Leia opened the door to the guest house and stepped into the main hall, then into the living area. Pooja followed her, then stopped in amazement.
While the outside of the house looked the same, the inside had been transformed. The living area, which had previously been home to a few spindly chairs, now boasted several couches which could be changed into beds at night. Soft lights were installed on the walls, and the floor had been repaired in several places. She peripherally noted an especially large chair sitting up against the south side of the room. There was a desk in the northeast corner with a bristling array of electronics and screens. A tall man stood in that corner, speaking into a com. Pooja noted with relief that there was no sign of Vader.
The man turned around at their entrance and shot them a lopsided smile, even as he spoke into the comlink. Pooja noted belatedly that he had headset on, so she wasn't able to hear the other end of the conversation.
"Ok, that's great news, Lando," he said, "Keep us updated. I need to go – Leia is here."
He took off the headset and moved forward to hug Leia, and then planted a firm kiss on her lips.
Oh! The husband.
Leia turned to Pooja, "Pooja, this is my husband, Han Solo. Han, Pooja Naberrie."
Pooja held out her hand and was rewarded with a firm handshake. Han Solo was handsome, dark haired, tall, with a roguish look in his eyes. He also looked quite a bit older than Leia, closer to her own age.
She shot a surprised look at her cousin Leia. They had both been raised in refined, sophisticated circles. This Han Solo was about as different as could be from the elegant playboys and politicians who had sought Leia Organa's favor back in the days of the Senate. Perhaps that was part of the attraction?
Her cogitations were interrupted by her cousin, "So that was Lando?"
"Yes. As of yesterday, Imperial operatives have started analyzing the sale and transport of hyperbaric equipment on Naboo. So it seems that the Empire did spot Vader at your mother's tomb."
Leia heaved a relieved sigh, "That's good. I was afraid that Imperial incompetence might rear its ugly head at a most inopportune moment."
Pooja was confused by this, but chose instead to comment on the room, "You've gotten an incredible amount done. How on earth did you get all this from the storage hut near the Main House?"
"Luke brought it here, with the Force, in the dark," Leia explained matter of factly.
Pooja blinked at her, "He can lift couches with the Force?"
Leia smiled wryly, "Pooja, he can lift Starfighters."
"One man Starfighters. Don't look for me to haul around something the size of an Imperial battle cruiser anytime soon," a new voice said.
Pooja turned and froze. Her cousin Luke stepped into the room. Following directly behind him, ducking his head in the doorway, was the iconic, terrifying form of Lord Darth Vader, complete with mechanized breathing.
Leia shot Pooja a sympathetic look, and stepped forward.
"Lord Vader," she said formally, "This is my cousin Pooja Naberrie. Pooja, Lord Vader."
Darth Vader looked at her for a long moment, then the bass voice spoke calmly, "Pooja Naberrie. Welcome. Please accept my thanks for allowing me to stay here, and for arranging for all the necessary items to upgrade the building. Princess Leia tells me that you've started a significant construction project at the Main House to cover for the work being done here."
"It is my honor to serve your children in any way I can, Lord Vader," she responded with narrowed eyes.
There was a long pause, during which Vader turned his helmeted head towards the princess. Leia responded by tilting her head up and starting straight at the blank mask.
"Then I thank you for serving my children," he resumed, "They are fortunate to have such loyal and courageous associates."
"It was the least I could do," Pooja responded. She was suddenly seized with outrage and opened her mouth to express her displeasure with the former Anakin Skywalker, then clamped it firmly shut. Yelling at a (partially reformed) Sith Lord was not a wise or healthy thing to do, nor did her friends need any additional stress in an already challenging situation.
Leia shot her a concerned look, and asked, "So how is it going with the suit?"
"We've made some progress," Luke said.
"We've made a great deal of progress," his father retorted, "Your brother has been invaluable. Not only have we finely tuned the mechanics of my prosthetics, we've changed the electronics significantly so I am much less prone to damage from Force Lightening."
He turned to Luke, and his words sounded almost fond through the vocoder, "Luke has also used his powers with mine to promote healing of my lungs. I'm collecting 5% more oxygen from air than I was previously. Given all this, we must reevaluate our plans against Palpatine."
There was a communal sigh from the Skywalker twins and Solo. Pooja guessed that this was a frequent argument.
Luke said, "Father, we've been over this. Marching into the Imperial Palace on Imperial Center and challenging Palpatine openly is a suicide mission. You know he's aware of your antagonism and will have considered ways of neutralizing the threat you pose to him."
