Chapter Eighty One

"Really shouldn't have said that! Really shouldn't have said that!" Harry said the next day as alarms blared the moment they came out of one of the hyperspace jumps to Kashyyyk. The scanners of the two Lucrehulks reached out as they came under a sporadic amount of fire from right in front of them. The fire trailed off for a moment as if the attackers, about three dozen retrofitted merchant freighters of various sizes and two dozen gunboats, seemed to realize that there were two Lucrehulks rather than one. But they stiffly began to attack once more

The shields of the Lucrehulks were decent enough for their size, not truly up to a real capital ship's, but they were better than most. Therefore they held under that first hail of fire easily, allowing the Wookies, Harry, and his friends to realize what was going on and start to react.

"Enough complaining," Master Fay said, moving into the captain's chair while Padme raced to one of the stations controlling the turbolaser batteries, Sabe and Eirtae following. The elven Jedi's eyes closed, her Force powers reaching out. "Deal with the problem first, then about being the Force's Lancer later!"

With a few clicks of a button from where he was sitting, Harry brought the shields up to full power, while Aayla, Kass, and Mak began to man the remaining weapons stations as best they could. Mak put half of the secondary weapons on automatic, keying in the other Hulk as the only friendly ship in the area, then began to designate the ships attacking them by level of threat, while Kass began to analyze the attack.

To one side an image popped up of Lisherovokkka, the leader of the Wookies sent to Naboo to take command of their Lucrehulk. "Those are Trandoshan vessels!" he shouted, eagerness and fury both coloring his tone, though the translation device leached much of that out. "I don't know why they're attacking us like this, but I know those ship designs. The Trandoshans have often tried to raid our planet for slaves and for other things."

Aayla shuddered a little, and Harry looked at her quickly. Aayla replied telepathically, not wanting Padme or the other girls to overhear. "I talked to Malla at one point, and I mentioned the Trandoshans and their feud with the Wookies. Apparently the Trandoshans think Wookies make both good slaves and good eating."

That was a revolting and horrifying thought, and Harry felt his mouth set firmly. "All right, so are we going to take prisoners here, Master Fay? We might not be able to fight these ships as well as we could, but I think we still have this group outgunned."

"Not so much," Master Fay replied softly, her eyes not opening as she addressed the bridge. "There is another group coming in from behind us."

Taking this as given, Harry quickly shifted the ship around such that the two Lucrehulks had their engines facing one another so that neither had a blind spot which wasn't subsequently covered by its fellow. That surprised the attackers, but they soldiered on. This wing of the assault was another three dozen or so makeshift merchant vessels, with three squadrons of starfighters.

These were pure starfighters; none of them had proton torpedo or concussion missile launchers. But the gunboats in the first wing of the attack did have concussion missiles. They roared in with the starfighters from all around the two massive Lucrehulks, covering the starfighters and sometimes dying under the blaster bolts from the Lucrehulks, but landing heavy hits with their missiles on the shields.

Mak cursed, trying desperately to keep his voice down so that Master Fay couldn't hear as his fingers danced over the controls. This was the first time he had been in a space battle, and he was finding that even with his Force Precognition he simply couldn't predict the moves of the attacking ships. They were almost always somewhere where his fire wasn't. Kass was having a slightly better time of it.

Padme and her maids weren't having any better luck at first, but Mak's first move had bought them some time. The automated secondary weapons were now on full defensive fire mode, and many of the starfighters and even a few gunboats had died to their fire.

Next to Mak, Harry was busy with the shields, while beside Harry Aayla was trying to keep their ship and the Wookie's ship together. The Wookies, unmindful of tactics, had raced forward, trying to get to grips with the attackers. But the Lucrehulk just wasn't very quick, and without Aayla keeping their ship following the Wookies, they might have been surrounded. But the shields of the Lucrehulks were up to this fight so far, creating something like a stalemate.

