20. Return to Taris
Before any of us knew it, we were en route to Taris. Conversation aboard the Hawk was spotty and abrupt. Canderous had been made a Republic official. "Captain!" I demanded. "When did this happen?"
"It was their choice, not mine." Canderous laughed. "And it's only honorary. I don't think they could handle a Mandalorian officer."
"Whew. I was imagining you leading a Republic fleet." I exhaled in relief. A scream came from the med bay. I ran in, shutting the curtain behind me.
"I can't do this!" Bastila panted.
"It's too late to change your mind now." I said, patting her hand. "It'll be over soon."
"A lot of help you are." Bastila managed. "Could someone more compassionate help me?"
"Well, Jolee could come in and put you to sleep with his stories. You won't feel a thing." I grinned.
"Fine." Bastila's face screwed up in pain.
"Just keep breathing." I said in my best compassionate voice. "You can do this." Mission stood behind me tentatively.
"What do you need?" She asked Bastila.
"I'm going to die!" Bastila shrieked.
"You can be the midwife." I suggested. "I don't think Bastila wants me to." I turned to Bastila, who was still in agony. "You'll be okay. Just focus on your breathing." I held her hand. I wished Juhani weren't on the other ship with the apprentices; we could have used her help. Bastila wasn't exactly craving male company right now.
"You're doing okay, Bastila." Mission assured. "I can see the baby's head." Bastila wailed and held my hand harder.
"Do you want Canderous in here?" I asked gently.
"I'd kill him for doing this to me!" She was having a pretty serious contraction.
"You got it." I was at a loss for words. My desire to have children waned. I tried to get into a half-meditative state, reaching out to Bastila with the Force to keep her from thinking she was going to die. She calmed down a bit, but still hurt. Tears were running from her eyes. It seemed like a never-ending battle to make sure Bastila didn't freak out. She screamed so loud that I was sure Taris would hear us coming and try to send us back to Telos. Finally, she calmed down slightly.
"Canderous…" she managed. "Bring him here." I stuck my head out of the curtain.
"Canderous, you're needed." I called. My voice was soft in its abruptness. Canderous took my place at Bastila's side. Mission looked overwhelmed, so I joined her in being a midwife.
"You'll be okay…" He said gently. Bastila looked up at him, her eyes full of sadness and pain.
"Will I?" Canderous opened his mouth to answer, but he was interrupted by Bastila wailing like the galaxy was caving in around us. I had never heard anything like it. The wail echoed through the corridors of the Hawk, sending shivers up my spine. I wanted to do anything to make it stop, but it didn't. It changed pitch a bit, then I realized that the sound wasn't Bastila's any longer. Mission delicately held the child. I handed her a towel and a blanket, and she handed me the baby. I wiped him off gently, still a bit shaken by the horrific sound. Mission clipped the umbilical cord, took the baby, and wrapped him in the blanket. She handed him to Canderous.
"It's a boy!" Canderous hollered proudly, holding his son so Bastila could see. A cheer came from the center of the ship, where the rest of the crew had convened.
"He's beautiful." Bastila whispered. I was exhausted from the surge of emotion and pain that had just filled the med bay.
"What's his name?" Mission asked tentatively.
"Shan." Canderous stated, "After his mother." I opened the curtain, and the rest of the crew slowly filtered in to look. Silence like I'd never heard filled the ship.
"I thought Mandalorians hated babies." Griff mused. Mission elbowed him fiercely.
"Sorry," Bastila said, looking up at Canderous. "I wouldn't kill you." Canderous laughed.
"It takes guts to threaten a Mandalorian." He beamed, handing Shan to Bastila. Canderous had always confused me. He turned a death threat into a declaration of love. Only a Mandalorian…
"I guess the pain took over." Bastila explained to no one in particular. As weak, pale, and bloated as she was, she glowed with maternal beauty. I never thought I'd see this. Canderous' face softened almost beyond recognition as he waved and talked to his son.
"You'll get your payback. I'll just make sure you're there when I give birth." I smiled. She gave me a quizzical look. "Don't look at me like that; I'm not pregnant." Mission started to say something which would be no doubt teasing and inflammatory. Carth interrupted tentatively, not wanting to risk Bastila's newfound maternal ire.
"We're coming up on Taris," Carth said as the instruments buzzed and he rushed back into the cockpit to bring us to landing.
"Make this landing better than the last one," I grinned, sliding into the co-pilot seat. "I don't feel like being unconscious for days."
"That wasn't my fault," Carth smiled back. "Besides, you liked me nursing you back to health, holding you while you thrashed around…" He's almost as good at this as I am.
"That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about how you loved sharing an escape pod with me. It was all cramped and you had to squish up against me, wrapping your legs around me…" Carth laughed.
"If you don't want to crash land because you're distracting me, you'd better shut up and drive." I giggled and started pressing buttons. Taris was being slowly rebuilt. It didn't look as horrible as it had the last time I'd seen it, even though it doesn't take much to look better than a planet being bombed by the Sith fleet.
"It's like we're starting over." I mused, focused on the landing pad we were headed toward. Carth said nothing, only smiled. Mission burst in.
