Saga - PT Saga - OT Rose’s Eleven (Kessel Run Challenge; OCs and possibly others)

Author: Findswoman
Title: Rose ’s Eleven
Era: Saga—PT and OT (by and large, leaving open the possibility of incursions into other eras)
Characters: OCs, as well as whoever else happens to show up
Notes: This is my thread for stories written as part of @ViariSkywalker ’s awesome Kessel Run Challenge. Each weekly entry will be a separate story with its own title and headers describing era, characters, etc.; individual entries may or may not connect to each other. My Rose Evergreen OCs will probably have a notable presence, but other completely unrelated characters, both OC and EC, may show up as well depending on where the prompts lead.
Acknowledgments: I thank @Raissa Baiard for beta-reading, as usual, and Viari for running this challenge.

Contents
1. Mistless (OC Telfien Viurraanvi)
2. What’s New, Tooka-Kit? (Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios, OC Ezrashai Orrelios)
3. Fivefold Unfolding (OCs: Rose Evergreen ensemble)
4. I Go Seeking (The Force)
5. A Little Preoccupied (Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios and OC Shulma Trilasha Orrelios)
6. HK-47 and the Power of Nonviolent Resistance (HK-47, Revan, KOTOR extras)
7. What Kind of Honor Guard…? (Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios)
8. ’Cause I Don’t (DJ)
9. Song to the Four (the Warrior, the Child, the Fool, and the Seer)
10. In the Name of the Mists (Zuckuss, writing to Telfien [OC])
11. The Rose between the Worlds (OCs: Rose Evergreen ensemble)

 

1. Mistless

Prompt: First sentence: “Saying goodbye was never easy, but she couldn’t put it off any longer.”
Characters: Telfien Viurraanvi (OC, Gand female from Gand), mentions of unnamed Gand EC
Summary: Telfien prepares to leave her homeworld after its Imperial occupation.

---

Saying goodbye was never easy, but she couldn’t put it off any longer. So the Mists had declared, even in Their weakened state, Their near-absence: she could best serve Them—and save them—by leaving Them and going abroad. A strange and baleful message; but she was a Gand Findswoman and had always heeded Their counsel, even when it brought her pain. All the arrangements had been made, and now it was time.

She rummaged in the small closet of her Temple room and found the respirator apparatus the temple had given her the first time she and her young Findsmaster had gone to the Surface those many years ago. Just as she had done long ago, she connected hose to hose and hose to canister, then strapped it on, all except the mask. She thought of that mission from years ago: they had gone to clear the mist-vents below the Temple colony, which had been blocked with rubble by a saboteur who wished for the downfall of the Findsmen. But this time the sabotage could not be reversed by hauling rocks out of a hole. It came from above, from the gigantic wedge-shaped starships of the Empire and their disintegration beams. No Gand could stop them. Only Gand herself could restore the lost mists, and only after years.

Next, she packed her clothing: robes, underrobes, breeches, linens, sashes, scarves, boots. Then incenses and herbs, datapads and books, the little set of pots and infusers for preparing djelatha. The wet-strung harp, hanging by its ribbon from a hook on the wall, was slung over her shoulder.

The music box from the top shelf came last of all: the betrothal gift from the Holy Madman to the Sacred Healer, now come down to her for the strangest and most convoluted of reasons. She looked at the lacquered decoration of the meditating Findsman on its lid, admiring the beautiful ancient workmanship, then opened it…

A few chords escaped, silver and piercing like a pair of eyes she once knew, a pair of eyes that had gazed kindly on her studies of the Mists’ way before piercing into her heart…

She slammed it closed, wrapped it in a scarf, and added it to the trunk, nestling it carefully amid the garments before shutting and latching the lid.

She looked about: was there anything else? Her eyes fell on her moonbow orchid, sitting in its pot on the ledge of the window. It had to stay behind; it could not live in oxygen.

So, pulling the trunk after her, she left her room for the last time and shut the door behind.

