Rayna's arrival at Coruscunt
Star Wars: The One Called Rayna
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
The Shadow of Thrawn
The new Republic struggles not only with the
inner strife of bureaucracy and civil wars, but
with the remnants of the Empire. Though far from
its former glory, and in shatters after the death of Admiral Thrawn,
the threat of the old
Empire looms over the heads of Princess Leah,
now ambassador and second only to Mon Motha in
Political power. While Luke heads the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV,
planning his wedding to Mara Jade, and Coruscunt is turning out
soldiers and pilots as fast as it can, the future of the fledgling New
Republic has never seemed more unsure.
Thirteen year old Jedi Master Rayna Danine walked calmly through the
double doors of the New Republic Flight Academy. She wore a loose
tunic that covered her lightsaber, and clutched a data chip in her
left hand.
Her thoughts were steady, calm, and by design people walking by
glanced past her. She stopped her walk in front of the main office.
The registration desk was free, so she walked in.
A wearied secretary was checking the spatial database. Almost absent
mondedly, Rayna sent calming and energy renewing thoughts to the lady.
“Excuse me, ma’am, but I would like to register.”
“Doesn’t everyone. Give me your data chip and go sit down."
Rayna complied, giving her the falsified chip, and sat.
“Registration number?” The lady asked curtly.
“As you can see, I was born on Tantooine.”
“So no registration number. Rayna Danine?”
“It is pronounced Rain-yah, not Rain-uh.”
“Your test scores are phenomenal, with them you should have no problem
getting in even though you are merely thirteen. In fact, your scores
are unbelievable. You beat the test.” The lady performed some
information transfers with the chip, and wrinkled her nose. “Here,
take the chip to the admissions center.”
With a last calming thought to the registration secretary, Rayna left
for admissions. She walked quickly to the office and strolled in.
She handed the large man behind the desk the data chip. He scanned it
into the computer and grunted.
“Not much info here. Tantooine, huh? All right, first things first.
What’s your intended school plan?”
“Command, fighter pilot.”
“It’s competitive. How come every little kid wants to be a pilot?”
He snorted. “How are you paying?”
“Universal standard, up front.”
“On campus or off?”
“On. No room mates.”
“It’s gonna be spendy.”
“I know.”
“All right then, read through your packet and
sign.”
“I have it here.” Rayna gave him her completed documents. “I believe
I must go through a physical before I can be accepted?”
“Yes. Ijorgan, you’ve been planning this for a while haven’t you?” He
glanced through the packet and signed it, scanning it into the
computer. “Medical for you, then financial.”
“Affirmative sir, thank you.” Rayna happily left the room.
Medical was two lefts and a right. She walked in and handed another
chip to an ensign. Two other prospective students were in the room.
One was a richly dressed human boy doing stretches on the floor, the
other was a greenish male a “memory” tagged as a galadin.
After checking her in, the ensign tapped the boy doing stretches on
the shoulder. “Lord Moroset, are you ready?”
The boy stopped stretching and got up petulantly. “If I’ve told you
once, Bruce, I’ve told you a thousand times. You cannot run without
stretching first. And anyway, I run best when I am racing. And he
won’t race me.” The boy pointed angrily at the galadin.
The ensign sighed. “Lord Daniel, it is not custom to race. This is a
test of physical ability, not a competition.”
“Then make it custom. My father pays for most of the running of this
academy…”
Rayna sent a quick jab with the force that set the boy into a coughing
fit. The boy was a spoiled brat, and he had no respect for authority.
“If you want to race, Lord Daniel Moroset, then I will race you.”
Daniel looked up, his face flush from coughing. “You’re a girl, I
don’t race girls.”
“Afraid you will lose?” Rayna kicked herself mentally for rising to
the bait.
“Okay, you’re on.”
Ensign Bruce Dorrens breathed a sigh of relief as he led the two to
the indoor track. “50 meter dash, then the 1600.”
Daniel was looking very pleased with himself and radiating confidence.
Rayna allowed herself a small frown, she did not like blackmailers of
any sort.
The galadin came to watch as Rayna and Daniel lined up on the starting
line. He was very amused and sat down so as to get the best view.
Personally, he was rooting for the blonde.
“3, 2, 1” Bruce called, and Rayna and Daniel ran. Rayna kept herself
to a steady 10m/s, finishing in five seconds exactly. Even with his
huffing and puffing, Daniel finished in 7.5 seconds, and very angrily
too, though he kept a steeled smile. As he walked up to Yanko his
face shifted into a political mask of boredom.
“Good race. I, of course, did not want to humiliate you. I do better
at distance running.”
Bruce chuckled, then choked his laughter back as Daniel shot him a
stony stare. “Okay, you two run the 1600 in ten. Aber, do you want
to do the 50 meter dash now?”
The galadin silently nodded yes, and he finished the course in eight
seconds.
