The net whipped over her head as she tried to crawl away, if only to reach the safety of her mother… but her mother wasn't safe. She caused this... why? Didn't she love her? Did she do something wrong? Yelling men, ropes wrapped around her arms to restrain her, darkness as a bag was placed over her head.
Then blinding light, blue light, snaps and hisses and screaming metal and raised voices.
Quiet… and then her restraints loosened, and the hood lifted to see the face of a man. A hard, kind man…
Florentina Men'Dez woke from her dream with a start. She wiped the tears from her eyes and hoped that none could hear her from the neighboring rooms. Thankfully here at the Skywalker Academy trainees were given their own living quarters. The room was too claustrophobic for Lori while she was in this present state, so she made her way unfalteringly to her window. It was several stories above the forest floor, but without fear she made her way to the rooftop. This was her favorite place to cleanse the dreams of her past from her mind. Lori even dropped off to sleep lying back against the rooftop, waiting for the dawn of a new day to arrive.
Lori was awakened by the sun shining full on her face. She stood and stretched, moving to another part of the roof, smelling the morning air and listening to the Jedi and droids several feet below her. She could also sense Jacen and Jaina approaching the cafeteria. It was flattering how Jacen was enamored of her, but Lori had so much respect for Jaina that she would stay away from her brother even if he did have a large crush on her. Lori quickly ran her fingers through her long ebony hair to make is more presentable, and quickly tucked it up into a twisted knot to keep it out of her face.
Sizing up the distance between the rooftop and the ledge below her, Lori rolled forward off the rooftop and hung by her fingertips next to the window into the dining room. With practiced ease she flipped into the room – she tried to be as quiet as possible, but Jacen's hypersensitive Force powers were attuned to her presence and he felt her come into the room. His eyes widened at her acrobatics, and Lori smiled modestly and grabbed for a piece of fruit with the Force.
"Good morning, Floooorentina!" Jaina crowed.
"Out for a little exercise, were we?" Jacen asked, a little crease of worry on his forehead.
"Good morning, and sort of. I've been having those bad dreams again, so I went up onto the rooftops to clear my head." Lori quickly moved onto other topics before Jacen would ask exactly what those dreams were about. She didn't want to reveal her past if she didn't have to…
The trio talked of Jaina's upcoming flight home with her dad, Han Solo, to see their mother and pick up some spare parts for a space shuttle she was working on. "I'm really excited to see Mom and Dad… but I'll be sorry to leave you guys." Jaina grinned at Lori. "You'll have to take care of my bro here while I'm gone." Lori laughed and Jacen blushed, and at that moment both Jacen and Jaina had a slight tremor. "Dad's here!" They chorused, and the three ran out of there, leaving confused students in their wake.
Han Solo was just making his way down the Millenium Falcon's boarding ramp when two of his children attacked him and each clamored for attention.
"Hey, settle down! Good to see you too, kiddos." Han laughed as he hugged his children, and when he looked up he spied Lori standing awkwardly at the door to the hangar bay.
"Florentina, get over here for a hug, too." Han called, and Lori smiled and went over to be joined into the group hug, just like family. The family she had never known.
Jaina quickly left with her father – Han and Chewbacca had some New Republic business in a nearby system, so they had to keep moving. Lori was able to say hi to Chewbacca before they left; they had found common interests in navigation and mechanical devices on the Falcon's last stop to Yavin, and Chewie usually had a gruff growl and a hairy hug ready for her when they met. As the Falcon blasted off through the atmosphere, Jacen turned to Lori and grinned widely.
"So Lori, I've got an idea for something we could do today!" The trainees had the day off – Master Skywalker was in a long conference with the other Masters of the Academy.
"Great! What's the plan?" Lori asked, and in reply Jacen grabbed her hand and sprinted to the far end of the hangar bay.
"Jacen! This is Jaina's ship… you know, the one she hasn't stopped working on in the past month? It's not finished yet, and she's still got to test out that new propulsion drive that she repaired, but your dad will never say yes… what's that look in your eye for?" Lori trailed off, because Jacen's roguish grin didn't look like it could get any wider before his face would split right in half.
"Ha! She only thought it didn't work! It really does, and since I know Dad would be really unhappy with her testing it out, I was thinking we could for her, and then when she gets back it will be all ready for her to fly it! What do you think?" Jacen asked, but he laughed at the expression on her face. Lori gave him a huge hug and said excitedly, "So what are we waiting for?"
Lori was modest, but it was the rumor around the Academy that she was even a better pilot than Jaina. Jaina was a fantastic pilot, but Lori could make any ship respond to her as if she were communicating directly with the onboard computer. Soon she was zooming off into the atmosphere in Jaina's ship and talking to Jacen over the headset. There was no droid on the ship with her, because this was just going to be a quick trip to test this new device Jaina had assembled. There was absolutely nothing to worry about, but Han had never been a fan of letting his daughter try out her own inventions. Jacen and Lori knew for a fact that the engine was perfectly fine, so here was a way to have it tested out and ready for Jaina to fly when she got back.
Nevertheless, Lori could feel the worry emanating from Jacen as she moved through the upper atmosphere and into space. She laughed softly and sent comforting thoughts back down to him through the Force. "Jacen, don't worry! The ship will be fine!"
Jacen shook his head back on Yavin as he monitored the computer readouts. "The ship's not what I'm worried about," he muttered without turning his headset on.
Lori flipped the toggle for the pre-ignition sequence starter, and her hand hovered over the ignition switch. "We've checked it a hundred times. Nothing could possibly go wro-"
Yavin was gone. The sun was gone. The entire SYSTEM was gone, according to her computer. The deepest black of outer space smothered her in her cockpit, the weak lights of a dying console not doing much to illuminate the situation. Lori tried to get her bearings; was she asleep? Was she… dead! A quick pinch made her realize that it was none of the above.
"Okay, so where am I?" Lori pressed back her feelings of panic… but she couldn't sense anyone, either! Oh Jacen, where are you…? Lori called out in her mind. No answer, just the chilling darkness of space.
Master Luke had briefly talked of something like this. He told a story of when he was trapped in space and minimal life support – a glance at the computer readings confirmed this – and Luke had put himself into a Force-induced coma, a state where he would remain alive but with very little effort on his body's part. Lori had been fascinated by this use of the Force, and asked Luke how to do it. While it was advanced Force technique, she quickly grasped the concept and learned how to do it after only a few private lessons with Luke. She wasn't quite proficient yet, but she could do the basics.
Lori programmed the computer to wake her if something approached the ship and set up her distress signal, and then flipped the rest of the computer off. Might as well conserve power while she still could. The signal was weak, but Lori did not despair. She would NOT cry. The Force would guide her out of this one… she just needed to give it time. She wrapped her long hair around her neck like a scarf as she calmed her mind and enfolded herself into the Force. She was instantly asleep in a death-like state, hand resting on her lightsaber hilt, not knowing if she would ever wake again.