Some People Change:
A SW:KOTOR Novelization
By Elina Trevisan
Author's note: Hello readers. Um… you know that whole 'regular updates' thing? Uh… just kidding? Okay, so there's a kinda sorta reason this time, which I won't go into. Suffice to say, it should be fixed now. Unfortunately, our household is about to go up one member. My sister is coming home from a mission for our church on Tuesday, so we may be pretty busy. With any luck, things will have settled down by Saturday, so I should be able to post on time. I'd like to thank all of you guys for reading. Whenever I see a new review, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And about Catra's little… speech… to the Jedi: I made up none of those things that she says. They are all from Star Wars, too, not other universes. Enjoy the chapter. Comments and critiques are welcome!
Chapter 2
Catra sat up and smiled. The translation was complete. Now for her to turn it back in to that Jedi. Maybe he would give her another assignment. She left her quarters and hurried to the conference room. When she opened the door, the same Jedi sat at the table. He looked up at her.
"That was fast."
"This assignment was easy," she said with a wave of her hand, passing over the datapad.
"Very good." He pocketed it.
"What's next?" she asked, looking at him expectantly.
"That is all that you are required to do for now."
"Are you fracking me?"
The Jedi turned back towards her, looking decidedly scandalized. "What did you say?"
"I asked if you were fracking me."
"I heard what you said!"
"Then why did you ask?"
He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to find words to say. When nothing came, he closed his eyes for a moment to gather his thoughts, and then spoke. "I am quite serious. As I said before, you may volunteer elsewhere if you wish."
Catra grit her teeth. This was why she hated Jedi. They had the gall to take her in and bring up her hopes, only to disappoint her. "I came here to help with the war," she said, trying to keep her temper in check. The Jedi seemed to shrink a little as she stepped towards him. "I want to help with the war. I won't just sit back and translate useless reports from Rim worlds."
The Jedi took a few steps backwards and gulped. "I'm sorry, but that's what you are required to do."
Before, Catra had been mildly irritated. Now she was upset.
- - - - -
Carth stopped in the hallway. He could hear someone yelling. Loudly. They also seemed to have an extensive array of curse words at their disposal, ranging from Huttese to Basic and ones that he didn't even want to think about. When he saw that the cursing was coming from one of the Jedi meeting rooms, he was curious. He entered the room to see a short woman yelling at one of the Jedi, her finger pressing into his chest. The Jedi looked frightened and had backed up into the wall.
"YOU PATHETIC LITTLE DUBESOR! SHAVIT, A SKLOOBING MURGLAK COULD DO THIS JOB! I DON'T NEED THIS! IF MY SHIP HADN'T BEEN FREG'D, I COULD BE OFF DOING REAL WORK, NOT WORKING FOR A KRIFFING KRAZZSCH KUNG LIKE YOU! K'TAH! YOU JEDI ARE ALL DI'KUTE! DYEESH, I QUIT MY JOB FOR THIS! ALL FOR A BUNCH OF DURNED KARKING PRUGNUFICATING SCHUTTAS! ROT IN DAR'YAIM, YOU CHUFF-SUCKING-"
"What is going on here?" Carth shouted, causing the woman to turn and look at him. He glanced at her rank insignia on her uniform and did a double take. She was an ensign. Yelling at a Jedi. And frightening him.
"Hello, Commander," the Jedi said, his voice shaking. He feebly waved one hand at Carth.
"THIS IS NONE OF YOUR FRACKING BUSINESS!" the woman shouted at Carth. He nearly took a step back in surprise. For someone so small she could seem quite intimidating. He, however, was a Commander in the Republic fleet.
"It most certainly is!" he yelled back, trying to channel all of his old drill instructors.
"Get out of here!" the woman shouted.
"Control yourself, Ensign!" Carth bellowed. She seemed a little shocked at the use of her rank and took a step back. Her face went blank of emotion for a few seconds, and then she seemed nervous.
