"How could this many things stop working?" Revan shouted over the vibrations of the ship. She stood over Atton's shoulder and stared down at the lit up control panel. "This ship is a piece of junk!"
"Hey lady, it's your ship!" Atton retorted, holding on to the controls as firmly as he could. "And might I suggest sitting down and buckling up, your Lordship? Or perhaps you've not yet been privy to one of my multiple crash landing stories," he said sarcastically. She's right… I've never seen this many things go wrong at once. How could this possibly…? No, I'm not going to worry about this right now. I need to land this thing even if… He glanced down at the panel… even if the hyperdrive, the main power supply, one of the engines, and Force knows what else have just stopped working.
"What's going on?" yelled Bao-Dur, running into the cockpit.
"Another one?" Atton bellowed. "Will you people please sit the frack down? What is wrong with you? 'Oooh!'" he mocked. "'The ship feels like it might be crashing! Let's all run to the cockpit and stand around like we're at a cocktail party!'"
Without a word, Bao-Dur raced past Revan and to the co-pilot's seat, wisely buckling himself in the instant he sat down. He turned back to Revan. "He's serious. I've survived his emergency landings before. Believe me, you want to buckle up." Revan nodded and raced outside the cockpit to warn the others.
"Thanks, man," Atton told Bao-Dur.
"For what?"
"For getting rid of my very irritating supervisor. I was this close to letting go of the controls just so I could have the pleasure of choking her with my bare hands before we all died." His eyes were focused on the landscape that was quickly approaching.
"What's wrong with the ship?" Bao-Dur asked before bending his head down toward the control panel. "What stopped working?"
"I don't know. How many parts does this ship have?" Atton retorted. "It would probably be faster to list off what is working. All I know is everything was fine, then the hyperdrive stopped working again, and the main power supply cut out. I figured we'd be fine with the emergency power supply to get us landed, but when we entered the atmosphere, one of the engines just stopped working. It's almost as though somebody had planned this. It's like some weird elaborate plan to kill the lot of us." He turned his head toward the main hold and yelled, "Does anybody here owe any credits to the Czerka Corporation or to a Hutt or something?"
With a line forming on his brow, Bao-Dur glanced down to the panel and pushed a few buttons, causing a couple of the lights to go out. "All right, well, focus on landing this thing, and we'll see about fixing it if we make it."
"Sounds like my kind of plan," agreed Atton. Peering out the window, he realized that he was headed straight for a forest. A long string of profanities escaped his mouth. "Just great. How the hell am I supposed to land this thing in the middle of a bunch of trees?"
"Yes," commented Bao-Dur. "Too bad it's not a large collection of cliffs. I hear those make great landing pads."
Atton narrowed his eyes. "Are you actually making a joke under these circumstances?" he vociferated. "This isn't funny. I didn't think I'd have a problem landing, but that was before I realized this entire side of the planet seems to be covered by a forest. This is not good." He heard hurried footsteps down the corridor outside the cockpit. "This had better not be you again, Revan!" he called out to the intruder.
"It's not," said Carth. "I just wanted to see if I could offer you my help."
"Well, not unless you're able to perform miracles and make trees disappear, you can't. We're headed straight into a forest. Now, I'm not sure we'll be able to survive it, but I know you certainly won't if you don't strap yourself to something sturdy."
Carth showed an expression of concern. "Want me to take over? I've done a fair bit of emergency landings…"
Atton sighed irritably and pursed his lips. "Tell him, Bao," he said through his teeth as he vainly searched for an open area in the trees.
Bao-Dur turned around. "Carth, after having witnessed first hand the way Atton got this ship out of a cliff on Malachor, I think I can speak for him when I say that if anybody can do it, he can."
"Thanks, Bao," said Atton without taking his eyes off the planet's surface and smiling as much as present circumstances allowed.
"And if he can't," continued Bao, shrugging, "I would like to say right now that it was a pleasure meeting you, Admiral."
