A/N: The dichotomy between Czerka and the ithorians I always felt was a false binary. That, and the story could have been much more interesting if they threw in another element that should have been there to begin with. So I did. Let me know your best theory as to what's behind the crazy events of this chapter's conclusion!
Chapter 16: Bad and Worse
The ithorian compound was understated, not much more than a sign out front with double doors leading inside. Marina pushed her way in and stepped over to the ithorian manning the receptionist desk.
"Welcome. How may I help you?"
"Moza told us to speak with Chodo Habat."
"Ah, very good. I will open the doors for you now, and inform Chodo Habat of your arrival. He will be pleased to see you. Carry on through the hallway, it is the last door on the right."
They went in, eyeing their surroundings curiously. The place was alive with activity as more ithorians than she'd ever seen before crowded around huge computer banks, ran reports back and forth, discussed issues in scientific terms she would never dream of understanding, and generally buzzing with energy and enthusiasm.
A few minutes later and they had arrived at the office of Chodo Habat, a spartantly appointed office as understated as their compound, Chodo had crammed in as many potted plants as he could manage into his cramped working space. The ithorian in question sat behind a well-built but plain desk, showing something to Moza who stood looking over his shoulder at the screen. They both looked up instantly as Marina opened the door and the three of them stepped inside. Kreia gravitated towards one of the two chairs set across the desk from Chodo. Atton leaned up against the wall, arms crossed, so Marina took the other seat.
Chodo spread his arms wide. "Ah, it gladdens me that you came. I am Chodo Habat, leader of the ithorians here. I am sorry to impose our troubles upon you, but I did not know where to turn until I sensed your arrival."
Marina paused, instantly on guard. "You 'sensed' my arrival?
Chodo nodded. "I sensed an echo within the Force upon your arrival . . . it is a subtle disturbance, unless one is actively listening for it. I suspected you were one of the remaining Jedi, and hoped that you could help us. This is why I sent Moza to seek you out."
She didn't like the sound of Chodo 'actively listening' for her one bit. Still . . . Well, time to get to get to the point. "Moza said you could 'heal' me. What did he mean?" She crossed her arms defensively without realizing it.
Chodo took a moment to consider his response, leaning back in his chair and tapping his fingertips together. "The echo I felt upon your arrival was not a natural thing. It spoke of a great pain, not of the body, but of the spirit. It is as if you once felt the Force flow through you, then it was torn away, brutally and quickly. The echo comes from the hollows where it once flowed through you."
Marina managed not to gasp in shock as razor sharp memories slashed into her conscious thoughts. She forced them back, waging a silent struggle behind empty eyes, and then it was gone. She looked Chodo in the eyes, and her mask slipped while the raw edges of pain and despair made her voice rasp. "What do you want from me?" It was at once a demand and a plea, and she felt a stab of concern through the misty morass that was Kreia's feelings.
Chodo nodded slowly. "It is a most unusual wound you carry. If you would permit me to examine you, perhaps I could help restore some of what was lost."
Kreia spoke from the first time, her voice cold and hard from beneath her hood. "Your speech is filled with maybes and perhaps. You are bold to make promises of healing while the world under your care burns and dies. You may be able to help, but there is always a price, is there not?"
Chodo started, as if noticing Kreia for the first time, and backpedaled. "Do not mistake me. It is not our desire to see any living thing suffer. But the suffering of Telos is all that consumes us. Tell me—do you know of the problems our restoration efforts face?"
The emotional upheaval inside Marina died, replaced once more by the emptiness she'd known for so long. So that was how it was. Of course it was—what made her think that the ithorians would just help her out? That wasn't the way the galaxy worked. They would heal her if she worked for them. It didn't necessarily make them evil, to have the ability to heal and save and withhold it until you paid the price, it just made them like everybody else.
She spoke again, her voice emotionless and flat. "You mean the trouble with Czerka?"
