[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(133)

A cool breeze whispered in through the doorway, and Leia shivered. The Force is strong in my family. Luke had said those words to her on the eve of the Battle of Endor. She hadn’t believed it at first, not until long afterward when his patient training had begun to bring out a hint of those abilities in her. But her father had had that same training and those same abilities : and yet had ultimately fallen to the dark side.

One of the twins kicked. She paused, reaching out to gently touch the two tiny beings within her; and as she did so, fragments of memory flooded in on her. Her mother’s face, taut and sad, lifting her from the darkness of the trunk where she’d lain hidden from prying eyes. Unfamiliar faces leaning over her, while her mother spoke to them in a tone that had frightened her and set her crying. Crying again when her mother died, holding tightly to the man she’d learned to call Father.

Pain and misery and fear : and all of it because’ of her true father, the man who had renounced the name Anakin Skywalker to call himself Darth Vader.

There was a faint shuffling sound from the doorway. “What is it, Threepio?” Leia asked, turning to face the droid.

“Your Highness, Chewbacca has informed me that you will be leaving here soon,” Threepio said, his prim voice a little anxious. “May I assume that I will be accompanying you?”

“Yes, of course,” Leia told him. “Whatever happens in Nystao, I don’t think you’ll want to be here for the aftermath.”

“I quite agree.” The droid hesitated, and Leia could see in his stance that his anxiety hadn’t been totally relieved. “There is, however, something that I really think you should know,” he continued. “One of the decon droids has been acting very strangely.”

“Really?” Leia said. “What exactly does this strangeness consist of?”

“He seems far too interested in everything,” Threepio said. “He has asked a great number of questions, not only about you and Chewbacca, but also about me. I’ve also seen him moving about the village after he was supposed to be shut down for the night.”

“Probably just an improper memory wipe the last time around,” Leia said, not really in the mood for a fullblown discussion of droid personality quirks. “I could name one or two other droids who have more curiosity than their original programming intended.”

“Your Highness!” Threepio protested, sounding wounded. “Artoo is a different case altogether.”

“I wasn’t referring only to Artoo.” Leia held up a hand to forestall further discussion. “But I understand your concerns. I tell you what: you keep an eye on this droid for me. All right?”

“Of course, Your Highness,” Threepio said. He gave a little bow and shuffled his way back out into the gathering dusk.

Leia sighed and looked around her. Her restless wandering around the dukha had brought her to the genealogy wall chart, and for a long minute she gazed at it. There was a deep sense of history present in the carved wood; a sense of history, and a quiet but deep family pride. She let her eyes trace the connections between the names, wondering what the Noghri themselves thought and felt as they studied it. Did they see their triumphs and failures both, or merely their triumphs? Both, she decided. The Noghri struck her as a people who didn’t deliberately blind themselves to reality.

“Do you see in the wood the end of our family, Lady Vader?”

Leia jumped. “I sometimes wish you people weren’t so good at that,” she growled as she regained her balance.

“Forgive me,” the maitrakh said, perhaps a bit dryly. “I did not mean to startle you.” She gestured at the chart. “Do you see our end there, Lady Vader?”

Leia shook her head. “I have no vision of any future, maitrakh. Not yours; not even mine. I was just thinking about children. Trying to imagine what it’s like to try to raise them. Wondering how much of their character a family can mold, and how much is innate in the children them selves.” She hesitated. “Wondering if the evil in a family’s history can be erased, or whether it always passes itself on to each new generation.”

The maitrakh tilted her head slightly, the huge eyes studying Leia’s face. “You speak as one newly facing the challenge of child-service.

“Yes,” Leia admitted, her hand caressing her belly. “I don’t know if Khabarakh told you, but I’m carrying my first two children.”

“And you fear for them.”

Leia felt a muscle in her cheek twitch. “With good reason. The Empire wants to take them from me.”

The maitrakh hissed softly. “Why?”