"Thanks, Bao," repeated Atton with an increased amount of sarcasm in his voice, and a distinct lack of smile. "Now if you could stop picking on the pilot who's holding your life in his hands, and actually start helping him, it would be much appreciated. Do you see any kind of an opening in those trees? I'm starting to run out of time, here."
Bao-Dur peered doubtfully out the window. "I don't know…"
"Over there!" interjected Carth, pointing at something in the distance. "That looks like some sort of clearing!"
Atton briefly peeked over his shoulder. "Are you still here? Carth, seriously, I realize that being condemned to a lifetime with Revan would make anyone suicidal, but for Force's sake, go sit down. Because if you want to die that badly, that's fine, but if your corpse hits the back of my head as you get ejected from the ship when we crash, I'll be pretty pissed." He veered the ship in the direction of the clearing Carth had pointed out. Carth turned toward the main hold, but the ship suddenly jolted sideways, causing him to trip and land flat against the starboard wall.
"Ouch!" protested Carth, rubbing his chin.
"Well, you were warned," Atton said unsympathetically. He descended toward the clearing. "And now it's too late, we're about to land. Hold on to something."
Carth quickly grabbed hold of the back of Bao-Dur's seat. The Zabrak smiled. "Good move. This way when your corpse gets ejected, it won't hit Atton."
"Are you always this calm during emergency landings?" Carth asked, bewildered, as he leaned over Bao-Dur's shoulder in an effort to stabilize himself.
"Didn't used to be," Bao-Dur replied with a grin. "But to be quite honest, ever since I survived that Malachor V crash, as well as Atton's demented yet successful attempt at dislodging us from the cliffs we were stuck in, I've been a lot less nervous about crashing."
"Hold on!" yelled Atton. Carth and Bao-Dur looked up. The ground was getting very close, very fast. Carth shut his eyes and clutched the back of the seat with all his strength. Bao-Dur's eyes widened and stared helplessly out the window. He didn't move a muscle. Beads of sweat were dripping off Atton's forehead. His hands were fused to the controls and he painstakingly veered the ship toward the ground. He clipped the top of a few trees and cringed as the ship started to wobble. It's okay… I've been in worse situations… There's no way I'm going to die this way. Not before I see Jena. Not after all this time. The Ebon Hawk dropped down into the clearing and hit the ground, violently shaking everyone one board. Cursing, Atton still grasped the controls solidly, though he was vaguely aware that nothing he could do would make any difference at this point. The ship slid along the clearing, razing a few bushes as it did so, and came to a sudden and abrupt stop, approximately one meter in front of the trunk of a very large tree. In unison, Atton's and Bao-Dur's bodies jolted forward a bit, before leaning against the back of their seats again. Without a word, Atton cut the power to the engines and sat for a moment, looking at the tree right in front of him. Carth opened his eyes and slowly pried himself loose from Bao-Dur's seat. He looked at Atton, and at the tree, then at Atton again.
"I can't believe you managed to do this without killing us," he said in a strangled, yet admiring tone.
"That was nothing. You should've seen the last time," Atton replied quietly, staring in awe at the tree. "As far as crash landings go, this one went rather smoothly."
Bao-Dur, who hadn't moved a muscle and still stared out the window wide-eyed, said in an eerily calm tone, "Maybe one of us should go check on the girls and Mical and Dustil."
"And the droids," added Atton, just as calmly.
"Right," agreed Bao-Dur, disregarding the oddness that such a statement should be coming from Atton.
Neither moved a muscle. Carth finally recovered his wits and muttered, "I'll go," before turning around and disappearing down the corridor.
"So," began Bao-Dur, finally giving up on his staring contest with the tree and turning to Atton, "Another successful patented Rand crash landing."
"Looks like," replied Atton, blinking a few times. "It's times like these when I really wish I still smoked, cause I sure could use one right about now." His hand slipped down to his side and he unfastened his seat belt. "I'm just glad I actually remembered to buckle up this time. I still have a bit of a scar on my forehead from the Malachor crash." He leaned back in his seat and put his hands behind his head. "I will say, I've come to appreciate that minute I get after crashing when everything's quiet and I can just relax because I know I at least made it through alive this time." He sighed contentedly and put his feet up.
