Ballad of the Winter Rose
A SW Rebels/Doctor Who Romance
Written by: Nehru_Amidala aka FossilQueen1984
Genre: Gothic romance, drama, hurt/comfort, dark fantasy, slight horror
Cast list: Wulff Yularen- Patrick Stewart, Margie Fowler- Catherine Tate, Thrawn- Mads Mikkelson, Minerva- Jenna Coleman, General Ar'alanai- Liv Tyler
Pairings: beginnings of Yularen/Margie, Thrawn/Minerva
Chapter soundtrack: When I'm 64- The Beatles, The Wardrobe-/From Western Woods to Beaversdam- Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe OST
Author's note: Cheunh is equivalent to Danish, translations will be provided in italtics. Happy Reading!
Chapter 29: Curiouser and Curiouser
Dinner out at the pub had to be the most fun Yularen had had in a very long time. Running the Imperial Security Bureau was a stressful job, but somebody had to be in charge of running the Empire's investigators of all things subversive. It was amazing how just going to some random backwater planet could be so liberating. As he was musing on this, Margie pulled up and they drove down the tarmac back to the estate. It was here that a summer thunderstorm reared its ugly head.
Rain began to pelt the windshield so quickly, visibility was reduced to mere centimeters when Margie decided to pull over to wait out the storm. Watching the rain torrent over the windows, Yularen tapped them and to his surprise, they were made of glass! Back home in the GFFA, windows were almost always constructed out of mass-produced quartz crystal. It was cheaper than using sodium combos and sand because the chemicals used in glassmaking were of better use in hyperdrive motivator production.
Noticing her date's confusion, Margie chattered, "It's all right, the rain'll let up in less than an hour. You look like you've never seen glass before. Don't they have glass in your neck of the woods?"
"Oh! Frightfully sorry about that. Glass is used in decorative art, but as we are technologically advanced than you are, we use mass produced industrial quartz crystals instead. More affordable."
"Quartz crystal windows? We aren't anywhere near doing that yet."
Afraid of having offending his red-haired hostess, he took her hands in his and apologized profusely. Margie blushed when he did this, Imperial gentlemen were really chivalrous. She shook her head and was able to assuage his guilt. By now, the rain had let up enough for them to continue the commute home.
Once they were back at the manor house and the car was parked, Yularen and Margie walked into the front door, where the stormtroopers greeted them with a small setback. The spinney where the shuttle was parked lost some trees in a gale, and it would be another day or two until a cleaning crew could be dispatched to clear it out.
It stood to reason that any revelation of the Imperial Empire to the wider UK would be a logistical nightmare for UNIT and Lucasfilm, so it was decided that they would tackle the problem themselves the following day. The stormtroopers wished to call it a night, and so Margie showed them to the guest rooms on the second floor.
Yularen found his guest room to be well furnished. The wallpaper was a dark blue, cobalt he decided. It had a geometric pattern and the furniture was carved from elm, ash and yew. The covers were pale yellow with scarlet and cream detailing. Plopping down on the bed (it was queen sized), he found in comfortable and was about to drift off when he realized he still had his uniform on. Carefully removing his boots and tunic, he lay the tunic on the dresser when the closet door lurched open.
Not surprised, but inquisitive, he poked his head into the closet, when his brown eyes spotted something. It was a medium sized cardboard box, and on it was were the dates 1981-1985. Must be from when Minerva was in primary school, Wulff thought to himself.
Smiling gently, he pulled the box from its hiding place and began leafing through its contents. He smiled at Minerva's school portraits, such an adorable little girl. Her grey-blue eyes were wide and her skin tone was a creamy vanilla, if not slightly more pallid than it was now. Her hair was still long, only to be severely braided and she was wearing long sleeves. He knew that Minerva had been emotionally and physically abused as a child, why was it that Margie had been the only person to come to Minerva's aid? Hadn't there been any teachers who would also do something?
