Some People Change:

A SW:KOTOR Novelization

By Elina Trevisan

Hello again, my beloved readers! Sorry for the delay, etc. etc. I think that I've pretty much given up on attempting a regular update schedule. I'll just try to give y'all a new chapter regularly. I was meaning to get this out earlier today, but my ferret got sick. That's bad enough, but he also got sick all over his cage, so I literally spent all day cleaning it up. He was out of his cage all day, but he spent most of his time sleeping. Practically the only time that he got up was either to use the litterbox, eat, or drink. If he isn't better by tomorrow, we'll probably start making him some duck soop (Since most of you probably don't have ferrets, duck soop is a soup which ferret owners will often give their ferrets. It rarely contains actual duck.) I just need to convince my mother to go out and buy some liver that we can give him. Oh well, all for tomorrow. Please enjoy the chapter, and reviews are welcome!

Chapter 5

"Huh?" Catra muttered, looking around her. The room was dark, but the exertion hurt her eyes. "Where am I?" She looked at the man who had spoken and saw that it was the commander who had been in the escape pod with her.

"Taris. We're in an abandoned apartment. You probably don't remember what happened, so I'll fill you in. We crashed in the street, and managed to get away before the Sith arrived."

"The Sith?" Catra groaned. It made sense, of course. It would explain why the Sith were in orbit.

"Yeah. The Sith are in control of this planet. They've imposed a quarantine until they can find Bastila and the other Jedi. They're using the excuse that they're carriers of some disease, but I don't think that anyone believes that. Anyway, I came across a doctor who helped us find this apartment. You were pretty badly hurt, so he patched you up. You've been slipping in and out of consciousness for the past two days."

"Thanks for helping me out, I guess," Catra said, trying to sit up. It took her a few moments and Carth had to help her, but she managed it.

"No need to thank me. I've never left a soldier behind, and I wasn't about to start now."

She nodded, still trying to process everything that had happened. Her mind was still quite foggy. "Have you been able to do any scouting around yet?"

Carth shook his head. "Not really. I've been worried about leaving you alone. You, uh, seemed to be having some pretty bad nightmares."

"Really?" Catra said. "I don't remember anything," she lied. So he knew about the nightmares, but that didn't mean that he had to know everything about them. Some things were better kept secret. "My name is Catra Nasan. What's yours?"

"Carth Onasi." Catra looked up at that name. Commander Onasi was the one who Loranna pointed out as the most attractive man on the ship. Looking him over now, he did have a sort of rough charm about him. His chin was covered in a five o' clock shadow, while his brown hair was combed back. A few strands hung down in front of his face. His brown eyes seemed kind.

"Are there any other survivors?" Catra asked, thinking of Loranna. Their last conversation hadn't gone very well, and all that she could do was pray that she was alive.

"The Sith have caught a few soldiers, but not many. Most of the escape pods crashed in the Undercity, according to the holovid."

"Undercity?" Catra cursed herself for being unable to remember what he'd already told her about the planet. It seemed like everything that she tried to think about was slipping away.

"Oh, of course," Carth apologized. "The planet that we're on is called Taris. It's like Coruscant in that it's entirely covered by the city. The city is divided into three levels. The uppermost level is called the Upper City, that's where we are. It's inhabited mostly by nobles and rich merchants. Aliens have to have a special permit to live here, but many are here illegally.

"The next level down is called the Lower City. It's where most of the aliens live, and it's mostly slums. Apparently it's almost completely ruled by the swoop gangs or the Exchange, and all of the travelers' guides advise against going down there. The inhabitants can be pretty hostile towards people from the Upper City."

That was bad news. The Exchange was the biggest crime syndicate in the galaxy. If they had a foothold on this planet, then it could only mean trouble. She doubted that any of them would know about her, and she didn't think that she'd ever gotten any bounties big enough for Exchange agents here to worry about, but she wasn't sure.

"And the Undercity?" she asked.

"Ah. That's actually on the surface of the planet. Apparently it's been turned into some sort of penal colony. It's inhabited by mutants called rakghouls. All of the information that I've found on them is sketchy at best, but it seems that they're born from a disease that's quite common in the Undercity. From what I've heard they're aggressive and very dangerous.

"This quarantine has stopped all travel between levels, so it'll be tough if we need to get down there."

