Chapter One: A Gift

The dream always came back. And it was always the same, always in a first person view, always dark and dim red light crashing down around her face. She was staring out of a star-filled viewport, watching a battle. She could feel things, like little puffs of air moving on her skin, could feel ties to each ship. It was a heady sensation, one she'd occasionally experienced while in dogfights deep in space. Blast doors sounded behind her, the sound of shields powering down, and three sets of boots pattered across her bridge.

It was her bridge, she knew, but she couldn't tell you how she knew it. She had nothing to go from, no background and no dialogue. Just the sounds of battle. A strange snap-hiss and six lightsabers sprang to life; idly, almost bored, she turned around. Her field of view was limited by something, something dark and heavy. But she had eyeslits, and even though her vision was limited, she could still see. Three red sabers, one yellow, one purple and one green. There were two women and one man in gray and black flightsuits. Her own people; the knowledge came to her unbidden. No names, though; there were never names.

There were two other females, besides herself, one of whom carried the yellow blade and one of whom carried the purple blade. Yellow-Blade was talking, her saber gesturing emphatically. Ais'liin's own lips were speaking, forming words behind the mask she wore, but the voices were something that she'd never heard, wasn't sure that she wanted to hear. Purple-Blade assumed a fighting stance, her saber brought up to thrust straight out from her shoulder, and Green-Blade parried the Red-Blade on the left of Ais'liin. The right Red brought his own blade down in a single, hard diagonal slash towards Yellow, but she dodged it easily; the next scene showed a yellow blade thrust through one of the Red-Blade's chests as the other fell, blue-faced. Ais'liin's hand lowered; she'd not tolerate failure on any level and irritation filled her as she felt the life leave her servant's body.

There was an explosion, and then blaring klaxons sounded in the darkness of her mind. Twisting, struggling to free herself from the waves of velvety darkness.

She awoke with a start, sweat dripping down her face. Her bunkmate, Trask Ulgo stood near her, deliberately not looking at her near-naked form. The klaxons didn't fade away as sleep left her senses, but got louder with each breath. She sat up, rippig the sheets threaded around her body with fury.

"Ulgo, what's going on?" she asked angrily; the irritation hadn't faded with sleep either.

"We've been ambushed by a Sith battle fleet! The Endar Spire is under attack and we don't have much time. Everyone's scrambling for escape pods." He didn't pause in throwing his possessions in a knapsack, but looked over his shoulder and shook his head.

"Are you going to get up, or have a nice lie-in? We have to find Bastila!"

"Who?" The name rang a very dim bell in the back of Ais'liin's battle-ready mind, but it was gone before she could summon up a face to go with it.

Ulgo sighed, fumbling with the straps on his sack. "Bastila Shan, the commanding officer of the Endar Spire, who's not really an officer at all."

"Not an officer?"

"No, but she's the Field Commander for this mission. One of our primary duties is to guarantee her survival in the event of an enemy attack."

"Don't cite the roster to me, Ulgo!" she snapped at him; he glared back. They'd never gotten along.

"You swore an oath just like every one else on this Force-forsaken ship, and now it's time to make good on that oath. I know all about your reputation, both of them," he sneered, "first as a smuggler of the most infamous kind and now as a perfect little soldier. Well let me tell you something, Mandalorian, you might have slunk past the higher-ups in this fleet, but I haven't been snared by your rakish charms and stand-offish attitude." His eyes followed the outline of her body beneath the thin sheet before turning away. "I guess since the Republic figured that they couldn't catch you, they might as well hire you." Ulgo's eyes all but screamed at her, and she threw the thin coverlet off, even angrier than she had been when she woke up. Something in her face must have warned him, though, and he raised his empty hand in a placating gesture.

"I'll admit that the fleet is in need of better soldiers," he shrugged, flicking his eyes out to where the dogfighting was clearly visible on the other side of the viewport. "But both of us signed on for this, Vhel, and Bastila needs all troops at her side during this."

