Ahsoka left the aft of the decades old shuttle to the clamor and hustle of a highly active hangar bay, motorized carts dodging fuel lines left and right, packed tightly with service technicians and spare parts. Intermingling voices calling sporadically over a low tech comm system, routing service teams to various sections of either the hangar bay or the cargo holds in a haphazard manner. Although she was thoroughly confused by the network of activity, she was equally amazed by the scope of the group’s operations. She began scanning the immediate area for Rex and Kowani, finding the former slapping shoulders and thoroughly invested in conversation with a fellow clone. Kowani on the other hand was not within eyesight, ‘and neither is Nara.’ She thought to herself, decidedly ignoring the stirring in the pit of her stomach. Ahsoka stopped looking for either Mirialan and started looking for the Liberator, finding it port side toward the fore of the hangar.
Side stepping a repair team that had quickly cut into an ambulatory appendage on one of the modified AT-ST’s suspended by thick chain and an enormous winch, she canted her head in curiosity. She watched with mild wonder as one of the carts backed into the fused ankle coupler just as the team finished cutting it, dropping the damaged appendage onto the waiting deck. A smaller cable ambled its way downward from the overworked winch, its tumbler and cylinder caked with old grease, to grapple a new coupler from the back deck of another cart that had sidled into place just as quickly as the first one left. “You guys don’t waste any time, do you?” She asked with sincerity.
One of the team members turned her way, lifting the blast visor on his helmet, “With this crew? There’s never any time to waste!” The male Pantoran barked and subsequently laughed as he slammed the visor back down again, just in time to spark weld his section of ankle joint.
“I’ve never seen anything like it either.” Rex said from her left shoulder, startling her. “Sorry didn’t mean to scare you.”
Ahsoka turned toward her old friend, “you didn’t Rex, I was just thinking…”
“I want you to meet ‘Tank,’ he was part of the four O six back in the day.” Rex said with more enthusiasm than she had heard from him in quite some time. She turned fully around to an all too familiar face.
“The four O six, Master Terral Char’s battalion….pathfinders wasn’t it?” Ahsoka said, her memory reciting the information without thought given to it, ‘twenty years?’ She asked herself absently.
The clone was Rex without facial hair, his eyes drawn to the sabers at her waist. She could sense immediate tension within him, knowing full well what had sparked it. Before she could comment on the matter, Rex interceded with a clap to the clone’s shoulder, “relax brother, she’d be the last one to cause you grief.”
Ahsoka picked up on the cue immediately, “Tank is it? I am happy to meet you. Ahsoka Tano.” She said placing her own hand on his shoulder.
The man lifted his eyes to hers and revealed the well of regret he had instantly become. “There aren’t many that don’t know who you are Ahsoka, it is good to meet you. I apologize for the demeanor, Vossy has talked to all of us about letting go of the past…” he trailed off, clearly struggling with his old Generals name. “Terral was as good as they came. She was fair to each of us and treated us as equals. She didn’t deserve…..” He couldn’t finish the statement, despite putting forth dynamic efforts to the contrary.
Ahsoka kept her hand on his shoulder a moment longer, “Master Vos is quite right. None of us can live if we’re constantly rooted to the past.” She brought her other hand up to his chin as he was lowering his gaze. “No one blames you Tank.” She finished, removing her hand from his shoulder, she tapped lightly at his temple and gave him a gentle wink. He smiled in return, and she saw the spark of life reignite within his eyes, assuring her that hope would remain steadfast within the man and throughout his compatriots.
The idle chatter that had been resonating through the hangar with criss crossing verbiage, ended abruptly.
“Kowani Y’mmat put your damn helmet on!” The voice was N’dali’s, Ahsoka turning to Rex who had also recognized it. A piercing warning klaxon sounded out through the bustle of the hangar deck with high pitched whirls, Rex spinning to Tank for interpretation. The man clapped a hand over his ear and garbled incoherently in some return conversation neither Rex nor Ahsoka was a part of.
“Someone...or something, has breached our internal network and taken control of shipboard comms.” Tank almost yelled to be heard over the jarring sirens. Rex brought a hand up to cover his mouth to conceal the laugh that would take place no matter the effort to negate it.
Ahsoka simply smiled at the flabbergasted clone, “it’s ok, she’s one of ours.” She yelled in return.
