Chapter Ten : Antebellum
Theed, Naboo
42 BBY
"Here is your room," the middle-aged woman said brightly, opening the door and gently guiding the small tawny-haired girl inside.
The girl surveyed her surroundings. They had come to a small dorm dominated by a large window through which she could see the blue turrets of the palace and the majestic Theed waterfalls. There was a bed on each side of the room, and between them was a desk. A small dark-haired girl about Sabe's age sat there, bent over a book almost as large as she was. Her eyes were so close to the words that it looked as if she might get lost among the pages at any moment.
"Padme," the woman said, and the girl turned to them. She had a charming, almost elfin face, with sparkling brown eyes. "This is Sabe. She is from Coruscant, and she will be your roommate."
Padme grinned and jumped up, sticking her hand in Sabe's face. Sabe drew back, alarmed. After a moment she gingerly took Padme's hand and shook it.
The woman smiled. "Padme is an excellent roommate, and one of our finest students. I'll leave you two to get to know one another."
She turned to go, but paused, looking between the two of them. Her brows lifted. "You know…" she said slowly. "Aside from that fiery hair of yours, you and Padme resemble one another."
The two girls looked at each other more closely.
"Well," the woman said briskly. "I will see you both a little later." The door slid shut behind her.
Padme sat down on her bed, and Sabe swung her only bag from her shoulder to the floor. Padme's intense stare made her fidgety. She avoided the girl's eyes by busying herself with the contents of her bag.
"I want to go to Coruscant one day," Padme said without preamble. "I want to be the Chancellor."
Sabe gaped at her.
"Did you ever go to the senate building?" Padme asked amicably.
Sabe shook her head.
"It's huge!" Padme bounced to her feet and stretched her hands wide to demonstrate. "They have little ships for all the senators that float down when they want to talk. Our teacher let us ride in one. She said the senators are from all over the galaxy. They speak in all different languages. Some of them have bug-eyes, and some have antennae, and some have no eyes at all, and some have fur. And they all sit down in that huge room and talk things out." Padme described it as if this was the most remarkable thing she'd ever heard of.
Sabe sank onto her bed, dizzy from the chatter.
"What part of Coruscant are you from?"
Sabe put her hands on her knees and stared at the floor. "The temple sent me here," she said finally.
Padme's face was the picture of awe. "The…Jedi Temple?"
Sabe shrugged.
Padme leaned forward, her voice dropping conspiratorily. "So, you have powers?"
Sabe raised her head. The girl was obviously impressed. A new feeling flickered in her, one she had no experience of; pride. "Yes," she said. "They were going to train me, but then they said I should come here."
Padme rocked back on her heels. "Wow."
Sabe flushed.
"What are Jedi like?" Padme asked, her curiosity insatiable.
Sabe lay down, hugging her pillow, and began to tell her.
Paonga Swamps, Naboo
32 BBY
The crack of a twig beneath a boot heel made Sabe open her eyes. She sat up. The Queen's eyes were obscured by shadow as she regarded her. She slid down to sit nearby with her back against a tree trunk, and crossed her arms over her knees. Her face was a study, and Sabe had the feeling she wasn't going to like what she was about to say. "You know this isn't what I was asking for, Sabe."
Sabe fingers plucked at the blanket Qui-Gon had covered her with. "I find myself at a loss to ascertain what you want from me, my Queen."
"Don't hide behind formalities!" Padme said angrily.
Sabe flinched.
Padme's eyes burned. "This is a job, Sabe, not a martyrdom. When we are called upon to risk our lives, it is to be for Naboo, not to prove something to anyone else."
Sabe clutched her coverlet about her, her muscles tensing.
"If I had known you were reluctant because you were ill, I—"
"That was not the reason!" Sabe retorted through her teeth. "You don't understand me at all."
"You think your observation of me has been one-sided," Padme said more softly. "But you are wrong. I've seen your devotion. I've also seen how you live through the smoke and mirrors your position provides for you. And you consistently ask me to do the same."
