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weetuskenraiderTahiri's plan to take her X-Wing straight back to Fandom had been derailed in a pretty dramatic fashion, and boy, was she getting yelled at for it now.
"Kid," Han was saying, shaking a finger at her, "I hope you aren't counting on another lucky break your whole life, because you've just used up whatever you may have had coming."
She really did feel bad about worrying them, so Tahiri was relieved when Leia jumped in on her behalf, maybe more relieved than she should have been considering a memory of Leia hitting her with Force-lightning was still far too fresh. Still, the obvious concern both Solos showed -- mostly in the form of Han yelling about how she'd been insane to jump out of the Dagobah system past a pair of Yuuzhan Vong frigate analogs with her engines half-slagged from a close call with their plasma cannons, and she was lucky she hadn't ended up on opposite sides of the Outer Rim all at once, and she'd better not be thinking of telling any of the kids in Flight Club that this was a good idea, and why making a promise to a Shamed One was so important that she'd been in such a hurry to get away instead of waiting for the Yuuzhan Vong to leave -- made her feel a little better.
Eventually Han calmed down enough to stop yelling, although not before he asked, "Tahiri, you're too young for this. You've been through a lot. Can't you just -- just -- take a rest?" That was Leia's cue to suggest none too gently that maybe Tahiri should wash up and get a nap, and Tahiri knew better than to argue with her suggestions. It was a hell of a lot less awkward than having to explain her future family to a teenaged Leia, at any rate.
But she really, really wanted to just hug them both when Han's sputtered objections were met with Leia saying gently, "My husband is just trying to tell you he was worried about you and he's glad you're home."
Then there was the jarring moment, on her way to her cabin, when C-3P0 tried to welcome her back by saying "Onih k'leth mof'qey," and she had to stifle her instinctive Yuuzhan Vong horror at hearing a machine speak the language. It was easier now, to do that, than it had been before the merge. He'd asked about that, too.
"It's's like being raised by parents who taught you one set of values, and then learning a different set of values in school. Which is right?" Explaining this to C-3P0 -- to a droid -- helped her work through the lingering prejudice of that side of her heritage. "There are conflicts in what most people feel and believe. I'm no different in that respect, maybe just a little more extreme. Do you understand?"
"I believe so."
Tahiri went on, thinking of her fascination with the shoreline in the Bahamas, and things she'd learned in Ghanima's classes most of all, "Part of me was raised to believe that machines -- especially thinking machines -- are abominations. But that's just something I learned. It's not part of who I am. It's not part of the Yuuzhan Vong on any intrinsic level, either; it's just what the leaders and priests teach us as crechelings. It's something that can be unlearned, that must be unlearned, because it's wrong."
He understood, and she liked to think it wasn't just his protocol programming that made him so gracious about it, or about apologizing for holding her up when she should be resting.
She gave him a hug for that, and headed into her cabin. Her cabin, and it was nice to know that Han and Leia kept this one just for her. She'd meant to just hit the refresher and clean up like Leia had suggested, but she was tired, and her bed looked so comfortable . . .
When she opened her eyes and looked at the chrono on the table, disoriented and woozy, she realized she'd been asleep for close to a full standard day. Oops. It was probably past time to go find Han and Leia, so she changed into fresh robes and headed out to give them that explanation she still owed them.
She found them in the Falcon's lounge, and in a slightly strained voice, Han greeted her, "Finally up, I see."
"Yeah." Tahiri gave them a sheepish look. What was bothering him? "I guess I was more exhausted than I thought."
Han was growly again, but Tahiri was used to it, and at Leia's invitation she took a seat at the table and explained everythign that had happened on Dagobah, and that the Shamed Ones had been looking for a planet that the Prophet, whoever he was, might bring them redemption.
"They sort of worship the Jedi," she explained, shifting uncomfortably in her chair at the thought of being included in that category. Why did Ghanima's classes keep seeming so relevant to all this? "They found out somehow that Anakin --" she meant her Anakin -- "and Luke had been there. That it had something to do with their training."
When Han wondered how they'd know that, Leia pointed out that the Yuuzhan Vong had always been obsessed with the Jedi, and besides, it wasn't as if it was some huge secret that Luke had gone to Dagobah to see Yoda. It was hard for that to be a secret when there were holodramas.
Tahiri shook her head. "But they were mistaken. Dagobah isn't the world they're looking for."
"Oh?" asked Han, his face totally unreadable. "And what world do you think they are looking for?"
"The same one Master Skywalker was looking for, and found." Tahiri was sure of it, and after three years of second-guessing everything it still felt good to be certain again. "Zonama Sekot." The living planet they'd all thought was a myth, but where Luke was now, with Mara. And Jacen, and that could have been worrying, but Tahiri resolutely shunted that thought aside for now.
There was a moment of loaded silence. "Leia," Han said, surprise and frustration creeping across his face, "You tell her."
