It was late afternoon. Rays of light were beaming down on the line of struggling Jedi as they dragged their luggage through the coarse sand. Master Skywalker paused to wipe the sweat off his forehead, letting go of the pack he had brought. The ride home had not been in the least bit pleasant. The backtracking that Han did brought them through a tight area, and there was a tense atmosphere in the cockpit.

He sighed. "Something tells me that whatever your masters consider to be training couldn't be any worse than this."

"Yeah," Luke muttered. "At least on the way there we had some help. Where did Han run off to, anyway? Funny how he has an uncanny knack for disappearing whenever it's convenient for him." Luke kicked at the sand as he fought to keep from sinking: the added weight of his bag was unbearable.

Padme had gone ahead to their home without them, disguised in a small speeder so as not to raise alarm. She suggested that Luke, Leia, and Anakin proceed to the house on foot, confusing anyone who saw and also attracting less attention. No one would notice a few overburdened Jedi in the heat of the sun.

Or so she thought. "Civilization!" Leia screamed as soon as the pale outlines of the town near which they lived came into view. "Food…rest…home," she panted, dropping her bags and running ahead of her brother and sister. Her whoops of joy could still be heard even as she disappeared, legs kicking up sand behind her.

Anakin smiled as he picked up his daughter's belongings. "Funny how at the first mention of a city, even as small as the ones on Tatooine, she forgets her family and heads straight for it," he chuckled. But there was a slight expression of worry on his face. "I do hope she keeps her distance."

"Or what?" Luke asked anxiously. "She wouldn't do anything rash. Would she?"

"I don't know," Anakin admitted. "But I have a bad feeling about this."

Meanwhile, Padme was sitting in the speeder, her scarf trailing behind her as the wind whipped it about. She was completely alone in the craft, which had been set at autopilot for the short journey to the Skywalker home. Nothing seemed to be able to ruin this moment. The sun beat down on her head, but her disguise kept her cool. She was actually enjoying the ride, despite the threat of discovery.

Without warning, the speeder made an abrupt turn down a dark alleyway. 'That's funny,' she thought. 'I don't recall ever using this road to get home. I suppose it's a shortcut Han programmed into the speeder.' But it soon became apparent that the craft was not headed for her home.

Or in the process of slowing down. It whipped through the market, overturning carts and nearly crashing into walls. Padme grabbed the controls, yanking at a long metal emergency brake. "Why…won't…this…thing…MOVE!" she yelled with a final tug. The brake moved, but broke off into her hand. "Great," she muttered. "Why is it that people always seem to have it in for me?"

In a last ditch effort, she pulled out her blaster. Jamming the barrel into the control panel with all her might, Padme broke through the metal to the wires it protected. She yanked out the more promising ones, and with a trick Han had used once, she managed to figure out what controlled movement.

But even as she managed to find the steering system, she found her accuracy was impaired due to the clumsy movements of the rogue speeder. "When all else fails," she said to herself as the speeder took a sharp turn towards a wall. The townspeople screamed, assuming that she wouldn't make it. Padme leapt from the craft just as it crashed into the wall, reducing it to rubble.

"Han didn't program that," she said breathlessly, her face covered with soot and her legs weak from the shock of the landing. She had wound up face down in the street. A woman offered her water, and she gratefully accepted. "Please…" Padme choked, and the woman returned, wringing her hands in anxiety. "Get a message to Han Solo…he's captain of the Millennium Falcon. Tell him…that the autopilot failed…but I'm okay, I'm okay," she finished. The woman ran off, nearly running out of her sandals, and Padme closed her eyes.

Han was working on the Falcon with Chewbacca when the message got to him. "Check the hyperdrive," he yelled to the Wookiee as he left to talk to the woman from the village. "I think that last run mighta wore it out." He wiped his hands on a rag as he headed out into the open.

"Captain Solo," said the flustered woman. "There was an accident in the city quite recently. An incident involving a speeder. There was only one passenger, and she escaped with some minor scrapes. But she told me to run here and find you. She wants me to tell you that there was something wrong with the autopilot."

Han's mind was racing with both excitement and fear. Padme had been in a speeder accident, but she would be okay. Luke, Leia and Anakin probably didn't know yet, so he should go find them and tell them what had happened. Then again, Padme was the type to not make a big deal out of things. She might've actually had injuries from the explosion. And there was still the matter of the autopilot…

"Wait here with the Falcon," Han ordered. "I'm going to see the man who I bought that speeder from. Perhaps he'll shed a little light on the matter of the auto pilot instructions. Oh, and before I forget," he added, tossing her a coin, "here's something for bringing me the message. Thanks."

Han ran off to the place where he'd rented Padme's craft. Padme herself was resting in a nearby inn. Anakin and Luke, oblivious to the tragedy that had just befallen her, had decided to continue ahead rather than wait for Leia.

Which left Leia Skywalker, alone in the city. She was admiring the many hand-carved necklaces that were being sold at a stall. She noted that none of them were half as beautiful as the one her father made for her, but still pretended to be interested. "How much?" she asked.

She was so preoccupied with the conversation that she didn't notice him come up behind her until after he spoke. "Leia Skywalker!" She jumped at the sudden use of her real name; normally she went under an alias. "So good to see you here. In fact you're just the person I'm looking for."

"Chancellor Palpatine?" said a flustered Leia. "Sorry, I didn't notice you there. What brings you to Tatooine, and how do you know my name?"

"That will all be explained in time," Palpatine reasoned as he guided Leia by the arm. "Come have something to eat. You look starved! We can head down to a little café I've heard wonderful things about. There's some things we really ought to discuss…" And with that the politician herded the Jedi into a deserted-looking pub, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder.