Welcome to Chapter 34! I promised in the intro to Chapter 1 that this story would be understandable to readers who have only seen the original SW trilogy, but this chapter brings in a couple of characters who are better known from the Clone Wars series, and so perhaps could use a quick introduction. Clone Wars fans, feel free to skip to the chapter below.
Ahsoka Tano was the padawan of Anakin Skywalker, but left the Jedi Order before Order 66. She is a member of the Togruta species, who are humanoids with white facial markings against orangish or reddish skin and two horn-like structures called montrals and three head-tails, or lekku, instead of hair. To get an idea of what she looks like, try searching for "Ahsoka Tano Clone Wars Season 7." Those images are closer to what I imagine here than is the depiction of her in SW Rebels.
Some may know Bail Organa, the Senator for Alderaan, from the Prequels. Adoptive father of Princess Leia, he secretly aided various rebel groups during Imperial rule. His connection with Ahsoka in this endeavour began a year or two after Order 66, and is depicted in the novel Star Wars: Ahsoka.
The Way of a Siluan
Chapter 34: New Connections
14 BBY 0 months 0 days
Ahsoka wasn't sure which she sensed first: the cold creeping along the surface of her montrals or the crawling feeling coming up her spine. But by the time she touched down in the morning dusk on the leafy surface of Takodana, all her senses were on high alert.
She angled her starship Essence down into a clearing among the low, leafy trees and sat there in the pilot's seat for a few minutes after shutting down the engine, listening, yes, but focusing on that sensing beyond sensing that she felt through the Force.
Here what she sensed was a presence both chilling and abrasive. She had felt this before, back on the moon Raada years ago. Maybe not exactly the same; it couldn't be the same since she'd killed that one. But it was alike in the way that strong smoke would choke her throat and sting her nostrils no matter what material was being burned. She could swear it was another one of those Inquisitors.
Her hands slid quickly to her hips: both light-sabres were still there, and her blaster, and a strong flashlight. She stood up, already wary, and made her way to the door. As the hatch opened and lowered into position as a gangway, Ahsoka felt a slight buzz as a notification came through on the comm device that she wore on her left wrist.
"Fulcrum here," she said quietly, holding the comm up to her mouth.
No answer. The device's tiny display showed that her contact's comm unit was actively transmitting but there was no sound other than a slight hiss. The cool wind whistled in the trees and brushed across her face and the comm hissed more loudly. The sound of the wind was all that the comm was transmitting.
Looking around carefully, poised for action and listening for all her heightened Togruta hearing was worth, Ahsoka walked slowly down the gangway and under the leafy cover of the low trees. Not far away, there was a big rock, dark grey with a white vein running down one side. That was where she was supposed to meet him, a skinny Twilek boy she knew only by his code name, Breaker. Usually he just left a disc with whatever intel he's picked up while wiping tables in the cantina, but this time they were supposed to meet face to face.
Walking cat-like, Ahsoka padded along the rocky ground of the forest floor and stood beside Stripe Rock. With that vague sense of a dread presence hanging in the air, she didn't dare to call out for him, but she spoke softly into her comm: "Are you here?"
Even as she spoke, she hear her own voice come to her from a few metres away. There, in the twiggy branch of a tree, was Breaker's comm device, like an oversized wrist chronometer. Ahsoka took it down with one hand and turned it off. Touching it, she was aware that this place held of a vague memory of Breaker standing there, eyes wide with fear, knowing he was supposed to meet her but unwilling to stay. Ahsoka scowled at his comm unit before slipped it into the side-pocket of her blaster-proof vest. Why leave his comm behind, turned on like that? she wondered. To warn her? She scowled, then reminded herself that he didn't know that she could sense danger for herself. He didn't know that she had been a Jedi. Had been, that is. It wasn't something she told people.
She was glad that he hadn't stuck around, though. She felt a slight vibration in the air, low and ominous. It made her skin feel cold and her stomach sick but she strained to tune her senses in, not out. Far away, she almost thought she could hear something, a low buzz that tore through the air one second and clashed with grinding fury the next.
Ahsoka turned back to her starship but took no step towards it. With the click of a button on her comm device she locked the starship, then focused in on that distant sound.
It wasn't really a sound, more a tingling in her montrals, barely on the edge of perception. Following it led her away from her starship, beyond the striped rock and deeper into the forest. As she went, pushing away the branches that clawed at her lekku and montrals, her feeling of dread deepened. So much of her job these days was to hack encrypted transmissions and listen in to Imperial communications, and so she'd heard of the work these Inquisitors were doing. She didn't want to get there too late, only to find the mess of a Jedi that had once been.
But as the sound of light-sabre battle became truly audible and not only Force-perception, the low angry hum and the harsh sizzling crackle of locked blades gave Ahsoka hope: the life of the Inquisitor's opponent hadn't ended, not yet.
At length, the trees gave way and Ahsoka came to the edge of a deep ravine with a stream running along the bottom of it. There indeed the battle was indeed far from over. The light was still dim, dawn slowly melting away the edge of the night sky up beyond the forest canopy, but the battle was clear to see. A double red blade and a single blue sabre spun and flashed as two combatants faced off against each other. Both were humanoid and apparently female. The one bearing the red double-blade had the twin head-tails of a Twilek. Her face was masked but her black armour fit close enough to show a slim, young body. She was typical, Ahsoka thought, of what she'd seen in the other Inquisitor she'd met: little real skill in her fighting, but she came on with a harsh and aggressive energy that seemed to take all her opponent's strength to match.
The one bearing the blue blade seemed to be human or Mirialian or Pantorran perhaps, an elderly woman, judging by her grey hair, and she seemed to favour one leg as she moved to dodge her opponent's blows. She was blocking every stroke the younger fighter made, but only blocking. Force or no Force at her command, this fight would wear her down before it wore her assailant out.
