AN: Some of the dialogue I borrowed/butchered came directly from the game, all rights to Lucasarts. I'm considering writing some of this from Atton's POV as well. Review and let me know what you think.

Just outside the door to the detention center, I pause. I can feel him on the other side of the door in his force cage. I reach out with my mind, but his pushes back. I let it go. I'm good at that, ignoring problems. The last thing I need to deal with is more weirdness I can't explain.

I open the door and feel overwhelmingly sheepish due to my nudity. The man has dark brown hair that is almost falling into his dark eyes. One look at him and it's obvious that he is a fighter, as well as the run of the mill scoundrel. He's dressed in a thick leather jacket over a white tunic over a dark thermal, spacer pants, and black boots. He is taller than average, and I suspect that underneath all those layers he's adequately muscular. He looks up as the door opens, eyes widening slightly as he looks me up and down.

"Are you an angel?" His deep, husky voice is full of false awe. "Aw, I'm just kidding." He chuckles. "That's the worst line I've ever used. Hope some poor kid doesn't start using it."

I can't help but laugh a little. So he's a comedian. Lovely. Immediately, I feel more at ease, but I know I shouldn't let my guard down. Well, at least he doesn't seem too dangerous.

But the voice is back, telling me we don't have time to play games. "Who are you?"

"Atton. Atton Rand. Excuse me if I don't shake hands. The field only causes mild electrical burns. And you?"

"I'm Alix." I remember my name, at least.

"Okay, Alix. Nice outfit. Wait, you're not a miner, are you? You're like, the size of a gizka," He scoffs.

I ignore his last comment. "Miners? Wait, is this a mining colony? What is this place?"

"You mean you didn't come here on purpose?" Again with the sarcasm. I want to be annoyed, but he's so amiable that I can't help but be amused. "I'm shocked, really. This slice of paradise is the Peragus mining facility, supplier of engine fuel." How in sweet sookie did I come to be here?! "It's sure fun to mine, especially if you like blowing yourself up."

"What's that about blowing yourself up?"

"That asteroid belt out there is a giant minefield. One wrong proton or blaster shot, and it'll all go up like a kid's pop detonator." Of course I'd come to be on a world so unstable that it would remind me of Malachor. But I don't have time to think about that now.

"What are you doing in there?"

"Security claimed I violated some trumped-up regulation. Take it up with them if you want, but they stopped listening to me shortly after they stopped feeding now. Now that's criminal, if you ask me."

"So you are a criminal?"

"Listen sweetheart, I'm a lot of things, and some may have called me a 'criminal', but I'm not gonna hurt you."

Against my better judgement, I believe him. It's probably because I don't have a choice, unless I want to figure all this out on my own, which I do not.

"How long have you been in here?"

"A week. But you're the first person I've seen in two days."

If he's telling the truth, then according to the med logs he couldn't have been the one to have administered the sedatives or be responsible for the rest of the missing miners. So of course that's what he would say. I'm having trouble reading him, but I'm not sensing deception, at least not about this.

"Please tell me you know what's going on around here."

"You mean, before or after that Jedi showed up?" No no no no. He says the word so casually, but it sends off alarm bells in every cell of my body. I'm panicking on the inside, desperately trying to keep it together in front of this stranger. Luckily, he's so engrossed in his story that he doesn't seem to notice my internal meltdown. He continues, "Either way, it's a real short story. Y'see, this Jedi shows up, and ya know what that means- where there is one Jedi, the Republic will soon be crawling up your ion engine in no time."

None of this makes a lick of sense. If I came to be here separate from the Republic, how could anyone have known about my identity, my past? Atton's still talking.

"But the story gets better. See, some of the miners get it into their ferrocrete skulls that since the Jedi's unconscious, they can collect the Exchange bounty posted on live Jedi. Well, what passes for authority here didn't like that idea, so the two sides started fighting. Then there was some big explosion, I was sitting here for a long time, then you showed up in your underwear and things got a lot better." He smirks at me, then abruptly looks horrified for a brief second before recovering and asking as calmly as he manage, "Wait. How old even are you?"

I look shyly at the ground, tucking a stray lock behind my ear, and take a deep breath. Looking up, I reply as confidently as I can manage, "Nineteen."

Immediately he seems relieved. Chuckling, he says "Okay, great. I didn't wanna be responsible for some kid, y'know…" he trails off.

"I can take care of myself fine, thanks."

"Yeah, I'm sure. That's why you're running around barefoot and in your underwear."

"Tough talk from the man who has been locked up for seven days."

"Okay, okay, fair enough. Look, not like your half naked interrogation isn't a personal fantasy of fine..." I can't help but blush. Everywhere. "But...hey, wait a minute, you're that Jedi the miners were talking about!"

Oh, sithspit. "No, no no I'm not." I stammer. "At least, not really." Atton is regarding me apprehensively now. I continue to ramble. "I used to be a padawan learner, but I'm not anymore. And I was never a Jedi."

He doesn't seem convinced. "Well, where is everybody?"

"I was hoping that you knew. I just woke up in a kolto tank like an hour ago, and there are corpses everywhere, you're the first living person I've found. The facility seems abandoned."

"The miners can't all be gone. But if they are…" He trails off, looking up at me and smiling nervously. "Look, hey, lemme out, and I can help you, I can. I've gotten outta trouble countless times." He grins genuinely at that. I don't really have a reason to not let him out. I have to trust that I would have sensed something by now if he meant to harm me. Still, the voice in my head warns me to be careful as I switch off the force cage.