"These ships don't have enough firepower to get through our shields at full power," said Harry, glancing over to where Master Fay was sitting in the captain's chair, her eyes closed and her hands folded in front of her. Then his Force senses tingled, and he looked back at the radar screen. "We have more incoming! They look like capital ship-sized proton torpedoes!"

Proton torpedoes were primarily weapons designed to take on capital ships and could come in a variety of sizes. They weren't as quick as concussion missiles, so weren't utilized very often against starfighters and were sort of overkill on most pirate vessels, hence why most gunboats didn't carry them. However, the two Lucrehulks had no fighters out, for the moment anyway. Judging from what little Harry could hear from the other side of the coms, the Wookies were trying to get at least a few of the Vultures still on their ship up and running.

"Lisher was correct," she said after a moment, as the ship rocked very slightly. "They are Trandoshans, all of them. This isn't even a pirate fleet; this is a privateer fleet."

Even as busy as he was, Harry understood the difference there, though he had to say, "That's nice Master, but I don't think what kind of fleet they are really matters."

"At the moment it doesn't overmuch, but the type of minds I am dealing with does. Trandoshans are just different enough from most sentients in terms of how they think that it will take me a little bit longer to effectively use my Force powers on them," Fay replied calmly.

That calmness reached out to the padawans and the Nabooans, even the Wookies as they raced onto the bridge, calming all of them down and letting the padawans once more find their center. Their defensive fire immediately got better. Kass and Mak knocked down several more incoming proton torpedoes, as well as several starfighters.

Harry nodded, glancing over at Aayla and reaching out once more telepathically. Should we try to use the "Falcon and the Eagle?"

"No, Harry!" Aayla said, not looking away from her controls. "There are too many gunboats out there, and they're too close. All of them can't have shot their magazines dry. I don't know if we'd be able to get out of the hangar bay without coming under fire, and we still haven't finished working on toughening their armor up enough!"

"I think that's going to be our priority going forward, love," Harry replied. "I'll convince my mom that a decent offense is the best defense at this point. We just can't fight with this ship like this, not against an even opponent. And if we can't bring in enough people to run the ship, we're toast."

"Not this time, Harry," she replied, even as Harry's fingers danced around the bottoms of the shield controls, using his Force Precognition to reroute power from one shield quadrant to another as it came under fire. More proton torpedoes hit, the energy flaring out over the shielding, but because of Harry's work they were not able to penetrate. The turbolasers under Mak's instruction lashed out, destroying several gunboats.

"What should be my priorities be here?" Master Fay asked the crowd of younger Jedi. She couldn't concentrate both on targeting individual minds out there and keep the entire battle in her mind; getting into the Trandoshan's strange psyches was too hard.

Just then the other Lucrehulk twisted slightly. The reason for this became apparent, however, when the massive hangar doors at the front of the ship opened, and over a hundred Vulture fighters were suddenly launched into space.

The effect on the battle was instantaneous. The attackers broke, the gunboats and starfighters putting themselves between the attacking Vultures and the retrofitted merchant ships and freighters. Only two ships didn't, a pair of medium sized yachts a little larger than Padme's personal yacht which twisted and turned away, trying to escape the area of space the battle was occurring in.

"Can you stop them?" Harry asked quickly, looking over at Master Fay, gesturing with one hand towards the screen which showed the images of those ships. It was evident to him that they were getting ready to jump to hyperspace.

Master Fay cocked one eye open for a moment and looked at the ships, then nodded and closed her eyes again. On those ships several officers suddenly collapsed, their minds cut off from their bodies, slipping into darkness. The rest of the crew panicked, unable to figure out what it happened, but one ship was still able to make a successful hyperspace jump.

The other drifted, and Harry, linked with Aayla, moved to take advantage quickly. The two Lucrehulks now lunged as one, closing quickly, and Mak, with something approaching un-Jedi like glee, targeted that ship and others with all the weapons that could bear on them. Turbolasers cracked out, and now that the attackers had to worry about the Vultures, the Lucrehulks were finally able to do some real damage to the yachts and merchant ships which were the real strength behind this attack.