"And we've made progress on the plan here, Lord Vader," Leia said, "Calrissian confirmed that Imperial agents are tracking down hyperbaric devices. And Luke's stunt a few days ago will misdirect Imperial intelligence away from Varykino."
There was a pause, and then Vader, Luke, and Leia suddenly swiveled their heads towards the northwest corner of the room.
"Patient?" Vader snarled, "Kenobi, you have lived your life being patient. You spent more than 20 years on that forsaken rock being patient. I want him dead. He destroyed my life and is the greatest threat in the galaxy to my children."
Another bizarre pause.
"You know what else leads to the Dark Side, Kenobi?" Vader continued angrily, "Irritation. With you. This penchant for appearing when my children are here must stop. I don't want you here. I am trying to atone slightly for all the torment I have inflicted on the galaxy and…"
Pooja was aware that she was trembling, and jumped when a hand gently grabbed her arm. She looked up at Han Solo, who tilted his head toward the hall, then drew her out of the room.
"He's insane," Pooja said through white lips.
How had she ended up allied with a totally insane Sith Lord?
"Nah, not insane," Solo said cheerfully, "He's talking to a Force ghost."
Pooja glared at him, "That's not funny, Solo."
Solo chuckled and drew her into the kitchen. Pooja peripherally noted that it too had gone through a much needed facelift.
Her cousin's husband rummaged through a drawer and came out with a bottle of something that was clearly alcoholic. He pulled out 2 glasses and filled them, then handed her one.
"Representative Naberrie," he began.
"Please call me Pooja," she interrupted.
"Pooja," he said, "One thing you need to learn is that when the Skywalkers are around, impossible things become possible. There really is a ghost in there that Vader, Luke, and Leia can see and converse with. His name is, or was, Obi-wan Kenobi. He was a Jedi and was Anakin's Skywalker's master, and Luke's as well, until Vader killed him."
"Vader killed him?"
"Yeah, on the Death Star, when Luke and I rescued Leia."
Perceiving the bewildered look on her face, Solo clapped a reassuring hand on her shoulder and said, "Look, it's complicated. But Luke and Leia aren't insane and I don't think Vader is either. I mean, he's erratic and occasionally homicidal, but he's not nuts."
Pooja took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She could handle this. Just breathe. Just breathe.
Solo continued, "So Leia said you were going to try to get some information about the Royal Palace?"
She nodded with relief. She could talk about the architecture of the palace any day of the week. Ghosts were a bit much.
She pulled a cord over her head and handed over the attached data cube.
"This has everything on it, Solo," Pooja said with some pride, "Ducts, electrical systems, security systems, plumbing lines. Everything. Not just for the palace, but for the entire district the palace sits on."
"Call me Han," he said with a smirk, even has he loaded the cube into the datapad.
Pooja helped him open the documents and find the palace architectural data. For a few peaceful minutes, Solo studied the data while Pooja carefully sipped on her drink.
There was an interruption when Leia walked into the kitchen and curled an affectionate arm around Solo's waist.
"Are they still yelling in there?" Solo asked absently.
"No, Luke has him calmed down. He didn't even throw anything this time."
There was a shared chuckle, and then Solo looked at her solemnly.
"Pooja, this is amazing. How did you get access to all this?"
Pooja grinned proudly, "The representatives with less seniority are expected to serve on tiresome boards and committees. I volunteered for the plumbing and sanitation board for Theed. The sanitation situation is complicated by ancient constructs with more modern plumbing overlaid. The committee meets every 3 months. I was able to access all that information because plumbing and sanitation undergird every section of Theed, including the palace. I just asked for it all and they gave it to me without so much as a lifted eyebrow. Since we're on recess, it was considered natural to take the information with me to the Lake Retreat."
Leia looked at her husband, "Does it have what you need?"
"And more," Solo said confidently, "Yeah, we can definitely work with this."
Three days later
Emperor's Primary Meeting Room, Imperial Palace, Imperial Center
Darth Sidious was even more irritable than usual. He hated meetings like this, where his officers would stand around providing ideas, many of them poor. He preferred reports. He preferred trembling men standing in front of his throne, explaining complex situations, waiting for him to break their necks or bombard them with Force Lightening. He preferred…Darth Vader. Vader was not the most subtle or charming of men, but he got things done.
