A.N: Weird first week of school. Slow, but exciting. Though for animation classes, I'll probably be pulling all-nighters soon. Check out my Deviantart for concepts of the young Tribe members, link on my profile here.

BELIEVE IN THE NIGHT: Thank you so much!

Teenylambofgod: Ooo, I really like the history comparison you made. We may have something in the future…

Starlight: Ugh, some boys can be such show offs. Kerchec has always been friendly, he just had to be more helpful to Demira. Right now Demira is stronger, and you'll see why, but with how season 3 looks, Ezra will stronger, though I won't go that far into the story.

I don't own Star Wars.


Chapter 11: Contact


The Shaman had left without another word. The Chief addressed the Tribe in their language and everyone dispersed. It was quiet the whole time as the crew followed the Chief, Depa, and Demira through the village, all the way to the far side close to the wall of the canyon. There, a small rock ledge was carved out. A wooden ramp lead to the flat top where a large hut was built out of wood and white fabric. The hut looked more a like a tent with the shape almost a square then a dome. Waiting, one on each side of the hut, was Bele and Sar Sar. Demira ran up the ramp and straight to her Kuri. She wrapped her arms around the creature's muzzle and touched noses with her. When the crew got to the top with Depa, Bele stood up and turned around to the side, making it easier to see the transmitter still strapped on his back.

As Depa patted the Kuru on the snout, the Chief looked to the crew and said, "I apologize for the behavior of Bruton. Unlike me, he had a more distant relationship with Trader Rack. He's cautious of visitors."

"More like he disregards them all together," Zeb said angrily, finally letting out some steam he had been building up since the Shaman called the crew out.

"If there is any way I can make it up to you…" the Chief said, "Maybe I can help you with contacting your friends?"

"I can handle that," Depa said, walk back to the group and then reaching over to hold the Chief's hand. The contact made him smile. "How about inviting them for meal time tonight."

"They're invited every night!" Chief declared. Everyone's spirits began to pick up again. He let go of Depa's hand and began to walk away towards the ramp down to the village. "How else will they eat?" As he turned around, he yelled back, "Good Luck, my friends."

Demira called out, "See you soon, my Chief!"

Depa looked solemnly at the crew, "It's not his fault. I should ben more prepared for Shaman's reaction. I really, truly am sorry for what happened." The look on her face, shame, sadness, Kanan couldn't bear it. He wanted to say something, tell her it was ok. But he wasn't the victim of all Bruton's word. He couldn't speak for the whole crew. "Shaman Bruton is a cautious man but he has never gone as far as to—"

"It's all right, Depa," Hera answered. "We've all been called out a lot worse, believe me." Kanan looked to Hera, giving her a thankful look.

"Yeah," Sabine said, "You learn to ignore it."

Demira heard this and asked, "But how do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Ignore it?"

"Well, you just…. let it pass you like if you never heard it."

"Oh…" Demira said pensively. Sabine and Depa unstrapped the transmitter from Bele as Zeb and Kanan both held the heavy machine between each other to bring it inside the hut. Passing the tarp acting as a door, the crew observed the inside.

Four thick wooden beams inside kept the high ceiling strong and the walls upright and sturdy. Between two beams, a hammock was hung low enough for someone to climb in. Between another two beams on the left, a hammock was tied high up. It was no surprise to who's high hammock belonged to as soon as Demira climbed like an animal, with easy up the beam and laid comfortably on the hammock. Sabine looked around, noticing the white fabric had paintings all around. A lot of them had figures and people doing activities, and other were symbols. Upon closer inspection, the figures were often only two people, one in orange and one dress in brown. If Sabine had to guess, it was Depa an Demira. Scattered along the walls of the hut, wooden logs carved out and woven baskets acted like cubbies and drawers to place items inside. Hooks were punctured into the wooden beams. One held an old, worn out satchel. Another displayed a set of bow and arrows. Depa placed her staff on display next to it. On another hook she placed her mask.

