnings of two braids she would coil on either side of her head. It was not the most elegant of hairstyles in her arsenal, but it was familiar and easy and comfortable. As she worked through the first plait her mind turned to her other mother, the one she never met. In so many ways, she wished she had never learned about Amidala and for that matter Anakin Skywalker. Not for the obvious, even if Anakin's legacy only had been that of a slain Jedi, she wanted only memories of the parents that she had loved deeply. Now, mother and father, would always have to compete with the people that gave her life. She'd already had the argument with Luke, but he just didn't seem to get it.
Leia brough the second braid up into its coil and then she had to give up her meditation. She had brought a few opulent dresses, but at the garden party, Leia would only be allowed to wear one of her simpler white dresses per the Queens orders.
As Leia entered the party she saw all of the usual suspects, the children of the very rich, appeased by these parties, guaranteed that not only were they not at risk by the new government, they had a role in the way they had not had in the Empire. Conceptually, Leia hated it. Maybe is because she was a Princess who had endured tedious ritual her whole like, but Leia was uninterested in the ceremony. In addition, the protestors had turned up in force, the Queen, obsessed with image, had made sure to invite all the holo networks to the document the party. This in turn had brought isolationists to the perimeter of the palace.
It only took a moment for Leia to enter the party before three different groups approached her, first the Queen of Naboo, the second was the subject matter experts and the third was Sir and Lady Flouren of Kintory, an upscale world that still had a functional monarchy. Lady Flouren was the fifth Daughter of the current monarch, her actions did not have much bearing on the future of her world, one of her older siblings had earned that responsibility.
Leia braced, hoping it would be her subject matter experts that reached her first. She was surprised when she heard Erickson voice in her ear, "Princess, do you a have minute?"
"Sure," Leia was surprisingly relieved, Erickson may not be her favorite person, but she was sure that he would not ask Leia about her opinion on the Wewest article in the Coruscant Weekly, the premiere holo mag for pretentiousness, Leia had never actually read an issue and was tired of pretending she had time for such leisure.
Erickson lead her away to the party and out of ear shot. "What is it?" Leia had a bad feeling, something was not right.
"Princess, the X-Wing patrol is out of contact, we cannot reach them." Erickson's voice was all business.
"Shot down?" Leia asked.
"We're not sure, they're not responding, but we've not gotten any sign of struggle." The Commander explained.
"Did you put a call unto the reserve unit, we should get a squadron to investigate," Leia fell into her war commander role easily enough.
"Yes, Princess, we attempted already, but we couldn't reach anyone off world. It seems off planet connections are down." Erikson revealed carefully.
"Any other news you'd like to share?" Leia asked as took a deep breath, she was not meaning to be flippant, but already she could feel her anger rising.
"That's not enough?" Erickson demanded.
Leia shook it off and then said, "What do we have in terms of manpower?"
"I have a dozen security officers and six X-Wing pilots that currently planet side, and Commander Skywalker, if he ever makes it back from the ridicules mission you sent him on."
Leia moved past Commander Erickson comments as she did not have time for anger. Not anymore. She paused before she responded, and she could hear the roars of the protestors just outside of the palace grounds. "We need to keep everyone calm, and with this crowd is best they don't find out what's going on." Leia waved to the garden party in the background.
"and what do we do if we are under attack, I mean, a dozen and half people can't defend an entire planet." Erickson explained.
"How about local law enforcement and palace security?" Leia asked, typically local enforcement was of little consequence to the New Republic, as long as there is an active law enforcement presence and no active signs of war, planets were meant to handle their own law and order. Naboo had, had a larger New Republic force presence in few months ago when the Imperials were being driven out, but once everything had been handled, so to speak, only Erickson's team and an X-wing squadron along with a group of relief pilots had been left.
"If we alert Palace security they'll tell the Queen and as far as local law enforcement they may very much be the people that are attacking us, if we are under attack." Erickson rationalized.
Leia paused again; she could just hear the delicate chime of sophisticated laughter for the Dignitaries. She looked over, the people who had been trying to talk to her were watching. "R2, Luke left R2-D2, see if he's able to patch into some back channel. In the meantime, brief your people, I'll see if I can get Commander Skywalker on his comm."
"And what do I tell them to do, who do we chose?" Erickson asked, this sort of decision making was above his pay grade.
"The Queen and then the Dignitaries and then the subject matter experts. Don't worry about me, I've got a decent shot." Leia said, patting her thigh where she had hidden her blaster beneath her dress.
Erickson chuckled a little in spite himself at the last bit and the sobered up before he spoke again. "Alright, I'll get started."
"Good, just be careful, don't let anyone know besides your people, the last thing we need is for these under stimulated clowns to panic."
"Princess, I think you need to get back to the party," Erickson nodded back to the party.
"May the Force be with you." Leia nodded, and they went their sperate ways. She tried Luke on his Comm unit, but there was no answer. Leia tired not to make much of it, he may have just turned it off. That would be the wisest idea anyway.
Leia looked back towards the party, she would be embarrassed to admit it aloud, but she was jealous of Erickson. It's not that she wanted the action of a battle, but in she'd rather be in charge than a distraction.
Lady Flouren dominated Leia's time when she re-entered party, the topic: her recent Couture shopping spree.