Thanks everyone for the reviews.

Arrikazza: yay, my first review. =) I'm glad you like my character, because she's, well, me. Most of her commentary comes from what I said when I played the game, which typically amused my bf deeply.

Prisoner 24601: yay, I'm a favorite!! Thanks!! =) I got the idea of running around in the underwear when I read the armor description of clothing; it says that (essentially) it's defensively worthless but protects the modesty of the wearer. Ok, so what if the wearer HAS no modesty? =) I have to admit that Taris is turning out a bit longer than I expected, but I've already chosen to skip a lot of stuff (and I will continue to skip lots of stuff), so hopefully it doesn't get too long. Ideally, you'll be amused enough by the commentary that you won't notice the length. =)

Gollo: I'm glad you like it. =) I hadn't planned on writing in first person until I realized that I wanted to concentrate on the thought processes of the character, and writing in third person would've been too cumbersome (i.e. and then she wondered this, and pondered that, and considered this, and thought about that, etc.)

debbie-l-g: Thanks. =) Although it was always clear that the Endar Spire level was a tutorial, if you think about it from a reality perspective, a lot of it just makes no sense, and I wanted to express that with a cynical, skeptical, humorous tone.

I was dreaming. Or maybe having a vision. I really didn't know the difference. A young female Jedi armed with a yellow lightsaber was fighting what I assume was a dark Jedi, who was masked, armed with a red lightsaber, which appeared to be the standard for dark Jedi. They were pretty evenly matched, until the dark Jedi stumbled, probably tripping on something, and the Jedi got in a good shot.

I woke up confused. Again. This was getting old. Sitting up in bed again, I looked around. My eyes fell on Carth, who look overwhelmingly relieved to see me awake. "Good to see you up, instead of thrashing around in your sleep. You must have been having one hell of a nightmare. I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up. I'm Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you on the escape pod, do you remember?"

Well, he was just as talkative as before. "Carth, the one on the communicator. I remember."

He continued talking. "Well, you've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple of days now, so I imagine you're pretty confused about things. We're safe, at least for the moment. We're in an abandoned apartment on Taris. You were banged up pretty bad when our escape pod crashed, but luckily I wasn't seriously hurt." I wondered how that had happened. Did he have a pillow behind his head, or did he land on me? Next time, I was driving. Or at least pretending to. "I was able to drag you away from our crash site in all the confusion, and I stumbled onto this abandoned apartment. By the time the Sith arrived on the scene we were long gone." As he talked, I experimentally stretched, flexed, and rotated various body parts to determine damage. I found that my left shoulder hurt, but nothing else.

Wait, I've been unconscious for a couple of days? Exactly how many was "a couple" anyway? Did he consider trying to get me medical attention? And more importantly, did he feed me? I was starving. I decided that I had to get food soon, before my stomach ate itself and all my other organs. But first, I should thank him for not leaving me behind. "I guess I owe you my life."

He really did not like that statement at all. "You don't have to thank me. I've never abandoned anyone on a mission, and I'm not about to start now." His voice softened somewhat as he spoke. I would have to ask him about this later, when my brain was clearer. "Taris is under Sith control. Their fleet is orbiting the planet, they've declared martial law and they've imposed a planet-wide quarantine. But I've been in worse spots." Oh, good, soldier bravado. Just what I needed. "I saw on your service records that you understand a remarkable number of alien languages. That's pretty rare in a raw recruit, but it should come in handy while we're stranded on a foreign world." My apparent talents were greater than I had thought. That was nice to know. Predicting my next question, he kept talking. "There's no way the Republic will be able to get anyone through the Sith blockade to help us. If we're going to find Bastila and get off this planet, we can't rely on anybody but ourselves."

Great, another Bastila fan. Who was she anyway? "Why is it so important to find Bastila?"

He almost snorted. "That smack to your head did more damage than I thought. Bastila's a Jedi. She was with the strike team that killed Darth Revan, Malak's Sith master." Malak? Revan? Who were these people? I added that to my list of things to find out later. I didn't want to ask too many questions at once.

"How can one person, even a Jedi, be so important?"

