Beyond the Saga Stargirl (OC Revolution Challenge)

Title: Stargirl
Author: leiamoody
Timeframe: 4.4 ABY
Characters: Cala Siroko, Neha Diour (OCs)
Genre: Angsty vig, one shot
Notes: This was written for the OC Revolution Challenge. The specific challenge: Write a story in which at least one scene has been somehow directly influenced by a song, and let us know what song it is. The songs which inspired both the title and feel of this piece of Godawful are Madonna's “Little Star” and “Mer Girl”.
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, that belongs to Disney now. I'm not making any money off this fic either, so if you feel like your time was wasted by reading it, suing me for compensation for that lost time won't work because I ain't got no money.
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“I'm still running away.” Cala stared up into the stars that covered Ghorman's midnight sky. “In my dreams I keep trying to escape from the troopers.” She brushed away the fresh tears which settled upon her right cheek. “Maybe I could keep your father from dying.”

She peered down into the baby carrier. Neha was still asleep.

Cala needed to confess to someone, anyone, about her dreams and her guilt and the loss of hope. The stars were perfectly good enough to hear the ramblings of their spiritual daughter.

She had retreated to the park when another nightmare invaded her sleep. Cala had spent too many nights trapped inside the house with Grandma Terise. “She blames me for the kid who gave birth to me leaving home and getting killed,” Cala said. “She hoped Ailee would grow up, come home, and raise me.”

Cala leaned her back into the bench. Her gaze wandered into the sky. Up there, among the stars, laid her salvation when she first left Ghorman. Coming back here after the rescue from Aurora was painful, not just because she had to move back in with her grandmother. Cala had been a scout for the Rebel Alliance. She found remote worlds for bases and safe havens to hide the families of Alliance personnel. Aurora was her greatest discovery. The girl who never imagined happiness anywhere other than space decided to create some roots on a new world. She hooked up with Sen Diour, got pregnant in the middle of their domestic play party.

“I didn't know if I wanted you.” Cala looked down again into the baby carrier. Neha was still asleep. “I wasn't rally paying attention to my shots because it was so crazy getting Aurora up and running. And maybe I wanted to create my own version of a family. Your dad was happy. He even talked about us getting married.” Cala snorted. “Imagine me getting married. You can't understand yet, but you'll understand that I don't speak matrimony.”

Cala stared at her boots, a reminder of those days before the mess on Aurora. The lone scout in search of dirt balls safe for the Rebellion bought them as a representation of her love for the stars. They were black, spike-heeled, covered in fake Corusca chips. The boots weren't practical in the mountains and mud, but the reminder of her old life was a comfortable companion. But now they seemed frivolous. Nothing mattered after those six weeks during the occupation when Moff Lorin decided to use Aurora as a bargaining chip while on the run from Alliance forces. Nearly four years of peace in that remote corner of Wild Space were shattered as the invading forces landed. Hostages were taken, then executed as negotiations for amnesty dragged out. One of those dead hostages was Sen.

“Your dad would have been such a better parent for you. But the Force works in mysterious ways, and you're left with me instead.” Cala reached into the carrier, stroked Neha's cheek. “You would have a better life with Grandma Terise. She would take you in because that's proper. But you'll grow up miserable just like I did.” Cala looked up into the sky again. “Or you might like the respectability. She might even try loving you if there is something in common with her beliefs.”

The wind kicked up. “It's probably time to head back,” she declared to the stars and her daughter. “I'll have to map out the future another time.”

 

There's a very wistful feeling to this. It doesn't sound like Cala would be very happy staying on Ghorman, since she doesn't get along with her grandmother. Seems to prefer the wandering life, too, from her thoughts on scouting.

 

Thank you for reading!

Yes, Cala does have a very wistful experience once she returns back to her grandmother's house. She couldn't be very happy on Ghorman because I imagine there wouldn't be many jobs for a former scout. Plus, of course, her grandmother. As for her wandering...yes, it will happen at some point.

 

n/m

 

Very good! Makes me want to listen to Madonna.

One of the reasons I love this is because it plays with the macho and tragic theme of the 'girl in port'. A dude could be stationed on a distant planet and get a 'girl in port' preggers being none the wiser or, even worse, not care at all. Very different for Cala - especially with Sen dead.

Do you have anymore stories with Cala?

 

Hmm, I never thought of the "girl in port" angle! I actually like thinking about Cala's situation from that angle. Thanks for giving me another perspective.

I only have one other story I've written about Cala, over at FF.N: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7006228/1/A-Fair-Wind.
She's not the POV character (Luke is, actually, because they had a "friends with benefits" type situation), but it does show a little bit more about her as a person.

 

I read this story a couple of times on the course of the last six months or so, but this is the first time I looked at the comments and the theme. The observations are completely different in the context of the theme and what other people said before me and it's mostly colour that's different. Initially, I saw white and pink, now, with the references to Ray of Light, it has your usual blue and green tones...if that even makes sense.

At this point of Cala's life, she cannot be blamed for absolutely anything. What happened to her is confusing, painful and there's this parallelism with the death of her mother. I can imagine that she fears that she would blame herself, or even the baby for Sen's death at some point; and that there's a good reason that the grandma, out of all people, is haunting her dreams. Not even mentioning her obvious "impostor syndrome" here - she did so many great things, yet feels lost.

And I assume that there's an epilogue to this, waiting to be written, a silent scene similar to the one at the end of Substitute for Love, the moment when Cala's confusion loses to unconditional love. She is the daughter of the stars (btw, love that), after all.

P.S. The fact that all of this comes about two years after that completely different situation makes it all even more complex.

 

Thanks for reading.

I never really thought about a unified color theme that crosses my fics...but now that you mention it, there is some common element of blue/green in a few, except for Cosmic Rose, which has red as a predominant color. What can I say, I like colors.

Cala is definitely in a weird place mentally after the occupation of Aurora and evacuating from there. She's back on Ghorman after many years away out in the galaxy making her own living and living by her own design. In a sense, it's the GFFA equivalent of moving back into your parent(s) house after living as an independent adult. Cala had no money, no ship (she gave it up while living on Aurora), and no home after the evacuation. Of course she never really had a home on Ghorman, either, but she has nowhere else to go, at least in the sense that she would feel guilty about going to another planet and living alone. She always had a prickly relationship with her grandmother, but always hoped she could make some kind of amends with her at some point. She realized that wasn't going to happen pretty soon after going back. Because that's how real life tends to work, and babies generally don't make prickly family relations any easier or better.

The possible epilogue for this story would involve Cala going back into the galaxy as a scout or pilot. She really is a daughter of the stars in that she feels more at home among them than on a planet, no matter the little window of years where she created some kind of home life for herself with Sen and Neha. It's never enough to live on a planet while still piloting a ship in a system, even if she is traveling between planets. But how would she raise her daughter on a ship while traveling around the galaxy? That's an angle I never knew how to write properly without making Cala look like a negligent parent.