Before - Legends The Disabilities Challenge Entries

awww...that was sad.

Poor Asha, thinking she had to hide it to be a good Jedi!

I'm so glad she realised her mistake in the end.

Good job!

 

Lovely job!

 

I have never tried posting a fanfic, but this challenge is very moving and I loved all the stories that were posted. Here's my take.

Transition

The ships have been here for almost a week. I was helping my aunt with some packing when they arrived but I could hear the calls of my friends as they raced each other to the hangar bays to watch, the deck-plates clanging under their charging feet. My friend, Janis, was even calling for me outside the door. But my aunt refused to let me go, saying that a busy?for a change, the Terminal hangar bays were busy!--hangar bay was no place for a girl like me.

When I tried to argue that I knew how to keep out of the way, she said her usual line to me, using the same tone of voice which silences her band of merry mechanics when they do something wrong.

"Very well, Abrie. If you have twice the amount of good sense your mother had and twice the sense of responsibility your unknown father has, you wouldn't go out there."

So I didn't go.

My mother had been Aunt's twin sister and Aunt says that Mother had always lacked good sense since young and confirmed it in dramatic fashion by dying in the midst of riots on Abregado almost ten years ago--riots she was sent to quell.

I don't really understand why Aunt keeps saying that Mother had no good sense. After all, Jedi Knights are supposed to have good sense, right? But I have learnt not to say anything about the Jedi and Mother. It isn't as though Aunt doesn't criticise me enough.

At least I understand what Aunt says about responsibility. Some unknown man out there in the immense reaches of the galaxy is, biologically speaking, my father.

Aunt will almost invariably add that it was another example of Mother's good sense by getting involved with that man.

The station is almost too quiet now as I step out of the quarters I share with my aunt. Sixteen cargo ships have already left with people and equipment, leaving the station almost empty; but I can still feel that the air is somewhat heavy with the presence of the few hundred crewers of the remaining three ships.

Well, I will be on one of those ships tomorrow.

I am a little scared to leave actually. I have lived here for all of my twelve years with my aunt. But we don't have a choice. The Republic Senate passed a law saying that all hyperspace terminals are to be de-populated and dismantled one by one. My home is just the current one on the list to be shut down.

Aunt tells me that this is inevitable. Hyperspace is no longer such an uncharted wilderness. The navigational computers used to calculate hyperspace jumps have been getting more and more powerful over the past few decades. Hyperspace journeys don?t take as long as they used to a hundred years ago because the hyperdrive motivators are getting better. More and more travellers no longer make a point to stop at hyperspace terminals like my home to use the jump gate or stock up on provisions. So quite naturally, less and less government funding has come to the terminals over the years.

I don't need to be a grown-up to fully realise this. As I said, the deck-plates are all loose and they clang loudly if you run on them. Some even tip over a bit. The spot I am walking past now has lost a plate of sheet-metal and as well as a layer of insulation high up on the wall, where the hot-water pipes lie. I can feel the slight increase in air-temperature every time I go by. It hasn't been repaired for years. Fortunately, life-support systems have not broken down yet; otherwise, this evacuation would have been conducted in quite a bit of hurry. In the classrooms, the sound quality of the holo-screens where our lessons are broadcast has been getting more and more static-filled. This makes it very difficult for me to listen to my lessons.

So the once-great-and-important Stenness Hyperspace Terminal fell into disrepair slowly but steadily. Business started getting worse. More and more people opted to leave for greener pastures until the law handed down by the Senate made a final decision for all hyper

 

Beautiful, Sephrenia!