He launched into lecture mode. Did the Republic train all their soldiers to talk like this? "Bastila is no ordinary Jedi. She has a rare gift the Jedi call Battle Meditation. It can influence entire armies. Of course, there are limits to what she can do. But from what I understand of her ability, it requires great concentration and focus to maintain her Battle Meditation. The attack on the Endar Spire happened so fast she probably never even had a chance to use her power. I'm guessing she barely got out alive, and now she's trapped here just as we are." He sounded very uncertain about his explanation of Battle Meditation, so I figured he didn't understand it at all.

I asked the next logical question. "How do you even know Bastila's alive?"

He looked annoyed by my pessimism. "I don't. But Bastila's young, and she has a powerful command of the Force. We survived the crash landing, so I'm willing to bet that she may have, too."

I sighed. He was going to pester me to death if I didn't help. "So what do you suggest we do next?"

"Bastila's going to need our help. Many of Darth Malak's followers can use the dark side of the Force, and the Sith have already killed more than their share of Jedi in this war. Nobody will be looking for a couple of common soldiers like us." Despite my amazing talents, I was just a common soldier. "And if we're careful we can move about the planet without attracting notice; a luxury Bastila won't have. She's going to have half the Sith fleet looking for her. They know how important she is to the war effort. So if Bastila's going to escape Taris, she's going to need our help. And we'll probably need hers."

Trying to ignore the pessimism that told me Bastila had already been captured by someone, I looked around the apartment. There was a slight moldy smell permeating the place, which I guessed was widespread throughout the complex. Walking to the window, I looked outside and noticed a distinct sadness to the city. Nothing looked new; everything seemed old and worn and tired, even the people. I didn't want to be here for long. It looked entirely too depressing. "If it means getting off this planet, I guess I can help you find Bastila."

The fountain of information and lecturing continued. "Good. We need to work together if we're going to survive. While you were out I did some scouting around." I wondered what would have happened had I woken up while he was out. "There are reports of a couple escape pods crashing down into the Undercity. That's probably a good place to start. But the Undercity is a dangerous place. We don't want to go in there unprepared. It won't do Bastila any good if we go and get ourselves killed."

Dying was not high on my list of things to do. Eating and gaining some sort of memory, however, were. "The sooner we start looking for Bastila the sooner we find her. Let's go. Besides, I'm starved. I probably haven't eaten in days. What passes for food around here?"

He looked ashamed. "I'm sorry, I didn't know how to feed you, and I didn't have any intravenous nutrient packs around. I was afraid that getting medical help would result in unwanted attention, so I just kept an eye on you and hoped for the best. I've been eating the rations that were in the escape pod, but I don't think you'll want those, so we should find real food." He cleared his throat and became a soldier again. "We can use this abandoned apartment as a base, and we can probably get some equipment and supplies here in the Upper City. Just remember to keep a low profile. I figure if we don't do anything stupid we should be okay. I mean, after all, they're looking for Bastila, not a couple of grunts like us."

I frowned. Given what Trask had told me about Carth, it seemed odd that he was so self-deprecating. Making even more mental notes to investigate these things later, and knowing that I'd probably forget these mental notes very quickly, I headed towards the refresher to clean up. Between smelling that I needed it and being able to see dried blood on myself, I didn't want to risk being unable to procure food. A few minutes later, I was clean. The combat suit, however, was hopeless, at least for now. I left it soaking in the sink. Realizing that running around Taris in my underwear could be very bad, I sighed and walked back out into the apartment, enjoying Carth's surprise at seeing my lack of outfit. He had dropped my backpack near the bed, so I reached into it and pulled out the horrible clothing I had found in my footlocker. There was just no way I would be able to wear that vest, so I settled for the pants and the shirt. After slipping into my horrible outfit, I informed him that I was ready to leave. We had better leave before I changed my mind.

Upon leaving the apartment, we were greeted by the wonderful sight of a pair of Duros being harassed by a Sith patrol. In his native language, which I was surprised and slightly disturbed to understand, one of the Duros complained about the presence of the Sith, and wound up dead for his trouble. When the patrol noticed us and deduced that we were Republic, the other Duros had enough presence of mind to help us attack them.

