"Deconstruction"
Rating: R
On a fact-finding mission for the Senate, Bail Organa is abducted and tortured. Now that he has been rescued, he must struggle to put his life back together after an ordeal that challenges all he believes in. First of a two-part story arc that concludes with "Reconstruction".
Heartfelt gratitude goes to the Amazing Wonder Beta, Lambda Draconis, who reads my stories with all the care and attention to theme, plot and character one normally reserves for Russian novels. This story is infinitely better because of her insightful comments. Thank you so much!
This story is dedicated to all who have survived violence. And to those who have not.
"Reliable intimate relationships can help people survive profound violence, terror, and despair and enable them to live beyond their own personal pain. As Judith Herman notes in Trauma and Recovery, 'Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends upon a feeling of connection to others.' Restored, people return to ordinary life and expand their concern to others -- not as self-sacrifice but as self-possession. Present to themselves and to the reality of others, they do not live in denial of violence but in remembrance of presence. They have embraced a greater knowledge of the world, of evil. When we come into such presence of ourselves we are able to take responsibility for our actions and lives, in all their ambiguity. And in that process of taking responsibility, we turn the corner toward the practice of loving, the practice of transforming the world."
--Rebecca Ann Parker, "Proverbs of Ashes"