Star Wars:

When Alderaan Went Kablooey...

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Author: Marina Kenobi

Summary: A simple tale of a group of people whose lives were affected by the destruction of Alderaan.

Spoilers: For the original Star Wars movie, but who hasn’t seen that? A few spoilers for some of Corra Ven-Jade’s stories.

Disclaimer: As much fun as it would be to own the Star Wars universe, I don’t. Mr. Lucas does. I just borrowed it for a little while… I don’t think anyone would want me to have control of it permanently! I’m not making any money off this story. I also stole most of Corra’s characters for this story…They’re kinda fun to play with! (I promise to put them back when I’m done…)

Feedback: Marina_Kenobi@yahoo.com or Arcadia_Organa@hotmail.com …I like constructive criticism, not flames!

Acknowledgements: My fearless editor Marista…thanks for taking time to look for my mistakes. And muchas gracias to Corra…for the laughs, ideas, snacks, encouragement, characters, Mr. X, and duct-tape…

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The couple arrived at Aldera Spaceport two hours later, bags in hand. They made their way towards Docking Bay 627, where two ships were waiting—a shuttle and a Corellian freighter. Familiar faces were waiting as well.

“Dia, Jakory,” Aryn Dro Thul glided over to them, greeting them warmly. “I’m glad to see you’re here as planned.”

“Where can we put our bags, Aryn?” Jakory asked her.

“Bornan can show you,” Aryn responded. “Here he comes now.”

“Arcadia, Jakory,” Bornan Thul said, walking up to them. “You beat Leonia and her husband here.”

“Bags, Bornan?” Jakory replied.

“Follow me,” Bornan said. Jakory took his wife’s bag as well as his own and followed Bornan up the ramp of the shuttle.

“My in-laws haven’t shown up yet?” Arcadia asked Aryn.

Aryn shook her head, causing her braided chestnut hair to swish over her shoulder. “They must have taken Jerik’s friend out to breakfast.”

“Probably,” Arcadia agreed. “Kory told me that Jerik’s friend and Jerik and Corra go back a long ways—longer than we’ve been around.”

“That is a long time,” Aryn commented. She glanced over Arcadia’s shoulder and spotted three people walking into the Docking Bay. “Looks like they just arrived now.”

Arcadia turned around to face the two men and the one woman walking towards them. One of the men was unfamiliar to Arcadia. He was very tall, with short greying dark hair. He was wearing a slight grin on his face. He had to be Arcadia’s father-in-law’s friend. The other man was quite familiar to Arcadia. He was taller than Arcadia, although he was slightly shorter than Jakory, and had short sandy hair that showed a bit of grey. This was Jerik Taren, Jakory’s father and Arcadia’s father-in-law. The woman that was with them was short and had beautiful red-gold curls, which were loosely tied back today. Arcadia felt her husband return and put his arm around her shoulders.

“You feeling okay?” he whispered in her ear.

Arcadia took a second to shoot a glare at him, then focused her attention back on the arriving persons. The woman greeted them first.

“Aryn, Bornan, Dia, Kory,” she said cheerfully. “It’s wonderful to see you all again!”

Jakory let go of his wife and hugged the woman. He kissed her on the cheek. “How are you doing, Mom?”

“Pretty good,” Corra Taren responded. She let go of her son and turned to her daughter-in-law. Arcadia gave Corra a hug.

“Your hair looks beautiful as always, Corra,” she teased her mother-in-law.

“And yours doesn’t?” Corra responded, smiling.

“I wonder sometimes,” Arcadia kidded.

Meanwhile, Jakory had been greeting his father. The two men were pretty close, and they had a weird system of greeting each other. Jerik then gave his son’s wife a hug.

“Hello, Dia,” he said. “Has Kory been a good boy and been complimenting you like he should be?”

Arcadia laughed. “Yeah, he’s been pretty good lately.”

“Good,” Jerik proclaimed. Jakory shook his head in exasperation. Arcadia stifled another laugh.

Jerik’s friend cleared his throat. Jerik did a double take. “Oops. Sorry, forgot about you for a second.”

Corra laughed. “Somebody’s getting old, I think.”

Jerik’s friend laughed as well.

“Anyway,” Jerik announced. “Aaron, this is my 26 year old son Jakory, and his older wife Arcadia. Kory, Dia, this is my old friend Aaron Strider.”

Aaron took Arcadia’s hand and kissed it. “It’s nice to meet you, Lady Arcadia.” He had a thick Corellian accent.

