The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Nine

Chapter Forty-Nine: A Desperate Act

AHSOKA TANO

Open your eyes, Ahsoka.

You have to open your eyes.

No, Ahsoka said, the word hardly above a telepathic murmur. Let me sleep.

But the voice – which she assumed was some part of her brain that had woken up before her speaking to her – was persistent, refusing to be denied. Ahsoka, you have to open your eyes and get up. Whatever fooled you into falling down that drop isn't gone. The others are probably in danger too! Kaylira, and Lux, and Kaya Ti! Get up, now!

Suddenly, in her half-conscious state, Ahsoka remembered exactly why she'd fallen down that tunnel in the first place. And it was more than enough to wake her up completely.

She came to with a shrill ringing in her lekku and searing pain in her chest and hipbone.

Ahsoka inhaled deeply, experimenting with how far she could expand her ribcage. But she was forced to stop a moment later, a cry of pain escaping from between her clenched teeth, as the dull throbbing suddenly spiked up to agony.

"Okay," she whispered into the darkness. "I've got at least two fractured ribs. Nothing's punctured my lungs or gone through the skin, but I can only take shallow breaths until I can get these healed." She placed her hand on her other injury tentatively. "No blood. That's a good sign. Okay, it's just a large bruise. It might make walking painful, but it can wait."

Ahsoka put her hands gingerly over the area on her ribcage where it was the worst. She had never been a particularly good Healer – that was more of Lux's area of expertise – but she was capable of using the Force to mostly numb the pain. "Time to deal with this."

Once the feeling in her chest had subsided into a mere ache, Ahsoka tried calling out to her husband through the Force. Lux? Lux, can you hear me?

Whatever fog had been deadening her senses when she fell hadn't lifted in the twenty minutes or so she'd been unconscious. Any attempt she made to link her mind with his was redirected back at her by an incessantly shifting wall of dark, malevolent energy.

Pulling herself carefully to her feet, she looked up above her, trying to find her way up. The only indication that there even was an up was that the total blackness surrounding her turned just the slightest bit closer to grey if she squinted at the area directly above her.

But it would be a long climb, especially in the dark. That wouldn't work.

Continuing in her efforts to contact Lux, she felt her way towards the nearest wall of the chute she had fallen down. Using that to support her and take some weight off the bruise, she grabbed one lightsaber from her belt and ignited it, holding it above her to help her see.

Secrecy didn't matter anymore – whomever she was dealing with certainly knew she was a Jedi. She had already sprung the trap, so there was no point in hiding her lightsaber.

She was in a roughly circular cave perhaps twenty feet across. As Ahsoka looked around her, she realized that she had been very lucky indeed to land as she had, just clear of a series of sharp-edged boulders.

A while away from where she stood, the cave tapered off, extending into the darkness. Although it would be a tight fit, Ahsoka knew she could squeeze through.

What she didn't take into account, however, was how much pressure getting through would put on her injured ribs. The moment she was out in the open again, she stumbled to her knees, breathing heavily.