A/N: My apology for the delay. Real life took hold and I only got a chance to sit down and submit a few things today. Thank you for waiting and hope you still like it. Happy New Year Everyone.

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

Taris

Part Five

"Arh-arh. No, you can't see Gadon." The Twi'lek bodyguard stopped them a few feet away from the leader's desk.

"Why not?" Carth's eyebrow was in a frown: "We were under the impression anyone could see him."

"Oh, that policy is long expired." The bodyguard waved her hand, as if she was trying to get rid of some invisible fly, and chuckled: "Hasn't the guard at the door told you?"

"She let us in," Skye explained: "Obviously she reckoned it was okay."

" But-" The bodyguard was going to argue when the person behind the desk yelled out: " It's okay, Zaerdra. Let them talk to me. You can't stop everyone who approaches us."

Skye looked past the bodyguard. The man seemed quite fit and muscly for his age-she estimated he was no younger than fifty. He was all smiles. There were a few old minor scars here and there on his face. In the eye sockets, where his eyes supposed to be, were two white artificial eyes, shimmering with some kind of electronic glow. The computer chip at the left side of his head was flashing in tiny green dots every now and then. Skye assumed that must be visual chip implants for his sights.

It must be Gadon Thek, the leader of the Hidden Beks.

Zaerdra turned to the person behind the desk: "But Gadon, these people could be spies from the Black Vulkars!"

"Well, I am willing to take that risk, Zaerdra." Gadon's smile deepened.

Zaerdra sighed and stepped aside unwillingly, before turning around and shot them a few warning words: "You can talk to Gadon. But if you two do anything suspicious or have any intention to harm him in any way, you watch….you won't be far away and I swear by my mother's name you will definitely turn into a big pile of mince before you can even lay a finger on him!"

"Very loyal guards you have there, Gadon." Carth commented as they moved towards the desk.

"Oh yeah, excuse them about this. Ever since Brejik, they've been a little edgy toward visitors." Gadon apologized.

"And with good reason." Zaerdra interrupted: "Brejik is an unthankful, bloody schutta, and he's been trying with all his might to get rid of Gadon since he joined the Black Vulkars!"

"Zaerdra." Gadon glanced at his bodyguard: "If you keep going on like this people will start thinking perhaps we are the same as Vulkars and stop coming to us. Do you want that to happen?"

Zaerdra grudgingly turned her head away, but not without a series of inaudible cursing.

" Now, there." Gadon turned his attention back to Sky and Carth: "How may I assist you?"

"We were told we could seek for your advice and information." Said Skye politely: "We are looking for….something...arh….how do we put this? Have you heard anything unusual going on in the Lower City lately?"

"Now why would you ask that, aye?" Gadon nodded, with mild mockery in his tone: "Obviously you two are not local-yocals nor ordinary tourists, hmm…I take the latter one back. I don't believe we have tourists here anymore."

"Do you know anything about the crashed escape pod in the Under City?" Skye asked directly, as there seemed to be no reason to hide that anymore.

"Well, what do you know? I happened to know about this escape pod that crashed." replied Gadon: "They crashed in the rakghoul-infested area about a week ago. From what I've heard, the Black Vulkar sent a salvage team down there before the Sith's search team arrived."

"Have they found anything?" Carth asked.

"Quite a nice chap you are with, madam." Gadon smiled: "Yes, they did find something."

"What is it?" Chorused Skye and Carth.

"Hmm…. was told they found a female Republic soldier namely, plus a few other items." Gadon recalled: "Quite a pretty one, they said."

"The female soldier must be Bastila!" Carth whispered to Skye anxiously: "This is very promising. Bastila is still alive and they seems have no idea about her true identity yet. I wonder how are we going to reach her?"

"Do you know where they kept the soldier?" asked Skye.

"Hmm…that I wouldn't have a clue. She was way too precious to be sold as a slave—that's what they normally do to the captives. I bet they hid her in the Vulkars base. There will be a scoop race event coming up; Brejik had been spreading the news this year's swoop race will be different. I have a serious suspicion he may use her as the prize."

"A winning prize?" Carth raised his eyebrow: " Good Force"

"…We need to get into this scoop race thingy" Skye emerged into some consideration before opening her mouth again: "Gadon, how do we enter?"

"Arh, that," laughed Gadon:" you can't."

