Hello! Since there isn't a section for Skeleton Crew I'm posting it in the Star Wars section. The character of the show are not listed either soooo... this first chapter is an experiment. If someone read it and want me to keep going just let me know, otherwise there is no point.

English is not my language therefore I'm sure you'll find mistakes, not only because I'm Italian but because I saw the show in Italian and some words and names will be different. Remember: I'm translating from Italian and the show is translated from English. If you notice something, please tell me.

Now… enjoy!

I

-I'm Jod Na Nawood.

As the other three rushed to introduce themselves, Fern took a step back. It was a coincidence, certainly only coincidence. There were certainly hundreds, thousands of Jods in the galaxy.

-Now we know each other.

While that man, Jod, led them through the tunnels of the spaceport to the shuttle that would take them back to their ship, Fern tried to observe him without showing that she was watching him.

Like most of the children of At Attin, Fern was born with her soulmate's name written in the hollow of her right wrist. The name, three letters, had initially fascinated her. She had always been a difficult child and the idea of having a partner somewhere, someone who was the other half of her, had given her relief whenever she had felt strange and out of place. Wrong.

Her soulmate was going to understand and support her, unconditionally, even when she did not understand herself, they would cool her agitation, her restlessness or perhaps they were going to let her vent and live her life as she wanted. It had been a source of conflict with her mother until she had revealed the truth: there was no Jod in all of At Attin.

-Maybe he hasn't been born yet! Just because you don't have a soulmate, it doesn't mean I have to be alone too!

Fern had exclaimed, desperately, but the mother had shaken her head softly and for the first time had shown her daughter the right wrist that she always kept carefully covered. On her pale skin, it was still written the name Zachrhem, the letters coloured in dull gray instead of the usual black.

-The name of our soulmate appears at birth. If you are already born with their name, it means that your soulmate has already been born and he or she received your name when you took your first breath.

The mother had caressed the faded writing with sadness.

-Zac died when I was four years old. A malfunction of his hoverbike threw him off the saddle and he left us forever. I never ever met him.

Fern had been petrified, unable to externalize to her mother how sorry she was for the loss she had suffered.

-I shouldn't tell you, Fern. But on At Attin there is an archive of soulmates. Every child is registered. At your birth there was no Jod on the whole planet.

-What?

Her daughter had replied incredulously, grabbing her wrist protectively.

-But he exists. His name is on my skin!

Her mother had made her sit on the sofa and had put her arm around her.

-He exists and is alive. But it's somewhere in the galaxy and far away from us. No one ever leaves At Attin: it's forbidden. It's… very unlikely that you will ever meet him.

Fern had burst into tears, screaming her rage. Since that day her rebellion had tripled, despite her mother's constant warnings. If her life was ruined even before it began, there was no point in trying. She would never have become like her mother, who had dedicated her whole life to her career to fill an unbridgeable void, nor would she ever going to turn to the fertility clinic to have a daughter without a husband. Fern would live to the fullest and if she died in one of her stunts, so much the better! Maybe her mysterious Jod would mourn her instead of looking for her in vain and wasting his life.

That was the reason why she hadn't wanted that man on her ship, that man who at first glance must have been her mother's age and who was a liar because the Jedi were all dead, even the children knew it, with the exception of Wim who lived with his head in the clouds. Maybe he had even lied about his name and it was Zob or Coch or who knows what. But she had been outvoted and "Jod" had remained.

Jod watched the mesmerizing flow of stars in the hyperspace. He rarely used the Force and, after using it more times in a few hours than in the last six months, he found himself in the need to meditate. He had hated meditating when he was a child, having to sit still and think about nothing had seemed to him an absurd waste of time. Only with age had he learned to appreciate those moments of calm. His hyperactive mind ceased to bombard him with continuous stimuli and the expansion and contraction of the lungs was regulated by the slow beating of his heart. He would throw out nervousness, fear and anger with each expiration and breathed in calm and serenity. Meditation improved his aim and made his mind sharper and more agile.

Now his quiet moment was ruined by the light footsteps of one of the children who silently entered the cockpit. He excluded the two males: they would not have been able to be silent even if their lives had depended on it. He turned around and found himself in front of the little girl with the braid, the one for whom he still had no name.

