Some say I got devil
Some say I got angel
But I'm just a girl in trouble
I don't think I'm in danger
Don't think I'm in danger
No, I know I'm not in danger
But some have tried to sell me
All kinds of things to save me
From hurting like a woman, and crying like a baby
Something like a woman, crying like a baby
And all the things that I have seen
Qualify me for a part in your dream
Qualify me for this dream
And though I'd like to tell it
Exactly how I feel it
Somehow the music
Hides it and conceals it
Hides it and conceals it
Oh, it hides
And all the things that I have seen
Can be hidden in a part of my dream
Gonna hide it in my dream
The young woman who stepped out of the freighter wore a mis-match of clothing. A baggy flight suit covered most of her but over that she had a jacket with the words 'Ruping Queen' embroidered in old Onderonian runes. Not that she knew what they said. It was part of the reason she was here, to find someone to teach her how to read the characters there and in the old book she carried. On her shoulder was a clone trooper armor plate with the former Galactic Republic Senate symbol painted on it in red. And on her head she wore a Mandalorian helmet painted with the symbol for Clan Ordo. She hoped to recreate herself here or to figure out how to make sense of all of these parts of herself that she couldn't quite mash together.
She readjusted the book in her arms along with an old holo notebook and she placed a hand on her abdomen. It felt strange to find it flat and empty. She was still a few weeks away from what should have been her due date. Now that date would pass as just any other on the standard calendar. She used the same hand tip the helmet back and to scrub a tear away from her eye. She was amazed that she had any tears left. Her planet was gone. Momma was gone. Ba'buir was gone. Sundari was gone. The baby was gone. And Korkie was as good as gone. He blamed her for all of it and well he should. It was all her fault. She should have never been in the Mandalore system in the first place. Her mother was from here, from Onderon and Soniee hoped to find something here, some reason for it all.
But where to start. She'd need a place to stay and she had to find someone who spoke the old language, someone who could teach her. The Empire didn't like domestic languages. They wanted everyone to be as identical as their storm troopers. She had heard they wanted to ban Mando'a but that would never happen. As long as there were Mando'ade who believed in the Resol'nare, Mando'a would be spoken among them with pride. But here Onderonian had been a dying language for decades, maybe centuries. Lux had been born here, gone to school here and he couldn't even be of much help to her to translate the book she held close to her heart.
"Hey," a deep gruff voice jolted her out of her train of thoughts. The speaker was some alien species she had never encountered before. He was covered in purple fur and had deep blue eyes. He walked slightly hunched but even so was very tall. He looked something like how she had once imagined a Wookie might look. "You got somewhere to go?"
"Who me?" she looked around and didn't see anyone else he might be addressing.
"Yeah." He smiled. He might have been a fierce predator but she didn't get that sense from him at all. "You look lost."
"I know I'm in Iziz." She said still behind the safety of the helmet.
"Yeah. That's right. You got friends, a place to stay?"
Soniee had no idea why she should trust this monster but for whatever reason she did. She removed the helmet. "No. No I don't."
"Well, I'm Zal. Welcome to Onderon." He held out a large purple hand and she awkwardly tried to juggle her holo notebook and book and helmet to shake his.
He laughed and waved it off. "It's alright. What's your name?"
"I'm er Dara." She had a feeling sticking to her own name wouldn't be a good idea. Her new name came from the Mando'a, 'Dar,' no longer, and she added the ending so it would sound more Onderonian. If that's what she wanted to be it seemed like a good place to start.
"Dara? Nice to meet you. Look I know you probably know better than to take invitations from strange Lasat but a friend and I have a place you can stay. It's not like we're trying to get you alone or anything like that." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "We take in all sorts. All the refugees from the surrounding planets who end up here. Not that I think you're a refugee."
"I kind of am." She gave him a small smile. "And I could use a place to stay. Who is your friend?"
"He should be coming 'round here any time. I was supposed to meet him. We usually come down to the port when new ships come in. Just to see if there's anybody who needs our help."
"So it's like a charity?" she asked.
The Lasat. Yes. That's what he was. She remembered now, and he was carrying a bow-rifle. She had tried firing a similar one once, a long time ago. He frowned and scratched his head. "Yeah I guess you could say that. Ah." He straightened up and Soniee realized how very tall he was. He waved to someone coming up behind her. "Saw! Only one today. Let me introduce, Dara."
She turned and came face to face with the dark skinned human male. "Hello."
From him she sensed a mixture of emotions. There was frustration and sadness and a very deep seeded anger that she was sure could flare at a moment's notice. But there was also a kindness in his smile. When he saw her, he stopped, frozen for a moment before he smiled again and held out his hand to shake hers. "Hey, I'm Saw Gerrera."
She wondered what he had seen in her face that caused him to falter for that split second. She held up her armload of things and shrugged.
"Right, I see. Well, I'm sure Zal already told you. We are in the habit of picking up strays and if you need a place to lay your head while you're visiting our fair city, we can help you out."
"Where've you been?" Zal asked him.
"I went to pay the old man a visit."
"Still determined to keep as far away from the city as he can?"
"Yeah." Saw turned and smiled again at Soniee. "An old hermit I sort of look after. He was a friend of my parents."
"Taking in strays and looking after hermits, I seem to have bumped in to the right people."
"You certainly have. Would you like us to show you to your hotel, Miss?" Saw asked with a mock formal bow.
Zal laughed, "We can help you carry your stuff. Do you have anything else or just this?"
