CHAPTER 2: AHSOKA TANO
Bothawui
The yokes shook violently as the entire shuttle trembled. Another bright red laser shot slamming into the rear shields.
["T-6 Verpine Shuttle, you have entered restricted airspace,"] a furious voice snarled through the subspace radio. ["Turn back, and proceed to Drev'starn spaceport."]
In the cloudy daytime skies over Bothawui's Eastern Hemisphere, Ahsoka's T-6 was now being pursued by four Bothan Marshalcy BTL-A4 Y-Wings, painted bright blue and yellow.
At least they weren't B-Wings or X-Wings, otherwise she might be in trouble right now.
"This is Ahsoka Tano, clearance number Noble Ryloth Esh 5671233. I am acting in my capacity as a New Republic Observer, delegated to me by Chancellor Mon Mothma herself." She waited a few seconds for the Marshals to validate her identity.
["Observer Tano,"] the voice growled less angrily. ["You are still flying into restricted airspace, please proceed—"]
"—Under Article 27 section D of the Galactic Concordance, I am informing a head of state of a designated refuge world, Supreme Secretary Lir Sey'les, of a treaty violation." The Togruta smirked to herself, imagining the expressions on their faces. Their questions. Why doesn't she just call Lir Sey'les? Why doesn't she land at the spaceport and make a formal request for a meeting? I hope Anakin's spirit, wherever in the Force he is, is watching and getting a kick out of this. "As such, you are firing on an unarmed vessel with diplomatic immunity on a mission of peace," Ahsoka added, using one of the Leia-isms she had memorized.
Shame Padmé never got to use them in such a sarcastic manner, then again that wasn't her style.
["THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!"] the voice yelped. ["YOU EXPECT US TO ALLOW YOU TO FLY OVER QUIET NEIGHBORHOODS AND LAND IN FRONT OF THE SUPREME SECRETARY'S HOUSE?"]
"Actually, I am planning on landing in her backyard," Ahsoka grunted. "Have a peaceful and profitable day."
["THIS IS A VIOLATION OF OUR SOVEREIGNTY! OH YOU ARE SO—"]
—Ahsoka terminated the call, descending into the dark clouds.
"You can't—Sey'les will be angry," Fen growled.
Keeping her eyes forward out the window, Ahsoka could sense his fur rippling and swirling in anxiety. Rain began splattering on the transparisteel, streaking as the shuttle descended.
The Togruta's jaw clenched. She had not had to deal with Bothans in years, but one thing that she found so disturbing about so many she met was their frequent completely pathetic lack of personal responsibility. "I 'can't'… I can't because Lir Sey'les will be angry that you cut the tracking device out of your arm and flew more than halfway across the Galaxy to murder me, overwrite my consciousness, and take over my body?"
Fen gulped, slumping down helplessly into the corner of his cage.
The Marshalcy craft slowed down, breaking off their pursuit and turning back for their base.
Ahsoka slowed the T-6 down, narrowing her eyes as she looked through the rainy mist at all of the mansions. The last time she had been here was more than 6 years ago, when Bothan Space was liberated shortly after the Battle of Endor.
Down below the hill, Ashoka recognized the Combined Clans building. Where is Sey'les's house... Oh. There she is. Right below her, ten or so meters down, standing in a muddy backyard, were four Bothans and a Wookiee.
Ahsoka had come here, hoping to surprise Sey'les. Yet, she was now completely bewildered. Three of the Bothans, who were small, even for Bothans, were yanking a rope. The other Bothan, slightly taller than the rest, who Ahsoka knew must be Sey'les, was tugging on the same rope, pulling the three Bothans forward.
Struggling to ignore the spectacle down below, Ahsoka hovered the transport over the manor. None of the Bothans down below seemed to care, which caused the Togruta to frown with suspicion. You'd think they would be at least a little concerned.
A few of the figures looked up, while tugging the rope, as the T-6 landed on a tree-less patch of mud halfway between the tug-of-war going on, and the servant's quarters.
Are they going to ignore me? Ahsoka wondered to herself, imagining how strange it would be to get the silent treatment in weather like this, from a head of state.
The Togruta and Sey'les had only a very sporadic history. Back when the Bothan was a Captain in the Republic Navy, Ahsoka had seen her enter the Jedi Temple, usually to pass messages to prisoners in the Temple detention bloc. A year into the Clone Wars, Sey'les was detained there herself for a short period after it was revealed she was selling information on Jedi she'd encountered to SpyNet. Years went by, and then Sey'les mysteriously resurfaced as the Empire's pick to be their governor of Bothawui.
It was only after the Galactic Civil War flared up, long after the Clone Wars had ended, that Ahsoka had a proper conversation with her.
For an Imperial collaborator, Sey'les was better than most. Even under the height of Imperial power, there had been no slave pits on Bothawui, mass executions, or really many executions at all. The Bothan was a long term Rebel contact, first starting to show sympathies to the Alliance shortly after Alderaan was destroyed. Over a three year period, she had sporadic contact with Mon Mothma. Yet, she had been thoroughly unreliable and a practicing glit-biter. Moreover, it turned out that the Death Star II information she allowed to leak, at the cost of many of her own people's lives, was just a trap orchestrated by Palpatine.