"Aye? Why not!?" Both Carth and Skye queried out loud, with some degree of complaint in their tones.

"Well, let me put it this way, you can't enter the scoop race if you don't have a local-yocal as your sponsor. But I might be able to help you out, if you two can do me a favor." Gadon put both his hands on his waist.

"Oh, I see." Said Skye, expecting to hear more.

"What kind of favor?" Asked Carth in alarm.

"Nothing you two can handle." Gadon grinned: "Okay, I suppose both of you are aware of the tension between us Hidden Beks and the Black Vulkars?"

" Oh, yeah." Carth made a sarcastic guffaw: "It's pretty hard to miss -\"

Skye gave him an elbow. Carth made a thumped moan and gave her an evil glare.

"This is terribly embarrassing really. With the state of the planet we are in at the moment, you thought we should be united and deal with the Sith, not behaving like kiddies and fighting for all this nonsense." Gadon smiled ironically: "Well, anyway, our scientist and mechanics had been developing some kind of special accelerator for quite some time. It was only until recently they made some degree of progress and managed to come up with a decent prototype. Unfortunately the secret leaked, the Black Vulkars learned about the accelerator, sneaked into our base, and stole it. Now they claim it is their greatest invention and are widely broadcasting that they are going to use it in the upcoming swoop race."

" Cheeky buggers." Carth mumbled.

Gadon bursted out with laughter: "Damn right. Now is when you two come in handy. Because Brejik was from the Beks, he knew all members by heart so it is rather difficult for any one of us to get into their base to get the accelerator back. You two are newbies in town; no one knows much about you. You can slip into their base, easy peasy, lemon squeezy."

"Thanks for all the confidence, Gadon." Skye folded her arms: "But I still don't think we can just walk straight through their front door without some kind of blaster or grenade firing at us."

"Now who said you two are going through the front door?" Gadon's eyebrow rose. "You can sneak in via the sewers-their back door. Now that the sewer in the Under City is like a maze, I suggest you two bring some kind of guide with you. And I know just the right person."

Both Skye and Carth looked at Gadon with query, waiting for him to reveal who this person might be.

"You can take Mission." Said Gadon simply.

Skye glared at him for a minute without saying a word. She recognized this name; it was that young Twi'lek girl whom they had bumped into in the cantina just a few hours ago; the one with cute dimples and piercing on her face; the one who seemed to know everything about the Lower City, or this planet; the smart-talking girl with a Wookiee friend.

"I think I know which one you are talking about." She said placidly.

"Oh, you do?" Gadon was surprised.

"GADON, you've got to be joking!" Zaerdra interrupted their conversation once again with some degree of surprise and disbelief in her voice: "Mission is just a kid! You want her to lead them through the area that is full of rakghouls and Gamorreans? It is suicide!"

"Mission may be more capable of doing this than you think, Zaerdra." Gadon looked at his bodyguard: "She is the only person in the entire Lower City, perhaps the entire planet, who knows the sewers inside out. She knows all the hidden alleys and secret caches inside out. She is also the only person able to pick some of the most difficult locks. I can't think of any better person than her."

"All right. Say we are deciding to help you out. We get to sneak into the Vulkars' base to steal the accelerator back to you and…." Skye asked.

"Oh, yeah. Then we will sponsor you in the swoop race. You can join our team." Gadon summed up his proposal.

Skye paced back and forth in front of the desk with arms folding, looked as if she was seriously considering Gadon's offer. For the next few minutes, it was dead quiet. People, who overheard their conversation stopped talking, turned their heads around and looked at them expectantly. All you heard was the kicking noise produced by Skye's boots.

"All right, we will do it." Skye snapped her fingers. A few people nearby let out a excited cheering whistle: "There isn't really much choice. We really need to get Bastila out of this situation."

Gadon beamed, half with relief, half with delight: "Excellent. Now, there is one little thing. You might also notice that there are Sith officers patrolling at the turbolift in and out of the Lower City."

"Oh, yeah." nodded Carth.

"I will take that you two have a way to get past the guard since you are already here in the Lower City." Gadon took another look at Carth's Sith uniform: "Now, the one to the Under City is…a bit more strict since everyone know the crash site is in there. They won't let you get past that easily. Luckily, a few days ago we intercepted a couple of Sith search officers who were on their way down to the Under City, they never made it to there and we have all their legal documents."

