Though the entire premise of ff is copyright infringment, and as such a disclaimer is hardly necessary, here it is anyway.

Star Wars and all information pertaining to it is the property of Lucasarts Ltd. Knights of the Old Republic is the joint property of BioWare Co. and of Obsidian Entertainment. The short story both preceding and following this disclaimer is an unauthorized piece, spawned from my own imagination. As such, the plot and any original characters are the property of the author. Any money made from this story is against the consent of the author, who is not receiving one thin dime.

Chapter 3

As soon as they broke the atmosphere Lanzhou started preparing all systems for the jump to lightspeed. "Okay, artificial gravity dropping. Deflector shields at maximum. Powering up the hyperdrive. Hold on Cap'n, and start praying." Before Revan could inquire what in the hell the blasé pilot was talking about, Lanzhou hit the hyperdrive for everything it had. It took the ship's systems a few agonizing moments to adjust to the speeds, far higher than what the ship was originally designed to withstand. By some miracle the thing held together, and the Ebon Hawk and her crew flew off into the blue glow of hyperspace.

Lanzhou cried out triumphantly and spun around in his chair. "Ladies, gentlemen, droids and miscellaneous, I am a genius!" he proclaimed. "Forget your troubles, we are now en route to the Unknown Regions."

Atton was doing a systems check, the frown he wore becoming more pronounced with each passing moment. "Life support systems fully functional, relativistic shields strained but operational, hyperdrive output 3.747405725x108 metres per second, or 0.8 past lightspeed." Another triumphant cry from the pilot caused Atton to scowl even more. "I don't know how Revan, but he did it." The Sentinel pilot concluded.

Revan shook his head slowly, a small smile creeping onto his features. "ETA?"

"Well let's see. 45 thousand light years, 0.8 hyperdrive is 125 million times lightspeed." Atton inputted the numbers into the Hawk, and read off the result. "One year, three months, four days, one hour and fifteen minutes from now. Give or take a few seconds." Somehow he was able to maintain a straight face, even faced with Revan's scandalized expression.

"One year? You can't possibly be serious." Revan was, obviously, having difficulty wrapping his mind around the time it would take to reach the nameless Sith world.

"Actually I'm not." Atton confirmed, apathetic to the very angry glare he was receiving from the vastly more powerful Jedi. "Two weeks, give or take a day or two."

Revan snorted through the yawn that reminded him just how late it was. It had taken longer than he had expected to assemble the crew and get the ship spaceworthy again. "You two should get some sleep." He all but ordered the pilots. It seemed that Lanzhou had already taken his advice though the breath mask he wore, combined with his naturally difficult to read Force aura, made it impossible to tell. Atton nodded, rising from his seat and walking down the corridor towards the dorm he shared with the Mandalorians. Revan followed, but only until turning into his own room. Bastila's body suit hung over the back of a chair, its owner lying asleep on the bed facing him. Scratch that, she was not asleep. She looked it, and was so convincing that Revan would never have known the difference but for one thing. Her aura did not reflect the peace of a sleeping sentient; it whirled in time with the thoughts raging through her head. Revan was highly amused by her antic, but repressed the feeling so that she would not become aware.

Fully aware of the show he was giving the Jedi Master, he began to remove his robe. The soft whimper that emanated from Bastila brought a smile to his face. Unfortunately for his little peeping tom, Revan stopped undressing at the dark brown body glove-esque shorts he wore as undergarments. Fortunately for her the item was, as suggested by the name, rather tight. She refrained from uttering another sound, even as Revan climbed into the bed very close to her, though her aura had acquired a distinct tinge that Revan knew quite well. "Bastila?" he murmured in his once-lover's ear. She purred sleepily in response. "Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum." He mumbled before falling into a deep sleep, comforted by the warm presence he wrapped himself around in the night.

---

The next morning Revan found himself in the quite comfortable, if slightly embarrassing, arrangement of being entwined with his bed partner. Evidently, during the cold night of space, they had huddled together unconsciously for warmth. Not that he particularly minded the position, but any headway he had made in getting Bastila to open up to her emotions on their last voyage seemed to have been swept away. Doubtless she would not take to the current circumstance well. Revan was, by some cruel twist of fate, reminded rather harshly to the fact that Bastila wore extremely little to bed. Think, 'hair bands and a smile' little. Needless to say neither the two very hard points poking his chest, nor the warm moistness pressing against his thigh, were doing much to alleviate the awkwardness of their situation. He was having a rather hard time understanding how she could remain asleep with his 'reaction' to the problem pressing into her stomach.

