It had been a relaxing day with some shopping, visits to several of the casino's, and topped off with dinner in one of the patio restaurants on the Upper Promenade. The day was drawing to a close and the evening began to cool as Commander Sandoval Dinn and Aisii, his wife, were on holiday to celebrate his first full season of retirement from the Republic Navy with a trip to gamble away a little of their retirement credits on Nar Shadda.

The Commander stretched back in his chair and groaned, and Aisii knew that her husband had enjoyed his meal entirely too much this evening and suggested a walk to help things digest might be in order. They settled their bill with the host droid and headed outside while the droid gleefully told them, "Thank-you, it was our pleasure to serve you. Please come again soon."

As they walked along and marveled at the engineering that would have been required to pack the buildings and population so densely together as it was here, Aisii stopped with a puzzled look on her face and the Commander could see that she was straining to hear something. He chuckled and tried to comment on the acuity of a music instructor's ear, but was abruptly shushed.

"Do you hear that dear?" Aisii asked, still straining her ears. "I only hear the traffic and sounds from the clubs..." but his words trailed off as she turned sharply to her left and strode down the thin alley between two merchant storefronts with the Commander hot on her heels.

"What is it?" he asked, but Aisii simply waved her hand to motion him to be quiet. "I don't know, it sounds like the mewing of Manka cubs. If someone has smuggled them to the planet and then dumped them..." and with that her pace quickened.

They had not made it 5 meters into the alley when among the refuse they found a polyplast bin that had a mass of several colours of fur in it, and the Commander reached in and held one of the cubs up with both hands for Aisii to see. The look of shock and horror on her face made him spin the ball of fur to face him and his jaw simply dropped.

Aisii gasped, "Sandy... those... someone's abandoned Cathar kitlings," and her eyes filled with tears.

"You stay here and I'll go back to the street to flag down security," placing the kitling into her arms as he headed for the alley entrance, where waited until he could flag down a patrol to call for medics and the authorities.

As they waited, Aisii sat beside the bin rocking it while singing softly to the grey-orange fuzzed kitling that was still in her arms and wondering how in the world anyone could just abandon their children. The Commander maintained his position at the entrance and waited for help to arrive while guarding those behind him.

At the Sector Security office the medics checked each kitling as thoroughly as they could, but admitted they only had limited knowledge of Cathar infants. In total there was one male and 3 females, and estimated they were somewhere between a day to 16 standard weeks old, but couldn't be sure. Aside from being hungry, they were in good health so it was clear that they had been taken care up to the point they were abandoned.

The Sergeant assigned to take their statement asked the Dinn's a series of questions in a detached and monotone voice, "Where are you from? What direction were you walking? Where did you say you prior to discovering the kitlings? Why did they chose that route? How long have they been on Nar Shadda?"

Aisii repeatedly asked to know what would become of the kitlings, but the Sergeant only seemed interested in asking questions. Aisii, frustrated by the singular interest the Sergeant had, finally placed her hand on his data pad screen to break his trance-like state and force him to look at her, where she asked again, "What will happen to these kitlings?"

"Well Ma'am, they will need to be processed and assigned an orphanage, or shelter if the orphanages are at capacity today," he explained.

"What do you mean if they're not at capacity today?" she asked slowly.

"Well Ma'am, the orphanages and most shelters run at full capacity at any given time. So, unless one of the older youth has either; run away, fallen into one of the Gangs, or worse, there may not be room right away."

"What will happen to them? Won't you find the parents? Their mother?" asked Aisii.

"We'll do our best to find a spot for them in another Sector if we can, but please understand this is our eighth case of child abandonment today and the other Sectors are just as busy. As for finding the parents, there's little use since they wouldn't have been left if they were wanted or could be cared for," explained the emotionless man.

Aisii just stood dumbfounded at the Sergeant's words and could see there wasn't any empathy in his eyes or his heart. Sandoval understood it all to well having seen too many young men return from battle numbed and lifeless, and the Sergeant wasn't any different except his battleground was the streets and alleys in his sector.

Thumbing at his data pad again, the Sergeant absently uttered, "If you wanted, you could probably pick one and take it with you when you leave the planet."

Aisii simply stared at him in disgust before the anger overtook her and she could find the words. "How... How dare you speak about these children like we were picking a pet from a store!"

With this the Sergeant showed his first emotions and flushed as he tried to spill out his words, "No Ma'am, please... sorry... what I meant was, with the high number of orphaned youth on the planet we are able to expedite adoptions as long as a background and reference checks comes up clean - please I didn't mean to sound so callous," and looked to his Captain for some help or guidance, only to see that man also working emotionless at his desk.

Aisii turned and looked at Sandoval to gauge his thoughts.

Sandoval had been thinking that this was 'their time' now. All through their years together they had agreed on the course and commitment he put into his naval career. He remembered the steep price they both paid with postponing having children because there was always another posting or promotion that would situate them better for starting a family until it was clear they had waited too long, and they could not have any of their own. Now they were both retired, him from the Republic Navy and Aisii from teaching music to students on every planet or base they were stationed on during Sandoval's career, and starting a family now? Did either of them really know where to begin?

When his looked to his wife and saw their lifetime together in her eyes he instantly accepted three things. First they were returning to Ord Mantell as parents, the second was that he would be calling in a favour with the Navy to get all four kitlings offworld, and lastly that their visits to the casino had come to an end.

He smiled and nodded to Aisii with agreement that this is what they would do. Aisii crossed the room and picked up the same kitling that Sandoval first handed to her in the alley. Hugging the infant close to her she carried their new baby to the Commander and said "You're going to be the best Papa in the galaxy Sandy!"

The Commander's contacts in the Navy responded immediately and dispatched a shuttle to Nar Shadda so that early the next morning the rest of the kitlings were officially transferred to the care of the Republic and assigned foster homes with fleet families in different parts of the galaxy.

As the Commander and Aisii finished their adoption interview with an officious looking employee from Nar Shadda Central Government, he asked, "...and what will the name for the female be?"

Without looking up from the face of the infant in her arms, Aisii replied, "Solasta Dinn is her name."

The government employee repeated almost half questioning "Solasta?"

Yes replied Aisii, "Solasta for her bright and beautiful yellow eyes that shine like the sun."

This gave the man a moment to pause, trying to remember what the sun in Nar Shadda's sky even looked like.

When all was in order they returned to their room at the Casino and packed everything for home, leaving a full standard week early to start their family.