Sweat gathered at the bottom of Uké's neck. There was no breeze on the terrace overlooking Theed. The melody of gentle forms supported by marble and stone always filled Uké with a sense of peace. The sun was blaring down on the domed buildings. The only thing to console her was the cool metal of vibroblades hidden in her sleeves. Her mother is no doubt selling her pottery in the vendor's market with her father to help her. Uké quickly mumbled prayers for the Trade Federation's Occupation's only mark will be in the empty stomachs of the Naboo.
Beside her Padmé leaned down to fix a wrinkle in the black protective gown Sabé wears. The feather plume headpiece on the dark headscarf is supposed to make the handmaiden taller and the stark white paint on her face intimidating.
The other handmaidens—Rabé, Eirtaé, Saché, and Yané all dressed in the same trevella flame colored robes as Uké and Padmé—stood fanned out, three on each side of Sabé. They stood still, ready to execute any duty need be for whoever wore Queen Amidala's paint.
Standing front of them is Captain Panaka, Leader of the Royal Security Forces and an entourage of guards. Uké let out a baited breath when the mechanical droids opened the doors.
"Ah, Queen Amidala, there you are." The Viceroy of the Trade Federation, Nute Gunray, was accompanied by a dozen droids and Sio Bibble who was taken prisoner as he was still in the throne room when they invaded the Theed Royal Palace.
The droids surround them and the group began to move. By the time they're going through the halls, the handmaidens have been pushed to the back of the group.
It struck a nerve of Uké's, to be escorted through her own Queen's palace. It was not the Federation's right to come here, to even be here. As they pass by the vast windows, Uké's jaw clenched tight, the sweat on her neck might as well have boiled. The anger was fleeting, quickly replaced with concern as Gunray threatens the Naboo in hopes of Queen Amidala cracking.
But she didn't and Gunray ordered the droids to move them to a prison camp. Camp 4 specifically. Uké tucked the detail into the back of her mind, knowing that later the handmaidens would gather and speculate. The droids started to walk the Queen's entourage through Theed. Whatever they were to face in the camp, the handmaidens would face it together. Unless things change quickly, but the handmaidens would also be prepared for it. It would be dealt with the cold professionalism they were trained with.
Uké looked forward, staring straight at the feathered headpiece in front of her. Their formation is simple, the Queen leading in the front, Rabé and Padmé at her wings with Uké directly behind her. Following them is Eirtaé, Yané in center, and Saché. The synchronization calmed her for a second. The handmaiden's movements look like a dancing vibrant fire, meant to draw attention to the Queen's dark formidable presence. They symbolize the burning flame of defiance despite the sobriety of Amidala.
It gives her more confidence for when she has to use vibroblades and if she was lucky the droids won't even realize which one of the handmaidens did it. Luckily she won't have to do it today, not when the ambassadors Senator Palpatine sent have finally arrived. Even if her uneasiness at their arrival made her grab for the sheath up her sleeve.
. . .
Uké stared out onto endless sand. Dull and seething sand. It's apparently a sandstorm according to the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi. Nothing like the calm white sands in Naboo's Lake Country. Maybe Uké was just trying to give herself more reason to dislike their situation on Tatooine. First it was the delay to get to Coruscant, then Padmé's decision to leave the ship made Uké feel sick.
It was as simple as her announcing she wanted to see Tatooine and suddenly they had been putting Padmé into a tunic and trousers.
"Do you think the Jedi know?" Sabé asked, nose wrinkling at the itchiness of the paint on her face. "They're supposed to be able to sense things."
"I'm pretty sure Master Qui-Gon is close to figuring it out," Padmé said, staying still as Uké and Rabé quickly tried to pin up her many small braids. "But he hasn't given any indication that he'll stop us."
"He might when you throw yourself into danger," Rabé said.
"At least someone will without one of us around." Uké added with a slight tone of indignation.
Padmé turned around and raised her eyebrows. Uké shrugged.
"It wasn't out of pocket." Sabé muttered.
"Someone's on the ramp," Eirtaé said, reminding them all of the immediacy of the moment. "We'd better hurry up."
