driftfleet | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Jaina
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: There's a new engineer joining the Bishop.
When: She might manage to wait five minutes after the latest shuffling.

The layout of these controls don't make any kind of sense. Not by any scheme I've seen on a ship, anyway.

[Yep, there is a teenager with her device propped on a nearby console, leaning elbows on another while she peers at it, intent. As she goes, she nearly taps buttons and levers, behaving enough not to actually muck with anything.]

It's not like snubfighter controls. Believe me, I know. But if this were anything like a Corellian YT-series I'd expect this to handle pitch, and...that should be yaw. Are the thrusters strictly forward? Maybe there's a z-axis control.

[These are all incorrect, and she seems to understand that. She chews her bottom lip, distracted with thought, before she finally turns her head to look directly into the camera again.]

How universal are the designs on these ships? I'm on Bishop, and there's a few things I can peg as customizations, but not too much. I've got a feeling I should try to learn as much as I can. Especially if I'm going to have to open a few of these panels up after a while to make sure it keeps working correctly.

[Admittedly, part of that feeling is the simple fact that regardless of the circumstances surrounding her presence in this fleet, she is stoked about learning the intricacies of a new style of ship.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Jaina rolls her eyes, letting herself flop back against the chair. What does Jacen do? Only the most ridiculous things. There's a fondness to her exasperation at least.]

He finds the strangest animals and tells the worst jokes in the galaxy.

He's a big part of me. We have a bond.

[Leia grins at that. He sounds a little like Luke, if she's entirely honest.]

I'm glad you have each other. [And a little jealous, in a strange sort of way. What she wouldn't have given to have a twin--or rather, to know she had a twin--at that age.

They're interrupted briefly to order their food, but besides that, talking to Jaina is starting to go a little smoother.]

I should tell you--we do have other family here as well. [Her expression grows a little more serious.] Your...grandparents. Anakin and Padme.

[Jaina isn't terribly surprised at this point to hear her mother mention Anakin; a few people have mentioned it to her on video before they could meet up. But somehow no one has ever mentioned Padme to her. Somehow no one has ever figured out the maternal side of the Solo-Skywalker clan. Or if nothing else, no one who's figured it out has passed it on to the kids.

She's a little stunned.]

I have a grandmother.

[She doesn't really know what to say, what to ask. Just. She has a grandmother. Blaster bolts, this is how mom feels, isn't it?]

If you didn't, you wouldn't have a mother. [A little dryly. But Leia can't blame her surprise; she still finds it strange to think of going twenty-three years without knowing her family and suddenly finding them. That they all ought to be dead doesn't help with the shock.] Her name is Padme Amidala--she was a senator to the Republic before the Empire, and a queen.

[In all honesty, she'd be sorry to realize that she never told her children about her mother. Perhaps that one memory felt too personal too share, or perhaps she simply didn't have the information necessary.]

If you want to meet them...[Please don't--at least, not Anakin]...bring Han or me with you, all right? Don't go alone.

[She's amused for the joke. Forget propriety, she's going to lean on an elbow on the table. It's great to finally learn more about her heritage. More importantly, it's great to learn more that isn't bogged down in 'your grandparent tortured me on the Death Star, and then on Cloud City your grandfather tortured your dad, and then your grandfather tortured Chewie, and then...']

So that's why you're Princess Leia. And you're just like her.

[Because Leia had been in politics early in the rebellion, if Jaina remembers correctly, not to mention what's happened since. Her expression betrays a stubborn feeling when Leia tells her not to go see them on her own, though she kind of understands why it's being said. The invicibility of youth. Well, if it's safety Leia's worried about, Jaina's got a practical argument.]

No offense, Mom, but between the three of us, I'm the best trained to handle things with another Jedi.

Not...exactly. [But Leia's amused, too. Surely Jaina already knows the answer to the question why is my mother a princess] But it's an interesting coincidence.

[Or proof that royalty of the galaxy rubs elbows, anyway.

Her expression grows more serious at Jaina's protestations, though, and she shakes her head.]

You're also fourteen years old. I'm not going to make a lot of rules about what you can and can't do, because [you aren't even really my daughter yet, how could I?] you can obviously take care of yourself, but please follow this one. Okay?

[Frowning while she considers this stuff. Bail was a senator, she knows that, and Leia had fond but vague memories of her own mother. The exact origin of royal status was always a little fuzzy to her. And, honestly, not too much of a priority.

