The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Nine

Chapter Nine: Commander Sato/ An Uneasy Partnership

LUX BONTERI

Lux was waiting for Kaylira and Ahsoka to arrive. The boys, to their dismay, had been confined to the ship until further notice. Aeja, who had fewer qualms about staying, was in charge of watching them.

He sighed, hoping that the twins – and Anakin, who was young and naïve and prone to following their direction if they gave any – wouldn't cause too much trouble. After all, he had promised Aluxso and Enarion three Alderaanian pastries each if they behaved. He was going to eat them himself if their sister reported back to him to say that they didn't.

But, according to Ahsoka, they weren't going down to the surface right away. Apparently, Senator Organa had some people that he wanted them to meet.

As Ahsoka and her padawan joined him in the hallway, he planted a quick kiss on his wife's cheek. "All right. Are we ready?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Come on, the Senator's waiting for us."

A few moments later, they crossed through an airlock, which was attaching their small freighter to a larger ship. Through the viewport, Lux could see that there were a few other ships nearby as well; there were a few large blockade-runners, and a small group of A-wing starfighters.

"Welcome, my friends," came a voice, and Lux looked up. There stood the Senator, a gentle smile on his face. "Fulcrum, Lux Bonteri, it's good to see you again. As it is to see a new face."

"It's good to see you too, Senator," Ahsoka said, returning the smile. "This is my apprentice, Kaylira."

"Hello, you one. I have a girl about your age that, as I understand it, is very eager to meet you." He looked at Kaylira, and the padawan looked away shyly. "Now come. I believe that Commander Sato is very eager to speak with you."

He walked the three of them to the bridge of the ship, where a man with greying brown hair was standing. Lux noticed Ahsoka narrow her eyes, and he understood why. The man that they were coming to meet carried himself like an Imperial officer, but he was determined to trust him. If Bail Organa did, then he and Ahsoka had no reason to doubt him.

But then, as the man turned around to face them, he heard her exhale quietly. Although he looked like an Imperial from the back, with his rigid posture, his almond-shaped eyes contained the sort of kindness that one could only find in someone who had something to live for... and so something to fight for. It was a look that he had often seen in the faces of the Rebels on Onderon.

"Fulcrum," Bail said, "May I present Commander Jun Sato of Phoenix Squadron. Commander, this is Fulcrum, one of our top informants."

"Commander," Ahsoka greeted. "I've heard some good things about you."

"And I you, Fulcrum. Welcome to the Phoenix Home, our squadron's flagship." He gestured towards a round table in the center of the room dominated by a holo-projector, and they all gathered around. "I believe we have some things to discuss."

AREEKO

Several light years away, in a corner of a shady bar on the planet Corellia, a young woman sat in the shadows. If not for the illuminated HoloNet terminal at her table, she could have been asleep or unconscious from an over-intake of spirits, as many of her fellow bar-goers were.

Pushing her bangs out of her hazel eyes, she skimmed this week's wanted list. The Empire's agents, who were sometimes unable to catch up to some smuggler who had double-crossed them, often needed the help of people like her to smoke then out. The galaxy had a lot of hidey holes and lesser known hives of scum and villainy that the Empire didn't know about, which was where she came in.

As she scrolled through the many faces of wanted men and women – most of whom had already been staked out as the prey of a variety of bounty hunters – something caught her eye. It was a priority message from the office of Governor Tarkin. It read:

Wanted: Phoenix Squadron. Reward for the capture of its leader (identity unknown) 30,000 Imperial credits. Reward for the capture of its flagship: 50,000 Imperial credits. Reward for Intel on the Squadron's location: 10,000 Imperial credits. Reward for the capture of its affiliates: 20,000 credits.

A small smile came to her face. Any one of these would pay off some debts she had with other smugglers. Some of which were–

A man slid into her booth, interrupting her thoughts. She didn't look up, but she knew that it was one of her rivals. And this one was the worst out of them all.

"Well, if it isn't the great smuggling scum himself." She reached a hand down towards her blaster, but the Wookiee standing at Solo's left noticed her, and moved his crossbow to the ready with a low growl. She relented, guessing that she had moved too quickly for his liking. "What do you want, Solo?" she hissed.

"My pay. I've let this go on way too long, Areeko."

"Well, it's not my fault that every time I try to pay you back, Jabba's thugs blast me out of the sky!" She barked out a laugh. "Tatooine's not really that hospitable a place, now is it? Especially when its crime leaders hate your guts."

"Areeko, I need that money. You're not the only one with debts here. If I don't pay Jabba off this time, he's gonna take my ship. I can't lose the Bria, she's the only one I've got."

She knew that her fellow smuggler was pulling his pleading 'help me, I beg you' act, complete with puppy-dog eyes, but she fell for it anyways. It was how she had fallen for him in the beginning, all those years ago.

She sighed. "Fine. Okay. We'll take the Bria after Phoenix Squadron. Split the reward fifty-fifty. Even if we can only get the squadron's 'affiliates', as the Imperials put it, ten thousand should be enough to pay off all your damn debts, right?"

"Yeah. Meet me at Docking Bay 13. 0900 hours tomorrow."

As he stood up to leave, she called after him, "You're a rotten case, Solo! It's gonna get you into trouble one of these days, mark my words!"

"Tell me something I don't know, sweetheart," he said with a charming smile. Then, with a nod to the Wookiee to follow him, he walked away.

She sighed, falling back in her seat. She couldn't help but wonder what Han Solo had just gotten her into.

*Governor Tarkin's notice has finally been revealed, and now two smugglers have entered the game. But just who is Areeko? What rich personal history could exist between her and Han Solo? And what could their determination to collect the reward mean for our heroes? You'll find out in the next thrilling chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano!

Okay. Yeah. I TOTALLY WENT THERE. HAN FREAKING SOLO IS IN UAAT!!!!!! *fangirls* He was going to be in it either way, but I had originally planned for him to be introduced later... And then this occurred to me!

There are MANY THINGS that I want to explain about this chapter (mainly in the second half). Areeko is an OC that belongs to Superkate-Studios, one of my good friends here on Wattpad. I provided some of the backstory and her integration into the series, and Superkate came up with... Well, that will be revealed later. 

The Bria is the ship that Han Solo had before he won the Millennium Falcon. He named it after one of his old lovers, Bria Tharen, after she died. I decided to use the Bria because technically he didn't get the Falcon until 3BBY, and it's about 6 or 5BBY in this story.

The whole "You're a rotten case, Solo! It's gonna get you into trouble one of these days, mark my words!" line refers to what he gets mixed up in during ANH, meaning that her prediction came true... Just for the heck of it.

So, I'm sorry that I didn't update sooner, but I had a brief bout of a mix of writer's block and writer's procrastination. I'll get to work on the next chapter right away. Bye!

Explain that hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side and may the Force be with you,

Sharron