Author Note

A short chapter but it's leading up to an important part of the story.

Reviews

Flaming Man of Iron

I wasn't planning to do anything with the MMO.

Vinyl Scratch3

Why didn't I think of that

Overlord Susanoo

Getting his own ship would be a good idea.

Did I? Oh well I've stopped the quotes now anyway. At some point I'll have to put a different quote up for each chapter, but that can wait.

Arthas

I don't know. Does it really matter?

tylermech66

Well saving the galaxy is kind of important.

Sith Gothic. Chapter 16

Infirmary – The Ebon Hawk – Hyperspace.

I sat watching as Jolee worked to heal Bastila as she laid unconscious on the metal table that took up most of the infirmary. I'd helped the Grey Jedi to remove her combat gear and then even assisted him in covering her lightsabre burns with some kind of green leafy stuff that apparently some sort of regenerative properties Then somehow the old Force User had put into a some sort of coma and I'd almost freaked out, but Jolee had explained he had just put her into a healing trance.

She badly needed one. Malak's apprentice had done a number on her. Shan had gotten separated from the rest of us during the Wookie uprising. I'd been with Mission when the guy had arrived and we'd found the Sith and Bastila in the middle of an epic lightsabre duel. Shan had lost, had been about to die when I'd taken the bastard out.

He'd been powerful, but massively arrogant and worse he'd tried to make me angry. Against a Jedi it was a valid tactic, as rage tends to blind them, but I'd been trained as a Sith I knew how to focus my anger and how to use to fuel my force powers. Still it had been a close thing I'd nearly died a few times, but in the end it Malak's apprentice who was now headless, and as dead as man could be.

Shan had been in the trance for nearly a day now and Jolee was still hard at work, monitoring her vitals, changing bandages, injecting things and running tests. All that time I'd been hanging around but Jolee had never once complained about me getting in the way.

During that time everyone had dropped in for a quick visit. Well not HK-47 as the droid seemed to be upset over the fact that it had missed out on the big fight. Although how a machine could look so annoyed about anything was a bit of a mystery to me as it couldn't change facial expressions.

Jolee had just stopped his work and made his way over to where I was leaning in the doorway.

"She'll be fine lad. You should get yourself something to eat maybe grab some shut eye"

I was now tired nor did I want food.

"I'm not hungry. I want to stay."

I would stay as long as Bastila was here. I just couldn't leave her. It wasn't guilt that kept me here it was just I knew that time was running out.

The old man sighed and took a long look at Bastila before turning back to me and asking.

"Do you love her?"

The fact that I had to think about it told me that I didn't.

"Not yet" I admitted "but I could".

I half expected Jolee to lecture me about attachment, as Bastila couldn't but I'd forgotten that he wasn't exactly a proper Jedi. He seemed to pick up on that.

"I'm not a real Jedi, not any more. They've changed since I was your age".

"What's that supposed to mean," I asked.

I knew he wasn't part of the Order, but in my view there was more to being a Jedi than calling some old farts Master and living in a temple. He was a Jedi even if he denied it.

"I'm not a Jedi any longer. I left the Order a long time ago… you see we had a difference opinion the council and I".

With that Jolee started to tell me his story.

Jolee Bindo had been inducted into the Jedi Order and trained in the ways of the Force at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Apparently during his days as a Padawan, he been considered rather brash and reckless, often defying the Jedi High Council in order to do what he felt was right. That hadn't changed as he'd gotten older.

Somewhere along the way he'd met a woman called Nayama, and the two had gotten married, despite the fact that this had been discouraged.

Later when he'd discovered her to be strong in the Force, he taken it upon himself to train her personally despite the fact that he wasn't allowed to have a student.

Then during the war with Exar Kun, his wife, like many other Jedi, fell to the dark side. She's attempted to convert Bindo, who had resisted the temptation. His refusal led to a lightsabre duel. Jolee had won but he'd been unable to kill his own wife. So Bindo let her go and that act of mercy had led his wife being free to go off and kill other Jedi.

Oddly the Council had not penalized Bindo for his actions, maybe because they had thought that he had already been punished. When they'd then tried to make him a Jedi Knight, perhaps because he had resisted the temptations of the dark side. But rather than take the rank, Jolee had left the Order.

After that he'd tried quite a few things, including a career as a smuggler. Which included a few funny stories he promised to tell me about later.

