They don't teach all that much about droid maintenance at the Jedi Temple; not as part of the regular curriculum for younglings. As far as Ahsoka knows, they never did. Anyway, it's not a required subject. It's generally covered under basic mechanical engineering, and they don't do a lot of distinguishing between droids and other machines. Droids are something like a necessary evil as far as the Jedi are concerned. Not really living, just machines crudely mimicking living things. Not worth spending a lot of time thinking about. But Ahsoka, thrust suddenly as a padawan learner into the thick of a war, finds herself surrounded by droids. She wonders these days why they didn't teach her more.
But then, Jedi normally don't get involved in wars, either. Yet here they are.
Her Master, Anakin Skywalker, isn't exactly a typical Jedi. She found that out soon enough. For one thing, he almost seems to love his droid, R2-D2, like it's his friend. It's one of the things that endears her to him, almost from the beginning. Anakin almost seems to understand Artoo's plaintitive warbles and opinionated beeps. Maybe he really knows what the astromech is saying, or maybe it's just something like intuition. Whatever it is, Ahsoka wants in on the secret. She wishes she knew more about droids, so she could help Anakin better. She wishes she knew more about a lot of things.
Today, Anakin returns to the Resolute from a scouting mission, and as soon as Artoo is lowered down from his ship, he gives Ahsoka a new assignment.
"Get Artoo cleaned up, won't you Snips?"
"Right away!" Ahsoka cries with genuine enthusiasm. A week ago she might have considered this grunt work, but now she's glad to help. Anakin hadn't let her come with him on his mission, and she's been sulking, but she puts that behind her now. Of course, what she really wants is to ask Anakin how the mission went, if they found anything. But being useful is more important now than her curiosity. She waves at Artoo and turns to head toward the charging station at the end of the hangar. But Anakin's voice calls after her.
"You remember what you need to do?"
She turns again and Anakin is eyeing her a little skeptically. He's smiling but his eyes are narrowed. Ahsoka knows that look by now, and feels suddenly self conscious.
"Recharge him and clean his carbon scoring and-" Ahsoka frowns. There's something else. There must be.
"How long since you changed out his power cells?"
"Oh," Ahsoka says, sheepish. "Yes, that too."
Anakin gives her a slight nod, but looks unimpressed. "You remember which ones?"
"The C-4's," Ahsoka says proudly, relieved she remembered.
"Yep," says Anakin simply. "Well, don't take too long. I'll meet up with you in a little bit."
"Yes, Master!" Ahsoka nods and waves toward Artoo. "You ready, buddy?"
Artoo whistles happily and they head toward the charging station together.
Several minutes later, Ahsoka finds herself staring in horror at the droid before her. Just a few seconds ago he had been beeping cheerfully. Now, nothing.
What has she done? Hasn't she done everything right?
She'd changed out his old power cells with bright green new ones, then plugged him with the charging cable, same as always. But then the droid had just zapped in a horrifying way, and there'd been smoke! He'd made a kind of strangled, electronic whimper and then..nothing.
She gives him a useless prod with her finger. He's hot to the touch. Not good.
Ahsoka looks wildly around the hangar to make sure no one saw, and it looks like no one did. But she has to get him out of here before anyone takes notice. Fortunately, the general maintenance bay is nearby. But can Artoo even move? As she wonders that, his head moves just a little slowly. So at least he's not completely fried.
"Can you still move, buddy?" She asks in a hushed voice. "We've got to get you to maintenance."
Artoo moves forward, a little jerkily. But at least he can move. Ahsoka uses the Force to help him nudge him along just a little bit as they walk out of the hangar. They arrive in the maintenance bay and she leaves Artoo by an empty service desk and runs to the back, to the chief technician's office and peers in. Her timing is good. CT-5438 - better known as Lift- is at his desk, just getting off a call.
"Commander!" He greets her cheerfully, but his smile suddenly turns to a look of concern. "Such a panicked expression on a Jedi - never a good sign."
