Chapter 12
Bad First Impressions
Vader studied the vid-screens that displayed the feeds from the new security cameras dully. Everything was completely normal. On the lower levels he could see guards dressed in the same uniforms as the Captain standing by all points of entry. There were also cameras positioned throughout the apartment with their lenses mainly focused on views facing out of the windows. And the last line of visual surveillance was a couple cameras in the Senator's bedchambers. Every view was working and, of course, nothing of interest was happening.
Damn, this is going to be a long night… Vader groaned to himself, balling his hands into fists to keep them from shaking. The Senator's almost casual mention of Count Dooku still disturbed him, and he hated himself for his weakness.
"Who are you?" Amidala demanded, stepping up behind him.
Vader smirked. So you finally see me, eh? How long has it been? Four hours at least. "No one important." He replied, keeping his back to her. The less I have to deal with you, the better.
"You must be important if you are here. Now who are you?" She countered sternly.
"Just a Padawan here to assist Knight Kenobi." Vader shrugged.
"And do you have a name?" She pressed.
"You are quite persistent." Vader sighed, finally turning to face her. "If you wish a name to call me by, then call me Vader."
"Vader," she frowned. "Do you have a last name?"
"No," he replied flatly, turning back to the security screens.
"But you must, there is no human culture that I know of that grants only one name." Amidala protested.
"My duty is to protect you from those that seek to harm you, not to answer your questions." Vader retorted tightly. Would you drop it already?
"If I do not know you, how can I trust you?" She challenged.
"Do you trust Obi-Wan?" Vader asked.
"Yes, of course I do." Amidala snapped.
"Then you have nothing to fear." He insisted. "It is late Milady, you should retire for the night." He cut her off before she could continue their pointless argument.
"You are the most infuriating Jedi I have ever met!" She spat, brushing past him into her private chambers in a huff.
"And you are the most infuriating Senator I have ever met." Vader snorted at her closed door.
Of course, the door gave him no reply. Sighing wearily, he focused his attention on the cameras in the bedchamber. He could see Amidala pacing and muttering to herself, but he could not hear what she said, so he amused himself with imagining her whispered rants. And then she did something monumentally stupid. She took some scraps of clothing and covered the two cameras that watched her room. Swallowing a list of foul Huttese curses, Vader opened her door and peered inside.
"That's not a good idea," he frowned and reached towards the cameras with the Force to uncover them.
"Leave those be, I demand some privacy!" She snapped.
"At the cost of your safety?" Vader wondered, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"I am perfectly safe without those blasted cameras." She declared. "I have Artoo with me. He can warn me of any intruders."
The squat astromech chirped an affirmative sound from his post in the corner.
Vader scowled at her, but she held his stare. In the end, his impatience won out and he looked away. "Fine, have it your way." He growled, stalking off and childishly wishing that her door was the old-fashioned kind with hinges. Those kinds of doors you could slam.
Vader scowled at a far wall as he stood at his post outside Amidala's door. He was still irked at her foolish desire for privacy. Sure, Artoo was probably enough, but paired with the cameras he would be even more effective.
Idiot woman, does she want to die? He wondered for the thousandth time. Such measures wouldn't last forever. Once the threat was past she wouldn't have to worry about cameras in her bedchambers or any other infringement on her precious privacy. She should be grateful. She wasn't in a position like his, he had no end to his charade to look forward to in the foreseeable future.
"How are things going?" Kenobi asked as he walked over to stand by Vader's side.
"Well enough. Everything's quiet." Vader shrugged.
"Are the camera feeds not working?" Obi-Wan asked as he studied the screens that should've showed Amidala's bedchamber.
"She covered the cameras." Vader scowled.
"She what?" Kenobi sputtered. "Why?"
"She did not like such a great invasion of her privacy. The Senator feels that Artoo and his motion sensors are enough of a defense." Vader growled with a trace of bitterness.
"I don't like this. It's not safe." Kenobi protested.
"I don't like it either, but she insisted." Vader sighed. "But don't worry too much, I can sense everything going on in that room. If anything enters and tries to harm the Senator, I'll know."
"Don't be so overconfident my young Padawan." Obi-Wan cautioned.
"Well, if I miss anything, you shouldn't Master." Vader smirked. "After all, you are a true Jedi Knight."
Kenobi only snorted in response to that. And then he changed the subject. "What do you think of young Senator Amidala?"
"She's pretty," he admitted, "but foolish and irritating. I will be very glad when this assignment is over."
"Hmph, as will I. There is something about this assignment that bothers me. Something distant, elusive." Obi-Wan sighed. "I don't like it one bit."
Vader crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the thick, expensive carpet beneath his boots. I don't like it either… And I like hearing about Dooku even less…
Outside Padmé's window, a small hovering assassin droid drifted into position. It activated its quiet cutting laser and carved a small, circular hole to which it pressed up a small canister. A pair of Kohun, large centipede-like insects gifted with great stealth and a greater poison, crawled out and onto the floor.
Attracted by the body heat of the sleeping Senator, they scuttled over to, and up, her bed. One of them made enough of a disturbance in its hunt to trip the Astromech's sensors and Artoo briefly activated to seek out whatever it was. The Kohun stilled until Artoo passed the alert off as a glitch and deactivated again.
Feeling safe, the insect assassins slunk up her bed-sheets and wriggled towards her head. The carbon dioxide she exhaled with each breath drew them like magnets. The pulsing heat of her jugular awakened their ceaseless hunger. This creature was large and they would feed well…
Vader tensed suddenly as an icy chill of warning prickled the back of his neck. His eyes immediately flew to the Senator's door and he sharpened his senses, seeking the cause for alarm. He did not like what he detected.
"I feel it too," Obi-Wan murmured.
They moved as one, bursting through the door. Vader leapt up on Padmé's bed and snapped on his blue-bladed Jedi lightsaber, slashing through the pair of venomous Kohun like a hot knife through butter. The Senator lurched upright in bed, shocked and dazed with sleep. A whirring by the window drew Vader's attention and he turned just in time to see Obi-Wan crash through the window to grab a hold of a small assassin droid as it streaked away towards its owner.
"Stay here," Vader snapped, dashing away as her attendants rushed into the run to see what all the ruckus was about.
He really didn't think about his actions as he rushed to aid Obi-Wan. His own worries about his own safety were totally forgotten. While Obi-Wan Kenobi was a great warrior, skilled in the art of battle and the dance of the saber, he got himself into a great deal of trouble. So far, Vader had saved the Jedi's skin twice, once from a terrorist seeking to destroy peace talks on some distant world, and once when the Knight was knocked out cold in the middle of a nest of Gundarks.
Sometimes I wonder if it's his job to save me, or my job to save him! Vader sighed exasperatedly as he scuttled through a parking lot in search of a good speeder to borrow. Hang on Master, I'm coming to save you…again. He spied a sporty yellowish speeder, hopped in, hot-wired it, and was off into the endless rivers of Coruscant traffic, in search of his wayward 'Master'.