The Force Wills - Chapter 51 (Patreon)

Most beings in the galaxy looked forward to returning home.

Riyo Chuchi did not share this feeling.

She paced uselessly back and forth in the cockpit area of her diplomatic ship, Bastion, and gave the various readouts and controls a glance to confirm everything was still functioning and nothing had changed.

Bastion was still powering through the Mon Gazza system in real space, streaking towards the onward Llanic hyperspace point and would do so for another three hours. No ships were within immediate sensor range, but the transponders of many thousands registered throughout the system, as befitted a crossroads junction on the Corellian Run Hyperlane.

She knew she could be doing so many more productive things; such as working to clear all the steadily stacking datapads filled with Senate business requiring her attention, but the thought of the homeworld under siege by the contemptible Trade Federation just sucked all the energy out of her. Every problem her world faced at the moment could be traced back to the Federation or the Separatists in some way.

She also knew she should’ve asked for more assistance than just an astromech droid. Bastion was automated to a high degree to the point where she could take solo trips in the small frigate; she had done so in the past on the rare occasion, but here and now she was faced with a dilemma. The pressure of her world under blockade had neatly split the population; one side who remained loyal to the Republic and the other who only saw the immediate economic hardships of war and the blockade and wanted to give in to the Separatists. Anti-Republic sentiments were growing by the day. She couldn’t know who among her staff on Coruscant to trust at this point.

The Separatists were frighteningly adept at turning people to their cause through a variety of covert and even overt means. The kidnapping of Chairman Papanoida’s daughters being carried out so near-flawlessly pointed a damning finger that someone among the Pantoran delegation had turned traitor.

She couldn’t even trust the Senate Guard. She had the full right to ask for a small squad of them on this journey, but the scandal of the traitorous Captain Argyus was still making waves. Many senators had started importing their own security delegations from their homeworlds as a result. She had shown faith in the Republic and declined a security team from home, when Papanoida had asked, but now she was rather ruing that decision.

Again her traitorous mind began showing her all sorts of nightmare scenarios; the Federation simply ignoring her diplomatic status and putting her in a cell aboard one of their Lucrehulks and she would simply ‘disappear’. Another scenario; they hired yet more bounty hunters to simply ambush and capture her, maybe in the Reuss system - it was small, barely any settlement or infrastructure that monitored the hyper points. There was no avoiding it, no alternate routing. Another; the Separatists used sponsored pirates to simply capture and kill her.

Riyo stopped herself there, slamming the brakes on that train of thought firmly, wrenching herself to more positive thoughts with an exercise her great uncle taught her.

Just the thought of him always served to bring brightness to her thoughts and she liked to think that he was watching over her on this journey.

Joren Chuchi had been a Jedi, but he had not made the transition to the padawan rank, failing to find a master. As such he had been funneled into the Jedi Agricorps, where he had actually found his calling as farmer. It wasn’t long before he left the Agricorps and found his way back to Pantora, convincing her own grandfather for a loan to buy land.

It was the best financial decision grandfather had ever made.

Riyo always always liked visiting that sprawling and very successful farm as a young girl. Where Uncle Joren would fondly watch her play.

An abrupt alarm jolted her out of the warm memories and it took her a moment to realize it was coming from the com system.

She walked over and studied the radio status display. There was an incoming tight beam message from just beyond sensor range. Another alarm pulled her attention and the astromech, R3-B8, blurted warning tones in binary.

“Now what?”

She walked over to the sensor display MFD next to the pilot station.

A ship had just entered the extreme range of the Bastion’s sensors. It was only coasting on its velocity, with no engine burn and was on a parallel course to the Llanic hyper point. Her own steadily increasing velocity had brought the Bastion within range.

The com system blurted the warning again.

“Yes, yes, I’m coming,” she muttered and thumped the button to accept the com handshake.

What emerged was a very poor quality signal, with static grating on her ears.

“...repeat… emergency… emergency, this is… -ren, life support failing… barely breathe… emergency, emergency, life support…”

“R3, what ship is that?”

“Transponder identifies ship as Shili Siren - light cargo transport vessel, G9 Rigger class, Corellian,” R3-B8 trilled in binary.

She was again pulled in two directions; it was entirely possible that this was a trap, something to lure her in. She could ignore it and continue on her way. However, what if this was exactly what it sounded like. A ship in distress and because of her inaction, she doomed someone to death by asphyxiation. A lesson her great uncle taught popped into her mind, ‘Imagine yourself in another’s position.’ Yes, one day I might be on a dying ship and hoping that someone would save me, she thought.

“Adjust our course for an intercept, R3.”

“Are you certain, mistress? Pirate and criminal activity in the Outer Rim has significantly increased.”

“Yes, we can scan the ship when we’re closer, just to verify things.”

“Understood, mistress. Altering course.”

It took an agonizingly long seventeen minutes for the Bastion to close the distance until those detailed scans could be performed. The stricken ship was barely a blip of light to the naked eye, still fifteen light seconds distant.

“Scan the ship please, R3.”

“Scanning, mistress… The hull appears to be intact, no outgassing or damage is visible. There are strong power fluctuations, and its reactor is malfunctioning. It suggests a 72% probability that this is the cause for life support failure.”

“What does the other 28% suggest?”

“It’s possible that the reactor malfunction is deliberate sabotage.”

“Meant to lure me in, then once I’m in a predictable position, pirates swoop out of hyper right on top of me.”

