Geworpena Ventures grew slowly, incrementally, and then suddenly expanded over the next few years. They gained a few lucrative trade franchises and took in a few other companies. What really began to make their name was the mechanical inventions that began to come with increasing frequency out of their company, and the speed with which each invention was taken up and promoted as they became increasingly well-known throughout the galaxy.
With their increasing fame their trade business also expanded. But they never came to significant notice of the New Republic, as they paid everything they needed to on time, and without fail. The few times they were brought to the attention of the Galactic Senate it was only for various Senators to commend them for bringing trade to their worlds and systems. Indeed the company was widely commended for its quick growth and excellent management, although none knew exactly who that management was. A board of directors appeared to run the company, but only a few of its members were in the public domain. It was assumed by the Chancellor and his advisers that there were a few former smugglers and such on the board, and that they did not want to reveal their identities, something that was seen as quite understandable as the company was implicated in no wrongdoing, not even a dodgy trade agreement.
The search for Padme Amidala, Darth Vader and the Naberrie twins continued, if a little half-heartedly. The government knew that they had large resources of money at their disposal, and in the Outer Rim few, if any, would care that a Sith Lord walked among them if he took pains to keep himself concealed. Indeed, there had been no hint, not even a flicker in the Force of Vader, or his children, or his Padawan, or his wife. Still agents spread throughout the galaxy as far as the Republic budget would allow to search for them. They knew they were searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
But there were rumours of changes in the Outer Rim, of slaving ships intercepted and destroyed, the slaves onboard disappearing and many returning to their homes. The slave masters began to learn, and created more and more secret routes to transport their sentient cargo, and yet still they were intercepted and their franchises were ended. The Jedi and the New Republic still took no notice except to be grateful that the slavery market was steadily being ended. They had enough to worry about.
Life continued for most of the galaxy, the shock had largely subsided from the revelation of the marriage of Anakin Skywalker, who became Darth Vader, and Padme Amidala. The Chancellor had made an announcement over the Holonet about Amidala breaking Vader out of the Citadel, aided and abetted by Ahsoka Tano. To the annoyance of most of the Senate, the Jedi, the Chancellor and the New Republic's security the general reaction of most of the population of the galaxy was that Padme Amidala and Darth Vader's relationship was a star-crossed love story. A large proportion of the media insistently portrayed them as the romantic story of the century. None of this was conducive to finding them.
27 months after the registry of the birth of the Skywalker twins
Savareen
Savareen Sector
The woman strolling along the street adjusted her head covering carefully and shifted the basket on her arm. Her eyes darted around warily as she examined every street and house that she walked past. A patrol of clone troopers led by their officer marched past and she shied away from them, tilting her head so the shadow of the drape fell across her face.
They continued past the woman and she hurried down the street, stopping at a small market to purchase a few extra pieces of food before she wound her way back along the streets, clicking on a small comlink in her hand as she did so.
"Rendezvous point A in five minutes," she muttered into it. A voice on the other end replied in the affirmative and she concealed the comlink back on the gauntlet shielded by her draping robes.
At that moment another patrol passed here and she didn't look away in time.
"Excuse me ma'am," the commanding officer said politely. "But would you mind pulling down your hood a moment please. Just a random security check I'm sure you understand."
"Of course," the woman replied in a thick accent, quite at odds with the formerly crisp voice she had utilised only moments before. As she raised her left hand to her hood she brushed along her comlink and switched it to encrypted transmit. Her right hand adjusted the drape of her robe, sliding under it for a moment and clasping something as she threw the hood back.
The Captain's eyes skimmed over her face absent-mindedly and then snapped back to meet dark brown eyes. The woman's eyes was filled with fear as he scanned her face again. "One moment ma'am," he said. "I just need to check something. May I have your identification documents?"
"Of course," she replied politely, handing them over.
The Captain went a half-step away and pulled up his datapad, scanning latest reports of 'Wanted' persons. Behind him the woman adjusted her robes to allow for more freedom of movement and tucked one part of her skirts up into her belt surreptitiously.
The Captain took the woman's ID and fed them into the datapad. The picture scanned for only a few moments before it flashed up recognition, the closest potential match.
Padme Amidala. Former Vice-Chancellor of the Republic. Wanted for high treason by breaking Darth Vader out of the Citadel. Considered armed and highly dangerous.
