Wow! What in the heck is Ithra doing on the Ebon Hawk?? You freakin did it this time Jasra, you ended it on a flippin cliffhanger. Now I want the next chapter, and I want it now! Ok well I guess as soon as possible anyway. Great job, excellent chapter!

Congrats on your review from the Mach-mister. He really praised your writing Jasra. :) Keep up the great work!

Rade sat bolt upright. “By the Force! Ithra, what are you doing on my ship!”

Ithra stood in the doorway, staring back at him with innocent violet eyes, and then she shrugged, not unlike a sulking child. “I wanted to come with you,” she said softly. “To help you find the Gem.”

Rade rolled his eyes, then sighed. “Does Berland know you’re here?”

She looked down at the floor. “No.”

“Great,” Rade said disparagingly. “No doubt he and Keel will add ‘kidnapping a Keeper’ to their list of trumped up charges.” He sighed, running a worried hand through his hair. “Just great,” he muttered.

He rose and moved towards her. “Stay here,” he ordered. “I’ll be right back.”

“But Rade, I have something that I need to tell y….”

“Stay. Here,” he repeated more firmly. He gave her a hard stare, then left for the cockpit.

“We’ve got a stowaway on board,” he said to Bastila and Carth.

“Oh?” Carth gave Rade a look over his shoulder. “You mean some poor quarantined ‘outlander’ actually managed to escape the Visitors’ Lounge?” He chuckled. “Good! Maybe we can learn something from them to get Juhani and Zalbaar out.”

“She’s not an outlander,” said Rade.

Bastila and Carth both turned to face him.

“She?” Bastila asked, her eyes narrowing. “She who?”

“It’s….”

“Rade?” Ithra suddenly appeared behind Rade. “I really have to tell you something.”

“Oh, no!” Carth’s head slumped. “Just when we thought it was over….”

“What are you doing on board?!” Bastila asked her.

“Obviously not listening to what people tell her to do,” Rade grumbled. “I clearly remember telling you to stay put.”

Ithra folded her arms across her chest with resignation. “Yes, but…”

“What is it with you Jantessans and the word ’but’?” Carth snapped at her. “The dock is just a few metres that way, sir, BUT you can’t get there from here. Passes can be obtained from the office, sir, BUT it’s only open when and if we feel like it. There’s always a ‘but’ with you people, isn’t there?”

Ithra sighed. “I can see that I might have made a mistake in thinking you might trust me.”

“Trust you?” Rade said incredulously. “You make life miserable for us on the journey here, turn us in to the authorities when we arrive, and then stow away on our ship? And you think those actions warrant trust?”

“I didn’t turn you in to anybody!” Ithra blurted. “That was all Berland’s doing! I knew Prefect Keel wanted to….” She paused. “When I heard that he was holding Juhani and your Wookiee hostage, well.… That wasn’t part of the plan.”

“Plan?” Bastila’s brows knitted together in a scowl. “So, there was a plan, was there?”

“Yes, but…” She abruptly stopped herself, casting a glance in Carth’s direction. “Can we talk about this later,” she said, in a decidedly more calm voice. “There’s something I really have to…”

“No, we’ll talk about this now!” Bastila said adamantly, hands on her hips and sounding not unlike someone’s mother. “Ithra, your presence here affects more than just those of us on board this ship! It could jeopardise the lives of our companions we had to leave behind, not to mention the further reaching implications of….”

“Erm, hate to interrupt,” Carth said, as the proximity alarm began to sound. He nodded to the scanners. “But we’ve got company.”

“What is it?” Rade asked, craning his neck to see the sensors.

“Looks like a small party of rogue Mandalorian raiders heading straight for us,” Carth said. He studied the sensors for a moment. “They’re powering up weapons.” He hurriedly punched a few buttons. “I’m raising our shields. Bastila, now would be a good time for those hyperspace calculations.”

Bastila quickly took her position in the navigator’s seat. “I’m on it.”

Ithra rolled her eyes. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you about!” she said with exasperation. “Berland has sent them to destroy you!”

“Great,” said Rade, grabbing Ithra’s shoulders and moving her aside. “Thanks for the heads up.” He ran down the corridor shouting, “Canderous! We’ve got incoming! Man the starboard turret! I’ve got the port!”

Ithra watched as Carth diverted power to the shields, while Bastila called out the approach vectors of the incoming enemy ships to Rade and Canderous, then resumed her calculations.

“Can’t you just jump to hyperspace without calculations?” Ithra asked Carth.

“Huh? No,” Carth said, shaking off his momentary distraction. “Not unless we want to end up in the middle of a star or something. Bastila?”

“Give me a minute,” she snapped, her fingers tapping at lightning speed across the console.

“How does a hyperspace jump work?” Ithra asked.

“Look, Ithra, I really don’t have time to explain!” Carth barked. “Just…just find a seat somewhere and strap yourself in, will you?”

The ship lurched suddenly to the right as the fighters made their first strafing run, and Ithra snagged hold of the back of Carth’s chair to keep her balance.

“Then tell them I’m on board,” Ithra told him. “They won’t destroy us if they know I’m here.”

“I wouldn’t bet on that,” said Carth. “They’re Mandalorians, remember?”

Looking out the cockpit windows, Ithra was amazed at the speed of the fighters as they darted in and around the Ebon Hawk. One of the ships exploded, hit by either Rade or Canderous on the turret cannons, and the shower of sparks that followed reminded her of a blossoming Goldeneve, a native Jantessan flower. Exhilaration mixed with fear, and she felt her heart pounding in her chest like a bass drum. It was the most exciting event she had ever witnessed.

A second fighter exploded, quite close this time, and the concussion wave rocked the Ebon Hawk to the left this time. Ithra’s grip tightened on Carth’s seatback. “Are we winning?” she asked.

“Ithra! Shut up!” said Carth, as he made an evasive manoeuvre to avoid an oncoming fighter in his path.

“Sorry,” she said quietly, her knuckles whitening as she struggled to keep upright through the turbulence.

A third fighter was hit, spinning out of control directly towards the cockpit. Carth pulled back hard on the controls, and the Ebon Hawk lurched even more as it looped and dogded to avoid collision.

“Bastila?!” Carth shouted. “Where are those calculations?”

“Give me one more…” The Ebon Hawk was hit again, and this time sparks shot out of one of the panels.

Ithra screamed as the sparks peppered her. Tiny flames danced over the panel, and the cockpit began to fill with smoke.

“Got it!” Bastila said to Carth, as she hit a button on her console with finality. “Go!”

In a brief moment, the stars began to blur then disappear entirely. Everything was momentarily quiet, except for the hiss of the automated extinguisher putting out the panel fire and the hum of the life support systems filtering out the smoke from the cockpit.

Ithra coughed as the smoke in the air tickled her throat. “We won?” she asked.

“We escaped,” said Carth, giving her a look of disbelief.

“What’s the damage?” Rade said, storming into the cockpit and gently pushing Ithra aside.

“Well, we took some pretty bad hits,” said Carth. “We’ve got some damage to the sublight circuits, but I've managed to reroute them for the moment. Degos V isn’t far. We'll probably just make it, but if those raiders figure out where we’re going, they won’t be far behind.”

“Great.” Rade let out sigh, then turned to Ithra. “How did you find out that Berland had sent those ships to attack us?” he asked, grabbing hold of her upper arm and giving her a hard stare.

“I…I accessed the protocol droid in Prefect Keel’s office,” she said sheepishly. “It records everything he does. Berland planted a tracking device on your ship. Once he knew where you were going, he had planned to destroy you.” Rade gave her an incredulous look as he released her. “I was curious,” she replied to his silent query.

“What else did Prefect Keel have in mind for us?” Bastila asked, stepping away from her console and approaching Ithra.

Ithra bit her lip. “I’m not sure.”

“You mean, you don’t want to tell us,” Bastila corrected. “I can sense you’re withholding something.”

“It doesn’t really concern you,” Ithra said boldly. “It involves the Keepers, not the Jedi.”

Bastila and Rade both glared at her.

“Although, I can tell you if you don’t find the Gem, Juhani and Zalbaar will be…”

“Terminated?” Rade asked.

“Re-educated,” Ithra replied slowly, in a tone of voice that indicated their fate was worse than mere death. “Then sold,” she added quietly, as if that wasn’t the end of their misery. As Rade shook his head, Ithra said, “That’s why I had to warn you. What they are planning…it’s not right.” She looked down at the floor, and sadly shook her head. “It’s not the Keeper way.”

“No, it’s the Sith way,” Bastila concluded. “Ithra, when we find the Gem, would you be willing to testify against Berland? To expose him as a Sith to the Jedi Council?”

“My only concern is the fate of the Keepers,” said Ithra, casting her eyes to the floor. “I’ll help you find the Gem, but that’s all.”

“Well, at least we know where her loyalties lie,” Carth commented under-his-breath.

Rade frowned at Carth. “Ithra, does the name ‘Deren’ mean anything to you?” he asked her.

Ithra’s head snapped up, her eyes sparking with recognition. “Deren? He’s in charge of the Foundery at the Haven.”

“He’s a Keeper?”

Ithra shifted uncomfortably. “Not…exactly, no. He never made it through Assumption.” She paused, detecting the enquiring look on Revan’s face. “It’s a ceremony for novices,” she explained. “Deren is a few years older than me, but he wasn’t as particularly proficient in certain areas of study as I was. So, no, he’s not a Keeper. Only a novice. Still.”

Rade and Bastila exchanged looks. “Perfect apprentice material for a Sith like Berland then,” Rade said.

“Berland is not a Sith!” Ithra said defensively. “And Deren is not his apprentice!”

“He is,” Bastila said. “Krex told us.”

“Krex?” Ithra frowned. “I wouldn’t trust anything Krex had to say.”

“You know him?”

“Know of him,” Ithra replied. She looked like she was about to say more, but then she bit her lip and was silent for a moment. She looked at Rade askance. “What else did Krex tell you?”

“Besides the co-ordinates to Degos V, he gave us a starting point to start looking for the Gem,” said Rade. “A name. Co’Vanni.”

Ithra blanched.

“You know that name?”

Ithra stared at Rade for a moment. “It is a traitor’s name,” she said softly. Her eyes narrowed. “A name you should know well yourself,” she added.

“Really?” Bastila raised a brow in interest. “Then we may indeed be on the right track.”

The ship shuddered. “Yeah, well, let’s just get to Degos V first, and then we can worry about tracks,” said Carth, punching in a few buttons. “I’ve stabilised us as much as I can, but…” He looked at Rade. “Let’s just hope that this mining colony has a pretty good maintenance facility.”

Wow Jasra! Great job. I like how Ithra has gone all innocent and nice now. For a moment I thought that she might have a crush on Rade. ;) Perhaps she does and you just haven't written it yet eh? Anyway, the way you described her and the way I picture her in my mind, well, let's just say I might make a pass at her if I were in the story. ;) Keep up the great writing!

This is wonderful. The only bad thing is that I have to wait for another chapter. :)

Degos V was sparsely populated. Its surface was mainly rainforest jungle, and the settlements that dotted the few islands of dry land were small mining outposts, where the inhabitants eked out a living mining veins of cortosis ore or scouring the various caverns in search of rare crystals.

The Ebon Hawk limped into the only major port on the planet, aptly called Oasis. The port wasn’t glamorous, but at first glance it seemed to be fairly ordered, civilised, and for the most part operational. There were several freighters docked in the open air landing bays, though some of them appeared to be mercenary or pirate vessels rather than legitimate cargo carriers.

But that wasn’t unusual, since Degos V wasn’t part of the Republic. Instead it was an independent planet, run by a loosely organised consortium of Hutts, Humans, and Rodians. Not an unfriendly place, but a place where it was definitely wise for one to keep their wits about them and watch their back.

