Chardri and Tamsin exchanged a look but didn’t protest.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’m late for a vote,” Bail said. Both pilots took that for the dismissal it was. “Good hunting,” he told them as they preceded him out of his office. And may the Force be with us, he thought.
Ahsoka landed her ship, took her hands off the controls, and cracked her neck. It had been a very long flight, and while nothing had gone wrong, her nerves were on edge. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was coming, something that would change everything she was working to build. She did her postflight inspection as quickly as she could, eager to eat real food, take a decent shower, and then sleep in her own bed.
None of the Fardis came out to meet her, which was unusual enough to upset her nerves even further. She made her way toward the big house, looking carefully for any disturbance and even going so far as to reach out with the Force. When she got to the door, it was open, so she went inside.
All the family members currently in residence were gathered in the living room, and there were four stormtroopers with blasters standing in the doorway. They spotted Ahsoka instantly, so there was no point in running. She might get away, but the Fardis wouldn’t. She held their lives in her hands, and she could see that the older ones knew it. She thought fast.
“Your ship’s repaired,” she said. She had no idea what, if anything, the Fardis had told the Imperials about her. It was best to start with an easy lie and hope they followed her lead. “I took it for a spin around the system, and all the kinks seem to have been worked out.”
“Excellent,” said Fardi. There was sweat on his brow, but the room was hot with so many people in it. “This is the mechanic I was telling you about,” he told the stormtroopers. “When you keep as many ships as my family does, it makes sense to employ one full-time. She lives here, as a matter of fact, so that she’s always ready to work.”
“We don’t care about your mechanic,” said one of the troopers. “We’re just conducting a routine search of the house.”
Ahsoka made sure to keep her face neutral, but the trooper’s words surprised her. There was no such thing as a routine search of private property. They were looking for something, or they wouldn’t be there.
“Of course, of course,” Fardi said. “Anything we can do to help.”
Ahsoka went to sit beside Hedala, who was sitting in Chenna’s lap. Ahsoka leaned forward carefully and whispered in the girl’s ear.
“Any shadows today?” she asked.
“No,” Hedala replied, just as quietly. “Clear skies for good flying.”
Ahsoka breathed a little easier. She hadn’t felt anything, either, but the girl knew exactly what she was looking for, so it made sense to ask for surety.
Two more troopers and an officer came into the room. The stormtroopers who were already present straightened to attention.
“We were in a small room in the back of the house,” the officer said. “Whose room is that?”
“Mine,” Ahsoka said, standing up again. She tried not to measure how far it was to the door or to calculate how she might jump out the window.
“Please explain this,” the officer said, holding up the package of metal pieces that Ahsoka kept under her pillow. Her skin crawled to think of their searching her room to that degree.
“Oh, those are just bits of junk I’ve picked up doing various jobs,” Ahsoka said, deliberately underplaying the value of the tech she’d collected. “I can show you if you want.”
“Open it,” the officer said.
Ahsoka pulled on the ties. The Imperials must have thought it was rigged to explode or something. The package was only sealed with knots. The wrapping fell away to reveal the bits and bobs Ahsoka had collected on Raada. She still couldn’t have said why any of them were important to her, but she knew she didn’t want to hand them over to any Imperials.
“Nothing here, sir,” said one of the stormtroopers. “Just scrap metal.”
The officer drew himself up in front of Fardi.
“It might be wise to limit your exposure to those people who are outside your family,” he sneered. His eyes trailed to Ahsoka and then back to Fardi. “We’ve noticed a certain criminal element in this city, and we would hate to trace it to your home.”
“I’ll take it under consideration,” said Fardi.
“Good,” the officer replied. He signaled to the stormtroopers, and they all marched out of the house.
Fardi deflated as soon as they were gone.
“Everyone out,” he said, sounding defeated. “Except Ashla. We need to talk.”
Chapter 20
“I’LL GO,” AHSOKA SAID, getting to her feet once the room was clear. “It won’t take me long to gather my things.”
“Ashla,” Fardi said. “I’m sorry we’ve put you in the cross fire here. We didn’t mean for the Empire to pin our activities on you.”
That brought her up short.
“Your activities?” she said. “But I’ve been—”
She and Fardi looked at each other in stunned silence for a moment, and then, of all things, Fardi began to laugh.
“You used our ships to run mercy missions of your own,” he said, and Ahsoka realized he hadn’t known for sure until just then. “You thought the Imperials were here for you.”
“Um, yes,” Ahsoka said. “They weren’t?”
“Well, they might have been here for all of us, as it turns out,” Fardi said. “I don’t know what you’ve been up to, but we have taken contracts and moved merchandise counter to Imperial regulations. You did some of the runs for us. My wife was furious that I was putting you in danger, but apparently you could handle it.”
“I thought it was ordinary smuggling,” Ahsoka admitted. “And it bothered me a bit at first, but then I saw how needed your supplies were throughout the sector. Every time I dropped something off, it felt like I was making a difference — but it wasn’t enough. The first time I heard a distress call, I knew that I could do more.”
“I did wonder why you were deviating from your schedule so randomly,” Fardi said. “Perhaps if we had talked about this, organized it for real, we could have had a longer run at it. As it is, I think you’ll have to leave, and we’ll have to go straight for a while to get our reputation back.”
“I’m in your debt again,” Ahsoka said. “This is the second time you’ve taken me in when I had nowhere else to go and the second time you’ve turned me loose instead of turning me in.”
“You’re a good mechanic,” Fardi said with a grin. “There aren’t so many of those that I am willing to throw one away just because of a few Imperial entanglements.”
“Thanks,” Ahsoka said. She started to move toward the door and then stopped. It was a risk to say the words out loud, but she had to do all she could before she left. “Fardi, you need to be careful with Hedala.”
The change in the older man was instant. His brow furrowed, and there was a determined gleam in his eyes.
“What about her?” he asked.
“She’s…” Ahsoka trailed off. She wasn’t sure how to say it without giving too much away. “She’s special. It’s important that no one realizes how special she is.”
Fardi blinked, putting the pieces together. Ahsoka wondered what he’d seen the little girl do, if he’d ever found her behavior odd and then dismissed it because he was busy. If he had, he was remembering it now.
“Do you think she’ll grow up to be a mechanic?” he said, and Ahsoka knew he’d understood everything she hadn’t said.
“There isn’t anyone to teach her,” Ahsoka said, choosing her words carefully. It was more than she wanted to reveal about herself, but so far the Fardis had given her every reason to trust them. “She won’t exactly grow out of it, but eventually she’ll grow into other things.”