Lost Stars Quotes
"With each planet’s conquest, the Empire’s might grows even stronger."
"He says he’s going to the Imperial Academy, but that’s just because he thinks it will make him important."
"You were born in the same year as the Empire itself, Thane. Never forget that."
"The Empire respects hard work. Absolute loyalty."
"The Empire will be waiting for us when we finish traveling up the mountain, whenever that may be."
"The amazing tales the elders told of valiant heroes with lightsabers, who could bend minds, levitate objects—surely those were only stories."
"On this day ends your isolation from the greater galaxy."
"Wouldn’t it have been something to see him for ourselves?"
"I know you’re excited, my heart. This is the biggest day of your life so far."
"It’s like—electricity, this incredible energy all around."
"Sometimes it feels like this huge responsibility, living for Wynnet, too, but mostly it reminds me to look for what’s truly special."
"Someday, once we’ve made it to the academy—I’m going to show her the stars."
"They should pass out inhalers at the spaceports," Nash said as they hung out, sprawled on their beds to await the welcoming ceremony and dinner that night. "Or tranquilizers. Something to help people deal."
"I hate these boots," said her roommate Kendy Idele, who scowled down at hers from where she stood nearby. "Then again, I hate shoes, period. When you grow up on a tropical world, you love barefoot best."
"Our personalities seem to be compatible. I think you and I will get along very well."
"You'll soon be accustomed to them," promised their third roomie, Jude Edivon.
"More than that. We got each other here. It’s not coincidence that we both were admitted to the Royal Academy, you know? Flying together, studying together—we made each other so much better than we ever would’ve been on our own."
"Now it’s the academy’s turn to make us better."
"If the preparatory track for the Imperial academies had been hard, the course load at the Royal Academy of Coruscant was brutal."
"Science is the study of the entire material universe. Therefore everything is science—whether you see it or not."
"Nobody who would do something like this deserves to be an Imperial officer."
"Don’t say that. You found the wrong solution because someone set you up to find it."
"Apparently they do it by screwing with our minds!"
"Because they don’t want two cadets from a backwater world to beat all the military brats."
"And you think every authority figure is evil like your father!"
"I never thought you were unfit for Imperial service. Now, though? I have to wonder."
"We outsmarted them, though. It takes more than that to break us apart."
"Lie after lie after lie. When I find out who did this, I’m going to ask them why they ever thought they’d be able to frame an instructor and get away with it."
"All Imperial officers should be prepared to sacrifice their lives to do their duty."
"You realize we have to confront them about this."
"You’d rather lie down in the dirt than admit your precious teachers could do something wrong?"
"You realize you’re making a criminal allegation, don’t you?"
"But all Imperial officers should be prepared to sacrifice their lives to do their duty."
"We could go to one of the cantinas. Catch up."
"He’d fly any shift for anyone if it meant he could spend the whole day with Ciena."
"When Ciena’s face fell, Thane hastily added, 'But when you tell her you’re coming, she’ll find her way to you. Count on it.'"
"She was smiling, too. So that’s a good sign, right?"
"The excitement he felt at the thought of seeing Ciena again remained something he preferred not to examine or name."
"Probably the commander wouldn’t notice, though."
"Thane couldn’t help grinning. What luck to be near that world while the Devastator was visiting the station."
"His cynical nature told him nobody was too pure or noble to be corrupted."
"In shock, almost numb, Ciena thought, Look through my eyes."
"Ciena realized that if Nash did faint or cry or show any visible sign of emotion, it would be seen as a protest."
"The rebels must be reckless—even foolish—to attempt to conquer the entire Imperial fleet."
"But by ending the war now, before it truly begins, the Death Star will save more lives than it took."
"Ciena felt better now that she understood whom to blame."
"‘I really hope I get to see you,’ he said, willing her to hear how deeply he meant it."
"Thane’s spirits rose for the split second it took him to realize the message wasn’t from Ciena."
"This was no small band of malcontents. The Rebel Alliance was an army."
"Terrorism could never be the answer, but as of that day, the Empire was as guilty of acts of terror as the Rebel Alliance was, if not more."
"He imagined protecting his fellow troops, the people around him he’d already begun to think of as friends."
"Her sorrow for Jude flooded her mind until she couldn’t feel anything."
"His entire family—every place he’d ever been—his home had just been obliterated before his eyes, for disloyalty."
