Chapter Four: Gift of a Princess
Bail had immediately informed his cousin, Antilles, about the Imperial agent that was planted as a clerk in the Royal tower. The honorable senator suggested using the knowledge to of the mole to feed false information to the Emperor.
The spy, now revealed as David Lighthaven, had also been sending important information to the empire concerning the involvement of the Alderaanian royal house in the affairs of the rebellion.
All were worried at how much the Empire had profited from the mole's information, yet relieved that Shamo had intercepted his transmissions when he did.
With a delicate, almost artistic grace, false information was dished out to or in front of Lighthaven, and Shamo altered anything in his transmissions that would impede their plans or reveal their knowledge of the mole's presence.
Soon, the mole was telling the Emperor about how the Royal house took back their loyalties with the rebels and that it had been let slip in his presence that the rebels were congregating on the Smuggler's Moon and Kessel.
The replies sent from the office of the Emperor told him, as usual, to wait for further orders, and congratulated him on his good work.
It was running perfectly, and did so for over six years.
Shamo was happy on Alderaan. She lived among the royals of the prosperous little planet, and delighted in playing 'aunty' to little Leia.
She taught the child basic Force skills, not even explaining them to the child lest the unfortunate happen... Shamo taught Leia to meditate and simple Force 'games', like knowing what sabbac card she held without seeing the actual card, and little things like that. Indeed, as the little princess grew up, she did some of the lessons without thought. Leia was a killer sabbac player, and could beat the best of them by the age of eight.
But as the galaxy moved on, so did the events of the worlds within it.
The rebels banded together and formed the Alliance, secretly spearheaded by the Alderaanian royal family, and Shamo felt the Force tugging at her to depart and get back into the action.
"Commander Kyllikki, a transmission from Coruscant. Should I transfer it to your cabin?"
Shamo gazed groggily at the image of a young ensign on her message screen and felt a strange swoosh of déjà vu.
"Yes please, ensign. I'll be there in a second."
Shamo, now known as Eerikki Kyllikki (a traditional Haltijatan name) peeled herself off the comfy sleep couch she had been dozing on and stumbled to her private quarters.
'It pays to be a commander these days; all the sub-lefties are all in common quarters. Poor buggers; but then, maybe I only had my own cabin back in the day because I was a Jedi... hmm... there's something to meditate on,' Shamo thought sleepily.
Bumping through the door into her despairingly messy cabin, Shamo pushed a pile of papers and datapads away from the holo-projector on her desk.
"Defiantly déjà vu," she mumbled, flipping the blinking switch.
The projection of a handsome man popped up onto her desk and Shamo fairly jumped to attention. It was Bail Antilles.
"Greetings, Commander... uhm... Kyllikki. I have news from my dear cousin on Alderaan. The mole escaped – he traced the program you made and realized that he had been compromised. I don't think he knows how long we've been watching him, he told Maaria that they just discovered him, so we made it look like we were investigating who the mole was, then arrested him. He tried to run but didn't get far.
"Bail-O's men are interrogating him now – and they were only told that we just found him too, so there's no way that the man will ever find out how long we've known about him."
"Ah. I see, but I have two questions: one – what are you going to do with him?"
Bail-A looked thoughtful, "We haven't decided yet, so far he hasn't said anything, which is quite amazing for a mole. Do you have any ideas?"
Shamo thought about it for a moment, then snapped her fingers and motioned as though a flash bulb had gone off above her head.
"Before he says anything, let him go, say that you made a mistake or something like that, then go and pretend to arrest someone else. Let him go and offer him a raise in compensation for his grievances and then see if he goes back at his old routine... but before he's gone, have all the computers he could possibly get his hands on installed with a double-agent program. Your brother, Neil, will know how to do it so that Lighthaven won't find it."
Antilles smiled, "see, you're a great asset!"
But Shamo frowned, "but what to do if he declines and tries to run back to the Imps?"
"Well... since he knows about Leia and, though we fed him lies, much more than he should. He'd be eliminated, I suppose. You remember your little run in with the Royal Guard right after you arrived on Alderaan? They'd take care of any problems of that sort. Maaria, in fact, is one of them."
Shamo smiled, "And that brings me back to my second question. Who is Maaria?"
