solo_sword | Duro, Tuesday Fandom time

From Coruscant, Jaina was shuttled off to a refugee camp on Duro they were calling Thirty-Two. At first she'd been alarmed to find out that she was being taken from her squadron to be placed there, until she found out that was where Han and Jacen had ended up. She didn't know how, she didn't know why, except that do-gooding ran in the family so of course they found a refugee camp to run, she just wanted to see them. So to speak.

She was getting twitchy when they landed, but they had to prep her and make sure she was fit to be released and then they had the nerve to send a medical droid along with her to meet her father and brother. It annoyed her more than anything, and she'd taken to swatting at it as it tried to escort her bodily. "I can walk down a ramp," she told it, ignoring her limp and the pains in her legs to walk right up to them. That particular injury would go away soon enough, she wasn't going to pretend that it was a big deal. "Hi, Dad. Hello, Jacen. Thanks for coming to pick up the pieces."

It hadn't actually been that long since Han had visited her- longer for him, true- but she still got a hug out of it. She wasn't turning it down. She'd spent days alone in the dark with no one but medical droids for company. She welcomed this. Jacen joined in a second later, and Jaina found herself frowning, grumbling, "I'm not a skeleton leaf," attempting to hug them harder to prove her point. She could see this getting old fast.

When they'd separated, the medical droid gave Han some instructions, and thanks, no better way to make Jaina feel like she was something to be taken care of. At the same time, she was almost glad he had to deal with it instead of her. Newly-supposedly seventeen or not, there were times it was perfectly acceptable to let your daddy handle things, and that mainly meant the things that were too tedious or annoying for you.

"You can see well enough to recognize us," Jacen said. "That's not bad."

"I can tell you apart through the Force," Jaina replied. "What I see is shadows and darker shadows. It's getting better." Too slowly. Yes, she was impatient. "I can already make out shapes on a threat board. Sending me here was a waste of fuel- unless you've heard something I haven't." She folded her arms over her chest and frowned at Jacen. "Am I terminal or something, and they just haven't told me?"

Jacen seemed startled she would even ask that. "No! No, you're healing well. They just didn't want to risk you in combat. Or risk that you'd endanger someone else."

That was not what Jaina wanted to hear. "Not you, too," she sighed, pulling off the stupid mask. Maybe she could be treated like normal if she looked like normal.

Once Han was finished dealing with the medical team, probably getting more instructions on how to take care of his damaged daughter, he slipped an arm around Jaina's shoulders and said, "Come inside, sweetie. I'll get you settled before I head back to the pumping station."

She didn't fight him on it. The great thing about Han was that he probably couldn't care less what she looked like. He'd be as protective as always, or at least he'd somehow make it easier for her to go along with being protected. Without kicking and screaming.

*****

Even if he was trying not to use the Force like a dummy, it was Jacen who came to the hut to wake Jaina in the dead of night a few days later. She woke to a light shaking, opening her eyes to turn her head and look in his direction. "Jacen? What is it?"

"Sorry to wake you," he said, whispering so as not to wake Clarani, the Ryn whose temporary home she'd invaded while she was here. "Come outside so we can talk."

She didn't argue, just rolled off her cot and fumbled for her mask, pulling it on before following him outside the hut. "You don't have to tell me," she said, volume normal outside. "Something's wrong."

"You feel it, too?"

Jaina was definitely awake now, which could probably be blamed on enough time spent going from bored to adrenaline-shocked into battle situations. "Danger. To the whole colony," she said, leaning against the hut for support as she stretched out with the Force, trying to get a more definite pinpoint on it. She couldn't place it, though; as strong as this sense was that something was happening, it wasn't clear. Considering the last time she'd felt like this, someone ended up dying of a plague, she wasn't happy with her reading. She shook her head, telling him, "I can't find anything wrong. Sithspawn, I hope we don't have Vong on the way."

"One way to find out," said Jacen, tugging her hand so she would follow him to the control shed.

There, Jaina told the night tech about their bad feeling, ending on, "We don't know what it is, but we're both getting it. Keep a tight watch."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, and though the salute he tossed off wasn't official, it was really nice to be taken seriously.

Which was probably why once they were back outside and in place to get a good view, Jaina kept issuing orders. Reaching for the illumination control on the daylamps, she said, "Okay, brother, you're the one with the functioning eyesight. Get a good look."

Without arguing, he climbed the shed and went silent as he searched, but Jaina could tell when he found something. "What is it?" she called.

"I'm not sure," he called back. "Looks like- huh. Almost looks like young mynocks, or..." He paused, and she could hear him climbing back down the rungs. "I'll be right back."

