Gone For Good Chapter 11; Half-light

Chapter 11

 

Half-light

 

Three Jedi raced onto the bridge of a black ship, their lightsabers whirring. Only a single blaster shot greeted them, immediately deflected back at the shooter and catching him squarely in the chest. One of their number stopped suddenly, dropping his lightsaber to clutch at his throat. The others slowed, but did not attempt to aid him. All their focus was on the figure in front of the bank of transparasteel windows.

 

The figure was dressed in black and rust red. It was a full suit of armor, only the red chest plate visible underneath full black robes. The hood was up, its inky black color covering a triangular mask with only a narrow slit for eyes. It triggered in me the memory of a stopover Danika and I had made too close to the Mid Rim, early in the Mando Wars. They didn't have a news station, but they still got transmissions from deeper in the galaxy from time to time. They'd gotten hold of a holo that was reputed to have been taken from the front lines. It had been blurry, and the color was washed out into shaky blues like all holos were, but the armor had been unmistakable.

 

The figure standing before the group of Jedi was Revan, and from the looks of the situation the timing was sometime recent, near what was considered the end of the Jedi Civil War.

 

A young woman led the Jedi party, her double bladed lightsaber held low. She had a round, cat-like face framed by styled dark brown hair. Bright sky blue eyes greeted me, pale as ice but soft. She couldn't have been much older than Mission, but she looked older now, older than she had a right to be. With a start I recognized her from the Endar Spire. I'd only seen her in passing and always huddled in a small crowd of officers and Jedi, but I recognized her anyway. It was Bastila.

 

She gestured grandly at the figure in black and red, her double-bladed lightsaber tilting up slightly as she relinquished her forward hand for the move. "You cannot win, Revan," she said boldly.

 

The figure in black flourished his single, red blade into a defensive posture. It was a silent act of defiance and a challenge, but it held no anger that I could discern. Before the Jedi team could respond shafts of red light lit up the bank of windows, rocking the ship when they impacted. The figure rocked forward with the ship's movement, his lightsaber deactivating once his fingers left the grip. It fell to a floor with a clang, the figure dropping next to it with a heavier thump. Debris and sparks flew about the bridge, though the transparasteel windows held. Of the five remaining Jedi standing before the strike, only two avoided debris flying through the air. Bastila and one other Jedi, a human male whose face I couldn't make out. There was an explosion of phantom pain then, blinding in its intensity even though I knew it wasn't real. I couldn't discern its source but it shook the scene free.

 

* * *

 

Something slammed into my arm, my head. I felt my throat work, but no sound accompanied it. The sound of multiple explosions filled my ears, pain wracked through my shoulder and side. Images flared and danced before my eyes, bright colors and sharp corners. A weight slammed into my back and I thrashed, resisting the suddenly real threat the first coherent thought in my head. My skin felt super-sensitive; I could feel every individual thread in the clothing I wore. Every loose thread, every part of the pattern that was broken in any subtle way was like fire to my senses. I could hear, smell, taste, and hear it.

 

"Sabine!" The name cut through the illusions and strange visions. My ears and eyes started working properly again. I was in the small room in the Bek base that I was sharing with Hestra and Danika. I could hear the soft noises the air made as it passed through the air vents. The temperature was turned down several degrees for the night cycle. If I really wanted to, I could calculate the exact temperature; I just had to focus a little.

 

"Sabine, take it easy!" Danika shouted, her pale, heart-shaped face looming large in my vision. Her midnight blue eyes were wide, the pupils almost extinguishing the irises in the whites. I clung to the sight of her, used her as a ground to chase away the terrible pain of the dream. My muscles relaxed as it faded, though Hestra's grip remained firm. My breath came in hard, fast rasps.

 

"What was that?" I whispered. "It felt so real."

 

"I know," Danika whispered back. "I know. It's over now."

 

"No," I replied, my voice growing steady with the statement. "It's just beginning."

 

Danika stayed quiet, her eyes worried. I could see in them that she knew I was right.

 

"Tha' famous nose o' yers gittin' a whiff o' tr'ble?" Hestra asked gently from her position on my back. She had let her grip on my shoulders loosen and I knew that if I made a move to get out from under her she would let me go.

 

I chuckled, a half desperate sound that I had to fight to keep from turning into a sob. Everything was all fracked up in my head. How was I ever going to get it straight? "Yeah," I told the veteran. "Something like that."

