Did you like my… embellishment of that story, by the way? Personally, I think it works much better—who doesn’t love an intrepid child hero, fighting her way back to her mother and taking out all the bad guys?

It’s the stuff fairy tales are made of.

I touched a particularly jolly-looking holo, Tahn beaming from the middle of a crush of people who appeared to be his family.

I wondered if he was currently feeling what my mother felt, right before she died. If he was scared. As my fingers brushed against his smiling face, that holo slid to the side, and a different one popped up.

A very beautiful woman, sleeping—close on her face, the better to see her elegant features. Her long brown curls were festooned with colorful blooms, her face was serene…and then I realized, she wasn’t sleeping. She was dead.

This was Padmé Amidala. The good queen. At her funeral.

I touched the holo again—and it fritzed.

And then suddenly her voice filled the room.

PADMÉ AMIDALA (recording):

Commodex Tahn—I hope this message finds you well. I…I’m afraid. I do not like to admit that so baldly. Forgive me for this momentary weakness, but the situation is dire and I cannot see the light. Please tell no one of this, I do not want the good people of Naboo to think of their former queen and senator as someone who forgot how to hope.

Perhaps if we see each other again, Commodex…you can remind me.

In any case, the purpose of my message is this: I am about to set out on a mission and I may not return. If I do not survive, my wish is to be buried on Naboo, in the traditional way—and I would of course be honored if you would tend to me in death, and make sure that the people see me as they may have thought of me during my reign: peaceful, good, and fair. Strong.

And never, ever giving up hope.

And, Commodex, there’s one more thing: I have kept this a secret from nearly everyone, and I hope you will be discreet. I am with child. And if I do not survive…that child must be kept safe. Please, sir: Do everything in your power to make it so.

I thank you for your many years of service, and hope that we see each other again, whether it is in this world or the next.

APHRA (narration):

Whoa. Okay. So the “good” queen sent Tahn his own special pen-pal letter right before she died. Her voice, I noticed, had the same terror I’d seen on my mother’s face.

Padmé Amidala left behind loved ones, too.

And…hmm.