"Since I'm such a mercenary," her tone was witheringly cold, "perhaps I should just head to the escape pods myself, oath or no oath."

"I didn't mean it like that. Besides, you won't stand a chance against the Sith by yourself." He slung the pack over his shoulder and eyed her again as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

"Don't be so sure, Ulgo," she warned, her icy eyes flashing angrily.

"Oh that's right, you're our local ace pilot. Well," he amended, eying her warily as she stood up in nothing but that glorious skin and her underclothes, and lovingly pulled a vibroknife from the small shelf above her head. "We've got to stick together and we can't do that if you kill me. Hurry up and grab your gear; you need to suit up so that we can get out of here."

"Whatever," she muttered, stalking gracefully across the shaking floor to grab her flightsuit and uniform, as well as her hip holster and bir'gaan. As a Mandalorian, whether or not she could remember her childhood, she only carried what she couldn't afford to lose. Into the yawning depths of her little birgaan went her datapad and a stack of chips, her vibroknife and sharpening kit. Also went a spare change of clothing, a spare adjustable holster and her security slicing tools, along with twelve or so spare Tibanna gas cartridges for her blaster and several assorted grenandes. Mandos traveled light, but fought ferociously. She could see the hope beginning to burn in Trask Ulgo's eyes, and it unsettled her.

Her comlink chimed and she hit the receive button. "This is Carth Onasi. The Sith are threatening to overrun our position, and we can't hold out long against this level of firepower. All hands to the Bridge!"

Trask's eyes were wide. "That was Carth, contacting us on our personal communicators."

"Comlink, Ulgo. They're called comms for short." Satisfied that her meager possessions were ensconced in her birgaan, she turned around and pulled the straps on her boots tighter.

Her bunkmate ignored her. "He's one of the Republic's best pilots! He's seen more combat than the rest of the Endar Spire's crew put together." He also ignored her sputtered cough, and the remark that followed it. "If he says things are bad, you'd better believe it!"

"Never said I didn't," she muttered irrtably, fumbling with her stealth unit. The door, which had been shut since she'd awoken, gave off a deep thrumming and she heard the magnetic shield snap into place. "Oh, goody, a warm-up," Ais'liin said, finally fastening her stealth unit around her waist. Ulgo spluttered behind her, watching in near-disbelief as she ran her fingers down to a slightly off-color panel and removed it with the tip of her blade. Within was a mass of brightly colored wires, and she slid her hand into the sparking mass without any hesitation. As he watched, her deft fingers isolated two separate wire-joints, pulled them apart and fastened one of each pair to the mate in the other coupling.

As the doors parted with a sigh, she yawned and hitched her satchel higher on her shoulder, and she beckoning impatiently for Trask to follow. Around the corner, there was a patrol of three Sith in bright armor. With a pang, she recalled a suit of armor different than the ones she saw there, and assumed that the dark blue and greys were her father's. It was obvious from the build of the body in her mind, the wearer was a male, and that she felt some sort of affection for him. But when she blinked the phantom drifted out of her mind and all that was left were three bored Sith and herself. She felt, rather than heard, Ulgo come up behind her.

"These must be the advance boarding party. What do we do?"

She threw him an incredulous look over her shoulder, and drew her blaster and a single grenade, setting the timer for ten seconds. "We kill them, of course." With that, she crouched and rolled the concussion charge down the hallway; miraculously, it didn't stop too early, or make enough sound that they heard it as it rolled squarely between the feet of the second man. Mentally counting, she charged her blaster as quietly as she could, shutting her eyes and pressing herself against the wall.

"Nine...Ten." With a startled yell, the charge went off and threw all three men to the floor. With a breath, she slid down the wall and cleanly put a plasma round through each of the three's heads, pleased that their fancy, shiny helmets didn't stop the soldiers from dying well enough.