“Oh. Lovely,” Bastila commented on the starkly functional surroundings, as she followed Rade and Carth down the ramp and into the port.

“I don’t really care if it’s ‘lovely’ or not,” said Carth. “Just as long as it has the repair facilities and parts that we need.”

“Well, let’s go check in with the port authority,” Rade said to Carth. “Best way to find out about the facilities and any local ‘tourist attractions.’ Bastila, you stay here with our ‘guest,’” he said, nodding to Ithra who was just behind her. “When we get back, we’ll decide what to do next.”

Bastila gave him a resigned smile as she watched them leave, obviously unhappy about being assigned ‘babysitting’ duty for the moment.

Overwhelmed by her new surroundings, Ithra hovered closely behind Bastila, flanked from behind by Mission, Jolee, Canderous, and HK-47. “What is that?” she whispered to Mission, as she discreetly pointed to a Rodian arguing with one of the dock workers just a few metres away.

“That is a bug-eyed Rodian,” Mission replied sourly. “One of the most untrustworthy sentient species in the Galaxy. Bet that one is a bounty hunter,” she added.

“How can you tell?” asked Ithra.

“Well, he’s holding a modified hold out blaster in his hand for one. And looks like he’s arguing about money. Bounty hunters are always arguing about money.”

“So, he’s dangerous?”

“Dangerous? Him?” Mission snorted. “Nah. Well, not to us anyway,” she retracted. “Bounty hunters are only dangerous if you’re their target. Or, if you interfere with cashing in their bounty,” she added in retrospect. “Or if you cross them. Or look at them funny. Or accidentally offend them. Or…”

“That’s enough, Mission,” Bastila warned. “I’m sure we could all do without hearing the sordid details on the consequences of breaching the norms of lower-end societal etiquette.”

“Hey!” Mission frowned. “Who are you calling ‘lower end?’”

Bastila heaved a sigh.

Ithra shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe… we should wait inside the ship until Rade and Carth get back,” Ithra said rather apprehensively to Bastila. “It feels… dangerous here. Can’t you feel it?”

“Nonsense,” Bastila scoffed. “We’re perfectly safe right here. You’re standing inbetween two Jedi, a Mandalorian and an assault droid. I can assure you, you’re not even remotely in ‘danger.’”

Just then, the Rodian used his modified hold-out blaster to blast a hole into the chest of the dock worker he’d been arguing with. For a brief moment, everyone’s attention was diverted to the spectacle, but then just as quickly, they went about their business as if nothing unusual had taken place.

Ithra stared wide-eyed at the wisps of smoke rising from the now deceased dock worker, while the Rodian holstered his weapon and nonchalantly walked away. Slowly, she turned her head towards to the once over-confident Bastila.

“Okay, so maybe Bastila was wrong,” Canderous said lightly, breaking the silence.

Bastila gave Canderous an icy stare, but before she could launch a retort, Rade and Carth came out of the port authority office, heading towards them.

“Right, do you want the good news or the bad news?” Rade asked Bastila.

Bastila sighed. “Let’s hear the good news.”

“The good news is that we have a lead on the Gem. Someone with the name Co’Vanni runs a cantina not far from here.”

“And the bad news?” Jolee asked.

“The bad news is that their maintenance facility isn’t as well equipped as we had hoped,” said Carth. “We may have some trouble getting parts. And, they don’t seem to like Republic credits here too much.”

“Typical,” Bastila sighed. “Never anything simple or easy. So, what’s the plan?”

“Well, I think we should split up,” said Rade. “You, Ithra and I will check out the lead at the cantina. Carth, Mission, Jolee and Canderous can scrounge for parts and fix the ship.”

“Aw! Why do I always get the most ‘unfun’ jobs?” Mission complained. “Can’t I go with you? Please? You’ll need someone to watch your back.” she added persuasively.

Rade considered this for a moment. “You’re right, Mission. Canderous, you come with us.”

“What?” Mission stomped her foot. “But that’s not fair!”

“Nope, but that’s how it is, kid,” said Jolee, patting her reassuringly on the shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll find something fun for you to do.”

“Fixing engines.” Mission scowled. “Yeah, sounds like real ‘fun’ to me.”

“Query: What about me, Master?” HK said pleadingly. “I am undeniably more proficient than any meatbag with a blaster. And you did imply a promise when you said ‘maybe later’ in response to my previous query about torturing the meatbag trader Krex on Jantessa.”

Rade sighed. “Okay, fine. You can come, too.”

Mission folded her arms, and stormed back into the ship in a huff. “Takes a stupid droid and a brainless Mandalorian, but not me…” her voice trailed off.

“Appreciative Reply: Oh, thank you, Master!” said HK. “I am so looking forward to finally demonstrating my valuable combat skills and unique abilities!”

“But only if I ask you to, right?” Rade clarified.

“Statement: But of course, Master! I exist only to serve you.”

Bastila looked at Rade askance. “Are you sure about taking HK?” she whispered.

Rade shrugged. “Figure if we keep an eye on him, we can keep him out of trouble,” he replied quietly. “I’m still not sure what Berland did to him, remember?”

“Well, I suppose he does have his uses,” Bastila nodded. “All right, then,” she said to everyone. “Let’s get moving.”


~~~~~~~~~

The main thoroughfare of Oasis was just like any found in other port cities in the Galaxy--shops and services, warehouses, restaurants, all situated within easy walking distance between clusters of lodging complexes. But the side streets were of a decidedly more dangerous flavour.

Seedy cantinas, shady shops, gambling parlours, and brothels lined both sides of the street, with most all of them having brightly lit, albeit poorly maintained, neon signs above their doors in an attempt to attract customers to their wares and services within. Among the normal clientele that often frequented such areas, menacing-looking thugs asserted their way through the people-lined walkways, avoiding small heaps of rubbish that were slowly being collected by shabby-looking maintenance droids.

As there was not really any central government on Oasis, the thugs were employed by the various factions in charge to do the job that security guards or police officials would have normally done on a civilised planet, such as Coruscant. This particular section of Oasis was under the control of Hedra the Hutt, as indicated by green armbands they wore.

“The Miscreant Miner?” Bastila’s brows knitted together with deep suspicion as the group approached the cantina the man at the port had told Rade they might find the person called Co’Vanni. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

Located midway in the street, one half of the Miscreant Miner’s lighted sign flickered dangerously as if in any second it would short out. There were two windows on either side of the main entrance, though it was difficult to tell if they were just dirty or had been purposefully frosted to obscure the view within. A small board on the wall listed the specials of the day, although this, too, was a bit grungy and badly scratched making it difficult to read from any distance.

Rade looked up at the sign above the cantina’s door. “Yup. That’s the place.”

“It looks… treacherous,” Ithra commented, making sure she was safely between Bastila and Canderous. Her nose wrinkled in disgust. “And dirty. Just like all of these places.”

“Ithra, you’ll have to accept the fact that not everyone in the Galaxy is as fastidious as the Jantessans are,” Rade said to her. “Besides, a little dirt never hurt anyone, and the man at the port said that this was actually one of the nicer cantinas.”

As if on cue, a Rodian and a Human male were suddenly and forcibly ejected from the front door of the cantina by a pair of large hands, hurling the two bodies through the air directly past Rade where they came to land several metres away in the middle of small pile of rubbish.

“And stay out!” said a deep, rumbling voice, followed by the clapping together of hands as they were dusted off. Then the door slammed shut.

The ousted pair staggered to their feet, looked first at the door, then at each other, and then proceeded with their fisticuffs that had obviously caused them to be thrown out of the establishment in the first place. Again, people paid the pair’s activities with little notice, as if this sort of unruly behaviour was the norm rather than the exception.

“Nice?” Ithra protested quietly. “You call that nice?”

“Suppostion: The meatbags could have been maimed or killed before being thrown out,” HK-47 suggested. “That’s what I would have done.”

“Of course that’s what you would have done,” Canderous said to the droid. “Me? I would have just roughed them up a bit more.” He shrugged. “Maybe to just above consciousness,” he continued. “Just to get my point across.”

“Beasts, the pair of you,” Bastila murmured.

“See?” Rade said demonstratively to Ithra. “Nice.”

Ithra shot him a cold look.

“We’ll be fine,” Bastila said, prodding Ithra forward.

“Sure we will,” Rade agreed, as he opened the door to the establishment. “Just as long as we don’t start any fights,” he added under his breath.

The interior of the cantina was a surprising difference from what they had seen on the outside. The place was busy with customers, miners mostly, but there were some families with children as well. The walls were decorated in neutral colours, a mixture of beiges, greys, and light browns, punctuated with a decorative line of black midway up the wall, and all anchored together with a tastefully patterned, fitted carpet covering the floor. Dining tables were laid out in orderly rows in front of them, while a tidy, well-stocked bar was situated at the far end of the large room. Towards the back left, appeared to be the kitchen as a pair of swinging doors soon parted and a female Twi’lek wearing a white apron appeared, balancing a tray that held plates of steaming, fragrant food which she carried over to one of the tables. On the other side of the room, another swinging door, which, from the low din of conversation he could hear emanating from behind it, Rade surmised might lead to a gaming den.

The group was standing in a section partitioned off to mark a reception area, and it was here that Rade came face to chest with the owner of the gruff voice and the large hands that had ejected the previous patrons. He was extremely large for human, as big as a Wookiee, in fact, and with a dark unilateral brow just as hairy. But he was neatly dressed--his clothing plain, but freshly pressed, and with a small pink flower tucked in his lapel.

“Good evening, sir,” the man addressed Rade in a slow and deliberate baritone voice. “My name is Horace. Four?”

“Pardon?” asked Rade.

“The number of your party, sir?” Horace asked. “I need to know if any more guests are expected to join you, so that I may seat your party appropriately.”

“Oh,” Rade said, slightly taken aback at the sudden formality of the situation. “Erm…yes. Four. Plus a droid.”

Horace picked up four data cards from a holder attached to the wall--menus apparently--then he pulled out some sticky-backed numbered chits from another holder. “I’m sorry, but I will need to ask your party to check all weapons, sir.”

“Check our weapons?” Canderous asked suspiciously.

“Why, yes, sir,” said the man. “This is a family establishment. All weapons are kept securely in our armoury, to ensure the safety of our patrons and enhance their dining experience.” He pointed to a sign hanging on the wall.

Welcome to the Miscreant Miner.
No weapons. No swearing. No spitting. No fighting.
Younglings are allowed in the restaurant section only.
Patrons found to be disruptive to other customers
will be forcibly ejected from the premises
at the management's discretion.

Rade raised a curious eyebrow. From the scene they had witnessed outside, the ‘forcibly ejected’ part was rigidly enforced by Horace. Rade looked askance at Bastila, who shrugged. “Alright…” Rade took out his lightsabre and handed it to Horace, then beckoned with his hand for Canderous and Bastila to do the same. “You, too, HK,” he said to the droid. “Give me your blaster.”

“Query: But,Master, how will I be able to perform my primary duty of protecting you when I am disarmed?”

Rade looked over the gigantic figure of Horace in front of him. “I think we’ll manage,” he said, taking the droid’s blaster and adding it to the rest of the cache. “They seem to have adequate security.”

Horace carefully tagged each weapon with a numbered chit, then handed them the corresponding stubs. “Thank you,” he said politely. He pressed a button on the wall, and a droid with a wide mesh basket soon appeared to carry their weapons away to the armoury.

“Now, if you will please follow me, sir, I will show you to your table,” Horace said.

He led them to an empty table for six in the middle of the crowded dining area, where they were seated and given their menus.

“Your server will be with you momentarily,” Horace said. “If you require anything else, please do not hesitate to ask.”

“Oh, there is one thing,” said Rade, as he nonchalantly perused the menu. “Is it possible to speak with the owner of this establishment?”

“The owner, sir?”

“This is such a nice place. I just wondered if it might be possible to pay him a compliment in person.”

Even though Horace normally spoke very slowly, he seemed to take a little longer than necessary to reply. “I will see what I can do, sir.”

Horace summoned a droid to man the entrance, and then disappeared through the double doors that led to the gaming area.

“He’s hiding something,” Bastila said.

“I know,” said Rade. “But let’s just see what happens.”

“This is nice,” Ithra said out of the blue, as she looked at her menu.

“What’s nice?” Bastila asked, surprised to hear something positive from the girl.

“The food,” Ithra said. “Roast rump of Nerf, smothered in a spicy granita gravy, served with seasonal vegetables and a fresh herb salad,” she read. “Or, how about this. A one-kilo premium Shaak steak, grilled to order, served with whipped manas root topped with grated Naboo cheese, and a side of buttered spargle tips. Or, three-cheese, wild Cira and mushroom casserole, served with a side of buttered seasonal vegetables and freshly baked whole grain flatbread. Or….”

“We can all read, you know,” Canderous said dryly.

“And they even have desserts!” Ithra chimed, totally oblivious to the Mandalorian’s comment.

“Great,” said Rade. “But let’s remember that they don’t like Republic credits,” he warned. “We might not be able to….”

“But it says here that they take any currency,” Ithra hurriedly pointed out on the bottom of the menu. “And I’m starving,” she added.

“Let’s keep in mind that we’re here primarily to find a lead on your Gem,” Bastila reminded Ithra. “Not to stuff ourselves with rich sauces and over-indulgent sweets. Besides, we have food on the ship.”

Ithra’s eyes solidly met Bastila’s as they snapped up from her menu. “Not unless you restocked on Jantessa you don’t,” she said frankly. “And I don’t relish eating Zorgang nuts for the remainder of the journey.”

“I don’t relish you being on the journey in the first place,” Bastila retorted.

Rade held up his hand to stop their bickering. “If they take Republic credits, I don’t see any harm in ordering some food,” he said. “Besides, it might lessen any suspicions as to the purpose of our visit.”

As they waited for Horace to return, a server came over and took their orders, including Bastila’s who, after all her objections, ended up ordering the wild Cira and mushroom casserole. Just as their meal arrived, Horace returned.

“My apologies, sir,” he said to Rade. “But I have been informed that the owner is away for the moment. Perhaps if you leave your contact information with me, they can contact you upon their return.”

Rade exchanged looks with Bastila. “Any idea on where they went?”

“I’m sorry, sir. I’m not at liberty to say.”

“When will they return?” Bastila asked.

“I’m sorry, madam. I’m afraid I couldn’t say.”

Ithra put down her fork, then swallowed. She looked at Rade and Bastila, then frowned at them both. Without warning, her eyes turned suddenly black, and Horace clutched his temple as if in pain. Then, just as quickly as they had turned, Ithra’s eyes returned to their normal shade of violet.

Before Rade or Bastila could say anything, Ithra, in a thoroughly innocent sounding voice, asked, “Is something wrong, Horace?”

Horace rubbed his temple. “Just a sudden pain, miss,” he said. “Unusual, but it has passed.” He bowed his head slightly, and excused himself, returning to his station at the door.

“Ithra!” Bastila hissed at her. “What did you just do?”

“What do you think I did?” Ithra casually replied, picking up her fork to continue her meal. “You wanted to know where the owner is. He wasn’t going to tell you. So, I pried it from him.”

Rade bent in closer to her. “You ripped the information from his mind?” he whispered crossly to her. “Just like that?”

Her mouth full, Ithra nodded, then swallowed. “I don’t see what the problem is,” she said, shrugging. She took a drink of milk from her glass. “It was easy, and it obviously wasn’t that painful for him.”

“Ithra, that’s not the point!” Bastila said. “You can’t just go about ripping stuff from people’s minds, when and if you feel like it!”

“Well, how else were we supposed to find out?” Ithra gave the pair of them a questioning look.

“We ask someone else,” Rade told her. “Honestly, Ithra, you’re going to get yourself into some serious trouble if you keep doing that!”

“Fine,” she said belligerently. “I won’t do it anymore.” She took another few forkfuls of food before noticing that everyone was staring at her. “What?”

“So?” Rade asked bluntly. “Where are they?”

Ithra’s jaw set. “Oh. I see. So, it’s not alright for me to ‘seek’ someone in your presence, but it’s alright for me to tell you what I found afterwards.” She rolled her eyes. “Typical Jedi duplicity.”

Rade rested his head in his hands in a gesture of frustration. “Ithra…”

“I’ll tell you,” she said. “But only after I’ve had dessert.”

