Disclaimer: I did not invent the outer space sequence where all you hear is your own breathing. That was Kubrick.

Meetra began to bring up her laser. These droids were faster than the crawlers; one droid darted forward and knocked the laser flying; it slid down the deck to the far end of the walkway behind her. The second droid advanced on her left and slashed at Meetra's head. She backflipped out of the way and drew her vibrocutter and torch. The droids fired and Meetra dodged. Get in close-they have the advantage at a distance. She moved in, weaving to avoid the droids' laser fire. She slashed at the droid on the right. It parried her vibrocutter with its laser arm. Meetra spun and cut off the arm with her torch. The second droid attacked. Meetra ducked its claw and slashed a hydraulic hose in its leg. The droid fell and Meetra burned out its processor. The first droid slashed again. Meetra blocked and spun around the droid's back. The droid kicked backwards, knocking Meetra's leg out from under her. Meetra fell, and the droid raised its claw to finish her. She rolled out of the way as the claw dug into the pierced metal floor. Meetra cut the droid in half before it could free its arm from the deck.

She walked back to retrieve the laser and headed through the door. Straight ahead was the suit storage room for the airlock. Meetra didn't dare torch the locks; she had to get into that console. The turbolift to the administration level was down a short corridor to her right. Meetra took the lift back to the administration level; it let out in the mine control room. Meetra headed for the console and skidded to a halt: Four mining droids stood waiting in the center of the room.

"Relax," said Atton, walking out from the console. "They're friendly. I've sliced them to defend organics. That'll do for stopping other droids. If the person who sabotaged the facility comes after us, we'll have to handle them ourselves."

Meetra nodded. "Nice work. It'll be good to have a safe area to base from while I keep looking for a way into the hangar." She cocked her head. "I was hoping you'd have an idea to help me. I need to get through a locked door. I have the code, but it's voice-printed."

"Damn." Atton scuffed his foot. "That won't be easy. There's ways around voiceprints, but you need samples of the speaker saying the right words. Of course, a good voice synthesizer would work, but we don't have one."

Meetra brightened. "Would a top-end protocol droid be able to mimic human voices?"

Atton nodded. "Yes, but it's not like there's a diplomatic translator just hanging around the station."

Meetra grinned. "Actually, it's just like that. Hold down the fort, I'll be back." She turned and headed back to the turbolift, leaving Atton standing there with his mouth hanging open.

Meetra returned to the maintenance area; the HK turned to face her. "Greeting: It is a pleasure to see you intact, Master. How may I be of assistance?"

Meetra beckoned. "Follow me. I want to take a look at that locked console." The two walked back to a small control room between the turbolift and the airlock.

The protocol droid walked up to a small freestanding console in the corner of the room. "Statement: Here we are, Master. I don't know what good seeing it will do you."

Meetra smiled. "You have a state-of-the-art vocabulator, correct?"

The droid stood very straight. "Proud answer: Yes, Master. I can accurately synthesize the speech of any species in the Republic, and I am programmed with over six thousand forms of communication."

"Good," smiled Meetra. "Then you should be able to mimic the maintenance officer's voice and unlock the console."

The HK's head swiveled down to look at her. "Shocked refusal: Master, use of my functions to bypass security would be a violation of standard Republic ethics programming."

So I ask a different question, Meetra thought. "The fact that you can mimic voices is pretty impressive. What would it sound like if you did speak the code to the console?"

The droid's voice changed to that of a young man. "Recitation:" Maintenance control: voiceprint ID: R1-B5." The console chimed; the words 'access granted' appeared on screen. "Shocked utterance: Oh no, Master!"

Meetra winked. "Thank you, HK-50. That will be all for now." She got on the console and unlocked the airlock.

She was turning to suit up when the droid stepped into her path. "Warning: Master, continued exploration of this facility may place you in unnecessary danger. The Harbinger has been out of communication for some days; another Republic ship is no doubt on the way to search for the cruiser. I encourage you to return to the medical bay and wait for retrieval."

Meetra shook her head. "I'm not waiting for rescue, and I'm checking the dormitory for survivors. Return to the maintenance bay and wait for instructions-that is an order."

The droid paused for a long moment. "Yes, Master. Please use caution; yours is a valuable life." He stepped aside and walked back toward the maintenance area.

