“And as a collection of like minded individuals, we could help your world in many ways and provide many benefits that-”

  Count Dooku’s personal communicator buzzed and he frowned and stopped speaking as he felt it buzz. It should only activate for priority messages, he’d muted it for this important meeting.

  “Apologies, I must take this,” he said and bowed to the king of the most recent planet that he was working on swaying to the Separatist cause, “Please forgive the interruption.”

  “Of course, of course,” the King said amiably, “Matters of state are always such a bother. I quite understand.”

  Dooku walked a short distance away before taking out his communicator and pressing the button on the front.

  “Sir, urgent news,” the man on the small hologram on the hand sized communicator said, “We’ve received a message from one of the safehouses. It’s about our talented young droid engineer. Jabba the Hutt has kidnapped his mother and her friend and brought her to Tatooine. What are your orders?”

  Dooku stiffened and glanced around to verify again that no one was around to listen in.

  “Investigate the situation carefully. I will be there shortly to deal with this situation myself. Secrecy must be maintained at all costs, is that understood?”

  “Understood, sir. I’ll be right on it.”

  Dooku ended the call and turned back around and went back to the king. This planet was another piece of the puzzle, but it wasn’t a vital effort. He could afford some rudeness for something of this magnitude.

  “Apologies, King,” Dooku said with a slight bow, “But I must beg my leave until another time. I have a rather urgent matter on my homeworld of Serreno that has come to my attention. Thank you for your time and hospitality, and I hope to visit again.”

  The King eyed Dooku, looking dissatisfied before letting out an annoyed huff, “Ah, and right when you were getting to the interesting part! Very well, until a better time then. Matters of state always do crop up at the worst time, don’t they?”

  “Thank you for your generosity,” Dooku said smoothly and bowed again before turning and moving to his ship. This matter with Skywalker must be handled delicately. The CIS’s strength must not be exposed but they must also return the boy and his loved one’s to safety before they lost their best droid engineer and the best chance that Dooku had to cause a true schism in the Jedi order. Let alone his force powers and his potential as a fighter. But Dooku brushed those aside mostly. What was the value of one fighter on the scale of a galactic scale war? No, the Force was a tool to achieve his goals and nothing more. And with enough droids, enough enemies, something that could be defeated. But at least even in the worst case the boy was unlikely to be killed off hand by Jabba. The boy was too valuable to the Republic and the Jedi for judgement and answers for Jabba to be willing to lose the potential credits of selling the boy off as a hostage.

  There was only one choice to take that could be taken, Dooku mused as he returned to his ship and received a more detailed update on the situation from an encrypted channel from his people.

  Dooku must go to Jabba himself. The Republic already knew of his interest in the boy. They would be blind, and only look to it as the interest in one former Jedi in another. Republic Intelligence and anyone else involved wouldn’t bother looking any deeper than that.

  Resolving himself, Dooku started ordering his subordinates on what to do. He needed Jabba the Hutt to be alert to his arrival and see if he was open to negotiation to let the boy free…

  — — —

  “Master, why were we chosen for this mission? It just seems… I only became your padawan a few months ago. Should we already be leaving the temple so soon?”

  “You’ve done well enough on your lightsaber forms, Ahsoka,” Master Kenobi said calmly although he had a slightly pensive look on his face and was rubbing chin slightly with unfocused eyes, “Excellent for your age. Twelve years old and you’ve already passed your trials to become a padawan. Dual wielding two lightsabers at once even, a technique that I know is far more difficult than the more standard single bladed techniques. It will be good for you to get some real world experience early in your training. It will give you a good sense of things when we return to the temple to continue your training further. We shouldn’t be doing any fighting, we’re supposed to be there as observers and advisors primarily.”

  “...Master?”

  Master Kenobi’s eyes focused and he looked down at her.

  “Are we going after him? The Chosen One? Anakin Skywalker? I’ve heard rumors going around the temple… What was he like? When he was your old Padawan? Before he fell to the dark side?”

