Guys… It's sad for me to say it but… this is going to be the last update. But anyway, I wish you all Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 18
"Nice outfit" the man in the cage commented when he saw Meetra entering the room. He accented the word 'nice' too much for Meetra's liking. Something stirred in her mind. She had a feeling that she knew the man in the cage. But she couldn't remember why she knew him. "What, the miners changed the patients' uniforms while I've been in here?"
The man in the cage was dressed up strangely, in Meetra's opinion. He had a white shirt, unbuttoned at the top. On his forearms, he had brown gauntlets and he was sporting a thick vest in the same color. He had ordinary black trousers, loosely wrapped up with a belt to which was attached a blaster case, though it was empty.
His wild, untamed hair was brown and he had hazel eyes – something that suited him, as Meetra observed. He had quite sharp features and a subtle stubble. Overall, he was a handsome man, even in Meetra's opinion.
"Does Mr. Charming have a name?" Meetra replied with a sarcastic remark, crossing her arms on her chest to somehow stop the man's eyes from wandering all over her body. Now she understood what Kreia meant when she told her to find some clothes. "And how did you know I'm a patient?"
"My name's Atton… Atton Rand" the man introduced himself; his tone suggesting that it was almost an insult that somebody didn't know his name. "Excuse me if I don't shake hands. The field only causes mild electrical burns" he added with a smirk, obviously trying to get on Meetra's good side with a joke. "As for your question, I'm the one who brought you here. So it's fair to say you owe me one." This shocked her.
"I've been told that I was rescued by someone else" she replied, looking at him suspiciously.
"Well, that's impossible" Atton shrugged his shoulders. "When we landed here, I was the only conscious person on the ship," he told her.
"Kreia never mentioned you," Meetra said, before realizing that she might have told a little too much. After all, she wasn't sure if she could trust him. He wasn't locked up without a reason.
"So that old witch still breathes?" Atton queried, lifting his eyebrows. "She's quite durable for someone her age." He chuckled. "I mean, have you seen her wrinkles? It takes a long time to cause damage like that. Not to mention that the last time I saw her she was passed out… just as you were." This caught Meetra's attention, as she looked at the man in front of her.
"Who are you?" she asked. Atton shrugged his shoulders again.
"I've told you already" he replied nonchalantly. "My name is Atton and I'm the one who saved your sorry ass. If it wasn't for me, the ship we arrived in here would have crashed into thousands of pieces in the hyperspace. So as I've said, you owe me one. So you might as well release me from the cage. This would get us even" he proposed, smirking slightly.
"Not so fast" Meetra countered. Atton's cocky behavior was unnerving her. "First, care to explain why you're locked up?"
"Security claimed I violated some trumped-up regulation or another by landing here with a ship that was inches away from exploding" Atton explained as if it was no big deal. "Take it up with them if you want but the truth is that if I hadn't landed here, our ship would have exploded in the space. Then, all of the Peragus would be gone for good. And we with it. I've told it to them but they stopped listening to me shortly before they stopped feeding. Now that's criminal" he added.
"This facility's dead" Meetra observed. "I've seen a few corpses on my way here. What happened here?"
"It's a real short story" Atton replied. "You see, the Jedi – you – show up and you know that means – where there's one Jedi, the Republic will soon be crawling up your ion engine in no time. But the story gets better" he added before Meetra could say anything. "See, some of the miners got it into their ferrocrete skulls that since you were unconscious, they can collect the bounty the Exchange has posted for live Jedi. Well, what passes for the law here didn't like that idea, so the two groups started fighting. Then there was some big explosion, I was sitting here for a long time, then you showed up in your underwear and things got a lot better" he finished with a smirk. Meetra rolled her eyes on that. But something that Atton said caught her interest.
"There's a bounty on captured Jedi? Why?" she asked. Meetra figured out that a little questioning wouldn't be harmful and certainly would help her to get to know her surroundings.
"Don't know much about it" Atton admitted. "Maybe the Exchange wants one as a trophy, or somebody's got something against Jedi and is looking to collect. There are not many Jedi left… wouldn't surprise me if the bounty's pretty high."
"Not many Jedi left? What happened to them?" Meetra queried. She couldn't believe just how much she had missed during her time in exile.
"The ones that weren't killed in the Jedi Civil War ended up switching off their lightsabers long ago" Atton explained again. "Word is, there's not even a Jedi Council anymore, but who knows?" Meetra smiled slightly at that. That was something she could certainly live with.
"Was it caused by the Mandalorian Wars?" she asked carefully. It was a sensitive topic for her. But if that man was looking for her with Kreia, then he must have known of her past.