Whether Lir Sey'les knew Endor was a trap or not was only known to her, and the Emperor perhaps. What Ahsoka knew was that it was apparent in their first proper meeting that Sey'les was Force sensitive, which, she presumed, likely was part of the reason why the Empire installed her in the first place. The Bothan was a master at blocking herself off from any other Force sensitive. She was an enigma.
After surrendering to the New Republic without a fight, the Bothan had met with Mon Mothma and somehow had convinced the human to allow her to continue essentially being the empress of Bothan space, able to veto or strike down anything the Bothan Combined Clans passed and appoint new clan leaders and officials almost at will.
Sey'les's ex-husband, the Rebel 'hero' Borsk Fey'lya, at first was one of the most vocal critics of the move, demanding she be brought to justice as a collaborator. Shortly after being given a Senate seat however, he fell into line, and the rest was history.
Ahsoka could recognize Lir Sey'les from afar simply by virtue of seeing a flesh and blood sentient that she could not sense with the Force. The disturbing confluence of being unable to sense someone so clearly alive was like meeting a replica droid, or so she assumed at least. The only time Sey'les had ever allowed Ahsoka to touch her thoughts was during moments when she was trying to convince the Togruta of her otherwise doubtful honesty.
Engaging the landing ramp, Ahsoka got up from her seat with a grunt. It was frankly annoying and baffling that Sey'les ignored her now. Not even a surprised glance into the sky. Nothing. Without another rational explanation, the Togruta finally concluded Sey'les had sensed she was coming.
Ahsoka pulled her hood up as she stepped into the backyard. The air was thick with the musty smell of wet Bothan. The Supreme Secretary of the Combined Clans, wearing a muddy tan trench-coat, was groaning as she tugged a rope alone on a team of one.
The other team in a game of tug of war, three stubby-snouted Bothan adolescents, yipped excitedly and snarled as they tried to pull the elderly grey furred Bothan over.
"Ahsoka," Sey'les groaned, tugging the rope harder, "I sensed you were coming last night. Thought you'd be a little later."
The black-furred Wookiee, wearing nothing but a wide-brimmed bamboo hat and muddy galoshes, shivered in the wet cold. He mumbled sadly, looking more concerned than Ahsoka did.
"Who—Who's that, grandma?" One of the children panted, her legs trembling as she looked in the Togruta's direction.
"FOCUS NEBHIR!" Sey'les yelped. "I am sixty-three years old! Do you want to lose a game of tug-of-war to a sixty-three year old?!"
"Wow," Ahsoka said, leaving it at that. Boots squishing in the mud, she slowly and cautiously approached the spectacle. The children's ears perked up as they sniffed the air curiously.
With a feral snarl, Sey'les yanked the rope, running backwards towards a tree. Her helpless grandchildren fell snout-first into the mud, yelping and snarling.
The Wookiee ran forward, scolding Sey'les disapprovingly. "Nyrr-rargh wweshny gaga rimo." ["They are going to get a cold!"]
"Naa. Naa ga yag oh wuhu rimo." ["No, that's not how you have a cold,"] Sey'les growled back in her stilted, heavily accented, but still comprehensible Shyriiwook.
Ahsoka blinked in surprise. She could understand enough Shyriiwook to follow a slow conversation but had no idea Sey'les was fluent.
"Observer Ahsoka… Has Luke made you a Jedi yet? Well, nevermind. Flen, Eris, Nebhir, Shewwarghrur, meet Ahsoka. Tano Shewwarghrur is my husband. You've met Shkara?" Sey'les asked.
"Your—Your daughter, so they're her kids?" Ahsoka asked. Does she know you are taking her kids out into the rain and playing tug-of-war?
The Wookiee, more than twice Sey'les's height, extended a muddy hand and grabbed Ahsoka's in a firm handshake. "Wyaaaaa."
"Hello," Ahsoka cringed, feeling cold mud squishing off his fur between her fingers.
"Alright everyone!" Sey'les said loudly. "Supreme Secretary business. Shewwarghrur, get them dried off."
Smiling happily at the prospects of getting out of the rain, the Wookiee led the kids off the muddy lawn, lumbering towards the house with loud footsteps. The Bothan adolescents snarled away, talking excitedly in a language Ahsoka could not understand.
Ahsoka had intended to catch Sey'les off guard. Instead, she was completely dumbfounded. Everything the Togruta had witnessed was completely insane and beyond reasonable explanation.
"Shewwarghrur is my second husband," Seyles growled proudly, sticking her snout into the sky, grey fur soaking wet. "I don't think he and I were together when we last met..."
"Congratulations," Ahsoka sighed, "is everything alright?"
"Yeah," Sey'les yawned, stretching. "The younger generations are getting really soft, you know?" She opened her snout, letting the raindrops fall on her tongue.
Ahsoka replied with a non-committal and very worried "uh huh." Those kids look pretty young.
