Eh… no reviews. I'll live. It's only been out for a few days. –hopes for reviews soon- anyways, pre-apologies in case I spell like everything wrong, I'm not currently playing while I write so I usually don't have exact quotes, just similar stuff. Which I like better. XD Anyways… here's the next chapter. Not much longer, again, but you all will have to deal with that.
Chapter Two: Carth
Carth Onasi awoke with a start, his hand flying straight for the blaster still in his holster, even as he slept. Of course, it was hard to feel comfortable sleeping on a ripped and broken couch like this. He had never quite appreciated the bunks of the Republic fleet until now. They may not have been luxurious, but they sure weren't as bad as this couch.
Carth sat up, rubbing his aching back, and looked over to where Alaanis Pi slept, not in peaceful slumber, that was for sure. He stared at the woman who lied there. She was obviously not past twenty six, and her hair was a bright platinum color, cut as short as a man's hair would be. Her skin was pale, as though she had never seen light ever in her life. He couldn't see her eyes, now that they were closed, but he remembered the intensity of her bright blue eyes as she felt the first blow of their landing here in the Upper City of Taris. Carth found himself standing over her, watching her sleep.
Alaanis stirred again. Her eyes twitched and she rolled onto her side, tugging the thin blanket that was covering her almost off of the bed. Then her eyes shot open.
"Good morning," Carth greeted her. Her face looked quite fearful. She must've been having one hell of a nightmare. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she muttered lightly, lifting her hand to her head as she leaned up. She closed her eyes in pain. "I seem to have acquired some lovely new bruises."
Carth chuckled "That's what happens when you make a crash landing like we did."
"So we're in Taris aren't we?" Alaanis questioned Carth as she relaxed her eyes and opened them once more. She rubbed her back as she managed to get off of the bed and stand up straight. As she stretched, her back cracked in several places.
"Yep," Carth answered. "The Upper City of Taris to be more precise. In an abandoned apartment."
"Sounds like a home away from home," Alaanis muttered sarcastically. She had heard of Taris. Prejudice and selfishness ruled the Upper City, gangs ruled the Lower City and the rakghouls ruled the Under City.
Carth chuckled again. "Yeah, a real swell place to live. But we're stuck here for now with the sith quarantine and everything."
"Quarantine?" Alaanis asked shocked. "Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that. So we're stuck here?" She sighed loudly. "Oh joy."
"But there are things more important than getting off of this rock Alaanis," Carth told her. "We have to find Bastila. While you were out of it, I heard rumors that more pods crashed in the under city. Though they may have been stripped already, I don't think Bastila would have gone down without a fight. But we have to be discreet. The sith will be looking for us."
"So your plan is to find the invincible jedi, not to scream out 'for the republic' and to somehow manage our way down to the under city with this planet swarming with sith?" Alaanis questioned skeptically. "I think that won't work well."
"Have you got a better idea?" Carth suggested, rolling his eyes.
"Get some help and try not to get killed?" Alaanis said with a small smirk on her face and a hand on her hip. She suddenly seemed to realize that her weapon was not on her. "Where's my blade?" she asked Carth.
"Oh I put it in the footlocker," Carth answered. "Who wants to sleep with their blade?"
"I'd feel safer thanks," Alaanis commented.
"Speaking of your long slumber, are you alright? You were tossing and turning for two straight days." Carth eyed the young woman with concern as she strapped her vibrosword into her belt.
"Just a spot of a bad dream and a few well-placed bruises," Alaanis swished away his concern with a wave of her hand.
"Memory intact?"
"Yes, it just so happens, I can remember my name. Any reason for me memory to not be intact?"
"Well I was hoping you could clear something up for me." Carth watched Alaanis as she began to fill her small pack up with a few medpacs and security spikes.
"Such as?" Alaanis continued to fill her pack up without even sparing a glance at Carth.
"Well what happened on the Endar Spire from your point of view," Carth felt a little odd asking, but he had to know if she was going to be a traitor or if she was trustworthy enough to work with. "I was in no position to know what was going on… but did you?"
