========
The Commenor Years - A Tale Of Danni Quee
A Star Wars New Jedi Order fanfiction
Tale Three - Paternal Revelations
By: Mark "Moogle" Brown (moogle@fanforce.net)
========

Disclaimer: The Star Wars universe was made for people like me to play in. Cracking down on
fanfiction makes Baby Jesus cry.

***

"Mommy!" exclaimed an eight-year-old Danni Quee as her mother walked in through the
front door of their residence. As she always did when either she walked in and saw her
mother, or when her mother walked in.

Normally Marla Quee would love to embrace her daughter in a hug, except this time
she was carrying a couple of containers with food in them, that she had just gone out to
purchase. "Hold on, there, Danni. Let Mommy put these down first," she told her daughter.

Danni bobbed her head cutely in the affirmative. Even eight years after she was
born, Marla still thought that everything Danni did, Danni did cutely.

"Mommy!" came another shout, higher pitched. Marla looked up to see three-year-old
Norra, her younger daughter, bounding towards her with every bit of the enthusiasm that
Danni had just displayed.

Marla thought that she was going to end up with a three-year-old attached to her
leg. Fortunately, Danni intercepted the younger girl and they both waited for the groceries
to be placed down to pounce on her.

Watching it all from where the two girls had been just seconds before was Kari, who
had gone from midwife to babysitter in the years after the younger Quee sister was born,
when Marla made some important discovery at her work and suddenly was called to work more,
even to go places. Which was not something that the girls minded; they loved their mother,
but they could still have plenty of fun with another adult, even one who was over seventy
years old.

Not surprisingly, Kari was smiling over at Marla. It was something she seemed to do
a lot. At times, Marla wondered what Kari thought of her as. She didn't know much about the
old woman, just that when Marla needed a midwife, she had come across Kari, and the
friendship that started then had yet to be extinguished. Marla smiled back.

The girls left her alone as she set what she was carrying down on the countertop,
although she could tell from both of their expressions that they were quite eager to
continue with the daily ritual. Before she knew what hit her, a child was clutching onto
each one of her legs.

"Did someone slip caf into your system? You're certainly hyper today," she said as
she looked down at her children.

Danni started giggling, and Norra soon followed suit. 'Monkey see, monkey do,' Marla
thought to herself with a chuckle.

"I'm going on a field trip tomorrow!" Danni exclaimed.

"Field trip! Field trip!" echoed the younger girl.

Marla amended her earlier thought - Danni wasn't the only one who did everything
cutely.

"And where are you going on this field trip?" the woman asked. She figured it was
probably something like an animal refuge, or maybe a stop at a local garrison. She didn't
see Kari grimace.

"We're going to the capital, and we're going to watch the legislators!" Danni
continued in her bright tone, her eyes sparkling. Just when Marla thought it could not get
any worse, her daughter added, "The Senator to the New Republic is going to be there!"

The only thing that kept even some semblance of the smile on Marla's face was that
she could detect that Danni was excited about this. Danni would not understand why this
would make her fret, she knew. Her daughter could not possibly know why announcing that the
Senator would be there would be a bad thing. Then, her daughter had never met Castor Rodan,
either. Why, the only thing that could make it worse would be if-

"We're going to get to meet him, too!" Danni said a few seconds later, suddenly
remembering something that she had forgotten.

There was no keeping the smile on Marla's face anymore. Not when the care she had
taken to insulate her daughter from the scum that was Danni's father... and Norra's father.
A very small part of her grudgingly admitted she was more angry at herself than anything.
But at least she had Danni and Norra.

Danni was giving her mother a curious look. She couldn't know what was upsetting her
so much, and doubtlessly she wanted to.

Before Marla could say something, Kari winked at her. "Do they need chaperones,
Danni?"

The older girl blinked, unrecognition obvious in her eyes. "What's a chaperone?"

"A chaperone is a parent who goes along on a field trip," Kari explained.

Realization dawned on Danni. "Oh! Yeah, they need parents, they keep telling us to
talk to our parents but I kept forgetting!"

Marla smiled a bit at this. It would be just like Danni to forget something like
that, being too busy with something else. Work for school, probably. Fortunately, Danni was
not yet old enough to try to figure out motivations of those around her.

"What do you think, Danni? Mind if I come along?" Out of the corner of her eye she
noticed Kari smile and slip out of the house.

"It'll be lots of fun, Mommy, I promise!"

"Fun, Mommy, fun!"

