A/N: Sorry about the wait! I live at work these days (home is merely where I bathe and sleep), so I don't have nearly as much time to do things like read and write and watch TV. I will try to update more reasonably, but once I run out of written chapters, expect things to slow down considerably again. Um. Even more considerably.
Also, since I'm nowhere near finished with the story: if you spot plot holes or contradictions with the previous story, please let me know! I am my own beta reader, and I don't always catch mistakes till months later.
I'm messing around with the game canon here. Because the HK/assassin droid plot was left unfinished, and because my rather messy mind can't come up with a solution, I'm just taking it out entirely. Instead of HK-50 chasing the Exile around, I'm inserting our old friend (?) HK-47.
II. Jedi
Tanis stumbled to her feet, still dizzy.
"Come i...anis! Can y...me?"
Fumbling out her comlink, she closed her eyes for a moment to center herself. "Yeah, I'm fine, Rand. Shut up and let me work."
She leaned against the terminal until her stomach settled, then keyed the console to life. Administrative options cascaded, inviting her to open the reactor force fields, close down the mining droids, adjust work schedules.
A tap on the terminal, and the whine of the fields quieted, leaving only the skittering sound of droids.
Calling up their programming code, she downloaded a copy into the datapad she'd found in the crate with the extra miner's uniform. Tanis was no slicer, but Rand, she thought, was the type. Maybe he'd be able to tell what had gone wrong.
Again she triggered the droid shut-down signal. Several scurried about on the far side of the vent shaft ledge, clinging to the walls and disappearing into crevices, looking far too much like predators slipping into their dens. The rest stayed gathered around the edges of the shaft, watching Tanis, seemingly fascinated.
She huddled up to the computer terminal, scanning the option menus for something - anything - she might use. Finally she found it, buried beneath checklists and schedules and emergency procedures: she hit "Turbolift Operations," then "Restart."
A clank, then abrupt silence where there had been a nearly inaudible thrum. The droids paused in their wandering, until another shrill whine rose from somewhere deep inside the guts of the mine. A thousand legs skittered and scratched as mining droids turned at the sound, then turned again to face Tanis, watching, eager for - what?
She exited the terminal menus, shutting down the console and drawing her small, probably ineffectual mining laser. The dizzying bridge between the reactor terminal and the outer edge was too thin for the wide-stanced droids to cross. Of course, she thought, if the mine constructors were conscientious enough to include that safety feature, why couldn't they have thought of handrails?
Halfway across the span, Tanis noticed that the droids - and when had the handful become this swarm? - were making room for her to step off. Had their programming gone back to normal? No, they had finished off that poor man only a few minutes ago.
What had changed?
The arachnid machines parted in front of her as if she were some sort of droid prophet. Could droids have prophets? she wondered in frantic whimsy, her mind looking for anything to distract it from all those awful, staring things.
Checking the map she'd uploaded to the datapad, she walked steadily towards the promised exit, telling herself that the things hadn't killed her yet, that maybe she was different, even though the only thing that separated her from all the other carbonized bodies was that she had once been a -
"Jeeeeeeediiiiiiiiiii!"
Tanis spun. The spidery mining droids were still following her, still watching, staring, photoreceptors blinking in hypnotic waves.
Primitive vocoders clicked and sputtered, layers of static thrum somehow combining to form a single, terrifying voice:
"JEDI!"
By the time she threw herself into the turbolift, stabbing the button to close the doors, Tanis was sweating and sobbing in horror. Droids didn't do that - droids couldn't do that!
Something in this station had gone catastrophically wrong. And they still didn't have a way out.
The turbolift whirred and clicked, its indicators blinking with slow assurance as it carried Tanis into the belly of the station.
"Greetings, Mistress!"
"What?"
"Repetition: Greetings, Mistress!" The droid's head canted to a decidedly un-droidish way as it leered at her. Tanis couldn't remember if she'd ever seen a droid leer, but this one was doing a remarkable job.
"Why are you calling me your mistress?"
"Explanation: My previous master was the captain of the Harbinger, a fine Republic ship which you were also a passenger on. In light of the deaths of all aboard, however, I must now answer to you."
"Deaths? I was...? How long have you been aboard this station? What happened to..."
The "everyone" died in her throat as Tanis stepped through the door into what looked like a meeting room.
The droid looked from Tanis to the body on the floor and back. "Query: Is there a problem, Mistress?"
Tanis knelt by the dead man. He'd been tall in life, handsome, with a long face and bright red hair framed by a pair of welding goggles propped on his forehead.
