Sorry for the late update, I was on vacation. I promise that it won't happen again. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. As always feel free to PM me at anytime and please review. - Kiera

CHAPTER 13

Padmé groaned. It had been a week since she was assigned to the Imperial base on Medeani, and she was no closer to retrieving the files. The library, she found was harder to enter than she once believed. Every entrance was guarded by a squadron of troopers, and every square inch of the area was monitored by high def cameras. Not to mention the extremely intricate firewall preventing anyone from downloading anything from the station's computer.

Cold water splashed on her brought her out of her thoughts. After applying her disguise, she prepared herself for another dull day as the communications head. All she did was supervise the transmissions sent to and from the station. Apparently, the higher ups did not trust her with anything else. Sure it gave her more free time to formulate a plan, but it irked her to be given such useless tasks. If she was a man, surely she would have been given more urgent assignments.

She lounged in her cushioned chair and tried to keep her mind from thinking of Anakin. He words still stung and one of her goals this mission was to prove that she was capable of anything. The familiar form of Lani entered her office under the pretense of emptying the garbage. Something she had already done five times today. Lani was very helpful with banishing her boredom. She also had intel from many of the officer's offices. Not many people around here seemed to think that Lani was on the same level of intelligence as they were.

In actuality, During the Clone Wars, Lani earned a degree in rocketry, but it was revoked when she refused to design more powerful rockets for the Imperial cruisers. Now, Lani was relegated to picking up after others with half of her IQ. It saddened to think that this blatant sexism still existed in the Galaxy.

Padmé looked up and saw that Lani was smirking. This could only mean one of two things. One she heard some embarrassing gossip about one of the officers, or two, she pranked an officer. Padmé couldn't tell which one was the better of the two. At least the former wouldn't get her fired, but knowing Lani it was probably the latter.

Sighing Padmé asked, " What did you do this time, Lani ?"

" I, well, I heard Lieutenant Jenkins calling my a useless parrot."

Padmé felt a surge of anger. Lieutenant Jenkins had been the arrogant officer whom Padmé had first met. It took her two seconds to realize he was a class A nerfherder. How dare he say something so derogatory to Lani. Normally, she would try to console Lani, but something told her Lani had already handled it.

" So, what did you do to get back at him?" she asked. Padmé didn't know if she wanted to here that answer.

"I filled his room with parrots," replied Lani nonchalantly. " Don't worry, I made sure they can't trace it back to me."

"Also, after Jenkins had left his office screaming bloody murder, I took the time to go through his stuff."

Lani reached into her pocket a withdrew a holodisk. Grinning, " I guess Jenkins is some type of architect because this is the plans for the entire base." Padmé was elated and she hadn't even heard the best part. "Including the computer room."

Immediately, Padmé had to cover her mouth to keep from shouting in joy. If she could infiltrate the computer room tonight, then she would never have to see this awful place again. The only thing she would miss was spending time with Lani and Mistia. On the brightside, the information she would give the Alliance could in fact lead to the end of this crisis. Padmé didn't allow herself to think of what would happen after the war. She didn't want to gain false hope, but maybe she could be reunited with them. Padmé stuffed the holodisk into her pocket and gave a curt nod to Larni. If any Imperials were walking by, they would most likely assume that Padmé was giving commands to Lani.

For good measure, Lani added," Yes, Captain Neira."

After Lani had left to snoop around in some other Imperial's room, Mistia came bursting through the door. She wore a broad smile, Padmé figured Lani had told her the good news. Mistia was about to rush over and ask Padmé to see the disk, but she stopped herself. Forcing herself to straighten her posture, Mistia stared at her with a cold, wooden look. She was discreetly chec"king for any bugs or oncoming officers. After it was confirmed the coast was clear, Mistia cautiously made her way to Padmé's desk. Placing a thin hand on Padmé's chair, she leaned over to marvel at the plans.

Now that we have the layout, we need to find an efficient route to the computer room. " declared Padmé .

" Maybe we could use this old service corridor." Said Mistia, tracing her finger along a narrow path that skirted the back of the computer room. " it's only supposed to be for maintenance, but I bet Lani could get us clearance. "

Padmé agreed and it was decided to use that path as their way of entry and exit.

"Oh, I almost forgot. While Lani was busy smuggling parrots into Jenkin's room I did some investigating my self. According to Marvin, the software technician, the computer with the access to the holodisks had very extreme security protocol. It's protected by seven firewalls. And if we were to hack the computer, we would have to do one firewall per day because if an unauthorized user attempts to break all the firewalls at once, The security force is immediately alerted. You are then convicted of treason and sent to the spice mines of Kessel." Both women grimaced at the thought. Mistia and Padmé spent the next hours of their workday strategizing and creating a foolproof plan.