Chapter 1

Stir

The clink of boots on steel sounded loudly in my ears and stirred me from my fragile half-sleep. I groaned and shifted underneath the covers of my sleep couch. I wasn't surprised to find that I was curled in the fetal position with the covers dragged over my head and the pillow jammed half underneath my head and upper torso. It wasn't anything new; I'd never been able to sleep properly after the Urusai had crashed.

Dragging the covers just far enough over my head to squint out into the room I saw my roommates doing the familiar dance for space. There wasn't very much room, military bunks like those on the Endar Spire weren't exactly spacey. Hestra and Trask, my only male roommate, were changing into their civvies. They had the shift opposite to myself and my last roommate, Danika.

Hestra Kahn was an older human woman, somewhere in her mid forties or so. Her short hair was shot with gray but looked like it had been a nice shade of brown once. She had a rough scar that passed over her right eye, skipping over the brow, missing the eye itself, and catching on her cheekbone again to continue down to her chin. Her eyes were hard and soft at the same time, the iris' an unusual moss green. She was fit but solidly built, more so than I was. It did her in good stead during the off-duty wrestling matches the soldiers sometimes held on their off days, everything she had was pure muscle. I only knew because I'd wrestled her on my off-day once. It had been a good match even though I'd lost. I was fairly disappointed that I'd never been able to repeat it.

Her shift-mate was a different story. Trask Ulgo was friendly enough but he always held Danika and me at a distance he didn't with anyone else. I didn't understand why, none of the other human males on the ship held such a reserve. Well that wasn't true; the group of Jedi on board held themselves apart.

As if he knew what I was thinking Trask cocked blond eyebrows and widened his blue eyes in mock surprise. "So the sloth awakens," he said.

"Good. We have to report for duty in twenty minutes," Danika said from her perch on her bunk. She glared at me, the look striking on her with her stark blue-black hair and midnight blue eyes. If I hadn't known her better it would have been comical, she had a petite, heart-shaped face that shouldn't have been able to look that fierce.

I dragged the blanket back over my head and grumble-groaned. All I wanted was to sleep for a week.

"You know the Sergeant will put us on extra janitorial duties again if we're late." Danika's voice had a warning edge to it and I knew that if I didn't at least make an attempt to get up soon she'd do something drastic. Last time it had been a bucket of cold water. I didn't know how she got it so cold, it certainly didn't come straight out of the tap that way, and I didn't really want to find out how she did it. Deciding that I didn't want to repeat the experience I reached under the sleep couch and fumbled one-handed for a clean uniform. Long practice did me in good stead and I pulled the military style shirt and pants under the covers with me.

I knew it wouldn't work out to get dressed while lying down but like always I tried it anyway until it got too frustrating. With my shirt crammed half way over my head and my pants mostly up one leg I rolled off my sleep-couch. I didn't worry about being modest around Trask, military bunks weren't particularly spacious and you learned to get very comfortable with your body very quickly.

The ship rocked with an impact in the middle of the motion and I stumbled awkwardly with it into a standing position. Lights flickered overhead and a pattern of sirens sounded over the loudspeakers. I knew the pattern immediately; we'd certainly drilled for it plenty of times. It meant we were under attack.

As I struggled with my pants Danika finished getting her boots on and strapped on as many of her weapons as she could, both her blaster rifle with the modified barrel and her heavy blaster rifle, her vibroblade, blaster pistol, all her throwing knives, a wicked looking dagger she'd won recently in a bet, and her pouch of small mines. She had thrown on her light armor on over the uniform as well.

Danika checked her heavy blaster rifle and stood at the ready as she waited for the rest of us to finish gearing up. Hestra and Trask slapped on armor over their civvies, throwing on all their weapons with the smooth, unerring motions of long practice. They didn't run as heavily as Danika and I did so they were done before I was.