"Oops," she whispered. She bit her bottom lip and backed away from the Jedi.
"'Oops' is right!" Carth shouted. "Now tell me what's going on here!"
The Jedi stepped forward. He seemed much calmer now that the woman had retreated. "Thank you for your help, Commander, but it really isn't necessary. This is Jedi business."
"Anything that happens on my ship is my business," Carth said, glaring at the Jedi.
"Might I remind you that this ship isn't under your command? It's under Jedi command."
"I don't care." Carth leaned out into the hallway and grabbed a passing security officer. "Take this woman to the brig now."
The security officer took one look at Carth's uniform, and took the woman by the arm. "Please come with me, ma'am," he said politely. She nodded mutely and walked out with him.
Once she was out of the room and out of earshot, Carth turned back to the Jedi. "Now tell me what was going on here," he ordered in his best 'commanding' voice.
The Jedi straightened himself up and looked back at Carth, looking much less intimidated than when he was being yelled at by an Ensign. "As I said before, it was Jedi business. I shall relay the pertinent details to Bastila. Thank you for your assistance." Before Carth could respond, the Jedi left the room.
Carth glowered at the empty doorway, as if it were the door's fault for letting the Jedi leave. He didn't care that the Jedi were in charge officially. When he was cut out of something as big as this, he got mad. He had to speak to Bastila.
- - - - -
Catra sighed as she reached the door. She had finally gotten out of the brig after three hours. It was hardly the worst prison that she'd ever seen (it was probably the best, actually), but it was a bad sign. Being arrested on your first day could mean nothing but trouble. At least Loranna wouldn't be too much trouble about it. Sure she would sigh and give a couple 'what will I do with you's, but that wasn't so bad. Then she would start teasing incessantly. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle. Catra opened the door to their quarters.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Loranna shouted. Catra looked over to see that Loranna had half of her things packed.
"What are you doing?" Catra asked.
"I'm getting packed. Apparently they thought that having a friend with you was making you feel like you could do anything."
"What? Why would they punish you?"
"I don't know! What did you do?"
"Not much," Catra muttered. She looked down at the floor guiltily. She had never considered that Loranna would be punished for her actions.
"What?" Loranna said firmly. It was less of a question, more of a command.
"I… sort of… verballyharassedoneoftheJedi, but he totally deserved it!"
Loranna sighed and collapsed onto her bed. "Why do you keep doing these things? Even in training you were always going crazy. Like a kid that's just gotten out of his parents' house and realized that he's free to do whatever he wants. You need to think of consequences."
"And I do! Usually…"
"Yeah, when you're fighting in training you think a lot about consequences. You know what someone will do before they do, and can plan ahead for that. You just can't seem to apply it to regular life."
"I know," Catra sighed. She sat down on her bed and placed her head in her hands. The day's events were giving her a huge headache.
"One wonders what kind of smuggler you were."
Catra's head shot up and she looked at Loranna. "What?"
"Well, I know that smugglers live a pretty free life, but this is just—"
"No, that's not what I meant. How did you know I was a smuggler?"
"What do you mean?" Loranna asked, genuinely confused.
"I never told you that. And they said that you had to have clearance to view my criminal record. How did you find out?"
"Oh. Well, I did a little digging. I knew that there was something up about your past, so I talked to some friends of mine who had clearance to see your record. I must say, it's quite—"
"You had no right," Catra said coldly. She stood up to face Loranna.
"What's wrong?"
"You had no right to dig into my past like that."
"Why not? Were you trying to hide it from me?"
"Yes! Did you consider for one second that I didn't want people to know about it?"
"But we're friends…"
"And that gave you the right to pry into my secrets?"
"But I thought—"
"Finish packing." Catra turned away from Loranna. "You've got to get out of here, right?"
