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“I have good news and bad news,” Enya said over the din. “The good news is that now they’re shooting at each other instead of us.” “Interesting idea of good news, but go on,” Master Roy said.
“How unfortunate that we can’t drown them all,” Vigo said with uncanny calm. Phan-tu imagined the horror of falling from such a great height, helpless and stuck. Alone. No matter who was in there, he could never wish another being such a fate.
You’ve grown too comfortable, Viceroy, while our people starve.”
She wasn’t used to smiling at everyone and everything like Enya, but she tried. “What’s your face doing?” Oshi asked. “Nothing,” she muttered, flattening her lips.
“You patch up one thing and find a break somewhere else.” “Maybe if everyone helped,” Enya said thoughtfully, “there would be fewer things to patch up.” “Wait.” Oshi raised a hand. “Are we talking about the galaxy or a ship?” Enya didn’t miss a beat as she decided on “Both.”
She didn’t know the complex histories, the vast worlds, the vivid cultures. She only saw the promise of it all. He would prove that he was capable of doing more for their shared cause, because in the end their shared cause trumped everything else. A united galaxy. In that, he was certain he could trust her. He only hoped she felt the same.
“It leaves little room to wonder who is at the head of the table when there is no table.”
In the circular lounge, though there was no primary seat of power, she chose the cushioned seats at the heart of the room. While everyone would always have a view of the others, this was the focal point when a new guest entered.
This was letting all parties sink verbal teeth until they drew blood. If she remained with their team, would she learn how to navigate these waters?
He stood on a precipice, but that was where everyone lived. Every day, every second, every waking moment someone was looming over an edge and there wasn’t always someone to reel them back away from that dark.
“The Force is everything. The seas of Eiram. The canyons of E’ronoh. It is the current within me and you, and everything in between. The energy that makes life flow.”
“And then?” Enya asked. “We’ve let them talk for days.” “Yes, my Padawan,” Master Roy said. “They needed to. We, almost more than any beings in the galaxy, know that we cannot hold emotions back or else they fester. If the Force is a balance, then so is peace.”
“Strange,” Captain A’lbaran said wistfully, “you fight to save so many homes for so many beings, yet you have none of your own.”
We talk of past transgressions. We talk of what came before without even a mention of what comes after because I fear that for you there is no after. There is no future.”
Phan-tu could hold his breath for approximately eleven minutes, but in that moment, a second was all it took for him to feel the burn of his lungs.
“Well, I’m off then,” he said, striding past Gella nonchalantly. “Save me a seat at dinner.” She certainly would not, but glanced around.
“What about the one with the floppy hair?” the queen of Eiram asked. Phan-tu rolled his eyes. “I beg your pardon, but what sort of training goes into being the galaxy’s most eligible bachelor?” “Ah, you’ve read up on me,” Axel answered.
Along the way, he felt the call of voices crying out to him. Worlds that needed him. And so, he left the path of stars, and returned to fulfill his duty to guard the galaxy.” “I would have kept going,” Axel mused, his ever-present grin falling for just a moment.
From somewhere Axel Greylark was booing. Xiri supposed someone should be enjoying themselves at the expense of her and her future.
“You are not worthy of us,” Bruzo told her. “Perhaps not today,” she said, her voice carrying in the natural amphitheater of the quarry. “But I will do everything I can to make sure that when the time comes, I am worthy of you. All of you.”
“How did a street urchin become the heir apparent to the queen of Eiram?” “This.” Phan-tu shook his head, heat rising to his face. It took every part of him not to shout. “This is why I do not care for you very much.”
“Let me guess. You want to be young forever?” Phan-tu knew how precious a thing like old age was. Axel hummed his thought. “Not exactly. I want to burn quickly, in a blaze of glory. Like a supernova.” It was decidedly not what Phan-tu thought the arrogant man he’d come to know would say.
Master Yoda found me. He just sat with me in the garden and we watched this one frog try to leap over a stone wall into a waterfall. It kept missing. Miscalculating. Falling. Getting back up. Then he said, Like that frog, you must be.”
“Fighting for peace is like coming to the desert for rain,” said a human woman sliding into the seat beside the marshal. “You will wait forever.”
“I’m driven,” she said softly, “by a feeling I can’t always explain, but one I trust wholly and truly. I’m driven by curiosity.”
“You know, I saw that Jedi Knight again. She didn’t even remember me. Why would she? What is one grieving boy in a galaxy full of them?” “Everything,” Gella found herself saying.
“I think you’re only allowed to be broken for so long before even the people you love start to wish you’d get over it.
“Hello, there. I’m Enya,” she said. “Where’d you get your cape?” The vulpine-faced being made a little growling sound, then looked the Jedi up and down. Perhaps she recognized a threat. Perhaps it was something else, but she said, “I’m Cherro. Won it from a nerf-herder on Coruscant.”
He wanted to burn fast and bright. A supernova. That’s what he was to her, a distant star, fading and fading.
Perhaps Axel was right. It was impossible to regain something after it was broken. The scars would still be there. They served as memories so that it could never happen again. As she drew her hand away, and left to get help, Gella was certain she would always prefer to have the scar.
