The Garden of Three Hundred Flowers

by E. K. Johnston

  “No Jedi, but still a coward,” he said. “Or did Skywalker forget to teach you how to stand your ground before he threw you aside?”

  “I left under my own power,” she told him. In the moment, the words felt like the truth despite the pain that lay underneath them. She ignored the hurt and refocused on her sense of balance, on Maul.

  “Of course. And I volunteered for that garbage pile, and those first monstrous legs,” Maul said mockingly. She felt his rage swell within him, almost to the breaking point but not quite yet.

  He activated the lightsaber and quickened his steps. It was easy for her to pretend he’d caught her off guard, to stumble backward, away from his vengeful charge.

  “I’ll bet you volunteered for this, too, Lady Tano,” he crowed. That much was correct, but he could perceive only her weakness. His anger blinded him to all else. “One last attempt at glory to impress a master who has no further use for you.”

  “That’s not true!” she shouted. Just a little farther now. He was almost ensnared.

  He bore down on her, cruel laughter scraping out of his throat, and still she waited. Then, just before she was in his reach, she sprang the trap.

  The familiar green energy sang as she activated her lightsabers and moved to engage, one last feint. Maul lunged forward and Ahsoka took a quick step back, drawing him past the point of no return. He swung down, directly at her head, and she responded with all her strength. Her weapons locked with his, holding him exactly where she wanted him to be.

  “Now!” she commanded her unseen allies.

  The response was fast, too fast for Maul’s distracted defense. Ahsoka threw herself clear just in time.

  The ray shield came to life, trapping her prey with his lightsaber still raised against her.

  SHE WAS ALONE, something she was never meant to be. Her people were tribal, blood and bond, and her ability to use the Force gave her a galaxy of brethren from all species. Even after she left the Jedi Temple, she could feel the others when she wanted to—the ebb and flow of them in the Force around her.

  Until, of course, she couldn’t.

  Now she almost preferred the solitude. If she was alone, she didn’t have to make choices that affected anyone other than herself. Fix a malfunctioning motivator or not, eat or not, sleep or not—dream or not.

  She tried to dream as little as possible, but that day in particular wasn’t good for it. Empire Day. Across the galaxy, from the Core to the Outer Rim—though somewhat less enthusiastically in the latter—there would be festivities commemorating the establishment of order and government by Emperor Palpatine. It was the first such celebration. The new Empire was only a year old, but the idea of celebrating the day at all nauseated her. She remembered it for entirely different reasons than peace.

  Mandalore had burned, and even though she, Rex, and the others had managed to save most of it, their victory had been immediately undone with such violence that Ahsoka could hardly bear to think about it. So she didn’t.

  “Ashla!” The voice was loud and cheerful, wrenching her from her memories. “Ashla, you’ll miss the parade!”

  Living in the Outer Rim had its benefits. The planetary populations were small and not highly organized, making it easier to live under an assumed name. She could also easily stay far away from any of the major hyperspace lanes. Most of the planets in the Outer Rim didn’t have anything interesting enough to attract Imperial attention anyway, and the last thing Ahsoka wanted to do was attract attention.

  What she hadn’t accounted for was the attention of her neighbors, the Fardis, a local family who seemed to have their fingers in every bit of business that happened on Thabeska. They took her under their wing—as much as they could with Ahsoka maintaining her distance. She was still grieving, in her own way, and it helped if she told herself that she didn’t want new ties, new friends.

  Thabeska suited her. It was dusty and quiet, yet there were enough newcomers that she didn’t stick out. The planet did a brisk trade in water and tech, but nothing on a large scale. Even the smuggling operations—luxury goods and off-world food for the most part—catered to a relatively small number of people. No self-respecting pirate of Ahsoka’s acquaintance would stoop so low. It was as good as any new place for “Ashla” to call home.

  “Ashla, are you in there?” the girl outside shouted again. Too cheerful, Ahsoka thought with a shake of her head. Empire Day wasn’t that exciting, even if you believed in the propaganda. The girls were up to something, and they wanted her to know it.

