'They're not dangerous, Anakin. Only those who have a strong connection with the light side of the Force during death can become a Force ghost.'
'It was watching her sleep! What does that tell you?'
'That perhaps it was watching over her, as opposed to being a menacing presence.'
Anakin was not satisfied with Obi-wan's reasoning but knew that there was nothing he could do. The two Jedi were sat at a table eating their small dinner before they would arrive in the Ahch-To system. The rations consisted of a nutrition bar and some soup, but it was tasteless to Anakin.
He had confined Sol to the cockpit after she was awoken from her nap to the sight of an ignited lightsaber at the foot of her cot. She would never be able to continue her sleep after that but questioned why she had to be in the cockpit with her dinner. Anakin didn't offer an explanation, and Obi-wan decided that he wouldn't elaborate on his prior statement of her being visited by a Force ghost in her sleep. Sol was confused and was left to watch the passing planets through the windshield as she slurped loudly at her soup.
'Who would want to be watching over her? Shouldn't we inform the Council?' Anakin rushed and Obi-wan crushed the wrapper of his finished nutrition bar in his hand.
'What for?'
'Because it was a Force ghost!' Anakin cried, not understanding why his ex-Master wasn't concerned at the surprise visit. 'Surely Master Yoda would want to hear if Solaris was having a ghost watching her sleep.'
'Force ghosts draw on Force signatures to be visible in our world, and its usually because they have something in connection to the person they're drawing from,' Obi-wan said with a sigh. 'Whoever was watching over Sol must have some connection to her. It's none of our concern. It's a personal connection for her to investigate, and her only.'
'But if it was drawing from Solaris' Force signature, how come we were able to see it?'
'We only saw its essence. If Sol had been awake, she would have been able to see who it was in all clarity.'
Anakin knew it was hopeless and let out a loud huff. Throwing his back against the cushioned wall, Anakin watched as Obi-wan finished his soup and stood up from the table. He mentioned that they should be near the Ahch-To system by now and headed towards the cockpit with his bowl and wrapper in hand. As the Master left, Anakin followed his figure before his eyes landed on the R2, who was sat with his front panel lit with its blue and red lights.
'You didn't see anything, did you, Artoo?' he asked in a last attempt, and the droid beeped a reply. Anakin scoffed at his answer and shook his head as he began to think that he was indeed being dramatic.
'Yes, because droids need their sleep, don't they?' Anakin rolled his eyes and R2 sassed him back in a series of boops.
Sol looked up when the sliding doors opened behind her and Obi-wan entered the cockpit. With her feet up on the wall of the ship, she held her bowl of soup in her lap while she sat in the passenger seat. She remembered her manners at the entrance of the Master and yanked her feet to the ground and sat up properly. At the hope for some explanation, Sol waited for Obi-wan to look her way from the controls of the ship.
'Obi-wan?' Sol said. 'I wanted to let you know that I think I had a dream in the quarters.'
'Oh? Do you not get those often?' Obi-wan's sarcastic, yet light-hearted, tone made Sol want to roll her eyes.
'No, I don't actually...'
'Oh...'
'I meant that I think I may have been dreaming about the Force ghost.'
Obi-wan pushed a button on the controls and the ship was pulled from hyperspace. There was a small shutter before the windshield held the view of the dark blue planet. It was small and held a layer of clouds that were clustered in some areas, then sheer in others. From the position of the ship, the cockpit's occupants could see that it was covered in deep oceans, and the scanners said that it had windy terrains and sometimes heavy rainfall.
'Do you remember what was in the dream, at all?' Obi-wan questioned without turning to the passenger seat. He put the ship into its descent towards the planet and followed the maps on the screens that showed where the largest island was located.
'I remember hearing voices. A woman's voice, mostly,' Sol started to recall her dream, but was speaking for herself in an attempt to recapture some of the things she heard and saw in her sleep. 'She called someone Master. She could have been a Jedi, but I didn't see anything or anyone, just heard a conversation. She said that she was... with child.'
For the first time since entering the cockpit, Obi-wan turned to look at Sol. With raised eyebrows, he shared his gaze with the clouds that occupied the view of the windshield and the young woman in the passenger seat. He remembered the apparition he saw in Sol's quarters but was only able to decipher the dark hair and beaded bangs on the head of the figure. At the mention of Sol's dream being about a female Jedi, Obi-wan wondered if the Force ghost had used Sol's Force signature to enter her dreams.
'Have you heard of a Jedi being pregnant, Master Obi-wan?' Sol questioned when he glanced at her for the fourth time. She looked out to the planet that they had reached to see a rough ocean. Waves rose and crashed against each other, and the winds shoved at the water that tried to remain calm. Sol was yet to see a terrain like this, as she had only seen pleasant beaches and desert planets in her year of mission.
