The Force Wills - Chapter 89 (Patreon)

“Easy, easy.”

Barriss patted me on the back as I coughed to get rid of the drink that had unfortunately gone down the wrong pipe.

I gave the drink in question a stink eye and used my internal Control to get rid of the last bits of avedame juice from the upper portions of my airway, then reset the nerves to get rid of the now false signals it was sending to my brain. 

“Urgh, this stuff is… strong,” I cleared my throat again and wiped tears from my eyes.

“You get used to it,” she smirked and drank from her own glass.

We were seated around a table in a corner of the RMSU’s relatively small cantina. The place barely had forty square meters to work with, a low ceiling and its decor was minimal at best. The designers had clearly not wanted people to spend too much time in the place, given their job was to generally save lives or support those who did that job. The seats were uncomfortable, with no cushions or even backrests. Everything had a chrome finish, the lights were bright and glaring overhead.

Yet despite the intent, that actual personnel assigned to RMSU-5 had thumbed their noses at that; putting all sorts of decor on the walls; holopics, artwork and donated items that definitely gave it a more homely feel at least. There was even a stuffed Rontu trophy head hanging above the bar.

The place was currently quite packed with a menagerie of medical personnel coming off shift after the last attack and there was a lot of steam being vented and sorrows drained. In the background, music was blasted throughout the space, a typical Outer Rim cantina beat that was practically its own genre in the galaxy.

The general din in the place was high enough that everyone had to shout at each other if they chose to talk.

Of course, Barriss and I were cheating, empowering our words with the Force so their meaning would come across even if they were distorted or drowned out by the noise.

The red colored drink was pretty good at least, but it had a pungent aftertaste that felt like someone was punching you in the throat. This was also the non-alcoholic version. It hadn’t taken a few weeks after the first landings on Drongar for someone to use the avedame fruit in a locally built, makeshift distillery. Now it was practically standard issue for every RMSU to have one and offer the drink. It was also apparently quite popular at the main HQ cantinas.

My coughing fit was thanks to the alcoholic version, which I carefully pushed to the side and returned to the more palatable version in the second glass in front of me.

Barriss on the other hand was chugging it down with no problem.

“You’re not doing that to get drunk?” I asked her pointedly.

She shook her head, “I consider it my own internal Control exercise, preventing the intoxication whilst still enjoying it.” Her brows frowned as she stared into her drink.  “It’s just amazing to think the Celestials are actually still influencing the galaxy.”

“Not exactly a new thing.”

“Yes, they’ve left artifacts and legacies, but this was an active artifact that trapped you in a totally new space-time phenomenon and you were lured there by them. One has to wonder why.”

“Join the many Jedi scientists also wondering the same thing. I was poked and prodded for weeks by them.”

“And they found nothing?”

“Besides the obvious, that we grew, trained and became stronger in the Force as a result of the time spent there,” I shrugged and carefully took another sip.

“Maybe it was something to do with your master. You and Master Kenobi were just caught in the wake of that.”

“Entirely possible,” I said, making sure to keep my masks sending the right message to my friend. It was shit that I had to deceive her by omission in this manner, but that was the price to pay for security.

“Well, whatever the reason or providence, I can only say it’s done you good from what I can tell.”

“But enough about me,” I patted her hand. “What about you? How did your path bring you to Drongar of all places?”

“I resolved to remain a healer as you recall from our last meeting. However, the routine of the Halls of Healing combined with the constant news from the war began to wear on me. It finally dawned when I was healing some rich business magnate that I had effectively sealed myself off from the war and the pain of the Jedi we had lost in the Geonosis arena. For a moment, I had totally forgotten them…”

She took a few moments to compose herself, looking away from me. “I didn’t want to return to combat but now I felt that I had to return to the front lines. Of the wounded Jedi and troopers who made it to Coruscant, there were so many cases where their conditions would’ve been much better if my healing had reached them sooner. So I spoke to Master Unduli, she spoke to the Council and at some point in discussions between them and the GAR, the idea for the Rimsoos was born.”

“Wow, so you’re in effect the seed or impetus for all this,” I gestured vaguely around me.

“I naturally can’t take all the credit, Ahsoka.”

I nodded, “Of course. But why Drongar?”

“I was offered a position on a number of front line garrison planets where the RMSUs were being deployed. I can only say that it must be the will of the Force. I remember seeing it and without even looking at the brief, I just knew that this was the place.”

“Then you read the brief and were even more intrigued,” I said knowingly.

“I’m a healer, Ahsoka. The bota plant has the potential to save so many lives in the Outer Rim, where health care is either primitive or non-existent. We’ve even begun using it in a limited trial program for the clones.”

“And in yourself,” I finished for her.

She gave me a shrewd look for a moment before giggling, “Figures, Tedrad roped you in as well, didn’t he?”

I sighed, “That he did, after I thoroughly embarrassed myself by going all lusty fangirl on him.”

