Backwater Planet

KOTOR, Light side female Revan - When the crew gets stuck on a planet in the middle of nowhere, there's nothing really left to do but talk and solve out old problems. Featuring a narcissistic Canderous, an unstable Juhani, a grumpy Bastila, an overly-defensive HK-47, and more. – More chapters to come

Rated PG13 – Violence and swearing, for now, but more to come...

Disclaimer: Could a fourteen-year-old own a company older than her mother?

Backwater Planet

All was quiet aboard the Ebon Hawk. Not a single insect stirred between the panels, and not even the engine dared make a single squeak. The ship just drifted along, slowly but surely gliding through the hyperspace route. The entire place was in pitch darkness, except for the faint glow from T3's light. T3 was on alert, for, although a human or an animal may not have heard it, he sensed a definite movement to his right. The little light flickered. He was on auxiliary power, and that soon would run out. He only had enough time to run a check. Picking up no extra life forms, he turned himself off to restore his power cell.

The only sentient awake on the ship was Carth Onasi himself: the driver for the Ebon Hawk, and an excellent shot with a blaster pistol to boot. He was silently staring at the wall, his hair, for once, an utter mess, falling in his red-rimed, sunken eyes. He had not slept at all that night, though he had tried, and the cold had been biting at his exposed body for hours. Jolee and Canderous were snoring contentedly on either side of him, but proved to be no distraction. The pistol he held let out the faintest click, and he saw T3's minuscule beam flash in his direction. He stared back silently, and the light eventually clicked off.

There was nothing. That's what he hated about space. It reminded him of all the hate in the world, piled up into a single, hateful black abyss, broken up only occasionally by tiny fractions of light.

Quite suddenly, there was a violent impact to the right. The entire bunker was thrown sideways and Carth himself was tossed roughly into the wall. His pistol hit the floor with a clatter, and Canderous seemed to have hit something, for he began swearing profusely.

Carth jumped to his feet, scooping down to grab his pistol before he sprinted for the controls. The ship was at a slant, so he had to struggle upwards, slipping over smooth metal floors before he reached the top. He sat down at his seat and began working to right the ship.

A chilling sound reached his ears. The distinct scraping of metal being ripped in two. There was another jarring explosion and the ship began to plummet. Carth flipped on the comm..

"Crash landing T minus forty-eight seconds!" he barked. "Defensive positions! Make sure nothing's going to land on you! This is gonna be rough!" He grabbed a rubber tube from the dash and slipped it between his teeth. It was better to crash and look like a moron than to crash and bite his own tongue off.

Carth gave the shift a firm jerk to the left, steering them towards the nearest planet. They weren't going to make it if he didn't hurry. He gave turned the engines full-throttle and guided her as best he could as they made their way. The ship began to rattle once it entered the atmosphere. T3-M4 could be heard frantically squealing as he was shaken out of his port.

Carth let out a yell and covered his head within the last five seconds of the crash. He knew immediately that they had dove nose-first into a shallow lake. He could recall vaguely the water pouring through the windows, and he could recall Revan's unyielding scream in the background. But beyond that, his memory was blank. A shift stick through the head can do that.

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Carth woke sometime later, soaked to the bone. He felt queasy and tired and wasted no time rolling over to vomit.

T3-M4 let out an annoyed blat and backed up a few inches. Carth stared up at the droid blearily before he smiled. "So I guess we lived," he rasped. His head felt like it had been sat on by something very large.

Mission limped up to him. Though she looked pale and shaken and her pants were stained red with blood, she looked to be alright. She offered him a rueful smile, holding out a hand to shake. He had never seen her with her gloves off. Her hands were clammy to the touch.

"Glad to see you awake," Mission offered. "We were worried we might lose you."

"Is everyone else alright?" Carth asked, getting up and wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

Mission bit her lip. "No," she said softly. "HK's blown a circuit, Canderous nearly lost a leg, and Revan…" She trailed off, looking upset. "Look, Jolee, Juhani, and Bastila did all they could…" she offered, but Carth was already looking around for Revan. She stared up at him for a moment before she touched his arm. "Carth…"

"Where is she?" he said sharply, his eyes snapping to Mission's face.

She blanched, and her headtails seemed to droop. "O-Over there," she said weakly, pointing. Revan lay not far off, propped against a tree while Jolee sent Force healing waves through her.

Carth took off without another word and had to restrain himself from pushing Jolee aside. "Is she alright?" he asked, sinking to his knees at her side.

"Calm down, boy," Jolee grumbled. "You'll wake her."

"Is she alright?" Carth repeated urgently.

Jolee was silent for a moment, but then he spoke again slowly, grimly. "No."

"What's wrong with her?" Carth felt sick all of the sudden. He looked Revan over carefully, wishing he could do something, but he felt useless.

"She was split wide open in the crash," Jolee murmured. He avoided Carth's hurt gaze. "I thought you could hear her screaming. I certainly could. Not the best thing to wake up to, mind. There was blood everywhere and she was real lucky her guts weren't…" He trailed off. Perhaps this wasn't the best violent situation to discuss.

Carth was shaking. He buried his face in his hands, taking deep, calming breaths. This was all his fault. If he had just been more careful… more alert… if he had guided better and been more prepared… this wouldn't have happened. The thought made him angry. By God, if she died, he would jump into the nearest ocean with weights tied to his legs. Jolee seemed to sense this and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll make her get through this alright," the old man promised. "She's not going to give out on us just yet."

