Author's Note: Nial Organa, of course, is Tia's son from the EU / Legends. The cousin in the Kenobi series is Celly's son, Niano, who would not be old enough to appear in this story. Yet.
Chapter 5: Ancient Prophecy
29 BBY, The Royal Palace of Alderaan
Breakfast had been completed, and Queen Breha had led the family, along with Master Windu, into an airy room with a wide circle of seats which she referred to as the "consultation room." It rather reminded Mace of the High Council Chamber at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, except that it was far more comfortable and even contained what appeared to be a small play area suitable for toddlers. Mace found that curious; it was his understanding the royal children were raised mostly by nurses and tutors. They certainly weren't present when the future of an entire world was being discussed. Then again, the Organas and the Antilleses were known to be somewhat radical in comparison to the other Elder Houses.
Each adult took a seat in the circle, as did the older children. The youngest, a boy of two or three years old, perched on the lap of one of the adults. Bail Organa waved Mace over to a seat next to him, and greeted him with a handshake as he sat down, "It's good to see you again, Master Windu, even under these circumstances. My wife is doing you a very great honor, allowing you to witness a family council. I believe we can satisfy some of your curiosity this morning."
"And you will no doubt take all you learn here straight back to Coruscant," remarked an older woman with severely tight braids wrapped around her head. Mace vaguely recognized her as Gretta Antilles, the wife of the former Alderaanian senator. "Breha, is this wise?"
"The jedi have been conducting research about our prophecies for quite some time, Lady Antilles. I believe Master Qui-Gon Jinn even obtained a number of fragments with the help of his padawan, though I do not think they were able to reconstruct anything in full. Old Alderaanian is not a particularly easy language to learn," Breha explained. "The Jedi Order is not our enemy, and we may well need their help to avoid the disaster Leia has witnessed. And she is, for the moment, both jedi and heir; that is unprecedented, and we will need cooperation from the Order to untangle this situation."
"Heir?" Mace asked, "How can this child be heir to the throne of Alderaan? Forgive me, Your Majesty, but you have only just ascended the throne yourself, and unless you have been concealing a child…"
Bail Antilles, looking pale and uncomfortable, spoke up. "I see you don't believe that the Princess has come from the future, Master Windu. I too find it to be a remarkable turn of events, but the ancient device within the throne cannot err."
Mace wondered if it was ever confusing, having two men named Bail in the Alderaanian aristocracy. "Device?" he inquired.
Breha waved a hand, and a column rose from the center of the floor, projecting a hologram of the Throne of Alderaan. "In most palaces, a throne is simply a symbol, an elevated, usually uncomfortable seat from which a monarch makes pronouncements, hears petitions, or watches entertainment. They are relics from a time before leaders were elected, when it was important to produce awe or even fear in one's people. The throne of Alderaan in this palace, however, contains a device, powered by a large kyber crystal, which connects us to our past. When a child is born of one of the royal houses, or when a person joins a royal house by adoption or marriage, they are brought to the throne room privately where their hand is placed on a specific panel. The device within the throne activates and creates a…link…between the throne and the individual, a link that cannot be removed."
The toddler Mace had noticed earlier, having escaped his mother's lap, pulled at the bottom of the jedi's robes. "It pokes!" he declared, pointing to his own head. "It pokes you in here."
"Tia, please retrieve your little monster," Celly Organa demanded, "before Master Windu is forced to turn him into a gwerp." A harried young woman picked up the boy and plopped him down in the netted play area, from which he glared at the adults.
"Millennia ago," Breha continued, "during the time of the Great Galactic War, a potential Alderaanian heir had a vision, a vision of Alderaan's annihilation. When the Sith Lord Darth Malgus led an invasion, repelled with the assistance of the Jedi, the royal houses assumed that the vision had been fulfilled. They were wrong. Throughout that difficult century, the vision came again and again, sometimes driving potential queens and kings into madness."
"It was a terrible time for our world," Viceroy Organa sighed. "The Alderaanian Civil War that followed not only killed millions, but nearly destroyed our oceans and forests, creating famine and suffering on an unimaginable scale."