"Ciena put one hand on his arm. ‘Are you sure you’re ready?’"
"The Empire is all I have left. I need to be of use. I want to serve."
"He pictured it over and over—the shards of metal, the spinning debris, the brief pulses of flame before they were snuffed out by the vacuum of space."
"Once again, Thane replayed those few incredible minutes in his mind—the one and only time he’d been able to hold Ciena in his arms and kiss her."
"Nothing could justify punishing an entire race this way."
"That was how evil magnified itself: it took root in the young and grew along with them."
"We’re teaching children to approve of slavery. We’re teaching them cruelty is a virtue."
"But the worst part was—Thane had been that kid."
"Each generation provided the next level of abuse."
"Whatever we have to do—however much we have to sacrifice—then we’ll face that as it comes. Together."
"Together," Thane repeated, and his smile then was so sad that she could feel his vulnerability, and hers, as surely and painfully as any wound."
"I hope you’re right," Ciena said, her voice echoing slightly within the booth. "I wish it would only be a few days. No—as long as I’m wishing, I wish you were with me right now."
"Sometimes we’re loyal to more than one thing. When there’s a conflict, we have to choose which loyalty to honor."
"The invisible cage around him was of his own making."
"No orders had told her she could rescue civilians, but no orders had told her she couldn’t."
"Lives were lives—and besides, she could do this."
"Your service these past two years has been exemplary, Lieutenant Commander Ree."
"I know the Death Star had to be stopped. But don’t fool yourself. That was bloody work."
"It’s easier than standing by and doing nothing."
"I can’t say that whoever gets power next will be any better—but it can’t get any worse."
"Believing in something greater than ourselves isn’t crazy. It’s proof we’re sane."
"I never thought about joining the Rebellion. You know, I understood the Empire was corrupt, but I thought so was the Old Republic by the end."
"I used to turn sideslips like that through mountain stalactites every day back home."
"We’re here to kill them, just like they’re here to kill us. Better them than you."
"He had chosen his path. Wherever he was in the galaxy, she hoped he was well, and happy."
"Sometimes it was better to be able to believe you didn’t know the answer."
"But it didn’t change what she was absolutely sure she’d just seen: Thane Kyrell had joined the Rebellion."
"Pilots laughed and joked, because that was how you dealt with unending mortal danger: you pretended it didn’t exist."
"If this is what ‘fine’ looks like for you, I really don’t want to see your version of ‘bad.’"
"I realize the truth, enough to die for them, and yet I knew that wasn’t why I was in the fight."
"It’s all right if you still love someone on the other side of this war—as long as you love what you’re fighting for even more."
"Good people can wind up in the service of evil."
"The Empire accuses her. We owe our allegiance to the Empire. To stand against it would be the most base dishonor!"
"I should hate him now. I have to learn to hate him. But I can’t. I never could."
"If you see that, then I don’t understand how you can keep serving the Empire just because of a promise you made years ago, when you didn’t know the whole truth."
"This life has never been one made for fairness or justice. We endure, and we prevail not as crude matter but in the realm of the spirit."
"Because we gave our loyalty to the Empire on the day Jelucan was annexed. Because we do not betray our word, even when we are betrayed in return. Otherwise we are no better than they are."
"Nobody ever knows the whole truth. That’s why promises mean something. Otherwise they’d be too easy, don’t you see? We look toward the unknown future and promise to be faithful no matter what comes."
"Now nothing remained of her but her duty to the Empire."
"The Empire displayed its power often, with a degree of theatricality he’d found absurd even when he’d been a part of it. But it never did so without reason."
"We should’ve worn winter uniforms for this trip."
"And if this many ships had massed in one place, that meant elsewhere in the galaxy, the Imperial fleet might be stretched thin. Widely dispersed, at any rate."
"His sensors began to flash, and he swore. 'We’ve got TIE fighters incoming. I count four.'"
"It’s a bad idea," Nash said. "We don’t need further readings, and at this distance, they’d have time to make the jump into hyperspace before we could engage them."
"Maybe the Force was bringing them together, over and over. If so, Thane decided, the Force had a sick sense of humor."
"The engine’s roar filled the cockpit, even penetrating her thick black helmet."
"Everyone move to preestablished hyperdrive coordinates!" the Contessa ordered.