  Ahsoka considered her options. She was known for wandering out onto the flats alone. There wasn’t anything dangerous there, and certainly nothing that would be dangerous to her. So she could sit quietly, pretending she wasn’t home, and if anyone asked later, she’d just say she’d gone for a walk.

  She stood and crossed the floor of her tiny house. It wasn’t fancy enough to have rooms, or even room dividers, but one of the things growing up in the Jedi Temple prepared a person for was austerity. If Ahsoka didn’t own things, she had less to carry with her when it was time to go. She tried very hard not to think about the empty weapon belt she had kept, though she didn’t wear it.

  She had heard the warning in the girls’ show of cheerfulness as they called to her, but she needed more details. The only way to get them was to open the door.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming!” she said, hoping she sounded enthusiastic.

  Ahsoka had met the Fardi clan at the shipyards when she’d arrived on the planet. They ran most of the shipping from there, legal and otherwise. Ahsoka would have avoided them entirely, except the younger ones followed her about like ducklings and she hadn’t worked up the bile to discourage them yet. She opened the door and found four of them staring up at her, with a couple of the older girls behind them. The older ones didn’t look as carefree as the little ones did. Ahsoka tensed and then forced herself to relax. She reached out with her senses, very carefully, but if there was something to feel it was still too far away.

  “Ashla, you have to come right now,” said the eldest. There were so many Fardi children that Ahsoka struggled to remember which name belonged to whom. She looked down at them and had a nagging feeling that she was forgetting something.

  “Yeah!” said one of the gaggle of children. “Dad’s got fancy guests asking to meet any new people, and you’re new, so you should come! You can sit with us for the parade and flyby.”

  A year’s residency still qualified Ahsoka as new, even though it was the longest she had stayed on a single planet since she’d become Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan.

  “There are a lot of ships in the yard right now,” the eldest one said carefully, as though someone might be listening to her every word. “For the flyby. From all over the place. Security’s a disaster as they try to log everything.”

  Out here, fancy guests meant clean clothes. Even the well-off Fardis were always coated with the dust that blew in off the flats. Ahsoka imagined the crisp lines and dull colors of Imperial uniforms. They would make an impression on Thabeska.

  Ahsoka knew what the Fardis would do. They had their legitimate businesses to consider, not to mention all the family members. They would tell the Imperials anything they wanted to know, and Ahsoka couldn’t hold it against them. She had apparently made a good enough impression to warrant the visit and the hint about the shipyard. It was as much as Ahsoka could expect.

  “Why don’t you guys go on ahead?” she said, and nodded solemnly to the older girls. She didn’t know if their parents knew they were here, but she wanted to let them know she appreciated the risk they were taking. “You can save me a seat while I clean up. I slept in a bit this morning, and I can’t go to the Empire Day parade like this.”

  She gestured down at her clothes. They were the only ones she owned, and everyone knew it, but it was enough of an excuse to get the job done.

  The little ones chorused entreaties that she hurry up but promised to save a place for her. The older two stayed
quiet and herded their siblings back toward the center of town. Ahsoka didn’t watch them go. As soon as they turned around, she shut the door and took a moment to gather herself.

  She didn’t have a lot to pack. Her single room was bare except for the bed and thick floor mat where she might have entertained guests, had she ever received any. She rolled the mat aside and uncovered the compartment where she kept a little currency and her blaster. She threw everything in a bag and put on a short cowl that would cover her face. She was going to have to get a new one soon: her head had grown again, and her montrals were almost too tall for the hood.

  As she shut the door of her house for the final time, the air was split by an all-too-familiar whine. The flyby had started, and it seemed that the Empire was showing off the maneuverability of its latest fighters.

  The streets were deserted. Ahsoka could hear the music, raucous and martial at the same time, as the parade passed along the main avenue several blocks over. She couldn’t figure out why there were so many Imperials all of a sudden. Surely Empire Day wasn’t the only reason. But the planet didn’t have much besides dust and the Fardis. And a survivor of Order 66.

