Dev The Crash of the Starliner Arkadia

[Kirie]

KIRIE ITO​

At the edge of the city, a girl in a bright red coat sat on the steps next to the drainage canal, a book open in her lap, watching the birds diving on the small fish that swam in the murky depths. Her parents both had to work overtime to afford their small city abode, and they could not afford her tuition, so she entertained herself by reading, and wandering.

The neighbourhood kids had realised she couldn't hear her coming, and loved to push her around, so Kirie always kept a sharp eye out for their approach. Today, she was undisturbed.

Her book detailed the story of a heroic adventurer, who braved the untamed swathes of Wild Space in the era of the Old Republic. The anthology was packed with stories of booby-trapped tombs, forgotten worlds and ancient curses. Kirie had spent the morning daydreaming about a life amongst the stars, making her own destiny, far from the fetid wastes of the Lower Quarter.

One day. Kirie thought. One day soon.

Kirie Ito awoke one cool morning, laced her boots, and left the Coruscant Jedi Temple for the last time. At this early hour, the grounds were quiet, with only an early class of Padawans doing their morning stretches. She smiled and waved at a few she recognised, before taking the winding path to the temple entrance. A pair of Temple Guards stood at the doorway, and Kirie bowed respectfully, letting out a held breath as she left the temple behind.

Slowly, Kirie made the meandering journey to the starport, where her beloved ship awaited. She leaned against the wall, resting, as the ground crew prepared the small ship, which was now a little worse for wear after more than a year of sitting idle. The clean, slightly worn interior felt like home, and the familiar pulsing heartbeat of the controls in her hand made Kirie wonder why she'd ever given up the life of a spacer. The ship rose smoothly into the air, and Kirie couldn't help but grin. Even though her bones ached, every second Kirie moved away from the Coruscant skyline, her heart felt just a bit lighter.

Once she was away from the planet, Kirie pulled from her coat pocket a crumpled piece of paper. She read the scrawled note again, the hurried, sloping script and ink smudges made it difficult to parse the words out, but Kirie was able to figure out her destination easily enough.

"Bordal?" she murmured to herself, entering the coordinates into her navicomputer. Why Bordal? Kirie had never even visited the system, which she was pretty certain lay wihin the purview of the Sith Order. She was much too old and tired these days to go running off into hostile territory. But, this seemed important, so she supposed that she didn't really have much of a choice.

From the handwriting, it was easy enough to tell that the note had come from her former ward and apprentice, Hana. Kirie had looked after the girl after she had been left for dead on New Alderaan, and the girl had grown into a sensitive seer. But, Hana had always been troubled, and in the last few years her visions had interfered with her daily life more and more. A year ago to the day, she too had left the Temple, to find her own kind of solace. Kirie had always been the solitary type, so while it had broken her heart to say goodbye, she'd understood, and had let Hana do what she willed.

And now, after a year of silence, Hana was sending her somewhere. Though Kirie was tired and ailing, she could not ignore that call.

Kirie set the Mercury down a short walk from the coordinates she'd been sent, nestling the transport amidst an outcrop of dark brown boulders. The air was still and quiet, the pins were deserted. It made her wonder why she had even come.

She looked down at her datapad, following a winding animal trail, making her way towards the marker on her map, a seemingly random patch of dirt no different from the scraggly landscape surrounding it. Kirie looked around, even shuffled the dirt around with her foot, but there was nothing. No temple entrance, no ancient sigil. No mysterious monolith for her to investigate.

What there was, was a sense of creeping dread, the sense that something truly terrible was about to descend on this quiet corner of the Galaxy. But where? From what? As far as Kirie could see, there was literally nothing around her.

But, Kirie had been sent for a reason, and there was something to find. She could feel it, she just hadn't seen it yet.

Kirie closed her eyes and breathed out a slow sigh, allowing herself to follow her intuition. She tilted her head upwards, turning slowly towards the sky until her senses were strongest. A knot twisted in her stomach. She opened her eyes.

In the clear green sky she could see what looked like a bright star, shining through the daylight. But, she knew it was no star, for it precessed across the sky steadily, growing larger and brighter each second. Whatever it was, Kirie was sure this was why Hana had sent her.

"Oh my Stars."

Standing on the coordinates Hana had given, Kirie stood rooted, watching as the star fell downward, eventually revealing the outline of a burning ship. She covered her eyes and face when it impacted, curling into a ball just as the shockwave hurtled past, her own Force bubbled the only thing stopping her from being vaporized with the rocks and vegetation around her.

