Harry turned as if remembering them there. "Sorry, I'm headed out in just a minute, if you need something walk and talk."
"What's going on?" Ahsoka bolted from the table, to move closer to him, though he wasn't leaving the room at the moment, he was just grabbing a bag and seemed to be haphazardly tossing some items into it.
Shaak Ti and Aayla watched; their expressions filled with curiosity. Neither knew much but obviously the message was serious enough for Harry to need to leave immediately.
"That hacker we went to Nar Shaddaa claims to have found something on the person I was looking for… a lot faster than I imagined… and certainly not in the way I imagined." Harry replied. "Well… they were the best and you did offer a fortune." Ahsoka interjected
Harry nodded "Yes," he said before he turned back to grabbing supplies. "This is the first lead I've had... ever. I have to find out what happened. I have to go check this out. I have to know."
"Okay," said Ahsoka, coming to a decision that took no thought at all. "Then I'm coming with you."
Harry stopped and turned to look at Ahsoka, his expression was challenging, "You're not exactly inconspicuous at the moment. Half the bounty hunters in the galaxy are looking for you, and you want to go back to the moon that most of their employers live at?" A few days ago she might have been affronted by his challenging tone. But she was slowly getting better at determining his swirl of emotions and she was sure she could feel there was genuine concern for her. "I don't care. You've kept me alive this far, and … what if you run into trouble?" Ahsoka replied, a small smile on her face.
"Me? Trouble?" Harry affronted expression.
asked,
with
an
Ahsoka just stared at him and crossed her arms. Peripherally, she could see Aayla and Shaak Ti look at him in disbelief at his gall at such a statement.
Harry stared at her for a few seconds and then shivered. "Okay, Daphne used to react the exact same way when I said something like that. Same pose and everything. You need some more ice in the glare though."
Ahsoka didn't react to the comment, but Harry smiled briefly at the memory but then quickly shook his head. "Anyway, if trouble happens I apparate out, and no one finds me."
"What if they blow up your ship? They already did that to Aayla there, remember? And your ship is hardly inconspicuous." Ahsoka argued.
"I have enough money on me to go and buy a new ship there and pay in cash for it. It's not a worry. Plus I'd like to see them come up with anything to actually blow my ship up." Harry paused and then smirked, "And I'm pretty sure you remember the last time someone tried to storm my ship." Ahsoka refused to be baited, even though the brief mental image of a pile of naked people popped up in her mind. "Harry, I'm not budging on this."
Harry stared at her and then shrugged in assent, turning away. "Fine," He didn't deny to himself that a part of him was pleased at her insistence. Once more their similarities popped into his mind.
Ahsoka looked pleased. "Thank you. Besides… you've shown that you can protect me if we happen to get in over our heads. What's the worst that can happen?"
Harry froze and then spun around to stare at her in abject horror. "Why would you do that?" Ahsoka looked taken aback, as did the two other Jedi, but they remained silent.
"Do… do what?" Ahsoka tentatively asked. For the first time she felt like she actually did something wrong. She wasn't that adept at reading Harry's emotions enough to pinpoint why though.
"You just… sent out an engraved invitation to Luck, Fate, and Mr. Murphy inviting them to get together and interfere!" Harry threw his hands up briefly in exasperation.
"Wh- who is Mr. Murphy?" echoed Ahsoka sounded confused.
"Asshole back on my world whose theory neatly defines my life. If anything can go wrong it will go wrong. With a special Potter addendum of 'at the worst possible moment or in the most humiliating way possible… or both'." Harry answered.
Harry sighed and shook his head and turned to move away from the kitchen, toward his room, intending to grab a change of clothes. However he had only moved a step when his comm unit started to flash red again, with a soft beeping sound this time. It drew the attention of every person in the room. .
He froze and then turned to fix Ahsoka with a glare before stalking back over toward the comm unit.
"What? How bad can it be?" Ahsoka asked, assuming the notification was simply Minnie telling Harry the system check had performed as expected.
Harry stopped sharply, and seemed to take a long breath. "Remind me to add to your instruction, lessons about not tempting Fate."
He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at her without looking back. "I'm stating for the record, if this is a message telling me my ship is somehow broken, infested with Tribbles, or another ride of mine has suddenly gained sentience and flew off on its own… I officially blame this on you." He seemed to brace himself before he flicked on the communication device.
The three women blinked in confusion, unsure whether to wonder what Tribbles were, or the part about a ride gaining sentience. It took him a second of surprise to realize it wasn't his protocol droid, "Salporin?" Harry asked. He had given his Wookiee acquaintance a way to contact him in an emergency. He had never really expected the Wookiee to use it. There was a sinking feeling in his gut.
"I'm giving you a direct head's up because I owe you for the slave raid sabotaged. We're evacuating the cities." The Wookiee said without preamble or warning, with standard Wookiee bluntness.
"What? Why?" Harry demanded, well used to the very blunt way of talking the Wookiees tended to favor.
In the background there was sound of several Wookiees who also seemed to be speaking frantically. On his side there were two feminine gasps of shock, followed by a third a few moments later after Shaak Ti translated.
"A massive invasion fleet has jumped in system. Extra-planetary signals are already jammed. We're evacuating to prevent mass casualties from any bombardment on our cities." Salporin replied
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you enjoy reading? Visit my site on Tiendup! There you will find the advanced chapter in PDF format, ready for your convenience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/