"I am no Jedi" Ashoka seasons 1-2/Episodes 10-12/a bonus movie

4: Day 1

The sunsets from planets with two moons are the most spectacular. The ripples of violet and orange radiating from the soft white glow crash into each other and fade to the deepest blue. The air is cool and welcoming, and the people find themselves lulled by the turning gravity even to the point of kindness. That's why she wasn't worried, sitting in plain sight in a place she shouldn't be, because the world is more forgiving at sunset.

This particular planet was more forgiving than the past few. It had trees to shelter her and many towns to feed her. She had barely even been caught by the locals, she could stay for a few more months without being run out. She was trying to think about this as she watched the light disappear from the wooden roof of some building she'd yet to steal from.

I can stay. She tells the first peeking star of the night.

An echo of her voice reverberates through her head, leans into her ear with a hand on her shoulder and tells her,

No, there is nothing left for you here.

Where will I go?

She was alone again, she had asked the question that was never answered. So it was decided, she would not sleep tonight. Once the last ripples were chased away by the darkness, and the people left the streets, she would have to make the long journey to the other side of town where the transports were waiting for their pilots' returns.

The road was easy, and the lanterns from windows lit her way. She came to a large, open gate, defining the clearance and the forest. Once she saw the scattered array of large, sharp heaps of metal, she stood still. Carefully, she looked at each starship, transport, and cargo ship. Her eyes fell on a smaller cargo ship, with minor rust damage and a large red stripe around the exterior. This ship was familiar, and though she had never seen it before she recognized it immediately, and she knew that was the one she needed to board.

She crossed the yard to the ship. First she tried pulling on hatch opening and pressing buttons, this rarely worked but it was still a little humiliating to break into an unlocked starship. Nothing budged. Next she ran her hand along the seams in the metal panels, near the back where the cargo is stored. She found a loose panel, with a deeper seam. Her fingers were small enough to wedge behind the panel, and she was able to pry it away from the ship. Behind it was a mess of wires, but when she parted a path through them she could see the darkness of the interior. She wriggled in, feet first, and pulled the panel back into place behind her.

The inside was pitch black, she couldn't see her own hands. She felt around to make sure she was well hidden, and found she was between three tall walls, and one seemingly open side. This was where she wanted to be. She pressed herself against the wall behind her, furthest from the large opening to the cargo hold, and tried to make herself comfortable. Every surface she could feel was cold and unyielding metal, and the best she could do was ball herself up flat against the ground. The darkness helped, whether her eyes were open or closed was a mystery and it made an easy canvas for her dreams.

She was woken rudely by the rough landing of the ship on uneven ground. She was suddenly starting to panic, did they load the cargo while she was asleep? Or did they take off exactly how they were set up last night? Regardless she didn't seem to be found, but the large doors of the bay were opening, flooding the interior with light, and soon they were going to be moving all the objects keeping her out of sight. She stretched her arms, her whole body ached from the merciless steel, and positioned herself against the wires she had entered through. She saw figures moving through the light, but her eyes refused to focus. She waited for more men to board the ship to help unload cargo, so she could leave how she came. She heard voices and footsteps, both growing louder. Finally, she pushed open the panel, let it fall to the ground, and dove out through the wires behind it. She landed clumsily on the soft dirt, and quickly put the panel back on the ship. Her escape must've been heard, there were men coming back out of the ship, yelling.

"Who's there?!"

She heard someone yell, but she had already crawled under the ship. She could see feet walking near where she had landed, still yelling. She crawled to the other side of the ship, trying to not dirty her rarely washed clothes even more, and peaked out for a second before darting to the tree line a few feet away. She watched from behind the thick trunk of a tree. She wasn't spotted, the men returned to unloading the cargo.

She fell to ground against the tree, finally letting herself breath, daring to make a noise. In front of her stretched a deep, layered forest. It had a tangle of vibrant green and spiraling roots, speckled with beautiful flowers. One in particular caught her eye, embedded in the ground near her feet without a stem, a deep purple flower with tongue shaped pedals rolling away from a yellow bulb. She reached forward to feel the petals, they were softer then silk. Her fingers found their way to the base of the petals.

Don't.

Why not?

...

She realized suddenly that she had been wasting valuable time. She stood and peered back from around the tree towards the ship.

The clearing revealed very little, it was surrounded by more forest. The cargo itself was also unhelpful, it seemed to be mostly scrap metal pieces, and a few crates of what seemed like assorted market goods, water, fruits, grains. These things could be headed toward a city, a factory, or even a dump. She did notice that the clearing gave way to a short road, leading to a hover track. It's unlikely that only a few small towns would be able to afford a hover track, this must lead somewhere that has some importance, she thought. Regardless, there is clearly no where to go besides wherever those tracks lead.

Without much wait a hover train came and the men loaded it. It wasn't patrolled, or even heavily manned, and was quite easy to slip into as it pulled away. She found a cavity in the center top of one of the cars, and again she had to lay on unyielding metal for an indeterminate amount of time.

What's up with this place? What do have going on? She asked herself, sitting up and looking around. The train gave an elevated view above the trees.

Okay... I can see miles of track I front of this train, we are nowhere near anywhere. This place is a lot like the last planet, it's all flat and foresty. Except for those mountains over there. ...mountains? Hills really. What's the difference though? And also who cares? The trail runs right past them though, so hopefully wherever it's heading is right around them. Still at this pace I'll be here at least all night. I'm kinda hungry. "Flowers are a sign of fruit", there's plenty of flowers here. Damn that lady was kinda weird. I can probably live in the woods here for a while, with all the coverage, how soft the dirt was, and of course all the signs of fruit. But this place looks rainy. I doubt it floods though because...

She continued to think to herself for a while before, at some point, she fell asleep on a sack of meiloorun fruit. Some bump in the track woke her much later to find another beautiful sunset. This planet had two moons, a staple for this particular system. More stunning was it's ring system. Like a beautiful flare of light cutting the sky in half, pointing straight down the line of the train tracks, it reached from below her feet to far above her head. She was so caught in it that she almost forgot to appreciate the rest of the stars floating peacefully in the purple. She had never seen such bright stars, or as many, although someone once told her that the sky always has the same amount of stars. That couldn't be true, there were at least twice as many here. This planet hordes them all.

She heard the wind blow past her ear and say,

You're safe here.

I'm so far from... where I started. I can't believe the sunsets used to be red and yellow.

In the peaceful night she lulled away again, unaware that the train had stopped, and that the train was, in fact, manned and patrolled. And the night was when they swept for stowaways and thieves.