A/N: And so it begins. This is a cross-over story between KotOR (Knights of the Old Republic) and Star Trek:TOS (The Original Series). Mixed in with the other characters I have a few of my own. My characters, Rin and her sister Callista, are basically gryphons of a sort. I'm basing them off of a gryphon-like race in the animated Star Trek series that are known as the Aurelians. They are a bit different, of course. They are not all golden in color with blue eyes, and they have other differences. (Search 'Aurelian' with 'Memory-Alpha' on Google, and the first site that comes up will tell you everything about these creatures.) The others are characters from either KotOR or Star Trek:TOS. If pieces don't make sense (I'm sure I've fixed all of them) this was only something to prevent me from going mad from boredom. (Read my Bio) I'm still uncertain if I am going to finish it, but if I do, it's going to eventually turn into something of an episode of Star Trek: TOS. There is still much more for me to type, so expect constant chapters for this story. Enjoy!
"I'm going by myself?" she asked in surprise as she stared out at an image of the surface of the planet.
"Yes," Kirk answered plainly but firmly. "You're the only one that could survive the vapors out there. The rest of us would succumb to them and… needless to say, McCoy would not be in the best of moods."
"Of course," she responded with a false smile and they handed her a com-link as she stepped onto the transporter pad. The room disappeared and she stared around at the barren wasteland she was now standing in.
Fortunately she managed to find the entrance into a small underground station and stumbled into the cantina there. She was careful to keep her head low to avoid any confrontations but the one she found wasn't as bad as she was expecting.
"Rinsaku, my old friend, some join me!" a rough alien voice said happily and she smiled when she realized who it was.
"Hanharr, my friend!" she greeted as she took a seat beside the Wookie and noted, "You're in good spirits this day."
"Indeed!" he laughed. "I brought in some fair bounties early this morning and pleased Jabba greatly. What brings you to my side of the galaxy, Rin?"
"I hear this is the place to get dilithium crystals?" She frowned at his expression,
"Yes, you can find them here," he hissed and he glanced over his shoulder, "but they will be hard for you to come by."
"How so?" Rin asked as she raised a furry eyebrow.
"You're not in Federation space anymore. The Klingons have a bounty on your head so big a fool could buy his own planet. You will need help getting to them. Drink?"
"I'd rather not." She laughed a little. "Buy their own planet? Surely, you must be exaggerating."
"I'm afraid not," he responded with a sigh as he inhaled his drink in one gulp. "I don't know what you and your sister did to vex them so, but whatever it was, you really must've hit a soft spot in that armor."
Rin nearly fell out of her chair. She wasn't laughing anymore. "My… sister?" she asked with a shaky voice. "But… Callista… I thought she was-"
"Oh no, no, she was not killed. When she was a youngling, the Klingons took her to Coroscant to hide her there. After having so much trouble with you, they assumed that Czerka would not be the only company to pay such a high price for a creature as rare as the both of you."
"But by my luck I was saved by a ship full of Vulcans," she recalled. "The Klingons were transporting me for another sales attempt, but they never had the chance."
"I am aware of this, and your sister was fortunate as well," Hanharr informed. "The Jedi Council sensed a… disturbance, I believe it was, and set out to investigate. They found her through the Force, and trained her to become a full-fledged Jedi. I haven't heard anything else, all but it's hard to kill Jedi."
Rin stared in disbelief. "If my bounty is so high," she asked in a suspecting tone, "why tell me this? Why do you not kill me yourself, and buy a planet?"
Hanharr smiled a dark toothy grin. "One, because you're my friend, and for another reason, you could easily strike me down before I could even think to act up on it."
"Then you are a wise Wookie, my friend," she acknowledged. "Now, about those crystals… how can I get my talons on a coupe of pairs? Without a doubt, I'm sure you have a solution, do you not?"
He was a bit quarrelsome at first, but after she had slipped a few drinks down his throat, it was not so difficult to coax it out of him. "It is possible, but only for those who share your… abilities." She raised an eyebrow as he continued. "You will need to be stealthy," he warned. "Many of your evil cousins roam these halls. Perhaps it would not be such a bad thing to make yourself appear as one of them?"
A light went off in Rin's head. "I see what you mean, Hanharr. I appreciate the warning."
She managed to leave the cantina without drawing much attention to herself and she stood in a vacant room as she thought. "Malvadioum was a cruel and scrawny breed but… eh, it's my duty."
