Chapter 5
Aftermath

The hangar bay was a mess, but the fire suppression had been lifted and the air was thin, but breathable. The loading ramp was open and ready for them as he ran forward. Once inside, Carth slammed the door controls shut and slid Kairi to the floor. The myriad of injuries, the pain from the torture, and all the little hurts adrenaline had been able to mask were starting to catch up to him.

He didn't care.

Staggering into the cockpit, he dropped heavily into the pilot's seat. "Bastila's gone. She sacrificed herself…and…"

"Carth, you..." Mission's voice was shaky as she sat in the co-pilot's chair.

"Shut up!" he roared at her, pulling his blaster and pointing it in her direction. Only later would he remember the look of abject horror that crossed the girl's face.

"So sorry to do this..." said a rich baritone over his shoulder. There was the hiss of an injector gun and Carth fell face-forward.

"Damn," Jolee said, pulling Carth out of the chair, and taking the helm. "Zaalbar, I've one for you to drag. Powering on the launch sequence..."

Drawing on the Force and old memories of blockade running, his dark hands sailed across the controls with lightening speed. Ah, how it all came back like no time had passed at all!

Canderous's voice over the com. "I've got turret one. Who's got two?"

"Ready! Statement: I have taken turret two. My programming includes Starship gunnery."

"Hold on!" Jolee said. "We've got a couple dozen of those snubs on our tail."

Two dozen Sith fighters to their smuggling craft and making an escape from the brig of a Sith's prized flagship. The odds...the cunning required...the stakes of life and death...

Another snub passed by his line of vision and Canderous swung the turret around to blast it into powder. Two more eluded his shots and got close enough to fire on the Hawk, weakening her shields. Canderous cursed as he yanked the turret around for another pass.

If he were a man to honor his gods with prayer, he would have fallen to his knees in gratitude, but he was Mandalorian - battle itself was the prayer, the benediction, the request and the reward. He laughed from the sheer joy of it.

"Commentary: I could like you, meat-bag. You share my appetite for destruction and termination."

Another three fighters down from HK-47's guns. "Not half-bad yourself, bolt bucket. I've half a mind to put your brain in a Basilisk!"

Juhani knew what she was sensing. Battle outside, the others fighting off death. It was what she could not sense that made her uneasy. That was why she ventured into the armory, the room just off the docking ramp.

Gasping, she saw Kairi on the floor. Her robes were cut in several places and ugly looking burns could be seen. Those burns could only have come from a lightsaber, and Juhani was relieved to see she had not lost limbs or her life. But she was unconscious, and badly wounded. Juhani felt the ship jolt beneath her and almost send her off balance. A brief mind-touch almost sent her sprawling – shame and horror radiating from Kairi's broken spirit like a dying star.

Kneeling down, she picked up the smaller woman. "No sister. Whatever they have done, I cannot leave you to this. For now, you will live. You must live."

"Locked!" Mission said. "Hyperspace coordinates in! Go!"

"Hold on!" Jolee shouted and punched the sequence into place, the stars outside streaking and warping. Only a split second later, the ship started the shake, like it was going to fall apart.

"What's happening?" shrieked Mission.

Zaalbar had just placed Carth in the sickbay before joining T3-M4 in the race to the engine room. Instantly, they saw what was wrong - the sparking and shuddering panels. Saul Karath's crew had rigged a trap on the engines, one set to go off once they hit hyperspace. Fixing it in hyperspace was going to be a heroic effort, but with the Sith on their tails, they had no choice.

The droid motored behind the engines, attachments and components in full gear as it struggled to remove the foreign object from the back of the ship. Zaalbar ran at full tilt for the tool chests, using phrases in Shyriiwook that his father would disapprove of. Why did they have to make these compartments and couplings so small?

Canderous climbed down from the turret and Jolee shouted at him. "Trouble in the engine room. Zaalbar and T3 need help!"

Jolee noticed Mission was a bit pale. He knew she was a youngling, but most everyone aboard the ship was a kid by his estimation. It didn't hit him how painfully young the Twi'lek was until she looked up at him and wasn't able to form words, just stared off into nothing with her large blue eyes.

"You're doing good, Mission," Jolee said. "But don't be giving up on me. You've got to reroute the power so that they can work back here. Did Carth show you how to do that?"

That brought the girl back into focus, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before focusing on her task.

T3-M4 hooted as it skated out from behind the engine, dragging a tangled mess of parts behind it. Canderous had reached the engine room and saw what they were dealing with.

"A sleeper. Damn. I knew that Karath fellow had to be smart," he said.

