Ahsoka, redeux.

[Jedi Marso]

The Ghost suddenly appeared in deep space, just short of the star system Jacen Syndulla guided them to. The freighter began making scans of the uncharted system, attempting to locate the positions and trajectory data of all its planets. Jacen, of course, had a better way. Seated in the Ghost’s copilot seat next to Sabine Wren, he closed his eyes and called on the Force for their next course. Sabine watched as he took hold of the controls, slowly precessing the ship until it was pointing the way he wanted.

“Check that vector,” he said confidently.

“283 mark 124, it is,” Sabine said breezily. “Scans show a gas giant along that line—a big one. So, unless there’s a habitable moon . . .”

“There’s definitely something,” Zeb remarked from the console behind them. “I’m picking up a homing beacon signal from directly ahead.”

“If it’s a beacon, it can’t be Ezra’s,” Sabine reasoned. “Not after ten years. Wait a minute . . . this doesn’t make any sense. That homing signal is encrypted with the Ghost’s ciphers. It’s one of Chopper’s! That’s impossible!”

“Mom placed a homing beacon on the mercenary ship,” Jacen reminded them. “Could it be them?”

“If they haven’t found and deactivated it by now, they are the worst mercenaries ever,” Zeb chuckled.

“Whatever it is, this is no coincidence,” Sabine stated firmly. “If it is them, we can handle them. Skoll is dead, and I can take Hati if it comes to that. The rest of their crew are a handful of gun thugs.”

“We aren’t going to sort it out sitting around up here,” Zeb said eagerly. “If they’re here, it has to be because of Ezra somehow, right? So what are we waiting for?”

“You’re right,” Sabine replied. “Jacen, you’ve got the ship. Can you jump us in closer? There’s no time to waste!”

“I’ve got it,” he replied confidently. Moments later, the Ghost briefly disappeared into hyperspace again.

* * *​

Ezra Bridger stood in the center of a group of Zef. They were so large that they had to form a rough circle around him, leaning in with their large heads and faceted eyes as he bade them farewell. He thanked them for his life, for their aid to him, and for being his friends. He told them they would be dearly missed, and they could sense the truth of it in his mind and heart. Please pass my final message to all the Zef: May your aeries be strong, your eggs healthy, and may your people flourish for all time, he told them.

Farewell, friend-Ezra, they told him return. We feel your eagerness to fly home to the stars. We will pray that you reach the aeries of your people. Long life to you, good fortune, and peace.

May the Force be with you, my friends, he replied, tears stinging his eyes. The Zef took their leave of him, launching themselves into the air one at a time, creating powerful whirlwinds that buffeted him. Ezra wiped his eyes, feeling the world shifting beneath his feet. One era of his life was ending, and another beginning. He took a breath, and eagerly headed back to the clearing where the Aldo Nova waited.

Shin was there, with R4, finishing up the change-out of the ship’s atmosphere and using the oxygen generators to top off the internal tanks. They were standing just underneath the ship, working at an exterior drop-down console. That was when they heard it.

There was no mistaking the distant echo of the double sonic-boom extending all the way to the surface. It had been so long for Ezra that he didn’t realize what it was right away, but Shin Hati’s reaction was immediate. She stepped away from the hull of the Aldo Nova, shielding her eyes and looking skyward, seeking the source of the disturbance. Nothing natural on Valarian could move at supersonic speed except for a falling meteor.

Ezra was distracted by his emotional parting with the Zef; he hadn’t sensed the approaching Ayto hunting party, and only the sudden movement of one looking skyward from on top of Aldo Nova’s hull saved them. The hunter’s stalk had been near-perfect, but now it locked eyes with Ezra, who froze momentarily in shock as he realized it was there. The Ayto sprang into action, loping across the hull in two bounds and leaping for Shin, swinging its crude bone club two-handed as it dropped. The Ayto was at least nine feet tall, and its club would have knocked her skull clean into her chest if it connected.

“Shin! Look out!” he cried. She reacted with Jedi-like reflexes, sensing the danger at the last moment. She spun away from the Ayto, eyes widening as the gigantic ape smashed its club into the forest floor beside her. Ezra was already reaching out with the Force, jerking the Ayto off its feet, towards him.

Then there were more of them, at least half a dozen, dropping out of the trees all around them. A club swung, and R4’s electronic squeal cut out abruptly as his conical dome was knocked clean off in a shower of sparks. Ezra sensed one behind him, sensed the swing coming, and it was too late to get out of the way. He pivoted in place, reaching out with both hands and calling on the Force, applying pressure at precisely the right point. The Ayto’s club hit a solid wall of nothing at just the right juncture to send the force of the blow rebounding back into the attacker’s wrists, fracturing them. The club flew free of its grip, spinning off violently across the clearing. The Ayto screamed in pain and fled into the trees.

“Shin! Get in the ship! Get in the ship!” He yelled to her. She had blasters in hand now and pumped four shots at max power into the Ayto that attempted to club her. The creature’s thunderous, raging scream was cut off as it keeled over backward, crashing dead into the dirt. A large, furry foot appeared as if out of nowhere, tripping Ezra as he ran and knocking him flat on his face. He rolled, aided by the Force, as another bone club smashed into the ground where he’d been, narrowly missing him. He rolled again, dodging a second strike. A gob of foul smelling Ayto saliva splashed into Ezra’s face as the club came down a third time. He blindly reached up and pushed with the Force; the club stopped about twelve centimeters above his head, quivering, as the Ayto tried to bear down and kill him.

“Roll, you idiot!” he vaguely heard Shin shouting at him, firing at an unseen target. Ezra took her advice, letting go of his Force-hold at the proper instant. The club finished its arc, smashing into dirt he’d vacated. A great, furred hand snapped out and grabbed him around the torso, trapping his arms, lifting, and squeezing. Ezra thought his insides were going to burst, but the Ayto quickly dropped him when a Force-aimed blaster bolt from Shin struck it in the side of the head. It wasn’t enough to kill the creature, but it staggered back, severely wounded. It didn’t have the chance to do anything else before two curling smoke trails from above rocketed into its neck, detonating with loud crumps, and blowing the simian’s head half off. The loud whine of an approaching Mandalorian jet pack sounded briefly in his ears, and a familiar figure clad in colorfully painted armor landed in a combat crouch several feet away.

“Sabine!” Ezra cried, bewildered, then: “Behind you!”

Sabine whirled with Jedi reflexes, igniting the lightsaber she held in one hand. She swung against an enormous hand that swung at her, and the lightsaber won the contest. The Ayto’s arm was severed at the bicep and the creature staggered back, shrieking defiance at the trees. She followed up with the blaster in her other hand, dropping it with two headshots.

Another Ayto was charging her; Sabine backed it off with a quick blast from her flamethrower, causing it to recoil in fear of fire. She was surprised when a series of blaster bolts fired by Shin Hati ripped into its torso, finishing it for her.

An Ayto moving to attack Ezra turned when it heard the howl of an approaching threat. Garazeb Orrelios emerged from the trees running at full speed, his Bo-rifle configured as a staff. The Ayto swung its club, and the Lasat ranger swept aside the first attack, delivering an electrified counterstrike that would have knocked over a Wookie. The Ayto took the hit in stride and hit back, its club whistling downward in a ferocious two-handed blow. Zeb locked his joints and blocked above his head with his staff, pitting his own massive strength against his opponent’s. He grunted heavily under the strike but stopped it cold. The two strained for a moment, primal rage warring with sapient pride, but the huge Ayto hunter was far stronger than the Lasat ranger. The Ayto lashed out with a brutal kick, knocking him flat on his back and taking his wind. Worse, he lost his grip on his weapon. The Ayto’s club swung over its head to deliver the skull-crushing finish, and Zeb’s eyes widened in fear.

The blow never landed.

The Ayto was hurled sideways by the Force; Ezra sent it flying into a nearby tree, hard enough to split the trunk halfway through. Even then, the ape-like simian wasn’t finished. It slumped to the ground, snarling, and crouched to spring back at its prey. It leapt just as blaster bolts from Shin’s pistol winged it, but then Sabine was there, flipping acrobatically through the air using the Force and her jetpack. Her lightsaber flashed in a cut that met the Ayto midair and burned through its vitals. All Zeb had to do was roll out of the way, lest he be pinned under its dead weight.

Then there were no more Ayto—it was over.

Stunned silence reigned in the aftermath of the short, vicious fight. For about five seconds.

Ezra’s heart was overflowing at the sight of his friends. He was just about to call out to them when he suddenly sensed fear and anger from all quarters. Rather than acknowledge him, Sabine and Zeb were both locked onto Shin Hati, whose blue eyes had the look of a cornered kath-hound. Her fingers worked at the grips of her blasters, but she knew better than to fire on Sabine, who held an activated lightsaber.

“You!” Zeb Orrelios’s voice thundered across the clearing. He didn’t even reach for his staff, just leapt to his feet and started towards her. Ezra recognized that look and Zeb’s offensive gait, and he sensed the righteous anger in the Lasat—Zeb was going to take her apart with his bare fists.

Shin raised a blaster, coldly taking aim.

“Wait!” Ezra shouted, executing a Force-leap that placed him squarely between the two. He could have pulled the blaster from her grip but knew she would see that as a betrayal—the one thing he needed to avoid at all costs.

“Out of the way, kid,” Zeb snarled, obviously recognizing him but moving to push past him. “She’s a bloody murderer, that one! Warm or cold, I’m taking her in!”

“Ezra! Listen to him!” Sabine shouted, peeling off her helmet.