Now Barriss was winking at me, “He is rather delish, isn’t he?”

I gave her a severe stare, “Are you really Barriss Offee and not some clawdite changeling? Where is the prim and proper mirialan with a stick up her behind?” I asked jokingly.

She slapped my shoulder. “Stop it. To get back to my story, after I was assigned here I initially trained with the folks at RMSU-7 and served there, but now the Jedi healers are posted around on a rotation basis to the various Rimsoos.”

“And you’ve been healing here ever since.”

She grew still for a moment, taking a deep sip of her drink. “And fighting in defense of the Rimsoos,” she admitted.

“Do the Separatists attack them often?” I asked delicately, immediately sensing that we were nearing a sensitive subject.

“We keep the clones in fighting shape without having to ship them offworld, Ahsoka. Of course the Rimsoos are targeted.”

It didn’t take Holmes level deduction skills or postcognition to see that Barriss had not come unscathed through these fights. She had lost friends she had made among the staff of the Rimsoos. Their loss hung on her spirit like an ugly blanket. There was also one which hurt more than most.

My arrival had done much to soothe her and I was glad for that. It made the whole trip worth it far more than just trying to compile a report for the Jedi Council on Admiral Bleyd.

I now put my hand on hers and looked her in the eye, conveying my knowledge and support. It didn’t need to be said, but I said it anyway, “When you feel ready to talk about it, Barriss, I will listen with no judgment and be a shoulder for you to lean on.”

For a long moment, she was absolutely still, just staring into her drink. Then her hand turned around in mine, interlacing our fingers and she gripped it with moderated strength.

“Thank you, Ahsoka. I feel your sincerity and welcome it. I’m not promising I will speak of it though.”

“Fine, just putting the offer out there,” I gave her hand a last squeeze before pulling back. “So to get down to a bit of business, I also want to ask about Admiral Bleyd and generally agreeing with the other Jedi on Drongar on keeping things quiet.”

“What is there to say, Ahsoka? You’ve already spoken to Tedrad. The promise of bota is too great for us to get hung up on the letter of the law. If this gets back to Coruscant, they’ll demand Bleyd’s arrest and return. He’ll then be replaced by someone else, but whoever that is will just find themselves in the same situation. Both sides want the bota and if either side wants exclusivity and tries to deny it to the other, then the losing side will destroy the plants out of spite. Then no one will have it and we lose the promise of alleviating the suffering of countless people across the galaxy.” 

“Mistress!”

M8’s voice shouted from my helmet on the table.

Barriss was visibly startled and frowned in confusion as I picked up my helmet and put it on. “Barriss meet M8, an explorer droid integrated into my armor,” I jerked a thumb at myself.

“Hello Padawan Offee!” M8 chirped.

She laughed incredulously, “Only you, Ahsoka, only you. Still hard to imagine you’re a Mandalorian as well. I mean, I heard it through the Jedi gossip channels, but seeing that helmet and the entire squad of them arrive…”

“As your path led you here, so mine led me to them,” I shrugged. “What’s the problem, M8?” My HUD activated and I saw the Republic network mapped out, only now… “The datapad is active. Where is it?”

“Mapping geolocation data, Mistress.”

The network map vanished to a rendered view of Drongar, which zoomed in to the Jasserak Lowlands, more to the east, quite close to what was called the Khondrus Sea, which was the current location for RMSU-7.

“What’s going on?” Barriss asked curiously.

“Chasing another lead on the admiral. Something which tells me he’s more than just a pragmatic, unconventional officer but also a potentially corrupt one. What do you know about Rimsoo 7?”

“Was stationed there for a few weeks, it’s a much more cozy posting. Their location means it's rare for any Separatist attacks to reach them, so the Rimsoos send them any patient overflows. There’s also a nice uncontested bota field nearby, so the harvesters use the Rimsoo as an unofficial base of sorts.”

“Interesting.”

Barriss laughed, “Oh, I know that tone. You’ve figured something out, haven’t you? Or you’re cunningly hatching some plan.”

I folded my arms and let my helmet’s Mandalorian pattern and body language do most of the talking. “You know me too well it seems. I have suspicions, which I need to confirm before I take any action, therefore I need to get to Rimsoo 7.”

“How soon do you think you’ll need to leave?”

“I have two injured mandalorians currently in the care of this place. We’ll spend the night and leave at first light.”

I felt her relief at hearing that. She clearly wanted to spend more time together and didn’t mind me knowing that, letting the feeling slip through her defenses on purpose.

“Let’s take a walk then.”

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We spent the rest of the evening just talking as friends do, occasionally interrupted by some or other medical emergency, which we both attended to. It left me with a nice warm feeling in my own heart, making me realize that my own spirit had also needed some balming.

The act of healing together, cooperating, just being with someone you trust on that level was just as good as a vacation. It also allowed me to see just how Barriss had grown in the Force as well, which seemed to be a product of her own natural growth, training and further assistance from taking bota.

