anakin (anakin) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2015-04-12 21:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, anakin skywalker, jaina solo |
Log: Anakin & Jaina
Who: Anakin Skywalker & Jaina Solo
When: BACKDATED to a million years ago a.k.a. mid-March
Where: A coffee shop somewhere
What: Bonding! After a visit to the planetarium, Anakin and Jaina grab some caf and talk about cars and ships and breaking the law and awesome stuff like that.
Rating: Low
She’d discovered the planetarium when her father had given her a pass to it for Christmas and it had become Jaina’s refuge. The first few weeks after she arrived, she’d been lost, confused, frightened and with Jacen shutting her out, she hadn’t known what to do. The planetarium had given her peace, being able to sit and watch the stars even if they weren’t her stars, helped make this place a little more like home. She’d long since lost track of how many of the programs she’d seen but she’d loved them all. It was with this in mind that she invited her grandfather to come with her. She hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to him before she’d left for Wyoming and she knew that he was aware of his future now. Jaina understood how hard that must be for him for she’d had a difficult time when she’d discovered her own and his was far worse than hers. Maybe the planetarium would give him peace too, maybe seeing the stars would feel a little like home to him...Jaina didn’t know but she wanted to at least try. She’d heard the stories all her life but she’d never expected to meet her grandfather and now that he was here, she wanted to get to know him. When the show was over, they stepped outside into the chilly air and Jaina looked up at him. “Want to get some coffee? It’s the same thing as caf back home, there’s a shop over there where we can go.” She knew the place well and they knew her equally well. They’d started making her order as soon she walked in now and it amused Jaina to no end. She always ordered hot chocolate rather than coffee and this was the perfect day for it. Bitter chill sunk beneath his skin as they stepped out into the night air, but though Anakin saw little in the way of stars above them, the planetarium's glimmering dome -- alight with its celestial charm -- lingered still behind his eyes. Anakin missed space, missed the freedom of his cockpit zooming through the heavens, and though this display wasn't any more real than the hologram maps found at the Jedi Temple, it was a beautiful sight, novel with the world's unique constellations and planetary alignments. The "Milky Way" galaxy, they had called it. There was a sense of peace, a sense of home -- however bittersweet thoughts of home might be. This world didn't have widespread space travel yet, but for Anakin, it did have family, and that his granddaughter was strolling beside him now was surreal in the most rewarding of ways, far more than even the wonders of the universe: His daughter's daughter, yet she couldn't have been much younger than he was. "Caf sounds great," he responded in turn, supposing he might have said that about anything she suggested, but meaning it nonetheless. "Constellations look different in every star system, but it's strange to think this is an entirely different galaxy." “I know. When I first got here, I had a hard time wrapping my head around that. It’s funny but people who live here have a hard time believing that there is more than one galaxy and at home we felt the same way for a long time. I guess it’s just difficult to conceive that there are a lot more people out there than just you.” Jaina smiled as they reached the shop and walked inside. They found a table and when the waitress came over, she ordered a hot chocolate for herself while her grandfather looked at the menu. Her grandfather. Who wasn’t a lot older than she was right now which would have blown her mind a few months ago but now it didn’t seem that strange. Was Jaina getting used to this place? It certainly seemed that way. “I’m glad you liked the planetarium,” she said when the waitress left. “Dad gave me a pass for Christmas and I go there a lot. It’s the closest I can get to home and it’s a good place to think.” Life beyond their galaxy... "When I was 15, I was part of the Outbound Flight project meant to push beyond galactic bounds, colonizing new worlds and contacting whatever intelligent life we could find... But it ended in disaster, and no one ever brought up the idea again." Crossing his arms, Anakin leaned forward on the table, wondering what they might have found, had the peaceful project not crumbled to fighting. "It's a big universe. Maybe people around here are our galactic neighbors, and we don't even know it." Without much pause, he added, "But the stars are beautiful wherever we go. Your dad's Han, right? Pilot?" He thought then that he hadn't spoken much with Han -- or either of his children, since the News had broken, and he thought then that he ought to remedy that, as the brunt of his horror began to cool. Jaina nodded. “Yeah, that’s my dad. Han Solo. He’s a great pilot, taught me everything I know.” She smiled. “but from what I hear, I also got a lot of that from you. I hear you were pretty impressive. And a pod racer. I always thought that would be so cool but I never had the chance to do it.” Although she was pretty damn sure that if she had, she would have won. “I guess this all must feel strange to you….I mean we know more about you than you know about us.” Jaina realized how that must sound and she closed her eyes and shook her head. “Kriff I did not mean for that to come out like that.” She opened her eyes and looked at her grandfather. “I’m so sorry. I meant that we knew who you were but you never knew any of us and that doesn’t sound any better so I’ll just shut up.” "It's okay -- I'm not going to bite your head off," Anakin ventured with a