Chapter Four

16:02:20 GrS

HYPERSPACE, Outer Rim

The Golden Snitch was travelling through hyperspace along the Correlian Run toward Tatooine. It had been for the past day, the majority of which Ahsoka had spent deep in meditation, clearing her mind and firming her control over the emotions she felt within.

Eventually however, she began to get bored and turned her attention outward once more.

As Ahsoka opened her eyes she was greeted with the swirling blue of Hyperspace that stretched on beyond infinity outside of the ship. A glance beside her told her that Harry was relaxing in his chair, his eyes staring straight forward into the tumultuous void.

"What was the planet you grew up on like?" Ahsoka asked suddenly as the question occurred to her, breaking the long silence.

Harry looked over to Ahsoka in surprise. "Where did that question come from?"

Ahsoka shrugged a shoulder. "There's only so long you can stare into hyperspace before you start going crazy," she said before giving Harry a considering look. "Though that might explain some things."

Harry gave a chuckle. "Well played," he said, before leaning back in his chair, a contemplative look overtaking his features. "My planet, huh?"

Ahsoka nodded. "You said it was called Earth, right?"

"That's right," Harry murmured, his voice becoming inflective. "If I had to compare, Earth was quite like Correlia—or Alderan as well, I suppose. The planet's landscape varied from deserts, to rainforests, to mountain ranges to tundras. There was a little bit of everything on it."

Ahsoka digested that information. "Could everyone use magic, like you can?"

Harry shook his head. "No," he said, "Very few people are born with the ability to do magic—it seems to be mostly hereditary and those that do have to be trained in its use."

"Like Jedi?"

"I suppose so," Harry mused. "Though training began once a magical child reached eleven years old and they were sent to school to learn from teachers who specialized in the various types of magic."

"Sent… to school?" Ahsoka raised an eyebrow.

Harry grinned. "The school I went to was called Hogwarts. It was one of the oldest and most renowned on the whole planet."

"I'm surprised the Jedi haven't heard more about… magic, since it seems so, well, formal."

"There are a few reasons for that, I'd imagine," Harry admitted. "The first being, that Earth itself is quite primitive technologically compared to the rest of the galaxy. The last time I checked, I don't think we'd managed to travel out of our own solar system."

Ahsoka gave Harry a strange look. "If that's the case then how are you here with me now?"

"I honestly don't know," Harry said with a shrug of the shoulder. "I woke up one day on a spaceship, and kind went from there. As far as I can tell, no one's really had any contact with Earth before. There are no signs that it has ever been visited." He frowned. "If it was the case for magic, I'd get that. Even back on Earth the Wizarding World was secretive, chances were that if you weren't magic, then you didn't even know it existed. I know I didn't until I got my invitation to go to Hogwarts."

"Well, think of it this way," Ahsoka said. "According to Galactic History, before the invention of the hyper drive, humanity sent out sleeper ships from Coruscant into the far reaches of the galaxy to seed the stars with civilization. Clearly one of the sleeper ships made it to wherever earth, so it goes without saying that it's possible for other ships to have found it as well, maybe they just kept it secret?"

"That's a possibility," Harry said after a few seconds, before shaking his head and smiling. "Enough about Earth, what about you? What was it like growing up as a Jedi?"

Ahsoka wasn't prepared to have the spotlight suddenly pointed back at her, and for a few seconds didn't respond as she considered the question. "It… just was, I suppose," she said unsurely. "I don't really have anything to compare it to, I felt that at times it could be difficult, but I never struggled alone, and there was always someone there to help me if I faltered on my way."

Ahsoka thought back and began to reminisce. "I have to admit, when I began, I never imagined that part of learning to be a Jedi would involve learning about politics, galactic law, sciences, language or… well, I suppose I never really gave thought for what it took to be a Jedi."

Ahsoka chuckled and shook her head. "I'll never forget how proud I was when Master Yoda approached me and asked me if I wanted to become a Padawan."

"Why?"

"Because, not only was I selected earlier than normal, but he chose me to become Ma…" Ahsoka's good mood dwindled slightly. "He chose me to become Anakin Skywalker's padawan. He's a legend in the temple, and a hero to the republic. He's one of the most powerful Jedi in the whole galaxy."

"Actually… one of our first missions brought us to Tatooine," Ahsoka said with a faint smile. "The Separatists had kidnapped Jabba the Hutt's son, Rotta, and Anakin and I were tasked with rescuing him. We managed it, somehow, and gained the support of the Hutt clans for the Republic in the war effort."

Ahsoka bit her bottom lip and realized that the wound was still far too raw, and talking about what she had done in the name of the Jedi Order was not making things better.

"Sorry, can we talk about something else?" She shook her head and forced a smile. "Enough talking about our past. Instead, let's talk about the past. How do you do what you normally do?"

Harry's eyebrows rose to meet his hairline, his mind briefly struggling with her declaration. "How do I do what I do?" He smiled after a few seconds. "By that you mean find artifact's, right?"

Ahsoka nodded.

