Themed Drabbles, set 24

Shuttle

I was four the first time I went into space. Me, my older sister and our parents all climbed aboard a ratty old shuttle, and launched. It was old, and pieces fell away as the ship climbed, but I was too interested in the view to care. My first taste of space; I would have laughed if someone had told me then that I would spend most of my life in space.

At the time, I just thought about how beautiful Corellia looked through that viewport.

Amusing to think I didn't set foot on her again for nearly two decades.

Fighter

My second home was the cockpit of an X-Wing fighter.

After the number of flight hours and missions I had put in, that seat had gotten so worn and comfortable; there wasn't a seat like it in the galaxy.

Sometimes, I still missed my first home, but the friends and family I made, and those people I protected from within it, made my second home worth all the effort.

Biggs would have called me a fool; Luke would have understood my meaning. Me, I just love to sit in this cockpit, smell the leather, and dream my dreams of battle.

Freighter

After my parents were killed, Booster Terrik helped me buy a starship. A ramshackle old freighter that made the Millennium Falcon look like a paradigm of maintenance and upkeep. Of course that was the outside. I'm a Corellian, there's no way a ship of mine wouldn't go fast, and the CEC ships are nothing if not upgradeable. While she never was as fast as the Falcon, she got me where I needed to go, when I needed.

When I joined the Rebellion, I traded her for an X-Wing, and I'll occasionally wonder if she's still out there, flying the spaceways.

Capital Ship

I was never at home on a capital ship the way I was in the cockpit of a snub fighter. If I had to guess, I would say it's because it reminded me too much of my first home. Then there's the fact that you had hundreds or even thousands of people relying on your intelligent decisions to get them all out of a battle alive.

It's better in a snub fighter; there, a bad decision can only kill that person.

It's bad enough ordering a squadron into battle, making a decision that could kill hundreds is so much harder.

Space Station

My first home was the Gus Treta space station in high orbit around Corellia. I grew up there, goofed off with Mirax and Syal. Well, at least until Syal ran away from there when I was 7.

There are times when I miss Gus Treta, but I know I can't go back. Hask made sure of that. It's part of the reason why I still can't stand pirates. I was only 17 when that happened. That was the first of many small steps that led me to here.

The next was Mala, I was 19 when the Empire killed her.