Sleepers were a combination of computer spike and bomb, set to go off once the ship's power levels reached a certain point (like entering hyperspace). They infected and corrupted the ship's computers while the bomb part of it blew the engine to bits - the combination would usually destroy the ship instantly. Well, the Force was with them if it didn't blow them to bits already. It must have been misaligned slightly. It did give him a nasty idea as to how to elude the Sith, but that would have to wait...He could barely fit in here with that big Wookiee at work, but T3 -M4, being the smart little droid, was already heading for the auxiliary controls. The Ebon Hawk and the little droid were the smartest investments Davik ever made.

"Zaalbar, go with the droid to auxiliary controls. I'll be trying to bypass power to them manually. The sleeper's just infected and wrecked primary systems, I hope."

"Jolee had the com open as he was talking. "I'm going to have to get us out of hyperspace, folks." He turned to Mission. "I'm going to talk you through a difficult maneuver, but I know you can do it..."

Zaalbar and T3 were already at work on the secondary systems. Canderous had successfully transferred the power, and Jolee was going to drop them out of hyperspace to complete the rest.

There was still a task Canderous needed to finish. He hauled in the ship's damaged parts - burnt-out components, deck plating, trash...and stuffed it into the airlock. He knew what he was doing was crazy in hyperspace, but it was half-way a guarantee that it would fool the Sith, especially with...

A whistle and hoot behind him. T3M4 was right at his side like a faithful war beast, and he also carried something in his claw, something small that had a flashing blue light on it. Canderous grinned and patted the flat silver surface of the droid's head.

"Good boy. Bringing me the tracking beacon." He tossed it into the pile, sealed the doors, and vented the ship trash into space, where it turned into subatomic particles once it hit the hyperspace slipstream.

Seconds after that, the ship emerged from hyperspace. Canderous heard Jolee's voice over the com.

"Damn Sith pulled us WAY off course. We haven't very much in the auxiliary engines, either. They pretty much left us dead in the water."

Canderous thought a moment. "Can we get to the Yavin system?"

"Yavin? That's a damn wasteland, Canderous."

"Not if you know where to look," Canderous said.

"Well," Jolee grumbled. "We haven't got the power to limp to much else right now. Yavin it is."

Juhani somehow thought her friend would be larger then this. Kairi seemed to be so delicate as Juhani carried her. She put Kairi in her bunk, and with a whispered apology, started taking off Kairi's damaged robes, placing the bloodied and burnt garments to the side. Even the underclothing was in shreds and had to go.

The extent of the damage made Juhani ill to behold. Kairi's body was a tangle of cuts, burns, and bruises…Juhani fought down the flash of rage at the sadists that did this. There is no emotion….

She left Kairi's side only to get a life-support pack from the emergency supplies. Her skills in Force-healing were limited, soQuatra's training included first aid. Juhani knew it was necessary - as Jedi were in battle more often than they would care to be, and injuries were inevitable. Now, she saw another purpose behind it. Concentrating on the injuries and how best to heal them was also forcing Juhani to ground herself, to allow the rage to pass over her and through her so that she would not be distracted from her task. It forced her not to think of the battle outside, and not of the chaos aboard the ship…

There is no chaos; there is harmony.

"Ju…" She was struggling back to consciousness. Thank the Force!

"I am seeing to your injuries. Please be still."

"You should…I must…let me die…"

Juhani gripped Kairi's hand. "No. I cannot. Do not ask that of me – ever. Even if you were not…someone I care for…I am a Jedi."

"No more mercy," Kairi muttered before passing out again.

The fragile stability that Juhani had maintained took a nosedive. She ran for the door. "Jolee, Jolee, help! We need a healer!"

Jolee waved Canderous to the controls and charged back to crew quarters. Seeing Kairi's state of undress, he sealed the door, more out of respect. He motioned to Juhani to get a blanket. Juhani tossed the blanket over Kairi as Jolee checked the vitals.

"Damn," the old man grumbled. "Damn it all. She must have found out…"

"Found out?" Juhani was confused, but there wasn't time for it.

"Get to sickbay and check on Carth. Send someone back here with medical supplies. Hurry about it!"

Juhani flew out the door. Jolee adjusted the blanket some. Kairi's body was in shock and her mind was in a death spiral. Just as he feared. He pulled a second vial of argonel and poured the contents down her throat while overpowering her weakened mind.

"You stop fighting me, lass. Contrary to what you think, some of us don't give a damn about what you were then."

Oblivion – not death but a drug and Force-induced coma. Jolee sighed bitterly. That was an extreme measure, and it still could turn fatal, but at least she wasn't going to kill herself for now.

"Jolee, I have brought you medical supplies. Juhani is checking on Carth. His wounds have been bandaged, and he is resting."

Jolee looked up at Zaalbar stooped in the doorway. "Best to confine him to the sickbay – especially when he comes to. With his mental state the way it is, he's liable to hurt himself further."

"I do not understand." Zaalbar put the medical kit on Juhani's bunk.