"You have a minute to take a look at an R2 unit?" Ahsoka asks, straightening up and trying to compose herself a little better. "Something... happened...when he was charging. "
"Well certainly, Commander. Though I'll level with you- we're pretty backed up right now." Lift says as he grabs a handheld scanner and rises from his chair and follows her out toward the service desk. "General Kenobi-" He freezes mid-sentence. "Good heavens, you say this happened while charging?"
"This is General Skywalker's personal droid -" Ahsoka begins, but Lift cuts her off.
"General Skywalker did this?" He asks incredulously. He moves quickly toward Artoo and starts running the scanner over him.
"No," says Ahsoka, feeling impatient. "You didn't let me finish. I was cleaning him up for General Skywalker. I don't know what happened, I just changed his power cells and plugged him in. Is he fried?" She's almost scared to ask.
"Hmm," Lift says. "He's running at about thirty percent." He opens the droid's power compartment and pulls out the cells. "Well, first of all, these are F-8's. You should only use the C-4's."
"I thought those were the C-4's!" Ahsoka cries. "They're the same color."
"A little darker," Lift says, examining the cell thoughtfully. "Anyway, sometimes giving them a charge with the wrong cells can give 'em quite a jolt and overload the circuits. I reckon you might have set the charge a bit too high as well. Perfect storm."
Ahsoka is starting to feel very foolish indeed. She'd been so concerned with getting her task done quickly she hadn't really made sure she was doing it correctly. A youngling mistake. "So how long do you think it will take to fix him?"
Lift rubs his chin, frowning. "Well, it shouldn't take long, but might be a while before we can take a look at him. Like I said, we got a special request from General Kenobi to patch up those L103 units asap, 'cause we need to send them out -"
"But this is General Skywalker's personal droid," Ahsoka says importantly, knowing she's fighting a losing battle.
Lift sighs. "I'm sorry, but...my hands are tied, Commander. Chain of command and all. Suppose if he really needs him fixed right away the good generals will have to fight it out amongst themselves."
Ahsoka shudders at the thought. No, she is not going to let either one of her masters know about this incident if she can help it. They would probably fight over this if they found out, then she'd be in trouble with both of them. No, thank you.
"It's not a problem," she says. "Just buzz me as soon as he's fixed, all right? And..we don't need to let General Skywalker know about this, okay?" She gives the clone a slightly pleading look. "Or General Kenobi," she adds, just to be on the safe side.
"Will do, Commander." Lift nods and Ahsoka leaves the maintenance bay, not looking back.
Ahsoka walks toward the turbolifts on the other side of the hangar, considering her predicament. Thinking about what kind of a man her master is.
Anakin is kind, mostly, and when he's in a good mood and relaxed he can even be funny. He's very smart, and has a lot of experience for someone so young. He certainly has a lot to teach Ahsoka. The thing is, he's not the most patient. Downright impatient sometimes - a trait Ahsoka isn't used to in her teachers.
Anakin doesn't suffer fools gladly.
Ahsoka knows she's no fool. She had been one of the top students in her age group at the Temple. Even so, it's a steep learning curve out here in the field, and even for her it's hard to keep up, sometimes. Anakin recognizes this to a degree, and works hard to get her up to speed. But once he teaches her something, he expects her to have it locked down. He doesn't like having to tell anyone the same thing twice. He hates it.
She really should have known better with the droid.
Just to torture herself, she recalls an incident a couple weeks back where a man on a ladder - she thinks it was Bear - dropped a full tool box on Artoo's dome as he was moving underneath. The way Anakin had chewed the poor fellow out, she'd thought he might send him to the brig. Thankfully, Master Kenobi had been there to help calm Anakin down. Ahsoka had been too nervous to even try.