Sabe tried to turn away from her, but Padme leaned forward, gripping her shoulders earnestly. "Dear as you are to me, Sabe, this isn't about me or you. This is about Naboo."
"You are Naboo," Sabe whispered.
Padme shook her head and stood, pacing in frustration. "I am just a servant, Sabe! My life is a means to an end."
"No," Sabe interrupted. She stared down at her hands where they were twisting together on her lap. "Everything Naboo is, all her innocence, all her beauty, all her love of freedom comes from you. If you were to fall, the citizens of Naboo would feel as I would…" She swallowed hard against the lump forming in her throat. "…Lost. So if I could shield you from the harshness in the Galaxy, the corruption I know is out there, the evil and the filth I used to live in," She heard her own voice growing a little shrill, and attempted to calm herself. " I would do it. No matter what."
Padme stared at her. Sabe couldn't meet her eyes. "Sabe," Padme said. "Even if you could shield me from the outside entirely, you would smother me. As you sometimes smother yourself."
She tucked the blankets back around Sabe's chin and rose. "You will remain here. Tomorrow the scouts will return with medics, and they will attend to you. The others and I will continue to Theed."
Sabe cast the blankets aside. "You can't leave me behind!"
"Can you never follow an order?" Padme snapped. Then she closed her eyes, calming. "This must be. The disguise is lost. You can serve me best now by healing."
Sabe did not relax. "The Queen is not meant to be a martyr either."
"It's not—" Padme protested.
Sabe shook her head. "This plan will not work without the most careful of strategy. I have failed you, but you still need me. You need my abilities. The Jedi will be otherwise occupied, and they do not have my face."
Padme sighed deeply, obviously searching for arguments. But then her face changed completely, her lips parting as some idea came to her. "That's it," she breathed.
"What?"
Padme raised wide eyes to Sabe's face. "That's it, that's how we will win!"
"How?"
Padme smirked. "Smoke and mirrors, Sabe."
Sabe began to catch Padme's train of thought. "A decoy."
"Yes."
"To draw the droids away from Theed."
"Yes!"
"We could use the tunnels to access the city. I know some that go from the Northern banks of the lake right to the falls." Sabe looked at Padme. "Would it work?"
"If we could get the pilots to their ships, they could disable the control ship. And then we could capture the Viceroy," Padme said with equal astonishment. It seemed so simple. Why had they not thought of it from the beginning? Padme dropped back to her knees beside Sabe. "How far away are those tunnels?"
"A half a day at the most," Sabe said. Scooting away from Padme she grabbed a stick and began scratching a rough map in the soft soil beside them. "We could use the swamp fog for cover. Go around this side of the Lake. "
"The Gungans could be sent straight on to the grass plains," Padme pointed out.
The two girls talked long into the night, Padme hammering out her plans of attack, and Sabe nodding in excitement. Neither noticed as the moons went down and a rosy tint grew on the western horizon. Both were too consumed by the sudden, inexplicable possibility of victory.
Sabe walked unhindered among the crowd of Naboovians and Gungans crowding the marsh they had made their temporary refuge. It was not an hour past daybreak, and it seemed that she was not the only one who hadn't slept. At dawn Captain Tarpals had begun preparing his soldiers for battle. She'd watched their drills with amazement. If she learned only one thing from this ordeal, it would be to never again to underestimate the Gungans as foes or allies.
Padme and the others were pacing, waiting for the return of scouts from Theed. Captain Panaka hoped that there were still able men in the capital city who could bolster their flimsy rescue party. But their real strength would lie in their subterfuge. Padme was planning on revealing their plot to the Captain and the Jedi as soon as she could see how many men they could gather.
Sabe took a deep, slow breath and tried not to think about the coming struggle. It was a truly beautiful day, the sky as clear and pure as one of Naboo's river jewels. Various species of swamp fowl sang clear notes from the scattered patches of marsh grass, occasionally rising from the spiky fronds in feathered clouds. Sabe wrinkled her nose at the acrid-smelling water coating her boots and the mud squishing beneath her heels, making for firmer ground beneath the dense shade of a grove of swamp trees.