 

"We'll jus' 'ave ta keep our guns r'dy, th'n."

 

Danika nodded her agreement. "Yes, we will."

 

"I think I'm going to go use the 'fresher," I said. "You guys feel free to go back to bed."

 

"I'll be 'ere, if ye be needin' anythin'," Hestra said.

 

"So will I," Danika added.

 

"Thanks," I replied. "Both of you." I got up easily, still feeling the bare floor keenly underneath my feet. No one said anything as I slid on my combat boots over my socks and my jacket over the thin under-tunic I'd worn to bed. I strapped on my belt almost as an afterthought, checking to make sure that my long dagger and holdout blaster were secure. I trusted the Beks, but it never hurt to have one or two weapons close at hand anyway.

 

I walked out of the room and turned right towards the 'fresher. I kept my footfalls silent, not wanting to shatter the quiet night any more than I had already. The dregs of phantom pain still lingered in my body, refusing to give up their hold easily. That would fade with time, I knew. What wouldn't fade however was the dream itself. It had clearly been Revan right when Bastila had killed him, but why would I dream of such a thing? I'd only seen Revan that once in a blurry holo and Bastila only in passing. I'd never even noticed that she had a double-bladed lightsaber before.

 

Instead of heading for the 'fresher my feet swerved towards the cafeteria. I didn't alter my course; I wasn't going back to sleep any time soon and the cafeteria was as good as any place to pass the time. Once there I sat down on a bench, my hands clasped together and my arms resting on the table before me. Closing my eyes I let the sounds of the air processors soothe me. The image of a green lake formed in my mind, its surface as still as crystal. I let the image permeate my entire body, relaxing my muscle clusters one at a time.

 

Despite all my efforts, the phantom pain in my shoulder and side did not ease away.

 

Without disturbing the image of the lake I moved my right hand underneath my jacket and under-tunic, letting it smooth slowly over my left shoulder. For a moment all I felt was smooth skin, but then my extra-sensitive fingers picked up a spot of flesh that was too smooth. Focusing my awareness on the area below the skin, I detected the traces of an old wound nearly perfectly healed. From what I was getting from my soft tissue, a jagged object had passed straight through my shoulder, puncturing one lung, fracturing my collar bone, and shattering a hole in my shoulder blade. An image flashed across the back of my eyelids, making my body flinch. The echoes of a scream filled my ears for a split second. A ripple passed through the lake, then stilled.

 

My stomach felt as if someone had dumped ice into it and my throat ached. I searched my memory methodically, but there was nothing there about such a severe injury, just like there was nothing there about my ability to shape-shift. I wanted to hop onto the medical records for the Republic, but there was no way to do that while I was stuck on Taris. The Republic's army kept extensive medical records for all its soldiers, including conscripted and hired beings. If there was anything in written record about my scar, it would be there. If it wasn't then it was like it had never happened at all.

 

I moved my hand down to my right side and went through the same steps I'd taken with my shoulder, with the same results. Repaired tissue damage consistent with a sudden impact with a large, blunt object. The damage continued down and seemed to affect my entire lower body. As I focused on my right leg a faint pang of remembered pain thrummed through my femur. The bone had been shattered into three jagged pieces. The muscle around it had been fairly torn up. Shocked, I brought my focus slowly back up through my body and found that the damage had been more extensive than I'd initially sensed. The disquiet that had grown in me from the beginning thickened into a thrill of fear.

 

I removed my hand from my leg and set it before me on the table. I swallowed when I saw that it was shaking and clasped my hands together to get it to stop. What had happened to me?

 

As I sat there in the half-light of the cafeteria my mind ran through thousands of possibilities, each one even less likely than the last.

 

* * *

 

I never got back to sleep but I did wander back to the room I shared with Danika and Hestra. I snuck in quietly and grabbed a clean set of clothes and my gear, taking them to the 'fresher to have a shower and change. I'd done a lot of sweating during the.... nightmare? That didn't seem right. What I'd experienced in my sleep was far more keen than a dream and had evoked none of the terror or horror that accompanied nightmares. The scene had played out before my eyes as if it had truly happened and then had ended in pain but there hadn't been fear. So what should I call it? A vision?

