Synopsis: Follows the basic plotline of KOTOR I but with my interpretation of events. (Female Revan)
The Long Journey
Chapter 1: Rough landing
The first thing I felt when I opened my eyes was dizziness followed by a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. I couldn't tell whether I was hungry or ready to vomit or both. I rose to stand up but the ground beneath me started to move or perhaps it was just me that was spinning and before I knew it I was falling down.
"Hey, easy there," a male voice broke through the haziness of my thoughts. I felt his strong grip around my abdomen and the world began to stabilize again. I held onto him while the dizziness slowly went away and I could finally think straight and not feel like I had just been run over by a swoop bike. "You okay? Feel ready to stand up?"
I nodded. The dizziness had passed but still a painful migraine remained. My head ached and I felt like taking a blaster and blowing a hole through it.
"Here, take some of this. It'll help with the pain," he said and tossed me a needle. I caught it and jammed it quickly into my leg and with a brief hiss the medicine began doing its work coursing through my bloodstream clearing away all my aches and pains.
"Thank goodness you're finally awake. I thought you might hurt yourself in your sleep with the way you were thrashing about. It must have been one hell of a nightmare," he said and stuck his hand out. "The name's Carth. Carth Onasi. We met on the Endar Spire right before it exploded. Any of this coming back?"
I must have had a confused look on my face. Of course I remembered what had happened. Why wouldn't I? How could I not? It sure was a great way to start my first day on the ship. I had recently been transferred to the Endar Spire. Why they wanted to hire the likes of me I didn't have time to find out before all the chaos started. I was supposed to be briefed that morning when the Sith launched a surprise attack. And the rest well...
"Where...where am I?" I asked as I took his hand into a light shake. To me it was an awkward moment. He was a stranger. I didn't know anything about him and he must be thinking the same thing if he was any good of a soldier. To say the least my defenses were on high alert.
"I can understand with that bump on the head you must be pretty confused. Last time you were awake we were on an escape pod heading down to Taris. It was a pretty rough landing, sorry about that. You got pretty banged up. Luckily I wasn't too hurt and I managed to pull both of us out of there and into this abandoned apartment before the Sith guards found us," he patiently explained.
The landing part I actually couldn't remember but everything before that was pretty clear for the most part.
"I suppose I owe you a thank you for saving my life," I said and he shrugged.
"You would have done the same if roles were reversed. Besides I've never left a soldier behind and I'm not about to start doing that now," he said. I nodded along just to keep the relationship between us on friendly terms. To be honest, I didn't know what I would have done in that situation. It probably would have been easier to escape the Sith if they found someone inside the escape pod since they had no way of knowing how many members were inside. That would ensure my safety at the cost of his life.
But such decisions were not mine to make and I decided to let the matter rest. There would be more incidents in the future that would tell me what kind of person I was to become, I felt certain of that.
"You've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple of days. There were times I thought you wouldn't make it but I'm glad to see that you're finally up again. I've been scouting the planet and from what I heard there is a report of another crashed escape pod down in the Undercity. We should start our search there for Bastila then find a way off this planet. The sith have quarantined the planet so right now no ships can enter or leave without their permission and they are not giving permission to anyone but their own troops."
"Bastila is a Jedi, right?" I asked. "Can't she take care of herself? Why do I have to risk my life for her?"
"Hey, we're all in this together," said Carth, his voice rising in anger. "Like I said before the whole planet is under a sith quarantine. Even if Bastila is safe she's still going to need our help getting off this planet. She's not just a Jedi. She has a unique ability called Battle Meditation, it's the key to the whole Republic war effort. Without her this war might already be over. Besides you work for the Republic just like me, so you better make good on your oath to do whatever is necessary to save the Republic."
"Fine, if it means getting off this planet, but don't think I'm letting my guard down for a second," I said with a bit of a tone myself.
"Just in case you haven't noticed, we are on the same side," said Carth. "And what are you trying to say, that you don't trust me?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't know anything about you. Why should I trust you?" I asked him.
"I could said the same about you? At least my past isn't shady like yours," he said.
"Shady?" I blew up.
"Yes, shady," he explained. "You're a newly recruited scout who've explored many more planets than I've ever seen and ever will see probably and you can speak many different alien dialects. Now that's one hell of a track record for a raw recruit. And you get transferred to a lead ship like the Endar Spire right before it came under attack by a sith ambush. And you and I are the last surviving crew members of the ship. This sounds all pretty suspicious to me, don't you think?"
"Are you trying to accuse me of something? Because if you are just come out and say it to my face," I said angrily.
Suddenly his anger disappeared replaced by a look of worry. "No, of course not. I mean I know you had nothing to do with the ambush, it's just...I'm just angry with myself right now. I don't mean to take it out on you."
His quick turnaround took me completely by surprise and I felt the anger leave me too. "I don't know why I was assigned to the Endar Spire. They were supposed to brief me the morning of the attack. I guess we're both on edge, though it's not surprising after what we've been through."
"So how about a truce?" he asked and I agreed. "Let's start over. I'm Carth Onasi, a Republic soldier and pilot of the Endar Spire."
"Criann Skye. Nice to meet you."
As I soon learned from Carth the planet we were currently stranded on was Taris, a huge metropolitan city of a planet. Tall high rises covered the entire surface of the planet and it was divided vertically with the rich on top and the poor on the bottom. Its glory days were long gone and replaced with hatred and violence between clashing cultures and economic statures. The short version of it, the planet was full of oppression.