Tank turned to the hangar deck’s command center waving his hands like a mad man. Both Ahsoka and Rex could hear him shouting into what had to be a comm device pasted to his vocal chords. Seconds later the klaxon died on a piercing whirl that continued echoing through everyone’s skull. Ahsoka noted the immediate suspension of those around her as they scrambled uniformly between repair duty and battle stations, each one of them shouting epitaphs in dozens of languages that didn’t need any translating as they meandered back to their previous endeavors.
✦
“That was a bit drastic, don’t you think?” Kowani said into the helmet after turning off the vocater, Nara turning back to face the YT-1760 and the incredible amount of carbon scoring adorning it, her hand idly patting at the fur between Mushi’s ears.
“Ani, I need you to shut up and listen to me. I am running out of time.” N’dali spoke quickly through the helmet’s comm link, Kowani noting the non-customary exuberance and haste as she bit back her sarcastic rebuttal. “What’s wrong?”
“Praxius system coordinates have been uploaded to Liberator’s navcom. Access to them came through highly secure Imperial channels.” N’dali said, almost frantic.
Kowani couldn’t understand why the relayed information had incited such panic within the Thebeskan, “and?”
“I overplayed Ani...my access to that information came at a cost. I don’t have time to explain everything, but your ‘stowaway’ will catch you up. What is important is that you take care when going to that system. The only info I could pull came through the Imperial network, so it is safe to assume that you won’t have any friends there.” N’dali said a little more clearly this time, Kowani noting the pace decrease significantly through the words.
“What cost N’dali?” Kowani hadn’t missed the admission.
“I am compromised and Sylde is close at hand.” N’dali said flatly.
“So, disconnect...get out of that ship and destroy that headset…” Her tone increasing in pitch as her stomach began to lurch, Kowani’s mind unable to comprehend any pending dilemma.
“Ani….” N’dali sounded exasperated. “It doesn’t matter what I do…... he is tracking me Ani, my mind...the connection between my mind and the neuro socketing.” N’dali stopped herself, Kowani able to note a single, almost inaudible, sob. “I am running out of fuel, but I will keep him on the run until you are able to find whatever it is you’re meant to find.” She finished, able to restore her composure.
“Where are you now? We can be your Ng’ok N’dali!” Kowani was becoming frantic, throwing her hands up, the sights through the helmet visor blurring before her.
“ANI, this isn’t a game! We aren’t sitting around the Djarik board!” N’dali shouted, filling Kowani’s obfuscation with a dread she had never considered. “The woman aboard the Liberator….you can trust her.” N’dali continued.
“What? What are you saying?” Kowani was beside herself, the words almost spilling from her mouth before she had time to think them through.
N’dali disregarded the outburst, “her name is Areti Sigurn, she is….was….ISB.” She waited for a few seconds, “are you listening to me?”
Kowani’s head stopped spinning long enough to respond, “yes, Areti...we can trust her…coords for Praxius.”
“Yes, R3 has already uploaded them.” N’dali blew out a breath. “Ani, there isn’t any more time. You need to head for Praxius now if that is your intention. I don’t have very long.”
“N’dali!” Kowani cried out, terror gripping her in earnest.
“Ani, get a hold of yourself. These are the risks we always knew we were taking. Now get your crew together and get off that ship.” N’dali finalized, her voice a stoic measure of emotionless truth.
✦
Quinlan hadn’t moved a muscle after letting Ahsoka’s hand fall from his own as he stared before him without a focal point, some measure of tangible presence to help him determine the differences between his own reality and the vastness of the visions the contact evoked. ‘How could anyone stay sane through all that?’ he asked himself as her chosen path revealed itself through enigmatic imagery with little by way of abstract or obtuse interference. Vos felt a gentle wave of guilt flow unconscionably through his thoughts as he compared his own travails to hers, a foolish endeavor, he knew, but a natural course for everyone that had a pulse. ‘How does Praxius fit into matters?’ He acknowledged, unsure if it was a question or a statement as it floated and weaved its way through his own thoughts and the miasmic imagery that constituted her past. He felt attached yet detached from the knowledge that was so close at hand but couldn’t assemble any logical path, and by definition, could not prognosticate her path beyond his vision. “He lives….” He said aloud, ‘now why would you say that Ahsoka Tano.’ he immediately followed up in thought, bridging the comment toward their own conversation regarding Master Windu without any means of context beyond the phrase itself. If it were something she had uttered in the past, it could have been at any point along her own timeline, but Quinlan felt it hovering quite near the very recent past which brought his train of thought directly back to Windu again. “You’ve had no interest in seeking out survivors in the past….why now?” He said aloud again, his own voice an ally now as he continued to disseminate the parallels between his thoughts and her vision, drawing a blank at every angle.
