A Traveler’s Journals of Ralltiir
Part 1: World of Watchers
As told to Morrie Mullins by Vareesa Enan
I am SO excited! Just last week, I was sitting in the back of my cousin’s
dingy little sop house in Cularin, and now look at me – – a young Ithorian off
to see the galaxy! I knew cousin Vanster had a fondness for me, even if he
always seemed a little annoyed when I showed up at the cantina, since he
always found a way to send me to just the right person to answer every
question I had. But when he said, “Vareesa, you must travel more and find
answers for yourself,” I hardly knew what to do. Then he bought me a ticket,
and now, here I am, getting ready to make my descent onto the first world that
I found on the charts that sounded like fun.
I can see Ralltiir out my viewport. It’s a small viewport, I guess, but
it’s not like I’m traveling first class or anything. It’s enough that I can
see the planet, and that’s exciting.
I’ve been trying to think of what kind of theme I should have, when I go
from one planet to another. Cousin Vanster said I should do something with the native plant life, but some of the planets really don’t have much. Besides,
every traveling Ithorian that I’ve ever met wants to document plant life. I
want to do something different.
I’m thinking architecture.
I’m not sure if Ralltiir was the place to start, for that. I’ve seen
pictures of places like Coruscant, where you can see cities from space, and
Ralltiir just isn’t the same.
I’ve done some studying on the architecture of Ralltiir. There’s not a
lot to do in hyperspace except read and talk to people, and most of the people
on this shuttle aren’t very talkative. Lots of those Falleen folks, including
this really arrogant man that everyone seems to avoid. I say, if people want
to be left alone, leave them alone.
Anyway, Ralltiir’s architecture is pretty varied in style. You’ve got
some really old buildings, with lots of arches and columns and bridges, and
some of them are even made out of stone. Then there are some newer buildings, where you’re seeing lots more angular, geometric designs, like what Dieterschach does with some of the big corporate plazas, or that horrible set of designs some of the Hutts used for ships a few years back. You remember, the ones that looked like a child had glued some blocks together and dropped them into orbit?
The neat thing about the old and the new buildings on Ralltiir is that
they aren’t, as near as I can tell, segregated based on economic conditions.
On some planets, you get all the old classical-style buildings in the more
run-down sections of the world, and the more modern-looking buildings in the newer sections where there’s more traffic. That’s not the case on Ralltiir. I
looked up the “good” and “bad” parts of Cambriele (that’s the capitol), and
there are old and new buildings everywhere.
Well, they’re telling us that we need to get strapped in, so I’m going to
do some more recording on this later. This is Vareesa Enan, signing off!
Part 2: The Wayward Ithorian
As told to Morrie Mullins by Vareesa Enan
So, we landed a little while ago at the Grallia spaceport. It’s enormous!
I mean, I know that I probably sound like some little backwater fool, but I
always forget how big things are away from home, and how strange people can seem.
I was a little worried, to start with. It’s one thing to think about
traveling, and it’s even okay to be on the ship and getting close to your
goal, but it’s another thing entirely to step off the ship and find yourself
in the middle of a few thousand people you’ve never known. I seem to have the grace that runs in my family, too; I think I stepped on at least five sets of
feet before I made it out of the main terminal!
Fortunately, I met a really nice Ithorian who was waiting for a hovercab
outside the terminal. It was so good to see another Ithorian! He is a little
bit pale – – he says it’s the atmosphere, we don’t get a whole lot of light
here and he says staying too long will make any of our kind a little on the
pale side – – and kind of scrawny, but he’s very nice. His name is Kikow, and
he was just getting back from visiting Albecus on business. (He says there
really isn’t much to see there, and I should avoid it.) But the best part is,
he knows all of Ralltiir really well, and he’s going to be my tour guide for
the next couple of days!
A Traveler’s Journals of Ralltiir
Part 3: Exhibition
As told to Morrie Mullins by Vareesa Enan
Kikow took me to the most amazing museum that I’ve ever seen today. It’s
called the Cambriele Exploration Auditorium, and it’s all about the
exploration of the galaxy. Right now, they have an amazing exhibition called
“Children of the Galaxy,” and that’s where we spent most of our time.
