Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

Taris

Part Two

Skye Imarr let out a big sigh and stared at the jug of juma juice in front of her, mumbling a little too loudly in a rather sarcastic tone, "What a lovely planet!"

She was sitting at the bar in the Upper City's cantina, waiting for Carth, who was talking to some Tarisian patron not very far from her. They'd been on this planet for more than a week now and had been spending the last three days wandering around the Upper City in search of some information about these crashed escape pods. She had to admit, the experience dealing with people in Upper City wasn't exactly a pleasant one. To start with, they didn't like off-worlders. So, wherever they went, people always had some kind of begrudging look on their faces when they saw them. Second, just like Carth had warned her, they had special problems with all aliens. They were either completely ignoring her, or avoiding her as soon as they spotted her from a distance, as if she carried some horrible plague, or openly teasing her with some very interesting name other than 'schutta' because it was way too rude to say. Most of the names were ones that she had never heard of in her life, and they were normally thrown at her when she politely approached them for a conversation. And, last but not least, they threw rock or debris at her as she and Carth walked by. There were several times when she was on the verge of tears. In the end, Carth kindly took over the chit-chat duty and asked her to wait at the bar.

"Just take a break for a minute. I will do this," he told her.

She glanced at Carth, who was listening with a pretended enthusiasm on his face to a Tarisian woman talking. His well-defined facial features drew a clear outline under the dim lights of the cantina. Undoubtedly, he was quite a handsome man. He also seemed to be full of mystery. On one hand, he was an outstanding pilot and commander who would not hesitate to risk his own life for his men when the situation came or spend day and night looking after them when they were injured or unconscious, and he seemed the type who would crack a joke at the drop of the hat and leave everyone in stitches, which she admitted she had never been able to do. And on the other hand, he seemed to build up a wall between himself and others. He did not seem to trust anyone, including her. Skye knew very little about him, other than he was a war hero and his homeworld was among the first one that the Sith destroyed. He seemed quite discreet about it and got a bit frustrated and upset every time the topic was mentioned. Occasionally, she caught him staring at some little children happily playing with their mother, and his mind clearly was somewhere else.

What happened to him in the past? What was it that was so obviously painful, why had he decided to seclude himself from the rest, and why was no one was allowed to touch that memory? Did he understand that she had nothing to do with his past, that he shouldn't shut her out or not trust her fully when they had to work together? How was she be able to make him know and understand that there was nothing worrisome or suspicious about her?

"Okay, here is how it goes." Carth's husky voice drew her attention back to the present. "Apparently, a few days ago, the Sith sent a search party down to the Under City, but whether they found anything was unknown. Oh, hmm… I also got a hint that the only way to get pass the guard at the entrance to the Lower City at this stage is to disguise as one of them. There was a rumour that they stopped issuing authorization papers last week."

"That was just bloody marvellous, isn't it!" said Skye grudgingly. "Where on earth are we going to find a full set of Sith armor? You can't exactly buy them from the shops here, can you?"

Carth seemed to be quite stressed about this, too. He grabbed Skye's barely touched juma juice, gave her a "May I?" look, and gulped the jar down in one go before she even said yes.

"Huh… there is also one small problem…" Carth seemed a bit hesitant.

"Oh, Goody. Spill it then, I think I can handle one more blow."

"We are on the verge of running out of credits."

"What? How the hell did that happen?" Skye snapped. "We haven't exactly been on some kind of shopping spree here."

"No, but we couldn't use our military pension accounts, remember? We were worried the Sith might found out." Carth ordered another jug of juma juice.

"Oh, ...right ." Skye let out a long sigh and rubbed her eyes. "Now we have just added another problem on our list: earn some credits under Sith's nose… Sorry, I've been acting like a grumpy child throwing a tantrum, have I? It just…the treatment I've received so far is a bit… overwhelming to me."

"No, don't worry about it." Carth waved his hands dismissively.

"I thought I should got used to this by now…" Skye looked around the bar with some kind of despair and sadness in her eyes.

"It's not your fault. People on this planet have a problem. They are the ones who should take the blame, not you," said Carth gently. "How come you are the one that has to square your shoulders and bear all this? They need to update their behaviour. This is a hyperspace era, not bloody pre-historic flesh-munching days."

"…Thanks. You are very nice." Skye looked at him gratefully.