Ahsoka observed all this in the space of about two heartbeats, but she still didn't act right away. The worst thing she could do, she knew, was to leap into the fray, distracting the older woman and putting her at a lethal disadvantage. And so Ahsoka fixed her eyes on that old Jedi as if her gaze could bore a hole in her head. I am your help, I am your fresh strength, your focus will not waver, she silently communed to her. The older woman seemed to gather herself, and so Ahsoka made her move.
Pushing off from the edge of the ravine, she leapt up and out, one light-sabre in each hand, adrenaline zinging through her veins in anticipation of the fight. Her thought sang vengeance as she fell like lightning from the sky, twin white light-sabres roaring to life.
But then two things happened in the second before she touched ground: the air filled with a thick white fog and Ahsoka felt a swift Force-push thrust her back against the side of the ravine. Tumbling down the rocky slope, she kept hold of both sabres as she turned her fall into a controlled roll and used her momentum to spring to her feet.
In the fog she could see nothing but a double-bladed red lightsabre lying on the ground about three metres away. Nearby, she heard the Inquisitor groan and curse, and Ahsoka dimly discerned that the Twilek was pushing herself up off the ground and standing to face her new opponent. The blue blade was nowhere to be seen but the muted glow of the double-red moved through the mist as its bearer bent to pick it up.
Ahsoka felt eyes trying to pierce the fog and a mind trying to make out her shape. But she didn't wait for the Inquisitor to figure it out. She quickly extinguished both lightsabres, then ducked into a low roll as the red blade sliced through the air.
She could feel the heat of it against the tips of her montrals, but the scream that followed was not hers. Veiled in the mist, Ahsoka reignited both blades. One caught the Inquisitor in the chest. The other sliced through the hilt of her light-sabre as the Inquisitor lifted her hand to strike a second blow. The red blades went dark and the last gasping breath of its bearer died away.
As the mist cleared, Ahsoka found herself standing, heart pounding, lightsabres still in hand, on the rocky floor of the ravine, its steep green sides rising up on either side of her and a little creek, unnoticed by her before, clattering along the stony ground not far away. As she looked around in the dim light, she saw no one but her fallen opponent, who was lying face-down, eerily still, with a dark gash in the centre of her back. She quickly looked away. The Inquisitors, she knew, were fallen Jedi, or Jedi reprogrammed to fit the Sith Lord's use, and she didn't want to find out whether she had just killed someone she used to know. But she bent down and picked up the shards of her opponent's light-sabre hilt, sticking them in her back pocket. The kyber crystals might come in handy later.
The old woman, however, was nowhere to be seen. From the way the fight had played out, Ahsoka surmised that the Force-push had come from her, not the Inquisitor, and she was guessing that the fog was some trick of the Jedi's as well, though that gave her a new awe for the old woman. Her eyes ran along the creek. Vaporizing water was just another form of telekinesis, but one that took long practice and a great deal of skill.
As a rare and often lonely survivor of Order 66, Ahsoka very much wanted to meet this person, but craning her head in every direction brought no sight of the old woman. Ahsoka didn't dare call out for her; the prickle she felt on the back of her neck told her that the danger wasn't over.
"Thank you. I am deeply grateful for your help," an old-woman alto voice said beside her.
Ahsoka almost jumped. To her left, the old Jedi materialized from a clump of ferns. Not stepped out, not emerged, but materialized; where Ahsoka had seen just green leaves, now there was an old woman standing in front of them, rubbing her hip and looking Ahsoka up and down.
Ahsoka just stared at her in surprise. Evidently, there were some Jedi tricks even Anakin hadn't been able to teach her.
"You must be Ahsoka Tano," the woman said.
Ahsoka narrowed her eyes. "How do you know me?" she asked. She couldn't remember this Jedi from anywhere.
"I was your teacher," the old woman said, drawing herself up to full height, her eyes about the level of Ahsoka's chin. "In the temple, I taught you physics," she said.
Ahsoka's eyes went wide. Knowing both the inner workings of physics and the use of the Force, no wonder this Jedi was able to turn the water of the creek into a thick fog like that. But she still couldn't remember her. Ahsoka had liked physics reasonably well when she trained and studied as a youngling in the Jedi Temple, but there was always so much to learn, striving to perfect her physical training and her core Force skills, that it was hard to remember who had taught her what when it came to academics.
But she couldn't just say she didn't remember. She looked the woman over: no lekku, no montrals, no facial markings. Her skin was a medium brown, not dark blue or light green, so she was probably human, not Pantorran or Mirialian. She had grey hair streaked with black, thick dark eyebrows over dark eyes and a slightly prominent nose...Ahsoka came back again to the eyes. Sometimes it was easier to know a person by the feel of their eyes than by the look of their face.
"Master...Wahi?"
The old woman gave a nod but waved her hand as if to brush the title aside. "You can call me Varda now," she said.
"Wow, I'm so glad you're still here." Ahsoka looked at her wide-eyed and couldn't find anything else to say.
"I take it that was some sort of Sith-ling," Varda said, gesturing towards their fallen opponent.
Ahsoka nodded. "They call them Inquisitors," she said.
"Are there many of them?" Varda asked.
"Yes, too many," Ahsoka said, then quickly scanned the forest around her. There was no obvious sign of danger in all that tangle of dusky green but the feeling that something wasn't right seemed to close in on her. "I don't think that one was alone," she said. "We're going to need to get out of here fast. Do you have some way to get out of this place?"
Varda pointed down the ravine. "I landed somewhere that way, on the other side of the swamp," she said, then turned to the rock behind her. "I'll get my things," she said and bent down and crawled into a dark space where a large slab of rock leaned up against the side of the ravine.
