Chapter 114

My hat was proverbially tipped to Thrawn when he retained his balance after I returned his senses to normality. He didn't even sit down, breathe hard or visibly show any form of shock at having his worldview pulled out from under his feet.

I had sufficiently proved my prophetic abilities to him enough that he took what I showed him with the seriousness it deserved.

He looked at his hand and around the interior compartment of the Omen.

"How much time has actually passed?"

"Barely a few minutes," I answered with a smile. "In the realms of memory, mind and prescience, time is nebulous by nature. We had a lot to talk about and even debate, after all."

He nodded, closing his red eyes and clearly trying to internalize everything. The chiss had a mind that was one of the most fascinating I've ever experienced. It was orderly, logical, but not boring and somehow released a creativity that honestly would have made him one of the foremost artists in the galaxy had his talents gone into the traditional artistic endeavours. Now, he painted with military strategy and tactics instead, which also extended to the associated political arena.

"A debate which is not yet over to my satisfaction," Thrawn opened his eyes and stared into my visor intently.

"We could argue about that for days, Captain and wouldn't get anywhere."

To say that Thrawn was unimpressed by the Republic's current style of governance was an understatement. To him it was a bloated system where everyone had a voice and nothing got done. I actually agreed with him in that respect, but where we clashed was that he didn't consider it worth bringing the Chiss Ascendancy into an alliance with the Republic as a result.

Even the Yuuzhan Vong threat didn't really change the political realities and problems that would be encountered in the short to medium term. Yes, having the full might of the GAR alongside the Ascendancy, properly prepared for the future threat was an attractive prospect. It was something even Thrawn wanted to see happen as well, but beyond that he saw little point in even opening up a basic embassy and trading ambassadors.

The fact that the Republic was technically fighting a 'civil war' against a breakaway nation in the CIS, only further made his point.

"Look," I reached into a nearby compartment and handed over a long range comlink I had brought, roughly the size of a backpack. It couldn't punch through the Galactic Wall, but would allow for him to contact me securely the moment he was on the Republic side. If he could arrange for a satellite relay then it would even allow him to speak to me from inside Chiss space. "We can continue the discussion when you want to later. Right now, you've got shield tech to get back to your people."

Thrawn regarded the comlink with pursed lips before reaching out and slinging it over his shoulder by the strap. "Very well, Commander Tano. I will be in contact."

"Good luck Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo, may the Force be with you."

"And you," he graciously replied.

Time, it seemed, had caught us by surprise this year.

The consecutive emergencies and being run ragged in the war meant that it was with surprise that we woke the next day to see the entire city of Yovbridge begin putting up the decorations for this year's Life Day celebrations.

The governor had put us up in a close friend's residence who was currently offworld and wouldn't make it back for a few weeks yet.

It wasn't a sprawling mansion, but it was on the upmarket in terms of size and luxury, with four separate bedrooms, en suite freshers, a pool, a modest yard, but its location and view was simply amazing. It was settled on a hill that overlooked a picturesque lake in the western outskirts of the city. All sorts of water pleasure craft were hovering, sailing and powering across the 3000 plus hectares of pristine lake.

The water was so clean that you could see almost to the bottom in most places. The local fish who called the lake home were easy to observe and it was clear that the Mokivians had gone to great lengths to keep this place as close to its natural splendor as possible. According to everything I'd found on the local Holonet, all fishing was strictly controlled and only allowed in terms of keeping the ecology in check.

Life Day celebrations were planned to be held on the lake as well, with large celebratory floats and ships decorated in elaborate red buntings, knots, ribbons, orbs and lights.

Of course, the one person among our group who was most enthused about everything and largely contrite that he also had lost track of time, was Chewbacca.

It was the one contribution to galactic culture that the wookiees could confidently say was theirs.

"We must hurry to the local market," Chewie growled, impatience radiating from his body language as he stood at the door waiting for us.

"Relax, Chewie," I patted him on the arm. "I checked the open times, we have hours before they're due to close."

He grumped an understanding noise as we waited in the house's entrance hall for Padme and Anakin. He'd decided to go wookiee au' naturel with only his bandolier and a single blaster in the pouch. I went with my usual semi-casual Hapan attire and reveled in being free of my Mando helmet and beskar'gam.

M8 did join us through, as I didn't want to leave her out.

"Did you get much sleep?" I asked him with a twitch of my lips.

"A few hours… Oh, you thought I'd be disturbed by the sounds of those two shaking the branches?" He chuckled as only a wookiee could. "No. We wookiees are used to such things given our good hearing, the limited space in most of our homes and large families."

