Star Nomad Cast (starnomadnpc) wrote in starnomad, @ 2015-10-02 22:50:00 |
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It would have been quicker to go straight to Coruscant rather than traipse through the complicated navigation of the Maw to Eclipse Station, but it would have without the information that Leia knew that she needed to take to Fey'lya. The reality was that whatever happened next - it would involve the Jedi, which meant that she needed the feedback from her brother, and from other Jedi on how to move forward. The Falcon had arrived a few moments ago and Han had stayed behind to prep it to be ready to depart as soon as they could. There was only limited amount of time here, and they'd been given a week, a day of which they had just spent in travel time and another day would be spent again if they needed to return to Coruscant. There was a clock that had been started, but Leia could still take a moment to feel a thrill of delight as she caught the figure of her oldest son exiting the mess hall. "Jacen," she called warmly. Jacen turned around at his mother's voice and his eyes lit up at the sight of her. "Mom. I didn't know you were here." Leia stepped forward to meet him and wrapped her arms around him careful to not dislodge the cup of liquid he held in one hand. He was taller than her now by quite a bit - but all of her children were - and mostly it was good to see him and and to see him healthy and whole. She knew that there had been a mission and she had known that they were okay, more or less, she would know if something happened to one of her children, but still there was something good about being able to wrap her arms around him. She could no longer protect any of them - and in all reality she had never been able to do that - but there was something about holding them that allowed her to feel for a moment at least that it might be possible to protect them just in that instant. "We just got in," she informed him. "I'm on my way to see your Uncle, walk with me if you don't have anything pressing." Jacen fell into step beside her glad to see his Mom walking so well. There was the slightest unevenness to her gait, but mostly you would not have known that a few months ago she had been unable to walk. There was some pride there knowing that he'd been able to help keep her from losing her life and losing her legs entirely, and it reminded him that he'd been able to help Lyric in a similar way. There was, perhaps, something to what Jaina had said about him being really good at healing. But for right now he took a sip of the caf. "Is Dad here?" "Yes, he's prepping the Falcon. You got back from your mission?" "Yeah, a while ago now, we flew back to the Venture actually, but we've been here for a week now. We eliminated the major threat," Jacen said simply, his thoughts clouding somewhat. He had no idea if his mother knew what the cost of that elimination had been. He hadn't told her himself, but sometimes she talked to his Uncle. "We lost Rikki," he said softly. "Anakin's been - It's been hard on him." "Mara's niece?" Leia asked, turning her eyes up to her son's. She hadn't known the girl well, but she'd been a good friend to both of her son's and she was Mara's family. And the sick feeling that crept into a loss that was more personal than so many of the losses of wars had crept into her heart. "Uh, yeah," Jacen said realizing that his mom hadn't heard Artoo's message, and it was too much to explain in transit between one place or another. "I mean, it's been bad for everyone. But she and Anakin had been closer of recent, and he's taken it particularly hard - especially since he wasn't there and couldn't help her. Not that he could have done anything but... We lost the Rar sisters too. But everyone else - I mean, we had injuries. Lyric was in medbay for quite a while after." It was impossible to not notice the tightness in the tone as Jacen related the last, and Leia simply put her hand on her son's elbow squeezing it gently. "Is he all right, Jacen?" "He is now," Jacen looked over at his mom and offered her a small smile. The last few weeks had in some ways been as challenging as the weeks surrounding Sernpidal and Chewie's loss. And in other ways they had been less challenging then the weeks after Duro. And the latter part Jacen had Lyric entirely to thank for. It was Lyric who had given him the hope of believing he might get something to hold onto and to keep and that the world could have something good in it. Even with Lyric in the medbay it had somehow all felt like maybe it had a chance to work out all right. "I got to keep him a while longer." Leia nodded with a smile and squeezed Jacen's elbow once again before dropping her hand. "Good, I'm glad of that at least." The answer had in its own way answered her other question which was whether or not Jacen and Lyric were still together in the same sense. But it seemed to indicate very easily that they were. "I'll try to talk to Anakin before we head back out, but I don't know for certain how long we'll be here. I need to speak with Luke, possibly with some of the other Jedi, and then we'll see." "What's up?" Jacen