***Edited 02/06/2004***
Disclaimer: I own the characters. I own the plot. Lucas owns the Galaxy
Summary: One thousand years before the Empire was even imagined, the Sith were running rampant, trying to take over the entire galaxy. They might have succeeded, if it weren't for one hotheaded Padawan.
/bla/ = italics
~bla~ = note
~*~*~
Del Myriad, episode I: The Sith wars.
Chapter 7 : Homecoming
The Sun was setting over the mountains, tingeing their snowcaps pink and their trees violet when the Centennial Eagle flew out from the clouds above Corellia. To someone who might see this every day, it might not be all that impressive, but to someone like Nash Solo, who hadn't seen his home planet in years, it was breathtaking. At the sight of this sunset, he felt a strange, pricking wetness in his eyes. He blinked to dry them, but if anyone had been there to ask him if he was crying, he would have vehemently denied it. Nash Solo was a stoic, manly man, and stoic manly men did /not/ cry. He would have insisted it was the sun getting into his eyes, or a piece of dust or something.
The last time he had cried, he was five years old. His best friend had been training for the past three years to be a Jedi, and now she was old enough to go to Coruscant and train at the Temple. He understood he couldn't go with her, but what he couldn't understand is why she had to leave him. Couldn't the Jedi Master that had been training her continue on like she had been since his best friend was two? Why couldn't she continue to train on Corellia? Why did she have to go to Coruscant? All questions left unanswered as his five-year-old self watched the starship take his best friend away, tears streaming down his cheeks
"Celia"
His mother had held him, trying to comfort him. She had told him he'd make new friends even better than Celia, but he insisted that he'd never have another friend like her. He had declared he hated the Jedi for taking her away from him. He remembered starting to cry even harder when his father told him that now that he was five, it was time to grow up and be a man. Men don't cry. Ever since that day, he had remained resolutely friendless, never letting any relationship get past either the acquaintance or business partnership stage, and when he learned that the Sith were opposing the Jedi, he had jumped at the chance to help them.
That was ten years ago now, and since then he had slowly but surely come to the realization that the Sith weren't all they were cracked up to be. He had begun to find it increasingly difficult to turn a blind eye on the atrocities he knew they were constantly committing. Funny how a second Jedi falling into his life was the final push it took to finally switch sides.
As he brought the Eagle towards the surface, on the approach to Coronet, his mind wandered back to said Jedi. She was the first person he had met in along time that had unsettled him. Her take-charge, nonchalant, slightly arrogant manner just didn't fit with the slip of a girl she appeared to be, that is until you looked into her eyes. Steel grey, they were as cold and determined as their color's namesake. She had something to do, and the Force help you if you got in the way.
Nash checked the instruments surrounding the pilot's seat. The Eagle was now blow Radar level. He turned the freighter sharply around and, skimming the treetops, headed back towards the mountains. He saw his hands were trembling slightly on the pilot's yolk, and he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Changing sides in a war like this was risky business, especially when it meant betraying the Sith. Why did the most risky things always happen to him? Then a gain, his Dad used to tell him stories of various predicaments he had gotten himself into before settling down. Maybe it ran in the family. His eyes fell on a folded piece of paper lying on top of the navigational computer, more commonly called a NavComp, and his thoughts turned back eighteen hours
~*~*~
He had awoken with a start in his lounge chair that sat in a corner of the living quarters, sensing the Eagle had come to a stop. Noticing movement over by the table, he glanced over. He thought he saw what looked like a small black tear in the sky, but he blinked and it was gone. He thought nothing of it, having noticed a folded paper lying on the table. The same paper, by the way, that would be lying on top of his NavComp eighteen hours later. His name was written on it, so he picked it up. Unfolding it, he read.
~ Nash Solo, Thanks for the ride. In case you haven't noticed, we've reached the Stellar- Rani quadrant, which is where you said you'd take me. By the time you read this I will have left the ship, so don't bother looking for me. Just a reminder, DON'T DUMP YOUR CARGO! Bring the weapons to the republicans on Corellia. Once you've reached the Corellian System this note will change to instructions on how to find them. May the Force be with you, Del Myriad ~
Reading the last sentence, he wondered aloud how a note could change when written on paper. Sure, if it was a data pad it'd make sense, but writing on paper was permanent, wasn't it? Besides, who even used paper anymore? Imagine his surprise when all of a sudden the words faded and were replaced with another note in the same handwriting.
