Rise of the Unknown Sith (Sith Lord CYOA) (Patreon)

My eyes narrowed as I read over the news report. This was an odd move for Nute Gunray, sure, from all legal matters, the Queen of Naboo was the one in the wrong, but this level of overt movement was out of place. He was a bureaucrat and a businessman, more than that, he was a neimoidian. There were so many stress factors involved in blockading a planet that it was unlikely he’d come up with the idea himself.

I ran my fingers through my beard contemplatively, considering how to make use of this information. The urbanites of Naboo were pacifistic fools, but the ranchers and others in the rural parts of the planet had more blasters than some planetary security forces. Even so, I don’t doubt that they’d say no to more, and if I could procure some product that would sell on markets elsewhere, well that’s just good business.

“Keza,” I called out, getting the attention of the only other sentient on the ship. “The cargo hold is still full of blasters, right?”

“Yup,” the green skinned twi’lek said as she came out of the cockpit, popping the p. “Tarbek came down with a really bad case of death when his crew mutinied.”

“This is why I demand pay upfront when dealing with pirates,” I muttered under my breath. “Right, contact Tovias, pretty sure he retired onto Naboo, see if he knows some people who’d be interested in a hold full of weapons.”

“You got it boss! I’ll use the old channels to make sure that those bug eyed bastards don’t catch wind of the deal,” the bubbly slave said with a twirl and a pep in her step. Said twirl also happened to result in the shirt that came down to mid thigh on her rising up over the swell of her ass. I rolled my eyes and chuckled in amusement at her antics.

Keza may have been a slave, but it certainly didn’t feel like it at times. With how much she did both on the ship and in keeping my criminal empire running, she easily had more soft power than the majority of the hutt kajidics. Granted, that comparison meant less now than it did a few decades ago, what with my ever growing web of crime and control over the galactic underworld.

“Thanks Keza, I appreciate your help, especially now,” I told her, clapping her on the shoulder before heading back into the cockpit. It was time to leave the comforts of Alderaan and head towards Naboo. I wasn’t expecting too much trouble, but there was no reason to take chances, so I'd run a diagnostics on the ship's systems after putting in the hyperspace coordinates.

“No problem!” Keza shouted back, waving her hand and then rushing off to make the call to Tovias.

I glanced up from the holodisplay as the hyperdrive disengaged and we came out of hyperspace. Within minutes we were approaching the Trade Federation Blockade, a small pack of vulture droids flying up to us. My eyes narrowed as I noticed the ship was being scanned by multiple vessels, most likely looking for contraband or illegal goods, but I hadn't heard any alarms go off. Looks like the shielding I’d shelled out a moderate fortune for had done its job.

“How long until we reach Naboo?” I asked Keza as she hopped up on the console in front of me.

“Not long, they shouldn’t find anything with the scans, and the ship’s on record as having visited the rural parts a multitude of times, so our alibi should hold,” she answered.

“If it seems like they’re not buying it, follow standard procedures,” I told her. “Take us to the nearest spaceport to where Tovias can be reached.”

“Yes sir!” Keza said chipperly, quickly typing in the coordinates and sending them to the nav computer. In a matter of moments the ship was accelerating away from the blockade, and within another minute we were entering the inner atmosphere. We sped past the various droid fighters on patrol, eventually settling down in a spaceport a short distance (relatively) from the capital city of Theed.

Tovias was already waiting for us, and I met the old human with a grin, “Tovias, ya old bastard, how’re ya liking your retirement?”

He returned the grin, clasping my forearm and pulling me into a hug. As he did so, he whispered, “Long as I'm above ground, I'll be happy. You know how I love the warm weather.”

”Yeah, I do,” I nodded in agreement, recognizing the old code. “So, you're gonna be able to get these people ahold of something that they want?”

“Well, I've already sent word to some friends about what's happening here and gotten a couple of leads on potential buyers. Not much else I can do, though, I don't have the best contacts anymore.”

I looked around at the various ships parked at the spaceport, many of which were civilian, and nearly all of which had been grounded since the blockade began. I held in a smirk, country folk were the same everywhere, regardless of the planet: tell them what to do and try to press them down, and you’d breed a resentment that’ll last for generations. One of the reasons outward conquest was tricky to pull off.

The elites always underestimated them, it was one of the lessons my old Master had passed onto me, and it resonated with the orphaned farm boy I’d been when he found me. This whole exchange would blow up in the Trade Federation’s face if they got any more heavy handed than they already had.

“You’ll get your usual cut,” I told him. “It’ll be good for everyone involved to have a little extra insurance.”

“Well, everyone except the neimoidians up in orbit,” Keza quipped, prompting a chuckle from Tovias and I.

After that exchange was done, a bunch of Tovias’s men came out and started unloading the crates filled with blasters. The last ones were being unloaded, when I paused, feeling a chill run down my spine. I closed my eyes briefly, feeling the ripples in the Force… an invasion? Jedi in orbit? Well now, this presented some interesting possibilities.

