"Plans are fragile things and life often dashes expectations to the ground."
-Kreia (3,951 BBY)
Star Wars: The Most Dangerous Game
Chapter Eight – Gravity
For the second time in history, the fate of the Old Republic was determined in the skies above Taris.
Two distinct parties, three hundred years apart, participated in the ruinous task of preventing some unknowable and undesirable end—and, in doing so, made those fates manifest. Darth Malak and his Sith Empire were the first, destroying the Endar Spire in orbit to prevent Jedi Knight Bastila Shan from influencing the war he had burned half the galaxy to win. Bringing down that ship, and attempting to kill all those aboard, had set into motion a series of events that culminated in his demise aboard the Star Forge, bringing an end to the crusade he, Revan, and Meetra Surik had started all those years ago.
The Jedi and Zarl's mercenaries were the second, by attempting to kidnap, imprison, or, if necessary, kill the Mandalorian bounty hunter, Shae Vizla. A failed operation that, over the course of the next fourteen years, would escalate Great Galactic War to a fever pitch and conclude with the Sacking of Coruscant and the massacre of the Jedi Order. An age of darkness would return to the galaxy.
And this is how it began:
–
Shae never dreamed of her parents. Not for years. But the adrenaline those visceral images coaxed into her veins kept her awake and alert while an unnecessarily high concentration of null gas was pumped into the passenger cabin of her new employer's transport. You feel the dizziness before you can smell it, and when you notice the taste of citrus on your tongue, you have only seconds before you pass out.
She was tasting something like a Roonan lemon by then, but she had practiced for this. As a bounty hunter, she really didn't know what the galaxy was capable of throwing at her, so she braced for almost every eventuality short of a supernova. Learning to recognize null gas had been on that list, and upon realizing how long she'd been breathing it, the only thing she could do was exhale completely—and wait.
This, of course, was a tad difficult.
"Is she out, Kelsai?" Rennat asked through a gas mask.
"Yeah, she's out," Kelsai replied. "There's a chance she might just be lucid right now, but give it another minute and she won't wake up until our friends get her back to Coruscant."
Coruscant? Shae wondered. What happened to Tattooine? Or their business arrangement, for that matter. Was this all because she wouldn't let them check her pistols? No, even then, Coruscant still wouldn't make much sense. Perhaps she disrupted the wrong senator's commute while she was back there chasing Thrask across half of Level 223. That wouldn't have surprise her as much.
Right now, she just really wanted to breathe.
Rennat was asking, "Have we made contact with our mystery employer yet?"
"No, but he's not late. We just began our first orbit around Taris and the captain said we're not expecting anyone for another few minutes or so."
He groaned. "I just want to get this woman off the ship as soon as possible. I poked around in her equipment trunk before I spaced it—"
WHAT!
Shae felt herself take in a small breath in shock, and her head swam with it. She had thousands of credits' worth of equipment in that trunk! Armor, tech, weapons, ammo, fuel, credentials... Her jetpack... and now it was floating somewhere in the space between Nar Shaddaa and Taris. She couldn't stand it when people messed with her livelihood, and this was tantamount to severing her trigger finger.
She could feel anger building, or something closer to going blood simple. The sensation she had gotten when she pushed Kambern Polis out of the window in Jarvin Trell's place of business.
"Come on, let's get some binders on her."
"Got them right here," said Kelsai. "You're going to take those, right?" Shae assumed she was talking about her blaster pistols.
Rennat cursed. "Nearly forgot. She wouldn't let me take them to the hold. It was either let her bring them aboard or watch her walk away."
"Whatever, just hand them to me."
Rennat hunched over and unhooked Shae's utility belt. He had a bit of trouble with it, so he didn't notice when Shae smoothly unholstered one of her pistols. "I know better than to question the captain, but that mystery employer better be paying us real kriffing good for this."
Shae pressed the pistol up against Rennat's gas mask. "He better," she managed to say, and put a bolt through the man's head. Kelsai screamed. Without missing a beat, Shae stood, gripped Kelsai by her dress and ripped off her gas mask. Once it was on her own face, she took in a big, relaxing breath that nearly made her pass out. Kelsai, meanwhile, seemed to wake up to the fact she was breathing in the null gas and leapt at Shae, trying to retrieve her mask in a fit of shock and panic.
