Chapter 14

Chapter 14

THIS COULD STILL BE MANAGED. Fixed. Jenneth could rework his calculations, accounting for the new variables, and come up with a workable solution. He just had to know what resources were currently available. He called up the incident reports that the Imperial officers had already entered into the system and read them quickly so he could begin his extrapolations.

The loss of the walkers was rough. They were newer than the tanks, built since the rise of the Empire, and much better suited to patrolling, because they were operated by smaller crews and covered more ground. Without them, the stormtroopers would have to search on foot while the tanks were being repaired. At least the gun turrets were still operational. The Imperial compound was not defenseless.

What he really needed were more stormtrooper units. Although they weren’t suited to doing any of the actual farming, they’d be more than capable of supervising the local labor. The initial plan had been implemented well, but it was time for harsher measures. Curfew, which had been laxly enforced, would be strictly monitored, and those who disobeyed would be punished. In broad daylight. Preferably in the center of town. He would also have to make sure the ringleaders were rounded up. They wouldn’t be executed—that would just make the farmers angrier—but publicized torture and visible suffering did wonders to break morale.

He could work with that.

What he could not work with was also his biggest problem. He hadn’t seen the raid, had in fact slept through it, but there were simply too many corroborating reports for him to discount. There had been a Force user in the uprising. She had come out of nowhere, and by all accounts she was very good. She was old enough that she must have had Jedi training. Jenneth wanted to scoff, to dismiss the notion. All the Jedi were dead. And even if some had escaped, why in the galaxy would one show up on a backwater like Raada?

He turned the calculation in his head and found the answer. The Jedi was here because it was a backwater. She thought the Empire wouldn’t come to Raada, and he, Jenneth Pilar, had surprised her. That made him feel much better about the whole thing.

He had no idea how to report a suspected Jedi. He would let the Imperial commander take care of that. He just had to submit his new report and analysis, and make his suggestions as soon as possible to maintain his good reputation.

Jenneth thumbed to a blank screen on his datapad and began entering his new tabulations.

* * *

In the end, they’d had to sedate Neera to keep her from harming herself. Ahsoka covered her with a blanket, tucked Neera’s hands underneath, and checked her breathing. Neera inhaled and exhaled quietly, at the proper rate. It wouldn’t be a solution for the long term, but for now, they needed quiet and time to think. And Ahsoka had some explaining to do.

She sat down at the table where Kaeden and Miara were building more explosives. Neither sister looked at her, even to glare. Ahsoka sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy.

“My real name is Ahsoka Tano,” she said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.”

Ahsoka always found it best to start with the apology and then work backward to the explanation. It was something Anakin had never mastered.

“It’s not very safe to be like me,” she continued. “The Empire pays handsomely for Jedi, and it doesn’t show mercy.”

“We noticed,” Miara said curtly. She still wouldn’t look up, but her hands were shaking with anger, and probably fear.

“I never meant to put any of you in danger,” Ahsoka continued. “I didn’t think anyone would find out, and I hoped that would keep you safe.”

“Safe?” Kaeden said. She gave up all pretense of working and looked Ahsoka right in the eye. “We’re not angry because your existence put us in danger, Ash—Ahsoka. We’re angry because you didn’t do everything you could to help us sooner.”

It felt like Kaeden had struck her across the face. Ahsoka had done everything she could possibly think of. She’d set up a place to hide. She’d stockpiled food and water and medical supplies. She’d helped them get organized.

But she hadn’t used the Force to save Hoban.

“Kaeden,” she said as gently as she could manage, “even a Jedi can only do so much. And I promise I did my best to help your friends and your family.”

“What do you even know about family?” Kaeden said. “You never had one. And you probably never had friends, either. Just clones who had to do everything you said, because you were their superior officer.”

She stalked off before Ahsoka could think of a reply. Miara pointedly gathered up all the pieces she was working on and moved them to another table, leaving Ahsoka alone. No one would look at her or talk to her, though aside from the girls, the farmers looked more exhausted and scared than angry. Ahsoka got up and walked out of the main cave. She crawled through the tunnel that led to one of the other chambers, the one with the entryway that looked toward town, and then sat there alone, staring at the lights.

“We take a piece, you take a piece,” she said quietly. She wasn’t sure why it helped to think of a crokin board. She’d always been able to visualize tactics in plain terms before. She decided that the difference was her comrades. The clones knew battle. It was in their blood. The farmers knew crokin. It was the easiest way she could think of to explain it to them, and now it was a habit.