I'd had to fight to keep some of my personal weapons and armor but it had been worth it. I strapped on my medium armor over my uniform shirt and double checked all the equipment I had on my belt. Garrote wire, grenade pouch, comlink, poisoned dagger, hip-and-thigh holster, and extra clips for my slugthrower. I threw my sniper blaster rifle over my shoulder and checked my pistol before slipping it into its holster and fastening the thigh strap. While I was in the area I made sure the hidden knife in my left boot was secure. I clipped on my stealth generator as well, double checking that it was working properly.

Finally I quickly checked over my slugthrower rifle and double checked the rest of my armament. Everything was ready.

Cocking the slugthrower I threw Danika a broad grin. "It's ass-kicking time," I told her.


Once outside our bunk it was pandemonium. Soldiers of all shapes and sizes raced for their battle stations as the ship pitched through multiple impacts. We would have done the same but for Trask insisting that we stay together and head for the bridge.

"What the frack are we supposed to do on the bridge?" I yelled at him, feeling somewhat ridiculous about having the argument in the crowded hall.

Trask's eyes darted from the hallway to me and back again. "We need to find Bastila," he said. "This whole ambush was probably staged just so that the Sith could grab her."

I was about to argue that I didn't give a damn about some prissy Jedi half-twit teenybopper when Danika cut me off. "Sounds interesting," she said. "Maybe we could get some action instead of waiting to get our heads blown off when the shield fails." She didn't wait for Trask to take the lead and shoved into the stream of traffic, heading directly for the bridge. The rest of us had little choice but to follow. We kept our weapons pointed upward as we went in order to prevent friendly fire.

Trask was quickly proved right that the Sith would try to grab Bastila. We tripped over Republic dead before we encountered the invading Sith, and it was precious little warning as it was. Our progress slowed down to a crawl but we forged on anyway.

As soon as we'd engaged the enemy Trask triggered the nearest alarm and the sirens overhead changed in tone and frequency. It was unlikely we'd get backup, but at least we could warn the rest of the ship.

After a while I figured he shouldn't have bothered. It seemed like the entire crew of the enemy ship had poured onto the Spire. Hestra and I were holding up the rear and it seemed like we were constantly walking backwards as we fired our weapons. Danika and Trask seared a path forward, shouting back to us when to move and when to duck.

The Sith were organized and knew what they were doing and it showed. It didn't help that the crew of the Spire had been taken by surprise and over time friendly chatter over our comlinks trickled down to nothing. My limbs felt strangely light and my mind raced double-time from the adrenaline pumping constantly into my system. I kept moving, knowing that if I slowed down or stopped for even a minute my body would begin to wind down and I couldn't afford that.

When we finally got to the bridge it was deserted. Republic corpses mingled with Sith and I automatically covered Danika as she quickly looted them. Trask and Hestra searched the bodies as well, but they were checking faces, not pockets.

"Bastila's not here," Trask said. "We have to find her."

"What we have to find is the fracking escape pods," I snapped, refraining from using harsher language. "She's a smart Jedi; she's probably already gone by now." There was no point in staying; the scene through the bridge port was not a comforting one. A nearby planet made a slow circle as the ship began to fall from orbit, a stark contrast to the Sith fighters whizzing past. The Sith battleship was nowhere in sight so I guessed it was somewhere above and behind us.

"She 'as a poin.' " Hestra's thick accent was difficult to sort out but I'd had enough practice to know what she'd said.

Trask looked like he was going to argue so I turned and walked for the side door that led to the nearest escape pod bay. "You can do whatever you want, Trasky-boy but I'm out've here."

Danika and Hestra followed me. So did Trask, but I never did check. I only knew because we took up the formation that had gotten us to the bridge in the first place, Trask and Danika leading while Hestra and I covered the back of the group.

The halls were empty of living beings, Republic and Sith alike. It was beginning to seriously worry me. "Where'd all the Sith go?" I asked as I swiveled to check a corner as we passed it. "You'd think they'd be all over the escape pods to prevent Bastila from escaping."

