Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
LEORA MADE HER WAY BACK TO THE SHIP, conveniently hidden by the rocky Sullustan landscape. It was her daily routine: slink through the dark Sullust streets in peasant clothes, meeting with hidden loyalists, distributing what supplies she could carry without drawing attention to herself. Sometimes, a few loyalists would be brave enough to meet her at the ship, piling bulk supplies onto their speeders, but tensions were high and discretion was dire.
Michael greeted her, bearded now in their few weeks incognito, and slightly loopy at his lack of social contact. She liked him better that way. The R4 beeped in excitement at her return. She patted its metal head and it beeped again in approval.
"Tomorrow they will come to us," Leora told him. "I think they'll be able to take the last of it and we can fly home."
Their few weeks together hadn't eased the awkwardness between them much. It made it worse at times, as Michael seemed to find them being stranded here romantic.
"I worry when you go," he frowned. "I wait here for hours, wondering if this will be the time you won't come back."
"Don't be ridiculous," Leora said in reply, miffed by his out-of-character sentimentally, isolation on a ship in the middle of nowhere could do that to someone. But she was not going to allow herself to be wooed by any of his affections. "I'll always come back."
"I still worry you won't."
"Oh as you didn't? Three years went by, nothing. Beside me one day, gone the next. I was to be your wife, you know. Not your old girlfriend." Leora frustratedly replied, releasing some of her three-year-long resentments onto him. She took a breath, letting herself calm, and releasing all the negative feelings from her mind.
"You've never got angry with me before," Michael said softly. "Leora, I am sorry for all the trouble I've caused. I had to go. Don't you understand?"
Leora nodded. She pointed to the back of the ship, where the door to her small chamber was located. "I'm exhausted. I'm heading to bed."
"Leora, can't we talk about it all now? Be honest with ourselves? Move past it?" The door to her chamber slid closed and she stayed wordless. "Be ourselves again?"
She was afraid of what she would hear if she stayed out there. An I still love you perhaps? She couldn't handle that and they'd gotten painstakingly close to that territory over the weeks.
Leora woke to a rattling on the ship door. She slept past the alarm she'd set. Hurriedly, she slipped on her dark robes, and went to answer the door. Michael beat her to it, standing before it, letting the little light of day there was into the ship. He was talking to a voice Leora could not place so she came up behind him and peeked over his broad shoulder.
Immediately, her stomach sank, but she kept her composure all but for the frown on her face. "Nute Gunray. What a pleasure."
Gunray bowed his head in faux respect. "Senator Petall, wonderful to see you again. However horrible the circumstance. I've received word you've been participating in unofficial trade."
"How does this pertain to you, Gunray? You're no longer Viceroy, but for old times sake," Leora shook her head. "The Sentient-Being Act states that when the rights of a population are being withheld, official trade agreements can be temporarily redacted."
Nute Gunray nodded in agreement. "Yes, that is a rule the Republic abides by. Unfortunately, there is no Republic out here."
"Would you dare harm someone who is only trying to feed those in need? Have you sunk so low?"
"It is at Count Dooku's specific request that you be taken as a prisoner of war." Gunray waved behind him and marching proceeded forward. He stepped out of the way in order to let the battle droids approach. They cuffed Michael first, then Leora quickly, placing binders on the latter. Gunray gave her a knowing look, aware of the history of Gatalentans in his time in politics, and aware that simple restraints could not hold her alone.
She struggled against the confinements, making the battle droid hold her tighter, and the metal to sink into her skin. Leora heard a button click, and shock was sent up through her bare skin. She stopped resisting and breathed through the pain. Michael was a different story; he thrashed and argued until a droid behind him hit him with a blaster over the head. Michael collapsed into the arms of the droid who had captured him.
"The Chancellor will not allow this, he is aware of my location and I do daily reports to him personally," Leora threatened the back of Gunray's. "It will be suspicious when I do not make contact and he will send for me."
Gunray said nothing. Leora let the droids lead her into a speeder and push her into the rear seat without another protest. She would save her energy. They sped off over the uneven terrain and eventually landed in the hangar of a large, black industrial building. It blended in with the dark rock surrounding it. It wouldn't be seen from above.
Then she was taken through a long corridor that at its end held a few unoccupied holding cells. She was thrown in one, her stuncuffs and binders then released. She was certain Michael would be thrown in another.
Leora sat in the corner on the padded cot until she was sure she was alone. Battle droids were only good for blasting and not much else. They hadn't even taken her comlink off her wrist. Leora pulled up her long sleeve and hit the button, speaking quietly.
"R4, we have been detained somewhere in the mountains," she said swiftly and as discreet as possible. "Send a distress signal to the Chancellor."
The droid beeped in affirmation. She hit another button on the communication device, one that would hopefully project her location, and Leora let her sleeve fall. She wouldn't risk anymore contact, fearing she would jinx the luck she had. She sat back on the cot, resting, and trying to wrack her brain for a plan of escape if nobody came—an outcome she hoped fervently would not come true.
Leora felt her side, underneath her robe, and felt the cold metal of her blaster. She could laugh, they hadn't taken that either. But she was would that for the right moment.
