Padmé smiles; Kina seems to have missed a few details on how that works, although she does begin to wonder whether Kina's comment that she was pretty was anything other than a throwaway compliment. "Wow, what's that?" she asks, looking at the droid in the corner.

"He's most of a protocol droid, and normally I keep him powered down except for lessons but I could boot him up if you'd like?"

"Sure, I'd love to meet him!"

It's a matter of moments for Kina to flick a switch or three, and the voice Kina was clearly imitating when she was doing her stuffy accent whines into existence through a garble of vocoder.  "Maker Kina, this is not the time you normally awaken me for lessons - and who is this that is in your room?  You know I am not going to tell you the things you do not need to know yet about why chaperones were invented by biological lifeforms just because you are thoroughly disrespecting the rules about them with a misplaced noble!"

"Yes, I know, I know, you've told me enough times and I'm not going to rush ahead.  She's helping me and mom get off this dustball, and mom and one of her co-conspirators," she preens a little bit about getting the word in, "are talking, so here I am as a distraction."

"'My mother and I', Maker Kina."

"But my mom and I are the object of that sentence!"

"So you are, and you were correct to say what you did.  Well done, Maker Kina.  We'll make a socialite of you yet."  The droid seems to radiate fondness.

"Not with other people in the rooooomm..."

"You must be able to comport yourself appropriately in unexpected circumstances, Maker Kina; cultural data suggests that the presentation you wish to pursue does not let something so paltry - so small, as the presence of a fellow sapient dissuade - convince her to not pursue, her goals with panache - style, and aplomb - self-confidence!"

Kina fixes the droid with a pout.  It isn't very effective...

R2 whistles a series of tones that aren't quite in Kina's vocabulary, but seem only to anger C-3PO.

"Well I never!  Do you consider ships on the yard scaffold naked?  My maker is doing her best, and with not a thousandth of your manufacturing budget!"

"Please, let's not get into a fight, yet?  We need to work together to get through this, and friction between ourselves isn't going to help anyone.  And I'm guessing that that was something about not having proper covers?  I'm doing my best, but decent exterior plating's hard to get and also the least critical to have if I'm making a droid that stays indoors; between that and a flux compensator, I'm taking the compensator every time.  We are going to need to get something on you for the trip out, though.  I'll see what I can get from the junk dunes..."

"I think he looks amazing," says Padmé, as R2 beeps with resentment. "You really built a protocol droid all by yourself?"

"Mostly!  I didn't make the processor or anything, and I bet someone's really mad about that but I don't know who they are so I can't exactly fix it, but I did find all the parts and put them together!"

"Wow. You're really talented, you know. Did you build the podracer yourself, too?"

"Mostly!  ...I'm talented?  I thought it was mostly just, math.  Like, sure, I'm doing fancy math with the gravitic wave dampeners' power-to-flux curves, but beyond a bit of strength and dexterity necessary to put the parts together, I mostly just need to ask any droid or get a calculator, and occasionally test stuff to get more numbers?  It's mostly time-consuming, once I have the general plan in mind.  I just, start on the broad strokes and work my way in.  Though, I should probably give myself a bit more credit for figuring out how to rig the wrecked parts of...More podracers than I really want to count, into a semi-cohesive whole, and I think I did do something genuinely inspired with the engines, or maybe the deflectors, because I haven't seen anyone else get as much thrust out of theirs as I have, and these are largely stock parts.  It's not like anyone publishes their blueprints though.  Though some of the other kids sometimes tell me what they see in the warehouses.

"...How many people can your ship feed, for however long the Tatooine-to-Coruscant run is?  I...there's a lot of other kids and some will want to stay 'cause it's what they know and maybe someone will get them out with their moms dads and parents, but some...don't even have parents, and some have bad parents, and some have agreed with their parents that they should run while they can, and maybe you should take a couple parents but most of the parents will probably want you to take the kids like I know mom would have wanted you to take me even though I have a better chance of making my way out under my own power and...I want to do as much as I can to help everyone I can help and you have a spaceship.  ...I can put the word out.  I'm still young enough that nobody pays that much attention to me yet."

"I..." On the one hand, half of these kids are probably enslaved, and she can't just stand by... but yeah, as painful as it is, she has slightly more important priorities. "Kina, we can maybe help a few people, but we're kind of in the middle of a rescue mission of our own at the moment." There's no real reason to hide the first level of secrets anymore, so, "We're coming from Naboo. The queen of Naboo... came here. On our ship. The planet's under blockade by the Trade Federation, and we're trying to contact the Chancellor to arrange a counterattack."

"Oh.  ...Oh.  That's...a lot of people.  Yes.  More important."  She hasn't ever thought about saving an entire planet.  "Still gonna...at least try, but...yeah.  You've got...a lot more people that need help."

...and now Padmé is being hugged.  "They shot at you.  And you're, you're nice, you're good, you care.  They shot at you because you care.  Because you want good things for people and they're a bigger Watto and just want credits, credits, credits."  It's not a question, none of it is.  She can feel that responsibility sitting on Padmé's shoulders (though maybe only with a little help) and traders are, so far as she can tell, Watto writ large as an institution, though it's not like she has much for comparison outside the Hutts.  "People are mean like that so much and I don't know why.  It doesn't make sense.  Doesn't it hurt to see other people hurting?  But the Hutts...they're cruel and they enjoy it and...I don't understand.  I just don't.  How can you look at the world and think it needs more suffering?"

"Honestly, I'm still trying to figure that out myself," she says, sighing. "But what matters is that we don't fall down that path ourselves." She can tell as she says it that it sounds hollow, that it's not an answer so much as a dismissal, but it's all she has.

...Kina redoubles her hug.

"We try our best, and that's all we can do, huh?"

The next morning, Qui-Gon is waiting for Kina at the table, holding what appears to be some sort of measuring device.

"...I surmise," she says, with all the confidence of someone using her Word of the Day in exactly the right situation for it, "that this has something to do with the way you didn't know, but still acted upon, the knowledge that I had a podracer, and the discussion that followed.  What are you looking for?"

"This is for detecting midi-chlorians," he says. "They're a certain form of microscopic particles in the blood. If this result comes out the way I suspect, then yes, it's connected to my knowledge of the podracer."

He brings the device to Kina's arm, and pokes it with the needle.