"What do you mean?" Carth raised his eyebrow, looking all very surprise. "I am nice."

Skye chuckled.

Carth winked back before he turned around to ask the droid bartender not very far from her for another drink.

They'd been out and about in this damn city for days now. Carth found it was harder and harder to put a stern poker face on himself whenever Skye was around. He had to keep reminding himself what happened to him the last time he had fully trusted somebody. Skye was an attractive woman, Although there were still some unexplainable odd bits of hers that were really hard to explain: like she didn't seem to need any sleep; like she often stared at the space in front of her blankly with the saddest look on her face; like she knew all the combat skills, such as Echani and Mandalorians, like she was naturally born with them. Carth knew the Republic didn't train their soldiers in those styles. Another thing was how she was unable to explain how one of the last surviving crewmember of the Endar Spire happened to be the additional crew the Jedi had requested at the last minute, and how she was also unable to explain what exactly had she done on the ship or where she was before this mission. She was like a reflection in the water: he could see her fine, but when he wanted to look a little closer it became blurry. But weren't all women like that? Carth didn't have a clue. His times around women were pretty limited.

"Hey, there, care if I buy you a drink?" A smooth talking voice interrupted his thoughts. He turned around and noticed a man was talking to Skye.

"….Urrh..sure." Skye seemed a bit startled.

"My name is Yun Genda. Please call me Yun," the man introduced himself after ordering a drink for Skye.

"Please to meet you, Yun. My name is Skye Imarr. This is my partner…urh…. Josh." Skye nodded towards Carth's direction, giving Carth a secret twinkle smile.

"You aren't local, are you?"

"You are kidding right?" Skye chuckled softly. This had to be the worst pick-up line she had ever heard. "When was the last time you saw a Twi'lek in the Upper City cantina other than those dancers?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Yun went pink and deflated a bit. "It's just that most people here don't normally talk to a Sith officer. They don't even bother to acknowledge them most of the time."

"You are a Sith officer?" Skye's eyes widened. "You surely don't look like one. What happened to your uniform?"

Carth sat up straight a little bit; his attention was now suddenly full on.

"In case you didn't notice," Yun pointed towards the sign at the door. "No uniform is allowed in the cantina. Not like I want to put them on anyway. This name badge on my chest is bad enough to me. If I am in uniform people may just spit on me as soon as I go anywhere near them. "

"My Force."

"Exactly. So..what brings you here, pretty lady?" Yun asked slickly.

"….Got stuck with this quarantine thingy. Couldn't go anywhere for days," Skye lied.

"I thought so. Sorry about that, sometimes I don't understand how and why they were doing up there, all I do is my job. But people can be so judgmental. They think all Sith are…." Yun said.

"Oh, I understand perfectly. A soldier has to obey their orders," Skye nodded with feigned agreement.

"Exactly. Now I wish everybody in the Upper City was as civilized and perceptive as you," Yun grinned. "Say, do you have any plans tonight?"

"Not really. Why?" Skye raised her eyebrow.

"It's not every day I would bump into someone like you, and...not going to lie, I really want to see you again. My colleagues and I are planing to have a party at the apartments after our shift tonight. You know, to let off a little steam. It will be straight from work so some of us may still be in uniform! I was wondering… if you would like to drop by?" smiled Yun.

Skye cocked her head towards her left, as if she was seriously considering his invitation. After about a minute, she smiled back to Yun. "Sure, I would love to."

"Great!" Yun's face broke into a devastating grin. "So, I guess I will see you there, then?"

"Of course. I will see you!" Skye raised the Tarisian Ale he bought him towards him.

"I sensed you are planning something." Carth raised his eyebrow after the Sith officer left. His lips curled, leaned closer towards Skye and whispered quietly. "What do you have in mind?"

"Did you hear that he said '…some of us may still be in uniform'?" Skye whispered back proudly, while pretending to have some profound interests on the glass she had in her hand. "I think we have our Sith uniform problem solved."

"Wonderful!" Carth couldn't help but smile. "We are finally going somewhere….What's wrong?" He noticed Skye suddenly started staring at his face as if he had extra nose coming out from his forehead.

"…..Nothing, just didn't know you could smile like that." Skye turned her head away quickly and replied with mild embarrassment. "It is actually quite nice."

"'Course it is. Haven't you heard what other people called me?" Possibly because of the drink or because there was hope on making some progress of their plan, Carth winked.