~ I thought you would wonder that, Nash, I can call you Nash, right? How the messages change? Simple, I spelled the paper. You're probably wondering what that means. Well, you've seen my pendant. It belonged to my father, from my mother I have a wooden stick called a wand. There are some things that are difficult to impossible to accomplish with the force, but when I hold the wand words come into my head and I can accomplish them. ~
The words faded again and were replaced by another note.
~ Follow these instructions. I can't be there myself to carry them out, so I need you to do it for me.
1. Fly to Corellia. When you get there, begin the approach to Coronet. Your next instructions will appear just after you enter Corellia's atmosphere. ~
Of course, he ignored the initial instructions not to look for her. After all, how could she have gotten off the ship? The first thing he had done was check out the window, and he was the ship was hovering at the center point of five recently exploded supernovae. There was nowhere for her to go so she had to be on board. He had searched every nook and cranny of his ship without finding her when he felt the paper tingle in his pocket, where he had put it before the search. He took it out and unfolded it again, only to see the message had changed again.
~ I told you not to look for me. You've wasted an hour and a half! Now get your butt in the pilot's seat and high tail it for Corellia! ~
He almost dropped the paper then. How could a supposedly inanimate object know he had been looking for his "passenger"? Unless it had something to do with that spell thing from the second note. After recovering somewhat, he asked the paper where Del was, ignoring the part of his mind telling him he was losing it, talking to a piece of paper. Still, the message changed
~I can't tell you. Go to Corellia~
"Why can't you tell me? I know you know where she is!"
~Just in case the Jedi catch you so you can't tell them~
"What the heck would the Jedi want with me?"
~ If I know Kor-Ben, he'll have guessed I was on this ship. He will have alerted the Council about you, and they probably will have sent Jedi out after you. When they catch up to you, they will question you, and if you don't know where I am, you won't be able to tell them. Now GO TO CORELLIA! You've wasted another five minutes. ~
It was after the argument with the piece of paper that he finally listened and set a course for Corellia. Fifteen hours later, he was approaching the planet Corellia. There had been a tense moment when he passed the CSTID barriers that covered the entire system. The codes he had stolen were five years old and he wasn't sure if they'd hold up. Fortunately they did, and now to the eyes of the Corel Space Traffic ID, Nash Solo was flying a middle-class pleasure craft from Alderaan.
When he entered Corellia's orbit, the paper, which was wedged in between two dials on the dashboard, glowed slightly. Nash picked it up from where he had put it sixteen hours previous. There was a new message.
~ Good. You went to Corellia. Make your approach to Coronet as inconspicuous as possible, but get below the radar level before you reach the city. Once you're below radar level, turn back inland towards the mountains, flying below the radar. ~
After reading the message, he lay the paper on top of the NavComp and began his descent.
~*~*~
Nash Solo had been flying barely five feet above the treetops while in his reverie, but a mountainside suddenly coming up in front of him brought him abruptly back to the present. He pulled hard on the pilot's yolk to avoid crashing into it. Fortunately the Centennial Eagle could turn on a dime. If it had really been and Aldreraanian pleasure craft, it would now be a great big ball of fire imbedded in the mountain. But it wasn't, so now the Eagle was nosing the sky, skimming the side of the mountain. The piece of paper, lying free as it, fluttered down off the NavComp into Nash's lap, the ship's movement dislodging it. As it came to rest, it glowed once again with a new message. The Eagle crested the mountain and flew down into the valley behind it. Nash checked the paper to see what the next instructions were.
~ Be careful in the mountains. You might pop up on radar. Select preprog. 1 in the NavComp. It leads to the coordinates of a cave large enough for the Eagle to dock in, and follows a course that will keep you below the radar. ~
By now, Nash had accepted the fact that a piece of paper could have such detailed instructions. He did what he was told and let the navigational computer take control of his ship. It dove down to the river that ran in the deepest part of the valley, following it upstream towards its source. It bent around and went into another valley, then another, and another.
Things continued on like this for another hour or so, the Eagle following preprogrammed instructions and Nash watching out the cockpit window. Even though it had been years since he had last been on his home planet, things were starting to look familiar. Suddenly, the Eagle took altitude, leaving its valley-bottom course, and began flying straight towards the mountainside. Nash almost started to panic, but he realized the ship was slowing down. He took a closer look at the mountainside rushing at him and was barely able to make out the mouth of a cave. A very familiar looking cave.
"My old haunt!"
~*~*~
Inside the Corellian Republican Army headquarters, an alarm began to ring.
"Captain! An unidentified ship is coming straight towards us!"
"How far away?"
"Umm... it's entering the outer cave of Entrance 31 right now."
"What! How did it manage to get past our radar?"