She reaches the turbolifts and presses the "up" button and waits. She doesn't really know where she is going. Somewhere where she won't run into Anakin. She hopes the anxiety she's surely radiating doesn't draw Anakin back to her. Her only hope is that he got hung up somewhere on the ship and won't be able to debrief her til later. Much later.
"Seen any action lately, Commander?"
Ahsoka turns to see Commander Cody standing beside her, apparently waiting for the same elevator.
Depends what you mean by action, thinks Ahsoka bitterly, but she just shakes her head. "Nah, just been stuck here. Better than the Temple, anyway."
"Your time'll come," Cody says, smiling down at her reassuringly. The door opens and they step into the elevator.
Something makes Ahsoka look out across the hangar, and her stomach flips. There's Anakin, striding right toward them. Thankfully, someone walks up to him, starting to talk and gesture toward one of the fighters. Ahsoka presses the elevator door button frantically.
"Ah, wait. Here comes Rufus," Cody says, reaching out to hold the elevator door.
"Thanks," says the other trooper. "These lifts have been slow lately, eh? Would hate to have to wait for another."
"Someone oughta take a look," Cody nods.
Anakin is walking toward them again. Ahsoka continues to press the button, harder and faster than before.
"Let's hold the door for the general," Cody suggests, ever helpful. He starts to reach his arm out, but Ahsoka gives the doors a little help to close more quickly. Cody pulls his arm back and gives her an odd look.
"Too late," Ahsoka shrugs, and they start moving up. "Oh well, it was getting a bit crowded anyway."
She gets off on the medbay level. She has no business here, but it's one place she can lay low for a while. Sure, Anakin can track her if he really wants to find her, but knowing him, he'll get distracted by several things and people that need his attention before he makes that level of effort.
She takes a seat in an empty waiting area, right outside the main med unit, enjoying the silence and clearing her mind a bit. Almost a half hour goes by before her wrist comm starts going off.
She looks down at it, hopeful. Maybe Lift was able to get Artoo fixed already. But no. This is Anakin's signal. She waves her hand a bit as if to shake the beeping away, not knowing what else to do. She should answer it, but she doesn't want to. But she should. Before she can get up the nerve to answer, the beeping stops. A part of her is relieved and a part is terrified.
But she doesn't have much time to ponder those feelings. Two clone troopers - she thinks these are the ones called Blue and Twilight - are looking down at her, concerned.
"You all right, Commander?" Blue asks. "I mean, not to pry or anything."
"I'm fine," Ahsoka says brightly. "Just a little bit of a sore throat." She regrets the lie as soon as she says it. Why did she say it? She supposes she doesn't want to admit to anyone that she's hiding.
The troopers exchange a worried glance.
"Well, you can't be too careful," Twilight says. "Something nasty's going around, and all of us in this recycled air all the time. No wonder we catch so many colds."
Ahsoka doesn't mention that, as a Togruta, she can't catch human colds.
"We've just had our inoculations for the Bith Measels," Blue tells her. "Now that's a nasty one. We're about to be -"
But he's interrupted by the arrival of Captain Rex, who frowns when he sees Ahsoka. It's a regular party.
"Everything all right, Commander?"
"She's got a bit of a sore throat, sir," Blue explains.
"Oh? General Skywalker know you're feeling poorly? He's just returned, you know," says Rex.
"I think it's nothing really," Ahsoka says, getting up abruptly. She clears her throat for emphasis. "Yep, going away."
"Now," says Rex firmly. "Sore throats are nothing to be dismissed out of hand. You're here, you might as well get it checked out." On either side of him, the other troopers nod in solemn agreement with their commanding officer.
Ahsoka knows better than to try and argue with Rex. She sinks back into her seat, defeated. How does she get herself into these situations?
A medical droid swoops over, tapping importantly at a data pad screen. "Commander Tano, welcome. Our records indicate that you are past due for your quarterly wellness examination."
"I get my exams at the Temple," says Ahsoka, confused.
"My data indicates that your Master, General Anakin Skywalker, has not signed off on the required forms to transfer your records from the Jedi Temple."
