Mara Jade stood in the ready room of Grand Moff Tarkin, unusually apprehensive. There were very few people in the Empire who were considered above her in the grand scheme of things. Wilhuff Tarkin was one such man. Even her master had instructions. In matters of the material, Tarkin was the highest-ranking member of the Governorship, and thus, she did not come to him as an equal, but merely as another agent.
"Governor," Mara didn't incline her head to show respect, but neither did she presume superiority.
"Miss Jade," The clear, Coruscanti-accented voice of Tarkin replied. "I really do have to wonder why the Emperor assigned you here."
"I want to know why that diplomatic transport, the Riptide, was not stopped from departing the system." Mara said, her voice growing sharper. "That was the Organa's personal craft."
"We had to arrest the queen, Miss Jade." Tarkin said. "And it barely evaded our gunships in orbit. Wherever the Riptide is, it is heavily damaged."
"Eight fighters and a shuttle full of stormtroopers seems like a miscalculation for the forces you should have sent. What if the Queen had been on that ship?"
"Miss Jade," Tarkin steepled his fingers together. "I do not appreciate you second-guessing my orders or my decisions. If you do it a second time, I might very well forget the attachment our Emperor has for you."
"You wouldn't have a chance." Jade hissed.
He clicked his tongue. "You are no Jedi, Mara Jade. Do not delude yourself in that. The emperor has taught you a few tricks, but do not let that delude you. You're merely a girl with no sense of the long game. We have a number of vectors for the possible destination of the Riptide."
She fought the urge to bristle in frustration. She was not supposed to be held to these bureaucrats and politicians. So she decided to bring out her trump card. "I need a ship."
"Is the Assessor not satisfactory?"
"Not when I need to hunt a ship." She said. "I require something faster. One of the smaller cruisers."
Tarkin frowned. "The ships are required for a quick reaction to any rebel action in the Core."
Jade scoffed. "We both know that the rebels will act in the Outer Rim now, precisely because you've decided to start a chokehold on the Core."
"Then what do you wish for, Miss Jade?"
"A Star Destroyer. That VicStar you have in orbit would do quite nicely."
That got Tarkin to raise a hand to his glass of water and take a sip, as if having to compose himself. "You want a Star Destroyer."
"Would you prefer I contact the Emperor and have him agree to give me the ship?"
Tarkin glared at her with a cold intensity that Mara didn't need to be Force-sensitive to pick up. "I will contact Captain Cody and let him know that you are commandeering the Dominion." He leaned back onto his chair. "I hope you will find it satisfactory."
"Your grace is overwhelming, Governor."
As Mara left the office, she felt the voice of her master, penetrating into her.
You will find Organa, and you will deliver him to me. The Force is strong in him, and I must test him.
Mara felt a shiver run down her spine. There wasn't an answer needed. It was the same answer that was always expected of her. Complete and total obedience.
Doldrums was exactly what the name suggested. A late-stage star that was dying a slow and uninteresting death, its systems was left with frozen rocks and no signs of life. It was off most trade routes, and was remarkably unremarkable.
Luke had determined this all within an hour of arriving in system. After twelve in system, he was starting to get restless. He was in the rear of engineering, helping Winter with the repairs. "Plasma torch," The white-haired girl reached a hand up from the engineering pit she was in.
Luke retrieved the small hand-held torch from the toolbox, and handed it down to Winter. "I'm worried that the Empire might have tracked us."
"It's a very real possibility." Winter noted. "Even with the repairs I was able to affect, we are leaking coolant. It's an insignificant amount for ship performance, but if we jump to lightspeed, our radiation signature will be much more noticeable. The Imperials will be able to calculate a course with…" She processed it for a moment, waving her hands idly. "Eighty-seven percent certainty. They'll also likely be able to send probes out to other possibly destinations."
"So you're saying that we need a plan to cover our rears."
"That's accurate as any other metaphor I can think of." Winter remarked. "Alternatively, I have another idea…" She remarked.
"What's that?" Luke asked.
"If we went to a well-populated world, landed, and affected repairs, if we were able to piece together enough for another jump, it would be much much harder for the Imperials to get a tail on us."
Luke thought about that as he focused his thoughts on a spanner, lifting it a few inches out of the toolbox. He considered the possibility. "Do you know what the closest star system that would fit would bee?"
"Nal Hutta, most likely, and the accompanying Smuggler's Moon."
"As your protector and captain, I veto that idea immediately." Ahsoka said. Her sudden presence startled Luke, who lost his focus on the spanner, dropping it to the toolbox.
Luke turned around. "We're going to be able to be tracked no matter what." Luke noted.
Ahsoka smiled. "I think I have an idea of my own. I've sent a signal through the various cells. We should have an answer about a possible pickup in a few hours.
Luke thought about that. "If we don't make a hyperspace jump with our own engines, the Empire wouldn't be able to track us."
Ahsoka nodded. "Phantom Squadron's the closest cell. They've got a few corvettes that we could dock to."
"Let's hope they pick up then," Winter noted.
"Indeed," Ahsoka nodded, then asked. "Winter, do you need your brother? I need to borrow him for a bit of training."