"And you said that most of the pods crashed in the Undercity. Great." Catra planted her face in her hands, covering up her eyes. She felt like she had a hangover.

"Yeah. I figure that our best chance of survival is to find Bastila, and then work with her at getting off of this planet."

Catra paused before deciding what to say next. It was worth saying, but if she did then it could put him against her. Oh well, what was one more enemy? "Are you sure that Bastila's still alive? She could be dead for all that we know."

"No, she's still alive. I just know it. Besides, she's a Jedi, and she's strong for her age. If anyone could survive in the Undercity, it's her."

Catra nodded, still not quite certain. At least they could be fairly certain that the Sith hadn't caught her or found her body. If they had, then it would be all over the holo. "Have you worked out a background story for us?" Catra asked.

"No," Carth said, looking a little embarrassed. "I hadn't actually thought about that."

"Well, we'll need one if we're going to be here for any period of time."

They spent the next half hour working out their story, which allowed for why they were staying in such a rundown apartment, as well as why they were living together. After they had the details down, Catra felt strong enough to go take a shower.

In the refresher, she was pleased to find that Carth had bought her some new clothes. They were similar to the ones that she was wearing, though she doubted that they had the armor-like properties. Once she was done, she reentered the bedroom, feeling much better than before.

"How are you?" Carth asked.

"Well, I won't be running any marathons for a while, but I'm better than I was before." She sat down on one of the beds. "So what now?"

"Well, I was hoping that we could take an inventory of our supplies. I'm running a little low on credits."

"Right," she said, pulling her vest out from under her bed. "It looks like I've got about two hundred credits, six frag grenades, my vibroblades, my backup blaster, my boot knife, my wrist knives, a datapad, some extra ammo for my blaster, and another blaster, a rebreather, about a week's worth of rations, some stims, three computer spikes, and a pazaak deck. What have you got?"

He looked at the small mound of weapons warily. The small vest had held a lot more than he'd expected. Trying to put it out of his mind, he pulled out his own bag. "Well, I've got fifty credits, two blasters, a vibrodagger, some extra clips for my blasters, and a datapad."

"That's it?" Catra asked, glancing skeptically at his pockets.

"Yes. Unlike you, I'm not a walking armory."

"You've gotta learn to be prepared, flyboy."

"Flyboy?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah. You're a pilot, right?"

"Perhaps you could call me Carth."

"Sure, if you want to go the traditional route."

"What's wrong with tradition?"

"Sometimes you need to shake things up." She froze as someone began pounding on the door and slowly reached for her vibroblades. When an Ithorian spoke, she seemed to get a little more concerned.

"Did you catch that?" Carth asked. He didn't speak Ithorian, but the speaker was quite obviously worried.

"Yeah," she muttered. "Hurry up and hide the weapons, but keep them within reach."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"The Sith are doing a surprise inspection."

- - - - -

Captain Corrun Dass was quite bored. This planet had no interesting sights to see, and they weren't likely to be doing any combat until the quarantine was eased. So they spent their free time taking out their uniforms and doing random inspections. It provided a little entertainment in the form of the scared faces of the residents of this dingy apartment building.

Illegal aliens, every one of them. Well, not all of them. They had come across two humans who were most likely hiding from the Exchange. As such, they were no interest to the Sith. He stopped at a door and his fellows stopped behind him.

"Hey, Corrun," one of the men said. "Do our folks have any records on anyone who lives here?"

"Nope," Corrun responded. "We just scare the skloob out of them on occasion. We don't need to bother with records."

"Just checking," the man replied.

Corrun smiled and pulled out the passcard that he had been given by the owner of the building. Unless people had changed their locks (which most of them had), then it was supposed to open any of the doors.

The door opened to reveal a man and a woman sitting together on a couch, the holovid on in front of them. The woman was lounging casually, one hand hanging off the side of the couch and nearly touching the floor, while the man was sitting up straight. They looked up when the door opened.

"Well hello," the woman said, raising her hands at the sight of the armed Sith troopers. The man beside her did the same. "Fancy seeing you here. In our apartment."

"Watch it," the man hissed at his companion. "Do you want to get arrested?"

"I'd agree with your friend there," Corrun said. "If you know what's good for you."

"Sorry, sorry," she said, not sounding at all sincere.

"I'd watch it if I were you," one of Corrun's men said. "We've already killed one stupid alien during this raid!"