"Jaq Rand, what in the hell was that about?" an irate voice shouted from the corridor.
"Well, that was a short minute," mumbled Atton, lowering his arms again and putting his feet back down, as Bao-Dur chuckled.
Revan came bursting into the cockpit. "Where did you get your piloting license? Win it in a pazaak match?"
"No, but I did almost lose it at one, once," he retorted. "Hey, you should be happy, my Lord. You made it out alive. It's the rest of us who should be complaining about that. You don't hear anybody else whining, do you?"
A furious voice immediately emanated from the main hold. "Atton Rand, it's the absolute last time I switch piloting shifts with you!"
"You were saying?" Revan said, smiling smugly.
Atton sighed heavily. "She's becoming more like you every day, you know that, right?" he said unpleasantly. "It wasn't bad enough there was one woman on board I couldn't stand…"
Mira, flanked by Dustil, came running into the cockpit. She sported a large red mark on her forehead and a sour expression. "I'm going to have a bruise for days!" she fumed.
Atton pursed his lips and got up. "Oh, I'm sorry, is the wee bounty hunter unhappy that she's still alive because of me? It's not my fault everything on this ship is defective, kid!" He looked around. "And there are way too many people in here. If you whiners want to chew me out for saving your lives, get out to the main hold," he ordered. "I'm sure Carth and Mical will want to join in on the fun. After all, they can whine with the best of them." He pushed everyone out of the way and walked resolutely toward the main hold.
"Well?" Mira demanded as she ran out after him. "Are you going to tell us what happened?"
"I don't know what happened, Mira," Atton replied impatiently, turning around to face her once he had reached the center of the room. "I was just standing in the cockpit talking to Revan, and all hell broke loose. I wasn't even touching the controls at the time, so I dare you to try and pin this on me. Though I'd bet my pazaak deck she's going to find some roundabout way to blame me."
Mira folded her arms and stood, unimpressed, while Revan and Dustil came out of the cockpit right after her. Carth appeared from the corridor leading to the hyperdrive room, Mical trailing a few feet behind him, still in the process of bandaging his own head.
"Unnecessary Statement: I take it the meatbag Rand is somehow to blame for this, as usual," said HK-47, arriving from the starboard corridor.
"Of course he is," snapped Atton, rolling his eyes. "After all, Force forbid we should blame this piece of rust Revan likes to call a ship."
HK's eyes flashed and he turned to Revan as he reached for his blaster. "Request: With your permission, Master?"
Revan shook her head. "No, HK… leave Jaq alone. How's T3?"
"Disappointed Acknowledgement: As you wish, Master. Statement: The Little One seems to have encountered a slight mishap further to colliding with a wall during our descent. Clarification: He appears to have toppled over and doesn't seem to be able to get up."
Horrified, Revan put her hand to her mouth and quickly ran to the garage, from which direction various outraged beeping noises emerged. She promptly returned a moment later accompanied by T3.
"DEET! Dee-deet-BLIP!" the latter exclaimed viciously at HK.
"Condescending Response: You should watch your language around our Master, Little One."
"Bleep dee-deet!"
"All right, enough of that," interrupted Revan, irritated. "We're here to find out what happened, and what we have to do to get off this planet." She turned and looked questioningly at Atton, who shrugged.
"You already know what I know," he said. "Ask Bao-Dur. He's the specialist." He turned around. "Where is he, anyway?"
"I'm right here!" The Zabrak walked into the main hold, holding his hydrospanner. Does he ever let go of that thing for more than five seconds? I bet he sleeps with it in his hand. "I was having a look at the control panel. My preliminary report would be that Atton was indeed right about the various breakdowns, which likely occurred through no fault of his own." Atton grinned smugly. 'Atton was indeed right.' I like the sound of that! "One thing he didn't notice however was the fact that the power coupling is defective, and that may have triggered a chain reaction which led to the other parts breaking down. I suppose I'm to blame, seeing as I hadn't gotten around to doing a complete and thorough check of the ship."