Ahsoka rolls her eyes. "Of course he hasn't. Why would he do that?"
"Now, if you'd kindly follow me to the examination room," says the droid neutrally.
Ahsoka considers making a break for it, but Rex and the other troopers are still standing there, watching, evidently not trusting that she'll go through with the exam without their supervision. She has to admit, they're right not to trust her about this.
"Make sure you check her throat," Twilight calls after them as they head into the back.
Ahsoka patiently endures the exam, and feels grateful that the medical droid is thorough but efficient. The exam is over quickly, and when she emerges from the room, Rex and the others are gone. She'd certainly made a mistake coming to the medbay, that's for sure. Where she'll go next she doesn't know, but she's getting more nervous. Her comm had gone off again in the medical office. Anakin again. This is bad. Missing one communication is one thing, but two in a row? Ahsoka doesn't want to think about it.
She shuffles slowly to the turbolift, but before she can decide if she wants to go up or down, the elevator door opens and her master is standing before her. More like towering over her. She feels about three feet tall.
"Medbay, Snips?" Anakin asks. "Something I should know about?"
"I was overdue for my wellness exam," Ahsoka tells him, now glad to have the excuse to be here.
Anakin's eyes narrow dangerously. "Rex said you told him you have a sore throat."
"Uh...well..." Ahsoka stammers, feeling very foolish now, and mentally cursing Rex. What business did Rex have getting involved?
"You've been avoiding me," Anakin says. It's not a question.
"Avoiding?"
"Don't play games with me, Snips," Anakin says.
"Games?" Ahsoka knows she is digging herself in deeper. But before she can consider her next move, her wristcomm goes off again. She stands there, frozen, looking up at Anakin. She does not want to take this call, either. Why did it have to be now that Lift chooses to buzz her?
"Have we forgotten how to answer our communicator?" Anakin asks.
Reluctantly, Ahsoka raises the comm up to her mouth. "Tano here."
Lift's voice is full of pep, contrasting jarringly with how Ahsoka feels right now. "Commander, good news. The General's R2 unit is ready to go. All fixed up and like new."
Before Ahsoka can answer, Anakin grabs her wrist and brings it and her communicator close to his own mouth. "This is Skywalker. Thanks, Lift. I'll be down in a few."
Lift cheerfully signs off, and Ahsoka looks down at her feet.
"Listen. I don't know what's going on with you, or why Artoo is down in maintenance," Anakin says. "But you're going to go to your quarters right now and stay there. I'll come deal with you in a little while."
Ahsoka nods miserably, wondering what Anakin means by 'deal with.' "Yes, Master."
They share a brief, awkward ride on the turbolift and Ahsoka gets off a couple levels down and heads to her quarters. She starts going through the list of 'if onlys.' If only she had just been honest with Anakin in the beginning. If only she'd paid more attention when changing Artoo's power cells. If only she'd made sure the charge was correct. If only.
The sudden thought to reach out to someone crosses her mind. Sometimes Master Kenobi can help diffuse tense situations with Anakin. And he is almost like a second master to her, after all. Her grandmaster. She decides to comm him, and sits on her bed, waiting for him to answer.
"Kenobi." He sounds a little terse. Maybe, Ahsoka thinks, Anakin has gotten to him already. Perhaps Obi-Wan is disappointed in her. It takes her a moment to find her voice.
"Master Kenobi...I hope you're having a good day." Ahsoka winces at how foolish that sounds.
"Hope I'm having a good day?" Obi-Wan repeats. "Ahsoka, do you need something?"
This was a stupid idea.
"Um..no, Master," Ahsoka sighs.
There's a pause. "All right. Well. Remember, we mustn't clog up the communication channels."
"Right, Master. Sorry." Ahsoka ends the communication abruptly. Lying down fully on her bed, she covers her face with a pillow and lets out a loud groan.
