Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself.

Chapter 9

So Getting Out of Here

I paced around the apartment. "I'm so bored!" I complained. "Just 'cause I broke some guy's arm suddenly means I'm not allowed out of the apartment anymore, according to Teri. I bet she's done worse."

Atton was unsympathetic. "Hurting people doesn't really make them feel comfortable."

"Because I tried to hurt him," I said sarcastically. "It's his fault anyway. He got drunk and tried something. I was just defending myself."

"Tell him that," he snorted.

"You're helping so much, hangover boy," I grumbled.

"If it does help, Teri should be back soon, and she'll probably need your help with something," he offered. "If she needs any kind of help, she sure as hell isn't gonna ask me."

"True. The whole constant moaning about your headache thing is enough to make anyone fall to the dark side." I had to duck to avoid a pillow flying at my head.

"If it bothers you so much," he said, collapsing to the bed and moaning.

"That's so fake," I said. "If you're gonna act, at least do it well."

"Can't you give it a rest? You're so merciless. I bet sleeps-with-vibroblades would be begging for you to stop. Where'd you learn so many insults?"

"My brothers were as merciless as me. My first few words were probably insults." I grinned. "It's kinda fun, too."

He groaned again, for real this time. "At least let me get some sleep."

I stayed silent for about a minute and he started snoring.

"Heavy sleeper," I muttered. "Loud, too."

I lay down in the corner on my jacket trying to fall asleep, but, thanks to Atton, epically failed. I gave up and let my mind wander, thinking about things like cookies, and whether my little brother had beaten his latest video game.

Teri came back about an hour later. "Okay, I know what we're doing next," she yelled. Atton started and fell off the bed.

"Can't a guy get some decent sleep around here?" He yelled. "I could barely get Laura to shut up long enough to fall asleep!"

"You were snoring a minute after you told me to be quiet. You're not that hard done by." I turned to Teri. "So what are we doing? I'm bored out of my mind."

"I've got to go get Czerka's droid to the Ithorians so they can reprogram it to work for them, then send it back to get the information we need."

"Then what?" I asked, more for Atton's benefit than mine.

"Then we borrow Chodo's shuttle and get the hell off this station."

"Wait a minute," Atton said. "Why would we have to borrow a shuttle when we have the Ebon Hawk?"

"It got stolen."

Atton facepalmed. "And you didn't tell us this before, why?"

"I only just went to the TSF station. I forgot to earlier."

I sighed. "You'd probably forget your head if it weren't attached to your shoulders, wouldn't you?"

"Some days. And before I forget, here." She tossed me my vibroblade and shields.

"Excellent." I attached my vibroblade and sheath to my belt and put my shields on my forearms.

Atton stumbled to his feet. "If it means I can have my blasters back, I think my head's feeling better." He looked vaguely like a hopeful six-year-old asking for a cookie. But much more "manly".

"Fine," Teri fake sighed - apparently she agreed with my assessment. "Here." She handed him his blasters. "Just don't use them unless you have to." This comment was directed at both of us.

I saluted her with two fingers. "Yes, ma'am." She rolled her eyes.

"So while you go get this droid, what do the rest of us do?"

"Atton and Kreia are coming with me. You can pretty much do what you want as long as you don't kill anyone."

"I know there's someone who sells weapons around here. Maybe I'll find something better than a vibroblade."

"You have credits?"

"I have as almost everything that Atton won, plus whatever Corrun Falt left on the table. Probably around seven hundred."

She looked impressed. "How many games did you play, anyway?"

"I lost count after 10 glasses."

She rolled her eyes.

"He played around 30 games and cleaned out about ten people who were stupid enough to bet everything they had."

Teri nodded. "You're alright, then. Meet us back here in one hour."

"Got it."

I went to Samhan Dobo's shop and looked at his melee weapons. He didn't have a great stock, but I eventually found something I liked: an Echani vibrosword.

I still had a little while left until I had to meet the others, so I went to the cantina. The bartender droid evidently hadn't seen what I did earlier or didn't care, because nobody kicked me out of the cantina. I sat at the bar and ordered a small juma, just to try. It was a little sweet and sort of tasted like pears. Only a little, though.

"But really, who'd make wine out of a pear?" I said under my breath.

"Pair of what?" Came a voice from beside me.

"Oh, nothing," I said as I looked at the person who owned the voice. It was Luxa, the slimy cantina rat Czerka worker.

"Sure. So what's a little girl like you doing in a cantina alone?"

"First, I'm not a little girl, and second, I'm having a drink."

"Right. Just be sure not to go overboard." She winked in a way that made me wonder if she knew about the Corrun Falt incident. She apparently guessed what I was wondering, because she lowered her voice.

"Yeah, I saw what you did to Corrun. He had it coming to him. Never could hold his juma." She looked at me intently. "Czerka could use someone like you, you know. Strong, smart…"

"I'm good, thanks," I said coolly. "I'm no mercenary."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'll be here if you change your mind." She walked back to her Gammorean bodyguards.

I sat at the bar a little longer, finishing my first juma and ordering a second one. About halfway through that one, I heard footsteps behind me. I spun around on my bar stool, Kicking my leg out mid-spin.

My foot connected with Atton's knee.

"Ow!" He bent over and held his knee. "What was that for?"

"Sorry! I didn't know it was you and I don't like it when people sneak up on me."

"Still, ow…" He sat down on the stool next to me.

"Why are you here? Where are the others?"

