CHAPTER #4: Crazy Rabid Aliens are Quite Intimidating

It took Carth a good two hours to completely clean the ooze off the door, and I loved every minute of it. It was particularly satisfying when he began muttering darkly under his breath. That just made my day. Not to mention the fact that he had a nice ass…but anyway…

Stomach full and good mood restored, I gave Carth a friendly pat on the back. " Good show, old chap. I daresay this is the cleanest this door has ever been."

" Thanks a lot." He replied dryly, stretching his back. " Do you know how hard that was? That stuff didn't resist soap, it grew on it!"

I gave him a sympathetic smile. " Nasty. But it's over with now, right? So we'll just consider this a life lesson and move on, right?"

Carth cocked an eyebrow at me, obviously not amused. " Is that some sort of threat?" I shook my head sincerely. He sighed deeply, rubbing his eyes tiredly. " Right. Now that we've wasted enough time, can we start to look for Bastila already?"

" Oh, right! Bastila." My spirits dropped noticeably. " That'll be fun." I spit out the last word and let a sour expression have free reign over my visage. Carth sighed again.

" Look-I know you don't want to do this. You've made that much clear. But we have to find her. She's vital to the Republic war effort."

" Yeah yeah yeah…let's just go already." I opened the door and was met by the sight of a Sith officer, flanked by an attack droid on both sides, held two Duros at blasterpoint.

" Everyone, get up against the wall! This is a raid!"

" But you were just here yesterday, and you didn't find anything then."

Carth made a move to attack the Sith, but I grabbed his arm just in time to stop him. I shook my head at him. " Low profile, remember?" I mouthed to him, praying that he'd have at least some skill with reading lips.

Carth glared at me angrily. " So you're just going to let them be murdered by that Sith bastard?"

" Shh! You wanna get us killed too?" I instinctively covered my head with my arms as I heard blaster shots ring through the hallway, followed shortly by the sound of a body falling. As soon as I had confirmed that it wasn't mine, I lowered my arms to see one of the Duros laying motionless on the floor.

" And that's what happens to filthy aliens who get on my nerves."

I noticed that the one Duros was looking at Carth and me pleadingly, so I retreated a bit so the door frame would hide me, dragging Carth back with me. The Duros made a motion for us to stay, which made the Sith turn around…and see us. A surprised expression flitted across his face.

" Humans hiding in alien apartments…You're Republic fugitives! Attack!" His droids instantly began shooting at us with horrible accuracy. I could have stood in the middle of the hall, motionless, and those things would have missed me nine out of ten shots. I pulled out my vibroblade and ran up to one of the droids, cutting it's head off. Carth had already taken out the other droid, so we both ganged up on the Sith and easily killed him. I managed to get another vibroblade and a few grenades out of the whole thing, which I promptly threw into my backpack which was, once again, slung over my shoulder. The Duros jumped with glee.

" Thank you so much!" He suddenly stopped and stared at his friend's corpse morosely. " Poor Ixil…didn't know when to shut his mouth…"

" Uh, yeah…okay then…" I began to inch away from the crazy Duros, who had started to jump around again. I grabbed Carth's arm and bolted. I looked back to see the Duros chasing after us like a rabid squirrel.

" I'll hide the bodies! Don't worry!"

Thinking fast, I ducked into the nearest door and closed it behind us, letting out a sigh of relief. I looked at Carth, panting. " Shit, than thing was retarded…huh?" I turned to see a girl about my age waving a vibroblade at Carth and me threateningly.

" Who are you, and what do you think you're doing, barging into my room like that?" I breathed sharply.

" Looking for bananas!" I held my hands up, and caught Carth throwing me a sarcastic glance out of the corner of my eye. " What? I don't think good under death threats, okay? Jebes…look lady," I put my hands on my hips. " Didn't mean to intrude, but we were being chased by a rabid Duros screaming about hiding corpses, and your door was the closest one. I'm sure that, if you were in our position, you would have done the same thing."

The girl sighed, lowering her vibroblade. " Oh, thank the Force. I thought you were a bounty hunter." She wandered over to a small chair and plopped herself down, obviously tired.

" What do you mean, 'bounty hunters'? You have a bounty on your head?" I guess I must have seemed a little too excited at the prospect, since Carth elbowed me in the ribs and gave me and angry glare. I covered a pained gasp with a cough and, wincing, continued, suppressing the urge to punch Carth in the solar plexus. ""Tell me about it…you."

" The name's Dia. I don't think I should tell you…" She paused for a second, looking me over discerningly. " I don't want any more trouble than I already have."

I shook my head innocently. " No, really, you can trust me! Maybe I could help!"

Sighing in resignation, Dia continued. " Well, I suppose you might be able to help…you see, I work in a cantina. There was a man there, Holdan, and he started getting a bit too touchy, so I defended myself and cut him with my vibroblade. Now the bastards gone out and put a price on my head, to protect his 'man pride' or something like that…I don't know. I don't understand guys."

I pursed my lips in thought. " You know, I don't think they even understand themselves."

Carth snorted. " Yeah, whatever. I understand myself fine, thank you very much."