Anakin finds Obi-Wan in the training gym, practicing his form three katas. He hovers in the back, for the Jedi Master to finish, but Obi-Wan senses him almost at once and turns off his lightsaber.
"How was your mission?"
"I'm not sure I want to tell you," Anakin says.
Obi-Wan turns to look at him. "And why is that?"
"Because you'll say 'I told you so.'"
Obi-Wan smiles at him. "You didn't find anything?"
"It's all right," Anakin sighs. "You can say it."
"I told you those leads were no good. All right, I'm done." He motions to a bench on the side of the wall, and they go to sit. "You have something else on your mind, don't you?
"Ahsoka. She blew some of Artoo's circuits while charging him, and wouldn't come clean about it. She wouldn't take my comms. She faked being sick and went to the medbay just to avoid me."
"Oh dear," Obi-Wan says, but there's a hint of laughter in his voice.
"What's so funny?" Anakin asks. He had calmed down a bit after making sure that the damage done to Artoo had been reversed, but talking about it now is reopening the wound.
"Honestly, Anakin," Obi-Wan says. "If I accidentally mishandled that droid of yours, I'd probably avoid you as well. I know how you get."
Anakin does not see humor in the situation. "It's so deceptive. I don't appreciate that kind of behavior from my own padawan. I should punish her."
"If you want to drive her further away," Obi-Wan says. He sounds a little sad.
"Well, what should I do?" Anakin demands.
"You feel hurt by her dishonesty and that's understandable," Obi-Wan explains. "But, whatever you do, if you let that hurt influence your actions, things are just going to get harder for you both."
It isn't really an answer to his question, but Anakin understands what Obi-Wan means. He stands up. "I need to go think."
"You don't know how much I love to hear you say that," Obi-Wan says.
Ahsoka feels like she's been in her room forever. Is this a good sign, or a bad one? She hasn't been in trouble with Anakin enough to have a good feel for the situation.
At last, the door to her room slides open and Anakin enters. Ahsoka sits up, and he puts something down on her desk - it looks like a book - before coming to sit down next to her on her bed.
"Look, Ahsoka," he says. "I know it seems like I have everything figured out, but believe me, I know how it feels to mess up. I just need you to know that if you always avoid me when you make a mistake, it's not going to help anyone. You can come to me, Snips, and we'll solve whatever issue together."
"I'm sorry. I didn't want you to be disappointed in me," Ahsoka says quietly. "I should have known better."
"Hey, if you didn't care about disappointing me, I'd be a little worried."
Ahsoka looks up to see Anakin smiling at her. Things are going better than she feared. Anakin gets up and goes to her desk, picking up the book he brought, and hands it to her.
"This one really helped me. I'd like you to read it."
Ahsoka studies the cover. The Care and Cleaning of Your Astromech Droid.
"This is how you know so much?" She asks. Maybe it's a stupid question but she always thought Anakin just knew things. He doesn't seem like the studying type.
"Well, somewhat. I made some of my own notes in there, too."
"But this is from the Archives," Ahsoka says, thoroughly confused now. "I thought those weren't even supposed to leave the Temple."
"Well...I checked it out so much Madame Jocasta just kind of let me have it," Anakin says. "That is to say, she stopped asking for it back after a while."
Ahsoka snickers. She's never known Madame Jocasta to be that generous with her books, and she has a feeling she's not getting the full story. She wonders if Master Kenobi knows.
"Anyway," Anakin continues, a bit more sternly. "I want that book read a week from today, Snips. And I will be quizzing you. Got it?"
"Understood, Master," Ahsoka nods. She thinks for a moment. "Master..would it be all right if I go down to see Artoo? I just..think I owe him an apology. For my carelessness."
Anakin's face lights up. "I think he'd love that. How about to go together?"
Ahsoka nods, and she and Anakin leave her room together.
"Master?" Ahsoka says as the door closes behind them.
"Yeah, Snips?"
"Thank you."