Ashla sighed, and slumped back in her seat, closing her eyes again. The Force echoes from Taris were dying down, finally, and she didn't feel so cold or shaky anymore. Even so, she'd still managed to spend the entire time since escaping Taris fending off Bastila's renewed attempts at accessing her mind. The other woman had grown tired of it a few minutes ago—fortunately, as she couldn't have kept her out for much longer—and Ashla's thoughts turned back to the dead world behind them.

"How could they…" she whispered to herself. "Not even the mandalorians were so senseless."

Someone put a hand on her shoulder. Carth.

"You ok, Ashla?"

"I will be," she replied. "And that's what scares me. The thought that we can see and feel and do such horrible things and shrug it off, again and again and again until we're nothing but emotionally dead husks like most Jedi."

Carth nodded. "It's one of the hardest parts of war. Dealing with all the hell that we go through. But, what we have to do is find something, a dream, an ideal, that sustains us, and we can keep going. Maybe."

"I used to think so…I think…"

"What do you mean?" Carth asked.

She sat up and looked directly at him. "I need you to trust me on this. I need you to not tell the Jedi, especially Bastila."

Carth sighed. "Normally, I wouldn't agree to something like that, but, after all the ties you saved my life, after seeing some of the suspicious things the Jedi themselves have been up to, I think I owe it to you to trust you."

Ashla nodded. "Thank you."

Carth shrugged. "I probably do need to be more trusting of people I work with in general, anyway. So, what's going on?"

Ashla leaned over the console. "The Jedi did something to me," she whispered. "They wiped my mind and my memories and blocked me from the Force and made me into their slave."

Carth looked shocked. "What? How do you know?"

"My nightmares aboard the Endar Spire, some dreams and visons in the last few days, repressed memories bubbling up, things like that."

"That sounds pretty crazy. No offense, but how do you know you're not just going insane?"

Ashla looked down. "I did consider that, but, I know, because, I can use the Force, I only could after Bastila wasn't around, I can do things that I've never been trained how to do or even seen before, and, as soon as we freed Bastila, she tried to mentally smother me. She tried to block me from the Force and warp my mind into something…different. The mind of a beaten and cowed slave, no doubt. That's how I felt when I was around her on the Endar Spire."

Carth was staring at her oddly. "That's…a lot to take in, but, I believe you. If sort of fits."

"Fits with what?"

"The Jedi specifically requested your transfer to the Endar Spire, they didn't tell anyone why, there's no 'Ashla Deran' in any of the Republic fleet's records, and, Bastila was spying on you. Along with some of the Jedi Masters, at times, although they seemed a bit reluctant and guilty about it. She practically spent all her time in the security room, watching the cameras."

Ashla nodded, rubbing her head. Carth's information helped deal with some of her confusion and insecurity, but she knew it wouldn't go away until she found out who she really was.

"So," Carth asked. "Who were you before this happened? Do you know?"

Ashla sighed. "Some of it. My name…I think my name was…is Jessa Ordo."

Carth gasped. "Ordo? As in Canderous Ordo?"

Ashla nodded wearily. "We might be related."

"That would make you…"

"A mandalorian. Yes."

Carth looked shocked. "Well, that's…even more to take in."

"That and I saw Canderous's tattoo in my memories—or something like it—and I have a few fragmented memories of what I think is the Mandalorian War. Oh, and I can speak Mando'a."

"You can speak everything." Carth muttered.

She gave him a small smile. "True, true."

Predictably, Bastila chose that very moment to enter the room.

Ashla sat up, alarmed. She quickly put up the strongest mental shield she could. Anything to keep Bastila out of her mind.

Bastila seemed too tired to notice, though. "Carth, where are we going?" she asked.

"We're heading back to Kuat." Carth replied. "Last I heard, the Republic fleet was—"

"No!" Bastila burst out, then composed herself. "We have to go to Dantooine. There's a Jedi Enclave there. We'll be safe."

