Kalima couldn't believe her luck. She had just survived a traumatizing, life-threatening situation, spent a week at a hospital so boring she almost contemplated suicide, suffered from memory loss and other strange side effects that only complicated her already complex identity issues, shared a room with a very manly, attractive married man she had to restrain herself from, tolerated belittling from other soldiers who didn't find her worthy enough for the Navy, worked undesirable shifts, and was now in the middle of yet another Sith attack, all this in the course of only 3 weeks! She was already starting to regret joining the military. But most of all, she was really getting fed up with the Sith.

Trask was running ahead of her, something she didn't particularly feel comfortable with because she couldn't see past his tall frame and didn't like feeling lost or helpless. She had her blaster out and ready but he barely needed her assistance. He was an outstanding shooter. He only stopped when they reached the bridge and turned around to check on her.

"The bridge is right behind that door. Close combat will be our safest bet if we're going to meet more Sith, it's suicide to use a blaster in close quarters. You're any good with melee weapons? "

"Uhhh…I have a vibroblade?" she looked uncertain.

"That's not what I asked."

"I don't have any formal training but I can handle myself."

"Listen," he placed a hand on her shoulder "I just want to let you know that I'll protect you as much as I can. You don't have to do anything crazy, just try to make it out of here alive. Do you understand?" his eyes were full of worry, almost imploring her.

She knew what he meant, and was touched by his concern. She nodded silently, feeling her eyes starting to burn. She didn't want to think of him dying to protect her, but she knew if the possibility presented itself, he wouldn't hesitate to do so. And she was determined to not let that happen.

She unsheathed her vibrosword and held it in front of her with both hands and utter resolve. He gave her a sad frown "Are you sure? If you want you can stay behind and use a blaster" he suggested.

She shook her head "No. I'm going in there with you."

He let out a heavy sigh "I guess I can't stop you. Just remember what I said okay?"

"Let's hope Bastila's in there. We could use some Jedi help right now" she ignored him.

He punched the panel by the door and it slid open. There were two Sith soldiers right in front of them and four unidentifiable figures in the distance. She leaped at the closest one to her, swinging the blade with all her might. The soldier blocked her attack with his sword and pushed against her, shoving her away from him. She fell backwards, and before she knew it she was doing a perfect backward roll and landed and both feet.

When the hell did I learn how to do that?

The soldier launched himself at her in a power attack. She held her blade horizontally, countering him at the last second. He then began swishing his sword in a series of flurries. Kalima started to panic, not even sure how she was blocking his all attacks. Something in her snapped. She was beginning to be aware of reflexes and muscle memory she never knew or thought she had. Her body was moving with effortless agility and outwitting every move from the Sith soldier.

What's happening to me?

She finally saw an opening and went for it. She lowered her body to dodge a deadly blow and slashed the man right under the ribs in one smooth move. He dropped immediately, his side wide open and bleeding. She stared at her victim with her jaw dropped, stunned at what she had just done. He was still breathing, but she didn't need to do any more; he'll be dead in a few minutes. She looked up and saw Trask still dueling with the second soldier. She rushed towards the Sith and sank her weapon in his back before he could even detect her behind him. She pulled the vibroblade out as he slumped to the floor.

"No former training huh?" Trask cocked an eyebrow.

"Don't ask! I don't even know how I'm doing this." She was pulling her blaster back out to aim at another Sith fighting a Republic soldier by the bridge's controls. She was just about to pull the trigger when an explosion shook the entire ship, making her stumble forward and catching herself on a desk. The explosion killed everyone near the controls.

"We can't stay here! Bastila must have retreated to the escape pods and since the Sith want her alive, there's nothing stopping them from blasting us into galactic dust once she leaves" he breathed out.

"Then let's hurry!" she was in the lead now, running past more explosions and electrical shorts. They left the bridge through the second exit and headed to the Starboard Section. She was about to hit the door's panel when another door slid open at the very end of the room on their right. They both spun around and spotted a dark Jedi. Something about him looked very familiar to Kalima...

"He's our most promising student, and will make an excellent Sith if he passes the tests."

"Indeed…so much hatred, so much cruelty. But I still don't find him apprentice material."

