Carth could feel the strength sapping out of his limbs. Trying to ignore the pain and the pounding in his head, he shifted the unconscious woman's body to a better position on his shoulder and tried to focus on looking down the corridor. His vision reeled, but with difficulty he spotted a vacancy sign on one of the apartment doors and started moving toward it.
Reaching the door, he tried the entry panel unsuccessfully, forcing him to kneel down and gently lay the soldier on the ground so he could work at the lock. Damn, he thought, wishing for the first time in a long while that he had more scoundrel training with the Republic. Luckily, his was enough. The magnetic doors slid open. Grabbing the vacancy sign and kneeling down again, Carth cringed. The pod had hit hard and his own wounds were debilitating, so he lifted her under the knees and shoulders, committing himself to do as much as he could. With a heave, her body lifted into his arms and he carried her to the closer of the two bunks on the east wall, leaving her only briefly to run back and lock the doors behind them.
Pulling the stash of medigel syringes from his pack, he dropped down beside her and cut away the sleeve enough to inject one of them at the top of her bicep near a bloody spot on her shoulder. Proximity wouldn't help it much, but luckily it wasn't bleeding profusely.
"Dammit," he cringed painfully as he pulled the needle out and moved up to examine her face. It was already starting to bruise badly. Carefully he turned her head to each side, checking for anything he might need to bandage. There was nothing on the surface – probably a concussion, but there was no way to tell. He did a quick survey of the rest of her body looking for places where blood was leaking through her clothes. Finding nothing, he slumped down beside the bunk in complete exhaustion.
I'm lucky to be alive, he thought through a ragged exhale – trying to convince himself more than anything else. His hands were going weak and his body felt like it had fallen out of orbit and crashed onto the planet's surface. Oh wait, it did.
With effort, he reached over for the syringes and injected one in his own thigh, disregarding the material. Republic-issue medigel needles were durable enough to penetrate his armor. In one last effort, Carth rose to his feet and made his way to the second bunk to sleep for the next few hours. He was battered and disoriented, but it wasn't anything that rest and medigel couldn't take care of.
*In a massive metallic room full of computer terminals and giant space-windows like the helm of a ship, a woman with dark hair and unusual robes sprang into view. The yellow lightsaber in her hand revealed her power and her stance showed prowess as she advanced on a dark opponent. Not an inch of emotion could be read behind the black mask he wore, but his body language beckoned her - a challenge that she didn't reciprocated. She remained calculated, eyes on the crimson lightsaber in his hand.
In a fraction of a second the image changed, their blades clashing with incredible noise. The woman struck hard and fast, but her strokes were matched at every step – blocked by the flashing of the red blade. With the sound of high voltage the blades met in the tight space between their faces as each one tried to overcome the other. With a flick, the Jedi pushed her blade past, surrendering the battle of strength for wit. It threw the masked opponent into a defensive stance as he tried to recover his position, but the Jedi's sword came down faster, all but disarming him as his arm flew back, exposing his chest. The light of the yellow blade rose up again, leveled at his unprotected heart.*
Groggy and disoriented, I opened my eyes and saw the unfamiliar ceiling of an alcove for an instant before the stabbing pain in my head and the heaviness of my limbs got to me.
What the hell happened to me? I thought, sliding my legs over the side of the bed and sitting up. Instantly I dropped my head into my hands – the headache was incapacitating. I groaned.
Something moved on my right, but I didn't bother checking it.
"Good to see you up instead of thrashing around in your sleep," came a low, cutting voice that was vaguely familiar. Looking up, it came from a man with dark hair and eyes, wearing a burnt orange jacket. "You must have been having one hell of a nightmare," he said. "I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to wake up." Coming over to offer me a medigel syringe, which I gladly accepted, he continued. "I'm Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you on the escape pod. Do you remember?"
Images clicked in my mind. The voice – it was different without the gelding of the frequencies, but I remembered it. Come to think of it, his face was familiar too; the clear eyes and earnest set. He looked younger in person and less tired than he did in action. He looked strong and healthy, however that was possible considering how terrible I felt.
"Right – Carth, the one on the communicator, I remember. I'm Serana by the way." I said, trying to pull myself together and sit up straight. It was starting to come back now; hurtling through the atmosphere and gaining speed as the planetary gravity picked up. There were no windows, so luckily we couldn't anticipate the crash. It might be the only reason we survived. "How did I get here?" I asked, rubbing my sore neck.
"You've been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple of days now, so I imagine you're pretty confused about things," he relented. "Try not to worry. 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 abandoned apartment. By the time the Sith arrived on the scene, we were long gone."
That was lucky. I wondered briefly how much medigel he'd had to inject to give him such a quick rebound. He couldn't have fared much better than me. "I guess I owe you my life," I smiled. "Thanks."