"And it was impossible to turn to anyone for help, since both the Republic and the remnants of the Sith Empire were trying to control the royal houses and put their own puppet on the throne," Breha explained. "Yet when things settled, our heirs were still afflicted by visions of the world's destruction. Fortunately, we were finally relieved when a former jedi left the Order and returned to Alderaan with a very special kyber crystal and a plan inspired by her own visions. She constructed the throne and the device within, which connects us all and enables us to share the prophecy."
"One person, especially someone untrained in the Force, cannot bear the vision," Leia spoke up for the first time. "But the burden is eased in sharing it, especially for those of us trained in meditation."
"Which is all of us," noted Celly. "And shortly after the throne was installed, the visions stopped anyway. We hoped that the disaster had been averted, but it's equally possible that our receptiveness to the Force merely waned over the centuries. Alderaanians are still born with great Force potential, of course, but because your Order admits children so very young, we no longer have many strong Force users on the planet who are tied to the throne. It has been a very long time since an Organa or an Antilles had jedi potential." She glanced at the squirming toddler, and Mace wondered whether that had changed.
"Each member of the remaining royal houses is warned, however, that the vision could return," Bail Antilles continued, "and that we are responsible, all of us, for averting or mitigating the erasure of our people and our way of life."
Bail Organa turned to Mace. "There are…steps…we can take to preserve Alderaan, its culture, and at least some of its people, in the face of the planet's destruction, a plan to which many generations have contributed."
"The details are secret," Leia said, "but we were unable to activate them in my time. Without ongoing access to the vision, its nature was not understood. We thought we would have time to fight or at least to flee, but the Death Star was…"
"Death Star?" Mace asked. "What is a Death Star?"
"It is a moon-sized space station, capable of destroying entire planets. In my future, the Empire tested this atrocity on Alderaan, wiping out billions of lives in a few minutes. Thank you, Aunt Rouge," Leia smiled grimly at the woman next to her, who had quietly taken her hand in support.
Mace was beginning to understand at last. "And you believe Leia is from the future, and a member of House Organa, because she was able to activate the throne and share her vision with you."
"It's not a vision," Leia corrected, "not for me. I rarely have those. No, it was lived experience."
"The device in the throne not only connects us," Breha told him, "but it allows one of us to call to all of the others, to gather us together when the moment of crisis arises. The truth field that possesses the user prevents her from lying, even if she wanted to do so."
"Or could, once we were inside her mind," Lady Rouge remarked. "We know that Leia is from the future because we have been there with her, at least in part. And we know she is one of us because she is still connected to the throne, even in a new body a decade or more before her own birth. It's fortunate that the Force did not alter that when it sent her back."
"I would have noticed," Leia said. "even the destruction of the planet failed to sever my connection to the device within the throne. It survived, becoming part of the asteroid field known as the Graveyard of Alderaan, and I never had the heart to track it down and see if I could disable it. It sometimes felt like my last connection to my family."
"Not any longer!" Bail Organa declared, "Princess or general or jedi, you are still an Organa. Though I must admit," he smiled, "having a daughter twenty-five years older than I am will be an adjustment."
"Try going through puberty again," Leia answered dryly.
Her elders gasped. "Princess! Remember yourself," complained Lady Antilles.
Mace watched several adults flutter around Leia, chastising her for daring to mention such a thing in a family council, especially in front of a guest, and wondered how long she would tolerate being treated like an adolescent. Not long, he thought. Not long at all. There was a tug on his robe, and he looked down to see that the toddler had escaped his play area.
"Up!" the youngling demanded, reaching his arms up. Mace merely glowered, fixing the boy with his most intimidating look. To his shock, the little one dropped to all fours, then held up his hands like claws and growled at him.
"Nial Organa!" Lady Rouge pointed at the toddler, "If you bite that jedi, you will be banned from dessert for a month! Tia, really…"
"On that note," Breha proclaimed, "I believe the children and our guest have endured enough of our deliberations." She signaled for a servant. "Master Windu, quarters have been arranged for you here in the palace. I believe you will find the gardens suitable for meditation while the family speaks more privately. We will meet with you again in a few days."
I have been dismissed, Mace thought, elegantly and completely. It is time to contact Master Yoda and consider the implications of what we have learned. For if Leia Organa is really from the future, then it is not just Alderaan facing extinction: the entire Order is at risk.