Sith Infiltrator
The constant hum of engines eased Katiana into conscious awareness. The low red lighting, which made her very uneasy, did the rest in bringing her to full alertness. Her skull seemed to buzz with the warring effects of some sort of substance. Her muscles all were stiff and sore. Looking around the empty room, Katiana made out a single door and an air vent too small for her to climb through.
Katiana's mind replayed her last memory as she sat up and stretched her muscles. She had felt something cold and was preparing to fight. She was caught off guard by Artoo's message and seeing that she had taken off her necklace…
Katiana once again scolded herself for taking the necklace off. The device on the necklace was her lifeline, a way to get away at any time she wanted. But now she had to wait and see how she was going to escape.
Katiana took a deep breath through her nostrils. Her eyes widened as she recognized the scent.
She had been drugged.
It was a spice that anyone in the back streets of Corellia would know of. Though of no value when dry, it became a powerful sedative when wet, which usually kept the victim unconscious for about twenty standard hours. Katiana had a reason to know, she had used it on others many times as well.
Stretching out with the Force, Katiana's mind started to explore the area beyond the walls that kept her captive.
A force colder than Hoth met her will, forcing her senses back. She had not even thought to consider that if she could sense her capture, her capture could sense her.
Katiana had not even finished her thoughts when the only door to the room opened. The dark red silhouetted the cloaked figure, whose head was down.
Katiana stood up immediately, not willing to give him the advantage of height for a factor of terrorization.
The dark figure slowly lifted his head; his fire red and yellow eyes meeting her ocean blue and gray ones. His tattooed face usually had the effect of scaring people to the bone in the first second, but failed to extract any emotion from her for the exception of pure curiosity. She immediately made him out to be a Zabrak, a biped with humanoid form with the exception of the hairless scalp with small crown of horns protruding an inch at most from the skin.
The Zabrak casually approached his captive with a practiced pace that had been planned to make Katiana shudder, but he was again disappointed. Katiana refused to be intimidated, and stared straight back into his abhorrent face, rotating her jaw as if he was some elixir that she was about to spew out.
He circled her, as if she were some sort of product that he was deciding whether or not to buy, gradually coming closer to her.
Katiana kept still, willing herself not to become unnerved by his act, though her ears and other senses were peaked and her body was ready for an attack.
Tired of being on display, Katiana waited as the Zabrak made his next turn passed her and started to pace along as if the two of them were double stars that rotated around each other.
The Zabrak stopped pacing, and starred straight at Katiana with a scowl. His eyes burned into hers, which would make even the strong-hearted faint.
Scowls always had a strange effect on Katiana. Instead of fearing them, Katiana could not help but to smile, amused at the scowl. A chuckle rose from her throat.
Disappointed, the Zabrak spun around and stormed out of Katiana's prison cell. The shutting door gave her no comfort, as it would have for others who were in her position. Just because he was out of the room didn't mean that danger was.
Katiana sniffed the air. Nothing alien was coming from the vents - yet.
Katiana's gaze burned at the door while she started to slowly stretch her muscles, easing them into full use. She didn't need to test to see if the door was open. This kidnapper had access to her quarters and had drugged her (a task not easily done), dubbing him a professional. And since he was a professional, he would not be so stupid as to not lock the door.
What did he want with her? Surely, since he was a professional, he had found out that Katiana was a flat-rate con artist, and not worth a credit in ransom. There was the possibility of someone paying him to kidnap her.
But who?
Katiana rotated her head, stretching the neck muscles, which were very sore.
The Retoha government wouldn't be as so stupid as to higher a kidnapper to dispose of her. If anyone in the senate found out, it would mean the loss of political power for Retoha – and if there was anything that Retoha loved, it was power. That was why a large group of the populace became so disgusted by the governmental corruption they relocated and started a colony on Brijah.
She eased her arms into circles, flexing and extending her shoulders and arms.
It couldn't be the Sethian senator. She disliked Katiana so much; she would have done it herself rather than hire someone to take Katiana out. And that was fact. Besides, there must be balance in all things – good and evil, light and dark, Sethian and Jedarian. Katiana and she were the last of their kinds. If one of them were to die, the balance would be broken and the connection between intelligent organics and the Force would be permanently severed. And both the Jedarians and Sethians needed the Force to survive.
Katiana started moving her lower muscles as her stretches went on.
No one that Katiana knew, who lived on the wrong side of the law would have enough money to higher such a professional. That and they most likely would have thought of her as not worth the time or thought. Besides, if they had a strong enough grudge, they would find her themselves instead of wasting valuable money.
Katiana needed to clear her head. She would need to run to do that.
Starting off in a jog, Katiana moved around the room in a circle pattern. The small room did not offer her much room, but she made do.
Katiana could feel the warmth of the Force entering into her very bones. As she gained speed, her circle widened till she was bouncing off the lower part of the cold walls.
She was, indeed, fast. If necessary, she could outrun even a landspeeder. She had done that once before – but then again, it had been a race against time and each other. Good thing she had reached the ship first and killed her ex-partner before he could blow up the landing pad. That was when she finally realized what bad judgment in character she had (especially when it came to choosing first mates who always seemed to try to stab her in the back) and began construction on Artoo.
Katiana's speed picked up as her path rose from the floor and ran along and on the wall. The room spun in a blur, pinpointed at the center of the room. She bounded over and across the corners and door. Her mind was at ease and at peace – she would need meditation if she were to continue contemplation.
She slowed down, allowing her body to adjust to the change in oxygen. The room eased its spinning, Katiana stopped running on the walls, and at last she came to a halt.
Her heart rate was a little above normal. Her breathing was a bit faster than per norm. There was a damp perspiration on her forehead. Not her best by any means. But that was to be expected after not exercising for a week.
Usually, Katiana used assassin droids for exercise (she had turned off the safety, making the droids lethal and leaving no room for error). She had stolen them from an Outer Rim droid factory whose main clients were overfed autocrats. Katiana tapped into the inventory and hacked into an order for eight assassin droids. With a few taps from her control panel on the Kat, a stolen work uniform, and the assistance of a hi-jacked trolley cart, Katiana was able to attain three droids and almost had the fourth secured on the cart before any alarm was raised. Oh, it had been great fun and a welcome challenge. She had been laughing all the while she and Artoo weaved through the firing blockade.
Letting out a deep breath, Katiana took a seat in the middle of the room and opened herself to meditation. She let down her fears and worries, forgot everything learned, and discarded priorities.
Her mind's eye could see it – mists of… of… something that was all around her. Perhaps it had color, and perhaps it was just a fog. It did not let her prison walls, or the ship plating get in the way. It had no borders, no boundaries. The very presence seemed to make her forget about everything, even the ship that held her captive, as everything in her mind's sight began to fade away and leaving the Force.
Then she called.
Katiana welcomed this Force as one would a long, lost lover. It was warm and enfolded itself around her like a blanket and worked its way into her very blood and marrow, bursting and exploding with life.
And she accepted it without question or thought – for this was what her people called La, or more commonly known as true Force. It was tempered with neither anger nor peace, but simply accepted as it was.
She could feel it seeping into her slowly at first. Then, as the Force began to be used to her life Force, started speeding up and flowing as it always did. It flowed through her, around her, and within her. Katiana couldn't tell where she ended and the Force began.
And she didn't care.