Chapter 96 - Arrangements
Ahsoka Tano was on a Waystation in the Gordian Reach. Even though the Rebellion no longer had its main station in the sector, Anakin thought that the station was worth preserving. It was useful for sending messages back and forth, certainly. He thought it would be strategic to keep its location secret, and it was her job to keep up a sort of shield around it with the Force. That way any imperialists who came into the system would barely give it a second thought. It was a boring job, but one that was crucial. Her experience in war taught her that if you can't get messages where you need them, having the best army was pointless.
But tonight would not be a boring night. Galen Merek would be there as well. If there's anything two lineage-mates could be trusted to do, it's to compare stories about their shared master. And it's a good thing Anakin wasn't going to be around, because she had some embarrassing stories to tell. It was going to be fun.
Ahsoka checked on the stash of snacks she'd stored away for their evening watch, then she finished the meditation to build up the shield with the Force again. Keeping the shield running was a simple task. The only complication is that it must be redone every so many hours, especially during the night hours, where the Force seems to decide to unwind every shield on its own. Ahsoka would be questioning why this was, but in her experience, sometimes the Force was just odd.
After this was finished, she bounced down to the three main quarters this station possessed. When Galen arrived earlier, he had been tired and grumpy. Like Obi-Wan without meditation. She had supposed that must be the reason why. He just needed a nap and a good meditation, and he'd be back to normal.
"Ga-aaa-len," she called.
"Wha- oh, Soka?" Galen appeared at the door. He still looked a little tired, though less grumpy, as he returned her smile.
"You said you'd do the night shift with me."
Galen nodded, and he reached back to get a coat. "I did say that, didn't I?"
"You don't have to, if you still need to rest." Ahsoka offered, hiding her disappointment.
"No, I said I'd help you. It's what I'm gonna do." Galen stepped out and started walking down the hallway.
Ahsoka smiled and followed him. He just needed a little something to make him laugh, she figured. "You know there was this time when Sky-Guy had this idea on how to improve the range of one of the cannons. But we didn't have anything to test it with. And it would've been a very bad idea to test the canon with real artillery. But we did have Muja Fruit seized from some counterfeit traders in the outer rim…"
Galen smiled, anticipating the ending to the story. Ahsoka took it as a good sign, and she went on.
"Juice got everywhere! Almost every ship in that hangar went from white to pink. Then Rex came in to give Anakin a message from the battlefront, and he suddenly went all gungho on cleaning. He usually didn't care about Master Obi-Wan's opinion that much, but the Master was on his way. We scrubbed the ships for hours. You know, on reflection, Padme was with Obi-Wan when he arrived… So that probably had something to do with it." Ahsoka laughed at it to herself. "It's hard to remember, but apparently they were married at the time."
She shrugged her shoulders, making light of it, until Galen groaned.
"What's wrong?" She decided to ask.
"Please, I don't need this now. I just got off the comm with my Dad, and he's got the whole Council on his side apparently."
"Hmm?" Ahsoka's brow furrowed with confusion. She didn't understand the family thing. Though to her, Plo, Anakin and Obi-Wan were like her family. She barely remembered her own real family.
"Marriage," he filled in. "Apparently, I've been dating Juno for long enough that he thinks we should get married."
"Oh." This was one of those awkward conversations she was not ready for. "Well, you two are cute together." Which was apparently the wrong answer because he groaned again. "But it's none of my business."
Galen sighed. "Thanks. I do want to, you know. I want to marry her one day. It's just that with the war going on, it doesn't feel like the right time. How am I supposed to split my attention between fighting and a homelife? And as soon as we get married, he's going to be asking us about having children. I am not ready to be a father!"
"Hmm." Ahsoka hummed. "It might be because I remember a time when Jedi who fell in love had to either leave the order, like your parents, or love in secret, like Anakin and Padme. But I don't think you have to worry about being ready to marry her. You love her, you'd make it work. But don't feel rushed into anything either. Especially not into having kids."
"Can I quote you on that? It might help if my father really does get the council on his side."
"I don't know how my opinion would stand up against the council, but sure. Why not?"
Galen stared, mouth agape at her. "You know your opinion matters a lot to them. Especially to Master Anakin." Ahsoka blushed. "There wasn't a time when I didn't hear 'Soka would do it this way.' I used to feel very intimidated by you."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Ahsoka didn't know what to say. She did not expect him to tell her that.
"Don't worry about it. Luke had it worse. His Master's old Padawan was his father!"
"That's true." Ahsoka nodded along. "Say, do you want to hear a really embarrassing tale about Master Sky-Guy?" She offered.
His mouth opened with the biggest smile. "Do I ever?"
Anakin walked into his quarters on Beskarn, and he collapsed onto his armchair. He knew he had things to do. Checking up on what the rest of the Order had been up to since he was on Yavin, for one. But that could wait until later. He'd managed to send Obi-Wan back earlier. His old Master would alert him if anything required his attention that badly. He should have time to take a nap first.
Anakin felt a buzz and reached down to his comlink. He was prepared to dismiss the call, only it was his wife. "Padme, my Angel," he greeted, after pushing the button on the comlink.
"Ani," She smiled one of her sympathetic smiles. "You look tired. I suppose the trial with Vader is over. Did you, um?"