"Well, that's a very big question," Harry admitted. "Usually I start with planetary archives, they're usually the most complete source of factual information. But, in the case of Tatooine, the earliest mentions are from various mining companies dating back as far as four thousand years ago who settled the planet in order to mine it for its resources, and any information they may have had is protected under some legal mumbo jumbo about corporate interests."

Harry shook his head again. "From what I've been able to ascertain, at some point Tatooine was abandoned, and it was only about a thousand years ago that people started settling it again. Quite frankly, the official record—what you and I can access of it, anyway—doesn't go back far enough to help us, so we have to turn to alternative sources."

Rather than prompting Harry as he no doubt expected, Ahsoka took a moment to consider what other options there were for a would be treasure hunter to find treasure. She'd learn from Master Plo that a cantina was always a good source of information for the galaxy's scum, they could never resist a good brag about their accomplishments. That didn't quite factor in though, smugglers and mercenaries weren't the type of people to be interested in discovering old things. But then, those weren't the only people who visited cantinas. Local workers did as well, and wouldn't the people who actually lived on the planet know more about it?

"Local lore and legends," Ahsoka said to Harry, "from people whose families have lived on Tatooine for generations."

Harry beamed at Ahsoka and nodded. "Exactly! No one knows places better than the people who live there, and have lived there for their whole lives. But on Tatooine, we can go one step further than that."

Ahsoka had to admit, she had no idea where Harry was going with it, thankfully though Harry must have noticed, because he continued without her having to prompt him.

"One thing remains constant throughout the thousands of years since Tatooine was discovered, and they've been a pain in the ass to everyone who's tried to tame Tatooine."

Ahsoka's eyes widened as it suddenly became clear. "The Sand People?" She blurted out incredulously. "You have to be kidding."

"I'm not kidding," Harry said, "Think about it. One thing has remained constant since the beginning of colonization attempts of Tattooine; the Sand People—I'm not talking about them just being there, all records indicate in over four thousand years they haven't evolved socially or physically. Do you know what that tells me?"

Ahsoka snorted and folded her arms across her chest. "That they're little more than wild beasts walking on two legs?" She muttered. "I've heard stories about them, how barbaric they are, how they're constantly attacking anyone and everyone who gets close to them—not to mention that they hunt people down and torture them."

"I'm not going to downplay the atrocities that they've committed, or make any attempt to apologise on their behalf," Harry said, lifting his hands up in surrender. "But historically, as far as Tatooine goes, they've been there the longest. They may know something, or they may just, as you say, be savage beasts, but until we ask them we won't know for certain."

"Let's agree to disagree," Ahsoka suggested.

"Alright," Harry said with a nod, before frowning. "Say, are you hungry? I'm a bit hungry."

"I guess," Ahsoka said reluctantly after a moment. "I take it you have some ration packs or energy bars on board?"

"Something like that," Harry said as he stood up and flashed Ahsoka a smile and gestured for her to follow him as he made his way out of the cockpit.

Ahsoka gave a sigh and shook her head as she stood up and followed after him, leaving the cockpit.

She found him waiting at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her expectantly. "I figured if you're going to be staying with me for a while, you'll need your own room," he said, gesturing to the left side of the stairs.

Ahsoka glanced down and found herself looking at one of the doors she had been unable to open. "I tried to open them before I found you at the Museum," she admitted. "I think the control panels are broken, they wouldn't open, and they didn't seem locked."

"Well, that's good to know," Harry said happily. "I locked them using magic to make sure no one could get in without me being there," he informed her and lifted a hand up, waving it toward the left door.

Ahsoka felt something pass through the air ever so briefly, before the lights on the control panel lit up, indicating the door was once again operational. She didn't wait for Harry, her curiosity buzzing. She walked to the door and thumbed the open button.

The door hissed and split down the middle as the two halves drew back.

Ahsoka's eyebrows rose up as she found herself staring into a surprisingly long and large room that was largely empty except for a long row of seats on the right wall.

One of which was occupied by something.

Sitting on the first seat, stuck to the chair by a brace was what appeared to be a skeletal droid with much of its wiring and servos uncovered. Its head was angular and sloping with a distinctive feminine contour to it.

Ahsoka noted that there appeared to be some sort of device embedded in the centre of its chest between two sloping mechanical plates. Ahsoka glanced over her shoulder at Harry, levelling him with a questioning look.

Harry shrugged a shoulder. "I saw it and I thought it looked interesting so I stole it," he explained and shook his head. "I can't seem to get it to work though. Mechanical stuff isn't my specialty."

Ahsoka shook her head and laughed, unable to help herself. "Don't you mean permanently borrowed?"

Harry shook his head. "No, this one I definitely stole," he said, "But if you could get it working I'd be happy. Droids are a curiosity for me, they're just fascinating, you know?"

Ahsoka nodded slowly as she looked around 'her' new room. It wasn't much, but it was more than she'd had in recent memory; a place to call her own.

"So, we were talking food?" Ahsoka asked as she turned back around to face Harry.

Harry blinked and broke out into a smile. "Oh, right!" He gestured for her to follow him again and lead her over to the right door. Another quick wave of his hand and the door activated and opened.

