We spent a happy night back in our own home for the first time in years. Thayer’s people didn’t just turn on the water and take the dust covers off the furniture. They stocked the refrigerator, washed all the linens, and cleaned every surface to a shine.. They even replaced the kids’ old cribs with new twin beds that matched the furniture in their rooms. When we walked in the door it looked as though we’d just stepped out for dinner.
It looked like a place someone expected us to stay for a while.
A nice lazy Sunday morning seemed called for, but it wasn’t in the cards this time. We were back at the Palace by 8:00 AM. The kids found their royal honorary cousins and were off for another day of fun. In the Batcave, Lenka and I found a literal platoon of Mendellian soldiers who looked suspiciously sleepy for the middle of the morning. Their feet dragged along the stone floors and their uniforms were soaked in sweat. They smelled like a high school locker room as they stumbled into each other, the walls, and the furniture.
Their feet…dragged along…the stone floors. Not through piles of sand. The smell was hours of sweat, not displaced sea life. There was actually furniture for them to stumble into.
The mess from the day before was gone.
As though it had never existed.
The place was hardly back to normal, but it had taken a huge step in the right direction. The stone walls were scrubbed clean and the floors were bare and polished. The broken windows had all been replaced. Everywhere I looked - the office, the conference room, the lounge - new furniture filled the echoing emptiness.
“Wow,” I said as I took it all in.
Thayer appeared, dressed casually and looking a bit tired himself. “I take it you approve?”
“This is amazing. Extreme Makeover Batcave Edition. How did you do it?”
“Thanks my workforce,” he said, gesturing to the soldiers. “It occurred to me that anyone could clean this place. All of you have more important work to do than sweeping floors. I wanted to do whatever I could to make your lives easier. And I learned yesterday’s lesson of the wheel. Sometimes it’s good to be king.”
The soldiers were filtering out nine or ten at a time. It took a dozen elevator trips to remove them all, but not one of them volunteered to take the stairs back up instead. One of the last trips the elevator made back down brought Becki, Noreh, and Kristy, who were just as impressed by Thayer’s accelerated renovation project as Lenka and I. Becki seemed all the more so for having already known what Thayer was up to.
Without New Republic terminals the main computer could do little more than control the Batcave’s basic environmental and safety systems. We all broke out laptops and iPads to work the old fashioned way. In this bastion of advanced technology it felt a bit like cooking a meal over a wood fire inside an electric oven. I raided the Palace IT stores for the equipment to setup a rudimentary wireless link to the main palace network, no small feat with several stories of stone in between.
Michael Clarke arrived in the middle of the afternoon and Syl appeared shortly after him. Thayer took them off for a quick briefing on the situation, then made a phone call to arrange the biggest intergovernmental favor of all time.
Syl bounced in glee when she saw the newly renovated Batcave. “It’s just like old times!”
“Except no spaceships,” Mike said.
“Thayer and I are working on that. Which reminds me - do you have any plans for Tuesday night?”
“Not at the moment. Do you want me to take the Defender up to the moon base?”
“Nah, we need to get more than one person up there, and we can’t do that in the Defender unless someone sits in your lap. I’m not volunteering for that mission.”
“That’s a relief.”
By the end of another long day of work I had all the Batcave’s integrated systems working. The overhead crane in the hangar responded to its manual controls, although they had rarely been used. The armory security system was back online and programmed to recognize all those who had returned. We partially restocked it with the limited number of galactic weapons still in Mendellian hands. All of the galactic standard power and data connections were thoroughly cleaned and, as best we could tell, ready for use.
Mike was helping me repair the manual controls for the hangar’s containment field when I caught my fifth jolt of current for the day. “Ow! You know what I really hope we find at the moon base?”
“All our ships in working order?” Mike suggested.
“Well, yeah, that too. But no, I hope we find the computer terminals. I can’t remember how half these manual systems work.”
With one last fish-chewed wire spliced back together the force field’s red OFFLINE light came to life. I pressed the oversized activation button and the indicator changed to a green ONLINE sign. A low, faint hum filled the hangar, a sound I didn’t realize was missing until it returned. Although we couldn’t see it through the hangar doors, the containment field was on.
“Brilliant,” Mike said. “Let’s try it.” He flipped up the safety cover over the door switch and turned the control to OPEN.
The hangar doors to the ocean slid smoothly open, under their own power this time. The crush of water I feared didn’t come; the force field held it back, just as it had for several years. Outside the blue glow of the field a school of curious fish swamp up to look in at us looking out at them.
A small crowd had gathered to watch us work: Thayer, Becki, Lenka, Kristy, Noreh, and Syl. “I think that’s all we’re gonna be able to do until we get our gear back,” I said to them as Mike and I joined their circle.