Turning to a yellowed worksheet, he was greeted with a bizarre language and Minerva's emerging cursive writing. She had aced the project, and it read like this:
Navn: Minerva Hektor
Dato: 3. november 1985
Besvar følgende spørgsmål vedrørende Del 1 af The Lion, The Witch og The Garderobe:
1. Hvad gav den hvide heks Edmund til gengæld for at forråde sine søskende?
- Tyrkiske lækkerier
2. Hvorfor gik Lucy tilbage i garderobeskabet?
- Hun ville se, om Narnia og hr. Tumnus var rigtig virkelige.
3. Hvad hedder professor Peter og Susan navnet?
- Professor Kirke
Name: Minerva Hektor
Date: 3 November, 1985
Answer the following questions regarding Part One of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe:
1. What did the White Witch offer Edmund in return for betraying his siblings?
- Turkish Delights
2. Why did Lucy go back into the wardrobe?
- She wanted see if Narnia and Mr Tumnus were really real.
3. What is the name of the Professor Peter and Susan speak to?
- Professor Kirke
There was something familiar about the words, Yularen felt. He was certain he had seen this dialect before, he just couldn't put his finger on it. Feeling tired, he considered turning in when something else caught his eye. It was a holoprojector, and it looked like the recording had never been played.
Figuring he could watch it before falling asleep, he switched off the lights before climbing into bed. Once he had settled under the clean blankets, he propped up his pillows and switched it on. The image flickered when a stately woman with jet black hair and powder blue skin appeared. Yularen thought his jaw was going to drop, she was of the same species Thrawn was! Shaking his head, he let the message play:
Dette er General Ar'alani fra Chiss Expansionary Defesnse Fleet, der adresserer Earthling Jack Harkness. Du har en masse nerve, der viser og kræver Minerva'Hektor's øjeblikkelige fjernelse fra vores skole. Jeg ved godt, at du og din art betragter os science fiction, husk ikke, at House Mitth stadig har juridisk ejerskab af Tyne-on-Wear. Minervas kort er mere nyttige end Formbi ønsker at indrømme, hvad med hende er den lange profeterede Winter Rose ...
This is General Ar'alani of the Chiss Expansionary Defesnse Fleet adressing Earthling Jack Harkness. You have a lot of nerve showing up and demanding Minerva'Hektor's immediate removal from our school. I know full well that you and your kind consider us science fiction, never mind the fact that House Mitth still has legal ownership of Tyne-on-Wear. Minerva's maps are more useful than Formbi wishes to admit, what with her being the long prophesied Winter Rose...
Yularen turned it off post haste, his mind spinning! What did Thrawn's people know of Minerva, and what in the blinking galaxy was the prophecy of the Winter Rose? All he knew was that Thrawn used it as a term of endearment for Minerva. Well, he would ask Margie about it in the morning. Rolling over, he fell into a deep, if not uneasy sleep.
Meanwhile, back in the GFFA, the weeklong meeting of the Tarkin Initiative was at an end. Thrawn was relieved to be away from Vader, Palpatine AND Krennic and getting back to Minerva. Once the war was over, Thrawn was planning on taking Minerva back to Csilla. The CEDF could use her maps, and she would see his ancestral home. Smiling at that, he unlocked the apartment and Minerva was sitting in the loveseat, tackling a crossword puzzle. When she heard him, she smiled.
"Welcome back. How was Coruscant?"
Kissing her soundly, Thrawn replied, "It was interesting, and that is putting it mildly. Krennic wants more funding for Project Stardust, its madness- building that superweapon." He made a face to indicate his disgust. He sat down next to her, and wrapped his arms around her.
Now that she was nestled in his arms, Minerva assured him that Vader's son would destroy it, but the fact remained that over 2 billion civilians would die just so Tarkin could feed his vicious ego. They needed a plan to convince Bail Organa to evacuate the planet, but that could wait. First, they needed to focus on the threat that was Phoenix Squadron.
