Jaina Solo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sticksofthejedi) wrote2012-11-17 10:54 pm
sticksofthejedi) wrote2012-11-17 10:54 pm
Entry tags:
Memory 50
Memory: Young Jaina thinks she can wake up comatose Uncle Luke by kissing him, as if he's Sleeping Beauty.
Received: Day 194, afternoon
Form: Smal clay jar, to be dropped and shattered.
Summary: Kyp Durron put Luke in a coma. Tiny Jaina (like . . . under five years old) applies Disney logic and tries to be the Prince Charming to Luke's Disney princess. Author Kevin J. Anderson continues a proud tradition of Luke getting smooched by relatives.
--
Leia Organa Solo emerged from the Millennium Falcon on Yavin 4, ducking her head as she walked down the landing ramp. She looked toward the towering edifice of the Great Massassi Temple.
It was a cool morning on the jungle moon, and mist rose from the ground, clinging to the low treetops and brushing against the stone ziggurat like a thin white shroud. A funeral shroud, she thought. For Luke.
It had been a week since the trainees at the Jedi academy had found Luke Skywalker's motionless body atop the temple. They had brought him inside, done their best to care for him-but they did not know what to do. The best New Republic medics had found no physical damage. They agreed that Luke still lived, but he lay in complete stasis. He responded to none of their tests or probes.
Leia had little hope of doing anything herself, but she could at least be with her brother. The twins came clomping down the Falcon's ramp, seeing who could make the loudest banging noises with their small boots. Han stood between Jacen and Jaina, holding their hands.
"Be quiet, you two," he said.
"Are we going to see Uncle Luke?"Jaina asked.
"Yes," Han answered, "but he's sick. He won't be able to talk to you."
"Is he dead?" Jacen asked.
"No!" Leia answered sharply. "Come on. Let's get into the temple." The twins scampered ahead down the ramp.
The sharp jungle smells brought warm and fresh memories to Leia as she walked across the clearing. Fallen trees, decaying leaves, and flowers mixed into a potent brew of scents. She had proposed the empty ruins as a site for Luke's academy, but Leia had never managed to visit-and now she had come only to see her brother lying in state.
"I'm not looking forward to this," Han mumbled.
"Not at all." Leia reached over to squeeze his hand; he gripped hers, holding tighter and longer than she expected him to.
Robed figures emerged from the temple, drifting out of the early-morning shadows. She quickly counted a dozen. In the lead she recognized the rusty-orange face of a Calamarian female, Cilghal. Leia herself had seen Jedi potential in the fishlike woman and had urged her to join Luke's academy. Cilghal had managed to use her proven ambassadorial skills to hold the twelve students together in the terrible days following the fall of their Jedi Master.
Leia recognized other candidates gliding across the dew-damp ground: Streen, an older man with wild hair tucked haphazardly beneath a Jedi hood; he had been a gas prospector on Bespin, a hermit hiding from the voices he heard in his head. She saw tall Kirana Ti, one of the witches of Dathomir whom Leia and Han had encountered during their whirlwind courtship. Kirana Ti stepped forward, flashing a bright smile at the twins; she had a daughter of her own, only a year or so older than the twins, who remained in the care of others back on her homeworld.
Leia also identified Tionne, with long silvery hair that flowed down the back of her robe. Tionne was a student of Jedi history who wanted desperately to be a Jedi herself.
Then came hard-bitten Kam Solusar, a once-corrupted Jedi whom Luke had dragged back to the light side. And Dorsk 81, a streamlined, slick-skinned alien who had been cloned generation after generation, because his society believed they had already developed the perfect civilization.
Leia didn't recognize the other handful of Jedi candidates, but she knew Luke had been diligent in his Jedi search. The call still rang out across the galaxy, inviting those with the potential to become new Jedi Knights.
Even though their teacher now lay in a coma. Cilghal raised a flippered hand. "We are glad you could come, Leia."
"Ambassador Cilghal," she said. "My brother-has there been any change?" They walked heavily back toward the oppressive temple. Leia believed she already knew the answer.
"No." Cilghal shook her squarish head.
"But perhaps your presence will do something that ours cannot." Sensing the solemn mood, the twins refrained from giggling and exploring the musty, stone-walled rooms. As the party entered the gloomy ground-level hangar bay, Cilghal led Leia, Han, and the twins to a turbolift.
"Come on, Jacen and Jaina," Han said, grabbing their hands again. "Maybe you can help Uncle Luke get better."
"What can we do?" Jaina asked, her liquid-brown eyes wide and hopeful.
"I don't know yet, honey," he said. "If you come up with any ideas, let me know." The turbolift doors flowed shut, and the platform rose to the top levels of the temple.
