CHAPTER FOUR

"But I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no-one will take your joy away from you. On that day, you will not question me about anything."

John 16:22-23

Padme was trembling when she landed on Alderaan with Obi Wan and Yoda. Yoda had broken his exile in order to observe the children. Padme suspected that Yoda wanted to know if there were any early signs that they had inherited their father's talent for the Force.

The Organa family and Beru were present at the Palace once more. Owen had stayed on Tatooine to see to the farm but Beru had brought Luke for the celebration.

Padme examined the children's faces with intensity. She had seen them almost every day via hologram for the past year but it was not comparable to seeing them in the flesh.

Leia was a beautiful little girl with a thick crop of brown curls and lively brown eyes. She was willful but charming and very active. But it was Luke that sent a stab through Padme's heart. If she had seen Anakin at a year old, she was sure he would have looked exactly as Luke did now. Luke's large, grave, blue eyes looked up at her. Padme knew he was intelligently processing everything he saw. "Hello Luke," she said with a smile.

Recognition at her voice lit up his small face. He had heard it nearly every day when she sent him hologram messages. "Mama!" he said contentedly and waved his tiny hands at her.

Padme drew in a shaky breath and tears came to her eyes. It was the first time either child had called her that. A huge lump came to her throat as she stared into the eyes so like her husband's.

Inevitably, she felt the whisper of Anakin's presence. She held her breath and tried not to panic. Deliberately, she closed off all thoughts of the children.

On the first day (which was the day before the children's birthday) the small party went into the local markets to buy the children's birthday presents. Padme brought Leia a delicate gold filigree box for the jewelry she would one day certainly own for the Organas were obviously wealthy. For Luke, she had obtained the Skywalker crest via a little research she had done when she had time on Naboo before moving permanently to the Dagobah System. Although Anakin had been a slave and had no records of his genealogy, the Skywalker name was an old one in the Galaxy and easy to trace information on. She did not want him to lose contact with his family roots wherever he was in the Galaxy. She wanted him to know who he was. Padme also bought a great many practical things for Beru to take back home for Luke. She knew Beru and Owen were not wealthy and Padme did not want Luke to become a financial burden for them. Already, she had set up a trust fund for Luke to defray his expenses while he was growing up. She had offered to do the same for Leia but Bail Organa had laughed and told her it wasn't necessary – money was one thing they did not need to worry about.

Although Padme had been more at peace in the Dagobah system with Yoda, she was always happy on Alderaan with her children. They day was warm and balmy, the sky was clear and Padme savoured both the large and small joys of the day. She did not know when joy would come her way again and so, she felt it more deeply.

The birthday party went well. The King and Queen of Alderaan attended and brought gifts for the babies which touched Padme. They were Leia's adoptive Grandparents, of course but Padme did not know that. The palace servants had decorated the terrace with satin ribbons and flowers, and Luke and Leia played on a large rug in the centre of the party.

Padme watched them playing. Both of them were crawling and Luke had taken a few steps only a short time ago. The sunshine glinted off Luke's fair hair and Padme thought he looked angelic. Leia was beautiful but far too vigorous and decisive to appear angelic. Both of them were obviously well-loved and well-adjusted, and Padme was both content and grateful. She tried not to think of her departure the next day.

- - -

Obi Wan and Yoda were accompanying Beru and Luke back to Tatooine. There had been spies there not long before which Obi Wan had sensed while watching over Luke.

Yoda had given Padme very specific co-ordinates for a small, out-lying planet out of the way of the usual notice of the Empire's bounty hunters and spies. It was a small solar system with only one of its planets having any population at all. This insignificant population lived close to the coast of the only small land mass which was located near the planet's equator. The planet could sustain life easily but its inconsequential population and minor land mass meant it was of no interest to either traders or new settlers.

Padme watched as Beru, Luke, Yoda and Obi Wan set off for Tatooine with tears running down her face. She was told that Leia and the Organas were staying a bit longer with the King and Queen but it was no longer safe for Padme to stay. Three days on Alderaan so close to the twins was dangerous enough.