"Over there," Depa pointed to a stump of wood at the back of the hut. It was wide and flat enough to place the transmitter safely on top. Once the transmitter was set down, Depa went to the corner of the room. Hidden behind one log cubby, something was hidden under a woven blanket. When she pulled it off, she revealed a dusty, but unbroken radio. The machine was smaller than the transmitter, but it was enough to make Hera breathe a sigh of relief. This could work. Depa brought the machine to sit it next to the transmitter and by pressing a few buttons on a small control panel, the lights on it lit up. A monitor with a needle began to move slowly along the numbers. Hera did the same with the transmitter, letting the machine run, but watching the meter bar never light up.

"Once we hook up the the radio to the transmitter, we should be able to get an output."

"We got to fix the input frequency first," Sabine said.

"Yes, but it will take time to rewire the frequencies to find—"

Sabine went ahead and ripped off the top of the radio carefully, exposing a mass amount of wires inside the machine. Quickly, she began to rip so wires out of sockets and move them around to different ones, often connecting two wires into one. Depa blinked, impressed at how fast Sabine was, so when she looked to the group, Hera was the one to say, "I don't think you'll have to worry about time."

When Sabine was done, she put the top of the radio back on, and then moved around the switch on the console, "Now to find the private frequency…. Got it".

Then, She and Hera used wires to connect both the radio and the transmitter together. As they worked, Demira had watch stunned from her hammock above, then she jumped down with ease and crawled between the group so that she was sitting between Hera and Sabine and watching them. "Onga…" Demira gasped. Hera and Sabine could only smile at the girl's wonder. They knew they were done when the meter on transmitter lit up and began to receive a signal and the sound of static filled the room. Afraid of the sound, Demira backed up and went to sit next to Depa.

Hera grabbed the small mic and began to speak into it, saying, "This is Specter 2 of Ghost to Phoenix Squadron come in Phoenix Squadron." All eyes were on the transmitter now, everyone hoping that the static would turn into words, words from their comrades. "Specter 2 to Phoenix Squad, come in." Hera said a little bit more desperately. The room slowly grew nerve racking. They worried that they were never going contact the fleet. "Specter 2 of Ghost to Phoenix Squadron, please respond," Hera said one more time, gripping the mic as she silently pleaded for this one last attempt to work. For a few seconds it was static again, and then suddenly words started to form. A deep and familiar voice became audible through the static. Since it was still heard to understand, Sabine tweaked the frequency a little by slightly twisting the nob, and then….

"This is…Leader …come in…. Captain Syndulla, is that you?" Many things happened at once. Zeb and Ezra cheered, giving each other a high five. Sabine sat back and let her head rest back to look at the ceiling with a relieved grin. Kanan patted Hera on the shoulder, getting her to calm down from the excitement of hearing Commander Sato's voice. Demira, was so shocked to hear a voice come from the machine she backed away and crawled around to hide behind Depa. She looked to her master to see how she reacted. Yes, Depa was happy the crew made contact…. But it was Hera's title that had a curious grin appear on her face.

Hera went straight to work, "Yes it's me."

"And your crew is with you."

"All accounted for."

"Coryn called as soon as you left Arret. He said you were being chased by Imperials. Since you have not rendezvoused with us in the last couple of hours, we assumed the worst."

"We got rid of the Imperials once we jumped into hyperspace, so it's not the worse, but it could be better."

"How so?"

"We crashed landed on a planet in Wild Space and the Ghost has taken extensive amount of damage, including the window of our cockpit cracked and one of the engine coils of the Phantom fried. The Ghost won't make it through another jump."

"Send us your coordinates then and we'll—"

"The Transmitter won't send coordinates, but we can give them to you manually."

"Why are you using the Transmitter."

"Signal on this planet doesn't work so well."

"How were you able to lock into our frequency?"

"We bumped into an old colleague of Specter 1's who had a radio able to get some signal. We're talking on a miracle here." Hera told Sato the coordinates then said, "When you get here you might not be able to find us so easily. When you see a mountain, land in a clearing nearby. You'll know what I mean when you see it."

"All right. We've got our missions, so we'll do our best to—"

"Don't compromise a mission for our sake, we're not in any immediate danger anyway."

