Chapter 42

Rewrite

Ahsoka made it a point to put on a good show while negotiating the cost of repairs. She felt a little bad about wearing her fiercely painted durasteel mask and playing up the intimidating bounty hunter persona, but with an Imperial ship in orbit, suddenly the Imperial licenses that the Whipclaw's previous owner had held a lot more merit.

She made a mental note to tip the mechanics well to make up for it. There was no reason why she couldn't cultivate her persona to be someone who was willing to work with other people. She just had to also make sure she was thought of as tough and capable above all else, or else she wouldn't be able to get the kind of bounty hunting jobs she needed.

Once she was done, she opened up an encrypted com line to the Red Drexl through her mask so she could speak without being overheard. Arc answered the line.

"Glad to see you made it down in one piece. Jyssa's talking to the portmaster here, trying to find out what the Empire is doing all the way out here."

"Let me know as soon as you know. Nobody checked your passenger manifest when you got in?"

"No," Arc replied, "in fact, it seems like they're too distracted by the Imperials to pay much attention to a little freighter like us."

"That's a good sign, I guess." Ahsoka shook her head, then realized that anyone watching her would know she was having a secret conversation behind her metal mask if she used too much body language while she was talking. Besides, it wasn't like Arc could see her. She'd have to get used to closing herself off like that when she was in her Riella Masso persona. "Heard anything from Mirian's brother? I just realized I never actually asked him what his first name was."

Arc laughed, "Yeah, when he let you take the holocron, Jyssa said she thought maybe he was sweet on you. Then he dropped the big question about finding Mirian, so now she just thinks he was trying to get close to you to ask for that favor."

"She's got a really cynical view on people, doesn't she?" Ahsoka shook her head wryly, and she didn't bother to try to stop her body language this time. "Besides, he knew I'm only 17. And he's a graduate student. He's like 25. Almost double your age."

"Oh, so you don't think he's cute," Arc replied cheekily.

"A Jedi has no attachments," she snarked back at him. "Well, except maybe my ship. And you guys. And my new apprentice. And... grife. I'm not a very good Jedi, am I?"

"Eh, I've seen worse."

The conversation was interrupted by a buzz from Ahsoka's com. The heads-up-display in her helmet showed that there was an incoming call from Torin Varos.

"I'll get back to you, Arc. I've got an incoming call from Mirian's brother. According to his com number, his name's Torin."

"Let me know what the plan is."

"Will do," she said. She switched to the incoming call via the mini datapad on her gauntlet, still not quite trusting herself to use the ocular controls built into the mask. "Torin, I see you've been waiting for us. I've got good news for you."

"Mirian?"

"She's safe for now. She's with Jyssa on the Red Drexl. Do you know why there's a Venator-class starship in orbit? We're a little hesitant to show our faces in public when they're around."

"Oh, thank the Force," he said. "Yeah, I didn't know how to get a warning to you about the Imperials. The good news about that is that they're not looking for Jedi. The bad news is that they're looking for... er... Jedi."

"... you lost me." Ahsoka said, raising an eyebrow under her mask.

"Sorry," he said. "I'm not part of the history major, I'm just a geology major. But they've pretty much locked down the history department and the library. Nobody's heard from Professor Feedle, he's the one who set up the archeology trip to Dantooine. And it looks like they've gathered any information and artifacts relating to Jedi. I don't know what they're doing with it, but..."

"But anything that tracks Jedi history might give clues as to where Jedi have gone underground. We might just have to do something about that. Are they watching you?"

"I don't know. I don't think so. They asked me a few questions, but they really only seemed interested in the history department."

"All right," Ahsoka said, "Send me as much information as you can, I'll talk to my people, see what we can come up with."

"Well that didn't go as planned," Jyssa said as she walked back up the ramp of the Red Drexl.

"You didn't get any info from the portmaster?" Mirian asked.

"No," Jyssa said, "I got a little too much information. Apparently he and his wife are on the outs because he went out drinking with some old high school friends and she thought he was fooling around on her. And since I seemed so interested about what life is like here right now, apparently I was the perfect person for him to vent to. Gyah... remind me never to get married and settle down. Land-dwellers weird me out. I'll take shipboard life any day. The Drexl will never be jealous of me if I go out drinking with friends."

"Could be worse," Arc said as he came down the corridor from the cockpit. "He could have just broken up with his wife and asked you out on the rebound."

"What do you know about this kind of thing?" Jyssa snorted.

"CT-428 used to hook the squad up with smuggled holodramas. I saw all four seasons of 'Zergle High' before I was nine."

"Don't tell me, let me guess... you had a crush on Yelica."

"Most of the other guys did. I always like Baidle better. Gotta love the green hair and glasses." He was interrupted by a chirp from his com. He looked at it then put it to his ear. "It's Ahsoka again. Any news?"

They met at a tapcafe that, according to Xho and ZT-47, was out of the line of sight of any nearby traffic cameras. After getting a table near the back big enough for the entire group, Ahsoka explained the situation there and showed them all of the information that Mirian's brother had sent her.

"So," Ahsoka said after she had shared everything, "it looks like we've got some work to do. And we can't go in with lightsabers blazing, that could attract the wrong kind of attention here."

"Speaking of lightsabers... look over there," Jyssa pointed to one of the monitors by the bar. A moment before it had been showing a group of Devaronians throwing around a nerf-hide ball. Now it was a close-up shot of a news desk. The newscaster, a handsome pink-skinned Zeltron with short purple hair, couldn't be heard over the noise of the bar. But the bartender had left subtitles on. Ahsoka missed the first line of the subtitles.

"has been attacked by a group of rogue Jedi on the planet Kessel. Reports indicate that Lord Vader has been injured in the attack, but further reports confirm that he managed to completely wipe out the traitors. We go now to our reporter on the scene."

The camera view switched to the inside of a mine, a mine that was littered with loose rock, equipment, and several bodies. Some of them were in Jedi robes. Ahsoka managed to keep from responding, but she heard a gasp from Nat next to her at the table. Despite the grainy picture that had obviously been taken from a distance, she could clearly see the body of Master Koffi Arana, with a blade buried in his chest.

"This isn't good," she said. "Who in the galaxy could take out a group of Jedi like that?"

She flipped down her mask and used the built in zoom to see the vidscreen better. At the end of the sword she could see a black gloved hand grasped around the hilt, clearly cleaved in the middle of the forearm by a lightsaber.