This is an Ahsoka fanfiction. It kicks off before the show, will extend through the end of season one, and hopefully conclude with post-show content before season two of the real thing airs. Let me know how I’m doing in the comments!
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Rating: General, Spice Level: None
Characters/Tags: Original Character, Master and Apprentice Relationships, Original Female Character, Original Jedi Character, Ahsoka Tano, Huyang
Read Chapter 25 here.
Death and Distance
“I think the whales may be reaching the end of their journey.” Huyang greeted Kendra and Ahsoka from the co-pilot’s chair as they entered the cockpit.
“What makes you think that?” Kendra asked.
He pointed to the panel in front of him. “According to my instruments, their speed is decreasing.”
The multicolored lights on the other side of the whale’s teeth looked the same as they had since they left, but Kendra thought she felt a slight difference in the Force. She sat behind Ahsoka’s seat. “If that’s the case Huyang, you were very close on your estimate.”
“Eight standard days does fall within my estimate of 3 days and 3.14 years.” He ran his metal finger along a panel indicating deceleration. “We will soon learn if it took them longer.”
Kendra had spent the eight days meditating, healing, and sparring with Ahsoka. They’d done nothing high impact, as both women recovered from the battle with Baylan.
“Once we drop out of hyperspace, we find Sabine,” Ahsoka said.
“And how do you propose we do that?” Huyang asked. “If have indeed traveled to another galaxy, our star charts will be useless.
“She came here with the enemy,” Ahsoka said. “We find the enemy and we find Sabine.”
Huyang said, “Direct and to the point as always.”
“Well, that’s my style.”
While direct and to the point was certainly Ahsoka’s style, Kendra noticed more jokes from the older Jedi over the prior week. The relaxation she’d sensed on Seatos remained, even though she was just as focused on the mission as ever.
Huyang huffed, if such a thing was possible for droids. “I would point out that you are assuming the star whales have brought us to the correct galaxy, let alone the same system or even the same planet where Lady Wren was taken.”
“I think the odds are pretty good.” Ahsoka smiled.
“No,” Huyang said. “No, in fact, they’re terrible. Astronomically terrible.”
“Well, you should’ve said something.”
“I did. But you never…”
Ahsoka laughed out loud and glanced back at Kendra to share the joke. Kendra smiled, but worried that Huyang might be right. Who knows where they might end up.
Huyang said, “The worst part is I hope you are right.”
“I know you do,” Ahsoka said.
They sat in the dark silence of the cockpit for several minutes, each lost in their own thought. Kendra grew drowsy and almost nodded off to sleep when Huyang’s panel began to beep rapidly. The whale began to shudder, and the lights changed from all the colors to a mix of blues and whites.
“This is it,” Huyang said. “We are exiting hyperspace now.”
The light between the teeth vanished, replaced by black space. Kendra breathed a sigh of relief, even if they didn’t know where they were yet. The relief came too soon though, as almost immediately, explosions rocked the space whale.
“I am detecting multiple objects in our path,” Huyang said.
“Let’s get out there,” Ahsoka said.
Huyang said, “Perhaps we are safer in here.”
Ahsoka ignored him and started the engines. The creature seemed to understand the intent and opened its mouth. Fireballs spread across their exit as Ahsoka roared through.
“It’s an imperial minefield deployed around the arrival point,” Huyang said. “Head towards the planet. The field eventually terminates.”
“Guessing they got here first.” Kendra gripped the arm rests tightly, remembering the battle above Seatos. She started to control her breathing.
“It would appear so.” Ahsoka darted around a nearby purrgil. The creature flexed and shook, trying to avoid the mines.
“At least the whales are providing some cover,” Huyang said as Ahsoka weaved between the whales, mines, and explosions.
At that moment, the purrgil began to enter hyperspace again, escaping the homing mines. They shimmered and then appeared to shoot forward into a point of light, just like ships with hyperdrives.
“You had to say something,” Ahsoka said.
“I was being optimistic.”
With the whales gone, Kendra could see more of the space outside the shuttle. Orderly rows of mines lay in a massive grid in every direction. As their ship approached, the mines would blink twice and then engage small thrusters to steer themselves to their target. Ahsoka avoided many, but a few made contact.
The shaking wasn’t quite as bad as the fighters above Seatos, and the ship’s gravity held strong. She did not want to throw up again.
Ahsoka spun the shuttle to the left hard enough that Kendra could see the line of mines following them. A few crashed into each other at Ahsoka’s move. She flipped the shuttle to the right, and the mines disappeared from view, but more explosions rocked the craft as they collided behind them.
“We are almost through,” Huyang said. Several seconds passed with more explosions behind them. “And we are clear.”
A new planet floated ahead of them in the view screen, surrounded by a ring of asteroids or other debris. Morgan’s ship hung above the planet, the only unnatural thing in orbit, other than the mines. There were no apparent signs of civilization visible from space.
