Author's Note: Thank you all for your support! I just love hearing what you have to say! I'm heading to bed now, so goodnight! Let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Warnings: OOCness, unbeta'd, language.
Word Count: 4,474
"What did the rest of the Masters have to say about Moraban?" Ahsoka asks once Obi-Wan and Anakin leave the communications room and enter the bridge of their control ship. Blue appears from the device on Ahsoka's arm, looking up at them inquisitively.
Anakin shakes his head. "You know the council," he says, voice flat. He ignores the look that Obi-Wan sends his way and keeps going, "They told us that they would handle it for now and if they needed anything they would let us know. For now, we are on standby." He rolls gray eyes.
Obi-Wan looks at him disapprovingly, before saying to Ahsoka and Blue, "As interesting as all of this is, I have to agree with the Council on this decision. While I'm sure that we would all like to go and investigate this matter further, the fact of the situation is clear; this war is not over. It isn't smart to just divide our attention on a wild goose chase just yet. We still have a war to fight in. The Separatists aren't just going to stop themselves." He crosses his arms over his chest.
Anakin shrugs his shoulders a bit at Ahsoka's half smile sent his way.
"That's what I meant," he says, grinning a bit when Obi-Wan rolls his eyes. Ahsoka smiles a little bit more, sending a sideway glance toward Blue. The small blue image of the woman turns to look up at Ahsoka too, offering a tiny smile of her own. It looks like she didn't really understand the joke but understood enough to know that it was a joke.
"Yes, well, we will keep our ears to the ground," Obi-Wan says, leaning on one hip. "For now, we need to just keep focusing on the war. We will wait until we have been given permission from the Council before we make any sort of thought in the direction of Moraban. Do you understand me, Anakin? I mean it." He narrows his eyes at the tall, curly dark blond haired man.
Anakin holds his hands up for Obi-Wan to see, classical 'I surrender' pose. Obi-Wan doesn't seem amused by the younger man.
"I appreciate all that you are doing to help me," Blue says, looking between the two humans and torunga. She tips her head a bit more in her thanks. "I would like to be able to return the favor, if I can. If, at any point, you need something, please don't hesitate to ask."
Obi-Wan strokes his beard for a moment. "Blue, can I ask you something?"
Blue nods, turning to face him completely. "Yes. What can I do to help you, General Kenobi?"
"What exactly did you do for the humans before we found you? I saw that you were able to access the ship's security systems, but was that the extent of what you did?"
Blue seemed genuinely interested in answering, her voice holding a touch of pride. "There was little I couldn't do. As you saw I was able to access the ship's security systems, but I was also able to take over every aspect of the ship. I could essentially control this ship, and remotely the rest of the fleet in your division if they were all synced up to this one's control systems, with the exception of the fighters who act independently of the rest of the fleet nine-out-of-ten times."
Ahsoka blinks a few times. "Uh, what?"
Blue smiles a little bit. "I am capable of controlling anything linked to the ship so long as I am connected. I can fully integrate into the systems. Anything within the abilities of the ship, I can do." She wasn't boasting. She was just saying. This was all just matter of fact to her. She was proud of what she could do, but she wasn't trying to make it out as more than what it was.
"Does that mean that you can control anything mechanical?" Anakin asks.
Blue hesitates for a moment, her smile fading. "Within reason," she says slowly. "It has to be something with sufficient running power. It has to have data, moving parts. An access point that I can be plugged into."
Two clones who entered into the room just a moment before completely pause. They look between the three commanding officers, the blue woman, then to one another before turning around and leaving the room. Ahsoka watches them go, confused, before looking between the two older men.
"Uh..? What was that?"
Obi-Wan waves his hand around dismissively while shaking his head. "Never mind that, Ahsoka. Blue," he looks down at the hologram of the woman, "would you mind demonstrating some of what you can do for us?"
Blue tilts her head a bit. Curiously, she asks, "Why? Do not get me wrong, I would love to help out, but I thought the rest of the Masters wanted to warrant caution when it came to me. Is this alright?"
It was a simple question, she wasn't against assisting but it was strange to be told one thing and then asked to do another that contradicts what was already asked of her. She didn't want to get anyone in trouble, which was why she was asking for clarification, but for some reason she doesn't understand, Obi-Wan smiles at her. His eyes flicker over to Anakin, who shrugs, his own curved half smile on his lips.