“Take a break,” Kristy said. “You’ve earned it.”
“We’ve all earned it,” I said. I looked all around at this place that was so familiar to us but we had all considered lost to the past. “Who would have thought two days ago that we’d standing here today?”
“Well, I didn’t know for certain, but I might have hoped…” Thayer said.
“Come on, admit it, Thayer. This whole ‘Grace’ thing was a ploy to get us all back here,” I said.
“Yeah, you know you just can’t live without us,” Syl teased.
“It was difficult, but we managed somehow,” Thayer said as he put his arm around Becki. Then his face darkened. “Unfortunately the danger is very real.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of it,” Mike said.
“I know you will, my friends.”
We lapsed into a morose silence for a moment, until Kristy broke it. “God I missed you guys!” she said as she tried to hug everyone at the same time. Her gesture turned into a spontaneous group hug that Becki even drug Thayer into. We stood there together, close, no one pulling away, each head almost touching the next.
“I don’t want to leave,” Noreh said. “I’m not ready to go yet.” This was practically a speech from Noreh, who had barely spoken since we arrived. The events on the Pacific Monarch were eating away at her.
“Me neither,” said Lenka.
“Me too,” said Kristy. A mumble of general agreement followed.
“Let’s have a picnic!” Syl said.
“A picnic?” Becki asked.
“Yeah!” said Syl. “Let’s get all the kids and throw blankets on the floor and eat dinner down here!”
“That’s awesome! I love it!” Kristy said.
An excited murmur washed away the next comment, but it was safe to say Syl’s idea was a hit. In the midst of everyone deciding who’d do what to get ready, Lenka looked at me with a mischievous smile on her face.
“Know what I’m thinking about?” she asked.
I did. “Our last night on Yavin.”
Her smile grew even wider.
——
Lenka and I spent the most interesting two months of our lives on Yavin after she was released from the hospital on Coruscant. I tried to arrange transport back to Earth for her, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Once she knew that a galactic civilization existed she refused to go back to Earth until she saw more of it, even if that meant spending more time with me.
Our first couple of weeks at the Jedi Academy were trying. I spent most of my time in intensive training with Master Skywalker, learning to handle the impulses that led me toward the dark side during Operation Arrakis. Lenka spent much of her time with the Jedi healers, continuing the work begun by Master Cilghal on Coruscant to repair her shattered spinal nerves. When we did see each other we were both wary and exhausted from our individual struggles.
Then one day Master Skywalker engineered a breakthrough. Telling me that I had to face my guilt to move beyond it, he sent Lenka and I for a walk in the jungle together. We walked for a while, then sat for a while as she tired out, but we talked the entire time. Actually, I talked the entire time. Lenka listened, and prompted with a question or comment here and there, but though she was still wary she showed no sign of her previous animosity toward me. I tried to explain all that had happened during Operation Arrakis from my point of view while taking full responsibility for my actions. I touched unflinchingly on every subject, from kissing Becki to the fight with Sahhar to Lenka’s own accidental shooting. I let her see my heart laid bare about those days without pretense or excuse or justification. By the time we made it back to the Jedi temple something fundamental had changed between us. She forgave me for her shooting, something I could never have asked for, and thanked me for bringing her all this was so that she would not just survive but be fully healed.
Over the next few weeks we took many more walks. We talked about everything: our lives, our families, our hopes, and our fears. Her spirit amazed me and kindled a small flame in my heart that I worked with all my might to hide. Every day I became more and more aware of what an extraordinary person Lenka was, but I kept these thoughts to myself. With our history and my actions she’d witnessed back on Earth, it was unthinkable that she could feel more than mere toleration for me.
But one night, during a conversation on top of the temple in Yavin’s orange glow, she kissed me.
The entire universe changed after that. I abandoned the reserve I’d maintained around her. After all our talking she already knew me better than anyone else. We opened up completely to each other, spending hours lying under the stars and daydreaming about a future world we hoped to create.
Luke, of course, had known all along. He saw our happiness as a great wave of light-side energy, lifting up everyone at the Academy. It was a joyous time, a time that seemed somehow outside of time. Lenka and I were almost inseparable, parting only for our separate quarters at night. All of the concerns of our Earth-bound lives seemed even farther away than they already were, and we vowed that when we must return to that reality we would take these times and these feelings with us as a part of ourselves. By the time the day arrived for us to return home we were a permanent part of one another.
That day did eventually come, though, and brought with it a great ambivalence about going home. We talked very briefly about not going home at all, about making a completely new life for ourselves out here. But we were both deeply loyal people and could not seriously consider abandoning everyone who mattered to us back on Earth. People who mattered all the more with the new perspective of the last few weeks.
