She’d calculated the jump to take her out of hyperspace some distance away from the planet itself. If she remembered what was buried in Ilum’s crust, it was entirely possible that others did, too. She wasn’t sure where those from the dark side got their crystals, but she knew they had to get them somewhere, and she wasn’t about to take any risks just to cut some time from her travel schedule. When she emerged back into normal space and saw what was waiting for her, she was very glad she’d been cautious.
There were at least two Star Destroyers and a massive mining ship in orbit around the planet. The Empire definitely knew there was something it wanted beneath the surface of the icy world.
The planet itself was much worse off than she’d feared. Before, it had looked like a giant white ball from orbit — uniform in color except the brighter spots where it reflected the light of its sun. It had been as striking from up high as it was on the ground, even though the great cliffs and deep crevasses that scored the planet’s surface weren’t visible from afar. Now it almost hurt her to look at it.
Great chunks of the planet had been carved away, exposing rock and lava that boiled up from the planet’s core. With no real hope, Ahsoka scanned the usual landing site. Gone was the cliff-side entryway the Jedi had used for generations, the waterfall smashed to gain entrance to the cave beyond.
Ahsoka felt a swell of fury, which she had to work hard to pin down. They dared to invade Ilum, to spoil such a beautiful place, and for what? To carve out rock and dirt in the hopes of finding a few shards of crystal that none of them would be able to see? It was wasteful and terrible to behold, and also more than a little intimidating. Ruining the soil on a faraway moon was one thing. Destroying a planet, even piece by piece, was something else. The Empire had no sense of limitation and no respect for the order of life in the galaxy.
She was halfway through planning an attack run on the mining ship, analyzing it for weaknesses she could exploit if she was able to get past the Star Destroyers, when she remembered why she couldn’t. Raada. She needed to go back to Raada. She couldn’t die or get captured in some pointless skirmish. And it would be pointless, she reminded herself, even though it hurt to think of Ilum as expendable. No one lived there, and it wasn’t like the Jedi needed the planet anymore. She wouldn’t spend her life there, not when there were other places where it was worth more and when there were people who needed her.
She was still going to need crystals though. And she needed to get out of range of the Star Destroyers before one of them detected her. She flew to the outermost planet in the system, a nameless black rock with no air and little gravity, and set down on the surface. She powered down the engines so the ship would be more difficult to detect and then sat cross-legged on the floor of the cockpit, the pouch in her lap and her mind reaching for solutions.
It didn’t bode well that her plan had unraveled at her very first stop, but she couldn’t focus on that now. She had to focus on what came next and how she might achieve it without using Ilum as a resource.
Now that her mind was quieter, she could sense the icy planet, even though she was half a system away. The crystals there didn’t sing to her as they had the first time she’d been there. Then, when she was younger, she’d felt them as soon as the ship dropped out of hyperspace, even though she hadn’t known what she was feeling at the time. Now there was nothing — well, nothing that was intended for Ahsoka. She could still feel the crystals present beneath the planet’s surface. She just knew that none of them was for her.
So where are mine? she thought. Am I going to get another set? I could go back to Rex’s fake grave and see if my lightsabers are still there, but I doubt it. They’re worth too much, and I left them to be found.
She called up a star chart, projecting it around herself and placing Ilum close to where she was seated. Then she closed her eyes and reached for the crystals on the planet below. She followed their structure, ordered and regular, searching for other sources in the galaxy. She knew there must be more crystals somewhere. Master Yoda had never said as much, but he had certainly hinted at it. It was, after all, a very big galaxy.
There, light-years away, she heard it: the familiar song that was hers alone. She slid her awareness of it through the star chart, hoping that when she opened her eyes, she would see a map with her crystals waiting for her at the end of it.
She opened her eyes and saw the planet that was her destination.
No, not a planet. A moon.
Raada.
Chapter 27
AHSOKA SLIPPED INTO the atmosphere above Raada and landed as quickly as she could in the dark. By design, she was on the opposite side of the moon from the main town and fields. She’d have to leave the ship here. They were waiting for her, after all, and they’d probably be scanning, looking for her approach. She’d been in too much of a hurry when she left Raada to be stealthy, but now she needed to go undetected for long enough to complete the first part of her mission.
She loaded everything she would need into the carry bag and made sure her communication device was secured on her wrist. She hesitated when she got to the blaster. If all went according to plan, she wouldn’t need it, and she wasn’t sure what good it would do against the gray creature anyway. But someone else might be able to use it. She clipped it to her side. It wasn’t that heavy, and it wouldn’t be hard to carry it a little farther. Then she set out in the direction of the settlement.
She had been running for a little over two hours when she saw the first signs of life. A very small fire was burning. Whoever had set it had tried to conceal the light but clearly didn’t know enough about stealth to be entirely successful. The pit wasn’t deep enough. Ahsoka couldn’t be sure, of course, but she thought that probably meant whoever had lit the fire was not an Imperial.
She crept closer. Soon she could make out a figure, small and hunched over the flames for warmth. The figure shifted, and Ahsoka saw a crop of dark bushy hair silhouetted by the fire. It was Miara.
Ahsoka got as close as she could before whispering the girl’s name. She didn’t want to scare her too badly, but in the dark she didn’t have a lot of options.
“Miara,” she said, as nonthreateningly as she could manage. Miara still jumped, reaching for the old blaster she’d carried the night she and Ahsoka had taken out the walkers.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Ahsoka said. “Miara, it’s me, Ahsoka.”
“Ahsoka?” Miara didn’t look like she believed her own eyes.
Despite the dark color of her skin, there was a pallid, unhealthy sheen to it. She’d clearly been crying; muddy tear tracks lined each of her cheeks. Her hair was a mess, and there were bags under her eyes. She looked absolutely terrified.
“Ahsoka!” she said again, and threw herself into Ahsoka’s arms, more tears spilling. “You came back! K-Kaeden said you would. She said you would.”
“Shhhh, Miara,” Ahsoka said soothingly. She helped the girl sit back down by the meager warmth of the fire. “Tell me what happened. What are you doing out here by yourself?”
Miara choked on her tears but managed to stop them. When she found her voice again, she started to talk.
“We were doing okay,” she said. “I mean, it was awful, but we were hiding, like you said. Only then this terrible thing came, and he knew Kaeden’s name. He said if she didn’t come out, he’d blow the whole hillside up to kill us.”