The whole team except for Alira gaped. On her part, she simply smirked. She'd known something would be here, underneath the reclaiming jungle, even if it was just the rubble and dust of a long-dead civilization. That was their trade, after all, as archaeologists.

"Quit standing there like nerf-herders in front of a Jedi! Get to work!" The call broke everyone from their respective reveries and they followed her command, shifting rubble and pushing jungle away from their worksites.

As the head archaeologist, she didn't engage in the grunt work, instead choosing to supervise everyone else extracting everything that wasn't plain old durasteel. This area was a goldmine, apparently – the team found everything from several ancient lightsabers to old armor to a used carbonite freezing frame, long emptied of its inhabitant.

After some time, one member of the team signalled her. "Think I found something really good!"

"What is it, Artsie?" She picked her way over the rubble to her team member.

"Block of carbonite again – but this one's got someone inside! Looks like he's alive, too!" He sounded positively giddy, which made sense. Alira shared the feeling.

"No way. Get it out, then!"

She helped him push aside the rubble to reveal more of the carbonite block. She called one of the team with a hover-platform over, and together the three hefted the carbonite block onto it.

Alira studied the carbonite block. A man, judging by the shape of his face, and a Zabrak judging by the horns. According to the readout on the side of the block, he was indeed alive, which made her gasp in excitement. A real live ancient man… Who knew what they could learn from him? It was any archaeologist's wet dream come to life in front of them.

"I'm taking him back to camp," she said. "Shouldn't release him until we've got better med facilities, so he'll have to stay in there until we get back to the Core."

"He'll survive," Artsie guffawed. "After all, he's survived this long!"

The team didn't have the med facilities to make sure the man could survive the thawing process, even back on Coruscant, so they had to make a deal with the Jedi to use their med facilities. They agreed, on the condition that one of their archivists got to speak with the man, which the team thought was a good deal, all things considered.

Alira and the rest of the team watched through the window as a med droid tapped in the commands that would release the man from his carbonite prison. Immediately, the carbonite began to glow orange around the man's face, melting away to reveal orange-red and black skin. Next were his hands, which went limp from their outstretched position as soon as they were no longer being supported. His body followed, then his feet, dropping the man into the waiting arms of the medical droid, who carried him to a bacta tank and got him ready for immersion.

While he was being prepped, Alira studied him further. She'd never seen a Zabrak with skin that colour, and she wondered where he came from. On his face, over the tattoos, were what looked like burn scars. They spread to below his chin. Strangely, they looked as though they were in a specific pattern.

He was wearing a skin-tight white formal suit with a red half-cape, cinched at his waist with a wide brown leatheris belt. The style of his suit tickled Alira's memory, but she just couldn't quite place it.

She turned to their textile expert. "Do you recognize the cut of his suit?"

He stepped forward to the window to examine it before the med droid removed it. "Cold war era. Looks like something a Senator might wear. Must have been some kind of a politician."

"Why would a politician have scars like those?" she wondered aloud, then shook his head. "Whatever. We can ask him later. Let's leave him to be treated."

The team followed her silently out of the observation room.

It was too bright.

That was Anubin's first thought as his eyes opened. Too bright and too wet for them to stay open, so he immediately closed them. His second thought was that he hadn't been able to see anything when he opened his eyes, though it was possible that that was because of the fluid around him.

He reached out in the Force to "see" his surroundings, a trick he'd picked up from Darth Marr a long time ago, on one of those rare occasions when the Miraluka wasn't wearing his mask. Around him were nothing but medical droids and beds, plus two more tanks, similar to the one he was evidently floating in. He retracted his sense as one of the droids realized he was awake and approached.

He waved to get its attention. "Where am I?" he tried to ask, but was hampered by the breathing tube in his mouth.

Suddenly, the fluid began shifting around him. As air touched the top of his head, he realized that it was being drained from the tank, freeing him. As soon as the fluid went below his chin, he reached up and removed the breathing tube from his mouth.

"Where am I?" he asked again, properly this time. The medical droid didn't respond – maybe it couldn't hear him, or wasn't programmed to respond. It didn't matter, as an actual person entered the room in the next moment.

