Chapter 14 - Return to Naboo
2 Standard Days Later – Chommel Sector
"We're about an hour from Naboo," Rabé said as she looked at the timepiece on her wrist. "We've mapped out a plan to enter the palace, how to destroy the Federation control ship, and stall the Federation army on the Great Plains. But we still haven't completely figured out one thing. How are we going to get the Gungans to side with us?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Padmé's brows creased as she sat on the bed in the Queen's quarters, cleaning her blasters. "I've been thinking about it, but I haven't reached anything conclusive. Gungans traditionally hate the Naboo because of our supposed deceit and trickery."
"Hmm," Sabé twirled her quarterstaff as she considered the problem at hand. "We have to do something to dissuade them of that notion. How can we use our current circumstances to do that?
"What if you dressed as my decoy as normal and spoke to the Gungan leader?" Padmé slowly voiced her thoughts out loud." And then I reveal myself to be the true Queen to ask for their help?" Padmé looked over at Sabé. "Do you think that would work?"
"It could," Sabé's mind whirled as she probed the idea in her mind, trying to find flaws in the proposed plan. "By revealing our hand to the Gungans, we'll show them we are honest and sincere in wanting to establish peace between our people," She collapsed her staff and put it back in its place on her belt. "Besides, we'll have to tell the Jedi sooner or later and it won't hurt to have me in place as the decoy Queen during the battle in case something goes wrong."
"If you're sure," Padmé looked to Rabé and Voraté, curious if they agreed with this line of thought.
"It's a good plan," Rabé said while Voraté hummed in agreement. "The best we have, anyway. It's worth a shot."
"Then that's what we will do," Padmé nodded with conviction. Her shoulders heaved as she took a deep breath to calm herself. "What about our fighting uniforms? I don't want it to be too obvious to the Trade Federation that we're carrying an arsenal on our persons."
"Oh hells. I should have taken care of that yesterday. I'll raid the supply boxes for extra uniforms," Sabé volunteered. "And use the headdress from one of the dresses we have in the wardrobe, the two-piece one. It's simple enough and won't be a hindrance for me in battle."
Sabé made for the door and then paused as she thought of something. "We'll have to alter the headdress to conceal my hair. I think Obi-wan Kenobi noticed we don't share the same hair color… or eye color, for that matter."
"What?!" Rabé and Padmé gasped.
"He hasn't said anything yet," Sabé waved her hands, trying to calm them down. "But the hair is a noticeable difference, so we'll have to take measures to disguise it."
"Ok, we'll come up with something while you scavenge for extra cloth," Padmé relaxed back onto the bed, a hand to her heart.
Sabé raised her hood and sped into the corridor, avoiding questioning glances from the roaming security guards and technicians. When she reached the storage room, she scanned each container label until she found the one she was looking for. Of course, the one she wanted was stacked on top of three other containers. Resigned, Sabé placed a random container on the floor in front of the stack and stepped on it. Now it was easy to grab the box containing extra uniforms, but Sabé grunted as she lifted it. What had they stored in here alongside the uniforms? Weights?
Sabé glanced over the sides of the box and gauged how far she needed to leap to the ground. She jumped and cursed as her leg gave out partially. The contents of the box shifted and put her off-balance. Her hood fell off as she recovered her balance and shifted her hands on the box to regain a secure hold on it. She turned about, intending to set it on the container she'd been standing on so she could raise her hood, only to see Obi-wan standing in the doorway and staring intently at her. Damn it! She'd been so focused on the boxes she hadn't heard the door open.
"You're not one of the Queen's handmaidens," Obi-wan unclipped his lightsaber from his belt and regarded her with a serious, yet quizzical expression. "Who are you?"
Sabé gulped. After the events on Coruscant, she'd forgotten to shift her features. She didn't look anything like Padmé anymore! He thought she was an intruder. But why hadn't he said anything earlier?
"I'm sure you're mistaken, Jedi Kenobi. I am the Queen's handmaiden. Perhaps we've never met face-to-face before," Sabé spoke in a lower register to disguise her voice and she avoided eye contact as she set the box down, trying to figure out how she was going to get out of this bind.
"No, I'm certain I've met you before, somehow. I…" Obi-wan paused and Sabé glanced up as he let out an audible gasp. "…Amidala?" he asked, as if sure it was not true but at a loss for who else she could be.
"No?" Sabé winced as her denial came out as a question.
"You have the same voice, the same eyes and hair, yet your face is different," Obi-wan holstered his lightsaber. "How is this possible?"
"I look different without the make-up?" Sabé weakly offered.
Obi-wan shook his head vehemently, making his Padawan braid swing wildly. "I distinctly remember the woman I talked to on the journey from Naboo to Coruscant and she looks nothing like you."
