Within the Force (Star Wars fan fic) Book One

Chapter Eight

With just one look, Ashlyn could tell that Coruscant was different from other planets in that world. So could Jeremy, and even Anakin. They'd been told how seasoned veterans were always amazed at how strange the planet looked from space, casting an odd silvery glow that suggested the reflection of sunlight off metal.

The impression was not misleading.

The days in which Coruscant could be viewed in any sort of natural state were dead and gone. The capital city was expanded to the point where it wrapped the entire planet. Forests, mountains, bodies of water, and natural formations had been covered over. The atmosphere was filtered through regulators and purified by scrubbers, and water was gathered and stored in massive artificial aquifers. Animals, birds, plants, and fish were nowhere in sight, so they were probably in museums or climate-controlled indoor preserves; Coruscant was a planet of skyscrapers, their gleaming metal towers stretching skyward as though an army of frozen giants blanketing the horizon in every direction.

"This place is like the whole Back to the Future Two scenario," Jeremy muttered as he, Ashlyn and Anakin stared at the city-planet in awe, searching for a break in the endless forest of buildings.

"Agreed," Ashlyn mumbled. The three of them glanced at Ric Olie in the pilot's seat, and Ric smiled.

"Coruscant, capital of the Republic, an entire planet evolved into one city." He winked. "A nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."

"It's so huge!" the little blond boy breathed softly, his newfound brother nodding in agreement, sharing Ashlyn's stun; it was a big change going from cars rolling down the highway floor to speeders soaring through the air.

They dropped into a landfall traffic lane and cruised slowly through the maze of buildings, sliding along the magnetic guidance lines that directed airborne vehicles. Ric explained how it worked to Anakin, who listened with half an ear, his attention still held captive by the vastness of the cityscape. In the background, the Jedi moved silently. Jar Jar crouched to one side, peering over the console through the viewport, clearly terrified by what he was seeing. Anakin knew the Gungan must long for the familiarity of his swamp home, just as the boy was thinking how much better he liked the desert and the two 'outlanders' were thinking of their own world.

Ashlyn glanced over at her once cousin and gently nudged him with her shoulder. "You miss it, don't you?" she asked softly, referring to their world as she noticed the somewhat sad look on his face.

Jeremy tried to put on a brave face, but ended sighing in defeat; there was no lying to Ashlyn. "Yeah. It wasn't the best life... it wasn't much, but it was something. It... it was home."

Ashlyn gave him a small smile and wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close, making him instinctively rest his head on her shoulder and her rest her cheek on the crown of his head. They stayed like that for a moment, in what looked more like a sibling gesture than a simple 'cousin-whom-I-found-out-wasn't-really-my-cousin' gesture.

"I miss it too," she mumbled, squeezing his shoulders a bit.

He pulled away a bit and looked at her. "Why do you miss it?" he asked. It wasn't harsh or meant to be rude; it was merely a genuine curiosity.

She smiled a bit again. "As you said, it wasn't the best life. I didn't have it easy, but I had something." She looked down at him as he was a few inches shorter than her despite him being a year younger than her now instead of two. "I had you guys. You all kept me grounded, kept me going on... y'all were my home."

The Queen's transport slowed now, edging its way out of the traffic lane, onto a landing dock that floated near a cluster of huge buildings. Anakin and Jeremy peered down doubtfully. They were several hundred stories up, hundreds and hundreds of meters in the air.