"Sarah, wake up," Da'Meon said.
Sarah yawned and stretched. Daylight meant it was morning, but she wasn't sure what time it was on Shili.
"Your mother is already up and waiting for you. As soon as you eat, you can prepare to return home."
Sarah climbed out of bed and joined Da'Meon. Seeing nobody else around aside from her mother, Da'Meon and Cayanna surprised her.
"Where is everyone?" Sarah asked.
"Busy with lessons or daily tasks," Cayanna replied.
"Good morning, Sarah," Ahsoka said softly.
"Hey, mom. Why is Emilina still sleeping?"
"Newborn Togruta sleep 20 hours a day," Cayanna interjected.
"But she's a hybrid."
"You slept almost as long when you were born," Ahsoka stated. "Your father liked knowing you had regular sleeping patterns, unlike human newborns."
"Oh, OK."
As Sarah finished her breakfast, another Togruta approached Da'Meon. Sarah thought he looked out of place; most members of the Tano had orange skin. This male had red skin and white patches around his eyes. Sarah reasoned he was some sort of guest as he handed Da'Meon a rolled-up parchment.
After Da'Meon read the message, he bowed his head and said, «May she enjoy the rewards of the great afterlife. Tell your chief I will attend tomorrow's ceremony.»
The visitor bowed and left.
As Ahsoka held the still-asleep Emilina, Da'Meon asked her, "Did you know one named Shaak Ti?"
Ahsoka nodded.
"It's been reported that she died recently on the planet Felucia."
Ahsoka, still mentally and physically drained from giving birth, broke down and cried.
"No, no, no!" she exclaimed. As she cried, Emilina woke with a start. Feeling her mother's heart racing, she started to fuss a bit.
Cayanna took Emilina from her mother and handed her to Sarah, showing the latter how to properly hold her newborn sister. Emilina still fussed a bit, unsure of what caused her mother's discomfort.
"It's OK, you're safe now," Sarah assured her sister.
Emilina's eyes fluttered as she slowly calmed down.
"You may wish to leave at once," Da'Meon stated. "Just in case the death of the Ti and the bounty hunter's appearance are related to each other."
Sarah and Ahsoka nodded. Cayanna helped Ahsoka stand up and walk slowly. Da'Meon walked on the opposite of Ahsoka, helping her as necessary, while Sarah continued to hold Emilina carefully as she walked alongside her mother.
"I'm sure you're curious, Sarah, but the Ti is our neighbor tribe. They're settled across the river a short distance from us. The Tano and the Ti have had a peaceful relationship for five generations, I believe, now without a formal peace treaty. We consider it a point of pride. We always do our best to help each other in times of need," Cayanna said.
Sarah nodded. News of another tribe near their own impressed her.
"OK, stop right here," she told Da'Meon and Cayanna. She then pulled the ship's fob out of her pouch and pressed the button that decloaked the ship. Her cousins looked on in awe to see a ship seemingly materialize out of nowhere.
As Sarah lowered the gangway, Da'Meon told her, «Thank you for helping your people, Mighty Princess. Take care of your mother and be an example for your new sister.»
Cayanna then hugged Sarah. "May your next visit be under better circumstances, and include your father," she told her.
Sarah helped her mother enter the ship and walked with her to the back of the ship where there was an extra bench.
After securing her safety harness with help from Sarah, Ahsoka said, "Let me have Emilina. You'll need to fly us home. Do you think you remember how to do it?"
Sarah handed her sister to her mother and answered, "Yeah. I guess I'm glad you showed me how to do it."
"Once you take off, there is a button marked with what looks like the number seven. That's an Aurebesh letter 'R.' if you press it, it will automatically plot our return course by reversing our starting and ending points."
"Thanks, mom. To be honest, flying us home sounds like it's going to be easier than everything else I've done in the past 24 hours."
"Just get us home safely, Sarah. And when we return to Earth's atmosphere, radio in for the medical staff to join us."
Sarah nodded as she powered up the ship. She carefully worked the instrumentation to initiate the take-off sequence. Seeing a green button flicker, she assumed she did everything correctly. As the ship rose up and began to fly, Sarah smiled.
With the ship cruising in lightspeed through the intergalactic conduit. Sarah made sure the auto-pilot remained active.
How's father going to react to Emilina being born? I hope he won't freak out once he sees how adorable she is, Sarah thought. However, she had another question—one she'd wanted to ask her mother since they left Shili.