Ahsoka watched with unease. Varda moved with a stump-step sort of gait, favouring one leg as if her hip hurt. The adrenaline of the fight must have given her a way to push through the pain, Ahsoka thought, but that wasn't going be enough to get her back to her starship in a hurry, not over the rough ground that lay ahead.
"How about I carry you?" Ahsoka blurted when Varda re-emerged, carrying a small bedroll.
Varda stopped abruptly and raised an eyebrow. "Carry me?"
Ahsoka sucked in a sharp breath, realizing how that must have sounded. "Sorry for being so blunt," she said, "it's just, can't you sense it? That one you fought," she gestured with her chin to the fallen Inquisitor, "she wasn't the only one here."
Varda looked around the forest. "You are right. She was not alone, and neither are we."
"I realize this is not suited to someone of your station as a Jedi, but I can get you to your starship a lot faster, and with less risk if you'll let me," she said, taking a step closer to Varda. She felt impatient to be out of here. A cold feeling crept along her skin and she felt her arms and legs tense, ready to spring at a moment's notice.
Varda sighed. Her shoulders slumped a little, but she nodded. "How exactly do you propose to do this?" she asked dryly.
"It isn't very dignified," Ahsoka said, "but it works best fire-fighter style, over my shoulder." She patted her left shoulder to indicate.
Varda raised an eyebrow at this but then looked at the rocky path down the ravine. She too seemed to shiver. "Your point is well taken," she said and lifted her arms in the air. "I suppose you'll show me how to do this?" she said.
Ahsoka stepped forward and bent down. "Just relax," she said, and grabbed Varda around her thighs. Varda gave a slight "Oph!" but when Ahsoka stood up, she had the old Jedi securely slung over one shoulder. Not the most comfortable, the way it pressed her lekku against her back and shoulder, but they were flexible and could survive being squished.
She set off at a low long-strided run alongside the creek. Her feet had no trouble finding their way on the rocky ground despite the lopsided weight she was carrying. She even relished the exertion after so long cooped up in her starship. But still, something wasn't right. She tuned in her Force-sense as finely as she could, even though it meant having to use only her physical strength to carry Varda.
When she came to the end of the ravine, she stopped. The forest floor broadened out and the creek was lost in a shallow swamp made of hummocky grass clumps in between pools of miry water. Little insects danced and buzzed in the air all above it. At the far side of it she could see the red and silver of a small starship.
"Is that your ride over the far side of the swamp, the red and silver?"
"Yes," Varda's muffled voice was as much felt as heard when she spoke into Ahsoka's back.
Ahsoka shook her head. She didn't like the look of that swamp. Wet, trackless, closed in by trees and rocky outcroppings all around, she instinctively disliked this place the way some people instinctively fear spiders. She didn't actually believe any of the old Togruta folk tales she learned for her Cultural Awareness class back in the Temple, but still, old stories about wet and soggy places haunted by malevolent spirits were deep in her DNA, if not in her rational mind. This vague unease, and knowing from her Force-sense that there must be another Inquisitor nearby, made her reach without thinking for her light-sabre with her free hand.
The sound of her white blade igniting ripped the damp air only just in time for her to spin around and catch the red blade that whipped out to meet her. There was the second Inquisitor: a tall man, broad shouldered, his grey face square-jawed and craggy, his eyes all one flat pale grey.
As Ahsoka blocked and parried one aggressive stroke after another, she knew this was not a fight she could win, not with Varda to carry.
"Put me down! I can help you!" Varda was shouting into her back.
Straining with her blade locked against that of her opponent, Ahsoka decided she wasn't into Varda's plan, not with her bad hip, not on this uneven ground. She leapt aside to break the blade-lock and gathered herself for a different trick. She ducked under the hulking Inquisitor's next blow and the whipped her boot out in a swift kick to his groin. His armour shielded him from the full force of her blow, but he still bent over and staggered back a step or two. Stealing that moment, Ahsoka turned and ran.
She ran with all her might, muscles burning, along the edge of the swamp and then up the slope that led by a different route to the top of the ravine and toward her own starship. It was a shallower slope here than the one she'd first come down when she leapt into the fight with the first Inquisitor, but as she ran, slashing vines and branches to make a way as if her light-sabre were a machete, the effort to make it up filled her whole consciousness.
Almost filled. Behind her, she could hear fallen branches crack and dislodged stones clatter down the slope as the Inquisitor followed a few metres behind her.
"Where are you going?" Varda said into her back. "You're only opening a way for him, slashing at the trees like that."
"I don't see much choice," Ahsoka said between breaths. Her best bet, she thought, was to outrun him, even if it meant leaving an open path for him to follow. But Varda's comment did give her an idea: she swiped her sabre against the trunk of a tree as she passed it. Behind her, she could hear the Inquisitor curse as the full canopy of its many branches fell across his path.
Ahead of her now, Ahsoka could see the striped rock. I'll catch up with Breaker later, she told herself and pushed herself to pump her burning legs harder as she caught sight of her starship. She lifted her hand, holding her light-sabre with two fingers and a thumb, reaching out with the other two fingers to Force-activate the controls to open the hatch.
That was when she heard the sound of scorched air as a light-sabre leapt to life behind her. She looked back. There was, in fact, a third Inquisitor leaping down from a tree, a slim person too fully armoured to tell anything more about them, as well as the tall and heavy man catching up from the trail she'd left behind her. She dropped her light-sabre and Force-pushed them both back.
"Get up into the cockpit and start the engine," Ahsoka whispered to Varda as she hastily set her down. "Just get a few metres off the ground and hover there. I'll join you." She was dimly aware of Varda stump-stepping up the gangway into the starship as she took both of her blades in hand now and kept her eyes locked on her opponents.
