CHAPTER EIGHT
"The only way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered within a willing, living, human being. When it is absorbed there, like blood in a sponge or a spear thrown into one's heart, it loses its power and goes no further."
- Gale Wells
Padme visited Leia every six months or so on Aderaan. Each time, she took the passenger transport and never encountered any problems on the journey. In same ways, she felt safer in a crowded place. She knew Anakin assumed that if she was hiding, it would be in a remote spot. He would never think to look for her in a crowded passenger transport.
She was present for Leia's second, third and fourth birthdays. In many ways, Leia was advanced for her age. She was insatiably curious and never still. Padme watched her leap with ease over every development hurdle. She was proud of her little girl. She believed she had a future of greatness ahead of her. On each birthday, she missed Luke fiercely. She wanted to send gifts to him on Tatooine but Yoda had strictly forbidden it. Poor farm boys did not receive parcels from other planets. Padme sent extra money to Owen and Beru at these times to buy presents but even then, they had to be careful to get nothing out of place for a boy on a farm.
For her time on Sashwan, Padme continued in the routine she had set for herself early on. In her first two years, she had nearly completed the Rebel Alliance training units. She was unsure of what her next step would be but the people in the local community were already coming to her for help and advice. There was a chance she may take on a minor office locally, more to help her neighbours with their problems than to serve any greater political ambitions. Those kinds of ambitions were closed to her now. Public life was an obvious danger in any Galaxy.
She had felt Anakin's presence many times in the past two years. He seemed to be getting better at connecting with her using the Force. Not only was his presence more subtle and more frequent but it no longer seemed to require any intense emotional state on her part. If she was merely feeling particularly happy or content, he seemed able to find that. If she was feeling lonely or slightly depressed, he could find that too.
She didn't care as long as her mind shields were in place. He was not as intrusive or frightening as he had been. She suspected he was doing that deliberately so that she didn't shut him out. It was obvious that although the Force could make them feel close to each other in one sense, it was no use for anything else. If he had been able to sense where she was, he would have been there a long time ago.
She got to the point where she was able to detect the subtle signs of his moods on these occasions too. Sometimes he was very tense as though he had had a bad day.
I guess it isn't easy being a Dark Lord, she thought wryly.
Other times, she sensed he was in some kind of pain but it was an on-going pain rather than from a recent wound or injury. At these times she wondered even more what was underneath the mask and armour.
On a couple of occasions, she could sense his frustration at being able to connect with her via the Force but be limited to just that.
There were days when she wondered how long this would go on. Would Anakin's presence haunt her for the rest of her life or would his interest eventually fade away as his plans for the Empire took up more of his energy? She had no idea.
- - -
On the Command Ship, Anakin spent the two years that Padme was hiding on Sashwan preparing for the day she was returned to his life. He had no doubt that she would. He could not tolerate the thought that she may never return, it was as simple as that. The first year was spent painfully grafting new skin where the scarred skin had been. Once this was successfully completed, the second year was spent implanting new hair on his face and head, and growing skin and capillaries over the artificial part of his limbs.
On the whole, he was pleased with progress. The new skin did not have a bad colour the way skin grafts sometimes did. The thin scars were almost unnoticeable. The hair implants were an exact match of his old hair colour and texture, and the skin was growing well over his artificial limbs. He had found an eye specialist that had used special eye drops to reduce the redness in his singed eyes. He was able to scan the damaged iris and make a new artificial one that fitted permanently over the old as an exact replica of the healthy eye. The end result was a startling return of the sky blue eyes he remembered from nearly four years ago. The eye specialist was handsomely rewarded.
Now that his surgery was all but complete, there was even more reason to find Padme quickly. He could now face her looking like his old self in the privacy of their suites and not be ashamed.
- - -
Padme had just finished discussing a fence dispute that one of her farming neighbours had with another when she heard the subtle beeping of her hologram message device. Making a mental note to look up the local laws with regards to the shared cost of fencing for her visitor, she went through to the room that she had set up as her private office and study.
Bail Organa was waiting patiently for her there. "Good morning, milady," he said with a smile but his face was anxious.
"Good morning, Bail. What is it?" she asked fearfully. She had never seen Bail look anything other than cheerful and self-possessed.
"I'm sorry to visit you outside of the usual time. I was hoping to catch you at home. It's Leia, she's very sick," he said gently but it was obvious that he was having a hard time even talking about it.
"Sick?" Padme repeated, turning a shade paler and sitting down suddenly.
