Prologue


The setting sun ignited the fluffy clouds with brilliant color. Another beautiful evening had arrived on the planet best known for her natural wonders. Hugging her arms across her chest, Leia Organa-Solo closed her eyes and allowed the refreshingly cool, evening wind to caress her face, and toss about her long, loose, sable hair.

All around her, the bounty of unspoiled nature impregnated the Force. The pungently sweet smell of stargazer lilies filled the air. As the former Chief of State inhaled their floral scent, the white moonflowers unfurled their cavernously wide petals and released their soft fragrance into the evening’s air. They added yet another enchantingly heady aroma to her garden of wonders.

Naboo.

The home of her mother, her real mother.

It was glorious. Yet until relatively recently, it hadn’t always been this way. Several years ago her family rediscovered the forgotten planet that had been ravaged during the Clone Wars. The architecture of its grand and noble past had been shattered by missiles and Naboo’s very land had been poisoned by the corrupting fingers of war.

Jaina had taken it upon herself to bring Naboo back to its former glory by rebuilding the capital of Theed and reseeding her scorched lands. Her daughter had done a marvelous job, and Naboo once again was a thriving world known for its culture, natural wonders, and high ideals of Democracy.

Padding her bare feet over the still warm terra-cotta tiles along the garden’s path, Leia touched the slightly sticky petals of a stargazer lily and sighed with melancholy. To many, Naboo was a place without equal in the Galaxy. But she knew differently.

Once upon a time another planet existed that was as fair, and as richly delightful as Naboo.

Tears sprung to Leia’s eyes as her mind relived the singular horrific event that was forever burned into her brain. Throughout her childhood, her father had taught her to fear the power of evil, but it wasn’t until that day that she ever fully understood the true meaning of being heartless. Nothing had prepared her for the cruel nature of tyranny. As if swatting aside a gnat, Governor Tarkin gladly destroyed her heart in one single blow.

Alderaan.

Even though the land looked different than Naboo, Alderaan had been her sister planet. Covered in sweeping grassy plains Alderaan was a land of peace. The Alderaanians built their cities as close together as possible to disrupt as little of the natural unity of the land as possible. The buildings were also constructed and designed to resemble natural structures to help make them appear to belong in harmony with the land. Alderaan had no weapons, for war was not their way of life. They didn’t even have their own militia for crime was practically non-existent there. Her homeworld had been utterly defenseless, had never done anything to anyone.

And Tarkin had ordered the destruction of the entire planet as carelessly as if he had ordered someone to throw out the garbage. Two hundred million souls were lost in a second. She brushed aside the wet trails from her cheeks with the heels of her fists. The wounds on her heart from that event had never healed. When Alderaan had exploded, a part of her heart had died along with her father.

Overhead the stars began to emerge from their daily slumber and the breeze turned cooler. Vigorously rubbing her shivering arms, Leia returned to her bungalow. Entering over the threshold she was immediately warmed by the temperate air that enveloped her body. Walking into the tiny living room, her eyes drifted towards the series of family portraits that lined the many tables and walls of the room. Images of her children, brother, and their beloveds filled most of the frames. One frame contained a few holo-images, saved by her Naberrie cousins of her parents…her natural parents. They were so young and happy, blissfully clueless that their lives would be ripped to shreds. Padme and Anakin remained unaware that their forbidden union would one day leave scars on the haunted souls of their heirs.

Nowhere did she have a single holoimage of the people she considered to be her true parents. It was almost as if they never existed. They now only lived in her memory.

Sitting down at her desk, Leia absently massaged her fingers over her scalp, through her mountains of thick, graying hair. A few weeks ago an off-handed comment from her youngest son, Anakin, had stuck in her mind and still weighed heavily on her conscious.

Do you know what I love so much about being with Tenel Ka? She’s grounded. Her family has roots and traditions that we can pass on to our daughters. Our family has no real roots, we’re all nomads in this Galaxy

Choking back a sob, Leia couldn’t argue with that. Her son’s words stung, and whenever she thought of them, she couldn’t help but feel like a failure as a parent. The more she contemplated things, the more she realized that the Solos and Skywalkers were drifters, not having one singular place that they could unanimously call home.

Luke tried his best to forget Tatooine. And although her three children were mostly raised on Coruscant, the metropolis homeworld of the New Republic wasn’t exactly a place that one would ever consider homey. Han came from Corellia, but little of his family still lived and he had never felt any real connection there to pass onto their children.

They all had unanimously adopted Naboo as their homeplanet, for it was where their family matriarch Padme Naberrie had been born and raised. Leia supposed that maybe in several generations, her great-great-grandchildren would consider Naboo to be home, but for now her own family didn’t have such a place.

Drumming her fingers on the antique Nubian carved writer’s desk, Leia puzzled over the dilemma. Her hand lingered to her waist and fell upon her lightaber. Inside the chamber held a small pinkish crystal that had been a shard of Alderaan.

Tears again threatened to fall as she thought about the wasted opportunity of being able to share her homeplanet with her children. They would never know its beauty, or learn to love the wonderful people who had inhabited the planet. The only place Leia’s heart would ever call home no longer existed…

…except in her mind.

Closing her eyes an idea triggered as to how she could help to meld together a bit of her family’s fractured heritage. Gazing at Anakin and Padme’s photos, her heart longed to know what they were thinking on that day that they were taken. She wished someone had recorded their thoughts, and their dreams, so she and her brother could’ve learned more about those who had given them life, for holoimages didn’t speak.

On Alderaan oral tradition and story-telling were the people’s favorite ways to pass their time. It was also why that after Alderaan had been destroyed so much cultural information of her homeworld had vanished forever. She couldn’t bring Alderaan back from the ashes, nor could she call upon the mighty, all-encompassing Force for assistance; but Leia could bring Alderaan’s spirit back to life through the power of words.

Determined to show her children that they did not come from nowhere, that they weren’t from a family of nomads, Leia stood up and strode across the room. There she rifled through her bookcases and extracted a beautifully bound notebook. One of the things she loved about the Naboo was that they cherished actually paper books for Leia thought them to be much more personal than any datapad. Selecting a pen from her desk, she tucked her feet under her body and curled into a ball onto a squashy couch.

Opening the front cover she placed the pen over front page and thought for just a moment of what to write. Then in long and even strokes, she penned:

Memories of my Beloved Alderaan, By Leia Organa-Solo

And as a smile spread across her lips, she chased away her tears and allowed herself to be teleported back in time to a place where every object was a potential marvel to a child. In her mind’s eye the beauty of her beloved Alderaan flashed into vivid detail as words sprang to life onto her page.