Because I wanted to name Sabe's son Tiran I changed the Gungan
messenger's name from chapter 18 to Doriv.




Discovering what exactly this new threat was was hard. It took
Alotar two months, during which five more worlds had been attacked,
to finally discover the truth. The truth had been found in a proposal
the former Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had made to the Senate.

Clones. The creatures that had attacked the Gungans were
clones. Of course that hadn't been mentioned in Palpatine's proposal.
It had taken a considerable amount of work to discover that, but they
had done it.

Now of course half the galaxy, and most of the Senate, was
placing blame on Naboo. They seemed to think that since Naboo was
Palpatine's homeworld they should be the only ones held responsible.
They were largely upset with Amidala for helping him to become
elected Chancellor.

The planets that mattered however were willing to put away any
differences with Naboo as soon as it became evident that they couldn't
afford to bicker until after the clone armies were taken care of.
That would prove to be a very long time indeed.




Padme watched sadly, and a bit jealously, as Sabe nursed her
newborn son. She had named him Tiran after an ancient Naboo warrior
protected Naboo until he died at the age of one hundred and thirteen.
No small feet for a human in those days.

Padme turned away from the sight suddenly. Tears stung her
eyes. Walking away quickly she batted them away.

She could not cry. There was no time for tears. They were at
war. She could not cry.

Practically running into her room Padme flung herself on to her
bed and began to cry. They were not the heart-wrenching sobs of the
grief stricken. They were the silent tears of one who had cried far
too much to put any effort into it now.

Padme let the tears run down her face. They smeared the
carefully applied powder and the red dots on her cheeks began to run.
She didn't care.

Her mind was on far more important things than her makeup. She
was thinking of all the Naboo who had already been killed in just one
short month. She thought of how she hadn't seen her husband in two
months. She thought of how when once she to had been expecting a
child, now she was not.