is this soon enough for you I finished this when I was supposed to be sleeping. there goes my Saturday morning.
Once Macabeus got his bearings by matching the stars. (no mean feat since some of them had died since he was frozen) he plotted an azimuth that would lead them to one of his old safehouses.
Setting the computer to recalculate the azimuth he went back to check on his passenger. She was sitting at the main table and she looked like she was between fury and tears.
"You were close?" he asked knowing the answer he was going to get.
"They were my family, we need to go back." she said as Maccabeus went over to the kitchen in order to fill a glass with water.
"Can not do that, Clones will kill you on sight." he answered, taking a log draw from his glass.
"Why, why would they turn on me like that? I've known them for years. Rex and I…" she trailed off like she was rethinking her sentence. "Rex was my best friend. Why would he turn on me?" her voice held no doubt she knew Maccabeus was right but she couldn't understand why.
"Order 66," Maccabeus answered, tossing her the copy of the handbook he was given.
She had read in on the venator but she still couldn't believe it so she found the page quickly and when she read the order her heart dropped.
In the event of an attempted coup of the senate by the Jedi Order any an all GAR personnel that are or were a member of the Jedi Order are to be removed from their post by use of lethal force, any who are members of the Jedi Order and are not holding any GAR rank are to be captured with extreme prejudice. Given the dangerous nature of the Jedi none can be permitted to escape from justice no matter the cost. All members are to be held as complicite in any act of treason that warrants the execution of this order.
"This can't be happening," she muttered in disbelief
"This is happening tangerine we need to get the Hell out of here as soon as possible." Maccabeus replied on his way to the cockpit to check the navi computer's route.
His lack of empathy was agitating. "Who are you anyway?" Ahsoka snapped. She was still trying to figure out what her next move was but learning more about whoever this was wouldn't hurt.
"Maccabeus Bethel."
His answer was dismissive and he seemed to have miss understood the question.
"No who are you?" she repeated hoping he would understand.
Now it was his turn to be annoyed. "I already told you Maccabeus Bethel."
The tone of his voice sounded odd. He must have known what she meant. "Do you even know how to speak basic." she snapped
When he refused to look at her directly something occurred to her. Master Yoda spoke in an odd fashion because the rules for grammar changed since he learned how to speak. And she had no idea just how long Maccabeus was in carbonite.
Holding up the handbook she pointed to a word and asked him. "Read this to me."
He looked at it for a moment before looking away and muttering on in what sounded vaguely like Concordian. She couldn't understand him but she got the impression that he was frustrated and given that he seemed like he was trying to carry on a conversation in a language he seemed to be learning how to speak she could understand why.
Hoping that he could understand the general approach she tried to speak in the Mandalorian she had been taught by the clones. "Maccabeus where are you from?"
He perked up a little at her use of Mandalorian. She wasn't fluent in it but his personal dialect wasn't what she was taught anyway.
"Earth," he answered, pointing out his window to the blur of hyperspace.
"Is that where you are taking us? Earth?" Ahsoka asked, trying to be redundant without being patronizing.
"Yes," he answered, looking at a second book he was given by the clones. It was the one that every member to the 501st carried that taught basic on a simple level in case they ever picked up anyone that hadn't been taught yet.
"Earth was my home many many years ago." he said, checking every few words to make sure that he was getting the words right.
"Why did you leave it?" she asked. He seemed like he loved the words but that didn't explain why he would have left it.
Maccabeus looked deep in thought for a moment though she had no idea if that was because he needed to think over his answer or if he simply had no idea how to answer her. "Can not remember," he finally said. " side effects of carbon freeze, memory returning slow."
"Maybe I can help you, I was never a gifted healer but my friend was." Ahsoka gently reached out and set her hand on the side of her head. When she tapped into the force she felt a wave of pain and suffering that sent her to her knees instantly.
Before she could get her bearings back Maccabeus had her in his arms and was walking/carrying her to the couch. When she seemed responsive again he asked her. "What happened, what happened?"
"I just felt the entire council die, everyone I've ever known is now either dead or guilty of murder." she was fighting back her tears when something she wasn't expecting happened. Maccabeus sat down next to her and gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"I do not know why but something tells me that I understand. Take your time I will be on the bridge if you ever feel like trying again. For now mourn your people, if they were like you then we are worse off without them."