The stopped yacht's shields went out quickly, fire raking its hull and smashing its engine to flinders. Four merchant vessels exploded, torn apart and unable to dodge the sudden fire from the larger Lucrehulks. Now Master Fay also lashed out, knocking out any mind she thought looked like that of an officer. Yet at the same time, the others flushed their racks, and dozens of proton torpedoes were now in space.

The Lucrehulks took a battering, their shields fluctuating badly, and the Wookie vessel's shields went down in places. But with the Vultures in the air and their cohesion lost thanks to Master Fay, the attacking fleet could no longer win this engagement. The Lucrehulks were simply too large, and though the Vultures were running on what looked like barely acceptable skill in terms of their robots, there were too many of them. A lot of the Vultures were still destroyed by the gunboats, who were the natural predator of starfighters thanks to their concussion missiles, but they should've still run away.

Instead the entire fleet stayed and fought, barring that one ship which had escaped. When asked about it, the Wookies explained that running away like that, would have been an act of cowardice that would have shamed the Trandoshans, especially after they were the ones who had sprung the ambush. Wookies actually used a word with quasi-religious connotations for some reason that Harry didn't understand.

They had a bit of an issue as the fight wound down. Master Fay got into an argument with the Wookies who wanted to simply destroy all of the ships that had attacked them. Indeed, they were still hammering a few of the merchant vessels which had lost all their defenses into pieces. The enmity between the Trandoshans and the Wookies did not just go one way, after all. But she convinced them that live prisoners would be better in the future. "The fleet here was ordered to attack us by the Trandoshan government. We need to find out why."

Padme nodded grimly. "I would assume that they are worried about the balance of power in the area shifting thanks to the Wookies receiving a Lucrehulk," she interjected, looking through the screen that the Wookies on the other side. "But if so, this could just be the first act of aggression."

The two women's words seemed to carry the day, and Lisher nodded. "We will board the ships then."

"Actually," Harry said, standing up and moving over to join the two, placing a light hand on Padme's shoulder as he leaned over her to be seen in the screen. "Why don't the Jedi take one of those ships? The one that tried to escape with the other yacht. I would assume that the leaders were the ones who tried to run away."

"That's not necessarily the way it is among Trandoshans," Chewbacca rumbled from behind him. "But they could have had orders to run and report the outcome. Or to not sacrifice themselves, in which case maybe there are some leaders on there."

"The individual who was controlling the fleet fled in that other ship; his crew acted swiftly despite my knocking him and several of his lower officers out," Master Fay said thoughtfully. "However I sensed that the second-in-command is on the yacht which did not try to jump out. If we can get any answers, we can get them from him."

"Boarding a Trandoshan ship is going to be tricky," Lisher said dubiously, with a hint of eagerness in his voice despite that. "Are you sure you don't want us to do it?"

"Positive," Harry replied with a faint smile, looking around at his fellow padawans. "Our Force abilities give us a much easier method of taking prisoners than you. And no offense, but…" Harry gestured towards the main screen where the rest of the fight had ended after the Wookie's Lucrehulk had continued to blast the other attacking ships into pieces. "You guys seem to have a bit of an anger issue that might get in your way of taking actual prisoners."

For a moment Lisher simply looked at Harry, then back to Master Fay. "He is not one of your Order's diplomats, is he?"

Everyone howled in laughter at that, more a release of tension than anything else, while Harry pouted, and Padme patted the hand on her shoulder consolingly. "Agreed!" Chewie said after a moment. "Myself and a few of my warriors will go with you. The rest will stay here with Padme."

Padme made to protest that, but Harry held up a hand before even Master Fay could. "This might already be turning into a diplomatic incident, Padme. Chewbacca's right; you need to stay here, safe."

