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By Blizzard Skies
© 2000
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Part 1
Artificial gravity was nonexistent. Nearly every alarm was flashing red in the cockpit and throughout the freighter. The single escape pod had deployed itself. Keighley Dennzer floated in the circuitry bay, hydospanner in one hand, burned wiring in the other, as she realized her ship was completely dead in space.
It could have been anything that grazed her ship and brought her out of hyperspace. A small astroid, scraps left behind after a space battle, a space frozen body. Whatever it was, it had hit the ship just right and left the Jagged Princess slowly spinning in the blackness of space.
Finishing up what could be repaired, Keighley pushed her way down the corridor back to the cockpit. She closed the blast door behind her and climbed into the pilot's seat. As she engaged a cold start of the ship the familiar shutter of the sublight engines sent relief flooding through her. They were running again at full power. More and more red lights reverted to green. She checked her air supply and breathed a huge sigh of relief, the oxygen recycler hadn't been destroyed in the collision. But the hyperdrive, nav computer, and com unit, however, were damaged beyond immediate repair. She should have been near tears, but Keighley Dennzer was not a crier. This is just another obstacle, she told herself, and I will overcome it like I have others in the past. She felt the vibrations of the alarms end at the same moment the last red light stop flashing. The silence that was Keighley's life returned to the cockpit of the Jagged Princess.
Yet, hope was in the distance. Slightly more than a speck in the viewport, Trella Nash, the only inhabited planet in the system, beckoned her. She hadn't been back to her home planet in exactly a year and now it seemed it would take a little longer. So close. . . .
Wiping sweat from her face she assessed the situation. Things still had to be done. Though her control console told her there was no hull damage, the only way to know for sure was to check every square inch of the ship. Any breaches should have sealed themselves temporarily. There were tools, data cards and other miscellaneous objects floating around her. The cargo bay must be a complete mess. The first thing Keighley had to do was secure everything. Unhooking her belt, she propelled herself backward, punched open the cockpit door and screamed.
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Part 2
The R5 unit hit her directly in the spine, as many other unknown objects punctured her body, penetrating the amber-yellow thermosuit. All together they were thrown at an amazing forward speed into the viewport. On impact the air disappeared from her lungs, and with it her silent scream. Her face hit the transparisteel and she was near unconsciousness, but she fought against the blackness, knowing if she gave in she would never survive.
If Keighley was anything, she was a survivor. She'd faced death. She'd braved fierce creatures. She'd fought off sentients twice her size. She'd fell in love. She'd left home. She remembered an explosion . . . A flash of bright light in her memory brought her back suddenly to alertness, and with it her breathing. And the pain.
She had forgot that the droid was out there. She had picked him up at her last stop before going home and had put him in with the rest of the cargo below. He must have freed himself to come looking for her, not realizing the gravity was gone. When he pushed off, he was unable to stop his high speed approach toward the cockpit.
She pushed the droid away from her and sent it sailing back in the direction it had come, ignoring its flickering lights of protest. Seconds later it smashed into the living quarters bulkhead, sending shards of droid debris floating into the space around it. Guiding herself down, she slowly strapped her aching body back into the pilot's seat. There was an odd shaped slice of durasteel protruding from her right thigh and just below that, she now realized, her leg was broken at the knee. It was bent in a direction not normally meant to bend. She ran her fingers through her short, blonde, blood-soaked hair and pulled free a piece of the droid's broken photoreceptor.
If not for the nonexistent gravity she would not be able to move at all. But, she complained to herself, if not for the lack of gravity I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. If I'd only opened the door a minute earlier, or later. If only I'd jumped into hyperspace sooner. But then I still might have hit the space junk floating across the Princess's path. Keighley forced herself back to reality, she didn't want her life ruled by all the ifs and buts.
Biting down hard on air, she prepared to yank the foreign object from her leg.
