Title: crystal shards
Timeline: prequel
Author: the katte bookkatte@yahoo.com
Characters: Cryskatte, Valian Swifthart, Nymkatte(would i ever leave
her out?), various extras
Category: romance
Status: 1/1
Disclaimer: I am using places and Characters and bits of a storyline
belonging to George Lucas (aka god of the sw universe) the creativity
and the katte race belong to me. I make no money for this story I
write for thine entertainment.
Summary: Cryskatte comes to Curoscant on a mission to the council
thanks to Nymkatte and falls for a jedi.(a description of a katte is
found on the other message board. I will be happy to offer my file on
the Katte race if asked)(please excuse in advance any misspellings or
typos as i have no spellchecker on this dumb program)


Cryskatte




      Cryskatte walked the corridors of the jedi compound. She
looked down demurely avoiding the stares her white hair and prism
explosion eyes caused. It wasn't her fault she was so spectacular in
looks. The elder had been the one to design her looks at birth. The
elder had been chastened for playing with genetics when it was seen
how much attention Cryskatte drew among the humans. Her eyes held
every color in the rainbow as if all the color in her all white body
had been drawn there. Cryskatte prefered the slightly alien look of
having a down of fur at all times along with her pointed katte ears.
It made her seem more acceptable somehow if she were alien.


      Cryskatte still had trouble understanding why she had been
the one sent this time to talk to the Jedi Council. Due to
Cryskatte's startling looks she had never been able to freely travel
and had never been assigned a liege. Cryskatte hated leaving the home
planet, Purrsa. She was so shy that the attention drawn by her looks
had always embarrassed and slightly frightened her. The council of
elders had been adament though that they needed to make a good and
immediate impression on the council. The best way they had all agreed
was with Cryskatte's looks and perfect manners. Was it Cryskatte's
fault that most Kattes allowed to travel among the stars were
egotistical and abrasive creatures that would make an unfavorable
impression on the council just to see their reaction and bedamned to
the mission? Like that Nymkatte for instance, she would have seen how
many of the council member she could shock by shifting in front of
them into a totally naked human woman. Then she would probably
seduced them all into a frantic orgy with a mind trick or two. Some
kattes had no respect for ethics and morality.


      Cryskatte at last stood before the council chamber doors.
Somehow she felt nervous like a virgin sacrifice for a moment. Wait!
She was a virgin! What were the customs of these people again?


      Cryskatte heard a husky chuckle. She spun to look at the
person. It was another katte. This would have to be Nymkatte. It was
because of her that this trouble all started. Why, oh why had
Nymkatte decided to seduce that delagation and expose the katte race
to the Jedi? Now they were insisting on sending a delagation to
discover what they could about the race to see if they were a threat
to the Republic.


      "So they sent the angel to rescue the demon?" Nymkatte
laughed at the irony.


      It was not Cryskatte's fault that she was the way she
was. "Nymkatte I would think you would be more chastened than you
are," Cryskatte said primly.


      "Now darlin, if you were exposed just a little more to the
fun side of life you would have done the same thing I did. Those Jedi
boys were just too delectable to pass up," Nymkatte drawled and
licked her lips in remembrance.


      Cryskatte clenched her teeth for a moment trying to control
her anger. She lost the battle. "Nymkatte if you would pay half the
attention to your missions as you do to pleasuring that body of
yours, you would be one of the elders!"


      Nymkatte looked horrified. "Be one of those stuffed shirt
rejects and give up traveling the stars? Hell no! I did my duty all
ready!" Nymkatte's voice shifted into a smug purr, "How is my darling
daughter anyway?"


      Cryskatte curled her hands into fists. This female would have
to have been one of the only kattes capable of giving birth. Her
daughter had become the bane of Cryskatte's existence. The only other
katte close to Cryskatte's age had been this female's offspring and
no one seemed to understand they were rivals and not
friends. "Talonkatte is just fine." Cryskatte grit her teeth
together. "In fact her troubles would make you proud. She managed to
destroy an entire colony of people in defense of her liege this
month."


      Nymkatte cackled. "You can blaim that part of her on her
father's blood. Deathkatte always was an incredibly dangerous male."
Nymkatte looked off into the distance suddenly serious. "I miss him."


