Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens Lost Stars
Read Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens Lost Stars Online
Authors: Claudia Gray,Phil Noto
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ISBN 978-1-4847-2502-3
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Contents
This book is dedicated to
the memory of Karen Jones,
friend and fangirl extraordinaire.
We were lucky to know you.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….
Eight years after the fall of the Old Republic, the Galactic Empire now reigns over the known galaxy. Resistance to the Empire has been all but silenced. Only a few courageous
leaders such as Bail Organa of Alderaan still dare to openly oppose Emperor Palpatine.
After years of defiance, the many worlds at the edge of the Outer Rim have
surrendered. With each planet’s conquest, the Empire’s might grows even stronger.
The latest to fall under the Emperor’s control is the isolated mountain planet Jelucan, whose citizens hope for a more prosperous future even as the Imperial Starfleet
gathers overhead….
A
SHIP SLICED THROUGH the shale-gray sky overhead, so quickly it was no more than a line of light and a distant screech almost lost in the
wind.
“That’s
a
Lambda
-class shuttle!” Thane Kyrell pointed upward, jumping with excitement. “Did you hear it? Did you, Dalven?”
His older brother cuffed him and sneered. “You don’t know what the ships look like. You’re too little to know.”
“Am not. It
was
a
Lambda
-class shuttle. You can tell by the sound of the engines—”
“Children, hush.” Thane’s mother never glanced back at them. She concentrated
on holding up the hem of her saffron-colored robe so it wouldn’t trail in the dust. “I
told you we ought to have brought the hovercraft. Instead we’re wandering down to Valentia on foot like valley trash.”
“The hangars will be a madhouse,” insisted Thane’s father, Oris Kyrell, with a contemptuous sniff. “Thousands of people trying to land whether or not they’ve got a
reservation. Do you
want to spend our whole day fighting over docking rights? Better to do it this way. The boys can keep up well enough.”
Dalven could; he was twelve years old, long-limbed and proud to tower over his younger brother. For Thane, the downhill trek through the uneven mountain paths was harder going. So far he was
shorter than most boys his age; the large feet and hands that hinted at his future
height were, for now, merely awkward. His reddish-blond hair stuck to his sweaty forehead, and he wished his
parents had let him wear his favorite boots instead of these shiny new ones, which pinched his toes at every step. But he would have made a more difficult trip than that to finally see TIE fighters
and shuttles—
real
spacecraft, not like some clunky old V-171.
“It
was
a
Lambda
-class
shuttle,” he muttered, hoping Dalven wouldn’t overhear.
But he did. His older brother stiffened, and Thane prepared himself. Dalven never hit him very hard when their parents were nearby, but those lesser shoves or punches were often a warning of
worse to come later. This time, however, Dalven did nothing. Maybe he was distracted by the promise of the spectacle they would see that day—the
display of flying power and fighting
techniques by vessels of the Imperial fleet.
Or maybe Dalven was embarrassed because he’d realized Thane had identified the ship when he couldn’t.
He says he’s going to the Imperial Academy,
Thane thought,
but that’s just because he thinks it will make him important. Dalven doesn’t know every single ship like I
do. He doesn’t study the manuals or
practice with a glider. Dalven will never be a real pilot.
But I will.
“We should’ve left Thane at home with the housekeeper droid.” Dalven’s voice had become sulky. “He’s too little for any of this. In another hour he’ll
be whining to go home.”
“I won’t,” Thane insisted. “I’m old enough. Aren’t I, Mama?”
Ganaire Kyrell nodded absently. “Of course you’re old enough. You were
born in the same year as the Empire itself, Thane. Never forget that.”
How could he forget when she’d reminded him at least five times already that day? He wanted to say so, but that would only earn him another cuff from Dalven—or, worse, a new barrage
of insults from his father, whose words could cut deeper than any blade. Already he could sense them staring at him, waiting for any show
of defiance or weakness. Thane turned as if he were looking
down toward their destination, the city of Valentia, so neither his father nor Dalven would see his expression. It was always better when they didn’t know what Thane was thinking.
He wasn’t worried about his mother. She rarely noticed him at all.
The wind tugged at his blue-and-gold-embroidered cloak, and Thane shivered. Other
worlds had to be warmer. Brighter, busier, more fun in every way. He believed this despite never having visited
another planet in his life; it was impossible to think that the vastness of the galaxy didn’t contain someplace better to be than here.
