Savior Self
Taris part one.
Rated PG13
Disclaimer: Wouldn't you be afraid if I was George Lucas?
Savior Self
Taris rose up fast and hard. Carth Onasi tried desperately to guide the little escape pod, gritting his teeth against the searing heat of entry, sweat rolling liberally down his temples. He gripped the sticks tightly, using the last bit of wit he had left to buckle up and slip a rubber tube between his teeth. "Geh reh-ee," he spat over the tube, and the girl nodded, strapping herself up in her seat and slipping a rubber tube into her mouth as well.
The escape pod rattled like a pea in a tin can. The pod rolled and Carth had to steer them backwards and upside-down, jerking fiercely on the sticks, his face twisted up in his concentration. They would make it. He would make sure of it.
The ground struck them violently. His muscles screamed at the pain, and his head rung. Fire burst out of the consol. His soldier's training finally kicked him full-time and he unbuckled himself with a slap to the chest. He beat the flames away from himself, spitting out the rubber tube, and turned to his companion. "Get up! We have to move!" he barked.
But she didn't move. The rubber tube slowly slid, slick with saliva, from her lips and landed mutely on the ground. Her head lolled once and she sat still. Carth studied her for a moment. How on Telos had he gotten saddled with a girl?
Regardless, she was out cold. The fire gave a menacing crackle and a spark leapt out at him. He drew a small blade from his pocket and cut the girl's straps loose, for he didn't dare slap her chest to release her. No longer held back by her belts, she lurched forward, almost crumpling to the floor. Carth hissed and swore. Blood had stained her hair and neck red, and there was a clear wound to the back of her head, split wide after being impaled with some sheet metal.
Wincing, he gathered her up in his arms and dragged her hastily from the pod. The shiny, cold, hard metal of Taris's walkways clunked beneath his feet and he hurriedly ripped off some of his shirt to make a tourniquet around her head. She let out a feeble moan, arching her back against his arms. He tightened his grip and continued dragging her out of the way.
Out of nowhere came a wave of Rodians and Ithorians, armed to the teeth, to strip the fresh pod of any supplies. Carth swore as he was surrounded and lit a charge with his teeth. The girl was heaving sickly in his arms, some strange green spittle swelling on her lips. The charge lit and the pod blew up. Parts showered down over the aliens and Carth hastened to make his escape, dragging the girl with all of his might.
He slipped into the shadows, under an overhanging panel that had almost fallen off of a nearby building, and held the woman close to his chest, pulling his legs in and bowing his head to avoid being spotted. He could feel her hot breath in his ear, stinking of blood and death. She would die soon if he didn't tend to her. Hastily, he removed the bandage and fumbled with a medpack in his bag. He ripped it open and slapped it to the back of her head, pressing his fingers against the wound and massaging, working the medicine in, since her system was probably too shot to suck it up itself. The feeling sent cold tingles down his fingertips. He quickly stopped. He hadn't touched a woman in ages.
Once the alien scavengers had left, Carth emerged from the shadows, carrying the girl in his arms still, and made his way craftily to the apartments. He glanced behind him once to see the Sith form a clot around the escape pod, checking for salvage. Carth continued down the hall as the girl in his arms moaned again, quietly. Alone there was an old janitor, staring at him with wide blue eyes, his wrinkled, sun-spotted hands clutching his broom tightly. They were probably quite a sigh to behold, Carth reasoned to himself as he wandered past. A burned, dirty man and a bloody, sweaty, sick woman wandering the halls in the very beginning of the morning, of all things!
But the janitor didn't comment as Carth overrode the security on a nearby apartment door. There wasn't a mark on the door that meant that it was occupied, so he decided he might as well take it. The door gave way easily to his hands, and he stepped back as it slid open with a whoosh. Hoisting the wounded girl higher up on his shoulder, he stepped inside and set her down on the bed, listening as the door clicked shut.
"No, no, no," the girl mumbled, rolling about slightly. Carth studied her for a moment.
A woman. A woman. He was now stuck in a room with a woman, the vile things. Sneaky, tricky, and horribly alluring, they all were, and it was increasingly dangerous because this one was going to die.
Well, as long as Carth had a hand in it, perhaps she wouldn't die. But that would involve touching her… did he want to? Yes, of course! He had to! Again, his soldier's training slapped him hard. Get to it. Don't let her die.