      Cryskatte was moved with compassion for this katte who had
lived so long that she knew of things and people long gone before
Cryskatte took her first breath. Sometimes she was told by the kattes
who traveled the stars that they wondered if living such long lives
was worth it. On Purrsa the long lives meant nothing more than an
ever increasing search for fertile kattes because too many of them
were not. Among the starwanderers however, it meant lieges and
civilizations crumling and rising before their eyes and a lifetime of
knowing their human friends would die again and again. "Nymkatte-"


      Nymkatte interupted her brusquely, "Hey, you need to get in
there and save the race, remember?"


      "Yes, I know." Cryskatte watched sadly as Nymkatte walked
away, a new understanding of the starwanderers entering into
Cryskatte's mind.


*******


      The first interveiw over, and the council suttibly impressed
by Cryskatte into believing the katte race merely a very private
race, Cryskatte wandered back out into the hall. Her thoughts still
tuned to the meeting, it took the man several throat clearings and
finally an, "Excuse me, miss?"


      Cryskatte looked up to be caught in two drowning pools of
blue. Bright and deep blue eyes, Cryskatte thought she could stare
into them forever. Her breath seemed to catch and she couldn't find
air. Who needed to breath when they could see this? Nothing seemed to
exist for that moment but the two shining orbs of blue that seemed to
capture her soul.


      Now it was the man's young padawan child that woke her from
her trance. It helped her a little that the man seemed to be having
as much trouble as she refocusing on the moment. The child drew his
master's attention, "Sir, did you forget?"


      The man startled and blushed. He turned back to Cryskatte
with a bow. "My appologies my lady, it seems I was mesmerized by your
beauty. I am Valian Swifthart, and this is my padawan learner, Redd
Thorn. We have been assigned the pleasure of being your escort."


      The small child immatated his master in bowing to her, but
his cute cherubic, freckled face peeked up at her and grinned.
Chrskatte was immediately charmed by this small rascal. The boy's red
hair gave testament to his name and she guessed he was probably a
thorn in the sides of his teachers. Cryskatte smiled warmly at this
little scamp.


      "My thanks to each of you. I am honored to have such handsome
escorts." Cryskatte tried to keep her attention on the boy but her
gaze kept slipping to the master. Valian's gaze seemed to be fastened
on her and never wavered.


      They escorted her to her temporary quarters and offered to be
at her beck and call during her entire stay. Cryskatte blushed and
confessed she had no idea where or how she was supposed to do
anything while here. "This is my first mission, at last my first
mission that takes me offplanet for more than a night and I always
stayed in my ship."


      Valian smiled broadly. "Then, my lady, we must see that you
have the finest of times while you are here!"


*********


      The next week, every moment she was not with the council or
sleeping, Valian and Redd showed her everything of Curoscant's best
refined entertainments. They dined in the best restuarants on the
finest of foods in all the Republic. They saw the most glamorous and
well played theaters and symphony halls. Every moment with them was a
perfect moment and through it all Valian was there watching her as if
she were the most precious creature born.


      One night, Valian and she were out dining at a restuarant
that allowed dancing. Redd had opted to stay with some of the other
children padawans instead of coming with them. The lights were dim
and they spent the meal in silence looking into each other's eyes.
When the meal that had been hardly touched was taken away, Valian
rose and held out his hand to her. She took it and he swept her out
onto the dance floor. Valian spun and twirled them around the room.
Cryskatte could do nothing more than cling to him and trust him to
stear her right.


      They made a perfect couple, he with his black hair and skin
as white as hers, she with no color but white anywhere but her eyes
where all the colors of the universe seemed to collide in an
explosion that continually fasinated Valian. He, the tall and strong
male, she, the small and fragile female. They moved with effortless
grace around the room and never seemed to realize there was anything
else in all the world but the presence of the other.


