Assignment: Endar Spire

Assignment: the Endar Spire

Mission Leader: Bastila, Jedi Knight

Destination: Classified

Objective: Classified

It had been more than a week since the Endar Spire left orbit, and Carth still had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. So far his Advisor position seemed to consist of nothing else but sitting at the Captain's table and smiling at the other officers and at the Jedi assigned to the ship.

Carth had no doubts about the importance of the mission. It was being led by the legendary Bastila, master of Battle Meditation, after all. What Carth doubted was his importance to the mission. He was not used to being left out of the command structure and was beginning to feel more than a little useless. Bastila refused to discuss anything important with him and the Captain had threatened to throw him in the brig the last time Carth tried to get information about the mission from him.

With no official duties to attend do, Carth ended up spending most of his days on the blaster range, working out his frustrations on one target after another. That is, he had been spending most of his days on the range. Today the Warrant Officer in charge of the Armoury had kicked him out with the excuse that they had run out of target droids.

Ran out of target droids, right. Translation: Get off my range, you crazy bastard, you're starting to scare the troops, Carth thought shaking his head at the memory of the carefully expressionless face the officer had maintained while blocking the door to the range.

This had brought him to his current spot; hunched over a desk in the ship's library. Carth thought spending a couple of days reading would make him look harmless enough that he could get back on the range again.

"You through with that datacard?"

"Almost," Carth said absently, and then looked up. "Consu Donazar, right? I was surprised to see your name on the crew manifest."

"Not as surprised as I was," she said ruefully. "One minute I'm a free woman, and the next Kavar's looking at me with those gorgeous big blue eyes and I'm cheerfully signing enlistment papers. Instead of deserting, I reported for duty and ended up here."

"All for the best, soldier," he said. "The ...

"Republic needs me. Yeah, I know. Spare me the pep talk and hand me that card."

"You don't need this card, it's just a level one security handbook," he said. "I thought I'd brush up on my basic skills while we're in transit."

"That's what I'm doing," she said.

"Your file says you're a tenth level security expert," he said, looking at her with a frown.

"And a twelfth level computer expert, I know," Consu said, rolling her eyes. "I hope no one's expecting me to do any hacking on this run. Since most of my technical skills floated away in that Kolto Tank along with half my memories."

Half her memories? What the hell? Carth studied Consu and thought she looked serious. "Are you telling me," he said slowly. "That you still haven't recovered from your injuries?"

"Oh, I'm recovered," she said cheerfully. "As good as ever, according to Medical. Just missing a few memories here and there. It's really strange. I can remember escorting a strike force against a Mandalorian base on Althir. I can remember infiltrating that base, bypassing all their security systems, and reprogramming half their droids before they realized something was wrong, but I can't for the life of me remember how I did any of this. Right now I can't even crack the lock on my own footlocker."

"And Command knows about your ... technical difficulties?"

"They have to; it's in my medical files."

"Then why the hell are you on this mission!" he exclaimed, slamming the datapad down on the desk.

"I don't know, guess the Republic's just really desperate," Consu said, snatching up the pad and deftly sliding out the datacard. She dropped his pad back on the table and grinned. "Makes you wonder if we lost the war, and they just haven't gotten around to telling us, doesn't it?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They finally let Carth back on the blaster range, with the provision that he spend no more than two hours a shift there. That still left him a lot of time to wander the corridors glaring at all the people who had jobs to do. This was why he was thrilled to finally be summoned to Bastila's office.

"You wanted to see me, Jedi Bastila?" Carth said eagerly as soon as she let him into her office.

"Yes, I need your help," she said.

"Regarding the mission?" he asked hopefully. "You realized I can't advise you properly unless I know something about our goals?

"Hmm, no," she said, stepping away from Carth and eyeing him warily. "I need your help with the Captain. He's being very stubborn about implementing changes to the way he runs this ship."

"He's probably just being stubborn because it's his ship," Carth said, feeling his excitement drain away. Maybe there is no mission, and Command's just playing some galactic size joke on me?

"Haven't you noticed the appalling lack of discipline on this ship?" she asked.

"The only thing I've noticed is that no one seems to know what the hell we're doing out here," he said, grinding his teeth together. "I'm a soldier and I follow orders, but it's nice to actually have orders to follow."

"There see!" Bastila said, pointing a finger at Carth. "That's what I'm talking about, you have no discipline, no control, and you let your emotions run rampant, and the crew are even worse! There's something wrong on this ship, and it's starting to affect everyone; we need to put a stop to it! I spoke to the Captain about implementing new regulations regarding acceptable behaviour on this ship, and he was unbelievably rude. I almost had him arrested for insubordination." She headed over to the viewscreen and turned it around to face Carth. "Come see what's going on in the recreation room. Just look at that!"