"Do you two ever stop?" She demanded, obviously irritated with the lovers' gaze she had just interrupted.
"We take arguing breaks." I shifted my gaze from Carth to Mission.
"Sheesh." Mission rolled her eyes and looked out the window. Her tone sobered. "I can't believe that's Taris."
What had once been a sprawling urban center was now a partially-rebuilt ruin. Some open space was visible, which was a bit of a relief. I had grown used to having nature around on Telos. The planet still looked charred, but there were small stirrings of life and hope on the surface below.
"Welcome to New Taris." Carth said.
"Stop playing tour guide and pilot." I suppressed a giggle. "Or else I'll be unconscious for days again."
"Don't tempt me." Carth retorted. "Mission, do you want to co-pilot? It's hard to land when I'm being teased incessantly, especially when I know more about places than some of our companions." Laughing, I handed Mission the controls. I really didn't mind giving up my spot to her. I had followed Carth into the cockpit for the company, not to drive. I stood back and watched Taris get closer. My thoughts turned to the apprentices. They hadn't ridden with us, as it was cramped enough as is. I wondered how Juhani was faring with them. I was wondering if she'd make them meditate. Some of them really needed to do their homework. I was thankful that the sounds of the others onboard interrupted my thoughts. Apprentices, although nice, were stressful. I wondered if I could retire from the Jedi Order after my assignment. I had a feeling my promotion was intended to be temporary, since I'd get all juiced off power. Damn Revan. She always ruined my reputation. I listened to the crew figuring out where we'd put Shan for the rest of the voyage. Jolee was bossy as usual. Zaalbar was inspecting the hairless runt, from what I could gather of his speech and Bastila's defensive yowls. Canderous was threatening the Wookiee to back down. I couldn't help but laugh. Bastila and Canderous were parents. The thought brought a smile to my face. It was the most bizarre thing I could think of. It had been a little over a year since the Star Forge and we were already multiplying. For such an odd bunch, we had tons of chemistry flowing between us. In spite of the attention I'd grown used to receiving, I enjoyed listening to everyone a great deal of the time.
"Let me land this time." Mission demanded, although in an inquisitive tone.
"All right," Carth smiled and sat back. He took my hand and pulled me into his lap.
"And don't make me tell you to get a room!" Mission sighed, focusing her attention back on the controls. She'd landed the ship countless times, but never completely alone.
"You know, I get a funny feeling that something's going to happen." Carth mused.
"Are you sure it's not from yesterday, telling you that Bastila was going to have a baby?" I teased.
"I'm sure. It'll be interesting to see what Taris is like."
"I wonder if it smells the same." I mused.
"I hope not." Carth's nose wrinkled. "And if it does, I hope you decide against playing in the sewage this time."
"I wasn't playing. You'd know if I was playing." I corrected.
Carth was shaken up at the destruction of Taris, even after we'd arrived on Tatooine. When we left for Yavin to dump off some goods, I pulled Mission aside and whispered my plan to her. She giggled. We both activated our stealth generator belts and made sure we had sound-dampening units on as we snuck into the crew quarters. I opened the compartment under the bunk Carth favored. Sure enough, his prized blasters were there. I pulled them out carefully and put them under some panels in the floor. As a smuggler, I had a sixth sense about where hidden compartments would be.
"Do you have the contraband?" I whispered to Mission, who handed me a small box. I opened it a crack and the last gizka on the ship cooed at me. I stifled a giggle.
"Perfect, isn't it?" Mission whispered.
"Yep!" I smiled, forgetting she couldn't see me. "Climb up on the bunk so you can see his face when he comes in here." She did while I carefully placed the box with the gizka in the compartment where his blasters had been. I scribbled a note on the box:
Dear Carth,
I ate your blasters. Please don't kill me. I'm too cute.
I closed the compartment and snuck to the other side of the room as footsteps came down the corridor. The look on Carth's face was priceless. Tears crept to the edges of my eyes as I restrained laughter. He started yelling my name.
"What the hell did you do to my blasters?" He cried, running out of the quarters. I couldn't hold in the laughter anymore. I fell to the ground quietly, giggling incessantly, but trying to keep the noise level to a minimum. I barely heard Carth's footsteps come back into the crew quarters. Mission tried to warn me but it was too late. "Where are my blasters?" Carth asked coolly, tapping my arm to deactivate my stealth generator.
"He ate them." My face straightened. "Can't you read?" I was suppressing laughter. I couldn't hold my pazaak face for very long, not when Carth was so ticked off.
"Stop acting so childish!" Carth was almost angry. "Why did you do this?"
"Because I thought you needed a break." I explained. "You've had a long face since we left Taris." I opened the compartment and let him have his blasters back. When I went to bed after trying to fix HK-47, I jumped, realizing I'd almost sat on something. It was the gizka, with a note around its neck.
Dear Ciara,
I claim this bed. Please don't kill me. I'm too cute and I have indigestion from Carth's blasters.
I laughed. He was smarter than I thought.
"You're right." Carth smiled. I couldn't be sure he was thinking about the blaster gizka, but I smiled back.
