Hi there, it's just me again.

I promised before not to post storys until they were nearly complete, and this one is, so the posts should come quickly as long as my computer cooperates. Unfortunately, I type in Word Pad and that is about the only program that doesn't hold it's formatting when I post so I have to reformat everything for each chapter.

A big thank-you to Relyan. You've saved me a lot of work. I was thinking that I hadn't allowed enough time and I was going to go through and change all the dates. Thanks, it turns out that I'm closer than I thought.

And so it continues...

History's Keeper

Part two: Skipping Forward

Upon arriving on Najeria, Luke and Leia found the museum with the help of a friendly bus driver and were greeted enthusiastically by five doctors. Most of them spent their days in laboratories rather than in hospitals and consequently led very sheltered lives. They were quite excited to meet the galaxies only Jedi and the Alderaani princess turned senator. One of the younger men actually fainted when Luke insisted that they call him by his first name. Bren and one of his colleagues, a doctor Ydal Ecin, led Luke and Leia through the museum to the hidden basement room. The doctors showed them the cold sleep chamber with it's thirteen year old occupant and displayed the documents that detailed her history. Leia read through the documents, summarizing them aloud for Luke who was examining the bag that they had found with them.

The unusual box quite intrigued him. "What do you know about this?" He asked holding it up to the light.

"It appears to be a jewelry box of some sort. It is made of a native Poro Wood although the stone in the top and the metal are both from elsewhere. The design is common enough aside from that. We couldn't find the key and decided it wasn't worth damaging such beauty when we can find out it's contents from it's owner when we wake her up."

Luke was still holding the small carved box. He had closed his eyes and was running his fingers over the flat piece of stone inlayed in the top. Suddenly, the purple stone seemed to come alive, refracting the light in swirls and patterns. Luke opened his eyes and smiled. "Here Leia, feel this." He handed her the box and she repeated the motions he had gone through while Luke explained to the doctors. "The stone in the top of the box is force sensitive. It reacts whenever it is someone touches it with the force. In contrast, the hinges and clasp are made of a material that resists the force. I can't even sense what type of lock it is. That box belonged to, and was probably even built by, a Jedi."

"Is that so amazing?" Doctor Ecin asked "I mean the Jedi have been around for millennia, there must be thousands of similar items out there."

"I am very sure that thirty years ago there were thousands, maybe millions of similar items around. Personal items that belonged to Jedi living and dead. Unfortunately, anything that was even slightly related to the Jedi was destroyed by the Emperor when he destroyed the Jedi temple. You are currently looking at what remains of the Jedi in the Galaxy."

Luke's mild words seemed to startle the doctor. Of course she had known that the emperor had destroyed the Jedi, but hearing such a thing from this young man, drove the point straight to her heart. She quickly recovered and Luke offered her a smile. Meanwhile Leia's mouth quirked into a half smile. Her brother was a very powerful speaker when the topic was one near to his heart.

"So you see, this is quite a find. I am also looking forward to hearing what this child has to say. She could very well fill in some of the blank spots in my own knowledge. My training was mostly centered around the war that was going on. If this girl spent much time at the old Jedi temple, then she could tell me a lot about daily life there. I know the big parts, it's the little things that still elude me, the parts everyone knew and no one wrote down."

Luke had done it again. The poor doctor was left speechless at his words. Obviously it had never occurred to the young woman that the great hero of the rebellion and the grand Jedi master didn't know everything. Bren, who was quite a bit older and wiser than his colleague, looked on with quiet interest. He had wondered about the Jedi often in his youth, when it had been a crime to help one let alone be such a thing. Most of what both doctors knew of Jedi, and of senators for that matter, came from the media and the media was very careful to only show a person's human side when they were doing something wrong.

Doctor Ecin recovered and said quietly, "Well, I have to say, I never thought about that..."

She was saved by an interruption from Leia who had replaced the box and returned to the datapads. "Luke, Listen to this, it is from Dr. Quayde's journal entry. 'Shortly after I had settled Nerinika (that's the girls name) into a corner of my lab, two Jedi came visiting. The master, Qui Gon Jinn I think his name was, became very sad upon hearing the child's story. He and his apprentice, Kenobi, spent the entire afternoon telling me all they knew of little Nerinika.' Luke, Obi Wan? Could it be?"

"Yes, I'm sure it is." Luke wandered over to the cold sleep chamber and placed his hand over the clear section just over the girls face. "Oh the stories you could tell." He murmured barely loud enough for the other occupants of the room to hear. Louder he continued "You said you can bring her back?"