* * *​

Eyes half closed to shield herself from the glare of the mistless sky, she approached the landing pad. The ship was there, as promised: a small scout craft, sleek and bijou, decorated with a stylized design of what seemed to be flowers—or at least plantlike forms—in green and dark pink. She had not seen it before, only read or heard of it in her Human friend’s messages. That friend, a pale-skinned Human female with orange-red head-hair, was visible in the cockpit window, waving a hand to her in the Human gesture of greeting. Below, the boarding ramp was already extended, leading to an semi-enclosed airlock chamber at the top.

The Findswoman fastened the mask attachment of the respirator over her mouthparts and began making her way up the ramp. About halfway she stopped, then turned to look out over the empty landing pad, where no teacher or friend stood to see her off; then outward over the spires of the Great Temple, so silent and luridly glinting in the mistless light. Hand cupped across her chest in her people’s gesture of greeting and honor, she addressed the scene before her in the traditional benison that now felt so strange and wrong: “May the Mists show you the way.”

And as the airlock door clanked shut and its mechanism hissed and whirred, trembling overtook her body, and sobs welled in her crop.

fin

 

Thank you both so much for commenting!

Thanks! Yes, it’s true that that kind of immediacy of feeling can indeed keep one from lingering—counterintuitively enough! And in such circumstances the emotional breakdown is a delayed rather than immediate reaction. Once Telfien is on board, with that airlock running, is when it’s driven home to her that she really and truly is going away and probably not coming back for a long time. But the personal effects she brought with her—and especially that music box—will always be a reminder of her homeworld.

Thanks so much! Writing it hit hard, too—it’s something I know had to have happened somewhere and sometime in my universe of stories but had never gotten around to writing, partly because I knew it would be far from easy to. You’re right to pick up on the meaning of, and realization behind, all those moments: she’s not just going away, but she’s going away to places where she will be alienated and different and endangered and lonely in a way she has never known before. It’s more than a wrench, but she will do the best she can. Thanks again!

 

Yay!! I am SO EXCITED that you decided to take part in this challenge! Your collection is off to such a lovely beginning, already.

This was such a melancholicly beautiful use of the prompt! Telfien's grief for leaving was powerfully depicted through your words, but just as strong was the faith that moved her to do so in the first place!

There was something about this wording that struck me as especially poignant. The Empire has taken so much from so many, and the survivors are just left picking up the pieces as best they can. But they are picking up those pieces.

If only hearts were as easy to slam the lid on and lock away! But with everything else Telfien is taking with her from Gand, she's taking this, too.

The betrothal gift was gorgeous, by the way. I loved silver eyes and silver chords, and I reeeeally need to read The Book of Gand now.

Wasn't this a heartbreaking metaphor if ever there was one?

I really liked the imagery in your prose, again. Telfien is adapting to survive beyond her world in every way imaginable, and here she is, beginning that journey.

That sense of loss and leaving really culminated in these last few sentences. But may now the mists show you the way, Teflein. I appreciate how this read as much like a beginning as it did a farewell, an end.

I don't know if Telfien ever makes it home in your 'verse - or even in what capacity that is even possible - but I appreciate this glimpse of where she started for how it has enrichened her journey forward all the more so.


Your run is off to a wonderful start, again, and I can't wait to read more!

 

Thank you two so much!

That’s right, and that can make an immense difference in lessening the pain of leaving (though, again, a few things have to stay). Thanks so much for coming by to read!

Aw, thanks! I’m excited about this challenge and very glad to be here. And how exhilarating it was to get a first prompt that immediately fit so well with a central member of my ocedarium! I just hope I’ll be as lucky with the others!

Thanks—both feelings are strong for her, and both coexist and perhaps, in some ways, strengthen each other.

Yes, and in some ways their very homeworlds are as well, as a matter of course and of righting the imbalance. But it will take a long time!

Exactly! Both of them are taking each other’s hearts with them as reminders of their lost world, in a way, though each may not know (or have no way of knowing) that the other is doing so. If that all makes sense!