Turning in her chair, Padme glared at him, and Harry backed away quickly. "I'm not saying you can't handle yourself, I'm just saying that you were attacked on the way to Kashyyyk while you were under the Wookies' protection. The protection of their government, not just the group of Wookies assigned to protect you as part of the trade deals between your people. You putting yourself on the firing line under those circumstances would be a blow to their pride as much as anything else."

Chewbacca nodded firmly, the voice coming over the translator somehow adding more weight to his words as he looked at the young queen seriously. "The battle is over; this is simply the mop up operation. You performed well, but you have no need to prove your courage to us, Queen Amidala."

The use of her title brought Padme up short, since Chewie and the Wookies rarely used it, even in public. Then she smirked at the two men. "How about a trade? I have no desire to stay in a formal embassy while I am on Kashyyyk. The planet sounds so fascinating I would actually like to look around. I realize that Wookies don't normally allow offworlders to explore their planet, but perhaps I could at the very least explore your capital city? And stay with your family, Chewbacca, rather than at the Republic embassy?"

Chewbacca laughed, and Malla, stepping up behind him, nodded her head firmly. "We would be greatly honored to house you and the Jedi in our tree." The word actually translated to some odd mix of tree and home in Harry's mind, but the translation box simply used the word tree for some reason.

With that out of the way, Harry and the other padawans made their way with Master Fay to the hangar bay, boarding the small shuttle. Chewbacca took the controls with Aayla as his copilot, while Harry pulled out a datapad and began to make some notes on it.

Master Fay looked at him, and he smiled in reply. "Just making a list. Fighting with the Lucrehulk like we did told me a lot about what we need to do to make it as effective as we can. So I'm just making a list of what we will have to work on in the future, both with the Force and with simple electronics."

At that Mak leaned over his shoulder and began to give his own input on that, while Fay closed her eyes and meditated, preparing herself for the coming action. It turned out, however, that the boarding action was quite anti-climactic for the Wookies and the padawans.

Lily slipped through the hulls of the shuttle and the yacht and found a room which was currently empty. After that she returned, and after helping Harry memorize it, Harry popped them all aboard in small groups. The Wookies assigned to Padme's protection detail had been among those who had fought with Harry in the attack on the pirates and knew to keep his power a secret, after all, so seeing it once again didn't matter. Once aboard, stunners, the element of surprise, and Force Shields simply overwhelmed the attackers despite numerous attempts to encircle, get around, or otherwise surprise the invaders.

It still took a while, but eventually they had subdued the entire crew without taking any injuries of their own. After that they loaded up the prisoners, taking them back over to the Lucrehulk. There they found that Padme and the others they had left behind had already begun to make makeshift cages. The sight of the Trandoshans being placed in those cages seemed to be the height of comedy for the Wookies, who couldn't stop laughing and slapping one another on the shoulders as every group was tossed into the cages.

Harry took note of that, sending to Aayla, "I hadn't realized how much real, honest hatred still exists between the Trandoshans and the Wookies. I thought it was a sort of personal thing between one clan on one side and the other, not that both races truly hated one another like this. But given what you told me earlier, I shouldn't be surprised."

The rest of the trip to Kashyyyk was peaceful. Coming out of hyperspace into the Kashyyyk system, they were immediately hailed by a squadron of system patrol boats, and a quick exchange occurred between Lisher and the leader of the squadron. The two Lucrehulks were then escorted through the system to high orbit above the Wookies capital city of Rwoookrrorro, and the prisoners were quickly transferred to real holding cells, still unconscious for the most part from the Force stunners.

Master Fay went with them, promising to meet up with the others later. But she wanted to be part of the interrogation process from the get go. The Wookies were, in the main, gentle people, but they also had a truly vicious streak when it came to slavers and people who tried to prey upon them. She had no desire to see actual torture done on these prisoners.

This left the youngsters to head down to Rwoookrrorro on their own for a time, minded only by Lily, who was, of course, not visible to the regular Wookies on the streets. At the same time, Padme was being helped into her formal robes by Eirtae and Sabe. Because of this, she missed the first sight of the city as they were flown down into the atmosphere, a view that nearly mesmerized Harry and the other padawans.

