"Put this on, mi'lady. We're leaving."

The droid seemed to think she had no other choice as he urgently handed her a traveling outfit weaved with the finest blaster-proof karlini silk.

And Lex knew she was getting a fight when she came to her sleeping hub to find the droid rampaging around, tossing her crew outfits aside and dumping travel outfits, potions, elixirs, and all her secret belongings into an emergency cargo bag.

"No. We're not."

Lex hung the outfit back where it belonged in her wardrobe.

"Yes, we are."

Q2 took it right back out.

"We can do this all night, mi'lady," he warned her. "I'm a droid. I never sleep."

He was programmed to behave this way.

It wasn't his fault.

It was hers. Her and her talent for recklessness.

Because as much as she'd like to go away somewhere quietly, just like they'd told her to, that just wasn't her style.

And the less innocent bystanders she dragged into this with her, the better.

So, knowing what a comet-fire of chaos her life actually was, she insisted on leaving her homeworld alone.

But that was overruled, of course.

Better a moody Zekan cyborg holding her hand like a nanny all over the galaxy than nothing at all, they had said.

.

"I am Q2-400," he'd introduced himself to her. "I have been reprogrammed to serve you. Assassination mode is currently deactivated. Human life defender mode is active."

"Well, that's irony for you."

"Please explain your meaning, mi'lady. My data drive for human emotional intelligence has been rebooted," he told her. "It is secondary to my annihilation drive, which is currently on stand-by for your protection. However, I am easily adapted to acquire new information on human sarcasm. Would you like to continue?"

"So, not only did they send me a droid I didn't ask for, but an outdated one," she sighed. "First off, droid. Don't call me mi'lady. You will refer to me as Lex Halo outside of Jeotis. Got it? And second, stay out of my way."

"I am sorry, Lex Halo, but my orders were to never let you out of my scanning range."

"Let's get something straight between us, droid. I didn't ask for a body guard and I won't need one," she informed the Q2 series bot. "Not where I'm going. And if the occasion calls for it, I got a DL-44 blaster hidden in my work hub, and two smaller pistols I carry on me at all times. I also keep my own homemade thermal detonators, a stun pike, a pair of wrist rockets, and if all else fails, I can tear someone's eye out with a decent punch."

"Impressive, Lex Halo," Q2 approved. "But how are your navigation skills?"

"I know my way around a starship, and I can program my own computers," she challenged the droid to top that. "I also have a knack for reading star-system maps, and can locate any star in the galaxy-Blindfolded."

"And your language skills? How will you communicate with the natives on their respective home planets?"

"I know eight of the languages commonly spoken within the Republic and the Outer Rim, including Galactic Basic, Huttese, Mando'a, and Ubese. I've also picked up some droidspeak while on the run," she told him. "So, like I said before, I'm a one-woman squad. Your services are not needed."

"Is there anything else you'd like to add, Lex Halo?"

"Point is, Q2, I'm no damsel, and I won't be treated like one. What do I need a droid for?"

"Might I interest you in using my services for espionage instead?" Q2 asked her. "Acquiring information may prove more useful to you than any of my other skills. Would you like to continue?"

And that was their agreement.

Q2 was to be her second pair of eyes and ears (metaphorically speaking) on Polis Massa.

When they arrived on the base, he was put to work maintaining data storages in the computer systems hub.

He had access to all research and archaeological finds recorded on the asteroid belt, as well as confidential files concerning those who worked on the base, radio transmissions, and various logs of stored medical records.

An ideal way for him to conduct his espionage incognito, being the first to know if any threats approached Polis Massa.

But by taking Senator Amidala on as a patient, Lex was now her own greatest threat, playing a dangerous game of cat and womprat rather than staying invisible like she was told.

.

And with her travel outfit caught in a stalemate between them, she stared into his war-torn heterochromian droid-human eyes and said, "Now's not the time to get your wires in a knot,Q2."

"How could you not tell me about the Jedi?"

"I had it under control."

"If these visions of yours are happening again, then clearly, you don't."

"We're staying, Q2. That's an order."

"I answer to Her majesty, Queen of Jeotis," he reminded her. "You can't seem to stop forgetting it, but a droid never forgets. My orders are to protect you. Damn the costs."

"Padmé Amidala will not be one of those costs," she persisted. "I can't walk away from this, Q2. She's my patient."

"She's with the Jedi."

"This is different," she said. "I don't know how I know it yet, but my instincts tell me I've met these Jedi before, and that they can help us. We can help each other."

"Your feelings told you this?" Q2 checked her. "Get a hold of yourself, mi'lady. This is no time for feelings. I say we leave now and catch a transport to Dantooine. And if those Jedi try to stop us, we take Amidala as a hostage."

