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Chapter 6 “There’s news from the outside,” Tabi said casually one afternoon as she showed Katrina how to cut pattern pieces for new uniforms. “The Emperor is dead.” “I know,” Katrina answered without turning. “Killed at Endor just before the second Death Star exploded.” “I don’t know much of the timing or how it all happened, but he is dead and the Death Star is gone. Can you imagine there being two of those monstrosities? We’re lucky the rebels destroyed it before there was another Alderaan.” Katrina nodded silently. “Some think the rebels will take over control of the galaxy now, that the Empire is dead. There are rumors, though, that the Empire lasts still, though it is breaking apart.” “Too many want what Palpatine had to not try for it. They feared him, but now there is nothing to keep them in check. They will end up fighting one another to the point that the rebels can move in and take over with little opposition.” “Maybe,” Tabi said noncommittally. “I have heard that some are looking for a little extra edge in it all. There are rumors that the old Emperor hid away his own children, teaching them to take his place one day. If someone making a play for power were to get hold of one or more of them…” Katrina looked up slowly and back at Tabi. She watched her carefully before sitting back. “What are you saying?” “Take off the mask, let me see if I’m right.” Obediently but still eying her friend carefully, Katrina complied. She closed her eyes at first, not wanting to see disgust on Tabi’s face, but opened them again in time to see the Weequay nod her head. “Are you going to turn me in?” Katrina asked quietly. “Of course not,” Tabi scoffed at the very idea. “But if they know what you look like you’d be easy to find, should anyone come here looking for you. That hair of yours makes you very obvious, young Katrina.” Katrina touched her long blue and black striped hair but said nothing. She knew Tabi had a point but did not know what could be done about it. She had been the only of Palpatine’s children, as far as she knew, with such hair and had often been deemed odd because of it. Personally, she liked the stripes. “I hate to do it,” Tabi thought aloud, “but dying it is our best answer, I think.” “Won’t the others become suspicious?” “They’ll forget soon enough. Most likely they’ll tease you a bit about it, but nothing more. What you have to remember is that people here care only about themselves and pay little attention to anyone else.” With that said and the days work finished the two set about changing the color of Katrina’s hair. Tabi spent nearly an hour measuring and mixing ingredients as Katrina washed and dried her hair before the fire. As the sweet smelling concoction dried on her hair Katrina sat at Tabi’s side and listened to the Weequay’s stories of her travels around the galaxy. “It didn’t work!” Tabi exclaimed as she finished rinsing the excess mixture out of Katrina’s hair. So they tried again, and again, and again. When homemade mixtures didn’t work Tabi found some commercial products locked away in Madame Zinkrey’s personal storage area. No matter how hard they tried to rub the chemicals in or how long they let it sit, whenever water or any other liquid was applied the coloring just ran away. “I don’t understand it,” Tabi said for the twentieth time, exasperated. “Thanks for trying,” Katrina said, rubbing her hair gently with a towel, her scalp felt raw and she suspected it was bleeding. Though she hadn’t actually done much in the last few hours she felt tired and spent from the many attempts. “We’ll have to think of something else,” Tabi also gave up. “For now, we’ll have to find a way to cover it, I think.” Katrina watched as the Weequay sat in her worn chair and began humming to herself. She picked up some scraps of fabric from a pile she kept by her chair and began stitching them together. It was easy for her to find pieces matching in color, the school uniforms only came in two colors and they had just been cutting pieces for new ones. “It’s not much, but it’s better than waiting around for someone to spot that hair of yours,” Tabi said as she handed her creation to Katrina. A metal band spiked with sharp protruding pieces sat just above her forehead and held up the long fabric pouch that concealed her hair. A long patchwork sheet of dark fabric hung down her back and folded under to enclose Katrina’s blue and black striped hair so that it could not be seen from any angle as well as it keep it from accidentally coming free. Two long, narrow pieces fell from the side and over her shoulder, like loose locks of hair. “How does it feel?” “A bit strange, but not bad,” Katrina fidgeted first with the metal piece then the sidepieces, finally adjusting her own hair underneath. “You’ll get used to it all too soon, I think,” Tabi frowned. “It is a shame though.” “Thanks, Tabi,” Katrina said earnestly to her friend, hugging her briefly before parting for the day. “I’ve never had a real friend before, not one that wasn’t really my sister.” |