She made the Force a wall between her and them as they strained to come forward. "I suggest you stay back," she hissed and showed her sharp teeth.
Not that they took her advice. As the two of them strained their wills against hers. Ahsoka could feel the air itself ready to snap under the pressure, but she held them off until the minute Varda was up the gangway and into the starship, then let her Force-push go. The two fell forward, and in a moment she was on them.
The next minute felt like a lifetime, a lifetime of red and white blades of light flashing and slashing against each other, so near her skin at times that she felt a vague surprise that her limbs and her lekku were all still there. But she bought Varda the time she needed. The starship roared to life behind her and rose into the air. Ahsoka's heart swelled with the beginnings of victory.
But, distracted for just a split-second, Ahsoka didn't quite raise her blade fast enough. She yelped as the Inquisitor's blade nicked her shoulder, though she ducked and rolled aside just in time to keep the blow from being lethal. The two closed in on her, but with the starship in the air now, Ahsoka knew she had what she wanted. It was time to end the fight. As she crouched and then sprang into the air, one Inquisitor reached to block her but she was too fast, too high for them. She grabbed the edge of the still-open hatch and swung herself in, closing the door behind her.
Legs shaking, Ahsoka tumbled her way onto the flight deck. There was Varda, in the pilot's seat.
"Here," she said, leaning over Varda's shoulder to select a destination from a list in the computer. "Head for the edge of the atmosphere and then when the computer beeps, take us into hyperspace." She said this quickly, in a commanding voice, as she pulled a first aid kit out of a compartment under the control panel. The lightsabre wound dropped no blood but it hurt so badly that Ahsoka wondered if she had been cut to the bone.
But instead of following Ahsoka's instructions, Varda was turning the starship around and flying low over the forest toward an open place in the canopy not far away, craning her neck to scan the ground. "We need to get my starship first," she said.
"No! You don't understand! If one of them gets to their starship before we're out of here, we could be dead meat.
"If they get my starship before I do, the ship's registration will lead them right back to the family I'm staying with. I can't let that happen," Varda said calmly, then pointed a finger down at the tumbled ground where her sleek little red and silver one-passenger starship was angled in between a tree and a tall rocky outcropping. "There it is," she said.
Ahsoka squeezed half her precious tube of black-market bacta ointment into the ten-centimetre gash on her upper arm, then looked out the forward viewport and at the side and rear displays on the computer. No sign of the Inquisitor's starship yet, but she knew their little starfighters were fast. They would be here any minute. She gave a sigh of frustration. "We'd better do this quickly," she said as she pressed a wad of gauze to the wound with one hand and pulled a bandage out of the first aid kit with the other.
Varda slowed the starship to hover where her own sat below. "The space I landed in is too small for this starship. With that tall rock in the way, I can't get low enough to engage the magnetic lock. Do you have a tractor beam I can use?" she asked, sounding worried, eyes searching the control panel.
Ahsoka leaned over to flip a switch with one finger. "I just released the cable clamp. You can winch it up with that lever there," she said, pressing the sticky green bandage into place against her orange skin.
There was a satisfying clang as the electromagnet on the end of the cable made contact with Varda's starship and locked onto it. But there was another sound too, a growing roar of engines. Ahsoka glanced at the rear view display on the computer.
"Sleem!" she said under her breath, then added audibly, "We've got incoming." She leaned over and pressed a button to engage the blast shield, which popped up as a translucent green bubble around them. "I'll get on the guns," she said. "I need you to get your ship up and locked on ASAP so we can get out of here."
There was the sound of laser fire pinging off the blast shield and the cable winch whined under the weight as Varda pulled the control lever to bring her starship up. Ahsoka was on the main cannon and firing at the Inquisitor's starship for all she was worth. With its round cockpit and round forward viewport and its curved upper and lower wings meeting on each side to form a pointed ellipse, it looked like a big glaring eye careening towards them, spitting fire as it came. She couldn't get past their blast shields any more than they could get past hers, but a fast enough volley of fire would still distract them and make it hard for them to see, just long enough for her and Varda to get away.
But not everything was covered by the blast shield. As laser bullets came whistling from the Inquisitor's starship, there was a sickening clunk and Varda's starship, only halfway up, fell back to the ground.
"The cable got hit," Varda said. "Do you have any other way?"
Ahsoka just shook her head without looking up from the cannon controls. "We're just going to have to leave it before they get in backup," she said.
"No! If they get that starship..."
Ahsoka gave a frustrated sigh. The Inquisitor's starship had flown past them and was swinging around to renew the assault. There was no alert from the control panel yet, but she knew all too well that on a little old converted shuttle like this, power to the blast shield wouldn't hold out forever.
"It's the information you need to keep from them, right?" she said.
"Yes," Varda said.
No sooner had the words left Varda's lips than Ahsoka pointed her cannon downwards and let loose a volley of shots. Varda's starship exploded in a bright burst of smithereens.
Varda let out something almost like a smothered squeak, but Ahsoka barely noticed. "Now! Gun the engine and get us out of here!" she said.
Varda slammed the motion control lever forward and the starship was up and away, narrowly missing the Inquisitor's pod as it raced towards them. As Ahsoka's converted shuttle sped away, it quickly swivelled around and followed hard after, but Ahsoka had one last trick: actual physical projectiles would make it past their blast shield. She let these loose into the face of the enemy starship, causing them to swerve off course, if only for a moment. In that moment, Varda made the leap to hyperspace.
As the stars streaked by and the blue swirls of hyperspace appeared before them, Ahsoka gave a whoop. "We did it!" she shouted and gave Varda a big grin.