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Part 3
Three days later Keighley had finally finished clearing the air of floating objects, at least in the areas of her ship she planned to spend the next ten days. That was how long she estimated it would take to reach home in realspace. She'd moved the Jagged Princess out of the space lanes so her presence wouldn't knock someone else out of hyperspace. In the distance the tiny green dot that was Trella Nash seemed to be getting larger every day. But then again, so was the system's sun shining from the other direction.
Thankfully, air was plentiful and food could be stretched to last another week. No hull damage had occurred. She would stay safe and warm until she reached home or until help arrived. She didn't waste her energy trying to restore her ship's artificial gravity, the weightlessness made it easier to get around the ship in her present condition. Due to the lack of bacta on board, she knew her body would not be healed before she arrived home. She set her knee in a splint using four long cables, and patched her thigh, head, and other areas of her body with synth-flesh from the medpac. One of the things Keighley did have was medicinal R'alla mineral water. Though illegal, it was cheaper than bacta and needed in her colony back home. All things combined were keeping her comfortable for the time being, but there was no telling how long that would last.
Even though it was unmoving and most likely unrepairable, she fit the R5 unit with a restraining bolt and put the damaged droid into one of the smuggling compartments, sealing it tightly. She had had the droid's memory wiped before she had brought him on board. Keighley did not want to be alone with a droid on this trip, not since she'd encountered a psycho R2 unit while in the Zdena system three months before, bringing about a new fear of droids. She only took the droid as a payment because it was something she could get triple the price for at home. And now it was most likely just a worthless piece of junk.
Keighley sat with her trusty datapad in her lap. She used it to communicate with the rest of the galaxy. She went over the data from the Princess to see if she could repair anything else during the next few days alone in space. She hoped the telesponder was in working order and broadcasting her ship's ID. When she arrived in orbit around Trella Nash she didn't want Orbit Patrol to blast her into space dust. But, she had plenty of time to worry about that later...
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Part 4
The question was, how long could she survive in this condition without going mad? Though alone in her sound free world since birth she had never been physically alone for more than a week at a time while traveling in hyperspace. Already memories of her recent childhood were haunting her. Some of them were the nightmares thought forgotten since leaving home and eventually becoming an independent spacer. It occurred to her that the closer to home she traveled, the more vivid the memories became. Too bad she couldn't just get her memory flushed like a droid's.
She tried to relax, eat something, and imagine the homecoming party she was missing. Knowing her sisters, they probably had the entire stilt-house decorated. Kenuth Dennzer knew his daughter's schedule, he would be worried when she didn't arrive. She had splurged on calling home on the HoloNet from Quadiss. With a language of the hands only Nashians understood she had asked her father to send someone to get her at the spaceport so she wouldn't have to rent a speeder bike to go the twenty kilometers to her forest home.
Send someone. That is all she had said. What she meant was to send the person whom had decided that she was worth spending eternity with. The one whom she would be returning to Trella Nash to marry. And she had no idea who that man would be. Only that his last name was Jagge, and she loved him.
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Part 5
Not all memories of her younger days were bad. In fact, she couldn't imagine having grown up anywhere other than in the forest with the giant Nash trees and the beautiful purple and yellow Trella wild flowers. She missed the feel of the wind blowing through her hair with the sweet and constant smell of Trella blossoms. And in all her travels to a hundred other planets she'd never found any place like it. Except for maybe Endor.
When her family had moved from the ocean to their forest home, Keighley was only seven, her baby sisters were only one standard year old. Her parents, Kenuth and Solsha, had moved to escape the growing spaceport that was becoming more of a smuggler hangout with the opening of many new cantinas. They heard of the clearing that was going on to build a nice quiet colony away from the aliens invading their planet. The Dennzers were one of the first families involved in the creation of the Berdry-Nash colony. So was the Jagge family.
Horner and Jossada Jagge were the parents of six Force-sensitive children, three were boys-triplets. Being the same age as Keighley, the identical seven-year-olds became her best friends. Friends she hoped she would have for a lifetime, no matter how much trouble they got her into.