Alaanis stopped filling her pack up and looked up at Carth suspiciously. "I was in no better position to know than you were. All that I know is that I woke up and Trask was yelling about the Sith attacking us. Then we killed a few sith along our way to the escape pods and he died facing a dark jedi. Why?" Alaanis stared quite intently at Carth, her pale brow furrowed in confusion.
"Well, I just thought you may know better than I," Carth answered sheepishly. I just thought you might be a sith spy, that's all. "I mean the jedi requested a lot of things when they came aboard. Bastila herself requested for you to be transferred aboard. And then only a few days later the ship was attacked."
Alaanis finally seemed to put two and two together. "Are you implying that I had something to do with the attack? I am not a sith spy Onasi!" She sounded outright offended. She slung her full pack over her shoulder and kicked the footlocker closed. "I swore an oath to the Republic just like you. I'm not a traitor." She gave Carth a dark glare. "How should I be able to trust you?"
"You have a point there, trust shouldn't be taken lightly." Carth took a few slow steps back from Alaanis and tried to avoid her gaze but to no avail. "It's just hard to trust sometimes. I hate traitors. And I hate surprises."
"There's a lot of spite in those words Carth, any reason for it?" Alaanis asked quietly, her cold gaze dropping and her eyes showing deep curiosity.
None I feel like sharing thank you, Carth thought to himself. "Just when Revan and Malak betrayed the sith, well, I couldn't help but feel betrayed when these good jedi who had fought with us in the Mandalorian Wars had turned on us," Carth spoke aloud to Alaanis.
"But it seems like it's really more… personal than that," the slim woman pointed out. Damn, was he that easy to read?
"Well it wasn't just them," Carth admitted, carefully choosing what to reveal and what to conceal. "Good men, good leaders betrayed the Republic too."
"Anybody in particular?" Alaanis pried lightly.
"Well," Carth really didn't want to talk about this, but for some reason this one woman standing in front of him was doing a very good job at prying all this information out. Carth had never discussed this stuff with anybody before… maybe it was time to start.
"When I think of all the men and women who betrayed the Republic, the one who stood out the most was Saul. Saul Karath." Carth felt such hatred as he spat the name out.
"Admiral Karath of the sith fleet now," Alaanis muttered quietly, more to herself then to Carth.
"Yeah," Carth replied. "That's him. Saul was my mentor, he taught me when I joined up with the Republic fleet. Shortly before Revan and Malak returned and betrayed us, he came to me and talked about how the Republic was on the losing side. I realize now that he was trying to recruit me for the sith. I was so blind."
Alaanis' eyes had never strayed from Carth during his admittance. "He was your idol. You weren't expecting it."
"But I should've seen through it!" Carth exclaimed. "If I had realized it then and killed him then, it would have saved so many lives."
"You can't blame yourself," Alaanis said quietly. She walked over to where he was standing and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Our teachers don't betray us. We expect them to be perfect. But they are not. And neither are we. But you cannot blame yourself for Saul's mistake." Silence fell for a few moments in the small apartment. Alaanis' presence felt rather soothing, especially with her hand on his shoulder. Once she removed it, he turned towards her and finally spoke again.
"I'm sorry about that," Carth apologized. "I just don' usually talk about my past or Saul much… or at all for any matter."
"Hey, it's all in the past," Alaanis threw him a quirky grin. "Come on, enough chatter, we have to go find Bastila and a way off this rock flyboy." She ambled over to the door of the apartment and with a poke at the keypad opened it.
"Sounds good to me," Carth mumbled, grinning slightly despite himself. He fingered his blasters lightly and slung his own pack over his shoulders. I wonder what messes we'll end up in here… Trouble was bound to be found on a planet like this.
End Chapter Two
And here we have Carth conversations in a nutshell… and before any action. Anyways, PLEASE review and such and I'll write more! –runs off to write- But don't expect chapters too soon… I won't be home much this week to write. Adios!
3-28-05