I think Kikow was a little disappointed that there weren’t more Ithorian
children in the exhibition, but I told him that most of us stay at home while
we’re young, and we don’t go out exploring. I told him that most of the
children featured in the exhibition probably ran away from home and weren’t very good children anyway, so it shouldn’t surprise us that there weren’t any Ithorians among them. He got a little grumpy then and wandered off to make some comlink calls. I don’t think he understands children very well, but he’s a nice person all the same.
The exhibit was wonderful, though! There were children of dozens of
different species who had all done exploration or helped to discover important
things. Some of them did it on purpose, but some of it was accidental. There
was this one Rodian girl who liked to play with hyperspace charts when she was young, and she was looking at them and figured out that something wasn’t quite right. The best time you could make going from one planet to another (I can’t remember which two) was too long, which meant that the route wasn’t straight. She discovered a whole new star system that had just started forming, just like that!
I had to look around to find Kikow. He was talking to a Wookiee in one of
the botanical areas. They were standing under a holo of a really nice,
healthy-looking tree. The Wookiee didn’t look happy, but then, a lot of
Wookiees don’t look happy. I think this one was mad because someone played apractical joke on it and shaved the fur off its shoulders. At least, I think
that’s what happened. I can’t actually understand Wookiees when they talk.
When he saw me coming, Kikow waved, and the Wookiee kind of growled, then it pulled the cutest little droid out of its bag and let it hover so the droid
could translate for me to be able to understand her. Her name was Furellas,
and she had pretty, light-brown fur. I told her so, and she smiled, and I
guess all Wookiee smiles are kind of scary. Hers was, at least. But at least
she had pretty fur.
A Traveler’s Journals of Ralltiir
Part 4: The Ithorian and the Tiger
As told to Morrie Mullins by Vareesa Enan
I have a new pet! He’s the most wonderful thing in the world. Furellas
and Kikow escorted me to the open-air market today, and while we were walking through the stalls, I saw the cutest basket of kittens! They’re all soft fur and big yawns, and they don’t even have teeth or claws yet.
Furellas insisted on buying me one of the kittens – – she said it will
grow up to be big and strong, and will protect me. She called it a “Ralltiir
tiger,” but it doesn’t look like other tigers I’ve seen pictures of. She even
suggested a name for him, and I really liked it, so now I have a tiger named
Little Kikow. Isn’t that cute? Kikow said he really didn’t want Little Kikow
to be named after him, but by then it was already too late.
Little Kikow likes to cuddle and sleep, and he’s the softest thing I’ve
ever held. I think Kikow is a little jealous, but I’m sure he’ll get over it.
That was a really great trip to the market.
Part 5: The Kalmec
As told to Morrie Mullins by Vareesa Enan
Well, my time on Ralltiir is almost done, and unfortunately, Kikow had
business to attend to elsewhere. Fortunately, his friend Furellas was able to
help me get everything packed up, and she even got me all the paperwork I need to take Little Kikow with me on the ship. She told me I have to be careful not to tell people too much about him, because Ralltiir tigers are very rare and lots of people would want to take him away from me and cut off his fur to sell to the Hutts, so we registered him as a different kind of cat – – she filled
out the paperwork and gave it to some of her Wookiee friends to handle.
She’s really nice – – not as scary as I thought. She has a bunch of
friends who have their shoulders shaved, too. I asked her why they did that,
and she gave me a long explanation that basically said, because if we don’t,
people treat us like animals.
It’s kind of interesting to hear her talk about it. Wookiees really do
have a lot more fur than most sentients, and because they can’t talk in Basic,
they get treated like they’re less important than other sentients in the
galaxy. They aren’t less important, though. She and her friends – – they call
themselves the Kalmec – – shave their shoulders to remind people that
underneath their fur, Wookiees are just like everyone else. You know, when she smiles now, it isn’t nearly as scary.
Legends 