While the three cooled down, Bruce ran them through vision tests.
Daniel had 20/20, and expected the other two to be impressed. When
they looked at him what he thought to be with derision, he sulked. It
did not help that Aber tested with 20/10, and they could not figure
out how good Rayna’s was. Better than 20/5, and probably better than
20/1.
Rayna could feel Daniel getting angrier by the minute.
“Are you sure you want to race again?” Rayna posed the question
perhaps a shade too calmly, causing more anger to bubble beneath
Daniel’s brown hair.
“Of course, I run faster when I race. I could care less about winning
or losing.”
Bruce frowned. Like Zen he could.
Again came the 3, 2, 1, …. Again, Rayna held herself to 10m/s,
finishing in two minutes and forty seconds. Daniel came in at 4:30.
Aber went after them, and finished in five minutes.
The three underwent other various physical tests, from push ups to
reaction time. To the detriment of Daniel and the amusement of Aber,
Rayna beat all of them. As the three had their entrance passes
stamped and were sent to financial, Daniel shot his new rival a very
dark look.
Daniel went first into financial, and came out a few minutes later
looking smug and emitting a very happy, satisfied feelings.
Then Aber went in. When he came out he looked very stressed, and was
radiating anxiety. Rayna sent him a few calming waves before entering
herself.
A squat, richly dressed man hid behind an oddly shaped desk. Rayna
handed him her data chips silently and waited while he scanned them
through.
“You want a double room to yourself?” He asked skeptically, looking
at her plain tunic.
“Yes, preferably one with a good view.”
“That will cost you extra.”
“No problem, I am paying cash up front.”
“In that case,” he drawled, still unsure, “We have cabin 34-Y
available. It has a panoramic view of Coruscunt and of the flight
training grounds.”
“So, it is one of the bubble rooms?” she referred to the slang for
the glass/aerogel bubble shaped rooms that floated around the top two
stories. “It will be acceptable.”
“Eating plan?”
“Level 8”
“Let me guess. You have your classes all picked out and evrything.”
“Yes.” She said with no change in expression, ignoring his sarcasm.
“I have them all here.” She handed him another disk, which he scanned
through, somewhat crankily.
“You have a heavy course load.” The man checked through her entrance
requirements. “Higowik, did you really get that high on your entrance
exams? No one besides Mikal Sol has ever beat the test and got
everything right.”
Rayna shrugged. “I would like to rent a medium sized hanger and get a
mechanics pass.”
“All right, all right. Here, take this computer and fill in any other
orders for things you want. I have other things to do you know, and
it seems to me you have a long list.”
Rayna smiled and sat down at the computer, ordering uniforms, clothes,
flight jumpsuits, equipment, and other stuff she wanted or needed.
The man behind the desk whistled as he added up the totals and turned
out the bill. “That’s almost eighty thousand New Republic or near two
hundred thousand Imperial credits.”
“How much in Universal standard?”
“In exact amounts, three hundred eighty-nine pounds, seven and nine
tenths ounces.”
“Very well, I will give you four hundred pounds. Charge five pounds
to my account and send the rest to the mercy scholarship fund.”
“Are you saying you brought four hundred pounds of platinum with you?
You must be joking.”
Rayna pulled an antigrav pack out of her backpack and smiled. She
extracted 4 one hundred pound bars from the pack one by one. The
financial officer was amazed, not only that she did not flinch at the
weight but that she had braved Coruscunt with a fortune in platinum in
her pack. He took the bars and ran them through the computer to test
for purity.
“Well, it looks like you are all set. Here is your key card, and I
will arrange to have everything sent up to your room as soon as
possible.”
Rayna took the card and thanked him, and left while he sat like a
statue, wondering why he had just absent mindedly keyed three pounds
of platinum to Aber’s account.
Rayna settled into her spacious bubble room. She was pleased with the
view. Her ordered uniforms, art supplies, and mechanical gadgets were
arriving in shipments every few minutes by mini-transports. New
Republic or not, the academy was still the same. It catered to the
rich. Rayna rerouted half of them to her private hanger and sat down
in a plush chair.
She called up the student dossiers on the computer. It was not that
she needed them, but she wanted to appear normal, or at least
definitely human, while at the academy.
The first one she looked up was Mikal’s. She chuckled. He was now
fifteen, she thirteen. The average age of entrants to the flight
academy was sixteen..
Mikal’ de Sol
Command track, fighter pilot division
Year: Sophmore
Race: Human
Age: 15
Height: 1.753 m
Weight: 64 kg
GPA (20 point scale): 21.98
Entrance test: 100%
Standings- # 2 overall
Academics # 1, piloting # 2, accuracy # 1, tactics #2, physiology # 3
Commander team Ordance
Rayna browsed through a few other bios before turning off the
computer. She sighed and put away her stuff. While she could clean
and store everything with the force, she did it manually. She knew
there were hidden cameras in this part of the room. Not that she
could not trick them, but she wanted to keep a low profile. If
anything she did was low profile.