"And that's exactly why no one in this galaxy likes us."

Q2 shrugged. Remorselessly.

"And you got a better idea?"

"We stay and gain intel from these Jedi about the Empire and their movements in the outer rim. Two bulabirds with one stone," she countered him. "If it's a planetary alliance they're building against Sidious, we need to be ready. Jeotis may be a small moon, but we're a strategic trump card for anyone hoping to gain control in the outer rim. We need to know our highest bidder. And let's face it. Even if we did leave this asteroid, we have nowhere to run. It won't be long before the Empire reaches us. We'll need some insurance."

"And how exactly do you plan on winning these Jedi over?" Q2 asked. "The Empire and the Jedi Order can only seem to agree on one thing, and that is killing you. Your mother and her kind have been hunted since the Clone Wars by both the Jedi Council and the newly appointed Emperor. This 'alliance' you speak of is bound to be short."

"I guess that means we should work fast then. We don't have much time. I need more information on Kenobi and this man called Anakin. You can start there. Meanwhile, I have patients to look after. Besides," she said, turning to look back at him from the door of her sleeping hub. "Weren't you the one who said I shouldn't sit and wait?"

"That was before the Jedi, mi'lady."

"Well, if you're so concerned about my safety, I guess you'll just have to start doing some actual work around here, Q2," she remarked as she left him. "Protecting me is your job. Padmé is mine."

.

But Padmé's suffering appeared to be beyond the reach of medicine.

Was that the will of the Force?

Neither the Jedi nor the Sith know all there is to be known about the Force...Even for us, who respect the Force as a whole without splitting it between the light and dark sides, cannot truly know what the will of the Force may be. It is so far beyond our limited understanding that we can only surrender to its mystery.

'It's not the Force who should make decisions for us anymore, mother,' Lex thought, as she watched over Padmé in deep concern. 'Not if it depends on corrupted mortals like us to bring it back into balance. Because if this is the will of the Force, then it has lost its reason for being.'

And because of the so-called "fragility" of an unbalanced Force, everything around Lex seemed to be spinning out of control.

If the Force existed for a natural justice in the universe, what meaning was there in Padmé Amidala dying this way?

Padmé's condition worsened.

As if she were deliberately fighting against every attempt to save her life.

As if the senator had opposite goals in mind about how their fight would continue after the rise of the Empire.

"Even though we were often on opposite sides of a debate," Lex thought, as she tended to Padmé. "I never stopped looking up to you. Because no matter how differently we handled politics in the senate, we were fighting for the same things. You wanted a better galaxy, and I wanted a better homeworld...I never imagined we'd meet again like this...But our work isn't finished yet, Amidala. We still have something to fight for...Because even when it hurts the most, leading is what we were called by the Force to do...So, I beg you, for Naboo and for these children, fight, Padmé. Fight for the people who still need you. For those who still fight along with us. Even in this darkness, now is not the time to abandon what we stood for."

But of the hundreds of treatments Lex had learned to cure the human body, nothing could cure a broken heart.

For all its grandiosity, science still had no authority in such matters.

.

They were always watching her.

Always engaged in some high stakes debate about the senator and what was to be done about her.

To the galaxy, Amidala was a political crisis threatening the stability of millions on Naboo.

But to Lex Halo, Padmé Amidala was still a mother fighting for her life.

Occasionally, Lex would look up from her work at Padmé's side and meet Kenobi's meditative gaze through the transparent walls between them.

More than once, he'd make a comment to Jedi Master Yoda, who would turn his goblin-like green head toward Lex in deep contemplation.

Giving her a chilling impression that their conversation was no longer about the senator.

Relax...if they really sensed something about me, they would've ambushed me by now...I don't know what's going through Kenobi's head...I just know to stay out of his path.

They were joined by Senator Bail Ograna, but Lex recognized him as Prince Bail Organa of Alderaan.

"Medically, she is completely healthy," the Medical Droid GH-7 reported to Organa and the Jedi Masters. "For reasons we can't explain, we're losing her."

"She's dying?" Master Kenobi replied, surprised.

"We don't know why. She has lost the will to live. We'll need to operate quickly if we are to save the babies."

"Babies?" Prince Organa repeated in astonishment.

"Yes," replied GH-7. "She's carrying twins."

And then Kenobi slowly turned his gaze back to Lt. Halo, his suspicions undoubtedly confirmed by this offhand, accidental detail.

Lex quickly broke eye contact with him and distracted herself by looking too busy to notice, knowing Jedi were eminently sensitive to fear.

But the unspoken question lingered between her and Kenobi.

The senator was pregnant with two babies, not one.

How could she have known that before ever walking into the room to treat her patient?

If she wasn't a Jedi...then who, or what, was she?