“Wait!” Ezra called again, desperately. “Everyone, stop! Just stop!” He used the Force as a last resort, physically blocking Zeb from moving by him. The Lasat pushed, his face turning a darker purple with effort and anger.

“Have ya lost yer bloomin’ mind? Let me go, Ezra!”

Ezra turned, to find Shin’s blaster aimed at him, now. Her eyes weren’t cold any longer, but sad and miserable. As if all the hope she’d slowly begun to build in the past day had been dashed, just like that. “You know them? You’re with them?” she asked in a low voice.

Ezra turned sideways, holding up both hands to keep everyone apart. Sabine had begun slowly circling around him, but she was hesitant. She’d gotten to the fight before Zeb, courtesy of her jetpack, and seen Ezra and Shin save each other. Shin had also fired in defense of Zeb and herself when she could have fired at them instead. And she remembered the discussions she’d had with Huyang and Ahsoka about this very moment, should it ever arrive. How to handle it had been the big riddle, but fate had solved it for her.

The Force worked in mysterious ways. It was an enigma, no doubt about it.

So it was that Sabine, true to her Jedi teaching, offered the first olive branch. She drew herself up, de-activating her lightsaber. “Zeb, stand down for a minute. Nobody’s going anywhere, anyway,” she said, gesturing upward. The whine of the Ghost’s engines and repulsorlifts suddenly assailed them, and the ship appeared over the line of trees, tracking sideways in a slow semi-circle, her forward weapons aimed squarely at Aldo Nova’s vulnerable cockpit bubble.

“Hera!” Ezra breathed, naturally making the wrong assumption.

“Sabine!” Zeb complained.

“Just do it,” Sabine said. “If we can’t trust Ezra . . . “

“Karabast! All right,” he growled, shrugging. Ezra let go his grip in the Force, turning back to Shin. He sighed, walking towards her, using the Force to broadcast all the calm and peaceful feelings he could muster. There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no passion, there is serenity. Her chin trembled as he reached her, easing out his hand to grasp her forearm, gently lowering her weapon.

“Let’s go,” Shin whispered to him intensely in a desperate voice that only he could hear. “Just you and me. We can run for it.”

“We don’t need to run for it, Shin. This is my family, and you are safe with us. We’re going to help you, Shin Hati—all of us. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

Zeb and Sabine were at his side in the next moment, laughing and crying as they swept Ezra into their arms. Ezra Bridger lost himself for a moment, his spirit lifted to a place higher than he’d ever thought possible. Shin Hati felt it in the Force, and more than anything in her life, she wanted that feeling. Sabine and Ezra felt her longing, and as one, they wordlessly reached out and pulled her into the fold.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Chapter 14​

Hera sat in the cockpit of an X-wing Fighter, with Chopper plugged into the astromech socket behind her. She was in the Vigil’s landing bay, alternating her gaze between the countdown on her chronometer and the blue-white maelstrom of hyperspace whipping past outside the magnetic shield. Normally, hyperdrive equipped starfighters would jump in alongside their motherships in a situation like this, already formed up and ready for action, but it was another ‘blind jump’ controlled by Ahsoka Tano from the bridge—hopefully the last one they needed to make. It was risky enough for four capital ships to jump in tandem the way they’d done it for the last several weeks. Adding wings of starfighters to the mix was an unacceptable risk.

The chronometer counted down to zero; outside, hyperspace turned into elongated streaks, which collapsed sideways into white pinpoints of distant stars. Almost immediately, the flight operations officer’s voice sounded over the comm: “All starfighters, launch!”

There was no need to parrot the order; everyone heard it. As commanding general of the entire force of New Republic starfighters, Hera Syndulla led from the front. She goosed the repulsorlifts and nudged the throttles forward, sending her ship up and out at the same time, and retracted the landing skids. She made an immediate turn to port, paralleling the Vigil’s course, and glanced behind to make sure her fighters were following her out without any hangups. Vigil had two enormous mid-ship landing bays, and fighters were streaming out of both, on either side of the ship. Nearby, fighters were streaming from their sister ships in the same manner.

She nudged the throttles up some more, but not to attack speed—not yet. She needed to give everyone time to form up quickly, and accelerating too soon would mean stretching the formation out behind her into a tactically crippled mess. Hera was an old hand at this, and patient where she needed to be to assure success later. She still hadn’t issued any orders; she’d drilled the fighter wings relentlessly during their transit, and this launch-and-reform maneuver was one she’d made them miserable with, until they could do it quickly and efficiently by rote, almost in their sleep. All the hard work was paying off now.

“Phoenix Leader, enemy contact, mark zero,” Admiral Sandik called.

“Roger, I have them on scope,” Hera reported, her heart sinking a bit.

Chopper echoed her sentiments. His words displayed in Aurabesh on the screen in front of her. [WE’RE TOO FAR AWAY. WE’VE FAILED TO SURPRISE THEM.]

“I see it, Chop,” Hera sighed.

“Pheonix Lead, this is Fulcrum,” Ahsoka’s voice crackled a moment later. “I’m sorry about the distancing. That was my best effort on the jump coordinates.”

“We’ll make do,” Hera replied, taking another hard look at the scope. “Chopper, do you see what I see?” Her astromech responded in the affirmative. “Vigil, Pheonix Lead. Imperial force appears to be split. We’re missing one Impstar deuce based on threat estimates.”

“Concur,” Sandik replied immediately. “One of them must be inside the anomaly, retrieving Thrawn. This could be a lucky break for us: We can take them piecemeal. Continue the attack. Concentrate first on ISD Harbinger. When she’s destroyed we’ll shift fire to VSD Sion and then mop up the support ships.”

“As ordered, Vigil,” Hera replied. She glanced outside and noted that her four-ship bodyguard flight was formed up on her. Hera’s X-wing wore Green Squadron markings, spliced with gold to stand her out as the force leader. Her wingmen’s ships carried similar markings, and the remainder of the squadron they belonged to wore green livery and New Republic markings. Even at a slower velocity to facilitate forming up, the entire fighter group was pulling well ahead of the capital ships, now. Hera ordered all wing leaders to report in and waited until she’d received the last reply, then she ordered the acceleration to attack speed. Out there ahead of them, the anomaly dominated the starfield like a virtual wall in the heavens.

“Lock S-foils in attack position,” Hera ordered. Almost as one, the X-wings and B-wings unfolded into their attack configurations. Here we go!

* * *​

“Captain, New Republic task force emerging from hyperspace,” Commscan reported.

“What? That’s impossible!” sputtered the captain of ISD Harbinger. “There is no way they could have followed us here!”

“Nevertheless, that is a New Republic task force,” the deck officer muttered in his ear.

“Enemy ships are launching fighters,” Commscan reported.

The captain turned to the deck officer and ordered battle stations, but to hold off on launching fighters until he gave the order. He stepped onto his holopad and sent an emergency communication to Grand Admiral Thrawn. It wasn’t long before the grand admiral himself appeared in holo. “Yes, captain?” Thrawn asked calmly.

The captain swallowed nervously. He hadn’t reported to a flag officer—at least what he considered a genuine one—since they’d lost Admiral Piett at Endor. He tried not to stammer as he made his contact report. If Thrawn was surprised, it was impossible to tell. He listened intently, watching the captain from hundreds of light years away with glowing red eyes. As of now, the Imperial force guarding the entry-point to the anomaly was severely outnumbered by the enemy, and his desperate hope was that Thrawn would pull a tactical miracle out of his hat.

The Grand Admiral didn’t disappoint. He turned away for a moment, speaking to someone he couldn’t see, and then looked back at the captain, giving him a string of coordinates. “Label that as holding sector one,” Thrawn ordered him. “You are going to withdraw there until we can rendezvous and spring our own trap. Chimaera is going to lose communications with your force, and it won’t be re-established until the battle is joined. Here are your orders . . .”

* * *​

The New Republic fighter force closed on the Imperials at attack speed.

[NO READ ON ENEMY STARFIGHTERS. NEGATIVE JAMMING.] Chopper informed her.

“I see that,” Hera replied, watching the range close rapidly. They were achieving firing parameters . . . now. As one unit, the two star destroyers and escorting Gozanti class support ships began a graceful turn, maintaining formation. She saw the first wave of proton torpedoes from the bomber squadrons streak past, then the second, directed solely at ISD Harbinger.

“All wings from Phoenix Lead,” she called urgently. “Cease fire! Cease fire!” Spast! She swore as a third wave of wasted warheads was fired before her pilots complied with her order. The huge Imperial star destroyer didn’t even bother to engage the torpedoes with her point-defense turbolasers. About fifteen seconds before the first wave would have struck her shields, the entire Imperial force jumped to hyperspace, abandoning the area entirely. The proton torpedoes continued through empty space, until they reached the limit of their range and detonated automatically without finding a target.

“Vigil, Pheonix Lead—”

“—We see it,” Admiral Sandik replied. “Break your force into patrol patterns, locate their communications relay, and destroy it. Lady Tano is, uhm, deciding where we should expect Thrawn’s ship to appear as it exits the anomaly. We’ll deploy the task force to intercept it once she provides the coordinates.”

“As ordered,” Hera replied, feeling a little disgusted with how the whole engagement had turned into a dramatic false-start. It wasn’t over, not by a long shot. Not with Thrawn in play.

