Five years later
Ashla was now seventeen years old and had completed her studies at the University of Weogar in terms of coursework. She thought about taking her master's degree in mathematics on Muunilinst to get to know the life of her father's people there even better.
"I wish I could give you a chip card to one of the apartments your father owned there in Harnaidan, but I'm afraid the Emperor has stolen all of them," the grandmother said sadly to Ashla. "They appointed each other as heirs. Just like Tenebrous and Plagueis used to do. Just like Sith Lords always do with their apprentices."
"Don't worry, I'll find something. But I will miss you," Ashla replied, hugging her grandmother.
"Just be careful, my child. The Muuns may be friendly and correct, but they will show newcomers like you that you don't belong. Especially because of your mother. And because you weren't born on Muunilinst. You wouldn't believe what Caar had to do to get Hego recognized as his heir after he moved back to Muunilinst. And that was only because Hego was born on Mygeeto and not on Muunilinst like his father.
"I'll take care of myself, grandmother," Ashla reassured her.
Her conversation with Mace Windu, who didn't want to go to Muunilinst, was more difficult.
"The Muuns aren't exactly known as friends of the Jedi. And now even less. What if they track us down just as we're performing there together?"
"We can take two apartments so that no one connects us with each other. Besides, I'm almost coming of age and it's time for something of my own," suggested Ashla.
They looked for apartments via the Holo-Net and Ashla got an apartment right near the university. The landlady, who was also the owner, was happy to have such a nice, ambitious young lady living with her, at least that's how she explained it to Ashla during their long-distance phone call when they first got to know each other. Ashla wished she could have at least caught a picture of the elderly woman, but the holoprojector's image function was malfunctioning, which only fueled Ashla's curiosity about her new home.
Mace Windu, on the other hand, preferred to take an apartment in the spaceport-connected orbital city called High Port Space Center, where mostly guest workers or transients lived, so that he could blend in inconspicuously in the crowd. That's why after arriving at the central spaceport of Muunilinst, Mace Windu was able to take a taxi glider to his apartment while his padawan waited for the shuttle that would take her directly to Muunilinst and there to the capital Harnaidan. She proudly presented her study permit to the immigration officer, a Sakiyan.
"As a foreigner, do you even have a residence permit for the planet?" the official asked grumpily. "I'm moving into my new apartment today. My studies start in three days. I can also give you the address," Ashla explained innocently.
"Well, since your father is a Muun, I don't want to be like that. But you have to submit the certificate of residence entitlement in a week, otherwise you will be deported!" said the officer threateningly.
Ashla swallowed. She knew that her study permit, which she had certainly received because of her outstanding grade point average, also entitled her to stay on the green planet. Until now she had been of the opinion that this also included a right of residence. She hoped she wasn't mistaken.
Ashla watched expectantly as the shuttle plunged into the atmosphere of Muunilinst, as the sky became increasingly brighter and, above all, as it gradually turned greener. There were a few white clouds in the sky. It was sunshine and when she stepped out onto the street, she was amazed at how slowly and measuredly the Muuns went about their business, since the financial well-being and woe of the entire galaxy was decided here, and the galaxy-wide credit in its evaluation was at least to sixty percent dependent of the economic activity of the Muun people.
When Ashla finally found her new apartment, the owner opened the door to her as agreed. Ashla was surprised to see the dismay on the face of the older Muun woman, who had the same skin color as Ashla, but brown eyes.
"Hello," Ashla said cheerfully.
"But, you didn't tell me you were a foreigner," the woman said, and Ashla felt herself looking at her lekkus and facial tattoos in disgust.
"But I can submit the residence permit within a week," replied Ashla, still under the mistaken belief that it was a misunderstanding.
"I'm sorry, but I don't rent to foreigners. For you there are the orbital satellite cities around the planet," said the Muun venomously.
"But during our conversation via holoprojector you were still really excited." Ashla wondered.
"Yes, you speak our language excellently, so much so that at first I really thought you were one of us. But how you look! And then those tattoos! You have to be ashamed. I really can't afford such a scandal!"
Thus she spoke and slammed the door in Ashla's face.
Ashla was close to tears, but she didn't feel like showing her defeat to the passing Muuns. She immediately returned to the ferry stop and flew back where she came from to look for a place to stay in the spaceport city. The apartments were much cheaper there, but she now had to travel three times longer to the university than if she had gotten the apartment in Harnaidan. She eventually found accommodation by sharing an apartment with a Twi'lek who worked as a waitress at a restaurant in Harnaidan.
