A/N: As usual, thank you to Sia for helping me this chapter to its fullest potential. And thank you to Bioware for creating these characters which I am borrowing.

The problem didn't take Carth very long to fix. Once the last of the droids had returned to normal, the dark-haired hunter raised a fist in triumph.

"Ha! And the old witch thought I was a goner. Thanks again for getting me out of that." He gave Andra another suggestive look. "Now, my dear lady, I must see to your reward. Will earthly delights suffice?" He took in the Jedi's utter lack of interest and the glare from her soldier companion and sighed in resignation. "No, I suppose not. Take this, then." He handed her a pair of credit chips totaling 150 credits. "Now I have to get back to Anchorhead. I hope my wife left the manual for these droids, the ungrateful little schutta."

Now the two Jedi and their companions were free to continue on their way to the Sand People encampment. Once they drew closer, they stopped to don the robes they had acquired from a small group of the Tusken Raiders they had encountered along the way.

Andra wrinkled her nose against the musky, mildewy scent. I'm definitely not spending any more time in these than is absolutely necessary. "We'd better walk the rest of the way. They'll never believe we're one of them if we drive up in a speeder."

"Good point," Carth agreed. "I'll leave my comlink here so we can find our way back."

The heat of the day was sweltering, and within minutes the three humans' robes were soaked in sweat. The protocol droid, who, they had learned, went by the designation HK-47, surveyed the desolate waste of the Tatooine desert with the same, almost sinister metallic expression.

"Suggestion: We should find this 'star map' you are looking for quickly so we can leave this planet. I fail to see why the other organic meatbags have any interest in staying here."

Coming into view as they crested yet another sand dune was a small group of perhaps half a dozen Sand People.

"We're getting close," Andra whispered. "We should keep quiet, but, HK, be ready to translate in a hurry if things go downhill."

"Acknowledgement: as you command, Master," the droid replied, modulating the volume on his vocabulator so his voice would not carry.

Their disguise served to convince the Sand People that they were one of their kind until the four companions reached the outskirts of the encampment. One of the real Sand People greeted them in a hooting, screeching, and honking language. Though the words were not understandable to Andra, the creature's body language was clearly hostile. I guess our disguise doesn't work so well up close.

HK swiveled his head to face the Jedi. "Interjection: I believe I understood that, Master. It may not have been his intention, but he did actually communicate something."

"Quick, tell him we mean no harm!" she ordered the translator droid.

"Translation:" He emitted a series of sounds nearly identical to those the guard had made except for the slightly mechanical quality of the droid's voice. The guard responded in kind.

"Result: I believe I have succeeded in confusing him, Master. Never before has an outsider attempted to communicate with them in their own language."

"Tell him that we apologize for being here, but that we want a peaceful resolution of their problems with Czerka."

Another exchange took place between the droid and the Sand People guard.

"Translation: He is expressing disbelief, as am I, but his duty requires that he bring us before the chieftain. Extrapolation: It would seem that we are at least worthy of curiosity for the moment. I would much rather this get bloody, Master, but it is your call."

"No, HK, you are not to fire unless they attack first," Andra commanded in a tone of strained patience. "We spent two days earning the credits to buy you specifically so that we wouldn't have to fight them all." And if I knew you were such a bloodthirsty droid, I might have insisted Yuka Laka give you a memory wipe before letting you travel with us. An unavoidable thought made her shiver despite the heat of Tatooine's twin suns. The Sand People dialect is one of the languages that the droid on Dantooine tried to communicate in! It spoke Selkath, and Manaan was one of the planets shown on that map. Tatooine was another, and now we find out one of the other languages the droid spoke is native to this planet. I wonder if it would have spoken Wookiee had Bastila and I not understood Selkath? And how is it that this droid understands it?

As had become all too common, obstacle after obstacle continued to stand between them and their goal. By the time they actually stood in front of the star map, it was late in the afternoon. The device was identical in almost every respect to the map they had found in the ruins on Dantooine: a three-pronged device that opened as they approached to reveal a glowing map of the galaxy. Bastila began recording the information on the map into her datapad while Carth studied the map through narrowed eyes.

"Anyone else get the feeling that Krayt dragon we had to deal with earlier was more than just a coincidence?"

Bastila finished her typing and stowed the datapad back in the pocket of her Jedi robes. "This star map is an artifact of the dark side. Its power likely drew the creature here, only to enslave it."

The pilot nodded. "Maybe. At any rate, we should probably get going now. We found what we were looking for and there's not much else on this planet worth seeing."