Revan shook her head. "Don't blame yourself, Bao-Dur… You couldn't possibly know. There was enough to do around here. You couldn't check everything right away. We should have been able to pick up on this ourselves." She turned to the rest of the crew. "Did any of you ever notice anything wrong with the power coupling? Any unusual noises?" Carth, Mira, Dustil and Mical all shook their heads. Atton took a few noiseless steps back and turned to disappear into the cockpit. His efforts proved futile as Revan immediately noticed his movement. "Jaq!" she barked. He slowly turned around to face her, trying to look as guilt-free as possible. "Did you know anything about this?"
Atton hesitated, stuck his hands in his pockets and glanced away. "I may have noticed some ticks in the power coupling a little while back…"
"And you didn't fix it?" Bao-Dur asked incredulously.
Atton's face grew an increasingly bright shade of red as he stammered, "I didn't… I mean I thought I'd wait…"
"You thought you'd wait until the entire ship broke down?" Revan interrupted sharply.
Atton's nostrils flared and his lips tightened. He quickly took his hands out of his pockets. "How was I supposed to know?" he snarled. "Last time we had the power coupling fixed, it ticked for weeks before we got around to it. Didn't you get the ship looked at before you left Telos? I mean what kind of person goes on a galactic expedition that would ultimately lead her to the Unknown Regions without giving her ship a tune-up before leaving?"
The color of Revan's complexion quickly started to rival Atton's. "Don't turn this around on me! The ship was working fine when I left. Any discrepancies you noticed should have been fixed or at the very least logged, so we could have it looked at the first chance we got. You're the one who screwed up, Jaq, not me. Maybe if you hadn't been so damn drunk—"
"Will you two settle down and stop playing the point-the-finger game?" Carth interjected irritably, mainly looking at Atton, lest Revan lash out and start taking her frustrations out on him. "This is completely pointless." He chanced a glance at Revan, who did not look impressed in the least. He tried to backtrack a little. "Clearly Atton screwed up—" Atton opened his mouth in protest. Carth raised his hand. "But he couldn't really expect the ship to break down that quickly." He peered over at Atton, who was muttering angrily to himself, and then at Revan, who exhaled deeply.
"I guess," the latter concurred disagreeably. She turned to Bao-Dur. "Can you fix this?"
Bao-Dur shrugged and sighed lightly. "Yes, but it'll take a while. I will also need some parts, and from what I could see before we landed, it's not looking as though there's a lot of civilization on this planet. We might be stuck here for some time."
Atton stopped mumbling obscenities and instead started voicing them out loud. "You've got to be fracking kidding me!" he said after swearing profusely for a straight ten seconds, using words most of the crew had never even heard prior. Incensed, he marched toward the exit ramp. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm planning on getting off this planet and finding Jena." He stopped and turned. "Bao, do you have a list of the parts you need?"
Bao-Dur walked over to Atton, holding a datapad. "It's all on here." Atton snatched it away from him. "Might I however suggest you don't go off alone on a strange planet?" he offered gently.
Atton pocketed the datapad and scoffed. "What's the worst thing that could happen to me? Get killed? I can think of at least two people on this ship who'd be pretty ecstatic about that." He glared at Revan and Mical, turned back, unlatched the ramp and quickly exited the ship.
As he stepped down to the ground, he looked around. He stood in a large clearing, which seemed even bigger than it had when he flew into it. He decisively started walking in one direction. All of them standing around like a bunch of caged banthas… I'm going to find Jena if it kills me, and if it means I have to go get lost in the forest to find ship parts, so be it.
"Atton!" cried a voice behind him. He frowned and turned around.
"What is it, Mical?" he said coldly.
