Chapter Eighteen: Lux Lifts a Box

                                    

                                          
AHSOKA TANO
                          
Lux was lying on the floor by the bed, rummaging intently through a cubby below him. “Good,” he muttered, along with a variety of other things she wasn’t able to catch. “They didn’t find it.”
                          
“Find what, Lux? Stop talking in Incomprehensible-speak! We need to get going,” she said impatiently.
                          
“This,” he said, pulling a first, then a second, then a third, then a fourth, and finally a fifth box out from inside. Ahsoka’s eyes widened. They were the kind that one would store credits in! And they weren’t of modest proportions.
                          
With a flourish, he opened the first box. Rows and rows of gleaming credits stared up at her from their places inside. He pushed a little button on the side, and the platform with the rows that she had thought were a lot rose up to reveal another one. This repeated itself until there were five levels of credits.
                          
Ahsoka did some quick mental calculations. “If those credits are each worth a hundred, then… whoa,” she said. “You have, like, over two million’s worth of credits here!”
                          
“I know.” Lux smiled deviously. “And I have twenty times as much waiting for me in the Banks.”
                          
Ahsoka gasped. “And what are you going to use it all for?”
                          
“I may not become a Jedi, but I will help you rebuild the Jedi Order somewhere far away from Coruscant.”
                          
“You’re willing to give everything up for me?” she asked, beyond shocked.
                          
“You were right about me not being able to stay on Coruscant. There’s nothing left for me here – as Senator, at least. And I want to do something for what’s left of the Republic while I can.”
                          
She kissed him soundly. “That’s why I love you – but it’s still too much.”
                          
“Nonsense. I am going to spoil you rotten until the end of your days,” he said affectionately.
                          
“And I am going reprimand you for it until the end of my days,” she shot back, fighting off a smile.
                          
He shook his head, laughing softly. Then he became more serious again. “Can you help me with these?”
                          
“Sure. But you try it first.”
                          
“Try what?”
                          
“Don’t play stupid, Lux. It doesn’t become you.” She took his free hand and held it up. “Now close your eyes and focus. Pretend that if you raise your hand, a droid is going to lift it for you.”
                          
He did as she asked, closing his eyes. After a few moments of concentration, beads of perspiration appeared on his forehead, and his hand quivered. Ahsoka smiled with approval as the box rose up into the air, and stayed there.
                          
“Is it working?” asked Lux, which, naturally, broke his concentration. The thump of one of the boxes reuniting with gravity and hitting the floor was all the answer he needed. He opened his eyes, and proceeded to stare at his hand with unconcealed wonder.
                          
Just then, Ahsoka’s finely attuned hearing picked up the sound of police sirens in the distance, heading their way. “Lux, it’s time to go. I can hear sirens in the distance,” she said.
                          
He nodded, and, using the Force to suspend three of the boxes of credits in the air, she walked out of the room. Lux followed her with the other two, and they walked quickly back to the freighter. They would need time to leave slowly, so that it didn’t look like they were actually trying to make an escape.
                          
Soon, they reached the ship and got inside. By then, even Lux could hear the wailing sirens in the distance. Ahsoka set a course for Alderaan. “Good thing I didn’t land too close by. Those police droids won’t see anything we don’t want them to.”