Star Wars: Ahsoka

Ashla appeared in the entrance of the cave, startling both girls. She was carrying a pack so massive that Kaeden wasn’t sure how she’d been able to carry it at all. Ashla wasn’t broad-shouldered like Neera or tall like Vartan, and she didn’t have years of experience working in the fields to bolster her strength, but somehow she was clearly very strong though she looked delicate. Maybe it was a Togruta thing. Kaeden didn’t know much about their physiology, but she liked it.

“Here’s all the supplies I had stashed away in the first cave I found.” The pack made a loud clunk when she set it down. “I started to set it up before I knew I was going to be sharing. But it’s probably better to have everything in one place.”

Miara was about to make a biting remark about the ship, but Kaeden cut her off before she could.

“Why did you set up a stash as soon as you got here?” she asked. “There weren’t any Imperials yet.”

“Old habits,” Ashla said. She tried to make it sound like a joke, but there was something deadly serious in her eyes. “I wasn’t sure how safe the house was, but now I know better.”

Kaeden got up to help her unload, and they spent the next couple of hours organizing where the medical supplies should go and trying to activate a power converter that looked like it was older than all three of them combined.

“What’s that?” Miara asked as they settled in with a ration pack each and one canteen of water to pass among them.

Ashla was holding a small cloth bag. Kaeden had seen her pick it out of the larger bundle earlier in the afternoon but hadn’t said anything.

“Oh, just some odds and ends I’ve collected,” Ashla said. She opened the bag so Miara could look inside.

“There’s a lot of junk in here,” Miara said dismissively. “I mean, I can’t use any of it. They don’t even match.”

“It’s just something I do,” Ashla said. There was an odd note in her voice, a mix of defensiveness and longing that Kaeden thought she recognized.

“Our mum was like that,” Kaeden said. “Always had pockets full of scraps she’d found. It drove our father crazy, the things he’d find when he did the washing.”

“They used to fight about it,” Miara said. “But in the good way, you know?”

Kaeden realized it was quite likely that Ashla didn’t know, but it was a question she couldn’t resist asking.

“Did your parents bicker?” she asked. “The adoptive ones, I mean.”

A slow smile broke across Ashla’s face, curling first one side of her mouth and then the other. Whatever she was remembering, Kaeden could tell it was good.

“All the time,” Ashla said, almost as if she were talking to herself.

Miara launched into a story about their parents, a small power coupling, and the horn that sounded to mark shift change. It was a story Kaeden remembered well, so she only half listened as her sister talked. The rest of her attention was concentrated on what she was going to do next: if she would listen to Ashla’s advice or stick with her sister and her crew. She knew she couldn’t abandon Miara, but a lot of what Ashla suggested seemed like a good idea. In the end, she reached a compromise that suited both sides of her warring conscience. She would stay with Miara and listen very carefully to what Hoban planned. If Vartan thought it was a good idea, she’d go along with it, but the second things got out of hand, she’d find Ashla and tell her everything. The solution wasn’t perfect, but she could work with it, and Kaeden was good at working.

“What are you looking so serious about?” Miara asked when Kaeden didn’t laugh at the funny part of the story. Ashla did, which at least made Kaeden smile.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m tired, and a little worried about all of this.”

She waved her hand at the cave in general but knew her sister would interpret the gesture differently than Ashla would.

“We should get some rest,” Ashla said. “We’ve got a few more days out here, and all the jobs require attention to detail.”

The cave floor was hard, but they were able to set up a place to sleep on a flat part of it, where no rocks protruded from the floor.

“Medical cots,” Ashla mused as she unfolded a blanket. “I have no idea how we’d carry them out here, though.”

“Selda will have an idea,” Kaeden said, and they bedded down for the night.

* * *

For the next two days, Miara built explosives to Ahsoka’s specifications. It took more parts than Ahsoka was expecting, but weapons manufacture had never been her strongest suit. While Miara worked, Ahsoka and Kaeden installed the door, using an old metal hatch Selda had somehow procured and a spot welder that short-circuited at the most inopportune moments. Then they carefully collapsed most of the other cave entrances. They left a few intact, the ones that were most hidden from view and the one that had a straight line of sight to the settlement. It was risky, but Ahsoka decided that entrance was strategically necessary. There was no good in setting up a camp if they couldn’t keep watch from it.