We had one last day with our new friends at the Jedi academy. These people had become a part of our lives, too, and neither of us looked forward to leaving them. Luke, Mara, Corran, Kyle, Tekli, and the three Solo kids and their friend Tahiri had given so much of themselves to help both of us recover from our unique wounds. Because of my lack of formal training I was frequently grouped with the teenage apprentices during my stay on Yavin. And, as Luke admitted that last day, it was an effective reminder to keep my ego in check. It helped that Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin were no strangers to facing the dark side, and their experience and advice was invaluable. Corran, of course, was the first to discover my Force talents and took a personal interest in helping me recover from my brush with the dark side.
On that last day we shared a lunch table with the four teenage Jedi. With our departure looming, the conversation inevitably turned to Earth and its odd (to them) isolation from the rest of the galaxy. The Solos were even more astounded to learn that our world believed their famous family was purely fictional.
“Wait, so they know who Mom and Dad and Uncle Luke are?” Jaina asked. I nodded around a huge bite of bread. “And they know all about the Death Stars and Hoth and Jabba the Hutt?” Another nod. “But they think it’s all just….made up?”
“That’s what I thought until two months ago, too,” Lenka said.
I finally swallowed my food, and with it a chuckle at the appalled look on Jaina’s face. “You have to understand, Jaina, very few people on Earth know that there’s an entire civilization out here. Extraterrestrial life is considered theoretical at best. Taking it too seriously is considered a sign of mental instability.”
“Of course the crazy conspiracy theorists do have alien life all wrong, anyway, so it’s probably fair to think that,” Lenka said.
“True. So the story of you mother’s capture by Darth Vader, the destruction of Alderaan, and Master Luke blowing up the first Death Star was presented as a fictional drama. Star Wars - that’s what the story is called on Earth - is so identified with fantasy that many people wouldn’t believe it was true if a Star Destroyer landed on them. I have to admit, it’s still hard for me to believe sometimes that Luke Skywalker is really sitting right over there,” I said, waving my fork toward a nearby table. “He and your father were my two biggest heroes growing up. I had books and posters and action figures and toy ships everywhere as a child. I practically worshiped them and watched those movies until I could quote them line for line. But I had no idea they were true stories until a couple of years ago. I’ll never forget the first time I saw a field full of X-wings on Earth. The cognitive dissonance was so strong that I almost passed out.”
“That’s crazy,” said Anakin. “So they only know our history up through Endor?”
“Well…no.” I said. “We only have movies through Endor, but the major events after that have been told in novels and, uh, comic books.”
Lenka snickered. “Which is another reason that you could shout the truth from the rooftops and nobody would believe you.”
“What’s a comic book?” Jacen asked. Lenka gave him a brief explanation. “Okay, what’s so funny about that?” he asked.
“Well, in the ranking of outcast subcultures, the only people below hardcore Star Wars fans are hardcore comic book fans,” I said. “Comic book fans are practically considered diseased by mainstream culture.”
“Kinda like Trekkies,” Lenka put in.
“What’s a Trekkie?” Tahiri asked.
“That’s a whole other story,” I said. “A different fictional universe. Only that one’s really fictional.”
“You think,” said Lenka.
That afternoon Han and Leia arrived for a visit with their children, accompanied by Chewbacca. In one of the great thrills of my entire life, I got a personal tour of the Millennium Falcon conducted by Han Solo himself. No offense to Master Luke, but I was always more of a Han fan, and I had an unreasonable love for the Falcon. Getting to sit in the pilot’s seat, even on the ground, was a moment I’ll never forget.
Afterward Lenka and I sat with the Solos and their kids in the Falcon’s cargo hold, around the same table where R2-D2 let Chewie beat him in dejarik, having a drink and talking about Earth. Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin made certain that the conversation quickly turned to our peculiar ideas of fiction.
“I hope whoever you guys have playing me is better than the guy who does it here. He doesn’t look anything like me! And his Corellian accent is terrible!” Han said.
“Oh no, he’s great!” Lenka said. “He played Indiana Jones, too. He’s one of my favorite older actors.”
“Older actors! Listen kid-”
“He wasn’t old when the movies were made!” I said. “The first movie - about, um…” I was trying hard not to say Alderaan in front of Princess Leia “…the first Death Star - came out about the the time of the Battle of Hoth.”
“The real you is a little older than you back then too, Han,” Leia said.
“Who is Indiana Jones?” Han asked. But I missed the rest of the conversation, though, because I’d just been seized by an idea that immediately had my full attention.
“What is it?” Lenka asked, seeing the change in my expression.
“I have THE greatest idea in history,” I said.
