Has anyone seen 'Nim's Island'? I feel like the author Alex Rover, when character Alex keeps showing up to bug her and says, "Alexandra, it's time to finish the book!" Not sure how long it'll take, but the end is coming. Updates should be more frequent now. In the meantime, enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 23
Their driver was pounding at the controls, but the distinct hum of the engines was suddenly quiet.
"What's the matter?" Padmé asked quickly.
"Engines are dead!" the driver replied, sounding terrified.
Typho drew his blaster and Padmé grabbed her own as the pounding on the door changed to clanking, and it opened just a crack.
"Who's there?" Padmé shouted, boldly. Whoever was outside, knew they were in there.
A man's voice cried out in a fierce rage from outside, and the door opened another crack. He was clearly using some tool to open the doors.
"Stop or I'll shoot!" Typho ordered loudly.
Suddenly the fierce yells turned to sobs. "Don't hurt me! I just need help! My wife—you don't understand!"
Padmé and Typho exchanged glances.
"Don't let him in!" the driver exclaimed.
"You're going to have to find some other place to hide," Padmé told the man outside, trying to keep her voice steady. She wanted to help this man, but with Derolf and Ahsoka in the vehicle, she knew they couldn't risk it. "Go to the palace. The Queen will help you."
The pounding stopped. "Padmé?" the voice outside asked.
Padmé felt her jaw drop as she recognized the voice. "Never mind—just bring him in here, now!" she ordered Typho.
The captain was reluctant for a second, but after a reaffirming nod, he threw open the doors, grabbed the ragged man, and slammed them shut again, still keeping his blaster primed.
"Oh, my gosh!" Padmé gasped, as the man nearly collapsed inside the vehicle. Typho hauled him back up again and he stumbled into a seat, where she could see some of his face.
"Who is this man?" Typho asked immediately.
She had rushed over and was examining him from head to toe.
"He's my brother-in-law, Rafael. Sola's husband. Raf!" she snapped her fingers in front of his face, getting him to focus. "Raf, what happened to you?!"
The dark-haired man was bruised in several places around his face, with small scrapes still bleeding from his forehead and cheeks. He looked deathly pale and was splayed over the seat, breathing hard as if exhausted.
"Padmé, why are you here?" he managed, reaching out for her arm as she continued to look him over.
"Never mind that!" she snapped, "why are there Magnaguards outside? How do we get away from them?!"
"They have a weapon—oh, gee, what am I saying? They have lots of weapons—and it took out all the power from the vehicles. They're going to search, looking for me. I don't know how we get away. You're pregnant!" he suddenly realized, his dull eyes lighting up a bit.
"Yes, I noticed!" Padmé groaned. "Typho, a plan?"
"Quiet!" the captain's voice rang out, silencing the vehicle's chattering inhabitants in a split second.
The eerie silence hung over them for far too long. All eyes were on Typho as he slowly, ever so carefully got up from his seat and looked over the driver's shoulder to see out the front.
After catching a glimpse of whatever was outside, he quickly spun around, signaling everyone with a finger on his lips.
The entire speeder lurched suddenly, and Padmé gasped as she and Rafael gripped each other's arms. A metallic voice pierced the air, accompanied by the buzz of an electrostaff being ignited.
"We are looking for Senator Amidala," the voice grated monotonously. "When we find her, we will leave."
Rafael gave her a stern look, clearly meaning that she must never go out there. Even so, she felt her fingernails absently digging into him in fright. Was that the cause of all this terror? Of her brother-in-law fleeing for his life? The Magnaguards were looking for her?
The silence lasted for only a minute before the voice came again, "We are looking for Senator Amidala. When we find her, we will leave."
The speeder jerked again, rattling everyone inside as they fought to stay as quiet as possible. Derolf started to cry, and Saché frantically shushed him, burying them both in the folds of her dress.
Yané, however, stood up. "It's my turn," she whispered, as quietly as she could, to Padmé.
"No!" Padmé mouthed, grabbing the sleeve of her dress, but her handmaiden paid no attention.
Yané exchanged a glance with Typho, who nodded to her grimly before signaling the driver to climb back into the rear of the vehicle with the rest of them. He did so, as carefully and quietly as possible, and Yané climbed nimbly up to take his place in the front, where the rest of the passengers would not be seen if she opened the door.
"We are looking for Senator Amidala. When we find her, we will leave."
"Why is it that you wish to find me?" Yané's voice rang out loudly from the front, displacing the quiet that had reigned so far. "This is my home planet, and you have terrorized dozens of my people on this highway. Why couldn't you have waited until I returned to Coruscant to capture me?"