“The computational capability to create such a hyper trap is beyond most pirates, mistress.”

“But it could just as well be the Separatists or those pirates sponsored by them.”

“Correct, mistress.”

She rubbed her face wearily and idly combed her pink hair with her fingers. “Keep your course, R3. Initiate docking when we reach it.”

“Understood, mistress.”

She stood and left the cockpit, heading down the small corridor to her nearby cabin. In a corner was her largest travel case that contained her clothes for this trip. She flipped it open and stuck a hand into the neatly folded pile of clothing, fiddled around, then pulled out a gun belt holding a custom Corellian K23 blaster, whose grip was molded to her hand.

She wrapped it reluctantly around her hips and fastened it with the buckle. She pulled the blaster out, checked the charge level and that it was set on stun.

Satisfied with her preparation she headed further aft in the ship and towards the starboard docking collar. She opened the emergency compartment next to the airlock and pulled out a breather mask.

R3’s binary came over the PA, “Mistress, we are close enough now for a life sign scan. One only, very faint.”

“Understood R3, keep going.”

“Decelerating, matching velocity and vectors, docking in thirty seconds.”

Riyo took a deep breath and fitted the mask, checking for a tight seal and that it was properly functioning. She pulled out her blaster and waited anxiously, looking through the small transparisteel windows of both inner and outer doors.

Abruptly the black of space was replaced with a shiny metallic hull as the filtered, reflected light from the local star hit her eyes. That was then replaced with the mechanical docking collar of the Rigger freighter that quickly and efficiently closed the distance under the expert guidance of R3.

She felt the thump through the hull as the ships connected.

A quick look at the airlock status display indicated that the atmosphere in the freighter was pressurized but dangerously high in CO2 levels.

Satisfied she keyed the Bastion’s side to open and stepped through.

She hoped the pilot of the Shili Siren at least remembered to unlock their airlocks when they had transmitted their distress call. Otherwise she’d either have to get R3 to try to slice through their system or as a last resort, actually cut through.

Thankfully, Riyo had no problems with the local controls on the freighter’s airlock exterior and it opened with a single button press.

She took her first step onto Shili Siren and saw only a narrow empty corridor and steadily flashing lights.

“R3 where is that lifesign?” she asked into her comlink.

“Straight ahead, through the door, you will enter the main cargo area, climb the ladder to the upper deck. Through the door you will find there.”

“Thanks.”

Riyo followed the directions, struggling to suppress the feelings of fear that were slowly building. The old stories of ghost ships or the early hyperspace vessels came to the fore. Adrift ships, totally devoid of their crews and no explanation could be found in later investigations. The atmosphere was eerie and her pace was slow. Her imagination saw fit to paint dark creatures from her nightmares in the darkness, but which would swiftly vanish as the lights flickered back on.

There was no cargo here but she could vaguely recognize that the ship actually had a whole supplemental reactor in the bay.

Why make that change? She wondered.

When she was finally on the upper deck and thumbed the controls to open the hatch there…

Despite knowing that the pilot would be there, she couldn’t help but gasp. She’d had the unlucky timing to open the door when darkness reigned and the vague shape she beheld almost seemed to be some sort of kneeling form with an armored head…

The lights flickered on and revealed the truth.

In that moment, a hum resounded throughout the ship, both lights and power stabilized.

Kneeling there in a meditation pose that she had seen her great uncle do many times, was a young togruta wearing what she recognized as a summer collection outfit from the pantoran Shemone design house. Her eyes were closed and an oxygen face mask covered her face.

“Greetings Senator Chuchi,” said the togruta suddenly, again startling her enough that Riyo almost aimed her blaster at the figure in reflex. “I am Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano.” The self-identified Jedi opened her startlingly deep blue eyes that seemed to draw and pull Riyo’s gaze into them like deep pools that you could dive into. Then the Jedi bowed her head. “I apologize for the scare and deception to draw you here.”

Riyo blinked and her wits caught up to the situation. “Pada… What-  What is going on?”

“I’ve been assigned unofficially by the Jedi Council to accompany you to Pantora, acting undercover as your aide,” she said succinctly.

Riyo’s mind whirled as she considered the implications of that and the actual picture began to unfold.

“The Jedi Council knows something about actual Separatist involvement?!” she asked immediately.

“Indeed, Senator, but Jedi intuition and divination are problematic at best in courts, let alone in the complex struggle of politics and propaganda. You of all people understand it is one thing to know something, it is another to actually prove it.”

The padawan smoothly stood and Riyo couldn’t help but admire the figure that she possessed. Tano filled in that pantoran outfit really well. Riyo wished she had the time to devote to the physical exercise required for that.

The Jedi held out her hand and a large duffle bag flew through the air and looped itself around her shoulders.

It was a rather deliberate piece of showmanship, Riyo realized. She could see no lightsaber on the padawan’s hips, but that show of power did enough to truly identify the padawan as the real deal.

“So I take it we need to keep our confidential discussions on this ship?”

“That would be advisable, senator. The Shili Siren will not be accompanying us going further. I will send it on its way to Corellia, as scheduled. My involvement must be deniable and unprovable until we gain evidence of Separatist involvement in this blockade.”

“Then let’s plan on just how we’re going to achieve that, Padawan Tano.”

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For a politician who had a full seat of representation in the Senate, Riyo Chuchi was a surprising person to find in such a position.