 

The word stuck in my mind and sent a shiver through my body. Goose bumps rose on my skin despite the hot water streaming over it. I could feel each individual one, if I really concentrated hard enough. They were quickly followed by a wave of cold through my body and I huddled under the stream of water, shutting my eyes tight. Vision was the right word to use; I could feel that in my bones. But what kind of vision? Did it mean I was a Jedi or something now? I'd heard things about people developing Jedi-like powers sometimes in the fleet, but I never really heard what happened to those people they'd been discovered.

 

And anyway, I couldn't see how the vision would mean anything until well after we got of Taris, if we ever did.  I decided not to tell Danika or the others and stayed under the shower until the cold retreated into a hard ball in my stomach.

 

* * *

 

The Bek base had been crowded the day before, but that had been in the afternoon when everyone had been winding down for the day. In the morning it was nigh on chaos, crowded and loud. There were long lines for the 'freshers and I was glad I'd grabbed a shower earlier.

 

When she woke up Danika took one look at the lines and glared for a moment. She had a clean set of clothes in hand and had obviously been hoping to get in the 'fresher. Her face was drawn and pale and she looked older than she had yesterday. "You gotta be fracking with me," she said softly.

 

"Nope," I replied. "You want to get breakfast?"

 

The black-haired smuggler sighed. "Sure."

 

"Hey are you okay?" I asked. "You're not your usual perky self this morning."

 

"Hrmm," Danika grumbled as she walked towards the cafeteria.

 

"That's not a real answer," I replied.

 

"Didn't sleep well," she said.

 

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I never got back to sleep at all."

 

Danika shot me a quick, haunted look, so brief I nearly thought I hadn't seen it at all. "That dream you had, was it about Revan?"

 

Her words felt like a slap in the face. "It was about when Bastila killed him. Was yours like that?"

 

"Yeah," she said quietly.

 

"So we had the same dream?" I asked, trying to keep the panic out of my voice and not entirely succeeding.

 

"Looks like we did," Danika's voice was creeping away from vulnerable and back to her usual sarcastic bravado. It was how she dealt with everything.

 

But she had a point, even though she never said it. There really was nothing we could do about it for now. I sighed. "You want me to buy you a drink? The race isn't until tomorrow and the riders aren't allowed on the track until then."

 

"You can buy me two," Danika replied heartily.

 

* * *

 

Danika and I had intended to go to the cantina but had discovered on the way that the Beks had their own small bar inside the base. We were both delighted; it meant we'd have less distance to stumble over when we finally went to sleep off the inevitable hangovers.

 

The bar was a fairly nice one. Everyone was friendly and the glasses were clean. Both Danika and I ordered Tarisian ale, smiling at each other as we drank. We'd never drank it on the planet it was named for before. In fact before we'd crashed on Taris we hadn't even known where it was exactly except 'somewhere on the Mid Rim.'

 

After a while Danika and I meandered over to the pazaak table. Despite being thoroughly drunk Danika managed to swindle quite a few credits out of the Beks there. She was probably just as good a player as Mission was, although it difficult to tell since I hadn't really seen Mission play yet. I just stood by and placed bets for the first few rounds, leaving off when Danika began to establish herself and it became clear that I knew her playing style and side deck quite well. My money pouch was several hundred credits heavier by then however, so I didn't really mind.

 

I managed to get Danika out of the small bar before she got to many Beks angry and she got too drunk. I also managed to get us back to our room in a relatively straight line. Danika feel asleep fairly quickly and started snoring. I stayed awake, once again troubled with the events of the day. As I sat down heavily in my bunk I worked hard to keep myself from breaking out into a cold sweat.

 

I wasn't drunk.

 

I'd drank more than Danika had, much more. But despite that I had only gotten a light buzz. I was also extremely hungry despite the fact that I had eaten a good portion of food earlier in the day. It fit in with the realization I'd had back in the Vulkar base, but I hadn't really put much thought into it. I'd felt shock, yes, but I'd never taken it further than that. I did so now.

 

I wasn't human. Well and truly something entirely different. I'd never heard of a species called 'changeling' before and even if I had both of my parents had been human. I was sure of that, even though I couldn't really remember them properly. The memories I did have were vague, as if someone had told me about them and I had only been half-listening. It was like that with most of my memory, when I bothered to search it. The only crisp memories I really had were of the time Danika and I had spent together aboard the Urusai.

 

Running my shaking hands through my hair I drew a deep breath and sighed. I promised myself I would go through every Republic medical file I could get my hands on as soon as I could. There wasn't really much else I could do.

