Author: Penthesilea2, your friendly neighbourhood Noghri fan...
Title: Blood is Thicker Than...
Era: Between Ep.III and Ep.IV, the tail end of the Jedi Purge
Summary: A human girl is raised by Noghri after her parents' unsuccessful mutiny against the Empire. Feeling, as most teenagers do, that she doesn't belong with the Noghri, she nonetheless acquires their help in going to Coruscant to seek her human father. At the same time, a few Jedi try to make their way to the last safe place they know of in the galaxy.
Characters: Senika, some uber-cool Noghri, Vader, Palpy, some angsty Jedi and a couple of taras-chis.

AN: Sooooo, this first part is kind of bad because I wrote it a long time ago, but I'm finally just about finished it, so I'm posting it all again (I can't access my old account) and if you'll just get through the first chapter, I can promise you sword-fights, warrior girls, lots of Vader love, romance, dancing, space battles and more. Please read and I will be ever so happy if you happen to review as well. :)

Chapter One: Mutiny

The sound of Thel's boots hitting the floor of the Star Destroyer seemed unusually loud. He forced himself to slow down and walk calmly the rest of the way to the escape pods. It wouldn't do for Janissa to see him anxious, she had enough to worry about.

His wife looked up as he rounded the corner and her face was pale with fear. She was holding a twelve month old baby girl, swathed in light blue cloth. Thel compelled himself to grin and reached out to lay a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder as he arrived beside her.

"How's my baby girl?" Thel asked with a smile.

"Well, she's not crying, which to me is better than I could have hoped for… She must get the bravery from her father." Janissa offered a small smile.

Thel and Janissa Hansen had been thrilled months ago when they were both accepted into the crew of the Star Destroyer Indomitable. Janissa was a brilliant biotechnologist, working with a scientific team researching the flora of new planets, while Thel was one of the ship's engineers. Recently though, Janissa was becoming concerned with the Empire's agenda. It seemed calculated subjugation, instead of simple research, was their major aim. The Indomitable currently hovered in orbit around the planet Honoghr, as though circling its prey.

Janissa wasn't going to stand for it any longer. They'd made arrangements, devised partially through cunning, and partially with Thel's skill with communication arrays. They were to use the escape pod to get to the surface for the first stage of their plan and get the fastest transport out of the Empire's small settlement there.

"We'd better hurry, there's only forty-five seconds before the virus becomes active," Thel urged. He'd planned a minor diversion to aid their escape.

Janissa started to nod, but as she glanced over Thel's shoulder, her eyes went wide.

"Thel! Get down!" she screamed.

Thel wasn't fast enough, but the bolt missed him. Instead, the killing shot intended for him hit Janissa straight on. Blood streaming from her forehead, she fell backwards into the open escape pod.

The ship's security forces had arrived.

"You fool!" shouted the lead officer to his underling, "You weren't supposed to kill her!"

But it was too late. The soldiers grabbed Thel, who began to kick and fight desperately as they tried to drag him away.

"After you get him under control, bring me the baby," said the head officer.

"NO!" Thel yelled and lunged toward the pod. He couldn't get into it, but he punched the button to eject the pod, which shut and released with a mechanical hiss.

Whatever the Imperials had in store for him, whatever they had done to his wife, they would never get their hands on his daughter.


While Thel Hansen awaited who knows what kind of punishment, torture, or gruesome death, the escape pod carrying the dead Janissa Hansen and her pitifully crying baby spiraled closer to the planet of Honoghr. It passed through the upper atmosphere and went crashing through the forest of Omnipar, sole woods of the Clean Land. It finally came to a battered stop near a tiny village of Noghri.

The young warrior, Icherab, was the first to approach it, drawn by the noises while hunting in the deep forests. Over the past year, his people had become accustomed to seeing starships, but never one so close.

It seems unthreatening… he thought, Most likely it is harmless…

He pushed the largest button.

At the touch of his fingers, the door hissed open. His keen ears were alerted by the frantic wailing of a baby. A wave of sentimentality hit him as he investigated more closely and found that this being's guardian was dead. He scooped up the child, intending to carry it back to his village. The little girl waved her scrawny arms and fingers and kicked weakly with her legs. A mop of light brown hair framed a round, red-cheeked face. Tears ran from crystal blue eyes, flowing down to a fragile neck.

She's so frail, he thought, So delicate. Not fierce or dangerous at all.

He poked her nose curiously and was so startled when the tiny infant tried to bite him that he almost dropped her.

"Maybe not so frail," he chuckled to himself, "Perhaps we can make a warrior out of this one yet."

And with that he continued in the direction of his sister's house.