"But... what the kriff is this about Ahsoka? I—FEN!" she snarled, clearly sensing something. She looked up to the cockpit of Ahsoka's ship. "FEN! What is he doing here?"
"—He attacked me on Ossus," Ahsoka explained. "This is a serious matter, Supreme Secretary. Your government cannot allow war criminals to… Oh."
With a furious snarl, the old Bothan strode across her muddy yard, storming up the ramp of Ahsoka's ship. Her boots left mud prints everywhere.
Seconds later, from the cockpit, Ahsoka could hear Fen's terrified yelps which soon became gargling gasps for breath. "HOLY SHTAK! HOLY SHTAK! Supreme Secretary, it's pleasant—Gah… I... can't breathe...!"
When Ashoka entered the cockpit, Fen was suspended a meter off the floor, choking. "SEY'LES!" she screamed, igniting her lightsaber. What the hell do I do? I can't just kill the Supreme Secretary and "AAH!" With a yell, Ahsoka reached out, hurling datapads and ledgers into the Bothan's face with the Force.
Sey'les snarled angrily. Fen continued choking.
More desperate, and not quite willing to flash her saber in front of the Bothan, Ahsoka reached out to a hydrospanner, flinging it into the side of Sey'les's head.
Her ears fell flat as she yelped. Fen fell to the floor gasping for breath.
"I am sorry, Supreme Secretary," Ahsoka said nervously in her most diffusing tone. "I cannot—"
"—OUCH!" Sey'les yelped, massaging her ear. "That kriffing hurt!"
"I was going to release Fen into your custody," Ahsoka told Sey'les in a tone of caution. "I cannot allow you to kill him though."
"Ugh," Sey'les groaned, plopping her muddy self down into Ahsoka's pilot's chair. "Why didn't you just drop him off at the spaceport then?"
Because I wanted to get through your thick skull. I wanted to catch you off-guard, force you to make concessions. Make you see how incompetent your security measures— "I just wanted to talk to you again," Ahsoka lied.
Sey'les scowled, flashing her canines as she stared at the Togruta. "Well, we're talking. If you release Fen to my custody and don't tell the Senate..." She growled thoughtfully, looking up at the ceiling. "I won't kill him. And I'll give you a Jedi Temple."
"Uh… A Jedi Temple?" Ahsoka gasped. "How is a Jedi Temple yours to give?"
"We liberated one on Krant… Three—No five years ago. I kept it a state secret. I was planning on giving it to that farmer-boy Luke, but he's never taken the time to visit me. Ever."
The Liberation of Krant was six years ago. Ahsoka fought the urge to correct her, instead saying "I am sure that if you made your offer clearer, Master Skywalker would… Oh."
Holding two fingers out, Sey'les levitated the keys off Ahsoka's belt, drawing them through the air into her furry hands. Without asking for permission, she unlocked Fen's cage.
"She—You can't," Fen whimpered. "Sey'les I am sorry, I didn't—"
"Get up," Sey'les snarled, pulling him to his feet. Holding him still by the shoulders, she opened her snout, biting each word furiously. "Get out, dry off, sit on the couch, and wait for me. We are going to talk."
Fen looked nervously at Ahsoka, then trotted out from the cockpit, into the hall, then out into the rain.
"AND I TOLD YOU NOT TO LEAVE BOTHAWUI!" Sey'les yelped down the hallway.
Ahsoka stood there, wanting to concern herself with Fen Kar'fon. The Supreme Secretary at first had choked him, then she seemed to release him, without putting him under arrest—despite the fact he had attempted murder.
She wanted to worry about that, but instead the Togruta found herself staring concernedly at the more trivial matter of her pilot's chair, which now coated in thick brown mud as Sey'les took a seat.
"—The Temple," Sey'les growled, activating Ahsoka's planetary readout terminal without permission. "It's right about… Here?" she asked, poking her muddy finger on the screen. A gleaming silver ruby wedding ring was visible on one of her fingers, contrasted heavily with the mud and dark grey wet fur. "No, here… I think. Actually, kriff this. It'll take me all day to dig through my records. You need Admiral Kelia, she's Clan Aean's current Grum. Contact her and tell her I gave you the whole Temple. All of it."
Exhaling despondently, Ahsoka shook her head at the brown streaks smeared all over her screen.
"You should get this ruggedized," Sey'les grunted. "The circuitry could fry from the mud, you know? I know a friend—well a couple in the Bothan settlement on Ohma-D'un. Itoll Oc'skar and Zerir Vri'skar. Anyways, I'll pay them to ruggedize this whole cockpit for free."
Ahsoka grunted, squeezing past Sey'les as she ran a dry towel over the screen.
"You could stay for dinner," Sey'les growled hopefully. "The Clan Leader of Alab is coming for dinner, so Shewwarghrur is making this… Wookiee stuff. It's really good, trust me, and it'd be really rogue to show you to Grum Alab. Hell, maybe I could invite more of the Combined Clans over. They need to see that their Supreme Secretary has connections to powerful Togrutas like yourself."
"Thanks for the offer," Ahsoka huffed, starting to get slightly annoyed with her requests. "But, I really need to see this temple."
