But her steps slowed as she saw staffers ducking into offices, hurrying along corridors, gesturing to each other to hurry into their planet’s suite.
Luckily the Alderaanian suite wasn’t far away. She reached it within minutes and rushed inside to find absolutely no one in the outer room; a crowd had gathered in her father’s office. Leia poked her head through the doorway to see everyone clustered around the HoloNet viewer.
“—no loss of life, only through the courage of our Imperial stormtroopers. However, the attack on the convoy represents a profound danger to outposts in the Mid-Rim region, and to the interconnectedness of our Empire.”
Only someone who knew Bail Organa as well as his daughter would’ve caught the slight exhalation of relief on the words “no loss of life.” That was the only emotion he displayed, not disquiet or even surprise.
This isn’t like what happened in the Naboo system, Leia concluded. This is something my parents knew about.
Something they planned.
Something they helped to do.
“False reports circulating through various informal channels claim that a medical frigate was captured,” the infocast reader continued. “Although many members of the frigate’s crew were found to harbor treasonous beliefs and attempted to aid in the attack, the ship remains in the control of the proper authorities.”
Most informed members of the Senate knew how to read through the lines of official HoloNet reports. If the medical frigate in question were still under control, its name would’ve been given. If crewmembers had been captured, at least one or two would’ve been named; Palpatine never hesitated to identify his enemies. The real message was that someone higher up on a medical frigate had wanted to remove it from the Imperial Starfleet, and with the assistance of starfighters—starfighters provided by her parents or their allies—had escaped with the sophisticated ship, its supplies and its equipment intact.
No loss of life, Leia reminded herself. Her parents had supported a swift, smart, nonviolent operation, the kind of action she felt she could condone.
But they’d taken a medical frigate. Those frigates were designed to handle casualties on a massive scale, like after a planetary catastrophe, or—
—or a large-scale military conflict.
She only knew that from history lessons about the Clone Wars. In her lifetime, no such battles had taken place. Leia had always hoped none ever would.
Apparently her parents had other plans.
After the HoloNet had reported the exact same information three different ways, the huddle of viewers began to break up. From the outer corridors of the Senate chambers, Leia could hear numerous people talking among themselves; this would be the only subject most people on Coruscant discussed for the rest of the day.
In Bail Organa’s office, however, the staffers remained quiet. They went back to their tasks without a word. How much did they know? Were they working with her father—or, if not his co-conspirators, were they at least willing to remain silent rather than confront the truth?
She waited until she was the last person in her father’s office, then pressed the panel to shut the door behind her. “Dad—”
“This isn’t a conversation we’re going to have.” Bail met her eyes for only an instant before pulling up his work on a datapad.
“How can you say that? I know what this means. If I know, that means the Empire knows too.”
His hands on his datapad stilled, but he didn’t look up. “Undoubtedly. Which means discretion has become even more important.”
“But, Dad, how can the two of you—”
“Leia, stop.” At last Bail lifted his head again, considering his daughter from what seemed to be far away. “The less you know, the safer you are. The less is said in this office, the safer the others here will be. Do you understand?”
She already knew her safety was forfeit, but she hadn’t considered his staffers. He’d found the one point that could make her let go. Nodding, Leia walked out of her father’s office with a placid expression on her face, as though she were completely unbothered.
Inside, however, her emotions were in a tumult, and she couldn’t tell what was worse: the separation between her and her parents that seemed to widen all the time, or her fear of the nameless conflict taking shape on the horizon.
Fifty years ago, Felucia had been a remote jungle world on the outer edges of the Outer Rim, of interest to almost no one who didn’t already live there. Twenty years ago, it had become critical to controlling the Perlemian Trade Route, which made it a key battleground in the Clone Wars. Ten years ago, it had been a shadow of its former self, cities devastated by conflict. By the time Leia went there, Felucia was fulfilling the Empire’s goal for it, which meant serving as a source of the healing plant nysillim but nothing else.
Yet the planet still claimed thick, near-impenetrable jungles and rainforests over much of its surface, which made it a good place for pathfinding practice.
“I suppose I should be glad we’re not climbing as much today.” Chassellon led the way as the humanoid members of the class slogged through mud up to their knees. (Sssamm swam along merrily, feeling entirely at home.) “But even snow’s easier to march through than this muck.”
Chief Pangie called from behind, “Our first cliffs are coming right up!”
“Kriff,” Chassellon muttered. Leia wanted to laugh at him, but she was dangerously close to agreeing. They could see little in the distance but mist and the shadows of enormous trees. Surrounding them on all sides were tall, two-branched ferns that rose in striped arcs like a Togruta’s montrals, oversized vines and roots that jutted up from the soil, and orange flowers that looked pretty but had stems with sharp thorns. Short as Leia was, the mud came up higher on her and was making the hike tough going.
Kier walked alongside her. Never once did he try to take her arm and help her along; he obviously understood how much she would hate that. But he matched his pace to hers to keep her company. Originally Amilyn had done the same, but after a raised eyebrow at Leia and Kier, she’d gone ahead, making her way easily through the mud on her long, stilt-like legs.
At one point when Chief Pangie was busy shaking off a slimesnipe, Leia dared to whisper to Kier, “You heard about the frigate, right?”
He opened his eyes wider, clearly in warning. “Of course. But we shouldn’t—”
“No! I didn’t mean to—” Leia glanced around. A few dangling strands of hair were plastered to her forehead and neck by sweat and sheer humidity. “I just meant, that’s more of the idea—more the right way to go about things.” Something I don’t have to forgive my parents for. Something I could support them in. Unless it leads to a more dangerous path—
“I’m not so sure,” Kier replied.