driftfleet | all aboard the ss royalty

[A few more hairpins, and Leia's work is done--at least on her own hair. And if it holds up to her usual work, maybe it'll go into regular rotation.

Now for Jaina. Leia grabs her brush and carefully starts at the ends of her daughter's hair. Without knowing how many snarls she's going to run into--and knowing just how messy her own hair could get when she was that age--she wants to take things gently.]

That's impressive. [From what Jaina's said about them, anyway.] How many students does Luke have in his academy?

[Jaina's impressed, and that helps keep her settled when Leia comes around to apply the brush to the girl's hair. In terms of tangles it's not as bad as it could be, but it's not exactly great. It helps -- from her perspective, at least -- that Leia is more gentle about it than Threepio.]

If it gives you an idea how big it's getting, we've been using the Great Temple the rebels used to use as a base. Uncle Luke started with twelve students, and we're pretty well filling it up.

[Droids are at an unfair disadvantage in matters as delicate as hairdressing, lacking any real understanding of what exactly it feels like to have hair ripped from one's scalp. Leia, on the other hand, is intimately familiar with locks that snarl and start to look like a wampa's nest after a while. Jaina's hair doesn't seem to have inherited the slight tendency to frizz when left to its own devices, and for that, Leia thinks she's lucky.]

Really? [Hearing about Luke's successes is heartening. She wants to see him succeed in bringing the Jedi Order back to life, and it sounds like he more than succeeds.] So what kind of things do you do, to learn to be a Jedi knight?

We used to have group lectures in the assembly hall. [But that's currently kind of explode-y.] Then we'd break up into smaller groups. We have to learn all kinds of things. We need to be able to think of things like a Jedi, understand how to solve problems.

Some of the first students are instructors now -- Tionne has some ballads about the history she's been able to turn up. And then there's practicing with the Force and training with sabers.

[Such a Solo grin for the thought that comes with that, regardless of having to sit through hair untangling.]

Tenel Ka and I are better at that than the boys.

[Leia laughs a little. She doesn't need to see Jaina's face to hear the way she smiles when she speaks. There's Han in there, but she recognizes herself, too: proud, capable, and not afraid to admit it in casual company.]

Better than Jacen and--Anakin?

[Sorry, future-daughter. She's still not used to saying that name and thinking of a small child, let alone a small child she presumably cares a great deal about.

She continues up through Jaina's hair, untangling strands until it's hanging straight and shiny down her back. Now it's just a matter of figuring out what to do with it.]

You'll have to show me sometime. We don't have any lightsabers here, but I'm sure we can improvise.

Anakin's started going, too. He's not as far into training, though. He tends to make a lot bigger things happen when he does something, though.

[She does breathe a bit of relief when the untangling is done.]

I know the designs to make new ones, as long as we can get the right parts. [A slight hesitation to make her next suggestion, but she'll plow on with it eventually.] You'd made one, and Uncle Luke give you another. Do you want to try, too?

[Leia, in Jaina's time, had shifted her focus away from training as a Jedi. But there's no war or politics here.]

He's strong in the Force?

[That's what you get for naming an innocent child Anakin.

Leia's hands pause in the process of dividing Jaina's hair into sections at the question. Do you want to try, too?

Her first answer is no, absolutely not. She has been interested in beginning some kind of training, but her desire to wield a lightsaber is low; they're weapons as tied up in Vader's legacy as Luke's in her mind.]

Finding the materials might be difficult. But if we can... [Hesitation still cloaks her, but she's trying.] Maybe.

[And then it's back to dividing Jaina's hair into parts so she can braid it.]

He is. We, uh -- we might have talked him into doing a few things against the rules in the house when we were all younger.

[Jaina tries not to nod her head while Leia's parting her hair, having no desire to pull her own hair. Maybe works well enough for now.]

The parts can be different. Tenel Ka used a tooth from a family rancor, and I've seen someone make a wooden handle. They probably had to put more work into heat dissipation from the saber's operations. The way I do it, the saber can be used safely underwater -- and I made my own crystal for it. But that part is hard. [As if building your own electronics isn't.]

Really.

[She's significantly less surprised than she perhaps is supposed to sound. Jaina is, as far as she can tell, an incredibly bright, active girl. Being a handful goes part and parcel with that.]

The crystal is what's likely to be the difficult part, from what I understand. Tip your head back. [Once she does, Leia will begin to braid Jaina's hair at the edge of her hairline, a slender braid like a headband that will eventually snake down the other side of her head.] I don't think anyone's been able to find replacements for them.

[She's trying to peek up at Leia's expression when she tilts her head back. Leia manages to sound to her like she knows it all, like a parent should, from her children's habits to some of the intricacies of building a saber.]

It's a pretty central piece. You can work around a few things but not that one. And then not just any crystal works. If the crystal is flawed, the saber can be unstable.

[She swallows for that part. She's seen that happen.]

Anyway, one of the advantages of making one myself is I can use the Force to make sure the facets are turning out just right for what I need.

[If Leia sounds anything like an authority, it's leftover bravado from every other corner of her life sneaking in. She still doesn't really feel like she has any idea what she's doing with Jaina, even after having gotten some advice on the subject. The best plan she has at this point is to try to take an interest in her daughter's life and to help her when she asks for it.]