smile starting to flicker on his lips, though the implications stung a little, twisting an ache in his chest that wished someday he could know his children and his grandchildren, watching them grow as people, as talents, as capable young Jedi in a new Order. He never would at home, not if what these people said about the return trip was true, but in this place, at least, he had the chance to know them. Thinking of all he would lose and why he lost it... it hurt, but here he was, getting caf with his granddaughter after an evening of fake stargazing, and that wasn't so bad. "I do miss it, though," he continued as his mind drifted back, remembering those sweet early brushes with a Force he didn't yet understand. "The podracing. Early in my apprenticeship, I used to sneak out of the Temple, down to the lower levels of Coruscant to watch the underground swoop bike races. Of course the first time I actually convinced them to let me try, my bike got sabotaged because one of the other racers was apparently an assassin who figured out I was a Jedi, and when Obi-Wan came to find me, he got stuck in some sticky section of the course where a monster was trying to eat him. The night ended with a lot of disapproving looks, but a lot of nights ended in disapproving looks... and honestly I just missed flying. I was the only human to ever win a pod race, and I blew up a base for them, but on Coruscant, no one would even let me fly a speeder because I 'wasn't legally old enough,'" he remarked in a tone that expressed little in the way of approval for their enforcement of such a rule. (Anakin supposed promoting illegal activity wasn't exactly his most responsible grandfather act to date -- one he certainly wouldn't have indulged in the early times with his impressionable young padawan -- but for all the harrowing loneliness he had felt at the Temple, those years were a less complicated time, full of experimental thrills. How different the Jedi Order had been from what he'd expected as a slave boy on Tatooine.) “See if we’d had a Jedi Temple when I was that age, I would have done the same thing,” Jaina laughed. “I hate being grounded. The most fun I’ve had lately was when I got sucked into that Nightmare thing and got to fly a ship. Even if it wasn’t real, it was real at the time and I didn’t want that part to end.” The rest she could have done with that...except for fighting the blue guy...but the ship? Stars, it was beautiful. “There are so many things that I could do back home that I can’t do here because of my age and it’s annoying,” she continued. “Like um..well..drink. Not that I’m a drunk but sometimes it would be nice to be able to do that.” Way to go, Jaina she thought. Just confess to your grandfather that you would occasionally raid Uncle Luke’s fridge when he wasn’t home. Or get Anakin to do it. “I’ve signed up to take pilot lessons here. There isn’t anything that will break atmosphere though but it’s better than nothing. I take that back, there is once ship but it belongs to SWORD and you have to work for them to even get close to it. It’s not very big from what I know and it isn’t like they use it that much but that’s the only one.” A broader smile spread on Anakin's face. "Have you started pilot classes yet?" In the sky, he had seen what looked like low-soaring ships flying overhead, and though he doubted they possessed the maneuverability he was accustomed to, he wondered if it might scratch the itch, just getting off the ground. The prospect of breaking out into the stars was ultimately more appealing, but if they used it infrequently, he wondered what SWORD's ship was used for. "As for SWORD, one spaceship isn't much, but it's something, at least. They have the technology...I wonder if they plan to develop others. What sort of missions does SWORD use it for? Is there a threat?" “Right now we’re doing book stuff,” Jaina made a face. “Learning about how the engines work and all that. Which isn’t that bad actually, it’s different from spacecraft but a few things are the same.” The waitress brought over their drinks then and Jaina smiled a thank you before she continued. “As far as I know, they’ve only used the ship once. It was before I got here and I have no idea where they went. I know Uncle Luke went because Anakin told me but that’s all I know. They were gone for a couple of weeks, had some trouble I think.” She took a sip of her hot chocolate. “I think there are plenty of people who would be really happy if SWORD would be allowed to develop spacecraft but everything here is tied up with the government. There is an organization called NASA, I’ve read about it but their funding is next to nothing now. There’s an international space station out there but no extended voyages anywhere.” Jaina couldn’t understand why the people of Earth didn’t seem to want to reach for the stars. Her history course had shown her that at one time they did but now that seemed to have changed. “Years ago, they had a huge space program, they sent people to their moon but over time, people got less interested which is pretty sad. Even when they’ve seen evidence that there is life out there, they don’t believe it.” Pressing his lips together, Anakin too wondered at why a planet with the capacity to explore space would choose to stop. Not every culture strove to push outward or become involved in galactic affairs, but he wondered: Had there been some disaster, or was it truly just a loss of interest in the stars? If they knew other life was out there, did they not possess some curiosity? Acquainting himself with Earth might shed some light, but it sounded as though SWORD was the best bet, and even that sounded shaky as far as accomplishing regular missions of large scale. Maybe if they had more ships, efficient development -- funding sounded like a problem no matter the program, but his interest piqued all the same. "So government and funding are