Title: A Sign of Trust
Author: LadyElaine
Archive: Please ask first. I'd like to know where it's going.
Feedback: ...is my bread and water. dragonlady75069@attbi.com
Disclaimer: Homage is due to Stacey Lee, whose incomparable "In a Strange Land" (found in the fanfic at www.qui-gonline.org ) was the original inspiration for this. The characters and situations of Star Wars belong to George Lucas and Lucasfilm, Ltd. My only profit is (hopefully) feedback.
Rating: PG to PG-13 for mild language and violence.
Summary: Drama. A jaded woman narrowly escapes a fatal car crash when she's transported to the Star Wars galaxy. Think it's a dream come true? Think again.
*italics* (thoughts, stress, etc.)
**journal entries**
* * *
A Sign of Trust
I. Aurabesh
**Week 1, day 4: It was 2:47 on a cloudy Saturday afternoon when that semi hit my little blue Kia. Don't ask me how or why I got out of that one--I really shouldn't have. I was looking at the radio, scanning through the different stations, and I buzzed right through the red light. By all rights, I should be dead.
What brought my attention back to the here and now (where it belonged) was the awful sound of a truck driver standing on his brakes. I looked back up, and the genius in me said, "Gee, I guess things really do move in slow motion when you're about to die." Sometimes I amaze even myself.
Oddly enough, the last thing I remember feeling, as I watched the semi barreling toward me, was a profound sense of relief....**
Cathleen sighed, and started cracking her knuckles one by one. The sound of it bothered Master Qui-Gon to no end--but after all, it was by his recommendation that the Council had ordered her to transcribe her journal into Aurabesh. She stole a glance over her shoulder at the opposite corner of the cell, belatedly remembering that Qui-Gon was gone. In his place sat a rather dashing young Knight by the name of Nejaa Halcyon. He looked to be deep in meditation.
She sighed again and stretched before resuming her typing.
**...When I woke up, I thought I was dead. Well, first I thought I was in a hospital bed--and I was, just not what I expected. The voices around me seemed familiar, but I figured I'd been hearing them before I became lucid.
Coming out of it was like swimming up from a subterranean cave. I've seen some incredible photos taken from the mouths of those underwater caverns, and it was as good a mental image as any to use as I tried to wake up. When I finally did open my eyes, it was to the sight of Liam Neeson's long-lost twin brother. I mean, it obviously wasn't the actor himself, but he was a dead ringer, anyway. That's when I thought I had died. Any red-blooded female, waking up to *that* face, would think she was in heaven.**
A chuckle from just behind and above her interrupted Cathleen's concentration. The Jedi had managed to come up without her noticing, and had been reading over her shoulder. She flushed angrily. "Hey, don't you have something better to do than annoy me?"
"No, actually, I don't. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you, you know."
*Trust a Corellian,* Cathleen thought, *to remind me just how untrustworthy I am.* She bit her lip and decided to cajole him into shepherding her to the library. It was one of the only parts of the Temple *They* allowed her to visit.
* * *
"She appeared in the midst of your council, and you are not yet sure of her?" Qui-Gon allowed a hint of frustration to color his voice. The woman had, indeed, popped into existence right in the middle of a Council meeting, sprawled bonelessly on the floor, blood leaking from eyes and ears and nose as if she'd just suffered a massive head injury. Her clothing, too had born signs of trauma, being badly torn and burned.
"Of her presence here, we are sure, Qui-Gon," Yoda chided him softly. "But of her purpose, we are not so certain." The healers had quickly collected the woman, but could find no reason for the blood loss. In time, she'd woken--and things had suddenly gone from strange to downright eerie.
"She is an outsider," Mace said dryly. "Her Force signature barely even registers. If she can't be sensed, how can she be trusted?" The woman, calling herself 'Cathleen Mackenzie,' had known every Council member on sight--but none of them had ever seen the stranger before her abrupt appearance.
"On the one hand, you ask us to release her, but on the other, to support her with a stipend." This came from Master Eeth Koth. He shook his horned head gravely. "We have, in the past, allowed your quaint fascination with the less fortunate; but this, Master Jinn, is unacceptable."