  Two armored Imperials rounded the corner. Ahsoka held her breath and reached out. There was nothing familiar about them. They weren’t clones. They were the newer recruits, the stormtroopers. Nothing much to worry about then.

  “What are you doing here?” They raised their guns. “Why aren’t you at the festivities?”

  “I’m on my way,” Ahsoka said, careful to keep her face pointed at the ground. “I was out on the flats this morning, hunting, and lost track of the time.”

  “Move along,” said the stormtrooper, though he didn’t lower his gun. The other one said something into his comm that Ahsoka couldn’t hear.

  “Happy Empire Day,” she said, and turned down an alley in the direction of the music.

  She didn’t wait to see if they would follow her. She jumped to a first-story window and climbed up the building until she reached the roof. So close to the main Fardi compound, the houses were nicer than her little shack. They were taller and had flat roofs. More important, they were built very close together, to save on construction costs. It wasn’t a perfect traveling path, but for someone with Ahsoka’s abilities, it was passable enough.

  Hoping that no one could see her, she ran along the tops of the houses. Even with the danger, it felt better than anything Ahsoka had done in a long time. She didn’t use the Force to run—there was no point in taking unnecessary risks—but she did use it to make sure each jump across the streets below was safe. Every time she looked down, she saw more stormtroopers patrolling. They didn’t appear to be searching for a specific target, though. The pair she’d talked to must not have raised any alarm.

  Ahsoka reached the edge of the row of tall houses and crouched, looking down over the shipyard. There were two under the Fardis’ control, and this was the smaller one. The bigger one would have had a larger selection and possibly more holes in its security system, but the smaller one had a roof approach, so Ahsoka decided to take her chances here.

  The ships were mostly Imperial, and therefore not good targets. They would have been registered and tagged, and probably had some kind of tracking device. Ahsoka looked at the troop carrier with some regret. Of all the ships docked there, it was the one with which she was most familiar, but she couldn’t take the risk. Instead, she focused on a small freighter tucked in at the very back of the yard.

  It was a Fardi ship, one of the legal ones, but Ahsoka knew it could be made less legal very quickly. The Fardis paid her to tinker. She was a good mechanic, and she’d earned their trust through diligent work. The ship was also unguarded. Ahsoka didn’t know if it was an invitation or not, but she wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass her by.

  There were maybe twenty stormtroopers in the yard. Before, when she could openly use the Force, that would have been no trouble at all. Now, with just her blaster, Ahsoka took a moment to consider her options.

  Anakin would have crashed right through, regardless of personal risk. Even without his lightsaber, he’d have been fast enough and strong enough to make it. It would have been very noticeable, though. Explosions had tended to follow close behind her old master. She missed the excitement, but this was not the time for it. Master Obi-Wan would have tried to charm himself through and would invariably have ended up making as much noise as Anakin anyway.

  “When are you going to admit you’re on your own?” Ahsoka muttered. “They’re gone. They’re dead, and now it’s just you.”

  As motivational speeches went, it was not her best, but it did spur her into action. She risked a jump from the rooftop to the alley below, prioritizing speed over anything else. She pulled the blaster out of her bag. Quickly, she unseated the overload dowels in the ammo pack and set the blaster on the ground. Now she had to move. She ran down the alley and leapt over a short wall into a family garden. A few steps and another jump took her to a different alley, and she raced toward the shipyard.

  She reached the open area just as the blaster exploded. The stormtroopers reacted immediately, falling into neat lines and running toward the noise with admirable dedication. They didn’t completely desert the yard, but it was good enough for Ahsoka’s purposes.

  Ahsoka stuck to corners where she could hide and behind crates to block the remaining Imperials’ sight lines. She reached the ramp of the Fardi ship and was aboard before anyone was the wiser.

  “I hope I’m not stealing anything you need,” she said to her absent benefactors. “But thanks for the ship.”

  The engine hummed to life just as the other stormtroopers returned to the yard, but by then it was too late. Ahsoka was in the air before they could set up the heavy weaponry and out of range before they could fire. She was away, on the run again, and she had no idea where in the galaxy she was going to go next.