"Which brings up an interesting question," Corrun said. "What are a couple of humans doing hiding out with aliens?" He suspected that he knew the reason. They were both scratched up, and the man was sporting a bruise on his chin. They had probably gotten in some local trouble. Then again, this was also one of the closest apartment buildings to that escape pod crash site. They still hadn't caught those soldiers. He tightened the grip on his rifle.

"We're not hiding," the woman said firmly. "This was just the cheapest apartment that we could find."

"Aren't you bothered by the aliens?" The man was acting suspiciously. Corrun was getting the feeling that something was up.

"Beggars can't be choosers," the woman said.

"A lot of places are full up," the man chimed in. "With this quarantine, that is."

Well, that was certainly true. A lot of people had taken apartments while they were stuck here. Still, something seemed strange, and Corrun's instincts were rarely wrong.

"What do you know about the escape pod that crashed nearby?" Corrun asked. The man began to look a little nervous.

"Not much," he said.

"Just what we saw on the holovid," the woman said. "Can we put our hands down now?"

Corrun nodded and the two people lowered their hands. That was strange. Both of them lowered their hands over the side of the couch, reaching down as far as they could to the ground. Most people would have rested their hands on their laps or the couch. He glanced down at the bottom of the couch, his helmet hiding his eyes from the two people. What was that sticking out from beneath the couch? Actually, there were a couple things down there. Right next to the woman's hand was something that looked like it was made of durasteel, while there was something black next to the man. Was that a vibroblade and a blaster?

"Stand up," he said, raising his rifle at them.

"Should we put our hands up again?" the woman asked, tugging the man's sleeve when he tried to stand up, pulling him back down. She stayed firmly put.

"Do as he says," one of Corrun's men said nervously. He had no idea what was going on, but something was up. All three of the Sith now had their rifles raised.

"Stand up now."

"Oh dear," the woman said. She turned to the man beside her. "You know what I think, Flyboy?"

"What?" he asked, his hand twitching near whatever was hidden under the couch.

"I think that we're about to get arrested." With those last words, she reached under the couch to pull out two full-length vibroblades. The man beside her reacted instantly, pulling two blasters from beneath the couch.

The two people stood up, the man staying stationary and the woman launching herself at Corrun.

Despite Catra's weakness that remained from her injuries, she was able to move pretty quickly. The leader managed to get off a few shots, but in his surprise, all of them missed her. She reached him and quickly attacked. When one of her blades slashed at his head, he raised his blaster to take the blow, leaving his unarmored side open. She took the opportunity to attack, leaving him at least fatally wounded and at most dead. She turned to see that Carth had taken out one of the other troopers and injured the other. She quickly ran up to the injured man and slashed his thigh, thus giving Carth the opportunity to get a clear shot when the man dropped his rifle and clutched at the wound.

The enemies taken care of, Catra stopped for a moment and closed her eyes. The exertion had made her headache worse. After breathing for a few seconds, she turned back towards Carth.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

"No. You?" she replied.

He shook his head. "We should probably do something about the bodies."

"You're right. Be sure to check them for anything that might be useful, then we'll think about what to do with them." He nodded and moved to the nearest body, immediately taking the blaster and checking the man's belt for supplies. Catra was pleasantly surprised. While most would have realized the sheer practicality of her policy on looting corpses, most would also have at least some qualms about it. This man obviously understood their situation enough to see that it was necessary.

She dropped down and checked one of the bodies.

"I've found something interesting," Carth said. Catra turned and saw that he was holding a datapad. "This looks like this man's duty roster. He's not supposed to be working right now. As a matter of fact, he has today completely off."

"What?" Catra took the datapad and took one quick look at it. "Um… what day is it?" She realized now that her little nap had made her completely lose track of time. Carth leaned over and pointed to the correct date and, sure enough, he was marked as being on leave for the day. "Well that's interesting."

"Maybe these other guys have duty rosters like this."

"I'll check."

With very little searching, they managed to find the matching datapads on the other men. Just like with the first, they were all marked down as being in their free time.

"So why were these guys doing this?" Carth asked. "I can almost understand them doing it if they were ordered, but this? It's just mindless brutality!"

"It's power," Catra said, looking at the bodies with disdain. "They feel powerful only when they're crushing someone else. And once you've tasted power it can be hard to step back."