Soniee hugged her things to her chest. "Uh... I can get it. I have a few other things in my freighter but I can come back for anything else later, once I'm settled. I was really planning on just sleeping on the ship."
Saw nodded. "We'll see if we can't find you some place more comfortable. Just follow me."
She did and noticed that as they walked he kept throwing her sideways glances. After a while she had to ask. "I'm sorry but... is something wrong with the way I look?"
"No. I'm sorry. You look... familiar."
"Funny. I don't look like anybody back home." She thought of the sea of blond hair and blue eyes that she had always stood out in.
"Home? Where's that?" He asked.
"Oh." she hadn't really meant to say but now that he asked, she didn't sense that there was any danger in telling him the truth. "Mandalore." She had the helmet after all with her clan allit painted right on the front of it.
"Had some trouble back there lately." He nodded.
"What?" she asked defensively.
"Been trouble all over since our grand Empire took over everything." He said with a bit of a growl. She was a little surprised that he would speak out so blatantly against the new order. Not that she didn't feel the same.
"Y-yes. I wasn't in the capitol during the siege but I heard it was terrible." Soniee hadn't been physically in Sundari when it burned but she had felt it. She had been there in the Force, fighting in her own way.
Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "I know who it is you remind me of. That representative, the one who was aways in the news a while back with Senator Bonteri." Actually he had been thinking she reminded him of someone else, of Auntie Mel, but surely that was only because he'd just been talking to Uncle Brem and it had brought back the memory.
"Wh-Who?" she asked a little shakily not meeting his gaze.
"You didn't hear about her? There was this representative from Mandalore. She was friends with the Onderonian senator. There was even a rumor that she disappeared to go and have his baby." He laughed.
Soniee attempted a laugh of her own but to her own ears it sounded more like a croak.
"On the rebound. Tryin' to get over your sister." Zal guffawed.
But Saw was instantly serious. "Don't talk about her like that!"
"Sorry. That was in bad taste." The big Lasat shrugged, ashamedly.
"Sister." Soniee whispered almost to herself. She hadn't thought about it but the name Gerrera had sounded familiar when he first said it. This was Steela Gerrera's brother, who Lux had told her about.
Saw must have heard her mumbling. "What was that?" he asked.
"Oh I was just... I'm not much into politics."
He glanced at the senate symbol painted in red on her shoulder plate and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah... Alright, Dara. It's just up this way a bit." He used the name she had given him but she was sure he knew exactly who she really was.
Soniee hurried to follow through the busy street and she stumbled a bit when her foot hit a stone. It never would have happened a few months ago. She'd always been able to walk confidently, without thinking, backward or forward. But since the baby... maybe the Force had finally left her when she lost him. She didn't think she was that lucky. The Empire would still be after her if they knew. She had to be careful.
The real effect of the near trip was that when she threw her arm out to catch herself her book flew open and a couple of the loose sheets that were tucked inside floated toward the ground. Saw turned to help her and picked one of them up. She grabbed the rest and stuffed them back in the book but when she grabbed for the sheet in his hand, he looked at her strangely.
"Where did you get these?" he asked.
"I found them." She took the last sheet and placed it carefully back between the pages of the book. "Its part of the reason I'm here actually. To see if I can learn to translate them. They are Onderonian runes, aren't they?"
"Well I didn't get a really good look..." Saw frowned. "Where did you say you found them?" He was thinking of how familiar the handwriting had looked and the signature at the bottom in Basic. It was... it had to be a coincidence or fate.
"I didn't." she answered rather shortly. And then with a sigh because what did it really matter if he knew. "I found them with some things that belonged to... well I believe that they belonged to ...my mother."
"Your mother was from Onderon?" He asked and he gave her that strange look again like he recognized her.
Soniee hugged her book. "That's what I've always been told. I was adopted by Mandalorians, grew up there. But my birth mother's freighter crashed right after I was born. I have no memory of her."
Saw nodded. "Will you let me see that letter again?"
She almost said no, but if he could help her translate them... That is what she had come here for. She took one of the loose sheets out of the book and handed it to him.
He glanced over it quickly. The penmanship was familiar and so was the name signed at the bottom but he didn't let on. "It's Onderonian, alright, but it beats me what it says," he lied smoothly handing it back. "We'll find somebody who can help you out with it though."
She looked a little disappointed when he said he didn't understand but brightened right away when he offered to find her help. "Thank you, Saw. I really appreciate it. It would be wonderful to finally learn something about her."
"Saw?" The Lasat called him over.
"Excuse me a minute." Saw left the girl and went. "Zalyanov?"
"What are you doin' telling her you can't read it?"
"That letter she has was written by the old man. She says it belonged to her mother."
Zal did a double take at the girl and back at his friend. "You think she could be his kid?"
"When I first saw her she reminded me of Aunt Mel. I thought it might be just because I'd been thinking about her after visiting Brem but now I don't know. His wife took off what almost 20 years ago?"
"She'd be about the right age then." The lasat frowned looking at her as if trying to see a resemblance to the old hermit. "That doesn't explain why you don't want to teach her to read those letters."
"Not the kind of thing you just spring on somebody." The truth was Saw wasn't exactly sure why he had told her he couldn't read them. But if translating the book was all she was here for that meant she might leave as soon as the job was done. For whatever reason he didn't want her to go quite so soon. Then again, maybe he was just trying to protect Uncle Brem from the hurt of all the memories that would be brought up by the girl's arrival.