~~~~~~~

“Mine 23, Gretackmuth settlement,” Rade repeated to the transport driver, as he held the door open for Ithra and Bastila to climb inside the all-terrain crawler.

“Gretackmuth, eh?” The grey-haired driver gave Rade a toothless grin. “Popular place today.”

“Oh? How so?”

“Just back from taking a group of Mandy mercs there,” the driver replied, scratching his white stubbly chin. “Suppose they’re there to assist either the miners or Hedra. You, erm, miners, mercs, or, erm…” he peered into the back of the transport, watching Ithra and Bastila as they seated themselves. “…merchants?”

Rade gave a look at his group—a Mandalorian, a heavily armed droid, and two beautiful women. He could tell where the old man’s thoughts were heading. “Erm…it’s not what you think….”

The old man chortled. “Don’t worry. I’m very discreet. Just don’t let Hedra know what you’re up to. He’s all for free enterprise, as long as he gets a slice of the profits. And lovelies like those will bring in some hefty profits, eh?” He gave Rade a friendly nudge in the side.

“Erm…yeah.”

Canderous chuckled at Rade, before he stepped aboard the transport behind HK.

“Well, let’s get going then,” Rade said quickly to the driver, and he, too, stepped aboard and closed the door behind him.

“Lovelies and merchants, huh?” Canderous said quietly.

“What was that?” Bastila asked.

“Nothing,” Rade said quickly. “Just something the driver was rambling on about.” He gave a guarded glance in Canderous’ direction, to which the Mandalorian responded with a grin and another small chuckle.

It was a thirty minute ride over a rough road to Gretackmuth, a small settlement run by Hedra the Hutt. A small place, the settlement consisted of about forty miners, some with families; some mercenary ‘enforcers’ that kept the miners in check; and some ‘sponsored services’ in the way of a small shop and a cantina, set up by Hedra to get as much profit as possible from the miner's finds.

The transport pulled up in front of the settlement shop. “Mine 23 is that way,” said the driver, pointing towards a path that led into the jungle at the outskirts of the settlement. “Ask around for Aru. He’s the foreman around here. He’ll get you and your ‘lovelies’ settled in no time at all.” He winked at Rade, before loading up some miners into the transport for the journey back to Oasis.

As the transport pulled away, Bastila raised an eyebrow. “Lovelies? Rade, is there something you forgot to tell me?”

Rade felt himself beginning to flush, and it took all of his willpower to stop himself from blushing outright. “Erm…let’s get moving,” he said, starting for the path.

“Wait a minute,” Ithra said. “I’m not tromping around in some filthy, dirty, dark hole in the ground. I’m staying right here.”

“Not that I’m looking forward to it either, but you said that’s where we’d find Co’Vanni,” said Bastila. “Mine 23, Gretackmuth settlement. So that’s where we’re going.”

“No, I said that’s what Horace was thinking in his head when you asked him about the whereabouts of…you-know-who,” said Ithra, still unwilling to say the name of the Jantessan traitor. “I don’t know that they are actually there.”

“Well, we’ll find out soon enough,” said Rade. “Now, come on.”

“Mine 23, did you say?” asked one of the miners that was hanging around the entrance to the shop. “There was some Mandys asking about Mine 23 just an hour ago. And I’ll tell you what I told them. Keep your weapons charged. You’re gonna need ‘em.. Mine’s infested with mynocks. Hundreds of ‘em. If it were up to me, I’d blast the damn thing shut, but Hedra thinks that if we did that, they’d just move into the other shafts. Shame, too. Lots of good crystals in there.”

“Mynocks?” Ithra gave a questioning look at Bastila.

“Silcon-based creatures that feed off of energy,” said Bastila. “They can live in anaerobic conditions. They’re probably attracted by the crystals.”

“And those who go after them,” added Rade. “Looks like you’ll get your chance to kill something after all, HK.”

“Statement: Warming blasters, Master,” HK-47 said, sounding almost gleeful. “Although they are not quite the type of meatbags I was looking forward to slaughtering, mynocks will suffice for the moment. This should be fun, Master!”

“Mynocks ain’t fun,” said the miner, seizing the opportunity to embellish Bastila’s rather bland description. “They suck the very life outta ‘ya,” he continued, looking directly at Ithra. “Huge sucker-like mouths. Flapping around with those big leathery wings. Ready to swoop down on you in an instant. Bam!” Ithra jumped, as the man suddenly clapped his hands together for emphasis. “Just like that!” And when they’ve caught ‘ya, they scre-ee-ech to bring the rest of their pack right to ‘ya! Screech so loud ya’d think yer eardrums were gonna pop!”

“And I suppose you know all this because you survived a personal encounter with one?” Bastila said flatly.

“Erm…well, no,” said the miner, slightly deflated by Bastila’s remark. “But, I’ve heard ‘em screech. And, I’ve heard the screams of their victims, echoing through the mine. ‘Course, I was standing outside at the time….”

“Right.” Bastila gave Ithra a challenging look. “Why don’t you ‘seek’ him and see if he’s telling the truth, hmm?”

“I don’t have to,” said Ithra. “I can feel that he believes he is.” She frowned slightly. “Can’t you?”

“I can feel that he’s trying to scare you into staying here for quite a different reason than your safety,” said Bastila. She looked at Rade. “Lovelies? Wasn’t that the word the driver used?”

Ithra frowned slightly as she used the Force to probe deeper, finally sensing the miner’s true intentions as Bastila had said they were. “Oh. I get it,” she said to Bastila, although somewhat embarrassed to admit she’d been fooled by the miner so easily. “I’m coming.”

The path through the jungle was well travelled, especially for a mine that was reported to be infested with mynocks. But as they approached the entrance, Ithra paused.

“There’s death in there,” she said, blanching as she felt the vibrations emanating from the cave. “Recent death.”

Just then, a blood-curdling scream, almost too primal to be human, echoed from the mine’s entrance.

“C’mon!” said Rade, and he, Canderous and HK boldly charged forward into the darkness.

Bastila followed them, but paused just inside, waiting for Ithra to follow. “What’s the matter?”

“But…it’s dark!”

“Ithra, you’re a Force adept. Use the Force to sense your surroundings!”

“I…I can’t,” Ithra said. “It goes against the Keeper’s Mandate. I’m not allowed.”

Bastila rolled her eyes, frustrated at the Jantessan’s ideals of not using the Force in the same way as the Jedi. She flicked on her lightsabre. “This will give us enough light to see. Now, come on. Hurry!”

Using the Force, Bastila felt her way through the twisting passages towards Rade, keeping a close tab on Ithra lagging behind her. Quite suddenly, she heard the sounds of multiple blasters firing mixed with the distinct but faint hiss of a lightsabre slicing through flesh, followed by a loud, communal screeching and the tinny voice of HK shouting, “Master! Behind you!” and more blaster fire.

“Ithra! Hurry up!” Bastila shouted urgently. “They’re in trouble!”

Another jedi-tacular update, keep it up!
>_>
<_<
But I think it's spelled 'Bastilla', not 'Bastila'. ;)

Yet another great chapter, Jas! Keep 'em coming!