Descending through the trees, an observer could first be excused for not spotting the city. At the topmost reaches of the trees it was practically undetectable, only a few lights here and there along with lookout posts were visible. Then as they began to fly through the massive tree branches of the wroshyr trees, they gradually saw other signs of habitation, until finally they noticed actual buildings, ropes, and then roads carved out of the trees themselves, connecting one tree to another in an interweaving web to create an actual cityscape. Soon after that they were settling down onto the landing pad, which was so wide it could have taken several large freighters at once, built out of one giant wroshyr branch sticking out of the city's edge.

From the pad they were escorted to meet with the king in his palace, though it was unlike any palace that Padme had ever seen before. It was built into an actual portion of one of the giant wroshyr trees that made up the city, and had an admittedly beautiful balcony leading into it, down and around in various ways along the tree's outer trunk. It was further connected by large chains, or what she thought at first were chains, to other nearby trees. It was only when she was close that Padme saw that these were actually vines of immense girth.

The king was an ancient Wookie going gray of fur in some places, but he was as tall as Chewbacca, and he greeted the party warmly on the patio which led into the palace proper, followed by several other Wookies. "Greetings, oh Warrior Queen! Tales of your bravery against the dishonorable and cowardly Trade Federation have come before you, of course. I also was enraged to hear that you were attacked en route to our planet. I cannot apologize enough for not anticipating that."

Padme, garbed in her ultra-formal robes, greeted him just as warmly, forgoing much of the ceremony she had built up in her head when she realized that the Wookies really did not stand on ceremony, even at the highest level of their government. She stepped forward from her party, gesturing with her fingers to her two maids to move to the side and away with the Jedi so that the two monarchs could meet truly face-to-face.

"King Grakchawwaa, tales of your own bravery and skill of hand and mind also reached my ears through the words of your subjects. While the journey here was more exciting than I had hoped, that is no fault of yours, and my welcome thus far has been all anyone could ask for, if not as formal as I had obviously anticipated." Padme then gestured to herself rather patronizingly. "I'd go get changed into something more comfortable, your Majesty, but this takes so long to get on and off. In truth, I'm beginning to see the benefits of having fur."

The king laughed at Padme's little joke, clasping one of his large hands onto hers and shaking so thoroughly that Padme nearly winced, though she kept it off her face easily. From there the two monarchs went inside alone. Over the next few hours Padme officially signed over the Lucrehulk to the Wookie government, receiving in turn the signed trade agreements which would formalize the understanding between their governments. She also talked about extending those agreements, and did what would have taken several days with most Republic governments in about half a day.

Around five in the local evening, Padme came out of the palace smiling happily, wincing slightly as the king had shaken her hand again, somewhat injuring her arm and shoulder. Aayla and the other padawans noticed, and Harry and Kass immediately began to soothe the ache away via the Force, their hands touching her shoulder and wrist.

"They like you," Aayla said while the other two worked, gesturing over to a few Wookies nearby and then back to the king.

"I like them," Padme replied honestly. "I will admit that I haven't actually met many Wookies in person, but all the ones I have seem to be good people to meet. And I really like Malla and Chewie. Rocks of good sense and dependability, the pair of them."

Linking her arm with the Rutian Twi'lek, Padme grabbed Sabe's arm with the other. "Now, let's get me out of this clown outfit and go exploring!"

After Padme had changed into something much more suitable for moving around the city, Chewbacca led the group through a tour of the city and then to his family's home. House was a bit of a misnomer for this edifice, just like calling the king's residence a palace. Again it was built into the solid bark of a wroshyr tree, this one situated near the edge of the city. The actual home encompassed at least six or seven stories up and down from the entrance they were shown to, which Chewie said was for children who had yet to be allowed out of the central-most trees in the city, which were called crèche trees.