The hot wind slowed, and Kirie stood, releasing her tense concentation on the barrier that had protected her. The landscape had been transformed. What was moments before dry scrub was now a debris field, strewn with twisted metal and smouldering parts. The ship had torn into pieces but was otherwise mostly intact. At first, it seemed like nothing was living. She could see bodies, what was left of them, but no survivors had yet emerged from the burning wreck. She hoped, she prayed, some would.

That was when she saw her. A girl, lying in the dirt. It looked like she had been thrown clear from the wreckage. A shard of metal protruded from her stomach, suspending her torso at a strange angle, and one of her legs ended in a bloody mess. Still, she kicked at the dirt and struggled forward. It would be no help. She was dying.

"Be still." Kirie cooed. "Allow me to help you."

Kirie knelt beside the girl. She did not pull the first aid kit from her belt, for she knew the bacta strips would do no good here. Instead, she reached out to place a hand on the the young woman's back, to channel comfort, and ease her passing.

The moment her hand touched the girl's ragged shirt pain flashed through Kirie's body, tensing her muscles and causing her to cry out in pain. Her vision blurred, and she saw herself through the woman's glassy eyes- blurred and wavering. She felt the panic, the overwhelming darkness that loomed.

Kirie saw other things too. Rolling fields of green. A secluded cabin and a gnarled tree atop a windy hilltop, and she saw the ship, before the crash, with people crowding the gangway to get onboard.

Kirie gasped and lurched back, reeling. Echoes of the visions, seen through the dying woman's eyes, still rattled around her brain.

Steeling herself, Kirie reached out again. Taking one of the girl's hands into her own. The visions came again this time but she was ready. She opened her heart to them, looked past them, and in return she summoned her own memories, visions of the Commenori Palace Library, of shafts of sunlight pouring into the temple of Svivren.

The girl smiled just a touch, but then her face grew pained, then went slack. She gurgled, and then she was dead. Kirie grimaced. She felt the girl's passing, and the sensation felt as if a void had opened up, alerting her to a space in her heart she'd never noticed until it had gone.

"Oh Hana." said Kirie. "Why would you send me here?"

But she knew. The girl was dead. Kirie could save her. She would have to save her, even knowing what the cost would be.

This is not an ending. Kirie told herself, steeling her nerves. She rolled the girl over, pulling the metal from her chest. The foot she could not help, but hopefully the girl wouldn't miss it too much.

Her datapad chirped with a readout from the Mercury. Another ship was approaching, and judging by its signature, it would bring only suffering. She had no more time to waste.

Kirie groaned and clenched her fists. I will live again. She thought. Through her, I will live again.

She closed her eyes. The hot wind blew embers onto her face. She placed both hands on the blood slicked surface of the young woman's chest, and poured all her energy into healing her. She sat up as long as she could, even as she felt the life draining from her heart, pouring out her fingertips, leaving her cold and dull, drifting. Still she held her concentration. She had to use every last drop of will. Kirie felt herself slump over, the sensation of her shoulder striking the ground vague and distant. Then it was all black.

When Kirie opened her eyes, she was in the Garden.

 

[Kirie]

KIRIE CORSELL
​

A curtain of rain concealed the mountaintops and hid the girl's valley from view. The ship rose from the ground, and she had sinking feeling that she would not see her home for a long, long time. When they passed into the clouds and she lost view of even the land, she felt as if a great and dreadful weight had settled onto her shoulders.

BOOM

Kirie's eye's shot open, a bolt of adrenaline shocking her into alertness. The lights had gone out, and in the darkness she could hear the confused voices of the cabin's three other residents calling out in confusion. A great crash had woken them, and now the usual thrum of the engines Kirie had become accustomed to the last several days had given way to eerie silence. A red light blinked on, and Kirie swung her feet off her cot and pulled on her boots, stepping out of the room still in her bedclothes; a faded pair of loose fitting pants and an oversized shirt.

Cautiously, Kirie poked her head into the hallway. Through the red-tinged gloom she spied others, also looking curiously out of their rooms. A faint burnt electrical smell lingered in the air. Something really wasn't right. Kirie stepped out of her room, joining a few cautious others. The intercom crackled to life, a slightly panicked masculine voice speaking over the low chatter.

<<"Passengers, there has been a technical fault detected onboard. Please make your way in an orderly fashion to Deck 0 and await further instr-">>

BOOOM

A far greater crash cut off the announcement, loud enough to make Kirie cry out and cover her ears. It was followed by the terrible sound of tearing metal, and then Kirie's world turned upside down.