Opening my eyes, I turned back to Keza and told her, “Get the ship ready for takeoff at a moment’s notice, Coruscant Protocols.”

For all her bubbly, joking demeanor, Keza knew when to get serious, and the tone I used most definitely meant it was time to get serious. So with a nod, she raced back up the boarding ramp to the Raven’s Shadow as I double checked my sidearm and backup weapons. Plenty of grenades, most of them ion, and my weapon of last resort were all secure, so I grabbed a few extra supplies from the ship and I was good.

Turning to Tovias, I told him, “Got one of those hunches, you’ll want to get the delivery secured and hidden away.”

He knew by now that my hunches were always right. As he raced off, barking orders as I turned towards Theed and made my way towards the city. It had been a century or two since I’d been on Naboo, but I was pretty sure the Palace was the same, so the passage that led to the throne room should still be there.

[hr][/hr]

Queen Amidala stared out the window of the Palace at the droid armies entering Theed and making their way to the Palace. The Trade Federation couldn’t possibly justify this, there was no standing for it. But until the Senate could act, there was nothing that she could…

Her thoughts were cut off as something wrapped around her mouth, something being forced behind her teeth and keeping her from crying out for security. Her headdress was removed and despite her attempts to resist, the gag was cinched closed against the back of her head. Giant hands then grabbed her wrists, pulling her arms behind her back before with a quiet click of metal, her hands were locked together, the only saving grace being that the restraints weren’t bare metal, some sort of fur like material keeping them from biting into her skin.

Before she could turn around, to try to at least identify her attacker, a thick, almost burlap material was thrown over her head and torso. Her legs were pulled out from under her, and the hands from before pushed her lower body into the sack that had been thrown over her. To her mortification, the hands reached under her dress and used a rope to tie her knees together, before something similar to the restraints around her hands was secured to her ankles. The key difference was that there seemed to be a metal bar attached to the ankle restraints, forcing them apart before the sack was cinched shut.

What happened next, she could only make a rough guess. From the feel of it, the sack with her in it was carried over shoulder for what felt like hours, bouncing about against her kidnapper’s back. As she did, her mind raced, trying to figure out who had kidnapped her, and how they’d gotten into the Palace with security on high alert.

They weren’t with the Trade Federation, on top of not needing to kidnap her like this, she was pretty sure they wouldn’t use BDSM gear to kidnap a Head of State! Which meant that it was an independent actor, the only question was who?

Her thoughts were interrupted as the sack holding her was dropped, rather unceremoniously she might add, to a metal floor. The air was knocked out of her lungs and she gasped as she heard some sort of animal roaring, mixed with the hydraulics of a ship’s landing ramp closing. She’d only been on ships a few times, but even so she recognized the sensation of a ship taking off.

Privately, she hoped that she was being taken to another part of Naboo, by a well organized militia that she’d been unaware of. Even with the training and time spent studying and researching done in preparation for her election as Queen, a planet was too large for any one person to know all of the organizations on it. But while she hoped that, she wasn’t blind to the likelihood that it was not the case.

After what felt like several more hours, the sack was opened and she was all but dumped out. Looking around, she took in the two figures standing around her. One was a green skinned twi’lek girl, the other was a wookiee! The twi’lek, upon seeing her, flushed and turned to start slapping a hand against the wookiee next to her.

“Did you have to use those?! Now planetary royalty’s going to think I’m a sick, twisted, deviant!” the twi’lek screamed. The wookiee made a noise that was a mix of chuffs and laughs, before making some other noises, prompting a (strangely adorable) frustrated growl from the twi’lek. “Whether I am or not isn’t the point! The point is you’ve absolutely ruined my chance at making a first impression on royalty!”

Padme could admit it to herself: she felt so confused right now.

[hr][/hr]

I admit: a big reason I grabbed Keza’s bedroom toys while going to kidnap the Queen was to mess with both of them. What can I say, the looks on people’s faces were funny. Especially when Keza removed the restraints from our guest and kept apologizing. It was also amusing when the Queen tried to regain her stoic, regal demeanor, but given how I’d carried her across the city of Theed in a big sack over my shoulder, it was a lost cause.

“Anyway, we’ll get you to Coruscant, we just need to make a quick stop by another planet and swap ships,” Kexa finished telling her, causing a slight frown on the Queen’s face.

“Is something the matter with this one?” she asked.

“Not mechanically no, but, er… well the thing is…” Keza trailed off, her entire being screaming embarrassment.

“This ship’s on the ‘shoot out of the sky’ list as far as Coruscant’s concerned. In our defense: the buyer didn’t tell us he was paying us to transport a rakghoul for his personal menagerie. It’s why we don’t do business deals with Senators anymore,” I explained, not really caring one way or the other if she knew Shyriiwook. Keza would translate if she didn’t.