1 - The Street Rat

Sarah awoke to a blinding light in her eyes. Shading her eyes with her hands, she let her eyes adjust to the bright light. Once she was able to see properly, it took her awhile to process the fact that the light came from two suns.

Well, at least I know I'm in a binary system.

She pulled herself up from the ground, allowing her eyes to wander around her surroundings. She was in what looked like a back alley. It was surrounded by white adobe buildings; ripped posters lined the walls and tumbled over the ground. Smoke rose up above the roofs of the buildings in the distance.

The next thing she noticed were her clothes. She was wearing a dark purple halter top with thick black straps, black skinny jeggings, and black armored boots with dark purple highlights. All she needed was a nice leather jacket to complete her "Rebel Chick" look. Not that she was complaining. She picked up a discarded piece of metal, brushing off the thick layer of dust, and looked at her reflection. Her previously long wavy black hair was now a dark chestnut. It was straight and flat, not even going past her shoulder blades. It would take some getting used to.

After observing her reflection, she noticed that her comm badge was missing from its usual spot. She panicked slightly, quickly looking around her before spotting it lying on the ground a few feet away. She breathed a sigh of relief before picking it up and brushing off the fine layer of dirt on its surface. She contemplated placing it back in its place before tucking it in a pocket.

A scrap of paper drifted lazily past her feet. She quickly dropped her impromptu mirror and placed her foot on on the poster before it could pass out of reach, grabbing it and uncrumpling it. The poster seemed to be advertising the local law enforcement in a way that for some reason reminded her of Nazi propaganda during World War II.

She let the poster drop to the ground, walking towards the busy street at the end of the alleyway. She stayed in the shadows after seeing the locals, or what she thought was the locals. She spotted a few species that seemed to be humans, but for some reason looked different than those on Voyager. The other humanoids were completely foreign to her. She didn't remember seeing anything similar in Voyager's database, or even in what little species Seven had showed her.

She was definitely on a different planet, far away from Voyager.

Or just a really convincing holodeck.

—

The Imperial Officer stormed down the corridor of the station. He wasn't happy, and the people who quickly moved out of his way knew it too. How could the Subject have escaped? It just wasn't possible! It had round the clock security. Cameras watched its every move. Someone had allowed this to happen, and he would find out who.

His second-in-command rushed up to him when he entered the security room. "Have you found the subject yet?" He asked her.

"Not yet, sir." She gestured to the screen filled with footage from security cameras. "We've looked through every piece of footage since the subject disappeared a dozen times, sir. It's as if she just disappeared into thin air."

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Do people just disappear into thin air, Colonel?"

"No, sir."

"So, logically, there has to be an explanation, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Subject two-zero-one-four is a top priority. Everything else will be ignored." He stepped closer to the Colonel until he was inches away from her face. "The Grand Admiral will be expecting progress. You're a fine officer, Stone. You wouldn't want to be the one to tell him it escaped, would you?"

The colonel gulped. "No, General."

"Then I expect progress." He turned from the Colonel and stormed from the room. He had risked everything to get this assignment. He would not loose it because of one escaped subject. "Find it!"

—

This was fantastic. Absolutely great. She was on an unfamiliar planet, probably stranded, with no way to contact Voyager, even if it was in range.

The humanoids walking past her were way too real for this place to be just a holodeck. So were the local law enforcement officers walking towards her . . .

She quickly walked out of the alley, falling into a group of people that was passing by. Her mind raced, trying to come up with a plan. First, I should figure out which planet I'm on. Once I do, I can figure out how to get off it . . . I have to . . .

The group of people suddenly walked into a building, and since she didn't know what to do, she was left out in the open and the troopers spotted her.

"Halt!"

She stood still, her heart beginning to race. Don't run. Running's bad. If you run, that means you have something to hide. Thanks for the tip, Tom.

The stormtroopers approached her, keeping a firm grasp on their gun-thing. "Identify yourself!" Unidentified Trooper #1 commanded.

She gulped.

"Gemini!" A form suddenly ran in front of her, partially blocking her from the stormtroopers. "Thank goodness I've found you! I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"You know this girl?" Unidentified Trooper #2 asked, relaxing his grip on his gun-thing slightly.

"I'm so sorry, officer. My sister can't speak. She was born without vocal cords. Tragic, I know."

She stared at the ground for emphasis.

The figure was still too close for her to see him properly, but he definitely sounded like he was around her age, around fourteen to fifteen years old.

The Unidentified Troopers straightened in surprise and almost dropped their gun-things. "Well, uh, move along then!" One said. "Move along."

