Embers: Sequel to Crash and Burn

The palace hadn’t changed much, as far as Allana could tell. It looked the same from the outside, and looked and smelled much the same from the inside. She didn’t recognize all the guards, and guessed that some of them were new, but otherwise, it was as though time had left the entire place behind.

Her friends had retired to their various guest rooms on a well-guarded wing of the palace, and Allana went through the secret passage to her mother’s room. She still knew where it was, and as she crawled through the passage which was now too small for her to stand up in, she hoped that it hadn’t been barred up at the end. But then she pushed open the little passageway and came out in the room, which still had only a bed, rug, and small desk, even though the suite next to it was full of furniture and decorations.

“I’m here,” she said. “Nobody can listen in, right?”

“Fact,” said Tenel Ka. “There are no bugs in this room.”

Tenel Ka hugged Allana and led her over to the rug, and they sat down on it. “You have grown much taller since the last time you came to Hapes,” Tenel Ka said.

“I’m growing a lot,” Allana said, and she made a face. “But I’m probably not going to be as tall as Nilla will be. Her dad is huge!”

“I know that, Allana. I trained with Zekk at the Jedi Academy when the whole Academy was still on Yavin 4 – not just the classes for the older students, the way it is now.”

“You were with Dad and Aunt Jaina, too,” Allana said.

“Fact.” Tenel Ka smiled, although it wasn’t entirely a happy smile. “I always knew that Jaina and Zekk would be together. But that is enough about them. You will be going to Yavin 4 next year.”

“Yeah,” said Allana. “I’m going to miss Dad, though. And you, but I don’t see you much. I’m used to it.” She shrugged. “I wish you could come and live on Coruscant with us.”

“You do not want to come back to Hapes forever, then?”

“No. I don’t think I’d like it, not now. I like my friends. I like living with Dad now. And Uncle Anakin. He takes me around in the speeder car and sometimes lets me drive around the parking garage. But don’t tell Dad or he’ll get mad and not let us go anymore.”

“I will not tell him,” Tenel Ka promised. Then she got a serious look on her face, more than usual. “It is not only economic reasons that make Anakin stay with Jacen.”

“Fact, Mom,” Allana said.

“They live together because they want to.”

“Mom – I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you this or not, but he didn’t come right out and say I couldn’t say it, so I will. Uncle Anakin is Dad’s life partner.”

Tenel Ka pressed her lips together and nodded. “I thought that might have been true, but I did not know, and did not wish to ask Jacen. I had suspected for quite awhile that they were together.”

“How long?” Allana asked.

Tenel Ka paused before answering, as though trying to decide whether or not to speak. “Most of six years. But the thought was there even before Jacen asked me to marry him. I saw the way they looked at each other and did not want to believe what I saw.”

“Rebound,” said Allana, and then she bit her lip. Mouth before mind.

“It is far more complicated than that. But it is not important now. I love you, and Jacen loves you, and you are our daughter.”

“He still cares about you.”

“I hope that he will not be too upset to learn that I am getting married again soon.”

“What? Mom? You are? I didn’t know about this!”

“It was necessary. His name is Planck Gray, distantly related to Lady AlGray. We hope that we will have a son.”

“Why do you want a son? Why don’t you want a daughter?”

“Because if I have a son, I can help him choose a wife to rule Hapes after I am gone. If I have a daughter, then either she or you will have to.”

“Mom, are you pregnant?”

“No, Allana. I am not married anymore and will not be pregnant until after I am married.”

“Oh. That’s good. I guess. Will I get to meet my new stepdad?”

“Not today, but I can call him to the palace to come tomorrow.”

Allana wasn’t sure that she really wanted to meet him, and she almost said that she already had a stepfather and didn’t need another one, but that wasn’t very nice. And it was entirely possible that Planck Gray would be a good man, and maybe her mother would be happy. She didn’t think Tenel Ka had been entirely happy at any point during her twelve years, not even when she was at the palace, although it was more noticeable in the last six. Or maybe Allana just noticed more.

Allana and Tenel Ka talked for a little while longer, and then Allana went back to her own room. She climbed up on her giant four-poster bed with a holobook and opened it up.

Nilla burst into the room then. “Allana, how did you get back in your old room? I looked and looked for you but didn’t see you here a few minutes ago and you didn’t come down the hallway.”

“I went through the – uh-oh.” The secret passage was definitely a secret, something that only the Queen Mother and Chume Ta’ knew about. And the former Queen Mother. Allana sighed and put her book down. Maybe it was time to come clean, at least to her Jedi friends that she knew she could trust. “I went through a secret passage.”

“There are secret passages in the palace? Astral! How do you find them?”

“Well, that’s the thing. They’re secrets and they’re built for the protection of the Queen Mother and her daughters, and nobody else is allowed to know where they are.”

“You know where they are, though,” said Nilla.

“Yeah. Um, I have to tell you something.” Allana closed the door and locked it. “I’m not really from Tatooine. I was born here in the palace. Jacen really is my dad but the Queen Mother is my mom. I’m Allana Chume Ta’Djo.”

“You can’t be Allana. She died when I was little. It was on the news.”

