Chapter Text
Eli tugged at his civilian clothes, trying to make himself look presentable, as he entered the cantina. It'd been a while since he'd worn anything but one uniform or another and it was not helping him feel at ease.
He recognized the Togruta sitting at a table in the back. Ahsoka Tano, Jedi turned Rebellion leader. Finding info on Tano had not been easy, not with the Empire gone and with it most of his contacts and resources. From what he'd been able to find it didn't seem like Tano had Second Sight but Vah'nya had warned him that she could probably use the Force to read his intentions. Eli took a deep breath, he could do this. For Thrawn, he could do this.
"Greetings," Eli said, playing up his Wild Space accent; anything that would set him apart from Imperial Center. His accent wasn't a lie. There was an 8 in 10 chance that he'd be able to fool her if he stuck to the truth, the creatively edited truth. If there was no outright deception she wouldn't be able to sense it. Hopefully, Vah'nya was right about that.
"I heard y'all are looking for a translator going into the Unknown Regions?"
"We do," the Mandalorian standing behind Tano said, arms crossed in front of her chest - Sabine Wren his memory supplied, Lothal Rebels - looking him up and down. "Which languages do you speak?"
"I speak quite a few but for where y'all going Sy Bisti, Lioaoi and Taarja will be most useful," Eli explained, running his hand through his hair in thought. "I also speak Meese Caulf and Bocce but you could get a droid for that."
"I've never heard of some of those, where did you learn them?" Sabine was tired. She wanted a hot bath and a drink, not necessarily in that order. They'd been interviewing potential candidates for hours but according to Ahsoka none of them had been 'the one'. It wasn't that she didn't believe in the Force, she'd lived among Jedi for long enough to know that it was real alright but right now what it mostly was was a real pain in the ass.
"I'm from Wild Space," the man, he had to be in his mid-thirties, said patiently as if that wasn't obvious from his accent. "My parents own a small shipping company; you pick stuff up when you're around traders from all over, ma'am."
Eli eyed Wren wearily, he'd heard about her part in the liberation of Lothal, how they'd blown up the Academy with everyone in it. Trusting her felt like a gamble but he didn't have much of a choice if he wanted to find Thrawn. The fall of the Empire had come as a surprise to the Ascendancy and reinforced Supreme Admiral Ar'alani's conviction that bringing Thrawn home once and for all was the best option they had. The New Republic was still too weak and needed to be watched before a potential alliance could be offered.
"What's your name?" Tano asked, and Eli wondered if the shiver he felt running down his back was her using the Force on him or just nerves.
"You can call me Ivant," Eli said, sticking as closely to the truth as he could. He'd been Ivant for nearly a decade now, surely that counted.
He'd read about the war trials on the Holonet and the rewards that were still out for high-ranking Imperial officers. He'd have to be very careful. Really, really careful. If he got himself captured and executed for what had happened at Batonn he'd be of no use to Thrawn, quite the contrary.
"What kind of cargo would you be transporting?" Eli asked, testing their honesty in return. He was fully aware of their mission but he wanted to see what they'd tell him.
Sabine and Ahsoka shared a glance. Surprisingly he'd been the first to ask that question.
"That's on a need to know --" Sabine started but Ahoska held up her hand, interjecting.
"He's the one," Ahsoka said with that sometimes infuriating certainty Force-users had about them that more often than not grated on Sabine's nerves.
"You sure?" Sabine asked, narrowing her eyes at Ahsoka. There was something not quite right about Ivant; his clothes were too new, and his posture was a bit too rigid, too formal. Like he wanted to stand to attention but was trying not to. She'd seen this with many of the Imp defectors during her days in the Rebellion. He didn't ping her as definitely Imperial but there was something military about him and she wasn't sure he'd not been making stuff up about at least one of the languages he claimed to speak.
"Yes, I can feel it in the Force. We need him," Ahsoka reassured her.
"We're not traders, we're on a rescue mission," Sabine explained, deciding to trust Ahsoka in this. "Welcome to the crew, Ivant."