ACROSS THE STARS
Chapter Nine

Two Days Later

Rosé walked behind Maira and Ruth, Jack by her side. All four of them were disguised in the attire often worn by poor migrants traveling from one planet to another, posing as a family seeking work on a planet in the Outer Rim. Maira had devised a cover story for the group in case anyone asked—she and Ruth were sisters seeking work in the factories on Arcadia, and Rosé and Jack were Maira’s children. Ruth had not been terribly happy with the idea, but had gone along with it for her daughter’s sake.

Now, as they approached the transport, Rosé took a deep breath, glad that the shabby dress and cloak she was wearing didn’t need a corset to fit properly. The clothes were soft and well-worn, and in spite of not being a perfect fit, were actually more comfortable than what she usually wore on Coruscant or in Arcadia’s cities.

She looked up, grinning, as Jack poked in annoyance at the thin Padawan braid coiled carefully behind his ear, placed there to hide the fact that he was a Jedi. She guessed that it itched, but hiding the braid was necessary. Poor migrants were common enough, but few were Jedi.

"What?" Jack looked at her.

Rosé tried to stop smiling. "Nothing. It just looks like you ear itches."

He frowned. "I don’t like having to pretend that I’m not a Padawan. It’s been necessary a few times, but I’d still rather be honest—and you’re right. The braid makes my ear itch."

"Try this." Rosé turned to him as they came to a stop in line. She reached under the hood of his cloak and unfastened the braid, coiling it tightly a bit back from his ear so that it was still hard to see, but not so bothersome. "As a veteran of many elaborate hairstyles, I’ve learned a thing or two about making them more comfortable," she whispered.

Ruth turned, seeing Rosé trying to arrange something under Jack’s hood. "Rosé, what are you doing?" she asked, eyeing her daughter severely.

Rosé quickly stepped away from Jack. "Just…uh…just trying to help him out, Mother," she responded. Ruth didn’t usually want Rosé to fuss with her own hairstyles, let alone someone else’s.

"Stop it, both of you," Maira said, not turning around. "Jack, I know you don’t like to coil your braid up, but unless you intend to keep your hood up all the time—and that would look very suspicious—you have to keep it hidden. Rosé, he can take care of himself. You don’t need to help him."

"But I was just—"

"Rosé!" Ruth looked at her severely.

Someone nearby chuckled at the recalcitrant looks on the faces of the two young people. "My brother and I used to fight the same way," the old woman remarked, looking at the little "family."

"Well, at least the disguise is working," Jack whispered to Rosé as the approached the entrance to the transport.

Rosé took a deep breath. "This will be an adventure, I think," she remarked to him. "I’ve never traveled on a transport like this before. I always traveled on my father’s private transport, or at the very least, in first class accommodations on public transport."

"This will definitely be different for you, then," Jack told her. "I have been on this kind of transport before—a couple of times, anyway—and it’s about as basic as you can get and still be reasonably sure that it will make it to its destination."

Ahead of him in line, Ruth frowned, hoping that the transport would get them to Arcadia and not leave them stranded on some strange planet, or worse yet, in space, at the mercy of anything coming past them.

Finally, they were able to board the transport. After finding their sleeping accommodations—the trip would take several days—Rosé looked at the various beings on board the transport and begged to be allowed to explore.

Ruth looked at Maira uncertainly; then, at Maira’s nod of assent, said, "You may go—but only if one of the—only if someone accompanies you." She caught herself before saying Jedi, knowing that she only had to be overheard by one interested being for their cover to be blown.

Rosé sighed. "All right, Mother." She looked from Jack to Maira, hoping that one of them would accompany her.

Maira nodded to Jack. "Go ahead, Jack. I trust you can keep her safe."

When Rosé and Jack were out of earshot of the two women, she whispered to him, "I hope these disguises work. I’m tired of living in fear. I want to get home to my father’s wilderness estate on Arcadia and be safe."

He nodded. "Hopefully, you will be safe there. Rosé, I have to be honest with you…Master Maira and I can’t watch over you and your mother indefinitely."

Rosé sighed. "I know. That’s why, when we get to father’s estate, I want to learn to defend myself. I hope that Mother will want to learn, too—but I don’t know if she’ll want to try."