Vos refocused his gaze through the shuttle’s canopy and rose from the acceleration seat, pausing as he did to give his knees ample time to catch up to his abdomen. Walking slowly through the cockpit doorway and into the passenger cabin, he felt a calm wave of nostalgia course through him. The looks on the Mirialans’ faces when their truths were revealed to them, the looks of shock but a genuine quality of reverence, of familial bond. Quinlan paused for a moment as he closed his eyes, vividly reliving the efforts he had placed on remembering Aborah. Given the limited knowledge he’d gleaned from just those few seconds, he would come to understand the importance of proceeding toward the truth of it entirely, something he would, and could, take to Vomend. He smiled lightly as he opened his eyes and continued through the compartment to decant the ship fully, eyeing Ahsoka and Rex conversing with Tank. She turned to him slowly and gave him a sly wink before crossing her arms before her and turning back to face the clones.
✦
“Ahsoka!” Her wrist comm barked again, pulling her attention away from the conversation with the clones.
“What is it Ani?”
“We have to go...now, no time to explain…” The words were barely decipherable due in large part to the haste with which Kowani was speaking them, “N’dali is in danger…”
“We’re on our way….” Ahsoka said immediately, dropping a hand on Rex’s shoulder.
“Sorry to bother you Rex but we need to leave.” Ahsoka said quietly.
Rex raised a hand to the overly verbose Tank asking for a quick reprieve from the verbal deluge and turned to face her, “I know that look.” He didn’t need to say anymore as he read her composure, the seriousness within her eyes and a certain tension within her stance. He quickly returned his attention to Tank, “apologies brother, we’ll have to pick this up another time I am afraid. Duty calls once again.”
“Anytime Rex, glad to have met ya.” Tank responded with a clap to Rex’s shoulder and turned his own attention back to the new ambulatory brace, rocker strut and ankle coupler adorning his machine of war as it was tracing through several test simulations and subroutines.
“Another minute of that info dump and I would have gone crazy….We need to leave don’t we.” Rex unloaded and asked in the same breath.
Ahsoka shot a glance toward Quinlan who was still standing at the lip of the boarding ramp, giving him a quick nod before turning toward the Liberator at the far end of the hangar, “yes, Ani was quite animated about something, mentioned N’dali in trouble.”
“If N’dali is in trouble it must be serious.” Rex admitted, knowing the Thebeskan always operated several steps ahead of everyone else.
They made their way through the maze of ground units, service teams, fuel lines and power cables without another word, both concerned enough to limit their own imaginations. The Liberator within sight, they picked up their pace somewhat seeing Mushi following Nara up the starboard boarding ramp, both of them adopting the same measure of a shared dread. Ahsoka felt the emotional torrent before she even saw Kowani, waves of unrefined sorrow mingling with anger and vengeance. Launching herself up the ramp she came to an abrupt stop just short of running into Kowani’s backside. Ahsoka peered over the Mirialans shoulder to see what had stopped her dead in her tracks. A Chalactan female sat unapologetically beside one of the tables in the freighters lounge area, her eyes focused entirely on Kowani, dressed from head to toe in her ISB uniform. The woman had her legs crossed over one another, the loose-fitting wide knee trousers typical of Imperial Security Bureau regulation wear. Her arms crossed tightly over the clinched and starched dress white of her standard uniform top.
“Oh, we have company…” Ahsoka said, half startling Kowani in the process.
“Her name is Areti Sigurn.” Kowani replied, half turning over her shoulder toward Ahsoka.
‘Assuming this is a defection….” Ahsoka concluded but trailed off eyeing the cluster of three blue squares identifying the woman’s rank. “Lieutenant?”
“I prefer special agent personally, but yes Lieutenant.” The woman said clearly and distinctly without a trace of Imperial ego or arrogance.