Meetra stepped into the suit room and pulled a space suit off the rack. It was a collapsible hard suit that folded into a large rucksack. Meetra readied the suit and loaded her gear into the now-empty pack. She donned the suit and attached the pack to a hook on the back. She clamped the helmet on and stepped into the airlock. Meetra palmed a wall switch and the lock cycled. She stepped out into space, her own breath loud in her ears.

A metal walkway led from the airlock across the face of the asteroid. A Z-ramp led up to the administration level; the walkway crossed in front of the control room observation window and then another ramp led back down to the dormitory airlock. A jumble of pipework and wires ran across the asteroid surface next to the walkway. Out ahead, the station docking arm jutted out into the black. Small asteroids tumbled by in the medium distance.

Meetra began moving. Her feet clanked down with each step as the magnetic boots grabbed the walkway. She began the climb up the ramp. There was a flash of light and a jet of flame burst out of a large pipe. Meetra threw herself forward to avoid it. She avoided being scorched, but both her feet were off the decking. Meetra scrambled to get a handhold. She was beginning to drift away from the surface. She curled into a ball to spin faster, then shot her feet out and managed to touch the edge of the catwalk. Her boots adhered but scraped along the smooth metal. One boot broke free, but she managed to keep her right toes on the walkway. Meetra closed her eyes and got her breathing under control. She drew up her leg slowly, working to make sure she didn't come loose. She put her other foot down and got back on the walkway properly. The pipe was still blasting flame, blocking the way back. She'd have to get back to administration via the dormitory turbolift.

Her comm chimed. "It's about time," said Atton brusquely. "I lost your signal after you left the mining tunnels. Now you're coming in clear." He paused a moment. "Except I'm picking you up on the exterior of the facility, on the asteroid's surface. That can't be right."

"I'm right outside the observation window." Meetra waved as Atton looked up from the console.

"Huh?" Atton gaped at her. "What are you doing out there?"

"I need to reach the miners in the dormitory section," Meetra answered, "and this is the only way to get there."

"You're crazy," Atton snapped, "even for a Jedi. Look, you need to get out of there, quick."

"Believe me, I'm trying to pick up the pace," said Meetra.

Atton glanced down at his console. "What little is left of the facility's venting systems have gone active, most likely from the explosions in the mining tunnels. They're venting Peragus fuel deposits into space through the exterior vents-right in your path!"

So that's what that flame jet was. Meetra turned to look through the window. "Can't you shut them down?"

"I can't," frowned Atton. "I'm locked out of the main systems here. I can monitor the situation, but I couldn't shut it down if I tried." Atton frowned and typed a command into the terminal. "The vents look like they've been purposely rerouted to vent the gases to the exterior, and only in the last few minutes. It's almost as if…" He trailed off as the console started beeping. "Oh, what now?" He looked up in surprise. "I don't believe this-there's a ship coming in, sending a docking code." Atton shook his head. "I have a bad feeling about this."

It first became visible as a moving point of light. The dot grew into the familiar shape of a Hammerhead-class cruiser with Republic markings. It approached silently, without any hails other than the automated docking signal. Meetra watched as the ship banked slightly to avoid an asteroid. She was startled to recognize the Harbinger. It passed by her catwalk no more than fifty meters away. The ship came to a stop and moved in on thrusters, docking to the station's arm. Aft, its fuel pipe extended and hooked in to the station's refueling port.

Meetra couldn't see anyone on the bridge. Something was telling her that the ship was not good news. Meetra shrugged inside her suit. It was still a way off the station-and at the worst, they could use the fuel line to get into the depot on the far side of the containment fields, and thence to the hangar. She turned and continued to the dormitory airlock. She reached for the handle to cycle the lock, then paused. The dormitory ventilation system is compromised. Meetra ran a check on the air on the far side of the door; it showed safe to breathe. Meetra put her tool belt and harness back on. She folded down the suit and packed it, then opened the airlock inner door.

The hallway stretched away to her right. On the left was a small suit maintenance room. Meetra headed there first. The place was full of space suits and miners' gear being fixed. Meetra searched and found a breathing mask, designed to help miners escape a gas-filled tunnel. She hung it around her neck, where she could put it on quickly if she had to. Meetra headed down the hall. She opened a door to find a dead miner at her feet.

