Chapter Six
Disclaimer: I do not own KotOR.
"I'm just saying, as the Republic's Only Hope I'm nearly positive I outrank you," Bastila was saying. She and Carth had been very pleased to see each other for all of two minutes before the bickering about leadership began.
"You're not even old enough to drink on most planets," Carth objected. "Besides, Jedi don't have official military ranking."
"So are you saying you should be in charge?" Bastila challenged.
"I am an actual officer in the Republic military, yes," Carth nodded.
"And you did nothing when you were in charge to get us off this planet," Bastila said flatly.
"We were a little busy trying to save you, remember?" Carth snapped. "Or did you not notice that little detail between being trapped by a neural disruptor and having no idea what to do once you were freed?"
"You don't have any idea of what to do either," Bastila pointed out. "And you were quite unimpeded by a neural disruptor so what's your excuse?"
"We were looking for you!" Carth repeated. "Are you deaf or something?"
"No, I heard you," Bastila said coldly. "But I rescued myself quite nicely, thank you very much."
"Really?" Carth asked skeptically. "Because the fight was on the holonet after the race and it seemed to me that the only reason you got away was because Brejik was distracted because he was arguing with Revan."
"So maybe the…assistance facilitated things," Bastila admitted. "But Brejik would have been distracted by gloating had he actually won."
"Hey Carth, didn't you put Revan in charge before Bastila got here?" Mission piped up. "Even though you know you're going to disagree with pretty much everything he does?"
Bastila raised an eyebrow at that. "Is that true?"
Carth glared at Mission. "Not helping," he hissed. "And yes, it is. Revan can be…very persuasive."
Hearing his name, Revan looked up from the datapad he's been examining. It appeared Carth and Bastila were still at it. "I am fully committed to getting us off of Taris alive," he told Bastila, staring her straight in the eye.
"I…I suppose you're right," Bastila said reluctantly, knowing full well what he'd just did but unable to bring herself to doubt him nonetheless. "If we all died, that would be rather bad for you, now wouldn't it?"
"So now that we've decided that Revan's in charge, what should we do?" Carth asked.
Of course, now that Revan was actually being called upon to decide things, he wished he'd just let Bastila be in charge. Although if she was anything like Carth then Force knew she'd have him running all sorts of bothersome errands.
"You're the one who effectively just put yourself back in charge," Zaalbar reminded him. "Actions and consequences."
"What? So I can't change my mind?" Revan demanded.
"No, it's far too late for that. Everything's decided," Bastila told him.
"Fine…" Revan sighed heavily. "I guess that if the Sith are really shooting down everything that tries to leave the planet without authorization we'll need to steal those codes and the best way to do that is to break into the Sith Base."
"That sounds like an excellent idea," Carth said brightly. "I knew we put you in charge for a reason."
"I suppose that even if you really should have gotten these before instead of trying to 'rescue' me, that is a sound plan," Bastila conceded.
"If we didn't go looking for you, how would you have found us or even known we were here?" Carth demanded.
"I'm a walking Dues Ex Machina, remember?" Revan prompted.
"The Force would have guided me, of course," Bastila answered at the exact same time.
"Well, which is it?" Mission asked. "The Force or Revan's strange ability to be in the right place at the right time?"
"The Force…" Bastila trailed off, trying to figure out the best way to phrase it. "It often operates much like a Deus Ex Machina."
"Does this mean that Revan is Force Sensitive?" Zaalbar asked reasonably.
Bastila looked horrified. "Force, I hope not! We shall have to see, however."
"Why would you hope I'm not Force Sensitive?" Revan asked, highly offended. "Don't you kind of need all the help you can get?"
"Well, yes, but in my experience you're either a Jedi or a Sith. Or a mad hermit on a backwater planet, I suppose, but you're a little young for that. You're not very heroic so if I had to guess, I'd say a Force Sensitive you would be more likely to become a Sith than a Jedi," Bastila explained.
"Except Carth explained that the Sith retirement package sucked," Revan countered. "What's the Jedi retirement plan like?"
"We…don't really have one," Bastila confessed. "Although I suppose as the Jedi are highly esteemed throughout the Republic there would be many options open to you and many people who are highly grateful to you personally for the good you've done for them and you could easily work something out if you were to step down from active duty."