"I'll be careful," Padmé promised pointedly looking at Uké. "Try to keep busy when I'm gone. It'll make the time go faster."
"I was going to have a chat with that astromech, but they took him along," Eirtaé complained.
"See if you can get the pilot to set up a flight simulator," Padmé suggested. "That won't take too much power."
Having something to do definitely made the handmaidens feel more relieved. A small path on a wide and so far uncontrollable road.
After sharing quick words with Sabé, Padmé turned to Uké. They communicated what there was to be said through their facial movements and eyes.
Uké then let Padmé hook their elbows and they walked together.
"I don't think I could tell you anything Sabé didn't without overstepping my bounds at the moment," Uké said taking long strides through the Naboo Royal Starship. "But just come back in one piece."
"I will." Padmé reassured her, a warm smile taking over her face. Uké noticed the beauty marks on her face crinkle. "I would never do anything, that I wouldn't without having you at my side."
This was how it always was with them. Uké often pulled Padmé back to earth. The idealist and the realist. Uké had to be stern and remind her what was necessary. It had been like this since they were children. Padmé with her poetry and orations and Uké with her steady voice and steadier hands, made to help bandage, cut, and hold the hands of women putting life into this galaxy.
From under her red capped hood, Uké watched Panaka and Padmé walk off the ship. Padmé's braids were still only half way up, but that was out of her control.
This was all out of her control.
The feeling stays as night fell and the sand started flying around in violent gusts. After the handmaidens ran out of things to do, Uké had wandered up to the cockpit to watch. And that's where she's stayed, appreciating the lack of vibroblades strapped onto her person. She'll always take comforting someone from an ailment or providing relief to a wound than to causing them. But Uké will always act as required. Just as every handmaiden has to.
Even if Padmé isn't her Queen, Uké knew in the depths of her red beating heart she will still do the same for her. Merely because Padmé is Padmé.
Uké wants so deeply to be there for Padmé.
She came to the realization that this was the reason she hated this so much. Who in their right mind let's their best friend, who's the ruler of a planet in danger, walk out onto a planet run by a gangster?
The sleek silver door slides open.
Uké caught mid wallowing quickly tucked her hair and tossed up her hood to find Rabé standing in the doorway. "We should go over wardrobe inventory."
Uké nodded and smoothes out her robes, ready to pour over extravagant ensembles, headpieces, and cloaks.
"Sabé would also like to confirm we don't have Yané's blend on board." Rabé says.
Another crack in Uké's already failing mood. Having to leave behind Saché and Yané already had diluted her confidence. She worried over the two youngest handmaidens already as it was. Uké just wanted them all safe.
. . .
Padmé returned after two days.
Unharmed, much to Uké's relief. Her experiences on Tatooine flows from her as she put the handmaiden's dress back on. After doing so, Rabé told her about the transmission sent by Sio Bibble, bitterly too. The tanned handmaiden was still aggravated at the Jedi Padawan.
"He so graciously informed me that it was a trick." Rabé said with saccharine hints. "That Jedi doesn't even know who the Queen is and he wants to act like he can root out the tricks."
"That's the point Rabé." Eirtaé said studying a datapad on the schematics of the Royal Naboo Ship for what seems like the thousandth time. "And not all of us know about tricks so intimately."
Rabé barely reacted to mention of her former art forgery days.
"I'll still go out and see it." Padmé said.
"As the Queen should." Sabé added.
Padmé nodded carefully and heads out of the chamber. Uké shifted uncomfortably. A spat happened between Padmé and Sabé at the summit held for the planets in the Chommell Sector. It showed no signs of getting better beyond Sabé continuing to do her duty as a handmaiden and being cordial. Then again, Sabé's strong suit has never really been being charming. Uké had learned few details from Padmé. She was extremely scarce with them, feeling guilty for even a whisper.
The young queen felt as though Sabé and all the handmaidens had already given up enough (the entirety of her term, their names, and their own lives need be). She isn't ready for their privacy to join that list.
The handmaidens began to relieve Sabé of the Queen's regalia. Rabé put away the heavy dress, Eirtaé set out her nightclothes, and Uké prepared a soft towel and solution for her makeup. While Padmé and Sabé were identical with Queen Amidala's paint, Uké knew the difference.