Her head was spinning after the brief vision. She felt herself taking a few steps back and bumping into Trask. What was that about? Her life was in danger and her mind decides to play tricks on her now? She heard Trask yell,

"Damn another dark Jedi! I'll try to hold him off, you get to the escape pods. Go!"

When it finally dawned on her what he was about to do, she went berserk. "Don't you even think about it Ulgo!"

"He's a Jedi Kalima, there's no point of us both dying when one of us can make it."

His words sent chills of fear up her spine and she desperately grabbed his elbow as he was about to charge at the man "Trask no! Not for me, I'm not worth it" tears welled up in her eyes. You have a family at home for Force's sake!

He turned and softly caressed her cheek, touching her scar "You're worth every bit of it."

He was about to run back to the Jedi when she pleaded with him again, full blown tears running down her face now "Trask…please!"

"You already sacrificed yourself once to save others. Let someone else save you now." And with that, he set off. The dark Jedi was already by the room's entrance, so Trask pounced at the panel by the door and slammed it shut, leaving a horrified and sobbing Kalima behind.

"NOOOO!" she ran to the door and looked for a way in, but there was no way to open it from the outside. She could hear the clanging of sword and saber on the other side and wished she could shoot a blaster bolt right between that Jedi's eyes. Cursing to herself, she reeled back and ran towards the escape pods. She couldn't bear to hear him fall.

As soon as the door opened, she fell on her hands and threw up. She had overloaded the power conduit in the room behind her which had electrocuted all the Sith soldiers in it, and as much as she enjoyed taking her anger out on them, she couldn't stomach the smell of freshly burnt human flesh. It gave her too many bad memories.

"Are you okay?"

She looked up and saw a brown haired man wearing a nauseating orange jacket. Or maybe it was just nauseating to her because she still had the taste of vomit in her mouth. Onasi, the man on the communicator, she remembered. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve, disgusted with herself. Way to go for a good first impression Kalima.

"Yea I'm fine, where's everybody?"

"We're the last two crew members. You made it just in time, there's only one active escape pod left and Bastila is already gone. There's no reason for us to stick around." He explained hurriedly.

Kalima flinched as she remembered Trask. Even if he would've made it, there wouldn't have been any rides left for him. She suddenly felt very depressed, and weak from emptying all the contents of her stomach a few seconds ago. The ship violently shook again, tipping them both off balance. She feebly looked up at the man, feeling like she was about to pass out.

"Can you... please help me up? I don't want to waste a second longer in this hellhole."

They crashed right on the edge of an Upper City street. Had it landed a meter off, they would have been swirling down into the depths of the Undercity. Carth Onasi cursed as the already unconscious Kalika bumped her head on the dashboard when the pod came to a stop. He opened the doors and slowly pulled her out with him. The street was empty except for one patrolling protocol droid. It had to be well after bed time and Carth was glad there were no witnesses. He gently lowered Kalima to the ground and ran to the protocol droid.

"Where can I find a place to stay tonight?"

Kalima screamed when she saw her reflection in the refresher's mirror.

"What the hell is that?" she pointed incredulously at her forehead as she stormed out to face Carth.

"I told you you bumped your head when we landed. Don't fret over it too much, it'll be gone in no time."

"I look like a horned kath hound!" she yelled throwing her hands in the air.

Carth stifled a laugh at her comparison and reaction. She had a huge lump right in the middle of her head.

"Oh so you think this is funny" she glared at him placing her hands on her hips.

"No, it's not like that. It's just that I don't think a small bump is enough to make you look unattractive, or anything like a kath hound."

"Small bump? I could pass for an alien right now! And I—Are you flirting with me Carth?" she halted when she realized what he said.

"Uh, no! Not at all," he rubbed the back of his reddening neck "just stating the obvious. You're not exactly umm…the average woman."

She gazed at him for a few seconds, amused at his discomfort, then burst out laughing. "Flattery will get you everywhere mister. But it's not really my looks I'm worried about. I can't afford another head injury right now. I'm already mentally unstable as is." She walked back in the refresher to wash her face.

"I can't see why you would say that. A mentally unstable person couldn't have maneuvered around an ambushed cruiser like you did" he asserted.