Much like Padme, she was quite young for her role, and had been groomed for her role by Pantora since her teenage years. She had gone through the Senate Young Leaders program - something the Senate ran every fifty years to promote ‘getting in new blood and fresh perspectives’. Now in her twenties, she was more experienced, wiser, but still very idealistic and in some ways naïve about the Senate and Republic. She still had faith in it and what it represented.

I could also tell that she didn’t have a good first impression of me. After all, I had used her good nature and manipulated her into docking with the Twilight with that fake distress call. It didn’t matter that it was done to keep a shield of plausible deniability, to let me infiltrate her ship and now assume my next identity - Alenah Dinos - a newly hired aide that had rendezvoused with her in New Cov.

Sure, she was grateful that the Jedi Council had actually heard and responded to her world’s plight, but she also resented that it didn’t seem to merit assigning a Jedi knight to her case. Naturally, I didn’t take her feelings as an offense or slight. I had long ago made peace with the fact that I’d likely remain a padawan for the duration of the war.

The Order had already made a considerable exception in knighting Anakin. It did not change quickly and held onto tradition stubbornly, even in the face of considerable external pressure. Ask most masters and they’d ascribe that quality as a virtue. They saw it as holding on to the Order’s ideals even in the face of the Dark Side - and what was the entire war but an external manifestation of the Dark Side?

As Yoda would say, “Wars not make one great.”

My martial and military feats mattered little in the evaluation of even letting me attempt knighthood trials.

All in all, that was probably why the senator, after we had discussed in depth our strategies and plans going forward, dumped a stack of datapads in front of me.

I now had to ‘work’ in full view of her ship’s surveillance sensors, whilst her astromech went around and did creative slicing and editing of the ship’s logs and recorders, including back dated documentation regarding my employment with Senator Chuchi. This included posting a job advert on the Holonet. R3-B8 did a sufficiently passable job of slicing Holonet records to show that the job had appeared a month ago and that my ‘identity’ had responded to it from Shili. It wouldn’t hold up to a determined data investigation from a specialist, the droid was not specialized itself in terms of hardware for that, but it was good enough for cursory scrutiny.

It was rather annoying going through these motions when I knew they weren’t going to be needed at the end of the day. We were going to find the Trade Federation with its hand in the cookie jar. It was just good experience and practice though.

By the end of our second day on the Llanic Spice Run hyper lane, Chuchi had mellowed out somewhat towards me. Mostly due to the level of dedication I showed as she taught me the administrative ropes of her work in the Senate. I think she also found herself somewhat surprised how much she enjoyed the process of teaching, even if she was a bit of a novice at it.

“I’ve never really felt the need for someone to act as a personal aide,” she explained over the dinner we were having in the Bastion’s small galley. “The dozen staff members of the Pantoran delegation to the Senate handle most of the administrative duties. I’ve also seen a lot of other senators treat their own aides as everything from the equivalent of royal servants to less savory roles. It feels too much like handing off work that should be mine.”

The other thing I realized about the young senator; she was a very social person and didn’t take to solitude well. Her long solo journey from Coruscant with only R3-B8 as company had been a trying time. She had taken to doing her own work in my presence and would find as many excuses as possible to always be within the same room. She kept things strictly business during ‘office hours’ and ‘small talk’ would be limited to when we ate.

Riyo Chuchi, it turns out, was a very easy person to like. She had a natural charisma in spades and an oratory skill that I knew needed just another decade or so to mature and she’d make news whenever she spoke. She also had one of those personalities that just seemed to suck you in. She was a rare gem of a person and I could see how I could become fast friends with her over the next week.

We would arrive in the Pantoran system thankfully without incident on the third day, passing through the Socorro and the Reuss systems on the way.

Everything was in place as we could make it and the Bastion dropped out of hyper at the emergence point of the frigid Orto Plutonia.

Pantora itself was actually a very large moon that the pantorans considered their homeworld. They were not the only species to call this place home though; as aqualish, bith, gran, humans, rodians and sullustans were immigrated species and also had representation in the Pantoran Assembly.

It didn’t take long to see the blockade.

A full grid of Lucrehulk battleships cutting off the most efficient courses from the moon’s various spaceports.

The ship’s diplomatic status and active transponder was doing its job at least and there was no hostile reaction from the Federation battleships.

In fact, the lead ship in the formation merely sent a bloody holo text message that we were cleared to land in their port landing bay, the captain not even bothering to get on the holo and speak to us.

“That’s encouraging,” I said dryly.

Riyo gave me a look, “The diplomatic protocol will generally be observed by the senior Federation representative on the ship, not its captain.”

“The captain is the one with finger on the button that will unleash the firepower of that battleship. This neimoidian regards us with very little respect, senator.”

“I understand what you’re trying to say, Alenah. Nevertheless, we must press on.”

R3 did the piloting into the giant hangar of the flagship Lucrehulk with the delightful name of Marauder.

She led the way into the lower decks of the Bastion as it went through its landing cycle and we paused just outside the embarkation door.

A slight thump felt through the decking indicated touch down and Riyo did a final check on the external sensors before opening the door and lowering the ramp.

Thankfully, we weren’t greeted by a squad of armed droids, but only two neimoidians dressed in their typical flowing black robes with pointed hats. The one with the tallest hat and decorated in colorful patterns was Sib Canay, the Trade Federation officer in general command of the entire blockade, whilst next to him wearing an unadorned flat top hat, was Chuf Prutzo, the Federation ambassador to Pantora.