"Maaria, Maaria, Maaria. She, as I have just told you, is a member of the Elite Royal Guard, we placed her undercover in the same office as Lighthaven and she 'befriended' him," the senator answered with a smug grin. "She's been very useful."
Shamo grinned back, "That's beautiful irony! Place a mole on a mole, Ha!"
Both laughed.
"So how's the little munchkin doing? Still tagging around with you in the senate building?"
Antilles' face softened, "she was, the little honey bun. She's been bothering her father now, for a little while. We sent her home the moment we caught wind that Lighthaven might get away. But I guess she misses the senate – she's attending the Royal courts and her father, ever a softie, lets her make little speeches about whatever's going on, or about whatever she wants, really. The other day she spoke about why she needs to eat more chocolate cake."
Shamo smiled softly and Bail-A went on, "but she's showing great diplomacy and oratory skills, she resolved a dispute between those two families what have been fighting for centuries. Amazing little girl."
"It must be her birthday soon; I'll have to get her a present." Shamo glanced at the chrono on the wall, "how old will the munchkin be?"
"Oh Force preserve us! She's going to be 10 next month."
Both sighed – the little girl that they both loved like their own was growing up.
The entire Organa and extended family attended the princess' tenth birthday party.
Senator Antilles was there, along with several other senators, and a few Imperial high-to-dos were there, as well. Not surprising though, as Alderaan had been one of Palpatine's staunchest supporters (pre-Clone Wars) and still pretended to be so now.
A few well concealed and mainly un-known rebels were in attendance, claiming distant relation to distant relations of the royal family.
One of these was Shamo.
Her most recent alias Eerikki Kyllikki was amazingly, to her, well known to the Empire.
Hence, for the purposes of attending her 'niece's' birthday party, went back to an old alias that she had used while Leia was younger.
The situation with Lighthaven had been... seen to by the Elite Royal Guard when, after two more years after the incident where he was arrested, the spy realized he was still being watched and attempted to flee Alderaan with his fiancée Maaria.
So there were few dangers in Shamo making an appearance as Leia's 'aunty' Shannon Antilles.
Shamo and Bail-A met up together before traveling to Alderaan, so they had time to talk on the way. They arrived in the early morning hours of Leia's birthday, and the excited princess was there to greet them with her father.
"Uncle Bail! Aunty Shannon! Guess what?" Leia shouted over the loud shut-down procedures of the propulsion-lift engines.
Bail-A scooped up his niece and spun her around in a circle.
"I don't know what day it is," Bail teased her, giving her a bear hug. "Is it solstice?"
"No!"
"Is it garbage day?"
"No!"
"Is it New Year's day?"
"No, Uncle Bail!"
Bail quit spinning her and made a mock thoughtful look.
"Well I don't know, those are all the holidays that I know... Oh! Of course, how could I have forgotten," Bail shouted as though coming across a revelation.
"Today is my teddy-bear's birthday!"
The indignant ten-year-old squirmed out of his arms and glared up at him, her fancily braided hair flying astray in the breeze.
"Uncle Bail, it's my birthday today! You didn't know that?"
Bail leaned down and pinched Leia's nose.
"Happy Birthday, my ten-year-old little munchkin. But now you've got to get your nose back," Bail cried happily, running as the princess chased after him.
Everyone present, minus a few etiquette teachers, laughed as the little girl made a flying tackle and pinned the galactic senator down in the dirt of the landing strip and proceeded to 'get his nose'.
Bail-O, smiling at the antics of his daughter and cousin, looked over at Shamo and bowed his head lightly.
"It's good to see you again, my dear. It's been far too long since you've been home."
Shamo smiled and moved to bow lowly to the King, but instead her embraced her in a bear hug.
"Leia has missed you, too. She can barely wait for you to tell her a story or teach her a new game... you know, she's been cleaning up my guardsmen on the side at the sabbac tables. It seems she's unbeatable... she must have learned a few tricks from her aunt?"
Shamo grimaced and glanced over at the King, reaching out to see if he wand angry at her for teaching Leia to use the Force. But Bail only smiled.