"I… okay, fine. I'll tell you what's going on," Sabé squeezed past Obi-wan and locked the storage room door before tugging him down to sit with her on one of the boxes. "Just between you and me?"
"I can't promise my silence if it jeopardizes this mission," He shook his head.
"It won't. And you'll only have to keep it a secret for a few hours tops," Sabé waited until Obi-wan nodded, agreeing to hold his tongue for the time being. "My name is Sabé and I really am one of the Queen's handmaidens. I've been posing as the Queen's decoy."
"I…" Obi-wan looked conflicted. "But that doesn't explain why you look so different."
"I have shapeshifting abilities," Sabé quietly admitted. "But I can only shift a few select features, not including my hair, eyes, or voice as you've figured out."
"So… you're not the Queen?" Obi-wan gazed deep into her eyes and took her hand.
"No," Sabé smiled and squeezed his hand lightly. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before."
Obi-wan bit his lip and his shoulders relaxed in what seemed to be relief. "Then who is the Queen? Oh no," His eyes widened in alarm. "Please don't tell me it's Padmé. She went into the Mos Espa spaceport."
"Yeah, she's the real Queen," Sabé chuckled as color drained from Obi-wan's face. "She can be quite persistent when she wants something. Voraté was set on going to the spaceport and Padmé insisted on accompanying the group to protect her."
Obi-wan rubbed his forehead, sighing. "Why drop the façade now?"
Sabé blushed, embarrassed. "Well, I forgot to shift my features to resemble Padmé what with all the chaos after the failed Senate meeting. I didn't mean for you to see me. Anyhow, we plan to drop the façade soon after we land on Naboo. Are you angry with me?"
"No, I could never be angry with you, Ami… Sabé," Obi-wan gave her a lopsided grin and Sabé melted on the inside as he spoke her name for the first time. He broke eye contact and pointed at the box she'd been holding when he walked in. "What do you need the container for?"
"There aren't any battle uniforms in our wardrobe and our black fighting clothes aren't royal enough. I'm going to spruce up our attires with the fabric from these guard uniforms."
"You don't have long before we land," Obi-wan cautioned.
"I'm sure I can whip up something presentable in forty-five minutes. Compared to a formal evening gown I had to make for Padmé within fifteen minutes to satisfy the expectations of some stuffy Gowsian diplomats, this will be a breeze," Sabé grinned. "I better get back. I'll see you when we land."
She rose and bent to pick up the container, but Obi-wan beat her to it.
"I'll escort you back to your chambers," He easily lifted up the box as if it weighed nothing. He frowned, looking down at it. "I thought you said this box contained uniforms."
"It does," Sabé lifted the lid and peeked in. Sure enough, there were uniforms inside in rich colors. She tossed her hood on and entered the sequence to trigger the door. "The security officers must have stored something else with it too."
No one spared them a second glance as they walked to the Queen's quarters. At the door, Sabé punched in the code to open it. She took the container from Obi-wan and mouthed a thank you to him. He smiled and bowed to her before leaving.
"Oh, there you are! Did you get lost?" Rabé teased her as she entered the room.
"Not exactly," Sabé murmured as she pried the lid off the container. She tossed the uniforms onto the bed. When she reached the bottom of the container, there were two sets of hydrospanners weighing about ten pounds each.
"What idiot stores hydrospanner equipment with clothing?" Sabé wondered aloud.
"There was probably nowhere else to put them," Padmé said, sorting the uniforms by color on the bed. "So what took you so long?"
"I ran into Obi-wan in the storage unit."
"Why would that stall you?" Padmé looked at up Sabé. She gasped and dropped the headdress she was holding. "Oh no. You didn't shift. What happened?"
Sabé sat on the bed and started sorting through the uniforms, setting aside the ones she liked. "Well, my hood came down when I was getting the container and I didn't notice Obi-wan had followed me into the storage unit until I turned around. He saw my face earlier in the throne room and automatically assumed I was an intruder. He was questioning me but then he recognized my eyes and voice and guessed I was the 'Queen'."
"But how did he recognize you by only your eyes and voice?" Padmé urged. "You only talked to him in an informal capacity twice."
"It was… four times actually. Five if you count today's conversation." Sabé guiltily corrected her,
"Four times…" Padmé uttered with disbelief. "What were the other two times?"
"We met in the cockpit both times, once on Tatooine and then again flying to Coruscant. It was completely unintentional. He just walked in on me," Sabé grabbed some scissors, needle, and thread and started altering the uniforms.
"Are you romantically involved with Kenobi?" Padmé sat down next to Sabé and clutched her hand holding the needle, stopping her movements.
