The Children of the Stars

Galaxy's Edge

As soon as they jumped out of hyperspace, Nellith knew something had gone wrong.

All of the lights flickered, and Serenity started to drop into the atmosphere of the planet below. Nellith detached the commlink wired to the speakers.

"This is your captain speaking— head to the escape pods, it looks like it's gonna be a bumpy ride," she said. She hung it back up with a faint click and tried to regain control of the ship. But no matter how many buttons she pushed, no matter how she tried to wiggle the joystick or flip switches— Serenity didn't respond to her commands.

The shields were faltering against atmospheric resistance. Fire streaked the sides of the craft.

Nellith realized that she was going to die on Serenity.

"Come on," she whispered. "Come on, I know the legends about you, surely you can—"

But in the end, this brand of Ugly wasn't the ship of myth and legend after all, Nellith realized. It was just an old ship that she had a good feeling about.

Was the Force wrong, sometimes? About destiny and all of that?

Nellith was at least grateful that the others had left—

That was when Kyp Durron burst into the cockpit.

"Come on, Nellith, there's no saving her," Kyp said gently. "We've gotta go."

Maybe once, Nellith would've insisted that she go down with the ship. That she wasn't important enough for anyone to care if she did.

But now she understood one thing— she would be needed to find the weapon Revan spoke of, and to fight against the Star Forge.

There was more than that, too. Nellith realized that as she accepted Kyp's hand. There were others who cared about her, destiny or no. And she couldn't destroy them that way, by destroying herself.

She followed Kyp into the last of the two escape pods.

"I convinced Tash, Jysella, and Artoo to go," Kyp explained. "Told them I'd save you— now come on."

"Thank you," Nellith said as she crawled into the escape pod. Just in time, they pressed the button to eject, and soared to the planet's surface.

Nellith was the first to emerge, and she was almost blinded by the brilliance of the sun. They were on a land made from stone pillars of various heights and widths, with a sea breaking against the stony shore.

"Strange land," Kyp muttered as he joined her, shielding his eyes. "Where is this place?"

"I have no idea," Nellith admitted. She turned around. There were caves and such in the distance, and as she looked farther inland, there was plant life growing on the pillars.

But she also saw more wreckages— the second escape pod, the Falcon, and Serenity.

"I guess we can't fix it, can we?" Nellith asked sadly.

"The scrap might at least help out the Falcon," Kyp suggested. "I'm sorry— I know you loved that ship."

"It was a chance to break away from all of the Skywalker legacy." Nellith had finally said what she wouldn't admit even to herself. "I just wanted something that was mine, since I never was important."

"You know, the Falcon isn't really a part of Skywalker's story," Kyp pointed out. "You know the most important person who flew that ship? Han Solo, who made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs—"

"Twelve is rounding down," Nellith scoffed, remembering her own father's words on the subject.

"But he's still a legend," Kyp added. "And he was a nobody from nowhere on Corellia. And so what if you're a Skywalker? You were always going to be important."