Ah, feel more than free to take your time getting to it—I still need to finish it! It will eventually explain the whole business with the music box and how she got it (and why), but again, I need to get my shebs in gear on it someday, someway. I think I have discovered in the time I have been here that epics are an especial challenge for me!

She and that little plant have been through a lot together and have a lot in common!

Exactly, even right here on her own homeworld, which says something!

They will show her the way indeed, as they have always been there within her. And it is a beginning, a very momentous one—as you surely recognize the ship she’s boarding!

Ah, I fear there is a combination of “I don’t know yet” and “I can’t tell yet” involved with that one. But I’ve been enjoying any small chance I get to fill out that story on either side, and this first prompt has definitely gotten me thinking about what may eventually come on that other side, too!

Many thanks again—glad you’re enjoying, and always so glad to have you here!

 

Thanks so much for commenting—so good to see you!

Honestly, I see it as being much more like the latter than like the former—Telfien would never presume to think that a small Gand like her could really do much to save her entire world. Though who knows, there may be a little bit of the former too that she might not expect, at least down the line! Whichever way it goes, she will make the best of it, and she will do so with friends at her side.

I smiled a big smile at this, because that song did indeed cross my mind as I was writing this part of the scene! As with that Minstrel Boy, the music and song of her people will grip strengthen Telfien as she goes into exile, too.

Exactly—they too have either died or left.

[quoye]Ironic that our first prompt on this challenge seems to invoke walking away and grieving. [/quote]
Yes, definitely an intriguing and thought-provoking choice on the part of our hostess! But one that, as we have seen, can go so many different ways and have so many dimensions.

Thanks so much—that’s a compliment I really appreciate. I certainly try, as I definitely agree that that’s one of the big goals of literature!

 

Thanks so much, @ViariSkywalker ! Really appreciate your coming by to read and comment!

Oh, that’s for sure! To put it lightly!

Exactly: it’s not just going to a new location, but in many ways to a new life. But she can still do what she can to preserve the ways of the old life.

Well may you “ “! These are things that came up in my huge, sprawling, long-unfinished Book of Gand, but they’re in some of my individual stories with Telfien, too, such as Box of Visions.

Thanks! It wasn’t original to me, though, but rather was the creation of one of my first fanfic friends and writing partners from long ago, Beedo Sookcool (not a member here or I’d tag him), who beta-read the early versions of Book of Gand and helped me develop some of my Gand fanon.

Yes, and of course she is something of a lonely flower herself.

It absolutely does. Her people are adapted to live in a misty environment—they literally need them to live.

Thought you might! And it and its pilot both came prepared—Glockel was more than willing to make the necessary alterations for her friend!

She is a member of an insectoid species, after all, so it’s always seemed to just make sense!

Isn’t it always the case that goodbyes of all kinds become hardest right at that very last moment? And in this moment “may the Mists show you the way” isn’t just a formula; she really is wishing that the spirit of the universe, embodied in her homeworld’s mists, will show it the right way back to its original beauty and glory.

Thank you so much, I’m so glad you enjoyed! The next piece is going to be very much in a “now for something completely different” type of vein, and will be coming momentarily…

 

2. What’s New, Tooka-Kit?

Prompt: Write a dialogue-only story between 400 and 800 words in which two characters have a disagreement.
Characters: Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios, and introducing Ezrashai Orrelios (OC, Lasat male from Lira San, equivalent of about ten years old). Also mentions of the Ghost crew and my other two OC Orrelios children, Ezrashai’s big sister Honor and his twin sister Chava.
Summary: Zeb’s son really wants to get a pet tooka. Zeb, not so much.

---

“Aw, Dad, please?”

“No.”

“Pleeease?”

“No.”

“But Dad!”

“I. Said. NO!”

“Gh’eesh, no need to go all Papa Growly-Bear on me!”

