Reconciliation

[Kaia Starchaser]

It wasn’t so much that she didn’t know what to do with herself, but that well… okay, yes, Kaia wasn’t sure what to do. She needed to do something, but right now? She had no targets. She had shown up on Marna, and that was all well and good, but the thing that needed to happen was happening. The dark haired girl hadn’t been home in… Force, how long was it? Nearing her two years, wasn’t it? Since she left for her Odyssey? A lot had changed, and it wasn’t so much that she was watching herself become a better Force user, and a better person, but her father, re-awakened from the carbonite, something was different. She wasn’t really trying to not be him, she was realizing more and more.

She was trying to be someone who could claim to be like him.

Coren Starchaser, for as loose as he played with the Force, he was focued. He was taking down the Dark Side, and he was keeping the Jedi in check, it was what the Dawn Treader’s Force users were all about. And she was heading back there. That was going to be a treat. The daughter of Starchaser had done a few things, she’d learned about herself, and like her father, was very good with navigation and movement related powers.

She had messaged Aunt Lily ahead of her. Hoping that her father would be there.

She was really doing this.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

The Wandering Star came out of lightspeed outside the Laekia gravity well. This was new, definitely new. Being home, and seeing her ship from her… other ship. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Good? Yes, good. The girl had learned a bit about the galaxy, but it was time to come home to roost. She was spending so much time in the void that it seemed to be affecting her mind. Maybe that was a good thing, the Force worked differently for Starchasers, and maybe this was the solution! She knew she could feel the way planets moved… the way the galaxy was laid out.

If she could capitalize on that, it could turn into something. Maybe she …. Could she? She’d have to talk to her family. Her aunt, and yes, her father. The Wandering Star was recognized as she entered real space and the Treader contacted her. Right, she needed to remember the code. Opening up the comm she nodded. “No matter the distance I fly, my wings always return me to the roost, my safe harbor on the sea of stars.” Yeah, it was long, but in case someone was trying to land without proper clearance? They were fired at, or greeted by the Nightstingers.

“Welcome back, Wanderer Starchaser.” Came a familiar voice and Kaia couldn’t help but smile. She pulled her vessel into the hangar and started to power down. She started to step from her ship, her Z7 droid following behind. She saw her Aunt, Lily, standing on the flight deck with a smile.

“I knew you’d be back, kid.” She grinned hugging the youngest Starchaser.

The one returning to roost.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

“I guess I just can’t stay away.” Kaia said to her aunt, not of blood, but near enough, her father’s wingmate, as they made their way from the executive hangar of the Dawn Treader and down to the main floors. Up here there were a few odds and ends set up, a restaurant, more so than the main galley, something for the people to go to, reserve and use when they needed to get away but getting off-ship wasn’t that easy. The more and more the Dawn Treader existed, the more old military rooms were transformed into something for civilians, with certain floors being devoted to ship-board apartments, restaurants, no real boutiques, but definitely ways to keep entertained.

Ways that weren’t just flight simulators, which meant they were wicked lame.

Still, she and Lily carried on for a bit as they walked, past the Aerie, the Warbird Wing rec room, and to the main command center on the flight deck. She knew what was coming next, her father was going to be arriving. Was she ready for that?

“He’s been expecting you. Not long, but when he does make his way back here, he’s always seeing if you’ve checked in. Not keeping many tabs on you out there.” She let her voice taper off. Lily was one of those Force users that hated the Force, she didn’t use it very often, and when she did, it was out of a need to survive, when she got into a fighter squadron, or when the wing was deployed. She did a bit of melding and battle meditation, when she wasn’t hiding herself from the Force.

And from everyone else.

When she mentioned her father, the ship beeped, as if on cue. A TIE Exalt was landing. Well, four of them, and Kaia knew who was flying lead.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Sometimes, Corey liked to write with himself. There were certain arcs in his mind, the one that had him writing a story of a select family of instinctive astrogators with a piloting fetish, that had been in his head since he was old enough to realize he enjoyed roleplaying. This was going on for... at least fifteen years now.