Chopper was a great help; once he heard the admiral’s order, he began sorting the patrol assignments himself, and sending deployment data to the astromechs of the various wing and squadron leaders. Hera warned them to watch the gravimetric gradients in the area; Technically they were outside the boundary of this cosmic anomaly, but the boundary wasn’t clearly defined like a line on a star chart. It was possible there were collapsed stars or singularities nearby that could trap a snubfighter and pull it in before the pilot realized she was caught.

Following Chopper’s deployment patterns, the fighter force began to break off into separate wings, then squadrons, before further subdividing into flights and pairs. Hera and her wingmen turned back to Vigil on Admiral Sandik’s orders. He wanted her back aboard so they could meet and strategize their next move.

The good news was that her fighters located the Imperial communication relay rather quickly. The bad news was that Pellaeon’s force had safeguarded it by placing a minefield around it. It took valuable time to clear the mines and destroy the relay, several hours, time during which Imperial communications wrangled to penetrate Republic jamming. In the end, the relay was destroyed and any vessel inside the anomaly was cut off from communicating with any vessel outside. This small achievement didn’t come without cost; the Imperial mines claimed two A-wing interceptors and a single Y-wing bomber before the objective was carried.

* * *​

Hours later, Admiral Sandik, General Syndulla, and Ahsoka Tano huddled around a tactical holo-tank along with the senior members of their staff. A small, glowing bubble marked the area of probability where Thrawn’s ship should appear from hyperspace as it fought clear of the anomaly. When that would happen was anyone’s guess. It could be in the next two minutes, or the next two days. Or longer, depending on when the Grand Admiral chose to begin his transit. The time variable was the most frustrating one they had to deal with.

“We need to be ready when he appears,” Sandik was saying. “Once he does, he’ll recall the remainder of his force promptly. They won’t be too far away. If we’re in a good position and ready, we might be able to cripple or destroy him before his reinforcements arrive.”

“If he doesn’t just jump away and rendezvous with them somewhere else,” Ahsoka remarked.

“We can prevent that, I think,” Sandik mused. “The Imperials enjoyed playing their little game with mines . . . well, two can play that game. There’s only one local path out of the anomaly, which makes it a chokepoint. We’ll mine the space around it, a nice dense field, and that will prevent him from jumping straight away without destroying himself. Maybe some additional derelict containers loaded to the brim with space bombs,” he added darkly. “A little explosive welcome for the grand admiral.”

“That sounds promising,” Hera said.

“Thrawn spent years getting a communications relay past the anomaly,” Ahsoka commented. “It’s possible he’s mapped other pathways in and out of the anomaly, or Morgan Elsbeth might be able to find one. In terms of knowing the terrain you fight on, Thrawn may have a serious advantage.”

Sandik tsked at her. “I appreciate the thought, Lady Tano, but let’s not cripple ourselves by assigning omnipotence to Thrawn. He’s a capable commander, or was a decade ago, but he isn’t invulnerable or infallible, and we hold serious advantages here.”

“There’s no need to just let his fleet sit and wait this out, either,” Hera added. “I’ve got my staff working on a search plan of long-range patrols using two of the A-wing squadrons. They’ll spoke-out in a hemispherical pattern away from us and the anomaly, clearing those vectors of navigational hazards. When they reach the limit of their fuel, they can then safely hyperspace jump back to us for a quick recovery and turnaround. The next group can hyper as far as the previous one turned back, using that as their starting point. By doing this we can sanitize an expanding volume of space around us both for navigation hazards and the Imperial fleet.”

“Won’t that tie up too many fighters?” Ahsoka asked.

“They can be recalled on short notice,” Hera answered. “That’s one advantage we have: ours are hyperdrive equipped, while the Imperials’ aren’t. The Imperials can’t be too far away if they want to respond quickly to Thrawn. They are in the neighborhood, cosmically speaking, and if we find them we can begin harassing them, tying them up and chipping away at them without giving up our position here. With your permission, admiral, I’ll implement the patrol pattern as soon as it’s ready.”

“It’s ready now, general,” one of her staff added quickly.

“Execute it,” Sandik ordered with a nod at Hera’s staffer. That officer stepped away to issue the appropriate orders. “Alright, General Syndulla,” Sandik continued, “put yourself in Grand Admiral Thrawn’s shoes. How do you get yourself out of this predicament?”

Hera smiled. “I have the advantage of knowing our plans.”

“All the better. That puts us on par with the vaunted strategic and tactical foresight of the Imperial grand admirals, doesn’t it? So, what do you do?”

Hera strained her brain, thinking about it for a minute. “Well, my force is divided, and I’m moderately outgunned. When I emerge, I have to deal with a minefield before I can escape. After recalling the remainder of my force, I can use my own starfighters to clear a lane through the mines, and the starfighters from Sion and Harbinger to draw off or defend against the enemy’s starfighters. Then I employ some of my Gozanti support ships as ramming ships. If I can eliminate your capital ships or severely damage them early on, then I once again enjoy an overwhelming advantage in firepower. You are either destroyed or forced to withdraw, and if I survive with at least one ship capable of making it home, I win.”

“That’s a little hard on your people, isn’t it?” Ahsoka asked with a smile.

Hera shrugged. “If I’m an Imp, I play like the Imps. Thrawn will sacrifice anyone he has to if it gives him victory.”

“You act as if that’s a moral failure on his part,” Sandik chastised them. “Given the stakes, ladies, as in millions of our own citizens back home, I warn you that I’ll make the same sort of sacrifices, if necessary. I won’t enjoy it, but I’ll do it.”

“Understood, sir.” Hera felt a chill run down her spine, but she respected the integrity of that choice. Hera had ordered people to certain death in high stakes engagements, before. The entire Rebellion was fraught with trade-offs requiring the sacrifice of lives for victories, or sometimes mere stalemates. Again, she felt glad that Jacen and the others were well-removed from this fight.

“Alright, General, now how do I counter your counter?” Sandik asked.

Hera thought about it some more. “A quick response force of hunter-killer flights. Mixed units consisting of a single Y-wing, two X-Wings, and two A-wings. Three assigned to each capital ship. Their mission is to intercept and destroy any kamikaze Imperial ships. A single Y-wing’s torpedo load can do the job, backed by their X-wing wingmen’s torpedoes if needed. The A-wings screen them against fighter interference, again with the X-wings backing them. If they don’t destroy the rammers outright, it should weaken them enough for an MC-80A’s turbolasers to finish the job before they are hit. It’s not foolproof, but it gives us a response to that tactic. Especially if the HK flights prioritize Gozanti engines and hyperdrives when they engage.”

“Why use the Y-wings and not B-wings?” Ahsoka asked.

“This task is well suited for the Y-wings, given their relative age,” Hera replied. “A frontal assault on a Gozanti is something a Y-wing can weather, much more so than on a star destroyer. The latter will have a thicker fighter screen, while a kamikaze may not have any—a ramming ship is already considered a spent asset. It saves the harder-hitting B-wings for the harder targets.”

“Very good,” Sandik nodded. “Very good, general. And let’s not forget my surprise addition of large bomb cannisters to the minefield. If even one of those scores a hit, Thrawn’s shields will be knocked down and the mines will make short work of what’s left. My staff will work out the optimum formation for deploying the capital ships, both for offense and mutual support. Let’s get all of this in play as quickly as we can. We don’t know how much time we have.”

The staff broke up and went about their assigned duties. Ahsoka hung back, waiting until Hera finished giving directions to her staff, and then joined her. “What do you think?” Hera asked hesitantly.

“It’s a solid enough plan,” Ahsoka admitted. “It’s just . . .”

“I know,” Hera nodded tensely, glancing around to make sure she wasn’t overheard. “It’s Thrawn we’re dealing with. It’s hard not to assume he’s near omnipotent. What about you? Any insight from the Force?”

Ahsoka closed her eyes and mediated for a long minute. When she opened them, her eyes were grim and wary. “Nothing good,” she answered. “It’s not just Thrawn, but Morgan Elsbeth, too. Be ready for anything out there, Hera. I get the impression this may not go our way.” Hera’s brow creased in a frown, and she folded her arms angrily. Spast!

* * *​

 

[Jedi Marso]

When the group finally let go of each other, they spent a moment just looking around, everyone trying to collect themselves after the adrenaline of the fight, the showdown, and the joyful reunion. The Ghost had ceased covering the Aldo Nova and was angling for a spot to set down. Zeb saw this and immediately moved off to conduct marshaling duties via commlink and hand-signals.

Sabine looked Ezra up and down, a wide grin splitting her face. She leaned in a bit, sniffed once, and wrinkled her nose. “You smell funny,” she remarked.

Ezra grimaced as he tried to grope the sticky mess of drying Ayto-slaver off his face. “This is just . . . disgusting,” he announced. He glanced sideways at Shin, who watched him with a shy, tentative smile. “See? It would have been easier if you’d just let me have a blaster!”

“I don’t know if I can trust you with one,” she replied, and nobody was sure if she was making a joke or not. She looked around as well, and let out a small cry of dismay. “R4! Oh no!”

“Ahhh . . . that’s not good,” Ezra remarked, taking in the state of the wrecked droid.

“He saved my life!”

Sabine elbowed him roughly in the ribs. “That’s her Chopper,” she said quietly. “Tread lightly.”

He nodded, then gripped Shin by the shoulders, turning her to face him. “It’ll be alright. He’s a droid, so we can repair him. Let’s get him inside quickly in case there are any more Ayto skulking around.”

“They won’t be back right away,” Sabine said confidently. “This can wait for just a moment,” she added, jerking her head toward the Ghost.

