Ahsoka's Return

Chapter 6

"Careful!" Leia's hand twitched, and the orb suspended in front of her crashed to the ground. She cursed and bent down to grab it as Luke frowned. "You're being too aggressive with your intentions Leia. If you keep trying to use the Force like that, you'll end up depending on your emotions." Leia looked at Luke out of the corner of her eye. "You don't have any room to talk Luke. You can barely do any more then I can with the Force." Luke opened his mouth in shock, but Ahsoka stepped between them and put her hand up with an amused expression on her face. "Both of you need to calm yourselves. You won't make any process if you compare yourselves with each other."

Behind Ahsoka, Spetevge sneezed. The young Wookie was sitting crosslegged on the floor with four pebbles in front of her and trying to move them with the Force. One pebble shifted slightly, but the others didn't move at all. Spetevge squeezed her eyes shut tightly, then sighed and looked up at Ahsoka. "I don't understand how it's supposed to feel. How can I do something if I don't know how it feels?" Ahsoka smiled and sat down next to her, motioning for Luke and Leia to do the same. "To use the Force, you have to connect to it. The best way to explain it is that you are opening yourself up to it." Ahsoka paused and tapped her fingers on her leg, and Leia looked at her curiously. "Do you mean mentally?"

Ahsoka tilted her head and looked up at the roof. "In a way. As you grow and learn, you construct barriers around yourself. If you aren't careful, then you can lock yourself inside with no hope of getting back out." "Is that why training is supposed to start at such a young age?" Ahsoka glanced at Luke and nodded. "Exactly. when you start young, it's easier for you to learn how to open yourself up. Because you and Leia are both older, it will be slightly more difficult for you to open up to the Force. However, it isn't impossible at all for-" Ahsoka paused in mid-speech and cocked her head slightly.

At the other end of the hanger, a siren started to wail. As the siren's volume rose, other sirens joined in, and Luke shot to his feet. "That's the attack warning! But they're only supposed to go off if it's an Imperial attack..." Ahsoka stood up and looked at Leia as she stood as well. "What is the protocol in these situations?" Leia's hand drifted to the blaster strapped to her hip. "We send out the fighters and order the citizens to the lower levels." Ahsoka nodded. "Then let's do that. I'll take Spetevge back to her quarters then join you." Luke glanced at Ahsoka and nodded. "Let's go." Luke started running for the hanger deck, and Leia darted towards the command bay. Spetevge looked up at Ahsoka and touched her hand softly with her own small paw, and Ahsoka looked down at her and smiled slightly. "It's ok little one. Let's get you back to your room, then I need to go." Spetevge nodded, and in a few minutes Ahsoka was stepping back out of Spetevge's room and carefully closing the door. Ahsoka turned and strode down the hallway towards the command center, but just as she reached it the hallway shook. Ahsoka staggered and gripped the edge of the door as a large crack spiderwebbed across the ceiling. "Ahsoka!"

Leia grabbed Ahsoka's arm and pulled her into the room as a chunk of stone dropped from the ceiling where she had been standing. Ahsoka grinned at her, her eyes alive with energy. "How many of them are there?" One of the men manning the tracking station pointed at the screen. "There's one star destroyer and several smaller ships, but the real danger is the TIE fighters. There doesn't seem to be an end to them, and they're running strafing patterns on the base." Leia frowned, looking at the screen. "There's something I don't understand though. When they first dropped out of hyperspace, it was almost like they didn't know we were here. It looked like they were chasing a smaller craft that was damaged. The TIE fighters weren't released until after our fighters went out, but they greatly outnumber our own forces." Ahsoka frowned. "So you're saying that the Imperialists were hunting someone and that ship dropped off the radar?"

Leia nodded just as Luke's voice came crackling in on the communicator. "Leia, have we given you enough time? If it takes much longer, then there won't be any fighters to call back." Leia's eyes widened and she spun around. "Is the shield ready yet?" A teenager working at a station by themselves nodded. "Call them back, nine seconds until we can deploy!" Leia pressed a hand to her communicator. "Luke, did you hear that? Get back in here now!" "Got it." Ahsoka looked at Leia questioningly. "One of Han's duties was to bring back anything useful he was able to get his hands on. On Naboo, he was able to get some ray shield generators from the Gungans that live in the swamps. They can deflect all blaster fire, but-" "Deploying now!" The teenager tapped a series of commands into her screen, and the room lit up brightly for a moment before the light stabilized.

Leia grinned slightly as the explosions and blaster fire sounded much more distant. "Now their attacks can't work at all. As long as they don't use droids, they can't get through." A high-pitched burst of static came in over the speakers, and Han's voice echoed curtly into the room. "Well, that's nice to hear. Now, how about that girl who forgot to warn me before turning the generators on comes and helps me clean up the mess she made?" The teenager yelped and scurried out of the room as Leia laughed. "Well, now we can start cleaning up the damage from the battle." Her expression turned serious, and she looked at Ahsoka. "I need to find out how many we lost." Ahsoka nodded. "I'll come with you. I need to get back to the Junkyard afterwards, I need to finish what I'm working on." Leia looked at Ahsoka as they walked out of the room. "What is it?" Ahsoka glanced at her and looked away before replying. "It's something for training. It'll help, and I'll be able to train as well." Leia's mouth twitched, and she looked at Ahsoka out of the corner of her eye. "Will I be able to improve my technique with the Force?" Ahsoka looked at her and her eyes sparkled for a moment. "It's more of a... Physical type of training."