"Unless she was already gone and they knew it," Danika answered.

"No poin' in runnin' us all dow' like roden's when they cin blow th' whole mes ou' o' th' sky," Hestra added.

"Wonderful," I grumbled. If we'd headed for the escape pods first thing we could have been halfway to dirt-side already. Now we'd be lucky if we even made it to the bay.

"Wait," Trask said, slowing down as he approached the next door. He slowed all the way to a stop, a strange look on his face. "There's something behind here." He looked like he was sleep-walking.

"Not for long," Danika said, hefting her blaster rifle for emphasis. "Is it locked?"

Trask didn't answer. Instead he put away his blaster pistol and drew his vibroblade. Almost before he had it out of its sheath the door opened and revealed a tall, bald man wearing pitch black armor and holding a red-bladed lightsaber. He smiled evilly as he observed our motley group. Before anyone could react Trask charged him, vibroblade held high. "Run!" he called over his shoulder.

Trask's blind charge forced the Sith backwards somewhat. I raised my slugthrower to fire, hoping that my roommate's charge would distract him enough for me to get a good shot in. I never got the chance; as soon as Trask was past the door it shut behind him of its own accord. The light on the activation panel glowed red, indicating it was locked.

Nobody tried to sort out the door and help Trask. We were all soldiers and knew the costs of war. Even if we didn't, we weren't stupid. Not a single one of us had a lightsaber-proof blade and even if we did none of us was good enough to kill a Sith Lord anyhow. Infantry like us usually never saw them but everyone, even the best blade fighters, agreed that if you ever did see one you did one thing and one thing only. You turned, distracted him if you could, and you hauled ass out of there.

Grim-faced and quiet, not a single one of us looked back.

Even as I checked my corners and periodically checked behind myself it bothered me. It wasn't the fact that Trask had died, I'd seen people die before whom I'd known better than my dead roommate. It was the look on his face just before the door had opened, the way he'd held the blade as he'd charged forward. Something about the whole thing just didn't sit quite right with me.

The ship rocked and sent us stumbling. I recovered quickly, my comlink buzzing as I scrambled back to on course. "This Carth Onasi, if anyone's still out there you have five minutes to get to the escape pod bay. The shields are down and the Sith ship is getting its fighters clear so that it can fire its main batteries."

"How can he tell all that from the escape pod bay?" I asked.

"Emergency monitors," Danika said. "I thought they were kind of over-paranoid when I saw them but now I'm reassessing that statement."

"Remind me to thank the designer if I ever meet him," I replied. "He's my kind of paranoid."

The ship pitched beneath our feet again and this time everyone lost their footing. Danika slammed painfully into me, the blaster on her back digging into my cheek and her small frame squishing my slugthrower against my chest. The alarms changed yet again, though I didn't recognize the new pattern.

Hestra did and it made her face blanch in horror. "Th' life suppor's failed!" she said in strangled tone of voice.

"Shavit! Get your ass off me Dani!" I shouted. She didn't need any more encouragement and scrambled to her feet, shoving against me for leverage. I made a small noise as the breath left my lungs for a moment.

We didn't bother with checking corners and looking for enemies down the corridors, reckless in our need to escape. The comlink buzzed again as we neared the escape pod bay. I barely heard the words but their meaning sunk in shortly after. It had been Carth again. Last call for the escape pods.

"Wait a minute!" Danika shouted into her comlink. "We're almost there!"

The door was already open when we got there and standing in the doorway was a tall tense-faced man wearing a jacket dyed in a blinding shade of orange. He had dark brown hair and a scruffy beard. Even caught up in the near blind panic of the situation I could see that he had lines on his face he shouldn't, like Hestra did. I wondered briefly who each of them had lost.

"Come on," he said as soon as he saw us. "We have to go."

"Uh..." I started. There was only one escape pod, really only built for one, maybe two people, and there were four of us total.