He looked up at the woman who stood slightly off to the side, her face turned so a delicate profile was visible. Her face was close enough to Padme Amidala's to warrant an arrest, indeed it might well have even been her. No, it was her.
"Padme Amidala," he called, striding over to her. Her head jerked round, she sucked in a breath, took a step back, whirled on a heel and ran.
He let out a curse and dashed after her. His squad followed.
"Padme Amidala!" he called again. "Stop in the name of the New Republic! You are under arrest!"
People down the street moved swiftly out of the way as first woman then soldiers ran past. Padme Amidala dared a glance over her shoulder and then discarded her basket to the side. The soldiers barely spared it a glance as they pursued her.
They didn't see a figure swathed in a cloak dart out of the alley, scoop up the basket and dash back into the alley. The figure hurried down the alley and ducked behind a large block, leaping up and into a tiny fighter, tucking the basket in a small storage area behind the seat. The cockpit shut and the fighter shimmered out of existence even as it started with an almost inaudible purr of engines.
A moment later the fighter lifted silently off the ground, soared down the alley way, arched in a graceful, if invisible, curve into the sky and folded itself into another, bigger, also cloaked ship which was hovering among the other ships over the city, blending in among the other ships by flying at a slightly lower altitude.
The Captain chased after Padme Amidala as she wove through the streets of Savareen. He could hear the thud of the footsteps as his troops followed him.
"Set for stun," he shouted over his shoulder. He heard the unmistakable click of blasters being reset, and then a blue bolt lanced past him. It missed Amidala by a metre, dissipating harmlessly into a wall.
She dared another glance over her shoulder and her right hand moved to her side, picked something up and then she turned, her arm extending something behind her. The Captain caught sight of the small silver blaster pointed at him and ducked out of the way as a blue blast shot out of it and one of the troopers dropped behind him.
"It's only a stun blast!" one of the other troopers shouted when the Captain made to slow.
He cursed and dashed after her. As they ran, Padme more than a hundred metres in front of them, he saw her lift her arm to her mouth and shout something into her comm. It was indistinguishable from that distance but as he passed the beings who had been near her when she had made the communication he asked in a hurried way what she had said. They could only reply that she had made some mention of a "malevolence". This was incredibly concerning.
On Coruscant the news had been transmitted with remarkable efficiency. The Chancellor had been pulled out of a Senate session, and the rest of the Senate now watched the unfolding events breathlessly. The rest of the galaxy was in a little better state as business ground to a halt, almost every sentient watching the known fugitive, former Vice-Chancellor, former Rebellion leader, Padme Amidala running down a street with troops after her, shooting back at them, albeit with stun blasts.
"Can we support them?" Chancellor Organa demanded.
"This is all happening in real time your excellency," one of the security officers replied. "We've dispatched a battalion to aid them if they succeed in capturing her, and we're providing tactical support so they can drive her into a dead end but we can't provide any material aid, and Savareen doesn't exactly have the best troops in the galaxy. There's been a couple of squadrons scrambled but they are coming from the next system, and won't be there for at least an hour."
Bail huffed and turned back to the holoscreen. Padme looked very different from her official self. Rough robes covered tough spacer's clothing, she was openly armed and her hair that she had always taken such pride in was pulled simply into a bun. A holocamera zoomed in on a gold gleam on her left hand.
"A wedding ring," Master Kenobi muttered. "That confirms it then."
The broadcasters were excitedly commentating on every inch of the chase, and frantically scanning the crowds for any hint of Darth Vader.
Padme scanned the buildings for the one she was looking for. There! One of the tallest buildings in the city loomed ahead. She pulled something off her belt and hooked it on the end of her blaster. Two leaps forward and she fired up.
The ascension cable soared out of her gun and latched onto one of the balconies of the building. A pull of the trigger and she was soaring over the crowds, her feet impacting on the side of the building with a solid, reassuring thud and she scrambled over the side of the railing, detached the ascension cable and dashed into the building.
"Follow her!" was the shouted order from outside as she raced through the corridors and up the stairs, ending at the door to the roof. Padme turned the handle, and… nothing. The door was locked. She muttered a Huttese curse under her breath and slid her blaster away, pulling one of her tools from her belt. The pick inserted easily into the keyhole and with only a few twists the lock popped open and she rushed through the door, drawing her blaster again at the sound of pursuit behind her.
