The Children of the Stars

Where the Plan Went Wrong

Just as Kyp and Allana were about to deliver the wining stroke, she stood up from the dejarik table.

"Something's wrong— or about to go wrong— we need to get to the loading ramp."

"Chewie and I'll get to the cockpit." Kyp handed Allana his violet lightsaber. "You check out the loading ramp."'

"Got it." She raced to the cargo bay and opened the ramp just as the party emerged from the spaceport doors.

Tahiri was in the lead, several paces ahead of Valin and Threepio.

"Come on, goldenrod, let's speed this up!" Valin tried to pick up Threepio, only for the droid to refuse such a treatment.

Zekk closed the doors of the spaceport behind him, and ran to help Valin carry Threepio.

Bringing up the rear was Ben Solo, holding a barely-conscious Jacen in his arms.

"We gotta make a quick escape— get ready to jump to lightspeed when the door closes!" Allana ordered.

She received no indication for certain that Kyp had heard her, but she was certain that he did all the same. Tahiri grabbed one of the poles in the loading door as she stumbled inside, slightly out of breath.

"Darth Keera knows we're here," Tahiri panted.

Allana glanced out as Valin and Zekk entered and set Threepio down. Artoo rolled up to greet his old friend. Zekk then ran down the ramp as Ben approached, holding a blaster out.

Ben slowed to a walk as he entered the ramp, and Zekk withdrew.

"Close the loading ramp," Ben ordered.

Zekk was about to when Allana slapped his hand. "Where's Nellith?"

No one answered her immediately, and Zekk closed the door.

"Where's Nellith?" Allana repeated, her voice rising to a shout.

"She decided to try to fight Keera," Tahiri said. "We tried to tell her to stop, but she wouldn't listen."

"We had to leave her." Zekk leaned against the side of the cargo hold a moment. He gave Allana a look of sympathy. "Or else this whole mission would be for nothing."

"We should turn around, we can end this, we can still save her— all of us could go against Keera and win—"

Before she could make a command, the ship recoiled from the leap to hyperspace.

Before Allana could fall over, Valin caught her.

"No," she whispered. It was too late. She stumbled forward, out of Valin's grip, and dropped to her knees.

She'd lost her sister again, after only a few days.

"If only I'd been there," she whispered. "We could've taken her on together."

"And you both would have been captured." Valin crouched down beside her. "And Hapes would have lost the heir they needed."

"'Destiny has but one throne,' I know." Allana closed her eyes.

"What?"

Allana had forgotten the secret that her parents had kept of it, in that moment of grief and anger.

"Before Nellith and I were born, it was prophesied that I would take up the seat of something called the Throne of Balance, and would become the Jedi Queen." Allana sighed. "Sometimes, I dream of it. Things are different, though. My hair's red, my dad's dead, and there are other people I don't recognize. But Jaina's there. That's the most common one. There are others, too, though. Like little shards of other possibilities of how I could have been born, and where and when."