Chapter 3

Commander Lewis Parrell of the Imperial Army stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the lowering ramp of the Imperial Shuttle that had just landed in the spaceport on Shili. The menacing, black-armored, heavy breathing Sith Lord Darth Vader marched out of it.

"Lord Vader," Parrell smiled at the Sith. "This is most unexpected."

Vader approached him and towered over him. "There is a Jedi here, Commander."

"I assure you sir," Parrell shook his head. "There are no Jedi. I did as I was instructed. Every home in this city has been thoroughly searched by my men and they have found no evidence of a Jedi."

"I will decide whether or not that is true," Vader said, walking past Parrell.

The Commander rolled his eyes, then followed Vader. "Sir," he said, "My men are the best. There are no Jedi on Shili."

Vader ignored Parrell and walked into the spaceport, escorted by several Stormtroopers. Parrell cursed the dark lord under his breath, then returned to his post with his men.

Ahsoka stood awkwardly in Taxir's home and he packed up some of his stuff and searched for this Imperial pilot license. He tried to make small talk as he searched for it through his untidy house.

"So, tell me about being a Jedi," he said.

"I'd rather not," she replied coldly.

"Alright," he accepted it. "Tell me about yourself."

"I'm a fugitive who is, for some reason, putting all of her faith into an Imperial pilot she met this morning," she shot him a glare. "I'm pretty stupid, if you ask me."

"Maybe," he shrugged, looking at her. "But, you're a Jedi, so wouldn't you be able to sense if I was going to betray you?"

"The Dark Side can cloud my senses," she crossed her arms, leaning against the wall. "The Empire is here. Darth Vader is here. I'm pretty much blind right now." She smirked.

"Well, I gave you my word," Taxir smiled.

"Your word means nothing," Ahsoka harshly said.

Taxir, obviously a little hurt by her remark, just tried to brush it off and continued to pack his things. Finally, he found his license. "Got it!" he excitedly said. "Now, let's get off this rock."

Ahsoka and Taxir left his house and headed towards the spaceport. She whispered to him as they walk, "If Vader is at the spaceport, he will sense me and kill me."

Taxir smiled, "Leave it to me. You wait here."

Ahsoka stood a ways outside of the spaceport as Taxir made his way inside. After a few moments, he stepped back out and motioned her forward. She joined him and the second they stepped foot in the spaceport, Taxir threw a pair of handcuffs on her and gave her a strong shove. Her teeth nearly cracked, she was gritting them so hard from her anger at his betrayal.

A Stormtrooper stopped them, "Where are you going?"

Taxir flashed his license. "Prisoner being transferred to Kessel."

The Stormtrooper shrugged, "Alright, go on."

Ahsoka smiled. He hadn't betrayed her after all. Taxir led Ahsoka into a landing pad where a small, miniature space shuttle sat. It seemed to be unguarded and unoccupied. They got on board and Taxir took the cuffs off of Ahsoka.

"Thought bad things about me there for a second, didn't you?" Taxir laughed taking the cuffs off.

Ahsoka smiled back and shrugged, "Maybe."

Taxir sat down in the pilot's seat, Ahsoka in the co-pilot's, and the shuttle was away, leaving Shili.

Commander Parrell, two Stormtroopers, and Darth Vader stood in the living room of Ahsoka Tano's home. The door had been knocked down and the place was trashed by the troopers.

Vader growled, "This is it."

"Sir," one trooper said, "We searched this house this morning. We found no evidence of - "

Vader immediately picked up the trooper with the Force and slung him through a wall, landing him in Ahsoka's kitchen where he busted his head on her sink. The other trooper cringed.

"This is where the Jedi was!" Vader barked.

He stomped into the bedroom, but then stopped, sensing something. Parrell said, "What is it, my lord?"

Vader picked up the bed with the Force and lifted it away. There, he saw a hatch leading into a basement. The Dark Lord turned and looked at the surviving trooper. He said, "Did you check everywhere?"

The trooper didn't even know what to say.

Vader, though, Force pushed the trooper back into the living room, slamming him against a wall. Then, he ripped the hatch off its hinges and he and Parrell marched down the steps into the basement. Parrell found a light switch and turned it on.

In the small basement, were Jedi artifacts. Robes, lightsabers, statues, and holocrons. Vader calmly said, "The Jedi is gone. It knew I was coming."

"How, sir?" Parrell asked. "The Force?"

