The Galactic Queen Book 1: The Revolution

Chapter Three: Home/The Attack.

"I'm home..." Katooni said in awe. Then she jumped up for joy, "I'm home, I'm home, I'm home, I'm home, I'm home!!"

Clementine smiled warmly, "We better find your parents now. How interesting. Do all of your people have those headdresses?"

"Pretty much, I guess," Katooni said, shrugging.

They walked through the town nearby, people giving them curious looks. Clementine kept her eyes open for anyone who could resemble Katooni's parents.

"Do you remember them?" Clem asked her.

"Not really," Katooni admitted, "I was taken from my home when I was just born. The Jedi recognized my Force sensitivity and took me away. I don't remember my family though. I just know I came from here and stuff."

"Then this is going to be harder than I thought," Clementine told her, "Keep your eyes open. I might just ask the local folks where I can get one of those headdresses. They look cool."

They continued to search until they came upon another village. They asked around and one of the Tholothian villagers pointed towards a hut next to another hut where two people were tending to their gardens: a man and a woman.

The woman looked up and she and Katooni's eyes met. They said nothing at first before the woman ran towards Katooni. She ran at her back and they embraced each other.

"Katooni, it's really you," her mother said, tears of joy streaming down her face. Katooni realized she was crying too. She was finally reunited with her parents.

Clementine smiled, "Congratulations, Katooni." She then began to walk away before the man said:

"Wait. Don't you want to join us for lunch?"

Clementine felt awkward, "Um, I wouldn't want to intrude on your-"

"Nonsense," replied the man, "After all, you brought our daughter home to us. This calls for a celebration. After lunch, we would be honored to celebrate you as the hero of Tholoth Prime."

This was getting weirder and weirder. Clem felt like an outsider, but she saw Katooni's hopeful look and shrugged, "Ah, what the heck? I haven't been to a good party in years."

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After lunch in the family hut, the whole village celebrated Katooni's return. There was more celebrations than either of the duo had ever seen. Clementine was called up by the mayor and given a gold medal in her honor.

Afterwards, it began to get dark out and Clementine knew she had to leave on the Millennium Falcon.

She said her goodbyes to Katooni, who asked her: "Will I ever see you again?"

Clementine didn't know how to answer that. She doubted she would ever see Katooni again as she would have to go into hiding again, far away from this system, but she didn't want to break poor Katooni's heart, so she said: "Yeah. Of course you'll see me again. But for now, I have to go."

Katooni watched Clem leave and waved goodbye, hoping she would see her again. Suddenly, people pointed up to the sky. Something was entering the upper atmosphere. A starship.

No. Multiple starships.

Clementine saw this and instantly knew where this fleet was from. It was from her galaxy. The Royal fleet. King Shadower knew she was still alive.

"Katooni, we have to go," Clementine said, running towards her.

Katooni saw the fear on Clem's face and asked what was wrong.

"No time to explain!" Clem replied, practically dragging Katooni away from her home. Her parents chased after her, but were stopped by bombs hitting the ground. The starships entered the village and blasted all the huts, causing them to erupt in flames.

People ran as Clementine hurried towards the Falcon with Katooni In tow.

"We have to save my parents!!" Katooni protested.

"We can't!" Clementine shouted, "There's no hope for them!"

"I'm not leaving them!" Katooni shot back, struggling in Clementine's grip. Clementine gripped Katooni's hand harder until the younger girl cried out in pain and stopped struggling, tears flowing from her eyes.

"Katooni, I'm sorry!" Clem told her, "But if we go back there, we'll be killed. We have to leave now. The Royal fleet is merciless. Cooperate and I won't grip you so tight."

Katooni nodded reluctantly, fear on every inch of her face. She followed Clem towards the Falcon and they managed to get on. They both buckled up in the cockpit and Clementine pushed the flashing button to take off.

Katooni knew that arguing with Clementine was pointless. The older girl was right. It would be suicide to try and save her parents now. She was glad she listened because out the window as they took off, she saw the entire village blow up in a huge explosion as the starships raced all around, trying to find Clementine.

Katooni began to cry again. Her parents, who she had just come to know, were in that explosion. She was an orphan. She gave up finally, focusing fully on helping Clementine pilot the freighter out of the planet. She hit the boosters and they managed to reach a place not blockaded. Clementine saw out the window that the starships were beginning to shoot at them. The Falcon shook from the damage and Clem quickly made the jump to lightspeed.

The whooshing cosmic blue tunnel of hyperspace came at them and they were out of harm's way.