On the more pressing issue, Leia picks the right tactic. She tries not to have any hard feelings about some of the restrictions her mother tends to give (still no ship of her own!) but acknowledging Jaina as capable helps.]

I understand.

[It's an acknowledgement, but not necessarily a promise. The young jedi knights have gone behind adult's backs before, and she's not really ready to rule anything out.]

Uncle Luke taught us how his father was redeemed. If there's always been good in him, don't we have to help him now?

[A genuine question, to a certain extent. Would it even do any good to interfere? When it was Jaina's turn to bring someone back from the dark side, her performance worked but hadn't exactly been stellar, either.]

[Jaina's kept it together remarkably well, considering she's been dragged into another galaxy filled with people from a variety of times and places, including parents who don't know her. It's clear enough she's her mother's daughter--and her father's.

Unfortunately for Leia, this is her first time doing the parenting thing, and I understand sounds enough like I promise in this context that she doesn't question it. Maybe in twenty years, she's cannier about this stuff--and more importantly, more familiar with her daughter's tendency to do what she thinks needs to be done--but for now, she assumes this means she has Jaina's agreement.

Her brows knit into a frown when Jaina speaks again.]

That's a good question. [One she's been asking herself--and Han--as well. What's the point of any of this if they don't do something about Anakin?]

The truth is...I don't know. [A sigh.] It might be possible to keep him from falling, but it might make things worse. [Don't put too much of this on Jaina, whispers a voice at the back of her head, but Leia's not sure what qualifies as too much in this case.] All I know for certain is that it would change everything.

[She'll do it if she needs to! This will lead to so much drama in her adulthood.]

We can't know it'd change anything except our family. More people helped the Emperor carry out his purge than just Darth Vader. Maybe Anakin Skywalker could have stopped him back then instead of on the Death Star, but maybe not.

That's true--we can't. But even if some of us might be willing to make that sacrifice... [Well, she already knows Han isn't.] Do you understand that you're proposing something that would ensure you'd never exist?

[Which can certainly be arranged in other ways as well ~~just ask Disney~~, but Leia's not sure Jaina really understands the ramifications of the idea. And when it comes down to it, she's not sure she can ask Han to sacrifice his life for that of billions.]

[That's weird to think about, but is it any weirder than the rest of this? She's re-meeting her entire family. She doesn't know her dad's stance, but she's only a few years off from becoming unhealthily comfortable with putting her life on the line for others.]

Well, I'd prefer to keep existing. But if what we do here changes things, it's a little late to worry about it. The bantha's already out of the pen and stampeding.

And in that case, what about Alderaan?

[Leia sighs, resisting the urge to rest her head in her hand. Bringing up Alderaan especially isn't playing fair, and she can't imagine any daughter of hers could get to age fourteen without realizing that.]

Believe me, I've been asking myself the same thing. If it were up to me alone, I'd do it. [She pauses, taking in the sight of her daughter. The eeriness of seeing her eyes in someone else's face hasn't yet abated, and now it's accompanied by the uncomfortable knowledge that she just told her daughter that she'd erase her existence if the decision was hers to make.] But it isn't, and asking Ha--your father to give up his life for a chance at shortening the war? A chance we don't know won't lead to worse things?

[Been there, done that, in no mood to revisit the argument at this point.]

We can't know what trying to change the future would do to the galaxy. We need to tread carefully.

[Alderaan is the obvious thing that could change, the obvious big benefit. If she's arguing for trying to make positive changes, how can she not bring it up? Jaina loves some practical problemsolving, after all.

She's going to do her best to ignore that her mother is hammering home that this course of action (and unsaid, by logical extension all of this, this whole situation) would probably erase her. Someone needs to try keeping some optimism in the mix.]

Promise to use my best judgment. Getting everyone back is probably the priority anyway.

That's right. [And talking about going home is a much less divisive topic, with no need for comments like if Han hadn't run into Luke, he wouldn't have had a reason to join the rebellion.] I've met a few people who don't mind being here, but the majority want to go home. We have a responsibility to get ourselves back to our galaxy--and to help everyone else do the same, if we can.

[It's a secondary concern, as mercenary as it feels to admit it. But if they can, Leia will absolutely help the others around them escape.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only