Jaina sighed after him, not wanting to remind him that he wasn't finishing his sentences, and he did just leave his mostly-blind sister behind, so of course she followed him. And the "What?" she greeted him with when she found him again might have been a little on the pissy side.

The anger dissipated a little when she got a clear sense of Jacen's concern. "Wake Dad up," he said. "Fast."

What it was was an infestation, winged adult insects feeding off the buildings themselves, probably already laying eggs for a second wave of this. It didn't take long to figure out that Thirty-Two was no longer safe, and immediately after that, Han ordered the evacuation.

*****

Jaina sat beside Jacen on the crowded crawler as they made their way to another camp called Gateway, a little amazed at the Ryn making the trip with them. Evacuated in the middle of the night, stuffed into a hot, smelly transport, and they were singing. She would be annoyed, but she couldn't find it in her. She wasn't sure where her father had gotten to, but once the crawler had stopped and let them off, she figured they'd find him. While she was managing getting around fine with her limited sight, she let Jacen lead. As the crewer had said over the comlink, Jacen was second-in-command of the Thirty-Two refugees. She'd rather tag along with one of the important people.

She could hear the vehicle pull up, and a moment later felt Jacen nudge her, like she wasn't getting the exact same sense from it that she was. She knew who was on it.

The twins turned to watch their father arrive to greet the transport, Jaina squinting so that she could only make out blurry shapes and the orange chem suits of the administration team traveling inside. Han hadn't really noticed anything yet, too busy yelling back at Droma, best described as Han's new bff, about something or other. He used to talk that way to Chewie, too. "No, they don't have repulsor combs. We're just going to have to do this-"

"The hard way? What do you care, if they take off that little patch of fur on top of your empty head?" Droma asked. Point to Droma, he could give it right back like Chewie could, too. "Do you have any idea how cold-"

One of the smaller orange-suited figures reached them, and they both dropped their argument. Han put on his best authority figure act right away. "Hello. Thanks for sending the crawlers, but we've got a slight problem. One of your crewers just found something he thought was an egg. We've got to find out where those bugs came from, but my people here deserve a little respect."

"We'll do our best," said the orange suit, voice sounding a little unfamiliar in the mask she had to wear. "Equal treatment for everyone. SELCORE is enormously grateful for the refugee sponsors."

"Glad you understand. Han Solo."

Jaina couldn't see what was happening, exactly, but she did see a movement of orange, followed by Han's protest of "Hey, wait. You'll end up in decontamination."

The mask came off, and though Jaina couldn't make out her mother's face, she didn't really need to. "That's all right."

It was hard to get a good read off of Leia, but Jaina was suddenly remembering why this reunion wasn't immediately a happy one. Her parents weren't on great terms. She herself was angry at Leia. And Jaina really did feel more distant than she had in a while. Han and Jacen were easy. They didn't come with baggage.

Of course Leia went straight into being an administrator before all else. Typical. She addressed Droma first, saying, "If your people have to be decontaminated, I'll show them Gateway and SELCORE are with them, not against them." And then she turned to Han, saying, "Besides, I had no idea you were here. I should have known, but... I don't think you ever sent over a roster."

There was her dad's trademark grin. Jaina could see the motion more than the look itself. "We, ah, didn't. I suspect SELCORE's been too busy administering Gateway to notice."

Silence for a moment, and then Leia threw her arms around Han. It didn't seem to be the most comfortable thing in the world, but Jaina knew that might be her own impressions coloring it. Leia turned to Jacen next, and he looked a little uncertain as to whether he should hug her, due to exposure worries. "Hello, Mom."

To her credit, Leia seemed to not care so much about things like quarantine. She already had her mask off, after all. She even took off the chem suit over her clothes before embracing Jacen. "By the Force, you're as big as your father."

Wee little smaller-than-Leia Jaina hung back, not really sure whether she was even a part of this, or whether she wanted to be. And probably mostly due to surprise, she didn't get a hug or a proper hello. "What are you doing here?" Leia asked.

Jaina held up her mask. "Sick leave," she explained, and couldn't resist adding, "We tried to find you."

"Were you injured?" Leia asked, definitely sounding more concerned. Good.

"Temporary partial blindness. Nothing serious." That bit wasn't Jaina being bitchy. She was downplaying her injuries to everyone. Even herself, if she was being honest. She did throw Leia a line, though, dropping her voice and saying, "Get it straight with Dad, Mom. That's first." And then headed away. A moment later Jaina felt a little touch through the Force, but she all but shrugged it off and didn't even think about returning it.

She stayed off by herself for a while, even when she heard the announcements across the camp. First from Leia, and then from Han, ordering the sick and wounded to the debarking area. Jaina knew that included her, but she hadn't moved from her spot against the wall of the building. She hated being wounded, she hated having to go through processing first, and despite all her complaints about Leia not being there, she kind of hated that they'd come to her without meaning to after she and Jacen had resorted to trying to find her themselves. She really would rather stand here and sulk. It was practically her birthright.