On the way back to the ship, the Jedi examined the data they had gathered from the two maps they had found so far.

"This fills in some of the gaps in the Dantooine map," said Bastila, "but not enough for us to be able to tell where the Star Forge may be. We need to keep searching."

"I doubt we'll find anything else here on Tatooine. That leaves Manaan, Kashyyyk, and Korriban."

"Kashyyyk and Korriban are equally close, but Manaan is somewhat further away," Bastila observed.

Andra looked up from the datapad with a smile. "Let's make Kashyyyk our next stop. I'll bet Zaalbar will be thrilled to be going home."

Strangely, the Wookiee did not seem at all pleased to hear the news, but he refused to explain why. "I have agreed to aid you in your quest for Mission's sake and for the sake of all the lives that the Sith will take if they succeed in conquering the galaxy, but I don't feel we share more than that. The others may choose to share personal details of their lives with you, but I will not unless it becomes necessary," was all he would say to Andra.

Between the time it had taken them to return to their ship, the time waiting for clearance to depart and the time the navicomputer took to calculate their hyperspace route to Kashyyyk, it was well into the night by the time the ship was safely in hyperspace, so after a last check that everything seemed to be in order, Carth sought his bunk. As usual, he woke early the next morning and went to the cockpit to double-check that their ship was still proceeding safely along its path toward the Wookiee homeworld. Gazing out at the swirl of hyperspace, he couldn't help thinking about Andra. I really messed up when I suggested she's no better than Saul. Mission was right: I owe her an apology. As if his thinking about her had conjured her up, he heard footsteps coming from the living area, followed shortly by the sound of her voice. "Oh, good morning, Bastila. Do I take it from the look on your face you also had the dream?"

"Yes, of course I shared the vision," answered the second voice in the unmistakable accent of the younger woman. "Could there be any doubt with the bond between us? The Force is guiding us, helping us retrace the steps of Malak and his old master. From what I could tell, the star map appears to be down on the planet's surface rather than up in the treetops where the Wookiees make their home."

Damn, Carth swore to himself. Now would have been a good time to speak to Andra if she were alone. Throughout the remainder of the trip, he continued to look for an opportunity to have a quiet word with her, but with seven people and two droids crowded into a ship the size of the Ebon Hawk, private conversations were all but impossible. If the soldier-turned-Padawan wasn't meditating with Bastila, she was usually trying—mostly futilely—to teach Mission to play dejarik, or otherwise engaged in some activity that involved the presence of other people. At one point, Carth found her sitting in the women's quarters talking with Juhani.

"So, tell me," Andra said, "how did you become a Jedi?"

The Cathar shifted uncomfortably on her bunk. "How I became a Jedi? It is not a very interesting story."

The human woman glanced at the door and saw Carth standing there. "No, please, go on."

"Very well. It goes back a number of years. Back on my homeworld, we did not see Jedi very often, especially where I lived. It was at the hind end of space… a pit of a world, to be sure, where Jedi rarely tread. Things had not been going so well of late; I was an orphan and about to be sold as a slave."

Andra sat up so fast she nearly banged her head against the wall. "A slave?"

"Yes. You live your comfortable lives on your Republic worlds, but there are places in the galaxy where its influence is very weak, or does not reach at all. Worlds where humans treat other species like dirt and slavery still exists. Such a place was the world where I was raised. My mother owed money to the Exchange, and when she died, they felt it appropriate that the debt pass on to me, and I had no money to pay, so they took me by force."

"What happened, then? How did you escape?"

"While they were still waiting for the buyer to give them credits, the Jedi came on the way to fight the Mandalorians. When I saw them, they lived up to everything my imagination had created them to be. I was awed, and maybe a bit enamored. They were quite striking, especially the tales of their leader. They could not abide what they saw there and drove the Exchange from the face of the world… temporarily, at least. But they soon left for the war, and I was left with a dream."

Andra nodded. "To become a Jedi."

Carth turned to go back to the cockpit. Fine, you win… this time. But you can't avoid me forever. Sooner or later you will hear what I have to say.

He enlisted Mission's help to keep the crew occupied for a few minutes when they touched down on Kashyyyk so that he could have some privacy for his apology attempt. Andra went outside to take care of the usual bureaucratic hassle with the customs officials and he discretely followed. When she was finished, the official left and she began to walk further along the sawed off wroshyr branch that the Wookiees used for streets in their villages, but this time, he refused to let her go.