"The droid's taking longer than they thought it would to reprogram. Teri told me to go and they'd comm me if they needed me –"

"And why would they need a scoundrel pilot anyway?" He glared at me. "Go on."

"So I came here."

"Force of habit?"

"Sort of. Gimme a juma," he said to the bartender. I laid the credits for it on the bar.

We hung around for a while, played pazaak Republic Senate rules, and had one or two more drinks. Or Atton did, anyway. I just finished the one. Atton's comlink beeped after around an hour and Teri came on.

"We're done her. Meet us outside the Ithorian compound."

"Will do."

When we got to the compound, Teri was really excited. "We're getting out of here."

"What?"

"Chodo Habat's letting us borrow an orbital shuttle to take down to Telos' surface to find someone who can help us locate the Ebon Hawk."

"Great!" I exclaimed. "Let's go!" I had a feeling I was forgetting something. I couldn't tell what it was, since we had all our stuff with us. I shrugged it off.

It wasn't until we got to the docking bay and Teri's comlink beeped that I remembered what I had forgotten: the Ithorians get attacked by Czerka mercenaries, and the Exile has to save them before she can get on the shuttle.

She answered her comlink and listened to Moza for a moment. "We'll be right there," she replied and shut it off.

"The Ithorians have been ambushed by Czerka mercenaries and we have to help them out!"

"Alright."

We got to the compound, opened the doors and were immediately dodging blaster bolts. Teri, Atton and Kreia all pulled blasters and shot for heads, while I jumped into the fray and hit what I could with my vibrosword. I took a few minor hits, but soon enough, the droids were piles of scrap metal and the mercs were… very dead. Teri healed our wounds with the Force and we moved on to the next room.

After the second room, we went into the plant room to find mercenaries aiming their weapons at Moza's head.

"Let him go," Teri said, waving her hand.

"Mind tricks don't work on us, Jedi!" One of them yelled, and they opened fire on us. I went for the ones still surrounding Moza with a battle cry, startling them and making them easy to hit. He said something to me afterwards in what I assumed was a grateful tone, because it didn't sound angry or scared.

I turned to help the others with the rest of the mercenaries, but they were already done.

Teri talked to Moza for a second and he handed her what I assumed was a key. She turned back to us and said, "I have the key. Let's go save Chodo."

We opened the door to Chodo's chamber to find the same situation as with Moza, only there were a lot more mercenaries in here. Battle ensued. I took some hits from vibroblades and Exchange negotiators, but my shields saved me from the blaster bolts, for the most part. I saw Atton get knocked down, the Kreia. Atton got back up and used a medpac on himself, then ran to go help Teri, who was surrounded and disarmed. I drew my spare vibroblade and threw it in that direction. It lodged itself in one of the mercs' backs. Teri pulled it out as he fell forward and cut down one of the other mercs while Atton was tangling with another. He was using a vibrosword.

I barely had time to wonder where he had got it from before I was forced to dodge a swing at my left arm. I turned and punched my attacker in the face, feeling something crunch under my fist. I took him down with a stab to the gut.

It felt like another half hour of fighting – in reality it was probably only around 5 minutes – but eventually all the mercenaries were dead on the ground. Teri healed our wounds and helped Kreia to her feet.

She had a short conversation with Chodo Habat, then turned to us and said, "The Ithorians will clean up. Let's go."

We went back to the docking bay and got on the shuttle. I headed up to the cockpit with Atton and took the copilot's seat.

"Anything I can do to help?" I asked as he got ready to take off.

He glanced over at me. "You can help by not distracting me until we clear the station." I saluted him with two fingers and watched out the front viewport as we took off, happy to finally be getting somewhere.

As we cleared the final reaches of Citadel Station, I looked at the planet's surface. It looked a little like orbital pictures of Earth. I felt a pang of homesickness at the thought and wrapped my arms around myself. Atton looked over.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Telos… It's destroyed, but it looks a bit like Earth seen from orbit."

He looked down at the planet and I saw "Really?" run across his face.

"Earth's more green, and the oceans are bigger, but other than that…" He nodded. We didn't say anything else until a massive shield came into view.

"Those separate the Restoration Zones, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. They're what make it possible for plants and stuff to survive. The shields control the climate and weather."

"Wonder how they were built?"

"Force knows. Don't know who designed them, either. I doubt even the Echani could think of something like that."

"Yeah, I bet," I said under my breath.

"We're coming up on the one the Ithorians told us about," he said a minute later. "Go warn Teri, would ya?"

"Sure," I replied, heading towards the back of the ship. I was about to knock on Teri's door when the ship lurched and I fell to the floor.

"There's an AD tower over here!" Atton yelled from the cockpit. "We've been hit! Everyone, hold on!"

I wrapped my arms around a nearby chair and hoped that Atton was as good a pilot in real life as he was in the game. The ship hit something once, twice, before tilting towards the front. My grip on the chair disappeared, and I flew forward. I felt the shuttle bury itself in the ground, and then everything went black.

A/N: Oh, no, we're in trouble! Hopefully Bao-Dur will show up and help us... right?

Anyway, quick update this time. I was totally in the zone for writing. My muse wasn't going nowhere! Hopefully it'll stay that way and we'll be back on the Hawk where we belong before Victoria Day (note to non-Canadians: May 21). Citadel took longer than I had thought - I only had planned to use 2 chapters, but my rough copies were so not interested in following my plans.

Review! No ghostreading allowed! Don't make me release the ninjas, please! Those guys are scary! Review before they break loose! And anonymous reviews are welcome too, but ones from logged-in users will be replied to as well!