Echoes

[Esther Hadrana]

JAKKU

All the water in the galaxy had to be elsewhere. It was like Tatooine, only worse; in that at least Tatooine had vaporators to condense water. She hadn't seen anything similar to that on Jakku.

"Where in the galaxy have you found yourself now, Esther?" she asked herself, staring out over the wreckage of countless starships.

***

"Wherre jin the galaxjy arre you now, Estherr?" Cirr asked, a small grin on his face. Esther's returning smile was more muted.

"Ogem. Just calling to check up on the kids," she said, leaning back against a bulkhead. Cirr's smile dimmed.

"Bad luck, that," he sighed. "Denton and Fran are gone. Been two months now."

"Oh," Esther said. Two months? "Oh, right. School. Denton went to Dac, didn't he? And Fran got accepted into..."

"Correlljian Planetarrjy jInstjitute of Engjineerrjing. Fast trrack to CEC. jI can send jyou thejirr frrequencjies jif jyou want. Denton was thjinkjing of drroppjing out, though."

"Of course, please," she answered. As Cirr bent to manipulate the controls to the comm, she filled the silence. "He talked with you about it? Well, I'm glad he did. I would be horrible. Don't know a thing about higher schooling."

"jYou'rre hjis motherr. Even jif jyou djidjin't, hje wouldn't jignorre jyourr opjinjion."

Esther smiled a bit patronizingly.

"He talked with his father, yes? And you? That's all I need to know to be sure he got the feedback he needed."

"jYou'rre a much betterr motherr than jyou gjive jyourrself crredjit forr."

Esther shook her head again.

"So, how are you? Lyanie? Amarra?" Rather than relive her short abortive attempt to stay in one place, she changed the subject. The past was past.

***

"Did you know the kids are in school? It seems so quick."

He smiled and shook his head.

"Esther, you disappear for weeks to months. Time passes like that, you know. I don't know how many birthdays you've missed. I've stopped counting the anniversaries."

She smiled back, her stomach flipping only slightly at the sight of his roguish grin and the lack of judgement in his voice. He was the stable one, and she was the rambler. They'd gone into their marriage knowing that. Still, she knew she was lucky.

"I received the artefact, by the way. The elders are gonna flip when they see it."

Esther shrugged.

"It deserved to be somewhere it could be appreciated for more than its historical value. I also found that lost planet Ben described. The one with the sleeper ship? Turns out there are sentients down there. The cutest little reptiles. C-4P3-R was over four moons when he realized that their calls were 'in fact part of a structured language!'"

His brows rose.

"No kidding? Send me the data on that. Maybe we can send some people over there and check it out."

There was a knock on her door.

"I've got to go."

"Happy birthday," he said, ignoring her. "You don't look a day over thirty five. Or is that the holo resolution?"

She stopped, mentally counting out the days.

"It is my birthday," she laughed. "I forgot. I already sent you your gift. It should arrive in time."

"I'll look for it," he winked. "The best gift though would be you."

Her smile dimmed a bit.

"I think you're right," she said, finally. His head cocked to the side curiously. "I think it's about time."

"I won't say I'm not thrilled, Esther. But I'm also sure you'll find something to pull you out again."

"No," she answered, looking down at the pages she'd scribbled on detailing the Battle of Jakku, and a printed picture of a red-hued twilek woman wearing now nearly forgotten Imperial Knight armour and clothing. "I think this will be one of the last ones I go on."

***

Esther frowned underneath the light cloth she'd wrapped around her head to protect her from the heat, sand, and searing sunlight, and looked back down at the datapad.

"So she was with the fifty-fourth who were deployed here. And they finally surrendered over there."

Esther looked up and squinted, trying to reconcile the texts, diagrams, and maps with the landscape in front of her with no little difficulty. Retracing the steps of over five thousand men to find the lost tracks of one woman was a task most would give up on, but Esther could see the end of her galactic hyperlane coming, and wasn't keen on stopping just yet.

"Where are you, Palara?"