"What is their stance on double-bladed lightsabers?" Carth asked, remembering it was kind of a deal-breaker for Revan.
Looking perplexed, Bastila responded with, "They are discouraged, certainly, but if one fights better with them then they are accepted."
"I am SO joining the Jedi," Revan vowed, looking delighted.
"We don't even know that you're Force Sensitive!" Bastila protested.
"That's assuming that I am, of course," Revan assured her. "So…who wants to go invade the Sith Base with me?"
"I'll go," Carth volunteered. "Seeing as how I still don't trust you."
"I'll go, too," Bastila consented. "Since you two clearly can't get much done on your own."
Revan winced at the thought of spending time with two such unabashed do-gooders who didn't seem to get along very well and looked to Mission and Zaalbar pleadingly.
"Sorry Revan," Mission shrugged. "Your plan sounds suicidal and Big Z and I don't really have any pressing need to leave the planet so we're staying here."
"We'll make sure no one steals anything," Zaalbar offered.
"But…there's nothing here TO steal," Revan pointed out.
"That should make our job easier, then," Zaalbar noted.
Revan rolled his eyes and followed Carth and Bastila out of the apartment.
"Don't forget, we need to deliver the serum to the clinic and let Dia know she's off the hook," Carth reminded him.
"Well, I did say if it didn't inconvenience me we'd help Dia and she is literally two doors down so…why not?" Revan asked rhetorically, moving over to Dia's apartment and expertly breaking in.
"Don't come any closer," Dia warned, waving her vibroblade threateningly. "I…oh, it's you. Did you get a chance to look into my bounty yet?" she asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.
"We talked to what's-his-name for you," Revan answered. "He agreed to drop the bounty."
"H-he did?" Dia couldn't believe it. "I…thank you. Thank you so much!"
"It was no trouble," Carth told her kindly. "Revan made sure of it."
"Would you accept a reward?" Dia asked. "I don't have much, but I do have an old family heirloom that might come in handy."
Carth waited for Revan to jump at the chance for material gain, but to his great surprise, Revan shook his head. "There's really no need; I was happy to help," Revan lied.
Carth exited the apartment somewhat in a state of shock.
"What was that all about?" Bastila asked.
"Some guy tried to molest Dia so she kicked his ass, he put a bounty on her, and we convinced him to take it off," Revan summarized.
Bastila eyed him approvingly. "You did, did you? That was good of you."
"I seek only to make the galaxy a better place," Revan claimed.
"Between the two of us, why did you really turn down the reward?" Carth whispered, pulling Revan back. "Or were you just trying to impress Bastila?"
"Well, there's that, too," Revan admitted. "But do you remember how annoyed you were when I stole from her after you agreed to help her?"
"Yeah," Carth said slowly. "You didn't!"
"I did," Revan confirmed. "I already have her precious heirloom and I thought it might be awkward for her to have to look for it and take up far too much time."
"Why did you take it then if she was just going to give it to us after we helped?" Carth inquired. "I mean, she doesn't have much and you'd have to have known she'd be grateful."
"I might have," Revan agreed. "But how was I supposed to know we'd actually end up helping her? Besides, kleptomaniac, remember?"
"Excuse me," a Rodian held them up. "Would you, by any chance, be the Black Vulkar that won the swoop race in the lower city?"
Revan shook his head. "Sorry."
"Look, I know it's you, okay?" the Rodian said impatiently. "My boss-"
"If you knew it was me that won the race, why did you ask?" Revan interrupted. "And I wasn't lying; you asked if I was the 'Black Vulkar' who won the race and I'm a freelancer."
"Well, you would almost have to be the way you slaughtered all the Vulkars," the Rodian remarked. "My boss, Canderous Ordo, wants to meet you in the Upper City cantina. Don't keep him waiting." With that, he spun on his heel and walked away.
"Wait, what does he want to meet us for-" Bastila began, but it was too late. The messenger was gone. "Do you think it's a trap?"
"How could it be a trap?" Carth asked. "He didn't tell us anything but the guy who is supposed to be there and we don't even know who or what he is."
"I say we go see him," Revan declared. "I love Mandalorians. They're so very practical."
