Chapter 7 – Old Friends

Atton felt as though all the air had been knocked out of him. He none too gently shoved the woman with the fiery red hair off him. "Mira, what are you doing here?" he gasped, looking both annoyed and glad at once.

Mira laughed. "Well, I certainly could ask you the same, you schutta!"

Atton painfully rose from the ground, brushing the dirt off his robe. Not that it really makes that much of a difference, I guess…It's dirty enough… "I thought you said I was a son of a schutta," he quipped.

Mira shrugged. "And what's the son of a schutta going to be, do you think? Anyway, you didn't answer my question."

"And you didn't answer mine. I'm here because I'm looking for Jena."

Mira's eyebrows squeezed together. "What, on Kashyyyk?" she asked incredulously.

Atton heaved a bitter sigh. "No… we're on our way to the Unknown Regions… she seems to be stranded there, somehow. And we keep stopping everywhere!" he asked begrudgingly, giving Revan a dirty look.

" 'Keep stopping'?" interjected the latter. "Atton, this is our first stop. And it's not like it was something we planned…"

"Still…" grumbled Atton.

Mira glanced curiously at Revan. "So… who are your friends?" Mira asked Atton without taking her eyes off Revan.

Atton checked himself. "Right. Sorry. Everybody, this is Mira, the psychotic bounty hunter turned Jedi… This here is Admiral Carth Onasi…" Mira finally stopped looking at Revan to see who was being pointed out to her. "That's his son, Dustil…" Mira flashed a charming smile at him. "That pretty lady over there that you were just looking at is Liah, also known as Revan, also known as the former Dark Lord of the Sith…"

"Thanks for the intro, Jaq," hissed Revan. Mira gaped at her.

Ignoring Revan, Atton moved right along. "And of course, right behind her is…"

Mira's face lit up. "Mical!" she squealed. She ran over to him and hugged him fiercely. Oh sure. He doesn't get called names, tackled down to the ground or get his bloody ribs broken. When the hell did she start liking that space slug?

Mical was grinning broadly. "Wonderful to see you again, Mira."

What is he hitting on Mira now?

Atton took a step forward. "Mira, what are you doing here?" he insisted. "I mean, I know you told me you were headed to Kashyyyk, but come on! That was sixteen months ago! I never thought you'd still be here!"

Letting go of Mical, Mira turned and shrugged. "Well, I wasn't planning on staying long… just had a couple Wookiees to talk to… but then I ran into Jolee and he took me on as his student. I figured I could use the extra training, because Jena never really had that much time for me, between Dantooine and Malachor and then you know… leaving for the Unknown Regions…" Atton's eyes wavered and dropped. He focused his attention on a rock that suddenly became very interesting to him, and desperately tried to keep his mind off the emptiness he felt when he thought of the way Jena had left… and the way he had left her. Mira sensed the change. She walked over to him, chuckled and added a little lower, "Besides, she was way too wrapped up with you to have time to train me!" Still staring at the rock, Atton grinned.

Clearing her throat, Revan took a step forward. "Nice to meet you… Mira, was it?"

"Yeah… Hi." Mira shook Revan's hand. "Sorry about the… staring and all…"

Revan smiled pleasantly. "That's all right. I get that a lot."

Mira looked slightly hesitant. "So that was a lot of names Atton threw at me. I mean, what… should I call you?" she asked cautiously. "Revan, or…?"

Revan smiled thinly. "Revan is fine, but Liah is fine as well. You'll find most people I know call me Liah, but others…" she punched Atton in the stomach… "like to remind me of my past any chance they get." Atton repressed a groan with great difficulty. She looks puny, but for a tiny woman, she sure can hit hard.

Mira smirked as she saw the look on Atton's face. "I see you've learned pretty quickly how to keep Atton in line," she commented to Revan, highly amused.

"What? Oh no, we go way back, don't we, Jaq?" said Revan, aiming her fist at Atton's shoulder. Atton ducked away quickly and Revan barely missed him, brushing her hand against his robe. He shot her a black look. Why won't she quit announcing to everybody that we used to know each other? And will she ever stop calling me that?

Before Mira had a chance to start wondering about the name, Revan asked her with the air of one who was hopeful, but had low expectations, "I don't suppose you'd happen to be a tech, would you?"

"No, sorry…" replied Mira thoughtfully. "I do know a good one though… only he's on Iridonia."

"Iridonia?" asked Revan doubtfully. "A Zabrak?"

Atton jumped in, in an effort to remain involved in the conversation. "His name is Bao-Dur. He's a… friend of ours. He traveled with Jena and the rest of us. He's Jena's other padawan."