I slept in the now empty Juggernaut tank’s hold with the Blades and Chewie that night.

The next morning I found my two injured warriors, no longer injured and Barriss standing outside the tank.

Just one look at them told me that she had personally healed both to the point where they were back in fighting shape.

“Thank you.”

“Figured you could use them at top form and you could use me,” she said with a mild smile.

“Aren’t you needed here?”

“The pace of battle is different on Drongar, Ahsoka. The local Separatist forward base will need quite some time to restock its forces. Things will be quiet here before I am needed again. In the meantime, I figured you could use someone more familiar with the land and especially the people.”

I couldn’t really find any reason to object and if it meant we could spend more time together, especially in the middle of this war when things were so uncertain.

“Then welcome aboard, Barriss.” I turned to the tank. “Lt. Dozer, start her up!”

The Juggernaut rumbled into life, its reactor and motive engines thundering the very earth we stood on as we boarded the massive vehicle.

For this trip I decided to take a seat in the forward commander’s dome. It had a two meter diameter and was armored like the rest of the tank, with internal holo displays that nicely mimicked internally what you would see if the dome had been made of transparisteel.

There was only one seat in it, but Barriss clearly didn’t mind standing.

“What’s the wookiee’s story?” she asked as the tank began its journey. It would technically reverse on the journey until we hit the appropriate fork that would allow it to turn for the eastern leg to the coast and Rimsoo 7.

“His name is Chewbacca and I hold his life debt after a mission to Kashyyyk, saved him from some nasty trandoshan slavers,” I explained shortly.

“And now he’s effectively a soldier in the GAR.” The disapproval was mild but clear.

“It’s the only way he could remain close to me and go where I walk. He also wanted to be involved in the protection of his system from the Separatists.”

She sighed and stared at the passing jungle. “I hate this war, Ahsoka. It’s turning us into something… different. Something I don’t think we’ll like by the end of it.”

“There is that possibility,” I admitted, tapping a control panel to bring up a scanner overlay. “Then again, the Jedi can just return to our original role. The GAR will have a large cadre of professional military officers at that point who can take over from us.”

“And who would they fight, Ahsoka?”

“If it comes down to it, criminals, pirates and slavers in the Outer Rim. They could bring the security of the Core Worlds to the outer reaches. A force of deterrence and civilization. The Republic would have more than just empty decrees and words on paper. The anti-slavery laws would actually have teeth behind it for once.”

“You’re forgetting about the Judicial forces.”

I shook my head, “No. Their numbers were always too few and not enough firepower. A paper bha’lir constrained by so much bureaucracy that they could never respond in time to any emergency if it happened even in the mid-rim. By all rights, they should’ve responded to the Naboo Crisis twelve years ago and booted the Trade Federation out by force if necessary. Yet they couldn’t, even if the Senate had given the order, due to the simple fact that they were outgunned by the Federation.”

Barriss really had no argument to give against that. “I just worry about a Republic with a dedicated military. It means that the Senate and Chancellor can now carry a figurative blaster to the table in any dispute against a world or people. What if that dispute is righteous and the Republic is clearly in the wrong?”

“Which is why military force must be a clearly mandated last resort and the Judiciary needs its relative powers increased substantially. It must become equal in power to the Senate and Chancellor’s office.”

She snorted a laugh, “Do you really think the Senate would ever allow that? Not to mention the chancellor.”

“Perhaps not. The balance of power in wartime naturally shifts to the chancellery. You can’t fight a war by committee after all, as much as the Senate tries to. Some of that power has to return to the Senate and Judiciary when it's over.”

“You make it sound so simple. I wish I had your optimism and foresight, Ahsoka. I know the sentient condition, as do you. Do you really think they’ll give up power? Do you think even we Jedi are immune to its allure? Some of us will want to remain in the military even if the Council orders otherwise.”

“We all have the right to leave the Order, Barriss. If the calling of their lives and the Force brings them along that path, then that’s what happens.”

“And if they abuse their Force powers? Fall to the Dark Side? You saw what happened with Bulq.”

“Then the Jedi will step in. We fight the Dark Side in all its forms, Barriss. What we shouldn’t do is make decisions in fear of what might be. The fear of a military and the Jedi Lords is what led to the Rusaan Reformation. The Army of Light was disbanded and you just have to look at history to see what unfolded in the Outer Rim of that era. The peace of the Core and Mid Rim over the last nine hundred years only happened, because the guns of those individual sector fleets kept it that way.”

She chuckled and looked at me with a lopsided smile, “I missed these debates with you.”

I laughed, “Now all we need is the rest of our little clique to complete the picture.”

“Do you think that will ever happen?”

“We can but hope, Barriss.”

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It was just after lunch when the tank approached Rimsoo 7.

They were deployed with a very nice view at the top of a cliff overlooking the Kondrus sea. The cliffs reminded me of Dover facing the English channel on Old Earth in structure at least, though you had to sprinkle an exotic alien jungle on top of it.

