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Chapter 36. Endgame I

After a long and heated debate among the Queen's cabinet, the decision had been made to send an escort for Senator Amidala, and to bring her home in the custody of, and under the flag of, her own sovereign government. There was no will among Naboo's leaders to openly defy the warrant for their Senator's arrest, particularly as the entire system was about to be taken over by a military government. But it was hoped that the formal gesture of acknowledgement and participation in the gruesome farce of taking their Senator into custody would open a pathway to discussion and negotiations. It was, of course, also a delaying tactic.

It was Queen Jamillia's own decision, arrived at after a brief communication with Jedi Master Kenobi, to ensure that Senator Amidala's escort included two squadrons of fighters. She had made that decision without consulting her cabinet. Rowen Farr had made the arrangements, quietly and swiftly. She checked the chrono on her desk. The escort group would rendezvous with the task force at any moment. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine still had not replied to her numerous urgent messages – and now, thanks to Kenobi, she knew why.

He was on the convoy.

The Jedi would oversee the transfer of the Naboo Delegation to the escort ships, on behalf of the sovereign government of Naboo. The Queen had wanted to speak with Padmé personally, to explain about the warrants and her ceremonial transfer, together with the Delegation, to a Naboo ship, but Kenobi had insisted on being the one to inform the Senator and her Delegation. It was highly irregular not to provide the group with notification directly from the Queen's office, but under the circumstances, it seemed wise to let the Jedi take charge. It was, after all, his plan.

Palpatine himself was arriving on Naboo with the task force.

The devious old charlatan was up to something. Queen Jamillia wished she knew what it was. If Supreme Chancellor Palpatine didn't mind selling out his own planet, his own people, the Gods only knew what he was likely to do next. Once again the Queen's gaze traveled out the window to the plaza below, which was by now fully prepared for tomorrow's ceremony of investiture for the new Military Governor.

At last her COM signal sounded. She snatched it before it could sound a second time.

"Yes?" she snapped, and then listened.

"Proceed as ordered," was her only reply. She put away the COM much more slowly that she had retrieved it. The Jedi had been right. The convoy had come under attack.

Godspeed, Kenobi, she thought. Godspeed, Padmé.

* * * * *

The instant Obi-Wan ordered the Jedi starfighters to carry out evasive maneuvers, all three ships peeled away from their fight with the two remaining attackers as though an explosion had sent them arcing into different directions simultaneously, defeating the enemy's attempts to encircle them. They quickly disappeared from the Penumbra's viewscreen, but the monitors showed them as points of light circling far into space under and over the second line of attack ships, and then looping around behind them. They would not be alone in that position for long. A swarm of additional lights suddenly appeared on the monitors behind the three Jedi starfighters, closing fast. The Naboo had arrived.

No longer under fire from the Jedi, the two nearest attack ships returned to their original course and trajectory, bearing down on the Penumbra at speed. The second wave of attackers abandoned their encirclement tactic and returned to their previous formation strung out in a defensive line. Even as the first wave of Naboo fighters drew close enough to fire on the five, the two forward attack ships had again reached the undefended starcruiser. The first ship began its strafing run before the Penumbra's sluggish Commander gave the order to fire, and the starcruiser was hit again with another series of close-quarters explosions that rocked the entire ship and damaged its shielding to starboard. The second attacker immediately launched its barrage and further weakened the starcruiser's shields.

"Can't you make him do something?" Captain Typho barked to Obi-Wan, indicating the Commander.

"Normally, yes," the Jedi responded tersely. "But there are extenuating circumstances…" He stopped talking to focus on the action in front of him. The Naboo and the Jedi had engaged the second wave of attackers and were successfully keeping them away from the Penumbra. The two attack ships, on the other hand, had completed their pass and were looping around to strike again. The Commander gave another order to fire as the enemy starfighters passed by, but the ships easily evaded the volley.

"Lon, double back here," Obi-wan snapped into his communicator. "Medulla, Mace, follow when the second line has been engaged fully by the Naboo." At his command, one tiny dot on the screen came hurtling back toward the rapidly closing pair of attack ships and toward the Penumbra. Lon quickly reached a position from which he could fire on the rear of the second ship at close range.

The first ship fired on the Penumbra. Damage indicator alarms sounded.

"What in the seventh pit do you think you're doing?" Typho yelled at the Penumbra's Commander, forgetting his place and his discipline in the heat of the moment. "Fire on them!" The other bridge officers glanced at the Naboo Security Captain nervously, but the Commander didn't even turn around. Blasts from Lon's laser canon had diverted the second attack ship, but the first was preparing for yet another full-on attack. Typho looked ready to throw himself at the Commander, but Kenobi grabbed his arm.

