The Ghost Ship

When we entered the ship the death-like silence immediately struck me. I expected to be greeted or attacked by someone on the ship but no one was there. "Maybe the battle HK spoke of left no one alive." I thought.

As if Kreia heard me she spoke. "Something is wrong, I sense no one onboard."

Atton looked upset. "You sense no one onboard? Sense any assassin droids creeping up on us like last time?"

Kreia ignored him. "Everyone here has been slain, but there are few signs of battle. No carbon scoring no blaster scorches. This place was hit by assassins of a different sort."

Atton was even less happy. "Then what are we doing on this ship? You two are supposed to be Jedi? You are the worst Jedi I ever met."

I was confused. "I thought you already established that we weren't Jedi."

Kreia again showed the slightest notion of a smile. Atton continued his rambling. "Well uhh… what are you then? Sith?"

Kreia looked at me interested. "Yes, Exile, what would you call yourself?"

I thought about it for a second. "At the moment… neither."

"A shade of gray then?" she asked.

"Can we talk about this when were not on a deserted ghost ship?" I asked.

"Nevertheless, we need a plan."

Right she was. "I saw a fulepipe extend out of the station into the rear of the ship. If we can get to the engine room we can use that to bypass the containment field in fuel depot."

"Hey, even if we get to the freighter we can't get out of here without the asteroid orbital charts." Atton chimed in.

"Well how did the Harbinger get it?"

"Well of course they have them. But to get the Harbinger's charts we would have to get to the bridge… which is behind this door." He pointed towards the door on our right. "Well that's the only problem I see."

"I think if we open the door the problem should be solved." I replied smiling.

"That is a sound plan. We need to hurry. While we argue here our enemies gather" Kreia interrupted.

"Sorry Kreia, I will focus on the present. Let us move on." I replied, suppressing a little anger.

We went through the door and I was greeted once again by the site of bodies all around. "Well this is 'Beautiful'." Atton interrupted my thoughts.

"Yeah it compares beautifully to Peragus." I replied.

I went to the Navigation computer and downloaded the orbital drift charts. Then I checked the logs. The first three were rather boring but the last one contained a interesting recording from the medical bay. A cold deathlike voice came through the speakers after a scream followed by the sound of breaking glass. "I have come for the Jedi." I shivered involuntary and turned to Kreia. "Is this 'our' enemy?"

"Partly." Was all she said.

I decided to head for the escape pods to see if anyone had made it to safety. As we moved through the ship I suddenly felt a cold surge flow through my body. Kreia and I instantly turned around holding our blades defensively.

"Aren't we a bit paranoid?" Atton asked.

I ignored him searching the room for any sing of life. Kreia reacted before I could. A powerful bolt of blue lightning, which I didn't know she could do, came out of her fingers and slammed into something behind me. I spun around to see a black clad man, scorched and burned, laying on the floor. Then suddenly, I sensed them. Stealthed targets were running towards us from the direction of the bridge. I handed Atton some survey gear. Take these and cover us. He began pummeling the assassins with blaster bolts while Kreia and I assaulted them head on. I immediately realized that they carried double bladed weapons so I drew my second vibrosword so as to fight them better. As soon as I mounted my first hit on his arm he became visible. He grunted in pain but made no effort to heal himself with the force. I stretched out my senses and was surprised to find him force less. Not just non-force sensitive, but forceless. "What the hell?" I thought. "Are they droids?" We finished dispersing them a few seconds later.

"Not bad for an old woman." Atton said pointing to the two corpses Kreia had caused.

Kreia just ignored him. "No they are not droids. There Lord has made them his slaves by taking there will." She answered my thoughts.

"And I thought Revan was evil." I mused out loud.

Kreia lips made the slightest notion of a quiver. "Is that what she was?" she asked quietly.

Atton interrupted. "Hey you two, shouldn't we get off this ship?"

I nodded and we continued our journey through the ship. After killing another group of assassins we made it to the escape pods. There were none jettisoned. I fell to my knees in agony. Atton immediately rushed over. "Are you alright?" he asked concerned.

"They all died because of me…" I stopped emotion chocking my voice. "Just like… like the miners."

I saw a Sith corpse in the corner. Going over to it I quickly decapitated it with a swing of my blade and kicked the head away, enraged. " Let's get to the engine room."

After another few minutes of hacking through Sith assassins we made it to the dormitories. I suddenly remembered that this was the cabin I was in before I woke up in Peragus.

"What are you doing?" Atton asked when I suddenly stopped walking.

"Is something wrong?" Kreia asked concerned.

"This was my cabin." I answered them.

Atton looked confused. "Your cabin? When?"

"Before I lost consciousness and woke up in the Peragus med-bay." I replied.

I entered the room and picked up some personal things. I was happy to find that my old sword was still there. It was a old double bladed weapon I had found on Tatooine, in front of a cave, during my exile. Now holding it again it felt strangely different. Somehow… dark. Kreia immediately grabbed my arm. "Where did you get this?" she asked excitedly.

"Is that excitement I hear in your voice? I must be going deaf. I hear emotion in your voice…" I said ironically. Atton snickered behind us.