"The Dark Side clouds a Jedi's mind," Vader replied. "It knew I was coming because your troops lack subtlety, Commander."

Parrell adjusted his collar and mumbled, "My apologies, sir."

"The next time I am searching for a Jedi," Vader pointed his finger in Parrell's face, "Let's not alert the entire planet."

"Y-Yes, sir," Parrell gulped as Vader marched back up the stairs.

The Imperial shuttle that Ahsoka and Taxir had commandeered flew through space, now engaged in hyperspace, on its way to the Outer Rim planet of Godo. Ahsoka sat quietly with her eyes closed, trying to meditate, but Taxir was making it difficult.

"So, were you a knight or master or what?" he asked.

"I was a Padawan," she replied without opening her eyes. "Later, I became a knight . . . sort of."

"Who was your master?" he asked with a smile.

"Master Skywalker," she said.

"Oh, I think I've heard of him," Taxir nodded. "Did you know Yoda?"

"Yes," she said, then stood up. "I'm going to go and get some sleep."

Ahsoka stepped through a door and left the cockpit. Taxir just sighed as he went back to focusing on the controls. Ahsoka went back into a small lounge area of the shuttle and walked over to a transmitter. She input Obi-Wan's coordinates and he appeared.

"Hello there," he said.

"Master," Ahsoka shook her head with an annoyed look, "I've left Shili. I'm on my way to Godo. Can I please come to Tatooine?"

"Ahsoka," Obi-Wan shook his head, "It'd be too dangerous having two Jedi together at one place. The Emperor could sense that from a galaxy away. Godo will be a safe planet for you. I promise."

"Alright," she shrugged, flopping down in a chair.

"Ahsoka," Obi-Wan seemed to be examining something on his computer. "Why does it say that this transmission is coming from an Imperial shuttle?"

"Oh," she became nervous. "A guy is helping me . . . giving me a ride."

"Who?"

"Um, he's just a guy I know," she shrugged, rubbing her arm. "A friend."

"A friend that knows you're a Jedi?" Obi-Wan's eyebrows raised. "An Imperial friend?"

"He kind of stole an Imperial shuttle, I guess you could say," she said, "And yeah, he kinda figured out I'm a Jedi."

"Ahsoka," Obi-Wan shook his head with disappointment. "You trust this man?"

Ahsoka stayed silent for a moment, looking Obi-Wan in the eyes. She muttered, "Sure."

Obi-Wan let out a deep sigh and shook his head. He said, "I asked you to stay smart. You're not doing that. Trusting this Imperial who figured out you're a Jedi is not wise."

"I know, I know, but I didn't have another way off of Shili!" she argued. "Vader shut down all space travel. I was desperate."

"If you make it known that you a desperate, others will mistake it for being weak," Obi-Wan sighed. "And they will try to take advantage of you. The second you arrive at Godo, you need to wipe this shuttle's logs clean and dispose of it permanently. Then, get as far away from this Imperial as you can."

"Alright, Master, sorry," she sighed.

Without a goodbye, Obi-Wan ended the transmission. Ahsoka laid her head back, ashamed of herself for disappointing Obi-Wan. Then, she heard a noise. She went over to a small closet and opened it. She was surprised to see a droid there. It was short, about as tall as an astromech droid, but was humanoid with brown plating. It looked at her nervously.

"Uh," it grumbled, "Wrong door."

The droid grabbed the closet door and closed it shut. Ahsoka, a little confused by it, opened the door again and asked, "Who are you?"

"No one," the droid tried to close the door again but Ahsoka stopped him.

She knelt down to him and smiled. She wiped a little dust off its head then said, "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" the droid asked. "You have no Imperial file. You're not authorized to pilot this ship."

"I'm not piloting it," Ahsoka smirked. "What's your name?"

The droid hesitated, but eventually said, "You can call me DU-655. But, um, the troops usually called me Duster."

"Duster?" she asked. "Why Duster?"

"Well, I don't know," it replied. "I mean, they would say stuff like, 'Hey look at that little piss can Duster!' Or, 'Hey Duster, scoot your metal ass over here and get to scrubbing these floors!' Or - "

"I get it," she stopped him. "You were a cleaning droid."

"Technically maintenance, but yes, I did end up doing more cleaning than fixing I suppose," it seemed sort of ashamed.

Ahsoka noticed this. She said, "You sure are displaying a lot of emotions."