“You’re Imp until you prove your worth.” Kowani said, the words electric and heated but without the sarcastic tone Ahsoka had grown accustomed to. She was assuredly not in favor of the woman’s presence meaning her demeanor clearly had more to do with N’dali, or at least her guidance.
“She’s coming with?” Ahsoka hadn’t intended to utter the words aloud and found herself surprised as all eyes turned to her in response. “Just surprised I guess…” she finished shrugging her shoulders.
“Let’s go already.” Nara echoed from the curved entryway to their right, followed quickly by a snarling yawn that seemed to startle the Chalactan.
Ahsoka turned back over her shoulder, “Rex, we’re good to go?” She shouted toward the port fore cargo hold.
He came into view around the corner before them all, “locked down and ready. Your friend Vos made sure we had enough fuel to run from one end of the galaxy to the other….Oh...we have company.” “We should probably get going Ani.” Ahsoka whispered lightly into Kowani’s ear.
“Yeah...we should.” Kowani replied, her eyes boring into the Chalactan’s with mirth and loathing for a moment longer, a tension rippling between all four occupants before she finally flipped her helmet from under her arm, snatched it out of the air and headed for the cockpit.
“Soooo...ISB huh? Know Kallus by chance?” Rex instigated conversation the moment Kowani had left the lounge area.
“Alexsandr? Yes, of course.” The Chalactan’s face turned into an immediate smile, her demeanor ostensibly changed within seconds, “we were stationed together for a time on Tellus Nord.”
“I won’t even ask why the Empire would bother with Tellus Nord…” Rex returned with a smile and subtle laugh. “What brings you here if you don’t mind me asking?”
Ahsoka smiled within, ‘Rex, always finding ways to surprise me,’ she thought in earnest as the two began trading minor variations of a truth they would both eventually come to learn in time. She tuned out the conversation briefly to reflect on Kowani’s frantic message, the Chalactan’s presence and the need for haste. She was certain the woman before her could answer most of those questions outright, but Rex was currently in the process of coming to the same conclusions while serving a mutual purpose that would lead to appreciations down the road. She smiled briefly at the both as she headed toward the cockpit, noting the number of occupants outnumbering the capacity to facilitate comfort. Before stepping through the cockpit hatchway, she noticed Mushi already lying down amid several dusty crates in the fore starboard cargo hold. Folded over himself with his immense head lying over both front paws, the beast looked gentile and serene as its chest heaved with each massive breath. She felt a pensive unease as she felt the ship lurch mildly, yaw to the left and finally spin a few degrees with the rumbling ping of Kowani’s handiwork. Ahsoka could not put a finger on the feeling as it made its presence known, than just as quickly, flittered away and out of thought. She turned herself forward and entered the cockpit just as Mushi let out a mewling snore.
“Nara was right, it does exist.” Kowani stated as she noticed Ahsoka’s entrance. “And with….” she paused with an unintended sigh she was losing control of, “N’dali’s coordinates, we should be there in about ten hours.” She finished blowing out a breath while maintaining a gaze far removed from her current status.
Nara looked toward her with a compassion Ahsoka had never seen from Barriss, understanding that this woman was fully accepting her own truth wholeheartedly. Nara’s eyes found her own briefly then flicked back to Kowani as she pushed herself up from the acceleration seat. She placed a hand on Kowani’s shoulder and held it there for a moment before turning to Ahsoka again with a gentle smile spreading across her lips. “Kowani, we can talk later.” Nara said and kissed the top of Kowani’s head.
Kowani remained detached and motionless as Nara passed Ahsoka intent on leaving the two alone for a while, “she needs you right now, not me.” She whispered on her way out of the cockpit. Ahsoka followed her with her eyes, saying nothing, not sure what she would have said regardless, then turned to occupy the vacated seat.
“You need to tell me what is going on Ani.” Ahsoka said in a calm and gentle voice, pulling at the smallest of Force currents in and around them both to help ease the comatose out of her friend.
Kowani turned slowly toward her, unfettered tears rolling down her olive cheeks without cause or care given to where they were heading or landing. Ahsoka could see the wells of despair and sorrow her eyes had become. “Sylde is tracking her.” She managed between gulps of air, diligent in her efforts to at least keep her sobbing quiet from the remainder of those on board. “She exposed herself through the links she had established, and he was able to trace the biomechanical signature deep within her implant interface.” She said in one jumbled word. “There is no way to turn that off without killing herself in the process.”