  “It is still not confirmed if he’s truly fallen,” Master Kenobi corrected her, perhaps a bit harsher than necessary, and Ahsoka flinched slightly. She reached up and brushed her head tails over slightly to help her calm down and had a flash of her orange skinned hand pass through her vision to block her vision before Master Kenobi’s slightly frowning face returned to her.

  His eyes softened slightly as he saw her nervousness.

  “Anakin…” Master Kenobi said thoughtfully and Ahsoka relaxed slightly, “He… Was a brash boy. Confident, had instincts and a connection to the Force like none I’ve ever seen before in one so young. He was impatient, always looking for the next big thing, the next goal to achieve to push himself into becoming a better Jedi. He was never one to enjoy quiet contemplation in the temple. He loved dueling with his fellow padawans to improve himself rather than practicing on his own on the forms. He wanted to go out there into the galaxy and help people. Like the stories of the Jedi that he grew up with as a slave on Tatooine.”

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  “He was a slave?” Ahsoka asked in morbid curiosity, “I didn’t know that.”

  “Many don’t. Everyone in this temple is a Jedi. We’re supposed to forget our pasts when we come here. Slave, noble, human, wookie, Torgruta, like you, all of them treated the same. Most come so young that they hardly even remember their parents or old homes. But not Anakin, he came when he was nine. He remembered his past life. The Council almost rejected him when he arrived because he was too old despite his massive connection and power in the Force. He had always wanted to be a Jedi, and was overjoyed when he was finally accepted to become a Jedi at last despite all the obstacles put in our way before we got there…”

  “...And what happened?” Ahsoka asked, “What changed?”

  Obi-wan Kenobi looked into the young padawan’s eyes and the look of guilt and even fear on his face on the usually carefree and jovial master rooted her in place.

  “I don’t know, truly. I have some ideas, but... None of them quite sit right with me as the whole truth. The padawan I knew was brash but wouldn’t fall to the dark so suddenly even with what happened to him. He wouldn’t fall to… the extent that’s been reported, to a rabid monster only made of hatred and resentment. Powerful enough to kill at least one Jedi master in straight combat without even a lightsaber. He seemed so calm when I saw him last… I was supposed to be his master, and I failed him. If he’s truly fallen to the dark, then it is my duty to stop him. One way or another. Anyone that he hurts from now on is a burden that I must carry on my shoulders.”

  “Oh,” Ahsoka said dumbly, not sure what to say to that.

  Master Kenobi visibly smoothed out his expression and it was like he was his old friendly self again.

  “But there is no need to brood about these things just yet,” he said lightly, “I see it was too much for you to process so early in the morning, my apprentice. Let’s go to the shuttle. Our carrier group of the Republic is waiting up in orbit waiting for us. We wouldn’t want them thinking that we’re wasting their time.”

  They moved towards the shuttle and after a few minutes were rising away from the Jedi temple of Coruscant and up towards the military carrier group of ships.

  “If you have any questions on our journey, feel free to ask,” Master Kenobi suddenly said with a short glance at Ahsoka, “These stern faced Republic generals will try to intimidate you. But this is your time to learn, and they know their orders are to indulge you when there isn’t an emergency requiring immediate action.”

  “Thank you, Master. I’ll make sure to learn all that I can.”

  “See that you do, not many padawans get an opportunity like this to see how the Republic military works from the inside.”

  — — —

  Ahsoka stood there nervously, not sure what to do with her hands as she stood there among the stern faced Republic military commanders and Master Kenobi. The bridge of the Venator class star destroyer was massive, easily the largest ship that Ahsoka had ever been in. The crew was over 7400 as well as the nearly two thousand ground troops and hundreds of individual fightercraft.

  These generals were in command of all of that, all of those people, and here she was barely a padawan out of training and she had to make sure she didn’t make a fool of herself.

