Abs Lesan
Wearing: xxx
Weapon: xxx
Tag:
Sonti Delst
six months ago
"We're running out of room, Sonti!" JJ exclaimed as another child ran up the ramp to his ship. "How many more?"
So much had changed in the Core since the fall of the Galactic Alliance. Corellia was no longer safe. Imperial warlords swept through the sector looking to replenish the ranks of their fractured fleets while Sith forces brought devastation to the Core Worlds wherever they appeared. Judah and Sonti had been caught in the middle of it. Now the children under their protection were too.
They had run out of time.
It was not that placements no longer existed for the countless orphans left behind by the galaxy's wars. The Lesan property and praxeum simply could no longer serve as the transition point they once had. What JJ and Sonti had built into a refuge had become a target instead.
Cold air swept through the hidden mountain complex tucked beneath the foothills of Coronet Peak as frightened children hurried aboard the ship.
Then a shadow passed overhead.
Another ship.
"Sonti, we gotta go. Now!"
present day
The children were safe.
JJ reminded himself of that every time the memories returned because it was the only part of Coronet Peak that still brought him any peace. Some had been placed with families beyond the Expansion Region while others disappeared into isolated settlements far from the violence spreading through the Core. Every child under his care that day had survived.
It still had not been enough.
The ones they never reached lingered in his thoughts far more than the ones they managed to save.
The ship had become home after that. JJ and Sonti drifted from port to port now, rarely staying anywhere long enough for Imperial patrols, local authorities, or wandering Sith to pay them much attention. Some stops were little more than aging fuel depots built into barren moons while others were overcrowded trade stations filled with refugees, smugglers, merchants, and people desperate enough to disappear into the constant movement of the hyperlanes.
JJ preferred those places.
Nobody looked too closely at travelers when everybody around them was trying just as hard not to be noticed.
The steady hum of the engines filled the cockpit while hyperspace stretched beyond the viewport in endless ribbons of blue light. A half finished cup of caf rested beside the pilot console as JJ sat alone in the worn chair studying local traffic reports scrolling across the holodisplay.
Another world waited ahead of them.
Another temporary place to disappear.
He leaned back quietly and rubbed a tired hand across his face. Sleep had become inconsistent over the past several months. Some nights exhaustion pulled him unconscious the moment he closed his eyes while others left him staring at the ceiling of the ship listening to the engines cycle through the dark.
Coronet Peak usually found him on those nights.
Not the evacuation itself. Not the escape.
The realization that there would never be enough time, enough ships, or enough Jedi left to save everyone caught in the middle of the galaxy's collapse.
Every system they passed through reminded him of it. Imperial remnants carved territory from the chaos while Sith warbands burned through vulnerable worlds unchecked. Refugees crowded transport lanes faster than anybody could help them, and JJ still caught himself scanning worlds for places large enough to shelter people again despite knowing exactly what happened to anything good that remained in one place too long.
A warning light blinked softly across the console.
JJ exhaled quietly before reaching forward to pull the ship from hyperspace as another world slowly emerged beyond the stars.
"Strap in… we're about to land."