Mical sensed the hostility in Atton's voice and hesitated. "Look, Atton, I've just been meaning… I wanted to… apologize." His eyes dropped. "For… for… um…"
"For trying to kill me?" Atton offered.
Mical's eyes immediately came back up. "I wasn't trying to kill you!" he protested.
"Right. That's why you swung at me the second I was unarmed," Atton commented sarcastically. "Look. I already told Revan I didn't want to talk about it. Let's just… forget about the whole thing." He started walking toward the forest again.
Mical ran after him. "But I can't forget about it, Atton."
"You can't, or you won't?" Atton shook his head, looking disgusted. "Look, I don't care. I just want to find Jena."
"I wish to find her just as much as you do," Mical said slowly, looking somber.
"Oh, I doubt that," Atton replied, every bit as somberly.
"You're not the only one who loves her, you know," said Mical quietly.
Atton shook his head. "Why, Mical? Why did you have to bring that up again? You couldn't just pretend for one second that we're not both in love with the same woman? You couldn't pretend that you're not bitter because she loves me and not you?"
Mical stopped and exploded. "Wouldn't you be? Every day I'm on this ship, all I ever hear about is Jena and Atton this, Jena and Atton that. The only one who's ever shown me any consideration over this whole situation is Liah! She tries her best not to mention your names within the same sentence. Though I reckon it's partly out of consideration for her own feelings."
Atton stopped as well and appeared confused. "Her own feel—Oh frack, are you still on about that, Mical? Revan does not have any feelings for me. She can barely stand me. And believe me, that feeling is mutual. She loves Carth, not me!"
Mical rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I don't think it's love… but there's definitely something… something I can't put my finger on... I've seen the way she looks at you…"
Atton rolled his eyes dramatically. "Now who's being paranoid? You're insane, Mical. In-sane."
Mical laughed sardonically. "Am I? All the time you two spend together…"
With a rapid movement of the arm, Atton threw back his cloak and pointed at the hilt of his lightsaber. "She's my master, Mical! I have to spend time with her."
"I never spent nearly that much time with Jena when she was training me. But you're always with Revan: sparring, talking, arguing…"
"I argue with her because she makes me crazy!" exploded Atton. "A little bit like you right now. Are you going to accuse me of having feelings for you now?"
"Liah is a beautiful woman, Atton," Mical continued, ignoring Atton's comment. "And you used to argue with Jena a lot too. And you yourself told me it helped with the…" He coughed uncomfortably. "Tension."
"Not like this." Atton could feel his temper rising. "We didn't argue like this! I liked Jena! But the more time I spend with the Dark Lord, the more I want to eviscerate her in cruel and unusual ways!"
"I swear, Atton, if you hurt Jena…" Mical warned coldly.
"Mical, that's just… You're being… Jena's the one I love, she's the one I want, the only one I want to be with. Why are you convinced I'm going to hurt her? I haven't touched a woman in a year and a half because I've been waiting for her, which is something I've certainly not done for any reason since I was fourteen years old. I haven't even thought about the fact that Revan might be attractive since I first saw her on Nar Shaddaa."
Mical smirked triumphantly. "But you did think about it then… you have considered it."
"Oh for Force's sake!" Atton exclaimed violently, thoroughly exasperated. "What's with the third degree? Why would you care even if I'd slept with every woman in the galaxy? That still won't make her love you, Mical! I could be the biggest schutta she's ever met, I could break her heart and make her hate me and never want to have anything to do with me ever again, but she still wouldn't love you! She loves me, Mical. ME! Not you!"
The color suddenly drained from Mical's face. He looked upon Atton with great fury. "All I've ever tried to do was be happy, Atton. And everywhere I go, you're there, destroying what little happiness I've managed to find. All I ever wanted was for Jena to look upon me as I looked her! I've loved Jena since I was twelve years old. Twelve! I lost track of her after she went off to war, but not a day went by when I didn't think about her… And when the Force somehow guided her back to me, I couldn't believe my luck. And then I met the scoundrel she was traveling with. You had to be there, shadowing her at all time, spying on us when we meditated together… to think you thought I couldn't see you! And then you finally took advantage of her in the worst possible way. You… You slept with her when she was upset, when she was vulnerable… and still she didn't hold it against you! She loved you the way I loved her, the way I will always love her, and for that I will always hate you!"
