Previously on Star Wars: Exile's Journey
After leaving the Jedi Order, ex Jedi Ahsoka Tano joined the crew of a freighter, the Red Drexl. After a year of working as a mechanic and copilot, suddenly the Republic fell and the Empire rose in its place, and she found herself fighting and defeating a bounty hunter named Koros L'Larr and taking his ship, the Whipclaw, for her own. Now Ahsoka has taken on the persona of Riella Masso, bounty hunter, as a way of keeping tabs on the current hunt for Jedi on the run.
In her travels, she has found a Caamasi Jedi Master, Ylenic It'kla, and two Jedi Padawans, Nat Tina and Mirian Varos.
She and Master It'kla tracked down several Jedi clones that had been grown too quickly, becoming mentally imbalanced and dangerous as a result of the botched cloning process. They followed the last to Dagobah. There they met Yoda, one of the few surviving members of the Jedi council. While taking a break from repairing the Whipclaw, Yoda administered an official Jedi trial, one that Ahsoka passed. He conferred the rank of Jedi Knight onto Ahsoka...
Chapter 73
Dinner
Ahsoka snuck a glance over at Master Yoda. He stood on the copilot's seat. His eyes, at the same level as Ahsoka's, were closed. His ears twitched once. "So many of us gone. Good to see that survived some younglings did."
"I wish you would change your mind. Master It'kla has been helping Mirian, and I've been treating Nat as my Padawan. But they could use a teacher like you in these difficult times." Ahsoka said.
Yoda's eyes opened slowly. "No. Here is where I must be. Clear, that much is. But celebrate tonight we will. Gone, the Jedi Order may be. But not gone, the Jedi are."
He summoned his walking stick through the Force and leaned on it while he climbed down out of the chair. They made their way through the swamp back to Yoda's small hut.
When they arrived, Yoda checked up on the injured Human who rested in a Jedi healing trance. The pilot of the craft that the mad clone had hijacked was still resting, peacefully. Yoda shooed away several small lizards that had climbed onto the unconscious man, looking for warmth.
It appeared that Master Yoda had anticipated the celebratory meal tonight, because he had washed all of his available pots. They were all clustered over the fire, each one with a different stew mixture. One was the familiar pungent root stew that Yoda made for himself. Another was much more bland, and appeared to be made with vegetables from the freighter's kitchen. The third, which was starting to bubble over the edge of the pot, causing Yoda to frantically stir it and pour some cold water into it to slow the boiling, had bits of nerf-meat bobbing in it.
Master It'kla saw them as came in and commented, "I see I was not alone in my confidence that Jedi Tano would pass her trials easily."
"Prepared, I was," Yoda said, "for either eventuality. But expected success, I did."
"Really?" Ahsoka asked. "What would you have done if I had failed?"
"Hide the evidence, I would. But a waste of good meat, it would have been. Stopped working, the food conservator on the freighter did. Make use of what was in it before it spoiled, I did."
Ahsoka couldn't help but picture the tiny Jedi, lugging a pot full of stew that weighed nearly as much as he did through the swamp to dispose of it in secret. She couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of Master Yoda trying to be sneaky, his feet squelching in the Dagobah mud.
"Mmm, funny you think that is?" Yoda said, giving her a mock frown.
"No," she said, "not funny. Hilarious."
In skyhook in low orbit over the glittering city world of Coruscant, Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin raised a glass of ruby red Iridonian ice-wine. Generals, Admirals, a Senator, and two core world sector Governors sat around his table.
"All I'm saying," Senator Darbossa said, "is that even the weakest Chancellor we've had in decades, and yes, I do mean Valorum, still rose above the rabble to take the reins of office. After a while, you can't help but notice such things."
General Krif-Hans said, "I agree, Senator. In the war, it was men we sent on the battlefield. The best warrior, the best soldier they could clone was a Human. Most of us Navy men were Humans. We fought and won this war against the Separatist rabble. It's only natural that we run the Empire that comes afterward."
"Gentlemen, the New Order has secured our place at the head of this government," Admiral Tarkin said. "At this point, is there really any need to justify our actions? We fought long and hard to protect the Republic, but it was rotten to the core. The Emperor has removed that rot, and we have stepped in to fill the void."
The Senator's belly shook as he laughed. "Easy for you to say. Word has it that you're next in line for a bit of a... shall we say, political boost."
"I try to ignore such rumors," Tarkin replied, "the Emperor will reward who he sees fit. It is up to me to be fit for such things."
"Hear hear," Admiral Toklis said, raising his own glass of transparent amber sunfruit liqueur. "May the best of us get what we deserve, and deserve what we get."
Tarkin gave his fellow Admiral a thin smile and took a sip from his own glass. Iridonian ice-wine was stronger than most other wines. This bottle had been ice distilled, aged, and filtered through cold stone. It was a process that took years, and ended with a bottle that cost more than an average Naval officer's monthly pay. It was smooth, strong, and had a pleasant tartness that hid behind the sweetness of the berries.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the flash of dark cloth that marked the uniform of the Imperial Navy. He turned his head slowly, and nodded in acknowledgment to the young Ensign who stood at attention next to him.
"Ensign... Dailey was it? I trust the intrusion is urgent."