"Wait," he said shortly.

* * * * *

The Defiance appeared on everyone's monitor screens as an unidentified ship, but in the heat of battle, and given her small size, she was initially ignored by all parties. It was as Anakin had expected, and he would take full advantage of it. But that wasn't what concerned him. As he approached the convoy of Republic Army ships, he understood instantly what was happening. The pieces were laid out before his eyes and on the monitors like the carved stones in a game of Chak'la, making move and counter-move. The problem was that some of the moves didn't make sense – particularly those of the starcruiser that seemed to be the focus of the attack. What were they waiting for?  She was maneuverable and presumably well armed, yet she was behaving like a lumbering bantha caught in a narrow ravine.

Unless she is meant to be destroyed.

Balé was on that ship. Anakin reached out with all of his senses, even the ones he had locked down after that last, taunting visit by the dark presence that seemed to enjoy torturing him lately. But he risked opening himself up even to that, because he needed to approach this situation with everything he had. When he did, the game turned quite suddenly and clearly into a version of 3-D Chak'la. And some of the pieces were invisible.

Flying toward the fray at top speed with all of his senses open and alert, Anakin felt as though he were being absorbed into the confrontation. He could sense the positions of all the ships without looking. He perceived the different players and their motivations. The attackers seemed familiar somehow – he had encountered that set of energies, that mind-set before. The Naboo were closing in fast.

In one part of his mind Anakin wondered why the Naboo were meeting the convoy, and why they seemed prepared for battle, but he stored the questions away for the moment. He had other things to worry about.

The presences of the Jedi stood out like bright beacons. Obi-Wan was there, as Anakin already had perceived, and seemed to be in charge. Well, that meant the Jedi defense would be impeccable – provided that they weren't undermined, anyway. For behind it all was something else. Something familiar. Something that surrounded and shrouded some of the game pieces invisibly, while allowing the game to go on…

Anakin's focus zeroed in on the enemy's attack formation, and saw the enemy ships close in around the Jedi. He knew, before it happened, that Obi-Wan would order the Jedi starfighters out of the trap, even risking another close-quarters strike on the starcruiser. His former Master was nothing if not prudent. And in this case he could afford to be, because he knew perfectly well that Anakin was on his way.

In spite of himself, Anakin grinned.

I hear and obey, Master, he thought ironically. His grin faded as he felt, rather than saw, Lon Erian engage the second of the two attackers from the rear. Weren't you sure whether you could count on me, Kenobi? he thought indignantly, but then he realized that Obi-Wan didn't know what he was flying, or what his ship's capabilities might be. Cautious and sensible as always. Well, it was time to find out just what the Defiance could do.

"Prepare to fire," he said to Padmé, who was tensed beside him in silent concentration. "Fire when I say, no matter what you see…"

"I know, I know," Padmé said quickly. "You can see things before they happen."

Leaving Lon to fight with the second ship, Anakin concentrated on the one that was closest to the starcruiser, and had begun a new attack.

"Fire," he said to Padmé, calling up a final burst of speed, calculating changing trajectories, and anticipating the attacker's movements all at once. Padmé responded instantly, and the single burst of the repeater cannon sent the attacking ship to perdition in a fireball.

Bullseye.

Anakin brought the blastboat around in a tight loop to face the second attacker. Lon seemed to be having trouble landing a killing shot.

Allow me, Anakin thought smugly. "Fire!" he said to Padmé. She did.

The moment before that ship, too, disintegrated into flames, Anakin figured out why something about the Force presence inside of it had seemed familiar.

"D'laians," he commented to Padmé, as the Defiance peeled off toward the rearguard action being fought by the Naboo. She looked at him sharply.

"Are you sure?  As far as I know they are still nominally our allies in this Sector."

Anakin shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't stop to look at the ships' markings or registry."  He turned to look at her, and caught her eye. "I didn't much like them, anyway," he said significantly. Padmé rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the viewscreen.

* * * * *

Everyone on the bridge of the Penumbra, except of course the Jedi, flinched when the ship that had been firing on them exploded suddenly and violently, and so close by that the shock waves rocked the Penumbra yet again. When the explosion died down the second attack ship could be seen, actively engaged in a dogfight with Lon's Jedi starfighter.

"What just happened?" Typho wondered out loud. The monitors had shown another tiny ship, an unidentified one, rapidly closing in on Lon and the remaining forward attack ship. Within moments, the second enemy ship vanished into an inferno as well.