"Are you alright?" Uké said quietly.
"I'm better now with this horrid makeup blend coming off." Sabé's eyes were closed as Uké wiped them, heavy white cosmetics revealing pale skin. "I think it might make me break out."
"Well if this doesn't, I bet the stress will." Uké tilted Sabé's chin up, getting the paint on her jaw. Her face was oval compared to Padmé's.
"I can believe it." Sabé muttered with a bare whiff of mirth. Her lips fuller than Padmé's.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"What will you do with what I tell you?" The decoy looked up with dark and hard eyes. More deep-set than– "Will you run to Padmé and tell her how to make me feel better?"
"Sabé, I'm not the Queen." Uké dragged the cloth across her cheeks, picking up red. "There are no power differences between us, we both serve her. You don't have to hide anything from me because of duty and obligation. Not like Padmé has to."
"Duty and obligation." Sabé nearly whispered. She sat their for a second, thinking and realizing, "Uké, why do you do it?" Sabé sits as still as a sentinel statue that stands guard in the Plaza of the Royal Palace. Sabé doesn't look like Queen Amidala now. Sabé doesn't even look like Padmé. Uké remembered that just months ago Sabé was Tsabin. A girl who didn't share a face so coveted, so easy to die for. A girl who was simply herself.
Uké thinks something like that impossible. Even before she took a new name to honor Padmé, she was still Padmé's.
Sabé knew the answer, but maybe Uké had to put it together, to assure Sabé she can say it too.
"Because whether it was duty and obligations or not, I would still always choose Padmé."
Sabé raised her hand to clasp it with Uké's.
Uké's eyes briefly widened in surprise. Sabé disliked physical contact outside of when it was required. This symbol of gratitude made Uké feel like it should be revered. They stand there like that, hoping to convey everything they felt. This galaxy shaping understanding.
"I'll get Padmé." The Queen was no doubt still in the main area of the starship and probably running her mind at a speed like that of hyperspace. Plans probably forming and reforming, variables mutable and yet platinum stiff. Her heart no doubt bleeding for her people.
Sabé nodded, strings of her dark brown hair framing her face. "Could you not tell Padmé yet. I don't know–"
"You deserve whatever time you need, Sabé." Uké said, half way to the door. "So rest well."
On Naboo it would've been nighttime. The three moons would be on full display and a rush of homesickness hit her. Her eyes feel heavy, exhaustion nipping at her heels. But she can't be exhausted, not yet.
She still had much to do.
Uké moved down in the elevator and into the main area of the ship to find Padmé with her arms around the boy she'd she spent a large bulk of her time on Tatooine with.
The Gungan Jar Jar Binks was also in the room, just snoring. Oh, how Uké wants to switch places with him. She then quickly entertained the idea of the Gungan in her robes.
Once in view of Padmé, two of her left fingers twitch, signaling she would have to return to the quarters.
Padmé turned to the boy. "Ani this is my friend Uké, she's another one of the Queen's handmaidens."
"The Queen and I would like to thank you for returning Padmé safely to us." Uké regarded him warmly recalling the fondness that crept into the Padmé's voice when she recounted her time with him.
Anakin mustered up a smile, through Uké felt like she may just have stomped into a... moment between him and Padmé.
"Well it's time for me to go," Padmé stood up, "Sleep well Ani."
As the handmaidens left Anakin called out quickly a: "You too!"
As they quietly made their way back to the Queen's quarters, the pendant on Padmé's neck caught Uké's eye.
"What is that? It's beautiful." She said, admiring the carvings. It reminded her of her mother's finer vases and designed bowls she crafts.
Padmé's hand moved up to close around it. The movement looking like that of a flame, the outer sleeve drooping. "Ani made it. It's called it a japor snippet."
"Is that all?"
Her friend let out a smile. "It's meant to bring good fortune."
"I guess we'll just have to take all we can get."
. . .