The innocence of her daughters made her smile a bit more, even if most of her
thoughts were hatred of the highest degree directed against one Castor Rodan. "Then I'll let
the guys at work know I will be out tomorrow."

Danni beamed at her, which meant Norra beamed at her not long after.

'Ah, the innocence of children...' she thought.

***

School was an institution that Marla Quee had never had the opportunity to
experience due to her childhood on the run. Neither had she gotten much of an impression
about what it was really like in Danni's few years in school, because all she found out was
what Danni told her, a point-of-view that was inevitably skewed by the simplistic mind of a
child.

Needless to say, she was a bit taken aback when she arrived with Danni in tow. Then
again, that was partly because it was more as though Danni arrived with her in tow.

Organized chaos was the only phrase she could think of to describe the scene she
was witnessing. Kids looking like they ranged from ages five to ten bustled all about the
front of a ferrocrete building. A few adults - teachers, she figured - moved through the
crowd to get into the school building. Most of these adults seemed to be women her age, she
idly noted.

The kids were bouncing around, moving in all directions at once, seemingly, yet all
the while moving towards the doors of the building. Even Danni was moving towards it,
surprisingly enough. Despite being taller than everyone there, Marla was afraid she'd get
swept up in the insanity, seperated from Danni.

'And to think, Danni goes through this every day!' she thought to herself.

Danni, as if reading her thoughts, turned back and noted, "It's not usually this
crowded. I think it's because of our field trip. We're here a little later than usual, too."

It had taken Marla a bit longer than anticipated to get Norra awake and over to
Kari's house. An oversight on her part, she knew, and she felt bad about it, though Danni
didn't seem to care one way or another. Marla knew that was likely because she was too
excited about her upcoming field trip.

A couple of minutes and at least a couple hundred moving-yet-unmoving children
later, Danni dragged Marla through the doors of the building. "Come on, Mommy!" she called
over her shoulder. "My class is this way!"

Danni led her down a corridor that seemed to at least be mostly populated by
eight-year-olds. Storage containers of some sort lined the walls, a few kids putting things
in them or taking things out of them. Lockers, Danni called them. Speaking of Danni, Marla
was surprised that she hadn't seen anyone she knew yet and said hello. She might need to be
talked to about being social later. Marla filed that in the back of her head.

"Hi, Rachelle! Hi, Christi! Hi, Jenna!" Danni waved to three girls in succession as
they passed.

Then again, Marla decided, maybe she didn't need to talk to Danni about being social
after all.

The room that Danni brought her to was at least something like what she had pictured
in her head. In the far corner of the room stood another woman, whom Marla was convinced was
younger than herself, fiddling with a console at her desk. As she punched things in,
instructions appeared from a holoprojector that was mounted in the ceiling. There was a
wooden desk with storage space and a chair for each child. Most of the children were already
in the room and seated. All of them turned to look at Marla as Danni and she entered.

'At least it looks like those New Republic types are good for something,' she
thought to herself.

While Marla took in the sights, she didn't notice Danni taking her seat, nor did she
notice the young teacher approach.

"Excuse me, are you Miss Quee?" the teacher's voice startled her.

She turned to get a good look at the teacher. A petite woman, with unruly brown hair
contained with a single braid, was looking at her with inquisitive brown eyes.

Marla grimaced at being called 'Miss' before nodding in the affirmative. "Please,
just call me Marla."

The other woman regarded her with a knowing look. "I'm sorry. I hate being called
'Miss', too. Except by the kids." She grinned, then held out a hand. "By the way, I'm
Tessarin Molen. But please, call me Tess."

Marla shook the offered hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure's mine," Tess told her. Then she raised an eyebrow and looked Marla up and
down. "Wait a minute... Marla Quee, the astrophysicist?"

The older woman grimaced again, then held out her hands in an 'I surrender' gesture.
"You caught me."

Tess nodded eagerly. "If you don't mind, could we maybe talk some time? I'm a big
fan."

By then, Marla was beginning to wonder if it was worth her trouble trying to shield
Danni from a certain politician, if she had to put up with this. Then another part of her
mind berated her and reminded her that in the grand scheme, this wasn't all that bad.

Marla nodded back to the woman. "That's fine. I enjoy discussing my work." Which was
true, anyway.

The teacher gave her another nod, then turned to address the class. "Class, are you
ready for our field trip today?"

