Chapter 2: Dawn
She was having the dream again. The Jedi surrounded her. She turned slowly around in a circle with blood red lightsabers in her hands. Flourishing the lightsabers in a whirling motion, she dropped in a low side lunge. Lightsabers held tightly in a reverse grip, one stretching in front of her, with the other sweeping behind her. She waited for the Jedi to make their move before she pounced upon her prey. A young female Jedi knight stepped forward, "You'll not escape this time!" Cocking her head to the side, she stared at the Jedi knight through the black visor of her mask. Suddenly, a huge blast ripped through the bridge, slamming her into a nearby console. Her facemask was knocked loose as her head banged against a terminal. She attempted to push herself up, but pain exploded within her head, forcing her back down. She felt the heat from the lightsaber against her face as blackness overcame her…
Ashla awoke gasping for air. The nightmare was still holding her firm in its grip. Darkness surrounded her, her heart beating a loud tattoo in her ears. Crying out in pain, she clutched her hands to her head. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she curled herself into a fetal position, tears streaming down her face. A light flickered to life across the room. "Hey, are you okay?" A soothing voice whispered in her ear, as a cool hand lightly touched her brow. Her eyes slowly flickered open. She looked around the unfamiliar room, then back to the man crouched down beside the bed.
"Who are you? Where the hell am I?" Her voice was raw and raspy.
He stared at her with concern. "You must have been having one hell of a nightmare. I'm Carth Onasi, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you in the escape pod, do you remember?"
Ashla stared up at him in scrutiny. He had short dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. His complexion was fair, with a light dusting of brown stubble from having missed shaving in the last few days. His voice sounded familiar. "The man from the communicator?" she asked, running a shaky hand over her pallid face.
"Yes." Carth rose from beside the bed and walked over to pick up his shirt that had been laying on the back of a chair, pulling it on quickly while his back was turned to her. "I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up. You've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple of days now. I can understand if you are a bit confused. Our pod crashed on the planet below, Taris. We're in an abandoned apartment. We're safe… for now."
Carth turned back to face her, crossing his arms across his broad chest. "You were banged up pretty bad from the crash. Luckily, I wasn't seriously injured. While you were out, I scouted around in the area. I heard reports of other escape pods crashing down in the Undercity."
"Undercity?" Ashla sat up, pulling the blanket up around her shoulders. "I'm afraid I don't know much about this planet, other than it's one large city like Coruscant. Is that the lower levels?"
Carth nodded. "Yes. I saw on your service record that you understand a remarkable amount of alien languages. That's very rare in a new recruit. That'll come in handy when we are searching for Bastila." He began pacing, while rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"Bastila?" she asked quizzically.
His pacing stilled, he looked at her in disbelief. "That smack on the head must have done more damage than I thought!"
Chagrined, Ashla looked down at the blanket balled up in her fists.
"Look, I'm sorry." Carth raked a hand through his hair while he paced, clearly tense about their situation. "Bastila Shan is a Jedi who was a part of the strike team that took out Darth Revan. She's essential to the Republic's war effort."
"Why? What's so special about her?" Wrapping the blanket around her like a cloak, Ashla rose to standing, slowly making her way across the room to the footlocker. This Jedi seemed to be important, and she was curious why one Jedi could be so crucial to the Republic's victory over the Sith. Remembering the hushed whispers that she heard about Darth Revan and Malak's ferocity while aboard the Endar Spire, this Bastila must be a strong Jedi to have helped eliminate the Sith Lord.
"Bastila has a rare gift the Jedi call battle meditation. She can influence entire armies through her connection with the Force. She can cause inspiration for her allies, while her enemies lose their will to fight. Sometimes, that's all it takes to tip the balance in your favor during a battle."
"So, how come she didn't use this ability during the attack on the Endar Spire?" Ashla asked, bending down to open the footlocker, which she hoped held her clothing.
"The Sith caught us off guard. The attack happened so fast, she probably didn't have time to use it. She barely made it out of there alive." He responded, rubbing the stubble on his chin thoughtfully.
Luckily, the footlocker had all her gear stowed inside. Carth had cleaned and folded her uniform and armor pieces before packing it inside. After pulling out a pair of pants and a shirt, Ashla tried to stand. However, her wobbly legs didn't want to cooperate and buckled underneath her. With a thud, she landed on her bottom. The blanket pooled around her on the floor. "Damn!" Cursing her weakened state, Ashla felt frail and hated every minute of it.
"Here, let me help you." Carth, coming up behind her, reached down and wrapped the blanket back around her shoulders, then helped her up into a standing position, keeping his hands under her elbows for support. "Maybe you should lie back down for a bit."
Ashla closed her eyes as a wave of dizziness tried to overtake her. Pushing it away, Ashla shook her head, "no, uh, I think I'll feel much better after I'm dressed." She stood still, waiting to make sure the dizzy feeling didn't return, before crossing the room to enter the refresher.
Leaning back on the shut refresher door, Ashla released the shaky breath she didn't realize she had been holding. What a frakkin' mess, she thought, squeezing her eyes shut.
A soft knock sounded from the other side of the door. After a quick glance reassuring herself that she had remembered to lock the door, she replied a hesitant, "yes?"
"Do you feel up to eating? I could go out to pick up some breakfast for us." Carth asked. Her stomach replied in a growl before she had the chance to respond. He laughed softly. "I, uh, take that as a yes?"
Ashla, hugging the clothes to her chest, replied quickly, "yes, thank you."
Carth stared at the closed refresher door. The woman should be in bed still, he thought, not trying to get dressed. He shook his head and let out a quiet sigh."There's towels in the refresher in case you want to take a shower while I'm gone. Just, um… be careful. I'll be back in a few."