“I’m your dad. Goin’ all Papa Growly-Bear on ya is my job, ’case ya haven’t noticed.”

“DA-AD! Look, it’s just not fair! You and Mom got Honor that swoop she wanted!”

“Yeah, because, ’case you haven’t noticed, she’s four dus—four sunstorm seasons older than you’n Chava are.”

“Okay, but you also got Chava that big fancy Legends and Lore of the Ancient Lira’sat book! So why can’t you get me one little tooka-cat?!”

“’Cause you know what, Ezrashai Kanheran Orrelios?!”

“What, Garazeb Avishai Orrelios?!”

“Har har, very clever, kid. Anyway, swoops and books don’t mess all over everythin’!”

“But tookas are litter-trained! Or… well, they can be, at least…!”

“Yeah, an’ who d’ya think’s gonna do that? Me an’ your mom? If ya think that, you got another think coming!”

“I bet I could do it! It’s not that hard if you get a good substrate and the right supplies!”

“Heh heh, famous last words. Anyway, LIKE I WAS SAYIN’, the other thing swoops an’ books don’t do is shed fur all over everythin’! Or tear up furniture an’ drapes! Or knock over every single thing that ain’t nailed down!”

“But Dad!”

“Look, son, lemme tell you a little story. So, you know how me an’ your Spectre aunts an’ uncles were stationed on Garel long ago durin’ the war?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, one day, your Aunt Hera and Uncle Kanan went out on one of their supply runs, an’ left me an’ Unc’ Ez and Aunt Sabine an’ Chopper back at the ship, an’ gave us a list of chores we had to do. So, one o’ the chores was goin’ to the hardware depot an’ pickin’ up vrelt traps, because some vrelts had gotten into the ship’s air filters an’ were rippin’ them to shreds an’ leavin’ their number two everywhere.”

“Yeah, that’s nice, so what…?”

“So, remember how your Uncle Ezra has a knack for talkin’ to animals usin’ the Ashla? Or, the Force, as he calls it.”

“Yeah! I always thought that was so cool!”

“Well, instead of gettin’ the traps, like Kanan and Hera told him to, he got the bright idea of talkin’ to the tooka cats in the neighborhood an’ tellin’ them to come to the ship to hunt down the vrelts.”

“Whoa, that’s pretty wizard!”

“Yeah, well, he did his little Jedi-Force-thing on ’em an’ brought ’em all to the ship, an’ before you knew it the ship was swarmin’ with them—runnin’ an’ jumpin’ everywhere, knockin’ over all the provisions canisters an’ spreadin’ all the food mess all over the ship, an’ scratchin’ on the cockpit chairs an’ the big wood armchair in the common area.”

“Wow, crazy!”

“Yeah, Aunt Hera really didn’t like that. An’ ’course there were dead vrelts everywhere, I even found one in my bunk. Almost strangled both your Unc’ Ez an’ the cat that left it there.”

“Gh’eesh!”

“Yeah, one way to put it. But that’s not even all. ’Cause then your Unc’ Ez Force-magicked all the anoobas in the neighborhood to come an’ chase away the tooka-cats… an’ that was when all the chaos really broke loose. Two of ’em were chasin’ each other in Aunt Sabine’s room an’ knocked over some of her favorite paints…. an’ tracked it all over the ship!”

“Whoa, what!”

“Yup, there were orange an’ pink pawprints everywhere, an’ I mean everywhere. Fortunately, Unc’ Ez an’ Aunt Sabine an’ I managed to clean it all up before Kanan and Hera came back, but it was a Bogan of a close shave.”

“Wow…”

“Yeah. So, son, next time you find yourself wantin’ a tooka-cat, just ask yourself: do you want paint pawprints all over the floors an’ walls? Do you want tikit grains and noodles and polystarch mix an’ emulsauce spilled all over the kitchen an’ dining room an’ all the hallways? Do you want the conversation circle all scratched up an’ whizzed on?”

“Well…”

“Well, do ya?”