A chorus of assents came back in reply. Tess continued in a tone that was both
patronizing and patient. "Everyone say hello and thank you to Miss Quee, Danni's mother, who
is going to be joining us today."

"Hello and thank you, Miss Quee," the students - all except for Danni - said as one.
Most of the students then turned their eyes to Danni, who blushed from the sudden scrutiny.

Tess cleared her throat and all of the students immediately returned their attention
to her. "I'm going to go over our rules and procedures one more time, just to make sure
nobody forgets, okay? I don't want any incidents like the wildlife preserve with Stu and
Jef."

Scattered giggles crossed the room, and two boys sunk into their chairs. Marla
grinned at picture she imagined to cause such a rebuke - two young boys running and
screaming away from a large animal. She didn't know how close to the truth this picture was.

"We will all go on the hoverbus to the capital. Once we're at the capital, WE WILL
ALL STAY IN THE BUILDING. We will all listen to all announcements on the intercom, most
importantly the one that tells us to leave and go find our hoverbus, which we will all ride
back here. We will all listen to anything that tour guides and other adults, like Miss Quee,
tell us, and we will be polite. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Miss Molen," the class replied en masse.

She didn't anticipate any problems, but it never hurt to prepare for the unlikely.

***

The hoverbus ride made Marla once again rethink her decision to come along. Surely,
had she known the terror that would be inflicted upon her by an entire class of eight-year-
olds whose voices were lifted in chants like "Ninety-nine Tankards of Ale on the Wall" and
"The Song That Gets On Everybody's Nerves", had she known the pain, she would have brought a
blaster and burned them all down where they sat. Or stood. Or hung. She wondered how the
driver - and Tess - stayed sane.

Fortunately for Marla Quee's sanity, the hoverbus ride did not take more than
forty-five minutes, although that was still entirely too long for her tastes.

The students quieted down as the hoverbus arrived at the legislative building in the
capital. Tess stepped off and went to find their tour guide to bring to the bus. "Better not
to have anyone get lost before we find the guide," she had remarked to Marla.

Whatever the teacher's reasons for leaving were, Marla was left as the only adult on
the bus, a stressful experience even if the students were quiet.

Danni seemed to notice this tension, most likely because Marla was grinding her
teeth. "What's wrong, Mommy?"

"Dealing with so many children is... stressful," Marla admitted. Well, it was close
enough to the truth as far as Danni needed to know.

Danni laughed. "Boys are a handful," she said in a mock exasperated tone, drawing a
chuckle from Marla as well.

"Good thing I don't have any," Marla replied honestly.

Her daughter laughed some more, then turned back to say something to one of the
girls she'd waved to earlier. Marla thought it was Rachelle, the girl from the swings years
ago. Whoever it was, it gave Marla a few more moments of contemplation as she stared out the
transparisteel window next to her.

"Alright, class! We're ready to go now." The declaration by Tess Molen startled her
out of her thoughts. She stood up and got in the single file line behind Danni, and walked
out of the hoverbus, glad to be free of the cramped environs.

Marla knew that Danni wasn't as excited as she might have been at, say, the lab of
an astrophysicist like herself, but she couldn't fault her daughter for enjoying such a huge
building with lots of things to read, even if it was a building full of politicians.

Danni and her friends tittered about this and that as they walked around, looking at
statues and plaques, paintings and sculptures, holodocumentaries and datapads, talking about
things like how much older all of the stuff was, how some of the people represented looked
like so and so. It was amusing to Marla as a few politicians passed by and endeavored to
prove themselves useful, but were promptly ignored by the children, as they were just boring
old people, after all. Their tour guide bumbled about, and whether he was normally like that
or just acting that way for the children, Marla honestly couldn't tell.

Surprisingly few of the displays mentioned anything about the galactic conflict
between the Rebels and the Empire. That, Marla decided, was probably for the better.

For once, she was dreading the passage of time, knowing that soon enough the group
would be going to meet the Senator from Commenor, her one-time lover. Naturally, time passed
seemingly faster than usual despite her not enjoying things one bit.

Soon enough it was time to break for the midday meal, graciously provided by the
staff of the building - or not so graciously, as Tess privately grumbled to her about the
cost of the trip to the school. Marla expected Danni to eat with her friends and ignore her.
Instead, she brought her friends over and all of them ate with the woman, much to her shock.

"Are you Danni's mom?" a young girl's voice asked from the seat next to her.

Marla was surprised to see someone sitting there. She hadn't heard anyone sit down.
Perhaps, she decided, she was too focused on other things. "I am," Marla replied to the
girl, not sure what else to say.

