The Children of the Stars

The Palace

Allana disliked that she was being put on the shelf for this mission. What she disliked even more was that the others were avoiding her— except for Chewie.

The family Wookiee sat with her at the dejarik table, playing carefully.

Unlike Finn and Poe, who'd frequently complained to Sam and Danni about the cheating habits of their furry friend, who then passed such complaints on to Allana, the princess of Hapes knew how to play just as dirty as Chewie did.

Such smuggler's advice, passed on from Ben, didn't exactly put her over the edge, though. It merely put them on even ground.

So it didn't surprise her when she lost.

"Good game." Allana smiled graciously. "Want to play again?"

Chewie considered it for a moment as Allana felt a shadow enter the room. Allana shifted uncomfortably— she didn't know how to talk to her dad, after her outburst on the mountain.

She wasn't ready to apologize yet— she didn't want to take any of it back. So what if the Force bonds were down? He'd always talked about how as a young adult, he felt like he couldn't go back home, how his parents had given up on him.

How could he repeat that same mistake that made him still speak with bitterness and resentment in terms of his family?

"Move over, I know a thing or two about dejarik."

Allana did so, gripping the bottom of the seat. "I assume we don't have much longer in our hyperspace route?"

"Only two more standard hours." Ben punched the buttons turning on the dejarik game. "Move the houjix four pieces to the right."

Allana did so.

Chewie responded with an attack from his Kintan strider that the houjix was adjacent to.

"Move your Mantellian into position," Ben said. "Also, hit the board here— it'll prevent that glitch that gives the player two moves in one turn."

Chewie roared his dissatisfaction.

"Oh, I didn't know there were physical components." Allana hit it. "I guess I can use all of this for while Kyp and Chewie and Artoo and I sit here and twiddle our thumbs while you and Nellith get to go out and be heroes."

Ben was silent a moment, considering his words carefully. "I don't want Nellith out there, either. I don't want any of my remaining children in battle."

"Then why don't you stop her?" Allana was aware she sounded like a petulant child, but she couldn't help it. For the first time in three years, she felt like she had the power to change things. And now, only now, were people telling her that she couldn't.

"I remember what I felt like, in her shoes." Ben avoided her eyes. "Angry, at what's been taken. I didn't want to listen to anyone or anything after I'd realized what Snoke had taken from me."

Chewbacca mumbled something to the degree that Ben was always angry, ever since he was sent to Luke's Jedi school as a small child.

"Laugh it up," Ben said dryly. "Like you didn't cause Dad to replace this thing because you threw a temper tantrum the first time I beat you at dejarik."

While Chewbacca then groaned and roared in protest, Allana smiled, then sighed.

"I know you want to protect us— it's just that now I'm finally able to do something about it all," Allana said. "I've been stuck and helpless and useless all this time."

"Not helpless, and not useless," Ben said. "Not if you've got a Hapan cloak, and Nellith has a Hapan dress. You were taken in by Tenel Ka, weren't you?"

She looked him dead in the eyes. "I am the Chume'da, now."

"She'd been looking for an heir, after she returned from the dark side," Ben reminded her. "She had many lovers and maybe one of them might have given her the daughter she needed. However, I am happy to hear that she accepted you like a daughter."

Allana shrugged. "Hapan parenting must be cold, then."

"I hated this excuse when I was your age, but she really was trying to protect you." Ben looked to Chewie. "The lucky part about growing up with a pack of Jedi ready to fight for you is that you never had to worry about the kidnapping attempts that I did."

"Kidnapping attempts?" Allana raised an eyebrow. "You said you had a great childhood."

"A cooking droid also attempted to kill me when I was three— there were some bad times in there too, same as anyone."

Chewbacca then started to recount a time that he'd been knocked out with a pressure bomb during the most successful of the kidnapping attempts.

"There was this weird thing with an inter dimensional being— I don't know, maybe I'm not remembering this right?" Ben looked to Chewie for affirmation. "Look, I don't have as great of a memory as you do. That's what happens humans get old."

Chewie just shrugged at that. He did confirm that the incident regarding a space station near a crystallizing star was, to put it honestly, kriffing weird.

"Anyway, kidnapping is not an integral part of your childhood, and I'm not eager for it to start," Ben continued. "I'm sure Tenel feels the same way."

"I guess so."

"Allana?"

She looked up. "Yes?"

"You have to stay safe— you're heir to sixty systems and one of the biggest powers in the galaxy, rivaling the New Republic and the Remnant." Ben's voice was gentle, understanding, even— but firm. "Not to mention the visions your mother held. You have a part to play in this. You always have. And it will be more important than this mission."

Allana sighed. "I understand. I don't like it, but I understand."

Ben smiled. "Now you sound like your mother."

Allana watched as the party left the Falcon, and then returned to the cockpit, staring out at the royal city. There were the clean lines and white stone typical of Alderaanian architecture.

But they were not soothing and merely pretty anymore. They were threatening under the rule of the Remnant. A stark reminder that the light was always watching. And it was not a good light.

"Might as well step away from there, Princess," Kyp said. "Chrono'll say ten minutes, top, but it'll feel like five hours of watching the sand dunes at the Praxeum if we don't find something to do."

"What if they need us?" Allana asked, watching the silhouettes of the people in the royal city.

Kyp tapped the temple of his head. "That's what the Force is for."

Allana wrinkled her nose. "I don't think that's how the Force works."

"Come on, help me take inventory, or something so we don't die of boredom."

"Let's play Chewie and Artoo, head to head match," Allana suggested.

"With the biggest cheaters on this ship?" Kyp pouted. "No thanks. Not for all the credits in the galaxy."

"What if we could win?" Allana smirked.

"Look, I know I'm not supposed to tell a Corellian the odds, Valin's ripped me plenty of new ones over that, but I'm pretty sure the odds are zero at that."

"I know a few tricks," Allana promised. She gently pushed him out of the cockpit. And yet she couldn't help herself.

She stole one more glance at the city.

There were all those people who expected Thea Organa, as she called herself throughout her political career, to save them, to bring the last remnant of their culture home.

Instead she brought the remnant of their destruction.