Another great Chapter. Bastila is right, Bastilla isn't.

Another jedi-tacular update, keep it up!
>_>
<_<
But I think it's spelled 'Bastilla', not 'Bastila'. ;)

You know, Hallucination, I always thought her name had double 'els' in it, too... but then I went to play the game again and, well, Pottsie's right. There's only one! (But I still find I want to spell it with two....)

And thanks for all the compliments, everyone! Glad to know that people haven't lost interest yet.

GREAT job Jasra! Your best chapter yet! :) Pretty lengthy as well. I hope you write another one in say.. a week or so? Keep it up girl! Ithra is either really innocent, or playing along at the behest of the Prefect. Either way she is hot. ;)

Long one! But still good.
You're really very good at group dynamics (party banter) Jasra.

Yay! 1,000 views for Jasra! Here is your party!


:sbdance :lsduel: :redbounc: :stick: :laughing: :guitar2 :3pdance: :lock: :firehead :3headed:

i absolutely CANNOT BELIEVE I MISSED THIS!!! this is one hell of a fic, Jasra, you have planned your story VERY well and i really like the long chapters. not many people can offer that, you know (especially not me :D). I really like the way you portray the among-party-chatting and the behind-the-scenes stuff not known to Rade and Co. though, the HK bit was a little...different, i can say. he doesnt say anything like "disappointed reply", the starting word is always a single word. so if you want to make him reply with a yes, then he says "Affirmation:" for 'disappointed reply', you could make it "Disappointment:". try to make it one word. Other than that, you have done excellently, im definitly keeping an eye on this :D.

I love the colorful descriptions and action sequences. Keep it up!

i absolutely CANNOT BELIEVE I MISSED THIS!!! this is one hell of a fic, Jasra, you have planned your story VERY well and i really like the long chapters. not many people can offer that, you know (especially not me :D). I really like the way you portray the among-party-chatting and the behind-the-scenes stuff not known to Rade and Co. though, the HK bit was a little...different, i can say. he doesnt say anything like "disappointed reply", the starting word is always a single word. so if you want to make him reply with a yes, then he says "Affirmation:" for 'disappointed reply', you could make it "Disappointment:". try to make it one word. Other than that, you have done excellently, im definitly keeping an eye on this :D.

Thanks for the kind words and advice, RC! :) HK's dialogue has always been a bit difficult for me to write. I'll keep in mind the single word start up's though. Also, any suggestions as to what he says during a battle scene? Could use a bit of help from someone who knows his character like you seem to. PM me, if you have anything you'd like to see him say in future.

And, yes, people, I am working on the next chapter, but it's been slow going of late. I've got too many irons in the fire at the moment, but I'll try to have something new by Monday.

^'Initiating assassination protocols.' :)

i PM'ed all the things i could find to ya, Jasra, hope they help. and i added ya to me buddy list too :D along wit Renegade Puma

Thanks a lot, Hallucination! I'll use that one for sure. :)

And thanks to you, too, RC. I'll be sure to use your suggestions too! (Might even go back an edit what I've already written as well.) ;)

youre welcome, Jasra. Statement: The Master says that you had better give us a new chapter soon. :D

Hey Jasra! What gives? And I thought I was taking a long break with my two week hiatus. But you are taking even longer! Haven't heard from you in awhile? You still alive and well??? Give us a new chapter soon!

look whos talking :D
but i agree with him anyway,

Sorry I've taken so long to update. Between Darth RealLife and the RPs I'm in, I haven't had much time to dedicate to writing my fic. But, that said, I've done a fair amount this time, so... enjoy. :)

_________________________________


Back on the Ebon Hawk, Mission was spinning herself around and around in the navigator’s chair in the cockpit, bored.

“Mission, I know you’re bored, but you know that’s annoying, right?” Carth asked her while he was bent under one of the panels, examining the circuits.

“Yup,” she replied, and continued to spin in the chair.

Carth just sighed, and then continued working.

“Why did Ithra get to go with Rade anyway?” Mission complained after a moment. “It’s not like she’s going to be a lot of help. She doesn’t have a microgram of street smarts.”

“Well, it was Rade’s decision, not mine,” Carth grunted, as he tugged on a handful of wires. “Besides, I don’t think he took her along… for… her…” He gave a final and mighty pull and the panel and attached wires finally broke free, sending him backwards to the floor. “…street smarts.” He sighed as he looked at the panel and its fused chips. “Sure hope we can find a replacement for this.” He looked at Mission. “So, Bored One, care to take a walk to the local parts shop?”

Mission brightened. “You mean, you trust me find the parts for the ship by myself?”

“No, I just thought you might like to go with me,” Carth said, dashing her hopes. “Either that or you can stay here and help Jolee finish cleaning the…”

“Okay, okay,” Mission interrupted him. “Enough of the cleaning regimen. Let’s go.”

Leaving Jolee behind, Carth and Mission headed off into Oasis to find the parts that they needed to repair the Ebon Hawk.

“Figure we need a new sub-light control module and to replace a few of the SL power relays in the engine to get us going again,” Carth said to Mission as they walked through the space port. “Oh, and while we’re here, we should see about changing out that dodgy stabiliser, too. That thing’s worrying me.”

“Whatever.”

“Sorry, Mission,” Carth said, noticing that his young friend didn’t seem that interested. “Sometimes you’ve got to do things that you don’t want to do. That’s just life.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

Carth sighed. “When we get back, I’ll ask Jolee if he wouldn’t mind going with you to pick up some more supplies. That way, you’ll get to see what’s out there, okay?”

Mission merely shrugged.

They walked a bit in silence, then Carth said, “You miss Zalbaar, don’t you.”

“Yeah,” Mission said quietly. “I mean, this is the first time we’ve ever been apart. Well, besides the time when he got kidnapped by those Gamorreans on Taris and you and Rade helped me get him back. But at least that was exciting enough to keep my mind occupied, you know?”

“I know.” Carth stopped in front of a sign. “Well, this looks promising. Zug’s Parts Emporium.”

“And Service,” Mission said, pointing out the hand scrawled words underneath the printed ones. Mission gave Carth a dubious look. “Doesn’t look like much from the outside. You sure you want to go in?”

“Can't hurt to have a look.” He held open the door for her. “After you. You’re the one with the street smarts. Let’s see if you can get us a good deal if they have what we need.”

They walked in. The front of the shop was only a long countertop and some shelves filled with containers of bolts and the odd droid part, but following the corridor to the back, the two found themselves in a large hanger, complete with ships being repaired and a large inventory of various parts.

At the far side, there was a woman arguing with a hovering Toydarian, quite possibly the shop owner.

“Oh, no,” Mission cringed. “A Toydarian. No wonder they have lots of parts in stock. Toydarians got a reputation for being…well, it’s really hard to get a bargain with them.”

“Think the word you’re looking for is ‘shrewd,’” Carth said. “C’mon. Let’s see if he’s in the mood to accept Republic credits.”

As they moved across the hanger, taking care to avoid the repair droids and Nemoidian mechanics working on some ships in the various bays, they began to overhear the conversation taking place between the owner and his obviously disgruntled customer.

“What do you mean you don’t have one in stock?” the woman said angrily to the Toydarian, as she waved her hand at the rows of parts and equipment standing on the shelves in the hanger. “Zug, you could build a brand new ship with all the stuff in here!”

“The hyperdrive needs a new transient-phase converter,” Zug said. “That ship you acquired is old. And old Y-class parts are hard to come by. Unless….” The corners of his beak like mouth upturned in a wry grin. “You want to replace the entire drive? But that will cost more,” he added, greedily rubbing two of his fingers together.

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “How much more?” she said, between clenched teeth.

“Ten thousand.”

“Ten thousand!” the woman shouted. “Are you insane? I could practically buy a new ship for ten thousand!”

Zug grinned. “Not on this planet,” he said, adding a sinister chuckle.

The woman sighed. “Replacing the entire drive…how long will that take you?”

Zug took a moment to consider. “Two weeks.”

“Two weeks? I could do it myself in less than two weeks! I need to get off this rock today!”

Carth and Mission had been standing behind the woman, patiently waiting for their turn to talk to Zug. But Carth being Carth couldn’t just let things be.

“Problem?” he asked the woman. “Maybe I can help?”

Up until now, the woman had had her back turned to him, her only discernable feature a single braid of dark glossy hair hanging down the back of her jacket. Now she turned, and Carth had to do a double-take. She was strikingly beautiful. Slim build, high arched brows, a flawless pale cream complexion, full rosy lips, and eyes of the deepest shade of violet-blue.

The woman quickly flicked her eyes over Carth and Mission. “Help? Not unless you happen to have a transient-phase converter for a class three Y-class hyperdrive you want to sell.”

Carth suddenly found himself at a loss for words. “Erm….”

“A Y-class drive?” Mission’s eyebrow’s raised. “Well, it just so happens that we were looking for some Y-class parts ourselves.”

“Mission…,” Carth said in a cautionary tone.

“Hey, you said you wanted a good deal, now leave it to me,” she whispered back to him. “So, maybe we could make a deal.”

“No one makes ‘deals’ in my shop but me!” Zug interrupted.

The woman turned and glared at the flapping Toydarian, then turned back to Carth and Mission. “What sort of deal?”

“Well, we need a stabliser, and a sub-light control module, and a few SL-power relays,” Mission said. She glanced at Carth. “And you thought I wasn’t paying attention,” she added haughtily.

“Mission…,” Carth tried to interrupt.

“You give us the parts off your ship,” Mission continued, her focus returning to the woman, “and in return, we can give you passage to where you want to go. Deal?”

“Mission…,” Carth tried again.

“Hey! I said no deals!” Zug said as he shoved his way in between them, his wings flapping faster with agitation. “My shop! My deals!”

The woman took pause, considering Mission’s proposal. “You’d give someone you don’t even know passage on your ship for the cost of a few parts?” The woman raised a suspicious eyebrow as she eyed over Carth’s Republic uniform. “You a relief worker or something?”

“Erm…no,” said Carth. “Well, not exactly….”

“Oh. I see,“ the woman said knowingly. “I was wondering when the Republic would get tired of buying their cortosis from the Consortium and send out mineral surveyors of their own. You’re here for exploration.”

“Yeah,” Mission said. “Yeah, you could say that. So, do we have a deal?”

“I said, no deals!” Zug said again, and this time he whistled for his security, a couple of Gamorrean thugs who looked like they shared a single brain cell between them.

The woman snorted with marked disdain at the approaching Gamorreans, apparently unimpressed and unconcerned by them. “Meet me outside,” she said to Mission. She glared at Zug, then headed purposefuly for her ship in the hanger, picking up a stray hydrospanner from a workbench on the way.

“Hey!” Zug said, following her. “What are you doing? You can’t just….”

“C’mon, Carth,” Mission said, wrinkling her nose at the Gamorreans. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Right behind you,” said Carth.

Outside, Carth turned to Mission and gave her an admonishing glare. “Mission…”

“Hey,” Mission said pointing a finger at him. “You said you’d let me make a deal for you.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t say that you could book a passenger in the process!”

“What’s the problem? We’ve got the room. Why not take a passenger if it means getting the parts we need to fix the ship for free?” Mission asked innocently. “And the sooner we leave, the sooner we can get Zalbaar and Juhani back. Besides, she seemed alright to me. She wasn’t even carrying a weapon.”

“None that you could see,” said Carth. “Mission, we don’t even know who she is or, more importantly, why she’s in such a hurry to leave. Didn’t that strike you as…well, odd?”

Mission looked around. Even though they were still rather close to the port, they were far enough away to begin to see the deprivation and signs of the gang controlled zones. “Hmm…gang controlled areas, slave ships and smuggling vessels in the port hangers, not a lot of legitimate businesses around…” She gave Carth a deadpan look. “If I was her, I sure wouldn’t want to hang around any longer than I had to.”