"Andra, wait!" he called, running after her. She paused, standing in front of one of the railings that marked the edges of the walkway, and Carth paused too to appreciate the view. The canopy of the forest above softened the light, making it fall in ever-changing patterns of rays, and below, the tops of the shorter trees created an endless sea of green shifting around the giant trunks of the taller trees. Against that backdrop stood Andra, her back almost but not quite turned toward him, and for a moment he simply stood there, watching the play of light and shadows on her dark hair and olive skin. The sight was almost enough to take his breath away. With renewed conviction, he approached to stand just behind and to the side of her. I need to fix this, not just for the sake of the mission but for our own sake as well. I don't want to lose one of the few actual friends I've had since Telos. "I…" Words suddenly failed him. How do I even begin to make this up to her? "Xendor's minions, I'm no good at this," he muttered to himself. "I'm sorry for what I said before. It was cruel and completely uncalled for. You're not Saul and I never should have compared you to him." She said nothing, only twisted to look up at him with an expectant expression. Blast it, Andra, if you aren't the most frustrating woman to talk to sometimes! I apologized and I meant it; the least you could do is give me some kind of reply. "What more do you want me to say? I was wrong! I was a stubborn fool!" He let his hands fall to his sides. "Look… I'm a proud man; I have trouble admitting it when a beautiful woman has my number, okay?"

Andra's heart felt like it had lodged somewhere in the vicinity of her throat. "You think I'm beautiful?"

The smile he directed at her then held a hint of sadness. "You know I do. And it scares me sometimes that I can't stop thinking of you in that way no matter how much I've tried, that sometimes when I close my eyes, it isn't my wife's face I see anymore—it's yours. You're a beautiful and impressive woman; in some ways—good ways—you remind me of her, and I'd like to make things right between us. So I'm sorry. Will you accept my apology?"

Time seemed to Andra to slow, and with Carth so near that their bodies were nearly touching, every nerve felt like a live wire. Mixed with the scent of the forest was a collection of smells that was uniquely him: the leather of the vest he wore, along with the oil that he used to clean his blasters and the sweat that inevitably found its way into any soldier's fighting gear and the soap from his recent shower. Just a few wisps of curly dark chest hair peeked out from under the vest, but the glimpse only served to tantalize her with memories of the one time she had seen him shirtless. A pity we were too busy yelling at each other for me to appreciate the view back then. His hair was neatly combed back, except for a few stray locks falling down across his forehead that her hand ached to smooth back. Even the flickering sunlight seemed to be conspiring to prevent any sort of rational thought on her part as it highlighted the hint of a beard ringing his very masculine lips. Oh, who am I kidding? I can never stay angry with him for long, especially not after an apology like that. "Yes, Carth, I forgive you."

For several moments they stood there, neither of them moving. They were close enough he could feel her breath against his lips and it was a act of extreme will that kept his eyes locked on hers. With her black hair pulled back in a neat bun and the material of her jumpsuit hugging her well-toned body and the shifting light of the forest softly illuminating one side of her face, he thought she looked almost as beautiful as the night of the Sith party on Taris, and he fought the sudden, irrational urge to take her in his arms and kiss her as he had back then until she forgot all about being angry with him. From the way her hands trembled, he knew she was having similar thoughts, and he coughed nervously. "I... uh... really think we should…er… get going." Still, neither of them moved a muscle until the sound of footsteps and an unfamiliar voice broke the spell.

"Carth? Carth Onasi, is that you?"

The red-faced commander turned to face the newcomer. After a moment of confusion, recognition crossed his features. "Jordo?"

The other man smiled broadly. "It is you! I thought I recognized your voice. How've you been, you old spacedog?"

Carth shrugged. "Surviving. Life hasn't been exactly wonderful for me lately, as I'm sure you can imagine."

Jordo nodded. "It's a shame about home. Telos still hasn't recovered. The family and I have moved on and I'm working for Czerka now, which is what brought me here. What about you? Odd seeing you groundside… I thought for sure you'd be fighting on some ship out there."

"I was. I crashed." The soldier kept his voice light, but Andra could tell that the levity was forced. His friend, however, responded with a hearty guffaw as if the humor was genuine.

"That's pretty rich. I can't imagine what it would take to keep you on the ground." The Padawan watched the exchange with a thoughtful expression. Is it that the Force is giving me more insight into his true feelings, or do I really know him better than this friend from his homeworld that he has clearly known for a long time? Jordo looked from Carth to her, a knowing expression on his face. "Must have something to do with your pretty friend here, eh? How do you do, miss?" He extended a hand to her, which she shook politely.