Thankfully, Ahsoka was just as lost as Blue was. "Uh," Ahsoka looks between Blue and the two Jedi masters, "what is with that look?"
"It's nothing, Snips," Anakin says with a shrug. "No need to worry about it."
"Thank you for your concern, Blue," Obi-Wan says, letting his hands drop to his sides, "but I have already spoken to Council about observing what you can do. They have approved. It's best to know everything that you can do and I believe in seeing it for myself. If you are willing to show it."
Satisfied with that, Blue nods. "Okay. Well, whatever you would like for me to do."
Obi-Wan smiles a little bit more. "Thank you for your cooperation. We appreciate anything you can do."
Ahsoka considers for a moment before pulling the device off of her arm and holding it out for Obi-Wan to take. He does, carefully, seeing as the device wasn't anything perfect or pretty, but it was Blue's new portable home, so he didn't want to break it in any way.
"Take good care of her, Master Obi-Wan," Ahsoka says, offering a little smile toward Blue.
Obi-Wan nods. "I will. Thank you, Ahsoka."
"Hi, Rex," Ahsoka says, walking up next to the white and blue armored clone.
Rex glances down at her before turning his attention back toward the screen in front of him, his hand on the clone at the sitting in front of the computer. "Hello, Commander. What can I do for you today?"
"Nothing," Ahsoka says, shrugging her shoulders. "I just wanted to see what everyone was up to."
Rex gives her a knowing glance. "Bored, Commander?"
Ahsoka stares at him, her face twisting into an indignant look, before she realizes that it is pointless and her shoulders slump a bit and a sheepish smile crosses her lips. "Yeah, okay, maybe. So, what are you up to?"
Rex smiles a little bit at that before looking back over at the screen, a series of numbers on it that Ahsoka doesn't understand. "Well, Commander," Rex says, "as you know, Blue has been integrated into the ship's systems per General Kenobi's orders, this time on the bridge rather than the communications center. So, since she's been up here, she's been making vast improvements all over the ship since she has access to it."
"Improvements?" Ahsoka says, blue eyes wide. "Like what?"
"For starters," the other clone says, looking at Ahsoka from over his shoulder, "if you look here, Commander, this is our communication boosters. She's upped the communications radius and overall clarity by five hundred percent. It's amazing. She's been cleaning junk data being picked up by our systems, filtering out the useless information and pushing through the useful bits. She has been cutting down the time I am needed doing such things. I am constantly going back through to double check and make sure that we aren't missing anything, but it is allowing me to be able to do more in my day."
Ahsoka didn't know a lot about this clone's particular job, but it did sound kind of impressive based on what she could ascertain from his words.
"Has she done anything else?" Ahsoka asks, looking over at Rex.
"Blue is by far the best multi-tasker I have ever met," Rex admits. He crosses his arms over his chest as he leans back. "She has been making improvements on the shields, admissions output, and has been hacking into the droids to update their capabilities. They are able to do more complex tasks then what they originally would have been able to. Nothing too drastic, but she has increased their reaction time and deduction skills."
"Huh," Ahsoka says, blinking rapidly. "Sounds like she's really helping everyone out." Ahsoka smiles. "This is great. Alright, thanks, Rex." She waves her hand a little as she turns to head towards the back of the bridge where she could see Anakin and Obi-Wan standing next to coordination station where they usually use to coordinate battle strategies, but it's where Blue has been since she entered the bridge.
"I have to admit, Blue," Anakin says, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest, "I'm impressed."
Blue smiles. "Well, I'm glad to hear it, General. It relaxes me to be in a ship's systems, doing upgrades and things of the like," Blue admits. "It was something that I used to do, so being able to do it again has brought me back."
"Happy to hear," Obi-Wan says, also leaning back and stroking his beard.
"Hi Blue," Ahsoka says, walking up between the two men. Blue smiles brightly at the young togruta.
"Ahsoka," she says, sounding genuinely happy to see her. "How have you been? General Anakin has been telling me that you were working hard on your training. How is that going?"
"Good," Ahsoka says, grinning over at Anakin, seeing his quirked eyebrow sent her way. "Pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. I happy to hear that my Master is so proud of me." Anakin rolls his eyes while Obi-Wan looks mildly amused. Anakin crosses his arms over his chest.