"Frack it," Danika said, slinging her heavy blaster over her shoulder and leaping for the pod.

We all followed her lead, Carth automatically taking the pilot seat. Danika crammed in on his right and I crammed in on his left while Hestra wedged herself in behind the seat, straining to keep her body away from the door as she touched the activation panel that closed it. She let her body relax somewhat after, her hip jamming painfully into the door.

"Hang on," Carth said simply as the pod launched away from the ship. I tried desperately to keep my attention fixed on the small viewport but over half my vision was filled with the brightly dyed nerf leather of Carth's jacket and it was difficult. It moved to fill almost my entire field of vision as he reached for the controls.

I flinched at the whole business and tensed as the pod shuddered when it entered atmo. I'd only ever been in an escape pod once before in my entire spacing career and the experience had not ended well. On top of that I was a mechanic, I knew exactly how this particular model was built and I knew what it could handle as well as everything that could go wrong.

Shutting my eyes tight I did my best to close out reality.


Escape pods are not built to be terribly sturdy, contrary to popular belief. And the controls in the pilot's chair are mostly for show, most of the systems are built to be automated so that even an idiot has a fair chance of getting the thing to the ground. Actually I take that back. Escape pods will end up on the ground one way or the other. Whether they and the people inside them are intact is another matter entirely.

All in all, the chances of actually getting an escape pod to a safe landing, or any landing you can walk away from really, are about fifty-fifty. It should have been completely impossible for Carth to pilot the thing at all with the three of us crammed in around him like we were packed in a can and restricting his movements. But he did it anyway.

The escape pod brushed a tall building, the tremor shuddering through me and rattling my body painfully. I had no time to recover as only moments later the pod slammed into the ground, a horrendous screeching setting my teeth on edge as the escape pod's hull scraped along the duracrete. The vibrations were ten times worse than the brush with the building had been and the final stop slammed me forward into the control panel. So fast I barely registered the movement my arm shot forward to keep me from splitting my head open, wrenching my wrist badly in the process. As the pod settled I was thrown backward again and this time my head did hit steel. My jaws snapped together with an audible, chilling snap. Pain followed, along with the taste of blood in my mouth.

Lights danced in my vision and I realized dimly that I must have hit my head much harder than I had originally thought. The world seemed disjointed, when I tried to move my body seemed to respond a second later than it should have. Carth said something I couldn't quite make out, his voice sounding strange and far away to me. I sluggishly understood what he wanted, though, and I helped him extract my roommates from the pod.

Danika was unconscious and she was bleeding from a gash just above her temple. Carth carried her, grunting slightly with her weight. She might have been slight and petite but she was all dense, heavy muscle and she was wearing light armor and a near arsenal of weapons to boot. I helped Hestra limp away from the crash, her leg was broken and looked fairly bad from the way she was carrying it. I estimated that her boot had saved her from a compound fracture.

I don't know how long we kept going but eventually Carth set Danika down a small alcove in an alley somewhere. I eased Hestra down next to her and collapsed after, my balance screwed up as if I was drunk. Struggling to keep my attention focused, I listened as Carth told me to stay where I was and that he would be right back.

"Don' worry," I assured him with slurred speech. " 'M not goin' anywhere." I knew I should have been alarmed, slurred speech was a sure sign of a severe concussion, but I wasn't. Carth was, I could see it in his eyes. He looked like he might stay but Hestra reassured him.

While Carth was gone I fought hard to stay awake, suffering Hestra's sharp jabs to the unarmored area of my armpit when I nodded off. I knew later that if I had fallen asleep then I might have never woken up.

Carth came back eventually, just like he said he would. There were strange people with him that helped carry Danika and supported Hestra and I as we walked. One of them was human but the other was a Weequay. That didn't surprise me much; the species was not entirely comprised of mercenaries and bounty hunters as most humanoid species thought. He smelled but that didn't bother me overmuch for some reason. Hestra and Carth stayed polite but I could tell they didn't like it. The Weequay's buddy didn't even flinch, he'd likely gotten used to the smell long ago.