Bastila sighed. "You would think that…"
"Wait…" Carth trailed off. "This guy's a Mandalorian? Are you sure?"
"Of course I am," Revan confirmed, looking surprised. "Canderous of Clan Ordo. I think I might have heard of him, actually…"
"How do you know so much about Mandalorians?" Carth asked suspiciously.
Revan shrugged. "I don't know? Because they're awesome, I guess."
Carth wondered if maybe he should have let Bastila be in charge after all, even if she was just nineteen.
- -
After a quick stop at the clinic to drop off the serum – during which Revan complained the entire time about how they could have been meeting with a Mandalorian at that very minute instead of sorting out the problems of people who were only sick because they wouldn't stay out of the Undercity – Revan, Carth, and Bastila made their way to the Cantina.
Revan scanned the patrons of the Cantina and approached a grizzled-looking man of about sixty. "Canderous of Ordo?"
The man, who indeed seemed to be Canderous, looked pleased to be properly addressed. "I saw your swoop racing and it was very impressive. Somewhat more impressive was how you and that slave girl took on the Vulkars and won."
"I am not a slave girl," Bastila hissed.
Canderous looked inquiringly at Revan, who shrugged.
"What can I say?" he asked rhetorically. "She had a lightsaber and I am rather attached to all of my appendages."
Canderous nodded. "I see. How would you like to get the launch codes to escape Taris from the Sith base for me? I'll provide you with transportation off of the planet."
"We were planning on doing that anyway," Revan informed him. "So why do we need you?"
"The security at the Base is pretty tight. You'd need to pick up the T3-M4 unit Davik had commissioned in order to get in. Just tell them Canderous sent you," Canderous instructed.
"Done and done," Revan agreed, shaking Canderous' hand. "A pleasure doing business with you, my good man."
Carth started banging his head on the wall.
- -
"I'm back for my T3," Revan announced as he entered the droid store.
Janice paled. "Does that mean you killed Davik?"
"Not yet," Revan admitted. "It could still happen. Canderous asked me to pick it up for him."
"Well, despite the fact that I know you're kind of obsessed, you're far too heavily armed for me not to believe you," Janice decided. "That'll be two thousand credits."
Revan snorted. "I'm not paying; charge it to Davik's account."
"Well…alright, I guess," Janice said uncertainly. "He'd probably reimburse you anyway, right?"
As they made their way back towards the Sith Base, Bastila wondered, "What did she mean by 'you're obsessed'?"
"I have no idea," Revan said virtuously.
"He threatened to kill the most powerful crime lord on the planet to get that thing," Carth explained.
T3 beeped a few times.
"T3 says he's not a 'thing' he's a droid and you had better remember that as he's equipped with some very powerful shockers and a flamethrower," Revan translated.
"Now our droid's sociopathic, too?" Carth complained. "Why?"
Revan laughed. "You think this is sociopathic? I knew a sociopathic droid once…he was awesome. He looked like a protocol droid except he called everyone meatbags and then assassinated them. I wonder whatever happened to him."
"I hope we never find out," Bastila murmured.
When they reached the door to the Sith Base, T3 moved forward and worked on the lock for a few seconds before the door opened.
"Isn't T3 great?" Revan gushed. "I think I really like droids."
"You don't say," Bastila said dryly.
Walking into the Base, they were immediately stopped by the Sith receptionist. "Do you have an appointment?"
"No, we're just here to kill everyone and I've discovered that that works best when they don't know you're coming," Revan explained.
"I see," the receptionist frowned. "Well, I certainly don't want to die and while I could probably press this button alerting the entire base before you kill me, that still would involve me dying as there's four of you and only one of me and I'm not armed."
"You should be if you work in a Sith Base," Carth told her.
"Why don't you get out of here so you're not in our way when we start killing people?" Bastila suggested.
The receptionist hesitated. "Well, I would, but you see…what if you were to fail to kill everyone? If I leave my desk and I'm not on my break then I don't get paid for that hour."
"Then why don't you take your break now?" Carth asked.
"I took my break forty-five minutes ago," the receptionist answered primly.
"Okay, this is so stupid," Revan said, massaging his forehead. "How much do you get paid an hour?"