“Yeah, well…I suppose you have a point,” Carth reluctantly agreed. “But besides that, we don’t even know where she wanted to go. What if we have to take her all the way to…to Corellia, for example?”

“Then she’ll be with us a little longer than we planned,” said Mission. “Besides, she looked like she was going to get the parts off her ship herself, and she told that Toydarian that she could have changed out the hyperdrive on her own. So, she must have some mechanical knowledge. And you could use the help, you know.”

“Me?” Carth shook his head with doubt. “I don’t know, Mission. I’d like to know a little more about this woman before we agree to go ferrying her across the Galaxy.”

Just then, a SL-relay dropped from the air, and Carth just barely had enough time to reach out and catch it.

“Name’s Kye,” said the woman, approaching them with a small trolley loaded with the parts. “Stablisers, sub-light control module, a few SL-power relays, plus whatever else I could scrounge up and remove on short notice. If you’re still willing to give me passage, I’ll let you have all of this stuff. It’s of no use to me without a working hyperdrive.”

“Erm….” Carth just held the relay in his hands and stared back at her, again tongue-tied by her striking looks.

“What? You calling off the deal?” Kye asked him, frowning. When Carth didn’t answer, she turned her gaze to Mission and gave her a questioning look. “Is there something wrong with your friend?”

Mission chuckled. “Don’t get me started!” she said jokingly. “I’m Mission. This is Carth Onasi. And, yeah, the deal’s still on. That is, if the parts work.”

“They work,” Kye said. “Where’s your ship?”

“Erm…just hold on a minute,” Carth finally managed to say. “Why are you in such a hurry to leave?”

Kye gave him a deadpan look. “Do you see anything around here that would make someone want to linger?”

“Told ‘ya,” Mission said softly.

“No,” Carth replied. “But that doesn’t explain why you want to leave in such a hurry. Why today? Why not tomorrow, or the next day?” He eyed her critically. “What are you running from?”

“What makes you think I’m running from something?” she asked him. “Maybe I’m running to something? Did you ever think of that?”

Carth chewed his lip. He hadn’t.

“See? It all depends on your perspective,” said Kye. “That aside, whatever my reasons are for leaving, they are my own. And if that bothers you, then I’ll just take these parts back to my ship and find another way off this rock.”

“As long as your reasons for leaving don’t involve bounty hunters or crime bosses, then…then I suppose it’s alright,” Carth said tentatively.

Kye smiled. “As far as I know, there is no bounty on my head. And no crime boss around here is going to care one way or the other if I stay or go.”

“And just where were you planning on going?” Carth asked.

“Onderon,” she answered frankly. “Figure I could find some decent work there, with all the urban regeneration I hear Queen Talia is doing. Is… that too far for you, or in the wrong direction?”

“No, Onderon’s fine,” said Mission, coming over to help Kye with the trolley. “No problem whatsoever. C’mon, the ship’s this way,” she said, pulling the trolley in that direction.

Carth sighed. “Why do I get the feeling that I’m going to regret this?” he grumbled.

Kye stopped in her tracks, and looked over her shoulder at him. “Are you always this distrustful and paranoid of strangers?”

“Who, me? Distrustful?” He shrugged. “Only with strangers with no visible weapons who are in a really big hurry to get somewhere and won’t disclose their reasons why.”

Kye raised her eyebrows. “I have a weapon,” she stated plainly. She pulled open her jacket, revealing to him and Mission a lightsabre hilt tucked away in a shoulder holster. “I just don’t have much use for it.”

“A lightsabre? You’re a Jedi?” Mission asked in quiet awe.

“Me?” Kye laughed. “Do I look like a Jedi? No. I got this off of a trader,” she said, fastening her jacket back up. “Although, it never hurts to have certain people think you’re something that you’re not.”

Carth grinned and snorted. “It all depends on your perspective.”

Kye nodded. “Exactly,” she said to Carth. “So, you got any more questions? Do you need to know my mother’s maiden name, or what colour of socks I’m wearing, or if I cheat at Pazaak?”

“Do you cheat at Pazaak?” asked Mission.

Kye grinned at her. “Occasionally. Depends on who I’m playing and if they deserve to lose or not.”

Mission grinned broadly. “See?” she said demonstratively to Carth. “She’s fine. C’mon. The ship’s this way.”

I was wondering if this would be continued. I liked this Chapter. No Rade though. Just Carth and Mission. The dialogue between them was good. And Zug the Toydarian, I kept imaging Watto in my head. Will you be updating more Chapters?

In the caverns of Mine 23, mynocks swarmed over their prey, once the dying Mandalorian mercenary that was lying on the ground in the middle of the large chamber, but now the three figures standing back to back over his body.

They were attracted to anything that generated electrical fields, whether it was a non-living or a living entity. HK-47 was an obvious target, but so was Canderous,’ with his Mandalorian power-shielded armour, as well as Rade’s Force Senstitivity.

“Infested? Infested is right!” Canderous shouted over the blasts of his repeating carbine. “I’ve never seen so many mynocks in one place!”

Rade sliced downward, splitting a mynock in half just as it was swooping towards his comrade behind him, continuing on around to catch another one with the follow-through. “Just keep them at bay!” Rade shouted back.

HK-47 was busy blasting away mynock after mynock with quick and precise shots. “Observation: It appears that the creatures are attracted to electrical field impulses.”

“Turn off your shielding!” Rade shouted to Canderous through the din of blaster fire and mynock shrieks. “It might make you less of a target!”

“What?!” Canderous shouted back, as he blasted a mynock at close range, sending it splatting on the ground. “Are you crazy?!”

Just then, a high pitched sound pierced the air. A scream. A female’s scream.

For a moment, the mynocks paused, hovering in the air as if they were startled by something. Rade turned his head towards the entrance of the chamber. There was a flash of yellow light. A lightsabre. Bastila was battling a few mynocks that had strayed the main swarm. And Ithra stood behind her, eyes closed as if she were meditating.

“Rade!” Bastila shouted, as she sliced two mynocks with one sweep of her sabre. “We’re coming to….”

Ithra screamed again, this time, in a slightly different pitch to the one she had uttered before. All of the mynocks began to flap wildly, bumping into one another in their hurry to flee. A few still dove down to attack, but the majority of the swarm flew up into the top recesses of the chamber.

HK and Canderous easliy dispatched the few stragglers that remained, then everything was quiet.

“What the hell was that sound?!” Canderous asked as the last mynock sizzled from his last blaster shot just a few metres away from where he stood.

“Ithra,” said Rade, guardedly looking around for a sign of any more mynocks as Bastila and Ithra approached. “What did you do?” he asked Ithra.

“Me?” Ithra bit her lip, as if unwilling to talk. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Rade said incredulously. “You did something to make all those mynocks go away!”

“I… I just sought their consciousness,” said Ithra. “Found out what frightened them and used the Force to replicate the sound.” She hung her head, obviously ashamed by using the Force in that manner. “I’m sorry.”

“Request: Perhaps the young meatbag could retract her actions and bring the mynocks back?" said HK. "It was extremely pleasurable to kill them.”

“Killing things unnecessarily is wrong,” Ithra said. She grimaced at the sight of the sizzling mynock by Canderous’ feet. “No matter how disgusting and creepy the life form may be.”

While Rade rolled his eyes in frustration at Ithra, Bastila said, “We don’t have time for this. Let’s just find this Co'Vanni and the Gem and leave.”

“G..gone,” the dying Mandalorian at their feet coughed and spluttered. “We were... tricked. Cheated.”

Canderous bent down over his countryman. “What do you mean? Did you find the Gem?”

The Mandalorian nodded slowly. “In the… inner chamber. Took it. Left us… to die… with the mynocks.”

“Who took it?” Canderous asked.

The Mandalorian coughed again as he tried to speak.

“Who took it?!” Canderous asked more urgently.

But it was no use. A soft sigh escaped from under the Mandalorian’s helmet as he expired.

“Great,” Canderous said. “No point in hanging around here if the relic’s gone and the only witness dead.”

“Wait just a minute,” said Rade. “Maybe there are some clues in the inner chamber. HK, come with me.”

“Affirmation: Of course, Master! Perhaps we will find more creatures to kill!”

Using his lightsabre as a torch, and keeping a wary eye out for any stray mynocks, Rade strode forward with HK to the entrance to the inner chamber, leaving the others behind. Within the chamber they found more dead Mandalorians, most still clutching their blasters in their blue, lifeless hands.

“Look around for anything unsual,” Rade said to HK.

After a moment, HK said, “Observation: It appears that there was something removed from the surface of this flattened rock.”

Rade examined the rock’s surface. A small spot in the middle of it was indeed free of any dust or debris. “The Gem must have been here.” He looked around on the ground then something caught his eye. It was a datapad. One of the Mandalorians must have dropped this during their scuffle with the mynocks, he surmised, and he activated it and began to read.

“Co’Vanni hired them,” he said. “They were to help him recover the Gem and in exchange he was going to repair and refuel their ship.”

Something glistened on the ground nearby, catching Rade’s eye, and he stooped down to pick it up. A Jeneraux crystal, again something probably dropped by the Mandalorians in the heat of battle. And nearby was another one, and something else—an odd shaped piece of flattened metal, a coin or medallion of some sort. He turned it over in his hands, studying the unfamiliar markings on it. “HK, what do you make of this?” he asked, handing it to the droid.

“Observation: It is similar to the currency of Jantessa, although the markings on it indicate that it was minted before the current administration was in place.”

“Oh?” Rade asked, taking back the coin and looking at it closer. “How much before?”

“Qualification: Before you invaded the planet, Master.”

Rade frowned. “Interesting,” he murmured. He looked around some more, looking at the patterns of footsteps in the dust, building up a picture in his mind of what had happened here. “All right, let’s get back to Oasis,” he said to HK. “Nothing more to learn here.”

He pocketed the crystals and the coin, and led them back to the rest of the group. Ithra looked worried.

“The creatures are getting restless again,” she said, her eyes looking up towards the cavern’s roof. “They’ll attack soon.”

“Then let’s get out of here.” Rade motioned the group forward to the entrance. “You two go first,” he said to Bastila and Ithra. “We’ll follow up from behind, in case any those mynocks decide to attack again.”

Another good Chapter. I've never seen anyone updating Chapters as quick as that. I wonder if the others will read this after so long. Please check out my Fanfic, Jedi Forces - Shadows Of War.

“Damn! It won’t fit!” Carth said, trying to install one of the SL-relays in the engine.

“It’ll fit,” Kye said. “We just need a larger coupling.”

“It can’t be too large, or we’ll have a radiation leak,” Carth said.

“Duh.” Kye rolled her eyes, then snapped her fingers. “Give it here,” she said, beckoning with her hand for Carth to hand it over. “I’ll make it fit. You go and install the sub-light control module.”

Carth frowned. “You’re sure you can handle it?”

“Do Gamorreans have bad breath?” She beckoned with her hand again. “Trust me. It’ll fit. Now go.”

Carth reluctantly handed her the relay and went to the bridge with the control module.

“How’s it going?” Jolee asked him as he passed through the main hold.

“Not sure if this is going to work, but… we're trying.” He frowned slightly. “Jolee, what do you think of our new passenger? I mean, do you get any bad ‘Jedi’ vibes from her?”

“Nope.”

“So, you think she's okay then.”

“I didn’t say that,” Jolee said. “You asked if I got any bad vibes from her. And I said, ‘nope’. Truth is, I can’t really feel anything from her.”

Carth frowned. “Has that ever happened before?”

Jolee grinned. “Nope.” Then he added, “Well, not with humans anyway.”

Jolee’s comment caused Carth’s brow to raise. “Are you suggesting she could be some sort of…I don’t know…shape shifter or something?”