Anticipation flooded Ezra; the Ghost’s engines were shutting down, and the forward ramp was dropping. He turned to Shin. “You aren’t going to run off, are you?” he asked. She looked like she was still thinking about it. He reached under her chin and tilted her head up, looking into her eyes. “Shin, you saved my life. You can’t run off and leave before I can return the favor, can you?” he smiled.

“You saved me first,” she retorted. “I never would have seen that thing in time if you hadn’t yelled.”

“Then we’ve saved each other, establishing the basis for trust, and friendship,” he reasoned. “Stay with me, alright? Don’t go.”

“Okay, I won’t,” she said, and he sensed she was telling the truth. Ezra nodded and headed for the Ghost. Sabine and Zeb watched him with excited smiles, waiting to gauge his reaction. Of course, it wasn’t Hera who came strolling down the ramp, but her son.

Ezra stopped short, seeing Jacen Syndulla for the first time. The boy glowed in the Force with Jedi potential, and he looked curiously at Ezra with bright, green eyes. Hera’s eyes. Those two factors combined told the entire story. Ezra looked quickly at his friends, and Zeb gave him the barest of nods, confirming his suspicion. Ezra Bridger swallowed, taking a moment to just look at him. It was almost too much: too many shocks, and too much emotion in the past couple of days. He finally stepped forward and took a knee in front him, bringing them eye to eye on the same level. “Well, hello there!” he said, finding his ‘friendly voice’ and grateful that it didn’t crack or break—his throat was so tight he could hardly breathe.

Jacen looked him over closely. “You’re Ezra Bridger?”

“Yes,” Ezra replied. “I knew your father.”

“Jacen. Jacen Syndulla,” he said, sticking out his hand. Ezra shook it, and the boy glanced over at Sabine and Zeb, nodding in confirmation. “His beard is gone, but he’s definitely the one I saw in the temple.”

“The temple?” Ezra asked.

“On Lothal,” Sabine supplied. “It’s a long story—we’ll get to it, don’t worry,” she added.

“Where’s Hera?” Ezra asked, and his face suddenly screwed up in alarm. “She’s not—!”

“No . . . no!” Zeb and Sabine said together. “No, she’s fine, kid,” Zeb added. “At least, the last time we saw her. She’s with the fleet, and we’ll explain that too in a bit.”

Shin Hati came up slowly behind Ezra, recognizing Jacen as well. He saw her and shrank back suddenly, eyes widening in fear. Ezra saw his reaction, glanced behind him, and then back to Jacen. “It’s alright,” he said. “She’s a friend.”

“No she’s not!” Jacen said loudly. He held his ground, noting that nobody else was intimidated by her presence.

“I’m sorry about before,” Shin said to him, taking a step back and sparing a worried look at Sabine. I’m . . . sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say.

Ezra’s blue eyes captured Jacen’s green ones and held them. “Don’t give in to fear . . . concentrate. What do you sense now?”

Jacen looked at Hati, his eyes losing their focus for a moment. “She’s not so dark, now. Just . . . sad.”

Ezra nodded. “Good. That’s very perceptive, Jacen.” He looked around at them. “Obviously, things have been happening. Sabine, you didn’t fly the Ghost all the way here from Lothal, right? It’s on the far edge of the galaxy!”

“No, just like she didn’t fly that ship all the way here,” she replied, looking at Shin. “We need to get back to the fleet. Hopefully they’ve succeeded in stopping Thrawn. We’ll explain that too,” she added when Ezra started to ask more questions. “How did you end up on this moon, Shin?” Sabine asked her directly.

“Running from the Imperials,” Hati admitted. “I tried to set things up to assassinate Thrawn and destroy his ship, and they caught me. Morgan Elsbeth murdered my crew, and they would have killed me too, except for R4.”

Sabine held her gaze for a long moment. “No offense, but that answer doesn’t process.”

Hati’s explanation was blunt. “I found out on Lothal that the Empire killed my family, from the droid on Ahsoka Tano’s ship. My master confirmed it—he knew all along. That’s when things changed. My original plan was to stop the Imperials on Seatos, but that didn’t work out either.”

Sabine knew the first part was true, at least. She nodded. “I’ll accept that, for now, but we have a lot to unpack yet. Don’t worry though,” she added when she saw Hati’s sudden apprehension. “Ezra is right about one thing: we intend to help you, as much as we can. Ahsoka and I have already discussed this, believe it or not.”

“Don’t forget the Masayos,” Zeb said grimly. “She has a lot to answer for.”

“Not now, big fella,” Sabine said pointedly. “Lots of time and space between here and home. We can sort it later.”

“If you say so.”

“So, what now?” Ezra asked. “And what ‘fleet’ are you talking about? The Rebel Alliance has a fleet now?”

Zeb chuckled. “A big one, Ezra. We won the war!”

“What?!”

“Yep. We won, sort of, anyways. The Empire has largely fallen, and there is a New Republic. The problem is that there are still lots of Imperials around, working hard to bring back the bad old days. That’s what this whole trip is about, really. You’re just a side mission,” he added with a grin and a wink.

“I’m not complaining!”

“In a lot of ways, the roles are reversed now,” Sabine reflected. “The Imperial Remnant behaves a lot like the Rebellion used to, sometimes. In any case, we need to get moving. Ezra, why don’t you, I, and Shin go in her ship, while Zeb and Jacen take the Ghost? That way Shin can fill me in, I can fill both of you in, and you can catch up from both sides.”

Shin crossed her arms defiantly. “This is just your way to keep me under your watch, isn’t it? As your prisoner?”

Sabine thought about it for a moment, then shook her head slowly. “No. I’ll give you a choice, Shin. We can do it my way, and we’ll help you through this rough patch you’re in. Or Ezra can come with us in the Ghost, and you’re free to go your own way. We won’t try to stop you, but you’ll be on your own. Then if you ever do make it back to known space, you’ll have both an Imperial bounty and a New Republic warrant waiting for you. And your family and your master will still be dead, and you’ll still be alone.”

“You don’t want that, Shin—” Ezra started, but Sabine cut him off with an upheld hand.

“Stop. It’s her choice, Ezra, not yours. Let her make it.”

“You’d really just let me go?” Shin asked.

“I would, but I wouldn’t consider it a favor if I were you. You’re a long way from home, kid, and you’ve managed to make enemies on all sides. Right now, we’re the only friends you’ve got.”

Shin looked hesitantly at Ezra. “Would you come with me if I left on my own?”

Ezra shook his head, heartsick. “No. I’ve extended my hand to you, Shin, and my friends have extended theirs as well. We want to help you. But ultimately, we all walk our own path. I think your best path is to come with us, at least until we all make it back home, and by then we’ll have a lot of things worked out. So, I’m asking you to come with us, but like Sabine, I can’t tell you to. You have to decide.”

Shin Hati closed her eyes for a long moment, calling on the Force, weighing options and outcomes. She didn’t have Baylan Skoll’s ability to read intent or the prescience it gave him, but the Force did speak to those who chose to listen. She opened them a minute later and nodded resignedly. “We’ll do it your way, Lady Wren.”

“Good,” Sabine replied. “I think that’s the right choice.”

Ezra gestured towards the two pieces of R4. “It’s settled then. Let’s get him aboard, and let’s get out of here.”

He paused, then turned toward Jacen, who had watched this entire interplay silently. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you, Jacen. Your father saved my life in every way possible. There’s a lot I want to share with you about him.”

“That would be great,” Jacen replied seriously, then grinned impudently. “But only after you wash that gunk off your face. You smell!”

That brought the house down. “That kid is a Spectre, all right!” Sabine laughed. “Born and bred!” Even Shin had to smile at that one.

Zeb laughed uproariously, looking up at the heavens. “Oh, glorious karma! What goes around comes around, eh?” Ezra just shook his head, grinning to split his face. They’d never know just what that little bit of joking banter at his expense meant to him. No matter how many light years separated him from known space, Ezra Bridger was finally home.

* * *​

 

[Jedi Marso]

Chapter 15​

Hera was pulling a turn on patrol when battle was joined. It didn’t start with the appearance of Thrawn’s Chimaera, as expected, but by the sudden appearance from hyperspace of three Gozanti class support ships, each ferrying a flight of four TIE Fighters. All three ships and the fighters they carried were droid controlled, their organic crews transferred off before being programmed for this task. The ships appeared in a line astern formation, separated by a few kilometers, right in the middle of the minefield where Thrawn was expected to appear. The ships immediately rolled a full 360 degrees, with a TIE Fighter detaching at every 90 degrees of roll and proceeding outward radially from the ships. Within moments, the New Republic minefield did what it was designed to do. The mines locked onto the fifteen separate targets, successfully destroying them, and themselves in the process. The large containers of space bombs were caught up in the conflagration, making spectacular but ultimately useless explosions. Thus, the trap designed to destroy Thrawn and Chimaera at the onset of battle was tripped without major Imperial loss.

While in the process of being destroyed, the makeshift Gozanti mine-sweepers executed a quick scan of the area and transmitted the data back to the ISD Harbinger and the other ships of the fleet. They warped in a minute or so later based on a precise time hack, and not thirty seconds after their own arrival, ISD Chimaera appeared from the heart of the anomaly, unhindered.

Grand Admiral Thrawn had escaped his long captivity.

Admiral Sandik realized that his capital ships were sitting almost stationary as they guarded the exit point, making them vulnerable to subsequent ramming attacks. He issued orders, and their drive systems flared brightly as the large cruisers began to maneuver, breaking their formation around the anomaly chokepoint as the Imperial forces arrived. TIE Fighters, interceptors, and bombers streamed from the landing bays of the star destroyers, each moving to engage pre-selected targets.

