Ahsoka could hear the Imperials approaching. Her duel had made them hesitate, but now they were on high alert. She pushed aside her sense of urgency, even though she was in a hurry. Meditation came easily, as if she were sitting in safety in the Jedi Temple itself, instead of a dusty street with her enemies closing in. Her mind’s eye sorted the preassembled components and those she had just retrieved into order, locking each into place with the others. When Ahsoka opened her hands, she was not surprised to find that two lightsabers, rough and unfinished, were waiting.
They would need more work, but they were hers.
When she turned them on, they shone the brightest white.
Ahsoka found another side street that went in the direction she wanted and followed it back toward the compound. She was the Imperials’ only target now. She was going to need all the cover she could get. In her hands, her lightsabers were a reassuring weight. Her fight had given her back the focus she had lost. She wasn’t even breathing hard. This was something she could do.
She didn’t bother with taunts or banter. She had nothing to say to these people. She took the wall with a single flying leap and landed in the middle of the compound, much to the surprise of the stormtroopers on duty there. They began to fire, and she began to work her way toward the front door, easily deflecting their blaster bolts.
It took her only a few seconds to get there, her approach heralded by explosions and blaster fire, and then a few seconds more to cut the door open. Once she was in the corridor, she pushed the Force behind her, knocking everyone who pursued her off their feet. Ahead, she saw uniformed officers readying themselves to defend the inside of the compound. Apparently, all the stormtroopers were outside. She hoped they were too busy to think of calling in a Star Destroyer.
Ahsoka fought her way through the corridors, using her lightsabers to deflect blaster bolts and the Force to push her attackers out of the way. The cells were in the back of the building, she knew, and she wanted to waste as little time as she could getting to them.
Finally, she reached the prison hallway. There was a master door switch, which she activated, and the cell doors all opened. She checked to make sure there weren’t any ray shields and then went down the hall.
“Kaeden?” she called out. “Are you here?”
In her cell, Kaeden’s head snapped up and she scrambled to her feet. It was still difficult to balance with her arm, but the sound of Ahsoka’s voice encouraged her. She walked forward.
A few hapless prisoners had emerged from their cells, blocking Kaeden’s view down the corridor. Kaeden heard Ahsoka shouting orders at them to get out, to get to Selda’s cantina as soon as they could, and she followed the crowd toward her friend.
At last, Kaeden was face to face with Ahsoka. She knew her hair was a disaster, she was covered in dirt, her head wound looked terrible, and her arm was still bound uselessly to her chest—but she was on her feet. Ahsoka looked different: powerful, focused, completely beyond Kaeden’s comprehension. Ahsoka wielded a pair of bright white lightsabers, and even though it was Kaeden’s first time seeing them, she couldn’t imagine Ahsoka without them in her hands. Despite the circumstances, she smiled.
“Kaeden!” Ahsoka shouted, and ran to help her move faster.
“Ahsoka!” Kaeden ran toward her, but stopped short of throwing her good arm around Ahsoka’s shoulder. She knew that lightsabers were not to be trifled with. She could almost feel the power pouring out of Ahsoka anyway. It was amazing. “I could kiss you.”
Ahsoka stopped in her tracks. The look she shot Kaeden was mildly confused.
“Not now, I mean,” Kaeden said. She wanted to laugh for the first time in weeks but thought that might just be the hysteria setting in. “My timing is terrible and you have all those Jedi hang-ups. I just wanted you to know in case we die.”
“Oh,” said Ahsoka. “Well, thanks.” She paused. “And we are not going to die.”
“If you say so,” Kaeden agreed.
Ahsoka deactivated the lightsaber in her left hand and attached it to her belt. She kept hold of the right one. With one arm free, she supported Kaeden, and together they walked away from the cells.
“NOW WHAT?” ASKED KAEDEN. They were free of the Imperial compound, but there were stormtroopers all over the place. “I hope you have a plan!”
“Of course I have a plan,” Ahsoka replied. “Selda’s. Now.”
