Shattered Stars (TCW)

Chapter 32 -- Learning

Adjusting to a world outside of war is harder than Taska Rokanh and her friends Ace, Lark, Chrome, and A'den expected! Navigating their new interpersonal dynamic along with the intricacies of a side of the galaxy they have never seen is confusing, and it may be added to through an encounter with an old enemy...

"IDs, please," The large man standing outside of their transport bellowed. They had finally landed on Bresham.

Taska nervously approached him, holding out her old GAR card—she had never gotten a civilian-issue one.

"A Jedi, huh?" The man wondered aloud, his dark hand dwarfing the small white card as he scanned it. The machine beeped in the affirmative—it was still valid.

I guess Master Jocasta never bothered to remove me from the database.

"And what about your entourage," he asked as he handed the card back to her, looking to them expectantly for their own IDs.

"Oh, they're, uh, they're refugees," she explained quickly, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "You heard about the most recent attack on Vealdath, I assume? Their home was destroyed, and they can't even go back to rebuild. I fear their entire village is lost forever, and their belongings with it." She paused for a moment to let the news sink in. "I'm escorting them here because it's a designated safe-world," which wasn't a lie, not in this case.

"Why didn't I receive any news of a Jedi coming here? Why aren't you coming with a company of clones?"

Taska cringed, and all the boys had to keep their mouths shut—what would happen if he heard their voices?

"Unfortunately, this is a mission I had to go on alone. It's not sanctioned by the Republic, what with our resources being spread so thin as the war is, well, starting to end. I volunteered, and with that, gave up my access to some of my Army luxuries." Another half-truth.

"Alright. Well, you better get them registered with the Republic again soon. They won't get very far in this galaxy without proper identities."

Don't I know that.

"Thank you, sir," she hurried away, the clones following close behind. She stayed silent for a long while, not daring to speak until the depot was out of sight.

"That was too close," Taska said lowly, looking in a shop window's reflection to check how well their faces were hidden. "We need to get better at this."

"We will," Lark reassured her, smiling a bit. "Don't worry."

"Let me rephrase that," she said, still feeling anxious. "I need to get better at this. Your lives depend on me being able to cover for you."

"And like he said before," Ace argued, a more serious but gentle look on his face. "We will. You will. I know it's your way to be overly modest about what you think you can do, but I know that you can."

"Do you mean that?'

"He better. His only other option is capture, trial, and reprogramming," A'den commented dryly, and the four of them laughed at the temporarily terrified look on Chrome's face.

They spent the rest of the afternoon looking for a secluded clearing. It took longer than they thought, as the city was bigger than they had anticipated.

"I've told you a thousand times, you have to adjust the scale or else your click estimate is going to be totally off," Lark exclaimed, gesturing to the map projecting from Chrome's wrist. They had finally reached the edge of the city and were now wandering through scrub brush.

"Whatever, he shouldn't have that thing out anyway, it's going to draw too much attention," A'den argued over Chrome's weak defense. "Just stop your bickering."