What happened after the fight disturbed me the most. Although he promised to move the bodies such that they looked like they were killed elsewhere, thus hopefully protecting us and him, it was what he said first that saddened me. He commented that his friend never should have talked back to the Sith. His sense of futility, his lack of spirit, and his general weariness bothered me. Wishing him luck, I had to turn away from him.

Between the credits we picked off the Sith corpses and the credits we found in the next few rooms, I figured we could at least buy me a meal. Carth could keep eating rations for all I cared. However, Carth miraculously produced a bunch of credits out of a pocket. When I asked him where he got them from, he pointed at a Twi'lek standing in the hallway. Apparently he was a merchant, and Carth had sold some of our extra equipment to him. Well, now Carth could eat real food too, if he wanted. I wondered if I had any pick-pocketing abilities I had yet to discover; that could help a whole lot as well.

We left the apartment complex and headed into the Upper City. There was a crashed escape pod just outside the complex, which I assumed was the one we had so happily arrived in. Carth pointed us straight south, where he said there was a cantina. Which was very creatively named, as the sign outside simply said "Upper City Cantina".

Walking into the cantina, we were greeted by a large table. I frowned, not knowing what it was, and turned to Carth, who looked annoyingly thoughtful. "What?"

He motioned at the table. "It's a pazaak table."

"A who table?"

He looked at me in surprise. "You've never heard of pazaak?"

I shrugged. Taking a big risk, I replied, "I'm not much of a gambler."

He chuckled. Apparently that was the right response. "Well, if you're good, it's a good way to make some quick money."

I rolled my eyes at him. I did not enjoy gambling, and I really did not want to spend any time doing so. "Well, you can do that as I go find food." I left him talking to some old guy named Garouk who wanted to give up gambling as I headed towards the bar. The bartender handed me a menu and pointed me towards a side room so I could sit down and order.

An annoying voice came at me. "Where did you get those clothes, a trash compactor in the Lower City? And where are those drinks we ordered?"

I looked around, trying to find the source of the horrible noise, and found an overdressed girl sitting with a few similarly overdressed friends. "Who are you and why are you bossing me around?"

She did not look amused. How nice for her. "Why is the help here so incompetent? One word from Daddy and I could get you fired!"

I'd like to see her get me fired from a place I didn't work. That should be absolutely fascinating. Feeling the need to kill off some of her annoyance and arrogance, I snapped at her. "Shut up, you spoiled brat!"

She looked like she was going to cry. "How dare you speak to me like that! Daddy's going to hear about this!" With that, she and her friends ran out of the cantina.

Finally, some peace. I sat down at the table they had just vacated and glanced at the menu. Counting on the hope that Carth had enough mental capacity not to lose too much of our money, I ordered soup, salad, bread, an appetizer, two entrées, and a drink for myself. That didn't seem like too much, given that I hadn't eaten in a couple days. He could order his own food later if he wanted.

The server had just left when a rather slimy man walked by and sat down. "Hi there. I haven't seen you around before. Of course they don't give us Sith officers from the military base much time off."

Hoping he wasn't here to steal my food, I responded as minimally and politely as possible. "You're from the military base? You don't look like one of the Sith."

He attempted a winning smile and failed miserably. "I'm off duty right now, so I'm not in uniform. My name is Yun Genda, junior officer first class with the Sith occupation force."

This guy was absolutely priceless. I couldn't help but play along. "Nice to meet you. I'm Shara."

He looked like he was about to die from happiness. "I'm actually a little surprised you're talking to me at all. Most of the people here on Taris can't stand us Sith. It can make this a pretty lonely job."

I stopped myself from rolling my eyes, shaking my head, or otherwise expressing my disbelief. Was he naturally this dumb, or did he have to try? "You can't really blame people. After all, you did conquer the planet."

"Oh, great. I see where this is going. The Sith are evil, why did I join them, blah, blah, blah. I don't need a lecture from the likes of you."

"You seem pretty touchy about this. Maybe you feel a little guilty about what you do." His response to this should be fun.

