Bring Him Home

Chapter 10

The ship landed outside of Jabba's palace and Ahsoka suddenly tensed up.

"What's wrong, Soka?", Lux asked as he put a hand on her shoulder.

"I... I don't know", the Togruta breathily answered, "Something feels... familiar..."

Sabine and Lux both raised their eyebrows in confusion, but Ahsoka put up a reassuring hand. "It's probably nothing. Just a residual Force echo from the last time I was here. Anyway, let's go."

     They disembarked from the ship and walked up to the palace's large metal door, only to be greeted by a TT-8L/Y7  gatekeeper droid. It uttered a few phrases in its unique language, one that could only be understood by translated droids.

   "We request an audience with Jabba", Ahsoka told the droid. In response, the eyeball-shaped automation stretched closer to the alien's face, blinked twice, and retracted into its slot without another word.

      "Uh... what was that about?", Sabine entreated.

    Ahsoka merely shrugged in response just as the door began to raise.

   "Huh. I guess we're being welcomed inside.", Lux observed, "Be careful. The Hutts are notoriously devious."

     "Copy that", Sabine quipped.

    "Trust me, Lux, I know", Ahsoka added.

    They walked inside and were escorted to the throne room by two Gamorreans. The bipedal porcine fatbergs gave off a rancid smell, one that made Lux wish he had worn his mask. Luckily, Sabine was wearing her helmet and Ahsoka had conditioned herself to resist such foul odors. When they reached the throne room, a protocol droid appeared on the empty dais.

    "Greetings, visitors. Please forgive my Master's tardiness, for he is not yet accustomed to his schedule."

     What? I thought Jabba was over 600 years old, Sabine thought.

     Suddenly, a trumpet sounded and the protocol droid spoke again.

   "Loyal subjects of the Hutts, denizens of Tatooine, I now present Rotta Desilijic Tiure, son of the great Jabba Desilijic Tiure, and rightful ruler of Tatooine."

  Hearing that name, Ahsoka's jaw dropped.

   A slim, seemingly adolescent Hutt slithered up onto the dais and smiled down at the trio. He uttered a few words in Huttese, which the droid translated.

     "You are Ahsoka Tano, are you not?"

     "I am", she answered.

     Rotta spoke again.

     "The great Rotta remembers you. You are the one who rescued him from the fiendish Separatists during the Clone Wars."

     Ahsoka was still basically speechless. This large alien slug before her was the same one that she and her master rescued when he was merely an infant. Granted, he was nowhere near as big as his father had been, since Hutts age incredibly slowly, but he was still no longer that grubby little larva.

       "Your Eminence", the former Jedi said with a courteous bow, "We come seeking your assistance."

    "Kava seel jee heppo?"

     "The Great Rotta wishes to know how he can help."

     Ahsoka gestured to Sabine, who stepped forward.

"We're looking for a friend of mine. We were told he came here five years ago and bought a ship from your father." She activated the holodisk and showed the Hutt the image of Ezra.

Rotta scratched his chin and then said something to the droid.

"His Eminence wishes for me to run through the manifest of all of Jabba's business transactions over the past decade. I will do so now."

The robot's eyes blinked rapidly as it ran through its files and stopped once it found the right one. "Yes, it appears Jabba did sell a ship to someone matching your friend's appearance. I have the recording of the transaction available for your viewing if you wish to see it."

Sabine nodded and the droid projected the life-sized recording onto the floor in front of the trio. When she saw who was in the hologram, the young woman was left in a state of utter disbelief.

Ezra, of course, standing next to Grand Admiral Thrawn himself

"So Wuher was serious about the blue guy. I had no idea he was talking about the Empire's most tenacious naval officer", Lux snarked quietly.

"I greatly appreciate this, mighty Jabba", the Chiss spoke in the recording, "All of Csilla is in your debt."

Jabba wasn't visible in the recording, but they could still hear his voice, as well as the voice of his translator. "The illustrious Jabba says that your gratitude is... unnecessary."

Ezra unfortunately never said anything before the recording ended.

So they did buy a ship, but that doesn't give us any clues as to where they went next.

Suddenly, the protocol droid pointed at Sabine. "You. Mandalorian. What is your name?"

"Sabine Wren."

"Ah, good. Your friend instructed me to give you a message. One moment."

The robot waddled over to the secret safe hidden in the floor of the dais and retrieved a holodisk.

"He gave it to me after buying the ship."

Sabine walked up to the dais and took the disk from the droid. "Thank you."

      Rotta spoke again.

    "His Excellency wishes you the best of luck in finding your friend."

      Sabine smiled and bowed to the Hutt. "Thank you."

       "And you, Madame Tano, the great Rotta wishes for you to come forth."

    Ahsoka stepped forward and Rotta extended his hand. She took it, thinking it would be a normal handshake, but the adolescent Hutt instead gave her a surprisingly clean hug. He certainly kept up a better hygiene than his father. Sabine and Lux both had to strain themselves to keep from laughing at the sight.

The Hutt released Ahsoka and said something else.

"His Eminence says he owes you his life. Anything else you need, he will provide."

"I'm sure I'll take you up on that offer someday", the Togruta said with a smile.

They went back to the ship and Sabine activated the new holodisk.

       "Well, Sabine, I hope this'll be the last clue I'll have to leave for you. There's something big going on, and it'll probably keep me from coming home of my own accord anytime soon. All I can tell you is that we're going to Csilla, Thrawn's homeworld. Luckily, he was kind enough to give me the star map that leads there. I'll leave it on the disk for you to follow. Good luck."

       Sabine was elated. They were almost at the end of the road.

       "Well, what're you waiting for?", Ahsoka asked, "Plug it into the navicomputer."

     The Mandalorian did just that, bringing the aforementioned star map onto the screen.

      "It looks like we're a couple jumps away from one of those hyperspace lanes", Lux observed, "Shall we go?"

    "Yeah, let's get going!!", Sabine shouted excitedly.

    Okay, I'm starting to hate how I'm writing this. I don't feel like it's good enough.