TheBridge

His gift for command was in full evidence as he spoke with various tech crew and junior officers, delegating jobs and taking their reports. Then his eyes lifted and he saw her watching him. His mouth curled a little and he said something to the people in front of him before he bent to a much smaller someone at his side and then both of them approached Sola.

She pulled back into the shadows under the catwalk so they could have some margin of privacy, sadly not enough to snog him unconscious, but she wrapped her arms around him, the hard surface of the dented cuirass digging into her.

“Firmus,” she murmured. “My darling…”

“I know,” he replied, burying his face into her shoulder for all too brief seconds. She could see the flecks of dirt in his hair and the back of his neck.

And that was all they would get for the moment. He lifted his head, ghosting his lips across her cheek as he did so and turned to draw the wide eyed child close to himself.

“This is Matt. Matthew, this is my wife…” he hesitated, hazel eyes a little uncertain as he looked at her.

“Miss Sola works for now,” she told the boy. He was dressed in clothes that were clean but too big for him, and it was clear from his far too solemn expression that he had seen things a child should never have to. She started to piece some things together about her husband’s damaged cuirass and the way this child was clearly quite attached to Firmus.

Veers walked past him and entered the room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

“I said to let no one….!” snarled Ozzel, and then he stopped with the gleaming blade at his throat.

Before him were control panels and various screens showing the chaos in the city as well as the situation in orbit.

Amidala had not kriffed around.

Veers had never seen an invasion fleet that big in his entire career. But he was more interested in the small device that the King was holding in his left hand.

“How DARE you!” snarled Ozzel. “This is treason, Veers! I will have you killed slowly and publicly for this…!”

“No doubt,” Veers agreed. “I want the controls to all those chips you’ve implanted in people. I want them now .”

A slow nasty smile crossed the King’s face.

“Worried for your gutter trash friend?” he smirked. “If I were you, General, I would take that sword from my neck. Even if you took my head off, we both know my hand would convulse around this device.”

So he was holding it.

Kark.

“All personnel to your posts. This is not a drill. We are under attack. All personnel report to your posts immediately. This is not a drill.”

The sound of scraping chairs and exclamations sounded behind the Captain, but he was too busy staring out the viewport at the hundreds of small attack craft humming over the mountains toward them. He jerked his gaze upward to the sky and could just see the outline of larger ships in orbit.

They were here.

He was certain of it.

Amidala had launched a surprise attack for her sister.

The thunder of dentons began dropping and Piett realized immediately that the naval base here was a target.

But more importantly—Sola was in danger. Ozzel would want her to use as a hostage.

Piett’s mug shattered on the floor as he turned and sprinted for the lift back to the speeder level he had just come from. He shoved past others heading in the opposite direction to their posts, uncaring that he was directly disobeying orders.

He’d sworn to her.

He’d promised that if Amidala came, he would help her.

He had to get to the Princess at all costs.

Veers nodded, watching him.

“Dangerous game to play, my friend. And for more than one reason. That dance of yours…”

He paused to pin Piett with his keen gaze.

“I’ve never seen you look at any woman like that.”

Piett hoped the night was hiding the flush he could feel creeping over his face.

“I told you, we were putting on a performance…”

“ She was. Were you ?”

Piett considered denying it. Saying such things aloud meant that it was real and there was no going back. He couldn’t lie to himself.

But apparently, his hesitation was good enough for this perceptive friend of his.

“Force damn it, Firmus,” Veers sighed, taking a drink.

“All right,” she said at last, bringing those luminous eyes back to bear on him. “All right, I’m done playing his games his way. I have a proposal, Captain Piett.”

She usually just referred to him as ‘Captain’. Maybe this was a little more progress.

“I’m listening,” he replied with a small smile.

“I think we rub this in his face. I think we take what he intended to humiliate and hurt us both, and make him eat it.”

He blinked a little, but this was a side of her he hadn’t seen before and he was enjoying it. The strategist. The secret warrior. There had been rumors that she was Queen Amidala’s eyes and ears. He could see that now.

“How so?” he asked.

“We play the happy couple,” the Princess said, leaning forward a bit, a wicked smile on her lips. “We pretend that actually we fell in love and couldn’t be more delighted about this. No karks to give. I’ll even pretend to enjoy wearing that hideous dress.”

He laughed. He couldn’t help it. A bold plan indeed and one that would send the King’s blood pressure through the roof. A dangerous thing to do, but as he himself had organized this marriage, he had only himself to blame.

“All right,” he returned. “I can do that.”

“Firmus!”

Piett stared at the speaker, slightly puzzled and trying to process his presence with his weary brain.

“Max. What…are you doing here?”

The General rolled his eyes and gripped Piett’s upper arm to steer him to a more unobtrusive corner of the massive naval headquarters.

“Here for you of course, you nerf. I tried to catch you two days ago, but you’d already been sent out on patrol. Also. PATROL? You? What in the kark? Also, Myra’s worried.”

Piett smiled a little.

It was nice to have a friend who cared like this. Someone in the galaxy to whom it mattered if he lived or died. Myra had been added to this number about three years previously, and he appreciated her worry given that she was four months pregnant with the Veers’ first child.

“Please,” Ozzel said. “We both know that you are your sister’s eyes and ears, Princess. Your denial is pathetic. But. We are merciful. I will give you three choices.”

“I don’t want your choices,” she informed him, folding her arms and straightening her spine. “Just kill me and be done.”

“Nonetheless it amuses me for you to choose. So. One—you join my harem.”

Sola tightened her jaw and breathed out through her nostrils. That BASTARD. Humiliation indeed. A princess of Naboo with that…that…

“Two,” he continued, smiling at whatever he saw on her face. “I sell you to the highest bidder in my court. I have many eligible men who would appreciate an alliance with the house of Amidala.”

Internally, she felt ill and she refused to look around to see the hungry eyes she knew were upon her.

“Or three,” Ozzel said, waving a languid hand. “I will publicly wed you to one of our lowest members of society. I must say I urge you to one of the first two. At least there you can remain with nobility…”

“Three,” she snapped, white hot with rage and wanting to cut out his disgusting tongue. Nobility in this kingdom meant nothing. In fact it was far more likely to mean abuse—-Caridians had a reputation the galaxy over.

The King’s eyebrows rose and there was a murmur in the court.

“Are you…certain, Your Highness?” he asked. “You do not even know the race of…”

“You offered me a choice, I chose,” Sola declared. He may have her in a terrible position, but she would take victories wherever she could.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31616678/chapters/86809633

Happy Halloween everyone. Here’s a little something for your enjoyment. 😉