“Senator Chuchi,” greeted Sib with a mildly smug smile on his dark gray-green face. “Welcome back to Pantora. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“I bring word from the Chairman of Pantora,” she said formally, yet managed to convey a tone that was quite friendly to the person who held the fate of her world in his greasy palms.

“The chairman has finally decided to agree to our terms? I must say we do not relish this blockade, senator. It’s a dreadful waste of time and money, but…” He shrugged, as if it was completely out of his hands.

“Not exactly. The chairman wanted me to inform you personally of an impending alliance between Pantora and the Confederacy of Independent Systems.”

“The chairman is planning on joining the Separatist Alliance?” Sib was clearly surprised and even slightly skeptical.

“If that were the case, would you remove your blockade from Pantora?” Riyo asked pointedly.

“If so, the chairman would have to go to the Senate and renounce the Republic. Then we could discuss how quickly we could resume commerce.”

“Very well,” Riyo agreed pleasantly, as if she wasn’t discussing something entirely antithetical to her beliefs and technically treason. “I shall contact the chairman. We shall discuss the finer details tomorrow morning.”

“Agreed,” Sib stood to the side and gestured to the nearby exit. “Now you and your servant may stay as our honored guests. Come this way to your rooms.”

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The first thing I noticed as we were guided to our quarters was that not a single armed droid was in sight. In fact, it looked like the entire battleship was manned by neimoidian soldiers, mostly drawn from their Royal Gunnery Battalion, but there were also those who were clearly functioning as naval personnel. The only droids were the typical maintenance and damage control droids that were in use all over the galaxy. It made me wonder if the entire blockade was like this. If that was the case, then it seemed the Trade Federation was also engaged in a bit of theater and made me curious how well neimoidian crewed Lucrehulks would perform in battle.

Our new accommodation was located in the central sphere of the Lucrehulk and was very luxurious. It almost felt like we were walking into a seven star hotel suite on Cato Neimodia. Hand woven red carpeted floor that bounced slightly under my feet, walls decorated by e-paintings, statues from a dozen different worlds and cultures, artfully placed around furniture that probably cost more than most people would make in a decade. Even the air I was breathing felt ultra clean and was scented with something that reminded me of… vanilla? The only thing that broke the immersion was a single flatscreen that projected a beautiful view of Pantora orbiting around its parent planet.

My senses looked beyond this beautiful façade and already I was picking up the electronic traces of very advanced bugs and surveillance sensors embedded in numerous places.

“Ostentatious, senator,” I commented, drawing Riyo’s attention to me, my left hand made a subtle hand signal at my hip. I had taught her a few of the basic signs.

“This is normal finery for the Trade Federation, Alenah,” she explained, blinking her eyes rapidly three times. The front door to our quarters chimed pleasantly. “Ah, that should be our luggage.”

I headed to the large doors, which were built in such a way from this side, that they appeared to be made out of ultra-varnished wood that seamlessly blended with the walls. They parted to reveal two neimodian guards, each carrying two large suitcases.

Without fanfare they placed the cases down in front of the door and marched off.

They weren’t really heavy for me and I carted them to the master bedroom that had a large bed that looked like you could drown in its softness.

One case did not have clothes in it, however, and that one I brought to the main room and placed on the dining table. I opened it and the portable holoterminal and computer workstation unfurled itself and powered up.

“Our luggage was scanned but not opened, senator,” I pronounced. This deduction was quite simple, thanks to the strand of hair Riyo donated and was still right where I left it, undisturbed except by me opening the case.

“To be expected, Alenah. You may proceed,” Riyo instructed, she pulled out a datapad and sat down on the couch facing the vidwall projection of her homeworld.

“Yes, senator.”

I sat down in front of the portable workstation and began the next phase of the plan.

Setting up an encrypted link to R3-B8, who was jacked into a logic port on the Bastion’s main computer.

I managed this after just a few minutes; finding a frequency and an encryption that would stymie even the best slicer in the galaxy for at least a day or two of constant work.

That done, both R3 and I worked together to begin subverting the surveillance in the luxurious state quarters. This was relatively easier, but took longer because of the sheer number of devices and we had to record enough footage that could be looped believably back to those who were watching. We also didn’t want to use the looped footage and scans until we really had to.

A ping from the holoterminal caught my attention.

“Senator, incoming transmission from the chairman.”

Riyo stood up with a groan and stretched her arms briefly before standing next to me. “Open the channel.”

Papanoida appeared, his white beard standing in stark contrast to blue skin. His stately red headdress framed his face, along with formal epaulets adorning his shoulders.

“Senator, it is good to see you. I take it you’ve arrived safely?” he enquired politely.

“Yes, chairman. I’m currently aboard the Federation flagship in orbit of Pantora. We arrived four hours ago.”

“You have a long journey behind you then, so I won’t keep you from a well deserved rest for long. What is the situation?”

“I have conveyed your intentions to Sib Canay, chairman. Initial impression is that they are receptive to the idea and for a relatively speedy resolution provided some conditions are met.”

“I can imagine what those are. My own situation is proceeding apace, there is a reasonable hope of resolution but the locals are being intransigent.”

“I wish you luck, chairman. I’ve also received some help from home.”