He rolled her over onto her stomach and she let out a cry and began thrashing, wriggling on the bed like a worm. Carth did what he had to do, and got onto the bed as well, pinning her down with his knee as he worked to bandage the back of her head. She had begun squawking with fear, crying and blubbering something awful, but Carth ignored it. Years of listening to comrades scream as they were killed had forced a strange detachment on him.
The kolto had left a pale ring around the wound and he could see clearly where some metal had been imbedded. He swore and, very, very, very reluctantly, reached inside and pulled it out. She screamed even louder and he began to get irritated. He would have put her out, normally, but he knew that she was unstable and any kind of sedative might make her condition worse. So, with some sort of bitter anger for the world, he continued his work, applying a fresh dose of kolto and again tying up her head with a strip from his shirt.
If this kept up much longer, he wouldn't have any of his shirt left.
Finally she seemed to calm down. Carefully, he climbed off of her, rolling her back onto her back to keep the pressure on her wound. She heaved a few times, turning sickly green, and vomited all over herself.
Carth was used to it, of course. Sick men on the job, his pregnant wife, his newborn son… but that was long ago, wasn't it? He sighed, wandering into the bathroom and grabbing some wet cloths before he returned and mopped her up. Now he wasn't really sure if she would make it. Her moans were garbled and rough, bringing fresh green spittle to the surface. Carth knew that he would have to seek out a doctor eventually if things didn't let up.
As a final precaution, he tipped half a medpack into her mouth and forced her to swallow. She coughed some of that back up, too.
Her clothes were soiled and bloody, and needed to be washed. Carth reluctantly stripped her to her underwear and sent the clothes out to be cleaned. He avoided looking too closely at her from then on. It flustered him to see the skin of some unknown woman.
So this left him in an apartment in the middle of upper Taris, with no money, with no supplies, with no clothes, with a dying woman, and with no way out. She took up one of the beds, and so he took the other, laying out his jacket to stand there in his slowly shrinking shirt. He glanced out the window, watching the air speeders zoom by. In the other room, a woman was sobbing.
He didn't like Taris.
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The next day his strange new girl wasn't any better. She continually broke out in random shrieks, screaming at no one to go away, and never come back. She beat the air with her tiny little fists, squirming and writhing. Carth sometimes pinned her down again to calm her, but he only succeeded in making it worse.
As the next few days went by, he decided it wasn't any good to wander around calling her, "that girl." So he dug around in her equipment pack until he found her datapad. He read up on her ideas and wanderings, and decided that probably wasn't for the best in the end. She had some… dodgy things she had to say… a little bit racy and slurry, to be honest. She seemed to have a fondness for losing Pazaak and then stealing her opponent's clothes… and for gizka fodder. What kind of girl liked to eat gizka fodder? Or did she eat it?
Regardless, it didn't tell him much, other than that she used to bunk with Trask Ulgo, an old friend. It was sad that he was gone, but there was no point mourning now. Hundreds were dead – it was surprising that any of them were even around to think about it.
However, Carth still needed to find out more about this girl, so he found the nearest consol, and hacked in. A few minutes later he browsed around through service records, coming up with a face and a name. The face was clearly hers: masculine in a way, but at the same time given something special by the blue eyes that struck out against her tan skin. He studied this picture for a moment, for he actually hadn't seen much of her while she was awake. He had been too worried about the Sith.
The face was fine enough, but the name that struck him was almost not fitting: Cortessa Blatt.
Blatt.
He had never heard of a Blatt before. Where had that name come from? Onasi had come from an Iridorian planet, but somehow rubbed off onto Telos citizens. Never before had Carth come across anything similar to Blatt.
Sighing, he hacked up into more of her, and found that most of her past had been left in holes and small spaces. He frowned. From a far away planet… no parents… no past. He didn't like it. He would have to ask her to fill in the blanks, and immediately something struck him. His old self, his suspicious self, the detached self that would never touch her or speak to her or let himself trust her. He hated that self, but it closed over him and owned him.
Carth continued on, exploring the planet. He came across several people, who explained to him the goings-on on this planet. Apparently the Sith had taken over, and some escape pods had crashed in the lowest floor of the city – the Undercity. Just wonderful. With the few credits he had left, Carth bought some medpacks, and then wandered the streets for a while. There was no way they were getting off this planet without help. And Bastila… Bastila was his mission, he had to remember that. He needed to find Bastila. Perhaps, with her, he could have enough power to get off of this rock.
