Star Wars: Ahsoka

With the thinner crowd, she spotted Kaeden and the others immediately. Malat was gone already, presumably home to her children, but the others were crammed around the crokin board. They were playing a variation Ahsoka hadn’t seen before. Instead of all the pieces being shot onto the board one by one, about half of them were carefully placed. In fact, it looked a lot like the Imperial—

Ahsoka sat down and brushed her hand across the board, scattering the pieces.

“Hey!” Hoban said. “We were working on that.”

“Could you possibly yell more loudly?” Ahsoka gritted out between clenched teeth. “I don’t think they heard you on Alderaan.”

Hoban had the sense to look abashed.

“Ahsoka is right,” Vartan said. “We should be more careful discussing things out in the open.”

“Where’s Malat?” Ahsoka asked.

“Packing,” Neera said. “Her husband’s family found them work on Sullust. The Empire’s there, too, of course, but it’s more established. We have no idea what’s going to happen here, and they decided it wasn’t safe, with the kids and all.”

“It’s a good idea, if you can manage it,” Ahsoka said. “But there’s going to be lots who can’t.”

“You have a ship,” Kaeden said. “You can leave whenever you want.”

“My ship has been stolen,” Ahsoka said, and winked. “Who knows where I might find it.”

“I’m glad you’re staying,” Kaeden said. “I don’t know why, but I get the sense you’re useful in situations like this.”

Ahsoka smiled at her and turned to look at Kaeden’s sister. “Miara, I have a question about your locks,” she said. “You told me that if anyone broke in, they’d get a shock. What did you mean by that?”

“I set a small electric charge inside the lock mechanism,” Miara said. “If it’s not disarmed correctly, it delivers a shock that’s strong enough to make a person think twice before stealing your gear. Also, there’s a dye pack rigged to explode when the charge is delivered, so whoever tries it will stand out in a crowd. Why do you ask?”

Neera was looking at Miara speculatively. Kaeden appeared slightly ill.

“Could you do it with something other than dye?” Vartan asked. “And could it be a bigger charge?”

“Of course,” said Miara. “Only then someone might really get hurt instead of…oh.”

“Let’s hold off on that for now,” Ahsoka said. “We have other things to worry about.”

“Why wait?” Hoban said. “If we can set explosives, why don’t we just get rid of the Imperials now?”

“Hoban, keep your voice down.” This time it was Neera who admonished him.

“All that would do is bring more Imperials, and they’d crack down harder,” Ahsoka told him. “We can’t dislodge them entirely. What we need to do is figure out how to survive while they’re here.”

“We better work quickly,” Kaeden said.

There was a commotion at the door, and several uniformed Imperials came in. They glared their way to the bar, where they waited pointedly for the stools to empty. Then they took them over, effectively cutting off Selda from his clientele. The scarred Togruta continued to wipe glasses and arrange them on shelves as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Ahsoka marveled at his apparent nerves of steel.

“Why do you say that?” Ahsoka asked Kaeden.

“I heard the overseers talking today,” she said. “They’re going to add two hours to every shift, to get as much work out of us as they can.”

“There won’t be anything to harvest,” Hoban said, finally keeping his voice down. “We’re almost done, and then we have to wait until the new crops grow.”

“The Imperials have something to speed that along,” Kaeden said. “They’ll use it, and we’ll be harvesting again before we know it.”

“I’ve seen them bringing in their own seed,” Miara said. “Whatever we’re planting, it won’t be something we get to keep or sell.”

“They’ll buy off the overseers,” Ahsoka said. “They’ll give them enough money to go off-world, and then work the rest of us to the bone. I’ve seen things like this before.”

“Where did you come from?” Neera asked.

“It’s not important,” Ahsoka said. “You just have to trust me.”

“We have to blow things up,” said Hoban. “Before they get too organized.”

“No,” said Ahsoka. “I know it’s going to be hard, but we have to wait.”

“Why?” Hoban demanded, but before Ahsoka could answer him, there was another disturbance at the front of the bar.