The twins clung to each other in sudden uneasiness. They had not recovered from their fear of turbolifts since the last time they had ridden one all the way down to the decaying bottom levels of Imperial City. But the ride was over in a moment, and they stepped out into the grand audience chamber of the Great Temple. Skylights spilled sunlight on a broad, polished-stone promenade that led to a raised stage.
Leia remembered standing on that stage years before, after the Death Star had been destroyed, presenting medals to Han, Chewbacca, Luke, and the other heroes of the battle of Yavin. Now, though, her breath caught in her throat. Han groaned beside her, a deep, grieving tone that she had never heard him make before. On a bier at the end of the room lay Luke - coml a body stretched out for a funeral in an echoing, empty chamber.
Her heart thumped with dread. She wanted to turn around so she wouldn't have to look at him-but Leia's feet compelled her forward. She walked with a rapid step that became a run before she reached the end of the promenade. Han followed, carrying the twins, one in each arm. His eyes were red as he fought to keep tears from flowing. Leia already felt a wetness on her cheeks. Luke lay in repose, swathed in his Jedi robe. His hair had been combed; his hands were folded across his chest. His skin looked gray and plasticlike.
"Oh, Luke," she whispered.
"Too bad you can't just thaw him out," Han said, "like you rescued me from Jabba's Palace." Leia reached out to touch Luke. Using her own abilities with the Force, she tried to reach deeper, to brush against his spirit-but she felt only a cold hole, an emptiness as if Luke himself had been taken away. Not dead. She had always felt she would somehow know if her brother died.
"Is he sleeping?" Jacen said.
"Yes... in a way," she answered, not knowing what else to say.
"When will he wake up?" Jaina asked.
"We don't know," she said. "We don't know how to wake him up."
"Maybe if I give him a kiss." Jaina clambered up to smack the motionless lips of her uncle. For an absurd moment Leia held her breath, thinking that the child's magic just might work. But Luke did not stir.
"He's cold," Jaina mumbled. The little girl's shoulders slumped with disappointment when her uncle failed to wake.
Han squeezed Leia's waist so hard that it hurt, but she didn't want her husband to stop holding her.
"He's been unchanged for days," Cilghal said behind them. "We brought his lightsaber with him. We found it beside his body on the rooftop."
Cilghal hesitated, then moved to stare down at Luke. "Master Skywalker told me I have an innate talent for healing with the Force. He had just begun to show me how to develop my skills-but I've tried all I know. He is not sick. There's nothing physically wrong with him. He seems frozen in a moment of time, as if his soul has left and his body is waiting for him to come back."
"Or," Leia said, "waiting for us to find a way to help him return."
"I don't know how," Cilghal said in a thin, husky voice. "None of us knows-yet. But perhaps working together we can figure it out."
"Do you have any inkling about what really happened?" Leia asked. "Have you found any clues?"
She could sense the sudden spike of Han's turmoil. Cilghal looked away with her big Calamarian eyes, but Han answered with grim certainty. "It was Kyp. Kyp did this."
"What?" Leia said, whirling to stare at him. Han answered in a tumble of words. "The last time I saw Luke, he told me he was afraid for Kyp." Han swallowed hard. "He said that Kyp had started dabbling in the dark side. The kid stole Mara Jade's ship and took off somewhere. I think Kyp came back here and challenged Luke."
"But why?" Leia asked. "What for?"
Cilghal nodded, as if her head were too heavy for her. "We did find the stolen ship in front of the temple. It is still here, so we don't know how he flew away again... unless he fled into the jungles."
"Is that likely?" Leia asked.
Cilghal shook her head. "We Jedi trainees have pooled our talents and searched. We do not detect his presence on Yavin 4. He must have left on another ship somehow."
"But where would he get another ship?" Leia asked, but suddenly she remembered astonished New Republic astronomers reporting the impossible news that an entire group of stars in the Cauldron Nebula had gone supernova at the same time.
She whispered, "Could Kyp have resurrected the Sun Crusher from the core of Yavin?"
Han blinked. "How could he possibly do that?"
Cilghal hung her head gravely. "If Kyp Durron has managed that, then his power is far greater even than we feared. No wonder he was able to defeat Master Skywalker."
Han shuddered, as if afraid to accept what he knew was true. Leia could sense his emotions like a maelstrom within him. "If Kyp is on the loose with the Sun Crusher," he said, "then I'll have to go and stop him."
Leia snapped around to look at him, thinking how Han always leaped headfirst into challenges.
"Are you getting delusions of grandeur again? Why does it have to be you? "
"I'm the only one he might listen to," he said. He looked aside, staring down at Luke's cadaverous face. She saw his lips trembling.
"Look, if Kyp doesn't listen to me, then he won't listen to anyone-and he'll be lost forever. If his power is as great as Cilghal thinks, that kid is not an enemy the New Republic can afford to have." He gave one of his lopsided grins. "Besides, I taught him everything he knows about flying that ship. He couldn't possibly do anything to me."