"You don't have to thank me." He said, turning to toss my empty syringe in the waste bucket as I stood up slowly, leaning heavily on the bunk frame. "I've never abandoned anyone on a mission and I'm not about to start now. Besides, I'm going to need your help."
His concerned tone receded, covered now by a soldier's straightforwardness. It dawned on me what Trask told me on the bridge – that Carth was one of the Republic's most decorated war heroes.
"Taris," he continued, "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 resisted the urge to give him a quizzical look, choosing instead to let him take the lead. If what Trask told me was true, we might stand a chance.
"I saw on your service record that you understand a remarkable number of alien languages," he marveled. "That's pretty rare in a raw recruit, but it should come in handy while we're stranded on a foreign world. There is no way that the republic is going to be able to get anyone through the Sith blockade to help us so if we're going to find Bastila and get off this planet, we can't rely on anybody but ourselves."
"Bastila…" My head throbbed painfully. "She's the commanding officer from the ship, right?"
Carth gave me a worried look. "That smack to your head did more damage than I thought. Bastila's a Jedi. She was with the strike team that killed Darth Revan, Malak's Sith master. Bastila's the key to the whole Republic war effort."
"Right"
"The Sith must have found out that she was on board and set an ambush for us in this system" he continued, casting me a worried look from beneath furrowed brows, but moving on. "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."
"This might seem ridiculous, but indulge me. What makes Bastila so invaluable? How can one person, even a Jedi, be so important?"
"Bastila is no ordinary Jedi," he insisted. "I thought everyone in the galaxy knew by now. She has a rare gift the Jedi call 'battle meditation'. It can influence entire armies. Through the force, she can inspire her allies with confidence and make her enemies lose their will to fight – often that's all it takes to tip the balance in a battle."
"That sounds… powerful. Where was it on the Endar Spire?"
"Of course, there are limits to what she can do," he conceded. "From what I understand of her ability, it requires great concentration and focus to maintain. The attack on the Endar Spire happened so fast she never had a chance to use it. Like us, she barely got out alive."
"I hate to ask this," I ventured cautiously, "but how do you even know that Bastila's still alive?"
"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." His air of command ebbed away again as he leaned back against a workbench. I could see the weariness he wore in the line of his broad shoulders. "Besides," he said plainly, "what's the alternative? I mean, if she's dead, then no one can stop Malak and his Sith from wiping out the Republic. I'd rather operate on the assumption that she survived."
"Alright," I yielded. It was obvious that he had time to think about all of this. "What do you suggest we do next?"
"Well," he started. "Bastila's going to need our help. Many of Darth Malak's followers can use the dark side of the force and the Sith have already killed more than their fair share of Jedi in this war. Our advantage is that nobody will be looking for a couple of common soldiers like us. If we're 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 and the whole planet is under quarantine. No ships can land or take off, so if she's going to escape Taris, she's going to need our help, and we'll probably need hers."
"Any idea where we should start looking?" I asked.
His chin dipped almost imperceptibly in affirmation. "While you were out, I did some scouting around. There are some reports of escape pods crashing down in the Under City. That's probably a good place to start, but the UnderCity is a dangerous place and we don't want to go there unprepared. It won't do Bastila any good if we go and get ourselves killed."
"Alright, I want to explore the area and get some better equipment anyway." I said, eyeing the few basic Republic-issue blasters and short blades Carth had left lying on the workbench behind him. "No offense."
He tossed me a quick smile and indicated the higher-class blaster he carried on him. "None taken. It's a good idea. We can use this abandoned apartment as a base and we could probably get some equipment and supplies here in the Upper City too. Just remember that we need to keep a low profile. I've heard some grim stories about the dark Jedi interrogation techniques. They say the force can do terrible things to a mind – wipe away your memories and destroy your very identity, but I figure if we don't do anything stupid, we should be okay. I mean after all they're looking for Bastila, not a couple of grunts like us. Do you need any more medical attention? There's a doctor at the other end of this sector who's been pretty accommodating."
"I'm a little beaten up, but it's nothing I can't handle. I'd rather get a move on."
"Alright, let me know when you're ready to move out." He said, returning to the holorecord on the workbench.
Showering in the apartment's tiny refresher room was cramped by most standards, but it felt spacious to me; being accustomed to spacecraft showers. The mirror was covered in condensation from the hot steam, so I used a towel to clear an area big enough for my face to reflect. It looked different through the persistent fog, but my green eyes and shoulder-length honey colored hair were visible. As I quickly French-braided my stray locks, I noticed that remarkably my face wasn't bruised or scraped. It looked clean and fresh – rejuvenated from the battle above Taris.
