Captain NorthStar Lightwalker's Arc

Chapter 1 of 14

Captain NorthStar Lightwalker stepped off his shuttle and into the wet green hush of Dagobah. He left the USS Pickle in orbit and walked alone to the small wooden houseboat moored in the swamp. Here, no one called him Captain. Here, he could stop pretending he did not want a council seat, a partner, a quiet world for his children. Here, he could want. A winged toad rang its bell-throat from the reeds. He climbed the ladder and pushed open the door. On the windowsill sat a thin silver ring. He had carried it for years and never given it to anyone. Beside it lay a folded note in his own handwriting, the top line blank where a name should be. He picked up the ring and turned it between his fingers, the way he always did when he was alone. Outside, the carved sundial caught the last light. Its shadow lines pointed at stars he had never spoken about, not to his chief engineer, not to Admiral Voss, not even to himself. He stood over it and said the words out loud. "I want the seat. I want a home. I want someone waiting." The swamp did not answer. But he had said it. He slipped the ring onto a cord around his neck and walked back toward the shuttle. Tomorrow he would tell Voss. Not ask. Tell.