Previously on Star Wars: Exile's Journey
Ahsoka Tano has retaken the mantle of Jedi. Braving several challenges, and risking her own life repeatedly for her friends, she earned the materials necessary to rebuild her lightsabers.
With crystals found in an ancient cave on Dantooine, a saber hilt made of lightsaber-resistant phrik alloy, a deep space asteroid hideout discovered by a young man who asked Ahsoka to help find his missing sister, and a ship taken from an Imperial Inquisitor who Ahsoka defeated in combat, Ahsoka Tano is ready to take on whatever challenges lie ahead...
Chapter 17
Shipment
She activated her new sabers as one. In front of her floated a double sided saber, one side had a broad, flattened green blade with a faint yellow-orange halo of light around it. The other had a bright blue blade, very different from the yellow blade she used to wield in her off hand. She grasped the hilt and noticed that at the slightest movement, faint arcs of purple electrical currents flowed from the corona of the blue blade.
Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Knight, stood up with her double sided lightsaber in hand. "Well, I guess it's time to test the modifications," she said, and she twisted the hilt. The blades separated into two, and, just as she'd hoped, when they separated the blue blade shrunk down to just over half the length of the other. She held them in an underhanded grip, then kicked off from the ground. In the low gravity, she soared across the room. Old trained motions were easily remembered as she went through practice motions. Djem So techniques weren't quite as effective in low gravity, but Shien techniques were fairly universal.
"It is good to see you back with us, Mistress Jedi," came a voice from below her.
Ahsoka spun in the low gravity, suddenly feeling a little queasy from the sudden motion. She turned her sabers off and grabbed at an old shelf on the wall to steady herself. Amidst the old consoles and shelves she saw a shiny, new tablet. "Who... oh, ZT-49. Where did you come from?"
"Master Xho left me here and requested that I alert him when you awoke. You have been in deep meditation for quite some time."
"But Xho didn't come in here at all."
"Master Xho and I flew to Rudrig, and have returned with the Red Drexl and your other compatriots. It has been slightly over three standard days since we left you here."
Ahsoka reattached her sabers and put them on her belt. Suddenly, her eyes went wide. "Are both the ships right outside in the hangar? Of course they are. Gotta go!"
She kicked off from the wall at full speed and shot towards the door. With a few swift kicks, and some judicious help with the Force, she sped past Jyssa and Arc up the ramp of the nearest ship, which happened to be the Drexl. As soon as she hit the ship's gravity field, her feet hit the ground and she bolted down the corridor at full speed.
Arc turned to Jyssa, "Was that Ahsoka?"
"Get used to calling her Riella in public. And yes, that was Ahsoka. She's been meditating for three days."
"Where is she..." Arc trailed off as he saw her turn down the corridor. "Oh."
"Yeah. Three days. In a place where the plumbing probably doesn't work anymore." Jyssa shook her head. "Jedi. Go figure. Can save the galaxy a dozen times over... but they get so caught up in what they're doing that they forget to take a 'fresher break."
Nat floated down from above the ship and grabbed on to one of the ramp's support struts, "Was that Ahsoka?"
Jyssa sighed, "Remember to call her Riella now. And yes. She's in the 'fresher."
Jyssa pulled out a small datapad and tapped on the screen. Patiently waiting for Ahsoka, she pulled up several lists of information that she knew Ahsoka would want to see once more pressing matters were taken care of. A moment later, Jyssa heard a familiar gurgle in the ship's pipes.
"Running water. At least Jedi wash their hands afterwards."
Ahsoka came out of the refresher, "I heard that!" she said indignantly down the corridor.
Arc gave a grin with the unscarred half of his face, "Jedi have good hearing too."
"Stow it, Bryn. You need food, kid? Your pack looked pretty untouched. Only one bottle of water emptied and most of the food was still there."
"Yeah... and a sanisteam. Was I really out for three days?"
"A little more than that, yeah. What were you doing the whole time?"