Winter shrugged. "He's a terribly caddy. Have him."
Luke affected a look of mock offense. "I am shocked at these accusations." He jumped to his feet, eager to begin any training.
Ahsoka shook her head. "Come on, let's head to the cargo hold."
They walked through the ship, pacing through the corridors. As they walked, Ahsoka reached into her jacket, pulling out one of her weapons. "Before we begin, Luke, you need to know what this is. What is it?"
"A lightsaber," Luke said, with the knowing suspicion that there was more to the question.
"It is that. What that entails is something more than just a weapon. A time ago, not even a long one ago, this saber was sometimes all you could need to defuse a conflict. People who wielded it, before the Empire, were supposed to protect others, and solve problems. The lightsaber is a tool to anyone who uses it, It is a shield, a blade, inspiration, and a symbol of a Jedi."
She shook her head. "But the Emperor has seen to it that his vision of the Jedi is the one thrust upon the Galaxy. People fear a lightsaber where just a few decades ago, it was a sign of hope."
As they talked, they entered the cargo hold, where Ahsoka had set aside enough crates to give them enough space to work. "Your father was a Jedi, and I served with him. I am going to do my best to teach you." She held out the lightsaber. "Take it, but do not activate it yet."
Luke accepted the lightsaber, expecting something other than the cool metal with just a hint of the warmth of Ahsoka's touch. His thumb ran over the cool metal, testing it.
"There are a number of arts and forms surrounding the particulars of how to use a lightsaber, but the most important is what the Jedi call Form Zero."
"Form Zero?" Luke took a few steps away from Ahsoka to give them space.
Ahsoka smiled. "Usually, when we taught Form Zero, it would be to younglings. Form Zero is the most decisive and important combat technique that you'll need to know. When to draw your lightsaber.
"A lightsaber is precise, quick, and incredibly destructive. If you're in a fight in a cantina, and someone draws their blaster, and you draw your lightsaber and cut off their hand, well, you've saved yourself, but someone's now down a hand. Could you have diffused the situation without making someone lose a hand? Could you have used your words, or just used a hand to hand technique to take the blaster from his hands?"
Luke nodded. "It's the weight of my actions." He noted.
"Yes," She smiled. "Don't question your moments in the here and now, because we need to survive, but don't ever be afraid to reflect on your actions, figure out how you can do better." She took out a second lightsaber, identical to the one she had given him. "Enough philosophy and ethics. Turn on the lightsaber, and let's learn about form one, Shii-Cho."
Luke thumbed the activation button on his lightsaber, and a beam of white light extended from the hilt, coming to live in a loud snap-hiss. "Shii-Cho?"
"I prefer the Way of the Sarlaac." Ahsoka said. The image of a sarlaac, those great parasitic creatures that lived underground, immediately came to mind. "It was the first form of combat that the Jedi developed, before the Sith, before the invention of the blaster. It's wild, unpredictable, but highly utilitarian. Now," She raised "You remember your fencing instructions?" She asked.
Luke nodded. "Somehow, I don't think that fencing is quite the same as lightsaber combat."
Ahsoka smiled. "No, certainly not. But the first Jedi were used to swords, and really couldn't anticipate how the galaxy would develop. So Form One evolved from that, and has amny of the same components. Mirror my movements."
Ahsoka set her feet apart, one slightly ahead of the other, with her saber drawn across her torso. Luke mimicked the same movement, compensating for his slight difference in height.
"Very good. This is a traditional defensive posture. You can bring your saber to just about anywhere you need fast, and you can either defend or attack from this position."
They spent the next half-hour practicing forms, showing basic maneuvers. Lunges, parries, cuts, all of it against empty space. However, Luke was a natural a gesture from Ahsoka, he deactivated the lightsaber. "Time for one more thing. But first.." She walked to the comm panel on the cargo hold's bulkhead and hit it.
"Winter here," said his sister's voice after a moment. "How goes the sword training?"
"I'll make a Jedi out of Luke left. Can you go to the medical bay and get some bacta salves? Luke's going to need them in…fifteen minutes or so?"
"Copy, Winter out." The line went dead, and Luke felt a sudden tremor of anxiety flood through him.
"What am I going to need bacta for?" He asked.
Ahsoka opened up that case of her various Jedi training devices. The levitation stones were still there, but instead she pulled out a little remote, a mechanical device so limited in its programming that Luke couldn't even call it a droid.
"What do you want me to do?" Luke asked.
"This is a training remote." She explained as she activated it. With a little whir of activity, it started to float. "It will send our very low-power beam charges that you are going to try do deflect." She explained. "Normally, you would start doing this as a child, but we've got a lot of catching up to do. Turn on your saber."
Luke turned on the saber again, a snap-hiss of white light filling the air. He watched as the remote started to hover around him. He adopted one of the more usual defensive stances that he had learned in the past half-hour.
The remote hovered in front of him. Luke tried to anticipate its movements, and made a guess. He chose wrong. He tried to block right, but the remote dodged left, and left him with a sharp sting on his left hip. "Sithspit!"
Ahsoka restrained a chuckle, though Luke could hear it in her voice. "Oh, you'll need those salves."