The girl nodded thoughtfully. "My mommy says Danni is the bravest little girl on
Commenor."

This threw Marla for a loop. She was not aware of anything Danni had done recently
to earn such a distinction. "Why does your mommy say that?"

The girl blinked and gaped at Marla, as though it was a crime not to know what the
reason was immediately. "Danni helped save me from a bad man."

Belatedly, the woman realized this girl must be Rachelle, the one that Danni had
saved after having a vision from the Force. Not that Danni knew what it was, or would
understand it any more than she did now if she did know.

The way Rachelle looked up at her with her wide blue orbs made her feel like the
next words she uttered would be the most important she had said in a long time.

As it turned out, she didn't need to utter them at all. Danni waved her hands at
Rachelle, since she was sitting directly across from her friend. "Hey, Rachelle! Come on,
we're talking about how smelly boys are!"

Leave it to Danni, Marla thought as the young girl turned away from her, to be
completely serious about school work and sit while eating her lunch and talk about how boys
have cooties.

***

Danni came to the decision that she would never, ever want to go into politics
independently of the wishes of her mother - though her mother would certainly be pleased
upon learning of the development - and without ever coming face-to-face with one Castor
Rodan.

She even reached this decision while she was occupied with other things, namely
joking about boys with her friends as they stood in line for over an hour. Stood being the
key word as the line did absolutely no moving in that hour. Danni also knew there was no way
she would ever want to meet and cater to so many people.

The wait was made even more repetitive by Miss Molen's check up and down the line
every fifteen minutes to make sure that nobody was missing. It was almost like fire drills
back at school, except they didn't have to stay quiet the entire time. This made it less of
an irritant, but not by much.

Her mother was behind her in the line, so she didn't notice the increasing nervous
look on her mother's face. Which, though Danni didn't know it, was probably for the better.

A clamor erupted from somewhere in front of her. Either somebody was on fire, or the
senator had arrived, and lack of smoke gave her the distinct impression that it was not the
former.

Rachelle, Christi, and Jenna were all excited, though she didn't know why and she
suspected that they didn't know why, either.

Danni rolled her eyes at them. From what she could see, it just looked like the man
was a plain man, and he was only taking one still shot with each kid. None of the kids, not
even Danni, knew anything else about him, which made it seem somewhat silly to her. Although
she did have to admit that watching some of the smelly boys play nice with a famous man was
good for a chuckle.

"Isn't it exciting, Danni?" asked Christi, a dirty blond-headed girl who was just a
bit too hyper. "We're about to meet a real senator!"

"It sure is," Danni replied lamely, though her lack of enthusiasm wasn't picked up
on by her friends. The four of them were only about five kids back in the line before they'd
start to have their turn to meet and shake hands with the politician.

She could see him then, increasing her earlier observation that he was a plain man.
There was nothing remarkable about his features at all; if not for his status as a local
celebrity, his average height, dark hair, and dark eyes probably could have gotten lost in
any crowd.

Marla leaned up to her ear and whispered into Danni's ear. "Danni, I'm sorry."

Danni thought about what her mother might be sorry for as her friends took their
turns meeting the man, and she could not think of a single thing.

An attendant motioned for Danni to take her turn meeting the senator. She walked
towards him with a slowly growing feeling of trepidation.

"Hello there, young lady!" Senator Castor Rodan called out in the eternally phony
tone of a politician.

"Hello, Senator," Danni said politely.

There was silence for a couple of seconds as Rodan looked at Danni curiously. "You
look a lot like someone that..." A pause, barely noticeable, as his eyes flicked to Marla
and then back to Danni. "...I knew once."

Danni stared back at him curiously. She was facing away from her mother and could
not see that Marla was glaring laser bolts at the politician. "I only look kind of like my
mommy and my sister," she informed him innocently.

"I see..." The phony smile was replaced by a steely look for a brief second before
it returned. "Would you or your mommy like to talk to me?"

Danni opened her mouth to say no, but found that her mother beat her to it. Marla's
loud 'NO!' left no room for discussion.

Another look passed between Rodan and Marla, unbeknownst to Danni or any other
observer. Both knew it was a staring contest. The personality of one politician who made a
career out of dominating others through either persuasive means or sheer intimidation,
against an astrophysicist who generally hated dealing with people.