“Dia,” she corrected. “People rarely call me by my full name.”

Aaron nodded and said, “Dia, then.” He turned to Jakory and shook his hand. “And it’s great to meet you, Jakory,” he said. “You look like you take after your father.”

Jakory raised an eyebrow. “Is that a compliment or an insult?”

Aaron laughed. “Sound like him too.”

Three more people entered the Docking Bay. Two were carrying bags: a tall, dark man and a medium-height blonde with streaks of red-haired woman. The third person, a woman, was as short as Corra. She looked similar to Arcadia, only with long blonde hair. This was Jana Organa, Dia’s mother.

The blonde with the bag was the first to speak. “Why am I not surprised that we’re the last to arrive?” She smiled and shrugged. “Hello, Aryn, Bornan, Dia, Kory, Dad, Mom, and Dad’s friend. Nice to see you all.”

“This is your daughter?” Aaron asked Corra and Jerik.

“Yep,” Jerik replied. “Aaron, this is Leonia and her husband, Mrlin.”

“Mrlin what?” Aaron asked.

Leonia glanced at her husband, the tall dark man, and raised an eyebrow.

“Mrlin Xicmoar’rrianaa,” he replied with a perfectly straight face.

“Xic what?” Aaron asked with the same confusion everyone else had felt the first time that they had heard the name.

“Just call me Mrlin,” he said. “Not even my wife can pronounce our last name.”

“You have to admit, ‘Mr. X’ works just fine,” the person in question told him.

“Yes, dear,” Mrlin responded dryly.

Arcadia went and greeted her mother, as did Jakory. Then he went with Bornan and Mrlin back onto the shuttle to store the Xicmoar’rrianaa’s baggage. Aaron and Jerik disappeared onto the Corellian freighter. Aryn and Leonia began some rather animated catch-up conversation, so Arcadia was left with her mother-in-law and her mother.

The two older women shared a mischievous look, then faced Arcadia. Jana began the conversation.

“Arcadia, when can Corra and I begin planning on some grandchildren?”

“Mother!” Arcadia exclaimed. Jakory and she had agreed to wait and tell anyone of her pregnancy until it couldn’t be avoided. Arcadia had told Jakory in no uncertain terms that she was not going to have everyone being overprotective of her until it was obvious. So her mother could not have known that a grandchild was only six months away…could she?

Corra spoke up. “Oh, come on, Dia. We old women need something to do. You and Jakory would make wonderful parents. I don’t see why you haven’t had children before now.”

“Unless…is something wrong with one of you?” Jana asked in a hushed tone.

Arcadia could feel herself blushing. “No, Mom, we’re perfectly healthy.”

“And you do…” she pressed on, letting Dia finish the question in her mind.

Arcadia’s cheeks were getting hotter by the moment. “Yes, Mom! Quite regularly!” She suddenly felt very embarrassed. “I can’t believe I’m talking about my sex life with you!” she hissed.

Corra and Jana exchanged smiles. “What are mothers for?” Corra teased.

“You–” Arcadia started to say, but her husband had exited the shuttle and was coming towards them.

“Can I talk to you for a second, Dia?” Jakory asked her. She nodded, her cheeks still flushed.

“Hope you don’t mind, ladies,” he said to his mother and mother-in-law.

They both shook their heads, eyes merry with their private mirth.

Jakory lead Dia by the arm to a secluded part of the Docking Bay. The two mothers stood watching them, then looked at each other. They started to giggle, like teenage girls. They had to look away to stop laughing, so Corra looked at Jakory and Dia while Jana looked at Leonia and Aryn.

When Jana’s giggling had subsided, she looked back at Corra. Corra’s giggling had stopped too, but she was still watching her son and his wife, narrowing her green eyes in thought.

“What is it, Corra?” Jana asked, trusting her friend’s intuition.

“I think Dia’s expecting,” she replied, her eyes still on the couple.

“What?!” Jana hissed. “Why do you think that?”

“A combination of reasons,” Corra responded, turning towards her friend. “Reason one: Dia’s initial reaction to the subject of grandchildren. Rather than simply question ‘why’ or raise an eyebrow, she immediately went on the defensive. That’s not our semi-laid-back Dia.” After receiving a nod from Jana, she continued. “Reason two: Jakory.”

“What about Jakory?” Jana replied. “He’s her husband. What else?”

“I’ve been watching what he’s been doing,” Corra answered. “When Jerik, Aaron, and I arrived, Jakory protectively put an arm around Dia’s shoulders and asked her something. I can only assume he was asking her something like ‘are you all right’ because Dia immediately glared at him. You know how much she likes Jakory fussing over her.”