Padme took off for her new temporary home just before sunset on Alderaan. Leia had smiled up at her when she held her the last time and it gave comfort to Padme that her children at least recognized her voice. She was not a stranger to them.

She had asked Yoda his impression of Luke and Leia during the short three days. Yoda had nodded his ancient head. "Strong it is, the Force with these little ones. Inherited they have, their father's ability. Restore the Jedi, I have hope they will one day do. The Dark Side, understanding of the future it clouds. Hard to see, their future is. Training they must have. Impossible to know, when or how this will be."

"So it is even more important to keep them away from their father," Padme sighed.

Yoda looked keenly at Padme. "If find you Darth Vader does, purpose there may be in this. A human shield for your children, you must be. From finding out about them, you must prevent him."

Padme looked at Yoda without saying anything for a few moments and then nodded. She understood what Yoda was trying to tell her.

A couple of hours after she took off from the palace grounds, Padme put the transport on autopilot to get some sleep. Unbeknownst to her, a small planet close by had just been hit by an asteroid and the debris was coming straight towards her ship.

Padme was woken up a few hours later by the sound of something hitting the side of the ship. She was disoriented for a few seconds until the ship was hit again. It shuddered violently.

Padme threw off the blanket and went to the command panel. She switched on the exterior lights and drew in her breath sharply. It looked like an asteroid field out there except much worse. She quickly remembered the chart she had looked at before taking off. There had been no asteroid fields in her path. If there had been she would have made a detour rather than risk the ship. It was possible to fly through an asteroid field but it wasn't wise to do so unless you had to.

It occurred to her that perhaps the ship was off-course. "Some navigator I am," she muttered to herself and another jolt shook the ship. While she switched the transport over to manual flight, she checked her travel path. It showed she was exactly on course.

"At least I'm not a total idiot," she said wryly. "But where the hell did all these rocks come from?"

She turned on her space traffic report for the relevant quadrant of the Galaxy. She had to grab the controls to narrowly dodge another rock approximately the size of a house. A disembodied voice came from the speakers updating pilots on various hazards in the Galaxy. It took all of Padme's concentration to dodge the boulders coming her way. She still caught the odd small rock on the side of the ship but it couldn't be avoided.

Within ten minutes, Padme had the answer to her question:

"The small planet of Wordell has been struck by a meteorite and a third of the planet has disintegrated into a dangerous asteroid belt near the Zargon system. We advise pilots to steer clear of this system for the present," the report said.

"Yeah, tell me that now," Padme said sarcastically but at least she now knew why she was in her current predicament. "It would take a Jedi to steer through this mess," she muttered, swerving yet another enormous rock. "Where is Obi Wan when you need him?"

Padme switched on the weapons. She was going to have to both blast some rocks and steer past others. The field was too thick to just dodge the asteroids. She left the space report on, hoping that they would give out more information as to the asteroid field's size. She knew she could do this for a few hours but if it took any longer than that, she would get tired and make mistakes. She had no-one to take a second shift at the controls.

Roughly an hour after waking, Padme noticed that she was nearing the centre of the asteroid field. The asteroids were actually getting larger and they were closer together. The large rocks were starting to graze the ship because the gaps were too narrow for Padme to steer the ship through. She could feel her panic rising. If she survived the next hour, she knew she would probably be okay. The problem was surviving the next hour.

Suddenly she felt the loudest bang yet and one set of instruments went berserk on the control panel. "Damn, damn, damn!" she swore. She had lost one set of engines and one side of the ship was badly damaged. The lop-sided transport would be even harder to steer.

Alarms started going off all over the control panel. Padme tried to compensate for the ship's damage with her steering but it was no good, the ship did not respond properly. Up ahead, a large boulder was approaching. Padme wrenched the wheel but she knew there was no hope of dodging it. Suddenly the ship went black, Padme was thrown against one wall and she lost consciousness.

- - -

Darth Vader stopped mid-stride. He had been heading towards the conference room to meet with diplomats from the Lepenzo system about their non-payment of taxes to the Empire when he felt searing fear and panic hit him like a wall.