He paused and his eyes briefly looked at me before focusing back on Riyo, “That is good news. Hopefully, we’ll have our own to share with you soon. I’ll see you soon, senator.”

“I look forward to it, chairman,” Riyo smiled.

The holo vanished as the link was closed.

She returned to the couch and sat down. I gave a look at the terminal briefly and executed the bypass program briefly.

“We can talk freely now, senator.”

“Good, you managed it. I admit I had my doubts,” she sighed wearily and rubbed her eyes. “It seems the chairman’s visit to Tatooine has run into some problems.”

“It’s a world, senator, where scum and villainy reigns supreme, only held in check by fear of the hutts. I’d be surprised if any mission there goes smoothly, usually means you’re walking right into a trap of some kind.”

“Have you given further thought to my request?”

I sat back in my chair and bounced around her ‘request’ in my head. “Senator, it’ll be difficult enough sneaking about on my own. If I have to worry about you as well, our chances of being discovered go higher.”

“If the chairman’s daughters are here, Ahsoka, they will not just trust you out of hand. They’ve been trained for these situations. Unless they see me and I give the correct verbal code and non-verbal signs, they will assume they’re just being misled and escorted into another trap.”

“You could just teach me those codes and signs,” I pointed out.

Riyo shook her head, “No, Ahsoka, Jedi or not, this is not something shared to anyone outside of the top level government circles.”

I folded my arms and eventually nodded. “Very well. There are some rules I’m going to insist on. When we go searching, you will practically glue yourself to my back. You move when I move, you stay still when I do so. Absolute silence. If I sense you’re going to make an involuntary noise or a mistake, I will take control of that part of your body, whether it be your mouth or your feet. You’ll feel it happening - don’t fight it.”

She blinked in surprise, “Jedi can do that?”

“We can. It’s not a skill used idly or on a whim. I only do so because the alternative is that I have to fight nearly eighty hundred neimoidian gunnery battalion soldiers and about three hundred crew.”

The crew requirements of a Lucrehulk was stupidly small for its size. Something it inherited from its pre-war role as a heavy transport for goods and the money grubbing neimoidians who didn’t want to shell out money for large crews. Even with its current complement, there would be whole sections of the ship that would be utterly deserted. Unfortunately, if we had to search through detention areas, patrols would be naturally concentrated around them, especially if Sib Canay had the chairman’s daughters on board.

“I won’t let it come to that, Ahsoka,” Riyo said firmly. “Let’s return to our performance.”

I nodded at her and made a slashing gesture at my throat.

She nodded in understanding and returned to looking at her datapad.

I ended the looping program and stood, stretching my muscles out. “Senator, shall I call for some dinner to be brought?”

“Yes, please do so, Alenah. We’ll eat then retire for the night.”

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I entered the suite’s main bedroom the next morning bearing a tray of breakfast. It was all local pantoran food, which was probably from exports that had been intercepted as the blockade fell on the world.

The chefs in the kitchen were a mixed group of humans, bith and gran, all under contract to serve the soldiers and crew. Seeing them working there left me with mixed feelings. They were just… ordinary people, working a job. Yet if ever the Federation drove this battleship into the front lines, I’d not hesitate in destroying it.

It was all too easy to fall into the notion that I was just destroying droid controlled vessels, but none of those ships only had droids on-board. There were organics aboard, volunteers, from the various CIS worlds who fully believed in their cause, who had families, who saw their sacrifice as helping those families to live in a galaxy that would hopefully be better. A new dawn where their worlds and labor weren’t exploited for the core worlds benefit alone. A world without the onerous, ancient Republic lording at them from tens of thousands of light years away.

I focused to redirect myself away from that train of thought.

I let the light from behind me spill into the bedroom as I walked in.

It had no effect in waking Riyo up.

I put the tray down on the bed stand. “Senator?” I said softly.

She remained in la-la land.

“Senator?”

Slightly louder this time, accompanied by a slight tickle on her nose, using the lightest touch of TK.

She groaned and scratched her nose, “Wh- wha-” A huge yawn and stretch, letting me see that while pantorans were conservative in dress and in public affairs, that didn’t seem to extend to private spaces such as the bedroom. “Ah, oh dear,” Riyo realized the show she was giving and pulled her blanket up.

“Breakfast is served, Senator.”

She blinked again as her wits returned further and looked at the tray. “Ah, thank you, Alenah. Did you eat anything yet?”

“Yes, Senator. We can begin our program as soon as you are fed and dressed,” I said to her with a pointed look and subtle hand signal.

“Excellent, thank you.”

I nodded, slightly bowing my head in acknowledgement and retreated into the main room.

Riyo took almost forty minutes to emerge, seemingly despite her best efforts at hurrying. She was not a morning person and had only partially managed to tame her pink hair into its elaborate style. She thankfully did not wear a dress, electing to don a pair of elegant dark red trousers, blouse and shoes that she could at least run in.

Seeing she was ready I tapped the button on the portable terminal.

R3 had worked through the night to further aid our mission in various ways. I had also helped and managed to squeeze in four hours of normal sleep.

“We’re clear, senator,” I said standing in front of the suite’s main doors.

She approached me hesitantly and I had to guide her with my left hand to stand closer, pulling her in until her bust was squishing against my back. I guided her arms to loop and lock around my waist.

“Uh, Ahsoka, I thought…” she trailed off and I could sense her awkward embarrassment as she felt my back and butt pressing against her. She was even doing the pantoran equivalent of a blush.

