Saga Reflections of a Turncoat - OC - a former imperial reflects on the family she lost at Alderaan

This was written for the OC dueling circle. The challenge was to have your OC think about or contact a dead relative, or ancestor of some sort.

Title: Reflections of a Turncoat
Author: Rogue_Pilot_2347
Character: Nera Korbes
Timeframe: Just after ANH
Disclaimer: Star Wars is not mine, it's Mr. Lucas's, and I'm grateful that he lets us all play around with it as much as we do.

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REFLECTIONS OF A TURNCOAT


Alderaan. Somehow, I never expected to come back here. Not after - well, after Tarkin got through with it. My beautiful home, reduced to dust and space rocks. Alderaan?s Ghost drifts in and out among the dead rocks as I look on what was once the most beautiful planet in the galaxy.

I always tell people it?s okay. That I?m hardened to things like that. That you have to be, to survive training on Carida. That I?ll get over it.

I won?t. Not ever.

That?s why I stole Tarkin?s own private transport and left. Funny, how even the most loyal servant to the Emperor has an escape vessel hidden somewhere.

Our home was on the twilight belt when it happened. Mother would have been just cleaning up from a delicious home-cooked meal. She never did take to using droids, or even servants, though we were plenty wealthy enough to hire a cook. But Mother insisted that she make the food herself. It always gave everything a homey, pleasant, loved taste.

Father would have been getting out his viole. Mother once told me that he would have become a professional, if they hadn?t married. I always loved listening to my father draw the bow across the strings, coaxing the most beautiful sounds from the instrument. He was teaching me to play before I left, but it didn?t come as naturally to me as it did to him. I could play the notes, but never with the same emotion he did. People listening to me never started crying, unless it was because I had played something horribly out of tune.

Then there was my little brother, Dak. He was only 16. Just getting ready to start his life. He always wanted to go into medicine. He would have been good at it. He always knew just what was wrong, no matter what the creature; no matter what the problem. He always fixed everything.

The only thing the four of us never saw eye to eye on was the issue of the empire. Dak and Mother were dead set against it. Father never said. I always thought he didn?t care, until I announced one evening that I was going to enlist at the Imperial Academy at Carida. Mother and Dak immediately cried out against it, but Father said nothing. I looked straight into his eyes in that moment, though, and he was hurt. I could tell. In my simplicity, I thought it was because I was leaving. But now I know it was not my leaving, by itself, but rather, where I was going.

That was the last time I saw my family, though they and I wrote each other continually through the years.

I?m sorry, Father, I think, knowing it?s too late. I take flowers from a table in the Alderaan?s Ghost?s cockpit. Mingled together are my father?s favorite, the climbing blood rose that always took precedence over everything else in his garden, but was considered a weed by most, Mother?s favorite, the graceful, honey-colored garnet lily, and Dak?s favorite, the tiny, pale blue eyelets.

I gently place the flowers in the airlock, and set them loose in the open, endless vacuum, to float forever among the remains of Alderaan. They will be a memorial to my family, and more. To my resolve to stop the evil that did this.

I watch for a while, as the crimson, honey, and blue flowers float lazily away from Alderaan?s Ghost and then power up the thrusters to do my first bit of damage to the Empire. Somehow, I know Father would be proud if he could see me now.

FINIS

 

This was really good!

Loved this:

That?s why I stole Tarkin?s own private transport and left. Funny, how even the most loyal servant to the Emperor has an escape vessel hidden somewhere.

That says a lot about the Empire, doesn't it?

A great job!

 

Wonderful R_P.

I thought it was because I was leaving. But now I know it was not my leaving, by itself, but rather, where I was going.

I wonder if the father said anything, if that would made a difference. But then again if it did, Nera would be dead with the family instead of alive to remember.

I too agree with VaderLVR about Tarkin keeping an escape shuttle, saying a lot for the Empire.

But you know it does make sense now. Since Nera took the shuttle, Tarkin wasn't able to get off the Death Star in time when Skywalker blew it up.

 

VaderLVR64: Thanks. Yeah, just a little bit.

Lola64: It might have made a difference. I don't know. She was convinced the Empire was right, and when people are convinced about something like that, they tend to be determined.
Thanks!

 

Nice story! I watch for a while, as the crimson, honey, and blue flowers float lazily away from Alderaan?s Ghost and then power up the thrusters to do my first bit of damage to the Empire. I could really picture this and I liked the thought of sending flowers out into space as a remembrance.

 

I gently place the flowers in the airlock, and set them loose in the open, endless vacuum, to float forever among the remains of Alderaan. They will be a memorial to my family, and more. To my resolve to stop the evil that did this.

This was a beautiful vision. What a great story!

 

Alderaan's Ghost...
I like that.

Nice work. I like the little details about the family.

 

Great viggie! I loved this.

Now, is this little brother Dak the same Dak who died at Hoth? Or some other Dak?

 

Wow, that was wonderful!!!
I watch for a while, as the crimson, honey, and blue flowers float lazily away from Alderaan?s Ghost and then power up the thrusters to do my first bit of damage to the Empire. Somehow, I know Father would be proud if he could see me now

I liked that part. I would say more but I'm getting kicked off of the computer...

 

Very touching.

Too bad Lamar didn't know that Nera was stealing Tarkin's shuttle...

 

Very touching

 

Nicely done R_P, it's not too often we see the emotional aftermath from someone other than Princess Leia; we forget others lost loved ones too. Very bittersweet. Bravo!