"That wasn't me, Master," came Lon's voice over the private communicator that Obi-Wan was already holding to his lips again. "That was…"

"I know," Obi-Wan cut him off. "Re-group with the others. Let's finish this." He looked at Typho to see the Captain's eyes on him in a long, hard, probing stare.

"I don't suppose," the Captain said, bitterly, "that I'm ever going to be given a proper explanation about what just happened... or who just saved our hides…" He glanced pointedly at the apparently dull-witted Commander of the Penumbra, and then at the monitors, where their unidentified savior had vanished as suddenly as he had arrived, and then back at the uncommunicative Jedi Knight.

Obi-Wan smiled slightly. "Possibly," he said. "Let's see how events unfold now."

Typho shook his head in annoyance. "I'll go tell the Delegation to prepare for transfer to Naboo's ship." Further out in space, the battle against the second wave of attack ships was nearly won, but both men knew that it was merely a matter of moments until the Naboo prevailed. Underneath his bad-tempered exterior, Typho's relief was palpable.

Obi-Wan nodded and turned his attention back to the battle. Three of the attack ships had been destroyed, and the Naboo had surrounded the last two. The Jedi starfighters were no longer needed there.

"Lon, Medulla, Mace," he ordered. "Return to your positions alongside the Penumbra."

Gazing through the starcruiser's viewscreen to the stars beyond, Obi-Wan's mind was no longer solely focused on the flashes and bright explosions that lit up the darkness at the battle site. He was visualizing the way ahead and the myriad possible paths that lay before them now.

Thank you, Anakin, he thought to himself. I imagine I will see you on Naboo.

* * * * *

The re-appearance of his aide, despite strict orders that he was not to be disturbed, roused the mysterious passenger out of his contemplations of the exquisite, living, shifting patterns that assembled, transformed, and then re-assembled themselves ceaselessly in the Force. Each aspect, each part of every complex pattern in the Force had a physical counterpart in the Galaxy. His Galaxy. It was only a matter of finding out where the pieces were and how they linked to the others. Viewed through the shadows and recesses of the Force, the vast set of systems within systems revealed a terrible and sinister beauty.

"My Lord," the aide said nervously, "the attack on the task force has been repelled. The Naboo have arrived to take custody of Senator Amidala. They wish to transfer her and her Delegation to one of their own ships for the remainder of the journey."

The dark figure reluctantly turned his mind away from the splendor of the Force and to the petty details of the moment.

His aide trembled visibly.

"Allow it," he snapped. "And do not disturb me further."

The aide bowed and fled.

This is yet another of the paths that I have foreseen, he thought. The beauty of this construct is such, that, whichever path opens before, me, I will prevail.

Before long he would once again be captive to the tedious role he must play until the complex, interlinked machinery of his larger plans could be moved forward again. There would be precious little time later to nourish himself at the source of his power. Eagerly he dove back into the Force and immersed himself in its incomparable grandeur.

* * * * *

Anakin and Padmé watched from afar as the Naboo fighters systematically destroyed the final two remaining attack ships.

"Do you think there are any more on the way?" Padmé asked, watching the Naboo re-group around a large transport ship and move close to the Army convoy.

"No," Anakin said with assurance, "I think our next worry is something else. Do you have any idea why the Naboo are here, or why they seem to be preparing to dock with that starcruiser?"  Padmé met his blue eyes steadily. He didn't say more, but it seemed to her that he had been doing as much thinking as she had since arriving at the scene. He probably had more information that she did, too, with those uncanny perceptions of his. What had made him suspect that the attackers were D'laian, for instance?  Things like that drove her crazy. Well, she had a question for him. She wasn't sure how he would take it. She answered his question by asking another.

"You knew the Jedi were there before we arrived. Do you happen to know whether one of them is Obi-Wan?"

Anakin's look hardened almost imperceptibly.

"Yes, he's there. In fact, he's in charge." Anakin's eyes bored straight into hers. "Why?"

Padmé took a deep breath. Anakin really was at odds with the Jedi Order, and apparently with Obi-Wan personally as well. But they were in this together. Anakin was going to have to deal with it.

"Outside of Bail and the others whom I was going to meet, Obi-Wan is the only person who knows why I was going to Alderaan." Anakin's expression hadn't changed. It struck Padmé as crystalline. Brittle. "A few days before we left, I sent a message to Rowen Farr saying that if anything happened to me, Obi-Wan should be contacted." 

"I see," Anakin said.

Padmé didn't know why she felt defensive, but she hastened to add, "At the time you were nowhere to be found."

