"Why didn't you want me talking about our deal?" Seth asked.
They were almost back to the settlement and, mercifully, no more rakghouls had appeared.
"They don't know that I might have found a way out of here," Nova replied. "And I don't want to get their hopes up, not until I'm completely certain."
"So you made that deal with me even though you weren't completely certain?"
"Yes. We need each other," she answered simply.
She had a point.
They managed to reach the gate to the settlement without incident, although twice Seth thought he heard distant blaster fire. He wondered how many dead lay down here, in unmarked graves, or abandoned where they had fallen. He hoped he wouldn't become one of them, if only so that he could see the rain again.
The gate began rattling open as they came close enough, and it reversed the process as soon as they were inside. Seth imagined they wanted to keep that thing closed as much as was possible. He followed her lead, and they threaded their way through the shacks and lean-tos until they came to a larger structure near the back of the encampment, one that Seth realized was not cobbled together, but actually looked like it had been built.
"What's this?" he asked.
"Original structure," Nova replied. "It's the most secure building we have, so we store most of our goods in it. It's also where the showers are."
He followed her to the door, where a pallid but grim-looking middle-aged woman stood guard. "Hello, Essale. We need in," Nova said.
"What have you got?" she asked, glancing at Seth.
"A lot. Medicine, food, water, tools, weapons. All thanks to him," Nova replied.
Essale's gaze lingered on Seth, as though sizing him up, then she seemed to relax. "Then I thank you," she said. "We've desperately needed some good luck around here lately."
"Glad I could help," he replied, uncertain of what else to say.
She opened the door for them and allowed them to pass. They came into a short corridor with two doors, one to either side.
"Showers are through there," she said, pointing to the left. "If we manage to fix the filtration plant, then I think you'll have earned one. This is what we want." She moved through the right door and flicked a switch.
Stark white light snapped into existence, revealing a room of lockers, tables, footlockers, and plasteel cylinders, yellowed with age.
"Let's unload, then we'll head out again," Nova said. "The filtration plant isn't that far."
Seth just nodded. He felt like utter garbage after the rush of adrenaline from battle had fully left him. His skin hurt in several places and he thought he might be bleeding from at least one area, but it didn't feel serious so he was ignoring it. Besides that, he was starving, and thirsty, and exhausted. He felt like he could sleep for another day and a half. But he simply shrugged out of his pack and emptied it of the emergency kits he'd grabbed.
"Gonna pass these out, drop by my shack, then we can go," she said after putting away most of the supplies, holding onto a pair of blaster pistols.
Seth followed her back outside. They moved through the encampment again, and as he watched her track down and arm two of the sturdier looking outcasts, he found himself wondering about the others onboard the Spire. How many had been there? He had heard that there were a few Jedi onboard, possibly a really important one, and he knew that Carth Onasi was aboard. He'd heard a few stories about the pilot and had a vague kind of hope of bumping into the man, though he usually didn't go looking for popular people.
He wondered if Carth had made it out alive, or any of those Jedi.
What he wouldn't give for that kind of backup right now.
Although it was obvious that Nova was a great fighter and a survivor, and she seemed to have good intentions. Though admitedly he was curious about where she'd come across these skills. He pondered that as they finished passing out the blasters and dropped by her place. She didn't seem to be military. What else then?
Mercenary?
"Okay, now we go," she said after grabbing a few more clips for their blasters and splitting a canteen of water with him, which he'd gratefully drank his half faster than he probably should have. But damn he was thirsty.
Before long, they were back out through the gate and once more trekking off into the Undercity, towards the filtration plant.
"So, Nova," he said.
"Yeah?" she replied.
"What kind of work are you in?"
"Wondered when you'd ask."
"It's a fair question."
"I suppose it is. I'm a bounty hunter, if you must know. Although I haven't hunted any bounties for almost six months now. And for the record, I'm a good one. And not just skilled, but I only hunt sick and evil bastards who deserve it. I'm not a 'no questions asked' soulless hunter like a lot of them out there."
"Okay...sorry if I offended you," he murmured, feeling agitation creeping into his skull again. Nova seemed to approach a lot of conversations from the notion of defending herself, and doing so angrily.
Then again, she clearly hadn't had the easiest life.
Especially lately.
"Sorry," she said flatly, and he suddenly had the idea that maybe she had trouble saying sorry just like he did. "It's just that bounty hunters have a crap reputation in the galaxy for the most part. I saw it as the best way to do some immediate good." She paused, then glanced at him. "Huh, I seriously expected you to throw out 'why not join the military?' in response to that."
"Well, I'd like to think I do some good in the military, and that on the whole we're a positive force, but just lately, I've been feeling a bit...disillusioned. Not really by the people I serve with, more in that it's feeling increasingly futile."
"Yeah..." she muttered glumly.
No one really wanted to imagine a galaxy ruled by the Sith.
"Well, if our short time together and the sheer fact that you've not only survived but thrived down here is any indication, then you must be a very good bounty hunter," Seth said, trying to bring the mood back up. "The others sure seem to respect you."
"Thanks, though they respect anyone who steps up and assumes authority."
"Seri respects you."
"I respect her," she murmured. "She hasn't had it easy." Another few moments passed as they walked on through the sunless abyss that was the Undercity. "What about you? Why'd you join up with the Republic?" she asked.
He felt his body twitch in anger at the question, but made himself relax. His past was not something he particularly enjoyed sharing with people. Then again, Nova had shared with him, provided she was telling the truth, and if he was going to ask her to believe him, then it seemed only fair to return that trust.