Harry went through and Ahsoka followed right after him.

"So where is… the…" Ahsoka trailed off into silence as she stared ahead, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. "…Why is your room bigger than mine?"

Ahsoka found herself standing in an impossibly spacious room that looked more at place in a rustic get away retreat than it did on a spaceship. The floors were amber hardwood and the walls were a beige interspersed with support beams that had no reason to be there.

To the side there was a large stone fireplace that climbed to the top of the ceiling, inside of which a fire was merrily crackling away, warming the room with a golden glow.

Ahsoka watched as Harry walked passed a pair of couches that sat in front of the fireplace to the back of the room, and through a doorway, vanishing into another room that defied all rationale by existing.

It was only then, that Ahsoka noticed that there were several more doors around the room, each leading off in different directions.

At first, Ahsoka wasn't sure if she was hallucinating or not—if Harry had slipped her spice while she hadn't been paying attention—but she quickly put the concern aside and accepted what she saw as real. She didn't dare pose the question 'how', she knew what answer she would get. Instead she considered the phenomenon around her and trying to come up with a logical explanation, even if she couldn't comprehend how it was possible. The internal dimensions of the room exceeded the external dimension—by a large margin if Harry vanishing into other rooms was any indication. That was as far as Ahsoka got before she decided that it wasn't worth the headache.

Ahsoka began to wander around the room, peering at the various bits of furniture strewn around. She ran her fingers over the smooth grain of a bookshelf as she passed it, only to stop at a vase filled with orange flowers, a type she had never seen before. She leaned in and sniffed and was rewarded with a very sweet and heavily floral scent.

"They're called lilium bulbiferum, or more commonly, the tiger lily."

Ahsoka glanced over her shoulder and found Harry standing there, holding a silver tray in his hands, on which laid a plate of white meat and various colours of vegetable, a slice of some sort of sweetly smelling and golden brown as well as a glass of orange liquid.

"They're lovely," Ahsoka said as she eyed the tray and licked her lips. "What's this?" She asked.

"Roast chicken with vegetables, a slice of treacle tart and a glass of pumpkin juice," Harry said happily and turned around, walking over to the fireplace and setting it down in on a table in front of one of the couches.

"I have no idea what any of those things are," Ahsoka admitted as she sat down opposite it. "But it smells delicious." Without any preamble, Ahsoka picked up the utensils and dug in.

"So," Harry began to say after a few seconds. "What do you think of my humble abode?" He asked, grinning and gesturing around.

Ahsoka chewed and swallowed the mouthful of chicken she had. "It's bigger on the inside," she remarked dryly, before spearing one of the orange coloured vegetables and bringing it up to sniff at. She gingerly bit down on the end and chewed experimentally, before her nose crinkled and she set it back down and went back to the meat.

"Aren't you going to ask me how I did it?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "You'll just say magic," she pointed out, before reaching over and picking up the 'pumpkin juice' and taking a sip, only to find that it wasn't… absolutely terrible. She begrudgingly swallowed.

Harry gave her an annoyed look and leaned back in his chair. "Well, yeah, but still, you could at least humour me."

Ahsoka gave him an amused look as she speared another piece of chicken and didn't rise to the bait, instead she gestured toward the various doors around the room. "What else do you have in here?" she asked.

Harry glanced over his shoulder and pointed toward the very back of the room. "That's the door to my room over there, going clockwise we have the bathroom—or refresher, as you call them, kitchen, workshop, storage and the green house."

Ahsoka grew more impressed with each room that was listed and the actual scope of how 'big' the spaceship room had become began to really dawn on her. "That's… insane," she said in disbelief, shaking her head. "How is that even possible?"

Harry beamed. "Magic, of course," he said happily. "Though if you're asking for a more technical explanation, I believe the explanation the person who taught me how to do it involved terms like 'subspace pocket' and 'dimensional refraction and disassociation'. All very technical, thankfully the process is a bit easier than remembering the whole lecture, if only slightly."

Ahsoka zoned out halfway through listening to Harry talk, and instead, her mind turned back to something he had mentioned. "Wait, you said that you have a refresher onboard?" she asked, looking up at Harry intently. "Does it have a sonic shower?"

Harry's nose crinkled. "No, those things are dreadful. I prefer a good old fashion hot water shower myself. You know, I looked into how feasible it was to get an actual water shower working on the starship, but in the end I just enchanted a showerhead to spew out hot water, much less hassle."

"I haven't had a proper shower since before the trial," Ahsoka said wistfully, before she shook her head and smiled at Harry eagerly. "Can I?"

"I don't see why not," Harry said. "There are extra towels in the linen closet if you need them."

Ahsoka was up before Harry finished speaking and made a bee line straight for the refresher.

Ahsoka had idea what she had expected. Sure, she had been prepared for its size to be impossibly large, and yet she still found herself briefly without words.

Harry had called it just a refresher, that was like calling Coruscant just a planet. It was technically correct, but it didn't do it justice by a long shot.