"It's a rare disease brought over from a distant planet called Scarlett Fever. We had eradicated it on our side of the Galaxy so nobody inoculates their children here anymore. However it seems that Leia picked it up from diplomatic guests visiting from a planet called Earth. Usually is it a disease that is curable using antibiotics but Leia has a severe case, and her heart and kidneys may be affected. Because she's so young, it's quite serious. It may affect her development," Bail explained clearly, careful to give Padme all the details.
"I'll be there as soon as I can," Padme promised and got up to pack.
"Padme!" Bail Organa called after her. "Are you sure you want to risk this journey?" he asked with a note of caution.
Padme whirled around and stared at him. "Wouldn't you?" she asked forcefully.
Bail looked at her apprehensively. He knew perfectly well he would do the same thing.
- - -
Padme had hired an intergalactic ship within a couple of hours and was on her way by early afternoon on Sashwan. She had programmed into the ship all the navigational co-ordinates and taken a droid with her to take the controls in an emergency if need be.
Padme had done difficult hyperjumps many times, particularly in her military flying training but even the most experienced pilots had difficulty with intergalactic hyperjumps. She knew it would take all her skill to pull it off but it did not make her hesitant. If the passenger ship pilots could do it regularly every two weeks, she was sure she could as well.
Padme was anxious for the entire first three days of the trip. Bail kept her up-to-date on Leia's condition. The little girl was still in the rash and fever stage. Once her skin had shed a layer, she was safe and getting well but until that happened, her condition could get worse. Behind her anxiety, she could feel the whisper of Anakin's presence. Padme was careful to keep her mind shields up but annoyed that she had to worry about it when so absorbed with anxiety for her daughter. For the first time in a long time, she resented his presence.
Padme was calm when she finally sat down at the control panel for the hyperjump stage of the journey. She carefully calibrated the controls and holding her breath, switched over to hyperdrive. With a bang, the ship shot forward into hyperspace and Padme held her breath.
The stars disappeared outside the windows of the ship and Padme was plunged into unfathomable dark. She held her breath as the seconds passed. Only a minute or so and they would be out the other side into her home Galaxy.
Suddenly the ship juddered violently. "Oh no, not again!" Padme said to herself, her heart pounding. Last time her ship did that, she had ended up with a cut head and badly sprained ankle in Anakin's suite of rooms on the Command Ship.
The ship juddered again and Padme could feel her panic rising. She bit her lip and forced herself to concentrate on the control panel before her. Carefully she made a few adjustments to the controls but just as she thought she was coming out of the rough spot, the ship began spinning uncontrollably.
Fortunately, Padme had strapped herself in before switching to hyperdrive but the spinning made it impossible to concentrate on the control panel. Padme knew that they would either make it through the hyperjump soon or the ship would be vapourised in hyperspace. As she span in the ship as the seconds ticked by, scenes from Padme's life came vividly to mind; her family when she was little, her old school, her time as Queen of Naboo and then as Senator of the Republic. Then her brief marriage to Anakin, Leia and Luke, and her current home on Sashwan. It was with Anakin that her thoughts lingered during her last jarring moments in hyperspace.
- - -
Anakin was on alert immediately. Her panic had hit him like a wall once more. He was not careful or gentle in trying to connect with her this time. He knew when she felt like that it was serious trouble. Padme did not panic easily.
Fortunately, he was alone on the bridge when the he felt it. He sat down at the control panel before he fell down. He had to concentrate this time. There may only be a small window of opportunity to discover information. It was desperately hard to concentrate when being battered by her fear and panic, and while coping with his own terror of the danger she was in. He gritted his teeth and focused his mind.
Images came at him from Padme's unprotected mind. He could see she was traveling again and the ship was spinning out of control. She's hyper-jumping through deep space, he realized with a start. It could only mean she was passing from one Galaxy to another. Fear gripped his heart like a vice. If she went to another Galaxy, it would be that much harder to find her. The area in their own Galaxy was impossibly vast, across two Galaxies it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. With laser-like accuracy, he probed her mind for the location deliberately ignoring everything else he may have had access to in order to grasp this one vital piece of information. He knew it would be in her recent memory.
He could see blue skies, green grass and a lake. Surely she had not been on Naboo all this time? It was impossible. The place was crawling with his spies. He searched further and saw a large cottage on a hillside. He felt intensely frustrated. He needed a name! Rapidly he scanned the relevant memories still further until he got 'Sashwan' and then suddenly, he was cut off.