Duster leaned against the wall and nodded, "Yeah, well, most people don't understand droids to the full extent. We may be artificial lifeforms but, hey, we know when you're insulting us. Plus, I was one of the droids given a sensitivity chip as testing."

"Sensitivity chip?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yeah," Duster nodded. "Apparently some scientists believed that if droids were given minor emotions, we would be more loyal and such. Like, if I could feel sorry for a woman's oven not working, I'd do a better job fixing it. But, yeah, it didn't work. I didn't care either way. So, they stuck me on here. I think I'm malfunctioned, actually. But, who knows?"

Ahsoka smiled, "So, are you going to report me, Duster?"

"Report you?" Duster seemed shocked. "Are you doing anything wrong? The only thing I see is a droid and a girl talking about their feelings."

Ahsoka wasn't sure if he was smarting off or not. He was an odd droid. She said, "You don't like the Empire, do you?"

"I'm not programmed to like anything," he shrugged. "So, to answer your question . . . no, I don't."

Ahsoka then heard Taxir's voice over an intercom system. "Hey, Ahsoka, could you come up here?"

Ahsoka, followed by Duster, went back to the cockpit. She was a little confused. They had exited hyperspace but they were not at Godo. They were actually just floating in deep space. Taxir shrugged, "This doesn't seem right."

"What happened?" Ahsoka looked at the input coordinates carefully.

Duster then said, "It appears that some sort of jamming device messed up your hyperspace coordinates. Only a very powerful ship could pull that off."

"What's this?" Taxir pointed at the droid.

"I'm Duster!" the droid said.

"Duster's right," Ahsoka said. "Some sort of interference messed up our systems. Duster, what could cause that?"

Duster hopped up in the co-pilot's seat and sat there for a moment. He then said, "Well, a number of things. A jamming device, for one. But, it seems unlikely that one could affect you in mid-hyperspace travel. Asteroid field possible . . . no, wait, not asteroids."

"What, then?" she asked.

"Comets," Duster pointed out the window.

Ahsoka and Taxir both looked as a shower of comets were heading their way. Ahsoka immediately looked at Taxir and said, "Get us out of here!"

Taxir didn't waste time. He immediately began to maneuver around the comets. Duster jumped off the seat and hid behind it, covering his eyes. Ahsoka never took her eyes off of it though and even found herself smiling at the thrill and excitement. Taxir as a nervous wreck.

After a few moments, Ahsoka pulled Taxir out of the seat and took over the controls. Only one comet actually struck the ship until finally, they made it out of the shower. Taxir and Duster both seemed scared out of their minds but Ahsoka was laughing.

She cheered, "Wow! That was close!"

"Yeah," Taxir's voice cracked.

"What now?" Ahsoka asked.

Duster said, "You must move far enough away from the comets to find the actual coordinates to your location."

As Ahsoka piloted the ship, Taxir kept looking at her. She pretended not to notice at first, but then said, "What is it?" and glanced at him.

"Well," he shrugged. "You had fun, doing that." He laughed. "I guess you used to do that often as a Jedi."

"Yeah," she smiled.

"Jedi?" Duster asked. "I'm supposed to report you."

"Duster," Ahsoka sadly looked at him.

"Doesn't mean I'm going to," Duster said. "I could get fired for this, you know."

Ahsoka laughed and nodded, "I know. But, as long as you stick with us, I think you'll be okay."

"Us?" Taxir smiled at her.

Ahsoka, not sure of what to say next, just blushed and continued to pilot the shuttle.

Back on Shili, Vader had a Stormtrooper in a Force grip, choking him.

"What did they look like?" Vader barked.

Parrell put a hand on Vader's arm, trying to calm him. "Lord Vader, don't you think you're - "

Vader just looking at Parrell was enough to make him shut up and back off. Vader turned his attention back to the trooper held up with the Force. He once again said, "What did they look like?"

"Two Togruta!" the trooper choked. "A guy and a girl. I don't know how else to describe it! The guy was taking the girl prisoner, to Kessel!"

"Kessel?" Parrell scratched his head. "There were no prisoners scheduled for transportation."

Vader slung the trooper aside, into a wall. Then, turned to Parrell. "Check all the ship logs. Find that missing shuttle, Commander, or I will be holding you personally responsible."

"Yes, my lord," Parrell nodded. "Lord Vader, do you think one of these Togruta could be the Jedi you're looking for?"

"Yes," Vader answered. "Unfortunately, I do."