"Fifty credits," came the prompt response.
"Then here you go," Revan said, placing a fifty credit ship in the woman's palm.
"Have fun slaughtering the base," the receptionist told them before practically skipping out the door.
"Guess she's not THAT fond of her job," Revan commented as he made his way to the terminal on the desk she had just vacated. After working at it for a few minutes, he announced, "Okay, I've overloaded several circuits and wiped out quite a few Sith, I deactivated the droids, and turned off the gun turrets. Now what?"
"Now we kill anything that moves and show no mercy," Carth instructed. "These are Sith, after all."
- -
"I think we'll have to let this one out of the cage in order to kill him," Revan said, eyeing the Duros in the force . "Or maybe we can see if this terminal will overload the cage…"
"You can't just kill him!" Bastila said, sounding aghast.
"Why not?" Revan asked. "If even the Sith feel the need to lock him up, he's probably evil."
"Or it could mean that he's being imprisoned for doing something to stand against them," Bastila said reasonably.
"I actually agree with Bastila on this one," Carth said, sounding surprised. Ah, well, it was better than agreeing with Revan again at any rate. "And for that matter, I think I recognize him. You're that guy who we saved from the Sith earlier, right?"
"Yes, yes I am," the Duros confirmed quickly. "They caught me hiding the bodies and so they locked me up here and plan on executing me whenever they get either sufficiently bored or receive some bad news."
"I'd say us slaughtering the entire base would count as sufficiently bad news," Revan mused. "And didn't I tell you to just leave the bodies there? You brought this on yourself, you know."
"Well if I hadn't done anything then maybe you'd be in my place," the Duros snapped.
"Kind of doubt it," Revan countered. "Seeing as how I'm at least three hundred times as awesome as you."
"…Right then," the Duros said awkwardly. "Can you let me out, please? I really don't want to die."
"You won't ask us for money or any other assistance once we do so, will you?" Revan asked suspiciously.
"No, just my life is good enough for me," the Duros promised.
"Then I see no reason not to help you," Revan said cheerfully. "Of course, I don't care enough to do it myself so someone please let him out?"
Sighing, Bastila went over to the console and solved the ridiculously tedious logic puzzle to free him.
"Thank you so much!" the Duros cried before quickly running off.
"Think we should tell him that that's the hallway we haven't disposed of all life-forms in yet?" Carth asked, watching him go.
"I would," Bastila said, "but I'm still annoyed there was no simple 'release' option on the console."
Revan shrugged. "He'll figure it out soon enough."
- -
"How did you get in here, you…Revan?" the Sith governor exclaimed, sounding stunned.
Revan's eyes narrowed in confusion. "How do you know him I am?"
Bastila coughed. "He's probably a swoop fan."
"What a dilemma," the Sith governor muttered. "On the one hand, if I defeated you, my master would surely give me a lightsaber-"
"Wait, you don't even have a lightsaber yet?" Carth interrupted. "Bastila, Republic's only hope or not, is only an apprentice and she has one. And you say you're in charge here? No wonder we haven't encountered any real problems…"
The Sith governor glared at him. "Well nobody asked you. Now what was I saying? Oh, right. If I won or even lived, I'd probably get a lightsaber, but on the other hand…Revan. Even Malak wouldn't take him on without an entire ship and even that wasn't enough, I see. You know what, this just isn't worth it. You're here for the launch codes? Just take them."
Revan stepped forward and took the proffered datapad. "Thanks," he said, sounding confused.
"Will you please let me live?" the Sith governor begged.
"I guess so," Revan decided. "I mean, not killing you saves us at least five minutes."
"But…but he's a Sith!" Carth protested. "And even if he's not good enough for a lightsaber, in order to be put into a position of authority, he's probably had to commit many heinous crimes."
"But think of the five minutes we'll save, Carth!" Revan cried. "Even if you do seem dead-set on wasting it arguing with me."
Carth sighed. "Fine, whatever. But why is he so scared of you?"
"Because I can aim properly?" Revan suggested. "Unlike most of the people on the so-called Light side."
"I agree," Bastila said quickly. "Good aim is getting harder and harder to find these days."
"I don't know…I still feel like I'm missing something…" Carth muttered.
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