She activated the communication device on her belt and hoped that Bail wasn’t doing anything he couldn’t get out of immediately. She was going to need him right away.
By the time they reached Selda’s, Kaeden was entirely winded but still pushing forward. They went through the door, and before Ahsoka’s eyes had adjusted to the lower light, she saw Miara’s small form leaping toward them.
“Kaeden!” she said. “You’re safe. You’re safe!”
“Yes, more or less,” Kaeden said. She let go of Ahsoka so she could wrap her good arm around her sister. “Are you okay?”
“It was a bad time after you were taken,” Miara said. “I couldn’t stay in the caves. Not with…”
She trailed off, and Ahsoka knew she was thinking about Neera and Kolvin and the others. She held her sister as tight as she could and looked back at Ahsoka.
Ahsoka could hear the sound of Imperial tanks moving in the streets. It was only a matter of time before they were found, or the Imperials decided to just destroy them all from orbit.
“You said you have a plan, Ahsoka?” Kaeden said. “I hope it’s already started.”
“It is.” Selda came up beside them. Gently, he picked Kaeden up and set her down on the bar. Then he began to examine her injuries. “Ahsoka sent us a message with your sister. Vartan is out right now, organizing people for the evacuation.”
“Evacuation?” Kaeden said. “Where? And with whom?”
“Some old friends of mine,” Ahsoka said. “I used to have a lot of friends. Most of them are dead now, but there are some who survived. And I make new ones.”
“I didn’t believe what that…thing said about that, you know,” Kaeden replied. “You lied to keep us safe. He lied because he enjoys the suffering. I may not be a Jedi who’s seen the whole galaxy, but I can tell the difference.”
“Thanks,” Ahsoka said. “And I haven’t seen the whole galaxy. Though I have seen a lot more of it than most people.”
“You can tell her all about it later,” Selda said. “Right now we have to make sure your friends find us before the Imperials do.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to walk much farther,” Kaeden said. “I’m already feeling pretty woozy.”
“I was saving this for a rainy day,” Selda said. He reached under the bar and came up with a syringe. Kaeden flinched but then mastered herself.
“It doesn’t rain much on Raada,” she pointed out.
“I realized that almost immediately,” Selda said. “So I guess now’s as good a time as any. Look away, Kaeden.”
Kaeden did as she was told, and Selda injected her. The difference was immediate.
“Is this going to wear off, or am I actually better?” she asked as Miara helped her down from the bar.
“A bit of both,” Selda said. “So try not to overextend too much.”
“I’ll keep that in mind as we run from Imperial stormtroopers,” Kaeden said.
Ahsoka cocked her head, listening, and smiled.
“I don’t think we’ll have to run very far,” she said. “Come on, let’s go.”
They went out into the street to find ordered groups of people making their way toward the edge of town. Well, mostly ordered. Every explosion made them jump, and there was no shortage of screaming. But the farmers managed to hold themselves together, following the directions of their crew leads, who in turn were being directed by Vartan. He waved when he saw them, stark relief clear on his face. Ahsoka was glad to see he was all right.
The Imperial compound was in flames. Looking to the sky, Ahsoka could see six or ei
ght A-wings, the advance fighters Bail had sent, diving and firing on the Imperials. A few of the Imperial fighters had managed to get into the air, and as Ahsoka watched, four A-wings broke off to deal with them. The others turned toward the fields, where they laid down row after row of fire. The fields burst into flames.
“I want to learn to do that!” Miara said, her face alight.
“I’m sure one of them will be happy to teach you,” Ahsoka told her, remembering her impressions about Bail’s success getting recruits. Then she remembered that she was talking to a fourteen-year-old. “In a couple of years, maybe.”
One A-wing took too much damage from the Imperial fighter it was chasing and spun out of the sky. Its engines were a mess of fire and smoke, but Ahsoka was sure she saw the bright orange of the pilot’s uniform ejecting, and a few seconds later, she saw a chute confirming it. A second A-wing wasn’t so lucky. It rammed into the Imperial compound before its pilot could eject, and the explosion rocked the ground as they ran.
