Milisen felt as if she were frozen inside an icy chamber, surrounded by walls of cold.
But then she realized—this wasn't a freezer. It was a familiar starship.
And at the edge of her vision—she suddenly saw Mona!
"Mona!" Milisen tried to cry out, but no sound came from her mouth.
She tried to run forward, to reach her—but her body wouldn't move at all.
She watched as Mona picked up two blaster pistols from the floor and heaved them onto her shoulders with difficulty.
"But... wasn't Mona already dead?"
Milisen stared blankly at the figure ahead. She distinctly remembered Mona's lifeless body lying right in front of her.
Suddenly, the scene shifted.
She saw Amir, the man she had only just met—he had promised to help her find Mona. But—
Amir was now locked in combat with someone clad in black armor.
A burst of blaster fire sounded—and the image changed again.
Milisen saw Mona again.
She was the one shooting!
She wasn't dead. Mona was still alive!
At that moment, a warm sensation swept over Milisen, washing away the surrounding cold. It was as if some sealed-away strength returned to her.
She began to struggle with all her might—to break free from this dream.
At last, after what felt like an eternity, accompanied by a pounding headache—
She woke up.
"Amir?" she asked, fighting through the pain.
And then, as if remembering something, her eyes dimmed.
Of course. It had only been a dream.
"Milisen!" came a joyful voice from nearby.
Milisen's expression bloomed like a flower, the sorrow in her eyes instantly swept away.
She tried to sit up to get closer to Mona—
—but Mona threw herself forward and pinned her back onto the bed again.
Amir smiled faintly, stood up, and walked out of the room.
Most of the children were still sitting in the main hold, looking lost.
Almost all of them had grown up entirely within experimental bases or ships, raised to believe they existed solely to serve the experiments, to obey orders unconditionally.
Now, removed from the only world they'd ever known, they were afraid.
Fortunately, one of them—a Rodian boy named Maciej—had been taken at the age of four.
Though just as uncertain as the others, he was much calmer. He knew there were places beyond starships and laboratories.
Amir had begun slowly reversing Maciej's indoctrination, using counter-conditioning techniques. It couldn't be fully undone all at once, but it was enough for Maciej to regain a sense of self—and he was now helping calm the others.
BD-4 hopped out from the galley, chirping at Amir in a flurry of beeps.
The little droid had been powered down by Hondo and abandoned on the ship—but thankfully it hadn't been damaged. Amir made a note to install a future protocol allowing BD-4 to power itself on and off.
That way, in a similar emergency, the droid might still be able to help.
Turning off the stove, Amir retrieved the meal from the pressure cooker.
When it came to food reserves, Amir had always been meticulous.
He distributed food among the children, then went to check on Milisen's condition. She had improved greatly—physically, at least. But her mental fatigue was severe. She needed rest.
While she was unconscious, Amir had used the Force to gently dispel the darkness clouding her mind.
Sure enough, her body gradually relaxed. The tremors stopped.
And not long after, she woke up.
Returning to the cockpit, Amir gazed out at the starlit void.
He had already contacted Ahsoka.
Back on the cruiser, Amir had shut down his wrist comm out of fear of being traced. Once he turned it back on, he discovered dozens of missed transmissions.
After replying to them one by one, he reached out to Ahsoka. With this many children, he couldn't find safe placements for all of them on his own. He had no choice but to rely on the Resistance, who had access to entire fleets.
Ahsoka confirmed that preparations had already begun to construct new hidden bases—safe havens for children like these.
One of those places was Adrion, the jungle homeworld of Gule Gena.
The Empire had long since abandoned the planet after failing to extract any useful resources. After enslaving much of the local population, they had withdrawn.
Ahsoka described not only jungles, but towering mountains wrapped in dense fog—natural barriers ideal for concealment.
Amir was now en route to a secure hyperspace lane, preparing to jump straight to Adrion's system.
They had decided—the children would be settled there.
This included the group they had rescued earlier from Coruscant.
On Adrion, they would all have a new home.
Ahsoka raised one major concern:
All of these nearly forty children were Force-sensitive.
Together, they could form the foundation of a new Jedi Order.
There was a long silence.
Ahsoka, for her part, was not obsessed with rebuilding the Order.
Ten years ago, she had already lost faith in the institution. The old, powerful Jedi Council had strayed from its roots.
But this would be something new.
An Order untouched by politics.
Free from bloated dogma.
Devoted purely to the light side of the Force, training to stand against the growing power of the dark.
They still had Obi-Wan.
They still had Jedi hiding throughout the galaxy.
They still had access to holorecordings with data on secret shelters.
This was not hopeless.
"They didn't choose this path," Amir said after a long pause. "Most of them were cloned, or abducted. I think the choice should be theirs."
"We'll explain the philosophy. We'll lay out the dangers and sacrifices.
Those who choose to stay—can become Padawans.
Those who decline—should still be given a peaceful life."
Ahsoka agreed.
They would wait until regrouping on Adrion to discuss everything further—
and to choose the best possible site for a secret base.
As for the images Amir had taken on Hoth…
Ahsoka had no theories yet.
But Obi-Wan did.
He had asked Amir to return to Tatooine.
Once everything else was handled, Amir uploaded the data copied from the Imperial cruiser onto his console.
He began scanning through files, searching for any key intel.
Records about himself.
About every subject.
Including a complete test log for Subject 032.
Every time Amir closed his eyes, he remembered the sight of 032 hanging from the space slug's head—completely exposed to the vacuum of space, yet unharmed.
There had to be more.
Physically and mentally—032 held other secrets.
As Amir scrolled through data—
Milisen's voice startled him awake.
He had dozed off.
Only then did Amir realize just how exhausted he truly was.
Body and spirit, pushed to their limits.
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🌌 Star Wars: Relics of the Past
📢 The Force Calls! 📢
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