Carth sat alone in his pilot's chair, trying to absorb the events of the last couple of hours. They had just escaped the Leviathan, and his mind was still reeling from the sudden turn of events. Bastila was still on that ship, in the clutches of Darth Malak, and Karalina wasn't really Karalina, she was Darth Revan. Carth had had a good many surprises in his lifetime, but this one outdid them all. All he needed was time alone to straighten his thoughts out, that was all...

A cheerful voice came in from behind him. "Hey, can I borrow T3 for a few hours?"

Carth whirled around. It was Karalina- Revan- whoever she was, but it wasn't exactly, either. It was as though that crazy person, the "end user," she'd called herself, took over and ended up turning the Ebon Hawk purple and crashing the game had returned.

"Yes, it's me again," she said cheerfully. "Now, I thought I'd ask you if I could borrow T3 for a few hours? I want to see if he can make any more sense out of this microcode than I can."

Carth sighed. "You know, you come in at the worst possible moments."

"Worst moment or no, I have some assembly code to write, and I'm sick of it. I want T3 to help me out. He's a machine, he ought to understand the machine language better than I can."

"Did you think that maybe I didn't want to see you right now? I mean, nothing personal, but you're a sore subject at the moment."

"And by me, I presume you mean my PC. This is understandable. I'd feel roughly the same in your shoes. What I think you need is some reassurance that everything really is going to turn out okay in the long run."

"Reassurance? Long run? What are you talking about?"

"I mean I know some people, from a few thousand years down the line, and they'll tell you it all works out in the end."

Carth snorted. "I'd love to see that."

Karalina grinned mischievously. "I can arrange it."

Seconds later, a new figure materialized before them. He wore brown pants and a tan shirt with some sort of shoulder guard. He had chestnut hair and a goatee, and wore the whole ensemble with a rogueish air. He also carried a lightsaber.

"Who is that, and why is he on my ship?" Carth demanded.

"My name's Kyle Katarn, pal, and you can cut the attitude." He crossed his arms. "No respect these days, I tell ya..."

"This," Karalina said, considerably more cordially, "is the Jedi Kyle Katarn. He's in the Jedi Knight series, about 4,000 some years after you. I borrowed him from the JK3 directory."

"Oh, is that why I'm on an antique ship? And here I thought it was the Force playing tricks on me."

"No, just me. And you'd recognise me more as Jaden, but this will have to suffice for now."

"So hold on just a second. This guy is supposed to reassure me? And how's that?" Carth looked slightly unimpressed.

"Well, he can tell you how things are in his time."

"And?"

Kyle shrugged. "Well, for a galaxy that's been at war on and off for most of my life, it's not doing so bad. Since the Empire fell, it's just a lot of rebuilding, and the New Republic does a mostly good job of it."

"Wait a minute, Empire? What's this Empire? And why is it a New Republic? What happens to the Republic?" Carth raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, well..." Karalina looked sheepish. "I forgot to mention that part. It's kinda complicated, involving the Sith infiltrating the Republic and turning it into an Empire, but hey, it's not for another 4 millennia. This war is long forgotten by the time the Sith really take over. Besides, the Empire's reign is relatively short, as approximately 25 to 30 years after its creation the Alliance to Restore the Republic took back the capital. And the Jedi come back, witness Kyle over here."

"Yeah, we're a hard lot to kill. Master Skywalker does a pretty good job with us."

"So you're telling me not to worry because death and destruction isn't really all that impending?"

"Well, it may be. But the Republic will ultimately ride the whole mess out." She shrugged. "What do you want? Life's not perfect."

Kyle cleared his throat. "Not that I'm not having a wonderful time on this delightful, er... ship, but I do have my own game to get back to."

"Certainly." Karalina faded away for a moment, and Kyle disappeared shortly after. She faded back in and smiled. "See? Everything turns out okay."

"Right... that doesn't make me feel better right now."

"Well, I had to try. Maybe someday you'll feel at least a little reassured by it."

Carth looked at her skeptically, but any annoyance that may have been residing in him quickly melted away at the sight of her grin. It was so innocent and charming, he couldn't find it in himself to hold anything against her.

"You know, you're a really strange person."

"But of course. Normal people, even in my world, don't hack into their computer games and talk to the characters." She shrugged. "I've never been one to be normal, though."

"Well, you shouldn't try to be normal. That would be, well... boring." He scratched his head. "And I kinda like it when you drop by, too. It keeps my mind of things, you know?"

"Don't think of it as dropping by, I'm always here. It's just a little more direct this way."

"Right. But you can... feel free to be direct more often, how's that?"

Karalina smiled. "I think I can comply with that request."

"Great," Carth couldn't help grinning back.

"Now, back to my original question- can I borrow T3?"