Miara. Who hadn’t wanted to leave her. Who was lying unconscious back in the cave, thanks to Neera’s quick thinking. Neera who was dead but who had saved Miara without even knowing it. Kaeden had to live for a little bit longer so she could get this terrible creature away from her sister.
“All right, all right,” she said, shaking her arm free. It hurt—her whole body hurt—but she could do this. “I can walk on my own.”
“Excellent,” the gray creature said. “We want you to be in your best shape for when your little Jedi friend gets here to save you.”
He laughed again, cruelly, and pushed Kaeden between her shoulder blades. She stumbled but managed not to fall. She walked back toward the town as quickly as she could, not knowing how long an Imperial stunner would keep Miara out. She was sorry that Miara would wake up to discover the bodies of her friends, particularly Neera’s, but at least she’d wake up. She was smart, too, Kaeden knew. She’d go to Vartan or Selda or somewhere else before she tried anything stupid like staging a rescue.
As for Ahsoka, she was a Jedi. She’d fought in the Clone Wars, and somehow she’d managed to survive the Jedi purge when the Empire began. That meant she was resourceful and quick thinking. She’d know it was a trap. She’d leave Kaeden to die, or she’d come prepared to fight.
Kaeden clung to that hope as though she had two good arms, grit her teeth against the pain, and kept walking.
Chapter 24
THE TRACTOR BEAM seemed to take its time reeling her into the hold. It was almost like whoever had captured Ahsoka wanted her to have time to arm herself and get ready to fight back. Which was exactly what she did. She left the blaster where it was but rummaged through the weapon box that all Fardi ships carried. She’d never gone through hers before now, because she’d never needed to, but there was a first time for everything. She discarded several smaller blasters, a stun rifle, and three explosives whose yields were not clearly marked. At the bottom of the box was a pair of bastons. Not perfect, but they were as close to her former lightsabers as she was going to get. Then she went down to the main hatch and waited.
After what felt like forever, the hatch opened. Standing there were two humans, both with helmets covering their faces and with their weapons up. She didn’t know if they were the only two people on board, and she didn’t wait to find out. She jumped, flipping down the ramp to kick the taller human at the base of his helmet while striking the shorter one with the baston in her right hand. They were unprepared for the swiftness of her attack. The man dropped immediately, but the shorter one, a woman, managed to dodge the full brunt of the first blow.
“Wait!” she said. “We’re here on behalf of—”
That was as far as Ahsoka let her get before she dropped the woman with another blow to the helmet. Both of them would wake up, but by then Ahsoka would be gone. First, though, she had to deactivate the tractor beam, and the easiest place to do that was on the bridge.
Bastons at the ready, she prowled through the ship. It was a fairly straight line from the hold to the bridge, but she wanted to be sure no one surprised her, so she took a quick detour to the engine room and the berths on the way. There was no one else on board, which was strange, because the ship could have accommodated many more crew members with no stress on the oxygen recyclers. Maybe her would-be captors just liked their privacy.
Ahsoka shrugged and opened the door that led to the bridge. The first thing she noticed was that there were no people here, either. The second thing she noticed was the beeping of an astromech droid, one that sounded exactly like—
“Artoo!” She didn’t mean to shout at the little droid, but she was so startled and surprised that she couldn’t help it. She’d had a very stressful day.
The little blue-and-silver droid disconnected from the console he was working on and rolled across the floor to her so quickly that she thought for a second he might have flown. He was beeping so fast she could barely understand him, but she could tell by his tone that R2-D2 was as happy to see her as she was to see him.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said, dropping to her knees to give the droid a hug. She didn’t care if it was a silly thing to do, and R2-D2 seemed to appreciate the gesture. “They didn’t even memory wipe you?”
The droid beeped happily at her.
“You work for a senator? But you’re not supposed to tell me who?” she said. The droid had always been good at keeping secrets. “What about your friends in the hold? Can you tell me about them?”
R2-D2 rolled back across the floor and called up two holos. They were labeled, and she read the names of the pilot and copilot, both of whom she’d left unconscious in the hold of their own ship.
“I hope they don’t hold a grudge,” she said. “Though really, what do they expect? Capturing people in tractor beams.”
The astromech chirruped soothingly and went back to stand beside her. She was going to have to leave soon, but she really didn’t want to part with the little droid again.
“What was their mission, anyway?” Ahsoka asked.
R2-D2 told her what he was permitted to, specifically that the pilot, Chardri Tage, and his partner, Tamsin, had been tasked with taking her to meet someone.
“The same senator you’re not supposed to tell me the identity of?” Ahsoka asked. “Artoo, I need to know.”
The droid seemed to consider it for a moment, rolling back and forth on his three legs. Then he said a name.
“Bail Organa?” Ahsoka said. “I can’t believe they let him live. He’s a known Jedi sympathizer. He must be in so much danger.”
R2-D2 beeped that she didn’t know the half of it.
“And you won’t tell me,” Ahsoka said. “I get it.”
The droid reminded her that Padmé Amidala, too, had trusted Bail, not just the Jedi. Ahsoka sighed.
“Look, can you release the tractor beam on my ship?” she asked him. “And then I’ll escape, and you can tell everyone you never saw me, okay? Just make sure I can track this ship. If I like what I see, then I’ll come in. I promise.”
R2-D2 rolled back and forth for a few moments. The little droid was used to espionage and high stakes. He would understand why Ahsoka wanted to do this under her own power, as much as she could. After a moment, he beeped his agreement and told her the code she could use to track the ship.
“Thanks, Artoo,” she said. She turned to go, but he rolled over to her again. He made a series of sad sounds.
“I know, little guy.” Her heart clenched around the empty spot where Anakin Skywalker used to be. “I miss him, too.”
R2-D2 rolled back to the controls, and Ahsoka saw he was wiping all surveillance of their conversation. Then he beeped farewell to her and activated an electrical circuit that would make it look like she’d shorted him out. It wouldn’t fool Bail, so he’d know to expect her if he was paying attention, but it would probably do the trick with the two pilots.
Ahsoka didn’t waste any more time. She went back to the hold, dragged the pilots to the pressurized area, and then boarded her ship and fired up the engines, as much as they would allow in their damaged condition. She slipped out of the cargo bay and scanned around for a good place to hide and make repairs while she waited for the pilots to wake up.