Chapter Text
Jenny sat at a workbench, tinkering with a circuit board. She'd been working on it all morning. It was the last thing she needed to fix before putting the holo-projector back together. Finally satisfied that it was working properly, she set her tools down and inspected the circuit board one more time. Her uncle Karl walked up behind her.
“You finished it?” He asked, looking over her shoulder. Jenny looked up at her uncle.
“Yep. Finally got it to work.” She replied, smiling at him. “Now I can put it back together.” She stated, turning back to the table and starting to put some tools away and pulling others out. Karl watched her for a moment.
“Hey, why don’t you take a break?” He asked. He knew sometimes she wouldn’t unless he made her. More than once, he’d found her asleep at the bench, partway through a project. Jenny went to protest, but stopped, seeing the look on his face, knowing he would find a way to make her do it. He always did.
“Fine.” she stated, sounding a bit defeated. Karl smiled at her, as she got up and walked over to the table they used for meals while they were in the shop.
Jenny picked up her datapad as she walked over, and checked the notifications. It was mostly Imperial news and propaganda, like usual. She scanned the titles, marking any she wanted to read later. While looking through things, she noticed something on the datapad that hadn’t been there before. She hadn’t downloaded anything new, she rarely did. After a moment of contemplation, she decided to open the application.
It appeared to be a chatroom of some kind, but she didn't recognize any of the names she saw. She thought it could be a new Imperial trick of some kind, another way to control the populace. But she also thought that maybe she could use it to look for customers and tell people about the shop. She decided to risk it and made a profile. A few moments later, she sent a message, and waited to see if she would get a reply.
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 1:18PM
“Hello?”
Hera walked into the common area of the Ghost and sat down at the Dejarik table. She looked through her datapad, searching for anything that could be a job for her and the crew. Not finding anything she didn't already know about, she turned the datapad back to the main screen. She too noticed something that hadn't been there before. She was a bit more cautious of opening it, as she knew the Empire would do just about anything to try and stop any rebels. She opened it moments after Jenny's message, so it was the first thing she saw. She scrolled through some of the previous messages, and decided they were unimportant. She scrolled back down to the bottom. She wondered why it looked like there was a kid in the chat.
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 1:25 PM
“Hello.”
Jenny hasn't really expected anyone to reply. She rarely looked at holochats and had opened with a question. She wasn't quite sure of the etiquette. So when a few minutes after she’d written something, someone did reply, she wasn't completely sure what to think of it. She paused, unsure if she should reply. When she realized she'd just been staring blankly at the screen for a few minutes, she decided to just, reply, and see what happened.
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 1:28PM
“Hello.”
She waited patiently to see if the other person would reply again.
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 1:31 PM
“Your name is very pretty, I like it.”
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 1:34 PM
“Thank you. My mother chose it.”
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 1:36 PM
“She must be a very intelligent woman.”
Jenny smiled lightly at Hera's comment. She missed her mom, but she was happy about the memory.
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 1:42 PM
“She was. She was amazing. Sometimes I wonder about my dad though.”
Jenny's comment made Hera pause. She was talking about her mother in the past tense. Hera could guess what that likely meant. She felt bad for the kid. Losing a parent was bad enough, but not knowing about the other? She hoped the kid had other family she was staying with.
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 1:46 PM
“I'm sure you'll find out soon.”
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 1:48 PM
“It'd be nice to at least know who he is, or was. Mom didn't talk about him much.”
She paused, watching the screen. When Jenny had asked about her father, her mom usually tried to change the subject, but Jenny had never understood why.
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 1:49 PM
“Did you ever get a name?”
As much as she figured she wouldn't know it, she thought it couldn't hurt to ask.
Her father's name? Jenny tried to remember if her mom had stated a name the few times they'd brought up her father in conversation. Jenny couldn't think of any. Her eyes drifted across the shop landing on the holo disc sitting on top of some nearby crates. There was a name on it that Jenny didn't recognize, and her mom had always changed the topic whenever Jenny had brought it up. Was that why her mom didn't want to talk about it? It made sense, but she had no way to be certain.
She'd wanted to find whoever the person was anyway, even if that wasn't the reason. She didn't think her mom would have labeled it without a reason.
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 1:54 PM
“No. She never mentioned it. Though, I did find a holodisc with a name taped to it once. It's probably unrelated though. She acted all strange when I showed it to her, then took it and told me to forget about it.”
