#this fic is mostly going to be exploring a universe where Leia grew up knowing about her bio parents

[tranakin-skywalker]

WIP Wednesday

I Wonder Which One Has My Eyes

Bright gold caught her eye like a flicker of a star behind a telescope. Not unexpected, given the event Pooja Naberrie was attending. There were plenty of people dressed in gold here. It was, after all, a senatorial event, and gold was so often the color of wealth.

(Not on Naboo, though. Her homeworld held the color equal with things like loyalty, and promise, and devotion.)

Pooja blinked, and took a small sip of her drink. Non-alcoholic. Alderaan, it turned out, had different opinions about fifteen year olds drinking than Naboo did. It wasn’t that Pooja liked the taste, but she had fond memories of her grandparents letting her sneak sips of their wine at dinner, the warm taste of spiced mead before the ancestors’ altar. The time she’d stolen a gulp of her aunt’s drink, only to realize it was something much stronger than a six year old could handle, spitting it out like poison. The sound of her uncle’s laugh.

With thoughts like those, no wonder she was seeing familiar gold. Memories had a funny way of haunting the present like that.

And perhaps she would have brushed it off as nostalgia tainted with the taste of wine, in another world, another life. Had she, the story would have gone very differently.

But Pooja glanced again toward the gold, and nearly choked herself on her drink. She was surly haunted, she thought to herself, coughing up what she had accidentally inhaled. The woman she’d been chatting with put a concerned hand on her arm, asked something that Pooja couldn’t hear over the roaring of blood in her ears. She waved the woman off, gave her some assurance and begged her excuse as Pooja stepped away. Her eyes haven’t left the golden protocol droid across the room.

It can’t be, a part of her thought, denial fighting with hope as she stalked her way toward the droid. It can’t possibly be him. After all, protocol droids all look so similar. After all, he’d disappeared after her aunt’s death. After all, what are the odds?

Then she got close enough to hear the droid’s voice and oh, she could never forget that distinct voice that had told her and her sister bedtime stories, that had fretted at their hijinks, worried for their safety while he ran after them as quickly as fused joint legs would let him.

The melancholy longing hit Pooja like a blow to the chest.

“Threepio?” she called out, and the droid turned to her and it was like she was eight years in the past and just a little girl again, her world safe and her family unbroken.

“Oh! Hello!” he said and he was just like she remembered him. “How can I be of assistance, miss…?”

He didn’t recognize her. It was crushing, the realization he didn’t recognize her. That even this was taken from her.

Someone had wiped his memory. (she remembered, her uncle telling her and Ryuu how he’d never had Artoo’s memory wiped, no matter how many military secrets the little astromech held. He said wiping a droid was something like murder.)

“My apologies,” she told Threepio, and it felt like talking to a stranger. “I confused you with a droid who once belonged to my aunt. My mistake.”

He waved one of his stiff arms and it was so familiar it hurt. “No need to apologize, miss. It is an easy mistake to make, I’m sure. I’m sorry I’m not the droid you’re looking for.”

Oh, but you are. Pooja biteher lip.

“Well, if you don’t need my assistance, I must return to my charge,” he told her, shuffling away. Toward the young princess of Alderaan, and a little blue and white astromech.

For a moment, Pooja felt like she couldn't breathe.

It hit her, suddenly, that Leia Organa was soon to celebrate her eighth birthday. That Leia Organa was the adopted daughter of Senator Bail Organa.

That Bail Organa had been the last person to see her aunt alive. Her very pregnant aunt.Oh, she thought, the pieces falling into place with all the inevitability of gravity.

New thing I think I'm going to do where I'll post snippets from one of my WIPs on Wednesdays, for funzies.

This one's inspired by this fic, where the Naberries are aware of Padme and Anakin's marriage. As soon as I read it it got me thinking of an au where Pooja realized who Leia was, and what chaos might ensue.

[atamascolily]

Re-reading Spectre of the Past, by Timothy Zahn, and enjoying it immensely. "She was short, she was furry, she was loud, and she was determined to sell him a melon" is a great opening line for a chapter and one of my favorites in the whole book.

