Wow this took a while. Why this was so tricky to write I have no idea. O,o Although, I do have an excuse… couple, in fact… exams, then the holidays, and then I actually moved. I live in a different state now. Moved in with my best friend. So I've been busy… hopefully some of the 'busy' has died down and I can settle in to start writing again. We'll see. ~_~ Anyways, here's chapter ten. Hopefully it's… decent. Not exactly an action chapter. Bit of character history and all, sort of another 'necessary filler to get the plot going' one, which may be why it was tricky for me… eh, whatever. Pretty soon things will pick up… I have plans! Always good. Anyways, as always I love reviews, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Chapter Ten

Somehow, Ahsoka hadn't expected 'spy work' to feel so… deceptive. With every object she looked a bit more closely at and every question she put forth, something in the back of her mind wondered how she could expect to trust these people if she was doing stuff like this so that they couldn't trust her – but she already distrusted them; only a little bit, but that was enough to count.

"I never got the feelin' you were so interested in technology," Manny commented, glancing up from his book – it was somehow odd to her to see people reading books instead of datapads, but there was a quaint charm to an old ink-and-paper book – and looking over to where Ahsoka sat on the floor, examining the knobs and buttons on the Teevee, trying to figure out exactly how this thing worked. "Seemed like that was more your… master's thing."

"Master does love anything mechanical," she agreed, pressing one of the buttons and glancing at the unit's viewscreen to see how it would respond. "I guess I picked up a bit from him." In truth, she'd figured out little about the strange little machine – she was starting to wonder if it was even a droid unit at all. And unless there were hidden panels somewhere, it didn't do anything but picture and sound. Nothing too complex here. Nothing suspicious. It was both a relief and an irritation; she wanted to believe there was nothing suspicious to find, but at the same time she wanted to find something, just to have an answer. She scooted around, maneuvering between the unit and the wall to examine the thing from the back. Master Skywalker would be so much better at this… but he was searching the barn. And with all the equipment in there… well, she figured he'd be there for a good long time.

"So, what's your Artoo here do?" Manny asked after a moment, motioning to the little droid who was settled a few feet from her; he beeped in response to his name.

"He's an astromech droid," she responded distractedly, "R2-series."

"I have no idea what that means, Red."

"Oh. Right." She looked up from her examination of the cable that connected the Teevee unit to the wall – a charge cable of some sort? Did it need constant charging, something this small? How primitive… "He's a diagnostic and repair unit. Mechanic, fixes things, monitors stuff on the ship… can do some navigation stuff… we couldn't fly without him. Right, Artooie?" The droid gave a pleased chirp at this assessment of his usefulness. It took Ahsoka only a few seconds to recall that she was the one who was supposed to be asking questions. "Don't you have any droids to do stuff? I mean, they're not just space-flight units… there are medical droids, service droids, protocol droids…" she sat up on her knees so that she could see Manny over the top of the Teevee. "Battle droids. All sorts of droids."

"Yeah? We don't have any. Some high-tech places got robots an' stuff, but from what I've heard they'd be nothing compared to this little guy." He grinned at her. "Too bad it's gotta be all secret; sounds like we're real behind. I'd love to have 'bots to run everythin' for me. Save me a lot of work."

She gazed at him for a moment, trying hard as she could to figure out if he was lying or not. "Yeah," she finally answered non-committaly, "droids can be really useful, sometimes. Well, most of them." Battle droids she wasn't so fond of. Giving up on the hope of finding out anything useful from examining the Teevee unit, she slid out from behind it and dusted herself off. Or, well, tried to – it had been pretty dusty back there.

"So, uh…" Question, question, think of a useful question. A non-suspicious and yet information-getting question. "How long have you lived on the farm here?" She could have done better than that. But you had to start somewhere.

"This here one? 'Round thirty-five years now since I last moved in. 'Fore this I had a smaller one, there for about another twenty years or so. An' I grew up on this here one an' worked here with my parents for a long time, then inherited it now. Altogether I've lived here most of my life – don't even make me count that many years." Manny chuckled slightly. "S'home here, always will be. Guess I'm just an old farm boy at heart."

Ahsoka smiled slightly. "You've never wanted to do anything else?"

"Nope. Even when I was a kid. Always liked farm life – still do. I know most kids flip-flop between a buncha grandiose ideas of what they wanna be when they're older an' all that 'fore they settle on somethin', but I always knew I was gonna have a farm, jus' like my parents, an' ol' Gramps 'fore them."

For some reason, this sparked an odd twinge in Ahsoka's mind. Had she ever 'flip-flopped'? No, she didn't think she had – she'd always wanted to be a Jedi, ever since Master Plo found her. What else was there for her to want? "Well, sometimes something's just destiny – what you're meant to do. And I guess you know it when you find it. Just takes some people longer than others."

Manny seemed amused by her assessment. "Maybe so. What about you, kid? You figured out your 'destiny' yet?"

She smiled, thinking of her Master and the Temple and her training to be a Jedi Knight. "Yep," she stated, completely sure of herself, "I'm exactly where I need to be."

Manny raised an eyebrow. "Really?" He queried, glancing pointedly around the house, and she blinked and then laughed.