"Master Maira and I will teach you what you need to know…and your mother, too, if she wants to learn."

She frowned. "I just hope we won’t need to defend ourselves…but I’m afraid we will."

"As my Master would say, don’t worry about the future so much. Be mindful of the present…there’s enough trouble already without looking for more."

"You’re right, but…I can’t help but worry. After the assassination attempt at my engagement dinner…"

"I’ll…we’ll show you what you need to know to defend yourself, if something like that should happen again. In the meantime, though, you wanted to explore the transport, and that will give you a chance to see who’s on it and where things are located, so that if a problem does arise, you at least might have a chance of saving yourself. It’ll give me a chance to look for any dangers, too."

Rosé smiled slightly. "I do want to see the transport—and not just because there could be dangers here. I’ve never been on a transport like this before, and I want to see what it’s like here."

*****

Two hours later, Jack and Rosé had explored most of the transport, even sneaking a few looks at forbidden areas if the doors had been left open. Rosé was fascinated by the dozen or so different species aboard. Though she had met members of most of those species as a Senator’s daughter, their interactions had largely been formalized, a part of politics instead of ordinary mingling. There were facilities on board to accommodate the needs of the different species—some very different from humans—and she had heard languages spoken that were so different from Basic or Parni that she had no idea what was being said, though she suspected that Jack did understand at least a little of those other languages from the way he listened carefully to what was being said as they passed by.

"You might want to make it less obvious that you’re staring at people," Jack whispered to her.

"What?"

"Most beings who travel on this kind of transport are used to it. It isn’t a great adventure to them…and staring is going to bring you unwanted attention."

"Aren’t you paying attention to what’s going on around you?"

"Yes, but it’s good to be a little more…discreet. Some cultures take offense at staring."

"I know that, Jack. I’m not a Senator’s daughter for nothing."

"I wouldn’t believe it by watching you right now. You’re observing the other travelers like they’re entertainment."

Rosé turned to glare at him, her mouth hanging open. "I am not!"

Jack turned to her, leaning casually against a wall. "Sure you are."

"You’re being rude."

"I’m trying to keep you safe." He leaned closer to her. "There’s no guarantee that you won’t be recognized, or that, even if you aren’t recognized, someone won’t take offense or get the wrong idea from you staring at them. It’s okay to observe, but you need to be discreet unless someone is actually trying to get attention." He grinned, leaning back against the wall. "Pretend your betrothed is here and is watching your every move."

Rosé’s expression darkened in an instant. "Don’t talk to me about him." Eyes narrowed, she turned away and strode off into the crowd of beings in the dining area.

Jack hurried after her, shoving one man aside in his haste. "Excuse me. Sorry. Rosé! Come back here!"

He caught up to her at the end of the serving line. She saw him coming and turned her back on him.

"Rosé, you can’t just run off like that—"

"Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Padawan Dawson," she hissed. "You’re here to protect me, not command me. And furthermore, don’t talk to me about my relationship with Caledon. It’s none of your business."

He sighed. "Sorry. You just…seem kind of unhappy with him."

"Whether I am happy with him or not is no concern of yours. He is my betrothed. That’s all you need to know."

"Are you eating or not?" the server barked, looking at the line that had formed behind them.

"Yes. We’re eating," Rosé snapped, snatching a tray and utensils. Jack looked back over the line that had formed behind them. Ruth and Maira were standing near the end of the line, Maira watching him with a raised eyebrow. He sighed and picked up a tray and utensils.

As they got their food and walked away, the heard the server shouting, "No droids!"

Jack looked at the droid in amusement, then frowned thoughtfully as he watched the familiar-looking astrodroid roll toward a table. He watched it place the food on the table before two humans, then smiled, suddenly realizing who they were.

"Rosé." He nudged her arm.

"What?" She looked up, still annoyed at him.

"You and your mother aren’t the only ones hiding out on this transport," he whispered. "Look over there."

Rosé looked in the direction, he indicated, her eyes lighting at the sight of Senator Amidala and a young man she didn’t know, but who was probably a Jedi Padawan if the braid showing carelessly was any indication.

