Confessions

1.1 The Malevolence

Life with Padmé Amidala was never boring. She was a force to be reckoned with, a woman underestimated too many times and Sabé was very aware of how strong and stubborn her sister could be. She did things her own way and ignored the protests of others to stay back when she knew she could do whatever it was herself. Sabé admired that the most in Padmé, but it often dragged them into trouble. It was usually right to worry when Padmé Amidala was involved. As lucky as they were, trouble seemed to never be far behind.

Like today.

It was supposed to be routine, but honestly, Sabé should have known better. She sat quietly in the ship monitoring the internal scanners while Padmé piloted the vessel. C-3PO was secured in his seat next to Padmé and, as per usual, was the voice of reason both women seemed to regularly ignore.

"My lady," The droid broke the silence, "are you sure the information from Chancellor Palpatine is reliable?"

"Yes," Padmé confidently assured him, "it was secretly given to him by the supreme executive of the Banking Clan himself. If they leave the Separatist Alliance it will go a long way to shortening this war."

"Besides," Sabé interjected, looking up from her diagnostics, "the Chancellor is the one who gave us the intel, not a pirate. We would be fools to not look into it."

Suddenly a sharp beeping noise emanated from one of the panels at Padmé's station. They would be leaving hyperspace within moments.

"We're approaching the system now," Padmé informed the group, "What's the status, Sabé?"

"Systems clear," Sabé replied as the stars came back into focus.

Unfortunately, that was not the only thing that came into view.

A ship, larger than any star cruiser Sabé had ever seen, was in full view. Flames billowed from every angle as the monstrosity hurtled through space directly at them. From behind it, Sabé could see the unmistakable streaks of cannon fire still barraging it. Sabé threw herself into action, fingers dancing along screens. 3PO was full of panic as the women got to work to evade the burning ship.

"Reverting auxiliary power to the shields," Sabé informed, "It won't be much, but it'll keep the shrapnel off us!"

"This isn't right!" Padmé panicked, "That's a droid warship!"

"And a battle!" Sabé knew they most definitely were not prepared to engage in any type of fight.

Their ship was an H-Type Nubian Yacht for crying out loud! There were no weapons systems on board and evasive maneuvering would only do so much. Still, Sabé continued siphoning off power from different amenities to the thrusters and shields. Padmé had to focus on keeping them from becoming space junk.

"There must be a Republic cruiser nearby, Padmé," Sabé informed her as the younger woman swerved out of the way of an explosion, "I can hail them, but it will certainly give us away to the enemy vessel!"

"Naboo cruiser, identify yourself." A voice rang out.

"This is Senator Amidala," Padmé informed the cruiser, "traveling with-"

"Padmé?" A familiar and bewildered voice interrupted, "What are you doing out here?"

"I was sent on a special mission," She explained as Sabé took control of the craft, "The Senate was told the Banking Clan wanted to negotiate a treaty."

"Get out of there as fast as you can!" Anakin demanded.

"Padmé!" Sabé interrupted, "We have a problem!"

"Have we been hit?" C-3PO asked, but Sabé just shook her head.

"Even worse, a tractor beam!" Sabé informed them, "The ship's not strong enough to break free!"