Our arrival also needed a suitable excuse, so as not to spook whoever was the owner of the illicit datapad. Barriss suggested I just pretend to be exactly what I was, someone compiling a routine fact finding report for the Jedi Council. Touring the various RMSUs on Drongar to see if there was anything they needed to do their jobs better or if things weren’t working. Barriss would act as my guide.

The excuse convinced the local commander of Rimsoo 7, Lt. Colonel Karred Hon, but the unfortunate consequence was that I became inundated with every little issue, suggestion and grievance from the personnel of the place.

I ended up walking around with a datapad so they could visibly see I was taking notes on their suggestions. Quite a few of the doctors believed I was just humoring them and that their brilliant idea wouldn’t make it to the ears of the Jedi Council.

Our exploration and talking to people randomly was all a ruse though to cover up the fact that M8 was steadily scanning and refining the location of the incriminating datapad.

“I have it, Mistress,” she announced on my HUD. “I’ve cross-referenced it with the quarters assignment map of Rimsoo 7. It belongs to an equani by the name of Klo Merit.” The personnel file was displayed next.

“He’s the primary minder of the Rimsoo.” A Minder was the Corusca galaxy equivalent of a therapist combined with elements of psychiatry. Merit had been on Drongar almost since the beginning of the campaign on the planet. He was well liked and there were no negative marks or red flags on his record. In fact, he was officially commended for his service on a number of occasions in looking after the mental health of so many. Even working with a number of clones whose combat conditioning had broken down in the face of the trials they had endured on the planet.

I gestured for Barriss to follow and we headed to the local Rimsoo’s cantina for a much needed break.

This one had deviated even more from the norm and was better set-up than Rimsoo 5’s, with local engineers managing to link a few modules together to increase the space available. It felt like I was walking into a homely pub, minus the wooden furniture. The music was even more agreeable to me, playing songs from my own favorite Rim band, The HU.

Barriss gave me a smirk, seeing my head moving along with the beat and throaty singing, as we approached and sat down at the bar.

“Still like that band?”

“Of course, they’ve only gone from strength to strength.”

“If you say so, two avedame fruit cocktails,” she ordered from the ortolaan bartender, who was sitting on a chair mounted on a rapidly moving robot arm to move him around, compensating for his small stature.

He rapidly blurted ‘Coming right up!’ in the babble of the ortolaan native language.

Barriss touched my hand briefly and her thoughts asked for permission to enter my mind through the Force.

“So what did you find?” she thought.

“The local minder, Klo Merit, is our initial suspect.”

“He has the datapad?” she asked in astonishment. I nodded. “What would he need that information for?”

“He has no need for it. So either he’s a spy or the true spy is merely using him as a front. Creating another layer of separation.”

“I can’t imagine Merit is a spy, he’s a decorated minder. He’s so…”

I could literally feel as Barriss thoughts ground to a halt as she turned around the idea of it in her mind.

“Trusting, approachable, inoffensive, ordinary. You feel like you can come to him with every problem in the world and he’ll always listen. Helped by his empathic abilities no doubt. It’s what makes them good minders. You realize of course the other occupation which praises those qualities.”

“A spy,” she handed me my glass of juice and began drinking her own.     

“We need to stealthily investigate his quarters to determine if he is one and who he’s working for.”

“Isn’t that obvious, Ahsoka?”

“The Separatists are a possibility, might be that he’s working for a criminal syndicate. At this point, the reason for the fighting here has definitely reached the underworld’s ears. Given how far we are out on the Rim and how close we are to Hutt space, they’re also a possibility.”

“The hutts, of course they’d want to muscle in on trading bota, can they ever not stick their grubby fingers in something?” she thought with annoyance.

“You know the answer to that already, Barriss. If there’s credits to be made, they’ll be there.”

“So how are we going to go about this?”

My mind churned over the problem. “M8, scrape everything you can on Merit from the Rimsoo’s network, any itinerary or schedule for him?” I subvocalized into my helmet.

“Found his official appointment register, mistress. He has rounds with patients for the rest of the afternoon and evening. He only comes off duty just before 2000 local time.”

“Can you find him on security sensors?’ 

“Scanning, mistress.”

It didn’t take long, given the small size of the Rimsoo. M8 displayed the security feed from one of the recovery wards in my HUD. The equani was standing next to a bed and talking with an injured clone trooper, making notes into a datapad. I pushed my senses through the connection and carefully stopped short of infringing on Merit’s mind, limiting myself to passive sensing only.

I gained quite a bit of information anyway, given that he was using his abilities currently on the clone he was talking to and felt no need to be cautious or even disciplined about it.

My hand found Barriss’ on the bar counter, looking outwardly like I was just tapping her hand to gain attention. I forged a brief Bond and pulled her mind across the bridge to show her what I was seeing. 

“Whoah, that is rather something,” she thought, feeling impressed by what I had done. “So we’re going to keep him under observation with Farsight?”