"Yes, Snips, I'm proud of you, but just remember," he leans down a bit to stare into her eyes, "vanity is both unbecoming of a lady, and frowned upon for a jedi." He smiles.
Blue lets out a little laugh as Obi-Wan rolls his eyes this time. He drops his hands to the side and looks over at Blue, saying, "And that, Blue, is a classical case of the pot calling the kettle black." He quirks an eyebrow at her and Blue giggles again, seeming very pleased.
"Working hard is fine," Blue says, looking over at Ahsoka, "just don't push yourself too hard, okay? You can't be expected to master all sorts of skills and be the best at everything over night. Work at your own pace. Hard, but safe. Just don't overdo it." The three jedi eye her curiously. Blue looks between them for a moment, trying to see what their expressions mean, but is unable to decipher them, so she gives in and asks, "What is it? Did I say something weird?"
"It's something I've been thinking about," Ahsoka says, leaning on one hip and crosses her arms over her chest. "The person that your looking for, I understand that they were probably a soldier of some sort, right?"
Blue's smile vanishes and she stares back with this somber look on her face. "Yes," she says after a moment of silence. "Why do you ask?"
"Military life back in your time, is it a lot like it is here?" Ahsoka asks, realizing as soon as the words left her mouth that what she said wasn't really what she wanted to ask. But the question was out there, she was interested in an answer for that to.
Blue must have also realized that her question was odd considering how the conversation was broached. She stares at Ahsoka for a moment before saying, evenly, "There is a lot of similarities, command structure and rankings are much the same, but there was never Jedi in our army."
"The Jedi didn't participate in wars in your time?" Ahsoka asks.
Blue stares at her. "There was no such thing as Jedi. I have never heard of them until you found me, Ahsoka. I have nothing in my archives that can even remotely be considered a Jedi."
All three of the Jedi stare at her. Then they look at each other, then back at her, then back to each other.
"Blue predates the Jedi Order?" Ahsoka asks, blue eyes wide.
"Not just our Order," Anakin says, placing his hands on his hips and looking over at Obi-Wan, who is nodding slowly at his words.
"Yes, she would have to be older than the Old Republic that existed over four thousand years ago," Obi-Wan says slowly, narrowing his eyes in thought. He brings up one of his hands to cup his chin. "This is all very fascinating. You are a lot older than I originally predicted," he admits.
Ahsoka gasps, glaring at the blond. "Master Obi-Wan!"
Obi-Wan blinks rapidly, looking down at the youngest in the room. "What is it? What did I say?"
"That is so rude!" Ahsoka says, shaking her head.
Anakin crosses his arms over his chest. "Yeah, Master, you can't just point out a lady's age like that. It's rude."
Obi-Wan looks surprised. "Oh! Oh, I am terribly sorry, Blue," he says, looking down at the hologram of the woman. Blue looks greatly amused.
"And here I thought you were suppose to be the sensitive one, General Obi-Wan." She lets out a little laugh. "Don't worry about it. I'm not insulted. In fact, I'm a bit surprised to be honest. The life expectancy of an AI is seven years, so being thousands of years old is a little much to swallow," she says, honestly. Her amused demeanor is gone.
Ahsoka's amused look vanishes for one of confusion too. "Why is it..?" She shakes her head. "I'm sorry."
Blue offers a wane smile. "It's alright. I'm not ready to go, but at least I got to save him. One last time. I even finally got to touch him. It was strange."
"What?" Anakin asks. "What does that mean?"
Blue blinks a few times, her smile fading into a look of confusion. "I... what? What did I say?" She brings her hands up to her face, closing her eyes and thinking about her words for a moment before pulling them away slowly, looking down at the ground, eyebrows pulled together tightly. She looks like she's trying to remember something and it's not coming to her easily. She closes her eyes tightly, lips moving but no sound is coming out.
Then it stops. Her hands lower, her eyes open and her lips stop moving. She looks up at Ahsoka. "The person I'm looking for. He was a very close friend of mine. I was with him for a good majority of my seven year lifespan. We got really close to one another. We were kind of the only one the other could trust when there was a lot of madness going on around us. We spent so much time together we had to watch each other's back."