To his relief, it was her mind shields going down rather than a slide into unconsciousness. She was obviously still alive and conscious. It was a good sign. His breath hissed through his mask as he relaxed slightly but he could feel her anger come through to him like an after shock. She knew he had been in her mind and she did not like it at all. She had shut him out emotionally for the first time in nearly three years.
He rose rapidly from his chair and took a reference sphere from a small navigational library in the bridge room. He placed in on the reader and said, "Sashwan" hoping it would mean something. Miniaturised pictures of Galaxies flashed by as the information was scanned by the search engine. Finally, it slowed down on a Galaxy called 'Fornax'. A hologram map of Fornax systems was suddenly projected into the room. Anakin scanned them quickly and noticed there was a system highlighted in green. He looked at the reference read out, it was a system called Sashwan. He read the other information quickly. As he had suspected, it was a neighbouring Galaxy and the system was on the border closest to their home Galaxy.
"Planets with life in Sashwan system," Anakin said. He knew that most systems, if they had any planets with life at all, usually only had one. Even the very large systems would only have a few planets capable of supporting life.
The hologram zoomed in to the Sashwan system and the fourth planet from Sashwan's star was highlighted in green. Anakin examined the reference read out. The planet had a blue sky and the land was covered in lakes and savannah grasslands. Anakin knew he had found her. He also knew he had to be careful. Padme was no fool. She knew he had gotten behind her mind shields. What she didn't know is what he had found out. If she had any idea at all that he had discovered her location, she would not go back to it. He knew he would have to undertake this mission personally. There was no way this chance could be missed. If she was prepared to live in another Galaxy in order to hide from him, then there was little or no chance that he would ever find her if he didn't take this one opportunity that fate had handed to him. There was no room for mistakes or for failure.
- - -
With one final shudder, the ship jerked out of hyperspace and into Padme's home Galaxy. Mercifully, the ship also stopped spinning. Padme sat back in her seat and let her breath out slowly. She was amazed they had survived.
But Anakin's presence was so strong that she had to resist the impulse to turn around to check that he wasn't standing behind her. She felt a sudden spurt of anger. Why couldn't he leave her alone, particularly when she was so stressed? She had enough to cope with just then without having to feel like she needed to look over her shoulder all the time. She was furious. Deliberately, she slammed down her defenses. She didn't feel like being indulgent of his presence right then.
Grimmly, she reset the course for Alderaan. Padme couldn't figure out why Bail wanted her to visit Alderaan when Padme knew Leia lived elsewhere. Surely it was dangerous to move the child when she was so sick? Bail had used the usual reason that it was important to protect Leia's location from Padme in case Anakin caught her again but as he hadn't used mind probes the last time, she doubted that he ever would.
Padme arrived on Alderaan in another three days feeling wiped out and exhausted. She had rested on her trip but sleep was difficult with anxiety for Leia plaguing her. As Scarlett Fever was highly contagious, Leia was kept in a closed oxygen tent. Padme and Bail's wife stayed by Leia bed around the clock, taking turns to watch over the child. In the week that Padme had been traveling, Leia had run the course of the fever and her skin was beginning to peel away. Although it looked painful, it was a good sign of recovery.
Padme questioned the medical droids about her heart and kidneys but to her relief, Leia had managed to escape these complications although her infection had been quite severe. For the first time in a week, Padme calmed down and was able to sleep properly when Bail's wife was watching Leia.
Padme stayed for two weeks at the Palace before returning to Sashwan via passenger transport. Bail had not been pleased when Padme described the hyperjump. "It sounds like the ship was not in the best condition," he said. "The ship is put under enormous stress during the jump through hyperspace so any fault will create a real danger."
"I didn't have time to examine it thoroughly," Padme admitted. "I was in a hurry to get here."
"It's lucky you got here at all," Bail observed dryly.
- - -
After Padme reached Sashwan again, having been away for over three weeks, all she wanted to do was swim in the lake. She dumped her belongings in her room and quickly changed into her waterproofs. She had not been able to swim in the lake at Alderaan because she had not wanted to leave Leia's side. She knew from hologram messages that Leia was now almost completely recovered. She still needed to convalesce and regain her strength but she was well and truly on the mend.
With a lighter heart than Padme had had in weeks, she went down to the water at twilight leaving a weather proof light on the beach to guide her back in the dark. Her favourite island was only a couple of hundred metres away from the shore. A swim there and back would be enough for the evening. She would swim again tomorrow.
