The trip through hyperspace was short, and Tage’s ship was waiting for them when they arrived. There was no sign of Ahsoka. The system they were in was mostly empty, but there were a few unpopulated planets nearby. Antilles liked to arrange meetings where there were hiding places available if he needed them. They waited for a few hours, with no sign of another ship. Eventually, Bail ordered Tage to return the R2 unit to the blockade runner and go. Perhaps he’d been wrong about Ahsoka’s loyalties. Perhaps she was already settled into a new life and didn’t want to be embroiled in another war. He couldn’t say that he blamed her.
Bail saw the R2 unit returned to his flighty golden protocol droid companion, who immediately began to berate the little astromech, and then made his way back to his quarters. They were in the center of the ship, accessible by the main corridor. He’d never given much thought to the maintenance shaft that ran behind the row of guest quarters. It provided access to the panels that controlled the environmental systems in each suite and also connected the bridge to the engine room as an alternate route if something happened to compromise the main passageway. There were several escape pods located there and one airlock.
Bail walked into his temporary office, turned on the lights, and nearly had a heart attack. Sitting at his desk, wearing a pressure suit with the helmet off and resting on the table between them, was Ahsoka Tano.
“Hello, Senator,” she said pleasantly. “I hear you wanted to talk.”
Chapter 25
“HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?” Bail said the first thing that came into his head.
“Artoo opened the hatch for me as soon as he got on board,” Ahsoka said.
“I should have him deactivated,” Bail said with no real heat in his voice. “He is far too independent for a droid.”
“He had a lot of bad role models,” Ahsoka said dryly.
“That’s true,” Bail said. “Though Skywalker was your teacher, too.”
“I was talking about Senator Amidala, actually,” Ahsoka said. “Artoo belonged to her first.”
“Where’s your ship?” Bail asked, changing the subject to avoid the sudden tightness in his throat.
“Hidden on one of the lifeless rocks in this system. I knew that I’d be too small for the scanners to pick up, unless someone got very lucky looking out a window.” Ahsoka glanced at the helmet. “I’m surprised I found one that fit.”
“Why didn’t you just come with Chardri Tage?” Bail said. “Save yourself the hassle?”
“In my position it’s difficult to trust someone who employs a tractor beam before a hello,” Ahsoka said. “I take it you didn’t tell them who they were after?”
“No,” said Bail. “I wanted to preserve your anonymity. I didn’t know it was you until I saw the surveillance footage.”
“Artoo was supposed to wipe all of that,” Ahsoka grumbled. “I think you might be right about his independent streak.”
“It’s difficult to look for people without compromising their safety, I’ve found,” Bail said. “The new order is harsh and unforgiving, so I thought if you didn’t want to be found, I would give you the option.”
“How did you even know where to look?” Ahsoka asked.
“I keep an eye out for acts of kindness in this new galaxy of ours,” Bail said. “When there’s a concentration of them, I try to find out who is behind them, and then we have a talk.”
“What do you talk about?” Ahsoka asked.
Bail gave her a measuring look and decided to go for it.
“The Rebellion, Padawan Tano,” he said. “I look for people who will fight against the Emperor, the Empire, and everything it stands for.”
“I don’t deserve that title anymore, Senator,” Ahsoka said quietly. “And I don’t deserve your trust.”
Bail let her sit on that statement for a few moments. Politics had made him good at getting people to talk.
“There was a planet,” she said, finally. “A moon, actually. I tried to help them when the Empire came, but I couldn’t. People died. I had to run and leave them behind.”
“Raada,” he said. “I heard about that, and what you did there.”
“We tried to fight, and everything just got worse,” Ahsoka said. “It’s not like the Clone Wars. I was never alone then. I had an army, I had masters, I had—”
She’d had Anakin Skywalker.
“You can’t fight the Empire alone, Ahsoka,” Bail said gently. “But you don’t have to, either. You can fight it with me.”
“I can’t command people anymore,” she said with a shake of her head. “I can’t order them to their deaths. I’ve done that too many times.”
“We’ll find something else for you to do, then,” he said. “I have a lot of job openings, as you can probably imagine.”
He could see that she was very tempted. It would be safer than continuing to right wrongs on her own. Whatever was chasing her would have a harder time tracking her down.
“There are children,” she said after a long moment. His blood ran cold. “All over the galaxy. I’ve met one, but I know there will be others. They would have been Jedi. Now they’re just in danger. Something is hunting them down. I don’t know what it is. I’ve never seen it. But if you will help find it, I will join your rebellion.”
The casual way she had talked about Anakin and Padmé made him think that she might have known the true nature of their relationship but not the outcome. He was sure she didn’t know about Leia, about the boy. She couldn’t know his motivations, but he would overturn every stone in the galaxy to help her, if it was in his power to do so. Having someone else lead the search would work out well for him, too. Every layer of deception between him and anything connected to the Force was another layer in the safety net he was building for his daughter.
“That seems like a bargain to me,” he said, when his voice came back. “And I have a mission for you, as it turns out. Are you up for it?”
Ahsoka was exhausted, though she did her best to keep it from showing in her face. The fight with the Black Sun agent, her escape from Bail’s hired hands, and then her trip through zero gravity had drained her. It was taking everything she had to stay upright behind the desk while she and the senator traded barbs, then words, and finally got down to negotiations. When he said he had a mission for her, she almost wilted, but she had been awake this long. She could manage a little longer.
“I might need a meal before I head back out,” she said, “but I’d like to hear about anything you think I’d be interested in.”
“It’s on Raada,” Bail said. Ahsoka felt immediately sharper. “My contacts in that sector have been getting spotty information for a long time — that’s part of why it took me so long to find you — but then this, as clear as starshine.”
Ahsoka held out her hands and Bail handed her a datapad. She flipped through it as Bail continued to talk. It was mostly maps, and diagrams of the Imperial compound, things she already knew.
“It seems there’s a new sort of Imperial agent there,” Bail continued. “Nonmilitary, but powerful. He has complete control over the garrison, if he wants it, and orders the officers around like they were stormtroopers. All of this is made more complicated by reports that he carries a double-bladed red lightsaber.”
Ahsoka nearly dropped the datapad. It was getting too easy to surprise her. She needed to refocus, but she couldn’t seem to find something to focus on.