Once the New Republic fighters launched from Vigil, Ahsoka Tano boarded her T-6, and she and Huyang positioned it near the edge of the hangar, ready for a quick evacuation if necessary. Ahsoka wasn’t happy about it, but Sandik had ordered it as a contingency. The New Republic fleet anticipated returning to known space by backtracking its prior hyperspace jumps, but there were no guarantees, and Ahsoka was the only one who could navigate ‘blind’ using the Force until Jacen Syndulla returned. In Sandik’s estimation, Ahsoka Tano was too valuable an asset to lose, and he knew the Vigil would be a primary target if the grand admiral chose to stand and make a battle of it.

Which he apparently meant to, at least initially. All three star destroyers maneuvered to come together, entering a moving triangular englobement of Vigil. Heavy turbolasers blasted back and forth between the four ships, and two full squadrons of TIE Bombers launched multiple waves of proton torpedoes from close range. This in turn forced Vigil to divert her fire to point defense versus offensive fire, reducing her effectiveness. The remaining three New Republic cruisers were rushing to come to Vigil’s aid, but Thrawn’s attack was carried out with momentary surprise and incredibly concentrated violence of action.

The high-speed maneuvering of all the capital ships quickly negated the risks of being rammed, at least in the near-term. General Syndulla cursed when she realized that her HK groups now represented fractured squadrons rather than well-deployed tangible assets. Whether by design or not, Thrawn’s battle plan had blunted their effectiveness. Hera adapted on the fly, ordering all HK groups to converge and attack Chimaera along with the remainder of the fighter force. Just as Vigil was the primary target for the Imperials, Thrawn himself was the center of gravity of this entire battle.

Thrawn was aware of it, however. As Hera’s fighters converged on Chimaera, they were met by wave after wave of Imperial defenders. Smaller bursts of turbolaser fire flashed back and forth across space, crimson and green, and the fighters spiraled and spun into a whirling, furious furball with Chimaera at its center. Proton torpedoes from B-wings and X-wings arced in; some were intercepted, some impacted the star destroyer’s shields, and a few accidentally hit snubfighters from either side that crossed their path at the wrong moment. True to her fears, the older squadron of Y-Wing fighters that was part of Hera’s force fell quickly under the onslaught of competent Imperial pilots in faster ships, hungry for easy kills. And every starfighter pilot knew the cardinal rule in a scrum like this: achieve a quick numerical advantage ASAP—once you had it, that small advantage would snowball into a one-sided pile-on pretty quickly.

Normally, this combat between two near-equal forces of starfighters would have resulted in a New Republic victory. The Republic fighters were all equipped with limited deflector shields and hyperdrives, while the TIE variants built by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Empire were fast and nimble, but completely unshielded. Palpatine’s Empire believed that quantity had a quality all its own, and the galaxy was a vast territory to control, requiring that quantitative advantage. Imperial starfighters were capable, but mass-produced at a lower cost and capability than the fighters they were pitted against here. In this case, however, it quickly became apparent that the Imperial flyers were exhibiting exceptional coordination and control. They weren’t just holding their own against their New Republic adversaries; they were slowly beginning to overwhelm them.

Hera instinctively felt it after a few minutes. She’d flown against the Imperials countless times, and while they were respectable flyers on average, they should have been nowhere near this good. Especially not years after Endor, when attrition and lack of resources had pared down the Remnant’s abilities to recruit and train. If anything, the Imperial pilots should have been slightly less proficient than hers. She’d been counting on the starfighter combat to go her way early, and it wasn’t happening. “Fulcrum, this is Phoenix Lead,” she called. Hera was flying for her life, killing every Imperial unlucky enough to pass into her gunsights, but spending more time on desperate defensive maneuvers to avoid being vaped herself.

“Fulcrum here. I can sense it, Hera. Elsbeth is augmenting the Imperials somehow.”

“Well, can you stop her?”

“No. Only very few of the old Jedi Masters were capable of battle meditation—it’s almost a completely lost art. I can block her from interfering with our people aboard Vigil, but that’s it!”

Hera brought Vigil’s telemetry up in her X-wing’s multifunction display. She didn’t like what she saw—the flagship was fading fast. The surviving TIE Bombers had finished their initial strike and were running to Harbinger to rearm; her own fighters were too tied up with the Force-augmented Imperials to do anything about it. In the meantime, the concentrated fire from all three Imperial capital ships continued to pound into the Mon Calamari cruiser. Her shields had almost collapsed, and once they were down she was finished.

“Ahsoka, you’d better get out of there,” Hera sent with a heavy heart.

“No!”

“Go, Lady Tano,” Admiral Sandik’s voice cut in, sounding strained. “That’s an order!”

Hera could hear the anger in Tano’s reply. “Launching. Hera, use the distraction,” she added somewhat cryptically. Hera wasn’t sure what she meant but kept an eye on the scope to see what developed.

Admiral Sandik made another mistake at the end, but by that time it didn’t really matter. Chimaera had rebuffed most of the attacks against her, because Thrawn’s force-deployment was centered around defending her. So Sandik abandoned the principle of striking at the center, choosing to shift his fire to break the balance of power between the two forces. He directed his other three cruisers to abandon their attack on Chimaera, and for all units to concentrate their fire on Sion. It was the smallest of the three Imperial destroyers, but still brought a lot of firepower with her. She could be overwhelmed relatively quickly under the guns of three MC-80 cruisers.

A few things happened at that point, generally at the same time. Someone aboard Chimaera, either Thrawn or Morgan Elsbeth, took note of Ahsoka Tano’s Jedi T-6 launching from the ailing Vigil. An entire squadron of TIE Interceptors suddenly abandoned the larger fray in favor of going after her. Ahsoka increased to full speed, headed away from the anomaly and the battle, drawing them into a chase she would eventually lose, except for the fact that she had a hyperdrive.

This eased the pressure on Hera’s group, and just in time. “She’s going to go up!” Hera shouted into the comm. “All wings, get clear of Vigil! Now!” The Imperials were doing the same, suddenly losing the close coordination they’d been enjoying. Fighters began scattering in all directions, ignoring one another in desperate attempts not to get caught in the explosion of the New Republic capital ship. She finally succumbed a few moments later, blowing brilliantly apart and consuming the few fighters unable to reach a safe distance.

The reason for the loss of coordination among the Imperial fighters became clear a minute later. Three Gozanti cruisers suddenly accelerated towards the remaining New Republic cruisers. They maneuvered brilliantly, easily anticipating the defensive moves of their targets. The support ships had the advantage of being smaller and more maneuverable, with better acceleration. Whether their crews were willing to sacrifice themselves or not, the choice was taken away from them—their free will was subverted, dominated by Morgan Elsbeth's. Two of them ran full speed into the cruisers Trinity and Fortitude, turning them into shattered, burning, derelict hulks. The small flashes of launching escape pods became visible in the space around the two stricken ships. The third Gozanti failed to ram the cruiser Tenacity before being shredded by defensive turbolaser fire.

It was officially a rout, now.

Tenacity immediately altered course away from the Imperial force, accelerating rapidly as the three star destroyers maneuvered into a pursuing formation. Morgan Elsbeth re-established her close control over the starfighter units, but Hera made good tactical use of Vigil’s destruction, as well as Ahsoka drawing off a squadron of Imperial fighters. She ordered her surviving units to regroup and they accelerated away on a diverging vector, retreating from the battle. The Imperial fighters didn’t pursue; rather, they began immediate recoveries aboard their mother ships.

“Phoenix Leader, this is Tenacity actual. What are your orders?”

Hera realized she was the senior surviving officer in the task force. “Retreat immediately. All units, hyperspace scram on designated safe vectors, then recompute jumps for the rally point. Execute,” she ordered.

[FIRST JUMP COMPUTED AND LOCKED IN.] Chopper reported from behind her, locking the S-foils closed on his own authority. Hera punched it, watching the star lines elongate as she escaped into hyperspace. Her pulse pounded furiously in her head tails as she recalled past times when she’d been forced to flee the Imperials, just like this. Grand Admiral Thrawn had reconstituted his divided assets, vanquished an arguably superior force, and he hadn’t lost a single star destroyer. We lost, she thought, forced to accept the burning defeat. Not only lost, but we got our thrusters completely kicked—complete and total mission failure!

It was going to be a long war.

* * *​

 

[Jedi Marso]

Side note:

I realized a bit ago I created a discontinuity error in my own story. I've changed a line at the very beginning to Chapter 12 to indicate that the NR fleet consists of four MC-80 Calamari cruisers, instead of 2 of those and 2 Nebulon-B's as I originally posted. That was easier to change (one sentence) than changing the whole battle sequence later on. Oops. Anyway, Chapter 12 is now internally consistent with what comes later.

 

[Jedi Marso]

“That doesn’t look good,” Zeb muttered, when the Ghost and Aldo Nova emerged from hyperspace at the rally point. Cruiser Tenacity was alone, and there were several flights of starfighters stacked in holding patterns, waiting for their turn to land. The ship was having trouble taking them all, because there were more than two cruisers’ worth of fighters that survived to make it there. Tenacity’s deck crews were scrambling, trying to creatively pack starfighters into a confined space to make room for more. There definitely wasn’t going to be room for either Ghost or Aldo Nova to dock internally. Zeb spared a sidewise look at Jacen, watching wide-eyed from the copilot’s seat. “I’m sure your mom’s okay,” he added, wishing that he was sure.