Revan looked pensive. "Well, I suppose Iridonia's not that much of a detour… It's still on the way to the Unknown Regions…"

"What? Another stop? No!" cried Atton as soon as he realized where Revan's thoughts were headed. "We can't detour and stop for Bao-Dur. Look, I like the guy and all. I do. But we've wasted enough time as it is. I mean, aren't we forgetting a little someone called Jena, who we're supposed to rescue?"

Mira looked at Atton's outraged features and unabashedly laughed. "Still on that rescue Jena kick, are you, Atton?"

Revan's intonation was somewhat condescending, as though she was addressing a petulant five-year-old. "Jaq, we are going to need a good tech if we don't want to risk getting stranded in the Unknown Regions. And this one has the advantage of already knowing the ship and of being a Jedi. I think we'd be stupid not to bring him along." Atton looked incensed. Of course she would. For someone who's gone through all this trouble to get a group to go out and find Jena, she sure doesn't seem like she's in a big rush to actually find her. Makes me wonder… I never asked her why she abandoned her post to go out and look for Jena. Sure, she says they're friends, but if she left Carth behind to fight this… war… of theirs… why would she just go off and look for one of her friends who's missing?

As Atton was deep in thought, Mira enquired eagerly, "The ship? You mean… are you guys traveling on the Ebon Hawk again?"

Revan shot Mira an appraising glance. "Yeah… did you want to come with us?"

Mira's face lit up. "Sure! I wouldn't mind seeing Jena again, and I'd never pass up an opportunity to harass this guy here…" She turned and punched Atton in the stomach, in the same spot Revan had. Atton felt as though all the air had been knocked out of him. Oh great. Now there are two of them. Mira glanced at her master questioningly. "Is it okay, Jolee?"

Jolee put a fatherly hand on Mira's shoulder. "Of course. You've learned about as much from me as I can teach you. Besides, I'm sure you could use a change in scenery. I know you're getting antsy here. Trees and tachs are all right for an old man like me, but not for a young girl like you."

Atton looked around at the misty forest and scoffed. 'Yeah, you could say that again. This place is a little different from the Nar Shaddaa she's used to…"

"Well, we should probably head back to check on the status of the ship," commented Carth. "Want to walk back with us, Jolee?"

Jolee's lips curled into his usual friendly yet cynical smile. "Oh sure… not much else to do around here. Wouldn't hurt to actually see some light for a change."

Mira quickly turned, ran out to the hut and ran out again once she gathered up a few possessions. She rejoined the others, and all started walking back toward the lift. As she passed Atton, she unexpectedly and rather uncharacteristically pounced on him and hugged him, and said enthusiastically, "It's so great to see you again!"

Atton, not entirely displeased by this sudden show of affection, managed to hide his feelings well. "Yeah, let's see if you still think that ten minutes from now," he scoffed. So that's what it's like to have a woman touch me without it being an attempt to injure me… I was starting to forget. Now if only this was Jena, everything would be perfect.

Mira laughed, let go of Atton hurriedly, and after glancing to the front of the group, ran up ahead and caught up to Dustil. She tapped him on the shoulder and flashed him another charming smile. "So… Dustil, huh? Hi, I'm Mira," she said, shaking hands with him. Atton stood and watched, astounded and mildly impressed. Looks like Mira's on the prowl. Wow, she really doesn't waste any time… I wonder if I should warn the kid about Bothan stunners and stun cuffs…

The sound of badly oiled metallic feet creaked from behind. Atton sneered and mumbled, "If you're going to try to sneak up on me, you might want to have those feet of yours looked after."

"Statement: Stealth isn't my biggest concern, meatbag. If my master had not given me strict orders not to damage you, noisy feet would not have stopped me from doing away with you three standard hours ago."

"Well, that's a relief," replied Atton sarcastically. "I always love having someone who hates me be in charge of determining whether I live or die. So tell me, psycho-droid… if Revan's your master, and Jena's also your master, whose orders are you going to be obeying when we find Jena again?"

"Condescending Response: The one you refer to as 'Revan' is my maker, and therefore remains my master first and foremost, no matter how many other meatbags may have claimed to be my master since."

Atton's face reddened. "Claimed? Jena's the one who reconstructed you! She gathered up all the parts to put you back together after you were dismantled, probably by Revan! Jena's just as much your master as that little b—"

"Um… Atton?" began Carth, who had walked to the back of the group to investigate what the holdup was. He hesitated. "You… might want to back off a little… HK's been known to be a little… touchy where Liah is concerned. He doesn't take too kindly to her being insulted and has been known to suddenly forget a direct order or two once in a while."

"Oh yeah?" asked Atton angrily. "And how would you know this?"

Carth lifted up his sleeve and slowly uncovered a scar from a blaster shot that had gone through and through. "And I was just teasing her, too," he said quietly, watching the blood drain from Atton's face.

"Statement: That is why I only fired a warning shot. Disappointed Elaboration: Unfortunate that my master ordered me to stop."