Each family in the clan had a small central room to themselves, along with far smaller sleeping quarters which reminded the Jedi of their own small sleeping quarters in the Temple. There was a large balcony several stories up which served as the clan's communal area. Here the padawans were split, boys and girls, with Kass and Aayla joining Padme and her two maids in one of the larger rooms, which they shared with a few females from Chewbacca's family, the Jedi translating the local dialect for the non-Jedi easily.

Chewbacca, on the other hand, put Mak and Harry up in his own room, explaining that he and Malla had yet to carve out their own house. They had not yet decided whether to simply enlarge the clan's domain, or build their own home somewhere else. They weren't in any rush; Wookies could live for a little over four hundred years or so, after all, so there was no need. Indeed, for his people, Chewbacca was the equivalent of Obi-Wan in age and would remain so for the next hundred or so years.

Malla was a few years younger than Chewie, and though she did not share in Chewbacca's wanderlust, she was in no more rush to start building a family than he was. And while she didn't like being in space, Malla had greatly enjoyed her time so far on Naboo. The wide open spaces and the ability to swim without worrying about any danger fascinated her.

That evening the Wookies prepared a large meal for the clan and their guests. It looked as if the entire clan and then some were going to join them for a meal tonight. The guests were told that the meal would include some of the local delicacies with a certain air that made the Force sensing individuals among those guests noticeably wary. Mak nudged Harry in the shoulder. "Are we about to have a bit of another eyeball incident?"

The 'eyeball incident' was what Clan Saa called it when the locals tried to take the Mickey, as Lily put it, out of visitors. They had run into it a few times during their time on the Explorer. The first time had involved an eyeball from a kind of octopus-like creature that the locals had tried to trick them into eating by saying it was a local delicacy.

Harry shook his head quietly. "I don't think so, at least not like the eyeball we had way back then." Kass and Mak chuckled, and Aayla laughed, showing off her sharp pointed teeth for a moment. As a Twi'lek she could probably handle anything the Wookies could throw at her. But the others would not be able to.

"Are you going to do something about that?" Padme asked, having overheard them, and now looking worried at the amount of meat and strange vegetables that were being prepared for dinner. She had no wish to offend, but neither did she want to make a fool of herself for the amusement of others, no matter that she doubted it would be done maliciously.

"I'll see what I can do to save your sensitive palate," Harry said with a chuckle, though everyone understood that he would also be doing so to save himself and the others. With that he stood up, moving over to the cooks.

"I'll help," Aayla said, hopping to her own feet and moving after Harry. The two of them joined the crowd of Wookie cooks. The two of them joined the group easily almost seamlessly, with Aayla taking over chopping up some of the meat, which two of the locals pointed out as being for their off-world guests. A few whispered conversations occurred, and Harry realized that it actually wasn't going to be anything truly nasty looking or weird, it was simply going to be stuff that would light their mouths on fire.

Aayla was looking forward to trying the food raw, as it were, but Harry realized that he and the others would probably not benefit from the experience. So he prepared a few delicacies of their own, which would serve to both cool down and cleanse their palates. This calls for some panna cotta, I think, with a splash of lemon, milk, and vanilla…

The meal that evening swiftly took on a carnival-like atmosphere. The entire clan did indeed show up, and Padme realized that Chewbacca was greatly respected both inside his clan and by his people as a whole. She heard a term that didn't seem to translate very well even with the padawans' Force powers translating, and resolved to ask him later what it was. It sounded something like explorer to her mind, or trailblazer, but there seemed to be added weight to it that they couldn't quite grasp.

However, at this point Padme had no wish to take up any more of his time. Seeing her bodyguard who she had come to rely on and see as a friend among his family was too important to her. Instead, Padme found herself surrounded by her maids, a few other younger locals, who were eager to hear of Naboo and the other planets she had been on, and the padawans.