“To keep us unobserved in the minds of those who will see us is not easy, senator. The less I have to do, the better.”

“I see,” she coughed and cleared her throat uncomfortably.

“I also need the proximity as it’ll make it easier to head off any uncontrollable sounds you might make, such as sneezing. Now, match my stride, left leg, right leg.”

We practiced a bit and soon found a comfortable rhythm, it was a bit like a weird reversed dance.

“We can also speak to each other like this,” I said to her mind directly.

The direct contact also meant no need for a Force Bond.

The experience of mind-to-mind communication through the Force was initially quite startling and she almost jumped out of her skin in fright, but settled down when she realized what was happening. It also took a few tries for her to ‘think’ properly in a way that would register as ‘speech’ to me, but she was a very intelligent person and learned quickly.

“This is so weird,” she thought. I caught glimpses of her thoughts turning towards a… great uncle? Who had been a Jedi… Ah, so she at least had some experience with certain tricks and powers of the Force.

I reached out with TK, and the front doors parted. They wouldn’t register as having opened at all thanks to R3’s overnight slicing. Lifesign sensors were also being actively spoofed.

We walked carefully down the first hallway and the first test came with a neimoidian guard pair who were stationed to watch over us directly.

I reached out with the Force to short out the overhead lighting within their sightlines.

The light panel crackled and popped almost explosively, drawing both their attention.

One of the guards left his post to check it out. This meant I smoothly blanketed their minds with Force Perception and we ‘dance walked’ right past them without them batting an eye at us.

Riyo had been a ball of tension the entire time and seeing my abilities in action lifted a great weight from her mind. She had retained a slight skepticism regarding whether I could actually do what I said, mostly a preconception she had internalized from her great uncle on what Jedi could and couldn’t do.

“We should be clear for the next eighty meters,” I reassured her.

“That- That was amazing,” she thought.

“The Force can have a strong influence on the mind,” I sent with amusement, unable to resist the quip.

The next corridor had a visual sensor to worry about. R3 took care of that and kept me updated via the comlink on my wrist with a small holo panel that displayed text to me. We fast walked as quickly as possible through its field of view to keep the droids and neimoidians watching the feeds clueless.

We had to pause in the corner of the next intersection to let a patrol of four neimoidians pass. Their minds were influenced rather easily in comparison to clones. As while rigid military discipline did produce endurance and strength of mind to endure hardship, it molded them into patterns and predictability. The only benefit they had was natural reproduction and diversity, which could give rise to truly strong minds, but thankfully these four didn’t possess that. I sensed they were thoroughly bored and their attention was firmly on just carrying out their scheduled patrol. They were also within their ‘nothing boxes’, the part of the mind where they could just ‘not think or worry’. This also hugely helped in lightening the workload of influencing their perception.

Our speed was naturally slow, but progress was steady.

The next obstacle of note was near our first turbolift ride.

I flicked a finger to short out a maintenance droid’s optics, then picked up Riyo in piggyback style before bursting into a blur of speed to get past it.

She thankfully didn’t scream, managing to keep it in and buried her face beside my rear lekku and neck.

I had to spare a bit of concentration to keep from giggling as that was a rather sensitive area, it was the human equivalent of tickling someone in the armpits.

I put her down back on her feet as we stopped next to the lift.

“Sorry about that, senator.”

“It’s fine, just… a warning next time. That was very disorientating.”

“There might not be enough time for me to warn you, but I will make the attempt.”

We had to wait a minute before the lift car arrived and I waited for R3’s prompt that it was safe to enter.

Once inside, I didn’t touch the lift controls as that would be a big red flag in the system, so let R3 handle getting us to the appropriate destination. The doors closed and the hum of the lift streaking along gravitic motivators reverberated through the car.

“Ahsoka, wouldn’t it be easier to just carry me like that? Wouldn’t things go faster?”

“Senator, I certainly could, in an emergency. This is not an emergency yet and I would prefer being as efficient as possible with my stamina and strength.”

“Ah, of course. Sorry.” She felt quite stupid for not having thought of that. Her great uncle’s seemingly limitless stamina coming to her mind.

“Nothing to apologize for.”

The ride ended and we had to pause for a moment to let another patrol pass by, before R3 opened the doors.

We resumed our slow journey and I began to find that it was much easier to just use my senses to remain aware of their relative positions and pause at times to let patrols move past us. Thereby limiting how often I had to use mentally taxing Force Perception.

Finally we reached our destination; Detention level 15J. It was on one of the lowest levels of the detachable spherical section of the battleship. It was quite expansive and much larger than any detention area on any comparable Republic ship. Now that I thought about it, mass prisoner transport was something that these ships had been used for in the past. Some Outer Rim worlds were known to literally sell the prison populations of their planets, to either ease overpopulation or just to turn a profit.

Now we ran into the first truly tricky problem to confront.

There was only one way in and one way out. The entrance of which was staffed by two neimoidian guards. One sitting behind a control desk and another standing on the other side of the corridor, armed with a blaster staff.

I could immediately tell that these two were alert, suspicious and quite fearful. They had to have some idea of just who was being kept in the long corridor of cells beyond the door.

Force Perception was not going to cut it here.

“We’re going to have to try another approach, senator. You can let go of my waist, but try to stay somewhat behind me if I have to subdue these two with more forceful means.”