"We're not… I mean, it's…" Carth spluttered, turning redder by the second. "It's not like that with us, really. We're just friends. Partners, actually, on a mission for the Republic."

"If you say so. You know, nobody would blame you for moving on and finding love again. Morgana least of all. That reminds me, I never did see after you after… uh… what I mean is, my belated condolences. I heard what happened. At least your boy made it through alright, though, right?"

Carth took a step backward, grabbing at one of the posts of the railing for support as he nearly tripped over the rope. "Dustil's alive?"

"Yes; I saw him at my last stop, on Korriban. You… didn't know?"

"No! Jordo, he's been missing since the attack on Telos. Are you absolutely certain it was him?"

The man nodded. "Positive. He didn't recognize me, but I'd recognize him anywhere. He's… uh… he's joined the Sith, Carth."

"What do you mean, he's joined the Sith?"

"There's an academy on Korriban where the Sith train their recruits. He's a student there… I saw him suited up in the outfit of a dark Jedi, carrying a lightsaber and everything. I… I'm sorry; I thought you knew."

Carth released the post and straightened slowly. "No, I didn't. Thanks for telling me."

"Uh… no problem." Jordo glanced down at his wrist chrono. "I need to get going before my boss yells at me for being late, but it was good to catch up with you, Carth. I hope everything works out with you and Dustil." The soldier watched, motionless, as his friend continued along the walkway.

"Dustil's alive! We have to go to Korriban and find him!"

Andra nodded agreement. "If he's in training to be a dark Jedi, there's no time to lose. We can come back here after Korriban, assuming it's necessary."

The pilot sighed in relief. "Thank you. I don't know why he would be with the Sith, but I have to find out. I have to see him, know what happened to him. There's simply no choice."

Bastila very nearly had apoplexy when she heard when she heard about the change in plans, but at least she had the sense to take Andra outside the ship for some privacy before she began chewing the older woman out. "You told him what? No! We are not going to raise ship immediately. We travelled all this way from Tatooine; we should stay and search for the star map. We can go to Korriban after."

"Bastila, did you miss the part where his son is in training as a dark Jedi? Who knows how many days it might take us to find the star map, especially if it is on the forest floor as the vision we had last night seemed to suggest? The chances that we'll be able to turn him away from the Sith are low enough already and every day they get lower."

"Dustil Onasi is just one man. The lives of billions depend on our mission. How many more planets will share the fate of Telos and Taris in the time that we would waste chasing after this one boy? As Master Zhar and I have told you on more than one occasion, Jedi cannot afford to let personal concerns interfere with their duty as protectors of the galaxy."

Andra crossed her arms across her chest. "It's not personal. I would do the same for anyone else on this crew. Even Canderous, as much as I may dislike the Mandalorian personally."

Bastila raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Is that so? You might be willing to aid me, or Mission, or Canderous if any of us was in need, but would you be willing to literally go parsecs out of your way, delaying the completion of our mission by more than half a week? I think not."

The former soldier leaned back against the hull of the Ebon Hawk, crossing one leg over the other in the manner of someone making herself comfortable in preparation for a long wait. "Go ahead and say it; I'm sure you won't be happy until you do."

Bastila settled into an identical posture against one of the railing posts. "The Council and I have warned you time and again about the dangers of emotional attachments, and yet you continue to ignore us. Did I not explain to you clearly enough the dangers of the dark side? Do you not realize the power you wield?" As her agitation grew, she began to pace back and forth, the heels of her boots striking the wood of the landing pad with dull thuds. "Quite literally, you could be the savior of the galaxy or you could bring untold destruction on us all. Why do you take this responsibility so lightly?"

Andra's eyes narrowed in a glare. "You think I take it lightly? When have I ever given you reason to doubt my commitment to the light side? And my friendship with Carth doesn't count because, frankly, from where I'm standing, being willing to leave a child in the hands of the Sith for the sake of the mission looks a lot closer to the dark side than making a minor adjustment in itinerary to try to save said child."

Bastila paused in her pacing. "You're right. You have done an admirable job so far of resisting the temptation of the dark side. I just worry about you with your strong affinity for the Force and how rushed your training was. But that can't be helped, and more lectures from me will not improve matters any. Let us go to Korriban, then, to find the star map there and see what can be done to turn Carth's son away from the dark path he has started down. Just… be careful, please. I was not exaggerating when I spoke of the influence your decisions may have." The Padawan turned to walk back up the boarding ramp, leaving a very confused former ensign to follow in her wake. Why me? What about her own part in all of this?