The Undercity where a second escape pod was reported to have been seen was the lowest of the low. Criminals, gang members, and unsavory characters lurked down there where no one in the Upper areas could see them. There were only a few ways down and all were guarded by the sith.
"We can stock up on supplies in the Upper City well enough," explained Carth. Most likely we would run into some fights down in the Undercity. We needed some armor and weapons and medpacs.
"I know you're a scout not a soldier but I'm going to need your help if we're going to find Bastila," he said, and by help he meant fighting.
"I know how to handle a blaster good enough," I told him and that seemed to reassure him and the matter was dropped.
We began to explore the Uppercity and if you just ignored all the sith troops walking around it would seem like any other normal day. There were merchants running back and forth doing errands of some kind and patrons going to the cantinas or other places of business. It was as if there was no war going on. But like Carth explained, this was the nice part of Taris. I wasn't looking forward to seeing the 'other side' of things.
The prices were decent although many of the shops were understocked. With the sith blockade it was difficult to get any shipments in or out. Trade was basically nonexistent unless you were with the Sith. The troops on the planet were constantly getting restock with various weapons and armor. So we had to make do with what we could get which wasn't much, couple of blaster pistols, rifles, and two combat armors.
We were directed by a local business woman to the Medical Center on the West side of Uppercity. The doctor there gave out free healing to any that needed it. I made a note of that location on my data map for future use.
Gathering supplies took up a great deal of the afternoon and we decided to take up the search again the next morning. But for now we stopped at the local cantina for a drink and some dinner.
"I'd like to know some more about you, Carth," I said. "If you don't mind." I looked down at the food that the server brought to us and frowned. But I supposed it was better than starving so I made the best of it and tried to swallow it down and minimized on the chewing.
"Well, I'm a star pilot of the Republic Fleet. Before this I fought in the Mandalorian Wars but they were nothing compared to the destruction of the Sith. The Sith would wipe out an entire planet just to..." he broke off. I could tell the subject was painful to him. I didn't want to pry but my curiosity got the best of me. "My homeworld, Telos, was attacked. They bombarded the whole planet and we...I arrived too late to do anything about it except clean up the mess they left behind. Millions of innocent people died in that attack and for what?"
"I'm sorry to hear that," I said, my pathetic attempt at trying to be sympathetic. But I couldn't feel his pain. I didn't know what it would be like to lose a planet let alone your home planet.
"The Sith are ruthless and I would do anything to stop them. If only...if I had gotten there earlier maybe..."
"Maybe what?" I asked. "What could you have done against the entire Sith battle fleet?"
"I don't know," he said getting belligerent. "I could have saved them, it's my fault that...I mean the Sith...I could have done something. If I had been there earlier I know I could have made a difference."
"Do you really believe that?" I asked. Looking into the past and blaming yourself would not solve anything, that much I knew. "Come on, Carth. You're a soldier. Would one more ship really make a difference against the Sith onslaught? You would still have been outnumbered and outgunned."
He sighed. "I guess you're right. I just have a hard time accepting my past."
"It's not your fault," I said. "Stop blaming yourself. It's not doing anybody any good."
"Easier said than done," said Carth. "Well, enough talking about me. I don't like to talk about my past much, actually I never talk about my past."
"I guess that makes me special then," I smiled. He smiled back.
"It just means I have to watch you more carefully," he said. He took a sip of ale probably to drown out the awful flavor of whatever kind of meat this was. Neither of us seemed to have much of an appetite since both our plates were still half full.
"Hey, I'm all for guys staring at me so watch all you want," I said perhaps with too much ale inside me.
He laughed. "I can't say my eyes are complaining...much."
"What?" I protested lightly. We ordered one more round of drinks then decided to call it a night.
The walk back to the apartment was...interesting to say the least. But we made it back safe and sound which was all that mattered.
And that's when I noticed the problem. "Hmm. There's only one bed."
He turned around and looked. "Oh, dammit. You're right. Ah, I guess I can sleep on the floor. You can take the bed."
I looked down at the floor. It was just cement and it was not a pretty sight. "I don't think the ground is an option here," I said as I stepped in some black, unidentifiable goo. I stumbled backwards, my balance was a little off that night. "Look, the bed is big enough for both of us. We're grown adults. I think we can handle sharing a bed," I tried to say that calmly but it came out a bit louder than I wanted. I wouldn't say I was drunk but it was close.
He hesitated whether because he was thinking or because the ale was slowing his mind I couldn't tell, not in the state I was in. "I guess you're right," he finally said after staring at the ground for a good two minutes.
Normally I would have felt uncomfortable sharing a bed with a man I barely knew but we were both not quite sober so sleep came to us quickly and before we knew it the sun was up. Actually it'd been up for several hours. We slept in late.
"Good morning, sleepyhead. Had a good night's rest?" asked Carth, who was sitting in a nearby couch. He tried to put on a cheerful smile but I knew he was feeling the same thing I was.
Hangover.
I groaned.
"Maybe we should stop by the medical center before heading on down," he suggested. That was a good idea.
"I have a feeling this is going to be a long day," said Carth.
A/N: This is a revised chapter. Whether I will go back and touch up on it even more remains to be seen. Feedback is appreciated.