 

* * *

 

I hated piloting vehicles, didn't matter what kind. I always had, only getting my license back on Deralia in order to improve my chances of leaving. There had never been a reason behind it and I had never looked for one. No one else had either, not after they'd ridden in a vehicle with me at the helm. Hestra had been partnered with me on a piloting drill on the Spire, and I now suspected that her promising me as the pilot for the Beks to Gaddon had been her way of paying me back for that misadventure.

 

As the morning for the swoop raced dawned nigh Hestra, Danika, Carth, Mission, Zaalbar, T3, and pretty much every occupant in the Hidden Bek base made their way down to the track. Our small group was able to get into track-side seats because I was a pilot, not to mention we got there quite early despite my protests. The seats quickly filled up and Mission cheerfully informed us that camera droids would provide those who couldn't see the track physically would still be able to view the race.

 

I felt naked wearing the skin-tight racing leathers the Beks had provided for me. I'd never worn anything like them before, at least not that I could easily remember. Despite that I felt strangely comfortable in them, the feeling running parallel to the feeling of being naked. The whole business caused hot and cold flashes throughout my body. I did my best to shove everything to the back of my mind. It helped when I concentrated on my anger, almost as if I was feeding the emotion until it blocked out everything else.

 

In the way of equipment I was wearing my usual utility belt, but I wasn't able to have most of my weapons with me and that made me nervous. I had been reduced to the long dagger in my belt, the small one in my boot, and my little-used blaster pistol in its thigh holster. Everything else, my blaster rifles, my vibroblade, and most importantly my armor, were too bulky to have on my person while I was riding the swoop.

 

 

The rules of the race were simple. You had three runs around the track, or 'heats.' The goal was to get the best time out of everyone and not simply to finish first during the race as was the case with many such events. I knew I wasn't going to be able to win during my first heat, but I was hell bent on winning on the second heat. I hated the thought of having to circle around the track a third time.

 

When the time came for the first heat I shoved my helmet on and crouched down on my swoop bike like a predator. Anger seethed underneath my skin like fire. I watched the indicator light above the starting arena and waited, sharply reigning in the urge to surge forward and get it over with.

 

* * *

 

Canderous watched the woman down in the track's starting arena trying to suppress the burning spot of hope within him. When he'd locked gazes with her just outside the Vulkar's base it had been different than in the Undercity. There was more recognition in them this time. He was left with no more doubts about her identity. It didn't matter that she had entered into the race under a different name.

 

When he'd first come to Taris and started working for Davik Canderous hadn't cared if he lived or died. He hadn't ever found another woman to love, nor had he adopted a child to carry on his name as many Mandalorians did these days. He had just been living, existing from one moment to the next. He'd almost welcomed the Sith invasion.

 

Now everything was different. He was determined to get both himself and Sabine off Taris alive. He smiled to himself as the indicator down in the track. He already had a plan in mind that would get them offworld alive and get Davik what was coming to him.

 

* * *

 

I wove in and out of the other racers with deceptively casual ease. I didn't hit every single booster plate but marked the placement of each in the mental map I was constructing of the track. I would hit all of them on my second heat.

 

Other racers swerved and screamed profanities at me as I passed. I took deadly chances, slipping into spaces just a bit too tight at breakneck speeds. It only proved to fuel my rage, which in turn gave me a very strange calm. It centered me, made all the fear and confusion go away. I knew exactly who and what I was and I needed no one else.

 

The accelerator engine proved its worth. It was slightly unstable and had a tendency to overheat, but the Bek mechanics had put a supply off coolant feeding right into it that I could inject by a small button on the handlebars. I was careful not to use too much of it, relying heavily on the speed from the booster plates. Even still I ended up in the top ten times after my first heat. The Bek mechanic allowed in the swoop pit strongly suggested I let the engine have a break before I raced my second heat.

 

I took his advice, standing in the small pedestrian pit and letting myself cool down as well. After a few minutes I was still in a foul mood but I wasn't ready to kill someone anymore. I wanted to get back on the track and get my second heat over with but the Bek mechanic was fiddling around with the engine and looked like he'd be at it for a bit. I growled softly with annoyance at the sight.