"I don't know! It just suddenly popped up on the screen."
"Any idea what class of ship we're dealing with? Is it from CorSec? Why can't they realize we're on the same side!"
"I don't think it's from CorSec. Hmm, that's strange."
"What is?"
"The electronic signature corresponds with an Alderanian pleasure craft that dropped off the radar on the approach to Coronet, but it's much too maneuverable to be one."
"Right." Captain Calrissian picked up the intercom. "Red team to Entrance 31. Red team to entrance 31. We have an intruder, I repeat, we have an intruder."
~*~*~
Two levels up, Red team began suiting up in full combat gear. They divided into two groups upon leaving the armory. One group went topside to seal the mouth of the cave that hid Entrance 31 while the other went to cover the interior exit of Entrance 31. Whoever had just docked their ship in that cave would be sealed inside, with no way out.
~*~*~
There you go, chapter 7! I was all in a shock yesterday when I realized I hadn't typed this up yet, but I've got it for you on time. I'm starting school up again in 10 days (2 Mondays from now), but I get my schedule next week so I'll know if Fridays still work as an update day. The next chapter still will be up next Friday, but the one after that might be on another day, I'll let you all know next week.
Thank you to everyone that reviewed. I emailed everyone that ever reviewed any of my stories after the last chapter, because I had 2 chapters in a row with no reviews, so I'm glad there are people back. Some of them said they had been reading just not reviewing, so at least I now know there were other people reading, it's just that no reviews makes me think no-one is reading.
*CSTID: Corel Space Traffic Identification
Well, thenewkid, grounding can suck sometimes. You reviewed chapter 4, which would have really been chapter 3, so you have 4 new chapters to read.
Yah, muses can be weird, Mockingbird. I'm glad to know you had still been reading, even though you were too lazy to review, and I loved the new chapter of Heir of the Phoenix.
Great minds think alike, The PrejusticeSpaniard! I already had this chapter written when I got your review, and I already had built in a running-in-the-family thing. It's not killing a bounty hunter, I don't think it'll work in this story, but still, hope you like what I did.
Glad you liked it, Ria The Bookworm. Here's the next post.
Hey, Stargurl2! Well, my story happens 1000 years before the starwars movies, so there aren't any of the real characters in it, only a few ancestors.
Next chapter: "My Old Haunt"
Disclaimer: I own the characters. I own the plot. Lucas owns the Galaxy
Summary: One thousand years before the Empire was even imagined, the Sith were running rampant, trying to take over the entire galaxy. They might have succeeded, if it weren't for one hotheaded Padawan.
/bla/ = italics
~bla~ = note
~*~*~
Del Myriad, episode I: The Sith wars.
Chapter 7 : Homecoming
The Sun was setting over the mountains, tingeing their snowcaps pink and their trees violet when the Centennial Eagle flew out from the clouds above Corellia. To someone who might see this every day, it might not be all that impressive, but to someone like Nash Solo, who hadn't seen his home planet in years, it was breathtaking. At the sight of this sunset, he felt a strange, pricking wetness in his eyes. He blinked to dry them, but if anyone had been there to ask him if he was crying, he would have vehemently denied it. Nash Solo was a stoic, manly man, and stoic manly men did /not/ cry. He would have insisted it was the sun getting into his eyes, or a piece of dust or something.
The last time he had cried, he was five years old. His best friend had been training for the past three years to be a Jedi, and now she was old enough to go to Coruscant and train at the Temple. He understood he couldn't go with her, but what he couldn't understand is why she had to leave him. Couldn't the Jedi Master that had been training her continue on like she had been since his best friend was two? Why couldn't she continue to train on Corellia? Why did she have to go to Coruscant? All questions left unanswered as his five-year-old self watched the starship take his best friend away, tears streaming down his cheeks
"Celia"
His mother had held him, trying to comfort him. She had told him he'd make new friends even better than Celia, but he insisted that he'd never have another friend like her. He had declared he hated the Jedi for taking her away from him. He remembered starting to cry even harder when his father told him that now that he was five, it was time to grow up and be a man. Men don't cry. Ever since that day, he had remained resolutely friendless, never letting any relationship get past either the acquaintance or business partnership stage, and when he learned that the Sith were opposing the Jedi, he had jumped at the chance to help them.
That was ten years ago now, and since then he had slowly but surely come to the realization that the Sith weren't all they were cracked up to be. He had begun to find it increasingly difficult to turn a blind eye on the atrocities he knew they were constantly committing. Funny how a second Jedi falling into his life was the final push it took to finally switch sides.