“Could be,” said Jolee, shrugging with indifference. “Then again, it could be that she just doesn’t have enough of the Force flowing through her for me to detect. I don’t know.”

Carth frowned. “Well, I suppose no vibes are better than bad ones. Still…I think I’ll keep a close eye on her.”

“Well, as long as she’s travelling on the ship, she’s not going to sabotage it,” Jolee told him. “You don’t have to be a Jedi to know that she’s not stupid.”

“Who’s not stupid?” Kye stood in the doorway of the main hold.

“Erm…we were just… erm… discussing… erm…,” Carth stuttered.

“You’re not much for words, are you,” Kye said in a very direct manner. “I’m done fitting that coupling. So, do you need help installing that module?”

“Erm….”

“It’s not quantum physics,” said Kye. “Just a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ will do.”

Jolee chuckled as Carth flushed with embarrassment at his tongue-tied state.

“You know, if you find speaking difficult,” Kye said, “you can try nodding once for yes, twice for no…”

“I can speak,” Carth blurted. “It’s just that….”

“You don’t trust me,” she finished for him. “Fine. I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t trust me either if I was in your position.”

“Oh?” said Carth. “And why is that?”

“I’m a total stranger. You don’t know anything about my motivations or reasons for wanting to leave, let alone my engineering skills, or lack thereof. What’s there to trust?”

“So you’re saying we shouldn’t trust you?” Carth asked suspiciously.

“No,” said Kye. “I’m just saying that I wouldn’t trust me if I were you. But, then again, I’m not you, and this isn’t my ship, so my opinion really doesn’t hold much weight in the matter.”

Jolee chuckled.

“So… module,” Kye said to Carth. “Need help with it or not?”

“I suppose I could use someone to monitor the connection feeds while I install it.”

“Fine. Then let’s get to it,” Kye said, heading towards the cockpit.

“I like her,” Jolee said to Carth.

“You would,” Carth grumbled back.

Three in a row. Three Chapters in one day. I liking this. This makes up for all the days you didn't post.

Yes, Pottsie, I've written quite a bit! Had to break it up into more manageable portions though, hence all the posts. This is the last one for today though. :(

______________________________

Once back at the Gretackmuth settlement, Rade's group waited for transport back to Oasis outside the cantina.

“So, tell me Ithra,” Rade said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. “Did you know that your ruse against the Mynocks wouldn’t last long?”

Ithra shrugged. “No. Well…yes. Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“The mynocks are simple creatures,” she explained. “They don’t have what I would call a ‘long term memory’. They live for the moment, as most lower life forms do. It was only a matter of time before the threat of a predator would be replaced by the call of hunger again.”

“So, theoretically, if someone else could do what you did, they would know that as well?”

“I suppose.”

Rade exchanged a look with Bastila. “I’ll be right back,” he said, rising and heading towards the cantina. “I have a sudden thrist.”

Inside the small cantina, Rade found the miner that had warned them about the mynocks in Mine 23.

“…reckon that we should try mine 23 again,” the miner was saying to his pals. “After all, if that pansy-faced girl can come back alive, surely we could.”

“I’d stay away from that mine if I were you,” Rade said. “There are still a lot of mynocks in there.”

“You came out of it okay,” said the miner. “Besides, even gettin’ a handful of them crystals in there would be worth it.”

“You mean, like this?” Rade held out his hand showing the miner one of the two Jenruax crystals he had found. “How about we make a trade? The crystal for some information.”

The miner gave him a suspicious look. “What kind of information?”

“A name and a description,” said Rade. “Of the person that accompanied the Mandalorians to Mine 23.”

“Well… I seem to recollect that there was someone that went with them. But… “ The miner snorted. “You know, it’s the damnedest thing. I can’t really ‘member who it was now.” He paused for a moment as he tried to think. “It was someone local though. I remember that. Just… just not what they looked like.” He turned to his friends. “Tak? Beppo? Do you ‘member?”

His two friends thought a moment, then shook their heads.

“Sorry, pal,” said the miner, giving a longing look at the crystal. “Sure wish I could have helped ‘ya.”

Rade raised an eyebrow. He knew the miner wasn’t lying, but it was odd that he couldn’t remember. Very odd. “It’s alright. Thank you for your time,” he said, and set the crystal down on the table in front of the miner.

The miner brightened. “Hey! Thanks pal!” he called after Rade as he walked out of the cantina.

Rejoining his friends, Rade motioned Bastila away for a private word. “Have you ever used the Force to permanently alter someone’s memory?” he asked. “I mean, by yourself?”

Bastila shook her head. “No, not permanently. And I wasn’t present when the Council altered yours. But as I recall, it took them some time.”

“But how long would it take to alter just one piece of it?”

“I don’t know,” Bastila answered. “Why do you ask?”

“I found this datapad in the mine, along with this,” he said, showing her the coin. “Co'Vanni was at that mine. And I figured that someone must have seen him with the Mandalorians, but the miner…the one that met us when we arrived? He remembers that there was someone with them, but he doesn’t remember who they were or what they looked like. None of the miners do.”

Bastila frowned. “That’s odd.”

“Very.”

“Perhaps this Co’Vanni drugged them or something?”

“And just had them forget one thing?” Rade shook his head. “There’s something else at work here. I’m sure of it. And I think we should drop in and see our friend Horace again at the ‘Miscreant Miner’.”

~~~~~~~~

Back at the ‘Miscreant Miner,’ Rade and company walked in. Horace, as per usual, was there to greet them at the door.

“Welcome back, sir,” he said to Rade. “Four again?”

“Oh, we’re not here to eat,” Rade said.

“Can we at least get something to take away with us?” Ithra whispered to Bastila in the background.

“No,” Bastila answered her quickly.

“We’re here to see the owner,” Rade continued. “Co’Vanni.”

Horace frowned. “I told you, that the owner is… away.”

“Away where?” Rade’s eyes narrowed threateningly.

Horace hesitated.

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll have my Jantessan Keeper friend here,” he motioned to Ithra, “rip the information out of your head. Painfully,” he added.

“A Keeper?” Horace stiffened, then looked at Ithra more closely. “You cannot be a true Keeper,” he said warily. “There are no more Keepers.”

“You know about Keepers, do you?” Bastila asked, somewhat surprised.

Very slowly, Horace nodded. “I know that all of the true Keepers were destroyed by the Sith Lord Revan when he took over Jantessa.”

“Not all of them,” Ithra said firmly. “There are some that survived.”

“Younglings. Novices,” Horace said with a twinge of sadness. “But no true Keepers remain.”

“And how do you know this?” Bastila asked. “The Jantessans are not very forthcoming about their culture or their history to outsiders.”

Horace shifted uncomfortably. “My… my employer told me,” he said with hesitation.

“Co’Vanni?”

“Yes.”

“And where is your employer now?” asked Rade. “We wish to speak with him.”

“I… I cannot say,” said Horace.

“Ithra?” Rade said. “Seek him.”

“What?”

“Seek him. Find out where this Co’Vanni is right now.”

Ithra gave Rade a disappointed look, but then…. Her eyes turned black, and Horace grimaced from her invasion of his mind.

“Onderon,” Ithra said, her eyes returning to their normal violet colour. “That’s what he’s thinking anyway. Onderon.”

“Then that’s where we’re going,” said Rade.

I liked that Chapter. When is the next time you're updating?

Pottsie, I'm afraid it won't be for a few days at least. I write my chapters in Word, then paste them on LF, so that's why it looks like these were updated so quickly. In reality, I don't type quite that fast, let alone edit that quickly either. (Like to have it sit for a day or two, and then come back to it to edit with a fresh perspective.) But rest assured the break between updates will not be as long as the last one.

I write mine in Word as well.

Great job Jasra! Nice to have you back :) Dangit, why does the hot chick Kye have to be the bad guy? I know she is Covanni. Oh well, great updates Jasra. Can't wait for the next one. I am really starting to enjoy Ithra's character by the way. :) And you did a very nice job with Mission in this update as well.

Thanks, RP! Glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully, I'll be able to update it this weekend.

Please do, I'm beginning to think you're 'pulling a Forcefight'. :xp:

Many writers here are sort of doing that. Including me.

yeah, and everyone else except the n00bs :D
Great work till now, Jasra, sorry i didnt check out before. just one thing: the jedi weapon is spelt LIGHTSABER

((Yes, RC, the American spelling would be 'saber'. But here in the UK, it's 'sabre,' just like 'center' is 'centre', and 'theater' is 'theatre'.

Anyway, I've finished another part of my story. Apologies to everyone for not posting sooner, but it seems the battle with Darth Reallife is neverending.))

~~~~~~~~~~

“Try it now!” Kye shouted to Carth from the Ebon Hawk’s engine room.

“What?” came his muffled reply from the other end of the ship.

Kye hung her head. “Try! It! Now!” she repeated slowly and more loudly. With a trying expression on her face, she looked over at Mission, who was holding a hydrospanner in her hand, like a nurse assisting a doctor. “Men,” Kye sighed, and Mission snickered.

“Old and hard-of-hearing men,” Mission added.

“They're even worse,” Kye commented. The lights on the control panel on the hyperdrive came on, flickered, then died. “Crap.” Kye scrambled up from her position on the floor underneath the open panel. “I’ll be right back,” she said to Mission as she headed for the door. But in the doorway, she paused, and gave a look over her shoulder. “Give me a shout if the lights on that panel come on and stay on, okay?”

“Okay,” Mission said, grinning, as she was being allowed to help.

Kye hurried towards the cockpit, dodging T-3 on his way back to the engine room as she passed through the main hold. “Hey? You finished with that patch panel already?”

T-3 let out a series of whirr and whistles

Kye stared at the droid, then raised an eyebrow. “I take it that’s a ‘yes’?”

The small droid bleeped once.

“Thanks,” and she continued to the cockpit area.

Carth had his head and torso buried inside one of the open panels, trying valiantly to install and reconnect the severed connections on the new control module, and Kye could only see him from the waist down. She stood there for a moment without speaking, appraising the view.

"Damn," she heard him murmur. "Can't reach it."

“Maybe it's because your trousers are a bit too tight,” she commented, unintentionally startling Carth and causing him to bump his head on the inside of the console.

“Ow!” he grunted.

“Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you. Problem?”

“Yeah,” Carth said, as he extricated himself out into the open. “I can’t seem to get that last circuit connected.”

“You need to use a telescoping vibra joiner in order to….”

“I don’t have a telescoping vibra joiner.”

“Hmm. Then what about attaching a vari-tune spatial connector to the end of the…”

“Don’t have one of those either,” he interrupted her again.

Kye raised an eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips. “What kind of engineer are you?” she asked incredulously.

“I’m not an engineer. I’m a pilot.”

“Oh,” she said flatly. “Well. That explains it.”

“Explains what?”

“The lack of tools, the cocky attitude, the tight trousers, and your total inability to hold a reciprocating penetrator the right way ‘round’ on the first go. You know, if it wasn’t for me, you could have poked your eye out holding it like th….”

“Look,” he said testily, “if I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it!”

“Yeah? Well, if you want to get off this planet anytime soon, then you’d better start asking!” She sighed. “I should have just sold that piece of junk someone called a ship to Zug and hitched a ride on an ore freighter. They may be slow, but at least they move.”

“You think you can do better?” Carth stepped aside and motioned to the panel with his arm. “Be my guest!”

Kye knelt down and crawled underneath the console, and after a few knocks and bangs, the sparking of a fractional welder, and the buzzing sound of a hydrospanner, Mission’s voice shouted from the Engine Room. “Kye, the lights are on! And they’re staying on this time!”