I can see how that would help. [Only theoretically, but theoretically is still something.] How do you make it?

[Nope, this time Jaina tries to nod her agreement. Theory is all anyone has until they can get the stuff they need to actually do it.]

It's mostly a matter of chemicals and heat. Did you ever make some crystals for a science lesson? The difference is this time, you concentrate on it, use the Force to move and shape it as the reaction continues and the crystals grow. Think of it like putting a box around a fruit to shape it.

I did.

[There's a smile in her voice as she pauses braiding so Jaina can move her head. She can imagine Luke telling Jaina what she's saying now; it's a testament to his work that she's able to explain it to someone else.]

So we'd need to find you the right chemicals, and you could grow a new one. [Heat, she doubts will be a problem. There must be plenty of heat sources available to them on the Starlight; they can purchase one and keep it for when they're ready to use it.] Depending on what they are, that might not be so difficult after all.

I might not keep to a decent bedtime the night that I do it.

[A joke, since Leia's being respectful and not imposing many controls. Besides, no one gave her any trouble for it last time she stayed up through the night to do this. Whatever Jaina feels about lightsabers, she's proud of the work she's done, and proud of the fact that she went above and beyond in making hers. They each had to find the crystal that was 'right' for them, to build a device that could be a symbolic extension of themselves. What fit Jaina better than this?]

Something purple, if we can. If credits are an issue, we could probably make a few extra to sell.

We probably won't be going anywhere important in the morning.

[There's a joke in return. Their lives here are more idle than not; if staying up through the night leads to something of actual value, who is Leia to say no to it?

(Besides, considering that Jaina is tolerating the fact that her not-yet-mother has switched ships to keep an eye on her, Leia's not sure she can really demand that much more of her.)]

Purple, huh? We might as well take a look on the station while we're here. [And then, dryly:] Oh, don't worry. Credits are not an issue.

[Her mother going out of her way to live with Jaina feels a little like a reversal of things -- usually, with training at the Academy, it's the twins who need to go out of their way to spend time with Leia. But they make it work.

Credits not being an issue is a bit odd.]

Not because our family's savings accounts are valid here. It's because things are a bit of a mess, isn't it?

[She laughs, shifting Jaina's hair to one hand so she can pat the girl's shoulder with the other.]

The Atroma pay you based on how dramatic your life aboard ship is--and they've brought in three very different generations of our family. Calling it a mess is putting it politely.

[She tries imagining what it'd be like to have a kid of her own show up, but it's hard to even picture herself married. Way too early to think about that, so she's just going to have to take it from the lens of her surprise about Padme.]

When you put it that way, it's a surprise we don't have Dad's family showing up, or some of his old business partners.

[What amps up the drama more than, say, a xenophobic would-be dictator cousin? Jaina's glad it's just intergenerational drama.]

They seem more interested in my lineage than his. So far, anyway.

[There's no denying that there's a heavy Skywalker influx, comparatively speaking. And to be honest, Leia's not sure how much family Han has to kidnap. He doesn't speak of them, whoever and however many they are.]

Between us, I think Dad has a little more pride tied up in his home system. Just wait for him to teach us about Correlian heritage when he takes us there for the first time. Not that anything will ever beat out the Falcon.

[Said in that of course, we all know tone of voice.]

[Another laugh. Jacen might be The One Who Tells Jokes, but Jaina has a sense of humor herself. (And there's still something strange and amazing in the idea that this girl is her own scheming, feeling person.)]

We've never gone to Corellia together. Not yet, anyway.

[They've been a little busy with the war.]

Sounds like I'll have something to look forward to.

[Jaina chews absently on her lip while she tries organizing some information in her head. It feels like it's important to say something a bit more thoughtful than 'that's where Dad came from,' especially since she doesn't want to cause any disappointment. She and Jacen were really little for that trip, and it was only a learning experience because Leia insisted on a tutor.]

It'll be exciting, sometimes.

I think it'll be a few years before the Empire loses direct control over the system. Even then, Corellia's got a pretty independent culture. It sounded like for a long time the only policy the New Republic could manage with the system was leaving it alone.

I'll keep that in mind.

[There's always temptation to ask just how long this and that will take, once they've won the war--but while Leia's willing to pass the future on to her forebears, she finds she's not sure she wants to know it as regards herself. Knowing it seems brighter than the past feels like enough.

After a moment, she's at the ends of Jaina's hair. It's something relatively simple compared to what Leia wears herself, but it should keep Jaina's hair off her face and out of her way when she's poking around the ship. That, Leia suspects, is likely to be more of a concern than complexity.]

There you are. Go take a look.

Just don't get too frustrated with them. I like some of the ships they've been developing.

[Priorities.

Jaina's going to go look in the mirror, eyebrows raised and bringing a hand up to feel the braid over her head. It's simpler than Jaina makes these tasks out to be in her head, and she has to admit that it looks nice. She doesn't spare a thought to whether or not it will help the next time she opens up a bulkhead.]

It's great, Mom. Thanks for taking the time.

You're your father's daughter, all right.

[While Jaina goes over to the mirror, Leia gathers together her things, watching the girl from the corner of her eye.]

Any time. With some practice, you'll be able to braid it yourself, you know.

all aboard the ss royalty

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