A Smuggler's Story, Part 2, Chapter 7

Part 2, Chapter 7: The Plan 

The woman, who he now knew was Bastila, cut down her opponent for the second time. Behind her, four other Jedi advanced upon a masked Dark Jedi. The Dark Jedi drew his lightsaber and cut down one of the Jedi to Bastila's right while Force-choking another. He was about to turn on Bastila and the other Jedi when an explosion rocked the ship. The Dark Jedi's crimson lightsaber came up and across the mask near the eye, leaving a deep gash in the mask of which blood oozed out. He and the Jedi behind Bastila fell to the ground and remained motionless.

Bastila got back up on her hands and knees and looked at the Dark Jedi. Slowly, she peeled off the mask...

---

"Ok, finally we can figure out how to get off this rock!" Carth said excitedly.

"Get off? What have you been doing all this time?" Bastila asked, hands on her hips.

"We were looking for you!" Keelan interjected.

"I see. Well now that I'm here I can save our skins... again."

"Again? When was the first time?"

"When I saved you from Brejik and the Vulkars!"

"What in the blazes? No you didn't!! I did!" Keelan argued.

"If I hadn't jumped into action when I did, we would all be dead!"

"One: I was just as capable as you were in that fight! Two: You would still be in a stasis if I hadn't shot the controls in the collar remote!!"

"I believe you are mistaken, for I got out of that stasis with the Force, as well as my own strong will!"

"Whatever, lady. You know I saved your butt deep down inside you!"

'He's right. But I won't give him the pleasure of knowing that.'

"Guys, guys!" Carth said before the argument grew. "Fighting won't help us get off this rock. Any ideas, Bastila?"

"I'll meditate on it."

"Okay, that's a no. Keelan?"

"Find a way past the blockade and a ship."

"Right. We know that. Any ideas how?"

"Oh. Nope!"

Carth took a deep breath. "Alright. Let me know if either of you come up with anything."

"Got it!"

"I will, Carth."

Carth left to find out some information, and Mission and Zaalbar were at the cantina doing who knows what, so Bastila and Keelan were left alone.

"How did you find me?"

"Huh?"

"How did you find me?"

"Simple. I looked for you. Besides, mission, Carth, and Zaalbar helped."

'Hmm. His humility surprises me!' "While your modesty is admirable, there is no doubt that you were the leader of this quest. After all, you found a way into the Lower City, you found out I was captured by the Black Vulkars, you infiltrated their base, you won the swoop race!"

"And saved the Damsel in distress! Don't forget that!"

"Ok, you just aren't going to give up on this. Ok, you saved me. But how? I mean, there weren't flashing signs pointing you in the right directions!"

"Sure there were, we just had to look really hard to find them."

Bastila smiled. "That wasn't exactly what I meant by 'flashing.' What I'm saying is that only an individual aided by the Force could accomplish those feats."

"Are you saying I'm a Jedi?"

"Well... no. But there are some people who are not part of the Order that we consider Force Sensitive."

"And I fall into that category?"

"Well, I'm not sure yet. Once we get off Taris, we will be going to the Jedi Council, they will find out for sure."

"Uh huh. Sure. Hey, I've been having dreams about you. But they don't feel like dreams. You're fighting Sith on a ship, and you almost get killed by this creepy masked dude, but then he's killed by an explosion. Then you take off the mask, but before I saw his face, my dream ended."

'That was my encounter with Revan! Thank the Force he didn't see the face under the mask!!' Bastila thought. "It might have been a vision. We definitely need to see the Jed Council about this!"

"'We' huh?"

Bastila rolled her eyes. "In your dreams, scoundrel!"

Keelan opened the door to the apartment. "You never know. They could turn out to be visions!!" he said with a grin.

"Where are you going?"

"Out to have some fun." Keelan confidently walked out the door.

'I can't just let him be out there alone!' Bastila thought. She hurried after him.

She found him talking with a Twi'lek outside the door, in a language she could not understand. Keelan nodded fervently and the Twi'le walked away.

"What was that about?"

"What are you doing out here?"

"I'm coming with you."

"Good, you need some fun with all that stuff you di'kut Jedi do."

"How dare you insult the Order!"

Keelan smirked. "Please! I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny."

'He's so... so... infuriating!!' Bastila thought.

Keelan watched the emotions battle across her face. "I hope you don't play Pazaak."

---

Canderous watched as they came in. A fair skinned, thin, yet muscular female, and a tan skinned, fit, brown haired jock. He rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure what he was getting into, but he was right in his thinking that the man would be crazy enough to break into the Sith Base. In fact, he even seemed excited about it.