"Yeah, Revan, Malak, and the Jedi that went to join them in the Mandalorian Wars" Atton replied. "They turned against the other Jedi and had a scrap that almost laid waste to the galaxy. Heh. Where have you been for the past few years?"
Revan… what have you done? She wondered to herself. Indeed, she missed many events since her sentence.
"I've been… away since the Mandalorian Wars," Meetra replied hesitantly.
"Well, I wasn't there, but like all Sith, Revan and Malak turned on each other. After they turned on the Jedi, of course" Atton explained. Meetra sighed heavily.
Of course, she wasn't completely cut off from the rest of the Galaxy through the past few years. She heard some rumors of what was happening. But she wanted to know if the rumors were true.
"What happened next?" she asked.
"Well, the word is that Revan reclaimed his control over the Sith Empire but disappeared in a blink of an eye before the Republic could do anything. He took his army with him, never to be seen or heard again" Atton said in a blunt tone as if he wasn't describing the events that shook the Galaxy years ago.
"Is that all that happened?"
"Look, not like your half-naked interrogation isn't a personal fantasy of mine, but I was locked up here for quite some time now. I would appreciate it if you released me. I can help you. I can!" Atton added when he noticed that Meetra wasn't so convinced. "I've gotten out of trouble countless times" he bragged.
"Tell me your plan, and we can go from there" Meetra ordered. She didn't know why but somehow she began to trust that man.
"This facility isn't a military installation, which means we may have a chance" Atton began to explain. "First, you shut down this cell's security field, and I can reroute the emergency systems so we can get to the hangars. We grab a ship and then we fly out of here."
"I trust you," Meetra said after a moment of wondering on his words. "And if we work together, we may be able to get out of this mess," she said, approaching the console. She clicked a few buttons and the cage in which Atton was held turned off.
"Great" Atton commented, stretching himself. Meetra couldn't help but notice his shirt going up a few inches, revealing the skin beneath. "Now to business. Let's get to the command console."
"All right, let's go" Meetra replied, following Atton. She was surprised that Kreia didn't contact her during her encounter with that man.
They left the detention room, heading towards the direction from which she came. They both approached a large console that was standing right at the viewport.
"All right, here we are" Atton commented, coming closer to the terminal. "Now this console is set on automatic hail, you may have heard it when you came in" he added, looking at her. "The asteroid drift charts are constantly being updated, so it sends out a transmission to incoming vessels so they don't get crushed into space dust" he explained when he saw that she was looking at him without knowing what he was talking about. "The hail warns them to keep their distance until orbital drift charts are transmitted, and then provides docking instructions to incoming ships… usually freighters. Thing is, you can bounce that same transmission back to the comm here… and suddenly, you've got access to the communication system from the inside" he kept on explaining while doing something at the terminal. He smirked after a moment. "Pure Pazaak – the console's ours," he said proudly. "Now, all we need to do is re-activate the turbolifts, cancel the emergency lockdown… hey!" he exclaimed suddenly.
"What's wrong?" Meetra asked, approaching him. Only then she realized that she's been looking at Atton while he was busy at the terminal. She shook her head.
"This system's been severed from the main hub" Atton explained, turning around to face her. Meetra noticed the subtle glance he cast at her breast before his eyes met hers. "After it was locked down from remote. You can't even reroute the system, it's been cut clean!"
"This wouldn't be standard procedure in an emergency lockdown" she deducted.
"No" Atton agreed with her. "Someone tried to lock down this whole level tight, and leave us here. Trapped" he added with a sigh.
"Is there something else we can do with this console?" she queried.
"I doubt it" Atton admitted shamefully. "All we have is communication back, for all the good trying to shout in a vacuum will do us."
"Let's see if we can try and reach someone on the comm," Meetra said, approaching the terminal.
"Be my guest – not much else we can do. The comm's all yours" he added, stepping aside to let her get access to the terminal. Meetra could feel his eyes wandering on her body as she was working at the console, though surprisingly, it wasn't as annoying to her as she thought it may be.
She pressed a few buttons at the console, entering its interface. After a moment, she accessed the comm system. She tried to access the dormitories, but there was no response. She tried her luck with the Hangar Bay 25.
In response, Meetra heard a series of low-pitched whistles and beeps. A utility droid, she realized.
"Can you read me?" she asked via the comm. Once again, she received a series of beeps and bwoops as a response.
"Do a diagnostic" Meetra ordered, understanding the droid. "Then follow my instructions." The droid beeped in affirmation.
"We're trapped up on the administration level" she informed him. "Can you unlock the turbolifts?" The droid beeped sadly in denial.
"Is there some other way out of here beside the turbolifts?" she asked hopefully. The droid beeped again, this time with something resembling fear.
"I'd rather risk it than be trapped up here" Meetra commented. The droid beeped nervously.