It was only a matter of time before Leia found her, of course, not greeting her with a hello, but a "Didn't you hear the announcement? We're processing anyone sick or wounded first, so we can get them into our medical facility. I'll walk you through."

Sure, now she wanted to help. "Thanks, but if Coruscant's med center couldn't do anything for me, I doubt yours can," Jaina told her, just barely managing to keep her tone civil.

Leia seemed to catch the shrug-off, saying, "I can use you, personally. I'm swamped out there. I have an aide, but by the time everyone here gets out of quarantine, I'll be so far behind that-"

Jaina couldn't see why Leia stopped talking, but at least it stopped the sarcastic thoughts of spending more time with her mother. She reached into the Force, trying to find out what the interruption was, but couldn't sense anyone there. With her mask off, she was taking to squinting until she heard, "What is it, Threepio?"

Aha. That was why she couldn't sense him. "Excuse me," Threepio said, sounding apologetic as he launched into a list of all the things that Jaina had spent so much time complaining about, "but there is a priority transmission from Bburru waiting on line six. And the report you requested from Dr. Cree'Ar-"

"That'll keep," Leia interrupted. "Say hello to Jaina."

Threepio got as far as "Hello, Mistress Jai-" before Jaina made a face and cut him off. She just couldn't stand here and do this, and she didn't want to go with her mother, and there weren't words to describe how frustrated she was at all of this.

"Good to see you, Threepio." And remembering a certain talk with her grandfather, she added, "You and I need to talk, by the way."

Turning to Leia, she found the words just spilling out. Not that she felt like stopping them at all. "You'll never catch up. Not with my help, not with a dozen assistants. That's because you take on everyone else's problems. Well, you weren't there for mine. Not even the military could find you, Mother. I thought you'd finally been caught by some unreconstructed Imperial terrorist, or that the Yuuzhan Vong dropped a moon on you. Jacen and I tried to find you from Thirty-Two. What a joke. First we couldn't get an outsystem connection. When we finally reached SELCORE, we got Viqi Shesh. That was another joke."

Leia was calm when she spoke. "I haven't checked my reports, but if she wanted to find me, she could." Unsurprising. Spend two thirds of your life as a diplomat and eventually you'd end up using those skills on your kid, even if it meant you just refrained from thwapping them.

"I don't care," Jaina said bluntly, shaking her head. "I don't want special treatment. I want to help these people. What about the old ones? There's no treatment that will cure their aches and pains. Before, at least they had their ways, their traditional meds. Now they've got nothing. Are you going to process all of them through first, too?"

"Yes. Immediately after the-"

Decontamination. She knew it. She and Jacen had both decided easily to go through it rather than stay in quarantine because the Ryn- the fur-covered Ryn- would have to. She wasn't vain, and she was confident enough that it wouldn't bother John that much, so what did she care? Still, she didn't have to like what they'd be going through. "Shaved, Mother? The old people?"

Threepio apparently wasn't happy with the way this exchange was going, trying to calm things down a bit. "Mistress Jaina, you will be pleased be our relatively fine medical facil-"

This time he was cut off by Leia. "Jaina, I'm trying to help them- and you."

Oh, that was funny. Gritting her teeth, she bit out, "Maybe I just don't want the help anymore. You showed me I had to do without you. So I did."

She'd intended to make a dramatic exit, but Leia wasn't letting her get away that easily. "You seem to have missed something," she said, following her. "I'll be decontaminating out of here, the same as you, the same as anyone. Think about it."

Jaina stopped, stunned. It was a relatively little thing, something that shouldn't have mattered at all, but it did. Her mother was known for her hair. There were very few times Jaina couldn't remember ever seeing it in some elaborate style that she'd never dream of recreating. And Leia was willing to give up her trademark, and a big vanity thing, just like that. "You're kidding," she said quietly. "Mother, if you... how long did it take you to grow it that long?"

"That's not even remotely important," Leia answered. "You are. I suppose we won't ever find it easy to live in the same place again. We're too much alike."

It was true. Jaina was like her father in all the ways that allowed them to get along, and like her mother in all the ways that made it difficult. "Bullheaded, obstinate, perfectionist... me?" she asked, her grin a touch self-depricating. "How could you accuse me of-"

"Heredity. And environment. You were doomed," Leia assured her. "At least you've got your father's luck."

[NFI, NFB, OOC okay, dialogue cribbed from Balance Point by Kathy Tyers, who could have slipped my girl a Midol somewhere in that book, good lord. Also it's her fault this is so long. *blames author*]

Duro, Tuesday Fandom time

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