“Well… um… er… Sure! Why not?”

“What?!”

“Hey, if you and Uncle Ez and Aunt Sabine could clean all that up, I bet Honor and Cha’ and I could, too!”

“WHAT?!!”

“Aw, It’d be so worth it! And then we could tell Unc’ Ez all about it next time he comes to visit! Y’know, I bet he’d be proud of us!”

“Aw, karabast…”

fin

Spoiler: Notes

Growly-bears are the creation of fuzzydemolitionsquad ( @FuzzyAmbassador ) and come up in her excellent but untitled Lasat Family Slice of Life Story. I could see there being Papa and Mama Growly-Bears in Lasat folk stories the way there are in ours.

The events described in Zeb’s story are those of @Raissa Baiard ’s story What Could Possibly Go Wrong?, written in 2019 for the Mods’ Time Trials Challenge. As is normal when people recount a story verbally, Zeb has exaggerated some things and omitted others.

 

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting!

No, not at all! Young 'Shai (as we can also call him!) is seeing this whole business from a totally different viewpoint from his dad. As young folks do!

Don't you know it!

Yep, that's right! Honor, who was born in Child of Lasan—Child of Lira San, and her younger twin brother and sister, Ezrashai and Chava. Maybe this will jumpstart some more stories about them!

I'm so glad! I love writing humor, and I had a lot of fun with this prompt. Thanks so much for coming by, and I'm thrilled that you enjoyed!

Yep! Again, it's that youngling viewpoint vs. that parental viewpoint—I've been there many times myself, and on both sides. And yes! A singleton and a pair of twins. Ezrashai is named after both his dad's "brothers" of one sort of another, which just seemed to fit! One of course being @Raissa Baiard 's wonderful Garashai "Shai" Orrelios, whom I find myself borrowing often because I just can't resist him. (Incidentally, she was the one who suggested the possibility of a story about Zeb's kids wanting pets—so I have her to thank for the idea of this piece! )

Oh, isn't that for sure! I have been there multiple times myself. I often do ask Findsboy to scoop out the litter box, though (and he has gotten to the point where he'll mostly do it without complaining). Thanks so much, and glad to see you here, as always!

 

Oh, I just loved these names - and Kanheran, too! (Also: SQUEE for the three kits and all the happy Orrelios family feels. I don't think that I stopped grinning from start to finish! )

Fact. I love the Growly-Bear phasing; it was more than fitting.

I appreciated the detail of Zeb having to correct himself with sunstorm seasons. So much is new with Lira San, for all that's familiar too.

Also: yep, there's a big difference between a swoop and a book versus committing to caring for an actual living creature.

This child is brave!

Wizard, indeed!

(Ohmygosh, but of course I remembered @Raissa Baiard's brilliant What Could Possibly Go Wrong? right away! This was such a great way to tie in another classic story. )

Well, when Zeb puts it that way . . .

Yep: like both of his namesakes, Ezrashai completely took the wrong lesson from his father's story! I was laughing out loud by the end of this!

This was such an endearing slice of life from the future of these characters. I really have to applaud how you tackled the dialogue only aspect of this prompt, too! Zeb has such a distinct voice - one that you've long been aces at portraying - and there was such a wonderful rhythm to this ficlet that I never once felt that it was lacking in any narrative details. Really, truly well done!


Thank you for sharing with this! I can't wait to see what the challenge inspires from your muse next.

 

Thanks so much for the reads and comments, everyone!

Yes, after the Empire has invaded and basically blown all the mists away, it pretty much is a shell of its former self. Telfien knows and feels that change deeply, but it doesn’t make it any easier for her to leave—it’s home, after all, and (perhaps understandably) that fact strikes her the hardest only when she’s in the airlock and there’s no turning back.