It was kind of a strange transition, but Ahsoka figured there was a reason she was saying this. Maybe she remembered something and was giving a bit of back story so that Ahsoka and her two Masters would be able to understand. Thinking that, Ahsoka nods slowly to her words, but doesn't speak.
Blue doesn't need her to, she continues, "I got to help him, like I've always wanted to be useful to him because... I think... I think I loved him." She sounds ashamed of herself.
"What's wrong with that?" Ahsoka asks slowly. Logically, she could guess where the issue comes in. The woman technically isn't alive. It's not normal for her to feel anything, right? Or, at least, that's the vibes that Ahsoka is getting from Blue's actions. She doesn't see herself as anything more than an advanced program. Ahsoka isn't really the person to say otherwise, but she really believes that's not true.
"I can only speculate based by my actions," Blue says slowly. "But I... can't recall what that feeling was. Love. And even the feel of his armor. I can see it, but the information containing... 'feeling' isn't available. I can't even run any form of simulation on the matter because I just don't... know." She closes her eyes tightly. She looks pained by her own words.
"I'm sorry, Blue," Ahsoka says. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." She blanches at her own words. "I'm sorry," she says again.
"No," Blue says, voice flat. "Thank you for asking. By speaking, and hearing things, it helps me decrypt data files in my memory banks. Even if it's not much. I do appreciate it. So, thank you."
"Sir," the admiral says, breaking their conversation up. The three jedi and the AI all turn to look at him as he comes close.
"What is it, admiral?" Anakin asks.
"A request came in from the Republic, they want us to check out another strange unearthed ship that was reported about seven days ago by a colony planet in the next sector," the admiral says.
"Another?" Anakin says, eyebrows raised. He looks over at Blue, who shrugs her shoulders, not knowing anything.
"Not that I mind, or anything," Ahsoka says. "But why are they sending us? We aren't really the people for this job."
The admiral nods slowly. "True," he admits, "but apparently two days ago, the colony stopped responding. There hasn't been any sort of response of any kind from the colony in the last fifty hours."
Obi-Wan and Anakin looks over at one another and share a nod.
"This entire settlement is abandon..." Ahsoka points out as they walk through a series of small shanties, to see that everything really was deserted. The village was surrounded by large rice patty fields that went on for miles and on their way into the village they had to walk through them. Farming equipment was found laying half-hazardously around the fields as if dropped suddenly and left there without a second thought.
The village is set up with a cluster of two dozen little shanties all dotted around, surrounded on three sides by rice patty fields, which they cultivate as their main export, and then one grassy path - more weeds then anything - that leads them to the largest mountain on the planet. The ruins, supposedly, were discovered on top of the mountain, which was worn away somehow to plateau out at the very top. It's an outer-rim world that isn't high traffic and barely considered a Republic controlled world.
"Yeah..." Anakin says slowly, looking over his shoulder at Rex, who was a few feet behind him. "Leave some men here to investigate. We're going to take a look at whatever these people unearthed. There is nothing overly important in this area that I can tell."
"What's that, sir?" one of the clones asks, nodding toward a discarded net, against the face of one of the buildings that is pointed toward one of the far rice patty fields. It's oddly large, stained a strange neon green color with a repulsive stench coming off of it. Obi-Wan kneels down next to it, sniffing the air a little bit more, before pulling his face back, looking disgusted.
"I don't know," Obi-Wan says. "It's not exactly a smell that I am familiar with. Although, I think there is something about it..." He narrows his eyes a bit. "I just can't place it..."
"Do you think it's something that we need to worry about now?" Anakin asks, stepping up next to Obi-Wan, bringing a hand up to wave the air around and hopefully dissipate the distasteful smell. He glares at the net before looking down at Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan stares at the net for a few minutes, thinking about how he wanted to go about this. There was a reason that it caught his attention, yet he wasn't sure what it was. Maybe animals of some sort that these nets were designed for, had attacked the village. He just wasn't sure he knew enough about this planet to be able to figure out what this net could be a prevention for. He knew that ignoring it isn't the smartest move, but he's not sure what is going on with it.
"Sir!" Another clone calls, drawing Ahsoka's attention away from the two older Jedi to look at the clone.
"What's going on?" Ahsoka asks, once she gets the nod from Anakin to go check it out.