Anakin and Padme came down the stairs, both freshened up and changed into much more fitting attire. Padme was wearing a strappy red dress leaving her shoulders bare with a lovely plunging neckline that stopped somewhere just above her navel (she clearly hadn't forgotten about Life Day), whilst Anakin was in dark black and brown tunic and leggings with calf length all-terrain boots.

"All ready?" he asked. We nodded. "Then let's be off."

The governor had arranged for us to have a closed top eight seat speeder, which pulled up under R2's guidance, who was awkwardly slotted into the driver's seat.

"I'll take over, thanks buddy," Anakin approached the seat. Only for R2 to blurt a rude noise and refuse. "Oh, all right, you'll drive then."

We arrived at our destination barely a few minutes later with the droid's expert flight skills, neatly dodging quite a lot of traffic from others who also had the idea of doing last minute shopping.

The market we were going to was on the lake's northern edge and stretched along nearly two kilometers of lakefront.

Stalls and shops were arranged in three rows, each ascending along three roads that flowed into hairpin bends at the end, creating levels to the greater market.

The place was packed and just looking at it was… magical.

The festive mood and emotions in the air, the decor of artificial wroshyr trees and red orbs, the din of people - reflecting a true melting pot of the galaxy's races - I counted fourteen species as my eyes ranged from left to right, it all just combined as a feast of life and energy. If there was ever a Nexus of the Force on the planet at the moment, then this place was it.

We mostly browsed with our eyes, but it wasn't long before all four of us had bought a packet of Wookiee-ookiees - a cookie-like treat that reminded me of shortbread but with crunchy nuts added. It was one of the traditional Life Day fares, but each world had their own version of it by the simple fact that procuring the actual ingredients from Kashyyyk was utterly impractical.

"It's passable," Chewie declared after biting into a few. "Can't compare to my wife's though."

I was already eating my fifth, frak any issues I'd get, I'd sort it out with the Force - it was just that good and my taste buds were in heaven.

"Uh, sorry, excuse me," said an impossibly cute voice behind us.

We turned around to regard a small gaggle of children; human, twi'lek, nautolan and a few sullustan.

Padme smiled in a heart melting way, her eyes twinkling, "Yes?"

"Are you the Life Day wookiee?" the human girl asked innocently of Chewbacca, her eyes twinkling with hope up at him. "Can you take a pict with us?"

Chewie frowned in confusion for a moment. He turned to me and Anakin, "What is she talking about?"

Only for the children to scream in delight and amazement, "You're an actual wookiee!" The twi'lek girl clapped.

Then Chewie had that same gaggle of kids hugging his legs or clutching at his fur in amazement.

The poor wookiee didn't know what to do, his head twitching between each child and holding up his packet of cookies out of their reach.

Anakin chuckled, "Easy Chewie, I think I know what's going on. Take a look."

We followed where he pointed and there a few dozen meters up the street was at first what looked like another wookiee, but wearing a long red robe with a twinkling field of stars sewn onto it. The difference here was that this was not actually a wookiee, as this one was speaking fluent Basic that clearly came from a human mouth. It was a human in a wookiee suit.

Children were coming up to take picts with him or he sat down on a nearby chair to have a chat about the child's wishes for a Life Day present.

"Some Outer Rim and Expansion Region worlds do this," Anakin explained. "They have someone play the role of a wookiee in honor of the race that gifted us with this holiday and what it represents."

Chewie shook his head, "And I thought the plushy toys we sell to tourists on Kashyyyk was bad enough."

"Chewie, just let them take a pict, they're going to remember this for the rest of their lives, just treat them like your own kids at that age," I said with a chuckle of exasperation.

He made a few grumbling noises, rolling his eyes, "Fine, hold this please."

I took his packet of Wookiee-ookiees and the children cheered with happiness. M8 volunteered to take the pict, using a small recorder that the twi'lek kid was carrying around.

The kids were naturally wary of the intimidating 'Mando', but M8s cheerful voice and Padme's encouragement settled them down into smiling for the cam.

Then the human kid spotted the lightsabers on my belt.

"You're Jedi," he gasped.

"Yes," I confirmed with a sigh, knowing what was coming, no prescience needed.

Sure enough, Anakin and I were quickly roped into also posing for pics. The sullustan kid even had a pen and flimsi for us to sign.

When the children finally hurried back to a very amused group of parents, we had naturally drawn attention and become something of a spectacle.

