Destinies Entwined: Jaina’s Journey

A pair of tired, brown eyes gazed out a portal window across a blackened sea alit by an endless brilliance of stars. As a child, the young woman often wondered if it would ever be possible to visit all of the planets that circled each gaseous star. Feeling emotionally drained after two long weeks of being cooped up in her X-Wing, Jaina Solo now knew the impossibility of that childish dream. She massaged her fingers through her longer than usual, thick, straight brown hair and sighed deeply, realizing that she’d certainly made her best attempt at accomplishing that goal. At only twenty-four Jaina felt older than her years. Like her father would say, It ain’t the years but the parsecs that count, kid. A grin that eerily mirrored her famous father’s trademark smirk spread across Jaina’s face as she didn’t want to contemplate how many hours she had logged circumventing the Galaxy in her X-Wing. Placing her hands on her back she twisted her upper body and grimaced with relief as her aching back cracked and popped.

Jaina stomped on the heel of her right boot and flung the heavy piece of footwear across the room. She bent over with a groan and shoved off her left boot and released her foot from its nerfhide prison. Flexing her toes she collapsed backwards onto her bed and kneaded her fingers into her cheekbones.

She and her pilots returned to Orion Four base to re-energize their spirits and to attend to any required maintenance on their ships. Jaina lived to fly, and loved being the best of the X-Wing Rouge Squadron pilots, however during the past couple of weeks she felt trapped in her cockpit. The stench of the re-circulated air in her cock-pit made her want to gag. Her constant need for speed seeped away as an impervious feeling of restlessness began to control her spirit. Her life seemed imbalanced. She couldn’t place a finger on the core of her problem. She’d seen plenty of action in the past year with her flying, and had garnished four accommodations and advancements in the ranks in Rouge Squadron. Wedge positively glowed with pride over her accomplishments. Professionally her life was fine. Personally, it was non-existent. She flirted a bit with one of the other pilots, but nothing romantically triggered beyond their professional friendships. Oftentimes, the men feared her Jedi mystique and more readily, her short-fused temper. Although Jaina often pontificated the virtue of duty and lived for the job, she found herself longing to find that certain someone who would suddenly make work secondary in her life. She wanted to be loved.

Moaning, she shoved herself up onto her elbows then launched her restless self off of her bed. Full of pent up energy, Jaina changed into swimming gear, wiggled into a pair of sandals, and headed for the pool on Level 4. As she wandered the gray, steel halls of the floating, military base she felt out of place. Each slapping footstep echoed in her brain, only further enhancing her growing anxiety and nameless frustration.

She opened the doors to the empty still pool and immediately inhaled the overpowering scent of chloriant. She stared at the black pool and the stark white walls of the recreation room and noted the complete lack of anything even attempting to resemble nature; no fake plants sat in pots, no exotic murals covered the walls. Kicking off her sandals, Jaina tossed her rehydro towel onto a chair and began to pump her arms back and forth. She cracked her neck and stretched her legs. Then she walked to the edge of the pool, toes pointing towards the water from the edge and gracefully dove into the warm water. Her body tingled in the water’s embrace. Jaina’s hair floated outwards in all directions in the liquid. In the dark watery depths her anxieties melted away. Popping out of the water and inhaling oxygen she began to expertly churn her arms and legs through the water into powerful free form swimming strokes. She completed lap after lap, allowing her mind to clear to become one with the Force. Even though the water in the pool was filled with chemicals, she pulled from the energy of its organic, dancing molecules and sensed a welcoming, feeling of peace and tranquility that helped to enhance her actions. With each stroke images flashed in her mind, from her Jedi training days on Yavin, to hanging with her siblings, working on the Falcon with Dad and Chewie, to recent battles and dog fights. Yet in the myriad of swirling images, a single flash of a brilliantly bright sun captured Jaina’s attention. Green hills embraced a sparkling lake. Two young people swam towards a small island located in the center of the lake. Out they climbed from the water and fell laughing onto the soft sand. Jaina noted the girl was about eleven years old or so. The boy was a few years older.