Seventhmonth 1100
The next few months were relatively uneventful. The gaps between a few routine transfers and journeys were filled by Aunt Talith's attempts to introduce me to polite society. It bored me rigid, and more than once I found myself longing for a spacer's cantina. At least there there was no pretence. Returning from one of these social visits, I came clattering into our hall one windy day to find Shamma and Bail Organa in earnest conversation.
"You remember him, don't you?" Bail was saying.
"Yes, yes-ah, here you are, m'lei! Tell me, is Swift fuelled at the moment?"
"Ye-es. But she is due her annual check-out this week. I think her transitions to hyperspace have been sluggish lately."
"She will manage another trip. To Coruscant this time, so it will be a short one. Get ready and prepare her for take-off. I will see you shortly."
I shrugged as I ran up the stairs. Mine not to reason why-and a trip to Coruscant should be simple enough-no Rebels, no transfer, no danger. But I could not shake the vague sense of unease that assailed me. My grandmother had looked worried, and the Viceroy ghastly.
Half an hour later, having packed a few clothes and styled my hair more practically in a plait, I sat in my cockpit, prepping Swift for takeoff. I swung my chair as I heard Shamma stumping up the ramp on her stick.
"I'm glad to see you so prompt," she said, leaning on the co-pilot's chair. "I have a few commissions for you. This datacard is for Ghesli in the Coruscant office, the blue one is for Kal Jonisik, and this one is to go to my legal representative."
I stowed the datacards away in my hidden overhead locker, along with my emergency blaster and forged ID.
"If anyone asks, you are on a pleasure trip-go shopping or something."
She pressed a handful of high-denomination credit chips into my hand.
"That's a loan, mind you."
"Yes, Shamma," I replied wryly. "Shamma, what's happening? Why are you so worried? Is it outright war at last?"
"I cannot say, Keitin. Time will tell. Now get along with you. Blessings on your path-and may the Force be with you."
"Good-bye, Shamma."
I stooped to kiss her cheek. I was constantly aware, when I left her nowadays, that there was always a danger it would be for the last time. She looked more stooped than ever. I saw her small figure at the edge of the landing platform as I took off. Already she was turning away down the steps.
And the sun set over Aldera.
-~-~-~-~-
I was in a sour mood as I navigated Alderaan's orbital traffic, though it was a picnic compared with what I knew Coruscant's would be. Something is going to happen. The Princess has been off-planet a lot, even for her. I saw the Tantive leaving again three days ago. And it's the Senatorial recess. Stars, I wish Shamma trusted me enough to tell me-I am not a child any more! Something is happening, and she tells me to go to Coruscant and shop.
I hauled back on Swift's hyperdrive engage as we left Alderaan's gravity well behind. Again I felt the momentary hesitation, the stutter in power as she made the jump. I patted the steering yoke.
"Hang in there, old girl. You'll have a good overhaul when we get back home."
-~-~-~-~-
The Coruscant head office, on the edge of what our family still tended to refer to as Galactic City, was built in Alderaanian style as far as possible, with 'Avram Trade and Transport' scrolling across it in a hologram. I drew my hired speeder to a halt on the landing platform. I had already been to see the lawman, and had saved this for last.
"Kal Jonisik?" I asked the reception droid.
"Room 471, Level Seven," it chimed sweetly.
Jonisik, a young Twil'lek male, greeted me with a smile and took the datacard with a blatant wink. This was a human rather than Twil'lek gesture, and he was evidently very proud of aquiring it.
"You want to see old Ghesli too? Let's go. Beats hanging round here filing taxation reports."
Ghesli's office was near the top of the tower, above traffic level. It was empty when we reached it, but Ghesli reappeared shortly. He was middle-aged and rotund and, unlike Jonisik, was Alderaani.
"Ah-sorry to have kept you waiting-but this terrible news-"
"What? What has happened?" I said, still holding out the datacard. He blinked worriedly at me.
"Princess Leia's ship was lost in the Outer Rim two days ago with all on board. The news came in this morning. You knew her, did you not? I am sorry."
I set the datacard on his desk as carefully as if it were fragile and might break with rough handling.
"I was at school with her, in Aldera," I told him. I walked to his window and leaned my head against it, staring without seeing across the cityscape, bathed in golden afternoon sunlight.
"Oh dear, oh dear," Ghesli burbled behind me "You will join us for dinner this evening, my lady, I hope? In Levìs Tower-you know where it is-"
I turned. Ghesli was actually wringing his hands together; Jonisik was looking acutely uncomfortable.
"Certainly-be glad to-" I said randomly. I gestured at my piloting jumpsuit and boots. "I must go-and change-"
And with that, I fled.
-~-~-~-~-
Later that evening, I drove back to the docks on the far side of the city, the wind blowing my white dress as I sat in the speeder's open cockpit. My hood, sash and hair-ribbon were purple, the traditional colour of mourning on Alderaan. I had bought them in haste at a covered market near the Avram's building.