‘No name?!’ Hera thought. That was strange, even for her. There had to be a reason for it, she guessed. She knew it could be any of a number of potential reasons, including secrets, especially if the Empire was involved somehow.
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 1:56 PM
“Hmm, I can understand family secrets. Do you remember what was on the outside? Maybe it could help.”
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 1:59 PM
“I have it on me. I thought after she passed away that I should try to find the person, but I don't have a way to travel off-planet. So I just listen to names from customers, or when people walk by.”
It was what she had done, since a few weeks after her mom’s death. When she’d found the disc again, she decided she would at least try to find the person, somehow.
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 2:00 PM
“Well, as it turns out, I'm the Captain of a ship.”
Jenny stared at the datapad for a moment. A real ship captain offering to help her?! She wasn’t sure whether to believe it or not. No one ever did that. She’d met ship captains before, but none had ever offered to help her in finding the person the disc was for. Then again, most ship captains she had met were either Imperial officers or mercenaries of some kind.
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 2:03 PM
“Really? Maybe you could help me find this person then? I haven’t heard the name, and it's been about a year since she passed. Let me just check the disc. Maybe you know where to find them.”
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 2:05 PM
“Helping people out is my job hun. I’d be happy to.”
Hera smiled to herself. She really wanted to help this kid if she could.
Jenny got up and grabbed the holo disc, bringing it over to the table.
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 2:08 PM
“Ok. The name in the tape says . . . 'Kanan Jarrus'.
I've never heard the name before. But I think mom planned to give it to them at some point. Whoever they are.”
Hera stared at the datapad for a few moments, when Jenny sent her message. Why did she have a holo disc with Kanan’s name on it? Hera started thinking about everything she knew about Kanan’s past from before they met.
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 2:13 PM
“.... … does it really say that?”
She wanted to be absolutely sure that it was Kanan’s name on this holo disc, before she decided what to do about it.
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 2:15 PM
“I'll double check . . .”
Jenny double checked the name on the disc, and that she had spelled it right.
“. . . Yeah. It's mom's handwriting. That's what she wrote. Why? Do you know them?”
Hera seemed lost in thought for a moment. Kanan and Ezra were currently on a supply run, but she’d definitely talk to him about this once he was back.
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 2:19 PM
“He and I are going to have a talk. Yeah, I know him, he's my husband. If you really want to travel with me you'll probably meet him.”
Jenny wasn’t sure what she had been expecting as an answer, but Hera’s reply took her by surprise. She wanted to find the person the disc was meant for, but she’d never expected to end up talking to his wife! Then again, Jenny thought, she didn't know a lot about Kanan, so, should she even be surprised?
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 2:23 PM
“Well, you can always come find me. I work in my uncle's repair shop. I really just want to give him the disc that mom had. I'd love to travel too, but you might have to ask my uncle.”
She’d love to travel, but she wasn’t really expecting that. So long as she gave this Kanan person her mom’s disc, she’d be happy with that.
Hera had an idea what might be on the holo disc, from what Jenny had explained. Why Kanan hadn't mentioned anything before, she wasn’t sure. But she was at least going to help Jenny get the disc to Kanan. What happened after that, they’d have to wait and see.
Hera Syndulla 1/16/2024 2:25 PM
“Now I'm obligated to help you out.”
That surprised Jenny. Obligated to help her? She hadn’t expected that either. Who was this Hera person? She’d never met anyone like this. She kind of reminded Jenny of her mom, in the sense of wanting to help people. She hadn’t really met anyone else like that. She’d heard that there used to be a lot of people like that, but the Empire had essentially gotten rid of them.
But why did Hera feel obligated to help her? As far as Jenny knew, and from what she had seen, most people only seemed to care about themselves.
Jenny Windstar 1/16/2024 2:27 PM
“Ok. I'll be here in the shop. It's called Windstar Repairs. It’s on Altair 3, in Zaire.”
Hera made note of the information, and closed the application. She sat there for a moment, thinking about the whole thing. If what she was thinking was right, why hadn’t Kanan mentioned it? In all the time they'd been together, he'd never brought up something happening on Altair 3. She needed more information from Kanan before drawing conclusions for sure. She decided to figure out where they were heading before Kanan and Ezra got back. She headed back to the cockpit to plot their next destination.
After a few minutes of no more replies, Jenny closed the chat on her datapad as well and sat there for a moment. She wondered when Hera and Kanan would show up. If they did. Even with Hera's promise of helping, she knew it may not happen. Any number of things could happen before they got here. She set the holo disc on the shelf, and went back to the workbench.