“Correct. M8 will keep digging the local datasphere. Merit knows that there are two Jedi here, so he’ll be extra careful in anything he does. We’ll have to be patient. Sooner or later, he’ll have to fulfill his function as a spy and that’s when we’ll know the truth of the matter.”

“How long can your cover of an inspection and fact finding mission last though? Most inspections according to regs last for two days, will that be enough?” 

“The thing with regs, in certain respects they can be guidelines and not hard rules. If it comes down to it, we’ll leave the Rimsoo and continue our surveillance from afar.”

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For the next two days I continued to be sounding board for every ‘good’ idea that the doctors and nurses of Rimsoo 7 had, all the while going on impromptu tours of the wards. I did an inspection of the local battalion of clone troopers currently responsible for security and they even put up a small parade inspection for me with Barriss and Ursa Wren by my side. I also kept the Blades busy with some training, simulating an attack on the Rimsoo.

Naturally, I was putting on a fake show for Merit to put in his report, a nice bit of counter-intel to send up the pipeline towards whoever his true masters were.

He avoided Barriss and I like we had plague, but it was inevitable that my inspection would eventually swing by his office. It was quite amusing to ‘see’ him frantically sanitizing the place for anything that could possibly clue us in on his duplicitous nature. Not to mention cleaning up his footprints in the local datasphere, completely unaware that M8 was watching his every action like a hawk already.

“Dr. Merit, you’re a difficult person to get a hold of,” I said, as Barriss and I sat down on some rather comfortable chairs in front of his desk.

“I’m rather busy, Commander Tano,” he said genially, shrugging his shoulders. Equani were tall bipeds, who were generally related to the Cosian species, the difference being they were entirely covered in soft fur, longer snout and head, with pointed ears topping their head that could swivel much like a canine. It was like I was looking at a horse/dog hybrid in terms of facial structure. Merit had mostly soft golden fur with streaks of visible gray that seemed to indicate aging. “The rigors of this world are great on everyone and I must do all I can to alleviate the stresses they endure. If I didn’t, we’d lose many people due to burnout or psychological breaks.”

“Something for which I thank you personally and I will convey the good work you are doing to the Jedi Council,” I said, whilst keeping my emotions in perfect order like any Jedi worth their salt would be able to, conveying exactly what I wanted his empathic senses to pick up. My helmet denied him any tells on my face and Barriss’ own emotions were also neatly conveying our honesty and sincerity. Her own poker face was also impressive, though she was using the hood of her Jedi robe to partially hide her eyes.

“I must also say that your commitment and sacrifice to your profession is impressive,” Barriss said evenly. “Especially given the disaster that happened to your homeworld.”

I could immediately tell that Barriss had pushed on a significant nerve. The entire office was subjected to a burst of titanic anger before it was brought under control and smothered. Merit’s face didn’t betray a hint and I had to tip my hat to this fellow’s level of emotional control.

“I apologize,” he sighed, clearly realizing we had picked up on it. “Every time I think I have put it behind me, something comes along to remind me of the cataclysm.”

“I’m sorry as well, doctor. Merely stating the facts. There are barely less than two hundred of your species left in the galaxy and yet you’re here on one of the most dangerous planets it has to offer.”

Equanus had been hit by a mega solar flare from their local star that had caught them completely by surprise, just six months before the Clone Wars had broken out. They were a people who rarely ventured beyond the atmosphere of their homeworld, despite having full spaceflight capabilities and even Senate representation. They were characterized as insular and had seen no purpose in venturing into the cauldron of the galaxy beyond occasions that were deemed absolutely necessary. Their homeworld had produced everything they ever needed and they were blessed in having every necessary element for modern civilization. They didn’t need to trade beyond luxury items.

Now they were on a fast track towards extinction.

Even with a cloning program there was just not enough genetic diversity left alive to make a viable population that didn’t die off after a few centuries according to even the best geneticists. The kaminoans could maybe genetically engineer those problems away, but it would require that the equani consent to that. Before the disaster they’d been firmly against gengineering and it was no different among the survivors.

Merit merely acknowledged Barriss’ words with a nod. “Yes. Fate has decreed to end my people and I was not going to sit in a corner on some decadent core world and do nothing with the time I had left. Before I leave this life, I will make my mark on the galaxy by doing good, by doing what I am good at.”

“I admire your resolve, Doctor,” I bowed my head. “I have reviewed your published work, especially with regard to the clones and it makes interesting reading.”

“Oh, what’s so interesting about it? Most who read the work of my profession find it unbearably dull and full of jargon that only minders understand.”

“To name just one of your points, the fact that the clones sometimes find ways to break their conditioning. That the trauma of war can sometimes shatter it and on a world like Drongar, that is even more likely.”

“No amount of simulated immersion, training and conditioning that the kaminoans give them can truly prepare for the realities of combat on some worlds. I’ll give the cloners credit though, they usually find and weed out those who will likely crack before they even put on that armor.”