Midnight Jagge was the biggest troublemaker of the trio, the one who put Keighley in danger most often. But he kept life in the colony from ever becoming boring. One night she heard her parents discussing Midnight, her father said the boy had the perfect name for someone so dangerous, and for someone who would someday follow the dark side of the Force if his parents weren't careful. That night she decided to marry the boy with the deep blue eyes, believing only she could keep Midnight from the dark side.
A week later she wanted to marry Kitt Jagge. After being confined to the house because of some trouble Midnight had gotten her into, she caught Kitt below her window blooming all the Trella flowers with just a whisper and a touch. The kindest of the three, Kitt could communicate with nature through the Force. When he wasn't following after his brothers, he was talking and listening to the trees and plants of the forest. She was ten before she realized only Kitt could hear the trees speak.
But most of the time she had dreamed of marrying Cullen Jagge. He had more control over the powers of the Force than his brothers, and he liked to have fun with them. Though he was the youngest, he was the leader of their group. He kept Kitt from growing roots and Midnight from flying away. He was the peace keeper, the teacher, the counselor, the joker, the lover, the scoundrel. He kept Keighley from deciding which brother she loved best. Yet it was Cullen who gave Keighley her first kiss.
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Part 6
As teenagers racing their speeder bikes through the trees, Keighley was always the one to have an accident. The brothers used the Force to find their way without hitting trunks or branches. So they begged her to take turns riding with each of them. Keighley would never hear of it, she was too independent. They did try to keep her out of danger for the most part, it's just that the four of them seemed to find it more often than not. And one of the many times they tried to stop her from racing against them she was in a crash that should have killed her. An accident that changed her life.
Keighley, at seventeen standard years old, was racing side by side with Cullen, Midnight in the lead and Kitt trailing behind. The path was new, but she knew if she stayed close to Cullen everything would be fine. As they gained on Midnight, Cullen made his move for the lead. She didn't see him slide his left hand across his brow, which was the sign to follow Kitt. Cullen juked to the right, Keighey tried to follow. She realized immediately it was a mistake at the speed they were going and tried to slow down. But it was too late. Her speeder bike clipped the branch of a Nash tree and spun out of control. She crashed into the ground in an explosion of flames and dust.
It was something nightmares are made of. Keighley was fully alert as she walked out of the flames and sat down in a patch of scorched Trella blossoms. She opened her eyes and found she could still see. She saw her entire body was burned black, the clothing still on fire in places and flaking away from her skin. She was calm, there was no pain. The young woman smiled slowly, proud that she would die bravely. She pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them close to her.
Looking up, she saw the faces of the three young men running toward her, seemingly in slow motion. It was then that the horror of what had happened hit her full force. She froze in shock, her heart nearly stopping. The silence that was forever a part of her life suddenly scared her to death . . . she could hear their screams. It was the first and only time she knew sound.
Midnight put out the small forest fire with a wave of his hand. Kitt brought the life back to the trees and flowers in a moment's time. Cullen . . . Cullen, knelt down, gently pulled Keighley's head onto his lap, and immediately stole away the pain, sending peace and love flooding through her. Midnight held her left hand, Kitt her right. As the three of them closed their eyes and sent the healing power of the Force through her, Keighley closed her own eyes and welcomed them in.
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Part 7
The four friends never spoke of the incident to anyone else. Cullen was afraid they wouldn't be allowed to spend time with Keighley anymore. Kitt was afraid what they did was too close to the Dark Side of the Force. Midnight was afraid of getting in trouble yet again. Keighley was so happy to be alive that she fell in love with each of them all over again, and they fell in deeper love with her. They continued their friendship and their antics as if nothing had happened. She bore no scars physically, but mentally it would be with her forever.
