Chapter 84

Back on Coruscant Leia, Padme and Mon Mothma stood in the office of the Chancellor of the New Republic, from which they had such an amazing view over the city planet but apparently Leia had other things on her mind at the moment: Would Han come back from his secret mission soon? She sure hoped it, because they both needed some time to work on their relationship. Even if she hated to admit it, maybe she had been the one to blame for both of them going their separate paths for the past months instead of at least trying to get both things to work at the same time: their relationship and the fragile new democracy that the New Republic still was at this point because of the ongoing threat that was caused by Admiral Thrawn.

Of course, it didn't go by Padme unnoticed that her daughter seemed kind of somewhere else with her thoughts and so she asked: "Is everything okay with you? There were a few minutes of awkward silence between them before Mon Mothma said:

"I would love to stay together with you for a little while longer, but an important meeting came up at the last minute." Yes, there were times when she hated the fact that she had agreed to take the job of the Chancellor because she would sometimes had to practically run from one important meeting to another but of course one fact had taken center stage all of the time: Together with Leia as a team this was the best position to do her part, when it came to making sure that all those sacrifices that had been made didn't were all for nothing at the end.

She watched Mon Mothma leave the room, without saying anything in return and finally said as turned towards the big window in the room again: "I guess that I'm just a little bit tired, as the last few weeks have been very stressful but I know that I'm going to get through this difficult phase. It was clear right from the start that the fight for the survival of the New Republic would be long and I'm willing to do whatever it takes that this war against the Empire wasn't for nothing." As she spoke that last sentence, Leia had turned to face her mother again with a lot of determination in her look and Padme couldn't help but think that her daughter reminded her a lot of herself when she started her political career.

Imperial Research Center, Fondor

Still under heavy fire by the stormtroopers Han and his Wookie Co- Pilot had reached the Millennium Falcon. This wasn't the first time, that it looked like there was no way out of this predicament but it looked like another one of Han's genius plans had made things a lot easier for them. As both of them practically ran to their ship, Han still was able to take out two stormtroopers in the process who had tried to surprise them.

Han and his Wookie Co-Pilot quickly made everything ready to get away, of course they had to shoot their way out of there as the doors of the hangar were still closed at this point.

Right at the moment were the massive hangar doors exploded, two TIE Fighters followed them right on their tail because there was no way that the Soldiers of Admiral Thrawn were willing to let this security breach go by unpunished.

What the two didn't know at this point was, that a Star Destroyer had hidden it's presence behind the second planet of the system and of course the Commanding Officer gave the order to the pilots to go on board their fighters to make sure that those rebels got either apprehended or wouldn't survive at all. It didn't take long for Han to realize that their problems were bigger than he thought in the beginning, as warning signal notified him that several more TIE Fighters were on a intercept course: This will be one bumpy ride, just like I expected when this whole mission was presented at that secret meeting. Being aware of the fact that time was a critical factor at this point of the mission, he decided it was for the best to not waste any of it:

"Get yourself ready for a couple of more TIE Fighters to come our way." The Wookie just answered with one short growl before he made his way to the blaster cannon in the back of the ship. Meanwhile Han still tried his best to avoid as much damage to the deflector shields of the Falcon as possible, because he knew at this point that the appearance of the dozen more TIE Fighters meant two things in his opinion: Either was there another base hidden in the system or a Star Destroyer was nearby.

Coruscant, Senate Quarters

As she were in the same situation at the time when she was the Queen of Naboo, Padme had taken it upon herself to accompany Queen Mairayn to her Guest Quarters near the Senate Building. Of course, she knew what question kept bugging her since they had been able to flee:

How can I help with getting rid of the threat to my people, who don't want to have anything to do with this war and just live a peaceful live?

Padme had been part of two major conflicts during the time, when she represented the interests of Naboo: The conflict against the Trade Federation and later against the Separatists Movement, the latter one resulted in the transformation of the Old Republic into the Galactic Empire and she being forced to go into hiding because of the danger for her well-being.

"As I have been in this kind of position a couple of years ago, I want to be the one that assures you now that we will find a way to give back the freedom to the people on Naboo very soon."

Queen Mairayn smiled at Padme shortly and replied:

"I appreciate the support from you so far and I knew right from the start that I could count on you to find a way for Naboo that leads that out of this misery."

AN: Thanks for the support from all my readers so far, I hope you like this chapter, please read & review.