The cookies had dried our mouths and we bought another traditional drink, Hoth chokolate. It was made from heated tauntaun milk and chocolate was dumped into it to melt. Both were locally sourced, with the tauntaun farms up in the polar regions of the planet and the beans for the chocolate grown in the more humid equatorial areas.

It was probably the first time in more than a decade that I had actually seen the Corusca galaxy version of chocolate and was in any position to eat it. For all that we also celebrated Life Day in the Jedi Temple, we did not indulge in the traditional confectionery treats associated with it.

I rescued the large piece of chocolate out of the steaming milk, then dumped it wholesale into my mouth and just let the pleasure of the treat run through my taste buds and mind.

It was gonna suck dealing with the aftermath of the milk in a digestion system that wasn't built for it, but frak it.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

The officious voice interrupted my bliss and I saw a somewhat overweight man in a red suit running up to us or more specifically Chewbacca. He stopped in front of Chewie with fists on his hips and glared.

"You're not supposed to be indulging in treats, you're supposed to be working," he declared, his short white beard twitching as his jowls wobbled.

Chewie had his mouth occupied with drinking the Hoth chokolate from a large cup with a straw, his beady black eyes blinking in astonishment.

Padme, bless her, recognized the impending disaster that was about to happen and rushed forward. She smiled in a way, when combined with her natural beauty, that thoroughly stunned the clueless market official.

"I'm sorry, Mister… what is your name?" She grabbed him by the arm and steered him away from a wookiee whose ears were beginning to proverbially leak steam from anger.

"Chas Loni, my lady," he said in a nonplussed fashion

"There's been a misunderstanding. This is an actual wookiee, his name is Chewbacca."

"What?!" he puffed up in astonishment. As if the moment couldn't get more complicated, music began thundering across the market.

It was a cheerful, upbeat piece with a style and instrumentation that could only be from Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes. The band that would've one day played in the cantina on Tatooine when an old Obi-Wan and Luke would meet Han Solo. It was to my own surprise that I found them active and together in this time period already. They had been contracted by the famous actor Jasod Revoc in the Galactic Revue - a gathering of performing artists to entertain Republic troops and personnel.

This song was entirely new to me and seemed to be an interpretation of a traditional wookiee tune played during Life Day. My montrals only heard a familiar musical rhythm now woven in the song, one that was either a supreme coincidence or the Force itself was trolling me.

It was definitely from a Christmas carol from my old life… but the name of it utterly eluded me.

"Yes! No, I'm not joking!" Padme shouted over the music. "Look."

Chewie lowered the straw from his mouth, swallowed and glared down at Loni.

The man's bubbly face instantly paled as he saw no telltale sign at the neck that it was a helmet shaped to look like a wookiee's head.

"Oh, oh! I'm so sorry, Mr. Chewbacca. I deeply apologize!" Loni even bowed.

Chewie, seeing the poor man's fear and appropriate contrition stopped glaring and grumbled at me, "Tell him, apology accepted."

I swallowed the last bits of chocolate with reluctance, "He says he accepts the apology."

"Please, accept this token," he quickly pulled a decorative silver and red orb made of thin plasteel into Padme's hand. "Entitles you to one free item from anything in the market. Consider it our Life Day gift to you."

Loni quickly excused himself, bowing to us before hurrying off to the actual man in a wookiee costume.

We continued to explore the market as a group, each of us browsing what Life Day gifts to get. I spotted even R2 and M8 conversing in rapid Binary, whilst we were stopped at a general electronics stall. It would be amusing to see what the two droids would choose as gifts to each other or even us meatbags.

It was also inevitable that gossip would spread through the market customers that two Jedi and an actual wookiee were present. Some would be incredulous and dismiss it as ridiculous. Others would be curious enough to come and check, before reporting back. It therefore wasn't long before we began to be approached, people asking for either autographs on presents, picts or all manner of objects. The long arms of COMPOR showed its reach when older teenagers and young adults recognized both Anakin and myself, even out here on the edge of the Unknown Regions.

"All right," Anakin declared, clearing his throat uncomfortably under Padme's amused mock glare. He had just finished signing the spare panty of a clearly smitten teenage girl. "We'll split up to each purchase our gifts, we meet at the speeder in two hours."

"Got it, Skyguy," I said with a big teasing grin.

He glared at me grumpily before marching off back into the bowels of the market.

"You're with me," Padme said abruptly with a sneaky grin, grabbing me by the arm and leading in the opposite direction.

The surprise was total, so I had little objection to it.