Then one day he'd crashed on Kashyyyk, and had been living in the Shadowlands for the last twenty years. At first, the Wookiees believed him to be a benevolent forest spirit, even going as far as to call him "the hairless one", and had left gifts outside of his dwelling. At least until the hermit had explained the truth to them

"Did you know that before Exar Kunn became a Sith Lord the Order wouldn't have objected to your and Bastila's relationship… hell," he snorted, "They probably would have supported it"

"What even with a Sith?" I asked.

Bindo snorted again, and then said.

"Do you really think that you're the only dumb kid who ever joined some dark side cult?" he asked me before saying "Back before Kunn the masters were allowed to take more than a single apprentice. More than a few of them would have taken one look at you, seen how messed up you are, and would of offered you a chance to be 'redeemed'".

Messed up I was. I had no idea why I did half the things I ended up doing and I couldn't even figure out what side of the Sith vs Jedi conflict I was on.

"And you'd of taken the offer because of your feelings towards Bastila" the Grey Jedi added.

He was right. I would of taken the offer because I did feel drawn to Shan and I would of joined the Jedi just be close to her. I never would have been a good Jedi but under those masters I might of at least been able to play the role.

Heck under Luke Skywalker's Jedi I would of fitted in, as they at least understood that you didn't need to be a monk in order to be a Jedi.

"I was always under the impression that Jedi Masters were all boring old gits who wouldn't know what to do with a pretty girl, even if she turned up naked at their house with a six pack of beer".

"No, they wouldn't" Jolee said with a laugh, "Jedi these days aren't supposed to form attachments. That all started after Exar Kunn's rebellion. Before that things were very different. Masters were responsible for entire sectors of the galaxy and had a lot leeway in how they trained their apprentices. Lots of Jedi were married and had families, and most of them were adults when they started training. Not many young kids were trained at all unless it was by one of their parents".

I remembered then that it was Nomi Sunrider who had helped to end the Sith Wars by stripping Qel-Droma of the Force using the power of her emotions. She'd been a wife and a mother, and a very great Jedi so why had the Jedi suddenly started forbidding things like having familes?

"Kunn converted about a fifth of the entire Order to his cause" the Grey Jedi was now saying "After he was defeated the council decided to stamp out at what they believed to be the cause of the problem… emotion".

"Emotion?" I said "you can't remove emotion. At least not from human beings".

That was when a felt something from my Force Bond. Bastila was going to wake up soon. She seemed to be somewhat aware of how cold her surroundings were judging by the fact that she was trying to cover her body with her blanket.

"Exactly" Jolee said with a nod, "but they tried any way and they even changed to the Jedi Code, 'There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force'. But it wasn't always recited that way.

That was the new one now, but it would last a very long time. Sadly.

"What was the original?" I asked, wanting to compare it to the one I knew.

"The original version of the code was this: Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet The Force".

That was the one I'd read in the Sith archives and I liked that one. I didn't tell you what to do and it was more comforting as well.

The refined code had twisted the original and now it was more a set of laws than something meant to help a Jedi. It was taken too literally, and that was dangerous with any dogma.

I didn't take the Sith Code too literally. I wanted to be free, but I also understood that sometimes you need a chain or two to stop you from going total off course.

Moderation was something Force Users needed to embrace. You didn't need to go to such extremes. Bindo was proof of that, he was quite capable of helping people without acting like he was an arrogant asshole. He was just a grumpy asshole.

"Emotion is part of a Jedi's life, we're suppose to embrace the ones connected to the light side of the Force, like hope and mercy. But now it all detachment and compassion without love. The new code tries to ignore the very things that make us people" the Grey Jedi then said.

"And you couldn't live like that" I said knowingly, "that's why you left the Order."

I couldn't live like that either, so I likely would of done the same thing.

"Part of why," he admitted before standing up, "Now I'll leave you two alone for a while".

Jolee too had sensed that Bastila was about to wake up.

"I'd ask if you were okay, but I can tell you're not".

With that I sat on the edge of the bed and tried to look sympathetic. I was sure that she could sense my feelings, but I still wanted to express them.

"I am sure that you were just worried about not getting any sex for a while" she said in a rather detached tone of voice.

"Yeah because that's all that matters" I grumbled "Why on Earth else would I care about you nearly dying".

Sarcasm was a good way of covering up your actual feelings.