"I'm always right." I raised my eyebrows. "You should know by now."
"Whatever you say." Carth's face relaxed, but his smile lingered. He put his arms around my waist. Mission landed the Hawk gently. We got a message not to leave the ship until further notice, but that didn't keep me from looking out the windows.
To say Taris wasn't like I left it would be one of the greatest understatements ever made. The planet was all but deserted and even after almost three years, it still reeked of death. The surviving Tarisian government had spent the time prior to our arrival bickering about stupid things, as governments are wont to do. We had to amuse ourselves in the hangar while the docking authorities did whatever they do that takes hours.
"It looks like we could spend the next year jumping through hoops and watching bureaucracy inaction." I mused.
"Clever." Carth scoffed. I rolled my eyes.
"It was hilarious. You're trying not to laugh." I insisted.
"You're getting really bad at your Force persuasion." Carth raised an eyebrow, giving me a familiar look.
"That wasn't persuasion, it was obvious." I retorted. "And don't give me that look."
"What look?" Carth's feigned innocence was definitely something he'd picked up from me.
"That 'here's-a-suggestion-but-I'll-let-you-think-it's-your-idea' look." I narrowed my eyes. "I have plenty of my own ideas."
"You have more bruises than good ideas." Carth smirked.
"What are you getting at?" I shot Carth my best impression of his look back, hoping a taste of his own medicine would help my cause. It didn't.
"Well it's hard to tell why you wear them so proudly, since you get half of them from falling out of bed and running into walls."
"Right." I rolled my eyes, pretending that he was lying.
"Okay, more like two-thirds." He grinned.
"No way." I folded my arms. "Point to any scar, any bruise, and I'll tell you what it was."
"That one." He pointed to a bruise on my left forearm.
"Shoving a Sith out of the way so I could beat down his leader." I tried.
"You wouldn't still have bruises for that; you haven't fought Sith for over a year." Carth grinned. "I remember when you got it. You almost got stuck in a door."
"I was breaking up a cantina brawl!" I insisted.
"You weren't even in the cantina yet." Carth laughed.
"I couldn't break it up if I wasn't in there." I could see I wasn't doing too well. "Try another one."
"Fine." Carth smiled and thought a moment. "Where did that lovely scar on your side come from?" He touched the spot he was speaking of, just above my right hipbone.
"I don't remember." I said quickly. I heard a laugh from the other room.
"Isn't that the one from when you ran straight into a root on Kashyyyk?" Jolee called. "It was a pretty nasty gash."
"Damn." I hung my head. "What about this one?" I lifted my right arm, pointing to a spot on my shoulder blade. I moved my sleeve so the jagged scar was visible.
"All right, tell us." Carth smiled indulgently.
"Uthar tried to slash me in the face with his lightsaber. I put my arm up to guard, turning as I rolled to dodge. He got my shoulder blade." I explained. "And you'd better be grateful or this thing would be on my face."
"Okay, well you're one for three." Carth smiled. "Two clumsy wounds versus one battle wound."
"HK?" I called. "I need your definition skills. It has to do with combat…" I made my offer enticing.
"Statement: Ready, Master. I only hope the task isn't below me." HK stood at attention.
"What exactly is battle?" I asked, sly. "I have to hear this from an expert."
"Answer: That is simple, Master. Battle is the violent – and hopefully bloody – culmination of conflict between two entities."
"We know battle occurs between sentient beings all the time." I paced across the cockpit. "Can battle occur between two non-sentient beings?" I turned, looking at HK.
"Obvious answer: Why, yes. Droids battle other droids all the time."
"So, since I have battled a droid, sentients and non-sentients may engage in battle." I deduced. "And droids can stand in for all non-sentients and humans can stand in for all sentients, logically."
"Query: What are you getting at, Master?"
"HK, is surviving in the wilderness a battle?" I asked.
"Hesitant answer: I believe it fits my definition, Master, although it isn't my idea of a good battle."
"Thus," I took an oratory tone, interrupting HK's lamentation, "all my wounds are from battle, whether with Sith, doors, trees, or anything else." I grinned proudly.
"Correction: A tree is not a worthy foe for battle."
"But when one is in battle, a foe's worthiness doesn't matter if he is simply in the way." I countered.
"Agreement: Yes, Master. Your attitude toward terminating foes in the way is admirable." HK approved.
"So my definition stands. All my wounds are battle wounds." I grinned at Carth.
"You're good at twisting words." Carth smiled back.
"Awed statement: Master, your logic is impeccable, especially for a meatbag!" I thought HK's jaw was going to drop. "My respect for you has increased an unquantifiable, yet large, amount." I smiled at the droid.
"I only regret I couldn't have had this debate with you gentlemen sooner." I beamed. Carth rolled his eyes.
"Do you ever lose?" He asked.
"It depends on what you mean by losing." I glanced sideways at him.
"Don't start another speech." He grinned. "I didn't know you were such an orator."
"I'm not." I smiled. "I'm just me."
(standard disclaimer goes here...) Thanks to all reviewers! Your generosity is flattering!