He smoothed the hair atop her head, sadness in his eyes. "You do not have to go, Auli. I can send your brother..."
"No," she said, cutting him off. "Andor is sick. You and Mother's place is with him. I will go,"
He kneeled to hug her. "A brave daughter I have raised," he said with a smile. The ship behind them began to grumble with sounds of the engines firing up. "You must go now, Auli. Hurry!"
She turned and took off toward the ship. Her father's voice rang in her ears.
Find Uncle Ben, my child! Find Uncle Ben!
She sat shivering in a spare closet of the ship. She clutched her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them. Her teeth chattered with cold.
There were no windows in the room, so she was forced to imagine what Bellassa looked like as she flew away from her home. A beautiful blend of blue and green, her home and farm growing smaller and smaller, until it was finally lost amongst the colors. Already, she was homesick.
She concentrated instead on the task at hand, pushing her sadness to the back of her mind. She knew very little about her father's brother, her Uncle Ben. She knew only what her father had told her: Ben was a few years older than he, and Ben was a Jedi Knight.
War had broken out on the peaceful planet of Bellassa. The farming families had revolted rather violently, demanding democracy against a harsh and oppressive monarchy. They demanded more agricultural benefits and less technology and tourism. The Mandol family, a peasant farming family, had joined the war effort reluctantly. Brothers fought brothers, mothers fought daughters; it was a brutal war Owen Mandol wanted no part of.
But when Alisa was kidnapped...
Auli closed her eyes tightly, trying to block out the memory.
In their most desperate hour, Auli's father had called to her. Asking her to go to Coruscant and seek out a distant relative, one who could stop this senseless uprising and help find Alisa.
Tell him he's my last resort...our only hope. he had said breathlessly that night.
And now, here she was, aboard a ship to an unfamiliar planet, chasing ghosts.