Kye scrambled out from underneath the panel and stood, looking Carth in the eye. She slapped the hydrospanner in his hand. “You’re welcome,” she said to him. “Now, think you could manage putting the panel back together while I finish checking for leaks around the hyperdrive manifold?”

“Yeah. I think I can manage that,” he grumbled sourly.

She gave him a curious look. “I’m sorry. I really don’t mean to be so condescending. You know, Carth, it’s not a sign of weakness to admit you need help. Everyone has different things that they’re good at.” She grinned. “I mean, I’m total crap at flying. Well, take offs I can do. Landings aren’t great, but I seem to manage. But the bit in between? That’s the part that gives me bother. I’ve no sense of direction whatsoever. Even with the aid of a navicomputer,” she added.

Carth’s expression softened a bit. “Is that how you ended up here?”

Kye grimaced with uncertainty. “Yeah. Sort of.” She grinned. “Certainly didn’t come here for Degos V’s irresistible charm and sophisticated metropolitan lifestyle.”

Carth grinned in return. “I’ll put the panel together. Just let me know when you want me to start ‘er up.”

“I’ll send Mission up to tell you,” she said, backing her way out to the corridor. “Give her something to do. Besides, being as you’re old and hard of hearing…,” she added, with a wink, then turned and headed for the Engine Room.

“Hey, you tell Mission that you’re not much younger than me, you know!” Carth called after her.

“Yes, I know,” she called over her shoulder. “But I’m prettier and more fun, so that makes up for it in her eyes.”

“In mine, too,” Carth muttered appreciatively.

Just then T3 whizzed into the cockpit, bleeping incessantly to get Carth’s attention.

“What is it, T3?”

T3 plugged his service arm into a nearby port, and in an instant one of the panels indicated that the loading ramp was being lowered.

“They’re back?” Carth asked the droid.

T3 whirred and bleeped, confirming that Rade and rest of the crew had returned. Carth headed through the main hold to meet them, but Jolee had beaten him to it.

“It’s about time!” Jolee said lightheartedly to the group. “Carth was beginning to get worried.”

“So, did you find it?” Carth asked, pointedly ignoring Jolee’s quip.

“The only thing we found were some dead Mandalorians and more questions,” Rade replied.

“And a decent restaurant,” Ithra piped.

Rade, Bastila and Canderous all paused and stared at her in disbelief.

“Well…?” Ithra shrugged sheepishly. “I thought it was decent.”

Purposefully ignoring Ithra, Bastila turned her attention to Carth. “Anyway, we think Co’Vanni is now headed to Onderon with the Gem.”

“So that’s where we’re going,” Rade added. “Is the ship ready?”

“Just about,” Carth replied. “Oh, there’s something I need to tell you before we take off. We’ve picked up a….”

Just then, Mission appeared from the corridor. “Carth? Kye said to tell you that…” She paused, and grinned at Rade. “Oh, hey! You’re back! Find anything interesting?”

“Who’s Kye?” Canderous asked, catching Mission’s reference to an unknown person.

“Our passenger,” she answered matter-of-factly.

“Passenger?” Rade raised his eyebrows and looked first at Mission, then Carth. “Since when did we get a passenger?”

“Since I made a deal for the parts we needed,” Mission said, beaming proudly. “Without having to spend even a single credit. Isn’t that right, Carth?”

Carth’s face began to flush. “Erm… yeah. That’s right.” He met Rade’s eyes with trepidation. “That’s what I wanted to tell you about,” he said to Carth. “She’s actually been quite helpful in…”

“She’s?” Bastila said, giving a disparaging look at Ithra. “Our passenger is another she?”

“And a pretty ‘she’ at that,” Jolee added with a wink, adding to Carth’s growing embarrassment.

“Yeah, well, she’s a pretty good mechanic as well,” Carth said somewhat defensively. “I hate to admit it, but I don’t think I could have done all of the repairs without her help.”

“Speaking of help, Kye’s ready for you to fire up the engines,” Mission said to Carth. “And she said she’ll stay there and monitor the engine for a while and let you know if there are any leaks. Not that she’s expecting any, but just to give you peace of mind so you’ll relax a bit and not worry so much.”

“Give me peace of mi…?” Carth cleared his throat. “Erm…right. If you’ll excuse me,” he said to the others, “I’ve got engines to start. Bastila? I’ll need you at the navigator’s station, just to keep an eye on things.” He headed for the cockpit, and Bastila followed.

“So, about this passenger…” Rade said to Mission.

“Her name’s Kye,” Mission beamed. “And she’s great! She doesn’t treat me like a kid—let’s me help her and everything. I like her.”

“Uh-huh.” Rade lifted an inquisitive brow. “And where have you promised we would take our ‘passenger’?”

“Onderon,” Mission said frankly.

“What a coincidence,” Canderous commented dryly. “That’s just where we were going.”

“Really? Great! See, I knew things would work out!” Mission said with a satisfied smile. “Kye said Queen Talia has commissioned a lot of restoration work, so there’s lots of jobs there right now.”

Just then, the engines began to hum.

“We’ve got power, people!” Carth said over the intercom. “Next stop, Onderon!”

Rade looked at Ithra. “Think it’d be better for you, and safer for the rest of us, if you made yourself comfortable in the dormitory, rather than the cockpit this time.”

Ithra nodded bashfully. “Alright. I’m feeling like I need a rest anyway.”

“I’ll go check on Kye,” Mission said. “See if she needs any more help.”

As Ithra left for the dormitory, and Canderous and HK headed for the cargo bay, Rade sidled up to Jolee. “So, Jolee, what do you know about this Kye?”

“I know she wants off this planet,” Jolee answered. “And I know she’s pretty good with mechanical things. And I know she’s not at all bashful about saying what she thinks. And, most importantly, I know that she’s lifted Mission’s spirits. She’s been pretty down without Zalbaar around.”

“I know.” Rade stood quietly for a moment. “I can’t feel this Kye’s presence onboard the ship,” he said, frowning slightly.

“Neither can I,” said Jolee. “Damn strange, but, like I told Carth, it’s happened to me before. Not with a human, but…” He shrugged. “Maybe she’s not human. I don’t get a sense through the Force that she’s dangerous though. Even without sensing a Force signature, if she were trouble, I’d expect we’d know it.”

Rade nodded. “Still, once we get underway, I think I’ll have a chat with her.” Rade headed for the cockpit.

~~~~~~~~

“So, any problems?” Mission asked Kye, just as they both felt the ship leave the ground.

“None so far,” Kye said, keeping a close eye on the emissions monitor she held in her hands. “So, who boarded the ship? I heard voices in the main hold.”

“Just Rade and the others,” Mission said.

“Rade? He’s the captain?”

“Yeah,” said Mission. “He and the others went out looking for this Gem thing.”

Kye’s brow raised ever so slightly, but her eyes didn’t leave the monitor. “I thought you said they were exploring the mines for cortosis?”

“Erm…well, now, I didn’t exactly say they were looking for cortosis,” Mission admitted. “But they were exploring. Don’t think they found what they were looking for though. Otherwise, we’d be heading back to Jantessa get Big Z.”

“Jantessa? Nice place, is it?”

Mission snorted. “Oh, no way! Everyone there is all...I don’t know. Too clean. Too rigid. Too many rules and regulations, and… I mean, they classified Big Z as an illegally imported pet. A pet! He’s a Wookiee. Whoever heard of a Wookiee as a pet!”

Kye grinned softly. “And they wouldn’t let him leave with you?”

“No. And they kept Juhani, too.”

“Juhani?”

“She’s a Cathar. You know what they are?”

Kye nodded.

“Well, they classified her as a ‘pet’, too. Even though she’s a Jedi!” Mission rolled her eyes.

“A Jedi?” At this, Kye looked up. “You didn’t tell me that you travelled with a Jedi.”

“Didn’t I?” Mission said innocently. “Huh. Guess I’ve gotten so used to them, it doesn’t seem to matter to me as much.”

“Them?”

“Yeah. Juhani, Jolee, Bas….”

“Jolee’s a Jedi, too," Kye said pensively, though more in the manner of a statement than a question.

“Yeah. Well, sort of. More like an ex-Jedi, now, I guess.”

“I see,” Kye said, her eyes reverting back to her monitor. “And Bas? Who’s he?”

“He’s a she, actually,” Mission corrected. “Bastila. I used to think she was really stuck up and all when I first met her, but she’s not so bad, once you get to know her.”

“So, you travel with three Jedi,” Kye commented. “Interesting.”

“Four,” said a male voice from behind them.

Kye turned her head, and her body tensed as she saw Rade standing in the doorway.

“Rade, meet Kye, our passenger,” Mission introduced. “Kye, this is….”

“Rade Chano,” Rade finished for Mission. “Captain and ‘Jedi number four.’” He stared at Kye curiously for a moment. “You have a problem with Jedi?”

“Not normally.” She eyed him up and down for a moment. “You have a problem with non-Jedi?”

“Not normally,” he replied in kind.

“Good.” She then smiled. “Nice to meet you.”

“So, Mission tells me that you want to go to Onderon.”

“Only if it’s not a problem,” Kye replied. “There’s work there, but if you’re not going that way, just drop me off in the first port you come to. I’m not picky.”

“It just so happens that by strange coincidence, that’s exactly where we’re going,” Rade said with a hint of suspicion in his voice. “We’re looking for someone.” He paused, waiting for a reaction from Kye. None came. “Someone called Co’Vanni,” Rade continued. Still nothing. “Ever hear of him?”

“Sure,” Kye said plainly, to Rade’s obvious surprise. “Co’Vanni runs the Miscreant Miner. Best restaurant in Oasis. That’s common knowledge.”

Rade’s brow lifted. “So, you’ve met Co’Vanni?”

“Well… I’ve eaten at the restaurant. And I’ve met Horace.” She paused. “Of course,” she added as an afterthought, “it’s hard to miss Horace. He’s huge. Nice guy though.”

Rade stared at her for a moment.

“Something wrong?” Kye asked, before returning her eyes to the monitor.

“Maybe,” Rade said, eyeing her over. “By the way, do you know that you don’t give off any detectable Force signature?”

“A what?”

“A Force signature. Every life form gives off one. Every one but you, that is. Why is that?”

“You’re the Jedi,” Kye said, without looking up. “Aren’t Force thingies are supposed to be your department?”

“Strange, though, don’t you think?” Rade pressed her.

Kye shrugged. “If you say so. Personally, I don’t have much use for ‘The Force.’”

“What’s with the interrogation?” Mission asked Rade. “Kye’s only here to help us and you’re treating her like she’s some sort of criminal or something.”

“Actually, Mission, he has every right to interrogate me,” Kye said. “After all, I’m a complete stranger. As far as he knows, I could be a criminal or something. And as captain of a ship, it’s his responsibility to keep his crew safe.”

“Are you a criminal?” asked Rade.

“Now, that’s a fairly ambiguous question,” she replied, her eyes still focused on the monitor. “I mean, one person’s criminal could be another person’s hero.” She gave him a sideways glance. “I mean, are you a criminal? Before today, the last time I heard someone mention the word ‘Jedi,’ it was in the same breath as the words ‘mass destruction’ and ‘Darth Revan.’”

Rade’s expression darkened.

“So ‘criminal’ is a matter of perspective,” Kye continued. “Don’t you think? What you really should be asking is do I have any intention to do you or your crew any harm.” She turned off the hand-held monitor, and looked up at Rade. “And the answer to that is ‘no.’”

“Good,” Rade said, although not convincingly. “We should reach Onderon in a few hours. I’ll be in the cockpit if you need me.”

“Great. When you get there, you can tell Carth that the hyperdrive is working fine and there are no manifold leaks. But I’ll set T3 to continue to monitor for them. Just in case he was worried.”

Rade nodded and left for the bridge.

“C’mon,” Mission said. “I’ll show you the cargo bay and introduce you to Canderous.”

“Another Jedi?”

“Nope. A Mandalorian.”

Kye snorted and rolled her eyes. “You know, Mission, you’re an alright kid,” she said as she followed Mission out of the engine room. “But you’ve got some strange taste in friends.”

A good Chapter. I bet Kye and Mission will become friends.

I'm from the UK as well, but I spell saber like the Americans, but I spell favourite and humour in English (UK).

Great chapter Jasra. Although I still hold to my theory that Kye is Co'vanni. She has to be a force user of some kind. And she has to be able to shield that fact from Jedi. She is still a mystery to me. I can't wait to see the next part. :) Keep up the great work.

Actually, different spellings of words in English (i.e. color v. colour) is a wonderful way of expressing an accent if you so desire.

You have an excellent story line so far and I very much look forward to future enstallments.

Thanks for the compliments, guys! I'll try my best to upload the next chapter sooner than I did the last one. I'm not setting a deadline, as Darth RealLife likes to do sneak attacks, but I'll do my best to get something up within the week.

great work with the new chapter, Jasra, i like Kye's attitude with Carth :D. keep it up.

((Ok, well not as long as some of my other chapters, but it's something. Enjoy!))