the problem here too. Not too surprising, I guess." He thought of the star show they had just seen. "That planetarium may not be as great as the real thing, but I don't know how people could see that, know there's a way to leave, and not want to see it themselves." Jaina smiled. “Neither do I. How can you see something so beautiful and not want to be part of it? And as good a job as they do, it’s nothing compared to the real thing. I just want to stand up and tell everyone that they don’t know what they’re missing.” She laughed and shook her head. “but they’d probably throw me out and have me arrested for being a crazy person.” She took another sip of her drink then looked up at her grandfather. “You know, I would never have guessed how much alike we are. I mean I’m not the builder and tinkerer that Anakin is, I know the two of you have been doing that together but you feel the same way I do about flying. It shouldn’t surprise me though since that’s all my dad ever wanted to do, Uncle Luke’s a great pilot which he obviously got from you so one of the three of us had to get that. I’m glad it was me.” Jaina couldn’t say what Jacen had gotten, he was curious like their mother and interested in knowing more about the big picture...or at least he had been before. Now she couldn’t say what he was like. Whatever strange ground-bound preferences these Earth citizens might have, they were second to anything involving his suddenly expanded family, and Anakin's countenance visibly brightened as he lifted his own caf to sip. He'd always wondered what his and Padme's children might be like -- had scarce even considered the idea of his children's children, even in the most extensive daydreams -- but he was delighted with them no less. To see his piloting, his mechanics, his Force sensitivity... to see Padme's compassion, level head, bright mind for justice... The mixtures were melded together in difference ways, growing out of the new galaxy that had formed around them all in the collapse of the Republic, and the Empire's collapse after that, but there was a giddy sort of thrill in seeing his grandchildren excel in things he had always felt pride in himself. They weren't him -- but they were part of him as he was part of them, a legacy of good that he'd managed to leave in his wake, however devastating his mistakes. "You're a talented bunch," he remarked with the spread of a lopsided grin, "I wouldn't have expected any less. You mentioned a moment ago that you wish you could podrace but haven't ever gotten that chance -- do you race anything else? Or do you have anything you particularly enjoy the feel of?" Anakin wondered then what sort of improvements a generation or two might have brought to the production of spaceships. Leaning forward, he added, "Do you fly them as they are, or do you ever modify?" “Well once I ran an asteroid belt. A friend of Dad’s had a course set up using modified TIE fighters. People bet on the pilots and I tried it. I had the fastest time too,” she grinned. “but that’s about it. The war started after that so most of my flying was about survival.” She picked up her cup and took a sip. The war was the last thing she wanted to talk about. “I’m a decent mechanic but nothing like Anakin. He can modify anything, me not so much so no, I pretty just took things as they were.” She glanced out the window and spotted a motorcycle going by. “See that?” she pointed out the window. “They call that a motorcycle or a motorbike, same difference. Now that is something I’d like to get my hands on. They’re fast and they remind me of speeder bikes. I couldn’t go very fast in the city but I’d find a place where I could let one go. I just don’t know where to find one or how to ride one but I bet I can find someone who’d be willing to teach me.” "I guess TIE fighters are still to come," Anakin mused thoughtfully, wondering if this world's net database was as rich in their home's spacecraft development as it apparently was in their life stories. Making a mental note to run a search when he got back to his quarters, his attention shifted back to Jaina in an instant, a smirking grin of his own spreading wider still. "Can't say I'm surprised that you're exceptional. Nicely done." He had experienced a fair bit of such modification mechanics in time spent with her younger brother, but a familiar light rose in his eyes, wondering what sort of course had been set up along the asteroid belt. When soon his gaze followed her gesture to the indicated bike, it was easy to see how their approximation at it could be some small solace in their grounded state. "Everything seems to crawl here. I could use some open space stretching. Is the speed similar to a speeder bike too?" “I would imagine so,” she said. “I’ve seen them on television and they can go pretty fast but in this city, nothing goes very fast at all. Drives me nuts.” Jaina shrugged. “I’m getting used to it though even if it stinks. I’m going to find a way to get my hands on one of those bikes though. I wonder if Gaige could help me?” She had talked to the other girl on the network and knew that she had a garage so she’d be the most likely person to know how Jaina could find a motorbike and learn how to ride it. "I bet she could. I'm looking forward to dedicating some serious time to this world's transportation systems. They may not be spaceworthy, but it's something." With a lopsided grin, Anakin turned his attention to the window, watching the steady stream of vehicles as they passed by. There were things to be disappointed about here, without a doubt, and until there were ships soaring to the stars, he didn't think he could ever be completely satisfied with their set up -- but it was a start, at the least, and having the shared enthusiasm of at least patches of his family was an even better one. Between them all, just maybe this world get start turning its eyes to the stars again. |