Jelucan had been settled late in galactic history, probably because nobody else had been desperate enough to want a nearly uninhabitable rock
at the very edge of the Outer Rim. Nearly five
hundred years before, an initial group of settlers had been exiled here from another world, equally obscure. They’d fought on the wrong side of some civil war or other. Thane didn’t
know the details. His parents had told him only that those first settlers had gotten themselves mired in the valleys, in nearly total poverty, and had barely been able
to keep themselves alive.
True civilization had only come later, a hundred and fifty years ago, with the second wave of settlers, who had come here voluntarily in hopes of building their fortunes. They’d managed to
establish mining, engage with galactic commerce, and lead modern lives—unlike the people from the valleys, who behaved more like pre-technological nomads than modern people. Of
course they
were Jelucani, too, but they were unfriendly, isolated, and proud.
Or maybe it was only that the valley kindred were still mad about being dumped on this icy rugged rock of a world. If so, Thane didn’t blame them.
“A pity the Emperor himself won’t be able to attend,” his mother said. “Wouldn’t it have been something to see him for ourselves?”
Like the Emperor would ever
come here.
Thane knew better than to say that out loud.
Everyone was supposed to love Emperor Palpatine. Everyone said he was the bravest, most intelligent person in the galaxy, that he was the one who had brought order after the chaos of the Clone
Wars. Thane wondered if that was all true. Certainly Palpatine had made the Empire strong, and made himself the most powerful man within it.
Thane didn’t really care if the Emperor was nice or not. The Empire’s coming was a good thing, because it brought its ships with it. All he wanted was to see those ships. Then,
later, to learn to fly them.
And, finally, to fly far away from here, never to return.
“Ciena! Your eyes on the path or you’ll fall.”
Ciena Ree couldn’t stop staring into the gray sky. She could’ve sworn
she’d heard a
Lambda
-class shuttle, and she wanted more than anything to see one, too. “But,
Mumma—I know I heard a ship.”
“It’s always ships and flying, with you.” Her mother, Verine, chuckled softly and picked up her daughter, then placed her on the wide furry back of the muunyak they were
leading uphill toward Valentia. “There. Save your strength for the big parade.”
Ciena buried
her hands in the muunyak’s shaggy hair. It smelled agreeably of musk and hay. Of home.
As she peered upward, she saw a thin line in the clouds—already disappearing but evidence that the shuttle had been there. She shivered with excitement, then remembered to take hold of the
braided leather bracelet around her wrist. Pressing the leather between her fingers, Ciena whispered, “Look through
my eyes.”
Now her sister, Wynnet, could see it, too. Ciena lived her life for them both and never forgot that.
Her father must have heard her, because he wore the sad smile that meant he was thinking of Wynnet, too. But he only patted his daughter’s head and tucked one wayward black curl behind her
ear.
Finally, after two hours’ trek upward, they reached Valentia. Ciena had never
seen a real city before, except in holos; her parents rarely left their home valley and certainly had never
taken her with them when they did, until today. Her eyes widened as she took in the buildings carved into the pale white stone of the cliffs—some of them ten or fifteen stories high. They
stretched along the side of the mountain as far as Ciena could see. All around the carved dwellings
stood tents and awnings, dyed in a dozen brilliant colors and draped with fringe or beads.
Imperial flags fluttered from poles newly jabbed into the ground or mounted in stone.
Thronging the streets were more people than she’d ever seen together in her eight years. Some were hawking food or souvenirs for the great occasion—Imperial banners or small holos of
the Emperor smiling benevolently,
translucently, above a small iridescent disc. Most, however, walked along the same crowded roads as she and her family, all headed toward the ceremony. Even a few
droids rolled, hovered, or shuffled through the crowd, each of them shinier and obviously far more modern than the one battered cutter droid in her village.
Those people and droids would have been far more fascinating if they hadn’t
all been
in her way.
“Are we going to be late?” Ciena said. “I don’t want to miss the ships.”
“We won’t be late.” Her mother sighed. She’d said so many times that day, and Ciena knew she needed to be quiet. But then Verine Ree put her hands on her young
daughter’s shoulders; as soft as the gesture was, the muunyak knew to stop walking forward. Mumma’s faded black cloak blew around her
too-thin body as she said, “I know
you’re excited, my heart. This is the biggest day of your life so far. Why shouldn’t you be thrilled? But have faith. The Empire will be waiting for us when we finish traveling up the
mountain, whenever that may be. All right?”