Miara’s fervor dimmed a little bit as she took in the danger, but she still looked determined. Ahsoka didn’t imagine that Bail would have any trouble at all recruiting her, once she was old enough. Just because Ahsoka fought her first war at Miara’s age didn’t mean it was a good example.
More ships appeared in low orbit, and for a second Ahsoka’s heart was in her throat. Then she saw that they couldn’t be Imperial. It was Bail, or rebels he had sent, with enough transports and cargo ships to evacuate everyone on the moon. They set down in the grass between the edge of the settlement and the hills where Ahsoka’s friends had spent their time in hiding.
“Keep them moving!” Ahsoka shouted to Vartan. He nodded and passed the orders along.
Ahsoka led Kaeden, Selda, and Miara to the blockade runner she recognized as Captain Antilles’s Tantive IV. He was standing at the bottom of the ramp, waiting for her.
“We can’t stay on the ground for very long,” he said, shouting over the sound of so many engines. “We’re going to have Imperials on our tails too soon.”
“It’s okay!” Ahsoka shouted back. “The evacuation is already begun, and your A-wings took care of the Imperial fighters.”
That reminded her of something. She pointed in the direction she’d seen the chute.
“You had a pilot go down over there,” she said. “I’m sure they ejected in time. Can you pick them up?”
Antilles nodded to spare himself from shouting again and typed a command into the small datapad on his wrist.
“Let’s get your friends on board,” he said.
“I’ll wait until the end,” Ahsoka told him. “If I’m the only ground cover we have, then they’re going to need me.”
Kaeden couldn’t have heard the exchange, but she somehow realized what Ahsoka was going to do.
“No!” she said, grabbing Ahsoka’s arm with her good hand. “Come with us!”
“I have to stay for a bit longer,” Ahsoka said. “This is how it works sometimes, Kaeden. I’ll be okay. Go with your sister.”
She shook Kaeden off and went back down the ramp. She spared one look back to make sure that Selda had shepherded the girls on board and then turned her attention back to the evacuation.
All things considered, it was going pretty well. There was a lot of fire, and more than a few of the farmers were panicking, but Vartan had been able to make sure they weren’t carrying too many belongings, and the other crew leads moved up and down the lines, keeping everyone as calm as they could. As Ahsoka watched the rear, ship after ship filled, took off, and disappeared into the upper atmosphere.
There were only three ships, and fewer than a hundred people waiting to board them, when the Imperials made their final rally. Three tanks, all in pretty good condition, considering, rounded the corner and opened fire, dispersing the orderly lines of refugees.
Ahsoka didn’t have any charges, but she did have a pair of lightsabers, so she engaged the tanks without a second thought. She ran toward them, which always seemed to startle Imperials. It was like they thought themselves invulnerable and when you charged them, they started to have doubts. She jumped, flying over the leading tank in a graceful arc that let her reach out with a lightsaber and cut the tank’s gun clean off. This rendered the tank useless. She opened the hatch, hauled the driver out, and tossed him aside. Then she used her lightsaber to cut through the control panels, careful to leave the trigger for the main cannon operational. She wanted the tank to be as unsalvageable as possible. When she was sure she’d destroyed as much of it as she could in a hurry, she pressed the trigger from the safety of the hatch. Unable to properly discharge, the cannon overloaded as Ahsoka leapt clear.
As she hoped, the explosion was enough to destabilize another nearby tank, as well, causing the hover mechanism to malfunction. It listed sideways, and Ahsoka leapt on top of it, slicing off its gun, too. It crashed into one of the houses on the edge of town and stopped moving.
That left her with only one target. Vartan had managed to get the farmers moving again, and one of the last remaining ships had taken off. Whoever was driving the third tank was smarter than the others had been and targeted Vartan directly.
“No!” Ahsoka shouted as the ground where Vartan was standing erupted in a shower of dirt.
She brought her hands together, and metal screamed as the last remaining turret deformed, destroying the gun and bringing the tank to a halt. She jumped clear and raced to the spot where Vartan had been.