"How have you been doing, Ahsoka? It's been a while since we've had any opportunity for girl talk as you call it."

"As fine as can be expected, given our last mission. I'll not ruin this special day burdening you with any conversation related to it though."

"You're not even going to give me an earful about shutting you out?"

It was good she was practicing her paranoia by being so vague about the Bond even in such a noisy and busy setting. That was precisely when anyone good at surveillance would try to snoop.

"No need." Anakin had already done it, I'm sure. "Now why don't you tell me where you're taking me?"

"You'll see," she said simply with twinkling eyes.

It wasn't a few minutes of walking in companionable silence, with me occasionally being stopped for another autograph, before she led me to a large clothing stall, set under a fairly large gazebo style tent. The exterior had a signage proclaiming it as the 'U.R. Boutique'. Not a really imaginative name, but it was as I read the finer print underneath it that I began to get an idea of what had caught Padme's eye.

I mentally braced myself. We walked through the curtain door, which had a burly devaronian standing guard as bouncer, who promptly closed it behind us.

Inside was a store that could've come from Hapes, it was dedicated to female clothing in every variety possible, for every occasion. It was all given a Life Day twist - with red being the predominant color, with stars of every color, mostly green as decoration on top.

The place was packed with a lot of females of a variety of races, holding up outfits against themselves, whilst store attendants used scanners to determine fitting.

Padme was clearly looking for something and found it in the third and final aisle.

I gave her my best raised eyebrow impression.

It was the lingerie section.

"Really Padme?"

"Every woman your age definitely needs some, consider it my Life Day gift for you. I thought I might as well get something nice too."

"Something spicy for you-know-who to unwrap," I said knowingly.

"Yes, well," she coughed and blushed slightly. "Here, how about this one?"

It was a panty and top combo that was all straps, with mostly transparent bits except for the critical places. It wasn't objectively bad, but it just missed the mark for my personal taste and aesthetic sense. It was just a little too on the nose so to speak.

I shook my head and let my expression do the talking.

She put it back and after a bit of browsing produced a completely sheer red bra and panty.

No. Now it was too plain and simple for something meant to be sexy.

This was going to take a while.

For all that females of most species in general could spend hours shopping, as an expression of the gathering instinct, the togruta had not developed with that tendency. A female could just as well be sent out to hunt alongside the males.

Therefore, at the one and a half hour mark, I finally managed to get Padme out of that gazebo with something that half-way satisfied her. It was a one-piece lingerie suit in red with gold accents and fluffy white bits framing the hips. It had a completely open chest, with a sheer white fluffy bra meant to give support whilst also being very easy to remove.

I had settled within the first ten minutes on a matching four piece, floral lace lingerie in hot red with bra, thong, suspenders and pantyhose. It really needed some high heels to really finish it off, but the stall didn't have shoes.

Just imagining wearing that for… anyone really, left me feeling both embarrassed and rather fluttered.

My mind was utterly focused though on getting the gifts for Anakin, Chewie and the two droids. I had paid for Padme's lingerie, so that was my gift to her.

So now I had an iron grip around her hand, leading her to the various stalls I had memorized with purpose and not allowing her to fall into the trap of browsing again.

She bore my grumpiness with amusement and grace.

At least my general aura of 'I'll punch the next person to irritate me' dissuaded more autograph seekers or fans in general. It also dissuaded even a few brave males and females of various species with more romantic intentions from outright asking for my comlink code.

We arrived at the speeder laden with wrapped gifts three minutes late and Padme was only a little out of breath, showing she had at least been keeping up with her physical training regimen.

M8 piloted us back to our temporary home.

Chewie wasted no time in starting to set up his ideal Life Day celebration.

He had not only bought gifts, but also an artificial wroshyr tree with very simplistic decorations of various stars, which also had small interior lighting strips that flashed in all manner of patterns. There had been a bunch of other decor options, but it seemed Chewie was determined to enact a true wookiee style Life Day for us, stripping away as much of the consumerism as possible. Most of the things he would need were unavailable this far away from Kashyyyk and he was clearly improvising with some elements of the celebration.

For my own part, I decided to put my cooking skills to use, having bought fresh supplies from the market to use in the expansive kitchen. Whoever's house the governor had put us in, they didn't skimp on anything with regards to appliances and cutlery. Through the Force I could sense vaguely that this was a very cherished place, with many hours spent in it. He was either a food enthusiast or a professional chef.

I therefore made every effort to work carefully, even using short bursts of prescience to check if I was using the mixer correctly.