  Master Kenobi was mostly quiet on the journey here, but now they had arrived over Tatooine and were about to call Jabba the local warlord.

  Ahsoka wasn’t sure how she felt about the deal that had been decided on. The Republic would pay Jabba nearly fifty million credits to transfer Skywalker and his family to their ship safely.

  Why were they paying this warlord for things? Weren’t they the Republic? Shouldn’t they just order this Jabba to hand him over or arrest him if they knew he had done something wrong?

  But even Master Kenobi didn’t protest, so Ahsoka kept quiet and didn’t say anything as he and the Republic generals decided to pay the ransom when they arrived.

  The communications console chirped, and after a moment the deck grew, bringing up the hologram to show the slug-like Hutt to appear on the holo table in front of them.

  Jabba spoke in a strange language for a few seconds and waited before a robotic voice translated it into Basic, “You are bold to bring such a strong force to Hutt space. You insult not only me, but all the Hutt clans by not properly announcing such a force entering our territories…”

  “It is only for transporting our cargo, we assure you,” the ship commander said stiffly, “We meant no insult.”

  “Yet I am insulted all the same,” Jabba said smoothly and licked his large disgusting lips, “While I have been waiting, I’ve received the most interesting offer. It seems that the Republic is not the only one interested in this boy of yours. I see the appeal, quite the strong will that that one has… Almost a shame I won’t be able to see it broken down in my dungeons. The other interested party has not been nearly as rude as you have been to me. Send down a representative to my palace, and we will see which of the two of you has a better offer for me. I always love more credits, but I think you will need more than that if you wish to win the bid…”

  The hologram shut off and the whole bridge remained in shock for a few moments before it erupted into noise as the generals started arguing with each other all at once.

  “Quiet!” The ship commander shouted and everyone settled down as Ahsoka watched, “Our mission has just grown more complicated,” he looked at the man who was the liaison to the Republic Intelligence network, “Any idea who this second bidder could be?”

  The operative shook his head, looking confused, “No, sir. But with the amount of credits that we offered, they must have an invested interest in the captured Jedi if they offered something even more valuable than that.”

  “We will need to pick a representative to go negotiate with him.” the commander replied, “We were ordered to secure the boy at all costs. He’s already destroyed a hammerhead class cruiser on his own, we need answers on what he did and stop him if he decides to do it again.”

  “I’ll do it,” Master Kenobi said, suddenly speaking up, “I will go down for the negotiations. It will be dangerous in the heart of Jabba’s domain, only I will be able to fight free in case of an ambush.”

  “Master, I’ll go with you!” Ahsoka suddenly said, only to shrink down a little as everyone’s eyes turned to her.

  “No, my padawan,” Master Kenobi said sternly, “It’s too dangerous. You will remain here on the ship for now. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, master…” Ahsoka said reluctantly and put her eyes to the floor in shame as the conversation moved onwards to the logistics and discussing what they should offer to Jabba when Master Kenobi arrived. Ahsoka knew that she should be listening to what they were saying, but she couldn’t focus. Ahsoka thought that Master Kenobi thought she was ready. But she must not be if at the first sign of danger he was going to leave her alone on the ship at the first sign of actual danger…

  “Very well. We will work up here to identify this other party and think of more things that we could reasonably offer Jabba,” the ship commander concluded, “Master Jedi Kenobi, we will send you down immediately. Report any information you discover as soon as possible that we can send along to Republic intelligence.”

  “Of course, commander. I will leave soon.”

  The ship commander nodded and the room settled down into smaller groups of discussion as Master Kenobi walked over to Ahsoka who stood in the corner.

  “Ahsoka. You will still learn plenty up here on the bridge of the ship. Don’t be discouraged, you wouldn’t want to visit a vile place like that anyway. I hope to return soon with my former padawan in tow.”

  “I understand, Master. Good luck.”

  “Thank you. Goodbye for now.”