The brittleness lingered for a moment, and then his look seemed to revert subtly to one with warmth in it. Padmé was unaccountably relieved.

"Then," Anakin said, "something must have happened. And while Obi-Wan surely knows that you're not on that starcruiser, the Naboo either don't know it, or they're playing along. Either way, I don't intend to make contact with any of them from here. We'll have to find another way to figure it out."

Padmé was pensive. "Do you …do you think they'll be safe?" she asked.

"With Obi-Wan there? Definitely." He looked deeply thoughtful for a moment. "I suggest we get out of here and head for Naboo."

Padmé nodded, and watched him handle the flight computer and the ships' controls like a master musician playing an instrument. She was still turning the events over in her mind when they were well underway and the convoy and the Naboo ships no longer appeared on the monitors.

"Why is it that you won't go near the Jedi yourself, but you trust them implicitly with Balé's safety, and everyone else's?" she finally asked.

"Have you ever played 3-D Chak'la?" Anakin asked. If the conversation hadn't been so serious, Padmé would have laughed. He had neatly turned the tables and was now answering her question with another question.

"No," she said curiously. "I play Chak'la, but the 3-D version is too much for me. It's a game within a game within a game."

"Well," Anakin said, with his eyes on the stars outside, "the only person who has ever beaten me at 3-D Chak'la is Obi-Wan. And he's the one who is in charge of that Jedi mission."

Padmé thought about this for a while. "We don't really know what we are getting into, do we?"

"No," Anakin agreed. He settled back into the pilot's seat and reached out for Padmé's hand as their tiny ship sped through the void toward an uncertain future. "But the Force is with us, you know. Just like always."

Padmé grasped his gloved fingers and wrapped hers around them. It was still freezing on the small ship. Whatever awaited them on Naboo, at least she would be glad finally to be someplace warm.

The Force is with us, you know. Just like always.

Considering how many terrifying situations they had already been through together, Padmé didn't find that observation particularly comforting.

* * * * *

When Obi-Wan returned to the Naboo Delegation's cabins, Captain Typho had begun the process of preparing the group for an orderly transfer to another ship. The luggage had been assembled, and everyone was dressed formally. He could sense their collective relief that the enemy attack had been averted in space and that the ship had not been boarded.

The small sitting room of Padmé's cabin was crowded with the entire Delegation, the administrative staff, and the security people all there. Obi-Wan surveyed the scene with a practiced eye, and settled his attention on Poulin Brith. The little girl – Padmé's daughter – was holding the Padawan's hand. Again. Or was it still? The boy radiated his usual calm and patience. Sabé, on the other hand, was edgy. Between the two of them, the child and the Handmaiden were the keys to maintaining Padmé's deception for a while longer. Obi-Wan went straight over to them, maneuvering his way between clusters of staff.

"Ready?" he said to Sabé's veil. As far as the staff knew, he was speaking with the Senator herself. To reinforce the impression, and to provide an explanation for Sabé's absence, he said clearly, "With your permission, Senator, I have asked Sabé to remain behind until the entire group has boarded and been settled. We have some items to discuss." Sabé, as Padmé, nodded under the veil, but Bale's eyes grew huge with distress.

Obi-Wan looked at Poulin sharply, but the boy was already on top of the situation. He dropped down on one knee in front of the child and spoke softly.

"We're still pretending. It's important." Balé paused for a moment, and then nodded.

"Can I go with you?" she asked, and then added, hopefully, "piggyback?"

Poulin shook his head. "You need to be with Sabé," he whispered meaningfully. "Mother and daughter, remember?" Looking at the child's unhappy face, he added, "But I'll stay right here next to both of you. Will that do?" Balé nodded, while Poulin glanced at the Jedi Master for confirmation. Obi-Wan turned back to Sabé to offer some reassurance. "Captain Typho and I will go first and deflect any questions or ceremonial plans they may have."

"When are you going to tell the Naboo that Padmé is missing?" Sabé whispered too quietly for anyone but a Jedi to hear.

"In the privacy of the Queen's office, if I can manage it," Obi-Wan answered almost as quietly. "The Naboo are acting in good faith. I don't want to put them at unnecessary risk. You and the child will have to continue with the deception until then."

"Then just make sure the boy stays," Sabé whispered back. "He can handle Balé like nobody else, except..." She stopped.

Obi-Wan nodded tersely, shrugging off the uneasiness he felt at any reference to Anakin. Having observed the Padawan's interaction with the little girl, he had already made that decision. "Poulin may stay with you," he agreed formally, as Captain Typho began to move the group out the narrow door and toward the docking bay.