"Don't worry; I know that you taught her a few tricks. I'm rather glad to some point. I realized right away when you first came here that you might teach her, and her nanny droids would report her doing odd things at a young age. Meditating was one thing that came naturally to her, and I attribute her wisdom to it. But I am glad that you did not teach her more, and especially that you didn't tell her about it, seeing as how she has been spending some time on Coruscant and in the senate halls. Her being that close to Palpatine... I don't want to think anymore of it, but you see my point?"
Shamo nodded, "Indeed, your Majesty, I do."
There was an awkward silence that was thankfully broken by Leia running up and fairly tackling Shamo.
"I've missed you Aunty Shannon; I hope I'm getting a speeder today; today I'm turning ten and that means that I can take flying lessons! Can you teach me, do you fly? I really, really can't wait! Ohh, Aunty Shannon, I can't wait for my party!"
Shamo and the Bails' laughed; the birthday party would be a good one.
It wasn't until the end of the next day that all the presents had been opened and the wrapping paper put away.
The princess had received many presents, and yes, she did get a speeder from one of her relatives, and a swoop from one reckless cousin. Perhaps the most extravagant gift was not from any of her relatives, but a good friend of the King and Senator that was one of the big fish in the Corellian Engineering Corperation. The young princess received a brand new, fresh off the line CR-90 corvette.
Shamo had laughed when she saw the name on the nameplate; it was the 'Tantive IV', a new model of the prototype ship that had originally brought her to Alderaan.
'This galaxy is full of ironies,' she thought with considerable mirth.
The three presents (after those) that Leia loved the most were from her father, Bail-A, and Shannon Antilles.
Bail-O had given his daughter her very own library full of books of law, history, and all those things an aspiring senator needs.
Bail-A gave his niece a very daring present – a self defense instruction vid, a pair of dull practice blades, and her very own pistol blaster. (Bail-O quickly removed the pistol from the table and shoved it at a droid to take and hide in his bedroom, while glaring at his beaming cousin.)
But Shamo's gift was quite different.
It was a very simply made gold necklace with a little polished silver locket.
Try as she might, Leia was unable to open the locket, and neither could her father.
"Aunty, your present is broken! I can't open it," Leia complained.
Shamo grinned, "it's a special locket – you have to wait until it's ready for you to open it... it has a secret inside that you can't find out just right yet."
Leia looked in confusion at the tiny locket, "I don't understand."
"Maybe," Shamo placed a hand on the girl's immaculately braided and brown haired head, "maybe when you're older I can teach you how."
With a shrug, Leia slipped the necklace around her neck and smiled at her father.
"Daddy lets go flying!"
Shamo had gone to great pains to find the write jeweler to make the necklace for Leia. The locket was one that could only be opened by using the Force, directly, to unlock its secrets. On the inside, Shamo put a tiny data chip that contained the history of the Jedi order and Shamo's own personal history up-to-date. The chip had an uplink with a data pad that the Jedi kept locked away in a safety box on Malistar. With the pad she could update her life story into the microchip from anywhere, at anytime.
On the outside of the locket, in flowing script, Shamo couldn't help but put the words:
"The sagacious must learn to avoid expecting the impossible, grieving the irretrievable, and fearing the inevitable."
Once the gift was completed, Shamo thanked the jeweller and paid him well.
Bail Organa and his daughter Leia were on their way to Coruscant, not two years later, when Bail received a patch transmission from one of Shamo's crewmembers. She had been discovered as a Jedi by the Imps and they had tried to outrun a Star Destroyer but their shuttle, the 'Tantive III' was damaged in a preceding battle and couldn't get away.
Shamo had ordered the crew to jettison and flew the ship herself, leading the Imperial battleship away from the fleeing rebels. Shamo lead the Star Destroyer in a terrible game of cat and mouse until, after being dealt a fatal blow to the hull causing a breach that opened the ship to the vacuum of space, she put all power in the front shields and rammed her ship into the Star Destroyer's bridge.
Her sacrifice saved the rebel survivors, as the Star Destroyer, one of the prides of the Imperial Fleet, dropped out of the sky towards a black hole.
When an Alliance rescue ship scanned the wreckage, they found only a few Imperial life-pods (which were captured) and, strangely, one rather beat-up lightsaber.
Later after the fall of the Empire and the rise of the new Republic, Leia discovered the secrets of her locket...