All right, baby steps. Slowly, agonizingly so, Revan slid his right leg from between Bastila's thighs. Next he, with infinite care, raised her left arm from where it had been draped over his side. That left him free to sidle his arm from underneath her brown locks. Breathing a deep sigh of relief, Revan rose from the bed and pulled on some pants. It was early (probably), and he needed breakfast.

Katia had made quite a few alterations to the original Hawk over the years. Most of those were to make it less of a smuggler's freighter. The cargo hold, once quite expansive, had been mostly transformed into a dining area. It was to this part of the ship that Revan, wearing no more than the loose white pants given to him by the Jedi, was headed. Upon arrival he saw that much of his crew was already there, in varying states of dress and undress. In fact the only being fully clothed was Gorrhnak, the Wookie admiral, which didn't say much seeing as he only wore pauldrons and ammo halters anyway. Carth and Proeliator were both in attendance, arguing about what could only be the Mandalorian Wars. Katia was calmly eating some of whatever it was the ship carried for consumables while Atton, across from her, was not so subtly staring at her generous bosom.

"Eyes up Rand, you've been doing so good lately." She reprimanded without looking up. The fierce shade of red attained by the Jedi Master clearly told Revan that the 'holier than thou' treatment he had been presented to at the temple was a façade. Curious that he didn't sense it before. Revan felt a rush of pride for his academy's Jedi Hunter training program.

"Morning gentlemen, lady." He added with a nod toward Katia. "What's for breakfast?"

"By Coruscant time it's actually mid-afternoon, so you'd be having a late lunch." Carth piped up. "But your meal is the same either way." Since he was closest to the food locker he reached over and filled a shallow metal dish with white slop. "There you are, breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions." The Republic officer sarcastically praised, spinning the dish down the table to Revan. A loud clanking announced the arrival of HK-47.

"Assessment: My photoreceptors identify the product as a single-celled protein substance, bonded with vitamins and similar chemicals necessary for meatbag survival. While my processor calculates that it has a similar taste to rotten Bantha fodder, it is a highly nutritious meal substitute.

"Observation: It is also the only consumable resource on this vessel master, so you will have to eat it if you intend to survive the journey." The droid confirmed smugly.

"Everything the body needs, nothing the soul wants." Atton added with a smirk.

Revan looked at the goo doubtfully, but did try some of it. Sure enough it was not very tasty but, as HK-47 so aptly put, it was the only thing to eat on the ship. He took a seat at the end of the table and began to eat. At some point during the meal T3-M4 rolled in, loaded a dish, and headed off toward the cockpit. Bao-Dur, dripping with water and his lower half wrapped in a towel, popped in briefly, but he hardly touched his food before heading off again. An hour or so later, spent by Revan drinking coffee and swapping stories, he felt faint stirrings of consciousness in the back of his mind. The only thing that could possibly mean: Bastila was awake.

Sure enough she walked in shortly afterward, fully dressed naturally, for her 'breakfast.' Revan smirked at her. "Good afternoon sleeping beauty." He teased.

Bastila growled at him. "Is it really that late?" All present nodded. "By the Force, I need something to eat." She moved towards the storage locker containing the Hawk's consumables.

"You need a shower too." Katia commented as Bastila passed. She rose and gripped the senior Jedi by the arm. "Come on, I've been meaning to talk to you anyway." The two of them vanished towards what had been, in Revan's day, the Garage. Now it was a refresher.

Revan took a long gulp of his coffee. "Is it too much to hope?" he asked Carth morosely.

He got a sympathetic shrug in return. "Who knows? Who ever knows?"

Guess who hadn't been keeping up on recent history? "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what in the Corellian Hell is going on here?" Atton asked Carth, who shared a private glance with Revan. Revan nodded solemnly.