Meetra frowned and moved cautiously ahead. She leapt back and ducked behind the door frame as two automated fire extinguishers popped up out of the floor. They sprayed the doorway area with carbonite. Meetra didn't dare try to run past the freezethrowers. She leaned out and blasted them with her laser, hitting each several times to make sure they were scrapped. She heard the scraping sound of crawler droids, and got into cover to wait. A single mining droid came into view; Meetra dropped it with one well-aimed shot. She could hear more coming, along with the clanking footsteps of the big bipeds.

Meetra took a calming breath. Five crawlers scuttled into the room and began firing. She shot back and dropped two of the droids. The remaining crawlers kept up the fire as the bipeds joined the fight. Meetra ducked behind the corner. She checked her belt pouch: one sonic mine and her last ion grenade. Meetra swung out and threw the grenade. All three crawlers crashed to the floor, overloaded by the ion blast. One of the big droids approached the corner while the other hung back. Meetra stepped up and pointed. It took all the Force she could draw on, but a small bolt of blue lightning leapt from her fingers to hit the droid in the chest. It froze in place, and Meetra pushed it into the other biped's line of fire. The big droid fell; the second came at her, swinging. Meetra ducked and whirled her cutter underhand. She struck under the shoulder joint and cut clean through, taking off the droid's arm and head.

The fight left Meetra drained, but she kept moving. The passage curved slightly as it followed the shape of the asteroid, and Meetra found the entrance to the dormitory proper. It was sealed; Meetra moved to a console across the hallway. She brought up a camera feed of the dormitory. Everyone was dead; the rooms were filled with toxic gas. Meetra pulled on her mask and opened the outer door. She moved into the U-shaped dorm corridor and closed the outer door to keep the gas contained.

Meetra spent the next ten minutes searching the dormitory. She found several datacards with log entries which shed some light on what had happened while she was in the kolto tank. The mine administrator was pretty certain that a small group led by a miner named Coorta were responsible for the sabotage. The mine foreman had recorded Coorta and the maintenance officer plotting to sell Meetra to the Exchange. The Ebon Hawk, repaired by maintenance drones, would serve as the getaway ship. Coorta had killed the foreman before he could alert anyone, and the explosions had occurred moments later. The mine administrator, medical officer, and dock officer had been trying to override the lockdown when the gas had killed everyone in the dormitory. There was nothing Meetra could do, so she left the dormitory and returned to the hallway.

Meetra took a moment to think. She'd been almost everywhere-Coorta had to be in the hangar area. With the miners dead, why didn't Coorta take me and leave in the ship? The answer was fairly obvious. Coorta would have been the one to set the explosives in the tunnels. The maintenance officer had to be responsible for the slicing and droids, but he's dead-probably killed by Coorta before the lockdown. Then, when Coorta set off the blast, the containment fields trapped him as well. She just needed to get back to the administration level, collect Atton and Kreia, and get on the cruiser. If they couldn't fly it, they could bypass the force fields via the fuel line, enter the hangar, and take the freighter. Meetra headed for the mess hall and the turbolift back to administration. She stopped in utter shock: Coorta and his crew were dead on the floor; all three had been shot. The turbolift was locked; Meetra checked the console and found a security hologram of what had happened.

Coorta and his men ran into the lift room. He snarled into his comlink. "We almost didn't make it out of the dormitory section before the lockdown, you murglak! You're cutting it a little close, aren't you?"

"Yes, a regrettable miscalculation on my part," said the maintenance officer. "I'm contacting you because I'm picking up a subspace transmission from within that level-is that your doing?"

"No, they… they must be trying to use the old relay system to send an emergency signal," replied Coorta. "I doubt they know what's really going on." He smirked. "Don't worry about the miners and their transmission. By the time help arrives, we'll be all the way to Nar Shaddaa."

"Oh, they won't be leaving the dormitories," the maintenance officer said coldly. "The explosion within the tunnel has damaged the ventilation systems, causing breaches in the core exhaust conduits."

"What?" cried Coorta, "That's going to kill them all!"

"Not all of them," said the maintenance officer. "But I'm sending a number of mining droids to your location right now to correct that problem."

"Coorta, this turbolift's locked down," said one of the crew. "The sequence isn't working."

"Keep trying it!" said Coorta frantically. "You… why are you doing this? Why me?"

"You? It was never about you," the maintenance officer said. "The Jedi is all that interests me. But then you had to ruin everything by revealing her identity, and then trying to harm her. And that I cannot allow."

