Ahsoka, Daughter of the Light (Book 2): Shadows

Chapter 4: Stowaway

Ahsoka had arrived at the shipyards. She looked in amazement at all the different types of ships here. This undoubtedly had to be one of Coruscant's biggest starports. She'd almost surely find a transport or cargo ship to Onderon from here. She looked around and saw a few lines of people, all leading up to a few droids that kept saying things like "here is your ticket" and "identification please." Ahsoka guessed this was the line to get a ticket for a civilian shuttle to go offworld.

After a few minutes of waiting, Ahsoka got to the front of the line to where the droid was.

"Good evening," said the droid. "What is your destination?"

"Onderon," replied Ahsoka.

"Identification please," asked the droid.

Then, Ahsoka realized a mistake she had made: she didn't have one, or at least not since she left the Order, and if she used the identification she used as a Jedi Padawan, any number of things could happen.

"Nevermind..." Ahsoka said, walking out of the line.

Kriff, Ahsoka thought, I didn't really think that through.

If the droid had been a weak-minded Human or Humanoid, she could have simply waved her fingers and said, "you don't need to see her identification." But that was never an option for droids. She would have to find another way onto a ship to Onderon.

She looked around until she found a lady in a uniform who looked like an employee.

"Hey," Ahsoka asked the woman, "Do you know where I could find the cargo ships to Onderon?"

"Why do you ask?" the employee replied.

"I... I have some friends running a shipment to there," Ahsoka lied. "I'm supposed to meet up with them, but I forgot where they told me their ship was."

"Well, it's right over there," the employee said. She was pointing to a nearby set of platforms, three of which had ships on them.

"Thank you," Ahsoka said, as she ran off in that direction.

As she bolted through the crowd towards the landing platforms, she saw that one of the ships was loading it's cargo. She then stood by for a while, waiting for it to finish loading. Her plan was to jump onto the ship as the cargo bay door was closing.

Taking a cargo ship was much more risky than a civilian shuttle. The separatists and even some pirates normally had enough decency to not raid ships containing only innocent civilians. But on a cargo ship, they went all out. The ship she would board could be containing vital Republic cargo that the Separatists could intercept. But the more glaring issue was the Pirates. They didn't care what a cargo ship was transporting, they only care if it pays them some good credits. And said pirates could make a fortune by selling a teenage Togruta off into slavery. Not to mention, the possibility of getting caught by the cargo ship's owners could have all sorts of consequences, but those were risks Ahsoka had to take.

Eventually, the ship finished loading it's cargo, and the ramp to it's cargo bay started closing. Ahsoka looked around to make sure nobody was looking, and she force-jumped over the fence between her and the platform, and again into the closing door of the cargo ship.

Ahsoka breathed a sigh of relief when she saw nobody was in the cargo bay. She quickly found a place to stow away behind some boxes. She found a large empty container, so she slid herself in there. She felt the ship rumble as it's engines turned on, and the ship lifted off the ground. She was on her way to Onderon.

There was something relaxing about the ship's subtle vibrations and the whirring of the engines. Ahsoka only now just realized how tired she was. Her eyes slowly closed and she allowed herself to drift off to sleep.