(A/N: This chapter features some screwed up astronomy, but I think it's so much cooler than a simple superlaser.)


07: No Home to Call Her Own

"Okay, we're drawing," a technician called. "We'll be ready in ten minutes."

Once more Princess Kaori found herself on the bridge of the newly-christened Death Star, no doubt to be subjected to another gentle (but undeniably creepy) interrogation by Kimura. Actually, she couldn't help but wonder why the notoriously ruthless Bloody Poet was going so easy on her. There was only one explanation, and to be honest, torture would have been preferable.

Something seemed different about this time, though.

"Ah, excellent," Kimura said sedately as he walked to join her with a wineglass in one hand. The guards on either side of Kaori moved away. "Would you like a drink, Kaorin?"

"Don't call me that!" she said angrily.

"But that's what your friends call you, isn't it?"

"I'm no friend of yours! Maybe I could tolerate you if you had some redeeming quality, but believe me, I've looked."

"Ahh… you hurt my feelings, Princess. You know why you're here, yes?"

"Yes. And you can forget it."

"I'm afraid that the Empress is getting impatient. I tried to make her give you a little more time, but we need that information. It truly pains me to do this to you."

"What…?" she looked around the bridge again. The technicians and officers were even more frenzied than usual, and, if possible, Nochichi looked like he was glowering even harder on the distant command platform. On several large consoles, gauges were filling ominously.

No. They wouldn't. Not even Kimura would…

"The Death Star's main weapon is finally ready. You know, the Rebels are becoming more and more troublesome, Kaorin. It's my job to deal with them, and I'm getting a little desperate."

"Don't…" Kaori gasped, mouth dry. "Oh, God, don't."

"Well, if you'd just tell me where you're Rebellion's base is, I wouldn't have to." He hailed one of the technicians. "Has it been seven minutes yet? Ah. You should see this; the light is just now reaching us."

Before Kaori could ask what he meant by that, Alderaan's sun suddenly seemed to dim slightly. As she watched, it continued to wane horrifyingly until she could even look directly at it without discomfort. "What the hell?"

"Such language." Kimura chuckled. "I don't pretend to understand the Physics, but we're absorbing energy from Alderaan's sun using a faster-than-light reaction. All of the power that it generates is coursing through the body of this station right now. We can focus it anywhere we want. Anywhere. So…?"

"I… I…" It had been so easy to resist Kimura's prodding before, but when actually faced with the immediate death of her homeworld... "It- okay! Okay, I'll tell you!"

Darth Nochichi had started drifting over as her resistance waned, and now hovered alongside Kimura. "Okay, then. Let's hear it."

"D- Dantooine. We're on Dantooine." Kaorin sagged severely enough that one of her guards moved to keep her from falling. "Just… just turn it off." In response, Kimura turned to the Sith Lord and, after a long moment, said, "Proceed with the demonstration."

"What?"

"We know that you're lying, Princess. Don't even bother acting all indignant, it didn't work before and it won't now. And you shouldn't be so upset. What we've already done to the star would have ruined Alderaan's climate forever. We're just making its end come a little more quickly."

"No!" Kaori lurched towards the Grand Moff, but the guards restrained her. "Don't do it! I—I'll tell you! The truth this time!"

"It's too late, Kaorin. I'm sorry."

My home! Kaori looked up at the serene green globe. It's going to die! It's…


"…gone." Chiyo said in a daze.

She stood in the midst of her ruined home, unfocused gaze sliding over crumbled walls, guttering fires and the wide sinkhole that stood over where the underground homestead proper once lay.

"If they wanted to convince people the Tuskens did this, they didn't do a very good job," Kagura commented as she knelt over a few discarded weapons. "I don't think these things have ever been used."

Sakaki walked a slow circle through the ruins, her bearing suggesting that she was scenting the air. She came to a stop near Kagura, opened her eyes and said, "There's no death."

"Huh?"

"There's surprise, panic and anger, but nobody was killed here." Again, she spoke so firmly and matter-of-factly that one just couldn't doubt her. "Here," Kagura echoed sourly, but softly enough so that Chiyo couldn't hear her. "What should we do now? I mean, the Imperials are probably after her, too."

"We'll take her with us."

Kagura sighed. There really wasn't another answer, especially with her rival's desire to train the girl in the ways of the Force. "But… about her Aunt and Uncle?" she was still almost whispering. "I don't think the Imperials will just let them go. How should we break it to her?"

"You could just tell me," Chiyo said with perhaps a touch of anger. Kagura winced and looked up. The girl was still a good distance away, back turned, but there was little doubt she had heard. And great, she was just old enough to be mad about being treated like a child.

For a few seconds, the only sound was wind howling over the dunes around them.

Sakaki finally said, "We should go. I'll drive."

As they moved back towards the speeder, Kagura wondered what was going through Chiyo's mind. She herself had been blessed with fairly stable childhood, and couldn't imagine how she'd have reacted to something like this.

Sakaki tossed her pack in the back of the speeder, ratcheted the driver's seat wa-a-a-ay back and stepped in. Chiyo climbed in after her, and, as the vehicle hummed to life, she noticed that the Jedi's knapsack hadn't been properly closed. She mechanically started gathering the articles that had fallen out… and paused on what looked like a pocket photo-album with Necoconeco engraved on its cover.

She likes Necoconeco? Chiyo thought in dull surprise. I thought it was just me!

Photography had been one of those arts that just refused to die out no matter how far technology advanced. Some places, there were still fanatics that huddled in dark rooms over vile chemicals to develop their pictures "old-school." Sakaki didn't strike her as that type, but Chiyo was a little curious as to what she'd have pictures of.

And to be honest, she was also in desperate need of a distraction.

The first picture was fairly amusing. The subject was three young men of about Sakaki's age who seemed to have that same serious, dignified, Jedi-esque air about them, but in front of the lens they were suddenly endearingly full of themselves, almost (but not quite) reduced to striking a "Charlie's Angels"-style power pose.

One was a tall, dark, striking man in pale gray robes. A slightly shorter fellow with a beard, somewhat wild hair and tired eyes stood to his right, and on his left… Chiyo gasped. The guy on the left was quite short and slender, with fine brown hair, a sharp chin and a gentle smirk that she couldn't help but smile back at, if only slightly.

The back was notated "Mace, Ben, 'Hiro, '24."

It was the first time she had ever seen her father. And in spite of all the recent craziness, the sudden uncertainty of her future and the shock of losing her home, she felt a little warmed. Hopeful, even.

Her? A Jedi?

Maybe.