The door opened abruptly and a Magnaguard head poked through. "We have found Senator Amidala," it stated, looking over Yané. "You will come with us." It grabbed the handmaiden by the arm and yanked her out of the vehicle, dragging her quickly away.
The other passengers had just remembered to start breathing again when their metal voices and Yané's bold, demanding protests had finally faded from the air.
"Oh, Yané," Padmé breathed, trying not to dwell on the possibilities. They had to find her and get her back. They would, somehow, but it wasn't going to be easy and it was definitely going to be dangerous.
"Sola's been captured already," Rafael's voice added weakly to the dark surroundings. "And the girls, and your mom and dad. We were technically being held as bait for your arrival."
"Bait?" Padmé furrowed her eyebrows, confused.
"Those messages you got from Jobal," he explained. "General Grievous wrote them. He was trying to get you to come here and visit."
"How long has this been going on?" Typho demanded.
"Since the last lunar cycle," he replied. "Several weeks."
"Where are they at?" Padmé exclaimed, her brain ticking wildly with the new information.
"Just inside your parent's home. That mechanical monster has set up an entire operation in a little villa and not even the neighbors know what's going on. If they did, they'd likely be killed for it."
"Padmé, why would Grievous want you, aside from obvious reasons?" Saché spoke up, only now beginning to quiet the little boy to her side.
"I don't know why he would want me on Naboo," Padmé shook her head. "Except for the fact that attempts to kill or capture me on Coruscant have never worked in the past. But I don't understand why this would be easier for him."
"Something else is going on here," Typho grimaced.
"I think you're right about that," Rafael replied soberly. "I just have no idea what it is."
Padmé laid a hand on his shoulder. "We're going to rescue Sola, Raf. And Ryoo, and Pooja, and my parents, too. I just don't know how yet."
Typho's frown showed his disapproval. "That would extremely dangerous undertaking, Milady," he pointed out. "Grievous has killed multitudes of Jedi. To stop him from doing anything would require getting close to him, but sneaking up on this General is next to impossible."
"I know," she mused, still trying to think of a starter plan. Eventually, Grievous would figure out that Yané wasn't her, and she wanted her handmaiden and family in a safe place before any consequences of deception began to occur.
Typho was thinking, too. "Senator, who or what influenced you to come back here? Before I didn't see any reason to pry, but your return to this planet seems untimely as far as your work and many other things are concerned. And what are the names of all the people who knew you were leaving?"
"Like Raf said, I kept getting messages from Mother telling me to visit. They were cleverly disguised—I didn't notice anything very unusual about them, only that they were a bit short. But Palpatine told Anakin there was danger coming to Coruscant; that the Separatists were headed there. He advised him to make sure I was safe, and so Anakin told me to come here. Other than him, the only other person who knows that I'm gone is Dorme."
"There must be somebody else who influenced you to come here, then," Typho insisted, baffled by how this was turning out. "Are you certain there were no strange conversations, or even casual ones, between you and—I don't know, colleagues? Other Jedi? Friends? Droids?"
She sighed. "I don't think so. There are many ways a spy could have figured out we were leaving, but nobody directly influenced me besides Anakin. And Palpatine supplied the information to him."
Typho had a look on his face that suggested he didn't trust either of the men who had just been mentioned, but Padmé knew it was her duty to inform the rest to be wary of the Chancellor she now trusted even less than before.
"Listen, everybody," she said slowly, indicating for them all to lean in and hear what she had to say. "From now on, if any of us sees anything involving the war, whether Separatist or Republican, and especially anything connected to Chancellor Palpatine, we cannot trust it. At this point, I'm not even sure if we can ask Queen Apailana for help, so we must keep our confidences within ourselves. Is that understood?"
With grave faces, the others nodded, even the driver who had not participated in the conversation so far. They would have to figure out what to do with him later. For now, they needed a place to hide, spend the night peaceably, and draw up a plan. The Lake House was out of the question, as was Theed Palace.
It would likely be a long night.
Replies to reviewers:
5851: Nope! They will not be fine on Naboo! Sorry about Ahsoka's absence in this chapter. She will be returning to the land of the living very soon.
Scottusa1: I'm not entirely sure myself how they'll get out of this. I want to sort-of-parallel how Padmé saved her planet in Ep. 1, but obviously this will be very different in most respects.
Thanks to all the readers! And please leave reviews, because they help me tremendously!