He missed him. Not in any pathetic emotional sense, but because he had been competent when so many of his underlings were not.
With an exasperated wave of the hand, Emperor Palpatine indicated that the first officer should stand and report.
Captain Plon reviewed the information about Vader's recent trip to Amidala's tomb, Vader's muttered words, and then briefly described the analysis of recent purchases of hyperbaric equipment on Naboo. There were no suspicious buys.
Another officer – Palpatine couldn't be bothered to remember his name – said, "If Vader is on Naboo on a long term basis, he may have had the necessary equipment smuggled in."
Plon smiled thinly, clearly pleased with the information he was about to present, "Your Royal Highness, Officers, Intelligence operatives have uncovered a recent theft of a mole miner at an Imperial mining operation only 100 km from Theed, the capitol of Naboo."
"And this is significant because…?" Palpatine asked.
"Mole miners are used as underground drilling machines, Your Majesty," Plon explained, "Because some areas of drilling are saturated with poisonous gases, each mole miner is outfitted with a full hyperbaric chamber so that personnel can be inundated with oxygen in the event of a toxic exposure. The mole miner stolen was an especially large one. It is likely that Vader is living on it, buried underground somewhere."
Palpatine leaned back thoughtfully in his chair, "If this is true, can the mole miner be tracked?"
Plon looked less happy, and gulped before saying, "There was a beacon on the miner, as sometimes miners get lost underground. However, the beacon was deactivated by the thief. The miner was taken under a shallow lake, which was quite dangerous, and the path has been lost. Given that the miner was stolen 4 days ago, there is an area of several hundred square kilometers where it might be hidden now."
Palpatine sighed. Of course it couldn't be easy.
"How was the miner stolen?" he asked idly,
Plon coughed slightly, then admitted, "We don't know. There were only two watchmen on duty during the night shift. Both have long histories of working faithfully for the Empire, but the visuals from that night show that they helped open the gates for the intruder, and they bypassed the security systems so that the miner could be stolen. They were both interrogated with truth drugs and seem genuinely to not remember the events of that night. We're wondering if someone slipped them some kind of drug."
Sidious stiffened, "Do they have visuals of the intruder? "
"Just a cloaked form, your Majesty," Plon said, "But he or she is short, certainly not Vader's height."
Skywalker!
Palpatine stared around the table, hatred and anger and…fear…gleaming in his yellow eyes, "I have no doubt Vader is using that mole miner. It was stolen by the young Rebel Luke Skywalker."
This pronouncement had the desired effect. All the officers stiffened in fear. They knew that Skywalker was one of the topics that incited their Imperial Master to wrath.
"Vader must be found, or lured out into the open," the Emperor said coldly, "I invite suggestions on achieving either of those goals."
There was a long pause. Then a longer pause.
The Emperor tapped his foot irritably.
One of the officers finally spoke up timidly, "Your Highness, with all due respect, Lord Vader is but one man. If he is willing to bury himself literally in the ground of Naboo, perhaps it would be best to ignore him? Surely he can do little damage where he is now. If he does emerge, we can deal with him then."
Palpatine extended a clawed hand, and waved it casually at the man. With a sudden cracking noise, the man's neck snapped. The corpse slid quietly to the floor.
"I don't like that idea," the Emperor said, "I welcome others."
Again, a long pause. Finally, a young captain stepped forward bravely.
"Your Highness," he said with a tremble in his voice, "It appears that Lord Vader has an attachment to the woman known as Padme Amidala. Would it be possible to lure him out into the open by threatening her family? Or her tomb? Or her memory? "
The Emperor sat back, his yellow teeth showing. Yes, that was a brilliant idea, combining his own personal desire to humiliate Darth Vader with what should be a most effective lure for his former apprentice.
Yes, Amidala's tomb. Not the Naberrie family - Vader would likely not care about them - but if he could insult and debase Padme, that would provoke his former apprentice to rage.
And he would provide additional incentive. He himself would go to Naboo to order the desecration of Amidala's tomb. He would personally release a narrative which would change Amidala from beloved dead queen to pathetic traitor to the people of Naboo. He would enjoy coming up with an appropriate story.
Yes, that would bring Vader out, full of righteous indignation and an uncontrollable desire to kill his former master. And when Vader appeared, Darth Sidious would have a most interesting surprise for him.
Author Note: Thanks to those reviewing and following! This chapter was hard to write for some reason. We're getting close to the confrontation between Vader and Sidious.