Sorry, forgot all this last time. I do not own anything to do with Star Wars – sadly – but the characters I'm using are all my own. The ships and species have been found off the Star Wars website. Thank you for reviewing – it's good that people like!
R and R please people!
After almost ten minutes of walking through the quickly increasing gloom, Karaa felt the Force signatures of four other beings very nearby. She was already mentally cursing herself for her foolishness in believing the voice and following Rik but knew that there was nothing she could do: she was lost, in the middle of a swamp, and if she took just one step wrong she could be sucked down into a slow suffocating death.
"Here." Rik led her off the course that they had been following and through a screening curtain of slimy branches. Karaa found herself on the lip of a shallow bowl, the bottom made up of stagnant water. A strange, crab shaped structure stood on metal legs above the swamp, it's bulbous body draped with branches torn from the swamp itself as camouflage against discovery. There were doors and windows thrown open to reveal shadowed corridors inside, and attached to half of the long, articulated legs were what looked like two Z-95 Headhunter ships and an X-Wing starfighter. After a moment of mute amazement – what was that thing and who had built it? – Karaa's eyes were dragged to the beings around the structure.
A tiny, meter tall jawa, cowelled and invisible beneath the hood of the homespun robes, was leaning over the exposed engine of one of the Z-95s, waving a hydrospanner in the air as he poked around inside the outdated yet still sleek machine's internals. A massively built crawdaunt in his normal skin was sitting on the upper joint of one leg, a pile of weapons next to him as he looked them over, adjusting and fixing them one by one. A wookiee, dark grey fur brindled with black, was leaning over a small fire made on the edge of the bowl above the water in a space showing evidence of being a gathering point – she was cooking some kind of meal which smelt wonderful. But Karaa forgot them all momentarily when she saw the aquamarine squib standing on the tope of the crab, her sleek fur soft and mud-free as she looked down with a hydrospanner in her paw. Their eyes met and Karaa felt the Force between them: it was an explosive test that blasted through her, causing her to stumble backwards as it hunted for the Dark Side.
/Welcome./ The voice was in her mind even while Karaa pulled herself back together, gasping from the force of the test. Her brain felt as though it had been torn apart and rebuilt – then the pain abruptly disappeared and she realised that she was clutching at her head. She dropped her hands and watched the squib drop down in a few energetic jumps until she was on the ground with a hand signal to send the now watching beings back to work as she approached Karaa, a slight smile on her muzzle although her eyes were still wary.
"Greetings again, Karaa. I apologise about the test but I couldn't run the risk of you being on the Dark Side."
"Who are you?" Karaa's voice was dry: she didn't trust these people but at the same time she knew that they were not on the Dark Side. She didn't know what to think, everything that she knew was getting turned upside down and she was feeling totally out of her element.
"My name is Katja." The squib was still smiling gently. "I lead this band, to which I hope you will be added." She took Karaa by the elbow, waved Rik off to help the wookiee, and led the Jedi towards the crab structure. "This is our home, known as Base. You can see Pendra the wookiee by the fire, our weapons master Carl who is of course a crawdaunt, and our technical expert Mojo the jawa. You already know Rik and that I am Katja. Together we are known as traders of goods needed around the galaxy. In reality though we have slightly different aims. We intend to unite those people wishing for the end of the Empire and the return of the golden days. We have been waiting for you for some time."
"Why me?"
"Because you are a Jedi." Katja seemed surprised at the question. "You are not on the Dark Side, and in fact have killed Sith yourself."
"Not without my friends – I couldn't do it alone." She was going to say more but her throat closed up around a grief-built constriction. It still hurt a lot what had happened to her friends. Katja seemed to understand that: her piercing eyes softened and she spoke in an even more gentle voice.
"I would never ask you to stand alone, Karaa." She guided the Jedi to a space of the joint closest to what seemed to be the main entrance to the Base. Karaa followed obediently, unsure of what to do but instinctively believing this soft spoken squib. Sitting there above the swamp in the now complete darkness, the Jedi and the squib watched the fire together as Katja spoke quietly of her dream from the future.
"I have long wanted to see a future in which the Empire is overthrown and the Republic returned. Because of this I hunted out like minds: not rebels, because they are hot headed and such recklessness can get innocent people killed. No, I wanted people with sense, who could see what could be done and what could find ways of managing it. I came to find you because I believe you are one such like mind: wanting the end of the war, not the start of a new one."
"I just don't know if I can trust anyone any more." Karaa barely spoke above a whisper in the darkness.
"I'll tell you that you can trust us, but that won't help you believe it. Only time will promote true trust. But will you try?"
"I-" She stopped, and then started again. "I don't believe that you are evil: I felt the light side in you before. I will try to trust you all."
"Thank you."
They fell into a comfortable silence, the dismal decay of the world around them fading into insignificance. Karaa felt companionship radiating from the form beside her and for the first time in many years she felt at ease. Watching the flickering glow of the firelight beneath them and seeing the shapes of wookiee, jawa, crawdaunt and twi'lek around it she let herself relax, believing that she was among friends again for the first time since she lost Seera and Devrin.