Chapter Sixteen – Voice from the Depths

Kylo Ren's TIE Fighter jumped out of hyperspace above Naboo. Rey looked out over the world where, she was aware, the whole drama that had dominated her life had begun. Palpatine and Amidala, the contestants for the soul of Anakin Skywalker, had both been born on that world. If the galaxy had hinged on his decisions, it had been them more than anyone else who had shaped those decisions. And somehow, in the long run, it had been Amidala who had emerged victorious, both in the battle for the galaxy and for Anakin's soul. Rey found it fitting that Leia's ghost would call her here to this place where the galaxy's fate had been forged.

Rey remarked to herself how strange it was that Amidala was not more widely known. As a child on Jakku she had heard of the Emperor and Darth Vader of course. And their stories could not be told without the story of the Rebellion, which meant the stories of Luke and Leia and Han Solo. But for whatever reason it was only after Crait that she had ever heard of or seen a picture of Padme Amidala. Leia had made a point of showing the picture to her during one of their many training sessions. She had spoken of how she had never known her mother, but for some reason thought she had, right down to false memories of having met her. Leia had found an understanding listener in Rey, who, upon looking at the picture, felt sure she had seen the woman before as well.

As Rey piloted the ship down to the location its computer told her was the former capital of Theed she thought of what else she had learned about this world. It had once been a world humans shared with the native Gungan race, though no humans remained on Naboo, and the Gungans, rarely seen when the world had human inhabitants, had not been seen for many years. It was possible the First Order attack on Naboo had done them in as well. As she approached Theed she could see the evidence of that bombardment from more than 20 years prior. The once beautiful city was in ruins, its buildings crumbling, its streets choked with plant life or turned into swamps.

Rey landed the ship in the public square in front of the palace, not sure why she felt so certain the answers to all her questions lay within. Leia had called her. No other Jedi had ever spoken to her from beyond the veil before, and perhaps it was only because Leia had died so recently that she had been able to. Perhaps the explanation for why she had been cut off from them was there, in the place where it had all begun. It was Qui-Gon Jinn who had first discovered the secret to maintaining one's individuality after death, and he had died in Theed Palace. Or so Leia had been told, and had in turn told Rey.

The sun was setting as she exited the stolen ship, and so she ignited her lightsaber, holding it before her like a torch. As soon as she stepped foot on the surface, she heard a voice she could not place, saying words she could not quite catch. It was coming from inside the palace.

"Who's there?" she called out.

The voice called out to her again, though again impossible to identify or comprehend.

"Leia?" Rey asked quietly. She could not understand why Leia's voice, which had been so clear back on Endor, was so quiet there on Naboo, but she decided there was nothing to be done but enter the palace. As she walked towards the palace she felt something, and turned to her left. Through all the rubble and the broken skyline she saw, in the distance, a domed building sitting alone on an island. When she looked at it a song came to mind, a song she felt she should remember, but could not place. But then the voice came again, drawing her to the palace, and so into the palace she went, still trying to hum the tune she could not quite remember. Looking up as she went in, she saw that the roof of the palace had partially collapsed, and the only light was the soft ambient light from the setting sun outside. She could see the dome of the palace through the hole in the roof. She heard the voice call her again, coming from her right. As she crept through the rubble in the main hall, night fell, and only the blue glow of her lightsaber showed her anything. After a while she reached the wall of the palace, and, momentarily stumped about where to go, lowered her saber. When she did so she saw a quick reflection of the light from her saber, and, seeing no better option went to check it out. It turned out to be a small imperial style camera mounted above a hole in the wall and tunnel beneath it.

"Come find me," the voice called again. This time, though she could still not identify whose voice it was, Rey was sure it was not Leia's. She considered turning back, but continued on. Her decision was partly from curiosity, but more from a desire to find out who was speaking to her. The years of training under Leia, when it had been clear that at least some of the old Jedi were speaking to her, and the time since Leia's death when Rey herself had been given only silence, had made her desperate for some connection to that past. She needed someone to want to speak to her, someone to show that they wanted her to carry on their legacy. That hunger caused her to keep going when her better instincts told her to turn back, that Leia had not called her to this place, and so that she was being deceived.

The tunnel was not rough, and clearly not the result of the bombardment. Its walls were smooth and someone had erected supports at regular intervals to bear the weight of the stone and soil that formed the tunnel's walls. The tunnel had no branches, and it took her steadily away from the palace. At a certain point the moisture in the air and in the walls, themselves made it clear she was going under one of the canals in the city. Shortly after passing under the water the tunnel rose again and emerged into what had once, Rey could tell from the wreckage of ships within it, been a hangar. The hangar doors were still open, but they opened up only onto a cliff face. Across from those doors the other side of the hangar had collapsed. This, Rey reasoned, was the reason for the tunnel. The hangar was probably inaccessible otherwise. Across from the tunnel, between the cliff and the collapsed section of the building there was an open door. Because the hangar appeared to be empty, Rey headed in that direction and found a huge reactor hall. This, she realized, must have been the site of the battle between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul, something she had once again heard about from Leia. But the reactor was no longer online. The hall was dark, and Rey could barely make out the various dust covered walkways on lower floors. Looking up she could see stars through the half of the roof that had collapsed.

Rey walked along the suspended pathways, looking for a sign of…something. She had no idea what she was looking for. Spending some time walking around, she eventually explored the entire highest level and found nothing of significance. If the voice was there, or it wanted to show her something, it must, she reasoned, be further down. So Rey began to jump from walkway to walkway, until she reached the base of the reactor system. Once there she saw another tunnel and, consumed by her desire to find out who was calling to her, went in. The darkness of these tunnels, far rougher and seemingly older than the one connecting the palace to the hangar, was complete, without even the starlight and moonlight that had partially illuminated the reactor hall. As before Rey used her lightsaber for illumination, but could barely see five feet in front of her. When she came to the first branch in the tunnel she stopped, unsure which way to go, and frightened of becoming lost in the dark.

It was then that the voice returned, stronger and clearer than before. To Rey's surprise it was clearly now the voice of an old man.

"Hello, my dear," Palpatine said.