Meetra was listening to T3's steady beeping. She could hear a muffled sound of the droid's wheels rolling on the ground. Every now and then the droid was reporting to her the progress he made. Atton was staring at her as if she had grown out a second head. T3 informed her that he might able to unlock the turbolifts from his current position, as well as the hangar where the Ebon Hawk was. Meetra was glad to hear it.
Her happiness was short-lived, though. After a few minutes, she heard T3's terrified beeps, and then silence.
"I'll never know how someone can understand that trashcan" Atton commented when he noticed Meetra's scowl.
"It's not so difficult… for the intelligent ones, that is" she replied teasingly, taking pride in Atton's blush.
"So, uh, how long have you been a Jedi?" he asked awkwardly, trying to change the subject. Meetra couldn't help but enjoy the way he lifted his eyebrows and rubbed the back of his head as he asked her. "Must be tough, you know… no family… no husband" he commented.
"No tougher than enduring your false sympathy, while you're staring at my chest" Meetra teased him, checking his reaction. She wasn't a fool – she knew that many men found her attractive. To emphasize her words, she crossed her arms on her breasts, noticing that Atton's eyes lifted up a few millimeters. Failed, she wondered to herself with a small smirk.
"Hey, I wasn't trying…" he began to explain, but he was interrupted by a sudden beeping from the console that didn't belong to the droid. Atton came up to the terminal and checked the cameras, aiming for the live footage. He was surprised to see the doors on the lower level being opened. "Hey, what do you know – that little cargo cylinder came through" he commented.
"It looks like it" Meetra agreed with him, checking the camera footage. "But it's strange he didn't contact us on the comm" she mused.
"If he got the turbolifts working, then we should have a clear run to the hangar," Atton said.
"The turbolifts are locked down manually, so I had him open the emergency hatch" Meetra replied. His eyes widened.
"Wait, wait. Don't tell me you're taking that hatch down into the mining tunnels… are you?" he asked hesitantly. "That explosion I heard came from below. There's probably nothing down there except superheated rock and collapsed blast tunnels. You'd be an idiot to go down there" he added, not fully thinking on what he was saying.
"Thanks for a compliment" Meetra replied sarcastically. "But a Jedi's life I sacrifice – besides, someone's got to save our skins" she added.
"You're either really brave or really crazy" Atton commented, shaking his head. "Or both" he added after a moment. "All right – I'll try to monitor things from up here," he said, sighing heavily. "Be careful – the only thing moving down there is likely to be mining droids, so don't be playing hero too hard." He blushed again after Meetra lifted one of her eyebrows and smirked at him. "I mean, I just don't want to be trying to get off this rock by myself" he mumbled.
"Get it" she replied, still smirking slightly. He can't lie, she thought to herself. "See you soon."
"Take this" Atton replied, handing her a portable communicator. "I'll keep the commlink open. I may be able to guide you through the tunnels from up here. Don't know if the signal will hold if you get too deep, though."
"It's nice that you care" Meetra countered teasingly and left before Atton could answer.
Meetra walked back into the corridor from which she came. The map of the facility's layout indicated that the elevator into the mining tunnels was right there. She pressed a few buttons and the elevator descended.
After the doors opened, she found herself in a large corridor, indicating that there was only one possible way for her to go. Before she could venture forward, the communicator she received from Atton beeped, signalizing that he was trying to contact her.
"Can you read me?" he asked.
"Barely" Meetra replied honestly. "There's a lot of static."
"There's a lot of interference down there – probably caused by that explosion" Atton explained. "Still, it looks like there's a route down to the Peragus fuel depot if the passages haven't collapsed," he said. Meetra could hear a muffled sound of the terminal – Atton indeed was keeping an eye on her. That's cute, she thought in amusement. "That explosion knocked out most of the sensors. There should be an emergency crate in the next room" he added after a moment of silence and working at the computer. "Watch yourself. There's a lot of droid broadcasts in that area, but I can't pin them down" he warned her.
"I'll be careful then" Meetra replied. "If you detect anything, contact me."
Meetra wasn't stupid – she knew that Atton found her attractive and that it was his major motivation to look after her. But she was aware that in her current condition – right after waking up from the unconsciousness and without a weapon – Atton's help was necessary.
"Will do" Atton reassured her. "And be careful down there" he added. Meetra smirked at that again, though he could not see it.
She knew that she had to hurry. With each passing moment, she could feel the Force more and more and, as a result, she could feel the approaching presence of the enemies that Kreia warned her about. She couldn't help but wonder why the old woman hasn't contacted her yet. She decided to think about it later, though. After taking in a calming breath, Meetra proceeded further down into the mining tunnels.
Just kidding, this is the last update this year XD. See you all (and hopefully more) in 2020!