As soon as she entered the cool darkness, her senses spiked. The Jedi were nearby, with the boy. Though there were no secrets left to be guarded, she could not help her shyness. She kept to the shadows, keeping her steps light on the loamy forest floor as she crept toward their presence.
She picked up the warm tones of Qui-Gon's voice, an expression in it she remembered well.
"I cannot teach you the exact details of our methods yet, Anakin. But I can prepare you for them. You must empty your mind of all thought, all feeling, and all want. Only then can you see the pathways of the Living Force."
Peering over the branches of a low and scrubby evergreen, she saw them at last. They had chosen the packed earth of a sunlit clearing for their exercise, and were sitting in a relaxed triangle. The fires in Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon burned steady and low, while Anakin's energy flared and died at intervals. As she listened to Qui-Gon's voice and felt her own mind grow calm, she felt Anakin's aura steady momentarily, before roaring back to blazing and uncontrolled brilliance as soon as the Master was silent. Qui-Gon was the anchor that kept him from going adrift on the powerful waves assailing him. She knew with assurance as she observed that there was no other Jedi in the Galaxy who could accomplish it quite so well. He held Anakin's heart as firmly as he'd held hers as a child, and Anakin was powerless to deny his gentle command.
Anakin let out a frustrated sigh, and Sabe sensed his anxiety. Obviously he had no previous experience in meditation. The sensation could be quite disconcerting at first.
Qui-Gon opened his slate-colored eyes and smiled. "No, you have not achieved control yet, young one. But you are doing very well."
Anakin opened his eyes and looked at Qui-Gon doubtfully. There were shadows of fatigue beneath them, and Sabe could almost hear his stomach growl.
Qui-Gon chuckled. "Point taken. Go and have the Queen feed you. That will be all for this morning."
Anakin's protruding lip receded and he jumped to his feet happily.
Obi-Wan looked up. "If I am not needed, Master, I will remain. I feel pressed to quiet my mind."
"Very well, padawan. Just be certain to return when the speeders arrive," Qui-Gon said serenely, standing and following Anakin, toward the brush where Sabe was hidden.
It was silly, but she still fought the urge to slink away. She silently rehearsed her apology for the moment when Qui-Gon discovered her. But as soon as his keen eyes found her, he gave a mischievous wink. Sabe couldn't help but smile back as he and Anakin passed.
She turned back toward Obi-Wan, who had stood. As she watched, he unclipped the lightsaber from his belt and discarded his robe. Curious, she stepped closer. She could feel his mind deep within the Force, but he activated the lightsaber and moved as if sparring with an invisible foe, his body moving with practiced grace as he parried and swung. The air hummed with the change in temperature as the lightsaber sliced through it. The force buzzed with an energy that was physically palpable…and not unpleasant. Closing her eyes unconsciously, Sabe drew it in to herself.
His movements stilled at once. "I know you are there," he said with his back still toward her.
Sabe swallowed and moved from her hiding place. "Forgive me."
"It is a free forest," He remarked. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yes," she replied, tensing. "You aren't going to repeat the lecture I received from the Queen are you?"
"I'm sure she was thorough enough," he said.
Suddenly an idea seemed to come to him, and he bent, retrieving an object from the ground. He tossed it to her and she caught it one-handed. It was a lightsaber, a much simpler one than his or his master's. It was smaller too, as if it was built with a younger person in mind.
"A training model," He said. "Come, let us finish the match we began so many years ago."
"Which I won," Sabe pointed out.
He grinned, an expression she was not used to seeing on his face. It suited him, crinkling the corners of his eyes and softening his mouth. "You cheated."
"I did not!" She said, crossing her arms petulently. "I will not be goaded into a sword battle."
"It is only on half-power. It cannot hurt you." Obi-Wan said.
