Ahsoka, Daughter of the Light (Book 5): Rescue

Chapter 27: Another Happy Landing

DARTH VADER

Darth Vader's shuttled approached the Venator, preparing to dock. He and his Inquisitors were in there, ready to unleash their full might upon Tano.

No doubt his adversary was on board, and with no way of escape, she was all but doomed to die at his hand.

His pilot flew them closer to the ship, to a nearby docking port, since the hangar was filled with debris and likely rendered unusable.

Then, suddenly, a voice came through the comms.

"That ship's about to jump into hyperspace!" Said the voice, presumably a commander on the ground. "Get away, now!"

"What!?" Lord Vader yelled, as all of a sudden the Venator's engines lit up and it flew away into hyperspace. "What's going on, what just happened?"

"Hyperdrive malfunction, maybe?" the shuttle captain said. "Either that, or they..."

"They what?" Vader pressured the captain into speaking.

"They... may have hijacked the ship, Lord Vader."

"Impossible," said First Sister. "If it was that easy, our whole navy would have been stolen during the clone wars."

"Well, she's known for doing things that aren't exactly easy," Ninth Sister added.

Suddenly, the shuttle flew by a bunch of Stormtrooper corpses floating through space.

"Lot's of biomatter on scanners," said the captain. "Looks like the whole crew's been jettisoned into space."

Vader clenched his fist.

"Is there any way to track the ship?" Vader asked.

"There would be, but if she knows the ship as well as any other Jedi, she's bypassed it by now, especially if an astromech helped her. You said she had an Astromech, right?"

Vader was beyond infuriated, and his master would surely be displesed.

Ahsoka Tano had slipped from his grasp yet again.

AHSOKA TANO-BONTERI

"Whew," Ahsoka said, slumping back into a command chair. "We made it."

"Did you make sure they can't track us?" Lux asked.

"Yeah," she mumbled. "They have no idea where we're taking this thing."

"Good," Lux said. "At least we got something out of this trip..."

Ahsoka sighed.

"I need some rest," she said. "It's been a long day."

"Rest all you want, 'Soka," Lux said. "You deserve it, you really do. Well, we might need you to land the ship, but until then, just catch some shut-eye."

"Thank you," she said, closing her eyes.

In mere moments, she had drifted off to sleep.

Ahsoka stood in a pitch-black area, slightly fogged up. She was standing in shallow water, which was only up to her ankles.

"Ahsoka," a voice said.

She recognized this voice from one of her previous visions.

"H-Hello? Are you... are you the Daughter?"

There was no answer. Instead, the voice continued talking as if the question hadn't been asked.

"Ahsoka," continued the voice of the Daughter, "You have done well, but there is still a long ways to go. You are strong, but you cannot topple an Empire alone."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ahsoka asked.

This time, there was a proper answer.

"You will need help," said the Daughter. "And not just from the Jedi. You must help light a spark that grows into a Rebellion."

A light suddenly emerged in front of her.

"You are the light in the darkness. You must never abandon hope, or it will abandon you. Never give up, Ahsoka. That is how you will make it through."

"W-why are you even talking to me?" Ahsoka said, starting to walk towards the light, which was getting brighter.

"You will have these answers in time," replied the Daughter. "But for now... take care of your family."

Suddenly, the light became so bright, it consumed everything else.

"Ahsoka?"

Ahsoka awoke in her chair to Lux looking over her, and the bridge was now overlooking the planet the Jedi Camp was on.

"Are you good?" he continued.

"I'm... fine, thanks for asking," she groggily replied.

"I've contacted Lyda. She knows we're hauling a Star Destroyer. The plains next to the camp should be big enough to land this thing."

"Good," Ahsoka said. "Let's land this thing, then."

"So," Lux said, How are you actually supposed to land one of these?"

"It seems this model doesn't have much in the way of landing gear, so we just have to land it in a flat enough area longer than 1,200 meters. So, like you said, we've got a landing zone."

"Okay then," Lux said. "I'm not very good with these capital ships, so how about you and R7 land this thing?"

"Okay," she said. "Let's do this."

She got up and pressed a few buttons, and R7 plugged back into the wall.

R7 then let out a beep.

"You want full control?" Ahsoka asked. "Do you at least know how to land this thing?"

R7 beeped a response, which Ahsoka knew was the droid binary equivalent of "yes."

"Alright then," Ahsoka said, "I guess the droid's doing all the work."

Slowly, the ship descended into the planet's atmosphere.

The ship went from doing what was essentially a nose dive to moving into a more horizontal position. As the ship reached the surface, the Jedi Camp came into view. Ahsoka could only imagine the sheer amount of emotions the Younglings were feeling.

Several buttons beeped, and warnings were brought up across the control panels.

"We're about to land," Lux said. "Hold onto something!"

Sure enough, a very large thump rocked the ship, as it grinded to a halt.

Ahsoka and Lux jolted forward as the ship skidded to a halt.

Finally, the ship had come to a complete stop

Both Lux and Ahsoka breathed a sigh of relief.

"Another happy landing," Ahsoka said, brushing her right Lekku to the side.