"I don't know how to describe it. Meditating doesn't cover it. It was like my new sabers and I were joining together in the Force."
Jyssa shook her head, "Your Force stuff is beyond my feeble non-Jedi comprehension, kid. I just want to know that you're okay."
Ahsoka laughed, "I will be, after a sanisteam and some food."
"Food first. I've got some things to show you."
They headed towards the ship's tiny kitchen area and Ahsoka pulled a couple of frozen nerf patties out of the freezer and put them on the minigrill. "This will take a minute. What do you have?"
Jyssa showed Ahsoka her datapad. "The good news is I managed to find some cargo that needed shipping to Susevfi. It's headed to Yumfla, the capital city there." Jyssa swiped the tablet and moved to the next page she'd pulled up. "The bad news: There's also a bounty out for a supposed Jedi there. Not much info, just that several people have been found injured or killed by a what appears to be a lightsaber blade. And several people have been killed by... other means. Choking, blunt force trauma, or severe burns. But with no marks from weapons."
"Well, then this looks like a job for Riella Masso, bounty hunter."
Jyssa nodded, "We'll have to take separate ships. It'll look a little weird for a bounty hunter to show up on a freighter."
"How's the Whipclaw's fuel?"
"Full. Turns out that being an Inquisitor gives you a free account at any Imperial refueling station. Xho had them fill it up when he landed. I may take advantage of that and siphon some off of your tank every now and then."
"Feel free. It's on the Empire's tab. So what's the plan?"
"Well, the shipment will be ready to be picked up in two days. We weren't sure how long you'd be out, so we set up an appointment for Arc to stop by a medical facility to be fitted for a proper prosthetic. We'll have to leave in a couple hours to get back to Rudrug in time for that. If you want to go ahead by yourself as a bounty hunter, then feel free. If not, we'll leave in two days."
"I probably should. You're okay with keeping an eye on Nat without me?"
"We've done okay so far. The kid's bright. A little too bright. Don't play sabacc against him. It's a good thing I don't gamble against kids, otherwise I might not have a ship anymore."
"After this and a sanisteam, I'll head out. I don't want to keep you too long."
"Actually, there's one more thing before you go. Xho is in the Whipclaw, working on something. He wanted to show it to you before we left."
Ahsoka pulled a plate out of a cabinet and a couple of buns out of another. Using the Force, she lifted the now well done nerf patties onto the buns. She poured a large dollop of mysk sauce onto each one.
Jyssa made a face. "How can you eat it like that? You've got more sauce than patty."
The young Jedi bit into the patty, mysk sauce dripping out the back of it. She said, with her mouth full, "Irf irt's nort bleerding, therre's nort enourgh myrsk saurce."
Author's note: If you hadn't been able to tell by now, I seem to have fallen into a writing habit based on the pace of the Clone Wars series. Probably just a subconscious side effect of me making Ahsoka the main character of the fic. :P Every four chapters is about the length of an episode, and so far both the story arcs have been two episode arcs. I'm not sure if I'll stick with that length, or if they'll vary in the future. But since I'm preparing to try to write a full novel for NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) in November, I will be slowing my pace a bit. I will try to post a minimum of one episode (e.g. four chapters) a week. If I can write more than that, then I will keep those saved to post during November when I'll be busy writing my novel. It'll be a swashbuckling pirate themed action/adventure story, with a bit more action and less character driven plot than I've put into this story so far. Still, I'm enjoying writing something with an ensemble cast like this, so I'm using some of what I've learned by writing this fic in my planning for my book. Hope everybody is enjoying this fic so far, I'm certainly enjoying writing it. :) And it's hard to see in the thumbnail, but as of the posting of this chapter, I did update the thumbnail picture to show the correct lightsaber colors. There's a hint of yellow/orange in the green saber, and the short one is blue now instead of yellow, with trails of purple ionized plasma around it. E.g., little crackles of lightning. Just like a Bondar crystal aughtta do.