"Yes" The doctors replied in unison.

"Then lets do it."

The process was slow. The Chamber the girl had been frozen in was a prototype and not designed to be operated automatically. The team started the procedure while they brought in the medical equipment they would need to heal her injuries once she was defrosted. After twelve more hours of waiting, Nerinika took her first breath in over forty years. The scientists and Medics worked quickly to stabilize the girl. She was then immersed in a mobile Bacta tank to speed her recovery. After she was removed from the tank, she was sedated while her bones finished knitting.

Bren and Luke waited patiently by her bed, in the now furnished basement, for Nerinika to awaken. It had been decided that there shouldn't be too many people there at first so the Jedi and a doctor were the first to talk to her. Luke was apprehensive when he realized just how very young this child was. Her light brown hair was still damp from washing the freezing chemicals off and fell just past her shoulders. Her skin was light and she had a dusting of freckles across her nose. Her round face made her look much younger than fourteen while her stubborn chin made Luke wonder if she wasn't wise beyond her years. Luke's gaze was drown to her still closed eyelids and, almost as if on cue, they fluttered open. She looked around the room, her quick mind taking in the medical equipment, the stone walls and the two middle aged men standing and looking down at her.

"Hello there, young one. How do you feel?" Luke asked when her eyes locked on his.

Nerinika licked slightly parched lips and tried to answer, only then realizing that she didn't know how she felt. She wrinkled her forehead and took stock. She felt groggy and disoriented. She also hurt quite a bit.

"Like I've been run over by a bantha." She tried to respond, but her voice came out hoarse and thin. Bren seemed to understand and raised the head of her bed slowly. When Nerinika was closer to a sitting position he raised a glass to her lips. It contained juice and some medicines that the other doctors had assured him would help loosen up her vocal cords and clear her throat, at the same time readying her stomach to accept food again.

The mixture seemed to do the job as she clearly replied "Thank you."

"Do you remember what happened to you?" Bren asked the girl.

Nerinika scrunched her forehead up again. Memory came rushing back in disjointed images. Her mothers, both of them, A speeder, rain, her home... the trip to her mothers home world, the speeder accident. "I think so. The speeder crashed."

"Yes it did." The doctor waited patiently for her to continue. Luke remained silent.

"Where are Tara and Remi? Are they okay?"

"I'm sorry, they..." Luke cut the doctor off, suddenly knowing what the girl needed to hear.

"They are one with the Force now."

Nerinika's eyes closed and a single tear rolled down her cheek She took a deep breath and Luke could feel her taking control of her emotions. One at a time, he felt her quiet the pain, the grief, and then the sadness, replacing them with calm. The two men gave her all the time she needed. Finally, she opened her eyes again.

"Where am I? This doesn't look like a hospital."

"It is and it isn't. You were very badly injured in the speeder crash, Nerinika. You would have died if not for a young scientist named Kinyen Quayde. He found you and took you back to his lab where he had the medical equipment to help you. Unfortunately, there was little they could do. You're internal organs were too badly damaged. You were dying." Bren stopped here. Unsure how to go on. Should they tell her everything so soon after waking? Luke, who could see no point in waiting, took up the narrative from him.

"Doctor Quayde was researching hibernation and cold sleep technologies at his lab. When he realized that he couldn't help you, he put you into cold sleep in the hopes that he would find someone who could."

"Apparently you found someone." Nerinika prompted them. "I am okay now, right?"

"Oh, yes. You are perfectly healthy. We have had to replace several of your internal organs, but you will be just fine." Doctor Faran was twirling the stylus from his data pad nervously and Luke was simply standing there.

Nerinika watched both men. She may only be fourteen, but she had also spent quite a few of those fourteen years around both doctors and Jedi. She knew whatever was wrong had to be very bad. It took a lot to upset a doctor, and the only times she had ever seen a Jedi this nervous was when their apprentice was very badly hurt. "Then what is so bad that the very thought of telling me turns both a doctor and a Jedi into nervous wrecks?"

Luke and Bren looked at each other for several moments before Luke spoke up. "Nerinika, it took forty one years, six months and three days to wake you up."