Carth looked like his birthday had come early. "Well, that is an interesting story…"

---

Katia led Bastila through the maze of corridors leading to the new refresher. Once they got there, and sealed the door to the female half of the area, the younger Jedi rounded on the elder. "Alright, what's going on?" she asked the senior Jedi, maybe a little angrily.

Bastila, being quite well versed in the art of mind reading, knew exactly what it was the once-exiled Jedi referred to. However, since the subject embarrassed her to some degree, she feigned ignorance. "What is it you mean?"

Katia rolled her eyes. Typical. "Between you and Revan. There's obviously something going on there, whether you like it or not."

Bastila was not yet swayed. It was true that the two females had bonded, in a metaphorical sense, since the Jedi Order was predominately male at this point. In light of all that excess testosterone, sometimes the girls just needed to get together and chat. It was usually just the two of them; Visas rarely spoke to anyone, and Mira was usually too busy breaking the unwritten rule that forbid Jedi from pleasures of the flesh. (Mira was forever smuggling humanoid males out of her quarters in the wee hours of the morning. Bastila was even convinced she had sensed a Togorian once) Despite all that, Bastila trusted almost nobody with her darkest secret. "I don't know what you're talking about." She turned her back on Katia and began to undress, fully intending to have a long shower and forget the conversation ever took place.

Though Bastila could not see it, Katia smirked. "You love him, don't you?" she asked knowingly.

Bastila stopped dead. Only for a moment perhaps, but it was enough for Katia to get the answer she was looking for. "What on earth gives you that idea?" the Grand Master asked, doing her best to maintain a sense of calm. Needless to say she was failing.

Katia's smirk grew. "Oh nothing, besides the fact that every Force-sensitive on board can feel your heartbeat speeding up whenever his name is mentioned or he enters the room you're in. And certainly not that you just stopped breathing for a moment when I asked. I don't know what the big deal is, it's pretty obvious that he loves you too."

Bastila sighed, finally prepared to admit it. "No he doesn't." she corrected in a small voice.

That confused Katia, no doubt about it. There was no chance that she was reading the signals wrong, so what by the Force was Bastila talking about? "Now how did you get a foolish thought like that stuck in your head?"

Bastila sighed again. The conversation she had hoped never to have. At least it wasn't with Him. "Nine years ago he vanished without a trace. He didn't even say goodbye. How could he do that if he really loved me?" it was taking every ounce of Bastila's formidable willpower not to cry.

Katia grimaced. She had forgotten about that. Still, she had a lot of experience in saying goodbye to people she cared about. Of course she hadn't actually gone anywhere, but still. "Maybe he didn't say goodbye because he knew that you would go with him. He doesn't seem like the type to put someone he cared about in danger." Bastila sniffed, but remained silent. "Or maybe he didn't know if he would be able to leave if he saw you again. You never know."

Bastila shook her head. "Thanks for trying Kat, but don't bother. Whatever I may feel for him, he doesn't feel the same way. Best to just let sleeping dogs lie." With that she walked quickly into the shower and locked the door behind her.

Katia sighed. Whatever Bastila said, the mutual feelings between her and Revan were about as subtle as a thermal detonator. It was only a matter of time before the two of them figured it out.

---

Despite her vocal doubts on the subject Bastila had absolutely no difficulty in being the most flirtatious person in the galaxy when she felt like it, as Revan found every single 'morning' for the two weeks that it took the Ebon Hawk to travel the galaxy. During the 'days' she was as uptight as she ever had been, and any potentially romantic moment was spoiled by some interfering crewmember.

One way or another each of the crew found some way to pass the time. Revan and Carth busied themselves with pazaak, in which Atton sometimes joined in, and the occasional game of dejarik. Lanzhou rarely left the cockpit, and spoke to no one. The Mandalorians kept mostly to themselves, usually in some kind of combat training. T3-M4 and Bao-Dur spent their days modifying and upgrading all the crew's weaponry. HK-47 powered down after the first three days after stowing himself in the Storage room just off the main hold. Admiral Gorrhnak went into hibernation, so he wasn't seen often. Bastila meditated endlessly, and Katia spent just as long trying to convince her that Revan really loved her.