"Thank you, kind sirs!" The figure grabbed her hand, and pulled her away from the UNTs (Unidentified Troopers). As he pulled her away, she finally got a good look at her rescuer. He had raven-blue hair and tanned skin. He wore an orange jumpsuit with a high, dusty yellow collar with a dark, almost-brown orange vest on top. The bottoms of the jumpsuit were a slightly brighter orange color. He had some sort of shin guard on his right leg and a knee pad on his left. He had worn-looking brown boots on his feet and a battered backpack placed on his back. The hand that gripped her's tightly was covered with dark gray fingerless gloves.

"Where are we - "

"Ask me later!" The boy said. "We need to get out of the city first."

"Uh, right."

He pulled her into an alley on the outer edge of the city a few minutes later. Some bike of some sort floated off of the ground after he pushed a few buttons. "You coming or not?" He asked her.

It wasn't every day a complete stranger saved your butt from the local law enforcement and then asked you to come with him. Also, she was still trying to wrap her head around where exactly she was, so she hesitated.

He held out his hand. "Trust me."

She stared at the stranger's hand for a moment before taking it and allowing him to help her onto the floating bike. He inched the bike out of the alley, making sure to check both ways for troopers before pulling out and speeding out of the city.

—

The boy, Ezra, had been kind enough to offer her what little space he had to her for the night. When Sarah had asked how long she could stay, he had said, As long as you need. I could use the company. Ezra was also kind enough to share what food he had with her. She had lied a tiny bit when she said she wasn't hungry, but he had responded with a look that said he could see otherwise.

"I know hunger when I see it," he had said.

Ezra was a nice boy, and hadn't asked any questions, such as why would she of all people would be stopped by a couple of troopers. She also didn't really know who's side to be on, so she just went with her savior/kidnapper/stranger friend.

That night, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep due to the nightmares that kept her awake. She found herself on the balcony of the tower that Ezra stayed in, lying on her back and staring at the stars. She found herself making shapes with the stars, something she used to do with Icheb on Voyager.

She called it home, once. Now, she wasn't sure she would see it ever again.

She still didn't know what this planet was called, which meant she still had no real idea where she was. She had to find out, but she didn't want to say, "Hey, Ezra! I just appeared here because of some alien voodoo magic stuff and am pretty sure that I'm in a different universe and need to learn to survive, so teach me everything, please!"

She sighed, trying to think of a good excuse. She's pretty sure that there were a couple of accidents in Earth's past where a person completely forgot how to do certain things or didn't remember people in their lives at all. Maybe she should just say she fell somewhere and didn't remember what anything in the universe was.

Yeah, that'll make so much sense.

While she tried to make up a good excuse, she picked up what seemed to be this universe's version of a PADD and scrolled though it's contents. Just her luck, it happened to contain the history of the "Glorious Galactic Empire." As she read on and on about the Empire's rise to power, she began to like it less and less. It seemed more like a dictatorship than the democracy they made it out to be.

She sighed. Whoever this Emperor guy was, he wasn't the way home, wherever that was. She was at least sure about that.

She managed to click her way through the files on the PADD and found a map of the system they were in. It was at the very edge of the map labeled the "Outer Rim." The planets located there were mostly dry, desert type planets. The planets located in the "Inner Rim" were the richer planets with a heavier stormtrooper presence.

Ezra walked up behind where she was sitting on the balcony. "'The History of the Galactic Empire' huh?" He sat down next to her. "Must be a stimulating read."

Sarah sighed, lowering the PADD. "It's not exactly my favorite read."

Ezra smiled slightly. "Then can you tell me what is? Maybe I can procure it for you. It's not like I have anything better to do."

She laid back on the balcony, placing her right arm behind her head as a pillow. She took a deep breath. "I don't remember."

Ezra kind of chuckled. "Must have been an exciting book, then."

She stared up at the clouds drifting lazily in the dark sky above them, not saying anything.

Ezra sat up straighter. "Wait, are you serious?"

She nodded slightly. "There was an accident. At least, I think there was an accident." A few imagined scenes flashed across her mind: bright lights blinding her, the sound of an alarm, a furious voice yelling to not let her escape . . .

Tom would be proud of her imagined plight.

"I remember voices yelling, and bright lights, but that's it. Nothing before then, and nothing after then until I woke up here on Lothal."

Ezra's eyes grew sad. "You really don't remember?"

Sarah shook her head, starting to feel bad for lying to such a nice boy, but she didn't think Ezra could handle the truth just yet.

Ezra sighed. "Well, at least you can still read. That's good, right?"

Sarah turned to look at him, smiling slightly. "Yeah."

"I assume you don't remember your name, then either."

"I like what you called me earlier. Gemini."

Ezra smiled, holding out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Gemini."

She grinned back at him. And took his hand. "Nice to meet you too, Ezra." She sat up as Ezra stood and walked back into the tower. "What are you doing?"

"Making preparations!" He threw a grin over his shoulder. "I'm going to have to make room for a slightly more permanent roommate, aren't I?"