The refresher was as large as the main room, its floor and walls were made of some sort of off-white stone with swirls of faint greyish blue, in the centre there was a large circular tub sunk into the floor filled to the brim. Steam wafted off the surface of the water enticingly. It was large enough to fit half a dozen people in with room to spare and resembled a small pool, more so than a bath.

To the left of it there was a mirror that lined the wall, below which sat a basin set into a cabinet with as a dozen or so draws. The right side had baskets for clothes as well as hangers covered with towels, bathrobes and other things.

At the other end of the refresher was what she was looking for. A large brass showerhead hung in midair, suspended through a means she couldn't see. Beneath it was a circular slate of a porous grey stone.

Ahsoka approached the 'shower' with curiosity as she eyed it. There were no visible means to turn it on. Normally there would be a dial, or a set of twitches—some sort of method for activating and deactivating it, but then, hadn't Harry said it? He'd used magic to make it.

"…Shower on?" Ahsoka tried to no avail.

She glanced down at the dark stone beneath the shower head and eased her foot forward onto it. The moment the bottom of her shoe touched it the shower head activated. She jerked her foot back as a spray of water droplets splashed down, only to find that they vanished before they hit the ground.

Her eyebrows rose up, but rather than wondering how it was possible, Ahsoka just accepted that it was and without further preamble, she stripped and stepped onto the plate.

She flinched as the first spray hit her, before relaxing and letting out a sound of appreciation as the hot water cascaded down.

An indeterminate amount of time later and after countless litres of hot water, Ahsoka finally stepped out of the refresher once more dressed in her usual attire.

"Thanks, I really needed that," Ahsoka said with a contented sigh, only to find that Harry wasn't there.

Just as she was about to start looking through the rooms, Ahsoka felt a sudden shift as the ship dropped out of hyperspace. It was far too early for them to have arrived. They had another few days before they were even close. "That explains where he went," Ahsoka said to herself as she turned around and headed out of the expanded room and back into the ship actual.

Ahsoka scaled the stairs quickly and found Harry sitting in his seat. "What happened?" she asked.

Harry flashed Ahsoka a smile. "Good timing, we're a few minutes out from atmosphere."

Ahsoka blinked slowly as she processed what he had said and gave him an odd look. "Are you sure you didn't just input the wrong data into the navcomputer? It's far too… early…" Ahsoka trailed off as a familiar desert planet floated into view of the cockpit.

Harry was looking at her expectantly. She knew what he wanted her to ask, she wasn't going to give him the pleasure. Without a word she sat down and brought up the navcomputer, double checking the coordinates and making sure that Harry hadn't entered in the wrong planet on accident. Even as she looked, she knew what she was going to find, and sure enough they read true.

Ahsoka sat back in her seat and considered what she knew about Hyperdrives and the limitations they had.

Hyperdrives were classed based on an asymptotic scale from zero and upward. The greater the superluminal speed of a hyperdrive, the lower it sat on the scale. Class Zero was considered infinite speed, and thus entirely theoretical.

Most Republic starships had a Class Three or Class Two hyperdrive. The fastest ships had Class One's, and they were far and few in between. There were a few whispered examples of aftermarket hyperdrive modifications that pushed the boundaries and went into Decimal range, but the fastest she'd ever heard boasted about was Point Five.

A Class One hyperdrive would have gotten them from Coruscant to Tatooine in a little under a week in most cases. To have arrived in just over a day. The sheer concept of it boggled her mind.

Ahsoka took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "How did you use magic to make your ship this fast?"

Harry gave her a look of approval. "When I got the ship I thought it was a bit slow, so I took it to a shipwright on Mandalore and had him walk me through what made a hyperdrive function, and what the differences were between the good models and the best ones. He explained what the limitations were, and I used magic to exceed them."

Ahsoka considered what Harry said for a long moment, before finally nodding her head. "Alright."

"Alright?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Alright," Ahsoka said, "I can accept that."

"Really, just like that?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Just like that," Ahsoka said with a smirk and gestured toward the planet. "Where are we headed?"

"It's a toss-up between Bestine and Anchorhead. Bestine is the capital city, but Anchorhead has a bit more history to it—it's where the mining companies operated back when Tatooine was discovered the first time." Harry considered. "Plus it has more annual reports of trouble with the locals than Bestine."

"Sounds like Anchorhead is the winner," Ahsoka remarked dryly with a shake of her head. "I'd feel a lot more comfortable going down if I had a weapon of some sort," Ahsoka confided in Harry.

"Don't worry," Harry said easily, entering Anchorhead as the destination and beginning the descent. "If everything goes well then we won't need weapons."

"The last time I went somewhere with you I got tied up by a cultist C'thon and had to fight a Rancor with my bare hands, and you had to use that… thing." Ahsoka pointed out calmly. "Forgive me if I'm not exactly brimming with enthusiasm at the prospect."

"I can't argue with that," Harry said, a smile tugging at his lips. "Do you want a blaster, or perhaps I can transfigure you a sword?" He suggested.