"Yes, the trial is over. I don't want to talk about it right now. Later, I'll explain everything."
"Okay, you go ahead and rest. When you are able, I think you'll have several messages. Owen has been trying to reach you."
"Oh has he? I'll comm him first thing, then."
"Sleep well, my love." Padme kissed the edge of her comlink, and Anakin smiled.
His eyes were closing already, so he muttered back a reply and swiped to end the connection. The comlink dropped from his arms and clinked on the floor, but he did not reach down to pick it up. His eyes were shut before it hit the floor.
A number of hours, and several cups of caff later, Anakin had read through his messages and formed his to-do list. The first thing was to contact Owen. "Brother," he greeted the man on the other end of his comlink. "I understand that Mace-Ti has been asking to come join us. And while I would ordinarily love to spend time with my favorite nephew, the time is n…"
Owen waved to stop him. "I've already given him permission to go."
"What!" Anakin tilted his head to get a better view.
"Young Kenobi and I had words. He's a persuasive youngling, he is. Anyways, he called his father, and I had words with him too. I let Mace-Ti travel with young Eli-Jinn to see how you guys operate, then he'll return by the end of the harvest season. I trust he's not going to be involved with any fighting while he's there.
"Oh no… Uh…" Anakin was at a loss for words. He still hadn't updated Mace-Ti about his father. Initially, when Tel-Mac was taken captive by the Rebellion, he thought it would be a difficult conversation he'd handle the next time he visited Tatooine. That was back when he assumed the man would be executed by the rebellion. Now, though… Things were a lot more complicated. "There's a situation you should be made aware of…"
As Anakin marched across the base, he could feel the storm in the Force rage in his head. Soon, men who were not Force-sensitive dropped their tools and reached for their heads. Even they were feeling the storm. Obi-Wan would have chastised him for it, but that thought made the storm rage more. 'How dare he.'
When he got to the end of the hall, he threw his hand and the Force opened a door. Inside, Obi-Wan was standing with Luke, Leo, and Ella-Reese. Anakin tried to temper the storm, not wanting to rage in front of the younglings.
"Hi Dad," Leo greeted.
"What's going on?" Luke questioned.
Obi-Wan squinted his eyes at his former pupil, clearly able to sense whatever Luke was reading.
"I've just gotten off the comm, a conversation I had with Owen. About Mace-Ti."
"Oh yeah, that." Luke hummed. This got Anakin's attention. He did not know his son was involved. "Yeah, he was asking after you, when you were busy on Dagobah. Apparently, Mace-Ti wanted to come out here, but Uncle Owen was like 'No way!' Macey wanted to ask Uncle Ben for help, but he wasn't able to talk either…"
"And so I suggested, why not the Negotiator Jr." Leo added.
"Yeah, my little brother is good at persuasion." Ella-Reese added on.
"But fortunately by the time he talked to Uncle Owen, Master was back from Dagobah, and he was able to help," Luke finished.
"So I have all of you to b-thank then," Anakin said, remembering to replace blame with thank at the last minute.
"Why don't you go prepare for dinner. I'll be down to join you in a little while." Obi-Wan said. When all of the young ones were out, he turned back to Anakin and braced. "Out with it. I know you're pissed."
"Why?" Anakin demanded. "You know what's going on with Tel-Mac. Now you expect to bring his son into it."
"He's coming to visit his Uncle Ani, not to get involved in Sith prisoner rehabilitations. Besides, by the time I was involved, Owen had officially changed his mind. All I did was confirm the details that Eli-Jinn had already promised." Anakin glared at him for a moment, as the man smiled, clearly proud of his offspring's negotiating abilities. "I assume we will need to talk about the man, but it will be a lot easier than having the conversations over the comlink."
Anakin rubbed his sleeve over his face, and he huffed. "Yeah. I'm the one who promised to have Mace-Ti talk to the man."
"You promised Tel-Mac a conversation with Mace-Ti!" Obi-Wan's mouth dropped.
"I had to get him to fight it somehow. He needed motivation. I was imagining doing it over a holo, from across the stars."
"It's a risky play to make. I'm not sure the others would've accepted his trial's passing if they knew you'd interfered."
"But I didn't…" Anakin tried to protest.
"And it's more risky for the boy. I suppose you can still have him behind a holo. There's no reason he has to know his son is on a Rebellion base."
Anakin nodded. Keeping his nephew safe was his priority.
"And if we do this, we should get a mind-healer in for the boy." Obi-Wan added.
Anakin smiled and he nodded. It was like on their old missions, when Anakin devised a crazy and supposedly 'insane' plan, and Obi-Wan would go along with it because he knew they tended to work. And because he knew Anakin would go ahead with the idea anyways, but that's beside the point.
Hello Readers,
I hope you don't mind me skipping the details of the trial and jumping to the end of it. It was the best way to write this, I felt. And I did try to keep the details of its ending a secret until the very end, for dramatic purposes. You can't blame me for a little drama.
Anyways, in the next chapter we'll hear some more from Ahsoka and Galen, and find out some big news. In writing this I discovered I have a tendency to write Galen as Gavin instead. I think I corrected it all, but just in case you notice something I missed, please let me know. I can't find this error in my earlier chapters, so it must be a new error. It has been a while since I mentioned the character.