Chapter One: Revelations

I'm Willow Butler, and I'm 14 years old.

I'd never known a father. All the other kids, if they didn't have a dad, at least had memories of him. Mom never talked about him. All she ever said was that I had his warm smile, his friendliness, his profile. I'd always avoided Father's Day when it rolled around. I would always do the handprint craft, always draw the picture, but I always dumped it in the trash can right after school. So, this year, I expected things to be the same.

I was grossly, utterly wrong.

"Students," Chirped Mrs. Dickson, "This year, our Father's Day project is to write a short book about your father."

Groans reverberated around the classroom. Mrs. Dickson ignored them. "I'll be giving you each story starters." She walked around the room, dropping slips of paper with words printed on them on our desks.

I froze as I saw mine. 'My Memories of my Father.' Looking around the room, I saw everyone laughing and joking about what they got. I felt like throwing up all over that piece of paper and maybe getting a new one. I raised my hand. "Mrs. Dickson?" I said. "My father died before I was born."

Mrs. Dickson looked at me over her glasses. Well, surely your mother will talk to you about him." Then she click-clacked away to answer other kids' stupid questions.

I was silent, staring down at that hateful little piece of paper on my desk. She didn't understand. My mother hated talking about my dad. She had loved him so much, that, when she told me the story about how he had been killed on deployment, she had started crying. I had never asked about him since. I didn't even know his name.

Dooku was lying down on a couch in his castle on Serenno, when there was a knock at the door. "What is it?" He asked.

In stepped a tactical droid. "Sir, we have come across something unusual in the RT-Alpha."

Dooku sat up. He had commanded that a radio telescope be created and installed so he could hear any important secret transmissions from the Republic. "Is it the Jedi?" He asked.

"No, sir," Replied the droid. "It's from somewhere not on any of the galactic charts."

Dooku was curious now. "What was on the signal?"

If droids could show expressions, this one would have looked disgusted. "It's a children's show, sir." The droid led the count into the radio room. Music from a kiddie show burst out in energetic strains. Still…

"This is from an unknown planet?" Questioned Dooku.

"Yes, sir," Confirmed the droid.

"Keep listening," Ordered the count, striding out the door.

I came home in a bad mood. Angrily shrugging my satchel off at the front door, I stormed down the hall into my room and threw myself face-first onto my bed.

My mother walked in and sat down next to me on my bed. "What's the matter, Willow?" She asked.

I rolled onto my side, facing her. "Stupid school project," I muttered.

"Why?" My mother asked. I didn't feel like explaining, but I did. Once I finished, my mom sighed. "It's time you knew about your father."

I settled back on the pillows. Mom rubbed my tummy and began. "I was a scientist and met your father when I did some work at his military base. He may not have…stood out from the crowd, but I thought he was cute as soon as I saw him." She smiled. "I have to say I was quite a pretty girl, and after a few days, he asked me out on a date." Chuckling, she added, "I found out later that it was a dare from one of his soldiers."

"He was in the Army?" I asked.

"Yes," replied Mom.

"What was his name?"

Mom hesitated, then spoke. "His name was Colt. About nine months later, he heard I was going to be sent to another station and he asked me to marry him." She pulled out a necklace from under her shirt that I had never seen. "This was the ring he gave me."

Dangling on the necklace was a neon yellow plastic ring with a big smiley face on it. I smirked.

Mom smiled, but that was quickly replaced with sadness. "But a little over a year after our elopement-"

"You eloped?" I squealed. "How romantic!"

Mom smiled. "Yes, we eloped. But then, while I was at work, a friend of his told me that he had been killed while he was deployed."

I tried picturing Mom on her first date, getting engaged, and eloping. But each time, the man's face was missing, and the puzzle never felt completed.

My mom kissed me on the cheek. "I'm gonna make some ramen noodles." She crept out of the room. I sprawled out on my back. I had the nagging feeling that my mom was hiding something, but as I pondered it, my eyes slowly closed in sleep.

A week later, Dooku was sitting at his desk, doing some work. A tactical droid walked in, "We've collected a file on the transmission from the unknown planet, sir."

Dooku eagerly grabbed the datapad. Reading through the logs of radio transmissions, he was fascinated by them. All kinds of things, nothing like anything in this galaxy.

"What's our course of action, sir?" Asked the tactical droid.

"Take it," replied Dooku tersely.

"But, sir, tactically-" Began the droid.

"I don't care," Dooku cut in. "The planet might be valuable, and I don't want to lose it. Take the planet."

I had written all my mom's stories that she had told about my dad. As I was walking home from school one cloudily perfect Thursday, though, I saw something. A black sphere hovered behind a tree with its long, black legs dangling beneath it. I stopped in my tracks. What should I do?

"Hey there, little, um…Orbie?" I called softly, stepping towards it. The little thing turned and zoomed off. I did, too.

"Mom!" I shouted, running into the house. "I saw something really weird!"

"What did you see?" Mom asked, coming into the room. Quickly, I explained about the thing.

Mom's friendly smile disappeared. "Recon…" She murmured. Then she grabbed my arm. "Honey, I didn't tell you everything about your father. Sit down."

Eneasily, I sat on the couch, the feeling about Mom hiding something flooding back. Mom took a deep breath. "Honey, your father and I didn't come from here."

"You mean, you guys were from a different country?" I asked.

"No, Willow, we were from a different galaxy." Mom admitted.

I stopped, stunned. "W-w-what? Is this a joke?"

Mom took my hand. "No, this is not a joke. Your father was a soldier in the Republic clone army-"

"He was a CLONE?" I squeaked. My heart plummeted. "You mean there were thousands of people just like him?"

"No," snapped my mom. "He may have looked like them, but he had his own personality. He was killed by an assassin on a mission. I figured the war would have been over by now, but now I know that time is slower in that galaxy."

I couldn't believe it. My mom was from another galaxy? "Were you really a scientist?" I asked.

"Yes. I was a geneticist who worked on creating the clones."

I was overwhelmed. My dad looked like thousands of other people? He wasn't even born like normal? Then another thought hit me: I had the exact genes of thousands of others I didn't even know running through me. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. I closed my eyes.