 

Partly to distract myself I looked around the track more thoroughly than I had upon first arriving. Down in the racing pit there was a section for each gang, and there were quite a few, where they displayed the prize they had put up for the race. There was a brand new swoop bike, several scantily clad Twi'lek slaves, a droid or two, and other things like that. None of them really mattered except for the metal cage in the corner that made my blood run cold.

 

Two Vulkars flanked a small metal cage. Inside it wearing a neural disrupter and wearing a slave girls outfit was Bastila, her dark brown hair dirty and mussed up. There was quite a lot more of it than one would have thought seeing it up in pigtails all the time. Bruises covered her pale skin and her head drooped, weaving slightly in a pattern I recognized.

 

They'd drugged her. Drugged her, put a collar on her, and penned her up like an animal. It made me want to kill them all. I wanted to twist their arms until they screamed.

 

Worry lanced through the all-consuming rage like a question. It wasn't my own, and that fact alone shattered the anger, drained it like a lanced infection. Bastila's head bobbed up for a second, her glazed-looking eyes focusing on something no one else could see. A second, weaker note of worry joined the first. Without thinking I turned my head to a specific spot in the crowd behind me and locked eyes with Danika in an instant. A shudder ran through my whole body at the contact.

 

Realization began to dawn on me but before it could fully manifest I ripped my gaze away from Danika and felt whatever I had been about to discover wither within me. For no fathomable reason I knew that it had to stay that way for a time. I had to bury that part of myself down deep, as far as it would go. Perhaps what I had already discovered was too much.

 

Refusing to look at the cage that held Bastila, I strode to my swoop bike and mounted. I only half heard the Bek mechanic's warnings as I sped off to the starting pit.

 

* * *

 

Danika fought hard to keep her composure. She didn't want the others to ask her what was wrong. She didn't know how she would answer if they did.

 

While Sabine had raced her first heat Danika had felt her anger clearly although she had mistaken it for her own at first. And then while waiting for the bike to be repaired Sabine had turned her head and caught sight of Bastila in her cage. The anger had flared to white-hot rage and Danika realized then that the emotion she was feeling was Sabine's and not her own. She had felt worry tinged by fear then and Sabine's rage had dissipated as if a tank of water had exploded. Her blond head had swiveled unerringly to Danika. Her blue eyes, barely visible from where Danika was seated, had widened, brightening like a glow light being turned on. And then something had clanged shut and Sabine ripped her gaze away from Danika. As she walked stiffly for her swoop bike Danika leaned back in her chair and shook.

 

What was going on? Sabine had been on the brink of finding out, Danika was sure. But the blond smuggler had shut herself off to it for reasons Danika could not fathom. She felt as if some part of her was missing and unthinking slipped a hand down to the hilt of her vibroblade. She smoothed her fingers over it and watched Bastila in her cage, doing her best to follow Sabine's example. There was nothing either of them could do about it for now.

 

A thought occurred to Danika and she turned to Carth. "Hey, Flyboy," she began, catching his attention away from the race and the Vulkar's prize with the nickname.

 

"Why do you keep calling me that?" he asked with a vaguely annoyed look.

 

Danika shrugged. "Seems to fit you. Hey, I wanted to ask you a question. Back after we first landed you mentioned that Sab and my names were familiar. Did you read our files or something?"

 

Carth's gaze shifted nervously. "Why do you ask?"

 

"Well I was thinking about how the Spire was a fairly established ship. Even the hired mercs had been there for a while. Seems to me like Sab and I were the only newbies, and I was curious as to why." It was close enough to the truth, at least the way Danika figured it.

 

"You were both last-minute transfers," Carth replied, seeming agitated as he spoke. "The two of you, the Jedi contingent, and myself. They changed the Spire's flight plan as well. It was supposed to patrol parts of the Inner Rim. Places the Republic had already secured." He halted suddenly and looked away from Danika. She understood then what he must have thought of her and Sab, why he'd been so closed off and quiet.

 

"The Jedi wouldn't tell anyone why they were there," Carth continued. "It was frustrating. They refused to listen to any of the officers. They made decisions that made no sense, including their flight plan." He stopped talking again and stared off into the space in front of him with a tough set to his jaw.

 

"Maybe you should ask Bastila about it when we get her back," Danika suggested.

 

"It wouldn't do any good," Carth said, almost growling. "They always dance around any subject they don't want to talk about. She won't give us a straight answer."