༺༻
The hall in which the master's colloquium was to take place was already filled with around forty people when Ashla joined them. Almost all of them were Muun, but there were also a few humans and Twi'lek among them. Everyone presented their topic for their master's thesis and when it was Ashla's turn to explain her topic, "Two ways to represent the loop gravity theory mathematically," she felt that people were looking at her more intensely than at all the other master's students who had already done the presentation of their works yet to be finished. The professor, a fairly old Muun, listened favorably to all the lectures and occasionally took a few notes. With Ashla, he wrote quite a lot, as she noticed from the corner of her eye.
After the master's colloquium was over, all students went to the cafeteria – a large, bright hall whose white walls were adorned with a continuous green ornamental band just below the ceiling. Ashla was craving a juicy Nexu steak, but none of the four dishes on offer had meat on the menu. Correct. Muuns were vegetarians. So she picked out a large vegetable frying pan and decided to fry some meat in the apartment that evening. Then she saw two young Muun women who had also been at the colloquium with her.
"Is here still a place free?" she asked in a friendly manner.
One of the two women nodded curtly, so Ashla sat down next to them and began to eat.
"You had a topic about exponential equations in financial forecasting, right? Sorry, I forgot your name," Ashla began the conversation.
"Yes, that's right. I'm Dilopha and this is my friend Ankyla," replied the pink Muun with blue eyes, pointing to her almost white friend with yellow eyes.
"I'm Ashla."
"What a name!" Ankyla remarked and Ashla heard slight mockery in her voice.
"What about my name?" Ashla asked challengingly.
"That sounds so Jedi. Ashla – the ancient name for the Light Side of the Force. We took literature last semester," Dilopha explained boredly, rolling her blue eyes in annoyance.
"Well, I didn't choose the name," Ashla replied harshly.
"Just like your mother," Ankyla went one better, while her yellow eyes literally pierced Ashla.
"Only your father chose them," said Dilopha, grinning.
"What if my mother was the Muun?" Ashla asked back angrily.
"A Muun would never deign to go to bed with a man from an alien species!" Dilopha explained indignantly and snootily.
"I hope that you will fall in love with a man from a different species." Ashla hissed at the two of them and stood up abruptly from the table, taking her food with her, of which she had only eaten a bite.
"Yes, just go! You are a perversion of our species!" said Dilopha.
"And your tattoos! Totally vulgar!" Ankyla shouted after her.
Ashla sat alone at another table and began to seriously question her stay on Muunilinst. This was supposed to be the people to which her father belonged?
When she got back to her apartment, her Twi'lek roommate was already at work. She called her master to tell him what had happened at the university.
"How glad I am that I stayed here," said Mace Windu. "I got a job as a concierge for a large apartment block. Nothing exciting. But it's a secure job and I have plenty of time to do other things. We work in a two-shift system. I can occasionally train with you during the day."
"I would really like to speak to Shaak Ti now. I would love to know if she survived," Ashla said to Mace Windu.
"You've given me a great idea!" said the Korun Jedi Master, his dark brown eyes shining at Ashla. The next day Ashla came to work with Mace Windu. The concierge area contained a powerful computer and a holo-terminal - good conditions for hacking into the electronic recording devices in the Jedi Temple. Mace Windu looked up the list of killed Jedi. Shaak Ti's name wasn't on it.
"There might be hope," he said, giving Ashla an encouraging look.
He zeroed in on the surveillance camera closest to Shaak Ti's room. Then he looked for the day on which Order 66 was issued. Mace Windu and Ashla saw Shaak Ti leave her chamber. So Mace Windu changed the camera to go to the next one. They saw Shaak Ti go to the speeder garage to sit cross-legged and meditate. There was no sound, but both could still see Anakin Skywalker coming and having a short conversation with Shaak Ti, whereupon the Jedi Master stepped aside and Anakin grabbed a speeder.
"So she let him go!" Mace Windu hissed as Ashla looked on in disbelief.
"How could she have known, what would happen?" Ashla tried to protect her mother.
"It doesn't matter at all!" Mace Windu snapped. "Shaak Ti had received explicit instructions from me not to let anyone get to the gliders! And certainly not Skywalker! And I had expressly forbidden Skywalker to leave the temple while I and the other three were with the Chancellor. Shaak Ti knew that too. So why?!" Mace Windu asked his young padawan accusingly.
"Who knows what he said to her that she gave him the glider?" Ashla tried again to relieve her mother.
The two Jedi followed Shaak Ti via the holo-camera as she made her way back to her chamber. Nothing happened for a while except that the Togruta Master was meditating. But both Mace Windu and Ashla sensed that Shaak Ti had not been feeling well at all back then. She seemed stiff and tense. 'A guilty conscience?' thought Mace Windu. After a while they saw the door to the chamber being thrown open by some startled younglings. Immediately afterwards, they watched with excitement as Shaak Ti quickly decided to help them escape.
