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"Of course," she said after finishing describing Naboo, "For all our beauty, we are still now under the heel of a conqueror at present. And I still don't understand why the Trade Federation has done this! Her majesty's government might have been looking into other means of transporting our goods elsewhere into the rest of the Republic, but their monopoly on trade doesn't mean they can simply and invade any planet that looks for alternate solutions to purchasing space with them!"
"Don't worry," Harry said reaching over the table to pat Padme's hand. "The Senate will have to act once you arrived on the city in person won't they?"
Padme nodded resolutely, flushing ever so slightly at the contact. "That is what my queen expects, and why we are in such a rush to get to Coruscant."
Nearby Fay rolled her eyes which Lily caught and she leaned down. "What?"
"Young Padme is hiding a bit of a royal secret so to speak," Fay said out of the corner of her mouth.
Lily's eyebrows rose in surprise and Fay shrugged. "She is in fact the Queen of Naboo under a very thin disguise at present. I don't know who Padme think she's fooling. Any Jedi could read her body language, tone of voice and presence as being that of someone of importance."
Lily frowned. "I haven't gotten that actually, although now that you mention it, she does seem a little bit… imperious I suppose, at times. But wait, she's only what 14, 15? And she's the queen of an entire planet!?"
Looking at Padme from the corner of her eyes Fay shook her head, still whispering so the young woman could not hear her. "I doubt she has much real power, a girl like her is most likely a pretty figurehead in many ways although if Padme will remain so for her tenure as Queen is anyone's guess. I've not dealt with Naboo myself. The inhabitants tend to be peaceful and solve any conflict between them through discourse, even Jar Jar's people so the Force never called me there."
Lily shot Fay another look, and the other woman laughed, reaching up to pat Lily on the lower leg, her hand seemingly patting nothing in the air to those without Force senses for a moment, sinking into Lily's ethereal form after a few seconds. "Don't worry he is not representational of his race."
Nearby Jar Jar looked up from where he had been slurping at a meaty kind of soup Harry called sucal, which he had run into on an ice world. "Mesa think I be insulted but mesa no know why…"
"Good." Then Lily's eyes hardened noticeably, and she leaned down until the two women were Face-to-Face. "Now, what are we going to do about keeping Aayla and Harry together?"
"I will meditate once more on that matter," Fay replied with a calm she did not altogether feel. "Then we will talk in depth about that topic, unless you have an idea now?"
"Not on that point, but I did have an idea about how to stop the High Council from being so cavalier with their people's lives in the future..."
OOOOOOO
"Hmph, I see you were able to find someone with more local credits, I would never have believed it." Watto said hovering in the air has he watched Dooku place the credits for the part for the Nabooan style engine on his table. "Still, I'll not argue. Your money is now good, and the part is ready for you to take it, I've even loaned you a lifter free of charge." The Toydarian hacked a laugh, shaking his long-snouted head.
"Not quite," Qui-Gon said quickly. "We also wish to purchase your slaves."
"They are not for sale," Watto replied sharply.
"Of course they are, all that means is we have to haggle." Qui-Gon nodded to his former master, who slowly pulled out credit upon credit and placing them on the table. Unlike republic credits, which mostly looked like coins whose actual value was dubious, the credits used out here, Hutt credits, looked like long sticks of precious metals.
Most of the money had come from Jabba's palace. Dooku had felt no compunction in stripping the palace of all of its monetary wealth, most of which he had transferred electronically already off planet and to his estate's account so he could use it to pay for the reallocation of the slaves. He thought that a rather delicious example of both justice and irony. The local currency he had taken so they could purchase parts and anything else necessary for the number of ships they had commandeered for the salve, which had proven unnecessary. This had left a lot of jewels, art and sculpture behind for Gardulla, which would have to do to assuage her.
Watto's eyes bulged as he saw the amount of money, and he wavered for a moment. "Fine, you can take the woman. Shmi is only useful as window dressing anyway, and even that not much given her age. But Anakin is not for sale! The boy is too good with machines for me to do without!"
"We are offering you enough money to actually pay someone, or rather three or four someone's to do his job," Dooku said mildly, pausing in his work for a moment to stare coolly at the Toydarian. "We have interest in the boy, and we will have both of them."
"They're my property and I say the boy is not for sale!" the Toydarian said querulously, unwilling to part with his prized slave especially since the boy not only was a fine machinist, but also a very good pod-racer.
He had yet to win a race, but he had placed second several times, which had been enough to win his owner quite a bit of money up until his disastrous crash in his last race. Besides, if he paid people, that meant he would have a long-term ongoing drain on his profits. His shop didn't do much business enough business to take that kind of thing. "Take the boy's mother and go!"
"We are interested in both; therefore, we will take them both. This will happen." Dooku said again.
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