At one point Padme absentmindedly took a bite out of one of the local delicacies, then swiftly had to take a bite from one of the Harry's concoctions, a gelatin-like substance that he called panna cotta. The heat from the first bite was quickly deadened by the soothing feeling of the second, and she laughed gaily at the sight of the Wookies who had served it up to her. No one could do astonishment quite like a Wookie, and the Wookies were all astonished that she wasn't screaming for water.

Several of them looked at Harry, who wiggled his fingers. "The Force isn't the only magic I can do," he said smugly, causing Chewbacca who was nearby to howl in laughter and smack him on the shoulder with a blow that nearly sent him flying.

A second later music began to one side of the large balcony, and Aayla was suddenly in front of Harry, her eyes shining and holding out her hands. Harry smiled a smile that set Padme's heart to racing even though she wasn't the recipient of it as she watched the two of them move off.

She watched the two dancing through what was obviously a couple's dance, with Malla and Chewie nearby. The two of them had their arms around one another's waists as they danced, their foreheads pressing into one another, gently kissing and simply holding one another.

A few songs later the music changed to a wilder sort. Several songs into this type of music, Harry was back, bowing grandly to Padme and holding out his hand. "May I have the honor of this dance, milady?"

After glancing over to a smiling Aayla, Padme nodded, hopping to her feet excitedly. "You may indeed, good sir!"

These dances were quite unlike any of the formal dancing Padme had had to learn during her school years to prepare herself for her election as Queen. They were far more primal, the locals howling and whooping, almost as much challenging the encroaching darkness of the night as they were enjoying a party. The offworlders couldn't quite match the locals in some of their dances, but they made up for it with enthusiasm.

Padme enjoyed it immensely, rarely leaving the dance area. At one point she took a gulp of some kind of local brew, wetting her throat before being whirled around by Mak into a group with him, Kass, Sabe, and a few local youngsters. It made her feel a heat throughout her entire body, an almost heady sort, though it wasn't quite alcoholic.

At one point Padme found her back to Harry's front, feeling his hard, muscled chest and waist practically grinding against her rear and back, causing her to feel flushed for an entirely different reason. Yet she didn't move away, grinding back in turn, one hand reaching up behind her to wrap around Harry's neck. Moments later she moved into Aayla's arms, and the two of them danced around, laughing and joking.

While this was going on there were some low key discussions of a different sort going on. Chewbacca found himself pressed to add several more Wookies to his guard detail of the queen, who was a hit with the locals with her bravery, her forthright manner, and how simply likable she was.

Her stance against slavery and corruption also had won her a lot of renown before her arrival, and he found that the king had gently pushed things along in that area so that the queen would always be guarded by Wookies. Later, as they were leaving, Chewie would be pulled aside by the king and told in no uncertain terms that the Republic needed more leaders like young Padme. "Corruption is too soft a word for what has been going on in the Senate. This new chancellor might be trying to push an anti-corruption agenda, but he is not having much luck at all so far. We need to look to build up more alliances that don't go through the Senate. Never forget how lukewarm the Senate response was to our trouble with the Trade Federation overAlaris Prime."

That night, however, such thoughts were far away from Padme. She danced the night away, feeling Aayla's arms around her, their breasts pressing together; feeling Harry's arms around her, solid, sure, and protective; feeling her own friends, dancing and having fun. It was possibly the best night of her young life, and she fell asleep on the patio that evening only to be carried inside with other youngsters. She woke up the next day and found herself between Sabe and Aayla with their arms around her.

Feeling the morning light begin to caress her legs, Padme lay there, thinking. Why are they so friendly? Why are they so warm and welcoming? If, if they weren't in a relationship and if one or the other was being so friendly, I would know what they were doing. But this is so strange.

She felt Aayla's arms around her and heard Sabe beginning to make that huffing noise she always did when about to wake up. Padme could feel a smile appear on her face as she heard Harry and Chewie's voice from nearby. Perhaps I am over-thinking things. After all, there is little chance that after this, Harry, Aayla, and I will be able to spend any time together again like this. Perhaps I should simply enjoy their friendship. And if it became more, well, she could cross that chasm when she came to it.