~~~~~~~

“Something’s odd about our passenger,” Rade said as he returned to the bridge from engineering.

“And this surprises you?” Bastila asked, as she input the final co-ordinates for Onderon. “All of our recent ‘passengers’ have been odd.”

“No, our previous passengers weren’t ‘odd’,” Rade said. “They were deceptive and sneaky. This one is…” He turned his head and looked behind him suddenly, as if expecting to see Ithra eavesdropping. But no one was there. “I can’t feel her through the Force,” he continued. “Can you?”

“No,” said Bastila. “But Jolee said that there are some creatures in the Galaxy that don’t give off a Force signature.”

“Creatures?” Carth looked up from his console. “I wouldn’t classify Kye as a ‘creature.’” He grinned slightly. “Well, not in the way you mean ‘creature.’”

“Are you sure?” Bastila asked, her mouth twitching up in a tiny, sardonic grin. “She could be a shape-shifter. Maybe, in her true form, she looks something like Zalbaar.”

“Ha, ha. Very funny,” Carth replied dryly. “You’re just jealous because there is another beautiful woman on board.”

“Yes, this part of the Galaxy seems rather prolific with them.” She looked at Rade. “Very odd, indeed, for such an isolated and remote place.”

“Carth," Rade asked, "while you and she were fixing the ship…did Kye go into any details on exactly why she wanted to go to Onderon? Besides the obvious ‘there’s work to be had there,’ I mean.”

Carth shook his head. “No, not really. In fact, she was pretty enigmatic about it when I asked her.” A moment passed, and then Carth frowned. “But, now that I thing about it, there was something I thought was strange.” He looked at Rade and Bastila. “She has a lightsabre.”

Rade’s brow rose. “Does she now?”

“Told Mission and me she got it off of a trader, as I recall.”

Bastila grinned smugly. “She didn’t happen to mention the trader’s name, did she?”

Revan thoughtfully rubbed his jaw. “Yes…like Krex, perhaps?”

“No, she…oh, now, wait a minute,” Carth said hesitantly. “You’re not suggesting that she’s the one Krex pointed us to? Co’Vanni?” He shook his head. “No way.”

“She’s going to Onderon. Co’Vanni is going to Onderon. She’s reluctant to talk about her past. Co’Vanni is so mysterious, we couldn’t even get a description of him. Or her,” Bastila mused.

Carth vehemently shook his head. “If she was this Co’Vanni, why would she have stayed aboard the ship?”

“Carth’s right,” said Rade. “Co’Vanni would have to know by now that we were looking for him. Her. Them.”

“And the best place to hide is in plain sight,” said Bastila.

“What about the Gem?” Carth asked. “If Kye’s this Co’Vanni person, she’d have the Gem. And I certainly didn’t see it.”

“You searched her?” Rade asked.

“Well…no, but….” Carth paused. “But… didn’t Ithra say she would be able to sense the Gem if it was near?”

Bastila sighed. “Yes. She did.” She looked at Rade. “And even though I still don’t trust her, I don’t think she could have kept something like that to herself. If the Gem was on board, she would have told us by now.”

Rade nodded. “Still…there’s something not right here.”

“I’ll say,” said Kye’s voice from behind him. “You’ve got a crazed assassin droid in your cargo hold. Carth, what kind of Jedi are you travelling with?”

“Suspicious ones,” Bastilla said acidly.

Kye gave her a disingenuous smile. “Ah, you must be Bastila. Mission told me you could be… irascible, for lack of a better word.”

“Irascible?!” Bastila exclaimed, frowning. “I am nothing of the sort!”

“Whatever you say,” Kye said, with a tongue-in-cheek grin. “Anyway, Rade, about this…droid in the cargo bay.”

“HK? What about him?”

Just then, a single shot of blaster fire could be heard in the main hold, followed by a loud thud.

“Canderous!” Mission screamed. “No!”

“Assassination protocols activated!” HK’s voice echoed up the corridor.

“HK, stop!” Mission could be heard shouting. “Hey, Jolee! One of those Jedi stasis fields would be handy about now!”

“He's got a glitch, that’s what,” Kye said, rather calmly for the situation. “A big glitch.”

Rade pushed past Kye, and raced down the corridor, followed closely behind by Bastila and Carth.

Kye looked around the cockpit. “Erm…is anyone going to fly the ship?”

She heard the sounds of a struggle down the corridor as the crew tried to subdue the renegade HK.

“No?” Kye said to no one in particular. She shrugged, and then went to the pilot’s control station. She looked at the panel, then frowned. If they didn’t jump into hyperspace soon, they would have to recalculate. And that would cost them precious time. Her fingers tapped a few keys. A beep sounded. A light flashed on, then off again. “There. That should do it,” she said to herself, and she stepped away from the control station and then padded down the corridor to see what was going on. “Hyperspace in three minutes, and counting.”

HK was now being held in a stasis field—two, in fact—and as Jolee and Bastila concentrated on keeping the rusty red droid immobile, Rade concentrated on trying to fix him.

“Damn that Berland!” Rade muttered. “I knew he did something to sabotage HK!”

At the mention of Berland’s name, Kye raised a stealthy brow. But something of greater interest had caught her eye. Canderous--laying on the deck, unmoving, with Mission hovering over him. She crossed through the hold, and knelt next to the fallen Mandalorian.

“HK just went…berserk!” Mission exclaimed in horror to Rade and the rest of the group. “We were just starting a game of Pazaak, and… and…” She looked up at Kye. “I… I don’t think he’s breathing!”

With a calm expression, Kye took up Canderous’ wrist in one hand, and laid her other on Canderous’ forehead, then closed her eyes.

“Got it!” Rade said, and extracted a tiny chip from HK’s chassis, no bigger than the moon on his fingernail. “Had this not been glowing red hot, I wouldn’t have even noticed this!” He nodded for Bastila and Jolee to release the droid. As soon as they did, the Ebon Hawk lurched into hyperspace, and HK-47 teetered, then fell flat to the deck on his back.

“Hey! Who jumped us into hyperspace?” Carth asked, seeing as everyone but Ithra was in the main hold.

“I did,” Kye said. Her eyes opened, but her hands remained on Canderous. “Remote jump. Don’t worry. I didn’t do any calculations on my own.”

“Observation:", said HK. "Master? I appear to have suffered a minor malfunction culminating in my being in the slightly awkward position of not being able to regain my vertical positioning. In other words, I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.”

“You’ll be fine,” Rade said, using the Force to quickly lift HK to his feet. Rade then wheeled around to where Canderous was. “Is he...?”

“I don’t know,” Mission said worriedly. “HK shot him and ….”

“He’ll be fine,” Kye said, lifting her hand from Canderous' brow. “His pulse is strong. He’s just unconscious. He’ll come around soon.”

“Are you sure?” Mission asked.

“Oh, she’s sure,” said a cold, icy female voice. It was Ithra. Disturbed from her sleep by all of the racket, she was now standing at the other end of the main hold, glaring menacingly at Kye. “Jantessan Keepers have the ability to heal from within.” Suddenly, her eyes went black. “You traitor!” she suddenly snarled, and with a quick raise of her hand, she uncharacteristically used the Force to hurl Kye across the hold, slamming her hard into the hull wall.

Kye shook her head to clear it, then frowned. “Ow!” she said, rubbing the back of her head. “That hurt!”

Before Rade or anyone else could stop her, Ithra raised her hand again. But this time, it was Ithra who went flying backwards, her attack having been reflected by Kye, without her even raising a finger.

Kye stood up slowly and began to brush off her clothes. “You haven’t learned anything, have you,” she said to Ithra.

“I’ve learned enough to become Prime Keeper!” Ithra shouted from where she lay crumpled on the floor. “And I’ve learned that the only way to keep Jantessa alive is to join the Republic, purge it of traitors like you, and bring back the Gem to its rightful place in the Haven where it can once again be used to bring harmony and balance to our world!”

Kye raised an eyebrow. “You? Prime Keeper?” She shook her head. “There are no more Keepers.”

“That’s because you killed them all!”

“Well, apparently, I missed one,” Kye said, her eyes narrowing. “Prime Keeper, indeed!” she scoffed cynically. “You’re not a Keeper. Not even close.”

“What is going on!” Rade demanded, giving a harsh look at Ithra, then turning on Kye. “Who are you?!”

“She’s a traitor, that’s who she is!” Ithra said, getting up shakily to her feet, her eyes now returning to their normal violet shade.

“Let her speak, Ithra!” Rade ordered. “Now, who are you?”

“That depends,” said Kye.

“Quit with the cryptic questions, and just tell me who you are, and how you know Ithra!”

Kye grinned. “Ithra was once a pupil of mine,” she said matter-of-factly. “Long ago.”

“You betrayed our people and sent hundreds to their deaths!” Ithra cried. “She’s a traitor, and she deserves to die!” She made to lunge at Kye, but Jolee and Bastila grabbed hold of her and held her back.

“No one ‘deserves’ to die,” said Bastila. “No matter what they’ve done.”

“Spoken like a true Jedi,” Kye commented. “And I suppose ‘ol Revan here is proof positive of that philosophy in practice.”

Rade frowned. “I’m not Revan. Not anymore.”

“Oh? Well, if you’re not Revan, then I’m not who I was either,” Kye replied sassily.

“Okay. So who were you?”

“Kiana Do’Shaanan. Former Keeper, former collaborator with the Sith Lord Revan, currently banished traitor, damn good engineer, fairly good cook, half decent waitress, hopeless navigator and….” Kye smiled. “Ithra’s older sister.”

Good Chapter.

Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy Crap!! Holy freaking crap!!! It may have been a bit shorter, but dang that was an amazing chapter Jasra. Kye is not who I thought she was at all, in fact you really brought that whole twist out of no where! I am so loving this story more and more with each chapter. And the "I've fallen and I can't get up" Line from HK was priceless. Can't wait to see how this unfolds.

excellent twist, Jasra, youre climbing the ranks very quickly. this might just be better than ForceFIght's
<_<
>_>
dont tell her i said that

this might just be better than ForceFIght's
<_<
>_>
Which one? Forcefight started her second fic.

Great job Jazzy Lentil Jasra Lantill, keep it up! :D

.......... excuse me while I peel my jaw off the floor :p

Before that last chapter, I was convinced I didn't like Kye... guess that's over :D

Do write more, Jazzy, dear :)

I've really enjoyed these last 2 chapters. Nice twist with Kye. I like how you do Mission's character--sassy, trusting but yet pretty worldly-wise for a teen, and still making the occasional teen mistakes.