Royal Starship
"Qui-Gon says we must land on Tatooine for repairs," Sabé said in an exhausted tone. She removed the black feather hat from her head and drew the ribbon out of her hair, letting the long locks flow free. Padme picked the hat off the bed and carried it to the closet. She played with the feathers for a moment before setting it into its box. Sabé sighed. "How do you live like this?" she asked.
"How do you live like this?" Padme asked, setting the lid onto the box and smiling.
"Careful," the decoy warned, "or I'll make you clean up that grimy droid that they just brought in. Spent the whole battle on the ship making repairs."
"But it couldn't repair that leaking hyperdrive," Padme muttered.
"Ah!" Sabé said with a wicked grin. "Off with you! We've got a droid that needs a cleaning!" Padme groaned and stomped out of the room. Sabé smiled as she watched her friend walk out of the room. Her happy expression soon turned to a worried one, though. What will happen to us? Sabé wondered. I'm only a decoy but if someone wants to murder Padme Amidala I'm good as dead.
Down in the bowels of the starship, Padme knelt on the cold metal ground and gave the droid a last good wipe with her cloth. The fabric was stained and riddled with holes and tears. The cleaning oils saturated her hands and irritated her delicate, pampered skin. Padme studied her hands in a disappointed manner. The calluses of her childhood had faded and disappeared. Now her skin was creamy white and smooth, without a blemish. Her nails were trimmed and healthy. Her days of farming and play were over.
The droid beeped and rolled away. Padme straightened and brushed her dirty hands over her dress, leaving minute lines of oil on the shimmering multicolored fabric. Padme found it hard to resist the childish urge to stamp her foot and instead contented herself with tapping it angrily on the metal floor. I threw the rag into a bin at the door. It landed with a slight wet sound against the material of the bin. I should have wrung it out, Padme thought as she observed the cleaning oils ooze out of the rag, staining the bin. Oh well.
Once they had landed, she made her way back up to the main ship, where a party was preparing to leave. Padme toyed with the idea of going with them, but she decided that she held enough conviction for Qui-Gon to let them go without her. She drew her tongue across her lips to moisten them and walked to the small hole of a room that she shared with one other girl. She stepped into their adjoining shower. The water ran in little streams across her hands, carrying away the dirt and oil. She shook a glob of substandard conditioner into her hands and drew it through her ravaged hair. Being a handmaiden was not completely agreeing with her. The soap soaked into her skin as she wrung her hair out under the stream of water, which began to taper off. She rinsed off quickly in a panic and then shut the water off, wrapping herself in a towel.
Padme wondered briefly about the landing party as she shook the dust out of her handmaidens' robe and then slipped it back on. A few remaining particles of grit rubbed against her skin as she tucked her hair into the hood of the robe. She joined Sabé in the control room of the ship, where the decoy was talking heatedly with the Jedi apprentice, by name of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"We must get out of here as soon as possible," Sabé was saying. The Jedi sighed and shook his head.
"Your Majesty, I know that the situation on your planet is becoming rather catastrophic, but we cannot launch the ship with a leaking hyperdrive!" the Jedi said. "It would be suicide."
"The Jedi is right, Your Majesty," Padme murmured. Obi-Wan looked somewhat surprised to see a handmaiden contradicting the Queen. Sabé looked at Padme, anger flashing in her eyes for a moment before she remembered that she was talking to the true ruler of Naboo. The decoy's brows drew together and she shot one last defiant stare at the Jedi. Then Sabé left the room, muttering profanities under her breath.
"She's not your conventional sovereign," Padme said apologetically. Obi-Wan grinned.
"I see," he said. "I don't believe we've met. I am Obi-Wan."
"The Jedi," Padme said. "I am Padme, the Queen's handmaiden."
"I imagine being a handmaiden is similar to being a Jedi apprentice," said Obi-Wan. Padme cocked her head, interested.
"How so?" she asked. Obi-Wan smiled thoughtfully.
"Well, we both look up to someone and must learn from them," said the apprentice. "But, I imagine, as an apprentice you can be promoted to Master, as handmaiden you go nowhere."
"I wouldn't say that," Padme said, smiling mysteriously. Obi-Wan looked at her, considering her words. After a moment Padme became uncomfortable and she averted her gaze. "What exactly are the landing party doing in Mos Espa?" she asked.
Obi-Wan looked out the window, his eyes scanning the desert horizon as if expecting their return. "I suppose they are getting a new hyperdrive," he said. "I hope they are not gone long." His eyes probed her mind once more. "Naboo is in great jeopardy, isn't it?"
A shade drew over Padme's eyes. "Yes," she murmured. The words touched her heart then, because as a handmaiden she was vulnerable.
"You love it very much, don't you?" Obi-Wan murmured.
"Yes," Padme said, meeting his eyes. Understanding briefly flashed in his eyes but the light of recognition left as fast as it had come.
From deep inside the ship a voice called, "Padme, Padme!" Padme turned and pressed the button that opened the door. She stepped out and turned back to the apprentice briefly. "I will see you later," she whispered. Obi-Wan nodded. Padme let the door slide shut, separating them from each other.