Keighley never told the Jagge brothers that she heard their screams that day in the forest. She was afraid that they could make it happen again with help from the Force. She wasn't ready to give up her silent world then. Now, after a year of traveling, from the Core Worlds to the Outer Rim, she was ready for the possibility that it could happen again with help from the man she marries.
That is how it was. Keighley loved all three, and they were willing to share her because none were willing to give her up to the others. When she finally reached marrying age, the day in which the Jagge triplets had been waiting for, she turned the tables on them and left the decision for them to make. Weeks went by, then one day Midnight, Kitt, and Cullen came to her and demanded that she decide. So flustered, she surprised everyone and declared she was taking a job offered to her aboard a spaceliner. She promised she would return home in a year's time and not before then. If the brothers hadn't decided then, she vowed to be alone for the rest of her life.
And now, the time had come, and she was sticking to her blasters. Keighley would marry the man who met her at the spaceport. And if no one was there. . . . She had learned a lot about the galaxy in a years time, became a pilot, and made many new acquaintances, but not a single day went by that she hadn't thought of Kitt's out held hands full of Trella blossoms, Midnight's deep blue eyes, and Cullen's touch when he threw a friendly arm around her shoulder.
If I have to waste fifty credits on renting a speeder bike, she thought, as she lay in her warm bunk on the Jagged Princess, then it's for the best. I'll spend time with my family for a few days and get back to the space lanes and hauling my goods.
Keighley still had over a week to wonder and worry. With her ship on automatic pilot, she slowly drifted off into dreams of flowers, friends and lovers.
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EPILOGUE
The Jagged Princess shook as it was caught in the tractor beam of the Trella Nash Orbit Patrol ship. An expert at manuvering in weightlessness now, Keighley quickly moved to the hatch and prepared for gravity.
"Welcome to Trella Nash, Pilot. We will transfer your ship to the next transport going planetside." Reading the tech's lips, Keighley nodded. With his help she hopped down the ramp on one foot into a waiting repulsor chair pushed by medical droid. For a breif second she wondered how they knew she had been injured. She sat down slowly and the droid quickly whisked her from the landing bay.
They travelled down a long hallway past a large, busy dining hall. The delicious smells were overwhelming. She was more hungry than she had ever been in her life. As they continued down the hallway the speed of the repulsor chair slowed, she assumed they were nearing the medical bay. Yet, somehow the smells of food were following them.
Suddenly she felt the droid touch her head and smooth her hair back, slowly, softly. She reached up to brush the hand away, yet didn't feel metal, but instead flesh and bone. She was too afraid to turn around. The large, warm hand grasped hers and caressed her fingers gently. Another hand reached around in front of her with a dish containing a steaming hot nerfburger. Frozen in anticipation she took the dish with her free hand, yet she was no longer thinking of food.
The young man leaned over to kiss her cheek. In that instant she knew who he was. She knew in her heart it would be him all along. She knew he would be here waiting for her; he was a Jedi, after all. She knew who she would marry. Somehow I have known all my life, she thought as she smiled.
Trembling, she closed her eyes, for some reason she was still afraid to look. He came around the chair, slid one hand behind her back and the other under her knees, lifting her with ease. She laid her head on his shoulder, still clutching the dish of food. He carried her ten meters into the med bay and before they reached the first cot Keighley's body was completely healed physically. Broken bones mended, faded bruises gone. She only felt weakness from days spent in weighlessness, and the weakless of love.
As she opened her eyes her first sight was of Cullen Jagge taking an enourmous bite of her nerfburger. Her eyes widened as she grabed the burger from him and took her own huge bite. They both laughed, his a rumbling one, hers silent. She tossed the remains of the burger over her shoulder and threw herself into his arms. She was safe. She was home. She was in love. She was happy, and she would be for the rest of her life.
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Behind the Story:
I wrote this short story in 1998, but couldn't decide the ending. The Epilogue was finally completed in 2000 with the urging of my friends online. |
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