“I did not die. They just said I did so that Ta’a Chume wouldn’t look for me. My mom sent me to Coruscant to live with my dad and take another name.”

“Oh.” Nilla looked uncomfortable. “What am I supposed to call you?”

“Lannie. Same as always. Nothing changes. I don’t even live here anymore.”

“But you’re the Princess,” Nilla said.

“It doesn’t matter. Because Mom is getting married again and then they’re going to have a son and then I don’t really have to be a princess anymore.”

“What?!” Nilla sat down in the gold-plated chair in front of Allana’s tiny antique desk. “Don’t you want to be the Princess? You’d have a lot of money. You could buy a whole X-wing. You could probably buy a hundred X-wings!”

“I could buy enough X-wings to spell out big words in the sky,” Allana said. “But it’s too dangerous. Some of the nobles want to kill the Queen Mother. Others just want to get rich and get more land. She has to make everybody happy so there isn’t a war, and people try to assassinate her all the time. When I was little they tried to get me, too, but my great-grandma just wanted to kill my grandma and my mom, and they left me alone after once. She wanted to make me the Queen Mother because I was too little, and she’d be able to take the crown from me.” Allana sighed. “It’s not like Grandma says Alderaan was. There's a lot of fighting here.”

“We’re safe here, right?” Nilla asked worriedly.

“I think so. Assassins don’t care about offworld guests. The only one they’re going to go after would be my mom, and they might not even do that because Grandpa Isolder got married last year and if my mom is dead then his wife would be the new Queen Mother.”

“What if your new grandma goes after your mom?”

“She won’t. I don’t think so, anyway. She seems okay and not really snotty and mean like some of the other nobles I’ve met.”

“We’d better be careful, anyway. Um, Your Highness.”

“It’s just Lannie. Really. Or Allana, but only you can know that. And Ben. And Verayan. And Xander. So call me Lannie. Now, come on; let’s go play in the lake.”

Allana led all of them out past the garden and to the lake behind. “Don’t just jump in,” she warned Ben, who was crouching as if to take a running leap into the water. “There are a lot of big rocks under the surface to trap ships, and you’re going to hit one if you’re not careful.”

The three boys were clad in shorts, and the girls in longer shorts and short-sleeved shirts. Verayan and Xander chased each other through the water while Nilla sat waist-deep on one of the rocks. Ben was busy exploring further out on the lake, but he looked up after a few minutes. “Someone’s up there,” he called.

“Lots of people are up there,” Allana called back.

“No, it’s Jacen.” Ben swam back towards the shore. By the time he got there, Allana could feel Jacen’s presence, also.

“He’s with Anakin,” Allana said. “That’s not fair! I was supposed to have a whole week here and it’s been less than a day!”

“Uncle Jacen and Uncle Anakin aren’t the only ones,” said Nilla. “Mom and Dad are here too. And I think Auntie Ingvor is with your dad.”

“Oh. Maybe they’re just visiting, then. But Ingvor wouldn’t be there.” Allana looked up and saw two specks coasting in the sky, floating towards the palace. A third speck appeared behind them, with an orange trail blazing in its wake. “Um, maybe we’d better get back inside. I don’t know who that is. Xander? Do you think that’s your dad or mom?”

Xander shook his head, and the five of them quickly threw the rest of their clothes on, while still soaking wet, and hurried back to the palace doors.

“Somewhere with doors that click when they lock, and the sounds of a running bath. Or maybe it’s just a waterfall. I can’t tell with all the background noise in here.”

“The background noise is the cooling system and repulsor engines. I can’t turn them off if we want to land in one piece.” Anakin glared at Ingvor. “Jacen, where could Tenel Ka be?”

“Any of about fifty rooms,” Jacen admitted.

A low alarm began to beep.

“Turn it off,” said Ingvor.

“See that ship?” Anakin pointed to a small diagram that popped up in red on his display screen. “We didn’t invite that one. It’s not Jaina and Zekk. And it’s speeding up.”

“Slave I,” said Jacen.

“Fett,” Ingvor echoed. “All right, all right… flowers… something like, like violet roses. But sweeter. And stronger.”

“Sixth floor conservatory,” Jacen said, and began encoding a message to bounce back to Jaina.

The ship landed, roughly, on the top of the palace roof. Jaina’s personal cruiser touched down next to Jacen’s, and she and Zekk burst out of the side without waiting for the boarding ramp to fully extend. “Jacen, where are they?” Jaina shouted.

“Tenel Ka is in the conservatory. The kids – they could be anywhere.”

“Dad?” Nilla poked her head up out of a hole in the roof, at the top of a long ladder that Allana had revealed to them. “What are you doing here?”

“No time to explain," Zekk said, and he held out one of his long arms towards the boarding ramp. "Get on the ship. Now.”

“But I-“

“Now! Where’s your brother?”

“I’m here,” Verayan grumbled, coming up the ladder next.

“All of you! On board!”

A spray of turbolaser bolts sprayed across them, narrowly missing the ships. One of the bolts struck a tower on the far side of the palace, and broken bricks rained down. The tower itself began to collapse.