Varda simply couldn't smile. She slumped back in her seat. She felt like a heavy weight had dropped onto her chest, pressing her down. The starship they just blew up was the starship Eo had fixed.
It took a moment before she realized a more practical problem: it wasn't her starship anymore. It belonged to Devin and Shie, and Shie needed it to get to work.
"Are you OK?" Ahsoka gave Varda a concerned look.
"I'm alright," Varda said, sounding weak. She passed a hand over her forehead and tried to brush her feelings aside. It was not the time to burden Ahsoka with either her old sorrow or her new problem. Viewed through the lens of Jedi dispassion, Ahsoka had made a bold move, an unorthodox move, but it had done exactly what she needed it to do.
"You were Anakin Skywalker's padawan, weren't you?" Varda said.
Ahsoka nodded, looking proud, then looking confused and sad.
"I suppose we lost him when we lost everyone else," Varda said softly.
Ahsoka nodded. "It's crazy, but it almost doesn't feel real to have someone like you sitting here. There were so many years when I didn't know if I was the only one left."
Varda nodded, looking down so that she didn't have to meet Ahsoka's eye. She decided to steer the conversation away from this topic lest Ahsoka ask about the circumstances of her survival. "I'm grateful that you found me," she said. "I can see that you've done well with your training. Are you still a padawan now, or were you able to finish your Jedi Trials before..." she let her voice trail off.
Ahsoka quickly squared her shoulders and folded her arms across her chest. "I chose to leave the Jedi Order," she said. "It's a long story."
Varda looked at Ahsoka with concerned surprise for a moment, but then just nodded. She had all but made that choice herself at one point. "The war changed us," she said. "I can't blame you."
Ahsoka's shoulders softened and she let her arms fall to her sides. "It's really amazing that you survived," she said. "How did you get away when the clones attacked?"
Varda looked down. "I can't say my escape was entirely honourable. I was stranded in the Hokto system at the time. I only learned about what happened to the Jedi just last week."
Ahsoka looked at Varda with surprise and sympathy. "It's not your fault you weren't there when it happened," she said. "Maybe it was the will of the Force. We're lucky to have you alive still."
Varda sighed. "Yes, somehow I'm still alive," she said.
"So what are your plans now? And how did you get out of the Hokto system anyways? Isn't that a no-fly zone?" The questions all tumbled out of Ahsoka at once.
Varda scraped a wisp of hair back into place. "The debris field varies as to how passable or impassable it is," she said. "A young Jedi I used to know learned that I was there and found a way to get me out again."
"You know another Jedi?!" Ahsoka broke in.
"Yes, well, he was. He's a married man and has a family now, but he was part of the AgriCorps."
"But still, he was a Jedi. That's fantastic. What's his name?"
"Devin Strong," Varda said, "though he's going by another name now."
Ahsoka scowled, searching her memory. "I don't think I ever met him," she said. "Did he leave you with any way to get in touch with him again?"
Varda smiled at the irony of Ahsoka's question. "It's his family that I'm staying with," she said. "That's why I couldn't let the Inquisitors get that starship."
"Can I meet him?" Ahsoka asked.
Varda shrugged. "I don't see why not. He's a little far from here, though," she said, then checked herself. 'Here' was a nebulous concept while travelling several times over the speed of light. "His place is about ten hours from Takodana, on the eastern Outer Rim."
"Yeah, it's far, but not impossible," Ahsoka said. "We're actually heading towards the Core right now. What's your plan? Do you have time for a short trip right now? While we're in the area there's someone I'd love for you to meet."
"Well, I was on my way to Yemer," Varda said, and then paused. There was no small danger that all her time would get eaten up with nothing left for finding an Elder she could speak with at the monastery on Yemer. The trip there from the Core would by itself eat up a precious ten hours at least. But the chance to connect with Ahsoka was not one to be squandered either. "I was on my way to Yemer," she said again, "and I would very much like to be there within twenty-four hours at latest, but if it's a short trip, perhaps that could be managed. What do you have in mind?"
"You remember the senator from Alderaan, a Bail Organa?"
Varda shook her head. "No, but the name rings a bell. Wasn't the House of Organa a sponsor for some of the environmental and humanitarian projects the Jedi Order used to do?"
"Yeah, Bail is the consort of Queen Breha, so he's probably been involved with that stuff."
"Ah, yes!" Varda said. "I never met him in person but I know who you mean now. I would be glad to meet him if it can be arranged quickly. I need to be back at my host's place in four days but..." she shook her head and decided to broach the subject of the destroyed starship and Shie's need of a way to get to work later. "But...as long as there is still time for me to have a few days to go to Yemer it should be fine."
"Where is Yemer anyways?" Ahsoka said.
Varda had to think for a minute to describe it based on some reference point Ahsoka would know. "It's about three hours from the Wheel," she said.
Every pilot knew of that massive space station. "No problem!" Ahsoka said. "After we meet Bail, I can take you to Yemer and then to wherever you're going back to if you want." Then Ahsoka ducked her head. "I guess we'll have to find a replacement for that starship of yours too," she said ruefully.
As problematic as it was to lose the starship, replacing it was by no means the first thing on Varda's mind. Fighting the Inquisitors, and nearly losing, brutally underscored one thing: she needed to fully - both mentally and physically - get back into the work and practice of a Jedi. Yet beyond getting her bad hip looked at and honing her lightsabre skills in case of future encounters with the Inquisitors, exactly what shape or form her work as a Jedi might now take was yet unclear.
Ahsoka suffered no such lack of clarity. After contacting Bail to arrange a rendezvous point, she spent the rest of the three-hour flight detailing the evils of the new regime. She asserted that rebels would one day rise up in force, and hinted darkly that some had indeed begun to quietly organize against Imperial rule. She spoke of these things calmly and reasonably, without the passion of a zealot, but it was clear to Varda that Ahsoka was committed to fostering armed resistance as much as necessary.