"I grew up poor," he replied, "so when I was old enough, I signed up to escape the poverty."
"That seems like an oddly...truncated, sanitized way of explaining your past," she said.
"Yeah...it's...a sore subject."
"Fair enough."
"No, it's not. You just told me about your cousin trying to sell you into slavery. Mine's not even that bad, not even close, but to me personally, it's just..."
"It's a sore spot, I get it," Nova replied. "Besides," she continued as they neared the end of the trash alley they were traversing, "you're off the hook: there's the plant."
They came to stand at the mouth of the alley. Seth studied the area ahead of them. Another open section set in between decaying, partially-collapsed buildings. More bodies on the dirt, which was stained with old blood, red and gray. A random proliferation of trash seemed to gather and grow in impacted piles. The building that Nova had indicated, the filtration plant, stood directly across from them, and seemed to have largely withstood the test of time. They stood there together in silence, studying the structure.
"I don't hear or see anything," Nova murmured finally. "Let's go. Quick and quiet."
They crossed the courtyard smoothly, or at least as smoothly as Seth could manage in his present condition. The pair managed to hit the base of the building without incident. They waited, listening, but nothing had changed, no new noises.
"This way," Nova whispered.
She led him to the left, away from what he took to be the front side of the plant. They hugged the wall until they reached the corner. She paused, peered slowly around the edge, then waved him after her as she slipped around it. He followed and found himself in another narrow alley between buildings. It was darker back here, shadows gathering. It stank, too. Spilled blood. Nova kept going, then began to slow until eventually she stopped about a third of the way down the alley.
She crouched.
"What is it?" he murmured.
"Fresh kill. Rakghoul. Blaster shots took it out."
"So someone's been fighting here."
"Yep."
She stood again and kept going. He stepped over the gray corpse and followed her to a doorway that was partially open. It was the sliding kind that disappeared into a niche in the wall. She hit the button but the door remained only partially open. Sighing, she grabbed it and shoved. The door begrudgingly gave up a few inches of space, just enough to allow them to get through, though Seth had to really squeeze.
He bit back a grunt of pain as he scraped his back against the door frame trying to get in.
They had come to a dim hallway. There was still power, he saw, as some of the overhead lights were on, not that they provided much light.
"You smell that?" Nova whispered, her pistol raised now. It hummed gently with power.
"Yeah, burning metal. Blasters were fired here recently," he murmured.
"Blood, too. Shit, come on. No one's supposed to be here."
He had his own pistol out now, ready for action. They traversed the hallway and moved to the door at the end. This one was open. They settled on either side of the door. Nova counted down silently. On three, they moved into the doorway, Nova dropping to one knee to get out of his way if he needed to fire. But neither of them had to squeeze the trigger. Seth found himself looking out over an expanse of death and destruction.
What had to be the main entryway to the plant was a large, two-story rectangle of a room, the floor of which was riddled with bodies. Most of them were rakghouls but several were human and twi'leks. "Ah damn," Nova muttered as she regained her feet and moved slowly into the room, checking the area out.
Seth followed, sweeping the perimeter, but he saw no survivors. There were several places to hide though. He began to move around the room as Nova stepped up to one of the corpses and crouched by it.
"Who were they? Anyone you know?" he asked as he pointed his pistol into a recessed alcove that seemed home to some random, old piece of equipment. Nothing there. He moved on.
"Dreks," she said. "They've all got that stupid tattoo on their foreheads, above their right eye. Initiation into the gang. I'm glad they're dead."
She started patting the body down.
"What's their deal?" Seth asked, peering into another open doorway. Nothing here but an almost empty room that looked like it might have once been a break area.
"Same as most gangs, I guess. You get in when you've got nowhere else to go and you've got a hard on for power. Or the illusion of power, at least. They're into the slave trade, they're into extortion, they're into theft and murder, too, when it suits them. They do have a headquarters down here. And I plan to do something about that..."
"What, exactly?"
"Later. Are we secure?" she asked.
He finished his circuit of the room and completed his examination. "Seem to be," he replied. "Find anything interesting?"
"Just some credits and a blaster pistol," she replied. "Come on. I know where we need to go."
He nodded tightly, following after her. The smell of death was powerful. There had to be a dozen and a half corpses. She led him across the room, to the far left, where another door awaited them. Through it, up a flight of decaying stairs, down another corridor where most of the doors were closed and another few corpses were spread out along its length, and finally they had discovered their destination.
Nova stepped through one door that was open, frowning deeply.
"They must've figured out where the power was going," she muttered.
He stepped in and looked around the room. It was packed with old workstations, consoles, and complicated-looking pieces of equipment.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Control room for pump four," she said. "The one we discovered was still mostly functional. We redirected the flow and routed it to us. Well, I say we but I mean Yex. He'd already done that by the time I showed up. We only need power to this one room and the general structure itself. And...aw damn," she growled.
Something sparked and bled smoke.
He joined her in front of a large panel of switches and machinery embedded in the far wall. "Idiots," she muttered. "They must've come here and figured they could do the same thing we did. And then got jumped by rakghouls. And shot this in the process."
Sure enough, behind a desk was a dead Drek and a dead rakghoul.
"And, of course, I'm not going to be able to fix this," she growled. "Come on, we need Yex for this. Let's search all these morons, then head back."
They got to work.