What remained of his legs twisted in a moulder of carbonized bone.
"Did you do this?"
"Shocked reply: Of course not! Addendum: I am only a humble protocol droid; I know nothing of the expert assassination package such a feat as that miner's undoubtedly agonizing mutilation and death would require. Such incredible skill and acumen are beyond my sadly limited faculties!"
Tanis gave the droid a long look. "But I'll bet you know who was responsible."
"Admission: Yes, Mistress."
She rose to her feet, her hand brushing the mining laser at her hip. "And?"
"Amusement: While I am flattered that you would consider using such a weapon to force the truth from my slowly melting circuits, I must advise you that it would not be in your best interests, as I am delighted to comply!"
She gritted her teeth. "Then comply."
"Explanation: This pile of expertly burned flesh and charred rags which was formerly the facility's droid maintenance officer was, ironically, murdered by the very droids he once had the charge of."
"You don't sound like any protocol droid I've ever seen."
"Proud statement: I am an Aitch-Kay Forty-Seven protocol droid, Mistress. This production line, of which I am a stellar example, features enhanced programming, performance, and initiative."
Droids. She had never liked them.
"Do me a favor and stay here. I'm going to look for a way off this rock."
"Cautionary advice: Mistress, the best use of your programming would be to stay here, shut down, and wait for rescue. A ship is sure to arrive eventually."
"Right. Here's something to remember, droid: Organics have to eat, drink, and breathe. If this station runs out of food, water, or air, you'll be the only one left when the next ship comes."
"Embarrassed confession: Oh, dear. I had not thought of that."
She stalked out to find the late technician's office; in it she also discovered his log, along with the code key he'd used to lock down the turbolifts into the mining tunnels. Apparently his droids had gotten so out of control that he'd taken drastic action.
The last command they had obeyed from him was to head into the mining tunnels, after which he'd shut down the lifts - trapping anyone who hadn't made it out in time.
But at least one mining droid must have stayed behind.
Tanis felt another migraine beginning, stabbing through her right eye socket and into the back of her skull. Her hands began to twitch.
Leaning against a workbench, she fumbled in her tool belt for her last dose. There was more back in the medical wing, but she hadn't expected things to take so long.
The drug went to work quickly, dulling the pounding in her head along with the shrill of renewed Force contact that burned like acid along her nerve endings. With a grateful sigh, Tanis dug through her belt pockets again until she found a ration bar.
Taking a hungry bite, she looked up to find the damn protocol droid watching her through the open doors.
Droids didn't judge, she reminded herself; they were incapable of making the sort of social comparisons organic sentients always did. Still, though... his photoreceptors suddenly seemed as evil as the gleaming eyes of the mining droids Tanis had barely escaped from.
Suppressing a shiver, Tanis continued her exploration, hoping to find at least one living person somewhere.
Around the curve, the hallway opened out into the vast space of a docking bay. Inside sat a small merchant ship that looked strangely familiar.
Revan, she thought, though she couldn't understand why.
But it was a ship! They had a way off, once she made it down there, once she found the way back to the security bay...
Once she found a way past these damn force fields!
The stars hated her, she thought miserably, as she tried repeatedly - and failed repeatedly - to find some way to shut the fields down.
Finally she went back to the maintenance office, sat down against the wall, and closed her eyes.
The droid.
Tanis hobbled up, shut the door, and relaxed to the floor again. She meant only to close her eyes, maybe catch a momentary nap, but she found tears leaking from behind her lashes. She couldn't stop thinking about the dead technician, the awful smell of his burned legs.
The miner in the tunnels, begging for her help just before the droids... did what they did.
She curled up against the canister, sobbing, wishing she could simply drug herself into oblivion, wishing she could stop the memories that invaded her mind, as inevitable as the searing Force.
HK-47 watched the closed door in electronic fascination. He dialed up his auditory sensors till they brought him the faint sounds of an organic in emotional distress. Where any other protocol droid would have moved to help, HK-47 stayed where he was. Those sounds, his programming told him, were evidence that he was doing a splendid job.
Whoever had been the safety officer of this mining field, Tanis reflected, had better be dead already.
After spending some time fuming over the idiotic regulations that blocked the docking hold - in a situation where escape would have been incredibly useful! - she had gathered herself up, reminding herself that feeling sorry for her own situation would help no one at all, and gotten on with things. Nothing like imminent death by boredom to motivate you... Soon enough, she had found a way around the blocked docking hold - by taking a very unexpected EVA that would hopefully lead her into the residential area, and some answers.