"Hey, calm down!" Shae demanded, trying to keep the woman at arm's length. "Would you ju—Stop! Cut it out!" The woman kept flailing and reaching for the mask until Shae finally had to get her in a choke hold. "If you panic, you're just gonna make it worse. Do you taste lemons yet?"
Kelsai nodded. "You killed him..."
"Yeah, I was there." Shae aimed a pistol at the cockpit. "You tell those boys to open up, okay? The three of you are taking me back to Nar Shaddaa."
"You killed him..."
"Uh-huh. Cockpit. Open. Now." Shae turned the pistol on the woman. "Faster would be better. You're about to pass out from the gas." She guided Kelsai over to the cockpit. "Is there a secret knock or something?"
"Yeah," Kelsai replied.
"Do it." The woman went to knock, but Shae stopped her. "If there's a warning knock that I'm not privy to and I go in there to find them armed and ready for me, I'm going to let you pass out and then I'm gonna space you."
The woman sagged a bit in her arms.
"Woah, now. I was kidding! Kidding... but seriously, get the kriffing door open."
Kelsai knocked three times, paused, knocked four times, paused, and knocked once more. The door popped open.
The captain and copilot were both wearing gas masks, their attention focused on their controls. "Good timing," said the captain. "I think Zarl and his bunch just..." And then he turned around.
"Are you overfond of this girl?" Shae asked, moving aside so the captain and copilot could see Rennat's body in the aisle. "Because that'll be a problem for you two if you don't take me back to Nar Shaddaa. I've decided this working relationship isn't in my best interests."
"Look," said the captain, reaching out for Kelsai. "Just calm down."
"I'm extremely calm. The gas you guys pumped into the cabin made sure of that."
"We're only doing what we were paid to do," the copilot insisted. "We're unarmed. We can talk this out."
"I'm sure you don't have to worry about weapons when you drug anyone who steps onto your ship." Shae pushed the barrel of her pistol up against Kelsai's temple. "You heard me, right? Take me to Nar Shaddaa or I start shooting indiscriminately."
The captain nodded. "Okay, we'll take you. Just be careful with that thing." He turned to his copilot. "Calculate the jump to lightspeed and I'll break us out of orbit."
"Aye, Captain."
The two started flipping switches and dialing in coordinates. The captain made an odd tapping motion that Shae barely noticed, and the copilot nodded a bit too perceptively.
"What was that?" Shae asked. The crew didn't respond. "I asked you—" Suddenly, the entire navigation board went dark and she could hear the engines and hyperdrive cycle through an emergency shutdown. "What did you do!"
The captain ever so casually stood and turned on Shae with a wry and confident grin. "We have just locked out the controls, navigation, and communications equipment. You're effectively stuck out here, miss, and we're the only two people on the Rim who can power it back up." He pointed at Shae. "Now, you have two options: The first is that you release Kelsai, give her back her mask, and pass out like a good girl. Our friends will get you to Coruscant and you'll have a nice chat with our employer.
"Your second option is—"
Shae shot him twice in the gut and once in the head. The captain tipped back onto the navigation console and slumped face-first onto his chair. She turned the gun on the copilot. "I feel like you two didn't hear me. Take me to Nar Shaddaa or I start shooting indiscriminately." She caught herself. "Continue shooting indiscriminately is what I meant."
The copilot, a less courageous man, tossed his hands up in surrender.
"Nod if you heard me," Shae demanded. The copilot nodded. "Good! Unlock the console."
"The captain had the code."
Shae leaned forward. "What?"
"The captain had the unlock code. You just killed him."
"One person had the unlock code for this ship? Just one?"
"Yes."
"I feel like you're lying to me. Possibly even stalling."
"He is lying..." Kelsai groaned, starting to pass under the effects of the gas. "Both... have code..."
"Kelsai!" the copilot snapped.
"You're gonna... gonna get us ki..."
"Shut up!" he shouted, finding his courage. He remembered the gun and put his hands up again, but Shae read defiance in his gaze. "We're not going anywhere. Like the captain said, surrender yourself and this will end. Otherwise, we're going to be here awhile."
Shae sighed. "The absolute nerve..."
Outside the front viewport, a ship dropped out of hyperspace and aimed its heading in their direction. Shae thought back. "That's the ship Rennat mentioned. The 'friends' the captain was talking about."
"So?" asked the copilot. "That's a shipful of mercs right there, bounty hunter. If you don't surrender here, they're not going to want to take you alive. They get paid either way."