Carth was not reassured.

Bastila returned. "Let me take over, Jolee," she said, nudging him aside. She gave Carth a look, a warning, before she unbuttoned Revan's top. She rested her fingertips on the wounded areas and breathed deep, closing her eyes. Carth watched, his eyes fixed on Bastila's hands. He would not allow himself to look closely at anything else.

Well, maybe once or twice.

Revan's skin seemed to gain some color, but she looked no better off. She'd have enormous scars across her middle for the rest of her life. And it was all Carth's fault.

Finally Bastila stopped and gave to Juhani, who gently began healing. The huge gashes that had been apparent were slowly fading away into scars, and when they finally did go away, they kept healing to restore her blood and cure the germs.

"When she wakes she will be confused and drowsy, and most likely sick," Bastila told Carth. "You must do your best not to hurt her or confuse her more. Explain everything and for the Order's sake do not squash her. The skin is very thin where she was cut and I don't want it to split open again. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Carth murmured solemnly.

"It is not your fault, Carth. You did all you could do."

"Do you really believe that?" Carth murmured, looking back up at her.

"Do you believe it?" Bastila countered gently.

Carth bowed his head. The sides of his mouth twitched in a timid smile. "No," he said quietly, fixing his eyes on his hands.

"I cannot help you, then," Bastila said, getting to her feet and wandering off to help Canderous, who had previously bawled like a baby because of his wound. It was a good cut, going down to the bone, but his leg was not going to fall off. Not any time soon, anyway.

Jolee slapped Bastila away and began working on Canderous. Having the most medical experience, Jolee knew how to deal with it, and he knew that Bastila needed her energy to help with Revan. Besides, Canderous refused to let any girls near his legs, for some… strange reason, one way or another.

HK-47 was offline, being tended to by Zaalbar and T3-M4. Something had lodged quite frustratingly right in his power core, and the slightest mistake could permanently damage the droid. Not only that, some circuit had snapped in the neural area, which rendered HK-47 unable to recognize living and non-living.

There was a spark and a frightening squeal as the droid bucked. Zaalbar roared with alarm and T3-M4 began screaming wildly. A flame spurt from HK-47's chest, and then he lay still. Grumbling and growling quietly to himself, Zaalbar resumed his work.

Carth remained unmoving, sitting dutifully at Revan's side, his eyes never leaving her face. Juhani strode past.

"She will not come to for some time, you know," she growled quietly.

"I know," Carth said stiffly.

"Do you need to talk?"

"No."

Juhani bit her lip reluctantly and walked off. Jolee was shouting at Canderous for some reason or another, and the Mandalorian could only reply in pained grunts and angry swears. The two seemed rather exasperated and upset.

"If you'd just hold still and let me work…"

"It hurts, old man. I'd like to see how well you sit still when someone's jamming their fingers into your leg."

"Was that a threat?"

Canderous chuckled weakly and gave a weak grunt. "Maybe."

"Don't think that just because you're young you can beat me."

"I'm not young, old man."

It was Jolee's turn to laugh. "I suppose that's true, but you're hell of a lot younger than me, sonny."

"Don't call me sonny."

"I can call you whatever I damn well please while I'm saving your leg, sonny. Now sit still and do as I say."

Canderous's face contorted with anger and disgust, but he remained still.

Mission giggled at them, earning a stern glare from Bastila, but it had been ages since Mission had listened to and had respect for Bastila, and now wasn't any different. However, once Mission was done giggling, she approached Carth. "How're you feeling, gramps?" she asked, smiling meekly, her hands clasped behind her back.

"I'm fine," Carth murmured, looking back to Revan, who lay still and pale.

"She'll get better. Jolee and Juhani will see to it. I think the old man considers her to be his adopted daughter."

Carth actually smiled. "I guess that will help some," he said softly.

"You need to come look at the damage on the ship. Won't matter if Revan lives or not if we can't even get off this rock."

"Do you know what planet we're on?" Carth asked, getting to his feet and following Mission to the half-submerged Ebon Hawk.

"No," Mission admitted. "The map was jammed and it didn't tell us much even when Zaalbar messed with it. All it said was this place was settled once by some wild tribes that seem to have died out, and once it was invaded by a small Czerka Corp. crew, and they made a very small settlement somewhere. There isn't much here… just jungle and grassland. I'm sorry I can't be of more help, you know?"

"That's actually quite a bit," Carth said. Perhaps Czerka presence meant he could find some civilization, but that seemed unlikely, since this place was so large and dense. "Great job, Mission. You'll turn out well after all."

Mission bit her lip. "Zaalbar says there's a major wing problem. He spoke a whole bunch of repair jibber-jabber so I didn't catch much. We'll be alright, won't we?"

"That remains to be seen," Carth replied, climbing onto the wing. His arm screamed with protest and a fire shot through his shoulder and across his spine, but he ignored it. He'd been in worse spots. His head spun with pain but he ignored that too as he checked for damage.

There was a great hole in the wing from a fair shot, but there was an even bigger rip that had stripped half of the wing from its coating, leaving the naked wires exposed to the world. They weren't getting off of this planet for some time.

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Author's Notes: Well… now you know why I haven't updated The Leviathan or The Aftermath yet. I've been working on this, another oneshot, schoolwork, and both previously-mentioned fics. Don't worry – I'll get things sorted out in time. Any and all comments are appreciated. Please, 'kay, and thank you. c",)