(This was written after the final game in our current campaign, Folly had a section of a nasty alien's brain implanted in her own when she was very young and it manifested itself in unplesant ways... usually by frying anyone who used force powers around her to a
crisp. This story was written after she had finally managed to banish the creature's conciousness from her mind and re-united with her father. (The short of the story is that she was a weapon
designed by the Empire to destroy Jedi, and her father was designed to be her keeper, except her father had all traces of his memory as her real father wiped away and thinks Folly's real father was dead and he just used her. Any attempts to show him the truth sent him into self-destructive fits so he couldn't be told. Because of that the reunion was bittersweet. Anyhow, this is Folly and Sebastian Starseer flying over Coruscant in a Mandelorian 'Dragon-Bike' that Folly had flown on with her father when she was just a child.)
"We're rather high, you know. There might be micro debris floating around out here that could make things hazardous." Sebestian Starseer peered out through the visor of his vac-suit at the glittering planet of Coruscant below.
Folly slowed the Mandelorian craft's speed by half, setting the 'Dragon Bike' into
orbit. "That's what the force field is for. I checked it myself before we left. We're perfectly safe up here."
"If you are so confident, why must we wear these suits?" The older man's brows pinched together, the only emotion that made it through the normally blank features of his face.
"I said we were safe, I didn't say I didn't want to take precautions. Besides, all the
other times I've ridden this bike in space I was in a suit, might as well stick with tradition." The woman tapped a pedal with the tip of a boot and the bike slowly flipped upside-down, allowing the craft's two occupants to peer upwards at the planet instead of looking at it from below.
Starseer's lack of a responce hinted that the words meant nothing to him, even though two decades ago Starseer had been the driver and Folly had been the passenger.
Folly sighed to herself as she looked up at the planet. So many people, so many places, so much history. Whatever history or situations the galaxy had been through, Coruscant was always at the center of it. But what now? It was obvious that there would be much in store for the future, much had been resolved in the past but the embers of the next great blaze were even now starting to ignite again. It would only be a matter of time.
"Credit for your thoughts?"
The woman jolted slightly and glanced back over her shoulder at Sebastian, "I was staring off into space again, wasn't I?"
Starseer shrugged, "There is a great deal of space around us. I am sure it is easy for one to become lost in it all."
"I was just thinking about what to do next. When we made that stopoff on the Jedi
ship I could feel them all around me, some of them I could feel probing at my head. It seemed a bit like a medical scan. Sometimes I could feel them doing things around me. It was like an energy that powers a machine, just I'd never noticed it before."
Sebastian's brow lowered as did his tone, "Are you thinking of becoming a Jedi yourself?"
"I've entertained the notion, but after a lot of thought I've decided not to. at least not
for awhile." Folly shruged.
"Why not?" The relief in Starseer's voice was deeply evident.
The woman elbowed her passenger playfully, "You could be a little less obvious you know." Her smile faded. "I'm not like the rest of them. I wasn't born into this, I was made. And I was made by rather unplesant means. Maybe the only force-related
thing I can do is to burn people to a cinder, maybe if I train I'll re-awaken whatever it was that I put away on Aerie. The Jedi spend their time training people who were born with their abilities and they understand those powers. What happens if my powers are different? What happens if the 'dark side' that Tobas talks about tries to get me? I'm something new I think, no rules or set plans." She bites her lip. "I
remember Tobias telling me once that I was like Moff, like I have a natural sence to the force but no abilities. Maybe all I'll be able to do is ping sensations off my head."
"And maybe not," Starseer added.
"Maybe there's still more to me, maybe not. What my concerns now are that even though I know I'm better, and you know, and Tobias and some of the other Jedi...
people like Lavidia might not know yet. Or worse, someone finds out that there's a potential way to manufacture force sensitives and decides to nab me to study the whole process." Folly shrugs.
"Don't forget Gaya."
The woman nodded. "Or Gaya, or a dozen other people. One problem taken care of, and a few lesser ones spring up. I still don't know the story behind that hutt and
why he seems interested in meeting me. And even if word gets out that I'm cured, I'm sure lots of people might figure it to be a big hoax and still try to bag me."