Well, I was right. "Don't try to analyze me. I'm just doing my job, same as any other soldier in any other army. Besides, I don't have to explain myself to you!" With that, he stormed away from my table.

I shook my head and muttered after him. "Try a better sales pitch next time."

Fortunately, the server chose that moment to start bringing my food. I was halfway through my second entrée when Carth found me and sat down, positively glowing. As he proudly showed off his winnings, which, to be fair, essentially quadrupled our savings, I shoved the menu at him, telling him between bites what I had ordered and how delicious it was. He quirked an eyebrow at me, indicating that perhaps my enjoyment of the food was directly proportional to how long it had been since my last meal. I frowned, realizing that I didn't remember ever having eaten anything before.

Wondering if I even had any friends, I decided to test out Carth's friendship ability. "I'd like to know some more about you, Carth."

He looked shocked. "Me? Well, I've been a star-pilot for the Republic for years. I've seen more than my share of wars. I fought in the Mandalorian Wars before all this started. But with all that, I've never experienced anything like the slaughter these Sith animals can unleash." His voice started to rise. Not wanting Yun to come back, I motioned to him to keep his voice down. Understanding that we were surrounded by Sith soldiers, he complied and kept his voice to an angry whisper. "Not even the Mandalorians were that senseless. My home world was one of the first planets to fall to Malak's fleet. The Sith bombed it into submission, and there wasn't a damn thing our Republic forces could do to stop them!" His voice was back up.

I had to calm him down before they Sith tried to kill us. Besides, he was the one who kept telling me to keep a low profile. "Calm down. I was just asking."

He sighed, looking almost apologetic. "You're the one who wanted to know more about me. Well this is it, this is what I am. I'm just a soldier; I go where the fleet Admirals tell me to. I follow my orders and I do my duty. It just doesn't seem right that doing that means I failed them. I didn't!"

Ok, he clearly had issues surrounding this. This conversation needed to end quickly, before we drew attention. We were rather lucky that the band was loud enough to muffle his outbursts. "Hey, why are you getting so mad at me? It's not like this was my fault!"

"I know that. I'm not angry at you. Don't think that. I must not be making much sense. You probably mean well with your questions. I'm just not accustomed to talking about my past very much. At all, actually. I'm more used to taking action and keeping my mind focused on the business at hand. So let's just do that. If you have more questions, ask them later."

Good idea. We should eat in peace. An argument would lead to major indigestion or something.

As we left the cantina, we were attacked by two Rodian thugs, who were apparently hired by the annoying overdressed girl from the cantina. However, they were even worse fighters than the Sith, so Carth and I dispatched them with no trouble at all. The girl ran away sobbing, yelling for her daddy. Unable to resist, I yelled after her. "Tell him to hire better thugs next time! You know, with all that money, it shouldn't be too hard!"

Carth managed to transform his chuckle into a cough. We decided to keep exploring the Upper City, so he pointed me towards the medical clinic. Which was good; I could get the doctor to check out my shoulder.

We walked into the clinic and were greeted by a friendly, weary old man. "I see from your appearance that you are an off-worlder. Still, you are welcome here. I'll not have it said that Zelka Forn refused to help somebody just because they weren't a citizen of Taris."

For some reason, I liked him. His spirit didn't seem as broken as so many others on the planet. I asked him to look at my shoulder for me, and as he gathered equipment and settled me down, he started chatting. His mind seemed to be continuously on something he called rakghoul disease, which grabbed my curiousity. "Tell me about the rakghoul disease."

I cringed as he swung my arm experimentally while he responded. "The terrible affliction has plagued Taris for many generations. It is spread by the rakghouls, horrible monsters that live in the Undercity below Taris' great skyscrapers. Prolonged exposure to the Undercity breeds the disease and those infected will eventually mutate into rakghouls themselves, becoming mindless beasts that feed on the flesh of others. There is no antidote for the disease, though I heard the Republic scientists at the military base here on Taris were close to perfecting a cure. Then the Sith arrived. They overran the military base and now they refuse to allow anyone access to the laboratories inside. The Sith are keeping all the serum for the patrols they send into the Undercity. If I could just get my hands on a sample of that serum the rakghoul disease could be wiped from the face of Taris forever. But I don't see how that's going to happen."