Jacen was able to put his mind at ease on that score. “She’s alright, Zeb,” he assured her. “I can feel it, and I’d know if she wasn’t.”

“Yeah, I suppose you would at that,” Zeb said thoughtfully. “Look,” he added. “There’s Ahsoka’s shuttle. Whatever happened, at least she made it.” Zeb and Sabine transmitted the proper recognition codes from both ships and were allowed to approach. The Ghost was expected, of course, but the arrival of Aldo Nova was a surprise. The vessels were cleared to dock externally, one on the topside of the hull, and the other underneath. Zeb took the underside, mating their top hatch to a short umbilical leading to the lowest deck of the cruiser. Hera was there to meet them, opening the airlock hatch and boarding the Ghost before Zeb even had the freighter fully shut down. Her priority was Jacen; she folded her son gratefully into her arms before looking quizzically at the Lasat ranger.

“Did you find Ezra? Where’s Sabine?”

“They’re on the other ship,” Zeb grinned, but his mirth was short lived. “What happened? Where’s the rest of the task force?”

Hera shook her head miserably. “Thrawn ate us alive, Zeb, like a rancor in a nerf herd.”

* * *​

It took Ezra, Sabine, and Shin a little time to make their way from the top deck of Tenacity to the bottom. When they got there, Hera and the others were waiting for them in the corridor by the airlock. Hera was slumped over slightly, tired and dispirited, until she caught sight of Ezra Bridger. She straightened, and a beautiful smile lit her face as she rushed forward and folded him in her arms, much as she had Jacen. The two clung to each other tightly for a long time, before breaking apart slightly. Hera reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand. “Gods, Ezra, I’ve missed you,” she said, tears starting to flow. “We all have. Welcome home!”

“Thanks Hera,” he replied quietly, not trusting himself to speak too much. He settled for a second hug.

“Look at you!” she went on. “You’re a grown man, now!”

“Half of one, anyway,” Zeb teased, pinching at his wiry arms. “You look like you could blow away in a stiff wind. We’re going to have to fatten you up!”

“Who’s this?” Hera asked, taking note of Shin.

“This is Shin Hati,” Sabine said, gesturing her forward. “She was Baylan’s Skoll’s apprentice. It’s a little complicated right now, Hera, but she’s on our side,” she added quickly as Hera started to darken. “Ezra and I know her story now, and the rest of you will be hearing it soon. It’s important for Ahsoka to hear as well.”

“Alright,” Hera said, not happy but willing to give Sabine the benefit of the doubt for now. Nothing could overshadow her joy at this reunion with Ezra. “Okay,” she went on, “I want all of you to wait aboard the Ghost. I’ve got to get to the bridge and meet with Captain Kal. Details later, but the short version is that we lost the battle and we’re picking up the pieces. Thrawn is free.”

“Oh, no,” Sabine breathed.

Hera smiled brightly at Ezra. “Well, at least one good thing came from this fiasco.”

* * *​

Two weeks later, a private meeting took place between Ahsoka, Hera, Sabine, Ezra, and Zeb. The meeting concerned Shin Hati, and they timed it for when she was aboard her own ship, working with Chopper, Jacen, and another of Tenacity’s maintenance droids to repair R4. It was quite a job; the Ayto’s club had smashed the droid’s conical dome to the point that one side was crumpled against the opposite, and the components in between were completely pulped. Even fully repaired, they weren’t sure the droid would retain much of its former memory and personality.

The fact that the Spectres were willing to leave Jacen alone with Shin was an indicator of how much better that entire situation was. The young woman was still struggling with her issues, but she was making progress. Having a solid friend in Ezra and potential friends in the others had gone a long way towards stabilizing her mental state. She and Sabine in particular, who had started off as enemies, seemed to be in the early stages of forming a solid bond of friendship. All of them were familiar with Shin’s history by this time, along with her skill in the Jedi Arts. Ezra, Sabine, and Ahsoka all worked with her daily, to help her mentally heal as well as to evaluate her strength in the Force. According to Ahsoka, Shin was essentially trained to the level of a full Jedi Knight, going by Old Republic era Jedi standards. Fifteen years of training with Baylan Skoll had paid dividends; she had the potential to be a real asset for the New Republic if she chose that path.

However, there was the matter of her complicity in the destruction of the prison ship Masayos. She had been working under an alias during that attack, but that was irrelevant: Zeb recognized her, and as a New Republic Ranger he was adamant that she answered for what she’d done. Not just from a legal standpoint, but also to satisfy his own sense of right and wrong. Hera had also witnessed the aftermath of the attack and knew that Shin Hati couldn’t be allowed to just walk away from the charges pending against her.

So, they were left with a conundrum.

Ezra was her staunchest defender, naturally. He drove a forceful point home to Zeb, asking him how many stormtroopers and other Imperials they had all killed during their years fighting as a Rebel cell. How many infiltrations had they conducted, jailbreaks, hijackings, and thefts? All their targets were Imperial or Imperial-aligned assets, of course, but from the perspective of Imperial ‘law and order,’ Spectre cell had been a bigger band of murdering cutthroats than Shin Hati and Baylan Skoll on their worst days. Zeb didn’t care much for that comparison; for the Spectres, it had been war, and they were warriors, not murderers for hire. He also didn’t like Ezra’s blatant attempt at arguing moral equivalency: the exploits of Spectre cell were in the service of those oppressed by the Empire. Shin Hati had literally helped the Empire free Thrawn, despite her claims of being a late-stage turncoat.

That gave Ezra another opening, however, and he brought up former ISB agent Alexsandr Kallus. The latter had served the Empire loyally for years, participating in numerous Imperial atrocities as well as the subjugation and oppression of Lothal and its people. Zeb had eventually turned him to the Rebel cause, after their turbulent history resulted in a grudging mutual respect, eventually leading to friendship. This was a far more compelling argument—the parallels between Kallus’s case and Hati’s were plain to see. Zeb had forgiven Kallus for his past—how was Shin Hati so different? Ezra’s arguments gave the Lasat ranger a lot to think about.

Part of the problem, Hera pointed out, was that they only had Shin’s word about everything that had happened after Lothal. The circumstantial evidence was in her favor, and both Ahsoka and Ezra could say with certainty that she was being truthful, having called on the Force. Unfortunately, New Republic law did not recognize mystical energy fields as valid lie detectors, so they needed something tangible to work with in the way of evidence. Shin had a few other points in her favor: First and foremost, she hadn’t run like a fugitive. There was also the matter of her rendering aid to Ezra on Valarian and helping in the fight against the Ayto. After returning to Tenacity, she volunteered the Aldo Nova to return to the battle-site in a sweep for survivors from the New Republic fleet. Captain Kal and Hera had accepted her offer, and Sabine accompanied her. Unfortunately, Thrawn had stayed in the area long enough to make captives of all the New Republic survivors. He left an Imperial minefield in their stead—a hot welcome for anyone who circled back on a search and rescue sweep. Luckily, Shin’s Force sensitivity warned her in time to escape that trap. Sabine was impressed with how Shin handled herself, scoring points and laying the foundation of a future friendship.

Another issue was the matter of the New Republic legal system. Like most of the rest of the New Republic, it was in its infancy, mired in bureaucracy, and hopelessly backlogged. If they turned her in to face trial upon their return, she might spend months in detention before even seeing a courtroom. Ahsoka quickly pointed out that Shin wouldn’t sit for that—not someone with her powers and abilities. They wouldn’t keep her in shock binders forever, and she’d eventually escape and go rogue, which would be a criminal waste of talent. Shin Hati and the New Republic were natural allies whether either of them realized it or not—nobody wanted to see the Empire fall more than she did. Getting the New Republic bureaucracy out of its own way was the problem, as they saw it.

It was Zeb who finally proposed a solution to their dilemma, against his own better judgement. He suggested that they conduct the trial here and now, aboard Tenacity, before the ship reached New Republic space. As a ranger, he knew the law on this point: Hati was technically a prisoner (if they chose to see her that way, for legal purposes), in custody of the New Republic military. Hera was the senior officer aboard, with flag rank, in a vessel operating outside Republic space on a mission of war. She could convene a military court on her own authority. Hera investigated it and discovered that it could work; all that was required were three command level officers. Hera was one, Captain Kal was another, and any of the surviving fighter wing commanders could serve as the third. This would not be a military-style court martial or a jury trial, but a tribunal. The three officers serving as judges would listen to the merits of the case, render judgement, and sentence the accused if convicted. With three judges a tie vote was impossible. The results of the trial would be binding, and the case against her would be considered closed, for better or worse. The outcome would be duly entered in the record with little fanfare when the ship returned home: a simple matter of recordkeeping. From that point the entire affair would fade into obscurity, with bureaucratic indifference working in their favor this time.

The next hurdle was convincing Shin to submit. As expected, she didn’t take well at all to the idea of surrendering herself for a trial. Ahsoka and Ezra talked to her about it first, then Ahsoka and Sabine, followed by Ezra and Sabine, and then finally, all three of them. In the end, it was the idea that she could be free of her legal troubles for good that convinced her. She knew that Imperial-bought bounty hunters were going to be a problem for her in the future; there might come a time when she needed the New Republic to be a safe haven, and that wouldn’t happen unless she was in good standing with them.