“Lessons in humility?” she guessed.
“C’mon,” I said, “we’ve got to find the droids.”
With profuse thanks to the Solos, but still no explanation for Lenka, we set off on a search. We found our prodigal R6 and R7 droids a few minutes later, hanging out with a very familiar blue-and-white R2. Hyper, of course, had come with us from Earth. R6-F5 was the droid I’d flown with in Rogue Squadron while Hyper was on Lenka-watch at the hospital. I hadn’t given him a name, but Lenka would later call him Aral when he became her official droid partner after she joined Terra Group.
“Hyper, I need you to transfer all my personal files to R6,” I said.
Hyper made a rude sound that didn’t require a translator.
“Copy! I meant copy all of my files to R6, so that you both have a full set. Can you do that in the next couple of hours?”
This time Hyper whistled an affirmative that still managed to sound a little offended.
“Okay…” Lenka said. “Now what?”
“Now we go see Master Skywalker.”
After dinner the entire academy gathered in the iconic throne room at the top of the temple. I convinced Master Skywalker to make the evening a special event for the students. Sweet drinks and snacks usually banned at the academy were freely available, and the audience was abuzz with speculation. I ushered Mara, Han, Leia, and Chewie to reserved seats in the front row, with a spot left open for Luke. Hyper and R6 stood a few meters apart in front of the crowd.
Before we began, Luke stood to address the crowd. “As many of you know, Jedi Cochran and Lady Leannan will be leaving us soon. Before they go they wanted to share some of the culture of their homeworld with us. So we’re letting the younglings stay up a little later than usual because Jedi Cochran promises me that what he’s about to show you was a favorite of his when he was a youngling. And I hope I don’t regret this later.”
Luke took his seat and I nodded to a padawan at the back of the room to dim the lights. At their signal Hyper and R6 activated their holoprojectors, each displaying half of a flat image, which they perfectly meshed with the other to create one huge projection across the front of the room.
I took my place next to Lenka as a bombastic fanfare played. On the virtual movie screen at the front of the room, yellow text crawled up into infinity.
——
“I wish Hyper and Aral were here to do their part,” Lenka said.
“Me too. I hope we get to see them in a couple of days,” I said.
We were setting up a projector the old fashioned way - plugging in an extension cord and focusing them image manually. I hadn’t considered in a long time how spoiled we once were by having droids with so many different uses. Tonight we’d borrowed the projector from the palace’s movie theater for lack of astromech droids or holoprojectors.
“Remember the first time we watched a movie together?” Lenka asked.
On this very projector, in fact. “Oh God,” I said. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
Lenka’s laugh echoed in the empty hangar. Empty of ship, but in a more important sense the place was more full than it had been in a very long time. We were setting up a temporary theater against one of the side walls. Around us were our friends - our family - we hadn’t seen in so long. With the work done, at least for tonight, we were enjoying a quiet evening together. The lights were out in the rest of the Batcave and dimmed here in the hangar. We had piled a table high with pizza, popcorn, drinks, and candy.
Jake chased after Cordelia and Izzy, with Minnie following along as fast as her little legs could carry her. Riehn stood back trying hard to pretend he didn’t want to join in. Becki stood nearby chatting with her old wingmate Mike. Thayer, Kristy, Noreh, and Syl sat in a loose semicircle having an animated conversation. Every person in the room was smiling.
When the projector was ready Lenka drifted away to join Thayer’s group. I wandered over to Becki and Mike. Becki gave me a hug and Mike a clap on the back, and we all said how good it was to see so many of us back together. Then we fell silent for a moment while we watched the kids play.
“I can’t believe how big they all are,”Mike said.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Becki said. “But you’d think they’d been together every day of their lives.”
“Daddy!” Jake’s little voice called out. “I want to watch the movie!” Four other small heads nodded in agreement.
“Guess we can’t argue with that,” Mike said with a chuckle.
The kids pooled all their blankets and pillows to make one big pallet on the floor and laid down side by side. Lenka and I settled in on a very comfortable couch pulled in from the lounge while Becki and Thayer took a spot on its mate. Kristy, Noreh, Syl, and Mike pulled up folding camp chairs and desk chairs. Just as I was about to start, Syl said, “So, what’s the movie?”
I thought it went without saying, but several of the others gave me the same curious look. I smiled back at them, happy to be seeing their faces again. “What else? Back to where it all began.”
——
“Not bad. But I’m much better looking than that guy.”
“And I was never that whiney.”
“Oh yes you were!”
“Can you believe I ever wore my hair like that?”
“GrrrrrROWRroogrr!”
“I did give you a medal! They just got that part wrong!”
“Much better looking, I’m telling you…”