Now is as good a time as any, Sarah thought as she unbuckled her harness and walked to the back of the ship.
"Hey, mom, I wanted to ask you—" Sarah began before she froze.
"Ahh!" Sarah screamed. She didn't expect to see her mother sitting sideways on the bench with her right side totally exposed while she held Emilina rather close against her body.
"What's wrong with you?" Ahsoka asked calmly.
"Mom, you're half-undressed. I don't wanna see you this way!"
"Your sister was hungry. You don't need to freak out about it."
"I still don't want to see you looking like this."
"Sarah, this is how a new mother normally feeds her child. If I knew your sister was going to arrive when she did, I'd have better prepared for it."
Sarah shuddered and looked away. "I think I'm scarred for life," she mumbled.
Ahsoka shook her head. Although she thought Sarah was making more of a fuss than necessary, perhaps she could make the situation less awkward for her teen daughter.
"Sarah, give me your Jedi robe."
"What?"
"Take it off and hand it to me."
"Umm, OK." Sarah removed her outer robe and handed it to her mother. "I hope I get it back before we land. It's cold back home."
"I should be done by then." Ahsoka then took Sarah's robe and used it to cover her right side and Emilina. Noticing Sarah still watching, she said, "You're still going to freak out if you keep looking there. Now, what did you want to ask me?"
Sarah stood in front of her mother with her mouth slightly agape. Finally, she asked the first question that came to her mind. "Did I do that?"
"Of course you did," Ahsoka replied with a nod. "It's totally natural, and it's not the big deal you're making it out to be."
Sarah nodded in reply before asking, "Does it hurt?"
Ahsoka chuckled. "Only when you got your sharp canine teeth," she replied with a slight smile.
Sarah shuddered and folded her arms across her chest. The mere thought of being bitten there with sharp teeth sounded as painful as it must have felt.
However, Sarah finally remembered the original question she intended to ask. "Mom, who was that Ti person that died?"
Ahsoka took a deep breath. "Shaak Ti was a Togruta Jedi Master when I was a padawan before I came to Earth. I always looked up to her growing up. Sometimes, I even imagined myself as her padawan so I could learn more about our people."
Sarah looked on with concern as her mother started to look sadder.
"Mom, what's wrong?"
"I just realized that with her gone, I'm the only surviving Togruta Jedi anywhere. Some Jedi I am... I just had another daughter and now I have to raise her. The only Jedi of our people and I can't even be one now."
Sarah gently put her hand on her mother's right shoulder. "I'll be a Jedi soon enough. Then, there will be two of us. And if my sister is like us, she'll be one, too. You won't be alone, mom—not for long."
A chiming from the front of the ship interrupted the conversation. Sarah knew it meant the lightspeed portion of their trip was about to end. She quickly returned to the controls and fastened her safety harness. As the ship exited the conduit, Sarah felt as if time froze. Sarah found herself flashing back to a dream she had when she was 12—one where she held a newborn Togruta.
She thought, That wasn't your child in the dream, it was your little sister! She was eager to tell her mom about the dream and its possible significance, but it had to wait. The return trip home was more important.
"This is Shili-1 to base," Sarah called into the radio.
"This is OJ Base to Shili-1," Knight Ashley replied. "What is your status? Over."
"Our ETA* is 15 minutes. Please have medical staff waiting for us. Over."
"Acknowledged. Medical staff will be dispatched. You are clear to land on runway alpha and return to your usual hangar. Over."
Sarah was about to answer, but she heard her father on the other end.
"Sarah, what are you doing on the radio? Is everything OK?"
"Couldn't be better," she replied quickly. "Over and out," she added before ending the transmission.
Inside the hangar, Tim looked on anxiously as Knight Rachel and her assistant, Andrea, waited for Shili-1's gangway to open.
"I wish we knew what's going on in there," Tim said.
"Don't worry, Master, I'll check everything out," Rachel replied.
As the gangway opened, Rachel and Andrea went inside. Rachel was about to ask Sarah what the medical emergency was, but she spotted Emilina in Ahsoka's lap.
"Go get a stretcher," Rachel told Andrea. The latter nodded and left the ship.
Tim than ran into the ship and towards everyone else in the back. "What's wrong?" he asked before he noticed a small bundle in Ahsoka's lap.
"Hey, honey. Our daughter was born yesterday."
"Well, the 27th," Sarah interjected.
"You're right, that was yesterday," Tim replied.
