Of Love and War Book 5: The Tragedy of Hope

Chapter 7: Grounded

With Tatooine officially behind them, Zelina had a moment where she felt the same yawning uncertainty before her that she'd felt as a child, one that part of her was afraid to willingly jump in to. Of course, at this point she'd already made the jump, and there was no stopping the descent. She just had to stay quick on her feet and adapt to whatever was thrown their way, for Luke's sake as well as for her own.

Speaking of Luke...

Both of them were unstrapping from their seats, gratefully getting to their feet and going through some much needed stretches now that the ship was traveling smoothly through hyperspace. Zelina forced herself to calm her thoughts and try and turn them away from worrying about the future for the time being so she could focus on the now. She couldn't make any solid plans about moving forward until she spoke with the Alliance and knew what was going on.

"Are you all right?" she asked, looking at Luke with a critical eye.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "I had some timely interventions, so I don't even have a scratch on me."

"Good—let's try to keep it that way," Zelina murmured, folding her arms across her chest.

Luke leaned against the holotable they had been seated behind. "So...what happens when we reach Alderaan?"

"We'll see Senator Bail Organa and find out what's been going on with the Alliance, as well as find out what important information Artoo is carrying. After that, depending on what's going on with the Alliance, I'd like to try rescuing Leia from the Empire—I'm sure Bail would agree, considering she's his daughter."

"Leia?" Luke asked quizzically, eyebrows pulling together and a small frown appearing on his face.

Zelina quickly buried the pang that went through her heart over the fact that Luke didn't know his own sister, and the utter confusion he said her name with. Part of Zelina wanted to outright tell Luke Leia was his sister, but a slightly more logical part of her told her to wait a little longer until Luke had more experience and could fully appreciate why Leia's identity as his twin had been protected so strongly. It would be strange to be addressing Leia as an Organa, as Zelina's mind was fixed on her true identity as Leia Skywalker. If they did manage to rescue her, Zelina wouldn't even be able to tell the young woman she was there when she was born, considering Luke already knew Zelina had been there when he was born, and the fact Luke and Leia were the same age with the same birthday combined with Zelina's presence at their births would make the truth of their relations glaringly obvious.

"The young woman in the hologram—it's Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, Bail and Breha Organa's adoptive daughter," Zelina explained patiently, the name Leia Organa one that felt strange rolling off her tongue. "I knew her parents," Zelina added, a thousand emotions behind the words Luke didn't realize held a double meaning.

"So they'll recognize you?" Luke asked.

"I should hope so—not only did they send me the message, but Bail was involved in smuggling me around the galaxy as the Purge was happening. And he and his wife were friends with your mother."

Luke was still processing the new information when they were joined by one of their two pilots, Chewbacca lumbering into the room and grunting out a short explanation that Han was making sure everything was set in the cockpit before he joined them. Zelina nodded to show she understood, and Chewbacca slid into the seats they had just been sitting it, powering up the holotable. Artoo rolled up to the other side, whistling a question before Chewbacca huffed in response, and the two began a game.

"Do we have long before we reach Alderaan?" Zelina asked Chewbacca. The Wookiee growled out a reply, and Zelina sighed, turning towards Luke. "Okay...I was going to have you do some practicing while we're making our jump, but if it's going to be that short of a jump, we'll just have to stick with something simple. Show me your stance."