Author: LadyElaine
Archive: Please ask first. I'd like to know where it's going.
Feedback: ...is my bread and water. dragonlady75069@attbi.com
Disclaimer: Homage is due to Stacey Lee, whose incomparable "In a Strange Land" (found in the fanfic at www.qui-gonline.org ) was the original inspiration for this. The characters and situations of Star Wars belong to George Lucas and Lucasfilm, Ltd. My only profit is (hopefully) feedback.
Rating: PG to PG-13 for mild language and violence.
Summary: Drama. A jaded woman narrowly escapes a fatal car crash when she's transported to the Star Wars galaxy. Think it's a dream come true? Think again.
*italics* (thoughts, stress, etc.)
**journal entries**
* * *
A Sign of Trust
I. Aurabesh
**Week 1, day 4: It was 2:47 on a cloudy Saturday afternoon when that semi hit my little blue Kia. Don't ask me how or why I got out of that one--I really shouldn't have. I was looking at the radio, scanning through the different stations, and I buzzed right through the red light. By all rights, I should be dead.
What brought my attention back to the here and now (where it belonged) was the awful sound of a truck driver standing on his brakes. I looked back up, and the genius in me said, "Gee, I guess things really do move in slow motion when you're about to die." Sometimes I amaze even myself.
Oddly enough, the last thing I remember feeling, as I watched the semi barreling toward me, was a profound sense of relief....**
Cathleen sighed, and started cracking her knuckles one by one. The sound of it bothered Master Qui-Gon to no end--but after all, it was by his recommendation that the Council had ordered her to transcribe her journal into Aurabesh. She stole a glance over her shoulder at the opposite corner of the cell, belatedly remembering that Qui-Gon was gone. In his place sat a rather dashing young Knight by the name of Nejaa Halcyon. He looked to be deep in meditation.
She sighed again and stretched before resuming her typing.
**...When I woke up, I thought I was dead. Well, first I thought I was in a hospital bed--and I was, just not what I expected. The voices around me seemed familiar, but I figured I'd been hearing them before I became lucid.
Coming out of it was like swimming up from a subterranean cave. I've seen some incredible photos taken from the mouths of those underwater caverns, and it was as good a mental image as any to use as I tried to wake up. When I finally did open my eyes, it was to the sight of Liam Neeson's long-lost twin brother. I mean, it obviously wasn't the actor himself, but he was a dead ringer, anyway. That's when I thought I had died. Any red-blooded female, waking up to *that* face, would think she was in heaven.**
A chuckle from just behind and above her interrupted Cathleen's concentration. The Jedi had managed to come up without her noticing, and had been reading over her shoulder. She flushed angrily. "Hey, don't you have something better to do than annoy me?"
"No, actually, I don't. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on you, you know."
*Trust a Corellian,* Cathleen thought, *to remind me just how untrustworthy I am.* She bit her lip and decided to cajole him into shepherding her to the library. It was one of the only parts of the Temple *They* allowed her to visit.
* * *
"She appeared in the midst of your council, and you are not yet sure of her?" Qui-Gon allowed a hint of frustration to color his voice. The woman had, indeed, popped into existence right in the middle of a Council meeting, sprawled bonelessly on the floor, blood leaking from eyes and ears and nose as if she'd just suffered a massive head injury. Her clothing, too had born signs of trauma, being badly torn and burned.
"Of her presence here, we are sure, Qui-Gon," Yoda chided him softly. "But of her purpose, we are not so certain." The healers had quickly collected the woman, but could find no reason for the blood loss. In time, she'd woken--and things had suddenly gone from strange to downright eerie.
"She is an outsider," Mace said dryly. "Her Force signature barely even registers. If she can't be sensed, how can she be trusted?" The woman, calling herself 'Cathleen Mackenzie,' had known every Council member on sight--but none of them had ever seen the stranger before her abrupt appearance.
"On the one hand, you ask us to release her, but on the other, to support her with a stipend." This came from Master Eeth Koth. He shook his horned head gravely. "We have, in the past, allowed your quaint fascination with the less fortunate; but this, Master Jinn, is unacceptable."