Glad you enjoyed meeting Ezrashai! It’s my first time writing any of these children other than as babies or cameos, and I think I could have some fun with them! Kids/kits have such a different point of view on these things, don’t they? He just sees Great Pest Control Disasters of that kind (and of course Raissa’s story came to mind instantly when I was planning this!) as yet another challenge, yet another adventure! (The question is if his sisters will, too! ) Thanks so much for the awesome comment, as always!

Thanks so much, so glad you enjoyed! I’m kind of taking steps into a new world with these characters, so it really delights me to know they’re coming off well!

Thanks! The growly-bear is a creature borrowed from the Lasat fanon of my friend fuzzydemolitionsquad, so it isn’t original to me at all—but it fits Zeb to a tee!

Yep, exactly—in a way, he’ll always be “still getting used to it.” (To his kits, though, it’ll just be plain home!)

For sure, for huge sure!

Isn’t he? But he gets it from both sides, of course!

“What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” was such a gem that I just couldn’t resist bringing it in somehow to a story about Zeb and pets—because it would so shape his view of all future pets, if that makes sense! Especially with an Ezra namesake involved!

Speaking as a cat owner myself, it is definitely… an eventuality to be considered!

Yes, it’s really coming full circle for Zeb right now, isn’t it! And the thing is, I bet Unc’ Ez really would be proud of him! Again, the only question is how his sisters might feel about being roped into the project—if you remember how exasperated Sabine was with Ezra in “What Could Possibly,” it could well be that all over again, too!

Thank you so much, as always—those are compliments that really mean a lot to me, especially coming from you with your talent in characterization! I ended up having a ton of fun with this prompt, including the added bonus of working on a new character (or set of characters), and the fact that they are being so enjoyed definitely motivates me fro more! So thanks again.

Yes, both she and her husband had hoped for kits for a long time but had been unable to have them. Lira San does agree with them, but what really agrees with them is being together again, in a new permanent home, and no longer under the stresses of invasion and war. Part of why Shulma had been unable to conceive for so long was kind of a subconscious, body-level premonition of the eventual fate of her homeworld; even in RL, stress can have a marked effect on that sort of thing (speaking from experience). We have had bits and pieces of similar discussions in my family, too—so that when we found a stray orange tabby cat in the woods in early spring 2020, it just felt like the time was right (and there, too, was the consideration that my son had become old enough to do his part in caring for him).

As someone who works in publishing, I do, too! And the one gotten for Chava is a big, beautiful one, too, and very suited to her interests. I have her in mind to be the scholarly sort of mystic, along similar lines to her mother.

Thanks so much, as always, for reading and commenting! Next installment incoming shortly…

 

3. Fivefold Unfolding

Prompt: Write a set of 5 drabbles (exactly 100 words each) on the following prompts: beacon, discovery, arcane, sister, burden.
Characters: Rose Evergreen crew (OCs): R1-K4 “Rika,” Marya-Glocke “Glockel” Sternenkranz, Telfien Viurraanvi, Lualani’Draba’Takiil “Lua,” Shulma Trilasha Orrelios; mention of a well-known SW villain
Summary: The women’s reactions and realizations over the course of a mission that does not proceed as expected. Warning: dead bodies / background character death.

---

I. Beacon
Rika

COGNITIVE MODULE: READY
SENSOR ARRAY: ONLINE
SECURITY MODULE: ARMED

OBJECTIVE: DELIVER SUPPLIES TO SCIENCE OUTPOST SEGULATH/ RETRIEVE RECENTLY FOUND SAMPLE/ DELIVER SAMPLE AND DATA THEREON SECURELY TO CONTACT "SPINDLEJOINTS"

OBSERVATIONS: [self] OFTEN VIEWS [self] AS GUIDING INFLUENCE TO [self]’S MEATBAG COLLEAGUES/ A BEACON OF LIGHT/ TO SPEAK METAPHORICALLY/ ALSO FREQUENT ARE INSTANCES WHEN [self] SERVES SUCH PURPOSE LITERALLY/