Letting her go he walked in silence to the cockpit. Ahsoka was still shaken. She remembered what master Yoda had taught her about how her attachments can lead her to the dark side but right now she was bent on revenge. She was going to find out who was behind this and kill them.
That was all she could think to do. That is until she remembered what Obi-Wan had told her about Satine. "I loved her, I loved her and she was taken from me. I think that if I had given myself to the darkness I felt then that I could have destroyed Maul. gotten my revenge but honestly. Satine would never be able to look me in the eye if I did." That was when she asked him why he hadn't killed Maul then and there.
And that fact would temper her lust for vengeance. What good would avenging the council be if they would be appalled by her actions in doing so. That wasn't the Jedi way and that wasn't her way. No, what she had to do now was survive. When she had figured that much out she could start thinking about what to do next.
The couch looked soft, softer than expected for a stolen shuttle but that may have just been the last seven hours at work.
She laid down trying to find a way to get comfortable in spite of her montrals and lekkus. Sure enough the couch was comfortable and she soon found herself drifting off.
…
Maccabeus had lied to her. He knew what happened to his home. But he had hoped to keep that to himself. When the Brutes came to them and asked for help it was seen as a trap and rejected. The elites likewise. ONI had done their best to make humanity not trust them and they had succeeded.
When the Vong came for the grunts there was nobody that lasted long enough to tell anyone and by the time that anyone on earth realized what had happened it was too late. The Vong Empire had returned.
Looking down at the two cups of hot chocolate he made a fact of smiling. He still hadn't learned her name but she seemed to be a good person and the way she loved her soldiers made him trust her.
She had fallen asleep shortly after he returned to the cockpit. He took this time to finish reading the book on basic. He was gifted with languages so basic which was itself a similar tongue to mandalorian which was similar to Concordian which was very similar to English helped quite a bit.
Once he had finished that he went into the kitchen and searched the cupboards. He didn't know who Padme was but if this was really her shuttle, and the fact that he had found what seemed to be a love letter to her in the cockpit meant that it most likely was. Then she was well stocked. He found something that tasted kinda like cocoa powder and with that and the supply of milk and sugar or at least what he hoped was milk and sugar he managed to work up his personal recipe.
Sitting down next to her he gently ran his hand along her face. The delicate touch woke her but when she saw him her face soured. She had been civil before but she seemed like she was honestly unhappy with him. It was probably how he handled the clones. They were family to her and he had killed them.
"you still hate me don't you?" he asked with a somber tone.
Ahsoka almost answered but she stopped herself. "we need to go back," she stated.
"That can not happen if we got back we will die." Maccabeus replied, getting tired of telling her that.
"I need to go back even if you don't want to. all you need to do is bring me to the nearest area that has life in it and I can..."
"No way in Hell." Maccabeus growled. "we do not have the supplies to do that and most importantly if we go back then we will both be hunted down and killed the only chance we have for survival is to run."
"what do you know of survival!" Ahsoka snapped, losing her temper.
the look on Maccabeus' face froze her to her core it wasn't anger it wasn't pain it was understanding. "I am the last member of my species in existence. we were wiped out by an ancient evil, they called themselves the Yuuzhan Vong we fought back and in the end I was the only one of either species to survive. I have been alone in this galaxy for longer than your history records. trust me I know what you are feeling and I know what you think is smart." he rested a hand on her shoulder. " we need to run, we can think of what to do next afterwards."
reaching over he handed her the cup he made for her. "tell me about your men, I only knew them for a few hours but they seemed like good soldiers."
taking the cup and drawing her knees into her chest. "the first one that I met was Oddball, he was the pilot that dropped me off on Christophsis. he was an oddball alright he was such a joker. Then there was Rex, Rex and I. Well we grew up together for lack of a better term. I spent my late teen years in the war and Rex was only ten years old fighting in the body of a grown man."
"Sounds like a good time," Maccabeus sarcastically quipped.
Ahsoka made a face halfway between a smile and scowl. " then there was Kix, he saved my life on more than one occasion. Like the time I was bitten by a venomite. That really sucked since I was forced to stay on the Resolute by Master Skywalker."
As she spoke something about Maccabeus' posture changed and after a few seconds he grabbed his pistol and asked her. "So tell me about your owner I need to kill this man,"