Old Property 12

Luke and Leia wandered over to the bench at the foot of the bed. Luke dismantled the other boxes in the stack with the force as Leia assessed the patterns on them.

'These carvings educate up to six standard years,' she commented, turning over a second orb to read: "The force is with you always..."

'The force-dexterity needed to manipulate the boxes increases with successive puzzles too,' Luke answered. 'A lot of thought went into them...'

'Do these repeating patterns and groves fit together?' Leia asked as her innate curiosity peaked.

The pieces joined to start a new work...

'An activity table?'

'Yeah, but it wasn't finished.' Luke answered sadly. 'Whatever happened, happened.'

oooooooooooo

Once the Skywalker twins were absorbed with their toys Han departed on a task of his own.

R2 was not in the guest sitting room where they left him, or the hall or dining area, so Han tried the kitchen.

'How may we assist you, MiLord?'

Han swallowed his instinctive grimace at the title. 'There somewhere I can send communications and update droids?'

'We don't have a formal communications room, but there is a recharge-and-dataload cupboard in the main foyer.'

'I'll show you, and Nandi can finish up in here...' said an elderly man who stood beside the kitchen door.

'MiLord Solo, this is Paddy Accu, our retired caretaker,' Nandi introduced.

Han shook hands with the old man and asked 'Retired, eh?'

'Never understood the retirement idea. Man has to keep movin, or he'll seize up like an old gear! I come in once or twice a week.'

He walked to a panel that looked identical to all the others and pressed a hidden latch.

'Looks like your R2 unit found his own way in here...'

The droid was ensconced inside, a low hum emanating from his processor.

'Yeah... resourceful little thing... Thanks, Paddy.'

Usually R2 beeped/ blatted in response to conversations held in his presence. Now he stayed perfectly silent in the closet. If Han had not known better, he'd believe R2 just another regularly wiped, mindless automaton. But perhaps that was the point...

'General Solo,'

Han turned back to the old man.

'Many of Varykino's pre-Empire staffers have passed to the Goddess or moved away, but I'm still here.' He nodded and left.

'Ok tin can, what's up?' Han demanded of R2 once Paddy was gone. 'Polite and quiet's not you. Maybe you got some kind of malfunction going. Tell you right now, the Kid's not gonna blame me for whatever you've done to yourself in the last week... come on...'

Han looked over the droid's outside. Seeing no obvious source of damage he reached for the service access panel, only to have it spark at him.

'Either you let me take a look or I'll get the Kid to do it in front of everyone.'

A disgruntled blat was the response, but nothing sparked when Han reached for the access panel this time.

'Industrial Automaton Manufacture code R2D-0000002... year 2 rS... so you're even older than they thought... Compatibility... NDF fighter series, year 1, Incom Systems Athersprite series... You've got a modification stamp: Royal Engineers of Naboo... Then there's all this extra wiring... lets see... extra power and processing, personal defence mechanisms, protocol complimentary features, back-up memory... is that a second hard drive back there? No weapon hatch on the domes of the original modification either, and when I look at that slot, a light-sabre is what fits in there... You're their droid, aren't you? You've been theirs all along, and you've never been memory wiped. What are you hiding?'

'Beep booweep'

'Protecting them?' Han read from the translator. 'Like those fossils did? With more lies they have to pay for when they least expect?'

'Beep.'

'You're gonna tell them the truth R2.'

oooooooooooooo

Later Han took Luke and Leia out to the staffers' cottage, where Paddy was busy with one of the mower droids.

'May I help with that?' Luke asked as the elderly man struggled with his arthritic fingers.

'Thanks,' Paddy smirked to himself. 'Milord was good at fixing things too,' he reminisced.

'Teckla instructed we set out broken equipment for him to sort when we thought he'd be home, or if he turned up unexpected we found him something to service. Doing chores while on planet-side leave relaxed him.'

'Bet he fixed droids too.' Han commented.