“Keep going!” she shouted as she passed people. “Get on board!”
They made it through the dust and debris. Vartan was alive, but he was badly injured. Ahsoka put both her lightsabers back on her belt and hoisted him over her shoulder. She staggered for a moment under his weight, then used the Force to stabilize herself. She joined the last line of farmers as they made their way toward Captain Antilles’s ship and then followed them up the ramp.
Antilles was waiting for her in the hangar. Kaeden and Miara both screamed when they saw Vartan, and Selda had to hold them back.
“Get a medical stretcher!” Antilles shouted. “And get us out of here.”
The buzz of people around her was overwhelming as Ahsoka lowered Vartan onto the medical stretcher and watched him be carried away. She felt the ship take off, fighting even the low gravity of the moon, until the engines kicked in fully and the ship broke free. She saw the fire and ruin of Raada below her and felt the wash of emotions from the farmers, now refugees, who crowded around her.
And she felt Kaeden. Her gratitude and relief at being rescued. Her joy to see her sister and her sadness to lose her home. Ahsoka put her arm around Kaeden’s shoulder, mindful of her injuries, and couldn’t help the smile that broke across her face. She had done it. It hadn’t been easy, and almost nothing had gone to plan, but they were free of the Empire, for a little while anyway, and they were safe.
“You know,” said Kaeden after a moment, “when you first got to Raada, I thought you’d fit right in. I hoped that you would stay.”
“I’ve never been able to stay anywhere for very long,” Ahsoka said. “Even…before, I moved around a lot.”
“It was a silly thing to hope for,” Kaeden admitted. “I knew that almost right away, too. I just didn’t listen to myself.”
“You listened to your feelings,” Ahsoka said. She smiled at a memory of a faraway place and a time that was lost forever. “That’s something they teach Jedi, too, you know.”
“Well, at least we have that in common,” Kaeden said. She put her head on Ahsoka’s shoulder for a heartbeat and then straightened, shrugging free of Ahsoka’s arm. “And I don’t mind finding out that the galaxy’s a big place. I think I can handle it now.”
“I know you can,” Ahsoka said.
They were silent for a moment as the refugees and ship’s crew milled around them.
“Will we ever see you again?” Kaeden asked.
“I think it will be a while.” Ahsoka was already thinking about what came ne
xt, her mind moving quickly as the engine hum grew louder. “But as you said, the galaxy’s a big place.”
“Thank you,” said Kaeden as they made the jump to lightspeed.
“Anytime,” said Ahsoka—and meant it completely.
THIS TIME, Ahsoka didn’t break into Bail’s office until she knew he was already there. She tracked his consular ship from Coruscant. He stopped on a nearby moon and dropped off a few crates that were not at all suspicious. Everything looked entirely routine, but Ahsoka, who had landed some distance away and infiltrated the spaceport while the cargo was being offloaded, knew better. She took advantage of the Tantive III being grounded to stow away on board.
Coming this far into the Core was a big risk, but she wanted to show Bail that she was serious and also grateful for everything he’d done for Kaeden and the others. At last, she felt the ship take off and the little shift that meant they were in hyperspace, and she set off looking for him.
She cracked the security on his door pretty easily and slipped inside. As on Captain Antilles’s vessel, Bail’s quarters on the Tantive III comprised more than two rooms. She was in the antechamber, which was big enough for two seats and not much else. She could hear the senator’s voice coming from the second room, which must be where he worked. She got closer to the door and overheard the end of the conversation, a series of repeated words in a child’s prattle that she couldn’t understand. He had no idea how Bail did it—maybe listening to all the shouting in the Imperial Senate was good for something after all—but he managed to answer.
“I know, love, but it’s more secure if we just talk without any visuals to trace.” There was a pause. Ahsoka couldn’t hear the answer. Then Bail spoke again. “Tell your mother I’ll see you both soon enough.”
There was another pause as Bail disconnected the call. Then he coughed.
Star Wars: Ahsoka Page 20
