Dorn: A Star Wars Story

14. Heir

I walked into Lorias' room back on the Resplendent and found him sitting at his desk. Before him on the table sat a datapad. I recognized the red banding and black lettering across it all too well. "It's classified," he muttered as he pushed it forward with his fingers and looked up at me, his eyes widening slightly as I approached. "Holy karking..."

"I'm getting really tired of hearing that every time someone looks at me these days," I growled and picked up the pad. It blinked and the band went away, revealing a set of files. The label was simply "Rhak-skuri - The Dream Singers". I stared at it before I looked at Lorias as I tapped again on the screen and a list of names and faces appeared Many of them were Clones, several were Imperial Officers, all were deceased.

One stuck out to me.

I felt like I was staring in a mirror when I pulled up his profile, so much so that I mentally chided myself for having the same reaction as Venn and Lorias both when I stared down at the face of a man whose codename was marked as "Vengeant".

"His name in official Imperial Records was Agent Tarth Ruana - a cousin of his who was killed in a top secret op at the beginning of the war. His real name was Uryen Ruana, son of Lemont and Tirsa Ruana of Corellia, Commander of the SIS Special Forces Squad Onith and later of the ISB Special Forces Elite Rhak-skuri Unit, colloquially known as the "Dream Singers", precursors to Siqsa's own Dreamers. When he died, all records of his were sealed and he... was erased from all official Imperial records. He was known to have had a wife. Dera. At the time we found her, she had died. We... believe she also had a son."

I stared down at the grey eyed face looking back at me. It was my face but... older. We now shared a scar down that side of our face, and I saw more than a little of myself in the gaunt high cheeks and auburn hair. My nose was different, but it was a small wonder that when Venn saw my lone eye, cut with a lightsaber in close to the same spot, that he had a bit of a moment.

"How... did he die?" I asked, my voice sounding hollow, even by my standards.

Lorias seemed to hesitate before he spoke again, my eyes never leaving the face on the datapad I held loosely in my hand. "He was ambushed and killed by Venn's Rebels. Vengeant held the line covering the escape of his squad. None of them survived the end of the war except for one."

The datapad flashed a symbol and a new profile appeared. She was marked MIA, but her name was Jorra Meeren. She looked the part of an Imperial with her sharp lines and dark hair. He profile said that she had come from the planet of Dantooine and that she had served as the unit's Cipher Agent - Cipher Thirteen.

"Meeren has been missing for a long time now. I don't know where she went or if she was alive, but..."

"How long?"

Lorias paused when I asked the question and lowered the pad as I looked up at him. 

"How long did you know who my father was?"

He seemed like he was trying to formulate something to say judging by how his face shifted from time to time before he seemed to resign himself at long last and sighed heavily. "I knew from the moment they gene coded you."

"Why not say anything?"

"Because Uryen never wanted you or your mother involved in what he did," he pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke and turned away. "He couldn't settle down into family life. He couldn't. Not after fighting for so long. War was all he knew, all he had been trained for." He paused and looked at me, and there was an unspoken line there that he didn't have to say for me to hear it in my head.

Just like you.

I had always thought that when I finally saw him again, when I saw my parents and really found out who they were, that I would... feel something, you know? That I would suddenly drop to my knees in elated tears or feel some connection to these people who gave me life, but the only thing I felt was empty. Lorias had admitted that my father abandoned my mother and I because he couldn't handle sitting down with a war going on. I hated that about myself, and I couldn't help but feel a little pang of anger inside of me that it was this stupid family inheritance. How could I be happy to know that I was the exact replica of a man who abandoned his wife and child? Who let his wife die alone?