Carth looked, but could not understand what was upsetting the Jedi. He saw a couple of the crew watching a holomovie, a few more playing a game of darts, and a large group of them playing a pazaak tournament. No one was fighting, or getting upset, in fact they all seemed to be having a good time. He even spotted one of the Jedi off in the corner having a drink with a crewman. Carth took a deep breath and then turned to Bastila. "Alright, I'm perfectly calm and I'm happy even though I have no idea what our mission is. Now, you want to tell me what's upsetting you about the crew?"

"Can't you see what they're doing?" Bastila said as one of the pazaak players stood up and pulled his shirt off.

Carth took another look and saw that most of the pazaak players were in various states of undress. He tilted the camera view and recognized Consu at one of the tables. He was a bit disappointed to see she still had most of her clothes on. "Strip pazaak. Looks like fun."

"She, I mean they, do that sort of thing all the time!" Bastila said, waving her arms in emphasis. "And some of them end up pairing up and leaving together. We're in the middle of a war and the crew is spending all of their energy on mindless entertainment and primitive mating rituals! It's ... it's animalistic!"

"I thing a better word would be human," he said, starting to smile. "You haven't worked with non-Jedi very much, have you? Outside of combat, I mean."

"I admit I have spent most of my life in secluded training with my Masters," Bastila answered, with a hint of irritation in her voice. She lifted her chin and stared defiantly at him. "But I had the best instructors the Council could provide, and I am more than capable of dealing with this command."

The Jedi who was officially his commanding officer suddenly looked very young to Carth. This is the last best Hope of the Republic? I really hope the crew don't find out Bastila is greener than an ensign just out of the Academy.

"What exactly," Carth said slowly. "Do you think the crew should do with their off-duty hours?"

"Meditate, study, exercise, preferably something that calms the emotions, rather than inflames them."

Carth started laughing.

"I am being serious," Bastila said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Too much emotion can be dangerous."

"If you're a Jedi."

"It is always tempting to give in to our baser emotions, but we must resist such dark desires."

"I'm sure that's true for Jedi."

"Strong feelings, anger, passion, jealousy, lust; they must not be embraced but instead controlled and mastered."

"Only for you Jedi," Carth growled, fearlessly indulging in some of those baser emotions. "Stop thinking of your training and trying to treat everyone like Jedi. Believe me, if you try to interfere with the crew's harmless pastimes, and I do mean harmless, you'll be one step away from a mutiny."

"That's what the Captain said," Bastila said.

"Well then, for the sake of your Force, would you listen to him? You deal with your Jedi however you see fit, and let the Captain deal with his people."

Her shoulders slumped and she looked at the viewscreen again with bewilderment. "Are you sure this is normal?"

"Yes," Carth drawled. "Maybe if you don't trust us non-Jedi, you should talk with your fellow Knights. I'll wager most of them could tell you a thing or two about life outside the Jedi ranks."

"But it's so difficult dealing with all these uncontrolled emotions," Bastila said sadly, waving her hand at the scene in the rec room which she was once again watching with wide eyes.

What did I do to piss off Command and get assigned here? Carth walked over to the viewscreen and turned it off. "Problem solved. Now, unless you have something relevant to discuss, something about the incredibly secret mission, I'll be leaving now."

Bastila buried her face in her hands. "I wish the bond could be turned off as easily as that viewscreen," she whispered.

"Bond?" Carth repeated. "What bond?"

"Nothing you need be concerned about," Bastila said, looking up and speaking in her normal voice again.

"I don't want to know, forget I asked," he said, throwing up his hands defensively and backing away from her.

"Thank you for your time, Commander Onasi, that will be all for now."

Carth grimaced, saluted half-heartedly, and then turned to leave.

"One moment," Bastila said. "About this mission, I know why the Admiralty insisted we take you with us."

"Then you know more than I do," he said.

"Do you mean that? But I thought ..."

"Thought what?"

She looked to one side and bit her lower lip. "This is a dangerous mission and in case in all goes wrong ... what were your orders?"

"Report to the Endar Spire, and advise the Jedi Bastila."

"That's it? Nothing about carrying out an execution if necessary to protect the Republic?"

"What! I'm a pilot, not an, an assassin. What the hell kind of mission is this?"

"Never mind," she said, sitting down and waving him away. "Just go."

Aw, crap, don't tell me the Jedi are messing with sith artifacts again. What it is with Jedi and flirting with the dark side? Still, if she already thinks I'm assassin, may as play along. "Just so you know, Jedi Bastila. I'm no assassin but if you start to go all sith-like on me, then I'll be more than happy to use you for blaster practice."

"Thank you," she said, with no hint of irony in her voice. "I appreciate the thought."

You do? "Anything to help," he said, before saluting smartly and walking away from the crazy Jedi.