Kanan chuckled. It was just like Hera to think of the bigger picture first. Before the connection went offline, Ezra cut in, "Oh, and let Ahsoka know about us. She might want to come and say hi to Kanan's friend."

"Very well," Commander Sato said, and then the transmitter went static.

Depa raised an eyebrow and asked Kanan, "Ahsoka…. As in Ahsoka Tano?" Kanan shrugged. Depa could only smirk and say, "My, you do have friends in high places…" then she looked Hera. Remembering the Twi'Lek's title, Depa said with a smirk, "Captain Syndulla, for example."

It didn't hit Hera right away on what Depa was getting at, until she remembered Kanan had told her Depa Billaba's master was Mace Windu…. Who once worked with her father, Cham. Thankfully for the Twi'Lek, Demira wrapped her arms around Depa's neck from behind, stopping the Jedi from going on. Depa had to kneel over as the girl leaned over her and said, "What do we do now?"

"We wait," Depa said

"Ugh…" Demira ground and pretended to lose all feeling in her body. She slumped to the floor on her back and said, "Waiting is boring…."

Ezra snickered at the act. Depa said, "We'll we're not going to wait sitting down all day of that's what you're thinking"

Getting the idea, Demira stood up on her feet quickly, yelling, "Woohoo!" and running out of the hut. Everyone followed behind, walking out of the tent and onto the rock ledge where the Kuru and Kuri sat. Depa and Demira stood on the edge, the older Jedi saying, "We should at least give you a tour of the village since you may end up spending the night."

"Come, come!" Demira said excited as she grabbed Sabine's hand and using the other to push Ezra on the back, leading them down the wooden ramp from the rock ledge down to village grounds. Zeb and Chopper followed right behind them as Depa had Kanan and Hera on either side of her walk with her.

Going through the village, Demira took Zeb, Chopper, Sabine, and Ezra through busiest part. Surrounded my several huts, a clearing was left open in the middle for people to walk around and do their chores. People were going around from moving supplies, making supplies, or finding someone to converse with. Demira and the group passed by a couple of women who were sitting down, and upon seeing them the women called out to her. Demira stopped, making the others stop too to see what the women were doing. They all stood up and held up leaves and flowers of red weaved together in long strands. Demira grabbed one and put it around Sabine's shoulders, saying, "Fpom weka, peace lays. A gift of welcome."

"Oh," Sabine said, surprised.

The two women went to Zeb and Ezra, putting one peace lay on each one. They thanked the women, but Sabine was still slightly shocked. She welcomed the peaceful gesture, but the fact that it was there. "Are you all right?" Demira asked Sabine after seeing the Mandalorian's eyes go wide at the sight.

"So-sorry, it's just I'm not used to all this…" She motioned to the women, and then to the people around. Some were doing chores while others talk in groups or children played in the clearing. The laughter, the liveliness, "You don't get this sort of peace out in the galaxy, with the Empire and all."

"Depa told me, I can only imagine—" The sound of young laughter far off made Sabine's head shoot up. Demira saw this and asked, "But at a young age, you can at least have some sort of fun."

"Eh, I have more fun now then I was in the academy."

"This academy you spoke of before, where you once imperial?"

"Pfft, long time ago," Sabine said, rolling her eyes as the thought of being in the academy suddenly became too dreary to think about. "After seeing what they really do to people, I wasn't going to let them make a soldier out of me." She looked around, seeing at the people around, walking calmly, looking nowhere near nervous. It was so relaxing. She really hoped these people never had to see what she saw

Demira got an idea, putting a hand on Sabine's shoulder and saying, "Then let us enjoy the day."


.


A.N: Again, short chapter because school started. I think I may end up sticking to writing five pages worth per chapter considering I'll also be animating for my classes at the same time. In summary, crew makes contact with the Rebellion, and Demira and Depa learn the talents, and some history, on the Ghost crew. Since this story is before "Homecoming," I didn't linger for a long time on the mention of Cham, but Depa knows… lol. As for Sabine, she's going to have to get used to the tranquility. Next, the crew is exposed to more of the Tribe world. Don't forget to check out my DA for concepts. I'm KikaKatTIOI, peace out!