Sarah wasn't sure if her father was overjoyed or freaking out. However, Andrea's return didn't give him much chance to react any further.
"Here, Sarah," Ahsoka said as she handed Sarah her outer robe. Sarah quickly put it back on to stay warm.
Rachel and Andrea helped Ahsoka onto the stretcher. Next, they secured Emilina alongside her so that mother and daughter could be transported together.
"Meet us in the med bay. We also need to check Sarah out," Rachel stated.
Tim nodded as Rachel and Andrea left for the return trip back to the medical bay.
"Why do I have to be checked out?" Sarah asked. "Mom had the baby."
"After your first trip to Shili, it was decided that anyone that travels between galaxies needs a cursory medical scan just as we do when Jedi travel abroad for missions. It's just for safety and to make sure you haven't picked up any odd diseases or creepy crawlies," her father replied.
"Oh, that makes sense."
After taking her father's hand, Sarah proudly stated, "I caught the bounty hunter, but I forgot and used my lightsaber to disarm him. But our secret is still safe. Oh, and I got to be with mom when she had my sister."
"I'm surprised and impressed. I bet this will be an exciting post-mission report for you to write."
With everyone in the medical bay, Knight Rachel had Sarah sit down for her medical scan."
"I'll do yours first because it should be quick and I know you're in a hurry, padawan," Rachel said. Sure enough, Sarah's medical scan revealed nothing out of the ordinary.
"You're all set," she told Sarah.
Sarah nodded. "I'd like to stay with father for now—and mom and my sister."
"As you wish." Rachel then walked over to Ahsoka's bed and asked, "How do you feel?"
"Tired, sore, but OK otherwise."
Rachel scanned Ahsoka. "Your temperature is 100.4 [38° C]—normal but on the high end. We'll keep an eye on that." As she examined Ahsoka, she noticed some sort of wrap around her abdomen.
"What's this?"
"The healer did that after I had the baby," Ahsoka explained. "She used some healing herbs to make a bandage for me. She said it would reduce the swelling."
Rachel scanned Ahsoka again. "Well, whatever it is, it must have worked. You're not too swollen, amazingly."
"Our people may live simply, but they're smart and resourceful," Ahsoka replied with a smile.
"I'll leave it on for now, but I'll probably have to remove it later. If you don't mind, I'd like to analyze it and see what I can find out about those herbs."
"Sure," Ahsoka replied. She felt pleased to know Rachel appeared interested in Tribal Togruta medicine, no matter how simple it might be.
"Now, let's see how little Emilina is doing." As Rachel removed a sleepy Emilina from her blanket, Sarah looked on in surprise to see her sister didn't have head-tails. However, she did have two small blue-gray dots on the top of her head, suggesting the girl would eventually develop montrals when she was older. As Rachel lightly tapped each of the dots, Emilina woke up with a start and began to cry.
"Hey! Don't hurt my sister!" Sarah called out, sensing her sister's discomfort through the Force.
"Uh, Sarah, she's supposed to do that," Ahsoka replied. "That's how to check to make sure they'll develop properly when she's older. If she cries, there's nothing wrong with them."
"Oh," Sarah replied sheepishly. Turning to Knight Rachel, she added, "Sorry." Finally, she asked her mother, "Why doesn't she have tails yet? Is it because she's a hybrid?"
"No, we're born that way. They grow after birth. I think it's so they don't wrap around her neck during birth. Yours started growing after you were born and stayed shoulder length until recently. I imagine she's going to be the same way."
Rachel completed her medical scans and saved the information in her patient files. "Everyone checks out OK. Ahsoka, given your temperature, you should stay here overnight to rest and recover. I might normally let you go home tomorrow or Sunday, but Emilina should stay the entire weekend because she came six weeks early. I want to make sure she stays healthy now that she's back here and before I release her to go home. Given I'd prefer to keep mother and new daughter together, I want you to stay here with her, if you don't mind."
"I don't mind. I'd rather be here with my daughter than be home alone again," Ahsoka replied.
"Can I come meet my daughter now?" Tim asked slightly impatiently.
"Of course," Rachel answered. "But you need to wear a mask and gown."
"I do? Sarah didn't need one."
"You know the rules, master; we have to protect the early arrivals."
After he changed, Tim gently scooped up his day-old daughter.
"What's her name, anyways?" he asked.
"Emilina Danielle. Sarah helped me pick the name," Ahsoka replied.