"Tell me what?"
It was Leia's turn to look less than pleased. "Kenth Hamner contacted us while you were asleep, on a heavily coded channel. He wants to talk to you."
Tahiri's eyebrows shot up. "The liaison between the Jedi and military?" She couldn't even remember what he looked like. He'd always been far too important to have personal dealings with someone of her status.
Leia nodded. "Right."
"Did he say what it was about?"
"Not exactly." Leia was being careful, and it was beginning to frustrate Tahiri. "But it involves Zonama Sekot-and a dissident movement within the Yuuzhan Vong."
"Tahiri," Han interjected, completely earnest and not growly at all, "whatever it is, you don't have to do it."
"Of course I do," Tahiri insisted. "I promised the Shamed One . . ."
"You promised him you would tell his Prophet about Dagobah," Han interrupted. "You made no promises concerning Zonama Sekot."
He didn't understand, Tahiri realized; of course he couldn't. She smiled slightly. "My promise was one of izai, not one of strict legality."
"What?"
He sounded almost like Arthur; Tahiri stifled a laugh. "Izai is the essence of a promise. The Shamed One thought he had found the planet foretold. I promised him that I would take this news back to his Prophet. But Dagobah isn't the planet foretold. Therefore, the izai -- the essence of my promise -- requires me to carry the news that the planet of prophecy has been found." Her speech pattern had shifted into slight formality, the way it tended to when she was more in touch with her Yuuzhan Vong heritage. She was working on that.
"This is making my head hurt," Han complained.
Tahiri had already made her decision. "I think I need to speak to Kenth Hamner."
And Han was right back to not looking happy. "We're already on the way there. But I hope you know what you're doing."
"I do."
"No," Han said, his voice confirming the look on his face, "you think you know what you're doing. It's a conceit born out of being young. Jaina thinks she knows what she's doing. Anakin thought he knew what he was doing."
Funny; she'd expected that to hurt more. "Anakin did know what he was doing," Tahiri answered evenly. "If he hadn't done it, there might not be a single Jedi alive today. I know I wouldn't be here. Didn't you know what you were doing when you came back to save Master Skywalker at the Death Star all those years ago?"
"I was older than you." Han got up, heading toward the cockpit, but stopped with his hand on the hatch and turned to look at her. "And, to answer your question, no. I didn't have the faintest idea what I was doing."
[OOC: And again, NFI/NFB, OOC okay. Still adapted from The Final Prophecy by Greg Keyes. I kind of adore this book, in no small part because of this bit.]
"Kid," Han was saying, shaking a finger at her, "I hope you aren't counting on another lucky break your whole life, because you've just used up whatever you may have had coming."
She really did feel bad about worrying them, so Tahiri was relieved when Leia jumped in on her behalf, maybe more relieved than she should have been considering a memory of Leia hitting her with Force-lightning was still far too fresh. Still, the obvious concern both Solos showed -- mostly in the form of Han yelling about how she'd been insane to jump out of the Dagobah system past a pair of Yuuzhan Vong frigate analogs with her engines half-slagged from a close call with their plasma cannons, and she was lucky she hadn't ended up on opposite sides of the Outer Rim all at once, and she'd better not be thinking of telling any of the kids in Flight Club that this was a good idea, and why making a promise to a Shamed One was so important that she'd been in such a hurry to get away instead of waiting for the Yuuzhan Vong to leave -- made her feel a little better.
Eventually Han calmed down enough to stop yelling, although not before he asked, "Tahiri, you're too young for this. You've been through a lot. Can't you just -- just -- take a rest?" That was Leia's cue to suggest none too gently that maybe Tahiri should wash up and get a nap, and Tahiri knew better than to argue with her suggestions. It was a hell of a lot less awkward than having to explain her future family to a teenaged Leia, at any rate.
But she really, really wanted to just hug them both when Han's sputtered objections were met with Leia saying gently, "My husband is just trying to tell you he was worried about you and he's glad you're home."
Then there was the jarring moment, on her way to her cabin, when C-3P0 tried to welcome her back by saying "Onih k'leth mof'qey," and she had to stifle her instinctive Yuuzhan Vong horror at hearing a machine speak the language. It was easier now, to do that, than it had been before the merge. He'd asked about that, too.
"It's's like being raised by parents who taught you one set of values, and then learning a different set of values in school. Which is right?" Explaining this to C-3P0 -- to a droid -- helped her work through the lingering prejudice of that side of her heritage. "There are conflicts in what most people feel and believe. I'm no different in that respect, maybe just a little more extreme. Do you understand?"
"I believe so."
Tahiri went on, thinking of her fascination with the shoreline in the Bahamas, and things she'd learned in Ghanima's classes most of all, "Part of me was raised to believe that machines -- especially thinking machines -- are abominations. But that's just something I learned. It's not part of who I am. It's not part of the Yuuzhan Vong on any intrinsic level, either; it's just what the leaders and priests teach us as crechelings. It's something that can be unlearned, that must be unlearned, because it's wrong."