"I'm sure we'll have time" Shan tried to assure me, but I wasn't done talking.

"I don't think we have much time for anything" I told the Jedi woman "in fact I'm sure of it. So if you actually think I don't care about you then you've wasted what little of it we had".

"I am not..." Bastila started to say.

And that was when the alarm went off.

"Sith fighters!" someone shouted out.

"Time's up" I said with a sigh.

(Line Break)

"You recognise the ship?" Bastila asked as we entered the cockpit.

"It's one of the ships that destroyed Taris" Revan said

"The Leviathan" I supplied

"The Leviathan," Carth almost growled "Saul Karath's vessel."

"Saul Karath? Your old mentor?" Revan asked.

"My old mentor," the Republic officer confirmed .

I didn't need the Force to sense Carth's anger.

"Main hold, now," Revan ordered.

If I remembered right this was the part of the game where the player picks one of the crew to save everyone else. I could be one picked to for mission. Which could be a problem because I'd committed treason against Malak's Sith Empire and traitors aren't well liked people.

I took a final look out the cockpit windows. The Sith ship dominates the view. Even from this distance I can make out the main hangar bays and some of the gun emplacements. Even if we could somehow break free of that tractor beam, we'd be blow into atoms by that ship long before we could escape the artificial gravity well it was projecting.

Maybe I could do something. It was a one in a million long shot, but it might just work.

With a little trail and error I was able to open a comm channel and I attempted to order the Leviathan to let the ship go. It didn't work. The Sith captain knew who was on this ship and didn't believe that I was who I said I was. Still it had been worth trying.

Since my plan failed I headed to the Hawk's main hold. Everyone else on the team was already gathered around the centre table.

"When the Sith attacked by home world, this ship was at the head of the fleet, it's Saul Karath's vessel. My family was killed that day." Carth said to Revan.

"Don't do anything you're going to regret" ordered the memory challenged dark lord.

"I'm not going to do anything stupid," Carth assured the Jedi, "I won't throw our lives away in some mad quest for vengeance. But if I get a chance to kill Saul during our escape, nobody better get in my way."

I for one sure wouldn't.

"Talk of an escape is somewhat premature, don't you think? We don't even have a plan to get out of this mess yet! The Admiral probably doesn't know how many of us are on board, and we might be able to use that to our advantage" Bastila said.

"The Admiral is going to be watching the four of us far too closely for us to even try to escape" I pointed out "I'm a traitor. Carth is an officer and you two are known Jedi. They'll have us under heavy guard. It's going to be up to someone else to get us out. If someone can avoid capture, they could come and rescue everyone else later. It's a long shot, but it's our only hope".

Not that this would stop me from trying to escape, but it was best to have some sort of plan rather relay on dumb luck.

Zaalbar roared something that made no sense to me.

"I'm sorry, Zaalbar, but that probably isn't wise," Bastila said to the walking throw rung "We're going to need some inconspicuous for this task, someone the Sith won't think twice about… and Wookiees tend to draw a lot of attention"

"If we're going to pick someone to save our skins we better do it quick. In another minute we're going to have Sith soldiers marching up our loading ramp," Carth reminded us

"A droid might have the best chance" Revan then said HK-47, do you have any suggestions?"

Indeed the robot did.

"Suggestion: My construction includes a reserve memory chip and back-up power supply that will automatically kick in if I have been shut down too long. While the Sith would likely dismantle me as quickly as possible, as a droid I could endure environments that would kill meatbags. Dispose of me out the airlock, and I will reactive and then force my way aboard the enemy vessel in order to effect a rescue".

Well it might work.

"Carth, take HK and toss him out the airlock" Revan ordered

The former Dark Lord almost sounded happy about that happening.

"You're a Sith" Shan then said to me "is there nothing you can do to aid us".

It didn't take me long to come up with an answer.

"I already tried ordering them to let us go" I told the group "It didn't work but maybe I can convince the guards that I'm still one of them, a spy for Malak. The troopers are used to obeying the Sith Lord so at the very least they might lock me up somewhere less secure".

Again it was along shot, but it might work.

There was now more time for planning. The Ebon Hawk was now in the Sith warship's main hanger and soon the Sith themselves would board the freighter.

"Well let's go say hi the neighbours" I said as we all moved toward the ship ramp.

Things from that point on went pretty much as expected.