"Not really," Sabé sighed and looked up at Padmé. "We shared a few kisses and exchanged backstories, but we've agreed nothing can come of it. Please don't be mad at me."
"I'm not mad, Sabé," Padmé hugged her. "I just wish you'd told me this before now."
Sabé said nothing and hugged her back, grateful she'd hadn't lost her friend over this secret.
"So he recognized you?" Rabé asked. Sabé nodded. "What did you say?"
"I told him the truth," Sabé admitted. "That I was the decoy Queen and have shapeshifting abilities that allowed me to look like Padmé."
"He knows I'm the real Queen?" Padmé asked.
"Yes, he guessed you were after I revealed myself," Sabé began altering the uniforms again, sewing panels together tightly. "He's agreed to keep quiet for now."
"At least that's something," Voraté smiled and dumped some thread onto the bedspread. "How are the uniforms coming along? We don't have long before we land."
"Almost finished," Sabé bit through the thread and held one up. "There, three handmaiden battle uniforms!"
"They still look like fancy guard tunics, just with the sleeves cut off," Rabé commented dryly.
"You have no vision," Sabé retorted and grabbed some wide, golden ribbon.
Within minutes, she'd sewn the ribbon onto the brown velvet uniforms. She tossed them to Padmé, Rabé, and Voraté and directed them to put them on, without their customary weapons belt.
"Put these over your black uniforms, gloves, and armor," Sabé directed while grabbing another uniform to make her own ensemble. "Your weapons belt will go over the tunic."
Padmé, Rabé, and Voraté did as they were instructed and examined themselves in the mirror.
"This actually works," Voraté said, sounding surprised.
"Yes, it's functional, yet projects royalty," Rabé twirled, examining her profile. "I'm impressed, Sabé."
"You needn't sound so shocked," Sabé grinned, sewing red, black, and brown velvet fabrics together. "Despite hating the fashion classes I was required to take at the academy, I excelled in those courses."
"It goes without saying that we're lucky to have you as our sister-in-arms," Padmé hopped onto the bed and hugged Sabé. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. Can you hand me the headdress you were fiddling with?" Sabé nodded to the two-piece with decorative flower lacing and the golden connector plate.
Rabé shuffled over and grabbed the pieces from the dresser and handed it to Sabé. Voraté grabbed a comb and started brushing knots from Sabé's hair. "I guess we won't need to alter it anymore since Kenobi already knows about you." She gestured to some sketches on the table.
"That's true," Sabé sighed with relief. She snapped the last pieces of thread off her new uniform. "I was wondering how we were going to alter it. There's not much to work with."
"We were thinking we would paint your hair white," Padmé grinned as she examined the headdress.
"Don't even joke about it," Sabé shuddered as she thought of the nightmare of washing copious amounts of paste out of her long hair. She put up a hand to stop Voraté's grooming and stood up to put on the new uniform. She'd made a red tunic with black trimming that was overlaid by the brown velvet she'd used for the handmaiden uniforms. She smoothed down the fabric, reattached her weapon's belt, and twirled. "What do you think?"
"Very Queenly," Padmé approved. "Don't forget to shift your face to look like me. I'll apply your make-up while Rabé and Voraté wrestle your hair into the headdress."
"Haha, my hair's not that temperamental." Sabé rolled her eyes but did as she was asked and shifted her features before Padmé started applying the makeup to her face and exposed neck. She winced a little as Rabé and Voraté sporadically tugged on her hair as they wound it into the metal pieces.
Before long, the headdress was firmly attached to Sabé's head and Padmé, Rabé, and Voraté nodded their approval. A buzz sounded at the door. The ladies quickly tugged on their combat boots and Sabé led the way to the door.
Captain Panaka was waiting for them. "We're approaching Naboo, Your Highness. There's only one ship orbiting the planet, the droid control ship."
"That's good news." Padmé pursed her lips. "It will be less confusing for our starfighters."
"Are our landing coordinates set for the ones Jar-Jar Binks supplied?" Sabé asked Panaka.
"Yes," Panaka nodded to her.
"Good. When we land, I want to see Jar-Jar Binks at once," Padmé commanded.
Panaka bowed and left.
Sabé looked to her sister-in-arms, her best friends. "Are you ready to take back our planet?"
"Absolutely."
"Definitely."
"Without a doubt."
The ladies' faces were fierce with determination. Sabé shared the same resolve. They were going to take back their planet from the Trade Federation today, one way or another.
A/N: Now that Obi-wan knows Sabé is just a handmaiden, will this change their relationship? Who's ready for the Battle of Naboo? The ladies are ready for battle! Are the Trade Federation and their mysterious backers going to be stupid enough to stand in their way?