Cooking for myself, Padme and Anakin was somewhat old hat by now, but Chewie complicated things.

A filling meal for us would merely be an appetizer for my wookiee companion, so I had multiplied the portion of his dish by three.

Forty minutes later I was done and already washing all the cutlery and appliances I had used. Only when my conscience was satisfied that the owner was coming back to a kitchen that was even cleaner than before, did I emerge to begin placing all the food onto the living room table.

My eyes were immediately drawn to the wroshyr tree and its blinking lights…

The feeling of both warmth and nostalgia, for decades worth of another important holiday like this in my past life was enough to smack into my soul like an asteroid impact.

Only the fact that I didn't want to drop the massive tray carrying Chewie's food stopped me from collapsing onto my knees.

As it was, I didn't have the willpower to muster the control to stop my eyes from tearing up.

I quickly put down the tray and just took a seat, staring at the wroshyr tree.

It wasn't a pine tree, but it was close enough and old, ancient memories came boiling up.

Happy ones.

Sad ones.

Lonely ones.

The feeling of Padme's gentle hand on my shoulder pulled me out of it and I wiped my eyes and sniffled, seeing that Anakin and M8 had done the rest of the table. Bringing the food and all the necessary cutlery.

"Oh, sorry about that," I said with a small voice.

She smiled reassuringly, "Nothing to apologize for, Ahsoka."

I felt Anakin's hand on my other shoulder, "You're here, Snips. Here and now, this place. We are all family."

Every word he spoke resonated with the Force, as if enforcing the words on reality itself.

I managed to pull a smile from somewhere and nodded. "Sorry, Chewie, this is supposed to be a celebration of life itself and here I go pulling you all down into my melancholy."

"You carry your years in your eyes as well as any elder I've seen," he groaned solemnly. "That's why I didn't doubt you for a second when you told me."

The tall robed wookiee stepped forward, gathered my hands in his. "Unlike many who walk off into the field of stars after death, you came back. The why, how or who, is unimportant. Know that this is a gift you have been given unlike any other, something to cherish and I know enough to know we all have been blessed to share in your new life. Without you, I'd probably be enslaved to a trandoshan or dead, never to see my wife and extended family again. Now, through you I've gained an honor family." He smiled at Anakin, Padme and even the droids. "That is a gift you've given that outweighs any mere trinket that we could put under the wroshyr tree."

M8 translated as he spoke for Padme's benefit. She didn't have much reason to learn Shyriiwook as yet.

He let go, stepping back to the wroshyr tree and gestured to it.

"This is a pale, tiny imitation of the Tree of Life. For countless years it has served as the place where we wookiees celebrate Life Day on Kashyyyk. There are some who think it's been there for over a million years." He picked up a small drum he had bought, then rapidly hit a primal rhythm on it that resonated through the room. "The drum is the traditional instrument of this day. It beats with the rhythm of the wookiee heart."

He continued to thump the drum, only now the rhythm changed into a rapid double staccato.

"This represents the first joining of male and female on Kashyyyk, two hearts joined in singular purpose."

The rhythm changed yet again, now gaining more flavour and becoming complex as Chewie used individual fingers and even slapped the side of the drum for other notes.

"At its core, Life Day is a celebration of our homeworld's diverse ecosystem and all the creatures, great and small, who live alongside us on Kashyyyk. We also remember that for all its deadliness, Kashyyyk has an equal strength of life that reflects it. We remember family members who have died and celebrate the young ones who show that life goes on. Yet even for those who have died, they move on to the afterlife, which is what the field of stars on the robes represent."

His drumming stopped.

"Now we get to the best part of Life Day," he gave a huge toothy grin. "As without it we would all surely die and life would hardly be worth living at all! Food!"

He gestured to the huge spread of food I had made for us.

"Let us give thanks first for the one who made it!" He bowed to me.

"I make no guarantees about its taste and edibility," I said tongue-in-cheek.

Chewie laughed and clapped his hands, "To the food!"

We all took our seats, whilst R2 and M8 just joined for the company and to internally wince at watching the meatbags eat.

Given that our mouths were so busy, there was little talk at the table, but soon we were done and Chewie leaned back patting his stomach with satisfaction. "That was amazing, Ahsoka."

Padme scooped up the last residue of sauce from her plate with a bit of the bread I had made. She groaned in delight, "It's a good thing you're not cooking for me often. I'd lose my figure very quickly."

"There's dessert still to come as well," I smirked.

Anakin chuckled at his wife's wide eyed look at the thought of eating something sweet and even more fattening after all the food.