When scouting became boring, Carth headed back to his apartment, and the girl… Blatt… Cortessa Blatt… was moaning and screaming all over again, bucking and kicking with more vigor than ever before. He stared, quailing at the ferocity of her attack on the unknown, but finally she stopped, her eyes snapping open, and she took in a deep breath.
"Whoa," he muttered, stepping up. She looked over to him and jumped, falling backwards, almost off of the bed. He held up a hand, letting her know he wasn't there to harm her.
She scrambled to her feet, standing there with the sheets clutched to her body, one hand cautiously running through her hair and patting the strip of shirt tied around her head. Her pretty blue eyes were wide with fright and her thick lips were parted as she breathed heavily.
Carth sensed his opportunity, looking her up and down, now that she was protected by the sheets. "Good to see you up, instead of thrashing around in your sleep," he said gently, fixing his eyes on her face, even as she stepped back. "You must have been having one hell of a nightmare. I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up."
Her lips quivered. She looked more confused and innocent than ever. "Who are you?" she whispered.
"I'm Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire," he said, praying to the gods she didn't have amnesia and that he himself was just a forgettable face. To test it, he offered, "I was with you on the escape pod, do you remember?"
Cortessa seemed to get it then. Her eyes seemed to darken some as she seemed to come back into herself. "Carth, the one on the communicator," she said. "I remember."
Carth sighed with relief.
"Where are we?" she asked, looking around and still awkwardly fingering her bandage.
"Well, you've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple of days so I imagine you're pretty confused about things," Carth said warmly, but she still seemed a little bit off… shaky. "Look, try not to worry. We're safe… at least for the moment."
"Where are we?" she repeated.
"We're in an abandoned apartment on the planet of Taris," he said. "You were banged up pretty bad when our escape pod crashed, but luckily I wasn't seriously hurt." She raised an eyebrow, feeling her wound with more interest. Carth continued. "I was able to drag you away from our crash site in all the confusion, and I stumbled onto this abandoned apartment. By the time the Sith were on the scene, we were long gone."
Cortessa still fingered her bandage.
"I did that," Carth offered. "Some sheet metal…"
She looked at him, offering a weak smile. "I guess I owe you my life. Thanks."
Carth flushed, shocking himself. He distanced himself from her, refusing to allow himself to be seduced like that. "You don't have to thank me," he said. "I've never abandoned anyone on a mission, and I'm not about to start now." She seemed to droop dejectedly. He fixed his eyes on the wall behind her left ear. "Besides, I'm going to need your help. Taris is under Sith control. Their fleet is orbiting the planet, they've declared martial law, and they've imposed a planet-wide quarantine. But I've been in worse spots."
"I have, too," Cortessa offered.
Carth looked her over again, unintentionally. "I saw on your service records that you understand a remarkable number of alien languages. That's pretty rare in a raw recruit, but it should come in handy while we're stranded on a foreign world. There's no way the Republic will be able to get anyone through the Sith blockade to help us. If we're going to find Bastila and get off this planet, we can't rely on anybody but ourselves."
Cortessa looked confused, her eyes darting over his face. "Bastila… the one from the Endar Spire, right? Why is it so important to find her?" she asked, twirling a strand of her soiled hair between her fingers.
Carth was appalled. He stared for a moment before he regained his composure somewhat. "That smack to your head did more damage than I thought. Bastila's a Jedi. She was with the strike team that killed Darth Revan, Malak's Sith master." He could hardly believe he was explaining this to her. Everyone knew what had happened! But apparently she didn't. Either she had forgotten, or she had never been informed. He found the latter not as likely as the first, and the first was unlikely already. "Bastila is the key to the whole Republic war effort. The Sith must have found out she was on the Endar Spire and sent an ambush for us in this system. I believe Bastila was on one of the escape pods that crashed down here on Taris. For the sake of the Republic war effort, we have to try and save her." That was off of the top of his head, but suddenly it seemed to be entirely true. They didn't just need Bastila to get off of this planet – they needed her to succeed in the war.
Cortessa nodded. "Any idea where we should start looking for Bastila?"
Carth smiled at last. "While you were out I did some scouting around. There are reports of a couple escape pods crashing down into the Undercity. That's probably a good place to start. But the Undercity is a dangerous place. We don't want to go in there unprepared. It won't do Bastila any good if we go and get ourselves killed." Especially after the effort it had taken to bring Cortessa to; Carth didn't want that time to be in vain.