Watching an alien try to sell Wedginald Antilles suspiciously shaped produce ("double-bulbous"? "pale red"?) is hilarious. Especially when Wes Janson reveals he's accidently telling her "try me at a different price" when he really means "no, I don't want to buy a wk'ou melon". Oh, Rogue Squadron and your wacky hijinks.

Zahn really has fun with Rogue Squadron in this novel. Here's another bit I'm especially fond of:

"Quite unfairly, the battle alarm sounded right in the middle of desert. For a split second, Wedge considered shoveling the last three bites of his citros snow cake into his mouth at once, but decided that running to the landing bays with a full mouth lacked the proper dignity and regretfully left the cake orphaned on the mess room table."

Not to mention General bel Iblis making the Rogues sleep in their X-wings and then said X-wings getting sabotaged and only Corran's Force sense causes them to catch on... although it rapidly descends into pathos because they have to sit back and watch the slaughter of innocents as a result.

I confess, I'm rather indifferent to Rogue Squadron as a whole - nothing in the OT makes Wedge and the others particularly stand out in my mind, and I never got around to reading Michael Stackpole's X-wing novels - but I'm rather enjoying Zahn's take on them in this book. You can tell that Zahn and Stackpole are friends because all of Stackpole's characters have this oddly realized detail and focus that you expect from main character - except that they're not. I remember being weirded out fifteen years ago by this, but it's more understandable now that I'm familiar with the basic plot and outline of Stackpole's writing.

Really, there's so much to love in this novel. Here are a few other fun bits:

-Palpatine and Exar Kun's Force ghosts making a surprise appearance -Wayland is the only place where Leia can get a vacation, LOL. -Lak Jit not recognizing Talon Karrde right away -Tierce's reaction when he meets Flim -Shada's excellent use of her surroundings in a fight (though I feel sorry for the poor bird, though) -The Old Recluse running a scam in the moutain on Morishim -Lando's sense of smell to the rescue! -President Gavrisom turning off the sound system in the New Republic Senate every time discussion gets out of hand -the new re-decorating scheme for the Senate, what -the fact that it's only been three months since The New Rebellion, holy crap, these kids don't get a break -Luke trying to infiltrate the pirates -Luke saying, "May the Force be with me," before doing something unwise. -The Jedi trap - very ingenious! -MacGyver Luke in general -Luke's delight when Mara shows up to rescue him -Faughn noticing the UST and pointing it out to Mara -The meddroid slurping bacta out of Luke's ears -The Wild Karrde's way of trolling new crew members -H'sishi in general -This description of a Star Destroyer: "174,000 design flaws waiting to be exploited." -Corran Horn trying to pretend he's not a Jedi and mostly failing -Karrde knowing all sorts of things and being all dramatic about it -Luke's vision(s) of the future -Selling Threepio to Fey'lya on paper to deal with bureaucracy -The Grand Rim Promenade at Cesansij -The Diamalan senator trolling Lando -Orowood Tower and Shada's trick for sneaking into the building -"Trust the Bothans to ruin a good night's sleep."

Also, the dynamic between Han, Leia, and Karrde, which is excellent.  

"I give up," [Han] said. "What's it going to take to bring you over to our side?" "Oh, I don't know," said Karrde, consideringly. "What did it take to lure *you* away from the carefree life of an independent trader?" Han made a face. "Leia," he said. "Exactly," Karrde said dryly. "Now, if she had a sister--I don't suppose she does?" "Not that I know of," said Han. "Though with the Skywalker family you never know."

I'M CRYING HERE.

Meanwhile, Leia gives Karrde her private comm number, and Karrde keeps reaching out at inopportune times -- and then Leia also has a crack about how she's glad Han never grew a beard. Priceless. Also, the two of them think they are going to get a nice, relaxing vacation at Pakrik Minor. FOOLS. Do you not know what universe you live in?

The other thing of note that I had totally forgotten about was the existence of the New Republic Observers... which I love and am in favor of. It raises an interesting question for me: does the New Republic/galaxy as a whole NEED the Jedi? What should their role and function be? Given how much I disagree with Luke's training methodology in the EU as a whole, this is a question I intend to explore seriously in fic at some point.