She stepped back and looked nervously at me. I returned a confident, easy smile and we strode forward. R3 confirmed he had the surveillance looped.

Our footsteps had both guards looking up and the brief surprise at our presence was quickly changed into a stern neutrality. Both of them clearly recognized us and were inwardly panicking. We were both diplomatic guests of the Federation, that meant we couldn’t be harmed, detained or forcefully moved until we broke their law on the ship.

“I’m sorry, senator. The detention block is closed to visitors. There are currently no pantoran citizens detained here,” said the seated guard. I sensed his left hand was near a panic button, whilst his right was closing on the handle of a blaster pistol.

I pushed into both minds with a Mind Trick.

“You will both relax,” I said sternly.

“We will relax,” the guards chorused.

“Hand off the alarm, put away your blaster.”

“Hands off the button, my blaster is going on the floor,” the guard smiled dreamily as he did both actions.

“Come stand next to your partner.”

“I’m going.”

Both guards now stood next to each other, almost swaying on their feet.

“You will let us both pass,” I said, pushing hard on their minds.

“We will let you both pass.”

We walked past them and when we were beyond the threshold…

“You will resume your posts, nothing out of the ordinary happened.”

“We’ll resume our posts, nothing happened.”

Both neimoidians followed the order and I spent a few moments checking to make sure it stuck.

I grabbed Riyo’s hand and hurried away from there, already starting to feel the beginnings of a headache. I had probably overdone that one.

From there we passed through three long corridors of adjoining cell blocks. The place was naturally designed to confuse anyone who didn’t know the layout and there were no signs or markers to indicate direction. There weren’t even numbers on the recessed cells.

There was one thing that worked to our benefit, as our target stood out like a beacon of life to my senses in the empty detention level. I had already found her last night using Farsight to explore the various detention levels of the ship, so there was no need to go check each one.

I stopped next to the cell in question and pointed at it, before again emphasizing silence to Riyo with a gesture to my lips.

This was going to send the fox into the henhouse, as no amount of remote slicing could stop the hardline alerts on independent air gapped circuits.

My hand slapped on the large door release button.

The cell door hissed into the ceiling to reveal a darkened space, lit only by eerie green lighting strips.

A young, slightly chubby pantoran female, looking very scuffed and wearing dark blue formal pants, blouse and black shoes, was seated on her bum, hugging her own legs. Standing over her were two armed B1 droids in silent vigil.

They turned and immediately began raising their blasters to target us.

My TK snapped out even faster and first crumpled their arms, to prevent them from pulling the triggers, before I raised them into the air and did a fair approximation of what would happen to them in a trash compactor.

“A J- Je Je- di…”

Clumps of metal fell to the floor.

Chi Eekway Papanoida stared at what had been two war droids and shook her head in amazement. She stood awkwardly with visible pain at having been seated for a long time and her eyes widened.

“Senator Chuchi!”

Riyo entered the cell quickly and made a number of hand signals and said, “The Moon goddess in three phases by nine rotations, acklay, tra’cor, five, one.”

“The sun, four phases, eight rotations, sarlacc, kaadu, four, five,” Chi replied, also rapidly doing a set of double handed hand signs.

“Correct,” Riyo breathed a sigh of relief.

“How did you find me?”

“A combination of luck, deduction, planning and the efforts of Padawan Tano here,” she gestured to me.

“Greetings Chi Eekway,” I bowed my head briefly.

“A pleasure to meet you, thank you,” Chi said with delight, returning the bow.

“Your thanks is premature, until we can confront and arrest Sib Canay, preferably without getting the entire ship turned on us. Where is your sister?”

“I don’t know,” she shook her head sadly. “We were separated on the journey back to Pantora, on the seventh day.”

“More than likely she is being held then on Tatooine, your father and brother are there now pursuing her trail.”

“That’s a relief, I hope they don’t get in over their heads. That’s a nasty place.”

“Follow me, both of you. Chi, allow the senator to guide you. We’re going to have company soon.”

I reached out with TK and summoned the droid’s E-5 blaster rifles to hand and hurried out the cell.

We rushed along the detention cell corridors, but our progress was hampered by Chi. She had remained relatively immobile for so long that her legs were protesting by giving her nasty cramps.

Riyo flung one of Chi’s arms around her shoulders and helped to keep her moving.

When we approached the guards I had Mind Tricked before I knew that we couldn’t afford the delay to do it again.

“Hey! What is the meaning of this? How did you get there?” said the guard with the blaster staff.

I threw a Force Sleep over both and they collapsed to the floor.

“What was that?” Riyo asked in concern.

“They’re just having a forced nap, keep moving.” I looked down at my wrist as it beeped with a message from R3. “An alarm was triggered, but it wasn’t shipwide. It only went to the main bridge.”

“What does that mean?” Chi asked with a wince.

“A division in the ranks, Ahsoka?” Riyo asked.

“Yes, those were the first CIS battle droids we’ve seen on board so far, when there should be none.”

We made it back to the main turbolift of the detention level when I received another warning from R3.

“Sithspit,” I swore. “Sib Canay and a complement of B2 battle droids are in the lift already, heading to this floor.”

“What are we going to do?” Riyo asked with worry.

“I will do what I must, senator.” My TK reached out and I pulled at the corridor wall a few meters away, which screamed as metal tore along the height of the wall, forming an impromptu bit of cover. “Both of you hide behind there.” The two pantorans looked at each other and I sensed their reluctance. “Now, senator.”