He turned on his heel and went directly to his private chambers which fortunately, were not too far away. He sat down at a table and clenched both hands. What the hell was going on with Padme? Why was she was terrified? Without thinking, his mind reached out to hers via the Force. There was no hesitation; he had grown stronger in the art of using the Force to connect with her. As always, his skills with the Force grew quickly.

She was obviously in such a stressful situation that her usual mind shields were not in place. He could feel that she was flying and that the craft was shuddering badly around her. Vader's breathing became laboured as he absorbed this information. She was in trouble, very serious trouble. She could easily die.

He gathered as much information as he could and suddenly, her mind went dark. It was not the usual slamming down of her defenses but a sudden slump into darkness. His angel was unconscious in a badly damaged ship.

He leapt to his feet and went over to his hologram message system. He instantly posted urgent messages to all his spies and contacts, as well as the space rescue services in each system. He could tell them it was an asteroid belt but one that was not usually where it was now. A response came back almost instantly.

"The only unusual asteroid belt is in the Zargon system due to the destruction of a small, local planet."

Within seconds another message went out to all Darth Vader's spies, contacts and bounty hunters in the relevant quandrant of the Galaxy to go directly to the Zargon system and rescue the ship caught in the asteroid belt. The successful person would be rewarded richly. If the passenger was brought to him alive, the reward would be trebled.

Vader knew there were powerful deep space scanning devices that could locate a ship caught in an asteroid belt almost immediately if it was used in the correct quadrant. All the bounty hunters had to do was join forces with a local system space rescue squad and they would find the ship within minutes. With the powerful rock blasting machines of the rescue squads, it would then take only an hour or two to reach the ship in an asteroid belt that size. If she was still alive, there was still time to rescue her.

'If she was alive…' Darth Vader sat down near his messaging system suddenly. He couldn't tell whether she was unconscious or dead. Right now, it was impossible to tell. He already knew that the next couple of hours would feel like years.

A message came through roughly five minutes after Vader had sent out his second communication.

"The ship has been located. We should reach it within an hour, my Lord."

- - -

Vader paced for nearly an hour and a half before he heard anything more.

"We have reached the ship, my Lord. The one female passenger is alive but unconscious. The rescue squad medical droids are treating her at present, my Lord. What are your orders?"

"Bring her back to the Command Ship at once. Do so with utmost secrecy otherwise you will forfeit your reward. She is not to be harmed in any way," Darth Vader commanded immediately. "I want regular reports as to her condition on the journey."

"Yes, my Lord."

Darth Vader sat down slowly and felt the tension slowly drain from what was left of his muscles. He literally felt light-headed. It was not a sensation he was used to, it was not a sensation he ever wished to feel again. He could literally feel his blood pressure returning to normal as a physical sensation. Gradually, his hands unclenched.

While he waited to see the wife he had not seen for over a year, he sent out a message to call off the search.

- - -

Padme was dreaming of Anakin very vividly. They were on Naboo. It was before they were married when Anakin was her protector. The sky overhead was very blue and the grass around them was a vivid green. The familiar mountains were in the distance looked like blue glass. She felt safe because Anakin was there. She was also happy. Their relationship was still uncomplicated by politics, the Jedi Council or the crumbling of the Republic. They still thought they were on the same side. They thought they held the same ideals.

Or did they?

After all, Anakin had been talking about a wise leader who could 'make' people be decisive and agree so time wasn't wasted in 'sitting around talking'. She had thought he was teasing her. Who could really think that, anyway? It was so obviously a dictatorship he was describing and he knew she was a fierce democrat. He must have been teasing her.

Or was he?

Suddenly Anakin's young boyish face morphed into the face of the young man on Mustafar. His handsome features were twisted and darkened with anger, and something deeper and more awful that Padme could not name.

"There is no need to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I can overthrow him, and together you and I can rule the Galaxy. Make things the way we want them to be."

Padme stared at this strange, almost mad young man before her. She didn't recognize him anymore. She gazed at him like he was a stranger. Where was her Anakin? Suddenly she felt like she was choking. She couldn't get her breath. Something was tightening around her throat like a vice.