Ahsoka considered the offer. She didn't particularly like blasters, sure she could use them, but they were far from a favoured weapon and she wasn't anywhere near as proficient as the clone troopers she had worked with through the war with the Seperatists—something they had teased her about relentlessly.

At first a sword sounded like a good idea to Ahsoka. It had the same shape and function as a Lightsaber. Except, as close as they were in form to each other, they differed drastically in both weight and the skill to use them. Ahsoka dreaded to think what could happen if she defaulted to her Lightsaber forms while using an actual sword.

Her hand absently reached down, brushing over the pocket where she had secreted away her old Lightsaber crystals. "No, it's fine," Ahsoka finally decided, "The force is my weapon, I need no other."

Ahsoka found Harry's eyes resting on her, pensive in their gaze. It was in moments like this that she had to remind herself that he was her age. She found herself matching his gaze.

Ahsoka held his gaze unwaveringly and calmly spoke. "If you don't pay attention to where you're flying, we're going to crash."

Harry broke the staring contest with a blink and glanced back out of the cockpit, casually pulling down on the throttle and easing up on the descent and levelling out.

Ahsoka smiled, pleased with herself. She turned her head back to the cockpit window and looked out at the vast expanse of desert that stretched out beyond the planets horizon, broken up only by rocky crags and deep valleys that had been gouged out of the planet's surface over countless millennia. Far on the horizon she could see a gargantuan sandstorm swirling through one of the many dune seas that covered the planet's surface.

Ahsoka sat back and was content to watch as Harry brought them down, peering down at the rapidly growing settlement. After a few minutes it had grown to the point where she could make out the individuals walking in the streets, and soon after, Harry set down the ship along the outskirts of Anchorhead.

Before she knew it, Ahsoka was standing at the top of the ramp beside him, watching as it lowered down.

She regretted every decision she'd made that had led her to that point as soon as the first gust of Tatooine air hit her square in the face, hot and searing, unpleasant and stinging with sand. "…I forgot how much I hated this planet," Ahsoka said, grimacing more and more as the ramp lowered further and further, letting more of the obscenely hot air in.

Beside her, Harry was sporting a similar look, his features crinkled in distaste at the abominable heat. "Well, as certain that I am that I'd get used to it eventually, I'm not quite keen on the idea either." Ahsoka watched as Harry lifted a hand up and reached over, lightly tapping her on the temple.

Ahsoka inhaled slightly as the scorching wind had a sudden drop in temperature until it was more comparable to an ocean side breeze.

"It's a variation on a flame freezing charm," Harry explained to her happily. "My friends older brother taught it to me during a misadventure involving sand, sun and an irritable soul sucking zombie named Nefertiti."

Ahsoka smiled, shaking her head. "I'm not even going to ask, I'm just going to enjoy it," she said happily. "The worst part of desert planets is the wind, now it's not so bad at all. I could get used to it—" She flinched and frowned. "—except for the occasional sting from the sand."

Harry gave a laugh at that. "Can't do much about it right now," he said and began to step down the ramp. "Let's find a cantina and see if we can find someone who knows where the Sand People are hiding out."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and followed after him.

As they walked along, Ahsoka found herself surprised. She'd never been to Anchorhead before, but from how Harry had spoken about it she had assumed it would be bustling with activity, and while there were clearly people around, it wasn't anywhere near the level she had imagined.

She noticed a distinct lack of shady types as they walked. Most of the people seemed like common folk going about their day, sans the occasional group of teenagers loitering in the shadows of a building.

By the time they'd arrived at a cantina, the most activity Ahsoka had seen had involved a bunch of people loading barrels of condensed water onto a transport at the insistence of a grumpy looking rodian.

Ahsoka eyed the cantina in front of them with distaste. After spending a month working in one, she'd have been happy if she never stepped a foot inside another. "I'll wait out here for you," Ahsoka told Harry.

Harry turned back to Ahsoka, surprised, but didn't question her. Instead, he smiled. "In that case, do you want to go and rent a speeder for us?"

"I left my money back on the ship," Ahsoka admitted. "I can head back and grab some if you need me to."

Harry shook his head. "No worries, I can handle it. He slipped a hand into the pocket of his dark tunic. "Let's see, we're in the outer rim, and I think the Hutts are in charge here, so…"

Ahsoka watched as Harry pulled a handful of gold coins out of his pocket, her eyebrows raising up high in response to the sight.

"Here," Harry said and dropped them into her hand. "These are Peggats, each one is worth about 40 credits. It should be enough to rent a landspeeder for the day."

Ahsoka stared down at the pile of coins in her hand and did a quick bout of mental math. "I don't think any landspeeder we rent is going to cost 800 credits," she said with a shake of the head, before smiling. "Mind if I use the extra to buy some stuff?"

"Knock yourself out," Harry said easily and a moment later he vanished into the cantina, leaving Ahsoka to her own devices.

Ahsoka glanced down to the pile of gold coins in her hands and shifted them around with her fingers, before smiling and pocketing them. She turned away from the cantina and began to backtrack along the path they'd taken. She was certain she had seen a half dozen or so speeders parked outside a store on the way.