When Ahsoka spoke of these things, Varda carefully inquired after various Republic officials she had once known so as to avoid giving any commitment to this course of action. She was not opposed to those who, like Ahsoka, wished to work for regime change, but she was as reluctant as ever to personally engage in a military solution of the galaxy's troubles. Her intention to serve as a Jedi was not the question, only how exactly she would do so beyond being ready for the next encounter with the Inquisitors, and she was certain that military or even paramilitary action was not her path. She very much hoped that Bail Organa would not press her to change her mind on this point.
Thoughts such as these were forefront in Varda's mind as Ahsoka's converted shuttle Essence docked alongside the several-times-larger consular vessel Tantive III.
In the consular vessel's stark white halls, Bail Organa came personally to meet them as they disembarked. Varda looked him over to see if she could recognize him and could not. He was a tall man with broad shoulders, wearing a rich beige turtleneck under dark blue embroidered senatorial robes. His dark hair was cut short and his short dark goatee and moustache were flecked with grey. His olive-brown face wore a tired look but his eyes lit up when he saw Varda.
"Bail, thanks for coming to meet us on such short notice," Ahsoka said. "This is the Jedi Knight Varda Wahi. She got stranded in the Hokto system during the Clone Wars and so we're lucky that she survived the Purge. Varda, this is the senator for the planet Alderaan, Bail Organa. Bail has helped me and many many others in the challenges we've faced since the fall of the Republic."
Varda bowed as low as her bad hip would let her, but Bail made sure to bow lower. "Seeing you alive is an honour and a privilege I could not have expected," he said to Varda. "Especially on a day such as this," he added, giving Ahsoka a meaningful glance.
Ahsoka's face twisted. "I forgot it was today," she said.
Bail answered Varda's questioning look. "Today is Empire Day," he said grimly. "Today the Emperor celebrates five years of rule and today we mourn five years since the loss of the Jedi and of our democracy."
Varda nodded and all three cast their eyes down, bowing their heads in a moment of silence.
Bail was the first to speak. "Ahsoka mentioned in her message that you wouldn't have much time for this meeting, and sadly my time is also quite limited. But I wonder if I might be so bold as to ask your advice about a particular problem we are facing."
Varda chose her words to leave room for cooperation without making any commitment. "I will certainly hear your concerns and let you know whether or not I have anything to contribute," she said.
Bail gave a slight bow. "For that, I would be grateful," he said. "Your past participation in so many of the environmental projects we once sponsored certainly caught my interest back in Republic days, but I especially remember a talk you once gave to the Senate Special Committee on Resources and Environment about the looming crisis that some have termed 'peak phosphate.' That topic is closely concerned with a matter about which I very much need advice such as yours. But if you would join me in a meeting room, we can discuss more comfortably."
Varda nodded her assent and then she and Ahsoka followed Bail down the hall. She felt a little baffled that he remembered so much about her and that he seemed to know she was coming. As they turned a corner, she spoke quietly to Ahsoka. "Did you tell him it was me coming?"
Ahsoka looked a little embarrassed. "I should have asked you first, but since we have pretty good encryption, and all our messages are written in a cipher anyways, I figured it was safe to let him know who was coming. But I didn't know you were into all of that environmental stuff. I thought you taught physics."
"By the time one reaches my age," Varda said dryly, "there has been more than enough time to put one's hand into a great many different things."
Bail showed them into a small meeting room, all dark grey walls with a dark grey table and rather utilitarian dark grey chairs around it. A small holo-projector sat in the middle of the table.
"I will call for some refreshments shortly," he said. "Do you prefer tea? Wine? Perhaps some fresh fruit?"
"Tea and fruit would be lovely, thank you," Varda said.
Bail tapped something into his datapad and then motioned for Varda and Ahsoka to sit down.
"Are you familiar with the planet Utsk?" he asked Varda.
"I can't say I am," Varda said, shaking her head.
"Utsk is part of the same star system as Alderaan, though under a different administration. If you've been to other resource planets you can probably imagine: their economy is based entirely on farming, fishing, mining, logging and so on, almost all of it exported to wealthier worlds," he said. "The House of Organa has been providing aid there for some time, mostly in hopes of improving their agricultural sector. A few things changed, though, with the advent of Imperial rule."
Bail paused, scowled slightly as if collecting his thoughts, leaned forward with his arms resting on the table, then continued. "Almost immediately after the Emperor took power, the Imperial Ministry of Agriculture made phosphate fertilizer an Imperial monopoly. They sold the idea under the guise of addressing the peak phosphate issue. They said that because the supply in our current phosphate mines is forecasted to run out within decades, they were stepping in to make sure the supply was used responsibly. I am not opposed to that in principle, but there's a catch. In order to buy phosphate, individual farmers and even whole planets have to sign up for what they call the 'Imperial Agriculture Program'," Bail made air-quotes with both hands and gave a slight roll of his eyes.
"Essentially, the policy is that in order to buy fertilizer, farmers have to show that they are using a particular set of pesticides and herbicides prescribed by the Ministry of Agriculture. They also have to meet certain yield targets, or they will be cut from the program and no longer allowed to buy fertilizer."
Varda nodded, listening. This was beginning to sound familiar.
Bail continued, "As of last year, Utsk failed to meet its yield targets and was cut from the program. But that isn't the main problem. Even though we supplied them with an alternate fertilizer, they've been having trouble with certain crops failing to grow properly. We think it might be due to the residues left in the soil from whatever chemicals the Ministry of Agriculture was telling them to spray.