 

A little thrill went through Danika at Carth's words. He'd said 'we' not 'I'. She wondered when he'd begun to think of himself as part of the group despite his suspicions about the fall of the Endar Spire.

 

She wondered what he thought of her.

 

The light in the starting pit turned green and was followed by a loud ding! It broke through Danika's train of thought and swung her focus back to the track. Sabine had already taken off. She picked out the white and blue racing leathers easily.

 

* * *

 

I buried myself into the second heat. I lost myself in the twists and turns, in dodging oncoming riders as well as jockeying for position among the riders going the same direction as I was. I hit every single one of the booster plates and barely had to use any of the coolant on the accelerator engine.

 

And when I flew past the finish line there was a loud electric noise and the crowd cheered. The noise from them was like thunder. As I brought the swoop to a stop in the coordinator's pit it took me a moment to realize what it meant.

 

I had broken the track record. I had won.

 

I was immediately surrounded by a happy crowd of Beks. Two of them were the other riders for the Beks, but how the rest of them had gotten down to trackside that quickly was beyond me. I found their happiness contagious anyway and was soon swept up in the fervor. By the time things had calmed down somewhat Mission, Zaalbar, Carth, Hestra, Danika, and even T3 had gotten past the stern-faced guards at the track entrance. They were all smiling and in the case of my fellow crashees showing distinct signs of relief. Now that I had won the race half our battle was over. At least that's what we were thinking.

 

Things were never that simple of course. Just as the Duros in charge of the race got up to announce the winner Brejik stepped up next to the podium. I started getting upset before he spoke. I could just tell from the look on his smug little face that he was going to go and make things difficult.

 

"People, her me!" Brejik called out in what I assumed he thought was a majestic tone of voice. "Before the prizes for the so called champion of the Beks are presented there is something you must know; the winning rider cheated!"

 

"Oh he is not," I growled half to myself. There was no way I was getting deposed by a half grown, pale excuse for a piece of humanity after I had been forced to pilot a swoop. I fingered my long dagger at my belt.

 

"Her swoop bike was using a prototype accelerator; clearly an unfair advantage!" Brejik continued. The blood was rising to his cheeks and he was clearly enjoying himself. I wanted to slap the smirk right off his face. "Because of this Hidden Bek treachery I'm withdrawing the Vulkar's share of the victory prize!"

 

There was a collective gasp from the audience, which nicely covered up my savage snarl, followed by a howl of outrage from the Duros. "You can't do this, Brejik! You know the rules; none is allowed to withdraw a prize once the race is over. This goes against all our sacred traditions!"

 

"You're traditions are nothing to me, you old fool!" Brejik howled back, his pale face red from excitement. "I am the wave of the future! If I want to withdraw the prize and sell this woman on the slave market myself, nobody can stop me!"

 

As he finished speaking I felt something similar to when I had sensed the Gamorreans in the Undercity. Again I felt as if there was another person living in my body. Again I felt as if I was larger than myself at the same time, as if my senses stretched far beyond my body. The feeling was gone in an instant and I was aware that Bastila had burst out of her force cage.

 

"I might have something to say about that Brejik!" she called out. I noticed that she had a distinct Inner Rim accent, the kind that marked most aristocrats of Coruscant.

 

"What?" Brejik shouted, his bright red face draining of blood in surprise. "Impossible! You were restrained by a neural disrupter collar! No one can break out of that!" He had his head turned to face Bastila and her cage, completely focused on what he considered an impossibility. I couldn't have asked for a better distraction.

 

Flipping my long dagger out of its sheath I threw it up lightly, snagged the tip between the thumb and forefinger of my left hand, cocked my hand back, and heaved it at Brejik's unarmored neck. It had sunk into his neck just above the collar bone to the hilt before anyone knew what was going on.

 

"Ha! That'll show you to frack around with me!" I shouted. It didn't matter that Brejik was already dead; I just enjoyed taking credit for the throw.

 

The entire coordinator's pit flew into chaos. All the minor gangs, mechanics, and technicians fled for the track entrance immediately. The Vulkars and Beks let them go, the crush of beings gave them both time to pull out their weapons of choice and, in the case of the Vulkars, allow them to activate their energy shields. They all pulled out stun batons or vibroblades; they liked to get in close. I responded by running up to Brejik's body and retrieving my long dagger. I was pretty deadly with the little thing.