A look of horror developed on Atton's face. It shot Carth? She loves Carth! This is not boding well for me. I'm suddenly a little less concerned about finding Jena than about living to see the day when we find her. Atton quickly walked up ahead toward the front of the group and gladly hopped onto the lift.

As the group arrived at the Ebon Hawk, they found Zaalbar waiting for them on the platform. Atton, who had been keeping far from HK-47 since they left the Shadowlands found himself desperately trying to make out what Zaalbar was telling them, just so he wouldn't have to rely on the droid, but it was no use. He heard the familiar metallic footsteps walk up behind him. Why does he always come up behind me? Is it a coincidence, or does he act creepy on purpose? My credits are on the second option.

"Translation: The hyperdrive has been repaired. It seems the damage was relatively minor, and the technician feels it is possible that the little one could have managed the repairs alone while still in space." T3 could've fixed…? Why did we have to land here, then?

"Well, that's great, Rev…" quipped Atton, glaring at Revan. "Good thing we didn't listen to me and stay up there!"

"Shut up, Jaq," snapped Revan, trying to conceal her mild embarrassment by being particularly cross. "Why are you complaining? If we hadn't stopped, we wouldn't have met your little girlfriend. She tells me she's piloted this ship before. We'll be able to use her help for those times when you're hungover."

"Hey!" protested Atton. "I haven't touched a drop since we left Nar Shaddaa!"

Revan scoffed. "Yeah, that's because there's no alcohol on board. Don't even pretend you didn't know that. But it's not like we're not going to make stopovers in places where there is some."

Atton's features hardened. "Stopovers? More stops?"

Revan rolled her eyes. "You might want to start paying attention to conversations a bit more, Jaq, instead of just sitting and brooding over the fact that we're not getting to Jena fast enough. We're going to Iridonia, then to Coruscant to drop off Dustil. You knew that. His master's expecting him there. And then we're off to the Unknown Regions, but it's not like we'll be finding Jena as soon as we're there. It's a pretty big place, and it's uncharted territory. That's why it's called the Unknown Regions!" She shook her head and threw her hands up in aggravation as she left Atton behind and went to bid Zaalbar farewell.

Atton glared at Revan as she walked away and rebelliously muttered to himself, "You could have just said 'Yes, we're making more stops'." Glancing apprehensively over his shoulder at HK, he made his way up the loading ramp, followed by Mira, Dustil and Mical. At least I've lost my homicidal shadow…

As he headed back to the cockpit, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and frowned slightly. "Wait, where are we going to put you, Mira? The port side dorm is all full up. One of us is going to have to share the starboard dorm with Rev and Carth."

Dustil snorted. "All I know is I am not sharing a dorm with them," he said emphatically. "I… um…" He blushed. "I walked in on them once." He shuddered. "Let's just say it was a lot more than I needed to see. That is not an experience I'd like to repeat, thank you very much."

"Wow," commented Mira sympathetically. "That's a lot worse than what I had to put up with… The worst experience for me was the time I walked in on Atton and Jena making out in the cockpit. But at least all their clothes were on."

Mical fidgeted a little and seemed generally uncomfortable, though none noticed.

"Hey, hey!" interjected Atton, mildly annoyed. "Can we leave me and Jena out of this and stick to the topic at hand? Dustil, I don't think any of us would like to experience that either. It wouldn't be any more pleasant for the rest of us, believe me."

Dustil rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, at least he's not your father."

"Good point," agreed Atton. He turned to Mira and Mical. "All right, any takers? I'm not particularly fond of the idea of witnessing my former boss and my drinking buddy getting freaky either…"

"Former boss?" wondered Mira. Ah, damn. What did I just say? It's Revan's fault… with her behaving like we're old college buddies, I keep forgetting that not everybody knows about our history…

"Never mind that," frowned Atton, angry with himself. "Mical and Mira… I'm afraid you'll have to flip for it. Though my vote's on sending Mical."

"Of course it is," drawled Mical coldly. "Force forbid you should be separated from your woman friends even in sleep. Well, 'flipping' will not be necessary. I can stay in the medical room. There's a bed there. You might however want to hope you don't get injured during this little trip of ours, Atton, because I'm certainly not moving over to make room for you."

Atton stared blackly at Mical. "Oh yeah? Let's see which ones of us gets injured first," threatened Atton, taking a step forward.

Before Mical got a chance to respond, Mira jumped in between the two. "Boys! Boys!" she protested. "Let's keep the testosterone levels to a minimum, shall we?" Atton looked at her, took a deep breath and backed away. "Good. All right, so right now it'll be Atton, Dustil and me in the portside room, Mical in the medical room, and the two breeding gizkas in the starboard dorm. Of course we're going to have this fun conversation again once we pick up Bao… assuming he'll want to come with us, that is."