Chodo leaned forward again, suddenly businesslike as the tension at his withdrawal of the promised help passed. "Our first goal is to get the Restoration Project moving forward again. The Republic originally provided a droid intelligence to Citadel Station that would help manage the logistics of the project. It . . . vanished . . . some time ago."
Atton frowned and glanced up from the floor. "What do you mean, 'vanished?'"
"That is not known. It may have been an accident. Perhaps the droid intelligence was overtaxed by the staggering size of the project and became irrational. Some among my herd suspect theft. A droid intelligence of that sophistication would fetch a high price on the black market. Others fear its disappearance the result of sabotage, by Czerka or some other organization that seeks to slow the Restoration Project or discredit us. But the how or why of it is irrelevant. At great expense, my herd has acquired a second, somewhat lesser droid intelligence to take its place. It will arrive at Citadel Station shortly. The Telosian government has offered a small escort, but I had hoped that you might see its safe transition from the docks to here. Might you aid us in this matter?"
Marina blinked. Well wasn't that a fine pile of bullshit? Irrelevant how or why it vanished, was it? What made them think that it wouldn't happen again the instant they got this one? Or if it wasn't stolen and just broke, they were willing to throw good money after bad by having a worse droid take a stab at it? No, they were either idiots . . . or they knew more than they were saying. She looked more closely at Chodo, eyes narrowed, and to her surprise she felt the whispers of the Force come.
His mind felt . . . heavy. Weighed down by the monumental task before him and the incredible amount of responsibility on his shoulders. But behind that, there was . . . something. The moment she felt just a taste of it, Chodo's mind closed off from her. Deliberately.
Shaken, Marina could only stammer, "I, uh, I'll have to think about it."
Chodo nodded sagely, giving no hint of whether or not he was aware of her unintentional probe. "Of course. If you wish to aid us, simply go to Docking Bay two in Dock Module one-twenty-six. I will send word to my people to let you in, should you choose to aid us."
They left quickly after that. As soon as they were out of earshot, Kreia let her opinions be known. I do not approve of this alliance with Chodo Habat and his ithorians."
Marina came up short, hearing Kreia of all people echo her own thoughts. "Why is that?" she asked curiously.
"Habat has an agenda, and he hopes to tie you into it, to use you to his own ends."
Marina nodded. "I agree. I don't like him or the way he's trying to use us."
"Great," cut in Atton, "so we're all agreed to stop pretending we can afford to go around doing good deeds and head on over to the guys with the credits, right?"
Marina bit her lip, hesitating for a moment, then nodded. "Let's at least go hear what they have to say."
They turned around and followed the signs, eventually winding up in front of a huge suite that was as overstated and garish as the ithorians was understated. The entrance itself was marked by neon red lights, and through the front doors the hallway was lined with vaguely Sith-like statutes of abstracted beings either holding up the huge weight of the building itself or being crushed beneath the load, take your pick.
The huge entryway corridor ended with an equally oversized reception desk manned by a protocol droid. "Good day, I am B4-D4, administrative assistant for Czerka Corporation, Citadel Station Branch. How many I help you?"
Once again, Kreia and Atton were content to hang back and watch her make a fool of herself. She held back a sigh and answered the droid. "I'm here to see Janna Lorso."
"Of course. She has been expecting you. You will find her through the door and down the hall on the right."
And they were off, wandering through Czerka's stronghold. And it truly was a stronghold—there seemed to be an entire barracks full of heavily armed mercenaries that sent Marina's instincts into overdrive. What in the stars did they need that much firepower here on the station for? She couldn't think of anything good right off the bat. Her opinion dropped another notch as they stepped into Janna Lorso's luxuriously appointed office in the middle of a meeting with a rodian and a devaronian.
Janna nodded to the shorter of the pair. "I will arrange transport to one of the restoration zones on the planet's surface. You will be safe from the TSF there."
Marina hung back with the others, picking up as much as she could. If Lorso was dealing with criminals, that might be just enough leverage to get her to pay them off with passage off this wretched station.
The rodian nodded quickly. "That seems best. We wish to wait until things cool down before we attempt to seek passage off system."
