Kiriban for CodenameSAILORV [link] , who asked that her fractal be yellow, orange and blue. This is a zoomed in detail on a larger fractal, that sparked a story in my mind that wouldn't leave me alone. So I turned it into a ficlet to put with this fractal, since Keri's a fellow Atton fan and supportive KFM friend. Hope you like it!

Apo 2.04 beta

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Atton finished the last of the jump calculations and set the Hawk on autopilot, leaving the
cockpit wearily. He fully intended to hit the sack, taking off his jacket and gloves on his way
to the men's bunks and relishing the idea of taking off his boots.

Atton wasn't a middle aged man quite yet, but he certainly wasn't a kid anymore, and his
body let him know it. Most of the day was spent in battle and beating a hasty retreat from a
dead Sith planet that Atton knew all too well. His arms ached from swinging his new
lightsaber and he had a nasty gash over one eye. Everyone else had gone to bed or
powered down; the ship was cool and as silent as anything with a hyperdrive could be.

As he walked through the deserted common room, Atton noticed that no one had powered
down the central star chart and he paused to turn it off. Something stopped him though, and
he looked closer at the set of systems.

Yes, the coordinates were right. He zoomed in on a tiny cluster of planets between twin
stars, causing the image to loom large in front of him. There in the center, was his
homeworld, left behind long ago and rarely thought of since. The pattern of the stars and
planets stirred a memory deep in Atton's mind.

Sitting in front of the star chart, Atton figured that he wouldn't get a quieter time to practice
the deep meditation the Exile was teaching him, and he pushed all the thoughts of fights,
stress, rivalry and past deeds away. The need for bed forgotten, he brought the memory into
focus just as he had the star chart.

The quilt was warm, and soft. The stitches on one half were neatly done, though as Jaq's
eyes followed the pattern across, it got a little sloppy towards the other side. He'd watched
his mother sew it by hand, choosing to do so out of love and lack of sewing equipment.

"Here's our system's larger star, Jaq, and over here I'll put the smaller," she said in her
loving voice. "Our planet, our home, will go here." She told him other stories and pointed out
other interesting worlds and background stars as she worked.

"What's this one?" he asked, fingering a larger, warmer colored planet.

"That's where your father fought in the war," she answered sadly. They didn't talk about Jaq's
father much, the memory was too painful.

Now his mother's memory was painful too, as he sat hugging the quilt in the dressing room
of the cantina where his sister worked as a dancer. She took care of him as best she could,
but she wasn't Mother, and the cantina wasn't home. Feeling hurt and anger well up inside
him, Jaq stuffed the quilt inside his pack and decided he was too old to care about it
anymore.

Atton pulled out of the meditation and stared at the familiar pattern of stars and planets. It
would never do for some well-meaning Jedi or ill-intentioned Sith to peek into his mind and
come across these memories. Atton decided that he would add these coordinates to the
ones he used to block people out of his mind, strengthening the wall with the love of his
mother and the hurt of her loss. With a last look at the beautiful glow of twin stars and homey
planets, Atton powered down the central star chart and went to bed.