Slaves Of The Empire {1}

Twenty-Five | Diverging Priorities

Spike nodded his head without really giving the impression of agreement. "Yeah, but adding static and other interference is one of the oldest tricks in the book to hide a voice modulator. Random stops and starts can conceal the places an audio transmission was stitched together using older clips."

"I don't have the tech with me to run a full analysis, but she gave me four days to get back to her, and today is the last one." Unexpectedly, no one broke in with commentary or questions, so Rex pushed on. "Senator Organa, we can't let this opportunity go to waste. I don't have to tell you how great a warrior Commander Tano is; she learned from General Skywalker, and he was the best of the best."

Organa stroked his beard for a long moment, weighing Rex's proposal. Then, he nodded to Spike, granting him leave to make the final decision.

A few tense seconds elapsed before the commander spoke.

"Put a one-way cloak on the transmission." Spike motioned one of the star charts. A green line showed the course the ship was going to register with the Empire, and a red one showed the course they'd actually taken to drop off those supplies. "We're close enough now to our original heading that we can blame the correction on purrgils, if anyone picks up the stray comm chatter. But if the person on the other end of the call matches your location to the Tantive IV..."

"Connecting me to one of the personal vessels of the Senator for Alderaan would be a disaster. Don't worry, I'm on it," Rex said, and inputted the command into his comm. Then, linking it to the hologram generator set into the center of the table, he entered his EF-4 password and signaled Ahsoka's comm.

It wasn't even ten seconds before someone picked up. "Rex? Is that you?"

The voice was just like Ahsoka's. Listening to it made something in Rex's chest ache, but like Spike had said, he couldn't afford to let his guard down. Thinking quickly, he disguised his voice with a drawl similar enough to fit an old trend among the younger brothers early in the war. "Yeah, Commander, it's me."

Spike caught on quickly, and nodded his approval. If this really were an Imperial trap, unless they had Rex's voice files on record, the person on the other end of the call wouldn't know the difference. But a Jedi who'd fought beside him and countless other brothers for years...

"Uh... listen, Rex, I didn't think this would be the first thing I said to you, but is something wrong with your voice?"

Some of the tension in Rex's shoulders loosened, but he still had to be sure. "Why'd you say that? This's the same as I've always spoken."

The speaker snorted, and that was pure Ahsoka Tano. "Nice try, Rexter. You never could get that drawl right, even when you'd had too much to drink. I think you gave it your best shot that time on Toydaria, and you still fell short."

The memory made Rex blush, but he knew Imperial interrogators wouldn't ask about something as obscure as a rare occasion Rex had underestimated the ale while staking out a cantina. He flashed Spike and the Senator a faint smile. The latter nodded encouragingly, crossing his arms. The former was as unreadable as ever.

"Sorry, sir," Rex said, reverting to his normal speaking voice. "I had to be sure it was really you. Your last transmission came out all choppy, and–"

"And that's a textbook way to disguise a fake, yeah. I read you loud and clear." Ahsoka's quiet huff of laughter tapered into a sigh. "I missed you so much, Rex. I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you, but... a lot has happened."

A comfortable warmth coursed through his body, the reality that Ahsoka was alive and okay sinking in at last. But something in her voice worried him. The Force was a better outlet for trauma than even Rex's hardy anti-shellshock programming, but the Jedi always complained about closing themselves off from the Force to avoid Elite detection. Even a short disconnect had repercussions on their mood; if Ahsoka had been a prisoner – or worse – and alone with her thoughts for a whole year...