She headed in the direction of the Senator’s table. "Senator—" she began.

Padmé looked up, startled, relaxing when she saw who it was. "Just call me Padmé," she whispered. "I don’t need anyone finding out where I am."

Rosé nodded. "Sorry…Padmé. I heard…" She sat down as Padmé waved invitingly to the space beside her, Jack across from her. "I heard that there were several attempts on your life…that your transport exploded when you first arrived on Coruscant."

She nodded, lowering her eyes sadly. "Yes. My decoy, Cordé, was killed, as were six others. Then there was another attempt a few nights ago…which he…" She pointed at the young Jedi sitting across from her. "…has still not given me all the details of besides what I saw myself."

"After my father was assassinated, there were two other attempts on Mother’s and my lives…one in our apartment, which…obviously did not succeed." Rosé paused, not wanting to go into details as to how the attempt had been unsuccessful. "The second was at my betrothal dinner. A Senatorial aide was killed, an elderly Senator who opposes the Military Creation Act was injured…and the Jedi who were assigned to protect us ended the attack but were unable to find out who was behind the assassination attempts." She didn’t add that Caledon had killed the man who was, perhaps, their best chance for finding out who was behind the attacks.

Padmé nodded. "I was convinced…eventually…to leave Coruscant for my own safety, though I’d still prefer to be there for the vote…I’ve worked hard to keep this from being passed. So did your father."

"And for his trouble, he was killed."

"Someone wants badly to have that act passed…I can only hope that we soon know who…and bring these assassination attempts to a stop."

Rosé looked across the table at Jack and the other Padawan, who she now recognized from one of Jack’s drawings as Anakin Skywalker. Both were scarfing down the unappetizing looking food as if they hadn’t eaten in days.

She raised an eyebrow. "Either the food at the Temple must be terrible to make this appetizing, or they don’t feed you nearly enough," she commented.

Anakin, who had been staring at Padmé as he ate, tore his eyes away her long enough to respond to Rosé. "Some of both."

Jack shook his head. "It’s not that bad, and there’s enough of it…but as both of our Masters say, when food is offered, eat."

Rosé glanced across the room at Maira, who was eating the same unappetizing food, but at a far more sedate pace, and looked skeptically at Jack, who had finished his food and was eyeing hers.

"If you’re not going to eat that—" he began.

"Forget it." Rosé drew her food closer. "This is mine. If you’re still hungry, go get more yourself." She shook her head. "You remind me of a young man Mother hired to work in the kitchen at the city house on Arcadia when I was a child. He would have eaten us out of house and home if he’d been allowed to. Fortunately, he stopped eating so much when he got a little older."

Jack looked a little sheepish; Maira had commented on the same thing. "All right. I’ll be right back," he said, getting up.

"Be mindful of your surroundings," Anakin quipped.

"What?"

"I guess you didn’t notice who you shoved aside when you were chasing her." Anakin pointed to Rosé.

Jack stopped. "Was that you?" He caught Rosé smirking at him out of the corner of his eye and scowled at her. She made a face at him, still smirking over the fact that he had been lecturing her about being too observant.

"And the other night, I was the one who tried to get his speeder under the woman you almost dropped off the balcony at 500 Republica."

Now both Jack and Rosé turned red, while Padmé looked at them inquiringly. "That’s how much you know!" Rosé exclaimed, jumping to Jack’s defense. "I was the one who was hanging off the balcony, and he didn’t drop me. I slipped when I leaned over the balcony to wave to someone I knew, and he saved me."

Anakin, who had seen her standing on the balcony wall before she slipped, didn’t say anything. Rosé narrowed her eyes at him, realizing how he’d happened to be close enough to try to catch her, though at the time she hadn’t realized anyone was there.

"Anyway," she added, giving him her best haughty look, "it was stupid and I’d rather not discuss it."

Anakin shrugged, still not saying anything, though Rosé suspected he was storing that bit of information away for future reference, and hoped that he would not share it with Padmé.

Her suicide attempt was her own mistake, a secret between Jack, Maira, herself, and now Padawan Skywalker, and she didn’t want anyone else to know.

Chapter Ten
Stories