Cortessa seemed to be getting bored, or anxious, or both. "Come on," she mumbled. "I want to scout this planet out a bit." She started for the door, but Carth spoke up to slow her down.
"Good idea. We can use this abandoned apartment as a base, and we can probably get some equipment and supplies here in the Upper City. Just try to remember to keep a low profile." He looked her over again. "Like getting some clothes on."
She flushed and glared at him. "You talk too much," she replied shortly, and began rummaging around in the footlocker near the window. Instead of bending down she crouched to avoid showing more than she wanted to. Carth looked away and resumed talking.
"I've heard some grim stories about the Dark Jedi interrogation techniques," he said randomly, out of nowhere. "They say the Force can do terrible things to a mind. It can wipe away your memories and destroy your very identity."
"What does that have to do with us?" Cortessa mused aloud, tossing one of Carth's shirts across the room. He retrieved it calmly and handed it back.
"Nothing. But I figure if we don't do anything stupid we should be okay." She looked at him suspiciously and he lost himself for a moment. He began to stammer like he often did when emotion ran a little high. "I mean, after all, they're… they're looking for Bastila not a couple of grunts like us."
Cortessa was still staring, her eyebrows raised.
Carth cleared his throat. "Alright, soldier, let's move out," he said, the words just flowing from his tongue. In a way he was talking to himself, rather than her. He wandered off to the opposite side of the room and didn't look at her again.
She dressed in a tight, orange combat suit, turning this way and that to break it in a little. She fixed up her boots and stood there for a moment, looking out the window, chewing on her lip. The drone of air speeders was the only sound, humming monotonously through the room.
Carth looked to the ceiling, then back down to the floor, then left to right, and Cortessa approached him, her hands clasped behind her back. He blinked, stepping back to keep his distance.
"Yes? What's on your mind?" he asked.
She smiled, tilting her head to one side winningly. "I'd like to know more about you, Carth," she said.
Carth was a little bit startled. He coughed, looking left to right once before he looked back at her. "Wha? Me?" For some reason, he felt as if he would be the last person she'd ask. Apparently not. He shook his head. "Well, I've been a star-pilot for the Republic for years. I've seen more than my share of wars… I fought in the Mandalorian Wars before all this started. But with all that, I've never experienced anything like the slaughter these Sith animals can unleash. Not even the Mandalorians were that senseless." He was skipping around personal details for now. She didn't need to know who he was, just what he did, so that they could get along. He decided to only give her a fraction of his past by talking about his home world. "My home world was one of the first planets to fall to Malak's fleet. The Sith bombed it into submission and there wasn't a damn thing our Republic forces could do to stop them!" Whoops. Damn. He bit his tongue. He had slipped in anger. He hated himself.
Cortessa caught it, too. "You're talking like it's your fault," she murmured. "Like you failed somehow."
Carth was flustered. "It shouldn't be my fault," he said, and realized that he had begun stammering. His panicked him and he flew off the handle for a moment before he could regain composure. "I did everything I could… I followed my orders and did my duty! That shouldn't mean I failed them! I didn't!"
Cortessa quailed, backing up and bowing her head. "I'm sorry, Carth. I didn't mean to upset you. I'll just…" She started for the bed.
Carth was still stuck stammering, damn him. He staggered slightly trying to catch her. "N-No. I know. Don't worry about it. I just… must not be making much sense."
"No, you're not."
Carth bit his lip and felt himself coming to. He stood up straight again. "You probably mean well with your questions. I'm just not accustomed to talking about my past very much. At all, actually. I'm more used to taking action… keeping my mind focused on the business at hand. So let's just do that. If you have more questions, ask them later."
"That's kind of selfish," Cortessa told him, but he closed himself up.
He hated Taris.
He hated the Sith.
And by the gods, did he hate this woman.
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Author's Notes: Awww… does it suck that bad, my duckies?
SilverSentinal21 – My name is not Cortessa. It's Natasha. My screen name is my character's name. XD Thanks for noticing, though. Heh. I haven't read your fanfiction yet, though I really, really want to. I haven't gotten Star Wars KOTOR II yet, so I'm waiting before I start reading KOTOR II fanfics. I borrowed it from a friend once and she told me a few things, but I'd rather finish the game before I read yours. But once I get the game, you can count on me reading it.