Rodan turned away with a shudder right before Marla grabbed Danni and both stalked
off in the exact same manner. He knew well that no force existed greater than a vengeful
woman.

At least there weren't any holoreporters around.

***

Silence was all that passed between Danni and her mother from the time they walked
away from Castor Rodan until they were on their way home. Neither was completely silent to
others; Danni had a couple of conversations with her friends, though her tone was detached,
and Marla had a similarly detached conversation with Tess. Marla would later recall none of
that conversation.

Danni knew that her mother had something to tell her. There could not be any other
explanations for what had just happened. Yet it frightened her somewhat to wonder at what
the connection would be between what her mother had to say and that politician.

The delay was caused by indecision on Marla's part. Indecision on what the best
method would be to say what she had to say to Danni. In her mind she worked out scores of
potential things to tell Danni, all different ways to express the truth. But none of them
seemed appropriate to say to an eight-year-old girl.

Finally she came to an answer on how to bring the subject up to Danni, right as the
speeder pulled up outside of their residence.

"Have you ever wondered who your father is?" she asked without preamble.

Danni's footsteps stopped immediately, nearly causing Marla to run into her.
"Sometimes," the girl answered. She started walking towards the house again, at a slower
pace.

A one-word response didn't help Marla much. She tried a different thought track as
the two of them were let in to the house. "Do you know why I wanted to come along today?"

"I think so," Danni said softly, after a moment of thought. Her effort to conceal a
sniffle failed.

The door slid shut behind them.

She spun around and faced her mother, blinking tears out of her green eyes that ran
down her cheeks. No longer hiding anything, the sobs came freely and she whispered,
"Mommy... why didn't you tell me?" She ran into her mother's arms and was lost to tears.

Marla reached down and swept her daughter up into a big hug. She made soft noises as
she moved to sit down, like she always did when Danni was upset, even though now the girl
was older. Usually it worked, but she knew these were hardly normal circumstances.

"I wanted to, darling... I wanted to so bad, but I just didn't know what to say,"
she told Danni when the girl had calmed down a bit. "What was I supposed to say? 'You have a
daddy, but he doesn't know you exist, and wouldn't love you if he did'? I couldn't do that
to you... or Norra."

"He's Norra's daddy too?" asked Danni, her voice already growing hoarse.

The woman nodded silently and brushed a couple of strands of hair out of her face.

"Why?"

As Marla thought of how to explain the story to an eight-year-old child, she was
dimly aware that tears were coming out of her eyes. Strange that she did not notice sooner.

"He said that he loved me, and I believed him," she said finally.

Again, Danni asked, "Why?"

Now Marla knew that this was not merely a child's curiosity causing to ask these
questions. They were simple questions, but no less deserving of answers.

"Danni, what did you learn in school about the Galactic Civil War?"

To Danni, the question seemed so off-subject that she actually stopped crying for a
couple of seconds while she thought about it. "Just that the New Republic beat the Empire
thanks to Princess Leia and Han Solo."

'At least they got the heroes right,' Marla noted dryly to herself. "They don't
teach you this in school yet, Danni, but it was really hard to be alive during that time and
not be involved." She paused to let her words sink in a bit. "For a long time the New
Republic was just a Rebel Alliance, and nobody had any idea that they could really defeat
the Empire. When the fighting got really scary... nobody knew what would happen. The Empire
blew up a planet. For all we knew we might have been next. I was very frightened, and alone.
The Senator there, he exploited my emotional distress." She started laughing, at the
ridiculousness of it all looking back on it.

Danni looked up at her. At least it looked like her tears had stopped. "So he has
cooties?"

This only made Marla laugh even harder, although between the guffaws the reason for
her laughter shifted. "Yes, Danni. Yes, he has cooties," she said between laughs.

"Then who needs him anyway?" the girl asked. Marla could feel her daughter shaking
with silent laughter.

Before she knew it, she was laughing again, too. Both of them laughed for quite a
while, Danni sitting on her mother's lap.

Once it died down, Danni looked back to her mother and said, "Just promise me that
you'll tell me more about the Rebels when I get older, okay mommy?"

"I promise, Danni," her mother replied, fully expecting Danni to forget about the
promise.

Marla counted her lucky stars that her relationship with her daughter had survived
the paternal revelations. That night, for the first time in a while, she went to sleep fully
appreciating everything she had in her life.

Danni dreamed of an all-female contingent of Rebel soldiers beating up a bunch of
stupid boys wearing Empire uniforms.

***

End of Tale Three