"Perhaps I was more worried about hurting you," Sabe retorted, and activated the lightsaber.
The humming green blade advanced immediately. Sabe grimaced, testing the heft of the weapon carefully in her palm. This would be the second time in her life she had handled one. This was an entirely different matter than the fencing that had been taught in the academy. A sword had weight to mark its lethal edge, balance to keep the fighter from accidentally skewering himself. The lightsaber had neither. There was no real substance in the blade, but the danger in its glow was apparent. Sabe nearly turned it off and handed it back. But the open, mocking challenge on Obi-Wan's face was not to be denied. Centering herself, she closed her eyes.
She didn't need her eyes to see him, or to feel the carefully controlled movements of his breathing and the steady throb of his heart. She was him. She was everything. She realized at once that he was helping her to dip a toe in that fathomless forever ocean, and then submerging her in it. She'd never been this deep before. There were no individual lights around her, just luminescence that blinded her, and made her fully see for the first time. With a gasp she felt around in it, and sensed the sudden shift. Her mind reacted, and then her body, and she heard the crackle and hiss as their blades connected.
She was moving faster than she could think through silence except for the sharp spurts of energy where blade met blade. She felt him somersault over her head, and turned to meet him. She felt the brush of his cloak and of his consciousness as she twirled to surprise him, and his smirk when he turned her intention on its head, using it to go for an opening on her left side. And then she was away, and back again for another blow. She opened her eyes, too immersed in the Force now for vision to interfere. She saw that they were not fighting. They were dancing, waltzing across primal currents of power beyond any intention to outdo the other or achieve victory.
With a leap she was within a foot, and their blades met cross-wise. Lightning snaked up and down the lightsabers, static snapping between the green and the blue. Sabe leaned into his blade, her muscles trembling beneath the strength of his arm. But her body felt so warm from exercise, taught like a well-tuned string. The aching protest from her biceps was a welcome feeling…until she noticed that his face was only inches away within the v of the crossed blades. He blinked uncertainly as she noticed that his eyes were not pure blue as she'd thought, but mixed with eddies of dark storm grey and green like the shadows over a riptide. Backing away, she tripped over her own feet, landing unceremoniously on her behind.
He pressed his lips together, his eyes twinkling merrily, and then shut off his weapon, reaching down a hand to help her up. Shaking her head, she leapt for the opening at once, snaking her still-buzzing lightsaber out from beside her and up to the level of his throat. She blinked in surprise when she realized his blade was alongside her neck as well.
He lifted an eyebrow. "You didn't think I'd fall for that ploy a second time?"
"My blade beat yours by a half-second," Sabe said.
"By your count? Being an opponent hardly makes you an objective judge." He countered.
For a charged minute they both refused to budge. Then it occurred to her how much like bickering children they were acting, and she giggled. His laughter joined hers without hesitation. With a touch so faint and so quick she could almost have imagined it, he tucked a loose strand of hair back from where it had fallen behind her ear.
Sabe's defenses slammed back into place. With an uncomfortable cough she turned away, a bevy of manic butterflies suddenly taking flight in her stomach. They both jumped when they heard Captain Panaka's voice from the marsh.
"They're here! The speeders have finally returned!"
A/N : Gee, it's much more fun to think about a story than about my psychology test. Maybe now that I've placated my misbehaving and unstudious muse I can turn my attention back to the delights of the B.F. Skinner/ Sigmund Freud debate on behaviorism vs. psychoanalysis. God help me.
Sweet Christabel : Thanks! I'm eager to put some bigger twists in with a sequel. Frankly, I'm getting antsy having to write within the confines of TPM.
Calixa Inflixa : Hope the banter will suffice until O and S can get their act together ;-) . I kind of hate it when the handmaidens are portrayed as docile little servant girls. I like to think about them as fussing and fighting and then making up and kicking butt together.
Emerald Tiara : STAR WARS ISN'T REAL?
Read n' review :-D