She held up her hands, "Later, in fact, let's leave that for tomorrow. Let's get to the presents, before I fall asleep digesting all this food."

"Speak for yourself, dear," Anakin rubbed his hands together. "Ahsoka's desserts are the best."

"Had a lot of time to kill in Mortis," I waved the compliment off and stood, feeling the weight of food in my stomach acutely.

I returned with three helpings of the best analogue of a red velvet cake I could make, given the local ingredients that were available. I wasn't too happy about the color; it was more of a maroon than the ruby red I was going for.

"By the Ancestors," Chewie declared after he was finished. "You must give the recipe to Mallatobuck. This desert is perfect for Life Day."

"I'll look forward to seeing what your wife can make of it," I nodded.

Everyone's patience was pretty much worn out by then and we got down to the business of exchanging gifts.

From Anakin, an actual printed book, with the story about a wizard, set on a fictional planet somewhere in the Mid-Rim, who had to fight to save his world from being invaded by a neighboring star system. It looked very formulaic just based on the description, but there had to be more to it, given the rarity of printed books. Honestly, I didn't care if it was campy, it was one more to add to the collection.

Chewie, handed me a data chit.

"What's this?"

"Blueprints for a bowcaster, we can work together to build one that you can comfortably fire, without having to use the Force to brace yourself."

I couldn't help but grin like a loon at the thought of my own bowcaster. Chewie's was a monster of a weapon and now I could already imagine going out with him hunting in the wilds of Kashyyyk.

R2 and M8 had collaborated, providing me with a portable logic interface spike, small enough that I could hide it on my person, loaded with an adaptive program that could hack the majority of door systems that generally existed in the galaxy.

"Mistress might be in a situation where you are not wearing me or you have been forcibly extracted from me," M8 explained, though from her tone she was clearly affronted at the very notion.

"I get it, M8, thanks to both of you. I'm sure it'll come in handy at some point."

"Padme?" Anakin asked pointedly.

"Oh, she already has my gift," she waved him off with a twinkling smile. "It's a girl thing, not for public consumption."

"I see," he replied slowly, clearly not seeing.

So each one of us had our turns to receive gifts. Often it was a case of our location in the galaxy really limiting our choices, as the ideal gift just wasn't available for purchase, so we had to make do with a fun trinket or a bit of nice jewelry. Padme ended up with quite a bit of the latter from Chewie and Anakin, though I managed to find an actual calligraphic pen set that used ink. It'd be a bit too obvious if both she and I had the same story when it came to the lingerie we had gotten for each other.

As a final treat for the evening, I returned to the kitchen and came back with my own rendition of Hoth chokolate for the meatbags in the room.

Padme was the first to retire towards bed, whilst Chewie followed, then M8 and R2 towards the droid recharge sockets in the house's garage.

Anakin and I were left nursing our drinks and staring into the steadily flashing wroshyr tree.

"Thank you, Ahsoka," he said softly.

He didn't need words to explain what he was thanking me for specifically. Padme's life to him was the most precious gift that existed in the universe.

"It was a team effort, Anakin."

He finished the last of his drink, stood and stared at me for a long few seconds. His fists clenched briefly, before he closed his eyes, "Good night, Ahsoka."

He turned around and left, wanting to say more, but unable to.

"Good night… Anakin."

We allowed ourselves a few hours of extra sleep the next morning and I prepared a hearty breakfast for the day to come.

Everyone on the planet was probably feeling the after effects of their celebrations the previous day. I had to immediately spend over an hour in meditation after waking up to mitigate and purge the effects of my overindulgence. The Wookiee-ookies especially would have me needing medical attention if I just let things stand.

Our first port of call was the cortosis mine.

It was only forty-three kilometers from Yovbridge to the south-east. It was a sunk-shaft mine about three hundred meters deep, wholly attended to by droids of various flavors, but thankfully none of the typical CIS war droids.

The foreman droid, which was essentially a smaller tactical droid geared towards civilian use in coordinating other droids, came out to meet us from his small control building. It was the only other structure on the site, beside the shaft building.

"Greetings, I am MSE-10, how may I help you today?"

"You can evacuate every droid in the mine immediately," Anakin said flatly, folding his arms.

"I apologize, you are not an authorized person who can make such an order."

"And who is authorized?"

"Only Duke Solha can do so, dear sentient."

Anakin nodded to me.

I raised a finger, calling on the Force, gathering just enough ambient charge in the air.