The young man nodded nervously. "Yes sir. They said... the Emperor. He wants to see you."
Tarkin turned his head farther to see the crimson cloaks of the new Imperial Guard. They still bore the crest on top of their helmets of the old Republic guard, but their blue armor and floor-length cloaks had been redesigned in the last month to be a much more intimidating blood-red color.
The two guards stood stock-still by the door.
"Well, it's best not to keep him waiting," Tarkin said. He turned back to his guests. "I'm sure you will excuse me, duty, as always, calls."
The Senator, looking somewhat tipsy, raised his glass and grinned at Tarkin as the slender Admiral rose from his seat and followed the Imperial Guard out of the dining room.
"What did I tell you?" Darbossa said, draining the rest of his glass. "Right to the top. We choose our friends and allies well."
"Think that was your Master's first encounter with gundarks, do you?" Yoda gave his funny little giggle. "Then a story I have to enlighten you."
He proceeded to launch into a story about the first time a twelve year old apprentice Anakin Skywalker had accidentally caused a cave-in while exploring, and fallen into a nest of young gundarks. Obi-Wan had been there to help rescue him, but in their flailing about, Obi-Wan fell in as well. Yoda timed the highlight of the story perfectly, and when he got to the part where in a panic, young Anakin kicked one of the gundarks in the groin, Ahsoka had just taken a spoonful of stew.
It took all of her Jedi self-control to keep from accidentally spitting it back out when Yoda described the horrible, high-pitched, keening cry of the poor gundark. The spoonful of stew mostly made it down the right tube, but Ahsoka's laughter turned into a coughing fit.
Even Master It'kla laughed, an odd little huffing sound.
"That actually works on gundarks?" she asked.
"When young they are," Yoda said, "and steel plated your boots are."
This time Ahsoka arrested the movement of the spoon before Yoda finished the sentence. Which was good, because at this point in the story, it didn't take much more to make her laugh.
After her laughter died down, she paused and looked around the small hut. "Is... was this what normally happened when someone passed their trial?"
"At times," Yoda replied. "Chose to treat that day like any other, some Jedi do. To prove their responsibility. But choose to have a small amount of time with good friends, most do. Too much pride, a Jedi should not have. But an accomplishment, and a milestone the trial is."
"Ah, but intending to have a quiet evening with friends can turn out to be a bit more, at times." Master It'kla said. He stared up at the ceiling, going over old memories in his head. "Especially when one of those friends is a Corellian police officer who knows how to get even a Jedi drunk."
"Hmm," Yoda said," A friend of Master Halcyon's, I presume."
Ylenic nodded. "Halfway through the night, Neeja gave me his lightsaber. He realized he was getting too drunk to carry any weapons on his person. Horn, I believe his name was. Detective Horn. A friend and colleague of Neeja's. After Neeja officially became a Master, Horn took us out for what he called a 'night on the town'. By the end of it, Master Halcyon could barely walk. His wi..."
Ylenic's voice trailed off.
"Speak freely, old friend." Yoda nodded to Ylenic. "Long past, the time for secrecy or reprimand is."
"His wife and I had to carry him home."
Ahsoka had started eating again during Ylenic's story. She almost choked on another spoonful. She spluttered, "Master Halcyon was married?"
"The first Jedi to fall in love, he was not," Yoda said. "The last, he was not as well."
"But... that's not... I mean, Jedi aren't allowed to have attachments."
"Against much of our teaching it goes. Yes." Yoda said. "Known for some time, I had. A good man, Master Halcyon was. A crime, love is not. Let his attachments interfere with his duties, he did not. Acted only when he was at peace."
"You knew?" Ylenic asked. "Neeja did his best to keep it a secret. I chose to honor his wishes."
"When nearly nine hundred years old you reach, learn to see more than what is apparent, you do."
Author's note: I won't keep you guys in suspense all month as to whether I'm too busy with NaNoWriMo to keep updating. At the time that I wrote this author's note, I was trying to write a few more chapters for the month of December, in case I feel burned out on writing by the time November's done. :)
And yes, in the Star Wars EU books, Neeja Halcyon did have a wife, and a son. If I recall correctly, I believe that he and Anakin confided in each other about their mutual secret. I know there was at least one book where the two met, and worked together during the Clone Wars.
After Neeja's death, in their shared grief, his best friend Rostek Horn and Neeja's widow, Scerra, ended up becoming close, and eventually falling in love. To hide Neeja's son, Valin, from the Inquisition, Rostek officially adopted Valin, and altered the records so that he was now Hal Horn, with no link in the records to Neeja Halcyon. The name Hal was chosen because as a way of secretly honoring the Halcyon family name. Hal followed his step-father into the Corellian police force, where he could use what little training he'd gotten in the Force from his father, and the detective training from his step-father, to help the innocent.
To honor his friend's memory, Rostek Horn secretly preserved much Jedi knowledge that would have otherwise been lost in the Jedi purges. His hobby was gardening, and he encoded huge amounts of old Jedi library materials into the junk DNA of the hybrid flowers he grew. He felt it was appropriate to store the information in something living.
He also amused himself by selling his most expensive hybrids to Imperials who were in charge of Jedi hunting operations.