Nerinika stared at them for several minutes following this revelation. That didn't sound like something that should upset a person. She really didn't know what to say. She wasn't even sure what this meant to her. Forty one years. Okay, forty-one years. What does that mean. Well, that means I am fifty five years old now. That made her giggle a bit, much to the shock of the two watching her. What else does that mean, Okay well, age, that's a good place to start, that means everyone else will have aged too. Obi-Wan would be what, Sixty five. Uncle Qui Gon is ... The reality of the situation hit her as she thought of the people she cared about most. Qui Gon probably wasn't even alive anymore, Obi-Wan would be an old man. The two people in front of her hadn't even been born yet before her accident.

Luke felt her grief again as she twisted the thoughts around in her head, this time she allowed herself to feel it for several minutes before she quashed it out of existence. He felt her careful deliberations as she puzzled through this new problem. She was obviously very intelligent. He and Bren stepped back a bit to give her some breathing room, but they didn't leave. They could both hear her murmuring quietly as she ran though a list of people, places and things, neither knew what she meant by much of it, but they gave her the chance to work it out. Gradually, Luke felt her mind resolve. Luke gestured to Bren and they both stepped forward as Nerinika raised her eyes and sought theirs out.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your names, mine is Nerinika."

"Oh dear." Bren started, "How very rude of me. I am Doctor Bren Faran and This is Jedi Master Luke Skywalker."

"It is nice to meet you. Doctor Faran, When can I get out of this bed?"

"Whenever you feel ready, I would suggest taking it slowly, however. Your bones are knitted, but still mending."

"I would like to try to stand please."

Bren lowered the side rail on the bed and moved a chair from across the room to the bedside. "okay, now swing your legs out and place your feet flat on the floor... Oh wait, let me lower the bed so you can reach..."

While Bren was helping Nerinika, Luke left the room. He wondered that she was taking things too well. She had obviously understood what they had told her. Luke had felt her grief and thought she also understood the deeper meanings of what he had said.

He hadn't realized that the girl would not only be force-sensitive, but trained too. She was so young. Luke found Leia sitting sideways in large chair, her legs hanging over one armrest while she leaned against the other. She had a datapad in her hand and was reading intently. "What's happening?" She asked without looking up.

"She's awake, she understands what has happened and I think she will be okay." Luke's voice was even but Leia could tell he was conflicted over something. She sat up and laid the datapad on the table.

"Luke, what's troubling you?"

"Too many things. Including that fact that you ask me that far too often."

Leia smiled weakly at his halfhearted grin. At least he realizes that this worrying isn't healthy, she thought. "I just can't bear to see the wrinkles that are starting to form around your eyes from all the worrying you do, we are the same age after all and if you look old, I'll have to start worrying about my own wrinkles."

Luke laughed outright at this, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair. "Is it really that bad?" He asked, not sure if he really wanted her to answer.

"Oh, yes, even Han has noticed, he wondered, with all the trouble when we were born, if maybe you weren't my twin after all. He said he thought you must be at least ten years older, what with the grey hairs and all..."

"He didn't!"

"Nope, he didn't. I just wondered if you would admit to grey hairs along with your wrinkles."

Luke took the opportunity to demonstrate some of the force skills she was supposedly learning by throwing one of the decorative pillows from the sofa at her head. The two quickly dissolved into giggles

"What is so funny?" Bren asked only just now arriving. He was once again confounded by the behavior of the two heros sitting in the museums staff lounge.

"We were just releasing some tension, doctor." Leia put on her best senator face in an attempt to reassure the man. Luke was trying desperately to do the same and just barely managing.

"Really Bren," Luke said, "My sister was just reminding me not to take myself too seriously."

Bren was still confused be he decided it was probably a private joke and was at least relieved that it had nothing to do with his young patient. "Alright then, Nerinika is sleeping. She became tired while walking back from the fresher and went to bed. Have her clothes come back from the cleaners yet?"

"Yes, actually, they just arrived. The delivery driver was quite surprised that the museum was trusting them with display items." Leia smiled and Luke broke down laughing again.

Bren did not find it as funny as Luke and Leia but couldn't stop his grin. "Well, I think Nerinika will be more comfortable in her own clothes once she wakes up, even if they are a bit out of date. She will sleep for about another twelve hours, I gave her a sedative, and when she wakes she will probably be hungry. I thought the four of us could talk over breakfast when she finally wakes."

"I would like that very much." Luke said quietly, "But what about the other doctors?"

"I spoke with them and they have agreed that it would be better if they took a more silent roll in her life unless she actually asks to meet them. They are primarily scientists and for the most part don't see patients. In the mean time, I think you two are as good of people as any to help her get acclimated to the world as it is now. That is, if you are willing."

Leia answered for both of them, "Of course, we would be honored."