“And he’ll do just that once he finds her….” Ahsoka understood.
“Yes.” Kowani answered.
“She never does anything without reason Ani.” Ahsoka counseled.
Kowani sobbed silently as she turned her gaze down toward her own lap, wanting to say more but unsure how. “And there’s the point.” She muttered, lolling herself in the seat as the navcom chimed repeatedly. She lifted a lazy hand to the hyper drive throttle arm and forced it forward, sending them all toward an unknown destination. “She did it for that Imp back there. She did it for a system none of us had even heard of yesterday.” Kowani continued, her issues systemically centered around the common core for which they all fought. “And she’s doing it, so I don’t have to make the same decision in the future regarding her.”
“If it’s about choices...”Ahsoka began.
“It’s about worthlessness Ahsoka!” Kowani blurted out, reaching her left hand out toward the control panel, and punching the hatchway activator, closing the door behind them. “I don’t deserve this life!” She splayed her hands in animated frustration. Ahsoka was quiet, letting Kowani navigate her own emotion in her own time. “Everyone here has suffered.” She melted into a sardonic laugh that contorted her facial features into a frantic puzzle. “What have I suffered? Loss? The part of my life that seemed so distant as if just a shadow was given meaning and substance in the form of a biological sister I never knew I had!” She said in a desperation Ahsoka had never witnessed from her. “Taken on as an apprentice I don’t feel I’m living up to, a Mandalorian family I don’t deserve and a link to a life that I had forgotten long ago. Everyone Ahsoka, everyone else on this ship has suffered the loss of everything they once held dear.” She continued. “I felt the interaction between you and Vader Ahsoka, I know how that wound grinds away at your very soul. Rexxy lost millions of brothers. Even the Imp lost everything.”
Ahsoka let the words filter to silence, understanding the need for self-imposed clarity as she couldn’t help but think of Malachor. She let Kowani sit idle as her sobs gently rocked her body for moments on end before the Force itself began to draw her toward her friend. She placed a hand on her shoulder, Kowani immediately diving her head into it as the sobbing intensified significantly. Ahsoka felt her cue to draw the woman into an embrace and the two sat there together, huddled close as they both watched stars race past them through the canopy.
“Yet we’re still here…” Ahsoka said gently as she held the Mirialan in her arms.
✦
Nara propped herself up from the stiff bunk she was resting upon, letting the rhythmic hum of her sister’s freighter provide a measure from which to align her thoughts. Change from within had proffered many questions without answers, external revelations had presented an indelible hole throughout her own senses of self-identity to the point, when combined, of self-obscurity. ‘My sister…’ she thought to herself, waves of doubt washed away by waves of belief, the process repeating itself repeatedly to the point of mental exhaustion. Nara did her best to repress the tides, looking beyond the self-ascribed trivial matter of her own belief and into the implications the information held beyond them. ‘That is why I failed at Keno….why I failed on Mustafar.’ Nara was satisfied with the explanation those failures were the result of, leaving the final tide of doubt to its own whims. She gave herself a visual once over as she swiveled to plant her booted feet on the metallic floor panels. Nara pulled at the corners of the long synth leather coat, its collar turned high to cover her neck and the tiny cube she had placed within its inner pocket pressing lightly into her rib cage.
Nara placed her hands on her legs, the unnaturally cool inner lining soft against her skin. And, finally, wiggled her toes slightly within the confines of the knee boots that completed the ensemble. The attire saved her from the death locker of Zannah’s tomb, and she was grateful, but she found pause, now, with the decisive haste with which she adorned it. Nara stood from the bunk, feeling the long saber hilt collide with her knee, the thought striking in definitive irony with it that she had abandoned one identity after another in the pursuit of a cause she couldn’t even fully explain. And now, her sister, who had accepted Master Vos’ revelation just as quickly as she did was set on the same irrevocable path, wherever it was headed. Nara couldn’t prevent the subtle laugh that escaped her lips, “Master Unduli, how divergent have I become.” She whispered lightly as she shook her head. “Impetuous, radical and unpredictable...much like the Togruta I think…” She finished the whisper with a muffled chortle as she walked toward the open doorway and out into the lounge area, both the clone and the ISB woman continuing to share laughs and stories of personal conquest.
