Mutual Feelings

Anakin gets some news from Coruscant

Reluctantly, Anakin crossed to the holocomm again. It wasn't so much that he didn't want to talk to Padmé, who he strongly suspected to be his caller, unless she'd given someone her comlink, of course. His last chat with her had been while they were both desperately drunk, and he had no idea what he'd said, or why an e-mail had been sent to him from the Senate hall suggesting that he had been swearing sulphurously, and that doing so over an official, state-owned channel was a waste of taxpayers credits.

He waited for the caller's face to appear, confirming that it was either Senator Amidala, or someone who'd stolen her comlink, and was wearing a holographic disguise as well.

"Angel." He greeted her. "How are things on Coruscant?"

"As usual." Padmé replied, looking more tired than usual. "Senators lining their own pockets, the war faction trying to drum up support for their new wunderwaffen," she told him, using the exotic term deliberately. "Which will end the war in six weeks, when fully deployed."

"Is that the ceramite powered armour rig again?" He asked. "Are they still trying to arm the clones who'd be wearing it with 25mm gyrojet cannons, or did they give up on the idea?"

"No, I'm afraid." She replied, smiling slightly. "They're now trying to get the ammunition to explode when it strikes something, which is going to take another few months, if they want them to drop super battle droids with a three round burst."

"The Republic is working up in the outer system, isn't it?" Anakin asked.

"She is, yes." Padmé confirmed. "The estimate is that she'll be ready for action in about three weeks."

"Only another three weeks?" Anakin asked.

"They've pulled all of the stops out. I think that fleet command are collectively trying to compensate for something. Who needs a mile-long battleship?"

"It'll be good for command and control." Anakin replied. "It's got enough guns to tackle a squadron of Venators, although the starfighter complement would be a real issue for a republic. Six squadrons?" He sounded almost incredulous. "Sullust carries forty squadrons."

"They've got some sort of single-seater fighter they've been developing. Supposed to be enough to take on anything and win."

"They said that about the V-wing, Arc-170s, and the Y-wing." He commented.

"It's got decent specs. And no, that imbecile Tarkin didn't design it."

Anakin had seen the single-seater Tarkin had proposed. The TIE had good manuverability, and was quick. Unfortunately, it was dirt cheap, had no shields or armour, and some models only had one laser cannon.

"So it's actually capable of taking a single hit?" He asked.

"The fighter is." Padmé confirmed. "I'm not sure when it'll be ready, though."

She seemed to glance off to one side, slightly, before looking back at Anakin.

"How's Ahsoka?' She asked.

Anakin's face flickered slightly.

"No!" Padmé said. "She's too damned young to die in this stupid war."

"She's alive." Anakin said, reassuringly. Thankfully, she'd misinterpreted him. "We had a run in with a droid, and she ended up wearing a pair of anti-force cuffs. We can't find a way of getting them off of her wrists without injuring her."

Padmé glanced away for a moment, again. She remembered, with a bit of a smile, the time Anakin had taken her prisoner, and not let her off of the bed for several hours. Anakin grinned too, at the slight blush.