On the way back, Ahsoka found herself taking in the sights of the settlement, or rather, the lack of them. She saw large reptilian dewbacks and banthas tied up beside each other along with various clunker starships that looked like they'd been sandblasted, the paint having been stripped from them long ago.

Eventually she found the place and headed inside, past the rows of various hovering vehicles. Inside the sandstone building there was a counter, behind which stood a large Trandoshan whose reptilian head was turned toward a holoscreen watching what looked to be a podrace.

Ahsoka waited for him to look to her, and after several seconds passed she gave a polite "Ahem."

The Trandoshan's head tilted ever so slightly and one of its large orange eyes looked toward her. "What do you want?" It asked her bluntly.

"I want to hire a speeder for the day, how much?"

That got the shopkeeps attention, and Ahsoka found the large reptilian man turning toward her, its long shape-toothed mouth curving slightly. Its tongue flickered out of its mouth briefly. "Five peggat."

Ahsoka's eyes narrowed. "And how much for one that doesn't strand me in the middle of the desert?"

The Trandoshan's smile widened further, showing off a mouth of very sharp teeth. "Ten."

Ahsoka did the mental math and held back a grimace. Four hundred credits was no laughing matter, but then, getting stuck in the desert wasn't either."

"Deal," Ahsoka said, drawing out ten of the coins that Harry had given her and dropped them on the counter in a stack.

They were swept up by a clawed hand and inspected for more than a few seconds. Eventually however, the shopkeep seemed satisfied. He reached behind himself to a board and carefully drew off a marked key, setting it in front of Ahsoka.

"This key is for the X-31. If you return it in a days' time and you will get half your money back," He told her in his hissing voice. "If you do not, I will come for you."

Ahsoka gave a sharp nod and picked the key up. She turned around and made her way out to the front and looked for her new landspeeder. It didn't take her long to find it.

It was the one that still had some paint left on the hull.

Without any preamble, Ahsoka hopped into the pilot seat and shoved the key into the activator. Instead of heading straight back, however, Ahsoka made a few stops along the way, using the extra funds she had left over to purchase a few nicknacks and a small pile of electronic scrap for later use.

By the time she pulled back around to the cantina, Harry was waiting for her out the front, talking to a gruff old man who looked like he had swallowed a lemon. Ahsoka pulled up beside them and waved.

Ahsoka didn't catch Harry's parting words, but saw the older man give him a grim nod and head back into the cantina.

Harry walked over to the landspeeder and hopped into the passenger seat beside Ahsoka. "There was an attack yesterday to the west, just before a canyon that heads north toward Mos Eisley. I'd say it's our best bet for finding one of them."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and throttled up, driving the speeder along the street and taking the first turn to the left she saw. "We have the speeder for the next day," she said to Harry, "If we don't bring it back by then, the shopkeep said he's going to track us down personally."

Harry blinked slowly before shaking his head. "At least he was being upfront about it," he said, breaking out into a grin. "Did you tell him where we were taking it?"

Ahsoka broke out into a laugh. "Of course not, there isn't a single person in the galaxy who would be willing to rent a speeder out to someone who was going looking for trouble."

"We're not looking for trouble," Harry said insistently. "We're looking for answers to questions that no one else can answer."

Ahsoka shook her head, smiling all the while as she brought the speeder around to Anchorhead's west exit and pushed down on the throttle, accelerating faster and faster as they cleared the settlement.

Ten minutes of cruising at full speed later and Ahsoka had to hold in her laughter at the sight of Harry's impressive new hairstyle. Somehow, defying all logic, it appeared that it was possible for it to become even more unruly and windswept than usual, though he appeared oblivious to the fact, his eyes closed and head tilted to the side, basking in the wind.

Ahsoka was so caught up in the amusing sight that she almost missed the canyon in the distance. She pulled back on the throttle and the speeder began to slow. "We're almost there," she said to Harry with a smile, "How do you want to do this?"

Harry brought his head back inside the speeder. "Want to let them ambush us?"

Ahsoka's good cheer dwindled quickly. "Be serious."

"I am being serious," Harry insisted and waved a hand toward the canyon in the distance. "Hear me out. We don't know where they are, or even if they're there."

"If you're worried about finding them, then relax. Once we're close enough I'll be able to feel them within the force," Ahsoka said, "We can ambush them, and interrogate them. There's no point in putting ourselves in danger if we don't have to."

Harry gave her an impressed look. "That's a better plan than mine," he said without a hint of shame.

"Speaking of plan," Ahsoka said after a moment as a realization struck her. "I can't help but notice that we didn't bring a translation droid with us. I take it that means you also miraculously speak their language as well?"

"Not yet."

Ahsoka glanced aside at Harry. "Could you be more cryptic? I take it it's a magic thing?"

Harry let out a laugh. "Oh you better believe I could be more cryptic," he said, "But yeah, it's a magic thing. We just need to grab one of them and sit them down for a nice chat."

Ahsoka nodded slowly, digesting what Harry had said. "In that case, I'll park the speeder outside the canyon and go find one for you."

