Chapter One
Magdalena Tetra attempted to rub the sleep from her eyes, but wasn't entirely successful. "Just one more document, and then I will call it a night." she thought to herself.
She pulled the next item from the top of the stack and began reading it. For once, the message that she was translating seemed to be important. After completing the translation, Mag saved it onto a blank datapad and rushed off to deliver it to the Jedi.
Commander Carth Onasi was frustrated beyond belief. He had just left a meeting with Admiral Dodonna and things had not gone the way he had wanted them too. As he walked down the hallway, he was consumed by his thoughts. Carth was sick of playing the role of onboard adviser to the Jedi. Bastila Shan may possess the extraordinary power of Battle Meditation, but she was a young and inexperienced Padawan. She had limited battle experience and no leadership training. It was a nightmare.
As he turned the corner, Carth didn't see the young woman approaching him. The two collided. The woman, being much smaller than him, hit the floor. Carth was worried until he heard the woman laughing. He offered her a hand and then helped her to her feet. After she stood up, she began brushing the dirt off of her pants. "Thank you, Commander Onasi. I apologize for running into you. I was in such a hurry to find the Jedi that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
"It's quite alright, Miss…"
Carth flushed. He was a commander that always prided himself on knowing the names of all of his crew members. However, he couldn't seem to place hers.
"Tetra, sir. My name is Mag Tetra. Everything is fine, sir. I am working as a translator for the Jedi and I believe that I may have found something important."
He nodded. "If you don't mind, Miss Tetra, would you quickly explain what the documents' contents are?
Mag began to speak, but an announcement over the loudspeaker interrupted her. "Commander Onasi to the bridge. Repeat, Commander Onasi to the bridge."
Carth resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he calmly turned to Mag and asked her if she would mind accompanying him to the bridge. He was quite curious about what the documents said. Mag nodded and followed him down the corridor.
He turned to her and asked, "How long have you been with the Jedi, Miss Tetra?"
"You can call me Mag, sir. I actually haven't been with them for long. Bastila contacted me a couple of days before the ship docked in Coursant. I was in between jobs and figured my language skills could do some good."
Before Carth could ask Mag what she did for a living, they reached the bridge. He pushed open the door and saw that it was filled with both crew members and the Jedi. Bastila stepped forward and said, "Commander Onasi, I am glad that you are here. We have a bit of a situation."
Carth swallowed and nodded, knowing if he spoke, it would only be sarcastic. Of course there was a situation, otherwise he wouldn't have been paged to the bridge. Bastila continued. "The computer systems seem to be indicating that there is a Sith ship floating around nearby, coming dangerously close to our path. However, there seems to be no way to change our course without giving away our position."
With that statement, arguing erupted in the bridge between the Jedi and military personnel. Mag rolled her eyes and tried to stop the fighting, but nobody would listen. Knowing that there was no reason for this to be happening, besides tensions running high, she stood up on a chair, put her two index in her mouth, and out a loud whistle. Everyone immediately stopped speaking.
"Listen, the longer we keep fighting, the closer we are to getting intercepted by the Sith ship and the less time we have to perform evasive action." Mag said.
One of the navigators sitting near the chair that Mag was standing on asked, "Who the hell is she?"
Several others were nodding their heads in agreement. Carth, using his best commander's voice, spoke up in her defense. "She is translator who is working with the Jedi. But, at the moment, that doesn't matter. What matters is that she is right."
The same navigator spoke up. "Well, what does she know then? If she is just a translator?"
Mag, thoroughly insulted, stepped down off the chair, and made her way to one of the navigation computers. "Well, I know that in less than ten minutes, we will have traveled too far down our path to make a safe backtrack or an evasive maneuver. I also know of an alternative route that will be able to get us safely away without setting us too far off course."
She opened up a set of different star charts and began plotting out a different course. Within a few moments, she displayed her handiwork to the crowd.
There were several cries saying that this was an unknown route. Mag crossed her arms and smirked. "Of course it's unknown to the military, it's an old smuggler's route."
Carth, who had remained quiet for most of the exchange, raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly would you know about this path, Mag?"
She flashed him a quick smile before her face turned serious. "Does that really matter at the moment, Commander? It could be the only viable option we have at this point."
Once again, a whole other set of arguments erupted. Everyone in the bridge was offering their own suggestion of what to do. Mag, realizing that there was nothing else that she could do, quietly slipped out of the room. As she left, she couldn't help but to think that there was a reason that the Republic was losing the damn war.
The Endar Spire lurched and before Mag's half asleep body could react, she cracked her head on the nightstand. Cursing, she attempted to stand up, but fell over again when the ship swayed violently. "Well, they clearly didn't take my advice." she thought as she managed to stand up.
After quickly putting her clothes on and gathering her things, Mag rushed open to the door. When it didn't open automatically, she pushed the manual override button. Again, nothing happened. She swore and opened up the electric panel to see if she could get the door to open. After several minutes and several electrical shocks later, Mag had still not managed to get the door to open.
Luckily, only moments after she had resigned herself to dying alone in her bunk, the door slid silently open. Mag jumped up, blaster in one hand, a vibroblade in the other. She nearly fired, but stopped herself. "Damn it, Trask! I almost shot you!"
"Well, I'm glad you didn't! C'mon, we have to get going, the ship is under attack."
Mag wanted to come back with a snide comment, but held her tongue. There was time for banter later. She followed Trask out of the room and was about to ask him what exactly was happening, but his comm link went off before she could say anything.
"This is Commander Carth Onasi. All remaining personnel need to make their way to the escape pods. Repeat, all remaining personnel to the escape pods."
"Damn, if the commander says it's bad, it is bad!"