"What? Hairless Wookiee?" Skye joked back with playfulness in her tone.

"No," said Carth sarcastically.

"Handsome thug?" Skye suggested.

"No. But you are very close. I'm more partial to 'the most handsome pilot in the Galaxy', Gorgeous." Carth waved his finger. His eyes flickered with something that Skye didn't know.

"Pardon?" What did he just said?

"What? Which one? 'The most handsome pilot in the Galaxy' or the 'Gorgeous' part?"

"…The latter." Skye glared at Carth for a few minutes before her stunned mind clicked in. "Oh, you gotta be better than that!"

"How about 'Beautiful?'" Chuckling, Carth suggested.

"…Hmm, that's no good, either." Skye chewed her lips, acted as she was giving it some serious thought.

"Well, guess you'll just have to settle with 'Gorgeous,' then," Carth shrugged before cracking himself with laughter.

"Carth," asked Skye. "...Are you flirting with me?"

"No, just a habit," Carth laughed softly, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Your habit sure has proven very entertaining, Carth." Skye gave him an evil smirk.

"What, don't you like it?" Carth's eyes widened, giving her his most innocent look.

Skye did not answer. She shrugged and gave him a little nonchalant smile before turning her head away. She put her glass down on the bar counter gracefully.

"We better go–" Her words trailed off. Something had caught her attention. Her eyes suddenly narrowed. She quickly slid off from the high chair and zoomed across the room towards outside. Carth quickly jumped off his chair and followed.

He found Skye standing not very far from the other room, reading a very battered and torn poster on the wall.

Most of the print on it was unreadable, but you could guess the idea from the bits and pieces here and there. The heading of the poster was still there. It was printed with big bold embroidered letters in Basic and at least two other alien languages.

OFFICIAL DUELING CHALLENGE! DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE THE CHAMPION OF THE RING?

"I think," Skye tabbing her long elegant fingers at the poster with a triumphant smile on her face, after she carefully studied the old poster for a good ten minutes. "I've found the solution of our little credit shortage problems."

x x x

Ajuur the Hutt batted his heavy eyelids and stared at the two strangers in front of him. He could not believe his luck. It had been quite some time since some fresh faces came up to him, wanting to enter the Duel Ring. Twitch was good, but he had lost his charm. The audience needed a fresh face for stimulation and he really needed something to boost his ticket sales.

His eyes narrowed. Now, this might be just the one he needed. If she was good enough to make it….

"[Sorry?]" He put down the wine glass in his sausage hand and answered the stranger in front of him in Huttese. "[You said you want to enter the Duel Ring?]"

"Yes," replied Skye firmly.

"[I presume you know how this works?]" Ajuur's eyes scanned Skye from top to toe. Hmm, he had never had a Twi'lek in his Duel Ring before. She appeared to be in good health, her physique seemed pretty good, and way she held the weapon in her hands meant she had some degree of knowledge in that area.

"I was hoping you can explain this to me," said Skye seriously.

"[All right.]" Ajuur nodded. "[It is pretty simple, really. Here is how it works: you enter the arena, you defeat whoever your opponent is, and I will pay you 50% of the income I got from ticket sales and bets. You can do anything to prevail your opponent except killing them, as it is illegal now on Taris.]"

"Right. How soon can you arrange a fight for me?" queried Skye.

"Wait a minute," intercepted Carth. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, yes, we are in shortage of credits, but…there must be other way…."

"It should be fine," Skye assured Carth. "The worst thing that can happen is I get seriously injured and I won't let it happened. This is the only way to earn credits fast and remain undetected by the Sith."

"[I can arrange a match for you now if you are ready.]" Ajuur replied.

"Excellent, I am ready now. Please arrange a match for me." Blue hues return to the Hutt.

"[Very well, I shall arrange a fight for you immediately.]" Ajuur clapped his hands and announced happily: "[Now, we need to pick a name for you, or you prefer to use your real name?]"

"No, please pick a name for me," said Skye.

"Of course, in this case the Sith won't even notice. Good job, Skye," said Carth quietly by her ears, giving her a thumbs up.

Skye's blue eyes drifted from the Hutt to him temporarily and gave him a wink.

"[How about the name 'Mysterious Stranger'?]"

"That sounds fine," Skye nodded. Any name but her true name was good.

"[Good, please wait here. Your first match will be started very shortly.]"