"Another ship."
"So?" the copilot repeated.
"Which means I don't need yours," she said evenly. The copilot connected the dots, to his horror. "Which means I don't need you." She shot him through the heart, watched the man's shock trend toward indifference, and he slumped over onto the floor.
By then, Kelsai had finished passing out and slipped through Shae's grasp, joining the captain and copilot on the floor.
"This has just not been my day," Shae said into the empty ship.
–
By the time Shae had figured out how to switch off the null gas and recycle the air, the Tracer-class corvette was making its first pass at the transport, likely sending messages through the deactivated comm. She removed her gas mask and took a cursory sniff of the air. Some residual traces of the gas might have still been in the air, but not enough to cause unconsciousness.
There was only one way out of the Taris system and it was aboard the corvette. She didn't think there would be a simple way to sneak aboard, and she definitely didn't want to be taken in as a prisoner.
Perhaps as a sole survivor, though...
Switching places with Kelsai was the only agreeable idea that came to mind, but the entire plan hinged upon these new arrivals—these apparent mercs—not recognizing Kelsai on sight. If they knew her, the plan was an immediate bust. If they didn't, she might be able to ride with them all the way to Coruscant and sneak away at the first opportunity. Better yet: she might even be able to convince them to drop her off somewhere along the way.
The odds of success weren't great, but it was the only short-notice plan that didn't ensure failure.
She started by switching clothes with the unconscious woman. Kelsai's dress was gaudy, a few centimeters too long, and understandably wet around the neck and underarms. Shae tried to get used to appearing comfortable, but in truth she hadn't so much as touched a dress since she was a teenager. Kelsai looked a little scrawny in Shae's clothes; her arms were a little too short for the sleeves and her legs were too long for the pants. Shae hooked her utility belt around Kelsai's waist and hoped no one would look too closely.
By the time the corvette made a second pass, Shae was putting the finishing touches on her hair, tying it back into a bun to make it look more formal. Conversely, she tussled Kelsai's to make it look more unkempt.
Outside, the corvette used its signal lamp to flash the blink code message HELP REQUIRED? into the cabin. She had to respond; she couldn't give them the impression things weren't under control or else they might keep their distance.
Using her data-gauntlet, she signaled back the words YEZ. HELP, intentionally flubbing the code to make herself seem more inexperienced. Would someone would the look of a stewardess know more than a few emergency words in blink code? And would she know them well?
It seemed to be working so far. The important thing now was looking the part of a young woman possessed of a more fragile constitution who had just watched her fellow crewmembers get vaped. For a moment, she almost felt sorry for Kelsai...
Then, she became Kelsai.
The only real difference between the truth and a lie is whether or not you, as the liar, believe it yourself.
Affecting hysterics, she pressed herself up against the glass of the airlock, sobbing and panting and secretly hoping that these mercs wouldn't do a detailed scan of the transport—or else they might find elements of her backup plan: the four remote thermal detonators she had hidden around the hatch.
–
Shae had taken into account that her disguise might not have held up the entire trip, and she had even entertained the thought that they'd recognize her immediately and take her aboard. At which point: explosives. What she hadn't really expected was being made while aboard the corvette, before they had even detached the umbilical from the transport. Whoever had been on the other end of Zarl's holocall had really done her in.
A very unfortunate turn of events. Then again, it seemed to fit with the theme of the day.
And just to add onto it—
"What. Did. You. Do?" Shae demanded.
Zarl shrugged. "Recalled my men. They'll be here in a few seconds." He held up a hand. "And the whole hostage thing won't work. They'll have locked out the controls by now, just like the transport captain and copilot did. You'll be stuck. Again."
She really wanted to wipe that self-satisfied smirk off the man's face... and she had the right amount of explosives to pull it off.
"You can kill me, but you won't be escaping. You're done, Mandalorian."
"Let me ask you something, Mister Confidence," she said. "Did your merc buddies do an explosives sweep on that transport before coming aboard?"
The color drained out of Zarl's face. Shae wished she had a camera on her.
"That's what I thought." She pushed her arm through one of Kelsai's restraints. "You really should have." And, throwing the man a sly wink, she toggled the detonator on her gauntlet.
What happened next wasn't as instant as she thought it was going to be.