"There is no civility, only politics. The Republic is not what it once was. The Senate is full of greedy, squabbling delegates. There is no interest... in the common good. I must be frank, Your Majesty, there is little chance the Senate will act on the invasion."
Uké watched the conversation between the queen and senator silently from under her burgundy hood. The dark blue underdress under it was keeping her warm. Coruscant seemed impossibly cold compared to Naboo. Though maybe it was due to her spot next to the wall away from the couch where everyone other than Uké and Sabé are. As soon as the audience began, the two handmaidens melted into the background, positioned on each side of the glass doors connecting to a waiting room. They had become wall decor similar to the Nubian sculptures littered throughout Palpatine's apartments. Their cloaks blend in well with the colors of the walls, they blend in well with anything in the apartments. As the Queen Amidala and her cadre had first walked through it's halls, Rabé commented on how drenched in blood red everything was.
"Chancellor Valorum seems to think there is hope." Queen Amidala said. The intricate Shiraya headress of Veda pearl beading and glass filaments dangles around her face. When Rabé had pulled it out of the wardrobe case Uké saw Padmé try to keep sorrow off her white painted face. It was one of the headpieces Yané had designed specifically for Padmé.
Senator Palpatine paced through the audience room, "If I may say so, Your Majesty, the Chancellor has little real power... he is mired by baseless accusations of corruption. The bureaucrats are in charge now."
"What options have we?"
"Our best choice would be to push for the election of a stronger Supreme Chancellor." Palpatine said, approaching the Queen. "One who could control the bureaucrats and give us justice. You could call for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum."
It was slight but Uké noticed the brief shock that flits through Amidala's eyes, mimicking the magnitude of a black hole. "He has been our strongest supporter."
"Our only other choice would be to submit a plea to the courts."
"The courts take even longer to decide things than the Senate. Our people are dying, Senator. We must do something quickly to stop the Federation."
Uké heavily agreed. After the blockade started, she and Yané had done as much research on the Federation as possible. Looking at the wealth they had meant they would have a good shot at acquiring attorneys that would be hard to beat in court. The process would be painstakingly long. Too painstakingly long.
"To be realistic, Your Majesty, I think we're going to have to accept Federation control for the time being."
"That is something I cannot do."
. . .
Coruscant was very different than Naboo; but there was a beauty in both Uké decided. While a city such as Theed still felt natural, as if it's domed buildings and arched windows had been there just as long as the Solleu River that carves up the land around it; Coruscant is completely different. It's the opposite of natural, but so illuminated. The way the lights color the view outside of the suite she and Padmé were to spend the night in, drew out some sort of childlike wonderment and she places a hand on the glass, almost trying to touch all this light.
"Padmé." The handmaiden said excitedly, beckoning her hand in the direction of her friend. "Look at this. It's so bright."
Padmé from the other side of the room had been hunched over writing notes she had started for her plea to the Senate, stands up and walks to the large window.
The brown haired girl smiled and joined Uké in sitting on the window ledge on the inside of the glass. It's as if a thousand stars had been pulled down and put together. Together they watched the speeders and ships go by, a never ending stream of colors.
After some time both of them grew tired. Padmé stood up and grabbed a Chandrillian silk sleep head scarf and gathered Uké's wiry hair into it. She sat still and wistfully wished she was in braids and her father was rubbing oil between them. Once Padmé was done she wondered to her bed. Uké left her spot next to the window to follow. An uncomfortable thought went through her head as she laid her head on the pillow, gazing at the window as the blinds shut themselves.
Since it was just her and Padmé, Uké turned to face her friend's bed and didn't stop herself from saying it. "Those speeders are just going by uninterrupted. It makes Naboo seem so..." She hates the word she has to use but swallowed the lump in her throat. "So insignificant."
"Imagine if our lives were that insignificant." Padmé answered back, eyes stoney. Uké's eyebrows crumpled into each other in confusion. Padmé sighed tilting her head, "I'm sorry... If that didn't make sense. It is just I have been thinking about Tatooine, and the fact there is still slavery in the Outer Rim." Padmé's jaw clenches and shakes simultaneously.
A sadness tints the girl's anger.