"Don't change the subject." Getting rebuked was not fun. "Where did you get this sword?"

"In front of a cave on Tatooine. Inside the skeleton of some huge creature." I replied amused not understanding her interest in the sword. She seemed mildly disappointed at my reply.

"Maybe I was mistaken. But the power coming from the sword… is quite incredible." I attempted to sense the sword with the force and was myself surprised to find it reeking of the dark side.

"Truly, a strange sensation this weapon carries." I held out the sword to Kreia. "Maybe you should take it?"

"No, you must use it. If it is what I think it is, it may serve you or it may destroy you. It will be a test for you."

"More mystery talk, eh?" I looked at her thoughtfully. "What do you think the sword to be?"

"It shall remain a mystery… for now." I frowned.

Nevertheless, I thought it best to continue our "trip" through the ship. After some time we made it to the ship's med-bay. It was large and rectangular in shape. Kolto tanks were arrayed along the wall. In the very center of the room was a large kolto tank but unlike the others it was shattered. This did not disturb me terribly since the whole ship was in a bad state. I checked the console for anything useful. It contained some chemicals and a camera log. The log centered on the shattered kolto tank but what the tank contained was… shocking. A… man of sorts, that looked like someone I had seen in a horror movie a few years ago, was floating inside the tank. That he was alive seemed impossible. He had a gray color which only added to his deathlike appearance. I felt Atton come up beside me looking at the screen.

"What is that?" he asked, loud enough to blow out my eardrums.

"How should I know?"

We watched as the "thing" suddenly jerked. The republic soldier attending the med lab suddenly fell to her knees gripping her head in agony. "Sith!" I thought to myself. Suddenly the soldier stood up and ran away. The Kolto in the tank subsided and as soon as the Kolto had disappeared the Sith jumped out of the Tank shattering the glass.

"Wow, I guess the guy doesn't mind getting cut up." Atton said.

"Guess not…" I turned towards Kreia. "Do you know him?"

"Maybe." was all she answered.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Atton roll his eyes. "Listen, Kreia, your cryptic stand offish routine is starting to bother me."

She just glared at me and raised her hand. My hand suddenly felt like it was on fire and I fell to my knees. Atton retreated behind the shattered Kolto tank in fear. Then suddenly the pain in my subsided. "We have to leave." Kreia said as if nothing happened. "We will talk later." I didn't argue with her and I still felt a throbbing headache.

We disposed of a few more assassins and came to a turbo lift. I entered it along with Atton and Kreia and pressed the button that took us to the engine room. Atton backed himself into a corner as far away from Kreia as possible. Kreia was expressionless.

"Aren't we the lovely trio." I mused out loud.

Atton grinned. "Yeah… a exiled Jedi, a old woman, and a smuggler."

Kreia still stood next to me as if she wanted to grow roots. The lift was moving at a terribly slow speed but at least it moved. "Something tells me that you are not just a smuggler," I said pointing at Atton. I turned toward Kreia, "And that you are more than just an old woman." She actually showed the faint sign of a smile.

The door of the lift opened. The engine level was dimly lit and there were to my surprise no corpses. Atton suddenly tensed. "I've got a bad feeling about this." he said.

"Why is that?" I asked curiously. I could feel the whisper of a force essence within him. "Maybe he is mildly force sensitive." I thought.

"It's this feeling I get. Trust me… when I feel like this, things are going to get really bad, real fast."

"Yeah your right. It's been 'real' nice till now." he grinned at me. "But if you think its going to get worse we best be careful."

His answer to that was the first genuine smile I had seen him make. We ran, not walked, on, but I suddenly stopped and turned around. On the far side of the corridor, exiting the lift we had taken down to this level from the dormitories, the Sith we had seen in the med bay camera logs appeared. I looked over at Atton.

"We could make a run fo-"

Kreia interrupted. "This battle is mine alone. I am not defenseless." She ran towards the Sith. She turned towards us briefly. "Run. I will be along shortly."

The doors slammed shut and I was about to be noble and run after her when Atton pulled me back. "You wouldn't want to ruin her theatrical sacrifice, would you?"

I grinned. "You have a point."

After opening the engine room from a console we made our way through the engines on a narrow catwalk. After a few seconds we came to another computer. Atton ran over to it and pressed a button opening the way to the fuel line. As I entered he looked at me suspiciously.

"Are we really going in there?" he asked.

I looked at him in disbelief. "No Atton. We will stay on this pleasure yacht." I said sarcastically.

"All right." he moved ahead of me. "Let's go."

Searing pain suddenly crawled up my arm. I gripped my arm in agony and fell to the floor. "What the hell?" Atton exclaimed when he turned around seeing me lying on the floor. "What are you doing. This is no time for a nap." The pain subsided as suddenly as it had come.

"My hand… it felt like it was dipped in molten carbonite." he looked at the hand I was clutching.

"Both of your hands look…fine."

I suddenly burst into laughter. He looked at me as if I was mentally unstable. "I'm sorry." I said catching my breath. " I must seem crazy to you. But I did feel searing pain in my hands. It was… strange." I jumped to my feet. "Let's get going."