"For the services you have offered to Czerka, you will also be reimbursed. I trust that is an agreeable arrangement?"
"Oh yes, Executive Lorso," fawned the rodian, and Lorso was just lapping it up. "And if there's nothing else, my associate and I are eager to board the shuttle and leave the station."
"Of course, of course. I will instruct the commander to await your arrival."
The pair of criminals turned to go and jumped at the sight of the odd trio behind them. They scuttled out the door with a single, frightened look at Marina that told her everything she needed to know about how much they knew about her, and were gone.
Marina stepped forward, and Lorso extended a hand and gave her a firm handshake. "I knew you'd come eventually. I am confident that we will be able to reach a working arrangement satisfactory to both you and I. But where are my manners? On behalf of Czerka Corporation, I would like to be the first to welcome you to Telos."
Marina was in no mood for it. "You mentioned work. What sort of jobs might you have for me?"
Lorso smiled, unperturbed by her brusqueness. "Straight to business, I see. Very well. Our primary concern on Citadel Station is the restoration of Telos' surface. The Republic is eager to revitalize Telos as a benchmark for other such efforts in other systems. While a generous amount of credits has been budgeted to Telos, the bumbling of Chodo Habat and his ithorians has squandered away much of these resources. For a project of this size, judicious planning and thrifty spending of resources is a necessity, something Habat fails to understand. He refuses to compromise on any issues, saying that the planet must be restored to perfect health, despite not having the budget for it. Nonetheless, Czerka remains optimistic. There are many jobs we need assistance with. For someone with your experience, you would be well compensated."
Once again, Marina was left with a sinking feeling. Chodo Habat had withheld treatment until she did his bidding, and now Janna Lorso was throwing around euphemisms about how useful her particular kind of 'experience' was going to be. And when people thought about her kind of 'experience,' they always focused on the violent part of it, which meant that this wasn't going anywhere good. Well, at least she was up front about it, unlike Habat.
"What kind of 'jobs' are we talking about here?"
Lorso nodded. "Czerka has been managing the restoration project without the assistance of an integrated master intelligence to coordinate our droids for some time now. Habat has commandeered the new droid intelligence that was to be delivered to the station. I'd like for you to meet the shipment at Dock Module 126, Shuttle Bay 2, and bring the droid back here, before the ithorians foul things up again."
Well, that answered the question of whether or not Czerka had stolen the droid. They weren't likely to take a risk asking for someone they thought was a Jedi to steal it for them if they'd had one. Still, Lorso was maneuvering her, and she didn't like it. Maybe it was worth a shot to play the shocked innocent bystander and see how she reacted.
"Wait, you want me to steal the ithorians droid!?"
Lorso didn't bat an eyelash. "Of course not. I'm simply asking that you help us, as a full partner in the Restoration Project, to requisition a project resource so that we can continue on our work."
Well that was just great. She might not like Chodo and his manipulations very much, but at least she was pretty confident he was going to put the planet's, and therefore the Republic's, best interests at heart. Or at least, more confident than she was in Lorso. And stealing the primary computer running the entire project seemed like it would come under the heading of bad idea. What a mess—talk about the choice between bad and worse.
"I'll have to think about it."
Lorso paused, considering her for a moment. "Look, you're supposed to be a Jedi, right? So I can understand why you might be on the helpless, nature-loving ithorian's side, but believe me, you wouldn't be doing Telos any favors assisting those people, I'm sure. Habat's intentions are good enough, I'll grant you, but good intentions won't restore Telos. His expensive policy of relocating biological specimens from Onderon without any planning will doom Telos in the end. I don't think Habat even realizes that at their current pace, they will run out of funding before even half of the restoration zones are up and running."
Marina didn't budge, and Lorso frowned. "As much as you might distrust me, think about this. Czerka is big, but we have a lot of resources tied up here too, so it's in our best financial interests for this project to succeed, and we're worried. We propose to cut costs by getting the planet to a point where it can recover on its own, not nurse it completely back to health, and to use some of the planet's own resources to help fund the restoration. If we do those two things, the project might have enough funds left to complete the job. Habat, on the other hand, cannot see beyond his own selfish concerns and his prejudice that a big company must be evil."