Uké left her bed to crawl into Padmé's. As soon as she settled she tightly pulls Padmé into her arms.
"I have to do something, Uké. I have to. Even if I can't right now. I just feel so guilty because I need to focus on my people, but there is so much suffering because they were born, taken, or forced into someth–"
This isn't Queen Amidala or even Padmé the handmaiden. This is Padmé Naberrie speaking, her voice unsure and stripped down. There are no masks here between them. And Padmé is courageous, and so full of hope. Uké wants nothing more than to be with her for the rest of her life. To see her fight with a kind heart.
Uké reached for Padmé's hand. "We are brave, your Highness."
The handmaidens had created a series of coded phrases and signal words for many occasions all with meanings. We are brave, your Highness, go on, go forward, with every ounce of support. And we are brave enough to follow.
Padmé's eyes glistened and she tightened her grip on Uké's hand. A warm feeling flooded Uké's body. Because Padmé is strong and vulnerable and beautiful. Because Padmé is still the girl who argued so eloquently at age six over how her pink flutter flowers were better then sapflowers. Because Padmé has a heart that despairs over pain yet still burns with hope and kindness. Because Padmé is near luminous: in lavish and commanding Queen's gowns; in a simple white nightgown, face framed by her curly brown hair with two beauty marks embellishing her moon pale face.
"Thank you, Uké." There's that name, the one she chose to honor Padmé. And in her mouth it sounds like a divine gift.
"But you should know that you're not doing it without me." Uké said in a mock serious tone. Their faces are an inch away, noses nearly touching and their arms tangled together.
"Of course," Padmé giggled, "I haven't spent one year away from you, why start now?"
"I'm going to hold you to that."
"Of course, what's the tides without its moons."
This closeness is something they can only find when the titles, spectators, guards, and handmaidens fade away and there is nothing other than them. This warm, adoring feeling lasts as they talk. It's comforting, laying next to each other, like back when they were little girls and slept over in each other's beds in Theed or the village they grew up in. For this small amount of time they're just Padmé Naberrie and Lukoye Rhull. It is calming and so safe. It lets them go softly into sleep's sweet embrace. Uké doesn't leave Padmé's bed until she can hear her friend's breathing level out. Only then does Uké take her hand out of Padmé's and settle into her own bed.
Her mind wandered to tomorrow, when Queen Amidala would face the Senate. Uké held onto to hope and let herself fall into sleep.
. . .
"The boy is here to see Padmé." Eirtaé's comm beeped, the message coming from the guard standing outside the Queen's quarters.
Uké and Eirtaé looked at each other, eyes communicating agreement. "Let him in." Eirtaé relayed.
Rabé rehung the cloak she was unhooking to drape to bring to Amidala and moved to greet him. "I'm sorry, Ani, Padmé's not here right now."
"Who is it?" Queen Amidala's reverence worthy voice rung out. Sabé followed right after her, walking into the wide doorway connecting the quarters.
"Anakin Skywalker to see Padmé, Your Highness."
The interaction between Queen Amidala and Anakin Skywalker is quick. And when he left the Queen turned to Uké, the mask drops and it's Padmé's eyes asking for Uké to go out there.
So Uké moved out the door, "Ani, wait!"
The boy turned around, blue eyes squinting in the low light, his features brightened, "Uké?"
A small part of her resented the fact he could recognize her. It reminds her of the intense argument between Padmé and Panaka when Padmé demanded Uké be a handmaiden. Sabé, Rabé, Eirtaé, Saché, and Yané had all been scouted by Panaka as he was the Head Captain of Naboo's Royal Security Forces, for their skills and resemblance to Padmé. Uké bore little resemblance to Padmé besides their brown eyes. Uké's skin bears a tone darker than Rabé's bronze and her hair is far less easy to manage in a pinch. But that just meant they had to bring every one of Uké's skills to the surface. Her medical certification, her skill of mimicking Amidala's voice to perfection (only now outdone by Sabé), her hand-to-hand ability was fluid and quick and brutal if needed, and her pure loyalty when it came to Padmé were some of the biggest factors in convincing Panaka.
But of course in the end it was Padmé's decision. And she chose Uké.