"I think I'll take your word for it," Carth said. "So now we need to figure out what to do with these bodies. I think—"

He was cut off as the door opened again. The bodies of the Sith troopers still sat in the middle of the floor, in plain view for the Duros that stood before them. Carth quickly drew his blasters again, while Catra found herself pressing one of her vibroblades against this visitor's throat.

"Come inside and close the door," she hissed quietly in the Duros' language. "Quickly and quietly."

He obeyed without question, eyeing the blasters and swords nervously. Once the door was closed, he raised his hands. "I mean you no harm."

"I'll believe that when I see it," Catra responded.

"What did he say?" Carth asked. He cursed his lack of language skills.

"That he means us no harm," Catra said, not taking her eyes off of the alien. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard blaster shots. I thought that another resident of this building was being killed by those monsters. I watched the door for a few minutes before wondering what was going on. I suspected that the Sith had been killed, killing their own killers in the process. I came to see what had happened."

"All that I caught was 'kill'. What did he say?" Carth asked.

"He came to investigate the sound of the blasters," Catra said. She suspected that he had only good intentions, but she had learned long ago not to trust easily. "Why did you come to investigate? Most would have tried to pretend that it had never happened. Why did you risk it?"

"Those monsters killed my roommate. He commented on the frequency of these raids, so they killed him for mouthing off. I was hoping to find that they had been taken care of. And to help their killers if possible."

"Well," Catra said to Carth, lowering her vibroblades, but not sheathing them. "You know how those Sith mentioned that they had already killed one alien?"

"Yes," Carth replied, keeping his blasters trained on the alien.

"It was this guy's friend."

"Ah. What does he want with us?"

"He says he wants to help us. I'll ask him how."

The Duros raised his hand before she could speak. "My Basic accent is hardly understandable, though I do understand the language. If you would like, I could take care of these bodies and put them somewhere else, make it look like they were killed elsewhere. Although their patrol commander could be a problem."

"I doubt it," Catra said. "We found their duty rosters. They were doing this in their free time, completely unauthorized. At least, as far as we can tell."

"I see. That makes this much simpler. If you would like, I could take care of the bodies now. Just give me an hour or so to move them and clean up the blood. It would look suspicious to have this much blood in the doorway of one of these apartments."

"We would appreciate that." She turned to Carth and explained what the Duros had told her.

"Can we trust him to not go to the Sith?" Carth asked.

"I can't be sure, but I think so. He's probably an illegal alien, so attention from the Sith isn't exactly what he wants." The Duros was nodding fervently from behind them.

"I suppose that it would be best if someone else were to take care of the bodies. I guess that he can do it. We'd better finish checking them first, though."

Catra nodded and went back down to one of the bodies. Between the three bodies, they found three blaster rifles (which neither Carth nor Catra were very good with, so they would most likely pawn them off), three vibroblades (which were also surplus as they were of less quality than Catra's vibroblades, and Carth admitted to being completely useless with melee weapons), several hundred credits, and several medpacks.

While they finished with the bodies, the Duros left to go find some supplies with which he could clean up the blood. He came back carrying two large bags, one which was obviously full of the supplies, while the other one looked like it was empty.

"Here," he said, handing the empty one to Catra. "You can probably get away with carrying your own weapons on the streets. There are plenty of off-worlders and enforcers for the Exchange out on the streets. Just don't cause any trouble and you should be fine. But if you're seen carrying extra weapons, then you may very well be in trouble. There is a woman down the street who should buy your weapons. Her store is small, but you should have no trouble finding it. I wish you luck."

"Thanks," Catra said, taking the bag and placing their extra weapons inside. "I take it that you won't tell anyone about this."

"I assure you, it will take much to get me to give away your secrets."

"Thanks again," Catra said. She turned to Carth. "He's got to take some time to deal with the bodies. He told me about a shop where we can pawn off these weapons. We should probably get going."

Carth nodded. "It'll be good to get some scouting done. Do you think that you can handle this?"

"I'll be fine," she said, waving him off and opening the door. "I'm feeling a lot better than when I woke up. I don't know if I can handle another fight, but walking around shouldn't be a problem."

"I'm just making sure. I don't want you passing out on me. It was bad enough having to lug you to this apartment. You're heavier than you look."

Catra snorted. "You sure know how to make a girl feel loved."

"It's probably all of those grenades."

"Grenades are a girl's best friend."