Ahsoka closed the door to her tiny room in the Coruscant's Liberty Orphanage, collapsing into a heap on the floor. She hated nights like tonight, when her boss – a Besalisk named Dex Jettster, who was nice enough as long as she wasn't late – made her work the extra hour to make up for the one she had missed.

As a result, she hadn't had time for supper, which was usually included in the restaurant's daily pay, and had to use some of her meager earnings to buy herself some fast food on her way back to CLO, as the kids called the orphanage.

She was so tired, and it was only her second week in Coruscant. It was a big city, much larger than Shili, and she wished for all of Galactica that she was back with the kind Togruta men and women, who were of the same species as she was.

Forcing her exhausted limbs to move, she pulled herself onto her bed. Despite the fact that her pillow was hard as rock and she could feel the springs in the mattress, right now it was the most comfortable thing in the world.

Thankfully, her homework was only due for the classes after lunch. She could do it then, and rest now.

She pulled her fuzzy blanket – one of the few possessions she had brought with her from Shili – over her body and up over her face and lekku.

She sighed, rolling over to face the small mirror on one wall. "All right, Ahsoka," she said, giving herself a pep talk. "You have to toughen up. Just a little bit longer, and you'll be able to get out of here. You're nearly seventeen. And after seventeen comes eighteen. When you're eighteen, you won't have to live in this stupid orphanage any longer."

Gradually, she began to feel herself drifting off. Smiling sleepily to herself, she reached over to turn off her light. But, strangely enough, it was already off before her fingers touched the switch.

It's probably nothing, she though. A few minutes later, she had fallen asleep.

Several streets away, Professor Padme Amidala stood on the balcony of her penthouse apartment in 500 Republica, looking out at the view of Coruscant. The soft glow of the lights she had placed here and there cast shadows over her face as she sat down on a sofa.

"I miss you, Ani," she whispered. "I know your Jedi duties are important, but I wish you were here with me."

She grabbed her comm-phone off a nearby table, keying in the code to create a link with another comm. Upon completing the code, she prepared to push the call button, but her finger wouldn't obey. She was too uncertain.

Finally, plucking up her courage, she hit the circular disk. A moment later, someone picked up on the other end. "Hello? Padme, is that you?"

"Ani!" she gasped. "I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you more." She could practically hear Anakin Skywalker, her dashing Jedi husband, smiling through the comm. "The Jedi have been sending me to practically every city in Galactica. I'm back at the Je'daii Sanctum for now, but I won't be for more than three days."

"Then I guess I'll have to see you before then," she said. "I wish there wasn't a war. I wish Serenno and Raxus had never tried to become their own separate country. Then you would be here in Coruscant, and not far away."

"I know." He paused, as if he was thinking. "But I can sense that this isn't merely a friendly call. What's going on? Do you need something?"

"No, Ani, I'm fine. It's just..." Padme sighed, trying to find the words to tell her husband what she wanted to say. "You know how I've started teaching at Coruscant High School along with my City Council job?"

"Yeah..." She could tell that he didn't know where she was going with this.

"Well, I ran into a new student today after class. She's in one of the groups I only teach every three days, and I only met her because she was coming for a makeup test. And... I think there's something special about her."

"Special? What do you mean, special?"

"Well... Like you."

Anakin was silent for a long moment. Then he exhaled softly. "What's her name? This girl that you say is special?"

"Ahsoka Tano. She lives at the Coruscant Liberty Orphanage, and I think that she deserves the opportunity that enrolling in the Jedi Martial Arts course presents."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Ani..." She smiled. "I knew you wouldn't let me down."

He laughed. "I never will, Padme. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

*Heeeeyyyyyy everybody! I hope you're all enjoying this fanfic so far. I'm not really going to be doing long and involved author's notes for this fanfic, but today is an exception. Some things about this fanfic that you should all know:

-- Galactica is a planet, and the planets that we know from Star Wars are all citie-states that govern a province, and have a dominant species. For example, Shili is mainly Togruta, with a sprinkling of other species like human or Twi'lek. 

Coruscant (the capital of Galactica) is pretty much every kind of species, and it's the biggest and most developed of all the cities. Serenno and Raxus are the second and third largest, and they rallied together to form the Separatist Alliance (or the Confederacy of Independent City-States). Count Dooku is the head of the Separatists (duh), and General Grievous is his second-in-command (another duh).

-- It's kind of a mishmash of 21st-century Earth and Star Wars technology. See how in this chapter I combined a cell phone and a commlink? There are going to be other hybrids as well that you'll notice later. The clothing style is pretty much consistent with what we wear here on Earth, but has a SW twist.

Okay, that's about it for now. I'll explain the rest later. BYE!!!!!