The corporate woman sighed and looked away. "Just think about it, will you? My offer still stands."
Marina bit her lip, uncertain, and turned away. Lorso had made some pretty good points. But just as Lorso thought the ithorians were being prejudiced against her, she was carrying around her own assumptions about Marina. She thought Marina was a Jedi, not all that interested in her own well-being. Marina happened to be quite interested in not dying, and at the moment the only group around here that wasn't actively trying to capture or kill her was the TSF, and robbing the project was a good way to change that.
So the ithorians it was after all. Wonderful.
"Are you sure about this?"
"For the last time, Atton, no, I'm not. All I know is that—so far— the cops aren't trying to kill us, and this way, they'll stay not trying to kill us while we get closer to leaving the station." Marina turned away from Atton and, as always, scanned her environment unconsciously.
She didn't like the look of this. The hallways of the cramped station were unusually quiet, especially this close to the space docks. And those that did pass by moved quickly, heads down. Somehow, word of the pickup must have gotten out. The question was, were people clearing out because something might happen, or because something was going to happen?
Atton, too, glanced up and down the hallway, and once more his mood and demeanor changed like quicksilver, shifting from whining, down-on-his-luck rimmer to dialed in professional. His voice changed too, dropping the slight drawl and turning quick and precise "Trouble is coming." Ever the enigma.
"It seems our choice to aid the ithorians has set events in motion. There are many plans here, many purposes, all entangled . . . it is difficult to see. You must be cautious." As always, Kreia spoke as if Atton didn't exist. And as always, her words were more cryptic than helpful.
"Look, I know. But we need to get out of here, and that means we need a ship with more range than these little shuttles, which means we need Chodo, which means we need this droid. Let's just get this done."
Marina stepped over to the lone, nervous-looking ithorian at a desk by the hangar inner airlock. "Chodo Habat sent us to help with a delivery."
The ithorian relaxed. "Ah, yes, Chodo said to expect you. Please go in quickly, I believe the shuttle has already arrived."
The airlock opened and they headed inside, waited a moment for the airlock to cycle, then moved into the hangar itself. It was cold, like all hangars, as the magcom field that held in the atmosphere bled heat into space. It was also rather large for a hangar, dwarfing the single shuttle. They must use it to take industrial deliveries for the planet.
And there was the droid. Great . . . the thing was big, almost two full meters tall and wider than Marina. It was basically a huge droid brain in a box on wheels. It was mobile, technically, but it was going to be awkward and slow, which was exactly what you wanted from your escortees. At least they were going to get some help . . . right?
There next to the droid stood an ithorian, doubtless the shuttle pilot, and a single TSF officer. The man saw them and waved them over. "Thank the Force you're here. I was the only one the TSF could spare."
Alarm bells went off in Marina's head. Only one? To protect an asset vital to the station's future? The TSF were outnumbered and outgunned, but that meant you concentrated your resources, achieved overwhelming superiority in the most important spots and stayed mobile.
What was Grenn playing at? He was either criminally stupid, or he was up to something. But the only way he could try anything was if he knew someone was securing the droid . . . which meant the ithorians had let the TSF know she was coming. Given the TSF's internal security, that could only be bad news. But who had made the first move? Grenn was stretched to the limit, it didn't seem likely he'd be wiling to take a risk on something as important as this, especially since he had to know her opinion of the TSF was already pretty low. If it were just the TSF at issue here, she'd walk away without a second thought, and Grenn knew it.
So Chodo must have put him up to it. But what was it? She'd been brought in ostensibly to increase security. Then Chodo had stripped the rest of the security away. So the goal wasn't to protect the droid.
It was to draw out their enemies, provoke them into an attack.
But there was a problem with Chodo's strategy. It assumed she was a Jedi, and could handle anything Czerka could throw at her, and it assumed she was willing to be used like this. And on both of those issues, Chodo was dead wrong.
