Rian:

            I knew it had to have been a dream.  I had no body, I was merely a specter witnessing someone else's life.  I was aboard a ship, it had to be a ship.  Metal corridors, wall panels and navigational equipment all pointed towards that assumption.  I had seen that ship before, I knew it.  It had been in my nightmares for the past week. 

            A lone figure stood out, briefly glancing at the galaxy before him.  Black robes and hood shrouded him in mystery, who was he?  I knew him, just like the ship.

            "Who are you?"  I would always call out to him when he appeared in my dream, though at this point, I knew it was useless.  I could only observe, never interact.

            He turned, to face me, or at least that's always what it felt like.  The door to the bridge burst open and a group of Jedi rushed in.  They always rushed in.  Led by her.

            The woman was preternaturally beautiful.  Leave it to me to concoct the most ravishingly beautiful woman in the world and plant her in this horrible dream.  Even without having a body I was jealous and angry at her for being there.

            Milky white skin and silken braids the color of deep mahogany.  She wore simple garments but her presence illuminated the room.  Her eyes were cornflower blue and held no nonsense as she pointed a finger and made her demand.  At that moment I wished that I could be her.

            "Who are you?"  It didn't work before, but I couldn't resist.

            I was ignored again and I could feel myself becoming frantic.  The dream was rapidly coming to a close, I knew.  There would be a brief face off between the woman and the cloaked figure, then a blast of brilliant light.  I needed answers, I needed closure.  If I just let it end, it would come back again some other night.

            "Get out of my head."  I would make them listen.

            "Get out of my head!" 

            I was awake and cold all over.  Beads of sweat trickled from my brow, knees and armpits.  I wish I knew where I was, everything seemed so fuzzy.  Maybe I was a prisoner.  That would explain why I hurt all over.

            I heard footsteps a room over.  I lurched back on the bed searching for a weapon, anything to defend myself with.  The only thing I could find was a blanket, so I pulled it tightly around my shoulders.

            A man hurried in looking concerned.  Half-dressed and covered with shaving lather, he certainly didn't look like an executioner.  He obviously wasn't the woman in my dreams, and I highly doubted that he was the robed figure.  So who was he?

            My skull was throbbing.  Maybe what I mistook for pain and torture was actually an all night drinking binge at a cantina.  If that was the case then he was… oh boy, he really didn't look like my type…

            The man wiped the lather from his face and made his way slowly towards the bed.  If that lumbering bantha thought there was going to be a round two he was going to be in for a rude awakening.  I was sober now.

            I really did need to curb my drinking.  When I had been self-employed it wasn't such a big deal.  Now that the Republic had their claws in me, however, I was pretty sure that they'd be more than a bit peeved to have me vanish on accounts of one too many Bomcalanuirian vodkas.

            "Good to see you up, instead of thrashing around in your sleep." 

            What the hell was he talking about?  He kept edging closer and it made me feel really uncomfortable.

            "You must have been having one hell of a nightmare.  I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up."

            From the way he moved I decided that the cantina scenario was out.  The dried blood on my tank top was another hint.  I usually don't get that wild the first time around.  I loosened my grip on the blanket, relieved.  There wasn't any need to pretend that I remembered him and engage in awkward conversation until I could manage to piece the affair together.

            "I'm Carth," he continued.  "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." I muttered.  Now why did I let that slip?  I was a professional, not some goggle-eyed adolescent in a go-go bar.

            My head was killing me.  I really could have gone for a mug of caffa but he was too busy staring at me idiotically.  I started to massage the pain from my temples.

            "I'm not surprised."  He sat on the bed next to me, a cloth in his hand.  "You took a serious blow to the head.  You're probably having all kinds of strange dreams."

            Carth started to dab at my forehead with the damp cloth.  Did I really look that pathetic?  I would have stopped him, but I was too tired.  It did feel good, sort of, not that I would ever admit it.

            "I wouldn't worry too much about it."

            Oh you wouldn't, would you?  I thought, agitated.  Of course not, I was the one cross-eyed and stupid for the past however long while he got to be my baby-sitter.  What was going on?  I couldn't even remember my own name clearly.  It started with an "R", I was pretty sure of that.  It was a start, right?

            "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."