While Uké, like all the handmaidens, had stepped into the decoy role, she did it the least often, followed only by Saché who held the least aptitude towards Amidala's regal voice. Her physical differences are too much to risk and Uké can't help but think that one day Padmé would suffer for it.
Uké shook herself of the opened wound and nodded, her dark blue cowl moving with her, "The Queen asked me to accompany you out of the Senator's apartments." She said catching up to him. She knows what her job is, tell Anakin what Padmé couldn't tell him.
"I just don't really know if I'll ever get to see her again." Anakin said blue eyes cast downwards.
"Perhaps, but it was very sweet of you to come, I know she'll be very sad knowing she missed you while on a Queen's errand." Uké tilted her head. "Padmé is going to appreciate finding out you came."
They walk through the dark crimson halls, making conversation. First the spectacular Podrace Anakin won, then Uké asks about the construction of a Podracer and tucked the information away for later to tell Eirtaé. The blonde handmaiden had been very upset when Padmé hadn't been able to dredge up any details about the machines. He animatedly describes them, soon branching off into the protocol droid he built on Tatooine. As they near the elevator, conversation stills.
"I'm really going to miss her." Anakin muttered, itching behind his ear. "Even if I haven't even known her very long."
Uké bent down and set her hand on his shoulder with a smile, "I know she'll keep you in her heart."
Anakin beamed, his tanned face shining.
"I wish you luck with your Jedi training Ani." The handmaiden said as he walked into the elevator. "And if you ever come to Naboo, we'd love to see you again."
. . .
The only thing Uké's hope from the previous night had helped with was in Padmé overthrowing Chancellor Valorum. Which the young Queen denied.
Uké while closing a container after packing it made sly eye contact with Sabé.
"It's fine to incite a rebellion every now and then your Highness." Uké spoke with the most deadpanned tone as possible.
Eirtaé snorted from across the room.
(The best part about leaving Coruscant was watching Padmé and Sabé's relationship return to normal. Maybe being wired for finally winning something brought them together. Hopefully Sabé finally was able to articulate the hard but genuine truth she was keeping inside.
Seemed likely.)
. . .
"Remember, the ELG-3A uses a snap-trigger, so hold it down firmly, just like during training." Eirtaé stood in front of Uké, Padmé, Sabé, Rabé, Saché, and Yané, doing a run-down on the blaster they had been handed to use during the battle. "In case we come across any Trade Federation officials, there is also a stun setting and we need them alive for trial."
"And remember if they get confiscated or we're captured, I'll always have the vibroblades." Uké said. "Be ready if I have to throw you one."
"How many?" Rabé asked.
"Two in my boots, two up my sleeves, and one in my hair."
Uké was the only one of the handmaidens with an affinity for the small vibroblades that they had once worked with during training. After, Padmé had told her it was no surprise with her background of having steady hands not afraid of the movement from days of shaping moving clay and medical memory.
(Grandmother had been the one to drill into her head, A difficult birth will always require a knife.
Here, Grandmother had said gripping the scalpel, And here. Placing a hand over Uké's heart.)
Uké's ability to stay calm made her the first to lead when Padmé couldn't. Her voice didn't waver when directing the handmaidens. While she isn't the best shot of them; the two before her are Sabé and Saché, her safe hands can hold the responsibility of trust and a blaster in equal part.
"If we get captured I'll most likely be closest to Nute Gunray or one of his associates." Sabé's voice comes out despite the paint on her face.
Yané nodded and pointed towards the place on Sabé's chest where the red and black fabric overlaps, "We could tuck it between the blast damping fabric and the heavy sown protector."
After discussing the little measures they could take, the air around them quiets. Uké was undeniably frustrated by the fact she didn't feel prepared and could recognize the slight signs of it in the other handmaidens. Padmé stands strong, only taking calculated breaths in and out. Beyond that, there is a seed of comfort in Saché and Yané's company.
The moment they returned to the handmaidens, something felt right. They are together again and it makes them stronger, Uké could feel it as she held Yané tightly. And even after Uké inspected Saché's mottled and ridged skin, saw the damage, and found that not even her own medical training could soothe them, Uké still felt better knowing Saché was there. Unified in maroon and gold with Naboo's royal emblem decorating their belts and hair tied back, the handmaidens would face battle together.