As he brought the Eagle towards the surface, on the approach to Coronet, his mind wandered back to said Jedi. She was the first person he had met in along time that had unsettled him. Her take-charge, nonchalant, slightly arrogant manner just didn't fit with the slip of a girl she appeared to be, that is until you looked into her eyes. Steel grey, they were as cold and determined as their color's namesake. She had something to do, and the Force help you if you got in the way.
Nash checked the instruments surrounding the pilot's seat. The Eagle was now blow Radar level. He turned the freighter sharply around and, skimming the treetops, headed back towards the mountains. He saw his hands were trembling slightly on the pilot's yolk, and he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Changing sides in a war like this was risky business, especially when it meant betraying the Sith. Why did the most risky things always happen to him? Then a gain, his Dad used to tell him stories of various predicaments he had gotten himself into before settling down. Maybe it ran in the family. His eyes fell on a folded piece of paper lying on top of the navigational computer, more commonly called a NavComp, and his thoughts turned back eighteen hours
~*~*~
He had awoken with a start in his lounge chair that sat in a corner of the living quarters, sensing the Eagle had come to a stop. Noticing movement over by the table, he glanced over. He thought he saw what looked like a small black tear in the sky, but he blinked and it was gone. He thought nothing of it, having noticed a folded paper lying on the table. The same paper, by the way, that would be lying on top of his NavComp eighteen hours later. His name was written on it, so he picked it up. Unfolding it, he read.
~ Nash Solo, Thanks for the ride. In case you haven't noticed, we've reached the Stellar- Rani quadrant, which is where you said you'd take me. By the time you read this I will have left the ship, so don't bother looking for me. Just a reminder, DON'T DUMP YOUR CARGO! Bring the weapons to the republicans on Corellia. Once you've reached the Corellian System this note will change to instructions on how to find them. May the Force be with you, Del Myriad ~
Reading the last sentence, he wondered aloud how a note could change when written on paper. Sure, if it was a data pad it'd make sense, but writing on paper was permanent, wasn't it? Besides, who even used paper anymore? Imagine his surprise when all of a sudden the words faded and were replaced with another note in the same handwriting.
~ I thought you would wonder that, Nash, I can call you Nash, right? How the messages change? Simple, I spelled the paper. You're probably wondering what that means. Well, you've seen my pendant. It belonged to my father, from my mother I have a wooden stick called a wand. There are some things that are difficult to impossible to accomplish with the force, but when I hold the wand words come into my head and I can accomplish them. ~
The words faded again and were replaced by another note.
~ Follow these instructions. I can't be there myself to carry them out, so I need you to do it for me.
1. Fly to Corellia. When you get there, begin the approach to Coronet. Your next instructions will appear just after you enter Corellia's atmosphere. ~
Of course, he ignored the initial instructions not to look for her. After all, how could she have gotten off the ship? The first thing he had done was check out the window, and he was the ship was hovering at the center point of five recently exploded supernovae. There was nowhere for her to go so she had to be on board. He had searched every nook and cranny of his ship without finding her when he felt the paper tingle in his pocket, where he had put it before the search. He took it out and unfolded it again, only to see the message had changed again.
~ I told you not to look for me. You've wasted an hour and a half! Now get your butt in the pilot's seat and high tail it for Corellia! ~
He almost dropped the paper then. How could a supposedly inanimate object know he had been looking for his "passenger"? Unless it had something to do with that spell thing from the second note. After recovering somewhat, he asked the paper where Del was, ignoring the part of his mind telling him he was losing it, talking to a piece of paper. Still, the message changed
~I can't tell you. Go to Corellia~
"Why can't you tell me? I know you know where she is!"
~Just in case the Jedi catch you so you can't tell them~
"What the heck would the Jedi want with me?"
~ If I know Kor-Ben, he'll have guessed I was on this ship. He will have alerted the Council about you, and they probably will have sent Jedi out after you. When they catch up to you, they will question you, and if you don't know where I am, you won't be able to tell them. Now GO TO CORELLIA! You've wasted another five minutes. ~
It was after the argument with the piece of paper that he finally listened and set a course for Corellia. Fifteen hours later, he was approaching the planet Corellia. There had been a tense moment when he passed the CSTID barriers that covered the entire system. The codes he had stolen were five years old and he wasn't sure if they'd hold up. Fortunately they did, and now to the eyes of the Corel Space Traffic ID, Nash Solo was flying a middle-class pleasure craft from Alderaan.
When he entered Corellia's orbit, the paper, which was wedged in between two dials on the dashboard, glowed slightly. Nash picked it up from where he had put it sixteen hours previous. There was a new message.