"If this were just one planet, I might simply have the House of Organa send food aid to cover the shortage in this year's harvest," he said, turning on the holo-projector and pulling a slim disc from his breast pocket as he spoke. "But this is the number of planets facing the same problem."
He stuck the disc into the holo-projector and pressed a few buttons. A three-dimensional map of the galaxy popped up in holo-image around them. Varda scanned the map but lost count. More than one hundred planets were highlighted in red against the standard green of the map.
Looking at it, Varda felt cold. Back when Devin talked to her about the problems on his own farm, she was so wrapped up in her own troubles she didn't even begin to think that other farmers, let alone this many planets, must be having the same kind of trouble as he was.
"What are you hoping to do?" Varda asked Bail after a long pause.
"In a saner world," Bail said grimly, "I would have the Minister of Agriculture brought to justice before a Galactic Tribunal. But given the reality of our current administration, I believe we should simply focus on what can be done quietly and practically. We're going to need two things. One is an alternate source of fertilizer. I'm already hearing reports that livestock manure and even recycled sewage are coming up contaminated with the same chemicals that are causing problems in the soil.
"The other thing we're going to need is ways to grow crops on soil that is already contaminated, whether that's by cleaning up the soil itself or by getting seeds that are resistant to the chemicals.
"But," Bail said, looking at Varda, "what I want to ask you is, would you be willing to consult for us on this? I understand that you'll need to keep a low profile," he added quickly when Varda hesitated to answer. "We can provide whatever means are necessary to keep you safe. If you would be willing to help us, you would be doing a great service to the galaxy."
Varda turned this over in her mind. She still felt too raw and hollow to gladly go traipsing across the galaxy "consulting." In her experience, consulting usually meant being flown into a location, given far too little time to understand the problem and then having her advice disregarded by whoever was in charge of the project. But dealing with this kind of trouble was her responsibility, and it also tied in with the problem she had promised to help Devin with. "At present," Varda said cautiously, "I am still in the process of...adjusting to our new reality. But yes, I will help insofar as I can."
Ahsoka, who had been listening with more polite attention than personal interest, sat up and leaned forward on the table. "Varda, what about that other Jedi you mentioned?" she said. "He was in the AgriCorps, right?"
Bail looked incredulous. "You have an AgriCorps Jedi?"
"Yes," Varda said cautiously, not sure how much Devin would want her to say about him. "The young man I'm staying with was a member of the AgriCorps before he left to raise his family. I can ask if he would like to help, but I understand he is quite busy, with two young children and a farm to run."
"He has a farm?" Bail said. "How has he fared under Imperial agriculture policy?"
"Not well, unfortunately," Varda said. "I regret that I didn't discuss in more depth with him before I came, but he asked me to help him with a similar problem of soil contamination on his farm."
"That's perfect," Bail said. "You're living with him, I understand?"
"On the same property, yes."
"Then you're living on a research site. Even if you don't go anywhere, if you could study what is happening at his place and look for a way to decontaminate the soil there, reporting your findings alone would be helpful. In fact, I'll go out on a limb. If you and he are willing to undertake research on this, the House of Organa would gladly fund your efforts and help procure whatever supplies you need."
Varda raised her eyebrows, not in questioning but in surprise. This was not a development she had expected. If she was to serve in any way as a Jedi under the current galactic circumstances, this was the most perfect way she could have imagined. To be able to focus her attention on one place, using the Force to connect with nature while practicing all the rigours of science to understand the problem, this was exactly the sort of work she had always most wanted to do as a Jedi, and Bail was offering all the material support that might be needed to do it.
"You offer is most appreciated," she said. "I would be glad to do so. Only I should ask my host for his permission to use his space. I don't think he will refuse, but I should still ask. Perhaps I could speak with him and then confirm with you?"
"I'll be taking Varda back to her place," Ahsoka put in. "I can make sure she has a way to be in touch."
"May I ask where you're staying?" Bail asked, scanning Varda's face to gage her willingness to answer the question.
"On Nechako," Varda said.
Bail and Ahsoka exchanged glances. "That's perfect," Bail said again. "Perhaps if you and your host are both willing, Ahsoka (if I might ask) could serve as a go-between as we develop the project. I regret that I myself need to keep these activities at a distance. Even Ahsoka and I meet only rarely. Much of what I hope to accomplish relies on keeping up the appearance of being a loyal Senator who knows nothing about anything done contrary to the Empire."
Varda nodded a semi-bow to Bail and then Ahsoka. "I would be glad to work with Ahsoka, if you would like."
Ahsoka gave Bail and then Varda a bemused look. "I'm fine to act as a go-between, but you'll both have to remember that I know zip-all nothing about agriculture. I'm just here for logistics."
"Logistics are logistics, whether it's for ag research or for...other endeavours," Bail said. "But I must thank you both. This problem has been in the back of my mind for some time now, and it's good to have hope that something may be done about it."
He turned off the projector as he spoke and the holo-map of the galaxy disappeared, leaving them all in the drab little meeting room again. The projector spat out the disc. Bail was about to put it back in his pocket, but then caught himself and held it out to Varda. "Such information as I have about the soil contamination problem is on this disc. I have another copy, so would you like to have this?"
"Thank you, that would be helpful," Varda said, and put it her pocket.
"One more thing I should ask you both while you're here," Bail said, "and not unrelated: have you heard any news, or sensed anything perhaps, regarding the Imperial Minister of Agriculture?"
Ahsoka looked surprised that Bail would ask. Varda scowled slightly. Her vision on Iwaki, seeing Ry struck down, came to mind but she wasn't about to share that.