Atton's eyes widened. He grew slightly fearful. Was this still Mical who was talking to him? He certainly did seem rather different.
"Yes, I hate you, Atton!" cried Mical. "Did you ever doubt it? All this time I was helping you… because I loved her. You complained and yelled and pleaded and begged when she tried to leave… and I helped you. I told you to let her go. I made it easier on her… and thus on you as well, because if you had continued on in the direction you were headed, she would have forever resented you. And yet that was still not enough for her. She loved you despite your stupidity. And as for me…" He scoffed."Whatever did I get for being there for her, for talking to her when she was upset, for sticking around until she left, while you were off gallivanting on Nar Shaddaa? Whatever did I get for cheering her up whenever she cried over the way you had left—no, deserted her? And she cried, Atton. She cried constantly, for days!" Those words hit Atton more than anything else Mical said and he bit his lip to distract himself from the ache he felt in his heart. Mical, disregarding him, animatedly continued, "…What did I get? A hug when she left, and a vague promise of visiting me when she came back—while she had given herself to you, heart, soul and body, for much less than I had done."
"Mical…" Atton mumbled, desperately wanting to calm him down.
"I've had enough, Atton! I've had enough of you going around whining about how nobody ever listens to you, about how much time we are taking to get to Jena, about how afraid you are you'll never see her again. Don't you see? Already you've had more than I've had… than I'll ever get from her. And I can't even begin to express how much it infuriates me to think that you're still not satisfied with what you've already got. I'm sick and tired of this!"
He threw his hand out in front of him, and Atton was knocked back several feet. He fell to the ground and slid back a bit further. Is he attacking me? He is! He just… Atton quickly got to his feet and resisted Mical's second Force Wave attack. "Mical! What the hell are you—"
"This ends here, Atton," he said pulling out his lightsaber. "And this time, your precious Revan will not be here to save you," he spat venomously.
Atton, still doing his best to recover from the shock clumsily grasped for his hilt, unhooked it, and ignited his lightsaber. This can't be happening…
Mical's eyes suddenly grew very wide just as Atton heard a voice yell from behind him, "NO! MICAL! STOP IT!"
Mical froze in stasis just as Atton turned around quickly. That voice!
A short woman clad in purple armor, barely out of the forest, stood with her hand held out in front of her. In her face was a mixture of bewilderment and cold fury. Hiding in the shadows of the forest behind her stood a small dark-haired boy of about eight years of age, but Atton barely noticed him at all. All he could do was stare in awe and in shock at the brunette who stood before him. His hand dropped down and he lost his grip on his lightsaber. The latter fell to the ground and extinguished itself with a hiss. The woman's gaze shifted from Mical to Atton. Her hand lowered slowly as she peered into his eyes.
"Atton!" she said breathlessly.
Author's Notes: Dun-dun-dunnnnnnn... Now who could that possibly be? ;)
So yesterday I did some math and I have determined that so far (including stuff I haven't uploaded yet), I have written a total of... drum roll... 247 pages (single-spaced) on Mr. Rand since late March (so just over three months, I suppose)! It would appear that I need a new hobby (Yeah, right, like that'll be happening!). Atton's Motivation is now officially longer than Atton's Redemption... and to be quite honest, I'm still not entirely sure how long the final product will be. You'd think I'd have a good idea at this point, but I actually don't. We shall see.
Anyway, thanks so much forall the reviews for my last chapter! Wow! I really love getting reviews, because it tells me that I'm not wasting my time. I mean I love writing about Atton and all, but if it wasn't for people letting me know they like my story, I likely would have given up ages ago. After all, it's not like I can cash in on this by getting it published. ;)
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