Harry considered her offer. "No," he said with a shake of his head. "I'll go grab one, you stay with the speeder, it'll be quicker."

"Are you trying to imply that you'd get one of them before I could?"

Harry gave Ahsoka an odd look. "Imply? I flat out said it."

"Oh it is so on," Ahsoka grumbled as she pulled the land speeder to a stop outside the start of the canyon. She turned to face Harry. "What are the rules?"

"First one back with a sand person wins."

"Easy," Ahsoka said flippantly as she hopped out of the landspeeder and stretched. "You should have at least asked for a handicap. This is going to be too easy."

Harry stepped out of the vehicle and gave Ahsoka an annoyed look. "You really think you're going to beat me?"

"Of course," Ahsoka said instantly, turning to face him. "I can sense where they are even now. Your magic won't do you any good if you can't find them."

"I never said I couldn't find them," Harry pointed out. "I only said that we didn't know where they were." He reached up and ran his fingers through his messy hair and turned toward the canyon. "Honestly, as much fun as I think a competition would be, I think it'd be safer to go together."

"Sounds like the talk of someone who knows he'd get second place," Ahsoka said, a teasing smile on her lips, but none the less, begrudgingly agreed with the sentiment. There was no sense in being reckless and getting hurt.

"Come on," Ahsoka said, gesturing for Harry to follow her as she began to walk toward the canyon wall. "Let's get this over with."

Harry followed after her, quickly catching up and walking in stride.

It wasn't long before they reached the start of the canyon walls.

Ahsoka turned to Harry. "We'll have better luck finding them and remaining unseen if we take the high ground," she said.

Harry craned his head back and looked up. "Blimey, that's a bit of a climb, isn't it?"

"Race you!" Ahsoka called out, smiling to herself as she drew upon the force. With a force empowered leap she rocketed upward, landing on an outcropping far up the Cliffside. She didn't bother looking back down at Harry and began a series of jumps, climbing higher and higher with each one, before finally she reached the top and landed with a casual grace.

"About time you got here."

Ahsoka startled and spun around, only to find Harry standing a few feet away with an amused smile on his lips. Her jaw dropped. "H-how!?" She demanded to know. "I didn't see you even start the climb!"

"I took a short cut," Harry said, unable to hold a straight face.

Ahsoka folded her arms across her chest stubbornly. "You mean you cheated."

"You never said I couldn't use magic," Harry pointed out with a grin. "Just like I never said you couldn't use the force. Do you expect me to believe you can jump that high naturally?"

Ahsoka opened her mouth to respond, only to stop, frown, think, and then shake her head. "This isn't over," she informed Harry and walked right past him.

"Don't be a sore loser," Harry protested, turning as she walked past him.

"I'm not a sore loser. I didn't lose, you cheated," Ahsoka insisted, only to go silent and still as she felt something through the force. "…There is one close," she said, her voice quiet.

Harry nodded and mouthed 'Where?'

Ahsoka closed her eyes and reached out through the force, feeling for the closest life forms in the area. It took mere seconds to narrow the location down due to the scarcity of life. "It's over behind that ridge," Ahsoka whispered, pointing to the far edge of the canyon. "I can't sense any others near by, it must be a scout."

Harry nodded, lowering himself down and slowly walking forward.

Ahsoka held up a hand and shook her head, beginning to creep forward herself. She didn't say another word as she continued to move forward silently, and it wasn't long before she stood above the ridge. She glanced down over the edge and saw it.

Laying there, a long cobbled together rifle in its hand, was the sand person. It was wrapped head to toe in thick off-white cloth, in addition to a course tan robe and a mask consisting of goggles as well as two pipes protruding from near its mouth.

It hadn't noticed her presence, and by the time it did, it was too late. Ahsoka swung down, using the ledge as a grip and slammed her hand into the back of the sand persons head, smashing it hard against the rock beneath it. It didn't even have time to screech before it was out cold.

"Done," Ahsoka called out as she stood up and dusted her hands. She felt a bit bad at having been so brutal, but she couldn't have risked it calling for its friends and alerting them.

She looked up and saw Harry peek over the edge, an impressed look on his face. A second later he jumped down, stumbling only slightly as he landed. "You certainly don't do things half way, do you, Ahsoka?" He asked in good humour as he crouched down beside the unconscious body beside the togruta.

"I can't tell if that's a compliment or not," Ahsoka said as she watched Harry turn the body over.

"Me neither," Harry said as he stared down intently at the creatures face. He reached down and pressed a single fingertip against the sand person's forehead.

Ahsoka watched with interest, wondering what Harry was doing, and after five minutes her eyes widened as she saw Harry's finger pull back, drawing out a thin wisp silvery of something out of the creatures head.

"What is that?" Ahsoka asked, her voice quiet and apprehensive.

Harry slowly stood up, the silvery strand attached to his fingertip, listlessly floating. "This is a copy of a memory," he said, "more precisely, it's the cumulative memory of the Sand People's language, as this one has learned." He drew the silvery wisp up to his forehead and pressed his finger against his temple.