Kendra said, “Well, we found the enemy.”
A swarm of nine small craft emerged from Morgan’s ship, headed toward them.
“Fighters,” Ahsoka said. “Kendra, want to try the turret again?”
Kendra swallowed but unbuckled her straps. “If we can try to not lose gravity again.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Ahsoka said.
Kendra trotted through the training area and to the ladder leading to the gun turret, stumbling once as the ship shook under blaster fire. She thought about how the blaster fire impact felt different than the mine impacts, then thought how odd it was she was in a position to notice.
Strapping into the seat at the back, she opened fire on the fighters. It helped she was not already nauseous, though she didn’t hit any of the targets.
“Good job, Kendra,” Ahsoka said over the comms. “You don’t have to take them out; just make them think twice about lining up behind us. I’m going to make for the debris field.”
“I would not recommend that,” Huyang said.
“Come on, where’s that optimism?”
Different impacts hit the ship, and rocks soon flew past Kendra’s view at the back. Something was off about them. “Those aren’t asteroids…”
“It appears to be the bones of purrgil,” Huyang said.
“Well.” Kendra wasn’t sure what to say as she continued firing on the fighters. “That’s new.”
The space around the turret grew cloudy with debris, the dust of bones of whales. Every few seconds, she thought she could make out the piece of a rib cage or something larger. They must have been coming here for ages to die.
It took only a few seconds giving chase in the field for the first fighter to crash, and then the second. The blaster fire stopped after that. Ahsoka slowed their own ship and then tucked it inside a massive arch of a bone. They shut down and drifted with the dust.
“Kendra,” Ahsoka said over the comms, “you can come back up here.”
She allowed herself a brief moment to be pleased she hadn’t thrown up again before unstrapping and leaving the turret. She hoped she’d be able to tell Sabine some day.
“I do not like this,” Huyang said as Kendra arrived. “How did they anticipate our arrival?”
“What’s going on?” Kendra strapped herself into her seat as she wondered what she thought that would do against being crushed by dead space whale bones.
Ahsoka didn’t answer immediately, but closed her eyes in thought. “Thrawn is behind that attack.”
“Then the enemy has already found him,” Huyang said.
“It would seem so.” Ahsoka said.
“I will run a scan to see if I can locate Lady Wren,” Huyang said.
Small impacts with the drifting dust and bones rocked the ship every few moments. The view outside was dark, cloudy, and creepy if she thought too hard about all the dead whales. Kendra wondered what their enemy’s next move might be.
“Nothing,” Huyang said. “I cannot locate Lady Wren. Either my scans are being jammed or there is too much debris. Shall I try again?”
Ahsoka shook her head. “No. We don’t need a scan. There’s another way.”
Huyang turned to face the older woman. “Do you think your bond is that strong?”
“Kendra, I’m going to try to find Sabine through the Force,” Ahsoka said. “See if you can help me there.”
Find Sabine from orbit on a planet they’d never visited. Kendra was glad she was behind Ahsoka where the older woman couldn’t see her face. She’d been able to sense Master Edith on Celestoria, of course, but that was only a few miles. Perhaps Master Edith could have found her at greater distance; she remembered her master had felt her distress fighting the Tarnox. Still, this was very far away. Sabine could be on the other side of the planet.
“Trust in the Force,” Kendra,” Ahsoka said, as if she could read her mind. “You’re not looking for Sabine. You’re helping me in whatever way the Force directs.”
Kendra nodded, though unsure. Calling on the Force was never a bad idea. She hesitantly placed her hand out on Ahsoka’s shoulder, closed her eyes, and dropped into the Jedi code.
Emotion, yet peace.
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
Passion, yet serenity.
Chaos, yet harmony.
Death, yet the Force.
In a different galaxy, in space, surrounded by the remains of ancient dead whales, Kendra still found the Force like a lake like it had felt on her rock in Celestoria. The lake’s calm waters drifted back and forth, but began to move more in one direction, toward Ahsoka.
Kendra found her own connection with Ahsoka had strengthened since whatever had happened to the older Jedi on Seatos. The memory of meditating with her at the outpost on Celestoria rushed in. It seemed so long ago. It was definitely very far away. Distance was nothing to the Force.
The same connection she’d sensed when Sabine lay wounded on Lothal returned, but without fear. Ahsoka was quiet, at peace. Her search for her padawan soothed Kendra as well, and she fell more deeply into her own meditation.
Kendra lost track of time, though it wasn’t very long before Ahsoka pulled away from the lake. She remained for a moment, gathering herself before opening her eyes to the cockpit.
“I see her.” Ahsoka took control of the yoke.
At the same time, the bones around them erupted into explosions. The massive guns of Morgan’s ship blasted everything in their area.
Huyang stated the obvious. “They found us.”
“Don’t worry,” Ahsoka said as the thrusters engaged. The shuttle dove toward the planet. “I know where we are going.”
Read Chapter 27 here.
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