Chapter 5 Mara walked down the paved walkway between her friends as she glanced around at the bustle of busy Coruscant around her.

"I hope this designer you've found is very good," Leia commented from beside Mirax as she eyed Mara who had just told them about the designer, Jari'Kyn.

"She'll do fine, she'll do more than fine. And the attendants' dresses will be special, too." Mara assured her when Iella leaned forward grinning.

"Everything better be good or there will be trouble, Mara."

"C'mon Iella," Mara mocked as she shook her head. "They're fashion designers. What can they do to us?"

Iella grinned as Mara got into the speeder before her and glanced back at her waiting for an answer. "They declare a quick return to Imp- Chick and all fashions will come in severe and gray."

Leia shook her head remembering. "If you think I'm doing my hair back in buns and pulling on a white robe, some serious rethinking due."

Leia moved up beside Mara with Iella sitting behind her. "But the Empire wasn't always grim. I remember elegance . . ."

Leia dropped her head focusing on the controls before her before answering Mara. "I remember it, too, but only in the upper echelons of society. In the strata that had insulated itself from reality."

"You could find it," Mirax pointed out from behind them. "Different worlds, different times; but without Imperial sanction it seemed like treason."

"The liberation freed everyone to celebrate, to enjoy life" Iella pointed out. "Despite the hardships of the war. The party at my wedding to Wedge was modest, but we never could have had even that much gaiety under the Empire."

Mara nodded her head in agreement, "and there is no denying that a Twi'lek like Jari'Kyn would not have gotten a chance to create my own wedding gown under the Empire."

"Though the clumsy efforts of our menfolk to plan their little celebration tonight smacks of Imperial bumbling," Leia said with a sly grin considering how frenzied Luke would be after tonight. Luke didn't fit in with a group of Corellians, smugglers, and Rogues in a bar. Her little brother would just have to be relieved when he got back. Mara had already told them about their little mistake the previous night and they had given her no peace about it. Just wait till she let Han know, they would torture Luke to death about this little mishap.

"You don't think they think we don't know what they're going to be doing?" Mirax asked knowing as well as Leia just what their husbands would be getting the Jedi Master into that night.

"No, they're just hoping we won't think they're being entirely childish."

"Well, isn't that what husbands are for? Training you to be able to deal with children?" Iella asked as she leaned over towards Mirax.

"Hush," Leia admonished. "She's kidding, Mara. Trust me. It's not that bad." Leia assured her future sister-in-law who was glancing around a little worried. "Besides you can renege on the trouble of raising them by making them take care of the kids."
____________________ "Loose security cordon, but one that will pick up any approach," Chik whispered into his comlink as he continued with his surveillance of the guard of the perimeter.
___________________ "I copy," Banner said as he listened to Chik over the comlink attached to his wrist. "Continue surveillance and report back on schedule."

"This used to be such a beautiful place," Takkar mused as he glanced around the museum. "It's been perverted, all of it. They've mad it political, not historical."

"It looks fine to_," Banner protested before Takkar cut him off.

"They have made this a mausoleum for the truth, not a monument to it."

"I don't_," Banner began once again but the Moff proceeded in his complaints.

"It's obvious. This exhibit:" he said regarding another exhibit pointing out which one he was speaking of. "An exploded view of the Death Star?" The Moff proceeded to the exhibit that displayed a huge machine, a walker. "The machines, all huge and menacing, out of scale, intended to scare."

"Well, if you say so . . ." Banner approached cautiously as he glanced around, nothing seemed out of scale to him.
___________________ Grrr, Imperials. I hate them." A small girl snarled as she glanced at the machines of the Empire up for display, her mother glancing at a display of a Stormtrooper heard her and pulled her aside kneeling down beside her and softly, livingly caressing her hair.

"No you don't. You can't hate them," the mother tried to convince her daughter rubbing the red hair out of her face.

"But you said they killed daddy," she protested staring down at the ground and biting her lip to retain the tears.
___________________ "What children learn to fear, they hate, and persecute." Takkar snarled viciously as he moved to an exhibit showing the Millennium Falcon with several Rebel fighters. "They laud the exploits of spice runners and murderers . . ."
___________________ The mother looked her daughter straight in the eye and took her hands lovingly. "Daddy died for the peace we now know. Hate is the only enemy of peace. If you hate, more daddies will die, and you don't want that, do you?"

The girl took a step closer and hugged her mom tightly, sadly as her mother's arms went around her. "I don't want more daddies to die, mommy."
___________________ "They have much to answer for, this rabble and answer soon they shall."

Banner lowered his head wondering about the conversation between the mother and child he had just heard. He began to wonder whether what they where doing was right. "When? Tonight?"

"The groom is yours. Follow and if the time is right, strike."

Whether it was right or not, Skywalker would die that night, Banner knew he would make sure of that. He couldn't afford a siege of conscience, not now. He put his debates back in his mind forgetting about them.