The last problem, at least as Ahsoka saw it, was picking the right judges. Hameah Kal was an Ishi Tib who had no prior association with any of them. As Tenacity’s captain, her participation was all but required to lend the affair legitimacy. She was a severe, no-nonsense officer, unlikely to be inclined to rule in Hati’s favor when the piracy and destruction of the Masayos was factored in. It would be far too easy to see herself in the command chair of that ill-fated vessel. The wing commanders were a safer bet. They had worked for Hera for over two months, respected her, and she knew them in turn. Hera’s pick was Colonel Tabuarre, a female Trianii A-wing pilot who had commanded Trinity’s fighter wing. The felinoid officer was no pushover, but she was an independent thinker, highly spirited, and most importantly, a warrior rather than a bureaucrat. It may have helped that Ahsoka Tano had a couple of private meetings with her before the trial, after Hera picked her as one of the judges. Hera didn’t know about those meetings and would have strongly disapproved, but Ahsoka went where the Force and her own conscience dictated. So it was that Colonel Tabuarre went into the trial very well informed about what was at stake, and why it was important to have the trial aboard Tenacity in the first place.

As a New Republic Ranger, Zeb acted as the prosecution and didn’t spare any effort; his own sense of honor demanded that he do his best and let the chips fall where they may. He genuinely tried to convince the tribunal that Hati deserved a guilty verdict and a hefty sentence. Nobody could ever accuse him of throwing the trial. Ezra acted as the defense, calling on his Rebellion-era rank of commander and his status as a Jedi as the legal basis. Sabine assisted him. Ezra’s defense was passionate, convincing, and effective, but ultimately, in the eleventh hour, it was Chopper who carried the day for them. Shin’s R4 unit was successfully repaired just before the trial began, and Chopper discovered that the droid had recorded the events in the Sion’s landing bay: the revelation of Hati’s attempt to destroy the Chimaera and Thrawn, the subsequent execution of her crew, and her own violent treatment before R4 saved her from being summarily spaced.

The pictures were worth thousands of words. The recording of Shin being hit with over a dozen stun blasts and going face first into the deck plates was hard to watch. What happened afterward when Morgan Elsbeth attempted to mind-rip her was horrific. Even her new friends, who knew what had happened, were horrified by the visuals. Shin had a hard time watching it herself; she hung her head with one palm covering her eyes, as she fought not to shake. Ezra draped a protective arm around her shoulders and squeezed, holding her steady until it was over, his own face an angry mask of outrage. When the recordings played out, the entire court fully believed her story. What mattered now was the scale of justice: had she already paid her debt, after a fashion, or did it not balance against what had happened aboard Masayos, where she’d killed New Republic personnel indiscriminately to free the very woman who’d tortured her and freed Thrawn?

The defense was rocked by the verdict, but the sentence mitigated it. Hera worked her own magic in deliberations, and the panel rendered a decision that would be hard to dispute later. It came back as Guilty, 3-0. Shin Hati was sentenced to twenty years in a New Republic penal colony. However, given extenuating circumstances, her efforts to combat the Empire, and the aid she’d rendered since, her sentence was commuted to time served. The small fact that she hadn’t served any time was conveniently overlooked. Hera notated the record after the fact to show that the seven week transit back to New Republic space counted as ‘time served.’ After all, she couldn’t really go anywhere, could she?

Hera Syndulla was confronted privately by Captain Kal shortly after the trial, accusing her of pulling off one of the shadiest legal capers of all time. Her Ishi Tib eye-stalks twitched in agitation, aware that she was lecturing a superior officer, but her own sense of honor demanded it. She’d voluntarily endorsed the sentencing decision in the end even though she was out-voted, but it hadn’t set well with her. She didn’t know whether to feel admiration or revulsion over the whole affair, and she voiced her displeasure.

Hera took the rebuke in stride, perhaps feeling a touch of smug satisfaction at the outcome she’d engineered. It reminded her of the good old days, when she’d been a bit more of a pirate. “Well,” Hera told her with a slight smile, “what’s the use of having flag rank if you can’t do something useful with it once in a while?”

Captain Kal’s eyestalks twitched forward, lending her a serious air. “If the JAG office ever does a hard audit of all this, you may lose that rank. What then?”

Hera shrugged, still smiling. “Then I’ll fight the Empire on my own. Once a Rebel, always a Rebel, eh?”

 

[Jedi Marso]

Chapter 16​

About a week before reaching the outer rim, they all began making plans for their return. A lot had happened in the months they were away. Apparently the Mandalorian coverts had begun to unite, and several of them had returned to Mandalore, re-establishing their presence on the planet. Moff Gideon was killed during that fight, taking him out of contention for the leadership of the Imperial Remnant. Bo-Katan Kryse ruled Mandalore now and put out a call galaxy-wide for her scattered people to return to their ancestral home. Sabine realized that the future she’d glimpsed in the temple on Lothal had come to pass while they were in the Unknown Regions. Bewildered by paradoxes of time and space, she checked with Huyang to see if he still had the crystal given to her by Tarre Vizsla. He did—the crystal remained real—and Sabine accepted it back from him. She announced her plans to return to Mandalore, at least for a time.

General Han Solo had led New Republic forces to defeat the Imperial Warlord Zsinj, removing an obstacle to Thrawn arguably even greater than Moff Gideon. Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker was rumored to have started building an academy to re-establish the Jedi Order, but now it looked as though the return of Thrawn had put those plans on hold. He had apparently returned to Coruscant for the time being, where his sister was pregnant with Jedi twins. The New Republic was scrambling, trying to assess what was going to happen when Grand Admiral Thrawn finally consolidated his hold on the Remnant and began the inevitable campaign to restore the Empire. General Syndulla was being recalled to Coruscant for consultations with the Defense Council and would be given a war assignment after that. With the failure of their mission and Thrawn’s return, the New Republic was going to need everyone they had in the fight.

That left the matter of Jacen, but it looked to be a problem with a ready-made solution. One evening after dinner, Hera enjoyed a rare, private visit with Ezra Bridger aboard the Ghost. Hera asked him what his plans were; the New Republic had already offered to commission him at his old Rebel Alliance rank, but he’d refused.

“I’m going to go home for a while, to Lothal,” he told her. “I feel like I’ve given this war almost my entire life, if you count the time I spent on Valarian. I’ve done a great deal of thinking and meditating these past years, Hera. On Valarian, I did a lot to help the Zef. Not because they helped me, although that was part of it at first, but because it just felt right to serve. I feel like I’m truly becoming the Jedi that Kanan saw in me. I need a break from the conflict to sort out what it all really means. I’ve begun to discard the idea that I’m ‘a Jedi’ and embrace the idea that ‘I’m Jedi.’ It’s not something you are as much as the way you live. Luke Skywalker may restore the Jedi Order, and who knows what his new Jedi Order will be like. For the time being, I’m going to go my own way: to let go of the old traditions and just explore what it means to be Jedi. Lothal is a good place to do that—it’s a planet very connected with the Force.”

Hera felt a surge of love and pride wash through her. “Kanan would be so proud of the man you’ve become. I know I am,” she added with a beatific look. “So . . .”

“Jacen,” Ezra said with a knowing smile.

“I can’t take him to war with me, Ezra. He’s too young. And he wants to be a Jedi—be Jedi—like his father. Sometimes I feel like he’s already halfway there, and I know there’s a danger in that.”

“Ahsoka and I have talked about him, and I’ve observed her working with him. She’s outlined the methodology she’s taken with his training. It’s very much in line with traditional Jedi practices, which is a good start. It’s the way Kanan trained me.”

“Will you train him?” Hera asked.

Ezra’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Was there ever any doubt?”

Hera leapt over into his arms, squeezing him tightly. “Oh, thank you, Ezra! You don’t know what this means to me! I’ve wanted you back, and I’ve wanted this for him, so much! But it’s not fair to ask you to take on a child now that you’ve just gotten your life back . . .”

“I know exactly what this means to you—because it means the same thing to me,” Ezra replied earnestly. “I have my life back because of you, and there is no better way I can honor you and Kanan. I want to train him, Hera, more than anything! Jacen is his own person, obviously, but this still feels like having Kanan back, in a way. Does that make sense?”

“Only since the day he was born,” Hera laughed, sitting up and wiping away tears of happiness.

* * *​

Ezra stood with Sabine, Zeb, and Shin at foot of the Aldo Nova’s ramp. This was a farewell, at least for now. Shin Hati was going to take Sabine to Mandalore, then move on to her homeworld for a time, to tie up her affairs there. She had to bring closure to the families of her late crew and pay out their contracts. Baylan Skoll had faultlessly honored his agreements, and Shin would do no less. She had no desire to rule there, unlike her former master, so she wouldn’t be staying. She hadn’t voiced any solid ideas on what she might do after that, but Ezra had a suspicion she might seek him out on Lothal, or maybe Luke Skywalker if he ever got around to building his academy. In recent days she had asked Ezra and Sabine a lot of questions about the Jedi, and it appeared to be a path she was seriously contemplating. Sabine pulled the lightsaber off her belt and held it in front of her.

“Ezra, this was a princely gift, but I’m not going to need it any longer. I don’t know when or how you’ll be able to construct another lightsaber, and Jacen is going to need one for training, so . . .”

“So what?” Ezra said with a grin, making no move to take the weapon. “I don’t need it—I gave that to you! The Force is my ally!”

“So that’s why you accepted a whole box full of lightsaber components from Huyang, right?”

He winked at her. “All we need are some crystals. I trust in the Force, my Mandalorian Jedi. You should too.”

“I’ll take it off your hands, Sabine!” Zeb joked. “I always wanted one of those!”