“You also point out that the clones are only as effective as they are, because they,” I coughed, feigning discomfort, “still have their libidos.”

Merit’s equine face smirked, “Now I am impressed, commander. I couched that observation in so much jargon and academic language that it’s all but opaque to anyone outside my profession.”

“As a Jedi I have great interest in the sentient mind and I’ve made it my business to study it. Therefore the work of the minder profession is of great relevance.”

His ears perked and he titled his head, “I had always thought the Jedi Order subscribed to the notion that the Force could bring every revelation they would ever need regarding every subject.”

“There are some who do believe that,” I admitted with a nod. “But we have minds, therefore the tools of empirical study and science should be just as valid when it comes to the inner worlds of sentience.”

“Ha!” Merit clapped his hands with delight. “I sense we could talk all day on this topic, Commander Tano, but that is not why you are here. By now I know the question you will ask, so I will give my answer. I am content and have all I need. A minder requires very little to practice our profession. The few drugs we can prescribe for mental conditions are in stock and we won’t run out for some time based on current usage.”

“That is good to hear. So anything you wish to say for the ears of the Council?”

He sat back in his chair, folded his hands together, clearly thinking about it.

“No, I have nothing to say or suggest to them. Besides trying harder to find a way to end this war in a manner that doesn’t leave the galaxy a burning cinder. That is a general request I’m sure every reasoned, civilized sentient has.”

“That is something they are spending every moment on finding, doctor,” Barriss assured him before standing from her chair.

I stood as well and we bowed to him.

“We thank you for your time, Doctor Merit and will let you get back to it.”

“A pleasure to meet you, commander.”

We left his office and walked in silence down the small corridor and emerged out of a hatch into the open air. Our walk took us in the direction of the looming Juggernaut Tank in the distance.

“What do you think, Barriss?” I thought to her.

“It’s hard to say, on the one hand, you can’t help but feel sympathy for him. His race is basically extinct and every notion of decency is telling me that suspecting him of wrongdoing is… well, wrong.”

“Precisely, which is why I’m even more convinced he is a spy. He comes built in with a ‘social shield’, so to speak. No one would want to make his life more difficult than it already is, living with the extinction of his own race. Therefore, they tend to look the other way and make excuses for otherwise suspicious behavior.”

“We still need hard proof, Ahsoka. The datapad will not be enough.”

“Yes, we need to catch him in the act, under recorded surveillance. Nothing else would suffice as a basis for arresting him. Then again, I’m not sure arresting him is the right course of action. The greatest value in a spy is that he remains undetected. Once that cover is gone, they become a liability and the trick is to make the enemy think that their spy isn’t compromised. We can then trace his handler and begin mapping any further spies or the network, if it’s there.”

She glanced at me with a frown, “That sounds like it could take quite a bit of time.”

“If Merit is careful, it could take months. However, I have a hunch you could say. In less than 48 hours, a transport ship is due to take a processed load of bota from the nearby field to the Republic fleet in orbit. It represents months of careful harvesting and preservation work, therefore it's an extremely enticing target.”

“For destruction or theft?”

“Both are likely, with the former being more plausible. He’s in no position to steal the transport unless he believes his nature as a spy is compromised, unless he has outside help.”

“So we are leaving then,” she deduced.

“Yes, but not too quickly. A few more interviews, business as usual. It must seem natural.”

I felt her amusement, “When did you learn this sort of thing?”

“Oh, here and there as the need arose.”

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We left Rimsoo 7 at first light the next day.

I ordered the Juggernaut to cruise along the main road as if we were intending to return to the 205th headquarters.

Right until the moment we were thirty kilometers into our journey, at which point we stopped and turned the tank to forge a new path directly north and towards the nearby sea.

It slowed us down to barely twenty kph, but was understandable considering we were bulldozing our way through the jungle.

It took nearly three hours of hearing trees snap under the assault of the tank before we broke through to see a pristine white beach and ocean waves assaulting it.

“You can keep him under watch from this distance?” Barriss asked me.

“Yes,” I answered nonchalantly, leaning back in the chair in the commander’s dome. “It’s called farsight for a reason,” I teased her with a finger poke into her shoulder. She slapped my hand in good natured retaliation. “M8 has the entire Rimsoo under her digital fingers at this point and is watching more conventionally as well.”

I pulled off my helmet and hooked it onto a nearby railing, adjusting and shaking my lekku to a more comfortable position after their confinement.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Ahsoka?” she looked out towards the endlessly churning ocean dominating the horizon. “If this shipment is lost…”

“Bota is precious, yes, but it doesn’t help we prevent a sabotage and arrest Merit, only to alert his handler in the process. It’s best to sweep up both when the time comes. You don’t pull out a weed by the stem, but rather by the root, otherwise it just grows back and doesn’t solve the problem.”

“And what about the lives of the crew on the transport?”