'He built the Protocol unit MiLady kept during the war, prissy thing that it was, and he took over maintenance of her astromech. '

'What happened to their droids?' Luke asked, as an odd thrill that rippled through his sister and seeing Han tense.

'She took the protocol unit with her when she left Courscant the last time, and it was never returned. The astromech was Knight Skywalker's service droid through the Clone War, so anything could have happened to it.'

They moved to other topics, with Paddy sharing his few impressions of Anakin and Padme as a couple, but his experiences were limited. The staff were usually given off when Anakin was home.

oooooooooooooo

After supper Han brought R2 into the general sitting area.

'He looks so much like the droid my Aunt had,' Pooja commented.

'Our little friend here has something to share.'

'R2?' Luke queried.

The droid blatted apologetically. His holo-projector started with a track level view of the opening ceremony of a pod race on a dusty planet, then switched to the archived version.

'What's this, R2?' Leia asked, but Luke answered.

'That is the Boonta Eve Classic! They'll go through Beggar's Canyon in a minute...'

He and Han were soon arguing over strategies and trying to predict the outcome. The light-weight silver pod with blue accents won. The driver was a blond pre-teen human, who was lifted into the arms of a tall man and a dark-haired woman. He looked directly at R2 for a moment, but was soon caught up in the crowd's celebrations.

'Anakin.' Leia's voice sounded far away. 'Shmi wrote in the Journal we recovered last year how he won his freedom...'

The following holos were candid stills of Anakin and Padme.

First, in a junk shop on Tatooine. Anakin stood on a shelf behind the counter, grinning and handing a part to Padme. The dark haired woman from the race finish was smiling at the two at the edge of the frame.

Next was a ship's cargo hold. Anakin was wrapped in a blanket, sitting with Padme. She was concentrating on the dejarik board between them, but Anakin was staring at her.

Next Anakin was with a small group of elated-looking pilots before a Naboo 1 fighter.

The next was taken on the day of the Unity Ceremony between the Gungans and the Naboo. Padme wore full ceremonial garb, and Anakin his new haircut and cream Jedi uniform. Padme and Anakin had somehow found a moment for each other in a deserted corridor of Theed Palace.

Next came a few of the pair, as young adults wearing civilian garb. Sola recognised one holo as 'Taken at the house in Theed, the time he officially joined us for dinner.'

There was another long holo, of Varykino's balcony and lake at sunset, and Padme in flowing ivory, Anakin in formal Jedi robes and a Holyman between them.

'She wore Gandmother Ryoo's dress?!'

The vows were said, C-3PO, human-cyborg relations and his counterpart R2D2 as witnesses.

'Its official, Leia. The Golden menace to Sanity was built by Anakin Skywalker, which means he's probably got the same kind of upgrades as R2...' Han stopped short of suggesting 3PO's memory wipes might be reversible.

'He's lost his right hand...' The murmur came from Luke.

'Luke?' Leia queried.

'Before this he had both hands in the holos, but when the Holyman joins their hands...'

The skeletal replacement could not be missed.

'That happened on Geonosis... the first battle of the Clone War,' Pooja supplied from memory.

Another series of candid stills followed, stolen moments at Republic functions, scenes of domestic bliss at Varykino and on Coruscant. Obi-Wan, Bail, Mon, the Togruta padawan and a few others made occasional appearances.

The last still was an evening in the apartment on Coruscant. Padme was sprawled on a lounge clothed in loose blue nightwear, smiling drowsily at her husband. Her top was folded up. Anakin sat on the floor in only his sleep pants, grinning face level with Padme's bare, bulging abdomen. His left hand disappeared from sight across her thighs, his black and gold right forearm and hand glinted in the light as he cradled his unborn children.

The holos stopped.

'They look so normal,' Leia said wistfully.

'What happened R2?' asked. 'You've never been wiped. We know you know...'

'The little droid warbled a sad apology to his young master, and shut himself down.

ooooooooooooooo

Thanks for reading and reviewing.