Ahsoka watched as the silvery vapour vanished inside his head and his features contorted as if he had bitten into something sour. As she watched, she couldn't help but feel slightly unsettled by the ability to draw memories out of a living beings mind.

There were few force powers that dealt with the mind, and all of them were morally ambiguous. The Jedi Mind Trick was the most prevalent, and even its use was as limited as possible due to the potential for abuse it contained. A Jedi was never allowed to use it for personal gain, only in the service of the greater good. Ahsoka supposed that the rule didn't apply to her anymore, yet she was still as apprehensive as ever about the potential for abuse it held.

As far as she was aware, there were no powers that actually allowed you to reach into a living persons mind and shuffle through their memories and pick out the ones you wanted for yourself. The very idea was frightening in, and of itself.

"That seems like a very… morally dangerous power to have," Ahsoka said carefully.

Harry closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, the grimace on his face slowly fading away. "It seems that way, because it is that way," he said slowly, "It's an ability that is ripe for abuse, and it takes a very strong fortitude of character to not abuse it. I limit myself to using it for extenuating circumstances. I'd consider using it to learn a language to tiptoe the line."

Ahsoka nodded slowly, her eyes glancing down to the unconscious creature at their feet. "Is it alright?"

"Just unconscious," Harry answered and reached down, picking up the sand person and pulling it over to the nearest rock and sitting it up straight. "The one downside of learning a new language like this," he began to say, "Is that it takes time to be processed, thankfully talking to someone who speaks it helps."

Harry flashed Ahsoka a grin and then stood up, waving his hands in the air. One passed over the unconscious form of the sand person and ropes sprang out of thin air, wrapping around its body and binding its arms to its wises and its legs together. The other did a twist and a faint buzzing sound began to whisper through the area.

"I used a spell to muffle the sound," Harry explained to Ahsoka, "So when I wake him up he won't be able to alert the others."

Ahsoka found herself watching in rapt attention, caught somewhere between wonder and wariness as she watched Harry tap the sand person on the forehead again, causing it to stir to wakefulness.

There was a few moments of confusion as it woke and then it realized what had happened, and the situation it was in. Ahsoka winced as it began to screech in its shrill voice. She couldn't understand it, but she was certain that it wasn't too happy.

Harry crouched down in front of the restrained sand person and patiently waited for it to stop shouting. His eyes remained focused on it the entire time, and it wasn't for ten whole minutes before the screeching ended.

By the end, Ahsoka found herself with a throbbing headache. She couldn't fathom how 'that' was considered a language. It all sounded like noise to her.

Harry stood up straight, a smile on his lips and opened his mouth. What came out was in no way, shape or form intelligible to her, but apparently the sand person understood him, because it looked stunned and replied a second later in a less screechy, but none the less still unpleasant bout of noise.

A few perplexing minutes later and Harry reached down, picking up the sand person's rifle. He snapped his fingers and the ropes binding the creature vanishes, along with the constant buzzing sound.

The bandage wrapped being warily rose up to its feet and Harry held out the gun, saying something in its language. A bandaged hand reached out and took the proffered weapon.

Ahsoka's eyebrows rose up as it didn't immediately turn the gun on them and open fire, and instead slung it over its back and let out a warbled sound of suspicion.

"Harry," Ahsoka said in the calmest voice she could muster, eyeing the now armed sand person, "What's going on?"

It turned toward her, and though she couldn't see its face, she just knew it was eyeing her. No doubt it was peeved from the little love tap she'd given it earlier.

It turned back to Harry and nodded, before turning around again and walking away.

"Come on," Harry said, gesturing for Ahsoka to follow as he began to walk. "It's going to take us back to its camp."

"Why are we going to its camp?" Ahsoka asked, "That seems like a bad idea."

"We're going to its camp because that's the only place we'll be able to talk to the clans Storyteller," Harry explained. "The Sand People use an oral history that has been passed down through over… well let's just say that they don't keep track of time the same way we do and the term 'time immemorial' fits best."

Ahsoka quickened her steps and began to walk beside Harry, glancing between him and the back of the sand person who suddenly seemed very cooperative and trusting. "That doesn't sound like a reliable way to record history."

Harry snorted. "You'd think so, but apparently they believe that writing it down would cheapen the value of their history." He shook his head. "No one except the Storyteller is allowed to recite it—or rather, reciting it incorrectly is considered blasphemy and punishable by death. It's kind of a big deal for them."

If Ahsoka had eyebrows they would have risen, instead her eyes widened dramatically. "That's… intense," she said, shaking her head and looking ahead at the sand person who was leading them down the canyon side. "I still don't get what you said to it to make it take us to its camp—or why we aren't going back to get the speeder."

"We're not taking the speeder, because they don't like machines and would react violently if we turned up in one."

"Oh."

"As for what I said to convince him, well, it's paraphrasing but…"

Ahsoka's eyes narrowed. "What did you say to him, Harry?"

Harry's face broke out into a massive grin. "Why, take me to your leader, of course."