It was good to be in the open air again, even if it was Coruscant's recycled version. A dinner-party full of managers and directors was not enjoyable at the best of times, and especially not when I was grieving. I had sat there, pushing the finest Alderaanian cuisine listlessly around on my plate, making replies in monotone to the businessmen, and had left as soon as was decently possible. I wanted to be alone, to weep for Leia, and most of all to go home.
This was the first time death had touched me directly. My parents were dead, but I had never known them, and they only were a gap. I had been nerved up to lose Shamma, but the thought of Leia dying had never occurred to me. I had loved the Princess, with her bravery and idealism and beauty. It seemed impossible that someone so full of life could be dead.
I realised that, lost in thought, I had taken a wrong turning when I saw the Imperial Palace looming ahead of me. I let the speeder coast while I tried to get my bearings. The Palace's black silhouette bulked against the crimson sunset. I frowned up at it, thinking I saw a flicker of movement on its roof. The Palace, for all its beautiful architecture, seemed to hold some ominous presence, a monstrous insect lurking at the centre of its web. I felt as though some palpable evil crouched up there-I could almost taste it; it made my heart beat faster, my blood pound in my ears.
"She didn't die by accident," I whispered. "You killed her, you heartless scum. You killed her."
Tears were slipping down my face beneath my hood. I wiped them off impatiently, and slammed my foot on the accelerator. I wanted away from that place!
-~-~-~-~-
I stumbled into the safe, dark refuge of my cabin on Swift. When I saw my reflection in my mirror-pale and exhausted, with eyelids and nose scarlet from crying-I decided I needed a night's sleep before attempting the orbiting junkyard that was Coruscant's spaceways. I pulled my hair loose, letting it fall to my waist in a tangle of auburn disorder. I did not bother to put on my sleepsuit, just curled up under my blankets in my underwear. I cried again for Leia before I slept.
-~-~-~-~-
The next morning, as I was brushing my hair, the routine systems check interrupted itself with a beeping tone. I padded into the cockpit to find various lights flashing red, and warnings of imminent equipment failure on the monitors. I narrowed the problem to the hyperdrive, cursed the fact that Swift hadn't had her overhaul before I came to Coruscant, and grabbed my coveralls.
After a standard hour of poking around in Swift's guts, I discovered that the hyperdrive motivator's feedback circuits had come adrift, and that to repair them was beyond my skill. I pushed a couple of loose strands of hair back from my forehead, highly displeased. I knew now the cause of Swift's sluggish hyperdrive. It was unfortunate, I thought, that the fault had become critical here on Coruscant rather than at home, where there was a dedicated team of Avram's mechanics tending to the fleet. But there was a Mechanics and Repair facility at the Avram's depot in the Coruscant docks, and I set off for it.
-~-~-~-
"What do you mean, you can't get it till tomorrow morning?" I demanded.
"What I say, darling," the Avram's mechanic, a black-haired human male, told me uninterestedly. "You trying to pull rank on me? Just cos you're the family-"
"You want me to pull rank on you? Fine, than! I'll tell my grandmother what's going on at this depot-she doesn't stand for slackers in her company-"
"Whoa, whoa!" He held up his hands. "Calm down, milady! I'll do my best, but we're all behindhand after being closed yesterday afternoon-respect for the Princess, you know..."
My temper ebbed away, to be replaced by the aching sorrow.
"...and with the protests-danger of rioting-"
"What protests?"
"Haven't you heard, milady? The Emperor has just dissolved the Senate for good and all. A lot of people aren't happy about it."
"No! No, I heard nothing. How could I, when I spent the morning with my head stuck in my hyperdrive?"
"Tomorrow morning, first thing!" he promised hastily.
I took a swing by the Senate building on my way back to Swift. Around the circular building, a restless crowd milled. A few rabble rousers were speechifying near its foot.
"Justice...freedom...democracy...!"
Stupid, I thought, talking insurrection in the heart of the Empire, practically within spitting distance of the old demon himself. I shivered as I remembered what I had felt-or imagined-below the Imperial Palace the night before.
Princess Leia would be so angry if she knew that the Senate-
The train of my thought was interrupted as I heard the clink and stamp of an approaching stormtrooper detachment. I restarted my speeder hurriedly. The best part of courage is knowing when to run, was one of Shamma's sayings. Much of the crowd seemed to have the same idea, and was melting away like snow in sunlight. But not fast enough. As I gunned the speeder's engine, I heard the sharp crack of blaster rifle fire behind me.
Too close for comfort, laserbrains, I scolded myself. That'll choke off the treasonable talk, all right. But I was guilty of more than talk, I thought. I had directly supported the Rebel Alliance, the traitors. If my recent past were known to the Imperials, I would undoubtedly be shot as fast as the protesters outside the Senate. What had I got myself into? But a regime that could do what I had just witnessed was wrong. I knew with my heart and bones that I would not wish myself uninvolved.