He extended his Force senses again and brushed against the person. A human male, a Jedi judging from the wall around his thoughts and the way he recoiled at Anubin's touch. Anubin pulled his senses back to himself once more as the man recovered and approached.

"Are you alright? You weren't supposed to wake up yet."

That was interesting. Anubin took quick inventory of his body. Aside from a slight aching in his chest and a continued inability to see his surroundings even with his eyes open, he didn't feel much of anything wrong. "I'm fine. Where am I?"

"You're in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. You were brought here by a team of archaeologists who excavated you and released you from carbonite freezing. You were brought here to recover from hibernation sickness."

The Jedi Temple? But that was just ruins. How was he in a perfectly intact medcenter on Coruscant of all places? And if he really was in the Jedi Temple, how had they not recognized him as Sith?

Wait… archaeologists?

Apparently he'd asked the last question aloud, since the man responded. "Yes, archaeologists. They found you in the ruins of a building on a world in the Unknown Regions. They guessed based on your clothing that you were from the Cold War era. That was over thirty-six hundred years ago."

Anubin's head spun. Thirty-six hundred years… Everyone he knew and loved was long dead, and probably forgotten. He was the only one who remembered anyone – Darth Marr, Advena, Satele Shan, Khem Val…

Talos. Archaeologists. Right. He could mourn later.

"I see," he forced out. "Will I get to meet these archaeologists?"

"They did want to meet you, but they'll have to wait until your medical examination is over. You nearly didn't survive the extraction from carbonite; in fact, it was a miracle you survived at all. We want to make sure you're healthy before we release you from care."

Anubin's eyes flew open, to no avail except for dramatic purposes. A med examination would reveal oddities from his reconstruction on Belsavis… which would mean nothing to anyone who wasn't there or didn't know about the story. He relaxed. "Very well. Finish your medical examination then."

The Jedi noticed his tension, though. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes. I was, however, wondering… where are my effects? My clothes and my lightsaber?"

"Lightsaber? Are you a Jedi?"

Well, if he was being handed such a convenient cover story… "Yes." He knew probably enough about the Jedi to pass as one. He'd traveled with one, after all, and loved another, so he was fine.

"The archaeologist team likely has your lightsaber. Your clothes are being examined by them right now, as well. You'll get them back when they're done."

"Fine." He said no more, and the Jedi eventually left him alone with the medical droids.

About a week later, the medical authorities of the Jedi declared him fit for visitors, and so Alira and Artsie trooped into the med bay to meet their prize while the rest of the team watched from the observation window.

The man was sitting cross-legged in bed, eyes closed. His sheets were floating in a ball in front of him. Apparently he was meditating. At the sound of them stepping into the room, however, the sheet ball dropped to the bed and he turned to face them, revealing a bandage around his eyes – probably bacta-soaked.

"Hello. You must be the archaeologists I've heard about?"

"Hello! Yes, I'm Alira, and this is Artsie. We've just come to ask you some questions, nothing too big just yet."

His face, from what they could see of his expression, seemed a little suspicious, but his shoulders were relaxed. "Very well. First, can I ask you a question?"

"Uh… sure. Shoot."

"Where are my clothes? And did you excavate my lightsaber with me?"

"Your clothes are… I can have them brought in. And we excavated several lightsabers. What did yours look like? And are you a Jedi?"

"Yes. And it's a double-bladed lightsaber with two extensions at either end." He mimed the shape in midair as he described it. Alira recognized the idea.

"Yes, we do have a lightsaber like that. I'll ask the Jedi if we can return it to you as soon as possible."

"Thank you." He relaxed a little more. "So, what did you want to ask?"

"What's your name, first?"

"Anubin. Anubin Tarmikos."

"Alright. And…"

The archaeologists spent almost two hours with him, drawing out recent – for him – history and some stories of his travels. Eventually, Anubin refused to answer any more questions, saying he was tired, but he did ask one question. "Have you ever heard of a woman called Advena Tarmikos?"

"No, should I have?" Alira felt a pang at his crestfallen expression. "Was she your wife?"

"My sister. I was hoping to find out what had happened to her after Zakuul's invasion, but… I suppose not." He was silent for a moment. "Thank you."

Without another word, the two archaeologists left the room.