"We have some survivors," the clone says near one of the shanties. There is a lot of debris tossed around the outside of the house as Ahsoka draws closer. There is some kind of piece of farm equipment that Ahsoka didn't know the name of, pierced through the stomach of a human man. It's obvious that he's dead with the puddle of blood on the dirt beneath him, but Ahsoka couldn't ignore that he was almost two entire feet off the ground, his feet dangling in the open space. The strength needed to lift a full grown human man and use what she would assume to be a dull gardening tool through a body is impressive.
"What could have done this?" Ahsoka asks aloud.
Rex steps up next to her, crossing his arms over his chest. "Something very strong, Commander." He looks down at her.
Ahsoka crosses her arms over her chest too, looking over at the clone that brought her over there. "I'm assuming that he isn't the person you wanted me to see?" She has to keep her eyes away from the body, seeing two clones in the corner of her eye trying to pull the gardening tool out of the man stuck to the outside wall of the shanty.
The clone that brought her over there shook his head. "No, ma'am," he points toward the house almost completely on top of the one in front of her. "There is a light moving around inside this house." He jabs his thumb in the direction of the house. Ahsoka shivers a bit at the sound of metal scraping against bone as they finally manage to remove the farming equipment from the mystery man stuck on the outside of the building and lower him slowly to the ground.
Ahsoka walks over to the door, pausing for a moment to press her ear up against the door and quieting her thoughts to listen. She can hear the soft sound of someone crying, a child probably. She pulls back and closes her eyes, holding her hand out toward the door and feel inside. She unlocks the door and manages to move whatever heavy furniture that was pressed against it back a bit so that she can open the door.
Ahsoka steps in and peers into the darkness. The house is tiny, barely even able to be considered a home. The kitchen and living room is the first thing that she walks into and everything is thrown asunder.
"Hello?' Ahsoka calls, squinting into the darkness, trying to find whomever the clone could have seen in the darkness. "My name is Ahsoka Tano. I'm a Jedi with the Republic." She looks around a bit more. "Hello?" Something shifts in the darkness and Ahsoka's eyes lock onto it. She squints her eyes a bit more and steps closer. She waves her hand around a bit, hoping to appear nonthreatening. "Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." She holds her hand out toward the darkness, hearing a child whimper. "It's okay."
A man, obviously human, steps out of the darkness, illuminated by the sunlight that's filtering in through the windows. He studies her appearance for a moment, looking terrified and weary, before he lets out a noise of joy and runs over to her. The man hugs her tightly before pulling back and speaking to her in a very strange language.
"It's okay, Rex," Ahsoka says, feeling the protective Captain at her back, his anxiousness flittering into the Force, even if he has no control over it. "He's harmless. I think." She shrugs at his little scoff.
"What's he saying?" Rex asks. "I don't understand any of what he's saying. It's no language that I recognize."
Ahsoka nods slowly, her eyebrows stitching together a bit. "I thought so at first too..." she listens to him speaking and gesturing quickly, for a few moments more before continuing, "but I think it's some kind of language that is composed of something I don't recognize, maybe tow separate languages, and what can only be described as a bastardized version of Twi'leki." She looks over her shoulder at Rex. "I think we will need Master Obi-Wan and Skyguy in here to help."
Rex nods and turns to some of the clones standing near to the door to tell them to get Obi-Wan and Anakin, when Ahsoka catches something in the man's nonsense. Something that sounds suspiciously like, "monsters" and something about a "mountain." Ahsoka's eyes narrow. From where she's standing, she can see the large mountain off in the distance, and feeling out with the Force, something is undoubtedly up there.
For the Reviewers:
1. Species Unknown: She really does, though, doesn't she? Cortana will find her way into something that will make her more mobile soon enough.
2. TRX999: Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it! I hope I continue to please!
3. Akshka: I am not sure what HAL means. I'm sorry! XD
4. Guest: Mhm! Thank you!
5. ZombieSlayers: Don't worry, I'm kidding. The Chief will be making an entrance - officially - soon enough.
6. Blackravens5: Thank you!
7. Lillyc940: Sorry for the wait!
8. headreviewer mk2: Yes. Yes it does. :D
9. PocketDuelMasters: Cortana will find a better means of transportation soon enough. That I promise you. And her work with the ship is merely the beginning. :D
10. : You'll have to wait a bit longer, it seems. XD
11. Woods: Thank you!