✦
High pitched alert signals blaring before them, both Kowani and Ahsoka roused from unintended shut eye in their respective seats within the cockpit. Kowani rubbing at her eyes frantically, “that’s collision detection and proximity warning…” she said quickly as Ahsoka returned a worried expression, “...not our arrival notification.”
Ahsoka turned her gaze upon the navcom to affirm the coordinates were correct, asserting that the route should have been free of complication. “We are where we’re supposed to be…” She said, curbing her confusion enough to calm her tone.
“Switch seats Ahsoka, thirty seconds to decant….this is where those piloting skills come in handy.” Kowani didn’t hesitate.
Without debate, the two exchanged roles, Ahsoka placing a firm grip on the hyperdrive throttle, “breaking early Ani…” she began as the hatch door opened suddenly. Kowani swiveled to find Rex within its frame, “what’s the commotion? That alarm was loud enough to wake the dead!”
“Hold on!” Ahsoka yelped as she pulled back hard on the throttle then snapped the hand quickly to rest on the ship’s yoke. They all felt the lurch a split second before their bodies responded, Rex flexing inward toward the cockpit as he contracted the muscles within his arms to brace the momentum. Kowani placed both hands before her against the comms panel as her head whiplashed slightly. And all of them heard the commotion from other parts of the ship as metal clattered, crates shifted, and various other objects found new homes. A loud roar topped off the litany as Mushi’s body shifted into a stack of crates, sending them sprawling in all directions. Ahsoka shut out the resultant sounds of discomfort and harsh relocation as the destination snapped into reality before them all.
A massive Ion thruster filled the entirety of the canopy before them, dark, cold, and silent as it slowly twisted unnaturally through forms of previous momentum. Ahsoka pulled back hard on her own Ion throttle and commissioned the forward maneuvering jets to bring the Liberator to a drastic halt. Proximity alerts intermingled within themselves as they identified several other slowly encroaching objects. “Ani, get a quick scan of this please.” Ahsoka snapped off as she guided the vessel out of an intersection of diverging debris.
Rex drew in a short breath, “Ahsoka, this is Imperial...remains of a Star Destroyer.”
“Adrift directly in front of the hyper lane regress?” Kowani asked as she lifted her gaze from the scanners monitor to look beyond the canopy before her, Ahsoka activating exterior flood lights which illuminated an enormous section of the upper aft thruster protective hull plating. It’s jagged edge twisting slowly toward Liberator’s flood lighting. All three of them gasped in alarm as it came into full view, “that wasn’t broken or blasted free...it was torn.” Rex said for them all.
“Scanners have reached capacity and their only a quarter of the way through the system Ahsoka.” Kowani added after a blinking red light brought her attention to it. “It’s the same readings….”
“System wide?” Ahsoka asked astonished.
“That many readings would indicate the Empire has….had...a massive presence in the system…..what could have done this?”
“We are off the map as it were, effectively in wild space outside of the Frelorn Arm.” Kowani added. A slight ripple within her subconscious began to vibrate outward with the same efforts she was employing to nullify it. She turned slowly toward Ahsoka who was already looking at her.
“You feel it, don’t you.”
“Yes.” Kowani replied, relinquishing the blockade she had enacted to prevent the feeling from consuming her.
Within seconds both Nara and Areti were at the doorway behind Rex, Nara excusing herself as she pushed past the clone with a slippery effort. “The Empire is already here.” She stated, absently staring at the debris through the transparisteel.
“Was.” Rex offered her correction, “was here.”
“Do you feel that?” Nara continued without pause, a hand rising to Kowani’s shoulder.
“We all do.” Ahsoka answered for them all.
“What could have done this?” Rex asked again, not entirely expecting an answer but surprised when everyone turned to face him. He flushed momentarily before realizing they were staring beyond his presence, toward the woman behind him.
Areti, transfixed by the creeping shadows of the flood lights as a sheared section of shield generator dome spun mercilessly through space’s depth came into view, refocused on the four sets of eyes looking directly at her, “What? I have no idea! If there is an Imperial presence in….where are we?” She hesitated realizing she was truly along for the ride.
“Praxius.” They all chimed in together.
“I’ve never even heard of Praxius…” Areti returned despondently.