            Carth had a nice voice.  Reassuring and fatherly.  It made me realize how much I disliked him. 

            "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."

            How stupid did I look?  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  How could one person walk away from a crash in a pitifully cramped escape pod completely unscathed while the other was brained?  It simply could not be true. 

            "I was unconscious."

            Carth nodded.  I had to control myself, speak slowly.  That way I could gauge "Mr. Hero's" reaction. 

            "But you were fine."

            "Yeah." 

            I wouldn't lose my temper.  Not yet.  "That sounds awfully strange to me." 

            He turned pink around the ears.

            "Well, that…"  Carth was obviously embarrassed.  The scoundrel instincts kicked in.  The big oaf was a softy and a perfect mark. How the hell was he capable of saving me? 

            "As it turns out, when we crashed, you… you kind of broke my fall."

            "So you sat on me." 

            "Sort of."

            No wonder I was zonked out for a couple of days.  He had at least five inches on me and probably fifty pounds or more.

            I had to laugh.  The knight in shining armor squishes the damsel into a smear on the side of an escape pod and then rescues her.  What a laser brain.  And what a killer headache!

            I brought my hand up gingerly to inspect the damage.  Tender flesh was pulled together with stitches.  I shuddered.  I couldn't shake wondering if I had received any anesthetic before being sewn up.  I guess I was thankful that the scar would be hidden by my hair at any rate.

            "I guess I owe you my life.  Thanks."  If I had long lashes I would have fluttered them at him.  Thank goodness, I didn't have long lashes.

            "You don't have to thank me."

            Carth instantly turned serious.  I must have struck a nerve.

            "I've never abandoned anyone on a mission and I'm not about to start now.  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 highly doubted that.

            "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?" I murmured.  A yellow lightsaber flashed through my mind.  "She's the one for the Endar Spire, right?"

            "That smack to your head did more damage than I thought."

            A frown spread across Carth's face.  He actually seemed genuinely concerned.

            "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?" I asked.

            Carth's slack-jawed expression was all that I needed to see.  He was setting us up for a wild goose chase.

            "I don't." 

            He stood up from the bed and began pacing fiercely.  The poor guy seemed to be at his wits end.  He really needed to get out more.

            "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."  He stopped abruptly.  "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 and I'd rather operate on the assumption that she survived."

            I guess I had no choice.  I nodded, grumbling inaudible protests.

            I shoved the blanket aside and looked myself over.  My red pilots jacket was ruined.  The entire left shoulder was missing and the collar was stained with dried blood.  I had paid a small fortune for that jacket too.  Disgruntled, I slipped out of the destroyed piece of clothing and let it fall to the floor.  There were several cuts and bruises lining my body but they were all surface injuries.  That was my favorite jacket!

            "So what do you suggest we do next?"  I sighed.

            Carth ran a hand over his goatee.  Why did he look so amused?

            "Bastila's going to need our help." 

            I climbed out of the bed and started digging through the bureau.  Carth raised an eyebrow at me when I pulled one of his jackets from a drawer.  An orangey-tan thing, not exactly a color I would have chosen, but it would have to do.

            "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."  He tried to take his jacket from my hands, but I jerked away from him.

            "Do you think I'd look inconspicuous walking around Taris like this?"  I motioned to my white tank top with my free hand.  It was yellowed with sweat and sported dry splatters of blood.  Carth groaned but dropped his hands.

            "Nobody will be looking for a couple common soldiers like us." he continued, ignoring me.  "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."

            Probably?  Maybe Carth needed to lick the boot straps of some Jedi to get where he needed, but not me.  Jedi are bad news. 

            "Any idea where we should start looking for Bastila?"  I'd let Carth feel like he was in charge for now.  It wouldn't have been wise to bruise his masculine ego too early on in the game.  Sulky flyboy pilots are a hassle.

            "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."

            "The sooner we start looking for Bastila, the sooner we find her.  Let's go."

            "Good idea."  He shot me a lopsided grin. 

            "Is there a decent place to eat in this stink-hole?"  My stomach gurgled for effect as I poked it.  "I'm starving."

            Carth chuckled then 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."

            Well that just put a damper on things, didn't it?  I guess Carth was determined to make sure that I didn't have any fun at all on Taris.  We'd see about that.