All these activities, with the exception of HK-47's for obvious reasons, were put on hold roughly two weeks in when an enormous jerk and loud alarm cut through the almost stifling silence of the ship. "Attention folks, this is your pilot speaking. I'm going to ask our esteemed captain, Revan, to get his holy Jedi ass up to the cockpit five minutes ago." Lanzhou's voice cried out over a loudspeaker system Revan hadn't even known existed. Casting a confused glance at Carth he picked himself up off the floor and raced towards the source. What he saw there frightened him, really and truly frightened him.

Lanzhou and Atton were frantically hitting buttons, but through the glass…"We're too late." Revan whispered. Hundreds of Sith Battleships, an untold number of Sith Escort Gunships, and one giant Corsair in the middle of it all: the Sith invasion fleet.

"No shit." Lanzhou piped up. "What was your first clue? Any plans?" Revan had none. He had not expected the Sith to strike so soon.

"We're doomed." Was all he could say.

"Your confidence is a source of personal inspiration Cap." Lanzhou commented sarcastically. "Location?" he asked Atton.

Atton read some charts on his screen. "Arkanis sector. Just outside the Nelvaan system." He concluded.

Lanzhou nodded solemnly, purposefully pushing a button on his controls. "Ladies and gents this is your pilot speaking. Somebody wake up 47, he and Ordo are on turret duty. The rest of you hold on to your breakfast." He gave it a minute before the gunners' replies came over.

"Ready." In Canderous' deep tones.

"Affirmation: Ready." In HK-47's mechanical tenor.

"Commence firing indiscriminately on the Sith. And hold on tight." The pilot added on a side note. "You might want to strap yourself in Cap'n." he threw over his shoulder to the numb Revan. He did so. Lanzhou locked down Atton's control panel, then floored the accelerator. The tiny freighter sped towards the enormous fleet at top sublight speed. It was like the fleet exploded. Every small fighter burst towards them, and the larger vessels all began firing on the single ship. Thanks to Lanzhou's…unique piloting, and some excellent shooting by Canderous and HK-47 they managed to survive, barely.

A soft beeping drew Lanzhou's attention away from the glass to his control screen. Small contingents of fighters were closing in on them on all sides, up and down. A few keystrokes stopped the engines dead, moments later, when they had almost been surrounded, he dropped the repulsors. The ship dropped like a stone for a few metres, almost hitting the ships below them, before Lanzhou gunned the engines and sped away from the ambush. Several agonizing minutes later, in which Canderous fried the lateral turbolaser cannons and Lanzhou almost sent them crashing into countless Sith fighters, they were staring down the Corsair capital ship. Maleficus' flagship. More specifically, they were staring down the Corsair from between two large Battleships, each of which were closing in. "Watch your flanks." Atton admonished the Kel Dor pilot. Throwing the Jedi an annoyed glance, Lanzhou deftly made a few adjustments to the flight plan he had just entered. The Hawk turned 90 degree straight up, then flipped over and shot between the massive ships with moments to spare. The Battleships crashed into each other and exploded, sending bone-jarring shockwaves into the tiny freighter.

Lanzhou checked his instruments, and discovered a bright red light. "We just lost stabilizers." He informed the present company calmly. Looming before them, getting closer by the second, was the planet of Nelvaan. The ex-smuggler pilot switched on the com again. "T3, could you try and restore power to the stabilizers. Thank you." Moments later the red light turned yellow. Mumbling something about how it would have to do, Lanzhou ploughed them into the planet's atmosphere. The strain on the ship was intense, but Lanzhou managed to land with minimal damage. Hopefully. The co-pilot's console was unlocked, and Atton began assessing the damages.

"Stabilizers are hanging on by a thread, lateral gun turrets are out, hyperdrive blew a motivator, life support and communications are missing entirely, and we're out of fuel." The smuggler-turned-Jedi summarized grimly. He turned to Revan. "Well, it could be worse." He suggested.

Revan gave him a look that clearly indicated his belief to the contrary. "How?" he enquired sardonically. Right on cue, the navicomputer blew out in a shower of glass and sparks. Revan picked his way through the mess to the pilot's seat, the occupant of which he picked up and pushed aside. He held his finger over the button, which he thought activated the loudspeaker, and shot a questioning glance at Lanzhou. The Kel Dor nodded. "This is Revan." He spoke clearly into the microphone. "Unsurprisingly we've suffered quite a lot of damage. All hands, organic and droid, report to the main hold for briefing. Now." He switched off the speaker and stood. "That means you too." He told the pilot, and all but frog-marched him to the briefing area.

