Zoraida Cordova - A Crash of Fate

He lowered himself to steal a kiss. She threaded her fingers through his and they went off to continue what they’d been doing for weeks—making plans. Sitting at the counter at Oga’s, they mapped their route and the myriad possibilities. They listed planets Izzy had loved and others they had only heard of in stories, like Endor and Mandalore.

“We’ve gone over this,” Jules said, drinking his Carbon Freeze. Smoke billowed from the glass. “I’m ready, Izzy. You’re hesitating. What’s stopping you?”

“Credits?” she offered. When she’d decided to stay, Jules had forced her to take her share for the delivery. She’d made it stretch, but it was time to start moving again. When he took her hand in his, she couldn’t avoid the thoughts that kept her up at night. “I’m afraid.”

He rested his hands on her knees. “ You are afraid? Of what?”

She gave him a gentle shove. “Where do I even start? What if we end up dead in space? What if we get halfway across the galaxy and we want to kill each other?”

“But think of all the fun we’ll have making up after.” He gave her a look that made her blush.

“I’m serious.”

Jules set down his drink and cupped her face. “You’re the only thing I’m sure of in this galaxy, Izzy. The rest, we can figure out.”

They paid their tab and left the cantina, then headed toward Ohnaka Transport Solutions. Along the way, Izzy and Jules took in the vendors waving customers to step forward, the kids chasing one another through the market streets. The air was thick with humidity, and as billowing clouds drifted low, Jules kept his eyes on the sky. He saw flashes of ships coming into orbit.

“Have you ever met this Hondo Ohnaka?” Izzy asked as they joined the queue. At the very end of it was Delta, clutching a datapad.

“I haven’t,” Jules said. “He comes in and out of the Outpost, mostly to pay his debt to Oga. But lucky for us, he’s always looking for flight crews.”

They were certain that working for Hondo would help them travel the galaxy together while getting steady work. Jules wasn’t in a rush. The first time they’d left the Outpost it was to go to the other side of the planet. The land there was rugged, wild in a way he’d never seen before. Then they’d traveled to a nearby small ice moon called Ielo. It had been his first time seeing snow. It fell in fat, soft drifts. He jumped in it. He ate it. He did that for nearly an hour before he was done with snow forever. After that they’d never made it to Eroudac, but they would one day.

It was then that everyone around them turned to the sky. Pinpricks of fire blasts illuminated the clouds. Ships swarmed from the direction of docking bay nine and into space. The traffic tower blared an alarm, and chaos descended on them as everyone ran, picking up what they could. There was screaming, fears of the cyclical tragedies of war. But Jules and Izzy remained on the landing pad, suspended at the center of a storm.

“Looks like the Resistance is coming out of hiding,” Jules said.

Izzy watched him while he watched the fight happening thousands of meters above them—too far and too close. He often felt the helplessness he had that day in the market when the crowds had been ready to descend into riots. When black and red and white flags had begun to unfurl across the Outpost and hadn’t stopped. Dreaming about his future and the girl he loved pushed away that encroaching dark. But how long could he keep dreaming? What could he do? He was only one person. And that would have to be enough.

Was that what each and every one of those fighter pilots thought before they flew? I’m only one person, but together we are more.

Izzy and Jules were not the only ones who watched laser fire punch a hole in the sky. Delta didn’t leave their side, and Volt, who had seen such things before, forced himself not to look away.

People shoved across the landing pad to get indoors and away from the landing platforms. Screams melted into the wail of sirens the way the buildings blended into the spires. A part of Izzy still wanted to take off. It was safer to leave. It was harder to stay. She thought of her mother’s holomessage. She’d watched it again and again. At first on her own, then later with Jules. Ixel Garsea had wanted her daughter to live without regret and a stronger heart. Those things weren’t earned so easily.

Izzy realized it did not matter where she’d been in the past. She was rooted, not to a place but to everything. She was born on a ship flying through space. She’d left pieces of herself scattered across the galaxy like stars. The world out there was Izal Garsea’s home as much as Batuu, as much as Jules, and she would do anything to protect it.

“I have to do something,” Jules said.

“We will.” She took his hand, ready to rise up for the battle that was coming.

My first real memories of Star Wars are the days spent with my brother Danny in our old Queens apartment reenacting fight scenes from Return of the Jedi . Now we are adults, or adult-ish, binge-watching the next generation of heroes in our favorite galaxy. Star Wars and family are so intertwined in my life, which is why I am always grateful to my Ecuadorian tribe for their constant support and for letting me work in a corner during every party and holiday celebration. Finally, you can point to the finished product.

Huge thanks to my agent, Victoria Marini. This book would not be possible without the phenomenal team at Disney Lucasfilm Press, especially my editor, Jennifer Heddle, and Michael Siglain. Thank you to the ultimate keepers of Star Wars knowledge, Story Group executives Matt Martin and Pablo Hidalgo, and copyeditor Megan Granger. Leigh Zieske for designing such a beautiful book, and Matt Griffin for the incredible jacket cover art. Margaret Kerrison for guiding me through the landscape and characters of Batuu; you’ve helped build something incredible and I can’t wait for everyone to explore this planet.

Every writer needs a deadline squad: Victoria and Dhonielle, you constantly inspire me to just keep writing. Brick by brick. Chapter by chapter. To the friends who took care of me while I was a Hot Deadline Mess: Sarah Younger, Natalie Horbachevsky, Tessa Gratton, and Natalie Parker.

Finally, to the Star Wars community. We are all just kids who still dream of adventuring among the stars, and that is a beautiful thing.

Que la Fuerza te acompañe. May the Force be with you.

ZORAIDA CÓRDOVAis the award-winning author of the Brooklyn Brujas series and the Vicious Deep trilogy. Her short fiction has appeared in the New York Times best-selling anthology Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View and Toil & Trouble: 16 Tales of Women and Witchcraft . Zoraida was born in Ecuador and raised in Queens, New York. When she isn’t working on her next novel, she’s planning her next adventure.