"She brought the younglings to safety. At least something," grumbled Mace Windu, only to watch with a frown as the Togruta Master took out a strange-looking comlink from a pocket in her Jedi robe and activated it.
"What is she doing now?" Ashla asked, then Mace Windu abruptly ended the connection. "I received a counter signal. If we keep looking now, they can locate us. Someone noticed that we hacked into the temple without authorization," Mace Windu explained in a worried tone.
Two days later, Mace Windu hacked into said holo-surveillance camera again at the Jedi Temple. So Shaak Ti pulled out her strange comlink, activated it and said something neither of them could interpret. Just five minutes later, a squad of clone troopers arrived to escort Shaak Ti through the Jedi Temple, straight to Anakin Skywalker.
"That's it," Ashla said tonelessly, only to see the two clone commanders from Shaak Ti and Anakin's unit exchange a few words with each other. Shaak Ti then left the temple with her head held high and a stoic expression on her face, without Anakin even kinking her a lekku. Just two minutes later, the two Jedi saw the Overlord take off from Coruscant, taking Shaak Ti and the clones accompanying her with her.
Mace Windu cut the connection.
"They agreed! Earlier with the glider and later in the temple! From the beginning! Did you see how stoic and unmoved she walked past the corpses in the temple? What a dumbass I was!" Mace Windu spat at Ashla, tearing his bald head.
"I don't know what to say, Master," Ashla replied, completely perplexed.
"Master Yoda and I always had Skywalker in our sights. His uncontrollable hot-bloodedness, his volatility and his closeness to the Chancellor. But we had two rats sitting on the Council! And one of them always behaved in an exemplary manner and in accordance with the rules, so that no one had any idea what a dirty game she was up to while everyone was watching Skywalker!"
"What do you think, Master?"
"Shaak Ti didn't care at all, when her padawans fell! Just like the dead Jedi in the Temple after Order 66! She sang the praises of the clones in the Council right after the Battle of Geonosis. That we would need them. That they were a gift from your father to the Jedi and the Republic. To supposedly support the Jedi! And Yoda fell for her and gave her the health and training of the clones too! Shaak Ti handed Fives over to Skywalker and Fox to kill him so that the truth wouldn't come out. While she obviously cultivated a unit devoted to her, which then smuggled her out of the temple unmolested during Order 66!"
"But master! Maybe not all clones carried out Order 66. There are supposed to be Jedi survivors!"
"That's too many coincidences for me!" Mace Windu snapped at her. "Luminara Unduli told the Council back then that Shaak Ti was an admirer of Chancellor Palpatine. That's probably why she handed the Chancellor over to Grievous back then. And in return, Grievous let her live while he viciously slaughtered her two mission companions, Roron Corobb and Foul Moudama, before kidnapping the Chancellor in this sleazy comedy. It was all agreed upon! And all this just so Skywalker could prove himself to Palpatine and kill Dooku, who the Chancellor had grown tired of! Shaak Ti is probably sitting in some secret apartment on Coruscant now, massaging Palpatine's feet when he needs some relaxation!"
"But… Master! Unless I hear it from her myself, I just can't believe what you're saying!" Ashla replied, close to tears, which she suppressed at the last moment.
"A thief will never admit to being a thief! And one more thing: ... your father died ... just a day after Shaak Ti kept vigil with him. Funny, isn't it? Like a Nightsister who kills the father of her child after he impregnates her. And afterwards she shed crocodile tears over his death. I can still hear her words: 'Hego Damask died for all of us'. Just thinking about how she behaved on the Council back then makes me sick!" he hissed at Ashla.
Ashla had seen and heard enough. She resolved not to bring up the subject of Shaak Ti with her master again.
What made her happier was that Tarla, her Twi'lek roommate, wanted to take her to a party.
༺༻
The evening's party took place at a villa in one of Harnaidan's posh suburbs. Ashla enjoyed a beautiful view of the sunset over the Western Sea while music played and two service droids dropped off drinks and snacks. What struck Ashla was the fact that the male guests were mostly Muuns, while she also spotted the occasional Twi'lek or human male. A Sullustan was also there. However, the women were in large numbers at the party. They were all human, Mirialan or Twi'lek - not a single Muun woman was in sight. Ashla saw that everyone was dancing together quite happily. A few couples left the dance hall; probably to deepen the meeting in other ways, as Ashla assumed. After half an hour, Tarla joined her and introduced her to a Muun.
"This is Lermo, my boyfriend," the green Twi'lek explained with a smile and Ashla saw her green eyes shining with pride.
"You never told me about that," Ashla said, somewhat surprised.
"This isn't a topic that people here immediately throw at everyone," said Tarla, smiling sheepishly.