"Ulgo, you coming?" she hissed; he stared at her as she hitched the bag higher and set off down the hall. Through two more sets of blast doors, one of which she had to slice as she had their own barracks door, there were more sounds of battle. Ais'liin sighed; this was where she was most comfortable, with a blaster in her hand, and her knife on her hip, stalking prey through any terrain. Hunting was second only to piloting a starfighter.

"How did you do that?" he demanded, catching up with her outside another blast door, beyond which they could hear screeching metal and the sound of a droid shrieking and exploding as something hit it.

"It's what I do. What the Republic hired me for," she retorted, hitting the code to open the door. "Osi'kyr!" she cursed.

"It's a dark Jedi!" Trask said, holstering his own blaster, as they watched the dueling pair; blue and red lightsabers clashed again and again as the Twi'lek Jedi dueled with the Sith. "This fight is too much for us. We'd be better staying back; we'd only get in her way."

"The name is Sith," Ais'liin murmured, not sure why she was arguing the point. The pair parried, locked in a struggled as their blades practically wound around each other. Finally, though, the Jedi raised her hand and pushed the Sith away, delivering a decapitating blow; Trask shuddered as the body twitched and the head rolled slowly towards them. As Ais'liin started forward, there was a great explosion and the Jedi screamed as she caught on fire.

"Damn,we could've used her help!" Trask muttered.

"You've practically got a one-woman army with you; do you think we need help?" Ais'liin said sharply, checking her blaster's Tibanna gas chamber. Together, with her in front and him slightly behind, the two made their shaken, halting, explosion-ridden way to the bridge blast doors. As they slid open, Trask cursed sharply.

"She's not on the Bridge!"

Ais'liin was already sighting up on the Sith by the navigational console, and as she slotted two of them, she grunted as a blaster bolt grazed her leg. "Must've retreated to the escape pods," she got out, as she dropped another Sith and pulled a sword from the dead Admiral's belt; he wouldn't need it anymore.

"We should head that way too, then," Ulgo muttered, shooting one of the remaining Sith. Ais'liin fought with the last remaining Sith, shoving the metal through the gap between his breastplate and belly plate, and the sword pierced his flightsuit with piteous ease; as he choked on his own blood, she left the sword there and put a single plasma bolt through his skull to ease his death. "The Sith want her alive, but once she's off the ship, then there's nothing stopping them from blasting the Spire into galactic dust."

"Turbolift to the starboard section should be three halls down," Trask said, standing by the opposite bulkhead from the bridge. Slowly, she reeled her thoughts back in from coldly killing the Sith soldiers, and followed him. Neck and neck they raced down the halls, noting the bodies in Republic uniforms and trying not to count them, wondering if they'd be next. Finally, the bright blue sign for the turbolift came into view, and they both sighed in relief.

"There's the lift, Vhel. We're safe," Ulgo said, holstering his blaster. At that moment, right as he snapped the nerfhide fixture shut, one of the doors opened with a quiet malevolence and there was a double snap-hiss. Dreading, the two soldiers turned around to face a dark-cloaked man with a double-bladed lightsaber.

"It's another Dark Jedi."

"I noticed that, thanks." Trask turned to her, his boyish features completely serious for once. One hand on her shoulder, he shook her slightly. "I'll try to hold him off. You have to get to the escape pods." Something dark flashed in his eyes, a knowledge he wasn't sharing, and she nodded grimly. If he wanted to die easily, that was his choice, and she'd not let the voice calling her a coward in the back of her head get any louder.

Trask strode towards the Dark Jedi, and she dashed into the lift, hitting the button for starboard repeatedly. As the chime sounded, and the lift began to move, she gasped, barely able to keep from sobbing. Even though the two of them had never gotten along, even though neither of them liked each other, that was all forgotten when they were faced with a common enemy. And as much as she hated the Republic, she had no love for the Sith either. Because she'd just been given a gift by a man she'd never even liked, a gift that she could never repay:

Trask Ulgo had bought her life with his own.