I wondered where these rakghouls had come from to start with, but decided against asking about that. Still, it seemed to me that not finding the cure to this disease would be the one thing that would finally break his spirit, so I said the next logical thing. "Maybe I could find a way to get my hands on that serum for you."

He started running some sort of device over my shoulder. Some sort of miraculous device, as the pain ceased almost immediately. "I don't see how anyone could get their hands on the serum. The military base is crawling with Sith guards. Breaking in there would be a suicide mission. I suppose the Sith patrols in the Undercity might have a sample of the serum on them, if they hadn't already used it because of a rakghoul infection. But I doubt a patrol would just hand the serum over. And nobody's stupid enough to attack one of the Sith patrols, even in the Undercity." Sounded like a challenge to me.

After terrifying him with a promise that I'd find the serum for him, I moved my shoulder experimentally to find that it felt perfectly fine. Thanking him, I hopped off the table and headed to where Carth was standing, in the back of the clinic facing a locked door. He was staring at it, almost mesmerized. Curious, I asked him what was so interesting, as all I could see was a plain, boring-looking locked door. He murmured something about how it felt important, then said something about wanting to look. Sighing, I reached over and picked the lock.

Zelka ran over in a panic upon hearing the door open. "What are you doing? Don't go in there! That door is for employees only!"

Carth was staring into the room, unable to respond, so I had to. "What's going on here?" I asked, gesturing at the people floating in tanks.

"Nothing. This isn't your concern. Just forget you saw anything, okay?"

From his panic, his compassion, and Carth's speechlessness, I guessed that these were Republic soldiers he was trying to hide from the Sith. "We're friends of the Republic. You can trust us."

He looked somewhat convinced, probably due to Carth walking up to the tanks and staring into them almost reverently. "I guess I can tell you what's going on. I only hope the Sith don't find out what I've done. Since the space battle overhead, people have been secretly bringing in these Republic soldiers who crash landed on the planet. I had to take them in. What choice did I have? Their injuries are terrible, most won't survive. But at least I can make their last days more comfortable. And at least here they are hidden away from the Sith."

Carth finally found his voice. "Well, for that you have my thanks. It's good to know that at least some of these men ended up in compassionate hands."

Zelka's terror returned. "I hate to imagine what the Sith would do if they discovered these soldiers here. But since their initial questioning the Sith have not returned, so it may be my fears are unfounded."

Carth responded before I could. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

Well, that depressed Zelka. "I'm afraid there is nothing more anyone can do for these soldiers." Turning away from us, he walked back towards the front of the clinic. After re-locking the door, Carth and I followed to leave.

And then we were stopped by Zelka's slimy worthless assistant. I should suggest that he get more medical droids. "I need to talk to you about the rakghoul serum. I've got an offer for you that you might want to hear."

I sighed. "An offer? What are you talking about?"

"Zelka isn't the only one who wants to get his hands on the rakghoul serum. Davik Kang will pay you ten times what Zelka can if you can get the cure."

I already knew the answer to this question, but I had to hear it from him to be sure. "Why do you care who gets the cure?"

"Look, Zelka can't afford to pay me much. If you sell the serum to Davik, I can probably get a nice finder's fee for directing you to him."

I figured as much. I wanted to leave now. "I'll keep your offer in mind."

Unfortunately, Carth decided to comment. "And then only the rich could afford the cure. Just let the poor suffer, right?"

The guy snorted. "If you find the rakghoul serum, just take it to Zax in the Lower City bounty office." I don't think so, buddy. Can I leave yet?

Fortunately, he stopped talking long enough for Carth and me to escape. Not that we went anywhere good. The first thing we ran into was a pair of bounty hunters harassing a merchant, who owed Davik money. It was becoming clear to me that Davik was one of the local crime lords, if not THE local crime lord. Must be a pleasant man.

The merchant was looking around frantically, searching for someone to help him. Upon seeing us, he, like so many other Tarisians, realized that we were off-worlders and therefore most likely to help him, so of course he called out to us. Wonderful. And of course the bounty hunters weren't appreciative of witnesses, so now we had a fight on our hands.