'Not in my lifetime, nor have I ever been told of an instance before,' Obi-wan said truthfully. 'If there was a Jedi who fell pregnant, they would not have been with the Jedi any longer.'
Sol looked to Obi-wan. The Master, despite his gaze being on the waves and in search of the island the screens displayed, looked as if he was in deep thought. She knew that he wasn't lying when he said that he had not heard of an instance where a Jedi was with child, but she also knew that if it had happened, the Order may have been unwitting to the fact. But this interested Sol even more, as it did to Obi-wan, too.
The ship arrived at the largest island on the planet. Waves clawed at its cliffsides and there were few flat spaces of the island where the ship could land. The curves of the island created hills and at the highest point, was a small patch that allowed any who reached it to look out to the end of the horizon. There weren't anymore islands for miles, and it was unknown of what sea creatures inhabited the depths that were mostly left undiscovered.
After a shaky landing in the dark of the night, Obi-wan was able to settle the ship and lower the landing ramp for the clone legion. The ship's lights acted as the clone's vision as they stepped onto island land to set up camp.
'This wind is nearing torrential, sir!' a clone yelled to his commander. Uncut grass whipped at their legs and a whistle sounded from the ocean. Anakin stood on the landing ramp and looked out to the rush of waves that could be heard from their height on the island. Without anything to take the wind's gusts, the team were facing Ahch-To's weather head-on.
'We'll drill the tents down! Make sure to put all the supplies inside before you stand them up, or we'll have even less tents than we already do!' Anakin ordered with a yell. He was grateful to see the clones nod their helmeted heads before they got to work, seeing them working in threes to get the camp ready for as soon as possible.
'Force, why did they send us here?' Anakin turned his head to the voice that came from his right. Sol stood with a pulled down face from her gaping mouth as she looked at the challenge the clones had with putting the tents up.
'I don't think even separatists would want to be in this weather,' Sol said, and Anakin let out a chuckle.
'Let's hope they think like you do,' he said before he leaned his head down to talk quietly into her ear. 'And I haven't forgotten about our tent placement.'
Sol's breath caught in her throat, but she did her best to hold back a cough. She stiffened in her place next to Anakin and she was sure that her Force signature shivered. Without a word to fire back at him, Sol watched helplessly as Anakin walked down the ramp to help his legion. His boots sunk into the grass and the hair that curled onto his forehead was blown back when the sides of the ship were no longer blocking the wind. The Knight crouched down to hold one of the tent's poles while a clone tried to weigh down the fabric before it would be subjected to the gusts.
Once the tents were set up and everyone was exhausted, the team settled down for the night. Obi-wan had been the first to bid farewell after helping Captain Rex with his tent. He made sure everyone was done with their set-ups before he disappeared behind the flaps and the small torch he held was turned off. One by one, clones pulled off their helmets and breathed in the brisk air before they went into their shared tents. It wasn't long before there was only Anakin and Sol left with their small torches in hand to be able see through the thick night darkness.
'I couldn't get anything out of Master Obi-wan about the Force ghost,' Sol decided to say while she checked the pegs that were drilled into the grass. Anakin was sat in his tent with his front half sitting through the flaps, his boots sat next to him, and his utility belt hung over their tops.
'I'm not surprised. He didn't seem concerned even in the slightest,' Anakin shrugged.
'That was until I told him about my dream.'
Sol got the reaction out of the Skywalker that she hoped for. His head tilted to the side, which Sol had to resist in cooing aloud at, before he shuffled further out from his tent in curiosity.
She knew there was more to the presence of the Force ghost and its linkage to her dream, and since Anakin was like-minded when it came to being left in the dark, maybe he would be able to offer some advice.
'It was just voices, but I heard a woman talking to someone she referred to as Master-'
'Please excuse my rudeness, Commander Sol and Commander Skywalker, but I really think the legion should get some sleep,' Captain Rex's voice cut through the wind.
Sol and Anakin pressed their lips together in an effort to not burst into laughter. The captain sounded hesitant from inside his tent but was exhausted enough to call out to his commanders in the politest way he knew how. The Jedi let out small giggles, before they mutually agreed they would retire for the night. But not before they both stared at each other, each admiring the way they looked from the little light their torches gave off, and where the wind blew their hair out of their faces.
'Goodnight, Ani,' Sol said as she slipped into her tent, sending him a smile. He returned it, waiting until she had disappeared before replying,
'Goodnight, Solaris.'