. . .
Being captured was not a part of the plan. Yet there they were.
Under Padmé's command, they had split up with Uké, Captain Panaka, and a handful of guards going with Padmé. While they there in the throne room, blasters hidden in a compartment Eirtaé had installed into the throne, it still wasn't the right time to act.
"Your little insurrection is at an end, Your Highness. Time for you to sign the treaty... and end this pointless debate in the Senate."
"I will not be signing any treaty, Viceroy, because you've lost!" Sabé ran up with Rabé, Eirtaé and a set of guards at her heels.
The Neimoidians looked at her in shock.
"After her! This one is a decoy!" A large number of droids Gunray heckled followed his orders. Then he turned back to Padmé. "Your Queen will not get away with this."
Uké and Padmé briefly made eye contact. Then Padmé sat down on the throne while Uké simultaneously pulled vibroblades from her boots and ran at the nearest droid, jamming one into its head while throwing another hard enough to shatter the glass eye of a different droid. Padmé opened the compartment and quickly tossed a blaster to Panaka and they started firing. The other guards follow suit.
"Now, Viceroy, this is the end of your occupation here."
. . .
It's been a day since Uké was told that her mother and father had fallen during the battle. But Uké wasn't supposed to—no, couldn't—dwell on it for now. The mourning could wait. Naboo had always been a place of celebration, it holds its triumphs and peace over anything. The liberation of Naboo combined with the unification of its two peoples, is something Uké finds herself cherishing. It means that this was all for something, her parent's deaths don't mean nothing.
It was also something that meant the galaxy to Padmé. Watching her since they won was painful. Every death weighed on her but she would have to continue on because Padmé was Queen Amidala. The only act of mourning that had taken place since the battle, was Qui-Gon Jinn's funeral.
At her place in the back of the room, by one of the pillars Uké let herself be soaked into the sorrow of the room. She couldn't spare any tears, she was a handmaiden and it wouldn't be appropriate. But instead her heart became the Solleu River, except it wasn't water that flowed, it was grief. Grief for everything that had suffered. Grief for the suffering that was still yet to come. Saché and her scars which were surely not just riddled in her skin, families who suffered the same loss she did and knew they would have to light a stick of incense at the memorial that would no doubt take place the next year and all other years.
Wiping away the painful memories from the night before, Uké looks towards the midday. Padmé was already wearing a Jubilation Dress, the overcoat looking like the soft pink and white flutter flowers that grew in the mountains where she and Uké had grown up. In hours she was going to pass a symbol of peace to Boss Nass, representing a new time for both their peoples.
But before that, there came the planning.
"Does he ever get tired of doing it?" Uké said as she watches Panaka arrange the guard detail for the parade with Padmé next to him. Yané and Sabé were at her wings.
Mariek Panaka quirked her eyebrow and looked at the handmaiden. "Doing what?"
"Does he ever get tired of protecting Naboo's monarchs, of putting everything into everything, again and again for so many, so many times."
"Uké, it sounds like you're going in circles." Uké pursed her lips. Her emotions still rough enough to get disgruntled by Mariek of all people. "But let me ask you this: how long have you known Padmé?"
Uké's mouth opened and quickly closed. She wasn't going to ask why considering Mariek is just as stubborn as her husband. So she sighed and answered. "I've known her since we were toddlers. We both grew up in a village in the mountains, when Padmé's family moved, my family," her voice dipped ever so sightly, "decided to do the same. When Padmé decided to join the apprentice legislation here in Theed, I decided to study medicine here too."
"Well then I guess that's why you don't understand it then, your dedication to Padmé probably stops you from imagining any other." The captain hummed, almost sounding like she was contemplating something.
Uké opened her mouth again to rebuke with some mentions of the other handmaidens and her care for them until she promptly shut it again.
While there were no implications in what Mariek said, there were still implications. Uké just hoped the older woman didn't see her embarrassed smile under the dark green hood she was wearing.