-For someone who was not sleepy, you sure crashed out.

He gave her a charming smile but her expression remained grim and suspicious.

-Are you always so radiant when you awake or do I owe your effervescent disposition to my presence?

-I don't trust you.

She started off, as if it hadn't been abundantly clear. Jod pointed to the co-pilot's chair with a flutter of his hand.

-Sit down and let's talk about it.

Strangely enough, she agreed to sit down. Maybe it was because she hadn't put her shoes back on and the metal floor must have been freezing under her socks. She curled up in chair, like a cat.

She hadn't put her jacket back on and was shaking in her light shirt. Hyperspace bathed her in a blue light, so much so that he couldn't tell what colour her eyes were. Blue or gray, perhaps green.

-I bet you're not a Jedi. I bet your name isn't even Jod.

The man frowned, assuming an exaggeratedly offended expression and decided to respond to the only accusation he could defend himself from without lying.

-Of course my name is Jod. Jod Na Nawood. Why should I lie about my name?

Actually, Jod was used to lying about his name and imprisonment must have gone to his head for giving that ragtag group of children his real name. His answer did not seem to reassure the girl, not that he had really expected to reassure her, but he certainly could not have foreseen the desperate expression that spread over her young face.

-Is Jod a common name where you come from?

She asked in a faint voice, leaning over the padded chair and clinging to the armrest with her nails.

-There are a lot of Jods in the galaxy, right? Right?

The conversation was taking an unexpected turn.

-Why are you asking me?

He replied slowly, while an icy weight settled in the pit of his stomach, where the worst forebodings always manifested themselves.

The girl fidgeted nervously, bit her lips and then, fortifying herself with a deep breath, blurted out:

-My name is Fern.

Jod was sure he had turned pale as his vision blurred before refocusing with crystalline clarity on the girl, on the little girl damn it to the Void!, waiting for his reaction.

-Were you born around twelve years ago?

Instead of answering, she jumped to her feet.

-Is it you! It's really you! I don't believe it, it's not possible! You… you… are old!

Jod too jumped to his feet.

-I assure you that when your name appeared on my wrist I certainly didn't rejoice!

He hissed to her face. Suddenly aware of how close he had come to her, he hastily took a step back, falling back into the pilot's chair.

Incredibly, unexpectedly and against all logic, his destiny had found him.

-Impeccable timing, Fern.

He hissed acidly through clenched teeth.

-Let me see.

She replied, stepping forward and reaching out to touch him. Jod quickly withdrew his right arm out of her reach.

-You first!

Without hesitation she lifted the sleeve of her shirt and pushed aside the leather band that covered her wrist. In plain sight, black on her white skin, was written his name.

-Now you.

Slowly, still incredulous, Jod did the same, pushing aside the ragged rag he had used to cover the four letters that formed her name, a name that had repelled him since its appearance.

-It doesn't mean anything.

He affirmed forcefully.

-I lived 27 years without you, without this name. It doesn't mean anything to me. We will not settle on some planet to grow potatoes and have children.

He had been preparing this speech for years, fearing that his soulmate, Fern, would be a romantic girl or, at worst, some very young prostitute he would meet in a brothel and who would see him as a saviour. None of the scenarios he had imagined had foreseen the real Fern: an angry and suspicious girl who, despite knowing his name, had waited a whole day before revealing her own and who had made no secret, not even for a moment, of considering him a liar and a threat.

-You better, because I don't want to have anything to do with you!

-Good!

He burst out.

-Fine!

She replied. They stared at each other like two sabacc players, each trying to figure out if the other was bluffing.

-Just to be clear, you are nothing to me and I don't want my friends to know that for some strange, obscure reason, the "Force" or whatever has decided to give me you as a soulmate. I don't want you and you don't want me either, so I propose to pretend that this... thing... doesn't exist.

Jod stretched his lips in a smile, one of his most false.

-I couldn't have said it better myself!

After one last scorching glance the little girl, her soulmate, turned on her heels, her braid lashing down her back and stomped out the cockpit.

Without knowing it, Jod found himself whispering the same words spoken not even 24 hours earlier by his traitorous first officer.

-What a grit!