The Unchronicled Adventures of Ahsoka Tano, Book Eight

Chapter Eighteen: Concerns and Confusion

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

That night, at about twelve o'clock standard time, Anakin lay in his bunk on the New Hope, twisting and turning. He wasn't able to get comfortable enough to fall asleep — both mentally and physically. His body and his mind were both too tense.

 Unlike Christo, who was in the bunk below him. He slept like the dead.

 Before, when he had been simply suspecting that Ahsoka was pregnant, it was different. Mere suspicions mean nothing until proven, and when his had been discovered affirmative, he had been having a little trouble accepting the reality of the situation.

 Not that he hadn't had anything like this happen before — Padme's pregnancy had indeed been a shocker — but this time it was the girl he had always seen as young. Even vulnerable, at times. The girl he had taught everything he knew.

 And another train of thought that was buzzing angrily around in his head was that of what had happened when he had tried to open the Sith holocron.

 "Anakin! Anakin, no! This is not the way!" Qui-Gon had said. "Come to Morvolo, Anakin... We will talk more there."

 "But Master, why? I'm so confused!" he had replied, not quite over his shock at seeing the deceased Jedi Master again.

 "Anakin... My time is short. You must come to Morvolo, Anakin. There, all shall be revealed. Your true destiny will become clear to you. I promise."

 Then, the glowing spots of light, that orbited each other like little lightening bugs, began to disappear. "No, wait!" Anakin had called. "Please, don't go!"

 "The Force shall be with you until we meet again, Anakin. Be it in this world or the next. It will always be with you."

 Why had Qui-Gon contacted him now, after all these years? What did it all mean? And the Jedi Master had said something about his true destiny being revealed. He had absolutely no idea what that was all about.

 But then again, he didn't really understand much of anything these days...

 Suddenly there came a very subtle knock on the door. It was Rex; Anakin could tell immediately. He always knocked three times, with precisely one second between each one. Careful not to wake Christo, he climbed out of bed, threw a shirt on and opened the door.

 "Yeah?" he said, leaning against the doorframe.

 "Sorry sir, I didn't mean to wake you." Rex raised a hand slightly, as if to salute, but then dropped it, apparently remembered that his Jedi General didn't like it when his underlings affirmed his superiority. Especially a favored underling such as his good captain.

 "It's no trouble, Rex. I was awake," he said, stepping out into the hallway and closing the door. "What's going on?"

 "It might seem a little strange, general, but..."

 "But...?" he prompted. "There's no need to hold anything that's on your mind back. You can talk to me."

 "Yes sir. It was... Well, it's not really like anything that I've encountered before. I was in the cockpit. It was my shift piloting the ship. Then there was some sort of anomaly in the engines."

 "What kind of anomaly?"

 Rex looked a little uncomfortable. "Well, sir, that's the thing: I don't know exactly. What I do know is that the engines stalled for a millisecond. It wasn't enough to take us out of lightspeed, but it was, well... It was long enough for something to get into the ship, if it was travelling at a high velocity."

 "But that's impossible, isn't it?" Anakin asked. They both knew that the captain was grasping at straws, neither of them said anything aloud. "Nothing can go as fast as a ship travelling at lightspeed. That can't be..."

 "I'm sorry, sir. It's just a hunch, but I wanted you to know." His sabacc face cracked, showing a thin smile. "Well, nothing really normal has happened since I joined this little group of Jedi survivors. I'm willing to go on a little faith this time."

 "Good, man," the Jedi said, clapping him on the back. "Now you go get some rest. I'll have Lux fill in for you."

 Rex looked confused. "Sir...?"

 "I said get some rest. You're going to need it."

 Rex nodded, then walked off towards the makeshift barracks, which were a large storage room down the hall that had been repurposed to make sleeping quarters. Anakin smiled, then headed down the hall towards Lux's room.

*Something, somehow, has infiltrated the ship. But what? Is it a friend or a foe? What could it want? And how is Ahsoka coping with having another person in her entourage aware of her pregnancy? Will it finally push her to tell everyone? You'll find out in the next chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano!

Again, more fluff, but I have another... *counts on fingers* Two chapters to post, and I'd like to get that done sooner than later, so I have to go.

Have your padawan assigned to protect an important Galactic Senator while she goes into hiding and may the Force be with you,

Sharron