Chapter 67

So far their trip to the Space Station had went by without no incidents at all, but with the Hyperdrive still offline because of the fact that neither Padme or the Queen had the technical knowledge to repair it, it would still take quite a while before they were out of the danger zone a hundred percent. Of course it didn't go by Queen Mairayn unnoticed that Padme had been quite lost in her thoughts for quite some time now and after doing some thinking she decided to take initative, figuring that the former Queen and Senator would maybe appreciate that fact that someone was willing to listen to her worries:

„I know that we've just met each other but I wanted you to know that no matter what it is, I'm more than willing to lend you a ear to listen. Take your time to think about as long as you want, as we have quite a lot of it because of our current situation." Padme was unsure of what to do in this situation, as Queen Mairayn seemed to be a geniuine person on one side but she also didn't know if she could pour her heart out to a complete stranger and that made this decision so complicated in her opinion. The most important fact was the one, which made her decide at the end to open up to the Queen: Because of unfortunate events that had lead them right into this mess, Queen Mairayn would be the only person that she would be having contact with for the next two days.

„Even if I know deep down that both my children are more than cabable to take care of themselves, I can't help but worry about them but I think it's kind of natural that a mother thinks that their children's safety stays her duty as long as she lives."

Am I only thinking that way because I fear that I might loose them for real this time, after being forced to give them away? But as quick as that thought crossed her mind, she locked it away again as she really needed to stop to think like that. Yes, a lot of people that she cared her so much about were gone but that didn't mean that all the emotional pain would continue to keep her company. Queen Mairayn had a sympathetic look on her face now, completely understanding her emotional pain even if she didn't have any children herself but those feelings were quite understandable, if you knew how much this woman had been through in the past.

An alarm at her console interrupted Padme's thoughts for a moment and as she studied the readings, she couldn't help but think: I have a bad feeling about this. She turned her chair around again, to face the Queen who sat in the back of the Starship and said:

„An unindentified Ship is approaching our position, they are on a collision course with us as far as it looks like and their weapons systems are active."

Queen Mairayn never had been the pessimistic kind of person, but even if she had to realize that the current situation looked not good and after thinking about this whole mess for a second she said:

„I didn't think that there ever would be a time where I needed to put my fighting skills to the test, but I guess that we have no other choice than to defend ourselves with our fists."

Since she didn't want to risk any other life, Leia had decided to lend a ship out of Hangar of the Naboo Palace, an armed yellow Naboo Starfighter which would useful in this dangerous sector of space that she was about to enter.

As she had read in the Military Intelligence Reports, this sector of Space near the peaceful world of Naboo had been known for it's various incidents between unarmed civil ships and merciless space pirates, who were always on the hunt for some valueable prey.

As Padme was busy with calculating their options at this point, she kept paying close attention to the current position of the three space pirate ships and thought:

One way the other this is going tob e a close call, but no matter what happens I'm going to get out us out of here in one piece. As the distance between them and the three hostile ships was decreasing so fast, Padme didn't have much time left to come up with some kind of way to avoid a direct conflict with the attackers, as both of them knew that the deflector shields of the Naboo Cruiser wouldn't survive direct hits for a long time.

Of course things didn't look so good for them right now, some might say this was a situation where there was no way at all, that they would get out of this in one piece but Padme wasn't ready to give up just yet. Back in the Jedi Temple on Corcuscant, Luke had returned to his quarters and was in the middle of meditating as he felt a huge disturbance in force:

Leia's life is in danger and a big storm is heading for the New Republic, but I can't say exactly what kind of threat it is. As he searched for his sister and his mother through the force, he located his mother on a couple of lightyears away from Naboo, his mother's homeworld and three hostile ships were approaching her current position fast.

Meanwhile Leia was sitting in a yellow Naboo Starfighter and still had no luck in locating the Naboo Royal Starskiff but one thing was for sure: Time was an important factor in this case, as the silver Starskiff didn't have any weapons and that made it an easy target in this unsafe sector of space.

AN: Thanks to- .5851 for reviewing this story, Thanks to- Love Spock for adding this story to her/his story alert subscription, Thanks to- into middle 3arth for adding this story to her/his favorite stories list, Thanks to- Dagda 06117032 for adding me to her/his author alert subscription, adding this story to her/his favorite stories list , adding it to her story alert subscription and adding me to her/his favorite authors list. Thanks to- Rosalinda Vant for adding this story to her favorite stories list. Will Leia be able to find her mother and the Queen of Naboo before it's too late?

Sorry for publishing this new chapter soo late, but my computer hadn't been working so well for a while but I'm confident that the next update will be published much sooner.