She had just opened her mouth to abort when another ship crashed through the magcom field, crunching into the shuttle and flipping it over with an ear-shattering shriek of metal to land directly on the ithorian. Marina was bowled over by the shockwave of that much air being thrown around that quickly in a confined space. Atton went down beside her, but Kreia managed to ride out the storm with a wave of Force energy of some sort.
Marina scrambled back to her feet, taking cover behind the flipped over shuttle as blaster bolts started to fly. They were coming out of the ship! She moved quickly over to the nose of the downed shuttle to peek around, and had started to wave Atton to other side only to see him already there. The TSF officer was shooting wildly, in a panic and in the open, and even as she watched two blasterbolts connected with his torso and bowled him over.
Finally she got a look around the wreckage and saw Czerka security forces, and they were moving out towards the droid. She fired her blaster pistol three times and took down the leader, then ducked back into cover as a hail of return fire started melting through the thin ship hull. Even over the cacophony and the smell of burning ozone, she could hear Atton firing from the engine side, and she felt Kreia taking position behind her with her vibrosword, staying in cover and waiting to make her move until they rounded the corner.
This was bad. Czerka could maneuver freely with their superior firepower, come around both corners at the same time, and wipe them out in one fell swoop. She was about to die. Again. The emotional rollercoaster stormed through her once more, fear and anger and relief and sadness and more, but she didn't have time for it, needed to focus. And, unexpectedly, she felt Kreia's hand on her shoulder, and the bond between them opened. "Do no fear, young one. I will guard you with my life." The utter, complete sincerity behind that simple statement flowed through the bond with a sense of calm the washed through Marina like a wave. She didn't like Kreia, was at least a little terrified of her, but now, at least, she knew—she could trust her protection when it counted.
"Fortunately, it seems we will not be alone here much longer. More than these are interested in what takes place here."
What is she—
Marina's thoughts were cut off as a second shuttle came through the magcom field, this one more precisely. She dared a peek around the corner as the distracted Czerka goons turned to face this new threat, and a motley assortment of gang members of all races and sizes stormed out and opened fire on Czerka. But unlike most gangs, they worked quickly, precisely, aimed fire and covering for each other. And now it was Czerka caught out in the open, going down quickly.
Marina's blood ran cold. The Exchange, it had to be.
Marina stayed down and quiet, and once again Atton did the same without instruction. It was possible these newcomers did not know they were there. If they wanted the droid, they were more than welcome to it, so long as they didn't notice the little trio cowering behind the shuttle.
It took only seconds, and the Czerka people were down. It grew quiet, too quiet to hear with the ringing in her ears, but the seconds turned into minutes and nothing. And then the shuttle's repulsorlifts fired and the shuttle flew away, leaving Marina, Atton, Kreia, and one very expensive droid intelligence in the hangar.
Marina stood and cautiously looked around the corner, and blinked in surprise. The bodies were gone. Czerka and Exchange alike, they and all their weapons had vanished onto that departing shuttle, except for one. Not far from her feet lay one tiny, wildly illegal hold-out blaster that had escaped their notice.
Well, it was way past time to get out of here. And as long as the droid was still here, well, might as well get paid for this little disaster. She bent over and scooped up the weapon, but even as she made her usual sweep of the ruined hangar, her thoughts were running on overdrive.
What the hell was going on here? Czerka finally gets caught in a compromising position because they used their readily identifiable security forces instead of their deniable mercenaries, and when they were about to finish her off and cover up their tracks, the Exchange comes in to save them? They had just killed the Czerka team, which seemed to indicate that they weren't on the same side, but then they removed all of the damning evidence that could have gotten Czerka kicked off the station, which seemed to indicate they were on the same side. And what was the Exchange after? The one thing she was sure of was it wasn't the droid.
Well, scratch that. She was sure of two more things. First, she was being lied to, by the ithorians, by Czerka, by the TSF, by everybody. And second, if she was ever going to figure out what was going on here, she needed to have a talk with the Exchange.