"No Anakin!" she tried to call but she couldn't get her breath.

"No!" she said and suddenly sat up, wide awake. Pain flashed through her temple immediately and she put one hand to her head. She realized it was bandaged. Looking around her, she suddenly understood that she wasn't alone.

- - -

Darth Vader was holding his breath without realizing it when the small transport arrived less than a day later. He had ordered them to use the fastest ship they could find in the system but even so, it was a vast distance. Padme had obviously been heading towards an out-lying star system – to hide from him, he realized bitterly.

The hover-stretcher moved slowly out of the transport's doors, accompanied by medical droids. He could see Padme got excellent treatment which was just as well for her rescuers. He stepped over to the stretcher and his breath caught. There was no doubt it was Padme but she had pretty bad head injuries. Her face was superficially scratched and her temple was bandaged. They had cut away some of her hair near the wound but once the bandage was off, it would not be noticeable. Her ankle was also in lightweight cast. She would not be able to walk for a few months. He supposed he should be grateful for that; it may prevent her from trying to run away.

Other than that, she was still as beautiful as she had been since the last time he saw her. She still looked like the angel he had first encountered on Tatooine. He did not want his examination of her to be observed by those who had rescued her. He ordered one of his men to make arrangements for the payment of the reward then took Padme to his private apartments. There was enough room to set up a medical bay in one section; a section that had excellent security.

She stayed unconscious for another full day and Darth Vader did not leave his private apartments for the whole of this time. He supervised his projects via hologram messages. Fortunately, it was one of the times when Darth Sidious was also absorbed in other business in the far reaches of the Galaxy and was not in regular contact.

He was watching over her the first night when he noticed her frowning and moving her head. Her hands reached up to her throat as though to pull something away. She was struggling to say something but no words came out. Finally, she called out, "No!" and sat bolt upright wide awake.

Darth Vader had not expected this. He had assumed she would come out of her unconsciousness slowly and he would have time to get her used to his presence gradually. He stood there a few paces away from her stretcher with no idea of what to say or do now that she was fully awake. He was frozen to the spot. When she turned her large, brown eyes on him – eyes so familiar and loved – his voice seized up and he found himself holding his breath once more.

- - -

Padme stared at the strange, dark creature beside her bed. Was it a man in a mask or an android? Whatever it was, it was intensely frightening and intimidating. She frowned and looked around the room for someone else. She was so sure she had felt Anakin's presence in the room but perhaps it was just the dream? After all, how many times had she felt his presence but he hadn't really been there at all? It made her feel jumpy. In fact, everything about her situation made her feel jumpy.

She watched the strange dark figure for a few moments without saying anything. She had no idea why he was there or why he was standing so still and not saying anything. Suddenly an odd sound came through the mask, like a sinister and unnatural breath. It happened again and Padme realized that it actually was the creature breathing.

She could still feel Anakin's presence but where was he? And why didn't this frightening creature speak?

"Where am I?" she asked the dark figure. She figured she may as well be the one to initiate conversation. He obviously wasn't going to.

"On the Command Ship," the dark figure replied. Padme jumped. She had never heard such a strange, mechanical, menacing voice before in her life. It was very deep and strangely disembodied, as though it did not come from normal vocal chords.

"The Command Ship of what?" Padme asked.

"The Empire," it replied.

Padme cringed. If this was Darth Sidious' ship than her instincts had been correct. Anakin was somewhere close by – physically this time.

Padme cleared her throat. "Does, er… does Darth Sidious know I'm here?" she asked.

"No," it replied briefly.

"Does Darth Vader know I'm here?" she asked.

The pause was much longer this time. "Yes," it replied.

Padme nodded. Without her knowing, her eyes gave away her fear at the news. "Where is he now?" Padme asked.

"Not far away," the dark figure said in its unemotional tones after another pause.

"I guess I'll be seeing him sooner or later," she said with bravado but her fear was evident in her voice.

"Sooner rather than later," came the reply.

"Lucky me," Padme replied and lay down again and closed her eyes, hoping to block it all out.