Are You Brave?

Part 5

 "Heard the news, Rook?" Navai asked, pausing the holovid that she'd been watching to look over at him. He squinted blearily back at her, unsure if this was rhetorical – he and the Zabrak weren't exactly close, and she had a tendency to steamroll conversations when given the chance.

"I just got back from Corellia, so, no. Why, what's happened?"

She frowned, brow furrowing beneath her array of spikes. "We just got word – Jedha's been occupied. You're from there, right? That... holy city?"

For an instant, he had the relative shelter of bone-deep tiredness and too many hyperspace jumps to keep him from visibly reacting. The shock of it trickled in slowly. What could the Empire possibly want with Jedha – with a city that was only important to tourists and the faithful?

"No one's said anything about why but... thought you'd best hear it from one of us, and not just comm chatter."

"I need to call home," he told her through numb lips, and raced for the comm room.

The delay as the comm went through was one that seemed to stretch on and on, three seconds, five, ten – but then his mother answered and he nearly collapsed in sheer relief at the sight of her, safe and unharmed.

"I'm so sorry, I just got word – are you alright? What's going on?"

The projection was grainy, the blue tint washing out details, but she already seemed years older than his last call, the lines of her face etched deeper. "Oh, Bodhi... I don't know, they've – there's a ship overhead, and they sent soldiers to the temple and there's been fighting." She looked away – glancing at the window, he guessed. "I'm safe, I just locked up the workshop and stayed home, but... do you know why they're here?"

Cargo pilots, he wanted to tell her, were nothing in the scheme of things, just one of the many cogs that kept the vast machinery of the Empire working smoothly. Just because he was enlisted didn't mean he could possibly begin to unravel this. "No, no I don't – they haven't told us anything." That hardly felt like enough, so he pressed on. "I can – I can resign, I can come home. You shouldn't be alone, not when things are..."

"No! No, don't come back – it's not safe, Bodhi. Especially now. You won't be my son, you'll be an Imperial pilot. That's... a bad thing to be, on the streets." She turned away again, and faintly, he could hear the tinny thud of someone pounding on the door. "I have to go, but I'm so glad you're safe. Don't worry, I have friends here, I'll be fine."

"Mother –"

"Stay away from Jedha. Please."