I gave him a half-hearted sneer. " I'm not here to be politically correct, damnit. Anyway, you men sure as hell don't understand us women. That's a proven fact."

" Speak for yourself! I understand women as well as anyone could!" Carth was obviously beginning to get annoyed with our man-bashing. So, in such an instance, I found it prudent to continue on, just for the sake of annoying him. I couldn't help it- it was just so funny to see the way he reacted!

" Oh yeah, sure Carth. That's why you tried to make me eat something that's been in that fridge for only Force knows how long! NOT EVEN THE SITH WOULD BE CRUEL ENOUGH TO DO THAT!"

Carth threw his arms up in frustration. " I THOUGHT we were OVER that!"

" Oh, that little incident will haunt you for the rest of our time together, Onasi! The only way I'll ever forget that would be if someone lobotomized me in my sleep and removed the chunk of my brain that held the memory!" I paused for a second. " Well, there's no way in hell I'm ever going back to the clinic here…you and Zelka'll probably gang up on me and turn me into a vegetable."

" I wouldn't do that, even if it would make you shut up about it! I thought you'd realize that I have more integrity than-"

" Oooh, don't you 'integrity' me, Carth Onasi!" I poked him in the chest, a deep scowl planting itself on my face.

" So…how long have you two been married?"

Both Carth and I stared at Dia incredulously for a few moments, totally taken aback at her question. I turned my back to Carth, crossing my arms angrily. " We're not married."

Dia seemed confused at my reply. " Are you sure? You sound like a couple to me." I cocked an eyebrow and held up my left hand.

" You see a ring on any finger on this hand? No. Didn't think so." I snorted. " We're just forced to work together for the time being is all." I looked at Carth haughtily. " Now, if you're ready to be civil about things, I believe the cantina would be a good place to begin our search."

" Yeah, right." Carth snorted, giving me a nasty glare. " You probably just want to get drunk."

I raised my eyebrows. " And? You gotta point there, flyboy?" I took his lack of an answer as a cue to continue. " So c'mon, let's go already." I turned to Dia, giving her a warm smile. " Don't worry. I'll talk to Holdan for you." She smile and nodded in return, then my ass was out that door. The crazy Duros seemed to have buggered off for the time being, so I took the opportunity to sprint to the elevator before I was forced to encounter the blue freak again. Carth and I were completely quiet for a while; the tension was thick enough to cut with…something you cut things with. It wasn't very fun. For some reason, I felt the need to relieve some of the tension. Silly, silly me.

" Hey, Carth?" No answer. That really didn't help me out. " I have some questions for you."

He gave me a sideways glance. " Really."

" Don't be snide with me, damnit! It's just a few questions, so get over it already."

" I should get over it? You're the one who starts everything!"

" Listen you-" I cut myself off, and took a deep, calming breath. " Look—we're probably going to be stuck with each other for quite a while, and I just thought it would be a lot more bearable if we were friends, alright?"

Carth seemed to consider this carefully for a few seconds before replying. " You want to know more about me then, eh? Well, alright then. I've been a pilot for the Republic for more years than I care to remember. I fought in the Mandelorian Wars a couple years back." He paused for a second, then dropped his voice. " In all my years as a soldier, I've never seen anything close to the slaughter those Sith animals unleash."

" …did you ever see Revan or Malak? During the Mandelorian Wars, I mean."

Carth nodded somberly. " Yeah…I saw Malak once, and I was quite impressed. To think that two of the best Jedi could fall like that…" Carth shuddered. " You know, I've heard some grim stories about the Dark Jedi interrogation techniques. They say the Force can do terrible things to a mind. It can wipe away you memories and destroy your very identity!"

" Harsh." The comment didn't mean anything…I just felt like saying something. You know, so he knew I was still listening or whatever.

" Yeah…but I figure if we don't do anything stupid, we should be okay. I mean, after all, they're…they're looking for Bastila, not a couple of grunts like us."

" Ha! Sucks to be her!"

Carth continued on, basically ignoring me. " My home world, Telos, was one of the first planets to fall to Malak's fleet. The Sith bombed it into submission, and there wasn't a damn thing our Republic forces could do about it!" Carth seemed quite distressed over it. I was about to say that he didn't have to tell me anymore, but he continued before I could talk, and I didn't have the heart to stop him.

" I'm just a soldier; I go where the fleet Admiral tells me to. I follow my orders and I do my duty. It just…" he sighed sadly. " It just doesn't seem right that doing that means I failed them! I didn't!"

I was confused by then. It almost seemed like he was talking more to himself than he was to me. And he seemed quite depressed over the subject as well. I put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

" Look, I'm sorry I even brought anything up. This is obviously upsetting you, so-"

" No." He shook his head slowly. " Don't worry about it. I just…must not be making much sense. You probably mean well with your questions. I'm just not accustomed to talking about my past very much. At all, actually."

" Wow. I feel special now." I gave him a gentle smile. He just gave me a blank look and continued.

" I'm more used to taking action…keeping my mind focused on the business at hand. So let's just do that. If you have more questions, ask them later."

As far as I could tell, Carth had just told me to shut my yap. I raised an eyebrow, but kept my questions to myself. There would be plenty time to dig information out of him after I had drunk him under the table.