The Commander caught a glimpse of the edge of Amidala's robe as she slipped through the door and hurried after her, leading his squad onto the roof. Amidala stood at the edge of the roof, her blaster in hand, and she whirled to face them as they entered, pointing the blaster straight at them.
"Padme Amidala," the Commander proclaimed officially. "You are under arrest for treason against the New Republic. Put your blaster down and come quietly or I will order you to be subdued by force."
Amidala merely raised an eyebrow. "So threatening," she said in response, crisp tones slicing through the air. "Did they teach you that speech in the New Republic academy. However, I must inform you I have no intention of coming quietly."
"I see," the Commander began to raise his hand preparatory to ordering his men to fire when a shadow fell over the rooftop. He looked up in amazement, but nothing was there. Padme Amidala looked up with a small smile on her face before she turned her attention to the Commander, holstering her blaster with careless skill.
"One thing to make perfectly clear Commander," she said icily. "My name is Padme Skywalker."
At that moment a large freighter unshielded over the rooftop and a male voice shouted loudly:
"Padme! Jump now!"
Amidala whirled, placed a hand on the roof edge and vaulted over it, falling into thin air. The Commander dashed closer to the edge, completely aghast at the thought that she might have jumped rather than be captured. He almost missed Amidala's slender figure which had not fallen several stories as he had expected.
Instead of plummeting she hovered and began to rise upwards and out. The Commander looked up, open-mouthed, to see that the freighter's ramp was lowered and, his mouth dropped even further open, to see Darth Vader standing on the ramp, hands outstretched and a look of intense concentration on his face.
The Commander looked up but felt unable to order his men to shoot at either of them, his vocal cords seemed closed up and they could only watch as Amidala flew straight to Vader's arms. He caught her easily, one arm around her waist, the other firmly under her shoulders as her arms went around his neck. Amidala cast a look over her shoulder and Vader followed her gaze even as he slid one arm underneath her legs and lifted her easily off her feet.
Then they both locked eyes with the Commander and Vader whirled on his heel and dashed up and inside the freighter, the ramp sliding closed after them. A moment later the ship's engines roared and it began to pull away from hovering over the building.
"Stop them!" On Coruscant Mace Windu leapt to his feet and shouted at the New Republic's security officers.
"There's very little we can do sir," one of the officers replied, scrambling at the comms and the Holonet with his peers. "Any help is lightyears away."
"Can we track them?" the Chancellor demanded, eyes fixed on the Holoscreen where the freighter that held Darth Vader and Padme Amidala was rapidly ascending into the atmosphere.
"We're trying to lock on to their signal," another one replied, his hands flashing over the screens in front of him. "But there's some sort of technology that's blocking us at every turn, no matter what I try, it's almost genius."
"Anakin Skywalker was a mechanical genius," Master Kenobi interjected. "He built a working pod racer and droid before he was nine years old. He maintained, and improved, his own mechanical arm and astromech during the Clone Wars. With our improved technology, he could have created quite a lot. Darth Vader will have that skill as well."
The medium-sized freighter continued to accelerate out of Savareen's atmosphere. The few ships that Savareen had were rapidly approaching to try and engage the freighter but it simply spun and darted between the ships and buildings with Force-guided precision as it spun and looped out of their reach, accelerating rapidly out of the gravity well.
As soon as the freighter cleared the atmosphere it accelerated even faster away from the planet and then suddenly began flickering out of visibility again.
"Get a lock on to that ship!" a security officer barked.
"We're trying sir," another one responded, his digits flashing over the keyboard in front of him. "They're simply moving too fast, there's very little we can do."
Above Savareen the ship that held the most wanted fugitives in the galaxy disappeared from view and the galaxy was left with no more clues on where Vader and Amidala had been, where they were going and what they were doing.
The Holonet would speculate for months to come, and continually replay the footage from the chase as they carefully analysed. Every look and every touch between Vader and Amidala was inspected by body language experts by the press and the government.