I folded my arms. “That’s the nasty side of the espionage business and with command in general. It shares much in common with the concept of triage, something you know about first hand.”

Barriss winced and I could feel I had touched a nerve.

For a long while she continued to just stare out at the ocean, clearly working up the courage to broach a topic she wanted to share, but also didn’t because another part of her was railing against the thought.    

She leaned forward against the railing, her hands gripping hard and straining.

“His name was Rexor,” her voice was soft and she lowered her head to hide her expression from me. “A doctor at Rimsoo 12… we became friends after working on patients together…” She let out a shaky breath. “He was always so curious about Jedi, how we grew up and how I learned healing. I wanted to know about Iridonia, his people and… he was one of those people you just became fast friends with. It was like we just meshed, you know?”

“Yes,” I nodded, that would describe a fair number of my friends from both lives. Yet I sensed more from her as she said these words. “What happened to him?”

“He- he died during an attack on the Rimsoo. The defenses were overwhelmed, I was on the north side, defending as best I could, but we were flanked and droids breached the perimeter. He died defending his patients, sonic pistol in hand.” She sniffed thickly and wiped tears from her eyes. “He wasn’t successful, the droids blasted them dead in their beds anyway. No heroic final stand resulting in victory or saving their lives, just a pointless death.”

“His death wasn’t pointless.”

Her entire body stiffened and I felt her push down a surge of anger. “How can you say that?”

“From an objective point of view, yes, it achieved nothing, Barriss. Yet it meant everything to him personally. Imagine for a moment, he had not defended his patients. That he retreated and left them there to die whilst saving himself. Would he have been able to look himself in the mirror afterwards and not feel wretched regret and guilt?”

Doctors in the Corusca galaxy took a generally similar oath as the Hippocratic Oath, though it was called the Feno Oath - named after a legendary Coruscanti physician who it was thought had started the modern practice of medicine over 8000 years ago. It had undergone a few additions and revisions, mostly due to the various major wars over the millenia against the Old Sith Empire and Brotherhood. One of which was that a doctor was bound by oath and honor to always defend their helpless patients, in word and deed.

“No,” she admitted, standing upright and attempting to compose herself. “But it was after that… when we sent his body for transport back to Iridonia… that I was within hairsbreadth of rejecting the Jedi Code, of falling to the Dark Side…” She closed her eyes, hissing her breath through her teeth and I could feel her internal turmoil clearly. “It would’ve been so easy. To just take its power and wreck every droid in my path on this planet, kill every Separatist in orbit, for revenge, for Rexor. That’s what it whispered in my ear.”

“But you didn’t,” I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

“No, and it was the Rexor who lives in my memories who stopped me. I thought I had already faced my Mirror test, but what I experienced felt an order of magnitude more powerful than that. Every day, it’s like I’m constantly fighting the Dark Side now.”

“Welcome to the club, Barriss,” I said wryly.

She whirled around and looked at me with surprise on her features. “What?”

“Yes, even me. I’m not some paragon of Jediness, my friend. I have a darkness as well. Everyone does and the stronger you are in the Force, the more it can potentially manifest.”

“When-”

I held up a hand to interrupt her, “It was during my time trapped with the Celestial artifact.”  

“Oh, I see, I think,” she shook her head. “Might be that the Force concentrated around this planet has something to do with it as well.”

“This is you, Barriss. Your darkness is something you must fight and yet accept as a fact of existence. I know it's natural to not want to face it, but you can’t point the finger to external factors and you must also come to terms with an important truth.”

“What truth?” she asked wearily.

“The potential had been there for Rexor to be more than just a friend to you. Did you think that at some point, you could’ve grown to love him?”

“D-d-don’t be ridiculous, Ahsoka. I would never - the Code-”

“Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force.”

She stared at me assessingly. “You follow Master Billaba’s revision.”

“It’s very easy to follow the first Code, when you’re cloistered in a Temple or Chapterhouse. Not so much when you’re on the front lines of a galactic war and faced with the realities of life and the galaxy. That is what happened to Master Billaba.”

Barriss bent down to open the interior hatch of the dome, her emotions all over the place, clearly wanting to retreat. “I must meditate on this.”

“Do whatever you must to find clarity, my friend.”

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The sudden whine of the Juggernaut’s reactors caused Barriss to open her eyes immediately and her heart raced briefly in fright before she got it under control.

She sat up from her sleeping bag in the tank’s main hold and saw that the mandalorians were already awake and going through the motions of checking and cleaning weapons, with discarded ration packs littering the floor around them.

Seeing them, she was hit again with the surrealism of the situation as she thought about the fact that Ahsoka was their leader and the head of one of the most prominent mando clans in existence. If anyone had said that her friend would become a mandalorian just a few months ago, she’d have rightly examined them for signs of insanity.

The tank whined again and began rocking as it moved under power.

She thought about asking one of the mandos about what was going on, but decided her curiosity could wait for Ahsoka’s word on the matter.