A single streamer of white-black Emerald Judgment instantly connected me with the foreman droid. It began twitching and just as quickly I ended the technique. I nodded in satisfaction, that was satisfyingly close to an actual Stun Droid technique as used during the Old Republic.

The droid tilted over as its balance systems failed and it landed on its chest with a thumping crunch of rocky earth.

"R2," Anakin prompted.

The astromech used his 'off-road' wheels to roll forward over the unfavorable terrain, extending logic probes to begin work.

Subverting Solha's authorization codes, given the critical nature of the mine, took longer than just hacking a garbage compactor and telling it to stop, but soon enough the foreman droid was rebooting and standing up.

"Please, order your droids to evacuate, the mine is being shut down."

"At once, sir!"

Actually carrying out that order took most of the morning, as there were 3100 droids working in the bowels of the shafts below and the main grav elevators could only accommodate 80 droids at a time. It wasn't a fast elevator either, being designed for tonnage, not speed.

Anakin and I used the time to feel and map every inch of the mine with the Force. We'd be relying mostly on his genius mechanical acumen, M8's archeological programming - which had a significant section devoted to underground digs and tunnel stability - and the Force to find the correct spots to apply strong blasts of telekinesis.

Padme and Chewie kept themselves busy organizing the various mining droids emerging, as well as getting on the comlink with the governor for their transportation. It turned out to be a logistical nightmare and Dilvosh, nursing a hangover, was not enthused with scrounging up enough cargo transports. There was also the matter of where to send the droids.

They were technically Solha's property, but since his arrest, Republic law allowed for seizure of all his local assets. There wasn't a judge on the planet that would entertain the notion of coming into his or her office to handle the bureaucratic flimsiwork on the day after Life Day.

"Couldn't this have waited for tomorrow?" Dilvosh's holo, projected by R2, scowled at Padme.

"We need to leave for Coruscant tomorrow, governor."

His shoulders slumped as he regarded the collection of droids standing in perfect squares in the mine's main loading area.

"Fine, I'll see if I can get hold of Director Naniis. She's the head of our mining co-operative on Mokivj."

"Thank you, governor."

He only nodded and the holo faded as he cut the connection.

"He wanted to have a whole media circus regarding the mine's shutdown," I said idly.

Anakin and I were now both seated facing each other, partially in meditation as we communed with the Force, slowly beginning to direct the flows within and without. We were at the far edge of the loading area, seated on a blanket spread over the speeder's roof.

Padme nodded in understanding, "People aren't going to be happy with him, even if he was coerced. I'd also be worried about my job if I was in his position."

Anakin mentally poked me to keep my full focus on the job. "Padme, we're about ready to begin."

We were juggling amounts of energy in the Force that was considerable and was just a few orders of magnitude away from what was possible in Mortis. M8 had identified key vulnerabilities in the mine shaft's stabilization structure and it was a matter of which one to go after first, the timing of attacking others and how many to hit at once.

It was not just a matter of collapse.

That could be done easily, the trick was to do so in a way that limited the resulting groundquakes.

Prescience had shown that doing so without regard, would result in damage to Yovbridge at relatively minor levels with fatalities in the triple digit range.

Now we had to do this in the same manner that a controlled demolition with explosives would occur.

'This is as good as we're going to get it, Skyguy. I'm foreseeing minor to major injuries from broken transparisteel and glass, no structural collapses, no fatalities.'

'All right, first target.'

'Got it.'

We submerged completely in the Force, standing at the figurative controls of a dam and ready to open the sluice gates.

'Three…two… one… now.'

A titanic hammer of kinetic force slammed into a load bearing support 230 meters below us.

Within nanoseconds, the earth below, denied for so long to reclaim the void hewn by sentient hands for the bounty of cortosis, rushed forward to regain a new equilibrium.

Pebbles and small rocks bounced below the speeder as the transverse shockwaves radiated outward. Padme and Chewie had to shield their ears from the sheer sudden noise generated as the air was also disturbed by the ringing drum of earth.

It would barely register as a 2 on the old Richter scale.

'Three…two… one… now!'

I winced as we sent four hammers of kinetic energy into the mine.

The earth, barely settled, eagerly reclaimed more empty space.

A giant shudder resounded through the air. Nearby trees shivered, leaves hissed as they rubbed against each other rapidly and avian fauna began going crazy, taking to the skies and screeching their complaints at the groundquake that their senses had not warned them of.

We paused for two seconds, barely enough time to recover from the metaphysical blowback in the Force, before we sent eight much smaller kinetic hammers at more supports.