We were brought in the back way to a small medical clinic. There were two rows of kolto tanks, one against each wall. They glowed a soft, iridescent blue due to lights on the upper and lower parts of the tank. There were a few pallets there as well and my roommates and myself were each eased into one. I refused to lie down and Carth stayed with me, making sure I stayed awake while the Weequay and his human buddy disappeared through the door opposite the one we'd come through. They didn't come back and instead a dark skinned doctor came through the door. He checked me over first, shining a bright light in my eyes and asking me to do things. I tried my best to do what he wanted but most of it didn't come out right. When he was done he took Carth aside and talked with him quietly for a few moments. They both looked worried and after a time they stopped talking and Carth looked grim. He broke the moment with a short, curt nod. The doctor came back over and told me to lie down. He gave me something that made the world soften at the edges and got the pain to disappear.

I don't remember much after that.


Carth watched grimly as Zelka and one of his assistants took the blond woman to the clinic's small surgical unit. He hadn't caught her name and that troubled him. She could be dying right now. Dying like the rest of the crew of the Endar Spire had died.

It shouldn't have troubled him this much, Carth had not been in charge of the Endar Spire, he'd only been along as a consultant. If there was anyone to blame it was Bastila, she had been the one to ignore everyone's warnings. She had listened to the Jedi with her instead. "The Force will provide," they always said.

Force be damned, Carth thought bitterly. What had the Force ever done for him, for the galaxy? Nothing good that he had seen.

When all was said and done Carth had still considered the safety of the Endar Spire's crew his personal responsibility. He had been the one with the most experience with the Sith aboard the ship and he should have spoken louder, worked harder to convince Bastila of what he had known. But he had not and the Endar Spire had died along with its entire crew.

A few had escaped. There were two soldiers in the kolto tanks right then, a male human and a male Cathar. One of the assistants had told them that they were too far gone to be saved and had been put into the tanks to make them as comfortable as possible.

So as far as he knew, the blond woman, her two comrades, and himself were the only survivors of the attack in orbit. Bastila could still be alive, had to be if the Republic was going to win the war, but there was no guarantee. Carth had learned a long time ago that there never was.

Eventually he'd have to go looking for Bastila, alive or no. But for now there was a life hanging in the balance, one life that seemed to weigh against all the others already lost in a way Carth could not understand. So for the moment he simply sat with his worries and fears and waited for the outcome, one way or the other.


Danika awoke disoriented but relatively all right. The doctor told her she had a very mild concussion but would be fine in a day or so.

"Where's Sabine?" Danika asked. It was the first sentence out of her mouth.

"The blond woman?" The doctor asked with a look of mild puzzlement.

"Yes, is she okay?" Danika was worried. She felt muddled and a little disoriented even though she had been told she was physically fine.

The doctor's brow furrowed and his eyes turned grave. "She's in surgery," he said. "Her prognosis was pretty grim, but head wounds are tricky. Sometimes you think a patient will be fine and they hemorrhage the next minute. Sometimes beings that shouldn't live do." He shrugged, his white coat rustling softly with the movement. "We'll see how she does when she comes out of surgery."

"Thank you," Danika said. She appreciated the man being honest with her; she'd encountered doctors who didn't before. It wasn't that any of them lied, not exactly, but some of them had a way of spinning the words so it sounded better than it really was. She supposed it was their way of being kind. It wasn't, though. It never was.

The man nodded and headed off to help the other doctor set Hestra's leg. The veteran looked fairly out of it and Danika supposed that they'd medicated her pretty heavily. She left them to it and walked over to Carth, who sat in a chair alone with a brooding look on his face. She didn't know anyone could look that serious in a jacket that particularly violent shade of orange, but she felt no urge to laugh at the sight. She'd seen soldiers like him before who seemed to think that every life of their fellow soldiers rested on their shoulders.