"Well, okay, this pit stop wasn't exactly planned, but… everything happens for a reason, right?"

Manny looked back down at her. "I dunno 'bout that, myself. That a personal belief, or a cultural one?"

Ahsoka shrugged one shoulder. "Both, sort of, I guess…" It was a Jedi belief, she supposed. That made it a personal belief too, even if she was still working a bit at remembering it, sometimes. "Master Skywalker says nothing's ever an accident or coincidence. Maybe I'm supposed to be here for some reason, something I don't know yet." That was a slightly comforting thought, and one that didn't hit her as suddenly as she'd expected – saying it felt oddly like confirming a long-held suspicion rather than realizing a new fact. "Besides," she added, smiling over at him, "if I'd never landed here, I'd never have met you and Keida. So it's a good thing."

He looked momentarily surprised at this, then smiled; his usual grin. "If you say so, Red." After a pause, he added, "I'm kinda glad you showed up too, I guess. For what it's worth," and she didn't think she could have smiled any bigger if she'd tried. She got to her feet, brushing off the last bits of dust from crawling about behind the Teevee, and headed to sit beside him on the couch.

"So, what about Keida?" she asked after a moment, thinking it might not hurt to get back to asking questions. "Did she grow up on farms too?"

"Not in the least. I met her in Cascada – biggest city in these parts – when I was makin' a delivery once. She was shoppin' in the market where I was sellin' my crops to." Manny smiled a bit at the memory. "After the first time we met… we jus' kept on meetin'. She'd make sure she came shoppin' on the days I made deliveries. Then we stared arrangin' to meet other times… then she came t'visit the farm here… an' the rest, I guess, is history. She's a city girl by birth, but she took to the farm right well – says she figures she's always been a farm girl at heart." He chuckled slightly.

Ahsoka smiled. It sounded a 'classic' romance, like the stories for Younglings that she used to read in the Archives when she finally grew bored of studying. How could she be suspicious of these people? They were so nice… and they'd saved her life. Maybe Skyguy was wrong – or maybe it was just one of the farmhands, alone, if there had to be a bad guy. Did there have to be a bad guy? Well if there did, she knew who she suspected.

"What about Garvan?" she asked, trying to sound casual. "He seems… interesting."

Manny chuckled. "That's an understatement." He shook his head. "I guess I should apologize for him, huh? He's… I dunno. He's difficult, I guess, before you get to know him. Still difficult when you do, but you get used to him. I've known Garvan for years… he's dependable, good at his work… and he ain't as cold as he seems, really. I'd call him a friend, if it came down to it." He looked over at her, shrugging. "He ain't been treatin' you or Anakin quite right, I guess, but he don't know you, and… well, I mean, it ain't every day we get a couple aliens visitin'." Artoo beeped, and he grinned. "And their droid, can't forget that. Sad thing is he probably did think you were some sorta record player, Artoo."

Ahsoka nodded slowly. "It's alright, I guess. Understandable." She wished it was understandable. Things would be easier if all of this was just understandable.

"Speakin' of Garvan," Manny stated, moving to stand, "It's gettin' late. I'd better go help him bring the Eqquli, or he'll be complainin' 'bout havin' to do it all himself an' not havin' time to get other stuff finished."

He headed for the door; she waited for it to close behind him before sighing heavily. "Well… stang. I don't think I found out anything that answers any of our questions." Artoo made a chirping noise that sounded almost like a sigh as well, and she smiled slightly. "Maybe Master found something."

Ahsoka stood and wandered to the bookshelf, scanning it for a moment before locating the novel she'd been slowly working her way through. She'd always loved reading, and there really was something… nice, about an ink-and-paper copy in hand, rather than reading on a datapad. Old-fashioned, quaint, but enjoyable. With little else to do she settled onto the floor, leaning back against Artoo, and flipped to the page she'd left off on.

It was easy to get lost in a book, and she'd always had a particular skill for it. She hadn't even heard Keida come in, until she spoke, standing in the kitchen doorway. "Is Manny in here with you?"

"No," she responded, a bit distractedly, "he's out bringing in the Eqquli for the night."

"Oh. Darn." Keida sighed, and Ahsoka tore her eyes from her book to look up at her.

"Did you need him?"

"Oh, not really, dear. I'm just making a pie; I was going to ask him to run to the orchard and get some apples for me. I should have checked before I started, I don't have enough…"

Ahsoka smiled slightly, marking her spot and closing the book. "I can do that."

"Oh, no, that's alright… it's already dark out, and your leg…"

"No, really, it's nothing," Ahsoka insisted. "I have good low-light vision, and my leg's feeling better today – in fact, it'd probably be good to stretch it a bit." Keida smiled at her.

"Well, thank you, dear. I only need a couple… three or four should do it."

Ahsoka nodded and smiled, heading for the door. Short walk, couple apples, and there would be pie tonight instead of having to wait for tomorrow – that was temptation enough, she'd admit. And maybe she'd find Anakin on the way; she was eager to hear if he'd found out anything. Any step closer to solving this mystery would be a welcome one – though some part of her still wasn't sure exactly what the mystery was that they needed to solve, anymore.