Canderous wondered where the man got the scar near his eye. It ran pretty deep. An interesting story was probably behind that scar. But that was just one scar. Canderous had much more.

He headed down to Javyar's Cantina. He'd level the playing field with Calo soon enough.

---

T3-M4 beeped curiously at Janice Nall. She smiled at the little droid. "[Davik's operatives will pick you up soon enough. It will be hard to let you go though, you've been such a help with repairs.]"

T3 beeped proudly. Then he rotated his cylindrical head to the door where a man walked in. He walked up to Janice and gave her some credits. He grinned at T3. "Come on, little guy. We aren't gonna hurt you. You're ours now."

T3 already liked the man. He beeped and followed him out the door. Once outside, T3 saw him meet up with another woman, and together they approached the utility droid. The man kneeled down next to him. "I'm Keelan, and this is Bastila. What's your name?"

T3 bleeped a reply.

"Nice to meet you T3-M4. Can I call you T3?"

"Dwooo!"

"Great. So T3, I know this sounds crazy, but your first assignment for me is to break into the Sith Base." Keelan handed T3 a blaster pistol. T3 grabbed it with a mechanical arm. "How good are you with a blaster?"

"Beep boop!"

"Good. Let's go."

T3 followed the two through Upper City until they stopped in front of a massive military grade door.

"I wasted like, five spikes on this thing and it wouldn't budge. You think you can do this?"

T3 beeped and extended one of his many utility arms. A few clicks sounded and the door slid open.

T3 rolled into the elevator and beeped. Keelan and Bastila followed. As the doors slid closed, one could hear: "Well... We're all alone in an elevator together!" and the sound of someone getting shoved into a wall.

---

Keelan pulled the trigger of his blaster rifle one last time, spraying a volley of blaster bolts into a security droid guarding the lift tube to the second level of the base. The droid's control circuits sputtered, and it fell to the floor. Keelan hot wired his way into the elevator and motioned for Bastila and T3 to follow. "Another elevator, another chance!" he said to Bastila, grinning. She flashed him a murderous look and he backed away. 'Don't kill me this time, sheesh. But you are pretty hologenic, y'know. I'm better than some trashy gangsta."

Bastila just shook her head and fixed her attention on T3.

When the lift tube stopped, the doors opened to reveal yet another door just a few meters away. T3 stuck a mechanical arm out and twisted the door lock, opening it. Behind the door was a man, shaved bald and in a meditating form. Bastila immediately went rigid.

"What's wrong?" Keelan asked.

"That man is a Force adept. Be careful."

The man stood at the sound of voices and turned. "Who- ah. Jedi. Now what would two Jedi be doing on Taris, hmm? Maybe from that space dust of a Republic ship?"

Keelan looked around. "I only see one Jedi sir."

"Wait a minute.... You- You're not a Jedi? Strange. The Force is strong with you. I can feel it. Tell you what. If you join the Sith, I won't kill you where you stand."

"As tempting as that sounds, I'm not too keen on siding with people who try to kill me everywhere I go." Keelan replied with a scowl.

"I see. Well if you will not turn then I shall have to kill you."

"You got guts. To bad I'm gonna blast 'em outta you!"

Keelan was surprised the Sith didn't have a lightsaber. He was even more surprised at the way he was able to dodge every one of Keelan's blaster bolts with uncanny speed.

When Bastila activated her lightsaber, the Sith immediately knew she was a Jedi and locked her in a stasis. Though she was unable to move, he still had to face Keelan and T3. But with a burst of lighting from his fingertips, the Sith had disabled T3, too.

Keelan kept firing while keeping his distance from the spinning double bladed sword of the Sith. He eventually realized that the Sith had been able to expect every shot Keelan had fired. So instead of firing, Keelan leapt toward the Sith, somersaulted, and brought his blaster up under the man's chin, knocking him backwards. In less than a second, Keelan had taken Bastila's lightsaber, leapt toward the Sith, and driven the weapon into his heart. The Sith was dead. Bastila was released from her stasis, and Keelan handed her the lightsaber. Her jaw dropped.

"I... You..." she said.

"Here are the codes Canderous wanted," Keelan said, picking it off the Sith's corpse. There was a sputtering sound and Keelan turned. "T3!!"

Keelan ran up to the little droid, still disabled by the Sith's lightning. He examined the droid, and smiled with releif. "Just a simple connection... and... there!"

T3's photoreceptors lit up and he let out a frenzied series of beeps.

"Don't worry, the guy's dead now. That was a pretty hard hit you took though, are you ok?"

T3 beeped.

"That's good to hear. Now come on. Canderous is waiting for us." He grinned at Bastila. "We're almost off this rock. Oh, hey! Another elevetor..."