The experts were all agreed and made it clear in several memorandums and reports to various government officials, Senators and security officers that Vader was incredibly protective of Amidala and that she trusted him completely, otherwise she wouldn't have dared to leap off the roof. They also agreed that the two of them were physically affectionate, this shown not only through the fact that they had four children, two born very recently so this obviously hadn't changed, but also through the fact that Vader had seen no need to ask Amidala's permission before picking her up and carrying her inside the ship.
Videos of the freighter were also carefully examined for any identifying marker. Any possible serial number had been filed off, and the ship had not landed on Savareen so had not needed to identify itself. The ship equally had no especial distinctive markers, excepting the fact that it had a powerful cloaking device and various other technology installed, but those would obviously have not been registered, so they were no closer to finding the ship. It was immensely… frustrating.
Onboard the Skywalker's freighter
Moments after Anakin and Padme Skywalker entered the vessel
As soon as they were onboard Anakin set Padme back on her feet and raced for the cockpit. Padme ran after him, mentally cursing her shorter legs as her husband easily outpaced her.
By the time she made it to the cockpit Leia, bless her, had strapped Jinn and Shmi into their seats and was prepping the cloaking device to be renewed as soon as her father gave the order. Anakin had evidently evicted his son from the pilot's seat and was flying, pushing the engines for all they had. His willing co-pilot was working with the various controls of the ship, ably assisting his father with pushing the ship's capabilities as far as they could go. Padme crossed to the navigator's seat, snatching up a headset as she passed the area where they were kept and swinging herself into the seat, her fingers already moving to prep the hyperdrive.
"Set a random Outer Rim destination," Anakin said over the headset. "We don't have time for more complicated calculations."
"Plotting course now," Padme replied, quickly starting the navicomputer to generate the destination. She cast a look at the timer. "Prepare to jump to hyperspace in t-minus two minutes and counting."
"Roger that," Ahsoka Tano's voice responded over the headset. "Preparing the lower decks and cutting off all communications. Registering attempts to track the ship. Rex is fending them off."
"Luke take over from Rex!" Anakin ordered. "You've done as much as you can with the engines. Rex make sure that the armoury is secured. I don't want anything falling out while we're in transit. I'm going to have to do some tricky spins."
"Yes sir," Rex responded. His voice faded into the background as he switched to another comm to order two of the other clones to accompany him.
"Hyperdrive prepped and ready on your command," Padme reported.
"Armoury secure," Rex added.
"Lower decks stable," Ahsoka added.
"Good," Anakin answered. "Brace for evasive manoeuvres."
He waited barely a few moments before jerking at the controls. The space in front of the viewport spun, stars blurring into one another as they pushed through the atmosphere.
"Clearing atmosphere," Luke reported. "All attempts at tracking the ship so far unsuccessful. Out of atmo now."
"Leia, cloak!" her father called even as he began their acceleration.
"Cloaking now," Leia reported. "Cloaking device engaging…" she paused a moment and then confirmed. "We are cloaked."
"All crew prepare for jump to hyperspace," Anakin said, slapping the button to belt himself in.
"All secure," Ahsoka and the rest of the clones chimed in.
"Good," Anakin moved his hand to the hyperspace lever and jerked it forward. The stars around them blurred into lines and they made good their escape from the system of Savareen.
As soon as they were safely into hyperspace Leia deactivated the cloaking device to save power for the ship.
Padme rose from the navigator's chair and crossed over to her husband, leaning over his shoulder and reaching one arm over his shoulder to twine her fingers with his. Anakin raised their intertwined hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
"That," he said with a sigh. "Was terrifying. I thought you were going to be stunned and arrested."
"I know," Padme replied, resting her cheek against his. "But I am just fine my love, and we, all of us escaped, and," this with a slight hint of mischief, "Leia even recovered the shopping!"
Anakin took a deep breath and then laughed. After only a moment Padme laughed along with him. He kissed her hand again and tilted his head back to rest on her shoulder. They remained like that for a few moments, relishing in the quiet marital intimacy that this position provided. Well, quiet until Jinn and Shmi started squealing for their parents.
The adult Skywalkers reluctantly detached themselves from each other and made their way over to their younger children. At just over two years old Jinn and Shmi Skywalker were incredibly precocious, and the absolute apple of their extended families eyes'. Their parents had not been expecting Padme to conceive again, and so the discovery that she was pregnant had caused a great deal of shock and horror. Padme had been terrified about any prenatal care and Anakin, after the initial delighted whoop at the discovery, had joined her in her worry. Luke and Leia had simply been ecstatic at the thought of younger siblings. The second set of Skywalker twins was just as Force-Sensitive as their older siblings, and almost as Force-Sensitive as their father.