Mag nodded and continued to follow Trask down the corridor. They proceeded with caution because they could hear the torrent of blaster fire. As careful as they were, they ended up in the middle of the melee. As they dodged for cover, Mag fired a shot over her shoulder. But, all it hit was the wall. She suddenly remembered why she didn't like blasters.
Thankfully, Trask was a much better shot than her. He quickly picked off two of the Sith. Suddenly, they heard a scream to their right: the last of their allies had been killed. Panicking, Mag turned to Trask. "Cover me."
He nodded and raised his blasters. Mag rolled out from behind the wall and unsheathed her vibrosword. The Sith soldiers were too distracted by Trask's blaster bolts to notice her. She used this to her advantage and quickly stabbed one in the back. As his body sunk to the ground, the two remaining Sith turned to face her. She moved quickly. Mag slashed one across the back of the leg, making him an easy target for Trask. The second soldier proved a little trickier because he had had time to withdraw his blade while Mag was attacking his companion.
The two dueled fiercely. Unfortunately, they were moving too quickly for Trask to get off a clean shot. After several heated minutes, Mag gained the upper hand. But, just as she was about to stab the Sith soldier in the neck, he drew his blade across her stomach. Despite the pain, Mag still managed to jam her blade into him. Both sank to the ground.
After checking that all the Sith were dead, Trask rushed over to Mag. "Are you alright?" he asked while fishing around in his kit for a kolto patch.
She waved him aside. "It's just a cut, nothing too serious. We don't have time to fix it, we have to keep moving."
Trask nodded, but there was a skeptical look in his eyes. "Well, if you insist. By the way, that was some pretty fancy footwork back there. Despite that, what could you possibly have been thinking; jumping into the middle of a firefight like that?"
Mag laughed. "What can I say? I'm terrible with a blaster!"
The two continued on their path, occasionally fighting of groups of Sith soldiers. When they finally made it to the bridge, Trask turned to Mag. "I'm going to switch to my vibroblade, using a blaster in such cramped quarters is just asking for trouble."
She was glad he had thought of it and watched their backs as he switched weapons. Once he was ready, Trask moved to open the door. He counted up to three and the door slid open.
The two were greeted by a large group of Sith soldiers. They rushed in and began fighting for what seemed like hours, but in reality, was only minutes. Mag stabbed, parried, and feinted desperately, simply trying not to die. Between the wound on her head and the gash on her abdomen, she was tiring quickly. When the last Sith was killed, she slid to the floor.
Trask rushed over and was concerned when he saw the blood spreading across her shirt. "Mag, we really should patch you up. You look like hell."
She waved him aside again. "We don't have time for that. We need to get to the escape pods before it is too late!"
Although he didn't like it, Trask knew there was no point in arguing with her. So, he helped her to her feet and they made their way to the door. Suddenly, Mag stopped in her tracks. "Trask, is there another way we can do? I don't know why, but I really don't think we should go this way."
Mag couldn't describe what the feeling was, but she knew it was bad. It felt oily, dark, and disturbing. Trask shook his head. "If we have a chance at making it to the escape pods in time, this is the best route."
As soon as he finished speaking, the doors slid open. Behind them stood a tall, bald man wearing black armor. Without saying a word, he ignited a red, double-bladed lightsaber.
Trask, knowing what he had to do, tossed his comm link to Mag. He withdrew his blaster and yelled "For the Republic!" The doors slid shut.
Mag rushed up and slammed her hands on the door. Her head was spinning from both the situation and the loss of blood. She couldn't remember anyone sacrificing themselves for her before and she wasn't sure how she felt about it. Taking a deep breath, she collected her thoughts. To keep Trask's sacrifice from being in vain, she started moving towards the escape pods.
"Trask, come in. This is Commander Onasi.
She gulped and waited a moment to reply. "Uh, Commander, this is Mag Tertra. Trask, uh, well, Trask is dead. It is just me now."
There was a brief period of silence. "That's a shame, Trask was a good soldier. I was calling to warn you that two rooms down, there is a group of Sith soldiers. Five in total. You could try going around, but I don't think that you have enough time. The ship is barely hanging on."
"Well, Commander, I'm not really in shape to fight off five Sith by myself. I figure out something."
Mag ended the call and walked as quietly as she could to the next room. The pain in her head and in her side was getting close to unbearable. She took a deep breath to try and clear the fog in her brain. It only helped a little.
She took a cursory glance around the room, searching for something that she could use to help her fight off the Sith soldiers. Mag spotted a broken droid in the corner. She pulled off the panel covering its mechanisms, but quickly determined it was too damaged for her to repair on the fly.
Then, Mag spotted the computer in the middle of the room. First, she hacked into the video feed and saw the five sith soldiers in their metallic armor. "Perfect." She muttered to herself.
Next, she sliced her way into the ship's electronic mainframe and rerouted all of the electricity into the conduit into the room next door. Quickly, she switched back to the video feed. Mag watched with relief as the conduit exploded and electrocuted the Sith. All five dropped dead.
She moved quickly into the next room, pausing briefly to check their pockets for extra med packs and credits. When Mag finally reached Carth, he raised an eyebrow. "Geez, you weren't kidding about not being in good shape. We've got to get going, into the pod."
He waited for Mag to crawl in before entering the pod himself. His knee accidently bumped into the launch button and barely had time to buckle himself in. When Carth glanced at Mag, he noticed that she was struggling to buckle herself in because it was jammed. He moved to help her, but his own belt held him tight. As they entered the atmosphere, she was forced out of her seat and hit her already injured head on the instrument panel. Feeling helpless, Carth could only think that it was a lousy way to die.