Finishing my hair, I glanced over at the only articles of my clothing that had survived the Endar Spire. The rag-tag combat suit was filthy and torn in a number of places from the crash, especially across the right shoulder and upper arm, revealing the only part of me that still showed outward signs of healing – a discolored section of skin that almost looked like scar tissue. I pulled the shoulder piece up and examined the damage. The suit was functional, but only barely. If we didn't want to attract attention, I needed to find something else to wear. It being the only thing I had, I put it on anyway.
Carth jumped up when I reentered the body of the apartment. "Ready?" he asked, anxious to get going. A quick once-over made him pause though as he noticed the same problem I had. "That suit has to go," he frowned. "I think there's a twilek that set up shop right around the corner. He might have something serviceable. We should... Dammit. You really can't get away with that. I'll be right back..." He looked aggravated by the loss of time. Dropping most of his weaponry onto the table, he darted out the door into the hallway of the apartment complex.
"So…" I called through the door, changing into the new combat suit as fast as I could. "I want to ask you some questions."
I could almost hear him sigh in annoyance through the door before responding. "I'll tell you whatever I can, though I don't know how much help it'll be."
"I'd like to know more about you, Carth."
There was a long pause, followed by an uncomfortable shift. "I understand why you want to know more about me. I get the feeling we'll be spending a lot of time together over the next while, but this isn't really the best time for long introductions; we should stay focused on the task at hand. There'll be a time for that later."
"Alright then," I relented. "What can you tell me about this planet we're on?"
"Weren't you at the debriefing?" He replied shortly.
I took a second to think about that. Oddly, I couldn't remember one.
"Oh wait," he called. "You were transferred late. Well… if you read the visitor's manual version, Taris is a magnificent planet-wide metropolis of towering skyscrapers. That was probably true at some point, but it was a long time ago. The Upper City, where the rich citizens live is still pretty nice, and for the most part, it's pretty safe. If it wasn't for the Sith occupation and the planet-wide quarantine it might not even be that bad a place to live. Farther down… things have degraded."
"How so?" I inquired through the door.
"The Lower City," he elaborated, "is nothing but a slum overrun by swoop-bike gangs waging a never-ending war for control. And the Undercity is, well, even worse. The lowest level of Taris is a wasteland overrun by rakghouls; mindless, diseased mutants that attack on sight."
"Of course that'd be where the escape pods crashed…" I called, working on the last of the straps.
"For decades, criminals were just thrown down there to fend for themselves. Disease ran rampant, corpses were never removed. It's not exactly a pretty place."
"Are they still dropping prisoners down there?" I asked, pushing open the door. Carth was sitting at the table looking impatient, but he jumped up when I came out and gave me a quick once-over. He didn't complain.
"Not officially. The Tarisian government was slammed for it. Now that Malak and his Sith are in control though, I wouldn't be surprised."
"What can you tell me about them? Malak and the Sith, I mean." I asked, leaning back on the wall, much to Carth's irritation. I could tell he was tired of the questions.
He shrugged. "Everything I know about Malak is pretty much common knowledge. He escaped the trap that killed Darth Revan, his Sith Master. With Revan's death, Malak became the new Dark Lord."
Why did none of this sound familiar? "And Bastila was part of this trap that killed… Revan, was it?"
Carth looked incredulous. "You're serious?"
"I'm not up on galactic news lately," I tried to cover. Maybe he was right about that smack to my head…
"Malak," Carth emphasized, "is a ruthless tyrant who'll crush anyone who stands in his way, just like Revan was. When Revan was killed by Bastila's Jedi strike team, we figured we'd cut the head off the beast, but even that didn't slow the Sith down. Malak just stepped in and assumed Revan's role. He took control of the Sith armada and resumed the bloody conquest of the Outer Worlds! Experience has shown that the Sith won't stop until the Republic lies in ruins. Malak and his Sith don't respect anything except raw, brutal power. It's hard to imagine how someone who used to be a Jedi could become such a monster."
"Malak was a Jedi?" I stopped him. "How is that…?"
Again, Carth looked baffled. "Malak and Revan were once both part of the Jedi Order." He eyed me uncertainly. "Against the orders of the Council they went to battle the Mandalorians on the Outer Rim and something happened out there. Something corrupted them and drew them over to the dark side. Or maybe there was something rotten inside them all along. I don't know. When they returned, they formed an army of ex-Republic soldiers and Jedi who had fallen to the dark side, with Revan at their head… until the Jedi killed him at least. You sure you don't want a doctor to look at you?" Carth offered.
"I just haven't spent enough time in Republic space in the last few years, evidently. I'm fine, and besides, the sooner we start looking for Bastila the sooner we find her. We should get moving."
Carth didn't argue with that. He handed me my vibroblades and pointed towards the door. I wasn't much for leading, but I didn't argue.
Clearly, we should have waited a little longer to leave. I had barely gone out into the hallway before I heard the commotion. A few doors down, a Sith officer in low-ranking garb advanced on a small group of old, harmless-looking biths. Behind him were two newly-minted battle droids.