Atton snorted. "Of course he'll want to come with us. We're going to save his General." He rolled his eyes.

Mical sneered. "Are you jealous of all men that care about Jena, or simply the ones you think may be better than you?"

"No, just the young half-wits who think they still have a shot with her and hit on her even though she's made it abundantly clear she wouldn't go for them if they were the last man in the galaxy," retorted Atton bitingly.

It was Mical's turn to take a menacing step forward. "Why you arrogant—"

"Stop it!" snapped Mira. "Both of you." She scowled at them both until Mical stepped back and Atton moved his hand away from his hilt and folded his arms, looking displeased. "All right. Let's say we put Bao-Dur in with Carth and Revan. It will only be temporary anyway."

Atton, his eyes still locked with Mical's, commented, "That's true… it'll just be until we hit up Coruscant and drop off the runt." He broke eye contact and turned to look at Dustil.

"Hey!" protested the latter. "I'm twenty-two, for Force's sake."

Atton smiled derisively. "My point exactly: a runt," he reiterated.

Dustil pursed his lips and grumbled something about going to warm up the engines before disappearing into the cockpit.

"That wasn't very nice," commented Mical coldly.

Atton shrugged, unabashed. "Since when do you care if I'm nice? You'd think you'd have come to expect it from me at this point."

Mical glowered at him for a moment or two, shook his head and walked off into the medical room. Left alone, Atton and Mira glanced at each other. She arched an eyebrow and sneered. "Nice to see that things are better than ever between you and Mical. You shouldn't lash out at Dustil just because you're annoyed with Mical."

"Thanks for the lecture, mother. I'll try to remember that," he replied bitingly.

"And don't lash out at me either," she retorted. "What is with you, anyway? Maybe my memory's playing tricks on me, but you used to be a bit nicer to people. Not much, but a bit."

Atton shrugged sulkily, but did not say a word. The frown faded from Mira's face and she looked at him curiously. "It's Jena, isn't it? You're upset with everybody because of Jena."

"Well, of course I am!" exploded Atton unexpectedly. "We're wasting all sorts of time picking people up and dropping them off. How the hell do you expect me to feel? For all I know, she could be dead, and we're using the Ebon Hawk as some sort of transporter instead of using it to track her down."

Mira bit her lip. "You think she might be dead?" She looked slightly fearful.

The anger left Atton's eyes and was replaced by a dull, pained look. "I just don't know anymore. I mean, what am I supposed to think?" he said quietly. "Our bond was there one minute, and gone the next. I haven't sensed her presence in months, and neither has anyone else."

Mira glanced at Atton sympathetically. "Then if you think she might be dead… why are you still looking for her? Why haven't you given up?"

Atton dropped his gaze. "I… I can't. I have to keep hoping she's still alive. I love her. I…" He lifted his eyes up again defiantly. "I can't live without her. I know it's stupid, and if you tell anybody I told you that, the fact that you're a girl won't stop me from kicking your ass. Though I think it became pretty obvious when I just stopped working on the Telos restoration and drank… and drank."

Mira stared. "Is that what you were doing? But what about your promise to Jena?"

Atton shrugged. "What's the point of keeping a promise if the person you made the promise to is dead? Look, can we just drop it? I… I don't really feel like talking about this…" His eyes had dropped again and he was blinking suspiciously.

Mira nodded understandingly. "All right… so…" she glanced around struggling to find something adequate to say. She smiled. "You want to play pazaak? You must have found a new deck by now…"

Atton sneered. "Oh yeah, I've got one… otherwise I would have starved to death and my corpse would have been found in a gutter on Nar Shaddaa ages ago along with the rest of the filth."

Ignoring his last comment, Mira rummaged through her pockets. "Ah, hold on, I can't find my deck. I must have packed it away with the rest of my stuff. Tell you what, I'm going to go unpack, and I'll come back for a game of pazaak."

"That works," said Atton agreeably. Mira started walking away, and Atton called out after her, smiling faintly. "By the way…" he said half-reluctantly. "It's good to have you back."

"I know it is," she said with a mocking smile as she disappeared around the corner.

Atton smiled to himself. Finally, someone who's on my side. She understands – she'll back me up when we're taking too long to get to Jena. He sighed. Jena… where are you? I just need to know that you're alive… Atton distractedly pulled out his pazaak deck and started twirling one of the cards between his fingers. He suddenly felt as though he was being watched. He frowned and turned.

"What is it, Mical?" he asked the silhouette standing in the corridor leading to the medical room.

"Nothing," said Mical scathingly. "Just reflecting on how happy you must be… soon your entire harem will be back together." Atton looked confusedly at Mical as the latter retreated to the medical room. Just what in the hell is he on about?