"My attempts to contact the Minister recently have been directed to an assistant, who seems to know all but nothing. They say she is on leave, but won't say when she'll be back. But then I found out there's a million credit bounty on her head, issued by the Imperial Office itself. Something is up," he said darkly. "She was a Jedi, you know. She was a Jedi and yet when all the other Jedi were either dead or going into hiding, she was there being promoted to Minister of Agriculture. That says something."
"What's her name?" Ahsoka asked.
"Ry Kyver," Bail said, "and she is one of very few reasons why I ever think fondly of the death penalty."
Ahsoka shrugged. "I never knew her," she said. "Did you?" she asked, turning to Varda.
Varda stiffened. She had succeeded to push out the thought of Ry back on Takodana, but she was under no illusion that her resentment against Ry was forever over. Now the soil contamination project was going mean constantly having yet another reason to be swallowed up in a deep and very just anger against the Dark Jedi. How to deal with this was something she would have to meditate on, but Ahsoka and Bail were both looking at her, waiting for an answer.
"I remember her as a youngling in the Temple," Varda said with careful calm, "but I have no information as to where she is now."
"Well, if either of you find anything, I would be grateful for the information. There's little I can do now, but someday, I hope, there will be time to bring some form of justice."
Bail's datapad beeped, and he paused to check a message.
"But," Bail said in a lighter tone, "you must forgive me for being a rather poor host. Our refreshments will be here any minute."
When a droid brought a platter of fruit and little baguettes and a pitcher of strong dark sweetened tea with thick creamy milk on the side, Varda found she was quite hungry, yet somehow her heart wasn't in the eating. She listened and sometimes commented superficially as Ahsoka told Bail about their encounter with the Inquisitors ("I beg you to be careful," he told both of them) and then as Ahsoka asked Bail about his wife and daughter ("Oh, she's quite the handful," he said, though Varda could see he was quite proud of her). But in her mind, Varda was wondering where Ry was now and what was to be done about her. Having once taught her in the Temple, Varda remembered Ry as a headstrong girl whose prowess in using the Force did nothing to dampen her natural arrogance. Surely such a person could be struck down only for a moment, but not for long, Varda thought. Even if it was unwise for her personally to seek out this particular piece of justice, something had to be done.
Bail glanced at his wrist chronometer and his shoulders slumped a little. "I regret that my time is so limited," he said, "but if I don't go back in time for the final Empire Day festivities, it may raise a few questions. But I'm so glad we could meet. It's been a pleasure to have you here, both of you."
"Thank you," Varda said as the three rose from their seats. "The galaxy seems less bleak for the work you are doing."
Bail looked proud and almost bashful. "We try," he said, "and we will keep on trying."
As Bail saw the two Force-users back to Ahsoka's starship, he asked Ahsoka whether she had everything she needed: hyperfuel, ration packs, credits.
"I'm fine," Ahsoka said, given him a look Varda had sometimes seen young adults give their fussing parents. "But thanks," she quickly added, and looking like she really meant it.
"Well," he said, looking at Ahsoka and then Varda as if he was soaking in the memory of their presence, "if you need anything, please let me know. And in the meantime, may the Force be with you."
Strapped in to her seat on the flight deck for the jump to hyperspace, Varda tried to count on her fingers how long she had been away and long how before Devin was expecting her back. After spending so many years on one planet, it was strange to keep track of time without the same sun to guide each day.
"How long from here to Yemer?" she asked Ahsoka, who was in the pilot's seat, going over her pre-flight checks.
"About ten hours," Ahsoka said, scrolling through a list of coordinates in the computer, then selecting one. "No, fourteen," she said when the computer finished its calculations.
Varda counted on her fingers again. She closed her eyes and let out a long breath. Two and a half days. That was all she could spend on Yemer, and she would need to make the most of it if she was to return to Nechako sufficiently healed and grounded. She hoped for quiet healing, but in her mind the sound of Eo's scream and Ry's cruel laugh played back again. She fought to push it out. Varda wondered whether she had been wise to tell Bail she wanted to be involved with the soil decontamination project. Perhaps she was too attached to her anger against Ry to involve herself in something that would so often remind her of the fallen Jedi. She knew all too well how resentment could sap her strength, or worse, warp the way in which she used the Force.
"Alright, we're ready," Ahsoka said, then her voice turned more serious. "Are you OK?"
Varda opened her eyes to see Ahsoka giving her a concerned look. "Not entirely, to be quite frank," she said plainly, "but it's no fault of yours. I have my own trouble that I bring with me."
"I can relate to that," Ahsoka said with a grim note to her voice. "But hey, let's get you to Yemer."
Ahsoka pulled back on the control lever and Varda shut her eyes against the sick feeling that she always got during a leap to hyperspace. It took a minute for it to pass, but when she opened her eyes to the blue swirls of hyperspace, she found that she had new clarity.
She knew that her anger and resentment against Ry were going to haunt her whether she worked on the soil decontamination project or not. Doing something constructive would be a better way to deal with her feelings. And she felt more and more that she very much wanted to do this project. This was what she felt most called to do: to aid the galaxy by using both science and Force technique to work with nature. And after so long of cutting herself off, she wanted to build on the connection with Devin and with Ahsoka and Bail.
In her pocket, Varda felt for the disc Bail had given her. "May I use the computer for a while?" she asked.
"Sure," Ahsoka said, "you can use the terminal on your left there."
Varda turned on the screen and slipped the disc into its port. Up popped the list of files Bail had given her to read. She decided to get working.
Endnote: this story is a crossover with Shaak and Maris: a Star Wars Story by FanFiction author Sensey. If you'd like to see what else Ahsoka is up to around this part of the SW chronology, please check it out. Ahsoka appears in Chapter 6 and periodically thereafter.
Many thanks to Sensey for comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. I added some changes since then, so any remaining problems in grammar or content are mine alone.