Sebastian straightened his posture. "They won't." His tone was cold, and at the same time it bore some sort of ultimate weight. As though he were speaking something into reality or some higher power were speaking through him.
"Thanks for coming along with me, by the way," Folly said softly after an uncomfortable moment of silence.
"You are welcome, although I'm confused as to why you didn't ask someone who may have been better company." Sebastian peered over Folly's shoulder at the planet above.
She chuckled. "You were perfectly fine company when I was ten, you're fine now."
"I would disagree with that, in both cases."
Folly looked back at Starseer and wrinkled her nose at him, "Well I don't care what you think... so nyaah!" She stuck her tongue out at him, a look that was made to appear even more comical through the visor of her vac-suit.
Sebastian looked incrediulous for a moment until his face finally melted into a weak grin. "You're not so different from when you were a child, you know."
"Except for the fact that I don't bite people as much anymore."
This time, Sebastian laughed. It sounded weak and hoarse, as though it was something he hadn't done in a long while. He glanced up again at the planet, they were circling above he side that was still under the grasp of night now... and the lights from the eternal city glittered like a miniature starfield. "Not that I dislike the company, but where do I fit into all of this?"
"I want to help you, but I need to find out how to do that." Folly sighed, her eyes followed the gaze of her passenger.
"It would be useful if you could be more specific. Your talk makes it sound as though I have a bomb implanted in my head. I assure you that my latest medical scan had no signs of such things."
Folly shook her head, "I wish I could tell you more. Maybe when we land I can start
seeing what I can do. After all of this though, I don't want to lose you again so I want to be careful."
Sebastian moved his grip from around Folly's waist to his seat. The bike trembled as he unsteadily held on without touching the driver. "I don't see why it matters to you. you have your mother, your grandparents. I would bring your father back if I could
but you know I can never replace him. I used you. It would serve me right if you just kicked me off right here and set me to drift in space."
"You're bending the struts. Grab onto me again." Folly snapped. Her sigh hissed through the shared comlink between the two suits. "Sebastian... you CARE about me. You've saved my life countless times. Sometimes family runs deeper and in
different ways than you think. It's not all that different from the talk I made of being able to feel the force, but you have to open yourself up to it. Just because you shut out everyone and convice yourself you're unworthy doesn't change the truth."
Sebastian folded his hands in his lap, "Are you so sure you know what the truth is?"
"No. But I'd like for you to be with me when I try to find it out. The Agency is
giving you this chance to come with me and do this."
Starseer looked back up at the planet which was slowly revolving into daylight. He seemed to be looking into some great crystal ball hoping to find some ultimate answer hidden just out of reach.
Folly fumbled with something in a zippered pocket in her suit, "I almost forgot... I wanted to give you something. I picked it up on Mrrlst when we stopped there to refuel."
Sebastian's gaze dropped back down, following the woman's hand as she struggled to pull a box out of her pocket without ripping her suit. He resisted the urge to help, fearing that an extra pair of hands might do more harm than good.
Finally, Folly produced a rather bland looking cardboard box. She pressed it into Starseer's gloved hands and watched as he carefully pulled the lid open.
Inside was a chain of flowers made from glass and metal. The little sculpted blooms looked like the flowers that grew wild in the fields of Mrrlst during the spring. Even in the vaccume of space, shielded in his suit, Sebastian could almost smell the blooms growing on the hillside that a little girl had once woven into a chain and clumsily placed on his head so many years ago.
"This is unnecessary." was all he managed to blurt out.
Folly shrugged.
Sebastian looked up from the chain. "I thought you didn't like flowers."
The woman smiled and patted the side of her passenger's helmet, "Only the kind with thorns. Now grab ahold of me and let's get back down there. It's almost Moff's feeding time."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Folly grinned and tapped the footpedal again, righting the bike
and bringing the engines back up. As dawn creeped over Coruscant the two riders slowly flew back down to the surface and out of sight. Back to Main - Back to Gaming |