- - - - -
Catra collapsed onto her bed. Loranna had just left. Today had not been the best of days. She'd learned that her job was one huge piece of crap, she'd verbally assaulted a Jedi, she'd gotten her only friend punished, and then she'd gone and lost that friend. But really, could anyone blame her for that last one? Catra had made it perfectly clear that she didn't want to talk about her past with anyone, and Loranna had gone prying.
She sat up. It didn't matter. She'd gone for a while without any friends. She could make it on her own. Even as she told herself that, it didn't help to ease that slight ache in her heart. In her own strange way, Loranna had actually cared about Catra's well being. The last person to do that had been years ago.
The sound of the door opening drew her out of her reverie. She sat up and saw a young man standing there. Everything about him screamed 'soldier'. From his crew-cut blonde hair, to his straight-backed posture, and his uniform that was so firmly pressed she wondered how he moved in it. This would be interesting.
"Are you Ensign Nasan?" he asked.
"Yeah. Who's asking?" Catra asked. She really didn't need to. It was obvious that he was her new bunkmate. Perhaps they thought that assigning a man to be her bunkmate would make her less likely to act out. Idiots.
"Ensign Trask Ulgo. I'm your new roommate." He approached her and held out a hand.
She ignored it. "Good for you," she said, collapsing back onto her bed. "I think you can figure out which bed is yours."
"Oh," he said, withdrawing his hand. "Right." He crossed the room and placed a duffel bag onto Loranna's old bed.
"So, Trass—"
"Trask."
"Whatever. What do you do around here?"
"I'm in engineering," he said proudly. Judging by his look, you'd think that engineering was going to single-handedly defeat Malak, cure cancer, and help people to lose pounds of fat in seconds.
"That must be a laugh a minute."
"Umm…" he said, unsure of how to respond. He obviously wasn't used to Catra's dry sense of humor.
"Don't worry about it. I was just about to leave anyway." She hopped out of bed and checked to be sure that she was wearing her various weapons. "See ya around."
Once she was out of the room, she pondered her next actions. She was hungry, but they'd stopped serving dinner an hour ago. The ship's "entertainment deck" should be open. Loranna had told her that was just a euphemism for a cantina. That should be fun. It would at least allow her to work off this frustration that she had.
With that destination in mind, she headed off to the entertainment deck. She had lost her pazaak deck in the accident, and all of the ones that she had gotten afterwards had been confiscated by the instructors at the academy, but she was certain that she would be able to at least borrow one from someone.
- - - - -
Carth sat down at the bar, glad to finally be able to relax.
"Anything to drink, Commander?" the bartender asked when he saw Carth.
"Just some gizer," Carth answered.
"Coming right up."
A tall blonde woman plopped down next to him. "Can I have a fizzbrew?" she asked. She looked like she needed the alcohol much more than Carth did.
"Sure thing, Lieutenant."
"Thanks," she muttered when the drink arrived, downing the fizzy concoction in one gulp. "Can I get another?"
The bartender chuckled and began to pour another one.
"Rough day?" Carth asked. He couldn't help but be amused by the look on the woman's face.
"The worst…"
"I'm sorry to hear it."
"Yeah," she said, turning to see who she was talking to. When she recognized the man, she gave a small squeak of surprise.
"Is something wrong?"
She shook her head firmly, her lips pressed tight to avoid accidentally saying something and making a fool of herself.
"So what made today such a bad day?"
"Oh, you don't want to hear about my problems," she said, turning towards her new drink. "Keep 'em coming," she instructed the bartender.
"Well if it's as bad as it seems, then it may make my day look better in comparison."
She sighed. "It's my bunkmate. We were friends in training. Today she did something stupid, and was punished for it."
"Is that all?"
"No," Loranna sighed. She took a drink. "She's always been weird. Last week, I found out that she was once a smuggler. I didn't find this out through her. Then today, I told her what I found out. She chewed me out. I really didn't think that it was a problem, though. Apparently she thought differently."
"She's weird?" Carth asked, now genuinely curious in this woman's dilemma. It actually didn't sound that bad to him, though. "How is she weird?"