Her stomach was feeling rather like a void at the moment, but her eyes caught the ration pack next to her bag with a handwritten note scribbled on it ‘Eat, you’ll need it’ in her friend’s familiar writing.

Barriss peeled it open and began using the built in utensil to absently shovel food into her mouth.

These last few days with her old friend had been… an experience to say the least. At times she had felt like she was speaking to a complete stranger wearing Ahsoka’s skin and then there would be joking moments where the pre-war younger Ahsoka she remembered would shine through.

It made her despise this accursed war even more.

In retrospect, it should’ve been obvious that Ahoska would fall on the other side of the divide that had arisen on the Order because of the Clone War. She had always been critical of the Jedi Code. Never openly, but always in her arguments and debates would a sliver of it sneak through.

Her teeth bit on an empty utensil and she belatedly realized she had stabbed the empty ration pack to try and eat air.

She really had to do a bit of a morning meditation to regain equilibrium but her need for information won out.

Barriss also had to firmly dampen her olfactory senses as her own smell reached her nostrils. Keeping clean in the circumstances was problematic given the high heat and humidity of Drongar, but she resolved to find one of the Juggernaut tank’s refreshers afterwards if there was time.

She found Ahsoka standing in front of the map screen in the tiny command center, her finger tracing the rendered terrain thoughtfully.

“Morning Barriss,” Ahsoka said absently.

“Morning.” She yawned and stretched her arms. “What’s going on?”

“Well, M8 has made a number of alarming discoveries, which is why we’re preemptively moving the tank closer to the Rimsoo along the coastline.”

“Did Merit do something?”

“Yes, under the cover of darkness he left to meet a ship that had landed covertly nearby. It didn’t have a cloak, but it had a sensor spoofer and other systems to aid it in landing undetected. It was undoubtedly designed as a blockade runner.”

“Who was on it?”

“A falleen who Merit identified by the name of Tostox. There’s a good chance they’re referring to Thol Tostox, which if true puts an interesting spin on the loyalties of our equani minder. According to the Republic criminal database, Tostox is a known high ranking member of the Black Sun, with a list of offenses so long I could spend all day reciting it.”

Barriss frowned as she tried to parse that, “So are we looking at Admiral Bleyd working with the Black Sun?”

“Possibly, but given all the hidden sabotage programs M8 found in Rimsoo 7, I think that Merit is working for the Separatists as well.”

She widened her eyes in alarm, “What did he do?”

“Hidden programs to remote shut down life support systems, bacta tanks and all the automated defenses. There was even a program to introduce a virus into the organ cloning system, which would produce an actual biological virus in the organ being implanted into the clone. The virus in question is a nasty influenza-type pathogen that would spread to most species with human-adjacent lungs. I doubt he has the skills and experience to write these malicious programs, so his Separatist handler probably supplied them for him to merely upload.

“Merit has also been spending a lot of time on the hacked datapad and clearly referencing information that had been collated over months. Then he also stole a few tools from the Rimsoo’s mechanic shop. Combine this with the explosive device that Tostox handed off, I think it’s safe to say we are looking at something big happening when the bota transport is due to leave.”

Barriss looked at the chrono on her wrist, “Which is due to leave in two hours.”

“Commander Tano!” called Lt. Dozer. “We just received an emergency transmission from Rimsoo 7. They’ve detected a droid strike force of over eight hundred units bearing down on their position, ETA, one hour.”

Ahsoka closed her eyes, the Force sang and moved around her.

“Frak!” she swore. “Dozer, I want all the speed you can give me on this beach terrain. Has the Rimsoo commander declared his intentions?”

“Not yet, commander. It’ll depend if a viable defense can be organized from the local units, otherwise the Rimsoo will have to pack up and evacuate.”

“How long does that usually take?”

“By the regs, two hours. Fifty minutes if they cut corners. Should we contact them?”

“No, not with a saboteur in their midst. They’ll see us coming on sensors eventually.”

“Ahsoka, with those hidden programs-” Barriss began.

“Relax Bar, M8 disarmed them. They’re duds. If Merit tries to activate them, he’ll be in for a rude surprise.”

Barriss would’ve ordinarily objected to the use of Ahsoka’s infernal nickname for her in this setting, but couldn’t find it in herself to care at the moment.

A Rimsoo was under direct threat again. One which was considered the safest on the planet and once again she was going to be called to defend it. 

She fought against the dark memories of that awful night bubbling up to the surface. Her darkness rose anew, whispering that the power to stop it all was there for the taking. She just had to reach out…

NO!

Barriss stared at Ahsoka, seeing her wonderful friend shining like a beacon in the Force…

NO! I will not. My enemies will be defeated without me losing myself to you. Go!

She fortified herself with the Force, finding her calm and center with a surprising alacrity.

“What do we do, Ahsoka?” she asked with determination.

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A/N: Slight bridging chapter for setup. More Barriss POV to come. Have a great weekend folks and stay awesome.