Riyo eventually nodded and helped Chi behind the metal cover.

I went over both E-5 blasters, checking their charge levels and how they sat in my hands. Naturally, the ergonomics were garbage for organic hands, but it was passable. The problem was the bolts from this mass produced gun would do minimal damage to the armor of a B2 and would only penetrate if I peppered the same point with multiple shots.

I would need to prepare the battlefield a bit more.

My will reached out and I began ripping multiple sheets of steel from the walls and ceiling.

I took position about ten meters from the turbolift in the other direction and piled my impromptu shields around my feet. Then followed that up by dropping the blasters as well. If I was visibly armed, Sib might order the B2s to open fire immediately.

The turbolift door audibly pinged and swished open.

Three B2s stomped out before Sib emerged with a frown.

Since I was standing in the open so prominently, I immediately drew his attention.

“What? You! Servant! Where is the senator?”

“You have much more to worry about than her, Sib. CIS battle droids on this ship, in this blockade, the chairman of Pantora’s daughter in your detention cells. I thought this was supposed to be a Trade Federation ship.”

Three more B2s emerged to make a squad of six that swiftly merged into a formation.

He narrowed his large red eyes at me, his mind working furiously and with growing suspicion. “Who are you?”

The front two B2’s arms were abruptly wrenched up into firing positions, before they were lifted in the air and twisted to face each other. I focused hard and the wrist blasters erupted with fire at point blank range.

The armor held for the first two shots, but failed on the next and the B2’s died as their core components were fried by the bolts penetrating and then bouncing around inside their armored chassis.

Sib stared at the entire event with stupefaction before he shook himself and shouted, “Kill the Jedi!”

The problem with his order was that I was still in control of the two wrecked B2s.

The remaining four raised their arms to try to shoot me but found their aim utterly blocked by the destroyed B2s which I used as wrecking balls to slam into them.

The front two lost their balance and fell backwards, also catching the two behind them.

I dropped the wrecked B2s and TK’d the arms of the toppled B2s, utterly crushing them into useless scrap.

“What is happening? What is happening?” The B2’s protested stupidly in their deep voices.

I raised a hand and clenched a fist whilst staring implacably at Sib.

The B2’s lost their legs next and were rendered effectively useless as nothing more than heavy paperweights.

Both E-5 blasters zoomed themselves into my hands and I walked over to each B2 and shot each straight through their only vulnerable point - the tiny red sensor cluster on their left shoulder.

Sib tried to run for the turbolift at this point, but found himself lifted into the air.

“What? Stop that! Unhand me Jedi! You’ll regret this!”

“I think she won’t,” Riyo said pointedly, walking out from behind her little hiding place. “Your affiliation to Separatists can’t be more clear given the evidence laying about us and the orders we witnessed you giving to these droids.”

She tapped on her own comlink, “Ambassador Prutzo, could you please meet me down at the detention level. I think there is something you must see.”

“What? Oh, senator. I was waiting for your call on when to begin the negotiations today. Why are you down there?”

“Please, ambassador, come down and everything will be made clear.”

“Very well,” he grumbled.

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The Federation ambassador walked out of the lift, took one look at the scene he was presented with and was on his comlink in a second and barking orders in neimoidian.

Five minutes later the lift opened again and a twelve strong squad of heavily armed Neimoidian Guard soldiers marched out and took Sib Canay into custody.

They didn’t touch the remains of the war droids as Senator Chuchi had taken possession of them under diplomatic powers on behalf of Pantora, backed up by the threat of my own presence enforcing her claim and acting on behalf of the Jedi Order and Republic.

“You’ve really dug your own hole, Sib,” Prutzo snarled at the now handcuffed and former commander of the Federation blockade fleet.

“I will only speak to my litigator,” said Sib in reply, staring mulishly at him.

“We are businessmen, we deal in trade and commerce,” snapped Prutzo. That surprised even me, as I sensed nothing but truth in the statement and in the ambassador’s emotions.

“Perhaps your true business is war profiteering, ambassador,” Riyo stepped forward and glared at him.

Prutzo bristled at the undiplomatic accusation, “How dare you!”

“I dare, because you claim to have no involvement, yet here stands the chairman’s daughter on your ship, held by your former commander who was in charge of Separatist war droids. I understand your position, but I doubt the rest of the Senate will.”

“You would blackmail me?”

“No, this is simply business. We could of course be persuaded to defend your unfortunate circumstances to the Senate. That is… if this blockade ends.”

The ambassador looked around at everyone waiting on his decision. He visibly girded himself and nodded, “I’ll… see what I can do. Captain, take the prisoner to the Chindee. I don’t doubt that he still has help on this ship.”

“Yes, ambassador.” The chief Guard officer grabbed Sib by the cuffs and led him away.

“I will call for a cargo pallet so that this evidence can be moved to your ship, senator.”

“Good, under the circumstances I think this calls for a change in our negotiated position, ambassador. We will no longer be seeking membership in the CIS. You can now meet us in Pantora City, to discuss how we will move forward from here. We will be leaving as soon as the evidence is aboard.”

The ambassador grumbled, “Very well.”

“Come Ahsoka, you are welcome as my guest on Pantora and my home. I’d really like to show you the world you helped save.”

“I’d be honored, senator.”

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Have a great weekend! Was at a specialist this week for my kidneys and things have cleared up, awaiting some test results now. Cheers.