After reaching within herself and pulling on her physical power, she managed to transform her outward appearance to match that of her race's hated branch. Her fur had darkened from a rich mahogany brown to an ugly dirt color, and she looked like she had just come out of a fight with a rancor. In places, she was missing fur and she had scars in a few spots. She practically had to transform everything about her before she left the room.
The corridors were nearly empty as she strode through them. She took on a more aggressive gait and held her head a bit higher.
"Ah! Kaalah-Nah!" a voice from behind her called. "What brings you here to our humble little outpost?"
Rin turned and took in the strange alien. She had seen him before on another planet, and he had called himself Visquis. "Ah, good day, Visquis," she greeted him, but not in too friendly a way. Her memories and upbringing on Vulcan came back to her, and she stowed away her emotions like she had been taught so many years before. Even though she frequently used her emotions, to the disproval of her Vulcan foster parents, on the brief occasions when she was required emotional silence, it was possible because of the… different, upbringing she had received. "I have come to obtain a few pairs of dilithium crystals to power my ship."
"Your ship?" he asked curiously. "You mean to say that the Federation Cruiser orbiting just off-planet is yours?"
"Indeed." She could tell by his expression that he didn't believe her. "Let me prove it to you," she offered as she pulled out her communicator. As she opened it, she pressed a small button before speaking.
Kirk smirked when he saw an orange light blink at him on the arm of the Captain's chair. "I wonder what she's up to now," he muttered to himself before he opened the channel. "Kirk here," he answered the hail.
"Are you not," Kaalah-Nah began in a stronger voice, "Captain James T. Kirk of the Federation starship Enterprise, of which was recently taken by me not a month ago?"
His smirk grew into a smile as he realized what was going on and he put a tone of aggression into his voice as he growled, "I'm am… or was the Captain of this ship, and I still demand-"
"Your demand for return of command is irrelevant to me!" she barked at him. "Recall this: you leave with 'your ship', and your family's lives are mine."
"Don't you dare do anything to them!" Kirk shouted and she inwardly smiled. "If you do, I'll… I'll…"
"You'll what, human?" she asked threateningly. "Your race is a weak one, and shall always be crushed under the foot of the galaxies! Learn your place, and keep it!" She closed the channel and glanced up and Visquis. "Do you believe me now?"
"Of course, Kaalah-Nah," he responded with a smile. "Forgive me for being cautious, but as of late, we have had many coming here claiming to be people they are not, so I have come to see them myself."
"I appreciate your caution, Visquis. You have my thanks." She glanced over her shoulder and asked, "Where are the crystals?"
"This way," he said and he beckoned her to follow him. The door opened and she was overwhelmed by the amount of soldiers. The all turned their guns on her and she looked up at Visquis.
"What is this betrayal?"
He scoffed, "My betrayal? You amuse me, Hiroshi. I am not as foolish as I appear to be. I know Kaalah-Nah better than she knows herself. Obviously, you are not her." Visquis started laughing to himself and stated, "And now, I'm going to kill you and collect your high-priced bounty."
A few of the men behind him glanced at each other in an almost irritated way and one fired into the ceiling. "You will take the bounty?"
Visquis stared silently for a moment and rephrased, "I will... assist you in collecting the bounty of course, Bendak."
"I think not, Visquis." He glanced at the group of humans and aliens behind him. "I think it would be unfair for you to take the pleasure of disposing of the creature. I recommend you step aside."
"Remember, my men are mixed with yours and are loyal to me." Any expression at all was gone from his face and Rin could tell he was nervous.
"Bounty hunters are ruthless and trained killers," he informed. "Do you truly think any of your men have the slightest chance of killing Bendak Starkiller with such makeshift blasters?"
Rin raised an eyebrow and glanced over her shoulder. Visquis appeared to be telepathically giving commands to his men and when one moved too quickly a gunfight began in the blink of an eye.
Taking advantage of the distraction, she slipped out the door and disappeared down the hallway. Rin opened one of the rooms she saw in the hallway and smiled when she found a console standing in the middle of the room. After closing the door and a couple of minutes at the console, she hacked into the station's mainframe. She was able to download the area schematics into her datapad and honed in on the room containing the dilithium crystals almost instantly. Just as she was about to log out, curiosity grabbed hold of her and she did a search on the bounties. She downloaded all the information she could find and then set off to find the room containing the crystals.