"Really? That's impressive. I like it. It has a slight exotic sound to it, but it's not too unusual, either." He then looked down at his new daughter. "Hey, Emilina, I'm your daddy. I hope you get to see me again real soon when I don't look so scary. Bye for now, little one." He then handed her back to Knight Rachel. After giving his wife a parting kiss, he then left the medical bay with Sarah.
"So you completed the mission on your own?" Tim asked as he and Sarah walked through the hallways.
"Yup," Sarah replied with a smile. "Are you mad at me for revealing myself as a Jedi?"
"Well, that was a dangerous move on your part. If anyone finds out that shouldn't, it could make it unsafe for you to go back for a possibly-indefinite time."
"Father, don't worry. Da'Meon and Cayanna already knew mom and I were Jedi—well a hopeful one in my case. They promised our secret would remain safe for now."
"OK, but don't reveal yourself like that again unless you have no choice."
Sarah nodded. "While we were there, we learned another of mom's Jedi friends died—another Togruta."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, Master Ti. I can't remember her first name. Mom was really shaken by it and seemed very upset."
Tim briefly rubbed his goatee. "That's a concern. I may need to talk to Rachel and have her watch your mother for PPD."
"What's that?"
"Postpartum depression. It can be an issue with new mothers."
"Oh," Sarah replied with renewed concern.
"Don't worry, princess. We just have to do our best to be supportive of your mom and our new arrival, but I'm hoping she'll be fine."
"I love having a little sister."
"I hope you feel that way when she's older and annoys you."
After a trip to Arch Burgers for dinner. Sarah finished her post-mission report and transmitted it to the Jedi Council. Presumably, they'd review it on Monday or at some point during the coming week.
Master Del will be surprised, Sarah thought.
Sarah decided to slip out of her shoes, and she carefully sneaked down the basement stairs. She didn't expect to make it all the way behind her father before he realized she was there.
"Oh, I didn't hear you come down," he told her.
Sarah cracked a small smile. Finally, she thought. "What had you so distracted?" she asked him.
"I decided to look up the name 'Emilina' online. You might want to read this. I bet you find it as interesting as I did."
Sarah looked over his shoulder to find a page discussing a 12th century nun from France known as Blessèd Emilina of Boulancourt. Sarah looked on in surprise to see her sister's name belonged to a Catholic nun from centuries ago. It surprised her more when she read: She led a life of great penitence: […] going barefoot in both winter and in summer. she[sic] also led a wondrous life of prayer, constantly communing with God and frequently reciting the Psalms.†
"Do you think she was a Togruta?" Sarah asked.
Tim chuckled. "I don't think so. What makes you ask that?"
"She went barefoot all the time, like a lot of our people on Shili do. It also makes me wonder if our Emilina will be devout, too."
"Only time will tell, Sarah. Why did you pick that name, anyways?"
"It's from a story when we went to Shili the first time. She was the first female to earn a headdress. When I saw she looked more human, I figured she'd have to be some sort of pioneer as a hybrid. I guess I got my wish—her name seems to be special on both of her home worlds."
"Maybe you're right. Perhaps she'll live up to her dual heritage. It's getting late, though. We should go to bed."
Sarah nodded. "Yes, father. Can we see them tomorrow?"
"Of course." Tim then closed the open applications on his computer and shut it down for the night.
Two days later, Sarah realized that the excitement of her sister's arrival meant she hadn't yet told Molly about what happened. Having just returned from Mass, Sarah went upstairs to her room, activated her datapad, and launched the text messaging module.
After selecting Molly's name from her contact list, she typed, Hey, Molly, Sorry I forgot to write u. Home from Shili. She was set to write more, but she accidentally tapped the "Send" button by mistake.
"Crap!" she said out loud. Undaunted, though, she started a new message that read, BTW, baby came, itza girl :).
A short time later, Sarah received a call from her best friend.
"Yeah ...Well, she came early ... Yeah, the mission went alright. But having a little sister is way more exciting … Actually, they might come home tomorrow if they're both doing well enough … That's be cool, huh? OK, Maybe I'll see you at lunch tomorrow … Bye!"
Chapter Endnotes:
* This abbreviation is short for "Estimated Time of Arrival."
† As taken from the web page uscatholic·blogspot·com/2005/10/todays-saint-blesssed-emilina·html as retrieved on 2015-04-07. A centered dot replaces traditional periods to preserve the full URL.