"You shouldn't worry so much," she said in a somber tone. "It's not healthy for you."

"Getting hit in the head or shot at by a bunch of Sith isn't very healthy either," he answered. He didn't look angry like some of them did, he just looked tired.

"She'll either be fine or she won't," Danika replied. "There's no point in agonizing over something you don't know is going to happen."

Carth looked up at her for the first time during as-of-yet short conversation. His eyes were a warm, mahogany brown, a soulful color. Danika found herself cocking her head almost involuntarily at it. "How well do you know her?" he asked.

"Pretty well," Danika answered, flopping into a chair next to Carth. "We've been together for several years. We were smuggling partners until our ship got caught by a Republic battleship and we ended up being conscripted into the army. We weren't really conscripted, not in the strictest sense of the term. More like given a pretty silly offer. Either we could join the army as 'special recruits' or we could go to jail for the rest of our natural lives. Guess which one we chose."

"And you don't care that she's in there fighting for her life?" Carth's eyes changed, flashing a small challenge. His voice was hard.

Danika responded bristling to the challenge. "I lost a whole crew before her. Thirteen people who raised me and taught me the trade, thirteen people who were like family to me. Of course I care. But I won't set myself up to be hurt like that again."

Carth accepted her counter with a slight nod, his gaze slipping away to rest on the door to the surgical unit. Danika left him like that for a few moments before speaking again. "I'm Danika Reed," she said, her tone stiff but not unfriendly. "My friend in there is Sabine Thade and the old veteran with the broken leg is Hestra Kahn. We were roommates on the Spire."

"Thade and Reed?" Carth spoke out loud mostly out of surprise. He recognized those names. He'd been about to look up the profiles before the attack. They had been transferred by request of the Jedi at the last minute, as had the 'suggestion' of putting Bastila in charge of the ship and radically altering its mission parameters. And now they were here, some of the last survivors from the attack. Coincidence? Not likely. Carth didn't believe in coincidence.

"What about it?" Danika asked. She didn't look guilty at all but Carth knew better. The best ones always hid it well. He did not voice his suspicion to her, however. That was always a bad idea.

"They sound familiar, that's all," Carth said calmly. He'd gotten good at hiding his reactions ever since the brass had threatened to give him an early retirement if he kept accusing people left and right of being spies for the enemy. He'd complied and quieted down, at least to everyone but himself. Just because some people thought he was paranoid didn't mean he wasn't right.

Danika shrugged and still looked maddeningly innocent. "You're the bigshot hero, at least that was the word around the pazzak games. If anyone would know our names it would be you. What did they have you doing on that Republic boat anyway? I never quite got that part."

"I was a consultant," Carth answered. He didn't elaborate, but then again he didn't need to.

"Ouch," Danika said with a flinch. "I bet that was fun." Her tone was bitterly sarcastic.

Despite himself Carth found a half smile forming on his face. "You can say that."

Danika smiled back, but her face quickly sobered and Carth swore he could see the wheels turning in her head. "We're going to go find that prissy brunette Jedi aren't we?" she asked at length.

"Yes," Carth answered quietly, ignoring the jibe at Bastila. "But not now."

Danika's eyes flicked to the door of the surgery room in a worried look. And then the next moment her eyes flicked away and it was gone, so quick Carth wouldn't have thought he'd seen it unless he had known better. That made him feel better for some reason he couldn't fathom. She very well might be a spy, but she wasn't as cold hearted as he'd first thought.

"Not now," Danika agreed.

They said nothing further and sat together in silence to wait for news.


Sabine was in surgery for nearly six hours. The junior doctors offered food and water to everyone and set up cots for them. Danika flopped into hers without a single word and immediately passed out. Carth helped the junior doctors move Hestra into one of the cots. The old veteran didn't stir when they moved her; she was still drugged heavily.