She stepped out of the airlock, trying to steady her frantic breathing. She closed her eyes, inhaled, exhaled. Opened her eyes.
Starfields were never the same.
Of course she'd seen cosmic displays everywhere from Coruscant and Alderaan to Tatooine and Malachor V, but every one was different. Sometimes the sky would be veiled with dust clouds; other times, star flare would make the void too bright to view unprotected. Here, outside the Peragus mining facility, Tanis felt like a spider-flea crawling on the hide of a ronto.
Slowly tumbling rocks, looking absurdly like clods of dirt kicked up by some galactic giant at play, drifted by silently. Out here, stars didn't twinkle: that was an atmospheric effect; instead, hard diamonds gleamed steadily, unblinking.
She looked down at her heavily booted feet. The magnetic soles of the vacuum suit kept her firmly attached to the grated walkways weaving around the skin of the asteroid. It didn't take much individual effort to lift each foot; but the repetitive movement, and keeping her balance with no gravity, and simply breathing when her instincts insisted on holding her breath - all of it made what might have been an easy stroll, elsewhere, into a sweating endurance exercise.
Her feet clanged on the metallic grating. She knew the sound didn't exist outside the suit, but it traveled perfectly well within the suit's atmosphere; the contrast between the illusion of outside noise and the silent movement of the asteroid field - both beautiful and oddly disturbing - only added to the exertion.
Something made Tanis stop and turn around. There's something coming, she thought, but saw nothing that could explain the feeling.
"You there? You're coming in loud and clear now - almost like - well, that can't be right!"
"What can't be right?" But nothing had been right at all, not since she had given her final order, a lifetime ago, and the Force had simply... gone away.
"Your signal's coming in from outside the station, on the surf - oh."
Tanis saw Rand's silhouette moving behind the security station's broad viewport. She gave him a wave, miming cheerfulness she didn't feel.
The sensation in her gut deepened, and she turned again, clumsily, trying to focus on every area of the void at once. Rand muttered something under his breath, then shouted a curse that was lost in a sudden burst of static. A pressure on her mind - Kreia? - and a cautionary sense of patience swept through her.
Her eyes found a distortion in the far distance. A small cluster of stars wavered and spun under the effect of a decaying hyper field. A new star appeared as the others righted their positions; its odd coruscation suggested motion as it grew into a smear, a shimmering blob of light, finally resolving into a ship. The hammerhead bridge and long, thin hull sported the red and cream of the Republic Navy. The cruiser drifted in, its gunports and weapons dark and still, and came to a gentle stop. Tanis felt the vibrations through her boots as a pair of hydraulic docking tubes reached out to welcome the visitor.
" - says this is no rescue party!" came Rand's voice, urgency boiling through the com static.
"Repeat your last?"
"I said, your friend says that ship isn't here for anything good! She says there's something 'dark' on board, whatever the hell that means."
"Acknowledged."
"So what do you want us to do?"
"Since when did I become the leader of our happy little family?"
Rand's voice laughed tinnily. "Since you decided to risk your own neck to get us out of here, beautiful."
"Don't call me that. And just so you know, next time it's your turn!"
"I hear you," he replied. "Be careful out there."
As if in response to his warning, something deep inside the mining facility seemed to lurch. A low, metallic groan vibrated from her feet, through her chest, into her skull, and an explosion of heated vapor knocked the magnetic seal of her boots away, sending Tanis reeling away through empty space.
For one shining moment, her connection to the Force was there, strong and real and empty of pain and grief, as pure and beautiful as it had been when she'd first reached out to it as a child. Then her body slammed into the side of the Republic ship, reality reasserted itself, and she was alone in her own body once again. Her boots scrambled for magnetic purchase on the broad hull, but something was badly wrong. Gravity - why could she feel gravity pulling her down?
Tanis' knees buckled, the stiffness of the suit no help against a force this strong; she hit the outer hull with a frightening crack. Her breath caught and sped as she scrambled to grab onto something - anything! - but she slid further and further along the edge until one of her flailing hands found the rung of a maintenance ladder.
Grunting with the effort, she tried to bring her other hand up, but she found her strength leaving her. She couldn't even hear Rand now; only silence on the comms, silence and her own desperate pants and growls of effort. She clutched at the ladder, but the harder she tried to grip, the looser her hand became.
It wasn't enough. It had never been enough. Her strength had failed her.
She fell, and fell, and fell.