"Well, it's hard to explain. When we were roommates in training, she didn't talk to me at all unless I started a conversation. When I said that I'd like to become friends, she just sort of laughed at me. And it's not like she had any other friends. She spent all of her time in the archives, or working. And whenever time she wasn't doing that, she was getting in trouble. Luckily people realized pretty quickly that I wasn't part of it. She was insubordinate, she would hold pazaak games in our room while I was out, she smuggled booze into the room, and she would stay out late for no apparent reason.
"Then there were the dreams. She would have nightmares all the time. She said that she didn't remember them in the morning, but who knows if that's true. I think that they started getting worse, too. And sometimes we would be talking and she would just suddenly go pale, and then she'd leave without a single word. It was always creepy whenever that would happen. Then there were the guys."
"She had a lot of men?" Carth asked, amused that this could be considered weird.
"No!" Loranna said emphatically. She gestured with her drink, sloshing some of it out of the glass. "I tried to help her, really I did. But she just wouldn't take anyone who I would direct her way. I mean, it's not like she's ugly or anything. And she's only in her early thirties, too! But every man that I pointed her at was either completely rejected or ignored until he gave up! And whenever I would talk to her about good-looking men, she would say that she 'doesn't notice'. What does that mean?"
By now she had started on her fifth drink, and was gesticulating wildly. She suddenly looked at Carth, a wild look in her eyes. "Hey, are you single? She might go for you. I've only ever tried to get her men with a one or two year difference from her, or are at most a lieutenant. Maybe a commander would work better?"
"Uh, no thank you," Carth said. He gave her a slight smile and stood up. "I'd better be going." He stood up and stepped away from the bar and towards a nearby table which was currently the host of what appeared to be a rather heated pazaak game. He was prepared to settle down and watch. Until he spotted who was playing.
"Oh shavit!" Catra shouted loudly when she saw the commander that had apprehended her earlier approaching their table. She quickly glanced at the cards in her hand and those on the table. She looked between him and the cards for a few moments, trying to decide whether greed or survival would win out. "What are you doing here?" she shouted. Greed it is, then.
"What are you doing here?"
"Cleaning me out," the other man playing pazaak said forlornly. "You've got to have a skifter up your sleeve."
"Where?" Catra shouted now at him, indicating the skintight bodysuit that she was wearing. "Where could I put it?"
He sighed and drew a card. A look of triumph crossed his features. "Ha! Nineteen. I stand."
She didn't react to him, but drew another card. "Twenty. I win the game. Better luck next time."
"I'm out," the man said, collecting his cards. "I can't do this anymore. Keep the deck."
"Thanks!" the woman said, smiling brightly. She looked back at Carth. "So what are you doing here? Did you come to arrest me again?"
"When did they let you out?" Carth asked. "And why?"
"How am I supposed to know? Maybe they figured that I'd suffered enough, maybe they were afraid that I'd go psycho in the brig, who knows!" She collected her cards again and began to shuffle them. "Who's next?" she called out to the small crowd that surrounded their table. She was greeted only by head shakes and mutters. "Fine! Sore losers." She stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Carth once again stunned. Just earlier today she had been frightening a fully trained Jedi with only words, and now she was just relaxing and playing pazaak. A very strange woman.
- - - - -
Catra opened the door and stomped into the room, fully expecting to be waking her new roommate. Instead, she found him still awake, reading a book.
"Ah," he said. "I was wondering when you were going to be getting back. Where have you been?"
"Why do you care?" she asked, kicking off her boots. She carefully began to remove her weapons one by one. After she'd removed them all, she patted herself down to make sure she hadn't forgotten any.
"I was just wondering. I heard that you might get into trouble, and figured that I'd better watch over you; make sure that you're alright."
"Well, thanks for the effort, but I don't need a babysitter. Do you need this light? Thanks." She turned out the light and lay down in her bed, not bothering to change out of her bodysuit. She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep.