Ahsoka's Task

Chapter 2 A Favor

C-3PO turned away from his duties overseeing servant droids carry out their daily chores, to see his mistress sweep gracefully into the main living area, the hem of her dress flowing behind her. Padme approached him with an inquisitive expression about her face. The droid readied himself for whatever task that was required of him.

"Hello, Threepio. I understand I am wanted by a certain Quarren Senator?" Padme asked, with a hint of mischief in her tone and a spark of daring in her liquid-brown eyes.

"Yes Mistress Padme," the protocol droid's vocaliser vibrated, "Perhaps you might wish to speak with him privately? If so may, I suggest that my mechanical charges and I vacate the immediate area?"

Padme sat down on a curved and padded couch, her symmetrical face contemplative. Looking around her home, her penthouse, she nodded.

"Yes, do that. Also, could you turn on the holoscreen, answering Senator Dowmeia's urgent call?"

"Yes, mistress Padme," the subservient droid said to her, "come, come, little fellows, we are needed elsewhere."

The servant droids murmured assent in synthesized voices and followed their golden master out of the living area. On his way out, C-3PO pressed a small grey button on the side of the holo-projector in between the two main couches, one of which was where Padme Amidala sat, her legs folded. Within moments, an enlarged version of Senator Tundra Dowmeia's Quarren head appeared, an expression of impatience upon his face of tentacles.

Padme put on her most endearing smile and leant forward. She adjusted the settings on the holo-projector so that the Senator's picture would be larger on her end and that her image would be seen smaller from the Quarren Senator's viewpoint. She did this to give her peer an illusionary sense of power over her and over the situation. Dowmeia's signature baritone resonated throughout the apartment as he spoke, giving the aquatic alien a commanding presence. Padme found it difficult not to be aroused by the sound, despite her fellow senator's unusual appearance.

"Senator Amidala. Is it too much to request that when an arrangement is made, twenty-four hours beforehand, all parties involved adhere to said arrangement so as not to cause any dissatisfaction?"

Padme assumed a face of humility and sat back on the couch, contorting her trim figure to fit with the small, luxurious cushions around her.

"Please forgive me, Senator Dowmeia, business within my office has been very time consuming of late, especially last night."

The Quarren's great holographic head shook from side to side.

"Senator, please don't grovel. Endearing as it is in, say, Twi'lek dancers, I highly doubt that such tactics will work in politics."

Padme looked disbelievingly Tundra for a second, and then started to giggle uncontrollably, her breasts shaking ever so slightly with her. The Senator from Dac cocked his squid-like head and blew a sigh of irritation out of his small, toothed mouth. Padme's laughing died down and she rushed to explain. "I'm sorry, Tundra. It's just that you have to realise that half of what goes on in the Senate Rotunda fits the category of grovelling."

"Hmm. Point taken, Senator," the other Senator said. "Now, to business."

Padme straightened up attentively. "Yes?"

"You mentioned some days ago that you are acquainted with a large number of Jedi Knights I believe, including the Hero of the Republic, Anakin Skywalker and his apprentice, Ahsoka Tano. Is this not true, Senator?"

Padme wondered where this discussion was going, but, realizing the rhetoric of the Senator's questions, she uttered no interruption from her rosy lips. Tundra Dowmeia continued. "As it happens, I have a niece with considerable Force ability, her name is Shiam Howmeia and very enthusiastic. She is fourteen years old though and, as you would know, the Jedi Temple has certain age restrictions. She would have been recognized and indoctrinated sooner but the Jedi would not take such a one that held so much frustration and disregard for rules."