This planet just doesn't have any good fighters, does it? The merchant started thanking us profusely, then gave us a short life story, and finally started begging for money. What a sales pitch. I closed my eyes so he couldn't see me rolling them, then looked down at the bodies of the bounty hunters we had just killed. Given their jobs, I figured they had money on them. I bent down and rifled through their packs, and found the 100 credits the merchant was begging us for. He thanked us profusely, then ran off in absolute joy. I shook my head. This planet was just unbelievable.

I looked up to see another apartment complex. Since our current apartment complex was right next to our crashed escape pod, it seemed logical to me that the Sith would search for us there, if they were searching for Republic people at all. So perhaps we should search for a secondary apartment, either instead of our current one or as a backup plan. I explained all of this to Carth while I pulled him into the complex. The Upper City was apparently short on creativity, as this had pretty much the exact same layout as our complex. It even smelled the same.

As we walked around looking for more abandoned apartments, we saw a Sith trooper standing in a doorway. Upon seeing us, he immediately said, "Just move along. There's nothing to see here."

Right, like that wasn't suspicious.

From within the apartment, I heard another Sith voice. "Where did you hide those Sith uniforms? Did you sell them to the Tarisian underground? Start talking. I want answers!"

A voice answered in an alien language I somehow understood. "Please, I'm only a visitor to Taris, trapped here by your quarantine. I know nothing about the Tarisian underground or your missing Sith uniforms!" He put a good desperate tone to his answer, but it was clear to me that he was knew about both the underground and the missing uniforms, and I assumed it was clear to the Sith interrogator as well.

Since I hadn't actually done what the trooper had asked, he was starting to get annoyed. "You're a little too curious for your own good, civilian. This doesn't concern you."

Carth looked very worried. "I know all about Sith interrogations. This isn't going to end well."

The Sith interrogator was also running short on patience. It was apparently a common trait among the Sith. I wonder if the Sith hired people based on their impatience level. "I'm getting sick of your lies, you alien scum. We got your ugly mug on a security tape from the base. Start talking before I splatter your slimy brains all over this room." Wasn't that wonderfully descriptive. I'm glad he learned imagery at some point.

The trooper in the hall attempted, and failed miserably, to be funny and scary. "I think the commander's losing his temper. I'm glad I'm out here. It took me an hour to clean the blood stains from my uniform after the last interrogation." He glanced at me and Carth. "Just stay out of this, if you know what's good for you."

I couldn't help myself. "How exactly does killing the witness help the investigation?"

Before the trooper could yell at me, the commander's patience died. "This is your last chance: where did you hide those uniforms you stole?"

Recognizing his death sentence, the alien kept trying. "I swear I don't know what you mean."

That was the wrong answer.

As he fell over, the commander turned to the trooper in the apartment and beckoned to the one near us. "Search the room. I know those uniforms are in here somewhere."

"Uniforms," I muttered to myself. There had to be a good reason for the Tarisian underground to steal Sith uniforms.

The trooper was running out of patience, but his paranoia was increasing. "You're awfully curious about this. I think you know more about those missing uniforms than you're saying."

I rolled my eyes. I seemed to do that a lot on this planet. "If I wanted uniforms I'd just kill you and take yours."

Ok, so that wasn't actually the right thing to say. I caught a glare from Carth before he leapt into the fight.

After defeating all three Sith, I followed up on my comment by taking a uniform. It just had to come in handy at some point.

Before leaving the complex, we walked around and marked a few apartments as potentially abandoned. Continuing our exploration of the Upper City, we ran across an incredibly bored Sith standing in front of an elevator. Wondering where the elevator led to, I walked up to it, only to be stopped by the guard, who spoke as though he were reading from a script. "This elevator is off limits. Only Sith patrols and those with proper authorization are allowed into the Lower City. It's obvious from the way you're dressed that you're not one of the Sith patrols, so unless you have the authorization papers you must move along."

Ah, so that's why the Tarisian underground wanted Sith uniforms.