"Oh you'll see why" she said in closing while drying her face. She didn't feel like getting into that conversation right now. Looking at her head bump in the mirror, she said "So what species should I go as? I think I'll be a Cerean for today."

Carth chortled loudly "That's quite a sense of humor you have there. Speaking of aliens, I saw on your service records that you understand a number of alien languages. That's pretty rare for a raw recruit, but it should come in handy-"

"You went through my files? Don't you need permission to do something like that?" she interrogated.

"Well, I'm sorry for prying but I was advisor of the ship. To be honest with you, I looked you up after overhearing a couple of officers talking about you" he admitted.

"Of course you did. I can't believe this! I don't bother anyone yet everyone has something negative to say about me" she sighed in frustration.

"Actually, what caught my attention was what they said about your mission with the Jedi strike team. I gotta say, your resume is pretty impressive. They were however, skeptical of whether it was really you on board."

"Hfff, yea" she rolled her eyes "I know." She paused to think for a while. "What else did you find out about me?"

"Well," he cleared his throat "other than the usual skills and feat stats nothing much. I did notice something strange though. Changes were made in your files a few days after your last mission, but there were no indications of who made them or what was edited. It's as if whoever updated them didn't want anyone to know about the changes in your stats, but the computers always record dates when files are accessed. That's the only reason I even know about it. I also find it strange that Bastila would request a special transfer for you while you were still being hospitalized. From what I heard you were pretty badly injured, it's almost inhumane for her to want you back on board so soon."

She looked mystified, trying to make sense of the information she was presented with. "Why would Bastlia request a special transfer? We barely know each other. I wasn't even in her group on the strike team." She stroked her chin and started pacing around.

"I have no idea, maybe you can ask her when we find her." He looked a little more sympathetic when he realized she was just as clueless as he was.

Kalima was still stroking her chin in deep thought. "You said we used the last escape pod to get here, that means there are more of us on Taris right? Maybe we should also look for the other survivors." Her mind briefly flashed to Trask's warm face. She quickly shook her thoughts away, knowing she would burst into tears if she kept thinking about him. And she didn't want to cry, at least not in front of Carth. The last thing she needed right now was exhausting herself with narrating a depressing story.

"I think it's best if we focus our efforts on finding Bastila first. Malak's men are going to be after her, not us. Besides if there are any other survivors, she'll be able to find them faster than we ever can with her Jedi powers. The way I see it, we need each other's help" he explained.

What he said made sense to her. She stopped pacing and gave him an impressed nod then continued "Alright chief. Let's get going. How many credits do we have?"

He stood up and straightened his jacket "200 credits more or less. We'll need more if we're going to buy equipment."

"Ah…" she flashed him a wide grin "leave that up to me. I heard Taris is a goldmine full of marks just waiting for the right scoundrel to…HEY!" she patted her breast pocket, and then briskly frisked herself.

"Where is my pazaak deck?" she cried with her eyes wide.

Carth shifted uneasily "I ummm…I sold it."

"You did WHAT?"

"Someone offered 100 credits for it. I used the money to buy medical supplies and food. I didn't think you'd need it...I'm sorry" he lowered his eyes to the floor, genuinely remorseful.

She exhaled and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. "So let me get this straight. You picked the shittiest abandoned apartment in Upper Taris, left me without professional medical care for 2 days, changed my clothes in my sleep, and got rid of our most reliable cash cow?"

"Cash cow?" his eyebrows shot up.

"Yes, as in gambling? Where have you been living all your life? That deck is one of the best in the galaxy! I'm unbeatable with that thing!"

"Okay okay woman! I'm sorry!" he raised in his hands in surrender "I'm no pazaak player, I had no idea."

She let out a heavy sigh, placed her hands on her hips and slowly shook her head at him.

"You're lucky you're cute, or I would have punched your face in."

"Ha! Are you flirting with me now beautiful?" he said feeling a little relieved that she wasn't yelling any more.

"No." She walked past him and picked up her backpack. "I'm just a true aesthete. Now let's go."

AN: Whoo! Finally done with the Endar Spire. I know the story seems to be moving a little slow but I promise things will speed up. Taris shouldn't take more than 3 chapters even though it's my favorite board. I'm going to be busy this weekend so no telling when my next update will be. Probably Monday *crossing fingers* Thank you all for reading and following my story!