Star Wars: Offspring

Chapter 12

Jace Diran stepped over the body of the Trandoshan that struck the tree in front of him. It definitely was the younger trandoshan. But who had dispatched him?

Earlier, Jace had honed in on the force presence of his daughter as he and Huhunna tore through the forest. But halfway through, he had to stop. There was a sickening feeling that replaced Leelah’s presence; a dark flow, an anger … a fury. He continued to run, but bent over as if he had a stab wound to his stomach, the presence was so powerful. But the sight he saw in the clearing gave him a feeling that didn’t compare.

Tree limbs, stones, debris of all kinds were traveling in a slow whirlwind across the clearing; flechette ammo packs and detonators, blaster pistols as well.. The trees surrounding the clearing bowed down towards the center as if unseen hands were pulling them. The floor of the clearing was vibrating, the dirt seemed to be bubbling and churning. The roar of the quaking was not like rumble of tectonic plates colliding, it was rather like a voice, deep, and in torment.

Everything orbited around like planets in a stars system, around a nucleus, a fire-like eye in the tornado. In the force it felt like a light-devouring black hole. His daughter’s silhouette stood unmoved in the center, her chest heaving, like she was crying, her little hands balled up in fists. Her eyes were aglow with iridescent power. In the force, she appeared to be standing in a rift between the physical realm and the dark side of the force. She was creating, and at the same time, caught up in a nexus of force energy.

Huhunna and Jace walked on eggshells into the clearing, his eyes fixed on his daughter. He wasn’t sure if she’d noticed them yet. He waved his hand at Huhunna in a ‘put that thing down’ gesture. She lowered her bowcaster, he clipped his lightsaber to his waist.

“Honey … sweetie …” he was holding his hands up in protective, calming posture, stepping slowly toward her. “Little one … it’s me, daddy.” He faked a smile. She didn’t respond at all. His brow wrinkled in with concern. His hair blew to the side in the hot wind.

Huhunna saw her son and the other cowering wookies huddled behind Leelah. She called out to him and he responded with a weak moan. Raallawraa also growled out a series of informative sounds telling Huhunna of Tarweeleea’s condition too. Huhunna acknowledged.

At the sound of the conversation, Leelah’s dark form moved. She turned to look at her wookie friends behind her cowering and scared of her and understood the conversation with the grown up wookie on the other side of the clearing. She was trying to protect them and now she felt how scared they were. She understood that the big wookie was Marrowyr’s mother, and that she was concerned about him. She then realized that the man next to the big wookie was her father. She looked back to him.

“Daddee.” The glow faded from her eyes. The wind did not subside totally, just in temperature and intensity. Large objects like trees and stones fell to the ground. Small leaves and plant pieces continued to swirl until floating lightly to the floor. The ground returned to a state of calm. The fury had died down.

Before his eyes the frightening apparition of fury and dark side energy abated. Light returned to the small clearing and the toddler that was his daughter reappeared before him. She made a pain face and put her hand to her head. “Owweee. My head. Owweee. My head.” She started to cautiously pick her way through the brush towards him.

His girl was back. She wore the ‘kiss it and make it better’ face that made his fatherly protectiveness bubble up in him. He took broad but cautious steps toward her to pick her up. Normally he would have added in an upward toss or a spin to make things fun and give her a little thrill. But this time, he scooped her up and held her in one sense like a piece of delicate glassware, and in another sense like an explosive with a hair trigger.

To her it was any other day they were together, she didn’t notice the mixture of awe and fear in her father’s gaze. She just needed to be soothed. She didn’t see mommy any were but dad would do in a pinch. “My head, Daddee. My head.”

“I know, I know, you little brown wampa cub.” He kissed her head a few times while stepping out of the clearing.

Huhunna was carrying her wounded son and Raallawraa was managing Tarweeleea. He was the biggest of the youths, only a head and a half shorter than Huhunna, an apparently almost as strong. In the distance the silence was filled with the powering up of the Perseverance’s engines and repulsor lifts. The survivors headed towards the sound of the ship.

Jace lead the group through the labyrinth of trees and stones. In a larger clearing ahead the silhouette of the ship came into view. He had Leelah’s head pressed into his shoulder. He was silent and his eyes were distant, looking ahead, farther ahead than the clearing. He was looking ahead to the future. After he and Brine healed up. After tending to the wookie’s wounds. After the clean up on Kashyyyk, when he’d have to recant his daughter’s manifestation to his wife.

He’d have to tell her how Leelah digested the instructions he’d given to Huhunna over the com and was able to carry them all out, even showing the ability to improvise. She appeared in PD-3’s overhead cameras to be augmenting her speed with the force. She seemed able to communicate with the younger wookies and figured out how to operate a stim syringe. And the insane force power she’d manifested in defending her wounded friends! She had more than touched the dark side, and then pushed it all away like she was flipping a switch on and off. Ellevia’s words resonated in his memory … She has her father’s temper. He remembered scenes from his vision and wondered again how much of it was literal.

Perhaps now would not be a good time to leave the Jedi Order. He’d have to bring Leelah to Master Skywalker. She’d have to be formally observed, trained, and taught how to bring herself under control. He wasn’t sure if he and Ellevia could do it on their own. His little girl could be the galaxy’s greatest Jedi or its greatest threat. This little Wampa cub had to be brought up right around people who could help her. The force capabilities she possessed were beyond his level of expertise. Hopefully, just being dad would prevent any further outbursts.

A standard hour later, the passengers and crew were loaded up in the hull of the Diran family’s ship. The Perseverance took off from the moon’s surface and headed back to Kashyyyk.

END