"I'm afraid Carth's got himself locked in the human equivalent to Wookiee hunting-rage. Knowing the man, it might be a while before he comes to his senses." He started to snap on a diagnostic cuff on one of Kairi's arms. It barely fit – she was so small. The infusion band was a little easier to hook up as he attached the kolto supply.

"Where did you learn such things, Hairless One?"

"I was good at Force Healing, so I got sent through Exar Kun's War as a medic. Through my wanderings, I…told others I was a medic, and it got me passage on ships. Smugglers court danger, and they'll welcome a fellow aboard that can patch them up and fly their boat. Of course, the truth would come out. They'd see my lightsaber, and I would have to leave. Better that way."

"Oh," Zaalbar said. "Pardon me, but you have never seemed one who flees for high branches at the sight of a kinrath."

"We all have something that our bravery can't digest," Jolee said glumly, checking the equipment one more time.

"She's grave, but stable, and I've done what I can for now. Keep watch on her, Zaalbar. Open it only for Juhani or me until I give –"

"Where is she?" Carth's shout reverberated off the bulkhead walls.

"Carth, please, you are not well, go back to – " Juhani was trying to reason with him.

"Stang! Zaalbar, guard this door!" Jolee ran out.

The commotion had reached the common room. Carth was limping because his entire right shin was bound in kolto bandages – as was his waist and hands. Juhani was trying to push Carth back towards the sickbay. Mission stood in the middle of the room, too in shock to react. T3-M4 was oblivious, hooked up to the auxiliary computers. Zaalbar guarded the door to Kairi's quarters, confused. HK-47 climbed down from the turrets, and Canderous dashed in from the cockpit, getting behind Carth in an attempt to subdue him.

The whole crew was present. Jolee ruefully reflected that the Force certainly had good timing for this one.

"Back off, Jedi bitch. You don't know what's going on."

Canderous made a grab for Carth. "Settle down, man!"

"Bastila goes and throws herself at Malak –"

"You…you mean she's dead?" Mission asked.

"Malak's not that stupid," Jolee said sharply. "He'll try to turn her. With her Battle Meditation, the Sith fleet would be invincible."

"You have to let me go! Revan's on this ship!" Carth argued, eluding Canderous's grasp again.

"Juhani, come here! Help me hold him."

Juhani blocked Carth's forward progress, effectively sandwiching him between her and Canderous.

"All this time, we've had Malak's old Sith Master hearing our secrets, listening to our plans…"

Canderous finally managed to get his arms around Carth to restrain him. "That's crazy talk. Settle down. Revan is dead."

"No, she isn't!"

"He's right," Jolee said.

Carth seemed to run out of fuel, slumping over. The rest of the crew regarded Jolee with shock. A terrible moment of silence rippled through the room. It was then that Jolee spoke.

"I knew…back on Kashyyyk, but I wanted to be certain before I said anything. I wanted to know what we were dealing with. I…confronted –" He changed his phrasing. "It would be more accurate to say I blackmailed the information from Bastila."

"You knew?" Carth hissed. "You knew all this frelling time?"

Jolee nodded.

"I ought to break your neck next," Carth grumbled. "What did that Jedi whore tell you?"

Jolee ignored Carth's hurtful words. "Less than a year ago, the Jedi Council set a trap for Dark Lady Revan. The Council gave a token order to try and capture Revan alive, but they didn't think Bastila could actually do it." He chuckled mirthlessly. "And I'll bet they pissed their collective trousers when she did."

Canderous turned pale. "Revan…a woman?"

"Is that really so hard to believe?" Juhani countered.

"Anyway, what got pulled from the battle was pretty much a husk – the body could be healed, but no consciousness. The Jedi Council still needed information locked in Revan's brain, so they did something…I'm still debating how stupid and unethical this was…they reconstruct a new identity, and pass her off as Bastila's translator."

Realization dawned across everyone's face. Mission was first to speak. "Revan? You mean Kairi is Revan? This is…this is big!"

"That tiny woman defeated Mandalore?"

Juhani sank against the bulkhead. "Revan…leading an army against the Mandalorians. She freed me from slavery…I remember asking her if she were a goddess."

HK-47 hung his metal head, then looked up, his gold eyes flashing blue. "Commentary: I am…experiencing something unusual!"

"Stay back, folks," Canderous warned.

"Objection: There is no need. I am quite stable. This stimulus is activating….yes! Statement: I believe I have a homing beacon. Sith protocols require all droid knowledge to be deleted upon assassination missions and restored upon return. My core memory has been set to activate upon return to my original master! Exclamation: I am quite delighted to be in my mistress's service again. Where is she so that I may greet her?"

"Incapacitated," Jolee answered. "And badly injured."

The droid seemed sad to hear this. "Statement: Mistress Kairi-Revan has made provisions for this outcome. Until she is functional, my command is to protect and serve you, Carth Onasi."

"An assassin droid. Just what I always wanted," Carth said drunkenly before passing out from the lack of blood.