 

Bastila applied a quick series of moves that contorted her slave girl clothes in ways that it shouldn't have been able to go to the guards on her cage and retrieved a pike from one of them. Several of the Vulkars with vibroblades veered off to try and take her down. I left her to it knowing that she was perfectly capable of defending herself.

 

A Rodian Vulkar with a stun baton rushed in at me. I dodged him easily and struck at the wrist of his armed hand with my free fist. There was a brief tingle from his energy shield as the blow connected but it was worth it, the Rodian cried out in pain and dropped the stun baton. I slashed in and up at his chest, the blade biting into his flesh between two of his ribs and tearing up into his heart. I braced my free hand against his shoulder in order to more easily wrench the dagger free.

 

Hestra, Carth, and T3 provided cover fire in order to keep the Vulkars busy while Zaalbar and members of the Beks rushed in with vibroblades. Several Vulkars fell before they reached the line of Beks, falling as if invisible strings had been cut. I knew as I traded blows with a Weequay Vulkar that it was Mission's work.

 

The battle was over fairly quickly and left only a few Beks dead. They were anxious to get to Gaddon who had insisted on coming to the track in person. Danika told them not to worry, we had everything we wanted.

 

Bastila ignored them as the Beks rushed out of the pit, searching around Brejik's body with a determined air. She was muttering to herself as we approached. "Maybe those bloody Vulkars will think twice before trying to keep a Jedi prisoner!" she said as she withdrew a peach bundle, a utility belt, and a thick double-bladed ligthsaber from Brejik's pack.

 

She had not failed to notice us approach. "And as for you-" her mouth dropped open when she saw us, her pale blue eyes wide. "Carth! You're alive!" She looked terribly vulnerable for an instant and I saw that she couldn't have been very much older than Mission. She looked over the rest of us, her gaze lingering over Hestra, Danika, and myself. "You're all alive! I thought... I thought I was the only one who made it off the Endar Spire."

 

"We can't stay here," Danika said. "Somebody's bound to squeal to the Sith soon. They'll be all over this place in a few hours."

 

"Quite right," Bastila said. She sounded like she was used to people doing what she wanted. "I must change first, and then we can go."

 

"Not into that, you're not," Danika said eying the bundle of peach colored cloth and leather in Bastila's arms. She opened her mouth indignantly but Danika cut her off before she could speak. "Don't you dare argue with me, Princess. There's no way we're going to get you past a bunch of angry Sith dressed in that. Sab's got some spare clothes you can have."

 

The teenage Jedi turned red in the face and clearly planned to protest, but before she could Mission appeared in front of her out of a haze of blue sparks. "Are you really a Jedi?" She asked critically, her headtails thrown over her shoulders speculatively. Bastila froze with her mouth partway open and blinked down at the blue Twi'lek. She'd clearly never had to deal with this kind of thing before.

 

"You can bother her later, Mission," I said. "Right now we have to get her changed. Who's got the rest of my gear and my pack?"

 

"I do," Danika said. She handed it out to me without my asking first.

 

I accepted it and the rest of my gear gratefully. "Okay," I said. "Let's go find a 'fresher, then."

 

Bastila was so bewildered by the whole thing that she let herself be led to a 'fresher. She managed to argue again when we got there but I won, finally just snatching the orange bundle out of her hands, thrusting a pair of my tunic and pants at her, and then forcefully shutting her in the 'fresher as I had done with Mission. She behaved almost the exact same way to. There was some pounding and shouting at first and then silence.

I stayed firmly blocking the door just to make sure. As I waited for her to finish the rest of the group discussed how we would get back up to the Upper City. Since the word about Bastila would be out very soon going all in one group would look suspicious, so we decided to split up. The only problem was we only had one set of papers.

 

"It's not a problem," Danika said. "They don't have a guard on the Lower City side of the elevator."

I pressed my lips together in a tight line. "Alright," I said. "But if any of us get into trouble we broadcast a short beep on the comlinks."

 

"Fine," Danika agreed. "Now how many groups do we want?"

 

Carth and Hestra joined in and we agreed to split up into two groups of three and one group of two. I was going with Bastila, Mission would go with Hestra and Carth, and Danika would go with Zaalbar and T3. By that time Bastila still hadn't come out of the 'fresher. We waited and silence and in that brief minute of quiet something occurred to me.

 

I knew Bastila. And I knew that just as Canderous had known me she knew me too.

 

* * *

 

To Be Continued...