"Okay." Skye looked at Gadon with mild scepticism, not sure where he was heading.

"I was wondering if you would like to trade your Sith uniform with us. The documents pretty much provide the all passes for you on this planets and with that I don't think the uniform will be needed much longer."

"Why do you want the uniform?" Carth couldn't help but ask when he took the heavy armor off and changed back to his old orange jacket.

Gadon seemed reluctant to give out a straight answer: "…..Let's just say that I like to be well-prepared for the situation."

"I don't trust those gang members, none of them." Carth complained as they heading off towards the Under City turbolift.

"We don't have much choice here, Carth." Skye put down her blaster slightly from just finishing shooting a small group of Vulkars: "Plus, you don't trust anybody, not just them."

Carth cast a side-glance at her: "You noticed that, huh?"

"I've been wanting to talk about this with you for quite some time." Skye looked at Carth seriously: "Why do you having problems trusting people?"

"'Cause I hate surprises." Carth cast her another look before pretending to check the damaged swoop bike in front of him.

"Well, that doesn't really explain anything."

"Do I need to explain anything to you?" said Carth defensively: "I can't see there is any need to do so."

"Well, I happened to be one of those people you don't trust and I am trying to work together with you." Skye rested one hand on her waist.

"I am working with you, aren't I?" Carth tried to avoid her glare.

"For Force's sake! Will you please stop doing this for a second!" Skye grabbed his shoulder, forcing him looking straight at her: "If you are working with me, shouldn't we trust each other? You do know we are on the same side, right?"

"…Yes." replied Carth unwillingly.

"So what seems to be the problem?" Skye demanded.

"….It's nothing against you, Skye." Carth stared at Skye's beautiful pearl blue face for a long time and weighed whether or not he should tell her everything. Finally he sighed: "It was just me."

"Okay." Skye's sparkling dark blue eyes watched him expectantly, waiting for more answers.

"I've told you my homeworld Telos was among the first planets Sith choose to attack, aye?"

"You have." Skye nodded.

"Do you know who issued the attack command?"

"Who? Not the Sith?"

"Oh, that will be the hell lot easier if it was any Sith commander." Carth chuckled dryly: "No, it was my mentor, Admiral Saul Karath."

"Should I know his name?" Skye frowned as she cocked her head sideways. Now, this name did sounds really familiar..

"Of course you should. He is the commander who led the entire Republic fleet to victory in Mandalorian War….well, he used to be."

Skye raised an eyebrow, indicating for Carth to continue.

"Admiral Saul Karath was everything I wanted to be when I was a young fella" Carth sat down on the damaged swoop bike: "He was smart, decisive, very strategic and experienced. I looked up to him, and he taught me everything. I trusted him completely. Never in my wildest imagination had I thought he would leave the Republic and go to the Sith."

"He what?" Skye's jaw dropped.

"Exactly." Carth stared at his hands, suddenly seeming to have developed some profound interest in studying the wrinkles and marks on them: "I should have seen it coming. Just before he headed off to join the Sith, we had a talk. He strongly hinted that the Republic was making a mistake and we should be better off joining the Sith, etc., etc. The conversation didn't end well and he stormed out of my quarter without mentioning anything else. The next morning I heard he was gone."

"Oh." Said Skye blankly, blinking.

"And he took the passcodes to get past the Republic brigades and all Republic ships' ID with him. When I woke up the next morning, the alarms were echoing through the ship as the Sith attacked. I knew straight off it was him and...and….." Carth couldn't finish. His eyes were filled with memories and thickened with pain. His hands had begun to shake uncontrollably. For a moment there, Skye saw a man she had never seen before. The strong, funny, reliable companion and commander she once knew since the Endar Spire had disappeared at this point and time. The man who was sitting in front of her now was the man who had been emotionally injured in the war; the man who had been putting up a brave face for so long; the man who had been betrayed by once his dearest friend and mentor. Her heart began to ache. She knelt down in front of Carth, hesitated for a moment, and reached out her hand as she gently touched his upper arm.

Something broke the spell and snapped Carth back to the reality. He jumped and looked straight into Skye's sapphire eyes.

"…I think that should entertain you enough." He gently pushed her aside and stood up: "Shall we carry on with what we're doing?"

Skye blinked again and stared at Carth with bewilderment. After a few seconds, she sighed inwardly and stood up as well. Well, whatever that was back there and then was certainly gone.