WHAT IS REAL

XXI

Jennifer helped Padme down the stairs and made sure she did not need her before she left. She did not agree with leaving Padme alone, but she also did not want to die for arguing with her mistress. So she walked away and left Padme on her own.

Padme walked through the whole house and did not find Vader she was getting tired of looking. She needed to rest for a moment before going back up the stairs and so she leaned up against a wall in the foyer trying to gather her strength. She closed her eyes and thought. Where could he be? This thought caused her to laughed at herself. Boy Padme you have come a long way from being the dependant queen, who needed no one, to this raving lunatic who can't be gone from Vader for more than 10 minutes without running all over the house searching for him.

She put her hand against the wall so she could push herself off the wall and back to bed. She really was too tired for more searching. Just as she pushed off the wall she triggered some sort of switch and a door open in the wall revealing a hidden room. She could not pass this up so she stepped in and immediately the door closed ever so silently though. It was pretty dark inside at first but she could see a light further back in the room so she followed it. She was quiet because she heard a man speaking. It was not Vader or Palpatine, but someone Padme did not recognize. She knew the man was giving some kind of report and she came around the partition to see Vader standing on a holopad listening.

"Captain, I am not pleased." was what she heard from Vader and the before the man could respond he was pulling at his collar trying to gasp for air. She saw Vader's hand close and the man fell to the floor dead. Padme gasped and before she knew it there was darkness surrounding her. Vader heard her gasp and turned just in time to catch her and keep her from banging her head on the Floor. He went to her and he picked her up and laid her on a couch located on the left wall and went back to the holopad. Captain Anil was gone from the view port and Second Officer Allen was standing in his stead. Vader promoted him to captain and said, "I will be back in another week and I expect everything will be back in order when I get there."

"Understood, sir. Allen out."

"Vader out"