Kirie flew off her feet and hit the wall, hard, sliding downward as the whole hallway rotated 45 degrees in an instant. Pain blossomed from her collarbone, but she was otherwise only dazed. She was lucky. With the starship suddenly listing heavily on its port side, the unfortunates who had been lingering in their doorways fell and slid into the left side cabins, which had all of a sudden become pitfall traps. Debris and furniture followed those who fell. Some were trapped. Others crushed.

Kirie tore her eyes from the horrific scene. Those in the hallway who had not been caught were struggling to their feet. Cradling her fractured collarbone, Kirie followed them, trying her best to ignore the screams of those trapped and put one foot in front of the other. Go back. said a voice in her head. Help them. But Kirie's fear was stronger than that voice. So she continued forward, doing her best to balance as she walked, the dramatic tilt of the ship forcing her to stoop as she walked.

At the end of the hallway was a large turbolift, the silvery doors were silent and immovable. Off to its right, someone had forced open the stairwell entrance. At this angle, the stairs were barely navigable. Another resounding boom sounded through the ship, and Kirie joined the line of desperate people climbing upwards. Her muscles burned, around her people stopped and gave up, or worse, lost their grip and tumbled to the bottom, their distressed shouts cut short. Finally, mercifully, Kirie hauled herself up and out of the stairwell and onto Deck 0.

Momentarily out of danger, Kirie braced herself against a tilted pillar and caught her breath. Beside her was a porthole with a view beyond the ship. Kirie looked out the window. Outside, the planet they orbited, grey and dull, and a carpet of stars, their cold light a reminder of the death that lurked outside the walls of the belaboured starship. There was something else, a dark shape - a ship? Something about its presence filled her with dread. Whoever this visitor was, they were not here to help the passengers of the Arkadia.

The gravity wavered, then turned off. Kirie slowly floated away from the tilted floor, taking a moment to right herself with the angle of the ship. Not far from her, people were beginning to cram aboard the escape pods, but none of the them would activate. They sat, lifeless, like the rest of the ship. Below them, the barren planet loomed, growing ever larger.

​

Kirie opened her eyes, blinking as she adjusted to the soft light. Her last memory was of the crash. The escape pods had never opened, and from her sheltered corner Kirie had watched through the porthole as they had plunged downward. The ship struck the ground with the shriek of metal. The floor tilted again and she was sliding. The hallway tore apart revealing daylight, and a blossoming orange fireball. And then, nothing.

Now, she was lying in a garden (insert link). A strange, otherworldly light filtered through the trees above. Above her, an older woman, with kind eyes and a concerned expression. She almost felt like she knew her from somewhere, but couldn't place it.

Kirie opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. The woman smiled.

"I'm afraid you can't remain here." she said delicately.

Here? Where even was here? Kirie squinted to see past the ring of trees, but she could see only grey. The woman held out a hand. Kirie took it, gingerly rising to her feet, leaves falling from her body.

"I think that I have been sent here because your time in the Galaxy is not yet done. Your life has barely begun."

Something cold lodged itself inside Kirie, the realisation that she was probably not okay, that she was probably dead, or dying. That this garden was the hallucination of a mind trying to protect itself which the life leaked out of her. Kirie shuddered.

"Don't worry." said the woman, as if sensing her panic. "Walk back through the door, and you will return to where you- we, are from. You will live."

Kirie's head was spinning. This could not be real, this wasn't real. She looked down at the flowers, nestled between the long blades of grass at her feet. Had she ever dreamed something so vivid?

Kirie cleared her throat. More memories were filtering into her mind now, of searing heat, of a terrible impact. A pool of red spreading slowly outwards, more blood than seemed possible.

"So I walk through there, and I'm... Back. Unharmed?."

The woman nodded. Truthfully, Kirie was doubtful, but on the off chance this was real and not some product of her dying imagination, she would trust the woman. What other choice did she have?

The woman took a seat on the edge of a fountain at the garden's centre, abd continued.

"Yes, you will be unharmed. There has been an... Exchange. I will do my best to look out for you, but make no mistake. The road ahead is going to be hard, Kirie-"

"And I am very, very sorry for what is about to happen to you."

With a sombre smile, the woman signed good luck and gestured Kirie forward. She followed the woman's gesture. A door stood at the centre of the garden, tall and wooden, half open. It beckoned her. Kirie looked to the woman for guidance. She nodded and smiled gently. That was it then, walk through the door, back to the fear, and the pain. The fire and wreckage that awaited on the other side.

"Thank you for the chance."

Kirie bowed her head, turned from the woman, and stepped through the doorway, back into the darkness.

