***Chapter Twenty-Three***

In the year before her death, Padme became an enigma, even to those who knew her best. There were times where she seemed extremely happy, happier than anyone had ever seen, but so often that happiness was tainted by worry that Padme never volunteered to discuss and out right refused when asked.

The Life and Times of Amidala, the People's Queen, By: Softa Jiane, Oralist and Historian

Palak arrived back at the Oralist center, the House of Madden employees just a click behind her. She was supposed to head out into the fray and find a safe space where she could watch the battle unfold. Instead, Palak went into her tiny office in the less glamorous portion of the Oralist Center. She locked the door and flipped on the kettle. She placed a tea bag in her mug and waited for the water to heat up. There were more modern machines, of course, machines that heated up the water almost instantly, but Palak enjoyed hearing the slow build of the water in metal kettle. She enjoyed the moment waiting provided.

When the kettle was done and her mug filled so the tea could steep, Palak sat at her desk at a loss of what to do. Her mother was about to destroy the planet she loved so much. And, if truth be told, Palak had started to buy into the isolationist philosophy, if not exactly completely, she enjoyed the sentiment, Naboo and its people first and messy intergalactic politics second. What her mother was doing did not prioritize Naboo, all it did was prioritize her mother's bid for to take over the galaxy.

Palak knew what she had to do, and it was not sitting in her office drinking tea and it was not to watch from on high, documenting for a future for a world that would no longer exist, at least not how she knew it.

Palak stood from her desk, unlocked her office and headed toward the Palace.

Han, as suggested, made a landing in the middle of a public park along with a dozen X-wings. The X-wings, designed for many uses, touched down with ease, the Falcon, which much preferred the comfort of a landing pad had a more difficult, but none the less successful landing.

In a matter of minutes, Han, Chewbacca and the dozen X-Wing pilots stood on the middle of a park. Blasters ready. There were plenty of things wrong with landing in the middle of a public park and on most planets, planets were the laws were enforced, they would have all been rounded up and placed in some sort of custody. What they did was not exactly covert, so when nothing happened, no one approached them, Han was more worried than if things had gone badly.

He pulled out is comm unit and tried Leia, he was planet side now, so maybe, just maybe she would answer, but no luck, it just went to static.

Han turned to find the X-Wing pilots looking at him waiting. They were the sort that took commands from a ranking officer and more so, they were the sort who were way more comfortable in the cockpit of an X-Wing, then planet side. They had their blasters out but even so, they gripped them way to hard, their knuckles white as if they were holding onto a stick of their fighters rather than handling a weapon so small.

The park itself was empty, though that could have been on account that the New Republic had just turned it into a makeshift landing pad. But even so Chewie had done a scan of the surface of the planet and could not find anything besides the typical critters that lived in parks, mostly, small hairy things that scurried around. The park had been empty before they landed.

Han looked around, it was a nice day, it had to be nearly twenty degrees, the sun now making its final dip into the horizon. It was a perfectly passible evening, actually it was the sort of evening that was so aggressively nice that people skip work and school and other responsibilities just to spend time in a park like this.

He stopped and listened, there was the sound of the birds and other animals squeaking and scurrying about but that was it for the park, but beyond that, there was the far away roar of people, a lot of people. The sort of roar that Han had heard before but not in a very long time. Not since his wayward days in the Imperial army. It was the roar of thousands of people, congregated waiting. On a peaceful planet, it may have just been the sounds of a distant sporting event, but too much had happened thus far for Han to believe anything but what it was.

"This way," Han motioned toward the far of roar.

"But Sir, are you sure?" Asked an orange jump suit clad pilot nervously. He looked young; Han wondered if this kid was even old enough to actually serve in the New Republic, the rule was 18, but there had been plenty of kids that lied about their age, records faked or just overlooked in the haste for new recruits. Hell, Han was not even 17 when he joined the Imperials.

"It's where the action is, Akbar did not send us down here for R&R, he wanted us to find what was going on and get word back. Secure your ships and let's go." Han ordered with the authority of the General, an authority that had been endowed on him.

The pilots, still pale, did as ordered, they were young and idealistic and still wanting to fight this war. The walk toward the far-off roar felt wrong, the city they traversed through was empty but beautiful with the green domed buildings. The weather was idealistic. The streets well paved and easy to move through. It did not feel like they were approaching a battlefield and somehow, it made it hard to prepare for the inevitable.

The walk toward the roar only took 30 minutes before the source of the noise was revealed to the small New Republic contingent. Han almost missed the grand palace as on the lawn were thousands of soldiers dressed in a metallic steel gray uniformed dressed down in neat lines yelling out some sort of aphorisms that was too muddled to make out. Walking up to the front door was obviously not an option, but it only took Han a moment to evaluate the situation and realize that Leia was likely in the palace. He thought back through her messages, she had mentioned something about staying in the palace, debating as to if it were a good idea. He had to get in.

Han looked around taking in the scene, in addition to the soldiers on the lawn, there was a small contingent of people on the edges. They had signs made on a flimsy cardboard laying discarded at their feet. Whatever purpose they had initially come out for had been abandoned and instead they stood in a hushed whisper, staring at the soldiers on the lawn.

Han was still considering his options when a woman in a garish blue dress broke from the crowd, "Han Solo?" she asked.

Han had his blaster in her face before she could even comprehend what was going on. "Who wants to know."

The woman pushed the blaster away as if it were nothing, as if she knew Han was unlikely to shot first before asking questions.

"You know your kind of famous, hero and all?" The woman responded. "I'm Palak Ramy by the way, and I can help."

"I don't need your help." Han responded and turned back toward the gray clad soldiers.

"So your telling me that you, your Wookie and a dozen fly boys are going to make it past a thousands of Madden Employees, rescue the Princess and declare victory?" As smug as the word were, Palak's voice was dead serious.

Han stood there tight jawed and looking for words.

"What if I told you I could get us into the Palace to find your princess and I could take right to Rajal Madden."

"I'd say your full of it." Han spat; this woman was wasting his time, at best she was just lying, at worst, well Han did not like to think of the worst-case scenario.

"I know Luke Skywalker." She shifted; her voice no longer serious but oddly inquisitive as she tested the waters.

"Everyone knows Luke Skywalker." Han looked back toward Chewie and the Pilots. They were getting nervous; things were going wrong and this conversation did not seem to be helping.

"No, I know Luke Skywalker, he's allergic to favttie beans. He loves talking about how great he is at flying an X-Wing but barley talks about being a Jedi even though he wears his lightsaber prominently and keeps looking for answers about them." She stopped and looked at Han, waiting for something.

"Favvttie?" Han asked, a memory bubbling up in his mind. Luke and Leia had both spent the night in the infirmary after he had sourced a large pallet of some sort of beans. They had some weird allergy, but the episode has been mostly forgotten. Favvttie had not been particularly common in the galaxy, finding the beans initially has been a fluke.

"Yeah, it's a major crop here and Luke's allergic." Palak reiterated.

"Fine, but how can I trust you?" Han questioned, but when we looked back Chewie and the pilots were getting antsy. They were so obviously New Republic and they would be spotted soon.

"Do you have any better options?" Palak asked, it was a bluff of course, she had no idea.

Han looked back at the pilots and then towards the gray clad soldiers and then at Palak.

"That's what I thought. Come on, I can get you through a back door."