"Dada, Mama," Jinn called, grinning up at his parents as they walked over to him and his twin. His mother laughed at him and swept her little son up into her arms, running a hand through his tangle of dark curls. Anakin scooped up Shmi and turned her upside down, the toddler shrieking with laughter.
"Now," he said mock-sternly. "Who wants some yummy food?"
"Me! Me! Me!" the twins shrieked in unison and Anakin flipped Shmi up and onto his back as he ran through the door. Jinn squirmed out of his mother's arms and ran after the others. Padme laughed and ran after her family.
The Skywalkers amused themselves over the next few hours, almost a day, as they travelled deeper into the Outer Rim. Luke and Anakin worked on their Force exercises, Ahsoka and Rex amused Jinn and Shmi, and Leia and Padme completed various aspects of business for Geworpena Ventures. Leia was Padme's natural prodigy with the business, shadowing her mother often, and assisting with the political aspects of trade and the internal politics. The four older members of the family chattered cheerfully as they worked, slipping between languages easily as they did so. Padme had been taught several languages as a child, as part of her preparation for political work, Anakin had been trilingual from his earliest days and had picked up other languages during his time in the Jedi Temple and Luke and Leia spoke at least five languages fluently and had picked up a smattering of others through their childhood of shifting planets. Jinn and Shmi were learning, and they talked to their parents and siblings as easily in one language as another, as yet they knew no difference in their limited vocabulary.
12 hours after the Skywalker's departure from Savareen
Padme strapped herself into the co-pilot's chair and shared a smile with Anakin. The rest of their family prepared themselves to exit hyperspace. The encounter on Savareen had sobered them all, and reminded them why they were running.
Anakin shook himself out of his morbid thoughts of what could have happened and focused on carefully bringing the ship out of hyperspace. They emerged in the full blackness of space.
"Okaayyyy," Luke said hesitantly. "So where are we?"
Padme quickly checked the navicomputer. "According to this," she replied. "We're in the Bakura system. It's right at the edge of the Outer Rim, and almost completely uncolonised."
"Scan for surroundings," Anakin said quietly.
"Scanning," Rex answered. They sat a few moments in absolute eerie silence. "No active ships nearby General," he reported. "Timora is a few thousands clicks starboard way. Wait! Hang on." He leant closer to the scanners, studying them closely.
"What is it Rex?" Ahsoka asked in concern.
"There's some sort of large…mass a few thousand clicks to port-side. It's not got active electronics, machinery or weaponry, it's just this mass blocking out space."
"Not a black hole?" Padme checked in concern.
"Not a black hole," Rex reassured them. "But I can't tell what it is from the scanners alone."
"Alright then gang," Anakin grinned. "Who's up for an adventure?"
Luke, Leia, Jinn and Shmi cheered loudly and their parents exchanged laugh-filled looks as they headed towards the large mass that Rex had spotted on the scanners.
"What is it?" Ahsoka asked curiously, leaning forward to stare out of the viewport.
"I don't know," Anakin responded. "Lights please Padme."
His wife reached out to the console and pressed a button. Instantly twin beams of light lit up the space in front of the freighter as they neared closer to the mass. Padme carefully manipulated the lights so that they ran over the mass.
"It's a ship!" she exclaimed.
"It's a Star Destroyer," Anakin echoed. "I vaguely remember, as Vader," he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Being told that a ship had been sent into these regions and was never heard from again. Is it damaged?"
"Structure seems stable," Leia said from where she was looking at the more intricate scanners. She rose from her chair and leant over her mother's chair to stare out of the viewport at the looming behemoth. "The scans say that it still has almost full stocks of power, fuel and ammunition onboard."
"What happened?" Luke asked quietly.
"I have no idea," his father replied. "Can we land Rex, or are we going to need to take a small ship across?"
"I would advise taking a couple of the fighters, and space suits General," Rex replied. "We don't know what the atmo's going to be like."
"Alright," Anakin said. "Ahsoka, Luke, Leia, Kix, Wolffe and Artoo, you're with me. We'll take the mini-fighters and do a recon. The rest of you, be prepared to go in and get us out if anything goes badly wrong."