Received: Day 194, afternoon
Form: Smal clay jar, to be dropped and shattered.
Summary: Kyp Durron put Luke in a coma. Tiny Jaina (like . . . under five years old) applies Disney logic and tries to be the Prince Charming to Luke's Disney princess. Author Kevin J. Anderson continues a proud tradition of Luke getting smooched by relatives.
--
Leia Organa Solo emerged from the Millennium Falcon on Yavin 4, ducking her head as she walked down the landing ramp. She looked toward the towering edifice of the Great Massassi Temple.
It was a cool morning on the jungle moon, and mist rose from the ground, clinging to the low treetops and brushing against the stone ziggurat like a thin white shroud. A funeral shroud, she thought. For Luke.
It had been a week since the trainees at the Jedi academy had found Luke Skywalker's motionless body atop the temple. They had brought him inside, done their best to care for him-but they did not know what to do. The best New Republic medics had found no physical damage. They agreed that Luke still lived, but he lay in complete stasis. He responded to none of their tests or probes.
Leia had little hope of doing anything herself, but she could at least be with her brother. The twins came clomping down the Falcon's ramp, seeing who could make the loudest banging noises with their small boots. Han stood between Jacen and Jaina, holding their hands.
"Be quiet, you two," he said.
"Are we going to see Uncle Luke?"Jaina asked.
"Yes," Han answered, "but he's sick. He won't be able to talk to you."
"Is he dead?" Jacen asked.
"No!" Leia answered sharply. "Come on. Let's get into the temple." The twins scampered ahead down the ramp.
The sharp jungle smells brought warm and fresh memories to Leia as she walked across the clearing. Fallen trees, decaying leaves, and flowers mixed into a potent brew of scents. She had proposed the empty ruins as a site for Luke's academy, but Leia had never managed to visit-and now she had come only to see her brother lying in state.
"I'm not looking forward to this," Han mumbled.
"Not at all." Leia reached over to squeeze his hand; he gripped hers, holding tighter and longer than she expected him to.
Robed figures emerged from the temple, drifting out of the early-morning shadows. She quickly counted a dozen. In the lead she recognized the rusty-orange face of a Calamarian female, Cilghal. Leia herself had seen Jedi potential in the fishlike woman and had urged her to join Luke's academy. Cilghal had managed to use her proven ambassadorial skills to hold the twelve students together in the terrible days following the fall of their Jedi Master.
Leia recognized other candidates gliding across the dew-damp ground: Streen, an older man with wild hair tucked haphazardly beneath a Jedi hood; he had been a gas prospector on Bespin, a hermit hiding from the voices he heard in his head. She saw tall Kirana Ti, one of the witches of Dathomir whom Leia and Han had encountered during their whirlwind courtship. Kirana Ti stepped forward, flashing a bright smile at the twins; she had a daughter of her own, only a year or so older than the twins, who remained in the care of others back on her homeworld.
Leia also identified Tionne, with long silvery hair that flowed down the back of her robe. Tionne was a student of Jedi history who wanted desperately to be a Jedi herself.
Then came hard-bitten Kam Solusar, a once-corrupted Jedi whom Luke had dragged back to the light side. And Dorsk 81, a streamlined, slick-skinned alien who had been cloned generation after generation, because his society believed they had already developed the perfect civilization.
Leia didn't recognize the other handful of Jedi candidates, but she knew Luke had been diligent in his Jedi search. The call still rang out across the galaxy, inviting those with the potential to become new Jedi Knights.
Even though their teacher now lay in a coma. Cilghal raised a flippered hand. "We are glad you could come, Leia."
"Ambassador Cilghal," she said. "My brother-has there been any change?" They walked heavily back toward the oppressive temple. Leia believed she already knew the answer.
"No." Cilghal shook her squarish head.
"But perhaps your presence will do something that ours cannot." Sensing the solemn mood, the twins refrained from giggling and exploring the musty, stone-walled rooms. As the party entered the gloomy ground-level hangar bay, Cilghal led Leia, Han, and the twins to a turbolift.
"Come on, Jacen and Jaina," Han said, grabbing their hands again. "Maybe you can help Uncle Luke get better."
"What can we do?" Jaina asked, her liquid-brown eyes wide and hopeful.
"I don't know yet, honey," he said. "If you come up with any ideas, let me know." The turbolift doors flowed shut, and the platform rose to the top levels of the temple.
The twins clung to each other in sudden uneasiness. They had not recovered from their fear of turbolifts since the last time they had ridden one all the way down to the decaying bottom levels of Imperial City. But the ride was over in a moment, and they stepped out into the grand audience chamber of the Great Temple. Skylights spilled sunlight on a broad, polished-stone promenade that led to a raised stage.