EXPLANATION: [self]’S TORCH ATTACHMENT POSSESSES HIGHER LUMINOSITY THAN MANUAL GLOWRODS IN SHIP’S SUPPLY LOCKER

EXAMPLE: PRESENT/ OUTPOST COMPLETELY WITHOUT POWER/ REASON UNKNOWN/ NO LIFEFORM READINGS DETECTED EXCEPTING [unitMarya-Glocke] [unitTelfien] AND [unitLualani]/ [unitShulma] REMAINING ABOARD

AS PREVIOUSLY STATED/ SECURITY MODULE: ARMED

II. Discovery
Glockel

At Science Outpost Segulath with Delphine, Lua, Rika, and the promised repulsorpallet of chemprocessing equipment. Have made a distressing discovery. Several, in fact.

The place is dark, without power. The main lab has been ransacked; everything’s broken, spilled, and scattered. Worst of all: we found three bodies amid the wreckage, a Drall, a Human, and a Pacithhip— three of the five researchers. Two were shot with heavy blasters, one was— strangled?

Keeping my hand on my own blaster, and wondering: what happened? Are the others alive? Is the sample safe? What even is it?

Delphine’s calling. Has she found something…?

III. Arcane
Telfien

“Okay, do your arcane thing, Delphine.” So Glockel Sternenkranz said to her on entering the outpost. Telfien accepts, though to her it is not arcane: it is as natural as walking.

The fogs of death enshroud this place. Telfien felt them even on the approach; she knew someone would be found dead. She did not know almost everyone would be found dead: three in the laboratory, and now, after following the fog to the computer room (also ransacked), a fourth: a Nikto (also strangled).

Viurraanvi keeps searching, hand to the Mists. Though now, finally, stirrings arise: life here after all?

IV. Sister
Lua

FYA!

WE here ’cause OF you. I COME ’cause OF you. FYANLA’Draba’TARUMA— my sister— NOT BLOOD sister but nest sister from Pipada, which ALMOST same. (I always know you BECOME SCIENTIST SOMEDAY.)

You TOLD US OF IT, you TOLD US to COME. And WE FIND you: FLOATING in bacta tank full OF WATER, playing DEAD but NOT DEAD (WE Drabata DON’T drown). When you wake, you TELL how the Dark Lord and his TROOPS CAME, to take IT. How YOU ALL DIE BEFORE YOU let him.

And you had IT ALL the time! IT safe now, in my SEWING BASKET.

V. Burden
From the Journal of Shulma Trilasha Orrelios

Guard duty again— you see why I sometimes feel like a burden!

But we’re leaving now, with two new burdens. First, the sample: a pure upari crystal, pinging in the Ashla like kreposkolite or kyber— and piercing my head with pain. I know why that Dark Lord wanted it. Might he find us? Or Spindlejoints?

Second is the outpost’s only survivor, Lua’s old friend Dr. Fyanla’Draba’Taruma, to be transported to a different, more remote outpost. After resting briefly in my bunk, she is beginning a game of tiles with Lua.

I’ll join them; nothing soothes anxious minds like good company!

fin

Spoiler: Notes

Fyanla’Draba’Taruma is a new OC. Drabatan “nest siblings” are completely fanon. It is, however, established that they are amphibious, so it seems not inconceivable that one could “play dead” in water for a time.

Science Outpost Segulath is an original/fanon location. Its name is from the Hebrew word segulah ‘treasure’.

The upari crystal was one of the lightsaber crystals available in KOTOR.

Finally, who is Spindlejoints? Well, consider that spindle is a near-synonym for none other than Fulcrum! According to Wookieepedia, Ahsoka Tano established that title for Rebellion spies in 9 BBY, so it would be a thing during the time that the five Rose Evergreen ladies are traveling together. Note the following points, however:
(a) This particular contact is not necessarily Ahsoka, as it’s established that there can be more than one Fulcrum at a time.
(b) This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Rose Evergreen is connected in any official way with the Rebellion, the way the Ghost was— though the Segulath Science Outpost might have been.