"Roger that," Ahsoka replied, disappearing out of the cockpit with the twins and clones in tow. Anakin paused a moment to talk to Padme and then followed them.
Onboard the Star Destroyer
Anakin Skywalker shone his torch around the space. The largest ships in the hanger were gone, and there was a little structural damage to the Star Destroyer, but nothing to make it necessary for the crew to abandon ship.
"I don't understand," Luke said, sweeping his beams over the space of the largest hanger as they made their way up to the turbolift. "How could the crew have just abandoned ship, there's no damage, no obvious reasons for any of this."
"I don't know twin," Leia replied. "But it can't have been all that bad."
They stepped out onto the bridge and while the others explored the various stations Leia made her way over to a screen and tapped on it several times to bring up the Captain's log. The text scrolled across the screen quickly but Leia's eyes flashed across it absorbing information.
"There was an attack of some kind," she said. "There was mass panic, it was some kind of mass that they couldn't fight, so they abandoned ship as quickly as they could. All the officers and sailors evacuated and disappeared into the Empire or the Outer Rim to escape the punishment for failure. They never reported what happened to the ship, and the Captain says he sent a message suggesting that they were destroyed with all hands lost."
Luke spun his torch around the area again and smiled. "So no one's looking for this ship. And there's minimal structural damage."
"I see where you're heading Luke," Anakin said with a grin. "What a perfect place for Headquarters of Geworpena Ventures. Let's get back to the ship and tell Padme."
They hurried back down to their ship and launched back across to their freighter.
"Well?" Padme demanded as soon as they disembarked.
"Completely deserted, only a little damaged and fully stocked," Anakin replied. "The galaxy thinks the ship's long gone, the crew reported it lost."
Padme's face lit up. "So it's ours for the taking?" she questioned.
"Completely and utterly," her husband confirmed.
"Let's repair it first of all," she decided. "Then we'll take possession, but we'll need a homing device installed, and the computers hacked so we can take remote control if someone attempts to hijack us. Ahsoka," the Togruta turned around. "Can you get the schematics of that cruiser?" she asked.
"Sure," Ahsoka grinned with sharp teeth.
Padme clapped her hands together and then tucked her hand into the crook of Anakin's arm. "All right then," she beamed up at him. "Let's get to work."
Padme Skywalker acquired materials from across the galaxy and craftsmen from across the galaxy swarmed all over the Star Destroyer, repairing and remodelling it on the inside to make it a Headquarters to be proud of, and to reflect the increasing influence of Geworpena Ventures. It was not until eight months after the discovery of the Star Destroyer that it was finally completed, and ready to be christened.
The cruiser was quite an impressive sight, various other ships hanging around it in a glorious display of ships. The cruiser that hung in the middle was now dark blue, as opposed to its previous grey and black, and was fully repaired and remodelled on the interior.
In the central conference room, the emblem of the company emblazoned on the wall behind her, Padme Skywalker waited in silence. Her family and close friends assembled on either side of the table. The board waited in a different conference room. Anakin finished checking the distortion technology and then nodded at Luke to begin the transmission.
"Welcome, all those of Geworpena Ventures," Padme began, looking and speaking directly into the camera. The technology that her husband had invented would twist her face and voice so that she would be unrecognisable. "Today we launch our new flagship that will mark our place in the annals of history."
She took a deep breath and then tilted her head in acknowledgement at Leia. This name had been her idea.
"In honour of what we all were at some time in our lives I name this ship 'The Outcast'. May it serve us well. Power her up."
On the bridge Rex nodded at Wolffe. He pressed a lever down.
Back in the conference room Padme felt the ship stir to life under her feet. She grinned widely. Cheering came over the various channels connected to the other ships of Geworpena Ventures.
"Here we go," she muttered under her breath. Down the table Anakin looked up, caught her eye and grinned back at her.
AN: So if anyone works out the malevolence reference I'll be very impressed.
I hope you enjoy this next bit of The Lineage of the Naberrie Twins, I'm so sorry it took so long to update, at the moment I'm in the middle of preparing for major exams at the moment so updates are going to be very very slow for the next little bit, and I apologize in advance for that.
Please review!
The8thDalmuti :-)