Nilla, Verayan, Xander, and Ben let Jaina and Zekk usher them onto the ship without a moment’s hesitation. Allana only stood frozen just beyond the edge of the hole.

“Someone found me,” she said.

“That’s Boba Fett, and he’s looking for your mother. Get on Jaina’s ship and she’ll get you all out of here.”

“Take Mother, too!” said Allana.

“I’ll fly her away from the palace. You get on with your aunt before there isn’t any more time!”

Another bolt slammed into the side of the palace. The roof shook and cracked down the middle, although it didn’t tilt; concrete slabs flew in all directions, and a three-meter chasm split through the center between the ships.

Tenel Ka was the last to arrive, covered in dust from the blast, but not injured. Jacen ran over the trembling roof and grabbed her arm. “No time to explain. Boba Fett is looking for you. We’re leaving.”

Tenel Ka wasted only a fraction of a second before racing towards Jacen’s ship. She caught Allana and pulled her with her. The group was now broken apart, with Jaina, Zekk, their children, Ingvor, Xander, and Ben in one ship, and Jacen, Anakin, Tenel Ka, and Allana in the other.

“To the guns,” Anakin said, and lifted off.

The Slave I stopped firing towards the palace when the ships left, and began to fly in a loop. Jaina and Anakin flew in separate directions, towards the sky at a right angle to each other, and Fett stayed between them until his loop was complete. Then he chased the ship containing Tenel Ka and a third volley exploded from the Slave I.

Allana shrieked when the ship was tossed forward. The lights blinked on and off, and the ship rolled over twice before setting on a shaky trajectory.

“We’re landing,” Anakin said. “Hull breach!”

A minute later, they were on the ground, and Allana stumbled out of the ship behind her father. The Slave I landed only a few dozen meters away, and a tall figure, hidden by his Mandalorian armor, climbed down.

The three Jedi Knights took out their lightsabers. “Allana, run to the garden!” Tenel Ka said. “He won’t be looking for you.”

Allana ran, with her heart pounding. She ran until she found a hollow to hide in, and crouched there, beyond the sight of Boba Fett, and waited to see what happened.

Jaina’s ship turned all the way around and came back towards them. Fett was too close to the group for her to use her ship’s weapons, but Allana saw the ship touch down, and Jaina and Zekk came out, also armed with their lightsabers. Another person stood at the top of the boarding ramp with something long and shiny in her hand.

A barb at the end of a long wire shot out from one of Fett’s wrist guards, and Allana heard Zekk cry out. Ingvor stumbled, and Allana began to make a run for the intact ship.

Jacen eventually landed a hit on Boba, enough to distract him, and Tenel Ka put the beam of her turquoise lightsaber through his lower abdomen. Fett crumpled backwards, and they began their dash towards safety.

Zekk leaned on Anakin and limped to the ship. The left leg of his pants was soaked through with blood, and he was pale. Jaina, Jacen, and Tenel Ka followed closely behind, with Allana at their heels.

Anakin ran to the cockpit to get ready for liftoff, and Ingvor helped Zekk settle in the tiny bunk room. Jacen jumped up into the ship as the boarding ramp retracted, followed by Jaina, and Tenel Ka lifted Allana to push her into Jaina and Jacen’s waiting arms.

Allana heard a groan at the same time that she felt a blistering heat sear her back. She instinctively jerked away from it, as Jacen caught her and picked her up.

Jacen threw Allana at Jaina, and the two of them nearly fell over; Allana was both bigger and heavier than Jaina, and Jaina was too surprised to get a good hold on her. Jacen then dragged Tenel Ka onto the transport.

A large circle on the front of her gown had melted away, and the skin underneath was red and blistered. Jacen looked at her back, and there was a charred hole, also circular, from a high-powered scatterbeam blaster. Tenel Ka slumped forward in his arms, and then stopped moving.

Ben was the one who finally took action, running to retrieve Ingvor’s blaster rifle, then pointing it out through the open doorway and shooting at Boba Fett, who was crawling across the ground. “Now he’s dead,” said Ben. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. He’d been injured slightly in the first blast, but it only manifested as a shallow cut on the side of his face.

“Mom?” Allana asked. She ignored Ben and knelt down by Tenel Ka, not even paying attention to her own burns. “Say something!”

Jacen shook his head and tried to pick Allana up. She thrashed at him, but he was stronger than her, and carried her to the seat in the corner of the main passenger area. “Allana, she’s gone,” he said gently.

“NO!”

Jacen didn’t know what to say, so he awkwardly held Allana, and let her cry, with his chin on top of her head. He didn't know if she felt his tears dripping onto her hair.

The legendary Boba Fett was dead, and that got a lot more attention on the news that the death of Ereneda Tenel Ka Djo. That was a quiet footnote, and ended with the news that Prince Isolder’s second wife, Loralia, had ascended to the throne, although she had not yet borne any children and it could be the end of Ni'Korish's direct line if she did not.

Loralia allowed Jacen to keep Tenel Ka’s lightsaber, and he gave it to Allana, who only put it in a small box and shoved the box under her bed once she got back to Coruscant.

Allana was still safe, Jacen realized, but Hapes wasn’t.