Carth thought he couldn't sleep but he was wrong. One minute he was stretched out on the cot staring up at the ceiling and the next he was being shaken awake by Danika. "Zelka's out," she said. "I haven't spoken to him yet. I thought you might want to hear."

"Thanks," Carth said as he wrested himself back into wakefulness. He did it fairly quickly; he'd had plenty of practice during the war. He swung off his cot and followed Danika to where Zelka was standing.

"So what's the news doc?" Danika asked. Her voice was grave despite the cavalier tone she tried to impress on it.

"It's incredible," Zelka said. "I've never seen anything like it. She was hemorrhaging inside her head and to be perfectly honest she should have died before we could relieve the pressure. She didn't, though. I can't explain it. It was almost as if her skull and brain were absorbing or breaking down the blood." The doctor shook his head in disbelief. "She should be fine," he said. "There won't even be a need to graft a new piece of bone where we opened her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain. It's regenerating itself already."

Danika blinked, the rest of her face frozen in a neutral mask. "Is that even possible?" She asked.

Zelka shrugged. "If she wasn't human I'd say she was. She is human, isn't she?"

Danika shrugged back, her face mildly puzzled. "As far as I know she is."

"Well whatever she is she's recovering fast. If she continues at this rate I should be able to release her in eight to ten hours," Zelka said. "I'll need to keep her here for at least twenty-four hours for observation anyway, just in case."

Both Danika and Carth nodded. In their respective fields they'd seen enough wounds to know that it was never smart to argue with the doctors on head injuries. "We'll need to do some scouting anyway," Carth said. "Is there anywhere around here where we can find shelter?"

"You might want to try the west apartments," Zelka answered. "They're fairly run down but the landlord doesn't come through there very often. Don't try the lower levels, the Sith took over fairly quickly and they're currently restricting use of the elevators."

"The Sith are here?" Danika asked. She looked genuinely surprised.

Carth nodded and opened his mouth to elaborate but Zelka held up a hand. "I'll take care of anyone you bring here and I'll keep my mouth shut but I don't want to be a part of your discussions," he said. "The less I know the better."

Danika hooded her eyes and moved her head in a gesture of agreement. "That's fine," she said. "But we can't go out there blind. What's happened since we arrived?"

"The Sith took over the government," Zelka answered. "They haven't enforced a curfew yet, but they likely will soon. Movement between the Upper and Lower Cities have been restricted and Sith patrols are roaming everywhere." Zelka gestured at Danika's Republic uniform underneath her armor vest. "One of the juniors has offered some of her spare clothes."

Danika ducked her head down as if just realizing her state of dress. "Oh," she said. "Right. Where are they?"

"Staff locker room," Zelka answered, gesturing in the right direction.

"Thank you," Carth said to Zelka as Danika walked off. "We don't have much money..."

Zelka waved Carth off before he could continue. "We were always government supplied before so it's no issue. And with the Sith running around everywhere there's no telling how long we'll continue to stay in business, so keep your credits. I'm sure you'll be needing them soon enough."

Carth could find nothing to be suspicious of, though he tried. There was simply no reason for him to be suspicious of the doctor at that point, not after he'd spent six hours in surgery with Sabine. When he finally settled into it, the gesture of kindness actually touched him. "Thank you," he said quietly.

Zelka accepted the thanks and went to clean up. Danika came back only a minute or two later wearing a pair of plain pants and a button down shirt. She still wore her light armor vest over it and when he tried to comment she glared. She was still armed to the teeth as well.

"If anyone asks we're mercenaries," she growled at him as she prowled passed him to the door. He struggled to suppress a laugh. Despite the fact that she was fairly well muscled she was still a short, delicately built woman. She looked like someone's favorite niece playing soldiers and bandits.

Amused enough to almost completely forget his suspicions Carth followed the black haired smuggler out the door and into the night.


To Be Continued...