The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Forty-Five: Checking In

AHSOKA TANO

The weeks passed slowly and quickly at the same time after Janira and Lux made amends. Slowly, because Ahsoka kept waiting for Lux to take the next step and rekindle his relationship with his father and brother when he seemed to have no qualms with biding his time, and quickly because Ahsoka was almost too busy to give it any thought.

But, finally, after months of careful calibration, the special program Ahsoka had been working on with a few of the more tech-savvy Jedi back on Cialone was ready to use. It would make her work sifting through the information from her listening posts five times faster, and probably as five times easier, too.

Although it had its limits, once it had cracked the code a classified Imperial document had been written in, it would allow her to search it for mention of key names or phrases to determine whether or not she needed to decrypt them fully and take a better look. Those that weren't important to her were simply filtered back into the system untouched and wiped from the program's calculations.

And she intended to use it to its full potential to sift through the platform the Inquisitors' orders were routed through. Perhaps then she would be able to send her people out to investigate claims of Force-sensitive children before they could.

Suddenly, a soft chime cut through the air, pulling her attention from her work and from her reflections to the transmitter that lay beside her on the bed. She picked it up and entered the commands to run the call through the New Hope's mainframe to save the device's power reserve, and then hit the button to answer it.

Her face lit up when she saw who was on the other end of the line.

"Hey sweetie," Lux said with a smile, waving cheerily. "You forgot to call last night, so I'm just checking in to make sure everything's okay."

"I forgot to call?" Ahsoka repeated, furrowing her brow. Then, she realized what he said was true. "I forgot to call. Sorry, I just got so caught up in something I didn't see the time going by–"

"It's okay – I'm not mad. Like I said, just checking in."

Ahsoka couldn't blame him for being cautious. What had happened to Janira a month before had shaken him badly, so much so that now he had grown somewhat clingy. He liked to keep tabs the people he cared about with routine calls to find out where they were and what they were doing there.

Sometimes, it got a little annoying. But it was a big galaxy, and with her job as Fulcrum, Ahsoka understood the need to keep track of everyone better than most.

"Something wrong, Socks? You seem a little on edge."

"I've been having dreams again."

"Bad?"

"Different," she said, hoping to downplay the unease in her voice.

Lux didn't fall for it. "But... bad different."

"Yeah," she admitted finally. "Is everything okay with Jani?"

Brother and sister were still close, but not as much as they had been before. A rift had formed between them, created when they realized that they had two very different points of view on an issue close to them. Although she knew it was between the two of them and that interference would not be welcomed, Ahsoka made sure to check up on the situation every now and then to see if there was anything she could do to help ease things along.

"I think so. But more and more, I'm feeling like things have... changed. I try to let the conversation come and go naturally, but it's like a river that got dammed up and stagnated. Everything just feels forced between us now. But–" Suddenly, Lux threw on a happy grin, turning to look behind him. "Hey, guys, look – it's Mommy."