He understood, and she liked to think it wasn't just his protocol programming that made him so gracious about it, or about apologizing for holding her up when she should be resting.
She gave him a hug for that, and headed into her cabin. Her cabin, and it was nice to know that Han and Leia kept this one just for her. She'd meant to just hit the refresher and clean up like Leia had suggested, but she was tired, and her bed looked so comfortable . . .
***
When she opened her eyes and looked at the chrono on the table, disoriented and woozy, she realized she'd been asleep for close to a full standard day. Oops. It was probably past time to go find Han and Leia, so she changed into fresh robes and headed out to give them that explanation she still owed them.
She found them in the Falcon's lounge, and in a slightly strained voice, Han greeted her, "Finally up, I see."
"Yeah." Tahiri gave them a sheepish look. What was bothering him? "I guess I was more exhausted than I thought."
Han was growly again, but Tahiri was used to it, and at Leia's invitation she took a seat at the table and explained everythign that had happened on Dagobah, and that the Shamed Ones had been looking for a planet that the Prophet, whoever he was, might bring them redemption.
"They sort of worship the Jedi," she explained, shifting uncomfortably in her chair at the thought of being included in that category. Why did Ghanima's classes keep seeming so relevant to all this? "They found out somehow that Anakin --" she meant her Anakin -- "and Luke had been there. That it had something to do with their training."
When Han wondered how they'd know that, Leia pointed out that the Yuuzhan Vong had always been obsessed with the Jedi, and besides, it wasn't as if it was some huge secret that Luke had gone to Dagobah to see Yoda. It was hard for that to be a secret when there were holodramas.
Tahiri shook her head. "But they were mistaken. Dagobah isn't the world they're looking for."
"Oh?" asked Han, his face totally unreadable. "And what world do you think they are looking for?"
"The same one Master Skywalker was looking for, and found." Tahiri was sure of it, and after three years of second-guessing everything it still felt good to be certain again. "Zonama Sekot." The living planet they'd all thought was a myth, but where Luke was now, with Mara. And Jacen, and that could have been worrying, but Tahiri resolutely shunted that thought aside for now.
There was a moment of loaded silence. "Leia," Han said, surprise and frustration creeping across his face, "You tell her."
"Tell me what?"
It was Leia's turn to look less than pleased. "Kenth Hamner contacted us while you were asleep, on a heavily coded channel. He wants to talk to you."
Tahiri's eyebrows shot up. "The liaison between the Jedi and military?" She couldn't even remember what he looked like. He'd always been far too important to have personal dealings with someone of her status.
Leia nodded. "Right."
"Did he say what it was about?"
"Not exactly." Leia was being careful, and it was beginning to frustrate Tahiri. "But it involves Zonama Sekot-and a dissident movement within the Yuuzhan Vong."
"Tahiri," Han interjected, completely earnest and not growly at all, "whatever it is, you don't have to do it."
"Of course I do," Tahiri insisted. "I promised the Shamed One . . ."
"You promised him you would tell his Prophet about Dagobah," Han interrupted. "You made no promises concerning Zonama Sekot."
He didn't understand, Tahiri realized; of course he couldn't. She smiled slightly. "My promise was one of izai, not one of strict legality."
"What?"
He sounded almost like Arthur; Tahiri stifled a laugh. "Izai is the essence of a promise. The Shamed One thought he had found the planet foretold. I promised him that I would take this news back to his Prophet. But Dagobah isn't the planet foretold. Therefore, the izai -- the essence of my promise -- requires me to carry the news that the planet of prophecy has been found." Her speech pattern had shifted into slight formality, the way it tended to when she was more in touch with her Yuuzhan Vong heritage. She was working on that.
"This is making my head hurt," Han complained.
Tahiri had already made her decision. "I think I need to speak to Kenth Hamner."
And Han was right back to not looking happy. "We're already on the way there. But I hope you know what you're doing."
"I do."
"No," Han said, his voice confirming the look on his face, "you think you know what you're doing. It's a conceit born out of being young. Jaina thinks she knows what she's doing. Anakin thought he knew what he was doing."
Funny; she'd expected that to hurt more. "Anakin did know what he was doing," Tahiri answered evenly. "If he hadn't done it, there might not be a single Jedi alive today. I know I wouldn't be here. Didn't you know what you were doing when you came back to save Master Skywalker at the Death Star all those years ago?"
"I was older than you." Han got up, heading toward the cockpit, but stopped with his hand on the hatch and turned to look at her. "And, to answer your question, no. I didn't have the faintest idea what I was doing."
[OOC: And again, NFI/NFB, OOC okay. Still adapted from The Final Prophecy by Greg Keyes. I kind of adore this book, in no small part because of this bit.]
