Shanta Killian - A Star Awakens

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There was a battle inside Shanta. If this really was her mother why hadn’t she come for her and taken her away all this time ago? Maybe she really had abandoned her. Or maybe she didn’t know where the kids had been taken. In this moment she fought for them, for the whole galaxy. If she could somehow help her. If she could somehow say: “I’m here!”

“Concentrate on the symbol!” Of course! Shanta focused on the blue logo and concentrated. It was as if she had entered an overcrowded classroom: a buzz of voices, presences of other beings, but disembodied and without form. For a short moment she saw the galaxy glide gracefully through the cosmos. In between there was this spherical room, but no longer on holo, more as if she was there herself. The body of the blue-haired woman – her mother – began to float, her hair ruffled by the wind and her eyes began to emanate a white glow.

Shanta watched in fascination until she felt a presence approaching. It was strange and yet familiar. “Why have you abandoned me, mommy? Where are you?” Shanta cried.

“I’m here, my little star!” the presence whispered, and for a moment Shanta believed that she could see the blurred image of her mother with the blue hair.

“Mommy?” Shanta whispered back. “Where are you? Why aren’t you with me?”

“I’m with you now, sweetie!” her mom whispered. “And I will always be in your heart!”

That was almost too good to be true. But what if this was all a trick? But with something that big? The whole galaxy in danger? In what danger?

“I don’t understand, Mommy. Is that really you on the holo? What’s going on?”

“I can’t explain it all to you now, my little star! But there’s one thing you can be absolutely certain of: I have always loved you and I always will! You are the light in my life that has always brought me back onto my path.”

Shanta broke out in tears. She wanted to reach out for her mother, touch her, hold her. But she was lightyears away and she could only touch her spirit. A short wave of sadness, great pain, but always one thought: “Shanta, my little star!”

It really was her and she loved her! Shanta wanted nothing more than to be together with her, but she started to realize that this one moment had only been possible because her mother had given more of herself than should have been possible.

“Will you come back to me?” Shanta asked.

“I don’t know, little star, I don’t know”, her mom answered. “But if I don’t, always remember: I love you!”

“Mommy!” Shanta cried and wanted to hug her mother, wanted to tell her that everything would be alright and that she would wait for her, but the moment was gone and she was alone again.

With tears in her eyes Shanta watched on the holo as the floating body of her mother sent a white beam back upon the totally exhausted dark lord who started to burn inside out and then the connection broke. On the holo one could see the explosion of the dark lord swipe through the room and smash her mother’s body into the next wall.

The camera zoomed in as her comrades in arms gathered around her. Shanta saw how she opened her eyes. “Did… did we make it?” she whispered. Blood ran from her nose, mouth, ears and even eyes and one could see all the pain she was experiencing in her face. Everyone nodded and the Twi’lek who had fought with a red lightsaber said: “Hold on! We get you out of here!”

“Good!” her mother whispered, closed her eyes and her body sagged down.

“No!” Shanta cried and woke the whole classroom from their awestruck silence. “You can’t die like that!”

The push of a button called in two enforcers who took the raging girl into custody and threw her into a detention cell.

Shanta was devastated. Her Mommy couldn’t be dead! Two days she spent crying and raging in her detention cell until she had calmed down and could think clearly again. She had to get out of here and find out what had happened there, during that fight. And this time she had to make sure no one caught her and brought her back in! She developed a plan for her escape and prepared every detail. With highest concentration she executed every step of the plan, hacked the station’s mainframe, reprogrammed the construction droids and manipulated the schedule for the supply ships. When the time had come she sneaked out of her room, hid in the secret compartment she had the construction droid build into one of the junk containers and waited for the pick up by an independent logistics company she had organized through a message board und who would not answer to the clan.

As soon as she had escaped from the asteroid she would leave her old life behind. She needed a new name to fly under the radar out there and start a life of her own. Her mother had called her “little star”, but she wasn’t little anymore. One thing she knew for sure, however: Her future would shine brightly, just as in the adventures of her ancestor Khaylee Ru’killian – and of her mother, wherever she was now.

Shanta Ru’killian belonged to the past. Now, she was Ki’Sha Brightstar!