~ Good. You went to Corellia. Make your approach to Coronet as inconspicuous as possible, but get below the radar level before you reach the city. Once you're below radar level, turn back inland towards the mountains, flying below the radar. ~
After reading the message, he lay the paper on top of the NavComp and began his descent.
~*~*~
Nash Solo had been flying barely five feet above the treetops while in his reverie, but a mountainside suddenly coming up in front of him brought him abruptly back to the present. He pulled hard on the pilot's yolk to avoid crashing into it. Fortunately the Centennial Eagle could turn on a dime. If it had really been and Aldreraanian pleasure craft, it would now be a great big ball of fire imbedded in the mountain. But it wasn't, so now the Eagle was nosing the sky, skimming the side of the mountain. The piece of paper, lying free as it, fluttered down off the NavComp into Nash's lap, the ship's movement dislodging it. As it came to rest, it glowed once again with a new message. The Eagle crested the mountain and flew down into the valley behind it. Nash checked the paper to see what the next instructions were.
~ Be careful in the mountains. You might pop up on radar. Select preprog. 1 in the NavComp. It leads to the coordinates of a cave large enough for the Eagle to dock in, and follows a course that will keep you below the radar. ~
By now, Nash had accepted the fact that a piece of paper could have such detailed instructions. He did what he was told and let the navigational computer take control of his ship. It dove down to the river that ran in the deepest part of the valley, following it upstream towards its source. It bent around and went into another valley, then another, and another.
Things continued on like this for another hour or so, the Eagle following preprogrammed instructions and Nash watching out the cockpit window. Even though it had been years since he had last been on his home planet, things were starting to look familiar. Suddenly, the Eagle took altitude, leaving its valley-bottom course, and began flying straight towards the mountainside. Nash almost started to panic, but he realized the ship was slowing down. He took a closer look at the mountainside rushing at him and was barely able to make out the mouth of a cave. A very familiar looking cave.
"My old haunt!"
~*~*~
Inside the Corellian Republican Army headquarters, an alarm began to ring.
"Captain! An unidentified ship is coming straight towards us!"
"How far away?"
"Umm... it's entering the outer cave of Entrance 31 right now."
"What! How did it manage to get past our radar?"
"I don't know! It just suddenly popped up on the screen."
"Any idea what class of ship we're dealing with? Is it from CorSec? Why can't they realize we're on the same side!"
"I don't think it's from CorSec. Hmm, that's strange."
"What is?"
"The electronic signature corresponds with an Alderanian pleasure craft that dropped off the radar on the approach to Coronet, but it's much too maneuverable to be one."
"Right." Captain Calrissian picked up the intercom. "Red team to Entrance 31. Red team to entrance 31. We have an intruder, I repeat, we have an intruder."
~*~*~
Two levels up, Red team began suiting up in full combat gear. They divided into two groups upon leaving the armory. One group went topside to seal the mouth of the cave that hid Entrance 31 while the other went to cover the interior exit of Entrance 31. Whoever had just docked their ship in that cave would be sealed inside, with no way out.
~*~*~
There you go, chapter 7! I was all in a shock yesterday when I realized I hadn't typed this up yet, but I've got it for you on time. I'm starting school up again in 10 days (2 Mondays from now), but I get my schedule next week so I'll know if Fridays still work as an update day. The next chapter still will be up next Friday, but the one after that might be on another day, I'll let you all know next week.
Thank you to everyone that reviewed. I emailed everyone that ever reviewed any of my stories after the last chapter, because I had 2 chapters in a row with no reviews, so I'm glad there are people back. Some of them said they had been reading just not reviewing, so at least I now know there were other people reading, it's just that no reviews makes me think no-one is reading.
*CSTID: Corel Space Traffic Identification
Well, thenewkid, grounding can suck sometimes. You reviewed chapter 4, which would have really been chapter 3, so you have 4 new chapters to read.
Yah, muses can be weird, Mockingbird. I'm glad to know you had still been reading, even though you were too lazy to review, and I loved the new chapter of Heir of the Phoenix.
Great minds think alike, The PrejusticeSpaniard! I already had this chapter written when I got your review, and I already had built in a running-in-the-family thing. It's not killing a bounty hunter, I don't think it'll work in this story, but still, hope you like what I did.
Glad you liked it, Ria The Bookworm. Here's the next post.
Hey, Stargurl2! Well, my story happens 1000 years before the starwars movies, so there aren't any of the real characters in it, only a few ancestors.
Next chapter: "My Old Haunt"
