The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Forty-Seven: A Skirmish In Sa'hajaal

KAYA TI AREEKO

Valunn was as grey as Kaya Ti remembered it – both from her dreams and from the last time she had been there in person nearly four years prior.

As the seventh stop in the Kessel Run, it was a way she had come to travel often with Han in the Bria after the regrettable destruction of her own ship. He had always hated the place, and insist they leave as soon as possible after refuelling and stocking up on supplies, and she could understand why.

Tectonic activity just beneath the surface belched great clouds of volcanic debris into the frigid, dry air, creating frequent 'ash storms' that covered everything from the people to the few plants that brave enough to grow there with grey powder. Despite the long, canyon-like cracks that led all the way down to the planet's upper mantle, which helped relieve some of the pressure, earthquakes were frequent, and Kaya had heard more than one story of ships and even buildings getting pulled down by the shifting earth, even in the relative safety of the main settlement, Sa'hajaal.

She had to hand it to the pirates who had settled it in the first place one hundred and fifty or so years before. Living here took guts.

A flurry of sparks from beside Kaya drew her attention from the backpack she had been packing back towards Ahsoka, who was attacking the inner workings of one of her lightsabers with a tiny plasma welder.

Kaya frowned. "Any sign of trouble?"

"Not really," Ahsoka replied in a tone too carefully measured for Kaya to really believe her. "I mean, it's a pirate town where gangsters have almost complete free reign, so it's obviously going to be a little rough. There are just some faulty wires that have been overheating one side of the crystal chamber. It only makes a fractional difference, but if I let it be for too long it could become a problem."

"So who exactly is this contact of yours?" Kaya Ti asked after a moment. "Why are we meeting him somewhere as far off the beaten track as Valunn?"

"Well, I suppose there's no real harm in you knowing at this point." Ahsoka lowered the goggles she had been holding to her face and deactivated the plasma welder. "He's a former member of the Imperial Information Office. The Ghost crew rescued him for the data he was carrying, and got him back to me to interpret it. I set him up in a secure location on the condition that he is to report back to me immediately if he finds anything the Rebellion should know about."

"What is it that he's found this time?"

Ahsoka shook her head, her dark lips pressed into a tight line. "I don't know. He wouldn't say. But he wouldn't have contacted me if it weren't important."

Suddenly, a long, shrill beep echoed throughout the ship. With one swift wave of her hand, the partially disassembled pieces of the lightsaber slid back into place. Ahsoka gave it one last look before putting it on her belt. "Okay, I have to go take the ship off autopilot for the landing sequence," she said. "You ready to go?"

Kaya nodded. As Ahsoka walked off down the hallway, she bit back a sigh. For Ahsoka's sake as well as her own, she could only hope that they wouldn't run into the few people in the galaxy who really hated her. She had a terrible feeling that in the end, they would be the ones to initiate the firefight that would take Ahsoka's life.

Kaya Ti could taste the ash in the air the moment she stepped out of the New Hope and onto one of the many twisting, crowded streets of Sa'hajaal. She took in the stench of old trash and poor sewage, and noted the new layers of graffiti from four or five local gangs that served to demonstrate the changing lines of territory.