      Long after the room had emptied and just the employees were
left the two finally departed. He took her to a park that had been
planted atop one of the buildings. In the silence of the night and
lighted only by the stars, Valian leaned over her as she sat beside
him on a stone bench. Cryskatte closed her eyes as his lips slowly
moved across hers. Nothing else in the universe could be but the star
light reflected in Cryskattes eyes, the warmth of her body held in
his arms, and the touch of her lips to his. Valian whispered in a
voice as hushed and as loving as the enfolding darkness around
them, "I love you, Cryskatte"


      If kattes could cry, Cryskatte would have at that moment. She
lifted her hand to cup his beautiful face. Her eyes studied his every
feature as he leaned into her touch. "I love you, too, Valian
Swifthart."


********


      That night Valian held her in his arms all night and they
talked. They talked about everything and nothing. They lay in
Valian's bedchamber on his bed, but her trust in him was so absolute,
Cryskatte never feared that he would take anything from her. His hand
played with her hip length white hair and his arm never let her stray
far from his side but he took no liberaties. Cryskatte fell asleep
contented to have him hold her into eternity. He kissed her forehead
and pulled her close to his heart before closing his own eyes for
what remained of the night.


*********


      "Master! Master! Wake up!"


      Valian tried to ignore the childishly excited voice.


      "Master awake! The council has assigned us a new mission!"


      This brought Valian rudely awake. A new mission would mean he
would have to leave his beloved Cryskatte behind. "What do you mean?"


      Cryskatte sat up quietly beside him. Redd seemed not to even
notice her presense in his excitement. "Oh master, the holo-orders
came while you slept. We are to be the delegates to Delluse. The
council said it should be safe enough with the truce for me to go
too!"


**********


      Cryskatte mission had been completed and there should have
been no reason for her to linger here now that the Jedi Council had
been convinced to leave the kattes offrecord and obscure. Her excuse
to the council of elders of Purrsa was she was visiting with
Nymkatte. Nymkatte found this so amusing she went along with the
blatent lie it was. Nymkatte had no more desire to visit with
Cryskatte than Cryskatte did. Somehow, though, during the days that
Cryskatte waited for Valian to return, they became friends. Two more
opposite kattes would be hard to find but it didn't seem to matter
when they spent enough time together.


      It was one day while they were sitting in Nymkatte's quarters
giggling and talking girltalk, which Nymkatte did not get a chance to
do very often due to her nature, that it happened. One minute
Cryskatte was looking straight at Nymkatte with a smile about to
impart a joke's punchline, and the next Cryskatte was screaming at
the stars.


      "VALIAN!!!!!!!!!!!"


      Nymkatte grabbed the anguished katte as she collapsed. After
laying Cryskatte down on her bed, Nymkatte slapped the consol's info-
request button. "What is wrong with the Jedi Delluse delagation?"


      A robotic voice replyed, "Information not available."


      "What the hells do you mean not available?" The consol went
blank on her. Nymkatte growled and slapped a few more buttons. A Jedi
Council member's face appeared before her, he was startled to see
her. Nymkatte knew her features had probably slipped back into katte
form more than human form but her mouth was still able to form the
words needed to terrify this alien into giving her what she wanted.


      "The delegation was killed. A terrorist planted a bomb on the
ship set to go off as soon as they left atmosphere. Nothing is left."


      Nymkatte studied him in silence for a moment. "You are lying."


      The absolute shock on his face told her she was right. She
slapped off the consol and rekeyed something. Qui Gon Jinn's features
appeared before her. "Nymkatte?!?"


      "Qui Gon, tell me the truth of Valian Swifthart and Redd
Thorn."


      He sighed heavily. "There was a battle. The delegation tried
to escape on the ship but it exploded before leaving atmosphere.
Valian is alive down there, somewhere, but we have no hope of his
survival. He fell from that ship into a mountain crawling with
terrorists and a planets of erupting war. IF he can be spared from
that he is still broken and bleeding and dying from his injuries.
Redd... Redd died with the others."


      "Meet me at my ship." Nymkatte slapped the consol into
blackness again. Nymkatte turned back to the room. Cryskatte stared
at the ceiling. Nymkatte could see she was no longer there. Her
spirit was holding a broken and dying man on a cold and dangerous
mountaintop lightyears away. Her lips whispered, "Valian, my love, my
life, do not die. Valian, please, do not die. Do not leave me. Have I
found you only to loose you?"


      As Nymkatte left her there, Cryskatte screamed
again. "VALIAN!!!!!"

shards of the heart