Carth:
It had been nearly two full days when she screamed. I had finally felt confident enough in her health to scout the city and had brought back fever reducers. She had taken them well enough, but they seemed to have virtually no effect. That, I concluded, meant that she was never going to wake up. I went into the bathroom to trim up my goatee when it happened.
"Who are you?" Rian was babbling again. This would happen every so often, so I had learned to curb the hope that she would actually wake up. I drew the razor up to my chin, concentrating on my stubble.
"Get out of my head!" She shrieked with such a bloodcurdling intensity I would have sworn that Malak himself had decided to stop by our apartment for some afternoon tea. I nearly killed myself with the razor before I dashed into the main room.
Rian was sitting upright in the bed. Her almond shaped eyes were pushed as wide as they would open, their deep purple taking in her surroundings. Her eyes met with mine and she defensively pushed herself to the end of the bed farthest from me. I guess a man with shaving lather on half of his face and blood dripping down his chin isn't the friendliest of sights.
I reached for a towel and tried to appear as harmless as I could. Her eyes never left me, constantly sizing me up. Wiping my face with the towel I put on a warm smile.
"Good to see you up," I began. She cocked her head, confused. "instead of thrashing around in your sleep. You must have been having one hell of a nightmare. I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up."
Rian's shoulders slumped. She was slowly lowering her defenses.
"I'm Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you on the escape pod, do you remember?"
"I had a strange dream… Like a vision or something." Her expression drooped. There was something about her that looked almost naïve. She pressed her knuckles into her temples.
"I'm not surprised." I picked up a damp cloth and walked over to the bed. "You took a serious blow to the head. You're probably having all kinds of weird dreams." I wiped the sweat from her brow. I kept talking hoping to keep her attention. She looked really dazed and if she lost consciousness again it may be the last time. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. Well, you've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a few days now so I imagine you're pretty confused about things. Try not to worry. We're safe, at least for the moment. We're in an abandoned apartment on the planet of Taris. You were banged up pretty bad when our escape pod crashed, but luckily I wasn't seriously hurt. I was able to drag you away from our crash site in all the confusion and I stumbled onto this apartment. By the time the Sith arrived on the scene, we were long gone."
She seemed thoughtful. I had thrown quite a bit her way after all.
"I was unconscious." she said slowly. I nodded. "But you were fine."
"Yeah."
"That sounds awfully strange to me." She faced me with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, that…" I laughed nervously. I had hoped this would never come up. "As it turns out, when we crashed, you… you kind of broke my fall."
"So you sat on me."
"Sort of."
She laughed. An alto, Rian had a low, silky chuckle. It was nice to have someone else to interact with finally. I was already sick of getting into long-winded arguments with myself.
Her laugh was cut short. She pulled her lips back into a grimace and sucked air in rapidly. Rian brought her right hand up to explore the wound on the back of her head. She gave me a knowing half smile.
"I guess I owe you my life." she said. "Thanks."
"You don't have to thank me. I've never abandoned anyone on a mission and I'm not about to start." What kind of a monster did she think I was? If our positions had been reversed, would she have tried to rescue me? No, I wouldn't start debating the what-ifs, we had more important things to worry about.
"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 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."
"Bastila?" Rian's eyes looked ready to glaze over. Maybe I should get her a doctor. I've seen people crack their heads open before, but nothing to this extent.
"She's the one from the Endar Spire, right?"
I sighed. "That smack to your head did more damage than I thought." I decided that I would take her directly to a doctor. "Bastila's a Jedi. She was with the strike team that killed Darth Revan, Malak's Sith master. Bastila is the key to the whole Republic war effort. The Sith must have found out she was on the Endar Spire and set 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 find her."
"How do you even know Bastila's still alive?" That comment completely floundered the last bit of gusto I had. I think I was beginning to like Rian Vega better when she was unconscious.
"I don't." I began to pace the room. "But Bastila's young and she has a powerful command of the Force. We survived the crash landing, so I'm willing to bet that she may have too." I stopped in my tracks.
"Besides, what's the alternative? I mean, if she's dead, then no one can stop Malak and his Sith from wiping out the Republic. I'd rather operate on the assumption that she survived."
Rian nodded with a shy smile. It should be a crime for a woman to smile like that. She threw the blankets off and examined herself. There was a large bruise on her forearm that was yellowing and countless numbers of cuts and scrapes that were slowly healing. Rian seemed more agitated with the abuse that her clothing had sustained than her own personal injuries.
"So what do you suggest we do next?" she asked. She pulled the tattered red jacket from her shoulders and tossed it to the floor.
"Bastila's going to need our help."
She hopped from the bed and started rummaging through my things in the bureau. Rian amazed me in how resilient she was.
"Many of Darth Malak's followers can use the dark side of the Force and the Sith have already killed more than their share of Jedi in this war… that's mine."
She had found my star pilots jacket and was ready to wear it. I tried to take it from her, but she faced me with a snarl.
"Do you think I'd look inconspicuous walking around Taris like this?" Rian's tank top was stained with sweat and blood. She had a point, but if anything happened to that jacket… I gave up.
"Nobody will be looking for a couple common soldiers like us." I explained. "And if we're being careful we can move about the planet without attracting notice, a luxury Bastila won't have. She's going to have half the Sith fleet looking for her. They know how important she is to the war effort. The whole planet is under quarantine. No ships can land or take off. So if Bastila's going to escape Taris, she's going to need our help. And we'll probably need hers."
Rian didn't need to know that we were completely helpless without Bastila.
"Any idea where we should start looking for Bastila?"
She was quick and I admired that. Very business-like.
"While you were out I did some scouting around. There are reports of a couple escape pods crashing down in the Undercity. That's probably a good place to start. But the Undercity is a dangerous place. We don't want to go unprepared. It won't do Bastila any good if we get ourselves killed."
Rian nodded. "The sooner we start looking for Bastila, the sooner we find her. Let's go."
"Good idea." I grinned and collected my blasters from the workbench.
"Is there a decent place to eat in this stink-hole?" She gave a grimace as she jabbed a finger into her gut. "I'm starving."
I laughed, relieved, knowing that I wouldn't be stuck with a priss and nodded. "Yeah, just remember to keep a low profile. I've heard some grim stories about the Dark Jedi interrogation techniques. They say the Force can do a terrible thing to a mind. It can wipe away your memories and destroy your very identity."
Rian gave me a weird look. I wished I could read her better. I can't say that I wasn't intrigued, but I've learned that enigmas can oftentimes be dangerous.