Shae heard the groaning of the corvette's hull first, deep like the roar of a krayt dragon. Then came an increase in pressure that popped her ears and pressed in around her skull. Zarl was moving around the medical bed to stop her, but everything after that was sound and fury.
The cabin decompressed, violently ripping Zarl off his feet midstride and pulling him out of the medical bay. He tried out get a grip on the threshold, but one failed attempt later, he was gone. Malkis's gunshot body tumbled out after him. Shae was swept off her feet, as well, with only a precarious hold on the medical bed restraints to keep her from following Zarl into vacuum. Lights flashed and alarm klaxons could be heard faintly against the storm.
Unless the corvette had some kind of different setup, and emergency air shield would be going up around the new breach in seconds. Shae just hoped there would still be enough oxygen left over afterward.
The flashing lights went steady and the decompression stopped. She fell to the floor, her arm still tangled in the restraints and more than a little friction burned. Working quickly, she removed the restraints around Kelsai and retrieved her utility belt. She had to tighten the belt extra tight over her hips for want of belt loops on the dress.
With a pistol drawn, Shae carefully stepped out into the first corridor, hoping she could guess the layout of the corvette well enough to find the cockpit. The first step was going back up the stairs...
She gasped. Zarl unsteadily pulled himself onto his feet at the top of the stairs, a grappling wire extending from his wrist to the railing. He seemed dazed at first, but moved like nothing had happened when Shae took a shot at him.
"That was a dirty trick, Shae," Zarl groaned from around the corner. "I don't think my friends on the other ship made it down the umbilical in time. That means I'm gonna have to torture you before I kill you." He let out a slightly unhinged laugh. "And it's a long ride back to Coruscant, girl."
"Sir!" A voice emerged from deeper into the ship. "Sir, are you all right!"
"The Mandalorian spaced the away team. Get a couple grenades down this stairway!"
The grenades were already bouncing down the stairs before he finished the order. Shae sprinted past the medical bay and turned right down the next corridor. The concussion followed her and knocked her against the wall. She tasted blood.
"Get after her!" Zarl bellowed.
Shae had no choice but to press on and find cover. The escape pods were in the next room over, but taking one of those might be akin to a death sentence. There was nothing on Taris but ruins and pollution, and she'd likely be killed by the wildlife just before she starved to death. The planet was dead, and the chances of finding help were nonexistent.
That notion seemed to vanish when another set of concussion grenades came rolling into the room. There was nothing for it. She had to get out.
She tumbled into one of the escape pods and pulled the hatch closed. Her fingers quickly played along the small console and, after fixing the approach vector, she was rocketing across the divide between the corvette and Taris. Clumsily, she strapped herself into the crash seat, feeling the gees increasing on her body. Outside her small window, a luminous blue world began filling her view.
–
The escape pod had aimed for the most appropriate surface to ditch upon, and this unfortunately meant a sheer frictionless platform jutting out of the rubble. The skyscrapers of Taris had once rivaled those of Coruscant in terms of sheer scale, and were connected together at various levels by wide durasteel platforms used for pedestrian traffic. Shae presently found herself exiting the escape pod overlooking the edge of one of these platforms, with only a few centimeters between the hatch and a sheer drop into wreckage.
Shae scoured the pod to salvage any supplies. There wasn't much. Some rations had been stuffed into the main compartment, though someone had gotten into them; a few spare sets of clothes, which would be a welcome respite from her dress; and, typical of a merc ship, the components of a sniper rifle and the appropriate ammo. She stuffed all of this into a backpack that had been stowed with the supplies. On the way out, she discovered a dial for the distress beacon, but decided against it. The mercs were likely to glass the entire area if she switched it on.
It took a few minutes to work up the nerve, but Shae able to skirt the edge of the platform and step onto solid—if not even—ground without much effort. Clear of the pod and the merc ship, she gave herself a moment to catch her breath and figure out what she was going to do.
Taris was a big planet, after all. Ruined though it was, there was still plenty of technology lying around she might be able to use to send out a distress call, preferably one that didn't bring the mercs down on top of her. Better yet: scavengers were known to sweep Taris for abandoned relics and other things that would all but force museums to compete with or outbid the black market. She could talk her way onto one of their ships.
There was a chance she could survive all of this and get home in time to be annoyed by Cander gambling away all her credits. "Yeah," she said into dead silence. "This could work." But even with renewed confidence, she was all but certain she was in for a very long day, and with the sun beginning to set like it was, an equally long night.