With strong, even strokes she headed for the island feeling relaxed. Unlike the grassy lake islands on Alderaan, the islands were made of craggy rock and sand with some lantana. The sky overhead was nearly dark by the time she reached the island. Her light on shore glowed comfortingly in the distance. She would not stay long as there was no sun to warm and dry her off, and she would get too cold sitting still. She sat down on the sand, planning to stay for a few minutes and watch the stars come out. They constellations were unfamiliar to her but she was learning to pick them out. She leaned back against the base of a tall rocky outcropping and let her mind empty.
She did not notice a dark figure creep stealthy around the outcropping she was leaning against. As silent and deadly and powerful as a panther, Darth Vader did not waste time. He swiftly took her arm while her eyes were closed and placed a tiny metal needle into the skin. She only had time to open her eyes and gasp before the strong but harmless drug took effect. She did not even see who her attacker was in the dark before she lost consciousness.
- - -
Darth Vader had waited for two years to have the knowledge he now did in his possession so waiting another few weeks for Padme to return to Sashwan was not an issue. He had carefully searched through her cottage under cover of night and it was obvious from how many personal belongings were left there that she had every intention of returning fairly quickly. She had not planned for a long trip. It was fortunate that Padme had no pictures of either Luke or Leia (another Jedi precaution) because Darth Vader would almost certainly have found them. In fact, Darth Vader found frustratingly little. Padme had taken all her work on the training modules with her and her hologram messaging system. All that was left were personal belongings like clothes and household effects. There were no indications as to the Rebel Alliance plans or the location of the Jedi remnant. Padme's diplomatic training had served her well in the safeguarding of her secrets, he thought bitterly.
As it was a small community that Padme now lived in and anything out of place would be noticed, Darth Vader only visited the cottage late at night to check whether or not she had returned. Most nights, he would take a small transport (with all the lights turned off) to a small island a short distance from the lake's shore. There was a large outcropping of rock that would hide the ship and himself from the view of the cottage quite easily. Fortunately, there were no other dwellings within sight of his hiding place (which saved him having to kill people unnecessarily) and they would be unlikely to see either his ship or himself in the blackness of night anyway.
The day Padme returned, his spies at the passenger ship's docking port had alerted him. He knew it would not take long for Padme to fly from the port to Sashwan. He decided to risk landing on the island earlier in the day before she came back to the cottage. It was the perfect spot for an ambush, as long as no-one in the village realized he was there. If he was spotted, he would simply have to kill whoever saw him. He could not afford to have this attempt to find Padme thwarted by some village yokel.
He switched his ship over to hover drive and skimmed it over the water to the island from the opposite side to Padme's cottage. Fortunately, everyone in the village was working in their fields on the other side of the hills that bounded the lake. He carefully parked the ship in the cover of a grotto of dark rock and waited for nightfall.
Vader was crouching on the sand (which he still detested) near his ship when he heard a splashing sound. He had not dared even poke his helmeted head around the rock face in case she spotted him from the cottage and made a run for it. Not that she would get far, he thought with grim determination.
Was it possible that Padme herself was swimming out to the island? Could it possibly be made that easy for him? He had planned to wait until she was asleep and quickly drug her before she awoke. Then he could get away cleanly in his ship. Tensely, he waited for the last rays of the sun to disappear before investigating.
His heart pounding painfully in his ears, he crept slowly around the rocky outcrop. Cautiously he looked around the rock face to see who was on the beach. He actually felt his heart throb oddly as it missed a beat. It was definitely Padme. The special lenses on his mask allowed him to see with perfect clarity at night.
He knew he had to act swiftly and decisively. Fortunately, that was his specialty. Her eyes were closed which made it even easier. He had slipped the tiny needle into her skin half a second later. Two seconds after that, he was carrying her limp body back to his ship. He couldn't quite believe how easy it had been. She seemed totally unsuspecting and he wondered whether she had realized he had slipped past her mind shields during her hyperjump a few weeks ago. It did not appear so. He had been positive that she would at least come back with either Obi Wan or Yoda (or both) for protection and would then be packing to go somewhere else to hide immediately. Instead of the violent light sabre fight he had anticipated or an empty cottage because she had already been moved, it had been almost ridiculously easy.
He did not relax until his transport was sealed up and he had escaped Sashwan's atmosphere.
On Dagobah, Yoda's large green ears moved like small satellites as he picked up something amiss in the Force. His small face crumpled slightly as the knowledge came to him with conviction that neither he or Obi Wan or Leia and Luke would see Padme again for a long time to come, if ever again.