Sabine snorted. “You’d cut your own leg off, Zeb.” She gave Shin an appraising glance and offered the weapon to her. “Shin, this was originally Ezra’s lightsaber. I don’t think he’d mind if you carried it.”

“One condition,” Ezra interrupted. Shin looked up at him in much the same way she used to look at Baylan Skoll for guidance. She raised her eyebrows inquiringly, but now her blue eyes were smiling. “You promise only to use it in the defense of your own life and others’. Or against Imperials.”

Shin held his gaze as she took the lightsaber from Sabine’s hand. “I can definitely promise that,” she assured him, hanging the weapon on her belt. She stepped in and gave Ezra a quick, shy embrace, and a sisterly peck on the cheek. “We’ll see each other again,” she promised. “May the Force be with you, my friend.”

“And also with you,” he replied.

She looked up at Zeb, smiling tentatively. “You’re still an ugly one, but I’m glad I’ve gotten to know you.”

“Careful with the jokes, or we’ll start calling you Spectre-8,” Zeb grumbled. “So long.”

Sabine and Ezra shared an embrace. “It’s good to have you back,” she said, almost as if she’d just decided that.

“It’s good to be back. Thanks for coming after me,” he replied. “Stay in touch and come see us soon.”

“I will. Ryder Azadi still has my Loth cat—hopefully he hasn’t turned her into a kibble-junkie. Give her a scratch for me when you see her.”

Ezra laughed. “I will. Hey, Jedi!” he shouted after her when she turned to go. Sabine looked back at him. “I’m proud of you. Kanan and I always knew you had it in you!”

Sabine gave him a nod and headed up the ramp.

* * *​

Mandalore, the Great Forge.

The Armorer held the beskar hilt in front of her, like a talisman. It was slightly curved, shaped similarly to the lightsabers carried by Ahsoka Tano. This one was forged from pure beskar, glossy black in color, with three gunmetal colored diamond-shaped indents on either side of the grip, toward the back of the weapon. The activation stud was a faceted Corusca jewel, which seemed to glow and scintillate with an inner light of its own. Its cascade of colors was Sabine’s personal mark, as personal as her colorful hair and armor.

Sabine took the weapon and held it before her, reaching into the Force. She felt it flow over her and through her, and through the black gem at the heart of the weapon in front of her. She had already aligned its crystal lattice in the Force, attuning it to her. This was the final assembly, when the dark focusing jewel, kyber power crystal, internal electronics, and beskar casing all fused and became a single unit. Sabine felt the balance of energies coming into alignment, just so. She felt something akin to a mental click, and suddenly the weapon before her took on a different timbre in the Force. What she held in her hands now was the unique weapon of a Mandalorian Jedi: a darksaber, heir to the legacy of Tarre Vizsla.

Sabine held the hilt sideways and touched the activation stud. The sound of the igniting blade was subtly different; it was the sound of the darksaber, the way she remembered it. The shape of the blade, however, was different. This blade was flattened, almost two-dimensional like its predecessor, but extended the uniform length of a Jedi lightsaber. It was black, suffused with a silver-white outer glow, and terminated in a tanto-point rather than a rounded or tapered one. Like the weapon before it forged by Tarre Vizsla, this blade, too, was unique: one of a kind. It was not the symbol of Mandalorian leadership, but the weapon of the only living Mandalorian Jedi Knight.

“This is the Way,” the Armorer intoned reverently.

“This is the Way,” Sabine Wren replied. “I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.”

* * *​

Lothal, the ancient Jedi temple.

Ezra Bridger and Jacen Syndulla emerged from the ancient, conical stone structure together. Neither of them spoke to one another—not yet. Too much had happened to them inside, and there was too much to think about, too much to meditate on.

Ezra had put on some weight; good food, the fresh air of his homeworld, and training the body worked wonders that way. His build was more solid than Kanan’s had been at a similar age, and he was a little taller. His hair was growing back out as well. He wore it shorter on top, with a well-groomed beard and mustache. Dressed in dark brown tunic and trousers, with black boots and a matching utility belt, he looked just like what the temple guardians had confirmed him to be: a full-fledged Jedi Knight.

Jacen Syndulla walked by his side. He was dressed similarly to Ezra, in dark brown trousers and boots, a two-tone tunic of brown and forest-green, with a sleeveless nerf-hide vest over it. His dark hair was cut short and slicked back—the way his father used to wear it. He firmly walked the path of the Jedi now. Ezra wasn’t sure yet what his apprentice had experienced in the temple this time, but he walked a little taller, with more surety, and there was no fear there. The Force was strong in him, like his father before him.

Instinctively, the two moved a safe distance from the temple. There was a long, low grinding sound, and when they turned to look, the temple had receded back into the ground of Lothal, leaving nothing but an eddy in the Force to mark its presence. Jacen looked up at his master and opened his hand to show him what he held. It was a small, familiar-looking crystal, scintillating a bright emerald color. Ezra made a funny face at him, as if to say: ‘Oh yeah?’ He held out his own hand, showing his apprentice an identical crystal, only this one glinted a bright blue. They grinned at each other like kids in the schoolyard and turned to watch the sun set over the plains. The mists had cleared, and the stars would be out soon. Ezra put an arm around Jacen’s shoulders. Silhouetted by the setting sun on the horizon, they thought they could see the form of a giant Loth wolf—it was hard to say if the great beast was there or not, or just a trick of the light. The Loth wolf watched them for a long moment, before seeming to nod its head once and turning to walk away, into the sunset.

* * *​

Corvus, where it began.

Night had fallen, and the forest trees were shrouded in mist as Morgan Elsbeth made her way towards Calodan: a witch walking the nighttime woods. She was smiling, anticipating the horrified surprise on the face of Governor Wing when she made her sudden re-appearance. He had much to answer for, and she intended to starve him in a force-cage for a good while before really going to work on him. She would get resource production on this world back on track in short order—it had been child’s play the first time. Then she would return to Thrawn, taking her place at his side as he swept away the New Republic and restored the glory of the Empire. An Empire she would rule, when the time was right.

Lost in thought, she was unaware of the figure ahead of her until a pleasant voice spoke to her from the darkness. “Well, look who’s returned to the scene of her crimes.” A pair of silver-white lightsabers ignited with a snap-hiss, illuminating the figure of a Togruta woman dressed in white.

“Ahsoka Tano!” Elsbeth hissed.

Darkness boiled in the Nightsister’s eyes, turning them into black orbs. The pall of the dark side descended, but there was nothing here for Elsbeth to take control of—her powers were useless. If she thought to impede Ahsoka Tano with her dark power, she had misjudged. Ahsoka glowed like a white beacon of light, and when she reached into the Force, the light seemed to grow and expand outward and upward, pushing back the darkness until the forest around them was almost day-bright. It was then that Elsbeth caught sight of the owl-like convor perched on a nearby branch. Elsbeth tried to take control of it, to use the creature as a weapon, but nothing happened. Morai just looked at her, her eyes expressionless, feeling neither pain nor fear.

Elsbeth pulled Shin Hati’s lightsaber from her belt, igniting the red-orange blade.

“Better than a beskar spear,” Ahsoka remarked, “but it won’t be enough. Thrawn is going to have to look elsewhere for his Force adepts, I’m afraid. You won’t be leaving this circle.”

“Not going to arrest me this time?” Elsbeth sneered. “You’re no Jedi!”

“Correct, on both counts,” Ahsoka smiled grimly. “In your case, mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.”

The Nightsister let out a furious shriek as she charged Ahsoka, lightsaber moving in a humming blur.

Ahsoka Tano met her head on.

 

[Jedi Marso]

 

[Jedi Marso]

~finis~​

 

[Jedi Marso]

It is done, and I am pleased.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

Normally I would wordsmith a story like this a little more before putting it out. In this case I wanted to get it out there while the show was still fresh in people's heads, and there might be some interest in this alternate take. I'll let the story percolate for a while on my hard drive, and eventually revisit it for a cleaner 2.0 edit; I'm aware of a couple spots already that need a little polishing up. After that, I'll put a PDF version on mediafire and post a link here in case anyone wants it. I'll end up posting this a couple other places as well, that are more SW oriented.

For anyone who read it, hope you enjoyed it! May the Force be with you, always!

 

[Jedi Marso]

Link to PDF version. This one has been further edited / cleaned up in terms of grammar and diction, but no significant story changes to what is posted above. I did expand a just a little bit on Marrok being a servant of Elsbeth, perhaps lessening any surprise when his nature is revealed.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/d4o8sha9x6pj0dt/Ahsoka.pdf/file

If anyone has trouble with the link, give me a yell.

 

[Jedi Marso]

My text crawl file finally became available for download. It's a little too big for imgur so here is a mediafire link if anyone is interested.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/06gd1lsxlohonlr/ENh2mpIETpx3is6dK6Um.mp4/file

 

[Jedi Marso]

Just checking in on this thread after a couple months. Over 1100 views but no comments. Did anyone out there read it start to finish? Just curious- I know it was a little lengthy.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

I have kind of dipped in and out of the story as you were publishing it. I kind of prioritized the Trek fictions because that's what I'm primarily interested in. But given recent events in this channel, a diversion into Star Wars might be refreshing. Certainly nothing wrong with your prose - clean and transparent, which is what I strive for. But as you said, it's a bit of a long read.

I say that, having published the Star Trek Hunter series with 28 full length episodes and currently in production of Star Beagle Adventures with 11 full episodes written, the first 2 and part of Episode 3 published here and another at least 10 episodes in the planning stages... So I may not be the best person to make observations about garrulous story-tellers...

Thanks!! rbs