Chapter 20- Peragus II

It had been four to five years since I had left my life behind. I had killed Khar. For a while I considered going after Revan but I figured that it'd be pointless. My rumors had arisen over the years that he had gone into the unknown regions of the Galaxy. He wouldn't remember me, he had too many people in his life now. He wouldn't recognize me, I've probably changed. Oh yeah, and there was something about he being an amnesiac. I had also considered growing a beard in these past years. That's what those deserter guys always did in those holovids, they grew beards to hide themselves from their past.

Truth be told, in the situation I was in I probably could have shaved my beard clean off if I had one. I was in a force cage, you see. I had been paid off to go to the Peragus system and steal some fuel transferal codes from the main mining asteroid station. I had been told it had been hollowed out to be mined, a space station had been built within.

Peragus II was a planet that was heavily mined for its fuels. Its fuels were cheap and there was much of it, but it was heavily flammable. It was known that ships that used Peragus fuel always went on bumpy rides. Anyway, eventually something went wrong and Peragus II exploded. The entire planet was blasted out to a different system, fragments of the planet broke off and formed the Peragus Asteroid field. The planet is now illegal to mine, it's too dangerous. Instead the asteroids are being mined, but if anyone was to destroy one (woops) the whole asteroid field would explode, the planet with it.

So I had planet for this to be a stealth ops. I'd sneak in and steal the codes before getting back out. If I was caught I'd pose as a traveler looking for a job or looking for some fuel o buy. The miners didn't buy it when they did catch me and they resorted to locking me up in a force cage. So I failed. After two days they informed me that my ship was stolen from the hangar. My ship! The Violet Horizon had been taken from me. They fed me three times a day until the explosion went off.

This massive explosion had gone off below in the mining tunnels and suddenly all hell broke loose upstairs. I didn't know what was going on and assumed it was a drill. There was no one in the prison room with me so I couldn't confirm with anyone else. I heard the clatter of droids outside the room. It was odd to hear droids move, usually droids didn't come up unless there was maintenance issues and there were so many droids. The miners had missed giving me a meal.

It was another three days before I saw another person on the station. They hadn't fed me for three days and I had to resort to entertaining myself by spitting onto the force cage and watching the spit fizzle up when it came into contact with the electricity. It was amusing for the first few hours so I had to resort to training to sleep upright. The miners were making me sleep in the force cage, whenever I tipped when I was asleep I'd hit the wall and get shocked. I hadn't slept in so, so long.

I just wanted to vomit. My stomach was trying to kill me. I couldn't throw up though, I didn't want spew on my ribbed jacket. My legs were tired and I just wanted to sit down… but the cage burned. I could've killed for a game of Pazaak. Confined to such a small space ruined the point of counting cards as opposed to doing it in a ship. I was soooo bored.

Then the door opened.

A brunette woman walked in wearing nothing but her underwear.

It's a dream.

It has to be a dream.

I stared at her for a moment. She was no dream.

She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I was in love. Undoubtedly. This was not just passion or desire, but love. Damn.

Say something smart. No, say something funny.

'Are you an angel?' no, that would be a terrible pickup line. Okay, how about…

"Nice outfit. What, you miners change your regulation uniform while I've been here?"

And they were the first words I ever said to her. They were the first words I ever said to Meetra.