Leia remembered standing on that stage years before, after the Death Star had been destroyed, presenting medals to Han, Chewbacca, Luke, and the other heroes of the battle of Yavin. Now, though, her breath caught in her throat. Han groaned beside her, a deep, grieving tone that she had never heard him make before. On a bier at the end of the room lay Luke - coml a body stretched out for a funeral in an echoing, empty chamber.
Her heart thumped with dread. She wanted to turn around so she wouldn't have to look at him-but Leia's feet compelled her forward. She walked with a rapid step that became a run before she reached the end of the promenade. Han followed, carrying the twins, one in each arm. His eyes were red as he fought to keep tears from flowing. Leia already felt a wetness on her cheeks. Luke lay in repose, swathed in his Jedi robe. His hair had been combed; his hands were folded across his chest. His skin looked gray and plasticlike.
"Oh, Luke," she whispered.
"Too bad you can't just thaw him out," Han said, "like you rescued me from Jabba's Palace." Leia reached out to touch Luke. Using her own abilities with the Force, she tried to reach deeper, to brush against his spirit-but she felt only a cold hole, an emptiness as if Luke himself had been taken away. Not dead. She had always felt she would somehow know if her brother died.
"Is he sleeping?" Jacen said.
"Yes... in a way," she answered, not knowing what else to say.
"When will he wake up?" Jaina asked.
"We don't know," she said. "We don't know how to wake him up."
"Maybe if I give him a kiss." Jaina clambered up to smack the motionless lips of her uncle. For an absurd moment Leia held her breath, thinking that the child's magic just might work. But Luke did not stir.
"He's cold," Jaina mumbled. The little girl's shoulders slumped with disappointment when her uncle failed to wake.
Han squeezed Leia's waist so hard that it hurt, but she didn't want her husband to stop holding her.
"He's been unchanged for days," Cilghal said behind them. "We brought his lightsaber with him. We found it beside his body on the rooftop."
Cilghal hesitated, then moved to stare down at Luke. "Master Skywalker told me I have an innate talent for healing with the Force. He had just begun to show me how to develop my skills-but I've tried all I know. He is not sick. There's nothing physically wrong with him. He seems frozen in a moment of time, as if his soul has left and his body is waiting for him to come back."
"Or," Leia said, "waiting for us to find a way to help him return."
"I don't know how," Cilghal said in a thin, husky voice. "None of us knows-yet. But perhaps working together we can figure it out."
"Do you have any inkling about what really happened?" Leia asked. "Have you found any clues?"
She could sense the sudden spike of Han's turmoil. Cilghal looked away with her big Calamarian eyes, but Han answered with grim certainty. "It was Kyp. Kyp did this."
"What?" Leia said, whirling to stare at him. Han answered in a tumble of words. "The last time I saw Luke, he told me he was afraid for Kyp." Han swallowed hard. "He said that Kyp had started dabbling in the dark side. The kid stole Mara Jade's ship and took off somewhere. I think Kyp came back here and challenged Luke."
"But why?" Leia asked. "What for?"
Cilghal nodded, as if her head were too heavy for her. "We did find the stolen ship in front of the temple. It is still here, so we don't know how he flew away again... unless he fled into the jungles."
"Is that likely?" Leia asked.
Cilghal shook her head. "We Jedi trainees have pooled our talents and searched. We do not detect his presence on Yavin 4. He must have left on another ship somehow."
"But where would he get another ship?" Leia asked, but suddenly she remembered astonished New Republic astronomers reporting the impossible news that an entire group of stars in the Cauldron Nebula had gone supernova at the same time.
She whispered, "Could Kyp have resurrected the Sun Crusher from the core of Yavin?"
Han blinked. "How could he possibly do that?"
Cilghal hung her head gravely. "If Kyp Durron has managed that, then his power is far greater even than we feared. No wonder he was able to defeat Master Skywalker."
Han shuddered, as if afraid to accept what he knew was true. Leia could sense his emotions like a maelstrom within him. "If Kyp is on the loose with the Sun Crusher," he said, "then I'll have to go and stop him."
Leia snapped around to look at him, thinking how Han always leaped headfirst into challenges.
"Are you getting delusions of grandeur again? Why does it have to be you? "
"I'm the only one he might listen to," he said. He looked aside, staring down at Luke's cadaverous face. She saw his lips trembling.
"Look, if Kyp doesn't listen to me, then he won't listen to anyone-and he'll be lost forever. If his power is as great as Cilghal thinks, that kid is not an enemy the New Republic can afford to have." He gave one of his lopsided grins. "Besides, I taught him everything he knows about flying that ship. He couldn't possibly do anything to me."