Carth looked skeptical. "We'll be safe once we're back with the fleet, not sitting on some backwater planet like Dantooine! You saw what happened to Taris! All the Force in the Galaxy couldn't protect you from the Mass Shadow Generator!"

"We won't be staying long—" Bastila tried to say, but Ashla had had enough.
"'Not long, Bastila? Long enough for the Jedi Council to wipe my mind again?"

"The Council wants to help you!" Bastila insisted.

"Your precious council wants me as a helpless mind-slave!" Ashla spat. "Or dead. Or in a cage."

Bastila tried, again unsuccessfully, to calm Ashla down. "No-one's going to put you in a cage—"

"Stop LYING to me!" Ashla shouted, slamming her hand down on the console.

Bastila looked shocked at the outburst. "I'm not—"

"Lying by omission is still lying." Ashla snarled.

Asori and Canderous stepped into the now-overcrowded cockpit. "What's going on?" the Jedi Master asked.

Carth leaned back in his chair and started ticking points off on his fingers. "Well, let's see. We're not going to Dantooine, Bastila's being a bigger idiot than I thought possible, the Jedi Council wants to mind-wipe Ashla—err, Jessa—again—and I really, really need to find a better job."

The Jedi and the mandalorian's expressions morphed into identical, enraged glares. Directed, of course, at Bastila. Who of course continued to rail on and on about the virtues of the council.

"The council works for the good of the whole Galaxy!" Bastila exclaimed.

"Only the good of the Jedi Order, actually." Ashla snapped.

Bastila then decided to appeal to the only being in the room who might agree with her. "Master Shakora—"

"No, Bastila." Asori replied. "I told you not to try to get into her mind again, but did you listen?"

Bastila looked down at the deck. "She was able to keep me out! Consistently! Even after experiencing the Force feedback from Taris—and without the control of a Jedi!"

Asori glared at her. "This mission may have crashed and burned, but I am still a Jedi Master, and you are still a padawan. Irrelevant of your Battle Meditation. No matter how arrogant and stuck-up you may be. Now, you will stay out of her mind or you will regret it!"

Ashla blinked in surprise. The last thing she had expected was for a Jedi Master to defend her.

"I hope I don't have to tell you again." Asori spat. "Now get out. And stay away from Mission and Zalbaar."

Bastila scampered from the cockpit with all the grace of a drunk bantha, slamming into Canderous in her rush to leave the room. The cockpit descended into awkward silence. Ashla's mind was safe, for now, and Bastila had gotten the dressing down she so richly deserved, but no-one could find anything to say about it.

It was Canderous, of course, who broke the silence. "So where are we going, Onasi?"

Carth stared. "Uhhh…Kuat."

Canderous nodded. "Better than a nothing planet like Dantooine. How about Mandalore, though?"

Carth looked uneasy. "Why?"

"I haven't been home in a while," Canderous said, shrugging. "Besides, it might be a good place to start looking for information about a certain Jessa Ordo, don't you think?"

"Fine." Carth said. "But we should still stop at Kuat first."

"Taris is…was close to Mandalore, Kuat's a lot further away."

"We're already halfway there."
"That fast? We've been in hyperspace for what, nine hours?" Canderous said, clearly shocked.

Asori shrugged. "You said it was the fastest ship in the sector."

"Well, yes, but this fast?"

Carth leaned back in his chair, clearly enjoying having gotten one over the big mandalorian. "Obviously."

Canderous sighed. "So. Kuat it is."

Carth nodded. "Kuat it is. I'm going to get some sleep while I can. Anyone else want to fly this thing?"

"I will," Ashla spoke up. "I don't think I could sleep anyway. Not with…"

Carth nodded, understanding. "Alright."

As Carth left, Ashla moved over to the pilot's seat and Canderous settled into the copilot's seat.

"I got some sleep on the way here," he said by way of explanation.

Asori took one of the other seats. "I'll stay up too. I'll keep Bastila out of your head if you do happen to fall asleep."

Ashla nodded. "Ok."

The three of them settled into silence as the ship dove through hyperspace.