A Pilot: A Poe Dameron Story

Royal Manners

Bebe-Ate's whistles down the hallway guided Poe towards the faint rosy light at the end. He was encouraged by the way that his droid buddy didn't sound scared...maybe curious. It was definitely inquisitive tweets coming his way as he paced blindly down the hall. For comfort, Poe moved one of his hands to the concealed blaster pistol in his flight suit's pocket and pulled it into his hand.

At the end of the hallway, Poe encountered a carved wooden door, slatted at the top to let in the air – and emit the light beyond. From the way it was already half-opened, he could guess where his droid had gone. "Royal manners, buddy...we gotta work on 'em..." Shaking his head, Poe held the door with one hand and knocked with the other. If he was honest, he wasn't sure how royal manners would work in a situation like this either, but knocking had to mean something.

He knocked, then listened. He heard something scratch inside the room – something far off, like a small creature at a window – and felt his hackles go up. Something wasn't right. Poe knocked again, and still received no answer. Had something happened to the queen? Poe was about to knock for the third time when Bebe-Ate came screeching around the corner, twittering a stream of noises at him so fast he could barely understand what the droid was saying. "What? Is she inside or not?"

Bebe-Ate beeped once. Yes. She says to come in.

"Why can't she tell me herself?" Poe muttered as he pulled the door open.

He was surprised when Bebe-Ate whistled quietly. Sick.

Poe stopped and looked down. He hadn't been expecting an answer like that. With one foot inside the threshold and one foot outside, he bent down and whispered to his droid, "How sick? What do you mean?"

"Pilot," rasped a voice from the low-lit room before him, and Poe jumped out of his skin. He inched closer to the source of the sound, and saw a large white bed beneath a lacy canopy. Through the canopy, only barely visible between the covered lanterns and the fabric, was the shape of a small female humanoid. Poe felt himself shiver as she asked, with tortured effort behind the faint sound, "Please come closer. I fear I cannot project farther at this time."

Poe's feet brought him across the room as his thoughts were still at the door. He paused a short distance from the bed, then started to take a knee. "My-my apologies, ma'am. I..." Poe thought it probably wasn't a good idea to say anything that sounded like criticism to a queen, so he lied, "My ears are shot from sitting so close to a starfighter engine all day, and I couldn't hear you."

"Pilot," the ghostly queen breathed, "you needn't fear stating the obvious. I know I am difficult to hear. I wish that my cousin's emissary speak freely." Poe frowned at the mention of a 'cousin' again, still not following. He watched the queen – she seemed very frail, though hardly his age or older – laboriously shift herself into a higher sitting position. The effort made her shoulders hunch forward, and Poe swore he could see her lungs working for breath beneath her thin skin and pale blue robe. The queen coughed slightly, once she could muster up the air, and asked him, "Has she sent word?"

Poe blinked, at a loss for words yet again. He thought that this queen seemed very queenly despite apparently also suffering from some sort of aliment. Bebe-Ate had claimed she was sick... Poe snapped his fingers, remembering Leia's satchel in his boot. Withdrawing it, he explained, "General Leia Organa sent me with this package for the Queen of Naboo. Respectfully, ma'am, I don't know of any cousin...but she wanted me to give this to you."

Rising just slightly from his kneeling position, Poe shuffled forward and held out the pouch to the queen. He saw her hand reach out for it like a delicate tentacle from some undersea flower, and their fingers met where the crocheted canopy separated her bed from the rest of the room. Poe hesitated, not sure whether it would be appropriate for him to push it aside – something about that felt like it was going too far –