Star Wars: Ahsoka

Bail shrugged, but there was some tightness around his eyes. Running a rebellion couldn’t be easy.

“She’s already a lot like her mother,” he said.

Somehow that seemed like a test. Ahsoka didn’t know the answer, so she let it pass. They were going to keep secrets, and they were going to trust each other anyway.

“I wanted to talk to you about what you’re doing to fight the Empire,” Ahsoka said.

“I thought you might,” Bail said. “Captain Antilles sent a glowing report. Only fifteen casualties during the Raada evacuation—one of his A-wing pilots and fourteen evacuees.”

It had almost been fifteen evacuees, but Antilles’s medical staff had been able to save Vartan. He and Selda were a matched pair now, the Togruta had joked, with four limbs and four prosthetics between them, but at least they were both alive. She’d left them on Captain Antilles’s ship with Kaeden and Miara. They were all impressed by the capabilities of real medical technology. Kaeden’s arm was almost as good as new, which freed up Miara to prowl the ship, looking for A-wing pilots to pester. When they found out how good she was at explosives, they took quite an interest in her.

“I’m glad it wasn’t worse,” Ahsoka said. “I took out that gray creature before my backup arrived. I got the impression he wasn’t the only one of his kind.”

“Was he talented?” Bail asked. “Or does he just carry the lightsaber for show?”

“He’s had some training,” Ahsoka said. “He mostly relies on brute strength. If he was going to be facing Jedi, or someone with my level of training, I’d say he wouldn’t be much of a threat. I defeated him without my lightsabers. But the others like him won’t be facing Jedi.”

Bail nodded. “We’ll do what we can,” he said. “What about Raada?”

“Well, the farmers can’t go back,” Ahsoka said. She slumped down a little bit in her chair. They’d won, but the cost had been high. “If they tried, the Empire would wipe them off the moon’s surface without even landing first.”

“I can resettle them on Alderaan, perhaps,” Bail said. “There aren’t that many of them, and there are enough refugees in the galaxy right now that Alderaan’s taking in a few hundred won’t raise any eyebrows.”

“They don’t want to be resettled,” Ahsoka said. She straightened her shoulders. “They want to join up.”

She could see Bail considering it. She knew he could use the extra people, but there were some obvious downsides. The Empire had no trouble using poorly trained people as cannon fodder, but Bail would refuse to do the same.

“They’re farmers, Ahsoka,” he pointed out. “They have only the training you gave them.”

“They’re resourceful,” she said. “And anyway, your rebels have to eat, don’t they?”

Bail laughed.

“I’ll have someone talk to them, and we’ll see what we can do,” he said. “There are a few planets that would suit us for an agricultural base, and we can start training anyone who is interested in piloting or weapons use.”

They sat quietly for a moment, and then Bail leaned forward.

“They told me your new lightsabers are white,” he said, and she heard awe in his voice. “May I see them?”

It was safe enough in Bail’s office, surrounded by the void of space. Ahsoka stood up and unclipped her lightsabers from her side. She activated them, and Bail’s office was filled with a soft white light, gleaming off the windows and reflecting the stars. The office was much smaller than a training room, being shipboard, but she did a few of the basic forms for him anyway. She would never get tired of the way they glowed. She hadn’t thought she’d ever replace her original green ones, and she still had to finish the handles, but these were all right.

“They’re beautiful, Ahsoka,” he said.

She turned them off, bowed slightly, and sat back down.

“I’ve never seen white ones before,” Bail mused.

“They used to be red,” Ahsoka said. “When the creature had them, they were red. But I heard them before I ever saw him on Raada, and knew that they were meant for me.”

“You changed their nature?” he asked.

“I restored them,” Ahsoka replied. “I freed them. The red crystals were corrupted by the dark side when those who wielded them bent them to their will. They call it making the crystal bleed. That’s why the blade is red.”

“I had wondered about that,” Bail said. “I spent a lot of time with the Jedi, but I never asked questions about where their lightsabers came from. I don’t suppose they would have told me anyway.”

“These feel familiar,” Ahsoka said. “If I had to guess, I would say they were looted from the Jedi Temple itself.”

“That raises some very uncomfortable possibilities,” Bail said. “Not to mention a host of potential dangers for a Jedi Padawan.”