Then her roommate and her boyfriend went away again to do some dancing. After a while, a rather tall Muun came towards Ashla. "My name is Vulgo. Do you want to dance?"
Without saying anything in response, Ashla took a step towards him and let him lead her onto the dance floor.
"You're pretty. And you know that for sure," Vulgo opened the conversation during the dance, looking pleasantly at her finely cut face with the elegantly curved long nose, at her narrow waist and her now hip-length lekkus. Without Montrals she was now 1.90 standard meters tall. With Montrals even 2.10. Ashla looked into his yellow eyes, which looked at her slightly from above. She was taller than him with Montrals, but shorter without them. She felt like he was checking her out. Just as if he were calculating possible profits.
"Yes, I know that," she replied flippantly, tilting her long head back slightly.
"Is your father here on Muunilinst too?" asked Vulgo.
"He's dead," Ashla replied coldly.
"Oh I'm sorry. But your mother is surely still alive."
"She's on Coruscant," Ashla lied.
"And what are you doing here?"
"I'm studying mathematics here!" she added energetically.
"Oh, I like that. You wouldn't believe how tired I am of all these literature and language students, who just come here to hook up with a rich Muun and be taken care of for the rest of their lives without really having any feelings for the man," he replied .
"Were there that many?" Ashla asked, looking him cheekily in the eyes.
"That is of no importance. Because now you're here," Vulgo explained almost solemnly and smiled at her.
"An invitation to leave this party," Ashla replied loudly.
Vulgo now grabbed her around the waist and wanted to lead her to the exit.
"Alone!" Ashla pushed energetically and twisted his wrist, freeing her hips in this brutal way, while Vulgo's face contorted in pain at her abrupt grip.
"I guess I'm not that good at flirting. Do I still have a chance?" he asked her and Ashla saw his yellow eyes moisten.
"You're definitely not the reason I'm here on Muunilinst - or even at this party!" she snapped at him, baring her canine teeth at him in an aggressive facial expression. Then she pushed him away from her, back towards the dance floor.
Ashla left the party hall to go downstairs. She heard someone coming after her. It was Tarla.
"Let's go home together," her roommate offered.
"What kind of hook up show was this?" Ashla asked as they sat in the shuttle back to the orbital station, which was only a third full.
"Well, you probably didn't get along well with Vulgo," Tarla said.
"I know that myself. And you obviously already know him," Ashla said, her black eyes glaring angrily at Tarla.
"It's easier when you have a Muun friend," Tarla began to explain the purpose of the party. "You get gifts, you get to live in Harnaidan, you don't have to travel so far back and forth."
"You're doing it ... for material reasons?" asked Ashla, horrified.
"Well, Lermo isn't that bad. By the way, we're getting married in two months. And if I last five years of marriage with him, then I'll even get third-class citizenship here for life later," explained Tarla, her green eyes half closed and enjoying the prospect of her rosy future.
"But I didn't came to Muunilinst to gain citizenship in this way. And then only third class! I just want to get my master's degree, then look for a job somewhere and I don't want to get married at all!" Ashla said defiantly.
"The men here definitely think you're great. I know that the Muun women are jealous of us because their husbands secretly look after us because we are so fiery and exotic."
"I don't care if they think I'm great. I just find things like that disgusting! Do the Muun men all go to parties like this?"
"Hmmm… I don't think so," Tarla replied, somewhat hesitantly.
Ashla could see that she was sorry that she didn't like this party.
"But I for one will be moving directly to Muunilinst in two weeks. To Sun Valley, also called Ernai City," Tarla announced.
"Ernai City – the city for second wives. That's a shame," Ashla said.
"I thought you were coming with me. I know that you too would prefer to live in Harnaidan. Then we would be together again on Muunilinst and could do something - two or four of us," said the green Twi'lek and gave her an encouraging wink.
"No thanks. And that Vulgo even more so!" said Ashla with her upper lip pulled up.
"But you come visit me there. Promise me!"
"Yes, if your boyfriend isn't there, I'm happy to," Ashla replied.
"Don't worry, he's usually with his family on the other side of town."
"With his family? Does he have children?" Ashla asked in a reproachful tone.
"Three. I agreed with him to take the pill because he doesn't want a bastard, as he says."
"Thank you very much. I wouldn't want a child with someone like that!" said Ashla, pouting.
Tarla laughed loudly at that, to cover up her own doubts, Ashla assumed. At Tarla's laugh, some of the human passengers turned to look at them, which embarrassed Ashla.
Finally, shortly before midnight, the ferry had reached the orbital city of High Port Space Center. Both women hailed a glider taxi, which stopped right in front of their apartment after about ten standard minutes. Tarla and Ashla fell into bed and fell asleep immediately.