"Okay, you alien scum," he yelled, "Everybody get up against the wall. This is a raid!"
"There was a patrol here just yesterday, and they found nothing!" One of them protested, "Why do you Sith keep bothering us?"
Without a second thought, the officer gunned him down. "That's how we, Sith, deal with smart-mouthed aliens. Now everybody get up against the wall before I lose my temper again!"
At that moment, Carth's movement caught the man's attention and he whirled on us and in time to see my hand fly to my vibroblade in defense. "What's this? Humans hiding out with aliens? Wait…" His eyes flashed with realization. "You're those Republic fugitives! Droids, attack!"
Before the droids even had a chance to fire, Carth disabled both of them with effortless shots and turned his blaster on the soldier, who made the mistake of trying to jump out of the way and fire at the same time. Carth detached him almost instantly, shooting him square in the chest. The guns fell out of his hands as he slumped to the floor.
"Are you alright?" he asked one of the remaining bith, who seemed less rattled than he should.
"I'm unharmed," he confirmed. "Poor Ixgil, though. He should never have talked back to that Sith. Thankfully you were here to step in and help us. This isn't the first time the Sith have come here to cause trouble for us, but hopefully it will be the last.
"I'm just glad we could help," I replied, eyeing the blood that was starting to seep over the floor. "Won't someone come searching for this patrol?"
"Don't worry about the bodies," he said, waving me off. "I'll move them so it looks like they were killed elsewhere. That should be enough to throw the Sith off track. With any luck, they won't be bothering us again for a while."
"We should get going," Carth pressed.
Turning away from the scene, I continued down the hall. Moving around the corner toward the elevator, a pale woman in green clothing stopped me, grabbing me by the sleeve as we passed. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her expression was hard enough to intrigue me.
"Can I help you?" I asked.
"I saw what you did back there," she stated factually. "Who are you? No one does that sort of thing, even in this block."
"Don't worry – you won't be involved if they come back."
She shook her head. "That's not it. I'm wondering – if you're the kind who's willing to take on a Sith patrol, maybe you might help me with Holdan."
"Holdan?" I echoed questioningly. "Who's that?"
"Just one of Davik's men who can't keep his hands to himself. You're a woman; you understand. All he got for his trouble was a nasty scar from my vibroknife, but I'm the one still paying the price."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"When I cut Holdan, it made him back off, but it also embarrassed him in front of his friends. I guess when you're the lackey of the local exchange lord, you get used to girls giving in, and it doesn't help that Holdan's a spiteful little Hutt-slug. He went out and put a bounty on my head for what I did! I've been hiding out here ever since."
"That kind of bounty stands?" Carth wondered out loud.
"Like I said, he's one of Davik's men, so the authorities tend to turn a blind eye. I'm afraid this is between Holdan and I now. You seem like a capable and trustworthy sort. Maybe you could talk to Holdan for me and convince him to call off the bounty?"
"We've got a lot to do, so we can't promise anything," Carth agreed. "But if we get a chance, we'll see what we can do."
"I knew you were the right sort of people. I don't know what to say! Thank you! He usually hangs out at the cantina in the Lower City, so you can probably find him there. My name is Dia. He'll know who I am. I'll be in that apartment over there if you have any success."
It didn't take much longer to get out of the apartment complex and onto the street. The walkway itself was huge and it seemed to be far above the planet surface – like an infantile version of Coruscant. Clunky skyscrapers loomed high above the street in a network that extended for miles around and the noise… There was so much noise. Spacecrafts could be heard among the commotion, but that was dwarfed by the sound of the hundreds of Tarisians talking on the street.
Immediately a large crowd caught my attention, although it took me a moment to realize why they were gathered. The remains of our escape pod made a hulking mass, the top of which could be seen above the throng of people. It was further than I thought from our apartment.
I thought about Carth a little differently. It was one thing to appreciate his rescue, but another to think about him pulling me from the pod and dragging me away in the confusion. It would have been a daunting task.
Carth startled me by putting a hand on my back and urging me forward. "Stop gawking at it," he hissed. "We're armed and there's a Sith guard there. We need to get moving. There's a Cantina in that section of the city," he pointed down an alley. "We should start there."
Without hesitation, I followed his instructions, weaving through the crowded street and down the alley he suggested. After following the alley's corridor around a bend and past a shop, Carth spotted the cantina and pointed it out to me. The door he indicated was across a sky bridge further down and was surprisingly unmarked. The place looked unofficial without neon signs everywhere to advertise its existence. The only thing that made it more noteworthy than any other door in the street was a lone Sith soldier standing sentry.
Carth noticed my hesitation and instantly took charge, ignoring the guard and walking right in. A novel idea, I thought.