She was going to have to leave soon and confirm all Kaeden’s worst suspicions about her. If the Empire was interested in the moon before, knowing there was a Jedi on it would increase the Imperial presence tenfold. They’d be slow without their walkers, but they’d be out looking. And even the people who had stayed in town wouldn’t be safe, especially once the officers realized that the farmers had used their field crews to organize the uprising.

Ahsoka closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She meant to meditate, but instead of the serenity she usually found, the first thing she saw was the solemn face of four-year-old Hedala Fardi. That was almost worse than the blank space where Anakin used to be. At least her former master could take care of himself. The little Fardi girl deserved much better than being forgotten.

Blinking to regain her focus, Ahsoka made a decision. She couldn’t go back for Hedala, not now, but she could stay for Kaeden and Miara and the others for as long as possible. Her ship was still safely hidden, and now that her secret was blown anyway, she didn’t have to be subtle in any sudden escape attempts. She would stay on Raada and continue to help the farmers resist, assuming they’d let her, of course. After that night, there was a fairly decent chance they’d run her out of town themselves. She would at least stay long enough to apologize and to see if there was anything she could do for Neera.

“Ahsoka!” The cry came from behind her. It was Miara, her voice thin with worry and tears and no small amount of resentment for having to talk to Ahsoka in the first place.

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s Kaeden,” Miara gasped, winded from crawling through the tunnel. She must have done it in a hurry. “She stalked off after yelling at you, and I thought she’d gone back to the medical area to sit with Neera, but she didn’t. The door guard said he let her out, and she hasn’t come back.”

Ahsoka whipped around, staring out at the grassy hills between the caves and town. It was too dark to see anything, and there were too many people concentrated close together for Ahsoka to get an accurate read through the Force.

“If she goes to town, will they catch her?” Miara asked.

“She wasn’t wearing a mask, and you can see her injury as soon as you look at her face,” Ahsoka said. “They know what she looks like. They’ll catch her for sure.”

She didn’t add that the Imperials would torture Kaeden, too. They would assume she knew where the rest of the insurgents were hiding; they would assume she knew where Ahsoka was, and they would really, really want to catch Ahsoka.

“What are we going to do?” Miara asked.

“You are going to stay here with Neera,” Ahsoka said. “She is going to need a friend very badly when she wakes up, and you’re the only one she’s got right now.”

Miara swallowed hard, but nodded.

“You’re going to go?” she asked. “Even though Kaeden was so angry at you?”

“Yeah,” Ahsoka said. “I’m going to go.”

She didn’t look but assumed that Miara followed her through the tunnel to the main cave. She stopped only long enough to pick up the cache of tech pieces from where they were hidden, in case she wasn’t able to return for them, and to reclaim the Imperial blaster she’d stolen during the battle. No one tried to stop her, and she disappeared into the dark.

* * *

Kaeden realized her mistake almost as soon as she stepped back into town. Of course there would be more patrols, given that night’s two-pronged attack. Of course they would be actually searching now, not just showing off their presence and letting fear do the rest. Of course they would know what she looked like. At least she had stolen Miara’s hood to cover the wound on her forehead. It throbbed, but the bleeding had stopped, and the medic-trained insurgent who’d sewn her up said she probably didn’t have a concussion. Anyway, it was too late to turn back now.

She didn’t go home. She went to Vartan’s, but he wasn’t there. He must have stayed with Selda, waiting for news. She didn’t want to try to make it to them until it was daylight. At least once curfew was over it would be easier to move around. She had just finished disarming the lock on Vartan’s door when eight stormtroopers rounded the corner at a trot. They were clearly on their way to Vartan’s house, and they were just as clearly surprised to find her instead of him, but they were not about to let the opportunity pass them by.

“Take her,” said the one with the pauldron.

Kaeden thought about fighting, but eight to one was not good odds. She put up a bit of resistance, but not enough that they did more than knock the wind out of her.

“Careful with this one,” said the troop leader. “They’ll have a few questions for her back at base.”

The way he said it made Kaeden’s blood run cold. Ahsoka , she thought, wondering if Jedi really could read minds, Ahsoka, I’m sorry . Then the commander hit her again and everything went black.

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