asked, his tone turning more serious as he glanced over at his mother's face. She had a determined set to her jaw and he could see that whatever it was she was here to speak with his Uncle about - it wasn't good news. Leia looked over at Jacen and she wished that just once she could come to her children with really genuinely good news that didn’t include a population in danger, and refugees whose lives were being bargained with against the lives of people on this station. There were children and young Jedi here and her family was here. But there were children out there and they didn’t deserve to have lost families and homes, and now the possibility of losing so much more. “Nom Anor found me.” Jacen looked over with alarm at his mother. “You’re all right?” “Yes I’m fine, but he found me at the shipyards. The fact that he knew where we were is troublesome enough, but we were able to sit down and have a conversation through a very secure wall and that’s why I’m here to talk to your Uncle.” They had reached Luke’s door and Jacen paused outside of it but Leia opened the door and tilted her head. “You might as well come in and hear what we have to say. You might be able to think of something that I haven’t.” “Leia.” “Luke.” The siblings embraced and Jacen followed his mom in, closing the door behind them as he took a seat on one of the benches in the small make-shift office. “What are we dealing with?” Luke spoke as soon as Leia was seated, choosing to stand by his desk, leaning against it with a serious look on his face. Leia didn’t mince words. She could have put it nicely, but diplomacy was wasted on her brother and her son. The two understood the stakes as well as she did and both knew the sorts of things they had dealt with in the past. The problem needed to get out in the open and they needed a solution. “The refugees from Duro – the ones they’ve allowed to stay in the Talfaglio system for the past few months? They’re going to move on them unless we reveal the location of this base to the Yuuzhan Vong.” Jacen’s eyes narrowed slightly, his stomach turning with the implications. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen the Yuuzhan Vong treat beings as if they were nothing, he’d seen dozens being thrown into sacrifice pits on Duro and he’d seen the enslaved ones back at the very beginning of the war. Jacen was well aware that the Yuuzhan Vong didn’t care for the lives of those native to this galaxy outside of how they could serve them either through work or as a sacrificial offering to the gods, but it didn’t mean that he was used to it, or that his stomach didn’t turn over with distaste at what his mom was telling them. “We have to do something,” he said, the words bubbling up unbidden as he glanced as his Uncle. “We can’t give them the location of this base,” Leia said, looking over at her son. She knew his views on violence, but this base had been hard fought and if they moved the children – they could not move them to any place safer. It was the last refuge the Jedi really had. “I wasn’t saying that,” Jacen felt immediately defensive. “That wouldn’t be good either. But there are thousands, maybe millions of people at Talfaglio – and they don’t have anyone to protect them.” “Except possibly the Jedi,” Luke said quietly. “I agree with both of you, we must do something – the question is what.” “I’m willing to go to Fey’lya if we can give him a concrete plan. We have been able to work with him and the New Republic at times – and if we can convince him that it’s politically advantageous for him to be seen working with us to save refugees, then we might have a chance at getting him to give us extra resources.” “We’ve got ships from the Military – they’ve been running XJ3 X-wing starfighters to us for months. Kre’fya is pretty supportive of what we’re doing. If we can talk to him directly…” “We talk to both,” Jacen suggested. “Fey’lya, and Kre’fya, but take a different angle.” “That may not be the best solution,” Leia pointed out. “The two do not get along that well and it might cause problems that we don’t have time to deal with. Did I mention they’ve given us a week to turn over the location of this base?” “We have some of the equipment that we need. Kre’fya has routed it here. What we might need is the official sanction to run an official mission. We go to Fey’lya and we work directly with him. If Fey’lya approves it we know that Kre’fya will back it. If Fey’lya doesn’t approve it, then we will have to work with what we have. But we should have a good idea of what that plan is going to be before you go.” “I was thinking if we met with several of us we could have an idea of what that will be, hopefully.” “Jaina has worked directly with Rogue Squadron,” Jacen pointed out. “And she was able to arrange the mission with her and Kyp’s dozen when they found the ships at Sernpidal, which, okay, maybe isn’t the best example of great liaison work between Jedi and the military,” Jacen made a face. “But she’d probably be good on this.” “I’ll call a meeting,” Luke suggested. “This afternoon – and we’ll pull in everyone. If all you have is a week you should leave for Coruscant some time tonight.” |