And then it wasn't the maintenance officer's voice. "Statement: You are a risk, Coorta. You are impulsive, crude… and soon, deceased." Two big droids burst into the room and shot Coorta and the others dead. "Mocking query: Coorta? Coorta, are you dead yet? Smug statement: I believe I forgot to mention that I reversed the turbolift codes in case you managed to get this far."

Meetra stood in a daze. HK-50 is an assassin droid. How in blazes did I not see that? She shook herself. The turbolift was still locked, but Coorta had the code on a scrap of paper. Meetra entered the code backwards and the doors slid open. She hopped inside and took the lift back to administration.

Meetra emerged in the hallway between the med bay and security; Kreia was waiting for her at the top of the shaft. "I have felt a disturbance. Our enemy is here; we must leave at once."

Meetra unclipped the vibrocutter and sheath from her belt and handed them to Kreia. "Then let's go."

"We need to make our way to the docking area on this level," said Kreia, buckling the blade to her belt. "I fear the airlock has already opened, and if so, we must be on our guard. If we cannot reach the Ebon Hawk, then we must find a way to escape on the ship that has docked here."

They ran through the corridors to the control room. Atton turned and did a double-take as he saw Kreia. "What in space is going on? Who's this? Another Jedi? What, did you guys suddenly start breeding when I wasn't looking?"

Meetra shook her head. "It'll take too long to explain. We have to leave. Now."

"Uh… all right," said Atton, nonplussed. "I'm guessing that Republic ship that just docked isn't carrying friends of yours."

Kreia made a disapproving noise. "I hope your talent for understatement is offset by your skill with a blaster. If not, then I fear our time together will be short indeed."

Atton's grunt was equally disapproving. "Yeah, and I'm also good at running and drinking, your majesty." He turned to Meetra. "And even if you two aren't big friends of the Republic, that warship's the only way off this station." The trio headed for the docking ladder. "Good thing we have a clear run to the shi…"

"Threat: Master, perhaps I did not enunciate clearly the last time we spoke." HK-50 stepped out between them and the exit. "I suggested that you should shut down, stay put, and wait for rescue."

Meetra's hand tightened on the grip of her laser. "After all the deaths you've caused, 'rescue' is hardly the term I would use."

The HK unslung an advanced mining laser. "Correction: I am not here to argue semantics, Master, so I will simply inform you that you are wrong-as were those recently-corrected miners."

Atton was edging toward the console. Meetra realized what he meant to do, and tried to keep the assassin's attention. "So you mimicked the maintenance officer's voice to control the droids and kill all the miners in the medical bay?"

"Indignant answer: Master, the miners intended to place you in jeopardy," replied the droid evenly. "I could not allow that to take place, so I was forced to negotiate a termination of hostilities. After reprogramming the mining droids to 'mine' any organics they perceived, they began to kill the miners one by one. Then a series of flawlessly timed explosions drove the miners into their dormitories-where I was able to gas them all at once without wasting time hunting them through the mining tunnels. I then administered a large dose of sedatives to the remaining miners in med bay, enough to kill them but ensure you slept peacefully. Of course, against my calculations, you awakened from your tank prematurely. I am ashamed by the inconvenience that caused for both of us."

Meetra smiled. "Capturing me will be more than inconvenient. Now, Atton."

The spacer keyed a command into the console. The four crawler droids he had reprogrammed moved in, firing at the assassin. Atton and Meetra joined in with their own lasers. HK-50 powered on a shield and returned fire. The trio scattered, finding cover behind computer banks. The assassin droid focused his attacks on the mining droids, demolishing them one by one. His shield fell as the last crawler was wrecked. Meetra scored hits, but not enough to do serious damage.

She ducked behind cover and thought. There was no way she could get close enough to finish the HK with her torch. But maybe I don't have to… "Shock him, Kreia," she called. The old woman leaned out and struck the droid with blue lightning, temporarily overloading it.

Meetra pulled the sonic mine from her belt pouch. "Atton!" He nodded and Meetra threw the mine. It curved through the air like a discus, and Atton shot it less than a meter from HK-50. The explosion blew the droid to pieces.

Meetra took a deep breath. "Let's get out of here." She led the way to the docking arm and onto the Harbinger.

A/N: I'm trying to get through Peragus quickly, but it really has more importance than the Endar Spire, and sets up characters. One more chapter, then we get to the good stuff.