Star Wars: Rebel Rising(68)

Akshaya was gone.

Hadder was gone.

It wasn’t the loneliness that clawed into her now. She knew loneliness; she understood that old wound. It was the deep, infuriating injustice of it all. The impossibility of changing what had happened. The knowledge that all she had felt for Hadder had amounted to…

Nothing.

Jyn curled up on her bed, pulling her knees to her chin, as if compressing her body would lessen the emptiness inside her. A sob burst out of her mouth, and she swallowed air, and then she was gasping, her shoulders shaking, desperate for breath. It felt as if her ribs had collapsed. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. She could only sob, muffling her sorrow with the musty-smelling pillow as she rocked back and forth, weeping until she fell back asleep, exhausted from grief.



The innkeeper walked up and down the hall of rooms, banging on the doors with a heavy stick. Time to go.

Jyn scarfed down a breakfast of bread that was offered to all the nightly guests. It wasn’t much—mealy and dry. But it was something.

“Stay another night?” the innkeeper said, the loose skin of her arms slapping against her torso as she walked among her lingering guests. “I give discounts.”

She paused by Jyn. “Need a place, sweetheart?” she said in her low, gravely voice. Jyn wondered what her species was; she had never seen anyone like the innkeeper. Short and skinny but with loose skin all over and comically large feet.

Jyn shook her head. She needed to figure out where she could sleep, but she couldn’t afford to continue sleeping there. And she didn’t want to guess in what ways the innkeeper would make her pay her bills when the money ran out.

Jyn knew if worse came to worst, she could sell something. The only things of value she had were the necklace her mother had given her and her weapons. She needed the weapons.

Her hand went to her neck, fingering the leather cord the kyber crystal hung from.

The innkeeper started clearing away the bread dishes and empty cups, her scowl a clear indication that it was time to move on. Jyn kept her eyes on the HoloNet display, pretending not to notice, relishing the chance to just sit and think. Her gaze drifted to the bottom of the viewscreen, to the running ticker of local news. There didn’t seem to be that much. An advertisement for a special deal on credits at one of the gambling halls. An announcement for a stormtrooper formation exhibition happening in three standard days. Notices of jobs—none of which Jyn was qualified for. She started to look away, but then she noticed a name she knew.

Ponta, report to main processing unit on level TJ56.

“Time to go, sweetheart,” the old woman who ran the inn said, plunking down the dirty dishes she’d been carrying.

“Yeah,” Jyn said absently, looking past the woman’s shoulder.

“’Lest you pay me for another night, get out,” the innkeeper said, her voice sterner.

“I just want to read—”

“Ain’t free. Go.” There was steel in the old woman’s voice. The ticker display had cycled around and was showing the advertisement again; it would be several minutes before Jyn could get back to the name Ponta.

The woman pushed Jyn out of the chair. “Fine!” Jyn roared. “I’m leaving.”

Jyn stormed out, her mind churning. Someone named Ponta was to report to the main processing unit, where everyone who docked at the station checked in.

She felt her heart thudding with hope. Akshaya or Hadder—maybe both—was still alive.





Jyn took the lift to level TJ56. There was a line at the main processing unit, despite four droids working. Jyn stood to the side, scanning the crowd for Akshaya’s bright scarf or Hadder’s black hair. Her eyes darted from person to person, hope surging inside her with every blink. Ponta…someone named Ponta was going to report to this desk.

After nearly an hour had gone by, Jyn’s hope was turning to anxiety. Maybe the ticker had given a specific time and Jyn hadn’t noticed it? Maybe she was at the wrong desk.

“Miss?”

Jyn’s blood turned to ice as she faced the Imperial officer looking down at her. Tall and thin, the female officer had a cold look in her eyes. Her coarse black hair had been carefully braided and bound in a bun at the base of her neck, and her dark skin blended with the black uniform.

“Yes?” Jyn asked, forcing her eyes to look innocent, her hands to stay away from her weapons.

“I couldn’t help noticing you’ve been lingering here. Are you waiting for someone?”

“Um…” Honesty was probably the best option; the request that a person named Ponta show up at the desk was public, so it wouldn’t look strange for Jyn to say it. “I saw on the HoloNet that Ponta was supposed to report here?”

The Imperial officer’s face lit up. “Tanith Ponta? Is that you?”

And every single hope Jyn had for Hadder and Akshaya’s return crashed. She’d forgotten that the name she’d given when she’d landed was theirs. The processing unit had been looking for her.

“Yes,” Jyn said, wary but too tired to think of a lie.

“How fortuitous,” the officer said.

Jyn shot her a questioning look.

“Because I was the one requesting your presence.” The officer swept her arm out, and Jyn had no choice but to follow her to a private office down the hall.