He headed towards the front door of the apartment. He stood for a few moments before leaving. He heard the sound of the water running. He listened for a few moments, waiting to make sure she would be okay. After a few moments of hearing the water run, but no sounds of trouble from within, he left the apartment, locking the door behind him.
#
By the time he returned, she had showered and changed into her Republic blue pants and jacket. She was sitting at the table braiding her wet hair, with her long legs tucked underneath her. The warm scent of freshly brewed caff floated to her. "Umm, that smells delicious!" After he handed her a cup, she carefully pried the lid off the cup before sitting it aside. She brought the cup up to her nose to breathe in the delectable aromas before blowing across the top in an effort to cool it down before taking a tentative sip. She couldn't remember ever having a cup of caff that tasted this good before. After taking another sip, she closed her eyes and sighed in pleasure. "This is good caff. Probably the best I've had in a while."
"Yeah, the caff on the Endar Spire was awful." Carth replied, handing her a bento style box. "You should try to eat something."
Nodding, Ashla opened the lid to find a bowl of protein pudding inside with a cup of fruit. Picking up the small spoon from inside of the box, she gingerly dipped it in the pudding, tasting it cautiously. Pale yellow in color, it was sweet and tangy. After tasting the fruit, she emptied it into the pudding, stirring it all together. Polishing off the protein fruit mixture, she settled back into the chair with her cup of caff.
Carth glanced up from his bowl, chewing thoughtfully. "I think we need to try to find Bastila. Being a Jedi, she's our best bet to get off Taris. The whole planet is under Sith quarantine."
"Hmm. How do we know that she's even still alive?" She took another sip of caff, enjoying the warmth.
Carth was silent for a few moments. After taking another few bites, he sat the spoon in the empty bowl. "Bastila is young. She's strong in the force. If we were able to survive the crash landing, I'll bet she did too."
"Okay." Ashla sat the cup of caff down on the table. "We find this Bastila. To get off this rock, we'll probably need the help of a Jedi. What do you propose? We steal a ship and blast our way out of here?" She asked, somewhat sardonically.
"Do you have an alternative?" Carth asked gravely.
The intensity of his gaze stilled her. The gravity of their situation began to sink in. They were stuck on a Sith controlled planet with little to no credits. Ashla couldn't think of another way they were going to get out of this mess. She crossed her arms, and stared down into the depths of the cup. Finally, with a sigh, Ashla responded, "No, I can't."
Ashla was silent as Carth finished his meal and sipped his caff.
#
After finishing breakfast, Ashla took Carth's advice to get more rest. Laying on the bed, eyes closed, she listened as Carth worked at the workbench on his blaster. She tried to sleep, but it eluded her. Absent-mindedly, her fingers reached up to trace the scar on her forehead, thinking about the predicament she had found herself in. Stuck on a foreign planet controlled by the Sith with a man she just met. Ashla sighed.Just great. Tired of laying down, she got up. She felt steadier after having used one of the kolto-laced medpacks after breakfast. Her head felt considerably better too, now just a dull ache rather than the sharp shooting pains she had felt upon waking earlier this morning. After using the refresher, she sat at the table watching Carth putting his blaster back together.
"You mentioned earlier that you heard some people saying that a few other pods crashed in the Undercity. Perhaps we should start looking for Bastila there." Ashla said, while tapping her fingers on the table.
Carth set the pieces he was working with down and turned around to look at her. He leaned back against the workbench and nodded. "Nobody will be looking for a couple of grunts like us. We could move around the planet with ease, as long as we don't attract attention to ourselves. Being a Jedi, Bastila will have a hard time with that. She's probably laying low somewhere, trying not to expose herself to the Sith. If she's going to escape, she'll need our help too."
"It's a good place to start." Ashla began to fidget in her chair. She glanced around the room. Realizing that they were about to be spending a lot of time together, she was uncertain about how official they were supposed to be. On board the Endar Spire, Ashla would have addressed him as a superior officer, but here in this intimate setting, what was the right protocol? Plus, she knew next to nothing about him. Ashla crossed her arms over her chest. "So, can I ask you a question?"
"Uhh...sure. I'll tell you whatever I can, though I don't know how much help I'll be."
"Well." Suddenly, she felt nervous. "I wanted to know a bit more about you."
He was silent for a moment before continuing. "Me? Yeah, well, I guess I can understand you wanting to know more about me. I get the feeling that we'll be spending quite a lot of time together. But there will be plenty of time for that later."
"Sure." Ashla replied, tersely. Sensing that he didn't want to talk about himself, she changed the subject. "Did you find the bag I had with me from the Spire? I had some equipment that I picked up off of the Sith troopers. We could probably sell them for extra credits. We could use the money to buy supplies."
Carth nodded towards the footlocker. "It's in with your other armor pieces. That's a good idea. There are shops here in the Upper City that will buy them. We could use this abandoned apartment as a base."
Ashla stood up from the table. She made her way over to the footlocker. Sure enough, the bag that she had hastily slung over her shoulder before leaving her quarters was there, along with the few bits of armor she barely had time to put on, plus her boots. She grabbed the gear, and sat down on the edge of the bed to put on her boots.
"Do you feel up to getting out of here for a bit?" Carth asked as he finished putting his blaster back together. After double checking it, he placed it in the holster at his hip.
Ashla finished lacing up her boots and rose to wrap the belt around her waist. Picking up her vibroblade, she clipped it to her belt so that it hung along her side. After slinging the bag over her shoulder, she nodded. "Yeah, let's go."