"You cannot win, Revan."

A woman holds a lightsaber in front of her like a shield.

"You really think you can defeat me?" The other laughs. "You are more foolish than I would have thought."

"Look around you, Revan. The Sith are falling one by one. It's over."

"It is not over! The Sith will rule long after you and I are gone. Even if I should die, Malak will take my place!"

Suddenly an explosion rocks the ship.

"What..? What's going on?!" Revan demands. She knows it isn't a Republic attack – they wouldn't do that with their people on board. Especially not her. They need her.

"Looks like your apprentice decided to hasten your judgment day, Revan." The other woman smirks.

"What? No, he can't! He's not ready!"

"Apparently he disagrees with you."

" Malak, you traitor!"

But in the end, Revan isn't surprised. It is the way of the Sith, after all.

"Ohh…"

Akanni felt like she'd been run over by a speeder. Or trampled by a rancor. Maybe both.

What had happened to her? She wracked her brain to come up with an answer, replaying the last things she could remember in her mind. She'd been on the Endar Spire. There was a Sith attack. She and Trask

Oh, Trask… remembering his sacrifice brought a pang of sadness, but she shook it aside. She couldn't allow herself to be distracted by that. Not now.

She had escaped the ship with Carth. The pod was damaged. Had they crashed? They must have, but she didn't remember.

Whatever the case, she hurt. A lot.

Tiny beams of light filled her vision as she tried to open her eyes, and she blinked against the brightness. As her eyes began to adjust to the light, she opened them a bit wider and found a man staring down at her. Who was..?

Oh, right… Carth. Why couldn't she remember that? What was wrong with her head?

When she tried to sit up, she was overwhelmed by a wave of dizziness. Laying back down, she put a hand over her eyes, trying to still the spinning sensation in her head.

As the feeling subsided she sat up again and looked around, finding that she was on a bed in a small apartment.

"Good to see you up," Carth said, "instead of thrashing around in your sleep. You must have been having one hell of a nightmare."

Nightmare? Was she having a nightmare? Oh, maybe she was… something about… Revan?

"I don't... remember much of it," Akanni faltered, "just vague images. People, places... nothing made sense."

Then she looked around.

"What is this place?"

"It's an abandoned apartment on Taris, the planet we crashed on. What do you remember?"

Akanni fell silent as she tried to think, then related everything she'd remembered.

She stopped when she got to Trask. Again, remembering his sacrifice brought a wave of sorrow crashing over her, and Akanni had to fight not to be overwhelmed by it. She had to stay focused on the situation at hand. There would be plenty of time for mourning later. Right now she had to keep her head straight, or she'd be no use to Carth.

"You've been in and out of it for a couple of days," Carth continued, "So I imagine you're pretty confused about things. Try not to worry; we're safe, at least for the moment."

"What happened... after the pod?"

"You mean after we boarded it? Well, it was damaged. I couldn't control our descent - I barely managed to set a course vector to put us down somewhere outside the city. You were pretty banged up in the crash, but thankfully I wasn't seriously hurt. I was able to carry you out of there long before the Sith arrived."

Akanni shook her head, then flinched at the pain and dizziness that the movement caused. She put up a hand to stop Carth.

"Wait, the Sith? Why are there Sith?"

"Taris is a Sith-occupied planet. They've quarantined the planet and enacted martial law. But don't worry, I've been in worse spots."

Akanni wasn't sure what could be much worse than their current situation. Stuck on a Sith-occupied planet with no way off, martial law… it was pretty bad. Carth was more optimistic than she was.

"What do we do now? From your description of things, I don't think the Republic will be coming to pick us up anytime soon. What are we supposed to do in the meantime, just lay low and hope the Sith don't start asking questions?"

"Actually, while you were unconscious I did some scouting around. At least three escape pods landed in the Undercity, and I'm willing to bet that one of them was Bastilia's. I think we should try to find her."

Akanni nodded. Now he was talking her language – finding Bastila. If they wouldn't be getting off the planet, finding Bastila should be their next step. Akanni didn't voice her opinion so strongly to Carth, though – better not to appear too interested. Sometimes interest could be misinterpreted.

"Hmm, that's a good idea. At least it gives us something to do, and if Bastila survived the crash then she might need help. Any idea how we get into the lower city? I would assume we can't just waltz in whenever we feel like it."

Carth moved to the desk and picked something up, then moved back to Akanni's bed, holding out a sheet of paper. Upon closer inspection, Akanni saw it was a map.

"You're right - we can't. We'll need some sort of ruse to get past the guard. The one at the south gate has already seen my face, so we may want to steer clear of that one." He said, pointing out the gate on the map.

"Okay, so when we have our... ruse, in place... we'll go to the north gate," Akanni agreed, studying the map, "Any idea what we can do to get down there?"

"Unfortunately, no. The people I've talked to aren't that forthcoming about... well, much of anything, actually."

"Who have you talked to?"

Carth shrugged.

"Whoever was hanging around in the halls, mostly."

"You haven't tried the cantina?"

"No, I haven't. I didn't figure they would know much, really."

Akanni laughed and moved to stand up, wincing as she stretched her sore muscles.

"You don't know much about covert information gathering, do you?"

"What do you mean?"

She grabbed her blaster from the table and hooked it on her belt, then picked up her duster and put it on.

"Rule number one, Carth - Sometimes, the cantina is the only place to get what you want."

Then she walked to the door.

"The information we need is out there. You just haven't talked to the right people yet. Now come on, let's go find our ticket into the Undercity."