“Yes. Not at all,” Jana said.

Corra nodded. “And so usually Kory never asks her anything like that. Two other times I noticed Jakory acting unusual. The first was when Aaron took Dia’s hand and kissed it. Jakory stiffened slightly. He had never been jealous before, ever since they’ve gotten married. And some old guy isn’t really anything to get jealous about, unless the woman he’s flirting with is suddenly much more precious, just because of carrying a child.”

“You have a point there,” Jana agreed. “What’s the last unusual behavior?”

“It happened just now,” Corra said. She nodded towards where Jakory and Dia were still speaking. “He keeps putting his hand on Dia’s arm or shoulder as they’re talking, as if reassuring himself that she’s fine and she’s right there. And whatever they’re talking about has Dia looking annoyed.”

“What do you attribute these behaviors to?” Jana asked.

“Overprotectiveness. Jerik acted close to the same way when I was pregnant with our children. Especially when I was pregnant with Leonia, since she was our first.”

“It makes sense, actually,” Jana mused.

“I know,” said Corra.

The two women looked at each other for a moment. Then they both started to grin.

“We’re going to be grandmothers!” Jana proclaimed.

“We shouldn’t let on we know,” Corra suggested. “Let them tell us when they want us to know.”

“Deal,” Jana agreed.

By the time the two women had agreed on this, everyone else was starting to reappear and form a big group.

There were two different trips occurring. The first trip was going to be taken aboard the Corellian freighter. A few days before, Aaron had contacted Jerik. They were both former Corellian Security employees who had a reason to hate the Empire. Some of the former CorSec officers were getting together to figure out how to assist the Rebellion. When Jerik had agreed, Aaron had flown to Alderaan. They were going to fly back to Corellia that morning. Corra had been invited along, but she told Jerik that she wouldn’t dare infringe on the reminiscing about CorSec and the old days.

The other trip that was occurring involved almost everyone else—Aryn, Bornan, Dia, Jakory, Leonia, and Mrlin. Bornan and Aryn had to attend delicate trade negotiations which could affect the future of the Thul’s trading company. They had invited their friends along to tour their fleet and to give some support during difficult negotiations.

Bornan glanced at his chronometer. “It’s about time to go,” he informed his group of people. The pre-flights had already been run.

Hugs and good-byes from their family bombarded Jerik, Corra, and Jana. Finally, everyone was on board—except Dia. She lingered a moment, waved one last time to Jana and Corra, then entered the ship. The ramp sealed closed behind her.

“I think we’re going to head out, too,” Jerik said to Corra. He leaned down and gave her a brief kiss. “See you in a few days.”

Corra frowned. She had a puzzled look on her face.

“What is it?” Jerik asked, his brown eyes tracing her face.

Corra shook her head, then looked up at Jerik. “I got a weird feeling when you said you’d see me in a few days, that’s all.”

“A premonition?” Jerik suggested. His eyes showed concern. “Would you rather I didn’t go?”

Corra shook her head. “No, you should go. Really, I’m sure it was nothing.”

Jerik didn’t sound totally convinced. “Well, alright. If you think so.” Aaron was waiting patiently at the bottom of the ramp. The other ship was just taking off. Jerik started to turn and head toward the ramp.

“Wait!” Corra reached out and caught hold of Jerik’s arm. He turned back obediently and raised an eyebrow.

Corra glanced down briefly, then back at her husband. “I think Dia’s pregnant,” she told him in a low voice, for his ears only.

Jerik’s eyes widened at his wife’s pronouncement, but he didn’t question her instinct. All too often her “hunches” had played out accurately.

“I just wanted you to know that,” she said softly. She looked back down at the ground. “I’m going to miss you,” she managed hoarsely.

Jerik took his wife into his arms, comforting her. He had been with this woman for nearly half his life, and knew her differing moods well. “I’ll miss you too, Corra,” he tried to say gruffly. Instead it came out in a kind of choke. He pulled away from her and kissed her gently.

“Taren, we should get going,” Aaron said from the ramp.

Jerik let go of his wife and turned to go up the ramp.

“I love you!” Corra said to him. Aaron made it inside the ship. Jerik was about to enter it when he turned around suddenly and looked back at Corra.

“I love you, Corra. Don’t forget it,” he replied. Then he disappeared into the ship. The ramp closed, and a minute later, the Corellian freighter left Docking Bay 627 and its two occupants behind.

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