Part I

The sun shone through the window of the golden haired woman’s living room window, falling gently upon her face and stirring her awake, still lying in the collapsed position from the night before.

36 ABY.

Was it a dream? Or, more accurately, a nightmare? She shook her head slightly and rose to her feet. Groggily making her way to her washroom to splash some water on her face, she walked by her kitchen where her daughter sat eating breakfast and watching the news on the Holonet.

“Reports have been coming in since late last night regarding the terror attack on Seng Karash committed apparently by member of Shar Dakhan, we’ll bring you the news, accurate and evenly balanced, after these messages,” came the monotonic voice of the reporter whose image appeared in the hologram.

The golden haired woman stopped dead in her tracks, the blood draining from her face.

“Mom, are you okay? The news has been nothing but pieces about last night’s attack all morning. They’re calling it the New Cycle Celebration Massacre. Apparently more than two thousand people were murdered… I’m so happy you made it home,” the young daughter said, exasperated, as she rushed to her mother and held her tightly.

“I… I don’t understand… why would they do thi-” the woman’s rhetorical question was cut short by a slight rapping at the door.

“Mom?!”

“Stay here…”

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