This created the beginning of a chain reaction and only our prescient abilities let us react with enough time to hammer at more supports to keep it going.

The ground rumbled and quaked, pushing itself to a four then finally peaking at a five on the Richter scale.

Bouncing pebbles and small rocks hammered the underside of the speeder, creating an awful racket, but I was not fully at home in my body to care about the abuse my montrals were getting.

In real time, seconds passed us by, but to me it felt like I had somehow just run a marathon combined with the hardest academic exam combined.

Even though Anakin had done the heavy lifting, directing that amount of rapid and simultaneous equivalents of Force Waves had my spirit feeling like a wet rag or icing spread over too much cake.

As I crashed back into my body, I could only look at Anakin, who was also in not much better shape with huge eyes.

"Oh, this is going to suck."

I felt the world tilt, a brief spike of pain and lost myself to oblivion.

That I woke up in the small bed of the captain's cabin on the Omen, with the soothing background hum of the ship cruising through hyperspace was not a surprise.

I knew there would be consequences for the feat of manipulating the Force in such a way. My actions had resulted in the survival of millions who would've otherwise been lost. Mokivj remained inhabited, it was now the powerhouse of the entire sector, a bastion against possible Nikardun invasion. The ripple that had sent through the Force would continue to build for years to come and influenced the destiny of billions.

A physical stocktake of myself revealed that I'd probably been unconscious for at least three or four days, given the smell. The taste of my teeth indicated that I'd been force fed.

I was only wearing one of my basic panties and one of the big shirts I typically slept in.

"Blegh," I muttered, rubbing my eyes and my bladder chose that moment to urgently sound the alarm.

I stumbled into the refresher with as much speed as I could muster without losing balance completely.

I felt like I could still sleep, but my previous experience with Force exhaustion meant I had to remain awake and return to a normal equilibrium. I also actively couldn't touch the Force for a week on the safe side, but there was no problem with passive perceptions. It was glaring into my mind with such acute clarity that I had to metaphysically turn away from the input.

Nature's call answered, I walked out of the Fresher with more certainty to my steps and a mouth that didn't taste like days old field rations.

I slapped the door controls and supported myself on the nearby bulkhead.

"Mistress!"

Naturally, M8 was standing vigil outside.

"Easy, easy, M8, not so loud," I winced, closing my eyes.

My armor grabbed me across my back and under my right armpit to support me.

"Where do you want to go, mistress? The troop deck? The cockpit? Do you want something to eat? Drink?"

I withstood my droid's worried babbling with an amused affection. "I want to go to the cockpit and I wouldn't say no to a glass of water."

"Right away, mistress," she whispered.

Inside the cockpit, I was immediately greeted by the worried roar of Chewie, who jumped out of his pilot's seat and snatched me out of M8's support into a wookiee hug that lifted me off my feet.

It was hard to make sense of the Shyriiwook in my current mental state, but I could interpret his emotions well enough.

I patted his chest, "I'm all right, Chewie… I'm all right."

A wookiee hug was downright snuggly and I felt like I could fall asleep again.

Reason prevailed and I slapped myself lightly to dispel any lingering calls back towards the land of dreams.

"The co-pilot chair, please, Chewie."

"Are you sure you shouldn't be in bed?" he asked or something like that.

"I have to stay awake. So hearing about the time I missed and working with the ship's computers is just the ticket to that."

Chewie nodded and with a bit of maneuvering easily shifted me in his arms, to deposit me in the co-pilot chair.

My fingers tapped on the holocontrols, bringing up the nav computer. Four days in hyper so far, we were a few hours away from New Balosar on the Great Gran Run and ten hours away from rejoining the Corellian Trade Spine.

I could feel Anakin's bright presence below me on the troop deck, the subdued feel of it indicating he was deep in meditation, but… there was a grim almost dark countenance to his emotions that sent alarms and red flags waving all over my mind.

My senses poked Padme's bond for the briefest of moments…

My teeth gritted from spiritual pain turned physical as I did it, but she was fine, alive and also on the troop deck, meditating as best she could with her husband.

"What happened, Chewie? What's wrong?"

"General Skywalker should really be the one to tell you."

"He'll be in meditation for hours yet. I'm asking you, Chewie."

His own emotions were sad, feeling a distant… loss?

Chewie abruptly sat down and brought up the com system, tapping into the memory cache.

The diminutive holographic form of Yoda appeared.

"Master Skywalker. With sorrow it is, that I report that Master Kenobi, has become one with the Force."

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