To the family, the Dawn Treader was always home. It was the ship that was the port in the storm. It kept the family safe and provided them with what they needed. The Home-Ship. Once part of a migrant Imperial group, now flying solo, hopping between worlds, and maybe making one more jump She was seated at Laekia but there was a chance Coren could sway the Board to move her to Sullust, where the new government was taking root. Right now, though, that wasn't the focus. He was back home, he and [member="Spark Finn"] had been doing their best to stay out of trouble, what with a week in Bacta after [member="Sage Bane"] broke his insides, and another half a week after [member="Vrag"] forced him to remove his hand. Thank you, iBorg and your AEI connection. Coren had heard about the twins, well Kinsey, and not much from Dax, but it didn't matter.

Jared was safe. He was running the Wing, of which he was landing his old fighter, flanked by several other TIEs from Warbird's Peregrine Squadron. Kaia was doing her thing. She was... evolving into such a strong force. Working the Underground angle, working with the Covenant. And from all reports, returning home.

Coming to roost.
He could feel her aboard the ship. Putting the Exalt on the flight deck, the pilot got out of the fighter, and gave his best to the squad. They had come a long way since he flew with them. Normally, the fighter jock would get a drink at the Aerie after any sort of sortie, practice or otherwise, but there were things he was needing to do.

Repair a bridge.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

She supposed she better make her way down there. Dressed in a spacer outfit, pretty standard for the alternative pilot, Kaia made her way through the ship, down to the hangar. What was she going to say? 'Hi? Sorry I was a queen?' That might be a good way to start off. She didn't really know her father. She knew the legends that she heard, and that he was gone, looking for her mother and then she left and they just... didn't connect. The reason he was gone so long? Carbonite.

The reason he was in carbonite? To protect her and her brother, protect the ship. And bring justice and freedom to those that didn't have it. Now she was old enough to understand the galaxy, and that meant she saw just what the Sith were doing. They were taking everything, both her homeworlds, her cousin, and freedoms of the space lanes from her. The Underground was helping, but she felt that if she could repair things with her father, she'd be able to help, and feel part of a team.

Maybe the Warbirds would help.

As the door to the flight deck opened, she took a deep breath. And there he was. That was awkward.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The door opened and he was face to face with Kaia. That was… not unexpected. Word through the network he had and the Force itself said that she would be making her way back to the Treader and it just so happened to coincide with one of the Spark Finn mandated vacations. He didn’t know what to say. Some sort of snippy comment? Or attempt to be witty? He was at a loss. Merely, he looked at his wayward (and pride inspiring) daughter and smiled. “Come.”

Still in his fighter pilot get up, he lead Kaia to the rec room off the hangar. The pilots saw him and her walk in and already knew what was going on. They casually (except not too casually) excused themselves. He still had no fething clue what to say. ‘Nice to see you?’ ‘Welcome back?’ ‘Sorry I was in carbonite missed your entire life?’ He sat down and nodded to the barkeep, they had an organic running this one. It was a lot better than some automated unit, especially for the Warbird pilots.

Putting the flight helmet down, he looked at her. “I… are you back?” Right, that was poetry.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

She looked at her father as they approached the bar. The rec room was set up by pilots for pilots and that meant they had a lot of what a pilot wanted. Booze, holonews and holosports. She was used to seeing these places, it was what she did, typically, walk through life, observe everything, listen for spacers in trouble and try to pick up an odd job here and there to keep fuel in her ship. The Underground always provided missions, but sometimes she needed to be elsewhere, find her own path in the galaxy.

Taking a seat a bit comfortably, she looked to her father. “I can be… I mean, am I welcome home?” That was the first time she referred to the Dawn Treader as home over ‘home ship’ in… what? Months? The dark haired girl looked at Coren, waiting for his response.