She opened the door yet again to receive a shipment of cloth and
sewing equipment, which she took and tightly packed over in a corner.
Rayna flopped down on her bed and thought, putting away the voices
clamoring for attention.
It was two weeks until the training year started. If Mikal had
followed the plans, which she sensed he had, he would be on campus
during the summer vacation. She let her mind drift, searching for
him. He was at the lounge on level seven, several people surrounded
him. He was talking, telling a joke. The mood in the room was
friendly, at least the girls were shooting out vibes of admiration and
adoration. The boys in the room had moods ranging from companionable
to hostile.
Rayna broke from her trance. She did her hair and changed into a
brand new, incrdibly stylish pant suit. Tricking the cameras, she
used the force to clean her face and accent it with glitter and a
natural glow. Mikal had last seen her when she was ten. He knew of
course that now she would be thirteen, but she doubted it would have
really sunk in.
She wanted to talk to him. After all, he was the only friend she had
ever had, discounting the fact that he had operated the machine that
killed her parents. Rayna looked forward to surprising him, she never
thought that her existence might turn his world upside down.
Rayna took the lift down to level 7 and walked around until she found
the door to Addie’s. She palmed it and entered, observing the
students partying to exotic alien music.
Mikal seemed to be in the center of everything. In the dashing
uniform of team Ordance, he was surrounded by a flock of mainly girls,
ranging in age from fifteen to seventeen. He seemed to be enjoying
himself, and was talking animatedly. An emotion welled up from the
past. Jealousy? She dismissed it and walked up to the group.
Mikal had just put the punchline on his joke, and the girls were
giggling madly. As Rayna neared, one of the girls sized her up.
“Hey, kid, aren’t you a little young to be in here?” While referring
to the entrance age of admittance to the school, the girl sent out a
veiled warning and threat to get out of her territory.
“I am thirteen, and I may be small, but I did pass all entrance
requirements.” Rayna replied calmly, adding insult to injury.
“Isn’t that nice. The kiddie room is on deck 10. I don’t know what
life is like on the planet you’re from, but this room is invitation
only.” The girl said smugly, her gang joining in the laughter.
Mikal stepped in when the younger girl started getting teased. The
room was dim, so he could not really see her face, but something in
him said ‘protect her’. He could not know that her training left
Rayna with the ability to mask herself from his subconcious scanning
with the force.
“Hey, Janet, cool down. She has just as much right to be here as
you.” He stood and held out his hand to the girl. “My name is
Mikal, I am the commander of team Ordance. I am a second year, as is
Janet over here. What’s your name?”
To Mikal’s surprise, she gave a silver laugh and stepped into a thin
beam of light that threw her features into sharp relief. “My name is
Rayna Danine. I have recently come from Tantooine. I looked you up
because the entrance people informed me that you were the only one
besides myself to pass the entrance test with a perfect score.”
“You beat the test?” Janet squeaked.
“Rayna?” Mikal said, dumfounded. Of course, how could he forget. Not
only was she right on schedule, but she was indeed thirteen as she had
reminded him she would be every day for a week before he had left.
But it was only a year ago for him that she had been ten, a small,
frail little girl. Now she was 5’4 and turning into a teenager.
“What kind of a name is Rayna?” Janet questioned petulantly
Mikal cleared his throat. “Well, Rayna, this is Janet, Allison,
Stacy, Zeta, Richard who we all call Ice, and Candy.” He pointed to
each of his friends in turn.
“Nice to meet you.” Rayna smiled.
“Whatever.” Janet got up to leave. “See you at six Mikal. Don’t
stand me up.”
Mikal turned and whispered to Rayna. “Janet thinks she’s my
girlfriend. We were supposed to be doing an extra credit summer
project, but she’s turned all our meetings into dates. I need to find
a new partner.” He talked quietly so as not to alert the other girls,
who were slowly leaving one by one, shooting Rayna dark glances.
“What is the project?”
“We are supposed to be designing a better navigation system for the
X-Wings. Only I’ve been building it myself, Janet’s no help.”
“Sounds fun.” Rayna grinned sarcastically.
“So, what have you been doing for the last, oh, how many years?”
“Three. And talk quieter, no one is supposed to know we have met
before. Funny, no matter how hard this academy is, it will be a
breeze after Illiyonni.”
“I thought so to at first. But now I am really in to flying these
fighters. You know I’m the youngest wing commander at the school
ever? You will probably be a favorite as well.”
“Maybe, maybe not. So, is there anything to eat around here?”
Mikal chuckled. “You mean you need food? Well, there is pizza at the
lounge bar.”
“Great. I have not had pizza in forever.”
“Let’s eat then. They have a really great stuffed crust with every
kind of meat there is in it.”
“Sounds Stellar.”
1 year later, Coruscunt, NRFA