 

[Kirie]

Wind swept over the plains of Bordal. Kirie sat bolt upright, gasping her first breath of air in more than half an hour. Dizzy, she held her hands in front of her face, marvelling at how with every passing second the cold blue pallor was fading from her skin, replaced with the pink vibrance of life. She was back.

A memory swam to the front of her mind, and Kirie clutched her stomach. When she had lost consciousness, a piece of metallic debris was protruding from her abomen, her body twisted and broken around it. But that was gone. Dried blood still stained her grey pyjama shirt, but pulling it up revealed only pale, unblemished skin. What had not been healed was Kirie's foot. She'd felt its absence almost immediately, but it was only on pulling up her bloodstained pant leg that she saw the stump. It wasn't actively bleeding, no doubt thanks to the stranger's healing, but her lower calf and foot were gone, and the flesh remained raw and sanguine.

In front of her, the body of a woman lay curled, as if sleeping peacefully. But her chest did not rise or fall. She was dreadfully still. Kirie recognised her instantly. She was the woman from the garden. Slowly, the pieces began to fit together. Somehow, the woman had sacrificed herself to save Kirie. She didn't know how, or why, but here she was. The woman seemed peaceful, compared to the other broken bodies which littered the ground around nearby, it did not seem to Kirie that she had suffered.

Her ears were ringing. She felt a warm breeze which stung the cuts on her face, and carried with it the acrid stench of burning fuel. With effort, she sat up and looked around, revealing a nighttime scene lit by the flaming wreck of the Arkadia. During the crash, Kirie had remembered the daylight pouring in from the portholes opposite her, but now it was dark. She had been... Gone, for some hours, but now, thanks to the stranger, she was alive.

Sounds began to filter in from around her. Crying and shouting, screams and distant voices. Survivors, who had fared better in the crash than Kirie had. From the bare, scorched ground where she lay, Kirie could see them, staggering around aimlessly in the dimness, trying to move the wounded, or helplessly trying to comfort the dying. Kirie wanted to help them, but she had just been brought back from the brink. she was weak, drained, and injured. She couldn't stand if she tried. Instead, Kirie laid back, covered her ears, and tried to block it all out

​

Kirie didn't know how long after that the ship arrived. It could have been minutes, hours. She was laying on her side, watching the flames as they consumed the rest of the Arkadia. Kirie hadn't heard the engine at first. It was hidden beneath the sounds of destruction on the surface. It was only when she heard the cry of a nearby survivor she looked up.

"A ship! A rescue ship!"

Kirie rolled over with a start, her eyes searching the starlit sky until she finally saw what they were pointing at. A ship circled above them, dark and quiet. It was familiar to Kirie, the same one she had seen through the porthole during the crash. Dread twisted in her stomach. That was no rescue ship.

Like all the others, Kirie watched enraptured as the ship made its way downwards in a lazy spiral. It settled into the dry soil not far from the crash site. When the boarding ramp lowered, a precession of armoured figures emerged, spreading out from the newly arrived vessel in groups of 3-4. Some carried stretchers and medical kits. Most carried only rifles. A few hulking droids spread out around the crash and began calmly shifting around pieces of wreckage.

After a moment's hesitation, the survivors who could walk ran or stumbled their way to the unknown soldiers. The soldiers greeted the indifferently. The severely wounded were placed on the stretchers. The rest were formed into lines and shepharded onto the ship. Once the group was onboard, the soldiers fanned out, picking through the debris for the people too injured to move, and those who had the sense to hide.

The soldiers' uniforms were dark. Kirie couldn't see the emblem on their shoulders but she didn't need to. She recognised the shape. They were Sith. Kirie forced herself to sit up. She dragged herself forward on her belly, her freshly healed skin scraping against jagged metal and sharp stones.

Every movement sent jolts of pain reverberating through her body, but Kirie continued forward, pulling herself behind a hunk of fuselage large enough to hide her from view of the soldiers. For now. The effort had made she lightheaded and sick, and she knew she would not have the strength to move again. Vainly, she hoped they would not find her. If the stories were anything to go by, it would be better to die here in the wreckage than fall into the hands of the Sith.

Kirie laid very still. She began to cry. What had she done to deserve this? Wouldn't it be better to have died in the crash? Why would she be dragged back to life just to be handed to the Sith on a silver platter? It was so unfair.

A loud footstep off to her right made her flinch involuntarily. Kirie's heart sank.

"Found one."

Kirie tried to sit up but rough hands were already grabbing her. Her head span. She was held between two of the black clad figures, her foot-and-stump dragging in the dirt.

"Congratulations sweetheart." One of them said roughly. "You've been saved."