---

Revan took a headcount once the flow of beings and droids dried up. Everyone was present and accounted for. Good. "Alright, here's where we stand. Thanks to the piloting of Lanzhou Urumqi, we are neither dead nor prisoners of the Sith Empire. However that same Empire has started its invasion some time ahead of schedule, so we are now stuck on this world with no communications, and no chance of alerting the Senate or the Jedi Order of the unexpected change in plans." The imposing man summarized. Things were not looking up, and he could see that many of the non-Jedi sentient organics were looking resigned to mission failure. Conversely many of the Jedi, Bastila and Katia foremost among them, were looking more and more determined to 'finish the game.' Revan of course, was all too happy to give them that chance. "However, even with the extensive list of damages, we have a large crew of extensively skilled beings. If we manage our time properly, we can get this ship up and running with time to spare." He inputted a few keystrokes into the console at the center of the main hold. A holographic image of the Ebon Hawk was broadcast above, with the problem areas highlighted in red.

"First priority: navicomputer. No offense to our esteemed mechanics," Revan nodded towards Carth and Bao-Dur, "but we need droid precision for this operation. That means HK-47 and T3-M4 are in the cockpit."

T3 beeped his acceptance of his responsibility, but '47 was both capable of, and inclined to, add more. "Commentary: Normally master, I would express my disgust with being assigned with this blunt instrument.

"Resignation: However I understand that we are, to use a human idiom, pressed for time, so I will refrain in this case." Revan expressed his gratitude towards the droid, and they both clanked off to the cockpit.

Revan entered another keystroke, and the cockpit area faded from red to the natural blue. "Next priority: life support. Katia, can I leave that with you?" he asked his former general.

"I'll do my best, sir." She replied, subconsciously reverting to military address. She left, and Revan changed the holographic life support from red.

"Third: Hyperdrive. Bao-Dur and Gorrhnak, there should be a spare motivator in the compartment underneath one of the starboard bunks. Replace it and try to stabilize." Bao-Dur only nodded, but Gorrhnak roared his approval, which his infuriating 3PO unit translated.

"My master, the Right Honourable Admiral Gorrhnak, wishes to…" Gorrhnak picking it up by the vocabulator and carrying it out of the room cut it off.

Revan changed the hyperdrive colour. "Fourth: weapons. Both of our lateral turbolasers have been fried. My guess is that was a tibanna overload that blew out the magnetic firing ring. Mandalore, make a new ring on the workbench and fit in a new gas canister for the port turret. Proeliator, the same for the starboard." The Mandalorians saluted and went off to their assigned tasks.

Revan altered the turbolaser colours and surveyed the remaining crew. Himself, Lanzhou, Atton, Bastila and Carth. And the stabilizers, fuel and communications still to go. "Fifth task: stabilizers. Lanzhou, that's your department." The Kel Dor smuggler nodded in such a way that showed his appreciation for the irony of that assignment, and vanished.

The stabilizers on the holographic Hawk turned blue. "Bastila and Carth, I find it hard to believe that we lost an entire tank of fuel in such a short space of time. Personally, I'm guessing we have a leak somewhere. Check the fuel tank and the sensors, and repair anything you find. Don't worry about the fuel, we'll have to figure something out later." Carth left, but Bastila looked thoughtful.

"From what I remember from the Jedi Archives, Nelvaan is home to a wide variety of florae. Couldn't we synthesize a temporary fuel from some of them, at least to hold us to a more civilized system." She suggested.

Revan nodded. "That's what I was thinking too, but depending on how friendly the locals are we might not even need to do that." She nodded in consent and left, a lot on her mind to think over. "Which leaves you and me for the communications dish, Jaq." Revan shot him a feral smile, which made Atton's blood run cold. He had a feeling that it would be a long job.

FYI: the obscene length of time that Atton joked it would take them to reach the Unknown Regions is actually how long it would take a 0.8 hyperdrive to travel from Coruscant to Tatooine, the direction they're heading, under the Galatic calendar. I thought it was altogether too much time, which is why my second ETA is so much less precise.

Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum is Mando'a for 'I love you'